On stock OpenWRT in LUCI when you add a new wireless device to make a new SSID, they just work and all the required data and settings are input automatically into the /etc/configs/wireless file. But on gl.inet firmware (at least latest production FM on Beryl AX), any time you go adding any new Wireless devices, they do not function at all. They do not have the needed settings in the wireless file to make them work. This is not intuitive at all. I have had to spend 2 days with an infuriating AI's vague and incorrect instructions mixed with my own experimenting to implement what I want from my travel router using the vanilla openWRT firmware from their website for my device. If adding wireless devices had have worked as expected in LUCI, I wouldn't have needed to put on vanille wrt. And it has been a big experimental pain to get to the point where I can implement what I want, in pure vanilla openWRT.
What was my goal? A router for home with strong wifi speed and range (check). Wired WAN to my virgin media ISP router's existing lan. Main private SSID, 2 separate guest SSID (one plain and one VPN enforced), one SSID as a bridged pass-through to put connecting devices seamlessly on my virgin media LAN as-is. I have managed to get everything working but what a nightmare. I had implemented 90% of it already on gl.inet firmware by doing some in the standard admin interface and the remainder in LUCI. It would have been so much easier if adding wireless devices would just be functional and ready to go on regular gl.inet firmware LUCI interface.
Well, it's good you got it working . Keep in mind people run the GL.iNet firmware for the convenience it offers... toggle a couple of switches & get the link up ASAP, as it were... for advanced, beyond basic SOHO requirements like you describe, using vanilla/pure OWRT was the way to go.
You should subscribe to Van Tech Corner on Youtube. You'll see why. Enjoy.
I think it was working. At least it was functioning but since a simple "advanced" feature, which is part of the web UI wasn't functioning as expected, I felt like I need to have more trust in my device by putting on vanilla openwrt. The Gl.inet firmware provides access to LUCI interface as a normal feature, calling it advanced. In my opinion, since it allows you to add new SSID, it should function. But it doesn't which doesn't inspire me with confidence. Please I hope you fix that simple thing. If it's as simple as I think it might just be the fact LUCI is not adding the required info into /etc/config/wireless because I had to copy settings from an SSID on the same band as the new one and then that didn't work and then I realised I had to increment the ID from ra1 to ra2. But I don't feel that confident messing with it to trust my results.
Yeah, I think I can partially explain what you're seeing there. GL's GUI isn't fully sync'd with the same capabilities as LuCI or the underlying uci. Here's another example:
Pull a backup of your current state then start experimenting. You can always restore via LuCI:
I have my config for my current setup saved. My thing is, the normal gl.inet screen works great and as expected. But when I use the option of going to advanced LUCI, the simple act of adding another SSID should add the required settings so that it can be utilised, as is the case with vanilla wrt.It is perfectly reasonable why that additional SSIDs wouldn't appear in the normal gl.inet admin interface but when you start using the LUCI advanced screen provided, it should at least function, else putting it in with aspect not working is clearly not an intended result. I hope it gets resolved. I have sorted out what I wanted to achieve, using vanilla openwrt but I would have liked to have stayed on the normal gl.inet firmware and the advanced LUCI screen work properly for adding SSID. It would have been a much faster and smoother experience without me having to get general guidance from AI on understandings of the workings and operation of openWRT to eventually set everything up from scratch successfully.
See, your fundamental problem is that you expect too much from a forked OWRT with a pretty GUI & custom API for a SOHO piece of network kit. Good for you! Seriously. Nice work. I don't even bother with anything approaching complex Wi-Fi -- I loathe Wi-Fi -- so I can't imagine the nonsense you went thru.
... but try putting your confs in a git repo. That way you'll force yourself keep a log of your changes before your deploy/push/scp them to your Beryl AX. Most good text editors have them these days. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to give Zed a test drive.
When I added the SSID it was non-functional. Permanently disabled. The only reason I was able to get it working was a lot of experimentation and talking to AI to try and understand what was wrong. It should have worked as expected. It did not.