Lightning Mesh

built 30 min–2 h verified 723b308 (2026-09-19)

Add another router

One box is a house Wi-Fi with a local front desk. A second box is a mesh: walk between rooms, share one WAN, see both under Routers.

Status: built. Peer lists are still edited by hand on each node.

Path A — another pre-flashed box (same image)

Both boxes must share the same client SSID, backhaul mesh id, channel plan, and mesh key (including "empty / open"). Factory images already match (CLIENT_SSID ⚡ or Lightning Mesh, MESH_ID mjolnir-mesh, open backhaul).

Step 1: Power the new box in radio range

Do: place it where it can hear the first router on 5 GHz, power it, do not give it a second WAN unless you want a second uplink.

Expect: after a couple of minutes, mjolnir-mesh is on the air from both. Client Wi-Fi with the same name appears from both.

If not: they were flashed with different wireless.env. Re-flash or re-apply wireless from Install.

Step 2: Exchange node ids

There is no membership gate yet. Joining still needs each daemon to list the other as a peer.

Do: on each box (recovery ethernet or overlay SSH):

mjolnir-meshd id --secret-file /etc/mjolnir/secret

Then on box A, add B's id; on box B, add A's id:

uci add_list mjolnir.meshd.peer='<64-hex-id>'
uci commit mjolnir
service mjolnir-meshd restart

Exact verify steps (station dump, babel routes, gossip, /api/health): Join the mesh.

Expect: hello.mesh → Routers shows both, with a link between them.

If not: they are on different channels or mesh ids. service mjolnir-meshd diag on each box.

Step 3: Only one house gateway unless you mean it

Leave gateway=auto on the box that has the real WAN. Set gateway=never on extras that happen to have ethernet to an untrusted network. See Administer the house.

Path B — flash your own hardware

Use this when the box is still stock Cudy (or other supported mt76 OpenWrt), not when it already boots Lightning Mesh.

  1. Choose a router and flash OpenWrt
  2. Install Lightning Mesh — same wireless.env as the house
  3. Join the mesh
  4. Operate

Supported fleet hardware today: Cudy WR3000S, M3000, TR3000, AP3000 Outdoor (all MT7981). Wrong Cudy intermediate image bricks the unit — match the label on the router, not the box art.

After it joins

Phones keep using one client SSID. They land on whichever radio is stronger. Addresses may change when walking; do not count on a single TCP session surviving a roam yet.

When you are done adding boxes, residents can stay on Connect to the Wi-Fi. Operators come back to Administer the house.

Next: Choose a router and flash OpenWrt →