Gluon 2020.1

This is the first release of Gluon in 2020, based on OpenWrt 19.07. It introduces the ath79 target, which will replace ar71xx in the short term.

Added hardware support

ath79-generic

  • devolo WiFi pro 1200e
  • devolo WiFi pro 1200i
  • devolo WiFi pro 1750c
  • devolo WiFi pro 1750e
  • devolo WiFi pro 1750i
  • devolo WiFi pro 1750x
  • GL.iNet GL-AR300M-Lite
  • OCEDO Raccoon
  • TP-Link Archer C6 v2

ipq40xx-generic

  • Aruba AP-303
  • Aruba Instant On AP11
  • AVM FRITZ!Repeater 1200

ipq806x-generic

  • Netgear R7800

lantiq-xway

  • AVM FRITZ!Box 7312
  • AVM FRITZ!Box 7320
  • AVM FRITZ!Box 7330
  • AVM FRITZ!Box 7330 SL

lantiq-xrx200

  • AVM FRITZ!Box 7360 (v1, v2)
  • AVM FRITZ!Box 7360 SL
  • AVM FRITZ!Box 7362 SL
  • AVM FRITZ!Box 7412

mpc85xx-p1020

  • Enterasys WS-AP3710i
  • OCEDO Panda

ramips-mt7620

  • TP-Link Archer C2 (v1)
  • TP-Link Archer C20 (v1)
  • TP-Link Archer C20i
  • TP-Link Archer C50 (v1)
  • Xiaomi MiWifi Mini

ramips-mt7621

  • Netgear EX6150 (v1)
  • Netgear R6220

ramips-mt76x8

  • GL.iNet VIXMINI
  • TP-Link TL-MR3020 (v3)
  • TP-Link TL-WA801ND (v5)
  • TP-Link TL-WR902AC (v3)

Removed hardware support

  • ALFA Network Hornet-UB [1]
  • ALFA Network Tube2H [1]
  • ALFA Network N2 [1]
  • ALFA Network N5 [1]
[1](1, 2, 3, 4) The kernel partition on this device is too small to build a working image.

Major changes

OpenWrt 19.07

Gluon v2020.1 is the first release to use OpenWrt 19.07. All targets therefore use Linux 4.14.166.

batman-adv compat v14 removal

Support for the long deprecated compat 14 version of batman-adv has been dropped. Communities still using this version should migrate to batman-adv using the scheduled domain switch.

IBSS wireless mesh removal

Support for the IBSS wireless protocol has been dropped. Communities still using IBSS are suggested to migrate to 802.11s using the scheduled domain switch.

Performance enhancements

We install zram-swap by default on ar71xx devices with 8MB of flash and 32MB of RAM.

Renamed targets

  • The ipq40xx target was renamed to ipq40xx-generic.
  • The ipq806x target was renamed to ipq806x-generic.

Status Page

  • Gateway nexthop information has been added to the statuspage when batman-adv is used. This includes its MAC address and prettyname as well as the interface name towards the selected gateway.
  • The site name has been added to the statuspage. If the node is in a multidomain setup it will also show the domain name.

DECT button to enter config mode

Many AVM devices don’t feature a separate RESET/WPS button, therefore starting this release we support entering the config mode via DECT buttons.

X86 partition size

The x86 partition size has been reduced to fit on disks with a capacity of 128 MB.

Bugfixes

Autoupdater aliases

We have added several new aliases for autoupdater compatibility on the following devices:

  • Ubiquiti UniFi AC LR
  • Raspberry Pi

Site changes

site.mk

  • The GLUON_WLAN_MESH variable can be dropped, as 802.11s is the only supported wireless transport from now on.

Internals

Linting Targets

Support for linter make targets was added.

  • make lint
  • make lint-sh to only check shell scripts
  • make lint-lua to only check lua scripts

These require the shellcheck and luacheck tools. The docker image has been updated accordingly.

Continuous integration

We have implemented continuous integration testing using Jenkins and thereby ensure that all lua and shell scripts are linted, that the documentation still builds and warnings are highlighted, and that Gluon still compiles, by testing a build on the x86_64 target. We expect this to significantly improve the feedback cycle and quality of contributions.

Known issues

  • Upgrading EdgeRouter-X from versions before v2020.1.x may lead to a soft-bricked state due to bad blocks on the NAND flash which the NAND driver before this release does not handle well. (#1937)

  • LEDs on TP-Link Archer C5 v1 and Archer C7 v2 are not working after Upgrade to v2020.1 (#1941)

  • AVM FRITZ!WLAN Repeater 450E is stuck in failsafe mode. (#1940)

  • Out of memory situations with high client count on ath9k. (#1768)

  • 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.
      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.

  • 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).

  • Inconsistent respondd API (#522)

    The current API is inconsistent and will be replaced eventually. The old API will still be supported for a while.

  • Frequent reboots due to out-of-memory or high load due to memory pressure on weak hardware especially in larger meshes (#1243)

    Optimizations in Gluon 2018.1 have significantly improved memory usage. There are still known bugs leading to unreasonably high load that we hope to solve in future releases.