Linksys WRT3200 Wireless Driver issues

[RogerSC]

I have no problems at all with the Marvell baseboard on the WRT's - it's as strong as they come - the WiFi drivers have been an ongoing challenge in the *WRT community, but I've heard they are improving a bit (the Kong private DDWRT builds, along with Kaloz' fork on OpenWRT)...

This is kind of OT for this thread, but if you follow the git issues mailing list for the Marvell wireless driver, they seem to be having a lot of issues with the WRT3200. Seem to be some people despairing over performance. Glad I'm not waiting on that one.

 

[sfx2000]

This is kind of OT for this thread, but if you follow the git issues mailing list for the Marvell wireless driver, they seem to be having a lot of issues with the WRT3200. Seem to be some people despairing over performance. Glad I'm not waiting on that one.

The WRT3200acm is a new WiFi chip for that community, and they're still sorting the previous gen...

 

[RogerSC]

The WRT3200acm is a new WiFi chip for that community, and they're still sorting the previous gen...

Yes, exactly *smile*.

 

[sfx2000]

Yes, exactly *smile*.

Outside of the Marvell WiFi issues, routing, storage, and compute are all very good... it's a credit to the platform.

 

[Mark1958]

Outside of the Marvell WiFi issues, routing, storage, and compute are all very good... it's a credit to the platform.

I have no problems at all with the Marvell baseboard on the WRT's - it's as strong as they come - the WiFi drivers have been an ongoing challenge in the *WRT community, but I've heard they are improving a bit (the Kong private DDWRT builds, along with Kaloz' fork on OpenWRT)...

Kong bailed some time last year late 2017 on the Wrt"s with the Marvell chipsets.

This is kind of OT for this thread, but if you follow the git issues mailing list for the Marvell wireless driver, they seem to be having a lot of issues with the WRT3200. Seem to be some people despairing over performance. Glad I'm not waiting on that one.

The WRT3200acm is a new WiFi chip for that community, and they're still sorting the previous gen...

And here it is Feb 2018 and it doesn't look any better!

And this year they changed the nand chip in the 3200acm made after Sept 2017 which is making it difficult to impossible to flash. link: https://github.com/ValCher1961/McDebian_WRT3200ACM/issues/1

And then they also released the 32x late last year that has been problematic as well !!
Then at 2018 CES the unveil yet another Wrt, the 32xb that is geared toward Xbox and console users, the Wrt series routers were at one time the best selling router of all time.
Before they release another Turd they need to polish the one's that are already released!!

Since Belkin has taken over things have just went down hill !!!
Just my honest opinion

 

[sfx2000]

And here it is Feb 2018 and it doesn't look any better!

And this year they changed the nand chip in the 3200acm made after Sept 2017 which is making it difficult to impossible to flash. link: https://github.com/ValCher1961/McDebian_WRT3200ACM/issues/1

And then they also released the 32x late last year that has been problematic as well !!
Then at 2018 CES the unveil yet another Wrt, the 32xb that is geared toward Xbox and console users, the Wrt series routers were at one time the best selling router of all time.
Before they release another Turd they need to polish the one's that are already released!!

Since Belkin has taken over things have just went down hill !!!

Fair enough - if one has followed the whole Belkin/Linksys story with regards to the WRT's...

The Marvell closed source drivers - which are only available under NDA, are quite good - with the early WRT1900acV1, a full copy of that driver, along with the blobs, was available for a short time - and that driver was pulled into DDWRT, and there was some follow on in private...

OpenWRT rejected the drivers for a variety of valid reasons - non-GPL and the headers and coding style weren't appropriate for a code base that has to support many different SoC's, Architectures, and driver implementations - the maintainer's had valid reasons.

There is a GPL driver for the Marvell chipsets, e.g. Kaloz, but that does not get the same level of attention or QA as the closed source driver, and to be honest, if one looks thru the code of the GPL driver, the Marvell WiFi chipset is a fairly complex beast...

Moving forward to your comment about the WRT3200 - chips change - it's supply and cost, and the Linksys code was updated and supports things just fine - and it can be with @chadster766's build as well, but for him, he has to rebuild u-Boot with the new geometry for his science project. Chad just needs to sort out how to install the new bootloader during the flash - yes, there are ways to do this, but it's a challenge in the field... and to support two very different NAND's without having the datasheets and debug tools, it's a real challenge, but yes, it can be done - how to do that is beyond the scope of this post.

Linksys SmartWiFi - I'll agree that it has a lot of room and opportunities to improve - it doesn't do justice to the hardware - there, the hardware is first rate, and it is well built by Linksys' contract manufacturers...

The WRT's were always the stepchild post Belkin purchase - it's a good platform, but it needs work.

 

[Mark1958]

I do realize the cost and availability issues arise and changes are made, but there still should have been more testing done before sending to production.
When a product says it's open source ready right out of the box as the 3200acm does, can upset a customer that purchased it for that very use and is unable to, which is the case with the recently produced 3200acm's unit's .
I have been following chadster766's dilemma and can feel for him, for one if I'm not mistaken he is an independent contractor, two is having to fix a problem that should have been caught before even going into production!
In regards to the WRT's stepchild post Belkin purchase goes, no one twisted their arm's to continue production and R&D of the Wrt line.
There are many well respected DD-WRT folks that have throw in the towel and said good by to Linksys, and gone to Netgear, Asus and others.
I should have seen the writing on the wall when Kong bailed and surprised BS hasn't done the same.
We can only hope that Linksys & Marvell step up to the plate and give the WRT line the support that customers should demand and deserve!!!
Just my 2cents.

 

[sfx2000]

In regards to the WRT's stepchild post Belkin purchase goes, no one twisted their arm's to continue production and R&D of the Wrt line.
There are many well respected DD-WRT folks that have throw in the towel and said good by to Linksys, and gone to Netgear, Asus and others.
I should have seen the writing on the wall when Kong bailed and surprised BS hasn't done the same.
We can only hope that Linksys & Marvell step up to the plate and give the WRT line the support that customers should demand and deserve!!!

It's a really complicated situation - the NDA drivers and SW that Marvell provides is quite good - but it's NDA, and runs against many policies of the FOSS community.

Regarding Belkin/Linksys and the Marvell WRT's - obviously the business is good enough to continue the relationship there, otherwise there wouldn't have been all the variants that have spawned from the original WRT1900acV1, even crossing architecture from Armada XP to the 38x family, which was a big jump...

The original WRT1900acV1 was developed outside of Linksys/Cisco by a third party SW shop under contract, and the BSP has been maintained since then through the latest WRT32xx line - it's just very hampered by how it has to integrate into the Linksys SmartWiFi mainline.

McChadster - he's an enthusiast, and his contributions and efforts are very appreciated - if you look at his posts here, and on the Linksys Community forums, you can see he has much enthusiasm for the WRT's, but as far as I know, there's no formal business relationship with Linksys or Marvell.

 

[Mark1958]

@sfx2000 worte:
"but as far as I know, there's no formal business relationship with Linksys or Marvell"

It took me a while to find the post I was referring to with no luck, but I did find this post made on 03/01/2018
and I quote " I wish there was more I could do but I'm only an independent support contractor." and this is on Linksys forum.
Link: https://tinyurl.com/yc73n4kz