ASUS seems to closing it's support of open source

[Gitsum]

So I recently was going to try putting Untangle on my AC88U and started reading they're forums and found out that newer versions of the ASUS routers have different internal hardware specs now that don't allow the open source drivers to work. Same with DD-WRT. And it seems ASUS in not responding to either of these develpoers with help.
Hope we don't lose Merlin's work too.

 

[AndreiV]

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/asus-firmware-will-change-the-verification-method.32357/

 

[Gitsum]

I'm not talking about just installing different firmware. It's actual hardware changes that don't allow open source drivers to function.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=306449
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=306839
https://forums.untangle.com/hardware/37605-asus-rt-ac88u-not-booting-after-flash.html

 

[RMerlin]

This is a mixture of different things. Some of these are indeed related to the firmware format change of last autumn, and AFAIK none of these projects updated to the new required format.

Also, new RT-AC88U revision probably requires a driver/SDK update, which none of these projects most likely got so far. This leads to crashes at boot time.

And it seems ASUS in not responding to either of these develpoers with help.

Source? Since it was the Chinese New year holiday last week, most Chinese/Taiwanese companies were closed down.

Until someone can provide a serial log of what happens during boot, this is all pure speculations.

 

[Gitsum]

This is a mixture of different things. Some of these are indeed related to the firmware format change of last autumn, and AFAIK none of these projects updated to the new required format.

Also, new RT-AC88U revision probably requires a driver/SDK update, which none of these projects most likely got so far. This leads to crashes at boot time.



Source? Since it was the Chinese New year holiday last week, most Chinese/Taiwanese companies were closed down.

Until someone can provide a serial log of what happens during boot, this is all pure speculations.

The first post from DD-WRT forums shows code output of a kernel panic it seems.

And this post from the developer of Untangle.. https://forums.untangle.com/hardware/38010-asus-rt-ac5300-support.html

 

[sfx2000]

This is a mixture of different things. Some of these are indeed related to the firmware format change of last autumn, and AFAIK none of these projects updated to the new required format.

Also, new RT-AC88U revision probably requires a driver/SDK update, which none of these projects most likely got so far. This leads to crashes at boot time.

I would agree - and things are getting locked down - so it's really not a surprise...

Where things get weird is the Untangle stuff - as we start running into issues with Asus' FCC approvals with radiated devices - and there FCC has pinned themselves and the vendors into a tight corner...

Worst case is that Untangle might have to run Asus devices (and others) thru approval again....

(linksys might run into the same issue at some point with the WRT's, and then we have the whole TP_Link mess where they tried to do the right thing, and then FCC _mandated_ they open stuff up - which just makes for a regulatory mess)

 

[RMerlin]

The first post from DD-WRT forums shows code output of a kernel panic it seems.

First likely cause would be if they use an older SDK that isn't supported by newer revisions. Tomato for example will crash with a kernel panic if you try to load it on an RT-AC68U revision C1. Not due to any lockdown, but to their SDK not supporting the BCM4709C0 used by that hardware revision.

And this post from the developer of Untangle.. https://forums.untangle.com/hardware/38010-asus-rt-ac5300-support.html

Based on the time of his post, there's a chance he emailed them during the Chinese New Year holiday.

Asus has also been much slower at answering anyone for the past few months. This isn't due to them "dropping" open source support, more like everyone is overloaded with work these past months, in part due to the FTC settlement requiring them to make a lot of changes to their development process.

At this point, this is all speculation - I don't have any reason to believe that they would be "dropping" open-source support. Especially as they've always been one of the most open-source friendly manufacturers out there, even advertizing DD-WRT support on their own website.