Voxel Custom firmware build for Orbi RBK50/RBK53 (RBR50, RBS50) v. 9.2.5.1.9SF-HW

[Voxel]

After updating to this firmware from stock NG MCS index went from 7 to 9. I'm noticing faster internal transfer rates.

It should be faster... One of main goal.

Voxel.

 

[Voxel]

Hi, I just instilled RBK50-V9.2.5.1.10SF-HW, and I am thrilled to see someone working on the firmware (optimizing, fixing CVEs, since netgear (or the company they outsource to) is doing a poor job. There is one thing that I would love to see fixed (if you start adding new features). Currently there is no way to see bandwidth breakdown by device! Any chance that can be added? Seems like a crazy omission (and there is a long chain on it on netgear's forum: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Id...h-monitoring-by-device/idi-p/1627368#comments).

Thanks!
w0den

I'll check.

Voxel.

 

[jarvismeier]

I noticed that the devices section is still broken as it is in the stock Netgear firmware (I’m showing a falsely disconnected satellite and 4 wired devices). Is this something you plan on tackling or will this need to be something you integrate from a future Netgear release?

 

[Voxel]

I noticed that the devices section is still broken as it is in the stock Netgear firmware (I’m showing a falsely disconnected satellite and 4 wired devices). Is this something you plan on tackling or will this need to be something you integrate from a future Netgear release?

Device section is controlled by NG/DNI package "attached-devices" and this package is in binary form, no source codes. I cannot change it much.

On the other hand it works just fine for me: I can see the real state of satellite and attached devices. But in my environment most of devices are connected to satellite, when router usually serves two wired devices. In previous versions (based on the stock 2.5.0.x) this section was served by other package "net-scan" and it was not OK and often displayed wrong information. Now I did not face any problems yet.

Voxel.

 

[jarvismeier]

It’s probably something leftover from the multitude of Netgear firmware upgrades. I’m also running my system in AP mode. When I have time I’ll try a factory reset to see if that clears up the issue.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Skooj]

Yes ussually they will not connecttion.
If it not work you can do another way:
Power on RBR50 waiting to led ring blink white.
Hold the reset button until power led blink orange or red something and use Tftpd64 to flash stock firmware

Thanks for the response! However, I am still unable to get it to take firmware via tftp. I had netgear walk me through the process over the phone and issue an
RMA device. Hopefully they do not see the custom firmware when they get the old one back...

However, I used your instructions here and it at least got me closer. I am able to ping 192.168.1.1 on that device, and the power led stops blinking when I attempt to PUT from tftp (windows and tftpd64), however, windows still times out with the connect request failed and tftpd64 just sits there and the red blinking led comes back. I've tried leaving it going for upwards of 10 minutes, which seems like it should be too long.

Either way, I appreciate the assistance!

 

[pantigon]

Thanks for the response! However, I am still unable to get it to take firmware via tftp. I had netgear walk me through the process over the phone and issue an
RMA device. Hopefully they do not see the custom firmware when they get the old one back...

However, I used your instructions here and it at least got me closer. I am able to ping 192.168.1.1 on that device, and the power led stops blinking when I attempt to PUT from tftp (windows and tftpd64), however, windows still times out with the connect request failed and tftpd64 just sits there and the red blinking led comes back. I've tried leaving it going for upwards of 10 minutes, which seems like it should be too long.

Either way, I appreciate the assistance!

please turn off windows Firewall Sir.

 

[Voxel]

Firmware ver: 9.2.5.1.10 has bug, after 15 days satellite can not connect to router, I can not remove satellite on router attached devices tab.

I am not sure that you are right. Mine is still working... I use this version (9.2.5.1.10SF-HW) more long time than others (18 days)... Let us see if somebody else signal something like this.

Voxel.

 

[exsmogger]

Same here. I've been using Voxel's latest firmware for over 2 weeks with no glitches. Most of my devices connect to the satellite router.

 

[gjkek]

Sorry I do not quite understand what you need. Guest network?

Voxel.

Its very similar to that. The idea behind is that you can have different WLANs per use case with different SSIDs and/or network address ranges. So you can move non-trusted smart devices into there.

 

[jarvismeier]

Its very similar to that. The idea behind is that you can have different WLANs per use case with different SSIDs and/or network address ranges. So you can move non-trusted smart devices into there.

a lot like enterprise solutions from Ubiquiti/Cisco/Aruba. I’d like to see vlan support and the ability to fire up more SSIDs.

 

[100won]

I am not sure that you are right. Mine is still working... I use this version (9.2.5.1.10SF-HW) more long time than others (18 days)... Let us see if somebody else signal something like this.

Voxel.

Disconnect satellite & router, router blink white and then restart they can not connect to.
I can not remove satellite in attached devices tab. So that I reinstall orginal firmware, router & satellite connect automatically.
It is very strange with 9.2.5.1.10 ver

 

[e38BimmerFN]

You may want to to do a full FW re-load of Voxels FW, then factory reset both RBS and RBR and setup from scratch.

What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between RBR and RBS to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected. https://kb.netgear.com/000036466/How-far-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite-from-my-Orbi-router

What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?

Try enabling Beamforming and MIMO(MIMO may or maynot be needed) and WMM. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings

Try disabling the following and see:
Armor, Circle, Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).

If any of this doesn't work or stock FW also fails to keep the RBS connected after 15 days, possible the RBS if faulty and needs to be replaced.

Disconnect satellite & router, router blink white and then restart they can not connect to.
I can not remove satellite in attached devices tab. So that I reinstall orginal firmware, router & satellite connect automatically.
It is very strange with 9.2.5.1.10 ver

 

[exsmogger]

Voxel,

A suggestion for your next release. Can the login timeout interval be lengthened? It's tiresome to have to keep logging back into the Orbi after only a couple of minutes of idle time.

Thanks,
exsmogger

 

[Voxel]

Voxel,

A suggestion for your next release. Can the login timeout interval be lengthened? It's tiresome to have to keep logging back into the Orbi after only a couple of minutes of idle time.

Thanks,
exsmogger

I am not sure that I am able to do that. This is inside CGI processing program and the last is in binary form (pre-built) in GPL sources from NG/DNI...

There are some specific files created by this program in /tmp. For example: /tmp/AUTH_logout_delay. You can try to play with it. For example when I changed it from "0" to "10000" after login to GUI, I could use at least 40 min. WebGUI of RBR50...

Voxel.

 

[exsmogger]

I'll play with that setting. Thanks for steering me in the right direction.

exsmogger

 

[gjkek]

Hello!

Is there a chance to get openvpn-client in this firmware like for R7800 and R9000?
I don't understand currently the limitations/requirements that cause this.

Thanks!

 

[Voxel]

Hello!

Is there a chance to get openvpn-client in this firmware like for R7800 and R9000?
I don't understand currently the limitations/requirements that cause this.

Thanks!

No technical limitation. But RBK50 has quad-core CPU Cortex-A7 717MHz. Keyword here is "717MHz". OpenVPN is using single thread so only 717MHz for its work. OpenVPN client will be slow. Compare: R7800 and R9000/R8900 have 1.7GHz for OpenVPN...

Promising is use of WireGuard. There are already many WG providers. WG is included into Linux kernel 5.6... Advantages of WG is multi-threads and kernel level VPN. So it will be extremely fast with Orbi. Keyword here is quad-core. 4 * 717 = 2868MHz (even vs OpenVPN 1700MHz R7800, R9000, R8900). Plus kernel level VPN. My tests show that Orbi is extremely fast using WG connection... Practically the speed of your ISP.

So I plan to add WG client to Orbi. Similar to

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/custom-firmware-build-for-r9000-r8900-v-1-0-4-38hf.61402/

Voxel.

 

[Simon Roberts]

I'm having what seems like a novice question:

1. Have flashed my RBR50 with latest Voxel firmware, rebooted and can ssh in, web GUI has changed a little, etc. All good so far
2. I formatted a USB disk and labelled it using the command from Readme:
   mkfs.ext4 -L optware -O ^64bit /dev/sda1
3. Unpacked entware-cortex-a15-3x-initial-generic.tar.gz into root of USB (created ./autorun ./entware)
4. But when rebooting, it mounts on /tmp/mnt/sda1 (rather than anywhere .../optware...) and doesn't seem to have run the autorun script?

What am I missing? And how to make /root persistent - so I can setup $PATH, ssh keys etc.
Thanks!

Edit: After a bit of debugging, I think /sbin/hotplug2.mount is creating the symlink /mnt/optware -> /mnt/sda1; copying /mnt/sda1/overlay to /, and maybe even running the automount script. Will check on next reboot.

 

[Voxel]

1. But when rebooting, it mounts on /tmp/mnt/sda1 (rather than anywhere .../optware...) and doesn't seem to have run the autorun script?

What am I missing? And how to make /root persistent - so I can setup $PATH, ssh keys etc.
Thanks!

There is a text file in the ZIP-archive with firmware for RBR and RBS. The name of this file is QuickStart.txt. It contains the answers to your questions. You are missing p. (3):

. . .
(2) Unpack entware-cortexa15-3x-initial.tar at the root of your stick/disk:
cd /mnt/sda1
wget https://www.voxel-firmware.com/Downloads/Voxel/Entware/entware-cortex-a15-3x-initial-generic.tar.gz
tar xf entware-cortexa15-3x-initial.tar
(3) Run the command from telnet/ssh console:
nvram set nocloud=1
nvram commit
(4) Create the file /overlay/root/ .profile to set PATH for Entware:
. . .

regarding Entware and the topic 2:

. . .
2. Overlay partition on USB.

Original stock firmware uses tmpfs overlay partition (in RAM). So all you changes in
. . .


Voxel.