Is There a Way to Enable 802.11r (Fast Roaming) on Flint 2 (GL-MT6000)?

Routers
1

Hi everyone,

I'm using the GL.iNet Flint 2 (GL-MT6000) router and recently ran into some trouble trying to enable 802.11r fast roaming.

Originally, I was using firmware version v4.8.2-op24, which had support for 802.11r. However, I later upgraded to the v4.8.3-Stable release — only to discover (too late) that this stable version does not include 802.11r support.

I attempted to downgrade back to v4.8.2-op24, but the system gave me an error saying it's not possible to revert to an older firmware version.

So I began searching for a workaround. I found some related posts and guides:

From these, it seems that installing the wpad-openssl package should enable fast roaming features like 802.11r. So I tried installing it via opkg, but I encountered the following error:

Executing package manager
Installing wpad-openssl (2020-06-08-5a8b3662-41) to root...
Downloading https://fw.gl-inet.com/releases/mt798x/packages-4.5/aarch64_cortex-a53/packages/wpad-openssl_2020-06-08-5a8b3662-41_aarch64_cortex-a53.ipk
Installing hostapd-common (2020-06-08-5a8b3662-41) to root...
Downloading https://fw.gl-inet.com/releases/mt798x/packages-4.5/aarch64_cortex-a53/packages/hostapd-common_2020-06-08-5a8b3662-41_aarch64_cortex-a53.ipk
Errors
Collected errors:
 * check_data_file_clashes: Package hostapd-common wants to install file /etc/rc.button/wps
	But that file is already provided by package  * wifi-profile
 * opkg_install_cmd: Cannot install package wpad-openssl.
The opkg install command failed with code 255.

It seems there's a file conflict with the wifi-profile package that prevents installation of hostapd-common, which is a dependency of wpad-openssl.

Has anyone found a workaround for this?
I’m particularly interested in:

  • Re-enabling 802.11r on v4.8.3-Stable

  • Or, a safe way to downgrade back to v4.8.2-op24

Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

1 Like
3

Hi

We tested locally downgrading Flint 2 from 4.8.3 to 4.8.2-op24 via Local Upgrade and encountered no issues.

Could you share what problems you encountered when installing the 4.8.2-op24 version?
If possible, please provide a few screenshots to help us better understand what was sent.

5

Is there no way of getting 802.11r on the latest firmware release? I tried downgrading to 4.8.2 and installing wpad-Openssl but this appears to have made no differece. Why has GL-iNet disabled this option? Am I able to get this working or does the router need to go back to amazon?

6

What do you expect 802.11r to fix for you exactly? Unless you are using PKI for wireless auth, you really won’t see much different with and without 802.11r, other than your apple devices might work better without 802.11r enabled.

7

I’m expecting to be able to roam with my phone more seamlessly as I move around my house latching on to the stronger signal from the two competing access points. I authorise with WPA2-PSK and my understanding is that this is exactlly the scenario 802.11r was set up to solve.

Any help in getting it working greatly appreciated

8

You should try op24 :slight_smile:

And use wpad-openssl but I think that one is already standard.

It will work fine, but it will not steer, the AP roam decisions are made by the client and some do not, if you look to steering... I would advise to not use gl firmware and go with OpenWrt and then use batman or dawn.

Roaming can cause more issues in some areas since some devices just handle it bad.

What you need to do:

Share the same mobility domain on the same bands, 5ghz will have a different than 2.4ghz, which match with the other AP, you do want to change channel though and you also want to lower the tx power on both APs, especially with the flint 2 it is just a really strong signal and 2.4ghz is kinda overkill you can also choose to not use roaming on that band.

ssids need to be the same and password to.

You should not have the same ssid on both bands I won't recommend this because OpenWrt is not build for this the abstraction needs to be set with this roaming.

The only really broken things are for example multi psk and then supporting roaming, this requires special patching, this is also not in OpenWrt master so, and maybe even a more recent OpenWrt if wpa3 also is wanted for multi psk.

If you use it in the broken state, then when a roaming decision happens clients vlan hop to the default vlan with multi psk, and this is not the expected behaviour of multi psk :slight_smile:

Edit:

Also it is important to know this thing to, try to use a app for android called wifiman, and check if you see both aps, often a roam trigger is with atleast -50dbm less with the other AP the app will show this, here is where you really want to tune with the tx power, as stated before you have no control where the devices connect to, and you have to lower tx power and sometimes exaggerate, this can also make some devices slower, roaming is cool, but not perse to make things better.

9

I won’t help getting it working, but I will say if you are having trouble getting your devices to roam, it is probably because your power is up too high and the phone is latching onto the less-desireable AP because it is still getting a usable signal. Unless you are using 802.1x / radius auth for wireless, you likely wont see an improvement in AP handoff. However, you will likely see more wifi issues with 802.11r on with many mobile devices. Best of luck.