Even Linksys site states black on white; "open source ready", " for the open source community ".
While the Linksys WRT1900AC provides an outstanding experience via SMART Wi-Fi immediately out of the box, advanced users can further modify the router, which will have Open Source firmware available from third-party websites such as openWRT.org. Developed for use with OpenWRT, an open source, Linux-based operating system, the router offers an additional layer of customization to suit an individual's needs.
In other words, Belkin alows 3rd party firmware brewing and installation. Other wise there can be a legal backlash; false advertisement, bait and switch.
Still not seeing any "smoking gun" that there's 0 progress on OpenWRT, as some have claimed.
If only they could point to one so as to validate their claims, it'd be tragic if it's definitely true.
Still not seeing any "smoking gun" that there's 0 progress on OpenWRT, as some have claimed.
If only they could point to one so as to validate their claims, it'd be tragic if it's definitely true.
But unless I've missed something, it still seems like a "to be continued" kinda thing.
Have only very quickly skimmed through both, will have a more leisurely read later.
Given the confusion that the mentions of OpenWrt support in Linksys press releases have caused, we would like to clarify the state of WRT1900AC support in OpenWrt and the ongoing collaboration with Linksys.
Members of the OpenWrt team have been in contact with Linksys for a while, discussing collaboration on device support in OpenWrt.
There had been no technical collaboration on device support until Belkin engineers posted a few incomplete patches in early April. These patches are currently being cleaned up, as they do not meet our quality standards.
The most important part that is still missing is a usable driver for the Marvell 802.11ac wireless chipset. Belkin is working on fixing this, but they have not given us an estimation on when such a driver will be provided.
The default firmware for this device seems to be using a proprietary driver provided by Marvell, which uses non-standard APIs for configuration. We don't know if Marvell will open source this driver, or will work on an alternative Linux driver. We believe that both approaches require a considerable amount of effort and time.
Because of these issues, we would currently recommend against purchasing this device until we have the missing pieces of software to make it functional with OpenWrt.
The Linksys press release claims that the device is "OpenWrt ready" and "Open Source ready". Given how much is still missing, and that not even the GPL code for this device was posted to the Linksys GPL code center, we consider these claims to be premature and unfortunately misleading.
Regards,
The OpenWrt Team
that coming from openwrt, surely the same would be for ddwrt
Thanks, I'll still closely re-read both threads, & follow any relevant mail-lists from now on...
If everything you say is accurate, then their entire approach to this product has been incompetent/unprofessional, & possibly even unethical.
yes and unfortunately i bought it under the media hype, and shoulda waited till the smoke settled, im sure there will be support eventually, its just gonna take time. very aggravating cause i was still rocking the old wrt54g router and waited upgrading for this router.
If everything you say is accurate, then their entire approach to this product has been incompetent/unprofessional, & possibly even unethical.
Do you have any reason to believe that it isn't accurate? Takes some time for it to sink in, does it?
The only sane thing for Belkin to do is to pull it from the shelves and release it in beginning of the autumn.
The should spend the time on:
- finalizing their own firmware so it have the same features as the competition instead of expecting openwrt to make it a functional router.
- Hire a freelancing openwrt developer for consultation and porting to openwrt.
It is obvious that the openwrt patches are created by Marvells design house and only passed on to openwrt devel mailing list by Belkin, none of those companies has the experience of doing an openwrt port.
I don't even understand the big hype about this router, the only outstanding features are the fast USB/SATA port and the cpu fan.
It is apart from that not different from an Asus RT-AC68U or a Netgear R7000 which both has the advantage of having wifi chips from the leading mfgr of wifi radios, the mfgr who set the 802.11ac standard.
Classy, real classy, stay classy...
Despite prior attempts to "paint a picture" that it's dead, it now seems that they haven't synced themselves correctly.
Unprofessional/incompetent? Absolutely. Dead? Wishful thinking on your part, perhaps.
Can it still die completely? Absolutely. Do we have enough info. to draw that conclusion yet? Apparently not.
Dead? Wishful thinking on your part, perhaps.
Can it still die completely? Absolutely. Do we have enough info. to draw that conclusion yet? Apparently not.
Did I ever said dead?
No, I said pull it and release it again in the autumn when it is ready for it.
When "they have synced themselves correctly".
When they have a router with a software that can stand for itself without OpenWRT.
When OpenWRT support is icing on the cake.
I don't even understand the big hype about this router, the only outstanding features are the fast USB/SATA port and the cpu fan.
It is apart from that not different from an Asus RT-AC68U or a Netgear R7000 which both has the advantage of having wifi chips from the leading mfgr of wifi radios, the mfgr who set the 802.11ac standard.
Some of your prior posts have oozed with that sentiment....
You've tried with every fibre of your being (short of placing a neon sign) to "cheer for the other team".
The fw does have a feature deficit, the UX however is snappy/usable & by all accounts is quite stable.
That (esp. the latter) isn't something that can be said for the others at the same point in their life-cycle.
Even today they're often problematic in terms of snappiness/usability or stability...
Accentuate the negatives & omit any positives, that's your "modus operandi" it seems, not sure why.