The OpenWrt One project
In 2024 the OpenWrt project turns 20 years! Let's celebrate this anniversary by launching our own first and fully upstream supported hardware design." The rest of the message describes the proposed OpenWrt-native network-routing system, based on Banana Pi boards; the project is being organized through the Software Freedom Conservancy. (Thanks to Dave Täht).
Posted Jan 9, 2024 17:10 UTC (Tue)
by lyda (subscriber, #7429)
[Link]
Posted Jan 9, 2024 17:36 UTC (Tue)
by mtaht (subscriber, #11087)
[Link] (4 responses)
Full thread here: http://lists.openwrt.org/pipermail/openwrt-devel/2024-Jan...
It is the first time I have felt hopeful about open source wifi in a long time! I had given up a year or two back. This box would be one of the first genuinely capable of 1Gbit throughput in both directions, as a router, not as a switch, and I think, but am not sure - there´s a BQL feature in the chipset that could be leveraged to shape cake in hardware also, at these speeds. The fq_codel on the wifi is already pretty excellent thx to nbd´s fine work.
Just as the wrt54g set a standard, and cerowrt´s wndr3800 did later, this box might be the thing to carry our world through the next decade.
Posted Jan 10, 2024 10:55 UTC (Wed)
by luna (guest, #166424)
[Link] (3 responses)
Why? There are plenty of fast, wifi 6-capable devices that support openwrt, and also several SBCs you can put a real Linux distro on (including, coincidentally, the Banana Pi BPI-R3 I'm using as an access point for the laptop I'm typing this on). I can just about saturate my gigabit home connection with the BPI-R3, and it's running a full Linux distro that works just like anything else. There's even official openwrt support for the SBC I'm using. I can't fathom why you'd use it instead of a full Linux distro, but the support is there if you want it.
Posted Jan 10, 2024 12:18 UTC (Wed)
by wsy (subscriber, #121706)
[Link] (1 responses)
For people just want a home router, I still recommend Openwrt.
Posted Jan 16, 2024 4:43 UTC (Tue)
by parametricpoly (subscriber, #143903)
[Link]
Posted Jan 10, 2024 15:28 UTC (Wed)
by mtaht (subscriber, #11087)
[Link]
It is priced well too, at $106.
The market is big enough to support that. I am not involved with the openwrt one project at all, the parts that I am supportive of is the upstream first reference router approach, openwrt(tm) support, the form factor, and especially the good wifi for a pi-form factor. I think it can be cost-reduced quite a lot over time, too.
I like all the progress that has been made on the mt76 and now mt79 chipsets - the scars I have from the ath10k still ache, and let´s not talk about broadcom...
As for the underlying OS, don´t care. I would love to see a million-seller good-wifi anything that is not a broadcom-raspi, leveraging modern kernels. A reference router of any sort, kept up to date, by a chipset maker could reshape the market.
Posted Jan 9, 2024 18:09 UTC (Tue)
by rrolls (subscriber, #151126)
[Link]
A shame it only has two Ethernet ports, I'd have hoped for 4 or 5, but I think this can be forgiven since a) it's their first endeavour into actual hardware, b) most people (not me) prefer WiFi anyway, and c) hopefully they'll bring out a 4- or 5-port version in the future if this one's a success.
I also can't help but be a little concerned about the Chinese ownership of Banana Pi - I'd really like to see more diversity with hardware made elsewhere in the world, whether that means the USA, the EU, or even over here in the UK. But China does tend to be sadly unavoidable in current era when you're trying to keep the cost down.
Posted Jan 9, 2024 18:29 UTC (Tue)
by carlosrodfern (subscriber, #166486)
[Link]
I use it on my main Protectli router, and on a Netgear Wifi Router configured as an Access Point. Rock solid, flexible, open source. It couldn't be better.
Posted Jan 10, 2024 0:10 UTC (Wed)
by simon.d (guest, #168021)
[Link] (3 responses)
Posted Jan 10, 2024 0:27 UTC (Wed)
by denials (subscriber, #3413)
[Link] (2 responses)
Glad to see this partnership with the SFC.
Posted Jan 10, 2024 21:25 UTC (Wed)
by vdanjean (subscriber, #1552)
[Link] (1 responses)
I've a old PCIE card based on Atheros. For this card, iwlist reports:
However, this card does not support 5 or 6GHz (with the corresponding speed).
My motherboard also has a wifi 6E chip (Intel). However, iwlist reports:
I would be very pleased to replace both of them by a wifi 6E PCIE card with good linux support for several AP. For now, I do not know where to look for.
Posted Jan 11, 2024 12:54 UTC (Thu)
by tim_small (guest, #35401)
[Link]
Posted Jan 10, 2024 6:58 UTC (Wed)
by wtarreau (subscriber, #51152)
[Link] (9 responses)
I'm surprised they went with HT42B534-2 for the UART while the well-known and ubiquitous CH340-E is both smaller and cheaper ($342 vs $383 per 1000). The HT also only supports CDC-ACM which apparently requires a driver sometimes while the CH340 presents a USB TTY device, but maybe the HT has other benefits I ignore.
Also a bit disappointed to see only two ports for a router. That's the entry-level offering that you find on $25 devices. I would have connected a switch chip to explode the 2.5G port to 5 LAN ports to offer a bit more flexibility. And controlling switch chips is one of the strengths of OpenWRT, no ? Look at the EdgeRouter-X for example, it has been providing five GbE ports for ~$50 for 7 years or so, and more recently we've bought at work for $80 a 4G+WiFi+4 GbE ports router, so it's not as if it were that much of a cost problem by now! And forcing users to buy an extra manageable 2.5G switch to provide just one DMZ will cost them much more and will be more complicated to use.
Posted Jan 10, 2024 7:43 UTC (Wed)
by mjg59 (subscriber, #23239)
[Link] (1 responses)
Posted Jan 10, 2024 7:50 UTC (Wed)
by wtarreau (subscriber, #51152)
[Link]
Posted Jan 10, 2024 13:36 UTC (Wed)
by pizza (subscriber, #46)
[Link] (6 responses)
I'm not surprised. Anecdotally, Over the past decade or so, I can't think of any "non-techie" I've seen with a home router that has anything other than the ISP/WAN plugged into it. It's WiFi for everything.
Personally, I've not used more than two ports on _any_ of the [usually ISP-supplied] routers I've had over the past two decades -- ie the upstream/WAN/ISP, and the local LAN. Not that I've never needed more LAN ports; The combined facts that the router typically tends to be located next to the ISP demarcation point, not where I have the rest/bulk of my equipment, and that I need many more ports than a "home router" would ever be able to provide. That, and I greatly prefer to use dedicated wifi access points in a bridge-only mode, which only requires a single LAN port. Anything more would be wasted, so why drive up the BoM?
Posted Jan 10, 2024 14:18 UTC (Wed)
by dskoll (subscriber, #1630)
[Link] (5 responses)
When I bought the place I'm living in now, I had Ethernet drops put in before I moved in all my stuff. When you work remotely, doing Zoom over wired Ethernet is way more pleasant than doing it over WiFi. However, I realize I'm in the tiny minority. If you need more Ethernet ports, gigabit switches are dirt cheap. Probably even 2.5Gb switches aren't too bad.
Posted Jan 10, 2024 14:40 UTC (Wed)
by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
[Link]
I mostly run EoP now ...
Cheers,
Posted Jan 10, 2024 16:26 UTC (Wed)
by wtarreau (subscriber, #51152)
[Link]
And when you look at cheap routers like tp-link, gl-inet etc, you notice that only the entry level (i.e. less than $50) has 2 ports. There's definitely some non-negligible demand, and at least it creates some competition against this specific more expensive and less capable device.
Posted Jan 11, 2024 12:31 UTC (Thu)
by tim_small (guest, #35401)
[Link]
Zyxel XGS1010-12 (8x 1 Gbit Ethernet, 2x 2.5 Gbit Ethernet, 2x 10 Gbit SFP+) - circa €120 new.
HP / HPE 1920-24G JG924A (24x 1 Gbit Ethernet, 4x 1 Gbit SFP) - circa €20 used.
...both examples have pretty good energy efficient and thus fan-less BTW.
Posted Jan 11, 2024 20:19 UTC (Thu)
by rknight (subscriber, #26792)
[Link] (1 responses)
Posted Jan 12, 2024 9:29 UTC (Fri)
by tim_small (guest, #35401)
[Link]
The OpenWrt One project
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[...]
valid interface combinations:
* #{ managed } <= 2048, #{ AP, mesh point } <= 8, #{ P2P-client, P2P-GO } <= 1,
total <= 2048, #channels <= 1, STA/AP BI must match
[...]
This allows me to use hostapd and propose several SSID (at most 8 here). I use 3:
- one for personnal wifi (key given to familly only, access to all my internal network/services)
- one for guests (easy key regulary rotated, only access to internet, not internal network)
- one for domotic (no internet access for domotic gadgets)
[...]
valid interface combinations:
* #{ managed } <= 1, #{ AP, P2P-client, P2P-GO } <= 1, #{ P2P-device } <= 1,
total <= 3, #channels <= 2
[...]
So, only one SSID at most with hostapd. I setup this card for my personnal network on 5GHz bands.
The OpenWrt One project
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Wol
The OpenWrt One project
An OpenWrt switch to complement the OpenWrt One
The OpenWrt One project
Quite a few of the RTL83xx and 93xx switches which have complete (or WiP) OpenWrt support don't yet have ToH entries - but should be documented on this developer's wiki.
The OpenWrt One project