Plans for QSDK vs OpenWrt on S1300?

Technical Support for Routers
1

Hi,

As far as I understand the S1300 is based on Qualcomm’s QSDK, which in turn is based on an ancient OpenWrt (Chaos Calmer).

I’d like to make use of some more recent features of OpenWrt. So I was wondering if I could flash an image from https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/ipq40xx/generic/.

  1. Is this snapshot image working? Do I need a transition image?
  2. Are there a (hardware/driver) features missing from the “vanilla” image?
  3. Is anyone working on upstreaming the QSDK changes?

Thanks,

– M

2

What specific features are you looking for on S1300 with OpenWRT?

QSDK, while based on CC, has progressed on it’s own, and includes the QCA closed source drivers, which brings in all the nice 802.11ac Wave 2 features and MESH support.

S1300 is supported by OpenWRT, but open-source ath10k drivers (for both Wave1 and Wave2) do not enjoy the level of performance and stability of the QSDK drivers. The FOSS drivers are improving all the time, a lot of folks are working on that, but at the same time, the closed sources drivers on QSDK have a lot more inside knowledge of the chipset, and more importantly, the level and amount of testing that the FOSS community likely can’t do because of resources/time…

S1300/B1300 are very good devices, I’ve recommended them to others looking for affordable high performance routers - I’ve got B1300’s on a couple of remote sites, and they just work - plug them in, set them up, and leave them alone.

3

Of the top of my head:

  • WPA3
  • CAKE sqm
  • still waiting for some specific hardware, but newer kernel & bluez for meshctl support
  • more frequent updates
  • more recent uci/luci/… deps for on an alternative/minimal/niche UI we’re working on

I’d like to basically use vanilla OpenWrt because it’s easier to base some of our customizations on.

It would be a shame to have to choose between slow or unstable WiFi and outdated packages.
I’d be okay-ish on the short term to use the QSDK kernel patches with a fresh, vanilla userland (but even that would likely lock us on older kernels, common in embedded I guess).

QSDK, while based on CC, has progressed on it’s own, …

Kinda hoping the QSDK people would upstream more, but it sounds like they’re diverging more with time.

4

You can try openwrt snapshot. I never try but it should work.

5
  1. WPA3 can be handled outside of QSDK - full hostapd and wpa_supplicant
  2. Cake to a lesser degree because of the kernel version in QSDK
  3. Newer Kernel - likely not to happen - QSDK’s kernel is patched to support IPQ here, it’s not stock, lot of androidy kind of stuff there
  4. UCI/LUCI - most, if not all, can be backported perhaps, just takes effort

Just my thoughts.

6

I agree - but their focus is more on the WiFi6 chips these days

IPQ40xx is fairly active on Master - big challenge in the ath10k wave1/wave2 drivers there - and closed source has a lot of things that need to be reverse engineered…

7

Okay, I’ll try it out and compare. Thanks!

Yeah, I’ll have to weigh the pros/cons.

I’ll look for a WiFi stability/performance testing tool to test and benchmark the wireless link; and similar tools to test (wired) router performance/bufferbloat/cpu utilization/etc.

Thank you (both),

– M