4.317.2 on GL-AR750 does not preserve new wireless interfaces in /etc/config/wireless

[mswift]

I recently upgraded firmware on a GL-AR750 (Qualcomm Atheros QCA9533 ver 2 rev 0), and I am experiencing a problem where a new wifi interface that I add is being deleted from /etc/config/wireless on reboot. Changes to the existing wireless interfaces (e.g., name, password, enabled/disabled) are being preserved on reboot, but the new interface is missing. I have verified that "uci changes" is empty before rebooting. All other configuration (dhcp, network, etc.) is being properly preserved. With earlier firmware, config/wireless was being preserved over reboot properly.

I'm not sure the exact firmversion that I upgraded from, but it was the original firmware with OpenWRT 19.x instead of 22.x. At first I upgraded saving settings. I encountered some problems, so I did a "Reset Firmware" from the Gl.iNet admin panel and started from scratch.

I used Luci in order to set up (recreate) a client WWAN wireless interface, because I think I cannot do this in the Gl.iNet admin panel. This is the upstream connection to the internet via wifi. I am not using the WAN ethernet port. Clients are connecting through the LAN port. Let's call this upstream WWAN interface "ISPwifi." Connection is successful, and I continued to recreate other configuration (nothing very complicated, performed from Luci interface only, SSH command line used only to obtain information).

My workaround has been to cp my modified and working /etc/config/wireless to /etc/config/wireless.new. After reboot, I log in with SSH and confirm that the wireless configuration has reverted. I cp /etc/config/wireless.new to /etc/config/wireless and then "/sbin/wifi reload". Then everything is working fine. If the power goes out at this location, I will lose remote access (through a VPN on the router) and have to visit the site to restore its upstream connection.

[bruce]

Hi,

I have tested in the 4.3.17 in my side, seems it still works after I manual add WiFi radio and reboot the router. The configuration /etc/config/wireless have not changed or lost after it reboot.

[mswift]

Thanks for this information. How can I investigate further? What possible mechanisms during reboot would alter /etc/config/wireless in any way?

I will add an ap station or two and see if all new (non-default) stations or just the last one in the file is omitted, and I will carefully control timestamps to see if the altered wireless after boot has a new timestamp or same as just prior to reboot.

This is the specific text which disappears:
root@Glark:/etc/config# diff wireless wireless.boot
64,71d63
<
< config wifi-iface 'wifinet4'
< option ssid 'xfinitywifi'
< option encryption 'none'
< option device 'radio0'
< option mode 'sta'
< option network 'wwan'
< option bssid 'BA:5E:71:3A:A0:10'
root@Glark:/etc/config#

[mswift]

Here is a shell transcript showing the problem. I added an additional station 'wifinet5' which became the last entry in /etc/config/wireless, after 'wifinet4'. I saved a copy of wireless in wireless mine and touched both for a date in year 2001. On reboot, just wifinet4 was excised, wifinet5 remained, and the modified wireless file has a timestamp from the boot.

root@Glark:/etc/config# tail -16 wireless; cp wireless wireless.mine; touch -d '2001-01-01 01:01:01' wireless wireless.mine; ls -l wi
reless wireless.mine; diff -s wireless wireless.mine; reboot

config wifi-iface 'wifinet4'
option ssid 'xfinitywifi'
option encryption 'none'
option device 'radio0'
option mode 'sta'
option network 'wwan'
option bssid 'BA:5E:71:3A:A0:10'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet5'
option ssid 'TempGuestAP'
option encryption 'psk2'
option device 'radio1'
option mode 'ap'
option network 'MSG_Guest'
option key 'guestpassword'
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1784 Jan 1 2001 wireless
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1784 Jan 1 2001 wireless.mine
Files wireless and wireless.mine are identical
root@Glark:/etc/config# Connection to glark.annex.msg closed by remote host.
Connection to glark.annex.msg closed.
PS C:\Users\Matthew> ssh root@glark.annex.msg
root@glark.annex.msg's password:

BusyBox v1.35.0 (2023-04-09 12:27:46 UTC) built-in shell (ash)

---

| |.-----.-----.-----.| | | |.----.| |_
| - || _ | -| || | | || || |
|_____|| |||||___||| |____|
|| W I R E L E S S F R E E D O M

OpenWrt 22.03.4, r20123-38ccc47687

root@Glark:~# cd /etc/config
root@Glark:/etc/config# ls -l wireless wireless.mine
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1560 Aug 14 15:59 wireless
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1784 Jan 1 2001 wireless.mine
root@Glark:/etc/config# diff wireless.mine wireless
64,71d63
< config wifi-iface 'wifinet4'
< option ssid 'xfinitywifi'
< option encryption 'none'
< option device 'radio0'
< option mode 'sta'
< option network 'wwan'
< option bssid 'BA:5E:71:3A:A0:10'
<
78a71

root@Glark:/etc/config#

[mswift]

Version info:

root@Glark:/etc/config# cat /etc/glversion /etc/openwrt_release /etc/openwrt_version
4.3.17
DISTRIB_ID='OpenWrt'
DISTRIB_RELEASE='22.03.4'
DISTRIB_REVISION='r20123-38ccc47687'
DISTRIB_TARGET='ath79/nand'
DISTRIB_ARCH='mips_24kc'
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION='OpenWrt 22.03.4 r20123-38ccc47687'
DISTRIB_TAINTS='busybox'
r20123-38ccc47687
root@Glark:/etc/config#

[bruce]

I have created one more SSID radio 'wifinet6', SSID is 750M-B2022 (the old one is 750M-B1011 create on yesterday)

Reboot the router

Startup completed, the 'wifinet6' is still.

Please try to reset your router firmware to check again.