OpenWrt Forum Archive

Topic: Update on Linksys WRT1900AC support

The content of this topic has been archived between 16 Sep 2014 and 7 May 2018. Unfortunately there are posts – most likely complete pages – missing.

jklap wrote:
gufus wrote:

Git head. USB support now

Were you having problems with USB before?

He's referring to this.

a day ago
greymattr pushed to master at wrt1900ac/opensource
Matthew Fatheree

    Matthew Fatheree 76c11ce

        added new image with USB support

a day ago
greymattr pushed to master at wrt1900ac/opensource
Matthew Fatheree

    Matthew Fatheree 3817914

        remove image without usb support

2 days ago
greymattr pushed to master at wrt1900ac/opensource
Matthew Fatheree

    Matthew Fatheree 2fc7361

        update openwrt image, and patch files

nyt wrote:
jklap wrote:
gufus wrote:

Git head. USB support now

Were you having problems with USB before?

He's referring to this.

a day ago
greymattr pushed to master at wrt1900ac/opensource
Matthew Fatheree

    Matthew Fatheree 76c11ce

        added new image with USB support

I saw the commits, but it was the "git head" comment that caught my eye which seemed to mean gufus was building images and hence may have been having USB issues smile

(Last edited by jklap on 14 May 2014, 17:18)

Barrier-Breaker added new image with USB support

commit 76c11ce

Anyone try this image?

At this point I'm just running my own image based on the trunk OpenWRT + v2.1 patches from Belkin.

Drakia wrote:

At this point I'm just running my own image based on the trunk OpenWRT + v2.1 patches from Belkin.

same wifi stability bugs?

gufus wrote:

I asked today..

What's the status for the non binary wireless driver at this time?

http://community.linksys.com/t5/Wireles … 750/page/4

Haven't had a chance to push it, but it worked pretty well for streaming music last night.

@gufus: The source for the driver has been up for a while now, but apparently it's very unorganized code, and would require major changes to be acceptable. I haven't taken a look at it as of yet. Though it's rather funny that the documentation that comes with it has "CONFIDENTIAL" tagged on the bottom of every page smile

In my job we call this a...

circle jerk

around and around we go  VBG

Drakia wrote:
gufus wrote:

I asked today..

What's the status for the non binary wireless driver at this time?

http://community.linksys.com/t5/Wireles … 750/page/4

@gufus: The source for the driver has been up for a while now, but apparently it's very unorganized code, and would require major changes to be acceptable. I haven't taken a look at it as of yet. Though it's rather funny that the documentation that comes with it has "CONFIDENTIAL" tagged on the bottom of every page smile

Which is exactly what they just replied with wink or sad

nyt wrote:
Drakia wrote:

At this point I'm just running my own image based on the trunk OpenWRT + v2.1 patches from Belkin.

same wifi stability bugs?

I did a bit of pushing this weekend... got myself a nice kernel panic due to OOM... Haven't gone back in to verify. I was tempted to enable swap first and see what happens since I have a 4TB drive hanging off the USB port wink

gufus wrote:

I asked today..

What's the status for the non binary wireless driver at this time?

http://community.linksys.com/t5/Wireles … 750/page/4

Worst place to ask, best-off asking in the relevant mail-list [or direct to the key person(s) addys], or IRC channel.

(Last edited by jalyst on 15 May 2014, 07:34)

Drakia wrote:

@gufus: The source for the driver has been up for a while now, but apparently it's very unorganized code, and would require major changes to be acceptable. Though it's rather funny that the documentation that comes with it has "CONFIDENTIAL" tagged on the bottom of every page smile

And this is what we need a status-update on, WTF are they doing about this ridiculous "dump & run"???
They're headed towards oblivion or mediocrity in this enthusiast space if they don't "get their shit together" real soon.
There's only lukewarm interest in the entire F/OSS community, & that's attributable mostly to THEIR poor choices.

(Last edited by jalyst on 15 May 2014, 08:04)

jalyst wrote:

And this is what we need a status-update on, WTF are they doing about this ridiculous "dump & run"???
They're headed towards oblivion or mediocrity in this enthusiast space if they don't "get their shit together" real soon.
There's only lukewarm interest in the entire F/OSS community, & that's attributable mostly to THEIR poor choices.

I'll admit I haven't paid much attention to the open source WRT scene in the past, but isn't the "dump & run" move how this all got started in the first place? Linksys screwed up and had to release the source for the 54GL, and someone took that and made something useful from it?

It's definitely a dick move to claim OpenWRT support and then not actively work with the community to make everything work properly. But I don't think it's very out of the ordinary.

jalyst wrote:
gufus wrote:

I asked today..

What's the status for the non binary wireless driver at this time?

http://community.linksys.com/t5/Wireles … 750/page/4

Worst place to ask, best-off asking in the relevant mail-list [or direct to the key person(s) addys], or IRC channel.

'k

wink

Drakia wrote:

It's definitely a dick move to claim OpenWRT support and then not actively work with the community to make everything work properly. But I don't think it's very out of the ordinary.

I agree sad

Drakia wrote:

I'll admit I haven't paid much attention to the open source WRT scene in the past, but isn't the "dump & run" move how this all got started in the first place? Linksys screwed up and had to release the source for the 54GL, and someone took that and made something useful from it?

Tis all so long ago, I can't be sure now....

It's definitely a dick move to claim OpenWRT support and then not actively work with the community to make everything work properly. But I don't think it's very out of the ordinary.

Oh I know such behaviour is common in the industry (although it's changed hugely compared to 10yrs ago).
But it's hurting them doubly-so because they made OWRT support a notable part of their marketing, iiiidiots.

To avoid being complete dicks, we need a status update on this from them "soon-ish"...
And we shouldn't have to continually nude them about it, else it's clear they're fools & it's time to move on.

(Last edited by jalyst on 15 May 2014, 21:04)

From:    Kevin [xx@xx.ca]
Sent:    Thursday, May 15, 2014 1:58 PM
To:    'Matthew.Fatheree@belkin.com'
Subject:    wrt1900ac wifi driver
Signed By:    xx@xx.ca

Hi Matthew

What's the status for the non binary wireless driver for the WRT1900AC at
this time?

Regards

    Kevin


--
K. Klement

http://www.gypsy-designs.com
mailto:info@gypsy-designs.com

Nice try, but you might want to be a bit more explanatory, else he's likely to give you a vague response.

From:    Matthew Fatheree [Matthew.Fatheree@belkin.com]
Sent:    Thursday, May 15, 2014 3:18 PM
To:    Kevin Klement
Subject:    Re: wrt1900ac wifi driver

Hi Kevin,

  We are working with the manufacturer of the wireless chipset to get the
source code for the driver released to the community.

  Currently, the driver is not available in source code for development, but a
binary driver has been provided that will allow users to have wireless support
on the unit until the source code level driver is available.

Thank you

Matt


On Thu, 2014-05-15 at 13:58 -0600, Kevin Klement wrote:
> Hi Matthew
>
> What's the status for the non binary wireless driver for the WRT1900AC
> at this time?
>
> Regards
>
> Kevin
>
>
> --
> K. Klement
>
> http://www.gypsy-designs.com
> mailto:info@gypsy-designs.com
>

(Last edited by gufus on 15 May 2014, 23:25)

nyt-- I've been doing some additional wifi testing today... you were running into the issue with disconnects most frequently under 5Ghz right? Do you have other 5Ghz routes/APs running?

I was able to reproduce the issue with both their latest official LinkSys firmware and also the latest OpenWRT image they posted (the +USB image). But what was interesting is that all the times I reproduced it today it was on 2.4GHz. No 5 (caveat I only tested for about an hour with 4 images... not a huge test base). And while traffic volume seems to cause it more frequently, it's not strictly volume... twice today it disconnected with just ping's happening.

I've got 2 2.4GHz devices nearby... I'm starting to wonder if it's some type of interference issue....

gufus wrote:

From:Matthew Fatheree [Matthew.Fatheree@belkin.com]
Sent:    Thursday, May 15, 2014 3:18 PM

Hi Kevin,

We are working with the manufacturer of the wireless chipset to get the
source code for the driver released to the community.

  Currently, the driver is not available in source code for development, but a
binary driver has been provided that will allow users to have wireless support
on the unit until the source code level driver is available.

Thank you

Yeah, as I feared, complete koolaid... >.>

jklap wrote:

I was able to reproduce the issue with both their latest official LinkSys firmware and also the latest OpenWRT image they posted (the +USB image).

The wireless driver is a binary driver delivered by Linksys (ap8x.ko), so the OpenWrt wireless behavior should very similar to the Linksys firmware.

gufus wrote:
jklap wrote:

I was able to reproduce the issue with both their latest official LinkSys firmware and also the latest OpenWRT image they posted (the +USB image).

The wireless driver is a binary driver delivered by Linksys (ap8x.ko), so the OpenWrt wireless behavior should very similar to the Linksys firmware.

The Linksys firmware is running kernel version 3.2.40-- I would make no assumptions of what their firmware has vs what has been released.

ls -al /lib/modules/3.2.40/ap8x.ko
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        756728 Apr 25 13:36 ap8x.ko
ls -al /lib/modules/3.10.36/ap8x.ko
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        728596 May 14 17:12 ap8x.ko

Their firmware version is quite a bit larger.

(Last edited by jklap on 16 May 2014, 21:16)

jklap wrote:
gufus wrote:
jklap wrote:

I was able to reproduce the issue with both their latest official LinkSys firmware and also the latest OpenWRT image they posted (the +USB image).

The wireless driver is a binary driver delivered by Linksys (ap8x.ko), so the OpenWrt wireless behavior should very similar to the Linksys firmware.

The Linksys firmware is running kernel version 3.2.40-- I would make no assumptions of what their firmware has vs what has been released.

'k

jklap wrote:
ls -al /lib/modules/3.2.40/ap8x.ko
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        756728 Apr 25 13:36 ap8x.ko
ls -al /lib/modules/3.10.36/ap8x.ko
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        728596 May 14 17:12 ap8x.ko

Their firmware version is quite a bit larger.

Yes, it is.  hmm