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The content of this topic has been archived between 16 Sep 2014 and 7 May 2018.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.

I wanted to update everyone about the release of the wireless driver for the WRT1900AC. 

There were potential issues with some of the wording in the source, and we are working to get that corrected so there will not be any legal issues.

Once these strictly cosmetic changes are made it will allow OpenWrt developers to recompile the wireless driver as updates are made to the kernel.

Thank you for your patience and support through this process. 
I can not speak officially for Belkin/Linksys, but personally, I have used OpenWrt for many years, and I look forward to working with the OpenWrt community in the future on projects if possible.

keep up the good work.

greymattr wrote:

I wanted to update everyone about the release of the wireless driver for the WRT1900AC. 

There were potential issues with some of the wording in the source, and we are working to get that corrected so there will not be any legal issues.

Once these strictly cosmetic changes are made it will allow OpenWrt developers to recompile the wireless driver as updates are made to the kernel.

Thank you for your patience and support through this process. 
I can not speak officially for Belkin/Linksys, but personally, I have used OpenWrt for many years, and I look forward to working with the OpenWrt community in the future on projects if possible.

keep up the good work.

<3

greymattr wrote:

I wanted to update everyone about the release of the wireless driver for the WRT1900AC. 

There were potential issues with some of the wording in the source, and we are working to get that corrected so there will not be any legal issues.

Once these strictly cosmetic changes are made it will allow OpenWrt developers to recompile the wireless driver as updates are made to the kernel.

Thank you for your patience and support through this process. 
I can not speak officially for Belkin/Linksys, but personally, I have used OpenWrt for many years, and I look forward to working with the OpenWrt community in the future on projects if possible.

keep up the good work.

No worries, I would like to thank you for the update and keeping the community in the loop! Impatience is killing me but I'm glad that Linksys hasn't abandoned the Open Source initiative.

lifehacksback wrote:
greymattr wrote:

I wanted to update everyone about the release of the wireless driver for the WRT1900AC. 

There were potential issues with some of the wording in the source, and we are working to get that corrected so there will not be any legal issues.

Once these strictly cosmetic changes are made it will allow OpenWrt developers to recompile the wireless driver as updates are made to the kernel.

Thank you for your patience and support through this process. 
I can not speak officially for Belkin/Linksys, but personally, I have used OpenWrt for many years, and I look forward to working with the OpenWrt community in the future on projects if possible.

keep up the good work.

No worries, I would like to thank you for the update and keeping the community in the loop! Impatience is killing me but I'm glad that Linksys hasn't abandoned the Open Source initiative.

I'd like to add my thank you's to this thread as well!  We are all awaiting the release with baited breath... Good work greymattr!

edgeman wrote:

We are all awaiting the release with baited breath...

It's "bated breath". Bait usually smells.

<b> Git updated! <b>

https://github.com/wrt1900ac/opensource

Git has been updated as of 16 mins ago! So excited I shall sneak a peak (I knew sleepless nights will eventually pay off tongue)

It has only ap in wireless mode option. No sta or other. To make it work as a repeater. Official version WRT1900 does have it. It won't be available or it's too early to ask for it?

edgeman wrote:

I'd like to add my thank you's to this thread as well!  We are all awaiting the release with baited breath... Good work greymattr!

I also want to say thanks. Can't wait!

Agreed!

This is an awsesome news.
Thank's a lot Linksys / greymattr !
But we are still waiting the sources smile

Would anyone happen to know if there is a way to configure the switch ports individually for dualwan failover? I'm fairly sure the switch hardware supports that but not sure if the Marvell driver is configured to allow that in the Belkin builds.

Lightsword wrote:

Would anyone happen to know if there is a way to configure the switch ports individually for dualwan failover? I'm fairly sure the switch hardware supports that but not sure if the Marvell driver is configured to allow that in the Belkin builds.

I think the LAN ports are actually a hardware switch and can't be separated out.

Chadster766 wrote:
Lightsword wrote:

Would anyone happen to know if there is a way to configure the switch ports individually for dualwan failover? I'm fairly sure the switch hardware supports that but not sure if the Marvell driver is configured to allow that in the Belkin builds.

I think the LAN ports are actually a hardware switch and can't be separated out.

I think it has been possible on other Marvell based switches, even if it is hardware I thought there usually is a way to separate ports out depending on the actual switch hardware. The driver though seems fairly complex and doesn't seem to fully integrate with OpenWRT properly.

Lightsword wrote:
Chadster766 wrote:
Lightsword wrote:

Would anyone happen to know if there is a way to configure the switch ports individually for dualwan failover? I'm fairly sure the switch hardware supports that but not sure if the Marvell driver is configured to allow that in the Belkin builds.

I think the LAN ports are actually a hardware switch and can't be separated out.

I think it has been possible on other Marvell based switches, even if it is hardware I thought there usually is a way to separate ports out depending on the actual switch hardware. The driver though seems fairly complex and doesn't seem to fully integrate with OpenWRT properly.

The switch is the Marvell 88E6172. It will support a dual wan failover configuration. It supports IEEE 802.1Q port-based VLANs. The driver you linked provides the Marvell Distributed Switch Architecture driver for switch configuration.  OpenWRT uses swconfig.  Hopefully swconfig can be updated to support the switch. You can use /etc/init.d/mrvlswitch provided in the patch to setup the switch if you can decipher it.

Here is what you can do with the sysfs driver:
cat help                            - show this help
cat stats                           - show statistics for switch all ports info
cat status                          - show switch status
echo p r t   > reg_r                - read switch register.  t: 1-phy, 2-port, 3-global, 4-global2, 5-smi
echo p r t v > reg_w                - write switch register. t: 1-phy, 2-port, 3-global, 4-global2, 5-smi

The help will output to stdout.  The others will output to your logs.

(Last edited by ducphuc on 26 Jul 2014, 00:32)

Does this router support hardware NAT?

Almost all hardware switches can be configured to separate out individual ports, many routers depend on this to separate the WAN port from the LAN ports.

Hey eveyone, can someone clarify the difference btw AA and BB? I flashed both and the main difference Ive noticed is the SOC info. Any info is appreciated!

lifehacksback wrote:

Hey eveyone, can someone clarify the difference btw AA and BB? I flashed both and the main difference Ive noticed is the SOC info. Any info is appreciated!

AA is the stable branch from OpenWRT

BB is the testing branch from OpenWRT (newer code but might not be fully tested)

Both from what I gather are still a bit unstable on the WRT1900AC as the wireless driver hasn't been fully integrated/made functional yet. (I could be wrong, but I do know that the driver source seemingly was only recently made available... )

Hope this helps.

EDIT:

Details of the two can be found on the OpenWRT Wiki:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/

(Last edited by javawolfpack on 27 Jul 2014, 16:17)

I would like to ask if linksys uploaded the source code or just an img file. Also would compiling these wireless drivers against the most recent kernel be beneficial? or would it be better to compile it against the 3.10 (which BB is compiled against)?

javawolfpack wrote:
lifehacksback wrote:

Hey eveyone, can someone clarify the difference btw AA and BB? I flashed both and the main difference Ive noticed is the SOC info. Any info is appreciated!

AA is the stable branch from OpenWRT

BB is the testing branch from OpenWRT (newer code but might not be fully tested)

Both from what I gather are still a bit unstable on the WRT1900AC as the wireless driver hasn't been fully integrated/made functional yet. (I could be wrong, but I do know that the driver source seemingly was only recently made available... )

Since the WRT1900AC wasn't released until a year after AA, AA does not run on it at all.

qasdfdsaq wrote:
javawolfpack wrote:
lifehacksback wrote:

Hey eveyone, can someone clarify the difference btw AA and BB? I flashed both and the main difference Ive noticed is the SOC info. Any info is appreciated!

AA is the stable branch from OpenWRT

BB is the testing branch from OpenWRT (newer code but might not be fully tested)

Both from what I gather are still a bit unstable on the WRT1900AC as the wireless driver hasn't been fully integrated/made functional yet. (I could be wrong, but I do know that the driver source seemingly was only recently made available... )

Since the WRT1900AC wasn't released until a year after AA, AA does not run on it at all.

Maybe not upstream, but look at the git page it may be forked but AA works

greymattr wrote:

Hi All,

   We received the official open source wireless driver this week.  We will be working to get it integrated into the trunk in the coming days.   The ipk package was created and posted for those who wish to use it, but we are still very committed releasing a version that can be recompiled by users.  For those users with reservations about using a pre-compiled component, I would recommend waiting just a bit longer for the open source version. Once we have done some spot checks on the driver, I will see if I can get approval to post it as well ( no promises ).

So? Where's your update? 9+ days later & STILL we've gotten no update on this from you... >.>

(Last edited by jalyst on 28 Jul 2014, 07:29)

I think some patience would help. AFAIK noone is paying anything for the humble work the devs are doing.

Riffer wrote:

I think some patience would help. AFAIK noone is paying anything for the humble work the devs are doing.

Not at all, not in the context of how this entire thing's unfolded, with all that factored-in I & many others have had extraordinary patience.
We're past that now, we're past the "whisperings of sweet nothings", it's time for real & concrete actions/outcomes.

To be clear, naturally I'm referring to Belkin's side of the equation....
OWRT devs are still twiddling their thumbs whilst waiting for the aforementioned to "pull their finger out"...

(Last edited by jalyst on 28 Jul 2014, 09:02)

jalyst wrote:

To be clear, naturally I'm referring to Belkin's side of the equation....
OWRT devs are still twiddling their thumbs whilst waiting for the aforementioned to "pull their finger out"...

The orifice they have their fingers in must be extremely tight if they are taking this long to pull them out.