Firmware 3.105 Snapshot Update

Technical Support for Routers
23

@MRizkBV Check PM, i sent you a link :slight_smile:

1 Like
24

THANKS! <3
I really appreciate it!

25

Are the “Bug Fix” items that are outstanding or have already been fixed?

26

Hello!
I see in new Snapshot folder
firmware/snapshots/20201114/ar750sm16 and ar300m16

What is m16?

Thank you.

27

are these firmwares still based on outdated old version of openwrt?(mt300 v2 mango)

28

David : M16 refers to the models with “16MB Nor Flash”. If yours doesn’t have that in the model number (check the sticker on the device), then it’s not the correct version for you.

@gaflarf : I can confirm that, at least for my AR150, the 3.105 snapshots are still based on an older OpenWrt tree:

OpenWrt 18.06.1 r7258-5eb055306f / LuCI openwrt-18.06 branch (git-18.196.56128-9112198)

@alzhao : FYI, the snapshot for my AR150 writes the following line into the system log every ten seconds:

Sun Nov 15 10:05:51 2020 user.debug : Function:get_tertf Line:718 Open /tmp/tertf/traffic_info_bak Fail!

1 Like
30

Recorded.

3.105 will still be using openwrt 1806. We will use OpenWrt 1907 in 3.200 firmware.

4 Likes
31

it can be the RAM can double to triple on non x86 router without hardware cost by “ZRAM”. That`s is easy to install and works fine on x86 devices. See follow for first information:

Install it:

zram-config

Activate it:

swapon -s

Now have available the double space of the payed RAM without hardware cost. And the genial of this is, the compression of RAM are only running, if not enough RAM available.

It can be you can double the space of flash and other drives on Linux by one of the follow ways, without hardware cost (I didn’t test the follow):

A comparable technology are called on MS DOS “Double space” and on MS Windows “Drive Compression”. It can be they are a ported version of this, for Linux too.

32

This has a huge cost on performance, since the processors don’t have hardware acceleration for most things, this is the same reason why OpenVPN is slower than Wireguard.

33

A real double space of RAM or Flash will be better. Thats true. A the more speed critical one like double the RAM by ZRAM, is working fine on X86 Debian. This make a 512 MB System feeling like a 2GB RAM System.

I didnt ever use a double algo for harddisk on Linux, a on DOS and Windows I remember to use this 10 years or so on agao. I guess, they are primary only read access to the flash on boot time. I guess the system dont realy read/write so much after booting. By the way, it can be the double of fash space, will double the lifetime of flash too.

Try it.

34

You can’t compare an x86 system with all the hardware acceleration to the GL routers. You can test it yourself and report back. The router will probably start to drop packets, it will be so slow with memory compression.

35

@alzhao Any possibility to fix this PPPOE issue which has been there since v3.102 on the S1300? Thanks!

36

Please try upload the attached ppp_ipk_2.4.7-13.zip, ppp_ipk_2.4.7-13.zip (112.6 KB) and install new ppp ipk.

unzip  ppp_ipk_2.4.7-13.zip
cd ppp_ipk_2.4.7-13
opkg install ppp-mod-pppoe_2.4.7-13_ipq806x
opkg install --force-depends --force-overwrite ppp_2.4.7-13_ipq806x.ipk

The 3.102 ppp onwards is patched for security fix, [OpenWrt Wiki] Security Advisory 2020-02-21-1 - ppp buffer overflow vulnerability (CVE-2020-8597)
That shouldn’t cause problem, please help to verify newer ppp works in your setup.

37

Does this apply to all models? Currently the B1300 (3.104) doesn’t even run on 1806 - it’s using 15.05.1! I understand from other threads that there may be driver limitations behind this but it’s clearly sub-optimal.

38

Not for all routers, B1300, S1300, A1300, B2200 are still using QSDK.

Keep in mind though, the QSDK version of OpenWRT is 15, but that does not say anything in reality. The only thing that is old is the kernel itself. All the most important packages have been updated to new versions; critical things such as Busybox, OpenSSL, OpenVPN, Wireguard and so on.

Linux is not like Windows or MacOS. In Windows when there is a new version, everything gets updated as the system is closed source. On Linux, you can update any single component at any time.

So i can still be using a kernel from 1999 but have Wireguard patched in if i really wanted.

It’s like taking a car with an old frame (an analogy for how the system has been set up, where config files are stored and so on) and an older engine (the linux kernel), while all the other parts are brand new. State of the art 5 point seat belts, racing brakes, the best tires (analogy for openvpn, wireguard etc).

So the real question you should be asking is, have the critical packages been upgraded. OpenVPN is now the latest version with the latest ciphers (ChaCha20, use it). Wireguard version i don’t know, @alzhao could update us on that.

If you do find anything that is old, let @alzhao or @luochongjun and it will get updated. Worry less about the version of OpenWRT itself, its just a sticker, it rubs off.

1 Like
39

I presume this is baked into the firmware and .ipk not uploaded?

40

What IPKs are you referring to? OpenVPN?

41

i’m using B1300 and AR750S. running opkg update only shows ca-cert/bundle that’s new.
Wireguard is still 20191012.
Stubby/Unbound Openssl needs to be updated to work better with NextDNS.

why not have a monthly or quarterly update of packages from Openwrt? initially when marketed as running Openwrt i had the impression that things should be reasonably up to date but it’s not quite the case here.
it’s much easier for Slate where most things would work grabbing the ipk off Openwrt site but it gets quite tough on B1300 when i don’t have enough knowledge to compile things on the qsdk one.

2 Likes
42

Many thanks @Johnex for a thorough explanation - very helpful! I do, however, agree with @reflector, that running an old kernel has its drawbacks, perhaps especially for those of us who don’t have that much Linux/coding knowledge.

Does this mean that with B1300, we can never hope to see the stock firmware upgraded to a newer version of OpenWrt because of the inherent QSDK limitation related to, I assume, the IPQ4028 radio?

43

When the open source wifi drivers hit the same stability and performance as the QSDK drivers sure. GL already uses the open source wifi drivers on most routers, back in the day those devices were also stuck with QSDK.

How long it will take to move over i don’t know. It’s up to the people working on the open source drivers (it’s not GL making them). Could be years, i have no idea.