Experimental build of Gargoyle 1.13.0.x for ipq40xx architecture routers

[pythonic]

I'm glad to hear that except for the WiFi the Gargoyle build is solid on your EA6350v3.

Regarding the WiFI: I note from your comments in the feature request thread that OpenWrt also has stability problems with WiFi so I'm not particularly surprised that Gargoyle is similarly behaved as this Gargoyle build uses exactly same the WiFi drivers and management code as OpenWrt 19.07.

Gargoyle follows OpenWrt's default configuration of using the ath10k-ct WiFi drivers and firmware, however I have included the standard ath10k driver and firmware packages in the packages archive and you might wish to try and replace the ath10k-ct packages in the router with the ath10k packages.

Some people have good results with ath10k-ct while others get better results with ath10k; it seems very dependent on your collection of client devices and how many competing WiFi installations are in your immediate surroundings. Correct selection of country during setup is also required to stay within legal WiFi parameters; permitted power levels and the impact of DFS on the 5GHz band vary considerably from country to country.

Unfortunately I've not tried to make this change myself as I've had no WiFi issues with my GL-B1300 (haven't tried WiFi at all on my EA6350v3) in the light use I've made of it and I only have a small place so coverage hasn't been a significant issue. There are however several threads about doing this on the OpenWrt forums such as this one, however please note that you will not be able to use OpenWrt's opkg - use Gargoyle's gpkg instead. You will also have to copy the packages to the router and specify them by full path name on the command line. You may find it easier to go back to OpenWrt and change to the ath10k packages using OpenWrt information (such as that thread) to see whether your WiFi experience improves; if it does you can then look at trying the same change on Gargoyle using the packages I've built.

[denisr]

Thank you very much for your response, indeed I have the Linksys ea6350 V3 I have tested it with openwrt version 19.07 and the latest version 21.02.2 and in both versions stability and power problems persist with the 2.4 Mhz Wi-Fi band, instead with the 5.0 Ghz wifi is much more stable, install an alternative build of No TengoBattery Github I leave the link https://forum.openwrt.org/t/optimized-b ... /44125/538

Which works in a more stable way but adds some packages but I would really like a clean version.

I really don't have much knowledge to edit the parameters you mention myself, I love Gargoyle I have it installed on a Linksys Wrtac1900ac as the main router and it is very stable in every way, and I have the ea6350 V3 with the factory version in bridge mode for extend my home wifi signal when needed.

It would really be great to have an optimized version for the ea6350 V3. It would be a challenge for developers. It is a great router. Thank you for your comments. Greetings from Venezuela.

[pythonic]

4 months on and there have been 25 downloads of the 20211231 build... so far I've only seen postings from 2 users.

[denisr]

Good afternoon, what do you want to say? It will not be officially included? or will development be forgotten??? I installed it on a Linksys ea6350 V3 and it is very stable, the only detail is the wifi instability and low power, it also happens in the latest version of Openwrt, so it went back to stock

[pythonic]

Good afternoon, what do you want to say?

My post was an observation on usage statistics for the benefit of Gargoyle team members (I am not a team member).

It will not be officially included? or will development be forgotten???

If it will be officially included is a decision for the Gargoyle team - if there's not much interest (i.e. downloads) then there is little value in the Gargoyle team trying to add it to their list of maintained devices.

As I use this device family myself I will continue to build it from time to time and probably make the builds available as there seems to be some interest, even if the Gargoyle team decide not to include it if/when I get around to making a pull request.

I installed it on a Linksys ea6350 V3 and it is very stable, the only detail is the wifi instability and low power, it also happens in the latest version of Openwrt, so it went back to stock

I appreciate you having taken the time to post that you have tried the build, unfortunately the issues you have are not something I'm equipped to attempt to resolve. Please understand that for any developer to try and do something about the problems you complain about you will have to put in a fair bit of effort to document:

• the actual symptoms reported by your various client devices and what those devices are (by manufacturer name and model number, software version is often also useful for developers to know)
• what you have tried to change the reported behaviour and what if any results were achieved
• in the case of WiFi it will be helpful to justify your claim about power output (which is what referring to "range" implies in the context of radio signals) by using something like a WiFi analyser app on a mobile phone to make comparative signal level measurements between using the OEM firmware versus OpenWrt (stock or NoTengoBattery's build)

Particularly in regard to 2.4GHz WiFi, unless you are quite distant from other 2.4GHz WiFi installations you need to consider the effect of channel congestion, the choice of channels and channel width. A mobile phone WiFi analyser app can be quite useful to see what other WiFi equipment is operating around you and make it easier to select the best available channel and bandwidth. Relying on the firmware automatic selection, particularly with OpenWrt, is not likely to produce the best outcome . There are lots of threads on OpenWrt's forums about WiFi issues (not just with ath10k radios) and some time spent reading some of them (especially those marked "solved") may help you work through researching what your actual issues are.

As ipq40xx has ath10k WiFi with default builds using the CT (CandelaTech) drivers and firmware, you will need to try the non-CT drivers and firmware files to see whether the WiFi problems you have change. There are detailed instructions for doing this on OpenWrt's forums.

I strongly suggest that any effort you put in to documenting your issues be directed to the OpenWrt forums rather than Gargoyle's forums, because that's where the most developer experience is - especially for a device type not yet supported by Gargoyle. Gargoyle would subsequently benefit from any fixes to the OpenWrt WiFi code.

[pythonic]

For those interested in changing the radio firmware and drivers to the non-ct variants I suggest reviewing this outline of the process on the R7800.

Things you will have to do differently:

• use gpkg rather than opkg
• don't gpkg update unless you're hosting the packages on a webserver and have updated gpkg's sources list to point to that location
• scp all required files to /tmp on the router (if you're not hosting the packages on a webserver) and install them from there

For those with the EA6350v3 who're interested in experimenting with different radio calibration files you might check out the OpenWrt forum discussion starting here.

[Tarasych]

Zyxel NBG6617. Installed. Set up, everything works. We are waiting for new firmware.

[pythonic]

Zyxel NBG6617. Installed. Set up, everything works.

Good to hear - thanks for the report!

[pythonic]

An updated build (#4: 20221009) is now available.

As I write this there have been 48 downloads of the images for build #3.

[pythonic]

Note that the ipq40xx target has been imported into Gargoyle's 1.15.x development branch and is included in @Lantis' Experimental Gargoyle 1.15.x beta 20230124 build set.