OpenWrt Forum Archive

Topic: OpenWRT support for the ASUS RT-N66U

The content of this topic has been archived on 13 Apr 2018. There are no obvious gaps in this topic, but there may still be some posts missing at the end.

Hi,

I just bought the new ASUS RT-N66U.
Some of my test results and some Linux-OS data can be found in my post here:
http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=6446

The source code for this firmware is available on Asus homepage.
It's written that this is an open-source router.

When can we expect OpenWRT support for this router?
I'm running OpenWRT on my DIR-825 today and like it more than DD-WRT. Would like to install and use OpenWRT on this router as well.

Regards
Geraner

Geraner wrote:

It's written that this is an open-source router.

AFAIK there is open source drivers but under Broadcom proprietary license.

Please don't fall for the OpenSource router nonesense.

"Open Source Router" here actually means "DD-Wrt supported", not more. The wireless drivers are binary, the ethernet drivers are binary, the kernel is ancient and the platform support code an ugly mess.

Right now OpenWrt lacks an ethernet driver to support such units. A spec has been written but no clean-room implemented driver exists yet - so it might take a while.

jow wrote:

Please don't fall for the OpenSource router nonesense.

"Open Source Router" here actually means "DD-Wrt supported", not more. The wireless drivers are binary, the ethernet drivers are binary, the kernel is ancient and the platform support code an ugly mess.

Right now OpenWrt lacks an ethernet driver to support such units. A spec has been written but no clean-room implemented driver exists yet - so it might take a while.


Not necessarily. Latest DD-WRT for RT-N66U runs on kernel v3.8 and uses some unknown new broadcom wireless drivers:

Linux DD-WRT 3.8.4 #110 Sun Mar 24 15:46:47 CET 2013 mips GNU/Linux
root@DD-WRT:~# wl ver
6.30 RC163.2002
wl1: Mar 24 2013 15:47:22 version 6.30.163.2002 (r382208)

This means that there's no need to use ancient kernel, because broadcom proprietary drivers work with latest kernel.

Hauke said here: https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/10852 that Ethernet is now working and that was about 3 months ago. So i think now it's the time for full support...

belliash wrote:
jow wrote:

Please don't fall for the OpenSource router nonesense.

"Open Source Router" here actually means "DD-Wrt supported", not more. The wireless drivers are binary, the ethernet drivers are binary, the kernel is ancient and the platform support code an ugly mess.

Right now OpenWrt lacks an ethernet driver to support such units. A spec has been written but no clean-room implemented driver exists yet - so it might take a while.


Not necessarily. Latest DD-WRT for RT-N66U runs on kernel v3.8 and uses some unknown new broadcom wireless drivers:

Linux DD-WRT 3.8.4 #110 Sun Mar 24 15:46:47 CET 2013 mips GNU/Linux
root@DD-WRT:~# wl ver
6.30 RC163.2002
wl1: Mar 24 2013 15:47:22 version 6.30.163.2002 (r382208)

This means that there's no need to use ancient kernel, because broadcom proprietary drivers work with latest kernel.

First of all, it's not an "unknown" or "new". It's just a "wl" - well known closed source driver. You're partially right about using ancient kernel. DD-WRT doesn't have to use it, because they have access to the "wl" sources and recompile it against whatever they want. We could only use "wl" from DD-WRT and stick to the kernel they're using (hoping it isn't modified too much). This is not an option for OpenWrt.

Hauke said here: https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/10852 that Ethernet is now working and that was about 3 months ago. So i think now it's the time for full support...

Well, you found a thread that is over 1 year ago and started discussing issues go got back then.

The discussion might have continued from here.