Ipq806x NSS build (Netgear R7800 / TP-Link C2600 / Linksys EA8500)

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I am very thankful for the 2+ years of effort that have gone into making these builds. Amazing work. I can now play with it with my limited abilities. Thanks a lot!

With the little I know about building images, here is a "vanilla" 22.03.2 version for the C2600 and 9 other routers. I find that it is much easier to support the routers if they run an official release. I only have the C2600... use the images for other routers at your own risk.

This image is a rebuild of the 22.03.2 release (22.03.2 tagged build) build plus:

  • The 31 commits on ACwifidude's repository
  • Minimal changes to three files to allow all modules to build (this is in a commit of its own)
    • package/qca/qca-nss-clients/Makefile (remove non building packages)
    • package/qca/qca-nss-ecm/Makefile (ditto)
    • target/linux/ipq806x/patches-5.10/999-07b-qca-nss-clients-qdisc-support.patch (remove non building patches to GRE)
  • the 22.03.2 config.buildinfo (the 22.03.2 diffconfig) with additional NSS packages (checked in as diffconfig-nss)

Images and all kernel modules in bin directory.

BusyBox v1.35.0 (2022-10-14 22:44:41 UTC) built-in shell (ash)

  _______                     ________        __
 |       |.-----.-----.-----.|  |  |  |.----.|  |_
 |   -   ||  _  |  -__|     ||  |  |  ||   _||   _|
 |_______||   __|_____|__|__||________||__|  |____|
          |__| W I R E L E S S   F R E E D O M
 -----------------------------------------------------
 OpenWrt 22.03.2, r19803-9a599fee93
 -----------------------------------------------------
root@OpenWrt:~# uname -a
Linux OpenWrt 5.10.146 #0 SMP Fri Oct 14 22:44:41 2022 armv7l GNU/Linux

Router is stable so far. Will let it run and update if it causes issues.

GitHub can be used as a repo for this build's modules. For that:

  • create file /etc/opkg/keys/a3f5af76b5479cf6 with the build public key. Contents:
untrusted comment: Public usign key for 22.03-nss release builds
RWSj9a92tUec9l/PM537XItbV7HH993lESFenzwBJdSR/pW5S2eSInZQ
  • update the /etc/opkg/distfeeds.conf to use repo instead, as in:
#src/gz openwrt_core https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/22.03.2/targets/ipq806x/generic/packages
src/gz openwrt_nss https://raw.githubusercontent.com/APCCV/OpenWRT-22.03.2-NSS/22.03.2/bin/targets/ipq806x/generic/packages
src/gz openwrt_base https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/22.03.2/packages/arm_cortex-a15_neon-vfpv4/base
src/gz openwrt_luci https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/22.03.2/packages/arm_cortex-a15_neon-vfpv4/luci
src/gz openwrt_packages https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/22.03.2/packages/arm_cortex-a15_neon-vfpv4/packages
src/gz openwrt_routing https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/22.03.2/packages/arm_cortex-a15_neon-vfpv4/routing
src/gz openwrt_telephony https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/22.03.2/packages/arm_cortex-a15_neon-vfpv4/telephony

opkg will update and install nicely after that.

Here a before/after comparison of CPU idle during a fast.com speedtest:

Screenshot from 2022-12-09 23-42-52

Looks good!

Screenshot from 2022-12-09 23-46-36
Screenshot from 2022-12-09 23-46-36847×552 45.4 KB

If it behaves... once I flash the main router let's see how close it gets to 1Gbps.

Cheers!

Update: oh wow... love this thing.

Screen Shot 2022-12-12 at 7.16.19 PM

That is on 1G Ethernet after both routers were upgraded. (Yes, we have two... double NAT, I know... but we needed a secure DMZ. It works for us, and IPv6 will fix the issue anyways.) 1st router handles PPPoE and second router handles everything else with minimal WiFi. WiFi is handled by AP... those will be upgraded next.

Using normal builds we were barely getting to the 450Mbps mark. (fast dot com is great to make people feel good... it reports now 1.2Gbps on 1G Ethernet, yeah, right). Routers were CPU bound at those speeds.

Now they don't break a sweat! The PPPoE router went as far as 91% idle and the other one 88% idle.

I'll test WiFi once I get to upgrade an AP. (Graph above was on a test AP). I don't have hardcore WiFi devices to stress test more than maybe 500Mbs... let's see how far it goes.

Thanks again for this fantastic build!

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