WiFi does not require a great deal of changes. OpenWRT 19 is stable and WiFi works fine on WRT32x with this version. Why not continue to support OpenWRT 19 with the existing wifi module for this router?
What is the point of upgrading kernels if then we have to leave behind perfectly good hardware? Why not have OpenWRT 22 with an older and more stable kernel that supports all hardware? Besides, WRT32x is not the only router having problems with OpenWRT 21 and 22, the new switch handling system is a real pain.
I know this was a decision made by Linux kernel developers. The solution? Stick to the older kernel for OpenWRT and make sure kernel developers get the feedback over how bad their new switch system is.
To be frank, as an end user I see very little value added moving from OpenWRT 19 to 22. Beside some nice cosmetic improvements to LUCI, to date I have found NO BENEFITS WHATSOEVER by upgrading my other routers (I have 5 in my house). On the other hand I had to work a lot just to make MR8300 and EA8300 switches work as they did with OpenWRT 19, and still I can't bridge the WAN port with the LAN switch (like I did when they had OpenWRT 19) because I use VLANs and when using VLANs it does not work.
Perhaps (I guess) lots of new features have been added to OpenWRT 22, but I would not know, because I am not looking for anything else beside routing, switching, DDNS, DHCP, VLAN, WiFi, MWAN3, KAD, SMStools, WWAN as backup and OpenVPN.
I have 2 x WRT32x that are the main routers, being the fastest that can support my fibre broadband and VPNs. I do not want to add more routers just for WiFI because I already have too many (my house has very thick solid stone and concrete walls).
The only reason I upgraded my other routers is so that I am up to date with security patches. If OpenWRT 19 was supported I would still have all my routers running it because from OpenWRT 21 onwards I saw only issues that impacted negatively my experience and, I want to stress this, NO BENEFITS, NO VALUE ADDED to me.
...and if you want new hardware (e.g. 802.11ax, which is ~2.5 times faster than 802.11ac), you need new kernels - others may have different needs than you.
Fast WAN uplinks with 1 GBit/s and more are becoming common, network drivers for those 2.5GBASE-T/ 10GBASE-T cards are only available for new kernels, 802.11ax wireless drivers, 6 GHz wireless support, the whole zoo of USB addon devices, software features like the immensely popular wireguard VPN protocol, soon also kernel-assisted OpenVPN, ...
You either go (on) with times, or you go (out) over time.
The max I can get in my area is FTTC at 200Mbit/s. FTTH may not be available for another 10 years at least and if I were so lucky to get it any earlier I would be limited to 1Gbit/s at most because that is the infrastructure they have built around my region. Lots of people working from home like me now tend to move out of the big cities, hence no FTTH. Therefore 2.5Mbit/s WAN now are necessary only to a privileged minority. If wireguard were popular I would have at least heard of it (I had to google it). I will look into it now. I wonder if it supports TAP as I have a device that can be accessed remotely only if the VPN is bridged. I googled that too now... Wireguard does not support TAP or bridging.
Please could you suggest a router that is available in Italy or the European Union that is compatible with OpenWRT 22 and has the same or better CPU speed, memory, flash, USB ports, WiFi capabilities, compact size, power consumption of a WRT 32x and can be purchased at a similar price?
TUF AX-4200 has an acceptable price. I googled for the OpenWRT support page, the page most supported routers have with instruction to flash OpenWRT, links to built OpenWRT images, pictures, etc, but I cannot find one. Is it fully supported?
However, as mentioned in the thread, you will need to open the case and connect some wires from the USB-TTL adapter (that you need to buy separately) in order to install OpenWrt, until some hack is found.
I understand the needs of a new kernel, with support for modern hardware, but let's be honest for a minute: the wrt32x/wrt3200acm is still a power horse and it would be great if it will be supported for a while. Sure, it does not support anything beyond 500 MBit with SQM, but frankly, often times that's just enough or even more than required.
Overall, OpenWrt often times provides a new life to older hardware and it would be a shame, if I need to throw away my fleet of 8 (yes eight!) wrt3200acm devices, only because the support would be dropped.
I know, it's not going to happen soon, but I feel this discussion pops up quite frequently recently in the forum, and frankly, that concerns me.
I am wondering what's required to keep a device supported? A kernel developer that is interested in keeping it supported or is it simply based on demand? Are not enough testers around?
From a device capability perspective, I don't see a reason the device could not be supported for the next few releases.
About wifi on wrt32x/acm .. well, that's a whole different story and I switched away early enough (18.06) from using wifi on the wrt3200acm and make use of dumb APs on ea/mr8300s.
That PR's commits in mwlwifi repo (in March 2023, first commits in three years...) are apparently not yet taken into use in OpenWrt. Somebody still actively using mvebu routers might test the fixes and issue a mwlwifi version bump PR for OpenWrt.
that's exactly what @hnyman described.
Creating a PR (= pull request) into the OpenWrt source from the above repository.
It needs to be build and tested beforehand, though - and someone needs to do that.
wink wink, nod nod, and a wee nudge. I had done a quick test when this was first pushed, but it was not just a grab and compile. At any rate, I took the time to make it compile, I'll leave it for those that use the radios to test; PR12373 for those inclined.
I'm currently on 22.03.2 and starting to worry that I'm now two service releases behind, due to the switch issue with kernel 5.10. But there are still updates for version 21 - 21.02.6 being released yesterday, with support for WRT32X.
I'm inclined to try it rather than the snapshots for version 22, because I don't use the new features in version 22. My experience with wifi has been similar between 21 and 22, too. 5GHz is decently stable, and I have 2.4GHz disabled.
So I'd rather have the security updates that come with the latest release of version 21. Anyone else in the same boat? Did you roll back to 21 and how has that been?
On my WRT3200ACM I went from 22.03.2 to Snapshot r22561 to have the security updates.
I use it as a wired AP on 5GHz Band 149 and it has been very stable so far.