Upgraded wireless -> wifi-qcom-ac, now cAP ac 2.4GHz is missing in CAPsMAN

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

Hello, i'm a beginner still with the ways of RouterOS configuration and came upon a hurdle i haven't been able to overcome with just the documentation and old posts. I have a simple hEX S + cAP ac setup that has been working fine managed by CAPsMAN on the hEX S using thewireless package, but now with the wifi-qcom-ac package, i can only get the 5GHz bands working, the 2.4GHz bands are missing completely. I need to have both bands for device compatibility.

Steps i have taken:

  1. Upgraded RouterOS on both devices to the latest available version
  2. Removed the wireless package on both devices
  3. Installed the wifi-qcom-ac package on the cAP ac only (i understood it's not required on the hEX S when it's only in the CAPsMAN manager role)
  4. Reset the cAP ac to defaults to start off from a clean slate with caps-mode on with /system reset-configuration caps-mode=yes
  5. Configured the new CAPsMAN on the hEX S to settings that more or less match the old CAPsMAN config, to the best of my ability and provisioned them to the cAP ac
  6. Observed that the 5GHz network came online and works, but there is no sign of the 2.4GHz network anywhere

Could you guys help me out with figuring out what's the missing piece? Below is my old and new configuration. Feel free to point out unnecessary or wrong settings.

Old config:

/caps-man channel
add band=2ghz-g/n name=2G
add band=5ghz-n/ac name=5G

/caps-man datapath
add bridge=br0 local-forwarding=yes name=Default

/caps-man security
add authentication-types=wpa2-psk name=Default

/caps-man configuration
add channel=2G country=finland datapath=Default installation=indoor mode=ap name=Murmur2G security=Default ssid=Murmur

add channel=5G country=finland datapath=Default installation=indoor mode=ap name=Murmur5G security=Default ssid=Murmur

/caps-man manager
set enabled=yes

/caps-man provisioning
add action=create-dynamic-enabled hw-supported-modes=an,ac,a master-configuration=Murmur5G name-format=prefix-identity name-prefix=5g

add action=create-dynamic-enabled hw-supported-modes=gn,g master-configuration=Murmur2G name-format=prefix-identity name-prefix=2g

New config:

/interface wifi channel
add band=5ghz-ac deprioritize-unii-3-4=yes disabled=no name=5GHz skip-dfs-channels=all

add band=2ghz-n deprioritize-unii-3-4=yes disabled=no name=2Ghz skip-dfs-channels=all

/interface wifi datapath
add bridge=br0 disabled=no name=DefaultDatapath

/interface wifi security
add authentication-types=wpa2-psk,wpa3-psk disabled=no name=DefaultSecurity

/interface wifi steering
add disabled=no name=DefaltSteering rrm=yes wnm=yes

/interface wifi configuration
add channel=5GHz country=Finland datapath=DefaultDatapath disabled=no installation=indoor mode=ap name=Default5Ghz security=DefaultSecurity ssid=Murmur steering=DefaltSteering

add channel=2Ghz country=Finland datapath=DefaultDatapath disabled=no installation=indoor mode=ap name=Default2Ghz security=DefaultSecurity ssid=Murmur steering=DefaltSteering

/interface wifi capsman
set ca-certificate=auto enabled=yes require-peer-certificate=no upgrade-policy=require-same-version

/interface wifi provisioning
add action=create-dynamic-enabled disabled=no identity-regexp=accesspoint master-configuration=Default5Ghz supported-bands=5ghz-ac

add action=create-dynamic-enabled disabled=no identity-regexp=accesspoint master-configuration=Default2Ghz supported-bands=2ghz-n
2

Is the interface enabled on the CAP?
Is the interface available on CAPsMAN as radio (RADIOS tab as part of WIFI)?

3

Maybe related, maybe not:

This only makes sense for 5 GHz, as well as:

not for 2.4 GHz.

4

It's a bit embarrassing, but i can't seem to figure out how to make those nice tagged blockquotes on this forum either. Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

Thanks jaclaz for confirming that skip-dfs-channels and deprioritize-unii-3-4 are only applicable with 5GHz. I thought so, but i left the cloned config there since it didn't (seem to) make a difference. Unfortunately removing those didn't have an effect on the main issue.

As for erlinden's questions,

Is the interface enabled on the CAP?
Is the interface available on CAPsMAN as radio (RADIOS tab as part of WIFI)?

This has got me quite confused. I had a suspicion that it may be something that's wrong on the CAP side, but i thought that when it's in caps-mode, it shouldn't need or even be possible to configure it outside CAPsMAN. Referencing the docs, "The benefit of CAPsMAN is that the CAP units don't need to be configured, all settings are done in the CAPsMAN server." (Edit: I realised just after posting, that the doc i linked is old, but has the principle of "don't need to be configured" changed?)

Well, i checked the ARP table on the hEX and found that the cAP had obtained an IP address from DHCP and the administration web UI was accessible with the default credentials, no password! This has to be some error on my part and not by design, right?

The 2.4GHz radio is visible only on the CAP, not in CAPsMAN. On the CAP, the 5Ghz "wifi2"-interface is managed by CAPsMAN and the 2.4GHz "wifi1"-interface is disabled. If i enable it, it just complains "SSID not set" (as expected i assume, since it should be activated through the CAPsMAN config, not locally). It feels like the cAP isn't "advertising" it's 2.4GHz radio capability to the CAPsMAN manager or something along those lines. Details below.

cAP:

[admin@accesspoint] > interface/wifi/print 
Flags: M - MASTER; B - BOUND; X - DISABLED, I - INACTIVE, R - RUNNING
Columns: NAME
#     NAME 
0 MBX wifi1
;;; managed by CAPsMAN D4:01:C3:DF:BC:8A%bridgeLocal, traffic processing on CAP
;;; mode: AP, SSID: Murmur, channel: 5180/ac/Ceee/I
;;; defconf
1 MBR wifi2

[admin@accesspoint] > interface/wifi/radio/print  
Flags: L - LOCAL
Columns: RADIO-MAC, INTERFACE
#    RADIO-MAC          INTERFACE
0 L  F4:1E:57:3A:91:6D  wifi2    
1 L  F4:1E:57:3A:91:6C  wifi1

hEX:

[admin@router] > interface/wifi/print       
Flags: M - MASTER; D - DYNAMIC; B - BOUND
Columns: NAME, CONFIGURATION.MODE, CONFIGURATION.SSID
#     NAME       CONFIGURATION.MODE  CONFIGURATION.SSID
;;; operated by CAP F4:1E:57:3A:91:6A%br0, traffic processing on CAP
0 MDB cap-wifi1  ap                  Murmur            

[admin@router] > interface/wifi/radio/print 
Columns: CAP, RADIO-MAC, INTERFACE
# CAP                               RADIO-MAC          INTERFACE
0 accesspoint@F4:1E:57:3A:91:6A%*7  F4:1E:57:3A:91:6D  cap-wifi1
5

MBX, so it is disabled, but disabled where?

6

Cracked it! It was disabled on the cAP locally, specifically because theconfiguration.manager=capsmansetting was missing for the "wifi1" interface. Adding that setting immediately made CAPsMAN take it over and activate it.

Referring to the docs again (the fresher ones this time), "When CAP default configuration is loaded, ether1 is considered a management port with a DHCP client configured. All other Ethernet interfaces are bridged, and wlan1 is set to be managed by CAPsMAN.". Either i am understanding something wrong here again, or this doesn't make much sense. Why would only one interface be made available for CAPsMAN to manage by default?

7

Not the default, it might have been disabled on the CAP manually (before resetting it to CAPS Mode). Or something went wrong.

Glad it worked out...and that when it comes to CAPsMAN Iḿ still on fire :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: :fire:

8

Something has to have gone wrong in the configuration reset process or that there has to be some error in the defaults, because the state of the cAP was that which came by /system reset-configuration caps-mode=yes. I couldn't have done any manual local configuration to it, because i started configuring it exclusively via CAPsMAN after the reset, and only realised i could access it directly after my initial post. It had verifiably reset itself though, as my previously set admin credentials etc. were replaced by the defaults.

Anyway, thanks for the help. I hope this thread might also help others if they stumble upon similar issues.

9

Interesting . . . I've never had an issue with resetting to caps mode, but then again, I've not put the qcom-ac drivers on (my AP's are all AX variants with wifi native) so have to wonder if you encountered a corner case in the reset that was missed with that ROS/WiFi pairing.

10

Why not?

Start from the bottom :astonished_face:.

Get a mAP lite.
No doubts, ether1 is for connection to the network (and CAPSMAN).

Now try with with a cAP.
Ether1 is for connection to the network (and CAPSMAN) and ether2 is to power another device in daisy chain.
The "all other ethernet ports" amount to ether2.

11

You misunderstand - i meant why only one of the wireless interfaces would be set to be CAPsMAN-managed by default when the device is reset to the caps-mode-settings. One would assume that all wireless interfaces would be set to be CAPsMAN-managed, feels like defeats the point of the CAPsMAN/caps-mode idea if after all it is required to manually configure the CAPs to achieve even this simplest of the simple config.

12

Ahh, I see now, the docs state that ONLY wlan1 is set to be managed by CAPSMAN on reset in CAPS mode.

It does not sound "right". :astonished_face:

It could be a remnant of text composed when devices only had wlan1 (the 2.4 GHz radio), and - coincidentally - you suffered from a glitch in the matrix.

As a matter of fact you had wifi2 added to CAPSMAN and not wifi1, so it would be the opposite.