Open debate: The Dangers of using Other People's Builds (OPB), Issues and Warnings - (Avoid "Guru" Firmware! It's better to learn from them and how to use your own buildroot-built firmware by yourself)

[jow]

@tuxbox

What's derogatory? Truth hurts. The meaning of guru, look it up. A noob is what a noob is, but I extend the meaning to 'lazy to learn by downloading non-official firmware.

This is besides the point. Stop using these terms to refer to people here. Calling people "gurus" or "noobs" or categorizing them into categories like "stupid" or "lazy" is simply trolling, nothing more and nothing less. You keep violating the forum rules with that so simply stop it if you do not want to get banned.

@tuxbox

I'm not saying they owe me anything but if they're passionate about their own project as I am, they would get their act together.

What means "get their act together" in this context? Banning community builds in the forum?

@tuxbox

I hope OPENWRT does bloat to the point that 4MB flash devices aren't usable (no space for overlay).

It is called "OpenWrt", with capital "O" and capital "W".

@tuxbox

You wouldn't believe the space optimizations I did to chaos calmer to fit in scripts and copy stuff from other firmware. All from buildroot.

Congratulations on your expert skills in disabling options.

@tuxbox

It's sad that you said "commitment" than use "we owe you exactly nothing" to justify "not keeping up with the community".

I don't follow. So is the community bad now for providing community builds or is OpenWrt bad for not following the community? What is your actual argument and how can it be translated into actionable items?

@tuxbox

Which of my hundreds of optimized builds of different aplications do you need and from what version of openwrt and what device?

To hold you by your own standards, we don't need any of your optimized builds but the source code, build scripts and modifications in an easily verifiable manner. Ideally in the form of a series of patches or a Git repo that allows easy review. Doing so might even give you some actual credibility.

@tuxbox

Mainline is now OK. Mainline Devs were sleeping or high at the time.

So this means there isn't an actual problem and you're merely complaining about the fact that a community build had a working firmware earlier than mainline? Seriously?

[tuxbox]

Hi everybody:

That's what I do for a living. Give computer classes.

By the way I use tinc for specific use that openvpn or other vpn solution doesn't. That makes Escalade's fw useless to me. It'll never get flashed, aside the security risk of blindly using someone else's configs or setup, but especially because he left out needed modules. Garbage. Use buildroot.

I have nothing personal against anybody here, only people with elitist mentality. I have a no personal beef or conflict with the devs but there is still too much noobness on these forums.

What I'm really trying to say is this I believe the community builds Gurus encourage Noobness, I can't stress this enough.

My message to the devs; Please get the real bug fixes into base ASAP as to not discourage people with certain hardware in not learning more. It has to work

better than stock fw and without the bugs that stock fw doesn't have.

Work together, be productive and set your egos aside. Did you fix uhttpd2 ans LuCi yet? We all make mistakes but some bugs take too long to get noticed or acknowledged.

Nonetheless, my experience with OpenWRT over the years have been great with not to many hassles thanks to my pacience, determinación, linux skills, and strong self-learning attitude.

There is no use argueing your point 'cause I respect your opinion and there is no point learning for me.

What really bugs me and not just here but among other "knowledgable" IT pros is that Gurus assume they know more and try to "serve" us what they think we need. We all know what that is, buildroot. Learn it. Teach it

My point is?

I want a files/ tarball of your mod, a packages_list, a seed file, or a CHANGES.txt.

Don't play down the security risk people. Do you want proof why. I got lots.

#1 - developer ssh keys en qmp/guifi.net firmware. Some fw were preinstaled with those and who knows how many people installed it thinking, 'oh cool, let's install everything like I'm going meta on my router and installing EVERYTHING.

#2 gl-inet firmware

#3 Community builds on OPENWRT forums

We are saavy enough but is everybody?

I think there is an elitist mentality among sheep herders. Our duty is to teach and I put my $ where my mouth is as I lead people to the source and share my stuff with all my friends. That means YOU.

Yes I do not trust american Guru Firmware as much as I don't trust pre-installed chinese OPENWRT firmware. I'm not a paranoid conspiracy theory nut either

I'm not saying that Guru or community built firmware creators are not educated like someone put it.

@FW Handholders/Gurus: Do the job well or stop feeding people halfbit firmware with completeness-lacking repos.

I've had a breach some time ago to my backhaul's bridge CPE behind my non-OPENWRT edge router (soon to be replaced by openWRT) just for disabling firewalls and not using ssh in a more secure way.

Imagine if I blindly use a Guru firmware with a 'defective' firewall. Will most people pickit up? Will the regular home user who just wants sqm to manage their xDSL módems bufferbloat pick it up.

Will someone more adventurous who experiments with say a webcam surveillance, streaming server, tor proxy, encrypted dns, vpn or an adblocker pick it up.

Are we all that detail-oriented?

Who says I haven't analyzed your code or all of openWRT's code in all kernel and packages for malware or don't have the tech and manpower resources to do so?

Many assumptions have been made to me and amongst us here. When you get cracked my sheep, don't come crying to me!

Lots of security-sensitive details may get overlooked with guru fw, not being your own.

For me, if you hand me a binary, even openWRT from the download page, it would and should be disected.

There's nothing like building your own and overseeing everything in the build options.

When I have time I will answer each and every opinion all of my comrades have, positive or otherwise.

Don't get me wrong, I love OPENWRT and linux.

Don't nag me, I just started this debate, this isn't mind control but I love your input anyway!

[escalade]

I actually thought this guy was some sort of weird spam-bot at first, now it seems more likely that this is posted from a padded cell somewhere. He started off his rants in my community build thread where he quickly started promoting alternative firmwares.

I said this was something for you and others to debate on. Do not debate it with me. I do not want to participate since I'm holding my ground.

Nothing more to see here then, you've wasted enough of everybody's time already. You refuse to participate in the "debate" you started, and so far you've insulted everyone who even gave it a try.

Time to treat a troll like a troll.

[psyborg]

did not read the full thread but i think @tuxbox is making a point here. the only reason i'd use somebody else's build would be to test their features/bug fixes and without device connected to the internet. for the very same reason i've been providing images here too, but i'd never excpect one to use these continuosly. if everyone felt the same there would be no huge threads with "optimized" builds that feed the fuel for those that compile these images and post them on the forum. then these as you call them "gurus" could focus their efforts towards real issues so you see less "sheeps" and "lamers" bitching about tx queue timeout...

[jow]

Closing this due to repeated use of offensive language.