Would you like to have support of DD-WRT for WRVS 4400N
Yes - and would donate for this
53%
[ 43 ]
Yes - I would consider this great
28%
[ 23 ]
No - Not really
17%
[ 14 ]
Total Votes : 80
Author
Message
cramer DD-WRT User
Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 52 Location: Raleigh, NC, USA, Earth
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 21:18 Post subject:
eduncan911 wrote:
Isn't the GNU license suppose to force the availability of these such sources?
Are you one of their customers -- and thus someone to whom they have provided a binary? The GPL does not require source code be made available to the world. The GPL is very clear on this point... everyone who gets a binary also gets the source. There's no restriction on redistributing the source, once you actually have it.
Isn't the GNU license suppose to force the availability of these such sources?
Are you one of their customers -- and thus someone to whom they have provided a binary? The GPL does not require source code be made available to the world. The GPL is very clear on this point... everyone who gets a binary also gets the source. There's no restriction on redistributing the source, once you actually have it.
Does the GPL require that source code of modified versions be posted to the public?
The GPL does not require you to release your modified version, or any part of it. You are free to make modifications and use them privately, without ever releasing them. This applies to organizations (including companies), too; an organization can make a modified version and use it internally without ever releasing it outside the organization.
But if you release the modified version to the public in some way, the GPL requires you to make the modified source code available to the program's users, under the GPL.
Thus, the GPL gives permission to release the modified program in certain ways, and not in other ways; but the decision of whether to release it is up to you.
And...
Quote:
What does “written offer valid for any third party” mean in GPLv2? Does that mean everyone in the world can get the source to any GPL'ed program no matter what?
If you choose to provide source through a written offer, then anybody who requests the source from you is entitled to receive it.
If you commercially distribute binaries not accompanied with source code, the GPL says you must provide a written offer to distribute the source code later. When users non-commercially redistribute the binaries they received from you, they must pass along a copy of this written offer. This means that people who did not get the binaries directly from you can still receive copies of the source code, along with the written offer.
The reason we require the offer to be valid for any third party is so that people who receive the binaries indirectly in that way can order the source code from you.
I can see your point. They wrote the code for their hardware, and not modifying existing GNU-protected code. So they may be free to restrict such releases. My take on it is any software you write for a GNU piece of software, classifies you as modifying that GNU software to begin with (i.e. Anything you write to run on Lunix). This would include applications and drivers for hardware.
Because, technically, the entire operating system is GNU. So anything you do to it, means you have modified it.
Come to think about it; can anyone name one commercial distribution of Linux (RedHat, Slackware, SUSE, etc) that doesn't include the source code to all drivers within?
Per the GNU, it has to be there. My post above explains that while, no, I am not not one of their customers to obtain the source (from Marvel and other 3rd parties); LinkSys does have the source and per the GNU license of Linux, must make those sources available in the distributions - even the drivers for the 3rd parties.
Come to think about it; can anyone name one commercial distribution of Linux (RedHat, Slackware, SUSE, etc) that doesn't include the source code to all drivers within?
The official ATI Radeon drivers for Linux do not include source code since ATI/AMD does not want to expose their "secrets".
So I think you can write software to run under Linux but still keep it closed-source if you wish. In fact, there's lots of examples of such.
I'll agree with that. So let me guess though, are the ATI Radeon drivers a seperate download - and they are not distributed with Linux? Or are they are a seperate download? My point being Linksys distributes Linux with those drivers.
Eh, doesn't matter now. I just got my 4400 this week and was very disappointed to find out it doesn't support the 5Ghz 802.11n band. A quote from their 2nd level tech support, "Yes the hardware has dual radios like the WRT600N, but only one is in use at this time. The next hardware revision will enable that 2nd radio, and 5Ghz. Unfortunantly, there won't be a firmware upgrade for the first revision as the hardware is different."
That ticked me off, and it is now returned.
Transient wrote:
eduncan911 wrote:
Come to think about it; can anyone name one commercial distribution of Linux (RedHat, Slackware, SUSE, etc) that doesn't include the source code to all drivers within?
The official ATI Radeon drivers for Linux do not include source code since ATI/AMD does not want to expose their "secrets".
So I think you can write software to run under Linux but still keep it closed-source if you wish. In fact, there's lots of examples of such.
I was given a WRVS4400N from a friend the other day, new in the box. I was trying to set it up so my already working WRT54G (bridge) setup would see the new WRVS4400N. The brided WRT54G is used with my Multimedia system. At this time I am using two WRT54Gs one with dd-wrt firmware (Bridge) and the other has the linksys stock firmware. This setup is working fine. I would like to free up the stock WRT54G for another firmware upgrade to the dd-wrt firmware.
What do I need to do to the WRVS4400N so the WRT54G (bridge) will see it, is there any specific setup with this type of router?
After all this time, will there be any consideration for firmware for this popular device?
This way we can dump the buggy WRVS4400N firmware.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Linksys WRVS4400N is a vastly different architecture from most existing routers because it uses two CPUs. The STAR 9109 System-on-a-Chip boots Linux and have access to 32MB RAM, connected to the Marvell WLAN chipset, runs hostapd, handles encryption, and is connected to the main CPU via the internal Gigabit bridge.
The main CPU is a STAR 9202, which is connected to a Vitesse VSC7385 (SparX G5) Managed GigE switch. The main CPU handles 64MB of RAM and 8MB of flash. Also interesting is that the 9202 has a hardware CPU/ASIC dedicated to NAT and a hardware Layer-7 intrusion protection system and firewall capable of inspecting 30MB/s of packets which is powered by Broadweb SigXEL. It actually runs two operating system instances, one on each CPU with gigabit communication between the two internal systems.
Notice that the second CPU actually runs its own Linux kernel. How would you access that second system? Easy -- sendcmd. Check out the two different kernels.
Quote:
# sendcmd "cat /proc/version"; cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.4.27-star (root@localhost.localdomain) (gcc version 3.3.6) #2 Tue Sep 4 11:11:21 CST 2007
Linux version 2.4.27-star (root@localhost.localdomain) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #143 Tue Sep 4 11:09:43 CST 2007
Here is ps, free, and some proc output from both "CPUs".
Quote:
# ps
PID Uid VmSize Stat Command
1 root 328 S init
2 root SW [keventd]
3 root RWN [ksoftirqd_CPU0]
4 root SW [kswapd]
5 root SW [bdflush]
6 root SW [kupdated]
39 root 292 S /sbin/klogd
79 root 516 S /usr/sbin/mini_httpd -d /tmp/www -r Linksys WRVS4400N
86 root 412 S /usr/sbin/udhcpd /etc/udhcpd.conf
94 root 1120 S /usr/sbin/switch_app
98 root 596 S /usr/sbin/cli
99 root 340 S /usr/sbin/crond
101 root 228 S /usr/sbin/scfgmgr
103 root 220 S /usr/sbin/monitor init
106 root 216 S /usr/sbin/cmd_agent_ap
110 root 204 S /usr/sbin/pb_ap
193 root 224 S /usr/sbin/download
211 root 784 S ipsd
297 root 356 S /bin/radvd
713 root 356 S /bin/sh
2033 root 372 S /sbin/syslogd -f /etc/syslog.conf -R 192.168.1.198:51
9604 root 536 S /usr/sbin/pppd plugin pppoe eth1
9680 root 320 S /usr/sbin/ntp -z GMT-5 0 14 -h 192.5.41.40
10275 root 308 S /usr/sbin/routed -v 2 -s
10293 root 252 S /bin/dhcp6-serv
10961 root 428 S /usr/local/libexec/ipsec/pluto --secretsfile /etc/ips
10964 root 336 S N pluto helper # 0
10965 root 168 S _pluto_adns
10967 root 896 S /usr/sbin/snmp -f
10971 root 264 S /usr/sbin/reaim
11095 root 212 S /usr/sbin/IGMPProxy -n ppp0
11302 root 268 S N /usr/sbin/utelnetd -p 9023 -l /bin/sh -d
11684 root 428 S N /bin/sh
11696 root 316 R N ps
# sendcmd "ps"
PID Uid VmSize Stat Command
1 root 272 S init
2 root SW [keventd]
3 root RWN [ksoftirqd_CPU0]
4 root SW [kswapd]
5 root SW [bdflush]
6 root SW [kupdated]
26 root 224 S /bin/recvcmd
29 root 316 S /bin/sh
94 root 372 S /usr/sbin/hostapd -dB /tmp/marvell.conf
2156 root 308 S sh -c ps
2157 root 284 R ps
# cat /proc/cpuinfo
Processor : FA526id(wb) rev 1 (v4l)
BogoMIPS : 153.60
Features : swp half thumb
Hardware : STAR_STR9100
Revision : 0000
Serial : 0000000000000000
# sendcmd "cat /proc/cpuinfo"
Processor : FA526id(wb) rev 1 (v4l)
BogoMIPS : 176.94
Features : swp half thumb
Hardware : STAR_STR9100
Revision : 0000
Serial : 0000000000000000
# lsmod
Module Size Used by
qr 10240 0
kris 562304 0
led 3824 0
lldp_mod 101752 2
push_button 1320 0
# sendcmd "lsmod"
Module Size Used by
led 2264 0
ap85 568488 1
In case you were wondering, Kris is the Intrustion Protection System which runs on CPU0. AP85 is the WLAN drivers that run on CPU1 along with hostapd to handle encryption. The interface to the hardware accelerated stuff is all via /proc/str9100/* and /proc/star* on both Linux instances.
Finally, if you want to send files from Linux running on CPU0 to Linux running on CPU1 you can do so via sendcmd, the interface is `sendcmd "remotefilepathname" "localfilepathname" and it'll be sent to the second CPU.
Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2011 5:20 Post subject: Any tiny bit of information would help
Has there been any further discussion on supporting this router. I honestly love it and would hate to have to replace it. What is the hold-up in supporting this device? It goes without saying I'm willing to donate a substantial amount of money to have this device supported.
Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 8:51 Post subject: Is a Cisco WRVS4400N V2 needed for this project.
I have so many of these lying around my IT office. We are dying to get DD-WRT on these so that can serve some kind of purpose. They currently are not very stable or useful.
Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 10:42 Post subject: Re: Is a Cisco WRVS4400N V2 needed for this project.
jtslade wrote:
I have so many of these lying around my IT office. We are dying to get DD-WRT on these so that can serve some kind of purpose. They currently are not very stable or useful.
I would send one out tomorrow if it would help?
I spent a lot of time with Cisco support to prove them that they have some software issues, and then they claimed that they will not fix it as the product is end of life.
If you do not get dd-wrt for it, you may try to find some suckers to buy it from you, or else just scrap it.
The lesson is to buy routers that are supported by dd-wrt to start with, so we don't have to end up begging for it. I myself would have bought only Buffalo routers, unfortunately they are not sold in my country.