I needed a replacement for my Fritz!Box router and thought I’d do myself a favor and ordered a Turris Omnia 2020.
Sorry to say this, but after fiddling with it the last couple days it seems to me this device’s wifi is unusable.
Somehow, the first wifi adapter (which is set to 5GHz mode) does not show up at all when scanning. It looks like this in Luci:
The system logs shows:
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 11.958953] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: enabling device (0140 -> 0142)
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 11.965527] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: pci irq msi oper_irq_mode 2 irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 12.213974] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/pre-cal-pci-0000:02:00.0.bin failed with error -2
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 12.224716] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: Falling back to user helper
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 12.585048] firmware ath10k!pre-cal-pci-0000:02:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 12.594230] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/cal-pci-0000:02:00.0.bin failed with error -2
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 12.604619] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: Falling back to user helper
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 12.615294] firmware ath10k!cal-pci-0000:02:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 12.624096] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/firmware-6.bin failed with error -2
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 12.634834] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: Falling back to user helper
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 12.645658] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!firmware-6.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 12.662953] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: qca988x hw2.0 target 0x4100016c chip_id 0x043202ff sub 0000:0000
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 12.672212] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: kconfig debug 0 debugfs 1 tracing 0 dfs 1 testmode 1
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 12.681739] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: firmware ver 10.2.4-1.0-00047 api 5 features no-p2p,raw-mode,mfp,allows-mesh-bcast crc32 35bd9258
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 12.726526] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/board-2.bin failed with error -2
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 12.736998] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: Falling back to user helper
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 12.747773] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!board-2.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 12.757793] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: board_file api 1 bmi_id N/A crc32 bebc7c08
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 13.896936] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: htt-ver 2.1 wmi-op 5 htt-op 2 cal otp max-sta 128 raw 0 hwcrypto 1
Apr 6 10:58:50 turris kernel: [ 19.643064] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: pdev param 0 not supported by firmware
Nonetheless, the card seems to be initialized, but I get no signal… EDIT: the problem was that I set the channel to “auto”, which – regardless of the country set to DE – choose channel 169. AFAICS, this channel is not something that is supported throughout Europe. Manually setting it to a 108, made the network appear when scanning… but has even worse signal quality than the second card.
The second adapater works, but has really sh*tty signal quality. Even the integrated AP of my printer has a better signal… And of course, the old Fritz!Box which I had planned to replace with the omnia also has better signal quality (but only does 2.4GHz).
I just cannot believe that people pay a premium for such mediocre set up. Does anyone have some tips what I could try (apart from replacing the wifi cards and antennas)? Everything in the router seems to be tightly connected and antennas are fixated properly.
I think I’ll have to return the omnia and get a different router…
Thanks, already did that and just double checked again. Both cables from the larger card are connected to the right pins of the diplexer which are labelled as “5.3” and the cables from the smaller card are connected to the ones labelled “2.1”.
Hostname
turris
Model
Turris Omnia
Architecture
ARMv7 Processor rev 1 (v7l)
Firmware Version
TurrisOS 5.1.10 a5672f6b96f393145070ad17c8eb1d15ef49ad2e / LuCI branch git-21.062.76689-a607f9c
Kernel Version
4.14.222
Also when you set 5Ghz card there is something called DFS and its scanning for weather radars and stuff before turning the card on so you just have to wait a bit longer on certain channels. I have two Omnias and they cover the house pretty well. Maximum wifi power also depends on the country set.
Take a look at this page for reference:
ad_DFS: [OpenWrt Wiki] Wi-Fi /etc/config/wireless iw list will list info for each radio (where you can find which channels are using DFS). iw reg get will show regulatory info for your country (if country is set correctly).
ad_HT/VHT: if you are using 2,4 and 5 together, do not use HT40 on 2.4 radio. for 5 one, consider to lower the VHT160 to VHT80 or even to 40 for a while.
Wi-Fi standard allows 10, 20, 22, 40, 80 and 160 MHz but 10MHz is not used anymore, the 80 and 160 can be used only with 5 GHz frequency, and certain devices not being able to connect to APs with channel widths more than 40Mhz.
I do own a MOX that - I think - has the same Atheros wireless card. Initially my MOX was in a corner of the home and I found wifi quite weak. I finally moved the MOX to a more central position and I am much happier. Also if you are in an area with many neighbours then there will be a lot of competition around 2.4GHz bands so you need to choose one with less possible interference.
This sensitivity might be linked to the type of antenna fitted on Turris devices.
Hi Knut,
let me apologize for the inconvenience with our product. We are ready to help you.
Please be so kind and contact our Support - e-mail address is info@turris.cz. Please attach the diagnostics file from your device. [1]
[1] https://docs.turris.cz/basics/support/#getting-logs
I am looking forward to hearing of you.
Sincerely
Marcela from Turris Support Team
For Wifi1(1st adapter) 2.4GHz was working but when I switch to 5GHz wasn’t broadcasting any SSID. Restarted adapter several times, rebooted the device several times, waited many hours, still nothing, scanned from different laptops and mobiles, was still nothing. In logs also nothing was special, but not bringing radio up.
Channel was auto and I noticed that it had been set to 173.
I manually changed channel to 169 and still nothing, then checked from neighbors and set to 48, it started to work, and the connection is fast and stable.
So I recommend to try different channels.
Country CZ and I really don’t know what channels work.
