9 ms·

Announcing the OpenWrt/LEDE merge

312 points by kylegordon 9y ago

Twirrim 9y ago
"Won" seems like totally the wrong word to use, but this reads like LEDE "Won". Their code base going forwards, just rebranded to OpenWrt, and everyone all together again as one big happy family?
- mosselman 9y ago
  Who, other than you, said anything about winning? I think ever one wins when there is a climate where good code is appreciated. I always welcome improvements by others to things I make. You shouldn't waste time on people/projects who don't.
  - colordrops 9y ago
    I think the person you are replying to is referring to their own usage of the word "won" as perhaps not the best choice of words, but used it anyway.
koolba 9y ago
I'm in the market for a couple new WiFi routers and would love to get one that is running either OpenWrt or LEDE. Any specific recommendations from the HN crowd on which one to pick up? The table of hardware[1] on the LEDE site has a ton of info but filtering through 100s of devices manually doesn't seem very doable. Would love if someone would just suggest one or two devices, preferably something they've use themselves. All I really care about are Gigabit LAN and the latest Wi-Fi (5Ghz N?) so no USB storage, NFS, etc. [1]: https://lede-project.org/toh/start https://lede-project.org/toh/start
- mangix 9y ago
  Archer C7v2 has long been preferred as a nice and stable router. USB is slow and NAT caps out at around ~500mbps but is otherwise very good (there are a few patches around that improve this slightly). The WiFi driver for 802.11ac has improved stability(no crashing after 2 days) in trunk but has not been backported to stable yet. Range is also excellent (in my opinion). If faster USB is needed, the recommendation is the Linksys WRT series of routers (new ones). Avoid the WRT1900ACv1 (keep rebooting, watchdog driver bug i think). WiFi is pretty stable now. One really nice benefit of these routers is that most of the drivers have been upstreamed in the kernel and thus get love from the kernel community (enhancements and bug fixes). Not so with the other popular routers.
  - rcpt 9y ago
    AIUI the Archer C7 requires some tricks to get around recent FCC enforcement which bans citizens from installing their own router firmware, cf. https://pappp.net/?p=1525 https://pappp.net/?p=1525
    - mangix 9y ago
      just the recent ones. OTOH it may be easier in LEDE/new OpenWrt. I don't have the recent ones so can't confirm or deny.
    - mkesper 9y ago
      I recently flashed a new C7v2. Needed to flash the ...-EU.bin variant but otherwise no problems.
  - dbcooper 9y ago
    Anyone know about the C7v3? Conflicting advice about whether it can be flashed with open firmware.
    - mangix 9y ago
      the v4 can
  - rblatz 9y ago
    I used to run DD WRT, but got tired of fighting weird issues. Looks like from the comments to your post there are still issues out there. I ended up switching to a ubiquiti AC Pro for WiFi and am about to buy a USG to replace my old router. If all you are looking for is rock solid performance and reliability that is still fairly flexible I’d go with Ubiquiti. If you want to tinker or are really passionate about running open source then obviously LEDE is a decent choice.
    - ak217 9y ago
      I run stock LEDE on Archer C7v2 and have had zero problems with it (I ran OpenWRT before LEDE made a stable release). I could buy a Ubiquiti gateway and AP, but C7v2 is less expensive and gives me an appreciation for embedded device programming. I have had trouble experimenting with advanced features such as band steering, mesh and multi-WAN/load balancing in OpenWRT/LEDE though, so if you plan on using those, I agree Ubiquiti is a great choice.
- ekr 9y ago
  I've been using Dlink DIR 860L and it's been working flawlessly with LEDE, 1 gigabit LAN (even NAT'ted), AC wifi. The main advantage of this device is the price (I think it was the cheapest router with gigabit LAN on the market), but now it's gotten a bit old. I particularly like the QoS features of LEDE.
  - c0l0 9y ago
    Afaik, the SoC that is used in this device is the only recent-ish such system on the market with fully open source/free radio firmware (but you need to make sure to get the correct revision, as D-Link changed its innards at least once without renaming the model). I can highly recommend it from my day-to-day experience with it, running Lede 17.01.
    - kossmoboleat 9y ago
      I haven't received mine yet, but I've read that you have to get the latest snapshot lede to profit from some WiFi performance bug fixes.
- drewmol 9y ago
  Just like everyone else, I would also recommend an Archer C7 of whatever revision is the latest stable tested unit. As someone mentioned, the FCC recently clamped down of this, pushing mfgs to include protections against allowing the consumer to easily replace the original firmware. TP-LINK has been locking things down a bit more as off the past few years. Love my C7 w OpenWRT, great choice for a sub $100 device with tons of flexibility.
- tedcrilly 9y ago
  I run LEDE stable on two WRT 1900 ACS routers with good results. USB storage / Syncthing, WireGuard, ad blocking were all quick and easy to set up. Also, great news on the merge, hoping the documentation will get unified at some point as well.
- amq 9y ago
  My selection guide VPN needed? - yes: WRT1200AC (OpenVPN: 50 Mbit/s, WireGuard: 100+ Mbit/s) - no: continue (OpenVPN: 12 Mbit/s, WireGuard: 24 Mbit/s) Gigabit needed? - yes: Archer C7 - no: TL-WR841N
  - freestockoption 9y ago
    Whoa, I've never heard of WireGuard. Looks like a huge performance boost over OpenVPN. I currently use OpenVPN in bridge mode between all my OpenWRT routers.
    - zx2c4 9y ago
      Performance boost yes -- and security boost too. Here's the paper if you're interested in the nuts and bolts: https://www.wireguard.com/papers/wireguard.pdf https://www.wireguard.com/papers/wireguard.pdf Also, stickers: https://lists.zx2c4.com/pipermail/wireguard/2017-May/001338.html https://lists.zx2c4.com/pipermail/wireguard/2017-May/001338....
mmanfrin 9y ago
Is it still the default suggestion that Open WRT/LEDE are better than stock router software? What about compared to pfsense (or is that not good for wireless)? Every time in the past that I looked at the WTF website (and I'll admit I did not know about LEDE) it looked so dated that I assumed proprietary firmwares on routers were more capable to making use of whatever the new router tech of today is.
- mangix 9y ago
  Depends on what you want. If you want more features than you could possibly want or use, LEDE/OpenWrt. With some routers (Broadcom and Qualcomm mainly), stock firmware tends to perform better since no cooperation with the kernel or LEDE/OpenWrt. For security reasons, you'll want to use LEDE/OpenWrt. KRACK fixes got pushed pretty fast (same day) for example.
- d1zzy 9y ago
  I've always used custom firmware (openwrt on Asus 500gP/Linksys WRT54g, Tomato and then LEDE on Netgear WNR3500L) and I've been happier with them than stock stuff. For a long time the stock firmware (still true for the cheaper stuff) was really crappy in features compared to custom firmware missing basic stuff. These days the more premium stuff seems to have somewhat feature parity (I care about USB, IPv6, OpenVPN) so that's better especially since some of them seem to be forked from the open source projects (ex. AsusWRT). One of the benefits of the stock firmware is taking advantage of hardware accelerated NAT and Wifi encryption (WPA) but when I installed LEDE a few months ago on the old Netgear WNR3500L it did give me the option to install a Wifi server that does use hardware acceleration so I can still get that nice high performance. Note that all of those routers listed above are generally well supported by custom firmware because that's how I made my buying decision. My current main router (Asus AC66U) I left it with stock firmware as it has all the features I want and it's still getting updates often enough.
- krylon 9y ago
  I think the difference between OpenWRT and pfSense is that pfSense only runs on PC class hardware, while the kind of device that usually runs OpenWRT is far less powerful. I used to run OpenWrt on my router ... years ago, and I remember that router had 16 MiB RAM, and a 125 MHz MIPS CPU. If you set up such a machine, say, as an OpenVPN server, this would seriously limit the amount of data I could push through the VPN connection. (Not really, because my Internet connection is not very fast, but that is beside the point.) Even a Raspberry Pi is far more powerful than the typical OpenWrt router (at least the ones I have handled). At work, we set up a wifi network using OpenWrt routers, using separate wifi networks as well as different VLANs for employees and guests. To get a vendor-supported solution that can do this, you have to have spend a lot of money.[1] So in my experience, OpenWrt is a lot better than what most commodity routers/wifi-access points offer. With the exception, maybe, of the Fritz!Box family. [1] Okay, it depends on your definition of "a lot". In our case, the requirement was to make it as cheap as possible, because strictly speaking we had no budget at all for the wifi.
brightball 9y ago
Wasn’t there some legal thing recently that made it more difficult to use OSS router software?
- brudgers 9y ago
  The FCC passed a certification rule a couple of years ago, not sure about it's final status: https://hn.algolia.com/?utm_source=opensearch&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=opensearch&query=fcc%20wifi%20router&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?utm_source=opensearch&utm_medium=sea...
  - Maxious 9y ago
    It seems to have been implemented in ASUS routers https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/issues/967 https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/issues/967
- unsined 9y ago
  Yes, double check before purchasing any TP-Link routers as they were previously recommended for LEDE/OpenWRT but now actively block firmware flashing (of any kind I believe).
CharlesMerriam2 9y ago
This appears to be people acting like responsible adults. I heartily approve.
lifeisstillgood 9y ago
I have been planning for a while to put in a OpenWRT router as replacement for my generic ADSL from BT, and then add in things like netflow so I can responsibly monitor home internet usage as the kids get older and discuss whatever pops out. also probably do some ad blocking or something. I am assuming projects like this exist already - focused on the dad segment, but if not it's on my 2018 list. Anyone know of any?
- pantalaimon 9y ago
  It's good to make kids getting used to being under constant surveillance, keeps them from acting up against it when the government introduces it for everyone when they are adults. /s
  - lifeisstillgood 9y ago
    Actually it is good. They are already under constant surveillance - just not from someone with their best interests at heart. Actually this idea is far lower down my priority tree than say working out how to monitor how much TV we watch, how much time on social media (or HN) - and then to compare to things we would prefer to do like walking the dog or playing board games. Just inventorying our lives will be a huge step towards getting conscious control over the mass distraction world we live in. Further ranting: No one thinks having a comprehensive view on my monetary spend is a bad idea - websites, apps and even EU directives are trying to help. but there is nought for my time spend - apart from stupid things like please enter how much time you just spent on an activity. So as a starting list i want - To know what the TV was showing when. - What netflix was showing on what device - what youtube was showing - for my phone - what podcasts, what youtube etc, - same for social media (HN counts for me) - The Nintendo Switch kinda sorta gets it - there is a parent app that lets one set time limits on daily usage. but hahahahha it assumes you only have one child (per switch) - then use my GPS tag to show where was I and can I correspond that with an activity - gym, commute, walking across fields - I am fairly sure there is value in Alexa / similar voice monitoring working out what is happening in the house (it takes you on average 34 minutes from the first "get dressed for school" till the door finally bangs) Don't get me started on MOOPs And none of which has an API i know about. All because they don't want me to stop watching.
ausjke 9y ago
Best news for the day. Cheers.
- cbzbc 9y ago
  Time will tell - but the reason for the split in the first place was the bureaucracy and slow progress of the OpenWRT project.
chx 9y ago
Makes total sense. OpenWRT is an established name and LEDE is a better codebase. Slap the former on the latter and move on.
sharpercoder 9y ago
I still don't get why no commercial hardware vendor offers products specifically designed for this software. OSS router software for home seems to be far superior then all the proprietary stuff that's out there.
- dimensi0nal 9y ago
  Someone who would buy hardware like that would probably choose a wired router with pfSense and separate access points instead.
  - toast0 9y ago
    'wireless routers' usually work fine as an access point + Ethernet switch when you disable dhcpd and don't use the wan port (nice ones let you use the wan port as another lan port). They're usually cheaper than a dedicated access point too.
    - alimbada 9y ago
      What's the advantage of disabling dhcpd?
      - kabes 9y ago
        Well, he's talking about access points. You don't want multiple DHCP servers in your network.
      - BuildTheRobots 9y ago
        I think OPs point is that he's already got a router running DHCP on the network, but if you disable all the router-like services on a second device you can use it as a dedicated access point.
- dboreham 9y ago
  Some reasons: If it has wireless then you enter a minefield of regulatory and approvals pain. I suspect that under the current fcc rules you can't sell hardware that isn't locked to its firmware (because if you did users would be able to freeband). There already exist some products that pretty much meet the requirement so the niche for pure play OSS is even smaller than you might imagine. e.g. Mikrotik sells a huge line of products running Linux under the hood. If you are familiar with kernel networking you can easily work with their CLI and UI. Very low cost. Does everything Linux does and is fcc approved. One you get beyond super-low cost (e.g. into 10G NICs and wire-speed 1G routing) customers expect stuff to work, and with an OSS kernel plonked onto someone else's hardware it probably won't 100% work. This again constrains the niche within which pure OSS is viable.
unsined 9y ago
I guess I'll be waiting until that major release and then flashing my router with it for use as a Wifi bridge. Does anyone know of a concise guide to configuring your router for this type of use? I tried going off of what's available on the LEDE site but couldn't get it to work for whatever reason.
drewmol 9y ago
Does anyone have experience developing packages for OpenWRT/LEDE... && is willing to offer some time (maybe an hour or two, whenever it's convenient) to a fellow HNer who's getting ready to attempt developing my first OpenWRT package? I've got pretty entry level ambitions: I plan to created a utility that allow the user to configure a list of scheduled SSID names for automated SSID changes. I use to do a lot of tech support for the bar & restaurant scene, and always wanted to schedule the public WiFi SSID to change daily and broadcast marketing info. (Think restaurant daily specials, retail store popup/promo coupon codes, estimated wait times, deal of the day, etc.) Or, is anyone aware of this feature existing in a commercially available device&firmware?
- kogepathic 9y ago
  > Does anyone have experience developing packages for OpenWRT/LEDE... && is willing to offer some time (maybe an hour or two, whenever it's convenient) to a fellow HNer who's getting ready to attempt developing my first OpenWRT package? Is your wish to have help in the specifics of packing existing software for OpenWrt/LEDE, or in developing your specific utility? If you're interested in a guide to building/packaging software for OpenWrt/LEDE, there are already detailed guides describing how to create packages for the OpenWrt/LEDE build system. [1] [2] > and always wanted to schedule the public WiFi SSID to change daily and broadcast marketing info. (Think restaurant daily specials, retail store popup/promo coupon codes, estimated wait times, deal of the day, etc.) As a user/customer, that sounds very annoying. Why not have a captive portal on the network instead of abusing the SSID for advertising? Something like pfSense can easily be configured with a captive portal where you could do this advertising while having a button for users to gain access to the internet. [3] [1] https://watchmysys.com/blog/2015/10/build-package-your-software-for-openwrt/ https://watchmysys.com/blog/2015/10/build-package-your-softw... [2] https://www.gargoyle-router.com/old-openwrt-coding.html https://www.gargoyle-router.com/old-openwrt-coding.html [3] https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Captive_Portal https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Captive_Portal
  - drewmol 9y ago
    more "developing my specific utility". Thanks for the links, 1 and 2 are where I've been looking. >As a user/customer, that sounds very annoying. Why not have a captive portal... To me, as a user/customer, captive portals are very annoying >...instead of abusing the SSID for advertising? I have a propensity toward repurposing systems for different functionality (abusing things) ;-) It looks like 3, using pfSense, may make using captive portals less terrible so I'll look into it. Thanks for the suggestions!
cyberjunkie 9y ago
Alright then, when do we see some Netgear R6220 love?
- bartvk 9y ago
  If I search the LEDE database, it shows that the snapshot supports it: https://lede-project.org/toh/start?dataflt%5BModel*%7E%5D=r6220 https://lede-project.org/toh/start?dataflt%5BModel*%7E%5D=r6...
qwerty456127 9y ago
By the way, what is the status of addressing the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities in OpenWRT/LEDE at affected platforms?

312 points by kylegordon 9y ago

"Won" seems like totally the wrong word to use, but this reads like LEDE "Won". Their code base going forwards, just rebranded to OpenWrt, and everyone all together again as one big happy family?

mosselman 9y ago
Who, other than you, said anything about winning? I think ever one wins when there is a climate where good code is appreciated. I always welcome improvements by others to things I make. You shouldn't waste time on people/projects who don't.
- colordrops 9y ago
  I think the person you are replying to is referring to their own usage of the word "won" as perhaps not the best choice of words, but used it anyway.

koolba 9y ago

I'm in the market for a couple new WiFi routers and would love to get one that is running either OpenWrt or LEDE. Any specific recommendations from the HN crowd on which one to pick up? The table of hardware[1] on the LEDE site has a ton of info but filtering through 100s of devices manually doesn't seem very doable. Would love if someone would just suggest one or two devices, preferably something they've use themselves. All I really care about are Gigabit LAN and the latest Wi-Fi (5Ghz N?) so no USB storage, NFS, etc. [1]: https://lede-project.org/toh/start https://lede-project.org/toh/start

mangix 9y ago
Archer C7v2 has long been preferred as a nice and stable router. USB is slow and NAT caps out at around ~500mbps but is otherwise very good (there are a few patches around that improve this slightly). The WiFi driver for 802.11ac has improved stability(no crashing after 2 days) in trunk but has not been backported to stable yet. Range is also excellent (in my opinion). If faster USB is needed, the recommendation is the Linksys WRT series of routers (new ones). Avoid the WRT1900ACv1 (keep rebooting, watchdog driver bug i think). WiFi is pretty stable now. One really nice benefit of these routers is that most of the drivers have been upstreamed in the kernel and thus get love from the kernel community (enhancements and bug fixes). Not so with the other popular routers.
- rcpt 9y ago
  AIUI the Archer C7 requires some tricks to get around recent FCC enforcement which bans citizens from installing their own router firmware, cf. https://pappp.net/?p=1525 https://pappp.net/?p=1525
  - mangix 9y ago
    just the recent ones. OTOH it may be easier in LEDE/new OpenWrt. I don't have the recent ones so can't confirm or deny.
  - mkesper 9y ago
    I recently flashed a new C7v2. Needed to flash the ...-EU.bin variant but otherwise no problems.
- dbcooper 9y ago
  Anyone know about the C7v3? Conflicting advice about whether it can be flashed with open firmware.
  - mangix 9y ago
    the v4 can
- rblatz 9y ago
  I used to run DD WRT, but got tired of fighting weird issues. Looks like from the comments to your post there are still issues out there. I ended up switching to a ubiquiti AC Pro for WiFi and am about to buy a USG to replace my old router. If all you are looking for is rock solid performance and reliability that is still fairly flexible I’d go with Ubiquiti. If you want to tinker or are really passionate about running open source then obviously LEDE is a decent choice.
  - ak217 9y ago
    I run stock LEDE on Archer C7v2 and have had zero problems with it (I ran OpenWRT before LEDE made a stable release). I could buy a Ubiquiti gateway and AP, but C7v2 is less expensive and gives me an appreciation for embedded device programming. I have had trouble experimenting with advanced features such as band steering, mesh and multi-WAN/load balancing in OpenWRT/LEDE though, so if you plan on using those, I agree Ubiquiti is a great choice.
ekr 9y ago
I've been using Dlink DIR 860L and it's been working flawlessly with LEDE, 1 gigabit LAN (even NAT'ted), AC wifi. The main advantage of this device is the price (I think it was the cheapest router with gigabit LAN on the market), but now it's gotten a bit old. I particularly like the QoS features of LEDE.
- c0l0 9y ago
  Afaik, the SoC that is used in this device is the only recent-ish such system on the market with fully open source/free radio firmware (but you need to make sure to get the correct revision, as D-Link changed its innards at least once without renaming the model). I can highly recommend it from my day-to-day experience with it, running Lede 17.01.
  - kossmoboleat 9y ago
    I haven't received mine yet, but I've read that you have to get the latest snapshot lede to profit from some WiFi performance bug fixes.
drewmol 9y ago
Just like everyone else, I would also recommend an Archer C7 of whatever revision is the latest stable tested unit. As someone mentioned, the FCC recently clamped down of this, pushing mfgs to include protections against allowing the consumer to easily replace the original firmware. TP-LINK has been locking things down a bit more as off the past few years. Love my C7 w OpenWRT, great choice for a sub $100 device with tons of flexibility.
tedcrilly 9y ago
I run LEDE stable on two WRT 1900 ACS routers with good results. USB storage / Syncthing, WireGuard, ad blocking were all quick and easy to set up. Also, great news on the merge, hoping the documentation will get unified at some point as well.
amq 9y ago
My selection guide VPN needed? - yes: WRT1200AC (OpenVPN: 50 Mbit/s, WireGuard: 100+ Mbit/s) - no: continue (OpenVPN: 12 Mbit/s, WireGuard: 24 Mbit/s) Gigabit needed? - yes: Archer C7 - no: TL-WR841N
- freestockoption 9y ago
  Whoa, I've never heard of WireGuard. Looks like a huge performance boost over OpenVPN. I currently use OpenVPN in bridge mode between all my OpenWRT routers.
  - zx2c4 9y ago
    Performance boost yes -- and security boost too. Here's the paper if you're interested in the nuts and bolts: https://www.wireguard.com/papers/wireguard.pdf https://www.wireguard.com/papers/wireguard.pdf Also, stickers: https://lists.zx2c4.com/pipermail/wireguard/2017-May/001338.html https://lists.zx2c4.com/pipermail/wireguard/2017-May/001338....

mmanfrin 9y ago

Is it still the default suggestion that Open WRT/LEDE are better than stock router software? What about compared to pfsense (or is that not good for wireless)? Every time in the past that I looked at the WTF website (and I'll admit I did not know about LEDE) it looked so dated that I assumed proprietary firmwares on routers were more capable to making use of whatever the new router tech of today is.

mangix 9y ago
Depends on what you want. If you want more features than you could possibly want or use, LEDE/OpenWrt. With some routers (Broadcom and Qualcomm mainly), stock firmware tends to perform better since no cooperation with the kernel or LEDE/OpenWrt. For security reasons, you'll want to use LEDE/OpenWrt. KRACK fixes got pushed pretty fast (same day) for example.
d1zzy 9y ago
I've always used custom firmware (openwrt on Asus 500gP/Linksys WRT54g, Tomato and then LEDE on Netgear WNR3500L) and I've been happier with them than stock stuff. For a long time the stock firmware (still true for the cheaper stuff) was really crappy in features compared to custom firmware missing basic stuff. These days the more premium stuff seems to have somewhat feature parity (I care about USB, IPv6, OpenVPN) so that's better especially since some of them seem to be forked from the open source projects (ex. AsusWRT). One of the benefits of the stock firmware is taking advantage of hardware accelerated NAT and Wifi encryption (WPA) but when I installed LEDE a few months ago on the old Netgear WNR3500L it did give me the option to install a Wifi server that does use hardware acceleration so I can still get that nice high performance. Note that all of those routers listed above are generally well supported by custom firmware because that's how I made my buying decision. My current main router (Asus AC66U) I left it with stock firmware as it has all the features I want and it's still getting updates often enough.
krylon 9y ago
I think the difference between OpenWRT and pfSense is that pfSense only runs on PC class hardware, while the kind of device that usually runs OpenWRT is far less powerful. I used to run OpenWrt on my router ... years ago, and I remember that router had 16 MiB RAM, and a 125 MHz MIPS CPU. If you set up such a machine, say, as an OpenVPN server, this would seriously limit the amount of data I could push through the VPN connection. (Not really, because my Internet connection is not very fast, but that is beside the point.) Even a Raspberry Pi is far more powerful than the typical OpenWrt router (at least the ones I have handled). At work, we set up a wifi network using OpenWrt routers, using separate wifi networks as well as different VLANs for employees and guests. To get a vendor-supported solution that can do this, you have to have spend a lot of money.[1] So in my experience, OpenWrt is a lot better than what most commodity routers/wifi-access points offer. With the exception, maybe, of the Fritz!Box family. [1] Okay, it depends on your definition of "a lot". In our case, the requirement was to make it as cheap as possible, because strictly speaking we had no budget at all for the wifi.

brightball 9y ago

Wasn’t there some legal thing recently that made it more difficult to use OSS router software?

brudgers 9y ago
The FCC passed a certification rule a couple of years ago, not sure about it's final status: https://hn.algolia.com/?utm_source=opensearch&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=opensearch&query=fcc%20wifi%20router&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?utm_source=opensearch&utm_medium=sea...
- Maxious 9y ago
  It seems to have been implemented in ASUS routers https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/issues/967 https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/issues/967
unsined 9y ago
Yes, double check before purchasing any TP-Link routers as they were previously recommended for LEDE/OpenWRT but now actively block firmware flashing (of any kind I believe).

CharlesMerriam2 9y ago

This appears to be people acting like responsible adults. I heartily approve.

lifeisstillgood 9y ago

I have been planning for a while to put in a OpenWRT router as replacement for my generic ADSL from BT, and then add in things like netflow so I can responsibly monitor home internet usage as the kids get older and discuss whatever pops out. also probably do some ad blocking or something. I am assuming projects like this exist already - focused on the dad segment, but if not it's on my 2018 list. Anyone know of any?

pantalaimon 9y ago
It's good to make kids getting used to being under constant surveillance, keeps them from acting up against it when the government introduces it for everyone when they are adults. /s
- lifeisstillgood 9y ago
  Actually it is good. They are already under constant surveillance - just not from someone with their best interests at heart. Actually this idea is far lower down my priority tree than say working out how to monitor how much TV we watch, how much time on social media (or HN) - and then to compare to things we would prefer to do like walking the dog or playing board games. Just inventorying our lives will be a huge step towards getting conscious control over the mass distraction world we live in. Further ranting: No one thinks having a comprehensive view on my monetary spend is a bad idea - websites, apps and even EU directives are trying to help. but there is nought for my time spend - apart from stupid things like please enter how much time you just spent on an activity. So as a starting list i want - To know what the TV was showing when. - What netflix was showing on what device - what youtube was showing - for my phone - what podcasts, what youtube etc, - same for social media (HN counts for me) - The Nintendo Switch kinda sorta gets it - there is a parent app that lets one set time limits on daily usage. but hahahahha it assumes you only have one child (per switch) - then use my GPS tag to show where was I and can I correspond that with an activity - gym, commute, walking across fields - I am fairly sure there is value in Alexa / similar voice monitoring working out what is happening in the house (it takes you on average 34 minutes from the first "get dressed for school" till the door finally bangs) Don't get me started on MOOPs And none of which has an API i know about. All because they don't want me to stop watching.

ausjke 9y ago

Best news for the day. Cheers.

cbzbc 9y ago
Time will tell - but the reason for the split in the first place was the bureaucracy and slow progress of the OpenWRT project.

chx 9y ago

Makes total sense. OpenWRT is an established name and LEDE is a better codebase. Slap the former on the latter and move on.

sharpercoder 9y ago

I still don't get why no commercial hardware vendor offers products specifically designed for this software. OSS router software for home seems to be far superior then all the proprietary stuff that's out there.

dimensi0nal 9y ago
Someone who would buy hardware like that would probably choose a wired router with pfSense and separate access points instead.
- toast0 9y ago
  'wireless routers' usually work fine as an access point + Ethernet switch when you disable dhcpd and don't use the wan port (nice ones let you use the wan port as another lan port). They're usually cheaper than a dedicated access point too.
  - alimbada 9y ago
    What's the advantage of disabling dhcpd?
    - kabes 9y ago
      Well, he's talking about access points. You don't want multiple DHCP servers in your network.
    - BuildTheRobots 9y ago
      I think OPs point is that he's already got a router running DHCP on the network, but if you disable all the router-like services on a second device you can use it as a dedicated access point.
dboreham 9y ago
Some reasons: If it has wireless then you enter a minefield of regulatory and approvals pain. I suspect that under the current fcc rules you can't sell hardware that isn't locked to its firmware (because if you did users would be able to freeband). There already exist some products that pretty much meet the requirement so the niche for pure play OSS is even smaller than you might imagine. e.g. Mikrotik sells a huge line of products running Linux under the hood. If you are familiar with kernel networking you can easily work with their CLI and UI. Very low cost. Does everything Linux does and is fcc approved. One you get beyond super-low cost (e.g. into 10G NICs and wire-speed 1G routing) customers expect stuff to work, and with an OSS kernel plonked onto someone else's hardware it probably won't 100% work. This again constrains the niche within which pure OSS is viable.

unsined 9y ago

I guess I'll be waiting until that major release and then flashing my router with it for use as a Wifi bridge. Does anyone know of a concise guide to configuring your router for this type of use? I tried going off of what's available on the LEDE site but couldn't get it to work for whatever reason.

drewmol 9y ago

Does anyone have experience developing packages for OpenWRT/LEDE... && is willing to offer some time (maybe an hour or two, whenever it's convenient) to a fellow HNer who's getting ready to attempt developing my first OpenWRT package? I've got pretty entry level ambitions: I plan to created a utility that allow the user to configure a list of scheduled SSID names for automated SSID changes. I use to do a lot of tech support for the bar & restaurant scene, and always wanted to schedule the public WiFi SSID to change daily and broadcast marketing info. (Think restaurant daily specials, retail store popup/promo coupon codes, estimated wait times, deal of the day, etc.) Or, is anyone aware of this feature existing in a commercially available device&firmware?

kogepathic 9y ago
> Does anyone have experience developing packages for OpenWRT/LEDE... && is willing to offer some time (maybe an hour or two, whenever it's convenient) to a fellow HNer who's getting ready to attempt developing my first OpenWRT package? Is your wish to have help in the specifics of packing existing software for OpenWrt/LEDE, or in developing your specific utility? If you're interested in a guide to building/packaging software for OpenWrt/LEDE, there are already detailed guides describing how to create packages for the OpenWrt/LEDE build system. [1] [2] > and always wanted to schedule the public WiFi SSID to change daily and broadcast marketing info. (Think restaurant daily specials, retail store popup/promo coupon codes, estimated wait times, deal of the day, etc.) As a user/customer, that sounds very annoying. Why not have a captive portal on the network instead of abusing the SSID for advertising? Something like pfSense can easily be configured with a captive portal where you could do this advertising while having a button for users to gain access to the internet. [3] [1] https://watchmysys.com/blog/2015/10/build-package-your-software-for-openwrt/ https://watchmysys.com/blog/2015/10/build-package-your-softw... [2] https://www.gargoyle-router.com/old-openwrt-coding.html https://www.gargoyle-router.com/old-openwrt-coding.html [3] https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Captive_Portal https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Captive_Portal
- drewmol 9y ago
  more "developing my specific utility". Thanks for the links, 1 and 2 are where I've been looking. >As a user/customer, that sounds very annoying. Why not have a captive portal... To me, as a user/customer, captive portals are very annoying >...instead of abusing the SSID for advertising? I have a propensity toward repurposing systems for different functionality (abusing things) ;-) It looks like 3, using pfSense, may make using captive portals less terrible so I'll look into it. Thanks for the suggestions!

cyberjunkie 9y ago

Alright then, when do we see some Netgear R6220 love?

bartvk 9y ago
If I search the LEDE database, it shows that the snapshot supports it: https://lede-project.org/toh/start?dataflt%5BModel*%7E%5D=r6220 https://lede-project.org/toh/start?dataflt%5BModel*%7E%5D=r6...

qwerty456127 9y ago

By the way, what is the status of addressing the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities in OpenWRT/LEDE at affected platforms?