MeshCore v1.14.1: RX Boosted Gain Turns Off Silently After Repeater Upgrade

If you recently upgraded a MeshCore Repeater or Room-Server from v1.14.0 to v1.14.1, it's worth checking your radio receive settings. A confirmed bug causes the RX Boosted Gain Mode to be silently disabled during the upgrade — with no warning and no visible indication in normal operation. The Companion firmware is not affected.

Background: What Is RX Boosted Gain?

RX Boosted Gain (radio.rxgain) is a hardware feature of the LoRa transceiver that increases receive sensitivity. In all versions prior to v1.14.1, the setting didn't exist as a configurable parameter — it was simply always enabled. Version v1.14.1 introduced radio.rxgain as an explicit CLI-configurable option for the first time.

Why Does the Bug Occur?

The issue is a migration gap: when flashing v1.14.1 over an existing installation (without erasing the device), the newly introduced radio.rxgain parameter gets no default value assigned — and defaults to off. A clean install with "Erase device" enabled correctly sets it to on. This means the same firmware version behaves differently depending on how it was installed, which is the core of the problem.

Who Is Affected?

Anyone running a Repeater or Room-Server who upgraded from v1.14.0 to v1.14.1 without using the "Erase device" option in the web flasher. With boosted gain disabled, receive sensitivity is reduced, which can noticeably affect range — particularly in marginal coverage situations.

How to Check and Fix via CLI

Connect to the serial CLI (e.g. via the MeshCore web flasher terminal or a serial client at 115200 baud) and run:

CLI

# Check current state
get radio.rxgain

# If the result is "off", re-enable it:
set radio.rxgain on
reboot

No reflashing required — the fix takes effect after reboot.

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Step-by-Step Fix

1. Connect your device via USB and open a serial terminal (web flasher terminal, PuTTY, minicom, etc. — baud rate 115200) 2. Check the current value:

CLI

get radio.rxgain

3. If the output shows off, apply the fix:

CLI

set radio.rxgain on
reboot

4. After the device restarts, verify the setting once more — it should now return on.