"I realise the 23.05 is supported on the device, but my point is that it was entirely done by individual contributers from outside of GL.inet, not contributed by the company itself."
Not sure I understand why this would not be exactly what one would want. (Namely, people outside the company being able to get the hardware to work with an open source OS.^1) Who wants to be stuck with a proprietary vendor OS on a router, something like Ubiquiti (a company recommended countless times on HN), where the only way to get the full features is to use their OS instead of choice of Linux/BSD installed by the buyer.
AFAICT, GL.inet software is generally no better than OpenWRT or other open source projects. It's probably terrible. Why would anyone expect otherwise. Good reason to compile OpenWRT for oneself.
The GL.inet software is probably getting worse. FWIW, one can still buy the older models. The pre-installed bootloader can be replaced. For newer models, might have to contact GL.inet. It's not clear if you are suggesting one cannot get the source to the bootloader for the router you bought, i.e., you asked GL.inet and they said no or did not respond. If that's the case, then I am interested to know.
AFAIK, people bought the older models for the hardware, e.g., GB ethernet, small form factor, and being supported by OpenWRT. GL.inet is a hardware company that lets the buyer replace the pre-installed OS with their own version; this is anticipated. That is more than many companies selling similar products.
There may be better travel router hardware available today. But being known to work with OpenWRT is an important factor for some buyers. For _some_ GL.inet models, the hardware is known to work with OpenWRT and u-boot compiled and installed by the buyer. AFAICT, the models with the Mediatek 7981 SoC are not a problem. If this is wrong, please do tell.
daniel March 7, 2023, 5:38pm 33
fakemanhk:
while their MT2500/MT3000 using Mediatek chipset I might go for it since it has higher chance to get vanilla OpenWrt on it.
MT2500 and MT3000 will definitely get vanilla OpenWrt on them. I'm working on this. gl.inet has provided hardware and all necessary documentation (schematics, ...) to do this. Would of course be nicer if they'd even do that themselves, but that's too much to ask, I guess. It's quite different case from the SiFlower SoC where there isn't even any sourcecode for most drivers. For MT7981 everything relevant is available in sourcecode, just needed some work to go to upstream Linux and will land in OpenWrt very soon.
Not sure I understand why this would not be exactly what one would want. (Namely, people outside the company being able to get the hardware to work with an open source OS.^1) Who wants to be stuck with a proprietary vendor OS on a router, something like Ubiquiti (a company recommended countless times on HN), where the only way to get the full features is to use their OS instead of choice of Linux/BSD installed by the buyer.
AFAICT, GL.inet software is generally no better than OpenWRT or other open source projects. It's probably terrible. Why would anyone expect otherwise. Good reason to compile OpenWRT for oneself.
The GL.inet software is probably getting worse. FWIW, one can still buy the older models. The pre-installed bootloader can be replaced. For newer models, might have to contact GL.inet. It's not clear if you are suggesting one cannot get the source to the bootloader for the router you bought, i.e., you asked GL.inet and they said no or did not respond. If that's the case, then I am interested to know.
AFAIK, people bought the older models for the hardware, e.g., GB ethernet, small form factor, and being supported by OpenWRT. GL.inet is a hardware company that lets the buyer replace the pre-installed OS with their own version; this is anticipated. That is more than many companies selling similar products.
There may be better travel router hardware available today. But being known to work with OpenWRT is an important factor for some buyers. For _some_ GL.inet models, the hardware is known to work with OpenWRT and u-boot compiled and installed by the buyer. AFAICT, the models with the Mediatek 7981 SoC are not a problem. If this is wrong, please do tell.
1. For example,
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/how-do-gl-inet-devices-become-su...
MT2500 and MT3000 will definitely get vanilla OpenWrt on them. I'm working on this. gl.inet has provided hardware and all necessary documentation (schematics, ...) to do this. Would of course be nicer if they'd even do that themselves, but that's too much to ask, I guess. It's quite different case from the SiFlower SoC where there isn't even any sourcecode for most drivers. For MT7981 everything relevant is available in sourcecode, just needed some work to go to upstream Linux and will land in OpenWrt very soon.