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I use WireGuard and it works perfectly fine as it is. Can someone explain why we need/want to put it into the Linux kernel?

by laktak 7y ago

catalogia 7y ago
If you've been using it on linux, you've almost certainly already been using the kernel version. Anecdotally, using it on my home LAN, the kernel implementation on linux performs much better than the userland implementation on MacOS. (Admittedly not the same hardware, the linux machine is a i5-3427U while the MacOS machine has an i5-5250U. I think the former might have an L2 cache advantage, but I'm not sure if that would explain the difference.)
mikepurvis 7y ago
If nothing else, the long term maintenance commitment is important for companies being willing to adopt and build on it.
cyphar 7y ago
WireGuard on Linux has always been implemented as a kernel module (a very small one at that). If you've used it on Linux, you've used the code that has been included in Linux 5.6. This is about the code being merged upstream into the main kernel repository which means that it'll likely be built-in to lots of distribution kernels and will no longer have the second-class status that most out-of-tree kernel modules have.
- yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
  Well, strictly you could use the userspace implementations on Linux (which I looked at because I wanted to try running it in a Docker container, which does work with openconnect).
  - cyphar 7y ago
    You could, and that's how the Android version works (at least, until Android has wireguard.ko built-in -- the WireGuard app supports both versions). But if you're using it on Linux you're almost certainly using the kernel module.
ac29 7y ago
Here's an answer from the author back in 2016: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11994544 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11994544
cjbprime 7y ago
The version you've been using on Linux was already in the Linux kernel. It's a Linux kernel module. Now it's just part of the official Linux source release, so groups like Linux distributions such as Ubuntu will start turning it on by default.
- kikoreis 7y ago
  Indeed, and it's worth calling out that we've worked to ensure that 20.04 LTS, which will ship with 5.4, does have Wireguard support featured in it.

I use WireGuard and it works perfectly fine as it is. Can someone explain why we need/want to put it into the Linux kernel?

by laktak 7y ago

I use WireGuard and it works perfectly fine as it is. Can someone explain why we need/want to put it into the Linux kernel?

catalogia 7y ago

If you've been using it on linux, you've almost certainly already been using the kernel version. Anecdotally, using it on my home LAN, the kernel implementation on linux performs much better than the userland implementation on MacOS. (Admittedly not the same hardware, the linux machine is a i5-3427U while the MacOS machine has an i5-5250U. I think the former might have an L2 cache advantage, but I'm not sure if that would explain the difference.)

mikepurvis 7y ago

If nothing else, the long term maintenance commitment is important for companies being willing to adopt and build on it.

cyphar 7y ago

WireGuard on Linux has always been implemented as a kernel module (a very small one at that). If you've used it on Linux, you've used the code that has been included in Linux 5.6. This is about the code being merged upstream into the main kernel repository which means that it'll likely be built-in to lots of distribution kernels and will no longer have the second-class status that most out-of-tree kernel modules have.

yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
Well, strictly you could use the userspace implementations on Linux (which I looked at because I wanted to try running it in a Docker container, which does work with openconnect).
- cyphar 7y ago
  You could, and that's how the Android version works (at least, until Android has wireguard.ko built-in -- the WireGuard app supports both versions). But if you're using it on Linux you're almost certainly using the kernel module.

ac29 7y ago

Here's an answer from the author back in 2016: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11994544 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11994544

cjbprime 7y ago

The version you've been using on Linux was already in the Linux kernel. It's a Linux kernel module. Now it's just part of the official Linux source release, so groups like Linux distributions such as Ubuntu will start turning it on by default.

kikoreis 7y ago
Indeed, and it's worth calling out that we've worked to ensure that 20.04 LTS, which will ship with 5.4, does have Wireguard support featured in it.