Gluon 2023.1

Important notes

Upgrades to v2023.1 and later releases are only supported from releases v2021.1 and later. This is due to migrations that have been removed to simplify maintenance.

Note: Due to a bug, configuration is lost on upgrades from Gluon v2021.1.x on the x86-64, x86-generic and x86-legacy targets, returning nodes to config mode. If your network is still running a Gluon version older than v2022.1, it is recommended to skip v2023.1 and wait for the v2023.1.1 release.

Added hardware support

ath79-generic

  • Extreme Networks
    • WS-AP3805i

ath79-nand

  • GL.iNet
    • GL-XE300

ramips-mt7621

  • TP-Link
    • EAP615-Wall
  • Wavlink
    • WS-WN572HP3 4G

ramips-mt76x8

  • TP-Link
    • TL-MR6400 (v5)

Features

DNS Caching

DNS caching using the dnsmasq resolver is reintroduced.

See the DNS caching documentation section for details on how to enable this feature.

Cellular Modem Support

Support for using cellular data connections as the primary uplink connection has been added to Gluon. This is supported for hardware that comes with a built-in cellular modem. The required user configuration for the APN and SIM-PIN can be performed in the Advanced Settings in Config Mode.

To use this feature in config-mode, the web-cellular needs to be enabled in site.mk.

Interface Role UI

Interface Roles can now be assigned from the Network page of the Advanced Settings in Config Mode. This configuration is preserved on Gluon upgrades.

WireGuard Key Translation

This release adds a new mechanism for seamlessly translating existing fastd private keys on the nodes into equivalent WireGuard keys. The corresponding public keys can be translated separately on the servers. This mitigates the need to re-exchange public keys for communities when migrating to WireGuard-based VPN.

See the gluon-mesh-vpn-key-translate section for details.

Bugfixes

  • Custom channel lists using a radios channels UCI option are now preserved on upgrade in case gluon.wireless.preserve_channels is set.
  • Custom HT modes for radios are now preserved when gluon.wireless.preserve_channels is set.
  • Broken mesh links between MediaTek 11ax and Qualcomm 11ac hardware are worked around. (#2905)
  • Fixed a bug in the MediaTek MT7621 NAND driver that caused devices to end in a bootlooping state after the initial installation.

Minor changes

  • Images built for the x86 targets are now natively bootable on EFI systems without CSM or BIOS support modes.

    EFI support was found to break upgrades from Gluon v2021.1.x. It will be removed from v2023.1.x to be reintroduced in a later release.

Known issues

  • The integration of the BATMAN_V routing algorithm is incomplete.

    • Mesh neighbors don’t appear on the status page. (#1726) Many tools have the BATMAN_IV metric hardcoded, these need to be updated to account for the new throughput metric.
    • Throughput values are not correctly acquired for different interface types. (#1728) This affects virtual interface types like bridges and VXLAN.

  • Default TX power on many Ubiquiti devices is too high, correct offsets are unknown (#94)

    Reducing the TX power in the Advanced Settings is recommended.

  • In configurations without VXLAN, the MAC address of the WAN interface is modified even when Mesh-on-WAN is disabled (#496)

    This may lead to issues in environments where a fixed MAC address is expected (like VMware when promiscuous mode is disallowed).

  • Configuration is lost on upgrades from Gluon v2021.1.x on the x86-64, x86-generic and x86-legacy targets, returning nodes to config mode (#2967)