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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.
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?
Just a reminder: http://tech.slashdot.org/story...
Yes there is... the exciting part would be the closing some of the one thousand open bugs and providing documentation.
Does OpenWRT have strace? Without strace, it is nearly impossible to track down problems when using systemd since it, as you noted, disregards so many of the UNIX standards.
I'm still sticking with my Netgear DGND3700 v1 DSL modem/router all-in-one with its excellent custom firmware which includes Annex M support (for higher upload bandwidth) which my local carrier (Sonic) allows customers to toggle on.
OpenWRT supports the router only but state that they will never support the DSL modem unfortunately.
It uses a simple sysv style init.
There has been a lot of misinformation being spread by certain technical news publications about proposed rule changes. The FCC has passed rules and is proposing new rules that are *resulting in* manufacturers locking down there devices so that users can't flash OpenWRT and other third party firmware. See www.savewifi.org for more information on how you can help stop the *proposed rule changes* NOW. The rules which have already passed are also a problem and there will be further efforts to get them overturned.
We are already seeing manufacturers add signature checking (locks) to the stock firmware they ship on *older routers* as a result of the re-certification process. Manufacturers are asked "How are you preventing the loading of third party firmware such as DD-WRT?". The FCC has been quoted saying that they don't care how its achieved, but the reality is the quick and easy way and really only way for most/all manufactures to comply with these rule changes *in practice* is to lock the devices down. The FCC quotes are misleading to those who don't understand this and at least two articles have used this to imply it is not an issue despite *many* people saying it is an important issue (even within these articles).
There have been quotes from Qualcomm employees as well to add "clout" to the stories. These quotes were BS. The people at Qualcomm involved in the campaign, knowledgeable, and fully informed were not the people quoted. There is one current employee and actual ex-Qualcomm developers who worked on the software defined radio wifi chips now being impacted participating in the Save Wifi campaign. Adrian Chadd has reviewed the rule changes and is *working on the Save Wifi campaign*. Don't trust my words- go look at the PUBLIC mailing list archive yourself.
Lawyers, activists, and technologists from a variety of groups who have worked on FCC rule changes in the past are also involved in the campaign. They're not agreeing with the assessment that this is a non-issue or being blown out of proportion. The Electronic Frontier Foundation AND the Free Software Foundation are both involved and *big* participants in deciphering the rule changes. They are both coming out with statements as part of the Save Wifi campaign. The Save Wifi coalition is preparing letters and setting up a campaign similar to Dear FCC, SOPA, and similar campaigns to fight this.
The current proposed rules are what are currently at issue for the campaign, but there will be efforts to overturn rules already passed, and stop similar rules from going through in both Europe and Canada. It's no surprise that there is so much confusion as it's taken a month and participation by a dozen *highly involved* participants from different areas to grasp the significance of the problem and are still figuring out a road map on fighting it.
It's yes, practically. I've used strace on OpenWRT a lot.
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.
... 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.
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
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
You're confusing "not open source" with "sloppy mess". From the same link you sent:
DD-WRT is a third party developed firmware released under the terms of the GPL for many IEEE 802.11a/b/g/h/n wireless routers based on a Broadcom or Atheros chip reference design.
Here is a tutorial on compiling DD-WRT from source: http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=269372
The business model doesn't change the GPL nature. Brainslayer arranged professional versions with customization for commercial applications. (Note: Stock, GPL DD-WRT works find on the Buffalo WZR-1750, so it isn't a matter of close-source tweaks.)
I'm interested in OpenWRT because it *is* a cleaner code base and more modular in nature. I like the idea of the packages vs a monolithic system. But that doesn't address the question of why one GPL project has working code for a particular system and another can't use it for their own GPL implementation.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
You don't want centralized. Ever. Monolithic is stupid when it comes to computers. See Microsoft Windows 10 Global Spyware Edition and how many of it's previous versions were botnets before Microsoft became the botnet itself.
https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/malware-microsoft.html
http://www.computerworlduk.com/blogs/open-enterprise/how-can-any-company-ever-trust-microsoft-again-3569376/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy
The Unix philosophy emphasizes building short, simple, clear, modular, and extensible code that can be easily maintained and repurposed by developers other than its creators. The Unix philosophy favors composability as opposed to monolithic design.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modularity_(programming)
Modular programming is a software design technique that emphasizes separating the functionality of a program into independent, interchangeable modules, such that each contains everything necessary to execute only one aspect of the desired functionality.[1]
systemd should not exist, but if they want to play with it...it should be one distro only. the systemd distro. solved and everybody is happy that doesn't want to sneak control of all linux processes worldwide.
honestly, systemd shouldn't exist. there are no benefits and it's sneak code. Again, see what Microsoft did with Windows 10.
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.
I just updated a router with a complicated configuration (several wireless networks, manual firewall configuration, switch configured with multiple VLANs, web interface through ssh only, wireless on a channel outside of 1-11, etc.) from Barrier Breaker to Chaos Calmer, and absolutely everything just keeps working. I want to complain about this somehow, because it freaks me the hell out, but I don't know what to complain about. What the fuck, folks.
Dont worry, Lennart Poettering and his band of lunatics hasn't destroyed the embedded market yet - and the Android folks would just laugh at him if he tried.
Well, maybe we do want our interfaces to be named instead of eth0 en0po1po10s1po. Besure to pepper zeros and O's to make it impossible to retype.
One of my favorite quotes about systemd.
I have spend huge amounts of time recently dealing with the breakage systemd has caused.
Legalize the constitution. Think for yourself question authority.
Do these groups communicate at all? I ask because I have the Buffalo WZR-1750DHPD router that comes with DD-WRT straight from the factory. Full open source, etc.
That's because DD-WRT is not "full open source, etc." It's open source Linux, but closed source device drivers. It comes from Linus's "pragmatic" desire for Linux to be used, with no interest in the political reasons for the GPL.
I don't know the process at OpenWRT exactly, but they tend to use open source drivers more than DD-WRT does. On the minus side, this means it supports much fewer devices. On the plus side, this means "supported" devices really are supported and have updates available to them, while DD-WRT is just throw a firmware at a device and never give it a feature or security update ever again even if there are open-source drivers for it.
Have a nice time.
I dealt with this for years with D-Link and Linksys (now bought by Cisco) access points. They had all kinds of problems, and I was constantly rebooting them. At one point, I went so far as to wire a relay into a power strip, hook it up via serial cable to a computer, and wrote a script to monitor the access point and reset the power when it got too shitty (at least once a day). A couple of years ago, I bought an Apple Airport Express and an HP Procurve 1410-8G switch (the Airport Express only has something like 1 or 2 ethernet ports). I have reset this setup only a handful of times since I put it in, and most of those times it turned out to be a problem with my cable modem or provider, not my access point.
The downsides of the Apple hardware are that it has no web interface, and of course there is no way to load 3rd party firmware. But I'd rather make do with Apple's mediocre interface software than the absolute shit that we put up with when using D-Link or Linksys. Oh, and I mostly don't use Apple computers at home, it's all Windows and Linux. Just saying, I have no particular Apple fetish--I've just found that for me, that access point solved my problems.