watchcat: l2tp interface won't reboot in `mode:restart_iface`

[vdmorozov]

Package Name

watchcat

Maintainer

@roger-

OpenWrt Version

24.10.4

OpenWrt Target/Subtarget

mediatek/filogic

Steps to Reproduce

1. Set up an L2TP interface via xl2tpd
2. Set up watchcat to reboot this interface in case ping checks through it fail
3. Expect the interface to auto-start once it's stopped manually

Here's the interface:

> ip a
...
l2tp-beeline: <POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST,NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1460 qdisc fq_codel state UNKNOWN group default qlen 3
    link/ppp 
    inet XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX peer XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX scope global l2tp-beeline
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
...

/etc/config/watchcat:

config watchcat
	option mode 'restart_iface'
	option period '60s'
	option pinghosts 'l2tp.internet.beeline.kz'
	option addressfamily 'any'
	option pingperiod '20s'
	option pingsize 'standard'
	option interface 'l2tp-beeline'

Actual Behaviour

The l2tp-beeline interface won't start after reaching the configured period of unavailability (60s).

Logs:

Sun Nov 23 14:52:55 2025 daemon.info watchcat[17902]: Could not reach l2tp.internet.beeline.kz via "l2tp-beeline" for "20" seconds. Restarting "l2tp-beeline" after reaching "60" seconds
Sun Nov 23 14:53:15 2025 daemon.info watchcat[17902]: Could not reach l2tp.internet.beeline.kz via "l2tp-beeline" for "40" seconds. Restarting "l2tp-beeline" after reaching "60" seconds
Sun Nov 23 14:53:35 2025 daemon.info watchcat[17902]: Could not reach l2tp.internet.beeline.kz via "l2tp-beeline" for "60" seconds. Restarting "l2tp-beeline" after reaching "60" seconds
Sun Nov 23 14:53:35 2025 daemon.info watchcat[17902]: Restarting network interface: "l2tp-beeline".
Sun Nov 23 14:53:54 2025 daemon.info watchcat[17902]: Could not reach l2tp.internet.beeline.kz via "l2tp-beeline" for "20" seconds. Restarting "l2tp-beeline" after reaching "60" seconds

It seems if up/down doesn't work with L2TP interfaces:

watchcat_restart_network_iface() {
	logger -p daemon.info -t "watchcat[$$]" "Restarting network interface: \"$1\"."
	ip link set "$1" down
	ip link set "$1" up
}

Would it be applicable to use /sbin/ifup and /sbin/ifdown instead?

Confirmation Checklist

• The package is maintained in this repository.
• I understand that issues related to the base OpenWrt repository or LuCI repository will be closed.
• I am reporting an issue for OpenWrt, not an unsupported fork.

[vdmorozov]

As a temporary solution, I use mode: run_script with the following configuration:

/etc/config/watchcat

config watchcat
	option mode 'run_script'
	option period '60s'
	option pinghosts 'l2tp.internet.beeline.kz'
	option addressfamily 'any'
	option pingperiod '20s'
	option pingsize 'standard'
	option interface 'l2tp-beeline'
	option script '/etc/watchcat.user.sh'

/etc/watchcat.user.sh

#!/bin/sh

/sbin/ifdown beeline
/sbin/ifup beeline

[brada4]

watchcat restarts interfaces defined via luci, not those mashed together with ip link and similar.

[vdmorozov]

@brada4 I only used luci for setting up an L2TP interface via xl2tpd.