Tag Archives: airmax

How to enable Ping Watchdog on Ubiquiti AirOS from Command Line

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Ping Watchdog is a feature that will automatically reboot a device if the specified IP address is unreachable.

Here is a quick run down on enabling Ping Watchdog on Ubiquiti Radios from the command line.

1. SSH into the radio

ssh ubnt@192.168.1.20

2. Edit the config file

vi /tmp/system.cfg

Find the lines that start with pwdog

At a minimum, you will need to change the following two options:

  • pwdog.status to enabled
  • pwdog.host to the IP you want to ping. Add this line if it does not exist.
pwdog.delay=300
pwdog.host=192.168.1.1
pwdog.period=300
pwdog.retry=3
pwdog.status=enabled

You can adjust the other options to your desired taste.

Exit vi by hitting esc then typing in wq then hit Enter

3. Save configuration

Finally, save the configuration changes with

/usr/etc/rc.d/rc.softrestart save

Running tcpdump on Ubiquiti Airmax Equipment

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Ubiquiti Airmax gear has tcpdump included. We can easily use it to capture packets to a file and then use SCP from the device to copy the file for analysis.

SSH to the device

ssh ubnt@192.168.1.20
cd /tmp/

Start tcpdump with the following command. Change ath0 and file.cap to the appropriate interface and file name.

tcpdump -i ath0 -w file.cap

After we are done collecting, we can quit with ctrl + c

Now we can use scp or sftp to copy the files off. There is an issue using scp or sftp from a normal Linux machine to the radio, fails with a “sh: /usr/libexec/sftp-server: not found”. It works fine if you initiate scp from the radio.

scp /tmp/file.cap username@remoteip:~/

Ubiquiti U Installer Screenshots and Configuration Interface

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By default the U Installer redirects you to a page asking you to download the app. You can get to the actual U Installer web page by going to https://169.254.169.169

Default U Installer Page
Access U Installer Certificate Error

It has the same interface as a regular Airmax M equipment.

U Installer main page

Change Static IP on AirFiber over SSH

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Log into device

SSH into AirFiber

ssh ubnt@192.168.1.20

Modify config file

Open up the “/tmp/system.cfg” configuration file

vi /tmp/system.cfg

Find the line that has the ip address and modify the address.
Note that you’ll need to hit i to enter text if you are using vi

...
netconf.3.hwaddr.status=disabled
netconf.3.ip=192.168.1.10   <-- Change IP here
netconf.3.mtu=1500 
...

Save file by hitting the esc key then type :x and then hit Enter

Save changes and reboot

Now run the following command to write the changes to the device. Once it comes back up it should have the new IP address from the config file.

cfgmtd -f /tmp/system.cfg -w && reboot

Ubiquiti set DHCP from command line

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Edit the “/tmp/system.cfg”

Change the line that contains “dhcpc.status=disabled” to

dhcpc.status=enabled

add the following lines

dhcpc.1.devname=br0         
dhcpc.1.fallback=192.168.1.20
dhcpc.1.fallback_netmask=255.255.255.0
dhcpc.1.status=enabled

Save and exit and save changes

/usr/etc/rc.d/rc.softrestart save

Log into the GUI and verify everything looks correct. Under the network tab it was still showing that it had a static address, although it pulled a DHCP IP.

Change Channel Width on Ubiquiti AC CPE Over SSH

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SSH into CPE

ssh ubnt@192.168.1.20

open up the “/tmp/system.cfg” file

vi /tmp/system.cfg

Find the “radio.1.chanbw=” line and change to the following

radio.1.chanbw=10

Note: it may say “radio.1.chanbw=0” that looks to be the default and works for 20mhz

exit file with 

esc + :wq + Return or Enter

Save settings with 

/usr/etc/rc.d/rc.softrestart save

Change AP to 10Mhz and the CPE should reconnect.

Ubiquiti AirMax – Set radio to use DHCP from command line

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Gain access to radio via ssh

ssh ubnt@192.168.1.20

open up the /tmp/system.cfg

vi /tmp/system.cfg

Delete the following line. To move the cursor to the following line and type “dd” and vi will delete the whole line.

dhcpc.status=disabled

Add the following 5 lines. Hit “i” to enter vi insert mode.
br0 should be correct interface in most scenarios.

dhcpc.1.devname=br0          
dhcpc.1.fallback=192.168.1.20         
dhcpc.1.fallback_netmask=255.255.255.0
dhcpc.1.status=enabled      
dhcpc.status=enabled

Save the file by hitting esc and then “:wq” followed by Return/Enter

Save the config changes and reboot the radio so it pulls an address.

/usr/etc/rc.d/rc.softrestart save && reboot

Ubiquiti AirOS – “test” changes from command line

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The following is a method to recover from a command that may inadvertenly make a radio go offline.

The idea is to launch a process in the background that sleeps for 5 minutes and then reboots the radio, so any changes not saved will be reverted. If the changes were successful, you’ll just need to log back in and kill the background process to keep the device from rebooting.

This can be helpful if your changing networking settings using ifconfig, trying to change routes, or something went wrong while trying to apply a system.cfg setting.

Commands

sleep 300 && reboot &

Execute whatever command you need to. i.e.

ifconfig 192.168.1.100

If your command worked you can log back into the device and search for the process id of the sleep command and kill it so the radio doesn’t reboot.

ps | grep sleep

Example output

2XC.v8.5.12# ps | grep sleep
   412 admin     1636 S    sleep 500
   414 admin     1640 S    grep sleep
 2XC.v8.5.12#

Kill the pid

kill 412

Remove AirControl provisioning from Ubiquiti radio via SSH

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Short version

List AirControl server(s)

mca-provision-list

Remove from AirControl Server

mca-provision-rm http://server-address

 

Expanded Steps

First you’ll need to SSH into your radio

Example:

ssh ubnt@192.168.1.20

Next run “mca-provision-list” to list the connection(s) the radio has, or is trying to connect to.  If you have had the radio connected to multiple AirControl servers it will show more than one entry.

Example:

XM.v6.1.3# mca-provision-list
unknown @ http://192.168.0.1:9081/AC2/report -
XM.v6.1.3#

To remove, run “mca-provision-rm” with the AirControl address.  You can simple use the “http://server-ip”, shouldn’t have to worry about the port number/AC2/report.

Example:

XM.v6.1.3# mca-provision-rm http://192.168.0.1
Found 1 entries matching 'http://192.168.0.1':
Removing: unknown @ http://192.168.0.1:9081/AC2/report ...
Found Backup1 on[1] ...
Found Active on[2] ...
Storing Active[1] ... [%100]
Active->Backup[2] ... [%100]
done.
XM.v6.1.3#

 

Upgrade Firmware on Ubiquiti Airmax Equipment from the Command Line/SSH

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Upgrading the firmware via the command line is super easy.  Basic steps are

  1. Upload firmware file to radio using ftp, scp, or download directly to radio using wget
  2. Move the firmware the /tmp and rename to fwupdate.bin
  3. Upgrade the firmware by running
ubntbox fwupdate.real -m fwupdate.bin

More Detail explanation

Downloading Firmware to Radio

There are a couple of ways to get the firmware uploaded to the radio

  1. Download from Ubiquiti’s website and upload via ftp, scp, filezilla or like
  2. Download directly to the radio using wget

Using wget

ssh into the radio.  Change username and ip address as needed.

ssh ubnt@192.168.1.20

cd to the /tmp directory

cd /tmp

Find the firmware file on Ubiquiti’s website, accept the terms, copy the link and paste the link in the terminal after wget.  Replace the below link with the appropriate firmware link.

wget https://dl.ubnt.com/firmwares/XC-fw/v8.4.2/WA.v8.4.2.35930.171017.1722.bin

If you run into issues with wget, try using curl.

curl -k -o fwupdate.bin -L https://ui.com/downloads/firmwares/XC-fw/v8.7.13/WA.v8.7.13.47729.240606.1144.bin

Here is what the options mean:
-k mean insecure, which allows us to download via https.  There is a certificate error if not used.
-o fwupdate.bin, saves the output file as fwupdate.bin
-L means follow redirects

Installing Firmware

Rename firmware

mv *.bin fwupdate.bin

Start the upgrade

ubntbox fwupdate.real -m fwupdate.bin

The radio will now upgrade and reboot

Another Method.  Using the ubntmod.sh script

Another way to upgrade a radios firmware from the command line is to use the UBNTMOD tool.  More info on the UBNTMOD script is available here.

Make sure you have the firmware downloaded to your computer and run ubntmod.sh with the “-U” upgrade option.

Example,

bob@localhost:~$ ./ubntmod.sh -i 192.168.1.20 -U WA.v8.4.2.35930.171017.1722.bin