I asked kondras4, the author of Having trouble to setup mesh between Linksys MX4200 and 4300, via PM, if he had an MX4200 v1 or v2 and he said v2. I mentioned this in one of my previous posts. There's some screenshots in his post so I take his word for it.
Can you verify under openwrt that you actually have 1GB RAM (the free command in a ssh session would show this)?
EDIT: You maybe able to do this under the stock FW as well using a telnet session.
Since this router has a standard header connector on the serial port, you could easily get the correct connector and plug it in and remove once you obtain the necessary logs. They would never know you were into it, as no soldering would be required.
Also, since you helped with development of openwrt for this router, I am a bit surprised you are not wanting to stick with it. I would guess because of no NSS cores support? _________________ - Linksys EA8500: I-Gateway, WAP/VAP 5ghz only. Features: VLANs, Samba, WG, Entware - r60xxx
- Linksys EA8500: 802.11s Secondary w/VLAN Trunk over 5ghz - r60xxx
- Linksys MX4300: 802.11s Primary w/VLAN Trunk over 5ghz. 2.4ghz WAP/VAP only - r60xxx
- Linksys MX4300: (WAP/VAP (7)) Multiple VLANs over single trunk port. Entware/Samba r60xxx
- Linksys MR7350: WDS Station for extended Ethernet r60xxx
- Linksys MR7500, MX8500: None in production. Just testing. r60xxx
- OSes: Fedora 40, 10 RPis (2,3,4,5), 23 ESP8266s: Straight from Amiga to Linux in '95, never having owned a Windows PC.
- Forum member #248
Last edited by lexridge on Fri Sep 13, 2024 3:01; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 16703 Location: Texas, USA
Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2024 2:46 Post subject:
PMs are not public discussion, so a reply to his thread would've been ideal per the Forum Rules and Guidelines.
I guess I overlooked your post content regarding that (it happens, especially when I'm multitasking). So, your problem is not
our problem if installing the same version he flashed to his does not work... unless you risk getting in trouble opening your rented
equipment and providing serial. I mean, you're already flashing non-ISP firmware, which is against policy already, but
you're going to balk at cracking open the case
Sorry, not trying to be rude, but you're pitching a no-hitter all the way around.
EDIT: I presume this is the aforementioned PR which is merged:
One thing that occurred to me while compiling is that, as you rightly said at the start, there might be some small differences in hardware, either because it’s an ISP version or simply a hardware revision, and that the different linux kernel configurations for hardware support between these projects, or the generic and device-specific patches that OpenWRT applies to the kernel, make a difference for this device. Serial access is of course a must to investigate that option.
Since this router has a standard header connector on the serial port, you could easily get the correct connector and plug it in and remove once you obtain the necessary logs. They would never know you were into it, as no soldering would be required.
Whereas v1 has it, v2 has no connector or pins soldered. I’m equally concerned about damaging the case which has been described generally as a PITA. In this regard, I am keeping an eye on eBay to see if I can buy one at a price that is justifiable for something that is pure curiosity and take it from there. I’d be happy to tinker with my own.
lexridge wrote:
Also, since you helped with development of openwrt for this router, I am a bit surprised you are not wanting to stick with it. I would guess because of no NSS cores support?
This is going to be a long one so apologies in advance for the essay.
For the sake of clarity, I helped troubleshooting MAC assignment issues for the switch and BSSIDs, WLAN performance with different binaries, regdomain issues and so on. That is a tiny amount of the work that went into it and I take no credit whatsoever for it. That belongs to others.
I am generally happy with Linksys firmware’s performance. I use Raspberries and other devices for the most complex stuff. But I have a problem derived from how my ISP handles IPv6 addresses. They basically keep changing the prefix and Linksys’ firmware doesn’t provide any sort of dynamic configuration to link the pinhole to a device’s MAC (like the basic BT Hubs do) or to the lower 64 bits of the link-local address like you can do with OpenWRT (the firewall syntax allows other number of bits).
The problems I have with OpenWRT are around reliability. Calls on Teams freeze for a few seconds, sometimes drop, etc. I’ve seen at least one other person reporting the same problem. Other issue is synchronisation of OneNote notebooks stored in SharePoint. Tons of ‘can’t connect to the server right now’ errors. Problems with the TV taking forever to connect wirelessly or not connecting at all, Chromecast the same, etc. None of those ever occur using Linksys’ or Community Fibre's firmware.
Support for the MX4200 on OpenWRT is still only added to their development branch. As I said, I back-ported it to their current stable branch but the changes are deemed too complex for the stable branch which is fair enough. Using 23.05 I experience less problems, but I still have some that I can directly attribute to the firmware.
That lead me to go back to Community Fibre’s firmware and trying to deal with the IPv6 pinholes issue differently with UPnP. Another story altogether.
Recently, as you know very well, there’s been a lot of activity because of the low price of the MX4300 in the US and I learnt about DD-WRT having added support for the MX4200. I let it be for a while and now I decided to test it under the seemingly wrong assumption that it had already had some mileage, it would boot and I could contribute with feedback on what works and what doesn’t, MACs or whatever. Hence I came to ask what others are using to establish a known working version I can focus on since I can’t even get mine to boot.
Lastly, I am not after NSS support. I might be an exception but stock and OpenWRT 23.05 match performance in tests and real use. I wanted to see if some of the issues I mentioned earlier are not present and then decide which one (stock, DD-WRT, etc.) offers the best balance for a device that we use all the time.
Probably picking up a used mx4200v2 from ebay is your best bet. I would stay away from the v1 as with only only 512MB memory it's likely to run short on RAM being that the ath11k drivers use a LOT of memory.
You are correct about the v2 needing soldered pin headers. I assumed both v1 and v2 would be the same as the mx4300 and include them. Not the case apparently.
Like OpenWRT, DD-WRT on all newly supported AX routers is a WiP. I am pretty sure @Brainslayer even contributed to the OpenWRT MX4200 development in some fashion so there is likely to be some shared code between them. He has several posts in that thread regarding both mx4200 and mx4300.
Many (if not all?) dd-wrt AX routers now have an mtd "oops" partition. On the mx4300 it's mtd26. This is used to write kernel dumps into and survives a reboot. I have been wondering if there is a way to read this partition while booted to the opposite partition. This could eliminate the need for a serial lash-up if possible. I would think it should be. Maybe ask your openwrt associates if they know of a way....or maybe somebody here knows of a way. I sure don't. _________________ - Linksys EA8500: I-Gateway, WAP/VAP 5ghz only. Features: VLANs, Samba, WG, Entware - r60xxx
- Linksys EA8500: 802.11s Secondary w/VLAN Trunk over 5ghz - r60xxx
- Linksys MX4300: 802.11s Primary w/VLAN Trunk over 5ghz. 2.4ghz WAP/VAP only - r60xxx
- Linksys MX4300: (WAP/VAP (7)) Multiple VLANs over single trunk port. Entware/Samba r60xxx
- Linksys MR7350: WDS Station for extended Ethernet r60xxx
- Linksys MR7500, MX8500: None in production. Just testing. r60xxx
- OSes: Fedora 40, 10 RPis (2,3,4,5), 23 ESP8266s: Straight from Amiga to Linux in '95, never having owned a Windows PC.
- Forum member #248
For the benefit of anybody coming across this post in the future, I've flashed 08-30-2024-r58244 from OpenWRT to the other partition with mtd and the result was the same, my router doesn't boot DD-WRT. I flashed factory-to-ddwrt.img and, just in case, dd-wrt-webflash.bin. I believe the later would never work but since I was at it...
For the so-called debranding, yes. But these devices are not truly turned into OEM, to the extent of offering you a firmware upgrade when you are running the latest OEM version (2.0.6.211172), because that of Community Fibre's is newer (2.0.7.213542). I think it's because the devinfo partition contains a lot of details including the model and it stays that of Community Fibre (MX4200CF-UK). If you go ahead an upgrade, you have to repeat the process of flashing StarHub's firmware and so on. Then there is also the fact that there is little difference in the firmware as such. I imagine the ISP puts its own settings in some places and tests it in their network.
The first time I did this I found that post and followed that sequence. Whenever I had to do it again, I've gone v2 CF -> v1 StarHub -> v2 OEM (or OpenWRT).
In regards to my tests documented here, I've tried flashing DD-WRT from v1 StarHub and v2 OEM, as well as the experiment from OpenWRT with mtd. It's less and less likely that the problem is where I flash DD-WRT from and more likely that the device has some small hardware difference or something changed on my device after going back and forth with the various firmwares I've tried.
There are some differences on ipq8174-mx4200.dtsi between projects. Mostly labels and regs of partitions. The later surprises me because I thought that can't change, but I don't know enough about it. The file is originally that created by SpectreDev for OpenWrt and the changes introduced here.
@lexridge Is there any chance you can ask the developer if that change could be behind the problem I am having or simply what motivated the change?
Seeing that the reg value for the kernel/linux partition hasn't changed, but it has for alt_kernel/linux2, my next step is to double-check that I've tested both, because I wasn't paying any attention to this and I might have always flashed the same and the other would've worked.
After that, it would be to build DD-WRT from source and experiment with these values using the originals. But for that I first need to get my head around the building process which on the surface seems quite different.
diff-ipq8174-mx4200-dtsi.txt
Description:
diff on ipq8174-mx4200.dtsi between OpenWRT and DD-WRT
@lexridge Is there any chance you can ask the developer if that change could be behind the problem I am having or simply what motivated the change?
I'd rather not just yet as I know he's going to ask for a serial log. Let's get more information first.
Quote:
Seeing that the reg value for the kernel/linux partition hasn't changed, but it has for alt_kernel/linux2, my next step is to double-check that I've tested both, because I wasn't paying any attention to this and I might have always flashed the same and the other would've worked.
I almost suggested you check what partition(s) you are flashing to but shrugged it off.
Quote:
After that, it would be to build DD-WRT from source and experiment with these values using the originals. But for that I first need to get my head around the building process which on the surface seems quite different.
Building dd-wrt yourself is nearly impossible. It's completely different than openwrt. Even with the entire source tree here, I have never been able to build it for anything modern. I only use the kernel source to build modules when/if needed. _________________ - Linksys EA8500: I-Gateway, WAP/VAP 5ghz only. Features: VLANs, Samba, WG, Entware - r60xxx
- Linksys EA8500: 802.11s Secondary w/VLAN Trunk over 5ghz - r60xxx
- Linksys MX4300: 802.11s Primary w/VLAN Trunk over 5ghz. 2.4ghz WAP/VAP only - r60xxx
- Linksys MX4300: (WAP/VAP (7)) Multiple VLANs over single trunk port. Entware/Samba r60xxx
- Linksys MR7350: WDS Station for extended Ethernet r60xxx
- Linksys MR7500, MX8500: None in production. Just testing. r60xxx
- OSes: Fedora 40, 10 RPis (2,3,4,5), 23 ESP8266s: Straight from Amiga to Linux in '95, never having owned a Windows PC.
- Forum member #248
- Started with OpenWRT on kernel and Linksys on alt_kernel
- Switched to alt_kernel
- Flashed DD-WRT 08-30-2024-r58244 onto kernel from Linksys on alt_kernel
- DD-WRT wouldn't boot
- Switched boot partition to alt_kernel
- Flashed Linksys onto kernel from Linksys on alt_kernel
- Flashed DD-WRT 08-30-2024-r58244 on alt_kernel from Linksys on kernel
- DD-WRT wouldn't boot
- Switched boot partition to kernel
- Flashed OpenWRT on alt_kernel from Linksys on kernel
- Booted OpenWRT and confirmed it was on alt_kernel
Note: kernel is linux and alt_kernel is linux2 if you go with DD-WRT's labelling
Note2: I used 08-30-2024-r58244 because that's the only reference I've got of DD-WRT working on the MX4200v2, even though it's not the strongest evidence.
lexridge wrote:
Building dd-wrt yourself is nearly impossible. It's completely different than openwrt. Even with the entire source tree here, I have never been able to build it for anything modern. I only use the kernel source to build modules when/if needed.
Thanks for the warning. That makes contributing to the project more complicated but it is what it is. I'll give it a go and see how far I can get.
Well crap. Looks like you've gone full circle then. Don't know what else to suggest except for you-know-what. A serial log. _________________ - Linksys EA8500: I-Gateway, WAP/VAP 5ghz only. Features: VLANs, Samba, WG, Entware - r60xxx
- Linksys EA8500: 802.11s Secondary w/VLAN Trunk over 5ghz - r60xxx
- Linksys MX4300: 802.11s Primary w/VLAN Trunk over 5ghz. 2.4ghz WAP/VAP only - r60xxx
- Linksys MX4300: (WAP/VAP (7)) Multiple VLANs over single trunk port. Entware/Samba r60xxx
- Linksys MR7350: WDS Station for extended Ethernet r60xxx
- Linksys MR7500, MX8500: None in production. Just testing. r60xxx
- OSes: Fedora 40, 10 RPis (2,3,4,5), 23 ESP8266s: Straight from Amiga to Linux in '95, never having owned a Windows PC.
- Forum member #248
I would like to share the info which might be related:
I have a MX4200v2 and I tried flashing firmwares: 09-09-2024-r58362, 09-02-2024-r58283
The MX4200v2 was not accessible (no device IP, dhcp not working)
I checked the serial log and here's my observation :
1. Error message "ddwrt cannot open /dev/nvram" spamming
2. Below MAC address error messages was shown during boot up:
MAC addresses don't match:
Address in SROM is xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Address in environment is yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy
MAC address {xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx} is a not recognizable; MAC address {yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy} is my MX4200v2 MAC printed on label.
Maybe there's some extra step needed.
Anyway, I reverted my MX4200v2 back to stock firmware
