Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2018 11:14 Post subject: Asus RT-AC87U fails to recognize eth2 running newest firmwar
Hi
I just bought a brand new ASUS RT-AC87U which I want to run dd-wrt on to utilize vlans on virtual wlans. I successfully applied the latest firmware 36698 and managed to configure a standard setup where the hardware runs in AP mode and the fixed IP-address is connectable through both eth0 and eth1.
However the configured 5.0GHz channel cannot be used. It turns our that the radio works and presents the right SSID into the air. But BusyBox fails to configure a eth2 interface for it (see below)
Is there a known issue with this hardware ?
Can I use an older version of DD-WRT ?
I've used a RT-AC87U A1 for years and I'm currently running dd-wrt 37012 without an issue on the 5.0 GHz. I looked at the commands you posted and got the same results. Why do you think/want to use eth2? _________________ Netgear XR500, R7800
Asus AC87Ua1
Repeater Bridge
Netgear R6400v2otp
Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 14213 Location: Texas, USA
Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2018 16:30 Post subject:
Are you running the same SSID on both radios? Is your wireless mode "Mixed" on both radios? What is the output of ifconfig -a? In bridged/AP mode, the LAN IP is assigned to br0 and wan IP is assigned to vlan2. It looks like your 5GHz radio is not assigned a channel. I suspect you should probably select *-Mixed, not "Mixed" or N-Only, etc. and apply settings. If it's a separate SSID, that is a plus, for troubleshooting and debugging.
I'm starting to realize that this is my mistake. I assumed that the internal network wiring would be similar to the RT-AC68U I have owned for years that have eth0 = physical ports (VLAN1=LAN, VLAN2=WAN), eth1=2.4G and eth2=5G and hence br0=eth0+eth1+eth2+vlan1. However I reinstalled the official ASUS software and noticed that it works without a eth2 defined, so I assume that eth1 covers both radios and they are bridged before eth1 ? Is there any documentation on this ?
Found this on the SMBForms identifying the AC87U interfaces by RMerlin.
eth0 is the WAN interface
eth1 is Wifi 2.4 GHz
eth2 is Wifi 5 GHz on Broadcom models
wifi0 is Wifi 5 GHz on Quantenna models (i.e. RT-AC87U) _________________ Netgear XR500, R7800
Asus AC87Ua1
Repeater Bridge
Netgear R6400v2otp
Are you running the same SSID on both radios? Is your wireless mode "Mixed" on both radios? What is the output of ifconfig -a? In bridged/AP mode, the LAN IP is assigned to br0 and wan IP is assigned to vlan2. It looks like your 5GHz radio is not assigned a channel. I suspect you should probably select *-Mixed, not "Mixed" or N-Only, etc. and apply settings. If it's a separate SSID, that is a plus, for troubleshooting and debugging.
Same SSID - no, Mixed on both - yes I did that before - now I changed 5G to N/AC-Mixed and I do have data flowing through the interface. However the status says
Radio Radio is On
Mode AP
Network AC/N-Mixed
SSID tsunami6a
Channel Unknown
TX Power 71 mW
Rate Unknown
And in the configuration I cannot pick anything but auto for channel in the 5G setup.
ifconfig -a says (note no interface have my 5G wireless MAC 2C:FD:A1:3D:77:24)
Radio Radio is On
Mode AP
Network AC/N-Mixed
SSID tsunami6a
Channel Unknown
TX Power 71 mW
Rate Unknown
And in the configuration I cannot pick anything but auto for channel in the 5G setup.
Yes, it's a Quantenna radio and it's never been possible to select the Channel and Auto is the only selection. In the Status>Wireless tab the Uptime is N/A and the Info is N/A. _________________ Netgear XR500, R7800
Asus AC87Ua1
Repeater Bridge
Netgear R6400v2otp
Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 14213 Location: Texas, USA
Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2018 18:09 Post subject:
Yet another bug that needs squished. I remember reading about issues with Quantenna. Not sure if there is a CLI workaround for that, but as long as it works, it works
Joined: 08 Jun 2010 Posts: 109 Location: New Zealand
Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2018 21:21 Post subject:
I spent about 2 weeks playing around with the AC87U before I finally ended up abandoning it as model for use with DD-WRT.
The Quantenna chip setup makes this router quite different that most other DD-WRT setups and I ran into numerous issues including the inability to set 5G channels away from anything other than auto. Furthermore, for some strange reason Soft Ether doesn't even exist as an option in the VPN services tab, which it does for other BS builds.
At the end of the day, the 87U is quite an unusual beast and while it's fundamental hardware seems pretty decent, it just drives a little bit too far out of the lane for DD-WRT for me so I returned it and bought and AC3200 which has been working flawlessly for me.
I spent about 2 weeks playing around with the AC87U before I finally ended up abandoning it as model for use with DD-WRT.
Thanks guys - I got to the same conclusion after reading the replies and some comments on the net.
I returned the box last Monday after ordering one more AC68U which I had up running in 15min.