RB850Gx2: Hotspot shows no hosts and DHCP leases stuck in "offering" after upgrading to 7.24.x (works fine on 7.23.3)

RouterOS General
1

Hello,

After upgrading my RB850Gx2 to RouterOS 7.24.x [exact version, e.g. 7.24.1], the Hotspot stops working properly. Downgrading back to 7.23.3 makes everything work normally again.

Symptoms on 7.24.x:

  • IP > Hotspot > Hosts is completely empty. Not a single client is listed, even though users are connected to the network.
  • IP > DHCP Server > Leases shows every client MAC address with status offering. Normally the status should be bound.
  • This happens only on my RB850Gx2. My other MikroTik models run the same 7.24.x version without any problem.

Setup:

  • Hardware: RB850Gx2
  • Working version: 7.23.3
  • Affected version: 7.24.x [exact version, channel]
  • Hotspot and DHCP server run directly on [interface name, e.g. ether2]. I am not using a bridge.

I found this thread about a switch chip issue on the RB850Gx2, which was reported on 7.23.2: RB850Gx2 Switch chip issue on 7.23.2

That one involves bridge ports with hardware offload, so it may be a different problem, since my setup has no bridge.

Questions:

  1. Is anyone else running a Hotspot or DHCP server on an RB850Gx2 with 7.24.x and seeing the same behavior?
  2. Could this be a regression in the RB850Gx2 switch chip handling in 7.24.x that also affects setups without a bridge? The "offering" state makes me suspect that DHCP offers are not reaching the clients.
  3. Is there a configuration change required in 7.24.x that I might have missed?

Thank you!