Netgear WNDR3700 v2 upgrading from Chaos calmer 15.05.1 to LEDE

[Compact]

Hi. I'm new to this forum and OpenWRT in general.

Is it safe to use a sysupgrade file to upgrade from chaos calmer to LEDE?

If it's:

1. Is wndr3700v2 capable of using fastpath or SFE?
2. If it does, do any of those work with SQM?
3. Will wndr3700 v2 pull 300 Mbits on WAN with basic firewall and SQM with LEDE fastpath or SFE(I have 300 Mbits fiber internet package).

Thank you for reading.

[hnyman]

@Compact

Is it safe to use a sysupgrade file to upgrade from chaos calmer to LEDE?

Yes. But the current release 18.06.1 is again "Openwrt", not LEDE.
But you should not restore settings, as 15.05.1 was too far in history. It is better to create settings from scratch by hand.

@Compact

Is wndr3700v2 capable of using fastpath or SFE?
If it does, do any of those work with SQM?

Fastpath = SFE

Yes in principle. But the normal build does not include SFE.
Note that developers selected the upstream Linux kernel based "flow-offloading" instead, so the SFE/fastpath will remain on sidelines.

Flow offloading requires kernel 4.14, so the normal ar71xx builds for WNDR3700 do not include it at the moment. ath79 test builds of kernel4.14 test build of ar71xx can include it.

@Compact

Will wndr3700 v2 pull 300 Mbits on WAN with basic firewall and SQM with LEDE fastpath or SFE(I have 300 Mbits fiber internet package).

Not likely. SQM will consume CPU resources and will also reduce the impact from flow-offloading.

[Compact]

@hnyman

Is it safe to use a sysupgrade file to upgrade from chaos calmer to LEDE?

Yes. But the current release 18.06.1 is again "Openwrt", not LEDE.
But you should not restore settings, as 15.05.1 was too far in history. It is better to create settings from scratch by hand.

So should I just delete entries in keep.d and sysupgrade.conf, then do a sysupgrade? Or is it just better to upload a new squashfs image? EDIT: Nevermind, you can choose to not keep settings with LuCi.

How do I install flow-offloading on my wndr3700?

[juppin]

I´ve provide also a community ath79 build for your wndr3700 v2.

Take a look at this thread if you are interested in the mainline flow offloading feature:

Ath79 builds with all kmod packages through opkg [flow offloading]

Hello community, i have build some images for my TP-Link devices with all packages that depends on kernel version for my own usage and want to share it with you. If you want to test the new ath79 (replace ar71xx in the future) images on your devices, here is your chance to dive into this new target. The greatest feature that the new target provides is flow offloading. I´ve uploaded all target specific packages to my own server and included this target repo and public key into the images. All…

Currently there are no official build images of the ath79 target...

[Compact]

@juppin

I´ve provide also a community ath79 build for your wndr3700 v2.

Take a look at this thread if you are interested in the mainline flow offloading feature:
Ath79 builds with all kmod packages through opkg [flow offloading]

Currently there are no official build images of the ath79 target...

Hmm, the installation doesn't seem to be without risks. How big of a chance there is to brick the router? Also, since I need to upload this firmware from console and force it, does it make recovering harder? Like does it mess with resetting to factory settings?

Also "clean config -n". Do I need to input this after I flash the firmware? Or before flashing? Do I just input this through SSH in the root?

I'm a beginner so I'm sorry if these questions sound stupid.

[juppin]

There will be always a small risk to soft brick your device, but if you have a complete backup of you flash you could always recover your device.
Take a look in the openwrt wiki page for your wndr3700, there is the tftp recovery mentioned if something went wron in your flashing process...
Take a look at here how you can backup all your partitions of your flash.

@Compact

Also "clean config -n". Do I need to input this after I flash the firmware? Or before flashing? Do I just input this through SSH in the root?

The command to install is mentioned below this text.

sysupgrade -n -F /tmp/xxx.img

The -F does force the upgrade because the device name of ath79 doesn´t match with the one in the ar71xx target.
The -n does not backup any configuration and you does start with a clean config set. Do a manual backup with sysupgrade -b or with luci if you want.

[moeller0]

@Compact

• If it does, do any of those work with SQM?
• Will wndr3700 v2 pull 300 Mbits on WAN with basic firewall and SQM with LEDE fastpath or SFE(I have 300 Mbits fiber internet package).

So a wndr3700v2 will only shape reliably to around 60 to 70 Mbps (combined up- and downstream) with sqm, in ideal situations you might reach 100Mbps, but 300 will be out of reach....

[Compact]

@moeller0

@Compact

• If it does, do any of those work with SQM?
• Will wndr3700 v2 pull 300 Mbits on WAN with basic firewall and SQM with LEDE fastpath or SFE(I have 300 Mbits fiber internet package).

So a wndr3700v2 will only shape reliably to around 60 to 70 Mbps (combined up- and downstream) with sqm, in ideal situations you might reach 100Mbps, but 300 will be out of reach....

I see. Thanks for answering.

I didn't expect it to actually pull 300 Mbits, but below 100 Mbits is dissapointing. And that is with flow-offloading? Oh well, I guess I expected way too much from my old router.

[juppin]

The main problem will be sqm.
Are you sure you need sqm on a 300 mbit/s link?