920

I would also recommend the 2x SFP+ port version as adding a cheap 2.5GbE switch with 1-2 SFP+ ports would also ensure hw offloading (afaik this wouldn’t work over usb right?)

1 Like
921

HW offload and SQM/Cake don't work as far as I know. So at least I wouldn't do that (I only have 600 down, 300 up).
However, the hint is certainly interesting for other users.

922

Just to be precise: you can have either hardware offload OR SQM.
Both work, but not at the same time.

1 Like
923

Yeah, there's a patch for hardware SQM which hopefully should be submitted to openwrt after testing

924

To be honest however once you pass the 1Gbps mark SQM gets less important (and quite difficult to do on CPU anyway)

For example the RK3588 based R6S (4×Cortex-A76 4×Cortex-A55) can only just run SQM with a throughput 1.2-1.5Gbps on CPU without limiting bandwidth

The BPI-R4 will struggle to do gigabit SQM on CPU

925

Are there any gains with hardware QoS / SQM on a 1Gbps+ WAN connection ?

Iv seen minimal advantages on my connection 1.2Gbps symmetrical

926

tbh i dont really know, ive never tried hw qos

927

Out of curiosity: Is the BPI-R4 actually CI certified?

928

I'm pretty sure it is CE certified

1 Like
929

  1. Is it known why this cooling solution with this small fan was chosen? Does the SOC get so hot? Perhaps a larger heat sink would have done the trick?

  2. What are the chances that proprietary BLOBs can be avoided in the future? What does the situation look like?

930

In general use the SOC does not get hot for me (it's also doing precious little other than HW assisted NAT) but I also do not use WiFi. I increased the trip point for the CPU fan and it barely ever comes on. If it does, it's pretty much silent - and I get annoyed by fans EASILY.

I DO have a 2cm heatsink somewhere but could never really be bothered to try.

1 Like
931

Did anyone find or create an acceptable wall mount for the official metall enclosure?
The easiest way would be to get some angles from the DIY store, but that doesn't seem to be very elegant in my eyes...

932

I have ordered a BPI-R4 and am looking forward to the device.
Since I'm not very familiar with OpenWrt and have been using an x86_64 box with IPFire, I have two questions:
What is the preferred installation method? Micro SD card I guess, also because it's the easiest? Log files are kept OOTB in ram?

933

My R4 arrived yesterday :beers: My plan is to install it on NAND

1 Like
934

For initial device test either NAND or eMMC should be fine.

This will boot the vendor version of openwrt that came factory installed.

After that I'd suggest using an SD card to boot openwrt 24.10 or snapshot.

Once you are happy, you could install that permanently or stick with the SD, as those are usually bigger than the 8GB eMMC and easier to replace.

Optionally you can install an nvme SSD to store more stuff. Booting from it is not possible out of the box. Needs more work. If you are a developer and are interested, I have a uboot universal bootloader in mind, that would be flashed on NAND and can boot from anything you want.

Yes, logs and stuff is stored in ram.

I also have a git repo with my automated image build using image builder and custom config files.

3 Likes
935

I'd recommend SD, easy and cheap to replace if it fails and simple to fix if flashing goes wrong.

936

True. I currently use eMMC. Just got so used to it after a while to just run firmware update via LuCi.

Do you sysupgrade the SD or flash new image by taking it out an flashing in PC?

937

I am not a developer but such a bootloader sounds good.

Is the size of a micro SD card fully utilised or do you have to adjust the partitions manually as with an SSD installation?

938

you have to adjust. The default is somewhere around 100MB.

939

owut directly to SD. Aside of some monkey business with improperly specified updates (my fault really), it always worked. And the few times it soft bricked it was one PC-based flashing away from recovery.

If you flash a regular image on PC, you lose your settings, so usually not attractive.

Personally I use the standard 512MB (?) image on a 64GB sd card. That was the cheapest one I could find :slight_smile: and 512MB is more than enough storage for me

root@bpir4:~# df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root                17664     17664         0 100% /rom
tmpfs                  2012504      2620   2009884   0% /tmp
/dev/fitrw              433616     57048    376568  13% /overlay
overlayfs:/overlay      433616     57048    376568  13% /
tmpfs                      512         0       512   0% /dev
1 Like