Banana Pi BPI-R3 OpenWRT image

For the MT7921 module to work you have to use vanilla OpenWrt, first of all. I don’t think it works with the pre-installed OS.

When running recent OpenWrt snapshot, you can install the needed drivers for WiFi 6E and Bluetooth:

opkg update
opkg install kmod-mt7921e mt7921bt-firmware kmod-bluetooth

You should then see the module being detected and configurable by OpenWrt, including 6 GHz channels in HE160 mode.

That easy? Do you recommend that module MT7921k? There are plenty on aliexpress. Would WED work?

I bought those el’cheapo: https://pl.aliexpress.com/item/1005004545962352.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.0.0.5d021c24DkN4GJ&gatewayAdapt=glo2pol.

They are detected by BPI-R3 with 2.5Gbps. Work fine with 1Gbps, will test soon if they achieve the 2.5Gbps.

Tested. Other end with I225-V v3:

[  5] local 192.168.88.176 port 35442 connected to 192.168.88.122 port 5201
...
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  2.74 GBytes  2.35 Gbits/sec  5082             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  2.73 GBytes  2.35 Gbits/sec                  receiver

Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.88.122 is sending
[  5] local 192.168.88.176 port 56636 connected to 192.168.88.122 port 5201
...
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  2.74 GBytes  2.35 Gbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  2.73 GBytes  2.35 Gbits/sec                  receiver
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Only wonder about high retransmitts,do you have flow control enabled on the remote side?

Hi dangowrt!

Would you mind summing up the hardware you have tested with, including which 3G/4G/5G card you used? That is the last part of my shopping list :slight_smile:

How much work is it to get the SIM working with vanilla OpenWrt snapshot? Are there instructions anywhere?

  • Banana Pi R3 (you seem to be running revision 1.0)
  • 2x TP-LINK TL-SM410U for 2.5 Gb/s (?) ethernet
  • MT7921K, AMD RZ608 variant
  • M.2 Key M to key A+E converter (seller hebeda at eBay for this and the AMD card?)

Thanks for your awesome work getting vanilla OpenWrt supported for this device!

Any mPCIe module should work. I tried with Quectel EC-25 and Sierra Wireless EM8455 in NGFF->mPCIe adapter. Due to limitation of the mPCIe socket, only up to USB 2.0 speeds are supported, ie. it doesn’t make much sense to buy faster modems because the speed will anyway be limited to ~ 200MBit/s. If you want faster (LTE Cat.12 or 5G) modem, you have to connect it via USB 3.0 or PCIe, both aren’t supported on the mPCIe slot of the R3 (which is USB2.0 + SIM only).

The SIM slot is hard-wired to the modem and doesn’t need anything special to work with OpenWrt. Just install luci-proto-qmi (recommended) or even luci-proto-modemmanager and things work out-of-the-box.

There are generic instructions which work fine also on the R3, details may differ depending on the modem you choose: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wan/wwan/ltedongle

You can also use slightly cheaper ONTi SFP modules which then also support fall-back to 100M/1G speed (SM410U supports 2.5G only): https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004545962352.html

If you are inside the EU, ebay seller hebeda is probably the fastest and safest option. But you can just as well pick a suitable module on AliExpress. The best option is actually to wait for MT7916+MT7976 WiFi 6E modules to be available (because that will be 4T4R and support the hardware offloading features of MT7986 SoC)

hi every morning i have one question when i set openwrt and click save & apply button then use openwrt luci`s reboot it is recovery to not set openwrt how can i fix this bug? or operational problems?

Hello everyone, my name is Andreas and I am a total newbie.

I installed the SD image after that I set something wrong in OpenWrt.

Since then I don’t have a static IP address and I don’t get an address from my router (Fritz!Box) either.

I can’t think of it anymore on Openwrt.

How can I reset the device? the reset button doesn’t seem to work.

thank you for your help

Andrew

@dangowrt

After commit 9b482ee22f3f509880d2420652392971eef3211d (kernel: add more fixes for mtk_eth_soc), bridge is not working.

config device
	option name 'bridge0'
	option type 'bridge'
	list ports 'lan1'
	list ports 'lan2'
	list ports 'lan3'
	list ports 'lan4'

config interface 'lan'
	option device 'bridge0'
	option proto 'static'
	option ipaddr '192.168.1.1'
	option netmask '255.255.255.0'
	option zone 'lan'

I can ping 192.168.1.1, but DHCP is not working and I can´t connect using SSH or HTTPS…

Started to receive these messages too:

[49483.757250] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 1206 sec
[49544.013741] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 1266 sec
[49604.266293] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 1327 sec
[49664.523107] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 1387 sec
[49724.789378] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 1447 sec
[49785.034781] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 1508 sec
[49845.291468] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 1568 sec
[49905.545321] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 1628 sec
[49965.801673] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 1688 sec
[50026.057952] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 1749 sec
[50086.313949] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 1809 sec
[50146.574644] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 1869 sec
[50206.828271] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 1930 sec
[50267.081913] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 1990 sec
[50327.338814] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 2050 sec
[50387.593781] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 2111 sec
[50447.851519] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 2171 sec
[50508.107949] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 2231 sec
[50568.361955] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 2292 sec
[50628.617148] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 2352 sec
[50688.872151] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 2412 sec
[50749.129896] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 2473 sec
[50809.382267] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 2533 sec
[50869.638402] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 2593 sec
[50929.892010] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 2654 sec
[50990.150322] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 2714 sec
[51050.406240] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 20 inflight 2774 sec

If I connect via wifi, everything works fine.

1 Like

This commit includes different patches

https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=commit;h=9b482ee22f3f509880d2420652392971eef

Could you try to figure out which one breaks functionality (removing patches one-by-one)?

If I remove 732-14-net-ethernet-mtk_eth_soc-drop-generic-vlan-rx-offloa.patch it works again. I will let the system run for some time to check if the messages are gone…

Ok then you could send felix a message for next steps maybe cc the openwrt mailinglist.

It looks like the patch was not sent to mtk mailinglist to be upstreamed to mainline linux. So it is an issue only in openwrt.

Hi

have you been able to get the MT7921K to work? i have the same card, with adapter and im running OpenWrt SNAPSHOT, r21335-e410833bdd but cannot see firmware or drivers anywhere?

root@OpenWrt:/# lspci -s 01:00.0 -v 01:00.0 Network controller: MEDIATEK Corp. RZ608 Wi-Fi 6E 80MHz Subsystem: MEDIATEK Corp. RZ608 Wi-Fi 6E 80MHz Flags: fast devsel Memory at 20000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1M] Memory at 20100000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [disabled] [size=16K] Memory at 20104000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [disabled] [size=4K] Capabilities: [80] Express Endpoint, MSI 00 Capabilities: [e0] MSI: Enable- Count=1/32 Maskable+ 64bit+ Capabilities: [f8] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=1556 Rev=1 Len=008 <?> Capabilities: [108] Latency Tolerance Reporting Capabilities: [110] L1 PM Substates Capabilities: [200] Advanced Error Reporting lspci: Unable to load libkmod resources: error -12

if i try and install kmod-mt7921e it says my kernel is not compatible, same for architecture

many thanks

You have to update to most recent snapshot first. You can either download it from downloads.openwrt.org or use one of the semi-auto updater clients like luci-app-attendedsysupgrade or auc. Try this:

opkg update
opkg install auc
auc

That should fast-forward you the most recent snapshot and subsequently allow to install kernel packages like kmod-mt7921e.

1 Like

I add another question regarding the wireless, what is the process to have it have a different mac address? It seems to be always 86:0c:43:26:60:00

you can set mac in interfaces file,via udev or systemd (if openwrt use it)

@dangowrt many thanks, Have updated the Kernal and now having a look at the packages again. :+1:

amazing, after installing package and a reboot i can see the card…time to play some more

image

I’ve added support for randomly generated persistent MAC addresses for wlan interfaces based on the Ethernet MAC address in

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Hi

I noticed a wireless module using mini-PCIe interface, which seems to use the combination of MT7916AN+MT7976DN. If possible, can I trouble you to see if this module is compatible with BPI-R3.

Of course, it would be even better if Banana Pi officially launched an M.2 M-Key module that does not require an adapter board.

Link:https://www.asiarf.com/shop/wifi-wlan/wifi_mini_pcie/wifi6e-3000-802-11ax-3t3r-dbdc-mpcie/

I have one of these in my BPI-R3 via a M.2 adapter and it works just fine. You’ll end up with 2 2G radios but can always disable one.