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OpenWrt: A Linux OS targeting embedded devices

(openwrt.org)
271 points pykello | 1 comments | 08 Sep 25 16:13 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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mifydev ◴[08 Sep 25 18:04 UTC] No.45171662[source]▶
OpenWRT is such a good os for a router - simple but configurable UI, works reliably, I wish router companies would just ship it by default
replies(2): >>45171681 #>>45190471 #
mifydev ◴[08 Sep 25 18:05 UTC] No.45171681[source]▶
But then you get annoying firmware providers like Broadcom who refuse to write OSS drivers for linux and a lot of work is being spent on the reverse engineering
replies(5): >>45171723 #>>45172019 #>>45172203 #>>45172879 #>>45175435 #
echelon ◴[08 Sep 25 18:08 UTC] No.45171723[source]▶
Can we accept a pragmatic world where we have OSS + binary blobs?

That's better than a fully commercial world or a fully "pure" world with no functionality.

replies(5): >>45171763 #>>45172498 #>>45172904 #>>45175467 #>>45176078 #
1. haukem ◴[08 Sep 25 23:27 UTC] No.45175467[source]▶
OpenWrt accepts binary only firmware running outside of the Linux kernel address space on the wifi chip itself. This matches what upstream Linux also accepts. This works well with most recent Wifi drivers. OpenWrt does not accapt binary only kernel modules or binary only userspace applications, they are very hard to maintain if you do not have the source code.

This works well with Mediatek and also Qualcomm and most other vendors.