Is the warning on the R7000 crashes for June 2022 correct?

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tedm
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2022 5:41    Post subject: Is the warning on the R7000 crashes for June 2022 correct? Reply with quote
In the following:

https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Netgear_R7000#How_to_install

"Stability: There have been observations of poor stability with ddwrt on r7000 (observed with builds from June 2022). Various users reported kernel crashes and reboots within a week or two of uptime. It is possible that the issue is with SFE/CTF, but without them gigabit speeds are impossible. Until ddwrt stability improves there are 3 solutions:

1) Load older (pre 2022) builds until a stable build is found.

2) Disable CTF/SFE and observe stability (uptime of 1 month + without crashes is considered stable). This is only advisable with connections up to 500 Megabit, faster connections may get throttled.

3) Load alternate firmware. FreshTomato, as of build 2022.3 supports CTF (Advanced -> Miscellaneous) and has been tested to have multi month uptime without any issues. This is likely due to FreshTomato utilizing same linux kernel as Netgear, which is more compatible with CTF."

Is this still accurate?

I have searched the forum and all I am finding on these alleged crashes are a bunch of threads from people who have updated firmware, NOT done a factory reset after updating, then reporting "bunch of crashes" which then disappear after factory reset.

I've run the March 2022 firmware on the R7000 with FA/CTF enabled no issues I can tell but I haven't done a lot of testing. Kernel version seems to be same as from a year earlier but then seems to be changing in later builds.

The warning seems a bit speculative and does NOT list what the author thinks is the affected kernels, does not list any forum discussion, and just sort of hand-waves to say "use a pre 2022 build" even though several months of 2022 use the same exact kernel as used in 2021. It also makes a very odd claim:

"This is likely due to FreshTomato utilizing same linux kernel as Netgear, which is more compatible with CTF."

What exactly does "the same linux kernel as Netgear" even mean?

I have 2 R7000's and 1 R7000p on my test bench and I'd like to take a look at this but before spending more time on it, I want to know if this is a known bug or issue that has already been discussed and I'm just missing the thread.

Thanks!
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egc
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2022 7:05    Post subject: Reply with quote
The R7000 is Broadcom Northstar just like a lot of other very popular routers.

If there would be problems with this platform I would expect the forum to explode.

My Netgear R6400 v2 has been up for weeks running recent builds.

My R7000 is running also with CTF+FA enabled but is used as a test bed, so seldom runs longer than a week and is lightly used but has no problems, I just upgraded to alpha build 50755.

About CTF+FA and Kernel modules, Fresh Tomato and Netgear stock are stuck on Kernel 2.6, DDWRT upgraded to Kernel 4.4 already some time ago

I regularly look in the build threads and have not seen anything out of the ordinary.

P.S. Recent builds have an OpenVPN import utility to import settings, the upcoming build also has an OpenVPN export utility to export client settings.

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kernel-panic69
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2022 17:48    Post subject: Reply with quote
Please do not take "Duxa" and his edits to that wiki to any degree of seriousness.

https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php?title=Netgear_R7000&action=history

https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/search.php?search_author=Duxa

No further comment.

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egc
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2022 18:08    Post subject: Reply with quote
Is this his (Duxa's) writing in the wiki?:
Quote:
3) Load alternate firmware. FreshTomato, as of build 2022.3 supports CTF (Advanced -> Miscellaneous) and has been tested to have multi month uptime without any issues. This is likely due to FreshTomato utilizing same linux kernel as Netgear, which is more compatible with CTF.

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Routers:Netgear R7000, R6400v1, R6400v2, EA6900 (XvortexCFE), E2000, E1200v1, WRT54GS v1.
Install guide R6400v2, R6700v3,XR300:https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=316399
Install guide R7800/XR500: https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=320614
Forum Guide Lines (important read):https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=324087
kernel-panic69
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2022 18:26    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yes. Here's the version of @jwh7's last edit:

https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php?title=Netgear_R7000&oldid=55001

Everything after that is all "Duxa". All conjecture and speculation without proof of concept and should not be in our wiki.

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egc
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2022 18:44    Post subject: Reply with quote
kernel-panic69 wrote:
Yes. Here's the version of @jwh7's last edit:

https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php?title=Netgear_R7000&oldid=55001

Everything after that is all "Duxa". All conjecture and speculation without proof of concept and should not be in our wiki.


Agree, that should not be in the wiki at all.

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the-joker
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2022 18:50    Post subject: Re: Is the warning on the R7000 crashes for June 2022 correc Reply with quote
tedm wrote:
What exactly does "the same linux kernel as Netgear" even mean?


Means kernel 2.6, But as already said the person who made the edits knows not the technical aspects as does no one else who hasn't read the closed source code, which is very few people have, unless you binwalk the modules and know what the hell you're reading.

CTF and all related crap bypass some key parts if netfilter kernel crap, as long as newer kernels netfilter remains valid for newer kernels and braocodms patches to netfilter exist then it should work in theory. I cant really say with any certainly since I only have tested regular CTF (for a laugh and because it improves br0 performance and thus any wifi interfaces under it) and never had any such crashes.

My router is pretty much identical to the r7000 as its a RT-AC68U except the netgear CFE is different the hw however is tit for tat.

In fact I could flash the r7000 FW on mine straight up, not going to however.

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kernel-panic69
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2022 20:00    Post subject: Reply with quote
Linux 2.6.36.4, to be exact:

https://bitbucket.org/pedro311/freshtomato-arm/src/arm-master/release/src-rt-6.x.4708/linux/linux-2.6.36/Makefile

The included ctf.o / ctf.ko in stock / FreshTomato is compiled with an older Linux 2.6 uClibc toolchain (FT actually now has a patched uClibc toolchain to build the firmware images), whereas the module included in DD-WRT is compiled against the currently-used Linux 4.4.302-st25 kernel with a musl toolchain, most likely.

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tedm
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2022 17:56    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks, I made a quick update to the R7000 installation wiki referring to this thread.

I won't have time to do uptime testing until December but I'll do it then and post more updates to the install wiki for the r7000

FreshTomato does have some support for certain older MIPS devices that dd-wrt does not support so for that reason I have used it on some devices.

It does appear that K26 support is waning in the latest dd-wrt versions, I noticed for example all later year K26 builds this year are mini only. This is a concern with older linksys "ashtray" routers, for example. I use those for client bridges since the client bridge code disappeared for most devices some time ago.
the-joker
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2022 19:12    Post subject: Reply with quote
Its not easy being cheesy.

And supporting X amount of kernels and ashtray routers as you call them and another umpteen routers with multiple kernels. But its easy to make remarks like this one, hence done -- enjoy and smile.

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egc
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 03, 2022 6:48    Post subject: Reply with quote
tedm wrote:
Thanks, I made a quick update to the R7000 installation wiki referring to this thread.

I won't have time to do uptime testing until December but I'll do it then and post more updates to the install wiki for the r7000

FreshTomato does have some support for certain older MIPS devices that dd-wrt does not support so for that reason I have used it on some devices.

It does appear that K26 support is waning in the latest dd-wrt versions, I noticed for example all later year K26 builds this year are mini only. This is a concern with older linksys "ashtray" routers, for example. I use those for client bridges since the client bridge code disappeared for most devices some time ago.


It is only the really old MIPS 32/4 MB which are stuck on K2.6 (as is Fresh Tomato) a lot of the older MIPS can run K4.4 builds which is preferred:
https://download1.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/betas/2022/11-02-2022-r50786/broadcom_K3X/

There certainly is still support for K2.6 but there are not many users upgrading to newer builds and reporting in the build threads if they do and signal problems they are addressed.
About 2 months ago a user of an Linksys E1000 reported DNSMasq problems after an upgrade of DNSmasq.
It turned out DNSMasq was no longer backwards compatible with K2.6 and BS spend most of a day backporting and fixing this.

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Routers:Netgear R7000, R6400v1, R6400v2, EA6900 (XvortexCFE), E2000, E1200v1, WRT54GS v1.
Install guide R6400v2, R6700v3,XR300:https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=316399
Install guide R7800/XR500: https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=320614
Forum Guide Lines (important read):https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=324087
kernel-panic69
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 03, 2022 15:51    Post subject: Reply with quote
tedm wrote:
Thanks, I made a quick update to the R7000 installation wiki referring to this thread.

I won't have time to do uptime testing until December but I'll do it then and post more updates to the install wiki for the r7000

Thanks for adding that. Keep in mind, whatever you do may or may not make it to final revision of that device wiki. All device wikis will be standardized at some point.

tedm wrote:
FreshTomato does have some support for certain older MIPS devices that dd-wrt does not support so for that reason I have used it on some devices.

DD-WRT Official and FreshTomato Official don't support (Broadcom) devices supported "unofficially", and as Forrest would say, "That's all I'm gonna say about tha-at." I've actually added a branch specifically to re-support K24 firmware images in FreshTomato for MIPSR1. That was a shitload of work, so was fixing the K24 toolchain.

tedm wrote:
It does appear that K26 support is waning in the latest dd-wrt versions, I noticed for example all later year K26 builds this year are mini only. This is a concern with older linksys "ashtray" routers, for example. I use those for client bridges since the client bridge code disappeared for most devices some time ago.

I informed BrainSlayer about missing mega and big K26 images, seems to be an on-again, off-again issue which should be resolved. In fact, big and mega images are in current release folder. Client Bridge is now Station Bridge across the board. You have to keep up with changes in labeling and terminology.

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