SOLVED ...ea8500 Missing Wireless tab in GUI.....

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ramblin
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Joined: 03 Nov 2015
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Location: Florida, USA

PostPosted: Fri May 20, 2022 21:50    Post subject: SOLVED ...ea8500 Missing Wireless tab in GUI..... Reply with quote
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
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the-joker
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PostPosted: Fri May 20, 2022 22:37    Post subject: Reply with quote
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.

Also only use the very latest official public beta release found at http://ftp.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/betas/2022/

The build you have is already unsupported anyhow.

If that fails get a serial output of the affected machine.

Report back after the fact.

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ramblin
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PostPosted: Fri May 20, 2022 22:55    Post subject: Reply with quote
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
ramblin
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PostPosted: Fri May 20, 2022 23:05    Post subject: Reply with quote
Just did a 2nd "erase nvram && reboot" and reinstalled r48886 with the same results.
kernel-panic69
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PostPosted: Fri May 20, 2022 23:19    Post subject: Reply with quote
ramblin wrote:
I`m now back to r48886 and really don`t know how to proceed from here.

the-joker wrote:
Also only use the very latest official public beta release found at http://ftp.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/betas/2022/

The build you have is already unsupported anyhow.


https://download1.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/betas/2022/05-18-2022-r48897/linksys-ea8500/

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.

x2 on serial console output so we can see where it's failing.

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lexridge
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PostPosted: Fri May 20, 2022 23:40    Post subject: Reply with quote
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.

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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.

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ramblin
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PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2022 0:47    Post subject: Reply with quote
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 ?
bushant
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PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2022 0:50    Post subject: Reply with quote
ramblin wrote:
Just did a 2nd "erase nvram && reboot" and reinstalled r48886 with the same results.


This command is no longer used. As of 35770
nvram erase && reboot
is now the proper command.

https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Hard_reset_or_30/30/30#Erasing_NVRAM

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kernel-panic69
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PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2022 1:10    Post subject: Reply with quote
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.

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blkt
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PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2022 2:00    Post subject: Reply with quote
ramblin wrote:
I had not done an erase nvram as I thought brainslayer had warned about that with this model.

That's earlier Broadcom EA series so Atheros EA8500 no issue. Recent builds are fine r48865, r48886, r48897.

FYI there is no need to hop around through older EA8500 builds, so serial straight to a recent factory-to-ddwrt.

As bushant already suggested, Telnet or SSH as username root in order to nvram erase && reboot good to go.
lexridge
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PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2022 3:44    Post subject: Reply with quote
bushant wrote:
ramblin wrote:
Just did a 2nd "erase nvram && reboot" and reinstalled r48886 with the same results.


This command is no longer used. As of 35770
nvram erase && reboot
is now the proper command.

https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Hard_reset_or_30/30/30#Erasing_NVRAM


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.

Forum member #248
ramblin
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Joined: 03 Nov 2015
Posts: 316
Location: Florida, USA

PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2022 3:47    Post subject: Reply with quote
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.
blkt
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Joined: 20 Jan 2019
Posts: 5660

PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2022 4:16    Post subject: Reply with quote
Step back some builds, r48810 for example or further back r48646. Was wireless ever working on this router?

Depending on the chip in use, the USB TTL serial connection might need to connect ground pin after power on.
servicetech
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Joined: 26 Jun 2019
Posts: 377

PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2022 8:12    Post subject: Reply with quote
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.
the-joker
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PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2022 8:15    Post subject: Reply with quote
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.

Current build is http://ftp.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/betas/2022/05-18-2022-r48897/ you are already using an unsupported build, always goto latest since it contains the latest patches and fixes and updated drivers where applicable.

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.

Good luck.

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