OpenWrt

OpenWrt is an open source Linux-based operating system designed from the ground up as a drop-in replacement for the single, static firmware provided on almost all routers. Not only that will free your device, but it provides you with a fully writable filesystem that includes package management functionality.

The project is distributed as binary files that must be installed on the respective device in the same way the original firmware is installed. It will completely replace the original firmware and features a totally different web-based interface. Detailed installation instructions are provided on the project’s homepage for each of the supported routers, on the download page.

Supports a wide range of devices

While OpenWrt supports evaluation or unbranded boards, it offers full support for router devices produced by 3Com, Edimax, Huawei, Linksys, Pirelli, 4G Systems, Belkin, 7Links, TP-Link, 8devices, US Robotics, Abicom International, Netgear, Texas Instruments, Actiontec, RaidSonic, Accton, D-Link, ASUS, ZyXEL, ZTE, ADB, Western Digital and Airlink101.

The Alcatel-Sbell, Mercury, ALFA Network, Teltonika, Allnet, MikroTik, Alpha Networks, Seagate, ARC Flex, Sitecom, Arcadyan / Astoria, Planex, AsiaRF, Multilaser, Sagem, Atmel, SMC, Avm, Freecom, Aztech, Buffalo, Gigaset, CEEDTec, Qi hardware, Catch Tec and Cobalt Networks brands are also supported.

The list continues with Engenius, Compex, Intellidesign, Comtrend, jjPlus, Meraki, Devolo, Dragino, Petatel, Poray, Embedded Wireless, Fon, Qemu, Gateway, Gateworks, NetComm, PC Engines, Redwave, Rosewill, Sparklan, Sercom, Skyline, SFR (Société Française de Radiotéléphonie), SimpleTech, Telsey, Tenda, Trendnet, T-Com / Telekom, Ubiquiti, Unbranded, Upvel, Vizio and Zcomax.

In addition, OpenWrt also supports the Allwinner Axx, Atmel AT91SAM, Freescale i.MX23/i.MX28 and Freescale MPC85xx phone manufactures.

Bottom line

Overall, OpenWrt is without no doubt a five star project that will free your router from the cumbersome firmware that comes with your device. What’s the first thing you do when you get a brand-new router? Install OpenWrt!

What is new in this release:

• Linux kernel updated to version 3.18.23
• Security fixes:
• kernel: fix keyring reference leak (CVE-2016-0728)
• openssl updated to 1.0.2f
• hostapd security fixes
• samba36 (CVE patches from 2015-12-16)
• Update of netifd, procd, uci, rpcd, ubox & uhttpd
• Driver updates
• ledtrig-netdev: fix possible deadlock
• bcm47xxpart: fix bcm53xx booting on NAND with badblocks
• brcmfmac: fix getting/setting TX power, add stations dumping and support beamforming
• 8139c: backport v4.3 fixes
• backport spi layer fixes from v4.2+
• solos-pci: increase headroom on RX
• xrx200-net: fix port mirroring issues
• update mac80211 (adding mt76)
• Support for new devices:
• Linksys WRT1900ACS (mvebu)
• D-LINK DIR-615 rev. Ix (ar71xx)
• LinkIt Smart7688 (ramips)
• Gainstrong MiniBox v1.0 (ar71xx)
• ZBT WG2626 (ramips)
• TP-LINK TL-WR841N/ND v10 (ar71xx)
• TL-WR741ND v5 (ar71xx)
• WR740N v5.0 (ar71xx)
• TP-LINK TL-WR941ND v6 international version (ar71xx)
• Improved support for existing devices:
• Netgear R8000: USB power and CPU speed
• RapsberryPi: Add sysupgrade support
• Kernel fixes
• ramoverlay
• multicast-to-unicast
• ip6_fragment related skb_leak
• Package fixes
• igmpproxy: spurious restart issues

What is new in version 15.05:

• Linux kernel updated to version 3.18
• Improved Security Features
• - Rewritten package signing architecture based on ed25519
• - Added support for jails
• - Added support for hardened builds
• Improved Networking Support
• - Added or improved support for lots of 3G/4G modems (MBIM, QMI, NCM, ...)
• - Added support for 464XLAT (CLAT) [RFC 6877 + RFC 7050]
• - Netfilter performance enhancements (conntrack route cache)
• - Improved support for self-managing networks [draft-ietf-homenet-hncp]
• - Better multi-core support for the network stack
• - Improved support for MAP-E, MAP-T and LW4over6 IPv4 transitioning technologies
• [draft-ietf-softwire-map, -map-t, -map-dhcp, -lw4over6]
• - Improved network auto-setup capable of detecting and bootstrapping IPv4-only,
• 6rd, Dual-Stack, IPv6-only, DS-Lite, LW4over6, MAP-E, MAP-T, 464XLAT
• and combinations without explicit configuration [based on RFC 7084]
• - Added support for Smart Queue Management (SQM) QoS, AQM and Traffic Shaping
• - Improved support for DNSSEC
• Platform and Driver Support
• - Added support for feeds of externally maintained targets
• - New mt7621 subtarget for Mediatek 11ac SoC
• - New mt76 mac80211 based wifi driver for MTK 11ac cores.
• - New mwlwifi mac80211 based wifi driver for the Marvell 88W8864
• - New bcm53xx target for Broadcom ARM BCM47xx/53xx devices
• - New mxs target for Freescale i.MX23/28 family and various boards
• - New sunxi target for AllWinner A10/A13/A20 family and various boards
• - brcm2708: support for Raspberry Pi 2
• - brcm63xx: support for BCM6318 and BCM63268 family
• - brcm63xx: improved fallback sprom support with bcma support

What is new in version 14.07 / 15.05 RC2:

• Fixed broken ImageBuilders for most targets
• Updated 3.18 to 3.18.14
• Fixed broken IPv6 downstream DHCPv6-PD and onlink-route handling
• Images (special format) for Asus brcm47xx and bcm53xx devices
• Improved stability of sysupgrade on brcm47xx and bcm53xx
• Added HTTPS enforcement option to uhttpd
• Fixed umask issue
• Added support for a few new boards

What is new in version 14.07 / 15.05 RC1:

• Linux kernel updated to version 3.18
• Improved Security Features:
• Rewritten package signing architecture based on ed25519
• Added support for jails
• Added support for hardened builds
• Improved Networking Support:
• Added or improved support for lots of 3G/4G modems (MBIM, QMI, NCM, ...)
• Added support for 464XLAT (CLAT)
• Improved support for self-managing networks (draft-ietf-homenet-hncp)
• Netfilter performance enhancements (conntrack route cache)
• Better multi-core support for the network stack
• Improved support for MAP-E and MAP-T IPv4 transitioning technologies
• Improved network auto-setup capable of detecting and bootstrapping IPv4-only, 6rd, Dual-Stack, IPv6-only, DS-Lite, LW4over6, MAP-E, MAP-T, 464XLAT and combinations without explicit configuration
• Added support for Smart Queue Management (SQM) QoS, AQM and Traffic Shaping
• Improved support for DNSSEC
• Platform and Driver Support:
• Added support for feeds of externally maintained targets
• New mt7621 subtarget for Mediatek 11ac SoC
• New mt76 mac80211 based wifi driver for MTK 11ac cores.
• New mwlwifi mac80211 based wifi driver for the Marvell 88W8864
• New bcm53xx target for Broadcom ARM BCM47xx/53xx devices
• brcm2708: support for Raspberry Pi 2
• brcm63xx: support for BCM6318 and BCM63268 family
• brcm63xx: improved fallback sprom support with bcma support

What is new in version 14.07:

• Highlights since Attitude Adjustment:
• Linux kernel updated to version 3.10
• Procd: new preinit, init, hotplug and event system written in C
• Native IPv6-support
• RA & DHCPv6+PD client and server
• Local prefix allocation & source-restricted routes (multihoming)
• Filesystem improvements
• Added support for sysupgrade on NAND-flash
• Added support for filesystem snapshot and rollback
• Rewritten mounting system in C for rootfs and block devices
• UCI configuration improvements
• Support for testing configuration and rollback to working last working state
• Unified change trigger system to restart services on-demand
• Added a data validation layer
• Networking improvements
• Netifd now handles setup and configuration reload of wireless interfaces
• Added reworked event support to allow obsoleting network hotplug-scripts
• Added support for dynamic firewall rules and zones
• Added support for transparent multicast to unicast translation for bridges
• Various other fixes and improvements
• Additional highlights selectable in the package feeds or SDK:
• Extended IPv6-support
• Added DS-Lite support and improved 6to4, 6in4 and 6rd-support
• Experimental support for Lightweight 4over6, MAP-E and MAP-T
• Draft-support for self-managing home networks (HNCP)
• rpcd: new JSONRPC over HTTP-frontend for remote access to ubus
• mdns: new lightweight mdns daemon (work in progress)
• Initial support for the musl C standard library
• Support for QMI-based 3g/4g modems
• Support for DNSSEC validation
• Added architecture for package signing and SHA256 hashing
• ... and many more cool things

What is new in version 14.07 RC1:

• Linux kernel updated to version 3.10
• Procd: new preinit, init, hotplug and event system written in C
• Native IPv6-support:
• RA & DHCPv6+PD client and server
• Local prefix allocation & source-restricted routes (multihoming)
• Filesystem improvements:
• Added support for sysupgrade on NAND-flash
• Added support for filesystem snapshot and rollback
• Rewritten mounting system in C for rootfs and block devices
• UCI configuration improvements:
• Support for testing configuration and rollback to working last working state
• Unified change trigger system to restart services on-demand
• Added a data validation layer
• Networking improvements:
• Netifd now handles setup and configuration reload of wireless interfaces
• Added reworked event support to allow obsoleting network hotplug-scripts
• Added support for dynamic firewall rules and zones
• Added support for transparent multicast to unicast translation for bridges
• Various other fixes and improvements
• Additional highlights selectable in the package feeds or SDK
• Extended IPv6-support
• Added DS-Lite support and improved 6to4, 6in4 and 6rd-support
• Experimental support for Lightweight 4over6, MAP-E and MAP-T
• Draft-support for self-managing home networks (HNCP)
• rpcd: new JSONRPC over HTTP-frontend for remote access to ubus
• mdns: new lightweight mdns daemon (work in progress)
• Initial support for the musl C standard library
• Support for QMI-based 3g/4g modems
• Support for DNSSEC validation
• Added architecture for package signing and SHA256 hashing

What is new in version 12.09:

• Dropped support for legacy Broadcom target (brcm-2.4)
• Switched to Kernel 3.3
• Switched to uClibc 0.9.33.2
• Switched x86 images from ext2 to ext4 filesystem
• Improved parallel building support
• New netifd implementation to replace the old script based network configuration system
• Switched to shadow passwords
• Support for external overlay filesystems in release images
• Various firewall enhancements
• Wireless driver updates and stability improvements
• Experimential support for 5 and 10 MHz channels in ath5k and ath9k
• Package updates and dependency fixes
• New target support: ramips, bcm2708 (Raspberry Pi) and others
• Support for further router models
• Support for building with eglic instead of uClibc
• Support for 6RD configuration
• Support for bridge firewalling in release images

What is new in version 10.03.1:

• Added support for the TP-Link TL-MR3420
• Added support for the Netgear WNDR3800
• Added support for the D-Link DSL-2650U
• Another round of mac80211 improvements and stability fixes
• Changed wireless interface numbering schema to support restarts of single radios
• Fixed ethernet on newer Compex WP543 Boards
• Fixed race condition in link state handling of ag71xx ethernet driver
• Fixed cpmac ethernet regressions on various AR7 boards
• Fixed various busybox issues
• Fixed dropbear segmentation fault when using remote port forwardings
• Fixed the second ethernet port on Ubiquiti NanoStation M devices
• Prevent accidental bridging of station mode interfaces
• Indefinitely try to resolve NTP server addresses, improves reliability of time sync

What is new in version 12.09 Beta:

• Target specific improvements:
• [ar71xx]: support for more ar71xx devices
• [ramips]: support for Ralink devices
• [bcm47xx]: better support and image for Broadcom BCM4705 SOCs. Support for serial flash in brcm47xx. Fix out of memory when using wifi on BCM5354
• [lantiq]: Almost complete Lantiq SoC support. New Asterisk channel driver for Lantiq TAPI
• [x86]: sysupgrade support
• General improvements:
• Improved LuCI interface
• Switch to the netifd infrastructure for better network configuration support
• Fixed Imagebuilder, relocatable SDK
• Full (?) eglibc support
• Release support for bridge firewalling
• Vastly improved ath9k driver stability and performance
• Dependency fixes for packages
• More iptables addons, improved netfilter performance
• Experimental support for 5 and 10MHz channels in ath5k and ath9k
• Support for 6RD configuration
• Experimental crashlog feature to track kernel oopses
• Reduced space requirements and improved squashfs/kernel compression
• Various package improvements and updates
• Known issues that will get fixed during the beta phase:
• the new ramips switch driver seems to cause problems on some boards
• somehow vr9 images are not properly generated
• 11b/g atheros units might have gpio problems due to the new gpiolib driver

What is new in version 8.09.2:

• pptp nat contracting removed on brcm-2.4, cause of dnat off-by-one port forwarding bug
• added antenna gpio support for nanostation loco2
• backported swconfig and IP-175C support for DIR-300 and similar atheros devices
• added a combined atheros image format with sysupgrade support
• fixed ethernet issues on fonera+
• fixed wgt634u regresssion introduced in 8.09.1
• disabled tcp ecn by default
• improved sysupgrade reliability
• added mtd support for fis table layout on redboot based systems
• add support for creating VMware VMDK images for x86
• fixed ipv6 interface setup on boot
• numerous madwifi fixes
• fixed ImageBuilder and SDK
• fixed failsafe mode on fonera+ and fonera 2.0
• fixed memory leaks in miniupnpd
• fixed escaping issues in ddns-scripts
• update X-Wrt to 8.09.2
• update LuCI to v0.8.8
• security fixes for openswan, tiff, libpng, kernel, curl, gnutls, openssl and dnsmasq