Joined: 02 May 2010 Posts: 53 Location: Seattle, WA
Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 21:57 Post subject: ath9k vs DD-wrt's MadWifi driver for all Atheros routers
Hello,
I purchased a Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH when I read the announcement of the Buffalo/DD-WRT partnership. I've been having problems with overall wireless N stability and performance with the router: stuck beacon errors leading to disconnection, large file transfers leading to disconnection, problems with certain clients on the network being connected to the router but being unable to access even the router's webgui while every other client continues to operate normally, etc.
Anyway, I've been playing with the router and various configuration options for close to a month now, switching between the latest dd-wrt revision, the latest buffalo firmware, and OpenWRT 10.03/trunk. One thing I've noticed is with OpenWRT I don't seem to ever have any problems with the wireless. Everything stays connected at a high speed.
DD-WRT appears to still be using a modified MadWifi driver with the Atheros closed-source hardware abstraction layer binary while OpenWRT 10.03 uses a relatively-recent version of the open-source ath9k driver and a more recent linux kernel.
My question is: has BrainSlayer or any other DD-WRT developer working on these Buffalo routers or any other router with an Atheros 9x wireless device looked into the possibility of ath9k being more suitable for use? Is there any way to enable it ourselves?
Can we get a firmware revision with this driver enabled for testing?
exactly want I want to know too.
The infamous beacon stuck of Madwifi bothered me a lot.
Open-wrt is not a choice for me since it doesn't support client repeater mode (or client wds) for Atheros devices. _________________ * US Robostics 5461
->Buffalo WHR-G125
->D-Link Dir-600 A1 (openwrt)
->Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH x 2
shame really, from my experience id have to say that dd-wrt is unstable to use with this router. im now back to stock firmware, the new 1.74 buffalo firmware has made the wifi very stable and iv had no issues with it now.
i cant see even the official dd-wrt for this router from buffalo being any better than the stock firmware in regards to wifi stability and speed. unless there is a dramatic change made to dd-wrt in the next few months.
you sure about that? the ath9k open source GPL states that closed source firmware cannot contain the ath9k open source driver. due to those restrictions dd-wrt cannot use it.
so since dd-wrt is mostly closed source ( due to management decision as you stated) the ath9k driver cannot be used without breaking licence agreement.
Joined: 02 May 2010 Posts: 53 Location: Seattle, WA
Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 21:42 Post subject:
Sash wrote:
management decision
How much of this decision has to do with sales of the SuperChannel feature? 100%? Are we stuck with an inferior and unstable driver because you guys want to sell a binary-only version of a firmware that is built upon years and years of GPL code?
Here's a quote from the press release: “With DD-WRT, we now deliver professional grade solutions at entry-level prices.”
I'm certainly not seeing professional grade wireless performance and I'm a bit miffed I bought into the marketing hype. Maybe we'll see some fixes but so far I'm not holding my breath. Very disappointing.
Joined: 28 Aug 2009 Posts: 248 Location: Dalmatia, Croatia
Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 12:44 Post subject:
pbuck wrote:
Sash wrote:
management decision
How much of this decision has to do with sales of the SuperChannel feature? 100%? Are we stuck with an inferior and unstable driver because you guys want to sell a binary-only version of a firmware that is built upon years and years of GPL code?
Joined: 13 Apr 2010 Posts: 32 Location: North Jersey
Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 21:42 Post subject: A Win-Win situation?
Could it be that DD-WRT will use some of the driver technology from Buffalo's WZR-HP-G300NH firmware when they build the version of DD-WRT firmware that is going to be pre-installed on the router being sold by Buffalo in July?
That might not be a bad idea since Buffalo's firmware seems to do a better job of supporting Wireless-N than the current DD-WRT firmware does for the WZR-HP-G300NH.
Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 21:52 Post subject: Re: A Win-Win situation?
ratickle wrote:
Could it be that DD-WRT will use some of the driver technology from Buffalo's WZR-HP-G300NH firmware when they build the version of DD-WRT firmware that is going to be pre-installed on the router being sold by Buffalo in July?
That might not be a bad idea since Buffalo's firmware seems to do a better job of supporting Wireless-N than the current DD-WRT firmware does for the WZR-HP-G300NH.
The Buffalo version of DD-WRT firmware should have all those issues solved (I hope), otherwise, there is no point for Buffalo to release a buggy firmware while current firmware is very stable.
Chances are:
1. DD-WRT for wzr-hp-g300nh reuses current driver in buffalo.
2. or DD-WRT fixes all the bugs related to MadWIFI driver and current Atheros HAL (which is not likely, since the bug is there for years, and users complained for years as well)
3. Buffalo will delay (or drop?) the DD-WRT release on WZR-HP-G300NH.
Personally, I liked DD-WRT very much several years back. However, DD-WRT slowly changed to something business oriented direction.
Management Decision? I am not sure why the management will agree to use some thirdparty with such buggy implementation. _________________ * US Robostics 5461
->Buffalo WHR-G125
->D-Link Dir-600 A1 (openwrt)
->Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH x 2
