Cisco Business Wireless 140AC Access Point cannot change to mesh mode

[Snowfly-]

Can anyone confirm what is wrong with Cisco Business Wireless 140AC Access Point (CBW140AC-E)

We bought them and for some reason we can’t change them to mesh mode according to the guide https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/smb/wireless/CB-Wireless-Mesh/kmgmt-3144-cbw-mesh-role-selection.html

The option is just grayed out on us even if we are on expert mode, we have tested all firmwares 10.6.1.0, 10.7.1.0 and 10.8.1.0 and made factory resets multiple times.

Our idea was to use them with poe injector as mesh extender’s without any physical connection.

Is there something we are missing or is this just a bug? Or was the mesh support removed for some reason or is there a trick on how to enable it?

[Snowfly-]

Does anyone have config where 140AC has been configured to mesh mode so I can use it to get this **bleep** working?

[Maurice_]

Did you enable Mesh globally (Wireless Settings / Mesh)? Is the AP you're trying to switch from Root to Mesh not the current Primary AP?

[Snowfly-]

Mesh is enabled on primary. All access points are same model CBW140AC-E.

Only mesh mode I currently have gotten is by plugging both to same network through switch.
At this point 2nd AP goes to ethernet mesh mode automatically.
But mode is grayed out and it cannot be changed anyway.
Plugging 2nd out of ethernet network to just power injector loses full connection to primary AP.

Orginally when these were released mode wasn't changeable only firmware update enables it...
So biggest question what is blocking the change of operating mode??? even tho it should be modifiable after updating firmware???

[Maurice_]

You can't change the Operating Mode, you have to change the AP Role. Take a closer look at the screenshots in the article you linked to.

[Snowfly-]

Got the mode changed while on same switch.
After moving to poe injector only without ethernet... red light of doom flashing (no dhcp)...
After that I concluded that these wont work with poeinjector only.... because mesh should have access to same DHCP server as the root AP but for some reason this ain't the case.
Also with static ip the mesh access point was stuck on traffic light changing cycle...

[Maurice_]

Did you check whether the mesh extender's MAC address was added to the local MAC addresses allowlist on the primary AP? You might have to do this manually.

[Snowfly-]

Yeah mac address is on allow list... tested this adding with web gui and phone app qr code scan... that is there some save error but no change...