FreedomBox for Communities/Troubleshooting Guide

This document describes the some of the frequently occurring or important known problems that occur while setting up FreedomBox in villages. Solutions or workarounds are noted too. It should be helpful to anyone trying to debug a problem during setup or operation of FreedomBoxes in villages.

Can't connect to FreedomBox

When you are unable to connect to FreedomBox via Wi-Fi, most of the time only way to reach FreedomBox is to use a TTL-to-USB link and get a serial console.

How to connect pin's to the cable

Wire Colour	Purpose
White	TX
Green	RX
Black	GRND
Red (don't connect)	PWR

Warning: Never connect Red (PWR) wire when connecting the TTL-to-USB cable. This will burn out the board or the converter.

Firmware load error connecting multiple TP-Link AR9271 wireless devices to olimex

When we connect 2 or more TP-Link AR9271 wireless devices to olimex board its likely that we will see this error.

usb 5-1: firmware: failed to load ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw (-2)usb 5-1: Direct firmware load for ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw failed with error -2

lsusb will list all the devices but won't create wireless wlx***** device, please check check with ip a command. Main cause of this problem is lack of sufficient power to TP-Link devices. To solve this issue connect all TP-Link wireless devices to USB extension with external power [This is very important because by default power is supplied to TP-Link devices via olimex board through USB cables, since they are directly connected and olimex can't provide addition power (Need to work on exactly how much power is required and is supplied) we have to provide external power which can be activated by using USB extension with power].