Open Source Router Firmware OpenWRT 15.05 Released

aglider writes: The newest stable iteration of the famous and glorious OpenWRT has just been released in the wild for all the supported architectures. The latest version is 15.05, codenamed "Chaos Calmer" after a cocktail drink, just like all previous ones. Major changes from the official announcements: "Linux kernel updated to version 3.18. Improved Security Features. Rewritten package signing architecture based on ed25519. Added support for jails. Added support for hardened builds. Improved Networking Support. Platform and Driver Support." For the full details you are welcome on the forums while the firmware itself and extra packages are available from the distribution servers.

Comments

wrt1900ac

[Anonymous Coward]

Yay! It seems these "made for open source" routers are finally supported!

However bug #20 and #21 mean Apple devices sometimes cause lock ups and nobody can fix the binary blob other than Marvell?

Enjoy it while you can.

[ElectraFlarefire]

Just a reminder: http://tech.slashdot.org/story...

Re:Enjoy it while you can.

[Anonymous Coward]

Your wrong. The people who are actually knowledge about this issue include lawyers at the EFF, Software Freedom Law Center, campaigns people at the FSF, software developers who were responsible for drivers/firmware for some of wifi cards with *the software defined radios* that the FCC has recently passed rules on and is proposing new rules on (Adrian Chadd & Luis R. Rodriuez), OpenWRT developers, libreCMC developers, CURRENT Qualcomm employees, *one of the largest companies manufacturing routers* (who currently wishes to be left unnamed), ThinkPenguin (one of the leading companies working on free software router software and selling a 100% free software router), the person behind the recent BufferBloat improvements that made it into the mainline kernel and has significantly reduced latency, and others.

There are people who are undermining the campaign (authors who *never* got in contact with the Save Wifi campaign) by spreading miss-information because of a lack of knowledge on *the entirety of the rules*. There are MORE rules than claimed and the FCC has been quoted as double speak (saying one thing to imply its a non-issue, but if you realize what they are saying and its implications you would know it is *a big* f'ing issue).

After the US Canada & Europe will also be passing similar rule changes. *We are already seeing the practical implications of rules already passed and being proposed as manufacturers are adding locks (signature checking) to router firmware* whom had *never* done it before so to suggest this is being blown out of proportion is non-sense. The manufacturers are being required to revise *old* router firmware and re-certify with the locks. So routers bought yesterday that didn't have the locks bought today now have them in there firmware.

The people being quoted by some of the authors writing articles that seem knowledge were quite miss-informed. Simply working at Qualcomm doesn't put you in a position to judge the campaign or the rules. There are *multiple* rules that are the problem some of which have passed and some of which are proposed. The rules are *NOT* straightforward. There is nothing defining software defined radio for instance and *ALL* devices now are software defined radios. *The actual lawyers* who are dealing with this havn't been quoted and the FCC is saying "we don't require locks", but the practical reality is *ALL* manufacturers will implement said locks because its the only way to comply with the rules and EVEN the FCC is assuming that the only way anybody will comply is via these locks. They EVEN stated a question during the certification process to the effect of "How will you prevent the loading of third party firmware such as DD-WRT?"
 

Re: Do not want

[Anonymous Coward]

It's yes, practically. I've used strace on OpenWRT a lot.

Re:OpenWRT vs DD-WRT

[hcs_$reboot]

comes with DD-WRT straight from the factory. Full open source, etc.

No, dd-wrt cannot be considered a fully open source project, as Openwrt is. See "Building_DD-WRT_from_Source". And an excerpt:

Building DD-WRT from source is difficult and according to the text here definitly not working on first try. You will see lots of strange errors and many confusing install-scripts. The forum is full of people who were not able to make this install-procedure running through. The infos in the forum is much newer than these here, but also very confusing and mixed up. (...) Brainslayer does not have the time to do everything ...

dd-wrt really looks like more of a closed project, that still benefits from the historical confusion related to is-it-or-not-open-source. This other quote from dd-wrt wiki is interesting

At present DD-WRT is available for free, although a different business model is being drafted by BrainSlayer in order to pay his salary, as this is his full time job

. And it seems dd-wrt makes arrangements with some wrt makers - this is why their firmware is available sometimes way before Openwrt.
I tried to install dd-wrt - because for some reasons it's what recommend people in forums - on some routers, and always had a problem: either instability, settings disappearing after a few reboots, features missing...

On the other hand, Openwrt is fully open source and is easily customizable. Installed it on many routers, including for friends, shops ... never a problem, stable, efficient. I even compiled the huge source to change the way dhcp delivers info to clients. I was amazed as how the projects is clean, compiles flawlessly. A good old open source. The Openwrt volunteers put a lot of work into these small devices, and they deliver. I don't think the bigger success of dd-wrt compared to Openwrt is legitimate.

Re:But the routers themselves suck

[Anonymous Coward]

Wifi quality depends mostly on receiver sensitivity, antenna design and positioning. Unfortunately most people go for <TimTaylor>more power<TimTaylor> instead. Cranking up the power increases the noise, especially if you overdrive the output stage. Lowering the power often gives you a cleaner signal that you can then focus with a directional antenna to get the same output power in the direction where you need good coverage. That same antenna will also lower the total received noise, because it tunes out the other directions.

You say you live in an apartment. Is there a chance that you have neighbors who use analog wireless video bridges or baby phones? Maybe someone has a leaky microwave oven? Wifi is always a challenge in an environment with lots of contention for the limited spectrum.