Troubleshooting

This page covers quick checks for common issues and the recommended “reset” workflow.

Don’t Hand-Tune Settings (Reset Instead)

If something feels off after setup (odd addressing, multicast issues, services not coming up, etc.), the fastest path is usually to start over clean rather than changing settings outside the wizard.

OpenWrt stores configuration in its writable overlay. If you want a truly fresh install, fully wipe the SD card and re-flash:

  1. Format the SD card with SD Card Formatter: https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/
  2. In SD Card Formatter, select Overwrite format.
  3. Re-flash the latest OpenMANET image and rerun the wizard.

Connect By Hostname (mDNS / .local)

OpenMANET uses mDNS for easy discovery inside the mesh network (on clients that support mDNS). The simplest way to connect to different nodes is by hostname:

  • If your hostname is meshgate01, use meshgate01.local
  • Web UI: https://meshgate01.local
  • SSH: ssh root@meshgate01.local

To browse mDNS names from a node:

  • ubus call umdns browse
  • avahi-browse -a

Note: nslookup typically will not resolve mDNS names.

Power Problems Look Like “Network” Problems

A weak power supply, thin USB cable, or low batteries can cause strange, hard-to-diagnose issues (random reboots, radios dropping, services failing to start, flaky USB devices, or SD card corruption).

If you see weird behavior:

  • Try a known-good power supply and cable (short, thick cable recommended).
  • If you’re running on batteries/UPS, make sure they can provide enough current under load and are fully charged.

Quick Mesh Sanity Checks

  • If your end user device gets a 10.41.x.x IP, it is on the mesh.
  • After running the wizard, the node will reboot after address/DHCP reservation; reconnect or renew DHCP on your end user device if needed.