I just heard about this project by chatting with someone online.
I'm working a lot with another OpenWrt fork: https://github.com/freifunk-gluon/gluon
Please ignore my faked callsign, I actually don't have an amateur radio license. Without faking I could have created this thread only as a github issue which doesn't feel like the right place to discuss this topic:
What is your question
I'm curious:
What are your plans regarding support of new/modern hardware plattforms (targets)?
ar71xx/ath79 (and by extension ipq40xx) aren't going to stay around forever.
OpenWrt keeps on shifting towards Mediatek based targets because they actually work together with OpenWrt on hardware support while Qualcomm is rather working against them, I feel.
Mediatek/mt76 on AREDN doesn't support features like 5MHz channels, yet. afaik
Maybe you could talk to the OpenWrt/Mediatek devs involved (over openwrt devel irc; or linux-wireless or some other kernel related mailing list) to make that happen. (The way greearb made IBSS mesh support happen for ath10k-ct for the community)
Additional context
Why do you need new targets? Because old targets will eventually stop being sold/produced and fail because of age. This is a gradual process which Freifunk already fell victim to. You still have a few years to fix this, since Aredn hardware has a longer lifespan and is being sold for years longer than your typical consumer hardware people run at home.
You have to switch over to new targets eventually. So brainstorming this is essential for the project to last. Like for consumer hardware it will get harder and eventually impossible to buy new devices still using old targets. ath79 is dead for new consumer hw. ipq40xx and ramips-mt7621 will meet the same fate. Their high end successors mediatek-mt7622 and ipq806x are already fairly dead (not sold anymore since they are high end and high end switched faster).
Mediatek filogic serves low end as well as high end and is a potential candidate.
I feel like ath11k wifi: qualcommax-ipq807x (and by extension qualcommax-ipq60xx and qualcomm-ipq50xx) aren't good candidates, because Qualcomm is far from a future-proof thing for new targets. Regulatory Domain updates require firmware updates now (stupid management/legal decision, I bet. Firmware Updates have to be signed, so Qualcomm has the final say in how hardware can be used). The closed source firmware handles regdm now instead of the linux kernel (enforced by ath11k and ath12k). You can choose a country using iw, but I don't think much more than that. Firmware updates will probably be canceled by Qualcomm like they did for older targets -> that would lead to no regdm updates.
ath11k and ath12k have no open source firmware anymore. Candela Tech only developed open source firmware for ath10k (under NDA). I think the company Candela Tech might have switched to Mediatek as well (I couldn't find any source for that, this statement might be false).
OpenWrt devs like nbd that worked on ath9k in the past (opening up the atheros wifi firmware), have been working on mt76 since the shift to ath10k or around that time.
nbd held a talk in Dec 2015: _Wireless Drivers: Freedom considered harmful?_
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiUosbhR0Wo
https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/congress/2015/Fahrplan/system/event_attachments/attachments/000/002/854/original/slides.pdf
Regards
Djfe
I'm working a lot with another OpenWrt fork: https://github.com/freifunk-gluon/gluon
Please ignore my faked callsign, I actually don't have an amateur radio license. Without faking I could have created this thread only as a github issue which doesn't feel like the right place to discuss this topic:
What is your question
I'm curious:
What are your plans regarding support of new/modern hardware plattforms (targets)?
ar71xx/ath79 (and by extension ipq40xx) aren't going to stay around forever.
OpenWrt keeps on shifting towards Mediatek based targets because they actually work together with OpenWrt on hardware support while Qualcomm is rather working against them, I feel.
Mediatek/mt76 on AREDN doesn't support features like 5MHz channels, yet. afaik
Maybe you could talk to the OpenWrt/Mediatek devs involved (over openwrt devel irc; or linux-wireless or some other kernel related mailing list) to make that happen. (The way greearb made IBSS mesh support happen for ath10k-ct for the community)
Additional context
Why do you need new targets? Because old targets will eventually stop being sold/produced and fail because of age. This is a gradual process which Freifunk already fell victim to. You still have a few years to fix this, since Aredn hardware has a longer lifespan and is being sold for years longer than your typical consumer hardware people run at home.
You have to switch over to new targets eventually. So brainstorming this is essential for the project to last. Like for consumer hardware it will get harder and eventually impossible to buy new devices still using old targets. ath79 is dead for new consumer hw. ipq40xx and ramips-mt7621 will meet the same fate. Their high end successors mediatek-mt7622 and ipq806x are already fairly dead (not sold anymore since they are high end and high end switched faster).
Mediatek filogic serves low end as well as high end and is a potential candidate.
I feel like ath11k wifi: qualcommax-ipq807x (and by extension qualcommax-ipq60xx and qualcomm-ipq50xx) aren't good candidates, because Qualcomm is far from a future-proof thing for new targets. Regulatory Domain updates require firmware updates now (stupid management/legal decision, I bet. Firmware Updates have to be signed, so Qualcomm has the final say in how hardware can be used). The closed source firmware handles regdm now instead of the linux kernel (enforced by ath11k and ath12k). You can choose a country using iw, but I don't think much more than that. Firmware updates will probably be canceled by Qualcomm like they did for older targets -> that would lead to no regdm updates.
ath11k and ath12k have no open source firmware anymore. Candela Tech only developed open source firmware for ath10k (under NDA). I think the company Candela Tech might have switched to Mediatek as well (I couldn't find any source for that, this statement might be false).
OpenWrt devs like nbd that worked on ath9k in the past (opening up the atheros wifi firmware), have been working on mt76 since the shift to ath10k or around that time.
nbd held a talk in Dec 2015: _Wireless Drivers: Freedom considered harmful?_
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiUosbhR0Wo
https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/congress/2015/Fahrplan/system/event_attachments/attachments/000/002/854/original/slides.pdf
Regards
Djfe
