Joined: 03 Nov 2015 Posts: 316 Location: Florida, USA
Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 21:50 Post subject: SOLVED ...ea8500 Missing Wireless tab in GUI.....
Just picked up (2) Linksys ea8500s working with factory firmware. Upgraded both to DDWRT using mrjcd`s EXCELLENT tutorial for 1st time flashing a factory ea8500. Followed it to the letter and both upgraded perfectly the 1st time to an older Kong 2017 build. I then updated both thru 3 popular builds to get to r48886. Set up one as my AP and it working fine. The other one has no Wireless tab in the GUI. I then went back to all the earlier builds I had worked up thru and still no Wireless tab. I`m now back to r48886 and really don`t know how to proceed from here.[/b]
Last edited by ramblin on Sat Aug 13, 2022 23:55; edited 2 times in total
Joined: 31 Jul 2021 Posts: 2146 Location: All over YOUR webs
Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 22:37 Post subject:
Please do nvram reset, kongs builds? these are ancient, the dd-wrt UI has had an overhaul, could be nvram gremlins, especially if you just kept upgrading in sequence without nvram resets.
Joined: 03 Nov 2015 Posts: 316 Location: Florida, USA
Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 22:55 Post subject:
I had not done an erase nvram as I thought brainslayer had warned about that with this model. The wiki warns about the 30-30-30 but never the less I just did a "erase nvram && reboot" with no changes
There is the matter of the possibility of not switching over to Vanilla for wireless in the process and the custom DD-WRT driver is failing to load, which may result in no wireless tab. Might have to do things the fun way via nvram variable manipulation via telnet/ssh.
What happens if you paste in the direct URL for the wireless tab?
Code:
http://192.168.1.1/Wireless_Basic.asp
Your IP address may differ. Does it come up when doing this? If so, make a small change, apply/save/reboot. See if it comes back after the reboot. _________________ Linksys EA8500 (Internet Gateway, AP/VAP) - DD-WRT r53562
Features in use: WDS-AP, Multiple VLANs, Samba, WireGuard, Entware: mqtt, mlocate
Netgear R7800 (WDS-AP, WAP, VAP) - DD-WRT r53562
Features in use: multiple VLANs over single trunk port
Linksys EA8500 WDS Station x2 - DD-WRT r53562
Netgear R6400v2 WAP, VAP 2.4ghz only w/VLANs over single trunk port.
OSes: Fedora 38, 9 RPis (2,3,4,5), 20 ESP8266s: Straight from Amiga to Linux in '94, never having owned a Windows PC.
Joined: 03 Nov 2015 Posts: 316 Location: Florida, USA
Posted: Sat May 21, 2022 0:47 Post subject:
lexridge wrote:
What happens if you paste in the direct URL for the wireless tab?
It just returns a mostly blacked out page with the header still missing the wireless tab. I just did an "erase nvram && reboot and the upgraded to r48897 with no change. What is the best way to capture the info needed and put it in this thread ?
Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 14129 Location: Texas, USA
Posted: Sat May 21, 2022 1:10 Post subject:
ramblin wrote:
What is the best way to capture the info needed and put it in this thread ?
the-joker wrote:
If that fails get a serial output of the affected machine.
kernel-panic69 wrote:
x2 on serial console output so we can see where it's failing.
Copy and paste from PuTTY/xterm/Terminal. You can start with output of cat /var/log/messages after initial boot as well as dmesg, but serial console output will be the most complete. _________________ "Life is but a fleeting moment, a vapor that vanishes quickly; All is vanity"
Contribute To DD-WRT Pogo - A minimal level of ability is expected and needed... DD-WRT Releases 2023 (PolitePol)
DD-WRT Releases 2023 (RSS Everything)
----------------------
Linux User #377467 counter.li.org / linuxcounter.net
Great catch! What is the difference between this and doing a Factory Defaults from the Admin page? _________________ Linksys EA8500 (Internet Gateway, AP/VAP) - DD-WRT r53562
Features in use: WDS-AP, Multiple VLANs, Samba, WireGuard, Entware: mqtt, mlocate
Netgear R7800 (WDS-AP, WAP, VAP) - DD-WRT r53562
Features in use: multiple VLANs over single trunk port
Linksys EA8500 WDS Station x2 - DD-WRT r53562
Netgear R6400v2 WAP, VAP 2.4ghz only w/VLANs over single trunk port.
OSes: Fedora 38, 9 RPis (2,3,4,5), 20 ESP8266s: Straight from Amiga to Linux in '94, never having owned a Windows PC.
Joined: 03 Nov 2015 Posts: 316 Location: Florida, USA
Posted: Sat May 21, 2022 3:47 Post subject:
the-joker wrote:
If that fails get a serial output of the affected machine. Report back after the fact.
putty will only return a few lines during boot then goes garbled and then no data at all (mostly no data at all). TX and RX are connected properly and I applied the fix in the sticky but no useable output from putty. Even tried 48897 factory to DDWRT twice (hoping for a brick) and "nvram erase && reboot" in between but she just updates, reboots and still no Wireless tab.
If the flash partition with the calibration data is corrupt, the wifi driver fails to load, and the wireless settings are missing. If this is true, wireless will not work with factory firmware and other custom firmware.
Joined: 31 Jul 2021 Posts: 2146 Location: All over YOUR webs
Posted: Sat May 21, 2022 8:15 Post subject:
ramblin wrote:
Just did a 2nd "erase nvram && reboot" and reinstalled r48886 with the same results.
AFAIK it's nvram erase not the other way around. What you did was inadvisable and incorrect and can cause issues with the partition an doesn't work the way you think it does.
Please dont goto older builds despite advice in the thread, nothing in older builds will fix the issue.
Also, we dont know if this device was actually fully working to begin with WIFI wise, the only way to know for sure is grabbing a serial output.
Now you can chose to ignore what advice is provided, but note, if so, personally I will also choose to spend my valuable time helping others or doing patches for dd-wrt.
All failing and as a last resort scenario, if the routers are exactly the same including hardware revision (this is important) you can dump the cfe for the working one via e.g. https://rou.ter.ip/backup/cfe.bin and after determining via serial on the affected device that there is something not the same as the other working router, you can try to flash that cfe from the working router to the non working one.
if the routers HW revision aren't the same ignore this last brain fart about the cfe.