No,mt7530 driver is involved for switch part
Ah, you are right. My bad.
Iāve not been using the MTK feeds for a while, OpenWRT runs stable from the 24.10 branch. But the documentation for that feed is outdated for they created a directory for the 24.10 branch that should be used instead of the main content.
I used the instructions for master (and replace the path with the 24.10 but I still have a limit of 6dbm and is unclear if this is not supported yet, some bug or even a different version of the board. I also checked the eeprom and is my understanding it loads the mt7996_eeprom_233_2i5i6i.bin and the MD5 matches the upstream / MTK version.
OpenWRT Issue wifi txpower value is very low Ā· Issue #17489 Ā· openwrt/openwrt Ā· GitHub
Yeah, saw it later, the 24.10 content directoryās patches donāt apply on the 24.10 branch. Manually fixing the conflict, then building for āmt7988a-rfbā, with the new 233 firmware in OP, the bpi-r4 doesnāt boot. Not sure what happened, donāt have serial yet.
EDIT: Is there some place that builds these MTK SDK bpi-r4 images in a standardized manner? Frankly I donāt have time to figure out why somebodyās flaky patches donāt apply on the the branch theyāre intended for. Currently, this feels like a waste of time, because each person will produce subtly different builds, and thereās zero point of reference.
I have be14 installed and did basic steps like starting hostapd,not more yet as iām busy with different things.
And i work on mainline kernel in debian and not openwrt.
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Cool, thanks for the update. Since Iām blocked with openwrt I may actually give a go to Debian.
I build an image using GitHub - frank-w/BPI-Router-Images and I get a similar limitation but this time I get an error message from the module
NOTE: This are logs from a Debian image
13.287851] mt7996e 0000:01:00.0: HW/SW Version: 0x8a108a10, Build Time: 20240809122254a
[ 13.492882] mt7996e 0000:01:00.0: WM Firmware Version: ____000000, Build Time: 20240809122249
[ 13.540892] mt7996e 0000:01:00.0: DSP Firmware Version: ____000000, Build Time: 20240809121650
[ 13.582032] mt7996e 0000:01:00.0: WA Firmware Version: ____000000, Build Time: 20240809122214
[ 13.979603] mt7996e 0000:01:00.0: registering led 'mt76-phy0'
[ 14.048117] mt7996e 0000:01:00.0: registering led 'mt76-phy1'
[ 14.098110] mt7996e 0000:01:00.0: registering led 'mt76-phy2'
[ 14.177746] mt7996e 0000:01:00.0: vgaarb: pci_notify
[ 53.706304] mt7996e 0000:01:00.0: Message 001a0034 (seq 6) timeout
[ 76.106294] mt7996e 0000:01:00.0: Message 00120012 (seq 7) timeout
[ 98.506295] mt7996e 0000:01:00.0: Message 00120012 (seq 8) timeout
[ 120.906303] mt7996e 0000:01:00.0: Message 00120012 (seq 9) timeout
[ 143.306297] mt7996e 0000:01:00.0: Message 00120012 (seq 10) timeout
[ 165.706296] mt7996e 0000:01:00.0: Message 00120012 (seq 11) timeout
[ 188.106297] mt7996e 0000:01:00.0: Message 00120012 (seq 12) timeout
[ 210.506302] mt7996e 0000:01:00.0: Message 00120012 (seq 13) timeout
Tried 24.10.0-rc5 bananapi_bpi-r4-sdcard.img.gz. Dmesg: dmesg_bpi-r4_24.10-rc5.log.txt (93.8 KB) And BE at 320MHz works!
Driver default is 23 dBm in JP region.
Which WiFi card do you have? I have a Banana PI BE14 v1.0 and mine is limited to 6 / 7dBm
- Got this bpi-r4 kit: https://a.aliexpress.com/_EvWfGgH
- Following 24Wm/k heatpads: https://a.aliexpress.com/_EvoULad
- A Baseus GaN3 Pro 100W USB-C power adapter.
- SMA connector rubber/screws/washers: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006149058995.html
- Crucial P3 Plus 1TB NVMe SSD.
Thank you for sharing, I have exactly the same kit. Do you know which version of the Wifi card do you have? mine is v1.0
Same BPI-R4-NIC-BE14 revision here: v1.0. Was unsure at first, but luckily filmed my assembly of the bpi-r4, so itās definitely v1.0.
I have the same equipment and like @bananas Iām limited to 6/7dBm even though my region (US) (and iw reg get) say I should be able to go up to 30 for 2.4Ghz and 23-30 for 5Ghz (and 12dBm for 6Ghz, although the 6Ghz doesnt appear to work at all and limits itself to 5dBm). Iāve tried openwrt 24.10-rc4 , rc5 & rc6 and openwrt snapshot from Jan 1 2025. iw phy0.0-ap0 set txpower fixed ānumberā does work, it just maxes out at 6dBm , and similarly the iw command on 5Ghz works, but up to 7dBm.
Before settling on this 24.10-rc6 setup, Iāve tried:
- Most of the Debian builds: Banana Pi BPI-R4 - Banana Pi Wiki
- MTK patches + OpenWRT 24.10-snapshot using steps: en:bpi-r4:start [FW-WEB Wiki]
- Then circling back to 24.10-rc4, rc5, rc6.
I donāt know whether the Tx-Power ceiling changed in any way during this firmware hopping, but I can set 2.4/5/6GHz to 23dBm (~200mW) respectively. However, Iām currently running in 5GHz/6GHz mode with Tx-Power limited to 9dBm (7mW), because these puny toy-like antennas the bpi-r4 came with arenāt made for such high Tx-Power anyway.
Any chance that the mt7996e wifi driver or the BE14 hardware itself decreases tx power based on overheating or insufficient power? (Iāve used multiple 12V and currently using a 19V power supply, so I doubt itās power), and the system cpu never hits 122 degrees Fahrenheit, so I doubt itās overheating, but Iām grasping at straws here to try to explain why the txpower never goes above 6 and 7 dBm on 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz respectively.
It shouldnt matter, but Iām using the sdcard to boot, are you too? Or did you move to the NAND or eMMC?
And lastly, thereās no extra power connection the BE14 needs, right? The V00 connector is supposed to be unused?
Would be interesting to get to the bottom of this. Some musings:
- Baseus GaN3 Pro 100W is 20V USB-PD capable. Could be a factor, but frankly not sure.
- Using sdcard to boot. Will move to nvme booting once setup doesnāt require surgical gloves.
- Temps are steady at ~60C after several days. Not particularly amazing.
- No extra power connections going to the BE14, apart from whatās already being pulled from pcie.
- Attaching pics of the overall setup, nothing out of the ordinary that I can see.
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