9 ms·

OpenWRT 22.03.4

141 points by segasaturn 4y ago

madspindel 4y ago
I _love_ OpenWrt! I run Adblock and Wireguard on OpenWrt. I also recommend using Attended Sysupgrade to keep the system updated to the latest version.
- rvense 4y ago
  Seeing this headline I'm not actually sure my OpenWRT router/WiFi AP has been upgraded since I installed it in late 2015. I haven't really thought about it at all, actually. I think that counts as praise? EDIT: ... turns out I was on a 2019 version. I just upgraded it from the web interface, completely painless experience. 10/10!
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - orra 4y ago
    FYI, Attended Sysupgrade is pain free: no need to reinstall packages after flashing a new version.
    - trelane 4y ago
      There was a breaking change to the switch config several versions ago: "There is no migration path for targets that switched from swconfig to DSA. In that case, sysupgrade will refuse to proceed with an appropriate error message" https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-21-02-0-first-stable-release/105395 https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-21-02-0-first-stable-rel...
      - orra 4y ago
        Thanks, I'd completely forgotten about that. I'd still highly recommend Attended Sysupgrade... going forward.
        trelane 4y ago
        I'd thought it was just sysupgrade, but it looks like it's more: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/attended.sysupgrade https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/attended.sy... Interesting.
- voxadam 4y ago
  I'm a 100% with you. I've been running OpenWRT since the WRT54G days. It's not perfect but it's the original embedded Linux distro. I know plenty of people run UniFi these days but personally, I'll stick with my OpenWRT flashed APs attached to an OPNsense router/firewall. That said, to each their own. I'm happy to see a multitude of options out there. One of these days I might just go back and build myself Linux/nftables router like the old days when I ran ipchains on a 100MHz 486DX4 running Linux. I'll definitely take a look at Attended Sysupgrade, this is my first of hearing about it. Thanks for that.
  - AviationAtom 4y ago
    I only really used UniFi for APs. Ubiquiti has really taken a turn for the worse in recent times though. I too used to run a router on a 486 (?), circa 1998. It was shared out wirelessly with my neighbor, so he'd cover half of my 512 Kbps DSL bill (I was in middle school at the time). If I remember correct I ran the SmoothWall distro on it. Good memories of bygone times.
citrin_ru 4y ago
Would be interesting to see the size for each OpenWRT version on a graph. After one of upgrades I've discovered that I have no enough space for additional packages I've used in the past and that's how I've learned that it become significantly bigger over the time. Though it still very impressive that developers managed to trim Linux to be usable on routers with small flash (8Mb in my case) given how huge the mainline kernel and how fast it grows.
- HeckFeck 4y ago
  I wonder why OpenBSD isn't considered for a router OS. It is smaller and more conservative than the Linux kernel. They also aim for security and code auditability. Presumably the same utilities and packages would compile for it as well as Linux. Looks like what you'd want in a router OS. Unless it is a matter of driver support?
  - mkopec 4y ago
    I guess it's a matter of Wi-Fi driver support and performance (flow offload)
  - meinheld111 4y ago
    It usually is a matter of driver support
- mobilio 4y ago
  This depends on many drivers and combination of different external tools. Small example is busybox - it's still small, but getting bugfixes/features and new applets. OpenWrt already abandon devices 4/32: https://openwrt.org/supported_devices/openwrt_on_432_devices https://openwrt.org/supported_devices/openwrt_on_432_devices and probably next abandoned will be 8/64 within two or three years.
- capableweb 4y ago
  This doesn't absolutely answer your question (as it doesn't look at the size of the actual firmware), but I did a quick run to see how the amount of code changes in OpenWRT between releases, this is the results: https://pastebin.com/04s1TL49 https://pastebin.com/04s1TL49 Here is the latest ones: files blank comment code refs/tags/v21.02.4|Sun Oct 9 19:13:29 2022 +0200 SUM: 6152 105231 202581 1095273 refs/tags/v22.03.1|Sun Oct 9 19:32:19 2022 +0200 SUM: 4942 92892 159322 758218 refs/tags/v22.03.2|Sat Oct 15 14:45:57 2022 +0200 SUM: 4989 94174 160996 761805 refs/tags/v21.02.5|Sat Oct 15 15:02:44 2022 +0200 SUM: 6154 105246 202621 1095314 refs/tags/v22.03.3|Tue Jan 3 22:03:37 2023 +0100 SUM: 5030 94497 161559 768700 refs/tags/v22.03.4|Sun Apr 9 23:35:19 2023 +0100 SUM: 5054 94718 162335 769994 refs/tags/v21.02.6|Sun Apr 9 23:38:36 2023 +0100 SUM: 6283 106307 206300 1107999 Command used: $ git for-each-ref --sort=creatordate --format '%(refname)|%(creatordate)' refs/tags | while read line ; do echo $line; cloc --git $(echo $line | cut -d '|' -f 1) --processes 32 --quiet | grep SUM ; done
flir 4y ago
It's been a long time since I used 3rd party router software (and I think that was Tomato). If I was buying a router specifically for OpenWRT, what would be a good choice? I did find this (https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128 https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128) but that's a lot of choices to wade through.
- rjzzleep 4y ago
  I used to bring OpenWRT routers everywhere I go. But if you worry about performance I'd actually recommend you get a router that's supported by AsusWRT Merlin. I've had a lot of WIFI performance and range issues with cheaper routers on OpenWRT. I recommend looking at the supported devices list, since some models have Chinese v2 models that are indistinguishable, but unsupported. https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/ https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/ https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/wiki/Supported-Devices https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/wiki/Supported-De...
  - AviationAtom 4y ago
    Broadcom's driver model is annoying. Definitely why Merlin shines here.
    - plagiarist 4y ago
      I have been a casual Linux user from back when I did installs from Ubuntu ISO CDs in the mail. Broadcom is in everything and has always a huge pain to work with, it remains a huge pain to this day.
  - loginatnine 4y ago
    I second Merlin's recommandation, it's just the right amount of stock+custom features I want for my day to day. Rock solid for stability.
  - zitsarethecure 4y ago
    Does asus merlin support wireguard yet?
alibert 4y ago
Just a warning, this point release has a breaking change for a bunch of devices (ipq40xx: MR8300, EA8300, EA6350, and maybe more). The result is a soft brick of the router if you try to upgrade. The fix has been released in master and branch 22.x but there is NO official stable firmware with the fix currently. The faulty firmwares are still up (4 days currently) IMHO, the handling of this is pretty bad as the bug was known beforehand, there was a fix or a rollback fix but none was taken into account. https://forum.openwrt.org/t/mr8300-doesnt-boot-22-03-4-as-expected/157126 https://forum.openwrt.org/t/mr8300-doesnt-boot-22-03-4-as-ex...
- The_SamminAter 4y ago
  Another warning, I’ve noticed that this update breaks the adblock package. Not as significant, but annoying on Netgear hardware that’ll (soft-)brick itself if you reflash it with a different or lower version.
  - The_SamminAter 4y ago
    Edit: nope, actually I forgot I needed luci-app-adblock. Please ignore me.
unpopularopp 4y ago
Are there any ONTs supported by OpenWRT? I got a 2gigabit optical connection recenetly and everything is perfect but it gets complicated if I want to add a router too (PPPoE pass-through should work though). Basically I'd prefer less devices than more but currently just using the ONT on its own (honestly the only thing I miss is the USB-attached drive in the router that I used for downloading and sharing)
- meinheld111 4y ago
  It should support most things that linux knows
- mkopec 4y ago
  Probably depends on the ISP and what sort of ONT we're talking. My ISP gives me a separate ONT with an ethernet connection for the router. In OpenWRT I set up a PPPoE interface on top of a tagged VLAN with the appropriate credentials and it works pretty well, I can get a public IP or an entire IPv6 prefix depending on cretendials. I honestly don't know why they bother with this PPPoE + VLAN setup on top of a modern fiber network, but it is what it is. You could probably get an ONT in an SFP package, if you want to eliminate a separate box. The problem there is that ISPs tend to have an allowlist of permitted ONTs on the network. Some ONTs allow you to change the serial number so that may work in place of the ISP box.
AviationAtom 4y ago
I wish more folks administered a basic Linux router of their own. I'm talking a mainline distro and iptables set to masquerade (for IPv4).
- mkopec 4y ago
  It's fun until you try to add Wi-Fi to the mix :) OpenWRT seems to have patches and better out-of-the-box configs for hostapd and related packages.
  - wryun 4y ago
    The sweet spot in my opinion is to use an ordinary Linux box as the router and just wire up whatever wireless router(s) you have lying around for the APs (give them a static address in the appropriate subnet and you're done). No need to run OpenWRT on on the AP, since it's just mindlessly pushing packets around on the internal network. For bonus points, block it from accessing the internet itself.
    - AviationAtom 4y ago
      This is definitely the way. I used to use UniFi, but have kicked it to the curb. Omada is my AP Zen now.
      - vamega 4y ago
        Why Omada over Unifi? Aren’t they mostly the same? Both need a controller running somewhere, and not sure why one would be better/worse than the other.
        AviationAtom 4y ago
        Actually not true. Omada has the ability to be controlled from a controller, but it is not required. It has a built-in web administration panel. Beyond that TP-Link just puts out a solid product, at a solid price point, without all the constant issues you tend to get with how Ubiquiti keeps mucking with their firmware.
Octabrain 4y ago
I used openWRT a few months ago on my LinkSys WRT3200ACM, I was pretty motivated with the stuff I could do (VPN, block ads etc). Unfortunately, I had to go back to stock firmware because Wifi performance and issues connecting certain devices (vacuum robot). It was sad to have to give up on it. Edit: typos.
- trillic 4y ago
  I quite like this build [1] for the WRT3200ACM. I run non-critical devices on the 2.4 network and only personal devices are on the 5. I used to have some intermittent Wi-Fi issues but haven’t had any since switching to the divested build. [1] https://divested.dev/unofficial-openwrt-builds/mvebu-linksys/ https://divested.dev/unofficial-openwrt-builds/mvebu-linksys...
- madspindel 4y ago
  Could it be related to WPA3 security? With OpenWrt you get a lot of "new" features like WPA3 etc. and sometimes older Wifi devices are not compatible. Then you need to change the settings (maybe downgrade to WPA2 on the 2.4Ghz Wifi).
- znpy 4y ago
  I have that router and it's working well for me. A friend of mine got it and wasn't working well for him. We both used OpenWRT on that. It seems that the version he was using (more recent than mine) doesn't work well on that hardware. Which is as unfortunate as ironic since the WRT3200ACM is the spiritual successor to the WRT54g that spawned the whole OpenWRT/dd-wrt thing. Regarding mine... I plan on switching to some kind of x86 and run pfSense. I'll probably keep it around and use it as a wireless access point only.
- znpy 4y ago
  OT: since we're speaking about the wrt3200acm, i have a question: it seems that the four ethernet ports are connected to a single-chip ethernet switch, and appear as a single interface (called "lan" in my openwrt installation). Is it possible, somehow, to "unbundle" them and make them appear as four different ethernet interfaces (like eth0...eth3) ? I'm asking this because i have a vlan-capable switch and would like to have a separate network connection in each vlan, with the each network interface in its own zone.
luckyobserver 4y ago
I've been using NixOS on a Dell slim workstation as a router and I couldn't be happier. My config can be found here: https://github.com/seandheath/nixos/blob/main/hosts/router.nix https://github.com/seandheath/nixos/blob/main/hosts/router.n...
doublepg23 4y ago
I guess its becoming less hip but I love my UniFi setup. Rock solid, amazing performance. It’s lacking some features I’d like to tinker with but ultimately it’s the best WiFi setup I’ve ever had.
tibbydudeza 4y ago
I simply stopped buying consumer grade routers that is supported for 6 weeks and then using custom firmware like WRT to make it stable and give me the features that I needed. I just bought a decent router - TPLink Omada ER605 - part of their prosumer range - stable - UI is easy and it can do LTE switchover and handle multiple types of VPN's.
Snuupy 4y ago
frequently mentioned wifi6 recs right now include Dynalink DL-WRX36 (quad core) and RT3200 (dual core). As for myself, I'm holding out for wifi6e.

141 points by segasaturn 4y ago

I _love_ OpenWrt! I run Adblock and Wireguard on OpenWrt. I also recommend using Attended Sysupgrade to keep the system updated to the latest version.

rvense 4y ago
Seeing this headline I'm not actually sure my OpenWRT router/WiFi AP has been upgraded since I installed it in late 2015. I haven't really thought about it at all, actually. I think that counts as praise? EDIT: ... turns out I was on a 2019 version. I just upgraded it from the web interface, completely painless experience. 10/10!
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- orra 4y ago
  FYI, Attended Sysupgrade is pain free: no need to reinstall packages after flashing a new version.
  - trelane 4y ago
    There was a breaking change to the switch config several versions ago: "There is no migration path for targets that switched from swconfig to DSA. In that case, sysupgrade will refuse to proceed with an appropriate error message" https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-21-02-0-first-stable-release/105395 https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-21-02-0-first-stable-rel...
    - orra 4y ago
      Thanks, I'd completely forgotten about that. I'd still highly recommend Attended Sysupgrade... going forward.
      - trelane 4y ago
        I'd thought it was just sysupgrade, but it looks like it's more: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/attended.sysupgrade https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/attended.sy... Interesting.
voxadam 4y ago
I'm a 100% with you. I've been running OpenWRT since the WRT54G days. It's not perfect but it's the original embedded Linux distro. I know plenty of people run UniFi these days but personally, I'll stick with my OpenWRT flashed APs attached to an OPNsense router/firewall. That said, to each their own. I'm happy to see a multitude of options out there. One of these days I might just go back and build myself Linux/nftables router like the old days when I ran ipchains on a 100MHz 486DX4 running Linux. I'll definitely take a look at Attended Sysupgrade, this is my first of hearing about it. Thanks for that.
- AviationAtom 4y ago
  I only really used UniFi for APs. Ubiquiti has really taken a turn for the worse in recent times though. I too used to run a router on a 486 (?), circa 1998. It was shared out wirelessly with my neighbor, so he'd cover half of my 512 Kbps DSL bill (I was in middle school at the time). If I remember correct I ran the SmoothWall distro on it. Good memories of bygone times.

citrin_ru 4y ago

Would be interesting to see the size for each OpenWRT version on a graph. After one of upgrades I've discovered that I have no enough space for additional packages I've used in the past and that's how I've learned that it become significantly bigger over the time. Though it still very impressive that developers managed to trim Linux to be usable on routers with small flash (8Mb in my case) given how huge the mainline kernel and how fast it grows.

HeckFeck 4y ago
I wonder why OpenBSD isn't considered for a router OS. It is smaller and more conservative than the Linux kernel. They also aim for security and code auditability. Presumably the same utilities and packages would compile for it as well as Linux. Looks like what you'd want in a router OS. Unless it is a matter of driver support?
- mkopec 4y ago
  I guess it's a matter of Wi-Fi driver support and performance (flow offload)
- meinheld111 4y ago
  It usually is a matter of driver support
mobilio 4y ago
This depends on many drivers and combination of different external tools. Small example is busybox - it's still small, but getting bugfixes/features and new applets. OpenWrt already abandon devices 4/32: https://openwrt.org/supported_devices/openwrt_on_432_devices https://openwrt.org/supported_devices/openwrt_on_432_devices and probably next abandoned will be 8/64 within two or three years.
capableweb 4y ago
This doesn't absolutely answer your question (as it doesn't look at the size of the actual firmware), but I did a quick run to see how the amount of code changes in OpenWRT between releases, this is the results: https://pastebin.com/04s1TL49 https://pastebin.com/04s1TL49 Here is the latest ones: files blank comment code refs/tags/v21.02.4|Sun Oct 9 19:13:29 2022 +0200 SUM: 6152 105231 202581 1095273 refs/tags/v22.03.1|Sun Oct 9 19:32:19 2022 +0200 SUM: 4942 92892 159322 758218 refs/tags/v22.03.2|Sat Oct 15 14:45:57 2022 +0200 SUM: 4989 94174 160996 761805 refs/tags/v21.02.5|Sat Oct 15 15:02:44 2022 +0200 SUM: 6154 105246 202621 1095314 refs/tags/v22.03.3|Tue Jan 3 22:03:37 2023 +0100 SUM: 5030 94497 161559 768700 refs/tags/v22.03.4|Sun Apr 9 23:35:19 2023 +0100 SUM: 5054 94718 162335 769994 refs/tags/v21.02.6|Sun Apr 9 23:38:36 2023 +0100 SUM: 6283 106307 206300 1107999 Command used: $ git for-each-ref --sort=creatordate --format '%(refname)|%(creatordate)' refs/tags | while read line ; do echo $line; cloc --git $(echo $line | cut -d '|' -f 1) --processes 32 --quiet | grep SUM ; done

flir 4y ago

It's been a long time since I used 3rd party router software (and I think that was Tomato). If I was buying a router specifically for OpenWRT, what would be a good choice? I did find this (https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128 https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128) but that's a lot of choices to wade through.

rjzzleep 4y ago
I used to bring OpenWRT routers everywhere I go. But if you worry about performance I'd actually recommend you get a router that's supported by AsusWRT Merlin. I've had a lot of WIFI performance and range issues with cheaper routers on OpenWRT. I recommend looking at the supported devices list, since some models have Chinese v2 models that are indistinguishable, but unsupported. https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/ https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/ https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/wiki/Supported-Devices https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/wiki/Supported-De...
- AviationAtom 4y ago
  Broadcom's driver model is annoying. Definitely why Merlin shines here.
  - plagiarist 4y ago
    I have been a casual Linux user from back when I did installs from Ubuntu ISO CDs in the mail. Broadcom is in everything and has always a huge pain to work with, it remains a huge pain to this day.
- loginatnine 4y ago
  I second Merlin's recommandation, it's just the right amount of stock+custom features I want for my day to day. Rock solid for stability.
- zitsarethecure 4y ago
  Does asus merlin support wireguard yet?

alibert 4y ago

Just a warning, this point release has a breaking change for a bunch of devices (ipq40xx: MR8300, EA8300, EA6350, and maybe more). The result is a soft brick of the router if you try to upgrade. The fix has been released in master and branch 22.x but there is NO official stable firmware with the fix currently. The faulty firmwares are still up (4 days currently) IMHO, the handling of this is pretty bad as the bug was known beforehand, there was a fix or a rollback fix but none was taken into account. https://forum.openwrt.org/t/mr8300-doesnt-boot-22-03-4-as-expected/157126 https://forum.openwrt.org/t/mr8300-doesnt-boot-22-03-4-as-ex...

The_SamminAter 4y ago
Another warning, I’ve noticed that this update breaks the adblock package. Not as significant, but annoying on Netgear hardware that’ll (soft-)brick itself if you reflash it with a different or lower version.
- The_SamminAter 4y ago
  Edit: nope, actually I forgot I needed luci-app-adblock. Please ignore me.

unpopularopp 4y ago

Are there any ONTs supported by OpenWRT? I got a 2gigabit optical connection recenetly and everything is perfect but it gets complicated if I want to add a router too (PPPoE pass-through should work though). Basically I'd prefer less devices than more but currently just using the ONT on its own (honestly the only thing I miss is the USB-attached drive in the router that I used for downloading and sharing)

meinheld111 4y ago
It should support most things that linux knows
mkopec 4y ago
Probably depends on the ISP and what sort of ONT we're talking. My ISP gives me a separate ONT with an ethernet connection for the router. In OpenWRT I set up a PPPoE interface on top of a tagged VLAN with the appropriate credentials and it works pretty well, I can get a public IP or an entire IPv6 prefix depending on cretendials. I honestly don't know why they bother with this PPPoE + VLAN setup on top of a modern fiber network, but it is what it is. You could probably get an ONT in an SFP package, if you want to eliminate a separate box. The problem there is that ISPs tend to have an allowlist of permitted ONTs on the network. Some ONTs allow you to change the serial number so that may work in place of the ISP box.

AviationAtom 4y ago

I wish more folks administered a basic Linux router of their own. I'm talking a mainline distro and iptables set to masquerade (for IPv4).

mkopec 4y ago
It's fun until you try to add Wi-Fi to the mix :) OpenWRT seems to have patches and better out-of-the-box configs for hostapd and related packages.
- wryun 4y ago
  The sweet spot in my opinion is to use an ordinary Linux box as the router and just wire up whatever wireless router(s) you have lying around for the APs (give them a static address in the appropriate subnet and you're done). No need to run OpenWRT on on the AP, since it's just mindlessly pushing packets around on the internal network. For bonus points, block it from accessing the internet itself.
  - AviationAtom 4y ago
    This is definitely the way. I used to use UniFi, but have kicked it to the curb. Omada is my AP Zen now.
    - vamega 4y ago
      Why Omada over Unifi? Aren’t they mostly the same? Both need a controller running somewhere, and not sure why one would be better/worse than the other.
      - AviationAtom 4y ago
        Actually not true. Omada has the ability to be controlled from a controller, but it is not required. It has a built-in web administration panel. Beyond that TP-Link just puts out a solid product, at a solid price point, without all the constant issues you tend to get with how Ubiquiti keeps mucking with their firmware.

Octabrain 4y ago

I used openWRT a few months ago on my LinkSys WRT3200ACM, I was pretty motivated with the stuff I could do (VPN, block ads etc). Unfortunately, I had to go back to stock firmware because Wifi performance and issues connecting certain devices (vacuum robot). It was sad to have to give up on it. Edit: typos.

trillic 4y ago
I quite like this build [1] for the WRT3200ACM. I run non-critical devices on the 2.4 network and only personal devices are on the 5. I used to have some intermittent Wi-Fi issues but haven’t had any since switching to the divested build. [1] https://divested.dev/unofficial-openwrt-builds/mvebu-linksys/ https://divested.dev/unofficial-openwrt-builds/mvebu-linksys...
madspindel 4y ago
Could it be related to WPA3 security? With OpenWrt you get a lot of "new" features like WPA3 etc. and sometimes older Wifi devices are not compatible. Then you need to change the settings (maybe downgrade to WPA2 on the 2.4Ghz Wifi).
znpy 4y ago
I have that router and it's working well for me. A friend of mine got it and wasn't working well for him. We both used OpenWRT on that. It seems that the version he was using (more recent than mine) doesn't work well on that hardware. Which is as unfortunate as ironic since the WRT3200ACM is the spiritual successor to the WRT54g that spawned the whole OpenWRT/dd-wrt thing. Regarding mine... I plan on switching to some kind of x86 and run pfSense. I'll probably keep it around and use it as a wireless access point only.
znpy 4y ago
OT: since we're speaking about the wrt3200acm, i have a question: it seems that the four ethernet ports are connected to a single-chip ethernet switch, and appear as a single interface (called "lan" in my openwrt installation). Is it possible, somehow, to "unbundle" them and make them appear as four different ethernet interfaces (like eth0...eth3) ? I'm asking this because i have a vlan-capable switch and would like to have a separate network connection in each vlan, with the each network interface in its own zone.

luckyobserver 4y ago

I've been using NixOS on a Dell slim workstation as a router and I couldn't be happier. My config can be found here: https://github.com/seandheath/nixos/blob/main/hosts/router.nix https://github.com/seandheath/nixos/blob/main/hosts/router.n...

doublepg23 4y ago

I guess its becoming less hip but I love my UniFi setup. Rock solid, amazing performance. It’s lacking some features I’d like to tinker with but ultimately it’s the best WiFi setup I’ve ever had.

tibbydudeza 4y ago

I simply stopped buying consumer grade routers that is supported for 6 weeks and then using custom firmware like WRT to make it stable and give me the features that I needed. I just bought a decent router - TPLink Omada ER605 - part of their prosumer range - stable - UI is easy and it can do LTE switchover and handle multiple types of VPN's.

Snuupy 4y ago

frequently mentioned wifi6 recs right now include Dynalink DL-WRX36 (quad core) and RT3200 (dual core). As for myself, I'm holding out for wifi6e.