Gargoyle 1.15.x BETA - 2024-03-11 - Based on OpenWrt 23.05

[spwalmsley]

First, thanks to all the maintainers for the 1.14 and now 1.15 releases. We're looking to upgrade the TP-WR4300 routers we've used with Gargoyle for years to something with more FLASH/RAM, and these updates support a number of newer routers which are still available for purchase.

RE: Noting that hardware/software offload are somewhat incompatible with some Gargoyle features

Could you elaborate on WHICH features are incompatible? We'd like to enable offloading to reduce reported CPU usage and heat issues on the model we're considering (RT-AX53U), but obviously this won't be an option if we rely on an incompatible feature.

Thanks!

[Lantis]

I've not done a full test (I will at some point), but my understanding is that Software Flow Offloading may be partially compatible with Gargoyle, but Hardware Flow Offloading is not.

For SFO, packets skip a lot of the path and get straight into the tx qdiscs, so QoS should work, but some of the classification rules might have been bypassed. That's concern #1. It might skip Bandwidth Monitoring and Quota/Restriction rules too.

For HFO, the above are all pretty much guaranteed.

[Lantis]

Software Flow Offload
QoS download OK
QoS upload NOK
Note that Load measurements in QoS seem to work OK, but on the upload side there is a phantom measurement way higher than it should be.

Quotas download OK
Quotas upload NOK

Bandwidth monitoring download NOK
Bandwidth monitoring upload NOK

Restrictions OK

Hardware Flow Offload
QoS, Quotas and Bandwidth Monitoring do not work at all

Restrictions OK

[spwalmsley]

RE: SW/HW Flow Offload

Thanks! That is exactly what we were looking for. We're not actively using QoS or BW monitoring so offloading may be an option, but we'll probably try with the standard setup and use offloading only if we have throughput or heat issues.

One more question relating to this beta: The RT-AX53U we're considering apparently sometimes ships with an uninitialized flash portion that requires OpenWRT 23.05.*2* or higher to work around. I tracked the OpenWRT upstream in Gargoyle 1.15.x BETA to a specific 40 character OpenWRT commit index (in Gargoyle Git viewer), and this seemed to correspond to an OpenWRT update that happened about March 08 2023.

Does this mean that this BETA is based on OpenWRT 23.05.2 (which is from ~Nov2023) PLUS any additional changes up to ~March2024? Unfortunately my understanding of Git repositories and versioning is minimal.

If the upstream is <23.05.2 I guess we can work around the issue by flashing OpenWRT 23.05.2 first (to initialize the flash), then installing Gargoyle 1.15.x.

[Lantis]

Correct, we are based on OpenWrt 23.05 branch commit 2f2eceab1307d9f9c33f151d442ab97c95bd0400
lantiq: Fix build after kernel 5.15.150
Sat, 9 Mar 2024 00:50:43 +1100 (14:50 +0100)
Which is after the release of 23.05.2

So if the fix for the flash issue was before this, then you should be fine to go straight to Gargoyle.
As you rightly pointed out, if you are concerned you can go to OpenWrt first and then sysupgrade across.

[angus]

Hi Lantis,
Is band steering in 1.15.x BETA? Good to know this before flashing. Thanks.

[Lantis]

The usteer package is installed by default on most profiles, others will need to install it.
There is no GUI configuration for usteer except for being able to turn it on and off to help send AP client information between multiple Gargoyle routers on the same network (in a multi-AP setup for example).
Search for usteer for OpenWrt and read about the configuration. The default should work for most people but your mileage may vary!

If you wanted to try DAWN instead you can but you’ll need to install that and try it.

[Wolfy]

Hello is it possible to add support for R7000 router please.

[Lantis]

Hello is it possible to add support for R7000 router please.

While possible, no I won’t sorry. It is a Broadcom device and therefore largely not worth the time and effort.
You are welcome to custom compile your own image that should be entirely possible.

[ispyisail]

I've finally found time to test

I've installed on

inet AR150
TP-Link TL-WR1043ND v2.1
TP-Link Archer C7 v2.0
TP-Link TL-WDR3600 v1.0
ubnt Edgerouter X

I've only installed firmware and haven't done any testing yet

inet AR150 was a bit suspect and complained about space, but seemed to run