Mesh on dd-wrt, why not?

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Ric03
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 11:53    Post subject: Mesh on dd-wrt, why not? Reply with quote
Okay, first thing first: very long time no post but still onboard with my R7000 with extreme satisfaction.

Now, to fix some dead spots, I have bought an rt-ac68u to use it as AP on other side of home (overkill? Surely yes, but second hand was cheap so why not!!!).
And then I started thinking, other *wrt projects have some mesh support (I admit I'm not in the mesh knowledge, at least for the moment, so please be kind, don't throw artichokes in my face).

So I would like to make some questions. What stops dd-wrt from having some proper mesh support as well, maybe with the same fire and forget features of commercial mesh systems? What are minimum requirements? What would be the starting point? What the reasonable/feasible results we can expect? What the limiting factors?

I'm so sorry because I don't have time to invest in such project so I can't volunteer but I would be happy to team for debug and test.

Btw, looking to hear some guru opinion here, not meant to start a general all-in discussion which would soon become useless to properly answer the above questions.

Ric03
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ho1Aetoo
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 12:07    Post subject: Reply with quote
dd-wrt has 802.11s mesh support

maybe not on all devices but on Atheros routers it is probably available



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Ric03
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 12:34    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wow, I'm on r46979, Jun 21th!
Then it's my fault of being on such old build (can only say that "if it works, don't touch" Very Happy )
Now I'm excited to try it with the soon to arrive asus baby.

Thanks for the heads up and happy of being wrong on the topic!!
ho1Aetoo
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 12:57    Post subject: Reply with quote
The option has been available for 2 years.
If it is not available on your router then it is not supported.
kernel-panic69
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 14:05    Post subject: Reply with quote
I would have to check, but I do not think Broadcom firmwares support mesh.
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Ric03
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 14:38    Post subject: Reply with quote
Hmmm, unfortunately I strongly suspect not! In fact there's no such option in my R7000.
So the questions above still apply.
Not sure it is an hardware limitation as the rt-ac68u original firmware has aimesh.
kernel-panic69
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 14:45    Post subject: Reply with quote
And that firmware uses a Linux 2.6 kernel, proprietary binary blobs built against said kernel and has no direct relevance to DD-WRT.
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ho1Aetoo
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 15:43    Post subject: Reply with quote
Ric03 wrote:
Hmmm, unfortunately I strongly suspect not! In fact there's no such option in my R7000.
So the questions above still apply.
Not sure it is an hardware limitation as the rt-ac68u original firmware has aimesh.


You could inform yourself before you buy hardware.

Broadcom hardware is generally not recommended if you want to install 3rd party firmware on it.

This is because Broadcom does not provide any opensource drivers for its WLAN chipsets, but only precompiled binary blobs.

therefore the support for such devices is rather bad

you can also read about it at openwrt

Atheros and Mediatek are the far better alternatives.

https://openwrt.org/toh/netgear/r7000

https://openwrt.org/toh/asus/rt-ac68u


Quote:
Devices with Broadcom WiFi chipsets have limited OpenWrt supportability (due to limited FLOSS driver availability for Broadcom chips). Consider this when chosing a device to buy, or when deciding to flash OpenWrt on your device because it is listed as supported. See Broadcom WiFi for details.


Quote:
Broadcom has not released any FOSS drivers. Broadcom doesn’t support open-source much at all.

Limited means: 2.4GHz only b/g available, and 5GHz doesn't work at all. There might be some exceptions, but the general rule is as written before.


the dd-wrt developer doesn't seem to be a big fan of it either
Ric03
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 17:00    Post subject: Reply with quote
Accept everything you said except the first sentence which sounds a bit supponent and rude to me.

What makes you think that I did not inform myself? (true is that I was informed about brcm lacks since ages, not about mesh intimacy with low level drivers) What about the many years I own R7000 with dd-wrt and no single problem? Can't I make a choice based on chipset stability and the great work of BrainSlayer and others on brcm devices?
Having already the R7000 and planning for an AP isn't this a good reason for choosing same chipset? And who knows maybe some day I will need to move one further away from a LAN socket and setup WDS.

And about mesh I just wanted to verify but that doesn't mean I'm ripping my hair for not having it as initial plan was anyway to setup the rt-ac68u as AP.

If brcm lack of openness is a showstopper for mesh implementation then ok, I think we have the definitive answer. Unless mesh routing can be implemented software side only, which I don't think as it probably requires handling of radio chips behaviour.

Anyway, thanks for pointing to the right answers. Cheers.
Ric03
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 17:02    Post subject: Reply with quote
kernel-panic69 wrote:
And that firmware uses a Linux 2.6 kernel, proprietary binary blobs built against said kernel and has no direct relevance to DD-WRT.


That's interesting lol that they stick to such old kernel Shocked
ho1Aetoo
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 17:33    Post subject: Reply with quote
sorry was not my intention

english is not my native language and therefore i try to express myself as short and clear as possible - i just lack the fluency in english language

just wanted to say, there must be a reason why mesh is not available on your router

if you look around on the board in the different subforums you will notice that e.g. WLAN functions are available everywhere (on atheros, marvel and ralink) except on broadcom

in the Broadcom forum there are also again and again reports that various WLAN channels are missing (only 2-3 5ghz channels are available)

personally i would rather buy other opensource friendly hardware than hope that additional features will be implemented at broadcom
Ric03
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 18:52    Post subject: Reply with quote
No problem, understood.

And yes, brcm has limitations, but believe me not so many like you mention 2-3 5 GHz channels as I assure you that on R7000 if you properly choose channel and sidechannels positions the choice of available bands spans over the entire range permitted by the set region.

Then, if some devs don't like brcm chipsets for the lack of openness, I fully understand that they push for more open systems.
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