openwrt / openwrt/mt76

mt7921e (MT7902/Filogic 310): auth succeeds then immediate deauth (Reason 2, PREV_AUTH_NOT_VALID) on multi-AP managed network

Open
#1,099 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Dominant language
C
Stars
888
Forks
436
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

Hardware: MediaTek MT7902 802.11ax PCIe [Filogic 310], PCI ID 14c3:7902
Driver: mt7921e
Firmware version: ____000000-20251212032127
Kernel: 7.1.3-200.fc44.x86_64 (Fedora 44)
Describe the bug:
On a multi-AP managed wifi network (multiple BSSIDs broadcasting the same SSID across bands, some with 802.1X), the card repeatedly fails to hold a connection:

Several auth attempts time out entirely (authentication ... timed out after 3 tries)
When auth/associate does succeed, the AP immediately sends a deauth with Reason: 2=PREV_AUTH_NOT_VALID, seconds after a clean RX AssocResp ... status=0
This repeats in a loop; the connection never stabilizes

The same card, same driver, same kernel connects and stays completely stable for extended periods on a simple single-AP network (phone hotspot, both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, WPA2/WPA3), ruling out general driver/firmware brokenness or power-management issues on this system. The failure appears specific to multi-AP/managed network infrastructure, possibly related to roaming/session-state handling.

Logs:

[ 909.889374] wlo1: authenticate with 82:da:c2:a2:3b:2b (local address=36:59:a2:c9:d2:88)
[ 909.889397] wlo1: send auth to 82:da:c2:a2:3b:2b (try 1/3)
[ 910.923493] wlo1: send auth to 82:da:c2:a2:3b:2b (try 2/3)
[ 911.883494] wlo1: send auth to 82:da:c2:a2:3b:2b (try 3/3)
[ 912.908417] wlo1: authentication with 82:da:c2:a2:3b:2b timed out
...
[ 979.872095] wlo1: RX AssocResp from 82:da:c2:a9:3b:2c (capab=0x1011 status=0 aid=21)
[ 979.907402] wlo1: associated
[ 979.907442] wlo1: deauthenticated from 82:da:c2:a9:3b:2c (Reason: 2=PREV_AUTH_NOT_VALID)

Steps to reproduce:
Connect wlo1 to a multi-AP managed network (in this case, an ISP-provided multi-AP mesh system, SSID broadcast across several BSSIDs/bands). Observe repeated auth timeouts and post-associate deauths.
Expected behavior
Stable connection and session persistence, consistent with behavior seen on simple single-AP networks.

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the connection loop on a multi-AP managed network with the mt7921e driver and compare it with the stable single-AP behavior. Review the authentication, association, roaming, and deauthentication logs shown in the report. Done means the card maintains a stable connection on the affected multi-AP setup without repeated authentication timeouts or PREV_AUTH_NOT_VALID deauthentication.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c
Domain
networking, operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.