Zyxel EX5601: Status of 25.12 support and 24.10 End of Life queries

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hello everyone,

I am currently running OpenWrt 24.10.4 on my Zyxel EX5601 T0 router. My setup is very standard: I do not use any SFP modules, and my router connects directly to an external fiber ONT via an Ethernet cable plugged into the 2.5G WAN port.

While checking the official OpenWrt Table of Hardware (ToH) and the Firmware Selector, I noticed that the latest recommended stable version for this specific device is still 24.10.5. However, the new 25.12 stable branch is already out.

I am a bit hesitant to upgrade because of a few points, and I have some questions for the community:

  1. The eth1 to wan renaming issue: I noticed in the 25.12.4 changelog that for the Zyxel EX5601-T0, the WAN interface was renamed from eth1 to wan. Given my setup with an external ONT, will a simple Attended Sysupgrade (ASU) completely break my WAN/Internet connection configuration? What is the safest way to handle this interface transition during the upgrade without getting locked out?
  2. IP modification bug: I read reports from other users stating that changing the router's local IP address on 25.12 on this target causes the device to become completely unreachable, whereas it works perfectly fine on 24.10. Is this a known bug being tracked for the EX5601/T-56?
  3. Official 25.12 recommendation & EOL: Since the 24.10 branch is approaching its End of Life (EOL) cycle, I am worried about security maintenance. If 25.12 doesn't become officially recommended in the ToH for this router by then, will we lose security updates entirely, or is there a plan to backport critical fixes?

Thank you in advance for your insights and for the amazing work on this target!

Best regards.

2

Yes.
But you relogon afterwards, and change the wan port name in /etc/config/network.

So don't change it ?

It's recommended, ToH is simply running late.

3

This occurs when someone changes the IP address in a default configuration and doesn't specify the new address with CIDR notation. Specifically, 25.12 uses CIDR and drops the subnet mask line (although it will still accept it). Therefore, it is necessary to include the CIDR subnet size in the IP address if you are in a default config. In an upgrade scenario, this doesn't cause a problem

To provide some concrete examples... 24.10 and earlier would have a default like this:

config interface 'lan'
	option device 'br-lan'
	option proto 'static'
	option ipaddr '192.168.1.1'
	option netmask '255.255.255.0'
	option ip6assign '60'

25.12 uses this as the default:

config interface 'lan'
	option device 'br-lan'
	option proto 'static'
	option ipaddr '192.168.1.1/24'
	option ip6assign '60'

note that the netmask iline is gone and replaced by /24 in the ipaddr line.

So, if you want to change the address in 25.12 (in the default state, or if the netmask line is not there), you need to specify it with the CIDR subnet size (192.168.2.1./24)

4

It will become unavailable if you are doing the upgrade remotely. i.e. when you use WireGuard to connect. (Just stating the obvious)

5

Not necessarily. I performed this update while changing eth1 to wan, remotely. I edited the /etc/config/network file (eth1/wan), saved the change, but didn't restart the network service. Then I updated the firmware while preserving the configuration, and the router booted up with internet access. tested on two units at two remote locations.

6

That is cool. I didn’t try it, as the remote is really remote (10.000km+) and one missed edit makes it difficult to fix (instruct family in a whatsapp call :slight_smile: )