Posted: Sun May 15, 2022 16:47 Post subject: What is experimental_driver for Netgear R8000?
Hi,
The firmwware download for Netgear-R8000 contains 2 sets of *.chk and *.bin
factory-to-dd-wrt.chk
netgear-r8000-webflash.bin
experimental_driver/factory-to-dd-wrt.chk
experimental_driver/netgear-r8000-webflash.bin
The experimental_driver directory doesn't exists for the Netgear-R7000 and yet I believe they have the same Broadcom BCM4709A0 processor.
Q1. What is the difference between the "experimental_driver" firmware and the "normal" one? Which one is recommended.
Q2. The Netgear R8000 is currently on original firmware 1.0.3.46-1.1.3.2. Do I need to flash the latest Netgear firmware 1.0.4.84 before flashing DDWRT factory-to-dd-wrt.chk file?
Q3. I'd like to setup this R8000 as WiFi access point (no router) to complement an existing R7000 WiFi Access Point. How to make the two WiFi APs to collaborate as a single WiFi network? What is this technique called? I guess I can disable DHCP, set WiFi mode as "AP", configure same SSID and pwd as the existing WiFi AP. But I am not sure if they will fight each other instead of collaborating.
Last edited by Tectonic Plates on Sun May 15, 2022 18:11; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 18 Mar 2014 Posts: 12915 Location: Netherlands
Posted: Sun May 15, 2022 17:13 Post subject:
Q1 The experimental driver is eh experimental, it is experimental in the wifi department the R8000 and R7000P use DHD bus (not my favourite).
Is the experimental driver better?
I do not know, I am staying away from those (R8000 and R7000P) routers
Q1 The experimental driver is eh experimental, it is experimental in the wifi department the R8000 and R7000P use DHD bus (not my favourite).
Is the experimental driver better?
I do not know, I am staying away from those (R8000 and R7000P) routers
Would like to get more opinion about that experimental driver. I've read about DDWRT no longer have access to Broadcom driver. But I don't know if this is still true and what is the real impact from the end-user point of view.
Thanks. So WDS (Wireless Distribution System) that is! The link you suggests has a warning:
Quote:
WDS extend the Wireless access area using more routers connected WIRELESSLY. WDS is a mesh network. Routers must almost always have the SAME chipset type for WDS to work, and any non dd-wrt routers must be WDS compatible. Using identical routers is best, but not always necessary if all devices have the same chipset types. (All Broadcom or all Atheros etc)
This page NETGEAR R8000 Nighthawk X6 First Look shows that R7000 and R8000 have different chips model number for WiFi radio ( Broadcom BCM43602 vs Broadcom BCM4360 and Skyworks SKY85309-11 vs Skyworks SE2623L). I didn't test yet but are they within tolerance of WDS standards (different chip models but same manufacturer)?
Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 14244 Location: Texas, USA
Posted: Sun May 15, 2022 21:33 Post subject:
WDS doesn't work on Broadcom ARM devices in DD-WRT.
Quote:
• WDS does not work on Broadcom ARM devices (only MIPS<->MIPS) & bridge modes on k4.4 devices may sometimes work
in some configurations for certain builds but are not supported by the bcmdhd driver. Try client or repeater modes, but YMMV.
A little more due diligence (and reading in the forum and wiki) on your part would be advised.
One more little help plase. What is the proper way to find relevant documentation in this forum?
I used the search function of the forum. Typed "experimental+driver" or "experimental driver". There are 180 pages returned. Scrolling through the titles, I think the subject of the posts is not about "experimental driver"
Look at the stickies (the first few important threads) in the relevant forum, for you that is the Broadcom forum as the forum guidelines will show you.
Look in the build threads if other users report about your router (and also report yourself)
...180 pages returned. Scrolling through the titles...
DD-WRT search "experimental driver r8000" and be sure to select "Search for all terms", "Display results as: Posts"
and "Return first 1000 characters of posts". As you can see, only 42 results from 3 pages and also very few reports.
Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2022 22:56 Post subject: R8000 wifi drivers issue?
egc wrote:
Unfortunately in your specific case the R8000 is not much used (because of the wifi drivers) so not many users who can share their expertise with this router.
Would you be able to elaborate on what you mean about the R8000 wifi drivers? What is the issue with the wifi drivers for the R8000 and how does it affect DD-WRT? I am considering flashing DD-WRT to this router and have been having trouble finding information on it in the forums like you mentioned.
Joined: 24 Feb 2013 Posts: 1634 Location: Belgrade
Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2022 6:23 Post subject:
@Tectonic Plates Q1
ddwrt broadcom experimental builds uses brcmfmac driver... brcmfmac has FOSS (Fully open-source support) and is developed and maintained by linux devs and community... about firmwares, there are couple of "branches"... there is
linux official, there is cypress and there is moded ddwrt fw
I am using experimental R8000 builds and I can tell you that is not for productional enviroment, yet... but it is stable... things like SU beamforming and similar features doesn't work... If you enter wrong regdomain-chanspec-tx settings wifi interface will disapear but if you know what you are doing it will work great for you How fast is going development you can see on
patchwork you will notice that Aren Van Spriel and couple of other broadcom senior developers contribute to it as well...
if you are trully linux-open source user I would allways reccomend you experimental build and brcmfmac... eventually brcmfmac will work as good as ath11k some day... for now I would call it "in development stage"...
on the other hand normal brcm builds uses closed source wireless drivers (binary blobs) which they are not allowed to redistribute freely (dhd)... everything works but you will never get wpa3 on dhd, managed frame protection FT etc... but on brcmfmac it is working, but disabled for the moment on ddwrt... so I guess it will be enabled one day:)