Modified firmware R7500v1 for use with Entware-ng and Debian

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Darts
Darts's picture
 

 

Hello Voxel!

First of all I would like to thank you for your work on the R7500 FW.​

​You probably think it's not a big deal but it is, really.

​I am about to test your modified FW (if I understood correctly you modified a base FW from netgear, one of the old ones as the new ones contains a bug) and I wanted to know if there is any special procedure (like the 30/30/30 reboot sequence for cisco) for the upgrade/downgrade or is it just as we do it like always via webgui?

​Best regards,

​D

Darts
Darts's picture
Nevermind, found your docx in

Nevermind, found your docx in your first package :)

 

(no edit option here?)

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Hi Darts,

Hi Darts,

First time it is necessary to do this 30/30/30 after flashing from WebGUI because I use in my latest FW drivers for Quantenna which are extracted from some unofficial stock FW. 

When you will upgrade from my version to my new version this procedure will be needed only if I warn.

The basis for my FW is really relatively old version of FW, but it is already significantly changed by me. So it is fresh :-)

readme.docx is outdated. It is necessary to update it, but I am too lazy. A bit later. So while it is not done, I am afraid you have to browse all this theme to understand what is in latest FW, what new features (like dnscrypt-proxy). 

 

Regards,

Voxel.

 

robysax
robysax's picture
Hi Voxel,

Hi Voxel,

I have installed your custom firmware 1.0.1.0.5, this is my feedback at day 4 :

1.  Dynamic QOS bug has been resolved, now I can run speedtest and activate it.

2. It seems that WiFi signal on 2Ghz and 5Ghz is better and more stable compared to previous firmware.

I have tried streaming, readyshare on many devices at the same time.

3. I have scheduled switch off 2Ghz and 5Ghz at 1.00am and switch on at 6.00am.

Router does not switch off WiFi, no logs is tracked for these events and now option to disable radio on scheduled time is dimmed.

I confirm that time on webgui and ssh console is correct.

Also others custom firmware had issues with scheduled WiFi.

 

Many thanks for your job, now R7500 is very improved than last stock firmware.

 

Regards

Robysax

 

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Hi Robysax!

Hi Robysax!

Wi-Fi schedule. It is strange. I did not touch scheduler in FW. To say true I do use now my new custom FW (testing, will be published soon), but as far as I remember I already tried to apply this Wi-Fi schedule with previous versions of my FW.

So, I tried to test, I set a schedule to turn off Wi-Fi (both 2.4 and 5) for a half of hour. An it works. Moreover, main page of WebGUI displayed the warning (Wi-Fi is OFF):
 

https://yadi.sk/i/F8Ohq_ButFTvj

Could you let me know your timezone to set it in WebGUI? Concrete TZ. There were several bugs in WebGUI, for example TZ for my city was wrong (Netgear bug). I corrected it, but maybe something is wrong for you TZ too.

Regards,
Voxel.

robysax
robysax's picture
Hi Voxel,

Hi Voxel,

I am from Switzerland, my timezone set on webgui is GMT+1 with option Daylight Saving Time active.

I also tried to schedule WiFi by crontab from ssh console but it doesn't work.

Thanks in advance for your support

Voxel
Voxel's picture
I publish new version of

I publish new version of custom firmware: 1.0.1.07SF.

The link is https://yadi.sk/d/WKHg4XCetJgqE

 

What is new (vs previous version):

1. Accelerated OpenSSL, assembler acceleration (i.e. improved performance of OpenVPN). Benchmarks (OpenSSL test):

previous version:

The 'numbers' are in 1000s of bytes per second processed.

type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes

md5               6484.94k    22414.88k    62388.40k   112649.90k   147072.43k

sha1              5612.70k    18752.30k    46857.16k    75064.01k    90426.03k

des cbc          21560.90k    22420.63k    22804.21k    22913.63k    22899.24k

des ede3          8423.97k     8586.75k     8673.35k     8615.25k     8665.99k

aes-128 cbc      43707.08k    48836.26k    50496.73k    50789.38k    50872.59k

aes-192 cbc      36966.49k    41938.32k    43277.10k    43413.85k    43606.65k

aes-256 cbc      34206.93k    36612.95k    37643.73k    37784.92k    37839.37k

sha256            6972.91k    17469.50k    32550.96k    41760.71k    45428.61k

sha512            1270.71k     5078.05k     7560.45k    10519.12k    11826.52k

                  sign    verify    sign/s verify/s

rsa 2048 bits 0.026332s 0.000678s     38.0   1474.8

                  sign    verify    sign/s verify/s

dsa 2048 bits 0.006750s 0.008101s    148.1    123.4

 

new version:

 

The 'numbers' are in 1000s of bytes per second processed.

type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes

md5               8145.73k    31676.98k    78349.40k   124663.61k   150228.68k

sha1             10928.72k    34788.88k    94729.02k   164864.34k   211435.52k

des cbc          21092.66k    22393.58k    22870.71k    22939.70k    23053.02k

des ede3          8586.80k     8702.14k     8796.61k     8856.37k     8870.44k

aes-128 cbc      63497.29k    70637.13k    73812.25k    73948.47k    74870.34k

aes-192 cbc      51884.68k    57350.49k    59327.96k    60090.21k    58730.55k

aes-256 cbc      44144.35k    47553.35k    49272.43k    49035.67k    48799.72k

sha256           18213.02k    45359.63k    83741.10k   107474.45k   116959.29k

sha512            6495.08k    25933.38k    33175.52k    53079.87k    61937.07k

                  sign    verify    sign/s verify/s

rsa 2048 bits 0.008295s 0.000178s    120.5   5613.6

                  sign    verify    sign/s verify/s

dsa 2048 bits 0.001678s 0.001969s    596.0    507.8

 

2. Yet another not needed packages are removed to save space.

3. I am not sure, maybe I made a mistake in previous version when I set YeAH TCP Congestion Control algorithm. Now it is really default.

4. Transmission (bittorrent client) is added to firmware. Can be run from WebGUI.

 

I updated readme.docx at the end of all. The link is the same https://yadi.sk/i/ipLqXywqqpz8b

You should read it re: how to use transmission from FW. (Don’t be surprised when reading, I intend to support R7800 too :-) )

 

Voxel.

 

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Hi Robysax,
Hi Robysax,
 
Switzerland, nice place. I was one time in Geneva. Conference.
 
OK, you are right, I could reproduce your problem. Seems that I found the
reason: daylight savings time checkbox. If it is checked in TZ settings page,
then the scheduler does not work.  Does not work at all, even with wrong time
shift.
 
But I am not sure that I can correct this. All this is managed by
precompiled binary from stock FW. I do not have source codes. So it is just
Netgear's bug.
 
Well. You can:
 
 
 
1. Try to cover the problem by selecting other (not your) TZ with GMT+1 but
without DST checkbox selected. And change it back in autumn time, when time will
be shifted again. Twice per year. And every time w/o daylight savings
checkbox.
 
or,
 
2. Install cron from Entware and try to use it. It should work. Not cron
from FW.
 
Regards,
 
Voxel.
robysax
robysax's picture
Hi Voxel,

Hi Voxel,

In these day I am trying your last firmware 1.0.1.07.

From ssh console, I have seen that file /tmp/dnsmasq.conf has cache-size=0, is correct ?

Is dnsmasq cache used ?

Where I can find dns names cached ?

 

Regards

Robysax

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Hi Robysax,

Hi Robysax,

 

I practically did not touch dnsmasq in FW, all as in stock FW. If you want to change dnsmasq config (e.g.replace cache-size=0 to say cache-size=1500) you should edit /etc/dnsmasq-resolv.conf file. And reboot router after your chages.

 

Regards,

Voxel.

robysax
robysax's picture
Hi Voxel,

Hi Voxel,

 

I have modified cache-size=8192 in /etc/dnsmasq-resolv.conf and now, internet browsing is more quick.

I think that it could be a default cache-size at least 2048 in the next release of your custom firmware.

Changed TZ to GMT+2 and disabled DST option in router GUI, scheduled WiFi works fine now.

 

Thanks for your job

 

Regards

Robysax

 

 

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Hi Robysax,

Hi Robysax,

 

OK, thank for your feedbacks. I already added cache-size to my "to-do" list. In the next release.

 

Regards,

Voxel.

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Hi all,

Hi all,

I publish new version of custom firmware: 1.0.1.08SF

 

The link is https://yadi.sk/d/6MURMb1Ttg3PT

 

What’s new (vs previous version):

1. swapon/swapoff/mkswap utilities are available in firmware. Now it is not necessary to install Entware-ng to make and enable swap file for Transmission, so you can use Transmission w/o Entware-ng installed. Swap file is enabled automatically if it is in: /opt/swap or /mnt/sda1/swap or /mnt/sdb1/swap (i.e. in the root of you external drive or in /opt). Independence from Entware-ng :-)

 

2. Cache is added to dnsmasq config file (thanks to Robysax for his suggestion).

 

3. dropbear version is updated (a lot of security fixes). 2016.73->2016.74

 

4. OpenSSL version is updated. 2.3.10->2.3.11

 

5. e2fsprogs version is updated to most fresh version (June 2016).

 

6. sysctl is updated with the sting:

net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control = yeah

 

7. Several not needed packages are removed (to free space for p. 1-5 above)

 

Voxel

Voxel
Voxel's picture
4. OpenSSL version is updated

4. OpenSSL version is updated. 2.3.10->2.3.11

Sorry, missprint. OpenVPN version is updates: 2.3.10->2.3.11

Voxel.

robysax
robysax's picture
Hi Voxel,

Hi Voxel,

I have installed your last firmware 1.0.1.08, so far all ok.

I can't see any difference from previous firmware with WiFi connections, speed etc.

In this firmware and previous, QOS works but is not possible to update database of performance optimization.

It's no big problem for me, actually I don't use QOS but, it's possible resolve this bug ?

 

Regarding my wishlist :

R7000 has Readycloud feature, do you think is possible to add it to R7500 in your next release ?

Is possible to align readyshare module to the same release of others Netgear routers ?

Any chance to update 2.4Ghz drivers ?

thanks in advance for your infos

 

Regards

Robysax

 

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Hi Robysax,

Hi Robysax,

The main difference with the previous version is that no Entware install is neede to use all FW features (namely transmission). In previous version you had to create swap and enable it using Entware. Now these toools are available in FW.

QoS: OK, I'll check. I did not pay an attention to QoS because I also do not use it.

ReadyCloud: I amd not sure. Really no space in firmware. I do not like much all these Netgear's add-ons, but will check. Rather from R7800 FW than from R7000.

ReadyShare. It cosists of Samba, FTP and HTTP protocols (plus minidlna somehow). I use Samba from latest release of FW for R7800. So it is most fresh Netgear's release. FTP - it is even more recent version. Stock FW (even latest for R7800 or R7500v2) uses ProFTP v 1.3.3. I replaced it by latest 1.3.5b adding also Netgear's specific changes. HTTP daemon - it is precompiled module. I cannot re-use it from FW of other routers. Minidlna - you know. the version 1.1.5 (2015) in my FW  vs version 2012 in stock FW.

Update of 2.4GHz drivers. I do not think that it is possible. Because of the fact that I use previous version with kernel 3.4.0, when updated drivers in stock FW (1.0.0.94) use the kernel v. 3.4.103. Plus and minus of Quantenna driver (5GHz) that it is encapsulated and de-facto the drivers is just single *.ko module. And thus I succeeded to correct this single module and use the version for 3.4.103 in the kernel 3.4.0. Qualcomm's drivers (2.4GHz) have a lot of *.ko modules. So most probably there will be brick if I try to use them. Again, the main problem is that latest official GPL for R7500 (with the version of kernel 3.4.103) is unusable. Spoiled wrong codes. Even broken symlinks inside archive.
 

Regards,
Voxel.

robysax
robysax's picture
Hi Voxel,

Hi Voxel,

Thanks for your quick reply.

In these days, I will do others tests and I will send you a feedback.

I think Readyshare is a bad module from Netgear, I obtain poor performance.

Tested with USB key with FAT32 and ext2 format attached to router, from PC Windows 10 via WiFi read/write is very slow and often it hang up.

If I want to switch to samba server on Entware-ng, I have also to switch mini-dlna of enterware ?

 

Regards

Robysax

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Hi Robysax,

Hi Robysax,

Please take into account that usually USB key is not very fast device. USB HDD or SSD would be much faster.
 

Regarding minidlna: if I am not mistaken you can use minidlna from FW without Samba. By unclear reason in adwanced options of ReadyShare it displays something like that you have to have samba userw/o password or so. But minidlna do not use samba. So you can use minidlna from FW and samba from Entware (switching samba in FW off).

 
Regards,
Voxel.

kylewu
kylewu's picture
HI Voxel

HI Voxel

Is there any possibility to change the original VPN "dev tap" to "dev tun"? becaus the tap setting can not support the IOS and Android. thanks.

Luki
Luki's picture
Hello

Hello

is there a chance to run the modem Huawei e3372s-153 on this router?
If so, how to do it?

 

 

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Hi guys, I kept silence

Hi guys, I kept silence because of problems with forum: cannot write anything here. One more attempt.

Kylewu:

TAP->TUN. Everything is possible of course. But I am not sure that everybody needs TUN, but not TAP. It is possible with e.g. Entware-ng. To have TUN (together with TAP). Why don't you try this way? With your own config. There are a lot of options in OpenVPN like accept client-to-client connection, forward all Internet stream through OpenVPN server or only client-to-client connection, etc. You own config is mor flexible for you, right?

Luki:

There is a theme
 

http://myopenrouter.com/forum/r7500v1-and-lte-modem

better to write there. I'll answer in the theme above.

Regards,
Voxel.

kylewu
kylewu's picture
HI voxel

HI voxel

you are right, however I do not know much about openvpn, I think I will try to set it up on Entware-ng. thanks.

Voxel
Voxel's picture
I publish new version of

I publish new version of firmware: 1.0.1.10SF. The link is:

https://yadi.sk/d/giNzfiaiudVcE

What is new (vs previous version):

1. QoS DB is updated (I used it from latest FW for R7800)

2. TCP congestion controls:

a. Now the following algorithms are available, user can select: westwood+ reno cubic vegas yeah Illinois

b. Default algorithm is weswood+ (testing purposes).

3. Some minor bugs made by Netgear are corrected.

4. I updated build tools to more fresh version. It is internal purposes (to build firmware). But might be something will be more stable.

5. Beta support of  LTE mode in hostless mode, i.e. HiLink (when plugged into your computer, it appears as an Ethernet device rather than a USB device). I.e. you use your browser to control this modem by its WebGUI, not "Connection Manager"

To use it you should attach modem to USB port, disconnect WAN cable and reboot router. If WAN cable is attached, router will operate as usual.

 

P.S. I often cannot answer anything in this forum. Problems with forum. So, maybe in P.M.

Voxel.

Danielos
Danielos's picture
Voxel,

Voxel,

good to see you made it with the LTE Mode Support. A long way but you got it Great ! I shouldn’t had sold mine than I could have this tested. This was the only reason for me to sell the Monster.

Good work Man !

rikko
rikko's picture
Hello Voxel,

Hello Voxel,

    I would like to know if it is possible (throught Entware-ng package in you custom firmware, )  to manage restriction of network access ( like DDWRT  - http://www.flashrouters.com/blog/2015/02/19/setup-dd-wrt-router-access-restrictions/ ) because the official FW is really not friendly and flexible.

 

Thanks.

 

Regards, Rikko

Mr.Ash
Mr.Ash's picture
Voxel,

Voxel,

 

I've probably encountered a problem with your current 1.0.1.10SF firmware version (it concerns the Tansmission function). When i don't use Transmission (leaving all settings to default after flashing the firmware) everything seem's to work fine. But as soon as i edit my Transmission settings (e.g. change download location, change service port) and upload a torrent file, the system seem's to crash totally after a few minutes. When this happens only WLAN and internet connection still works, but all other services like readyshare, mediaserver, web interface, etc. seem to be crashed. I can't even access the router anymore via web interface, nor is the router responding to any ping commands. The only solution i found to work is shut down & restart the router using the hardware on/off button on it's backside. After the router ist restarted everything works fine again and tTansmission settings are reseted to default again.

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Hi Danielos,

Hi Danielos,

Sorry for a silince. Vacations. Thanks for good words. Yes, I succeeded. Funny, we could do that a half year ago, the only left to do was to unload Netgear's NetUSB.ko module.... And to stop detcable service.

Regards,
Voxel.

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Hello Rikko,
Hello Rikko,
 
There is no something like a control center with of network access with own GUI in Entware as far as I know. There are a lot of packages in Entware (~2000), and most of them should be configured from console. What concrete restriction functionality do you need?
 
 
 
Regards,
 
Voxel.
Voxel
Voxel's picture
Hi Mr.Ash,

Hi Mr.Ash,

All depends on concrete settings you set. For example crash could be if you set target download location to internal flash memory of router, if you do not use swap etc. Are you able to send me transmission config file after you modified it? From /etc/transmission/ directory, settings.json file.

 

Regards,

Voxel.

rikko
rikko's picture
Hi Voxel,

Hi Voxel,

   Thanks to take in account my message. My request is to allow / block WLAN access  per mac adress / IP. The current option in the firmware allow the management of one list of client (allowed or blocked) but not client per client.

 

Regard, Rikko.

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