Last week the team at OpenWrt announced the second service release of the stable OpenWrt 18.06 series, OpenWrt 18.06.2.
OpenWrt is a Linux operating system that targets embedded devices and provides a fully writable filesystem with optional package management. It is also considered to be a complete replacement for the vendor-supplied firmware of a wide range of wireless routers and non-network devices.
What’s new in OpenWrt 18.06.2?
OpenWrt 18.06.2 comes with bug fixes in the network and the build system and updates to the kernel and base packages.
- In OpenWrt 18.06.2, Linux kernel has been updated to versions 4.9.152/4.14.95 (from 4.9.120/4.14.63 in v18.06.1).
- GNU time dependency has been removed.
- This release comes with added support for bpf match.
- In this release, a blank line has been inserted after KernelPackage template to allow chaining calls.
- INSTALL_SUID macro has been added.
- This release comes with added support for enabling the rootfs/boot partition size option via tar.
- Building of artifacts has been introduced.
- Package URL has been updated.
- Un-initialized return value has been fixed.
Major bug fixes
- The docbook2man error has been fixed.
- The issues with libressl build on x32 (amd64ilp32) host has been fixed.
- The build has been fixed without modifying Makefile.am.
- Fedora patch has been added for crashing git style patches.
- The syntax error has been fixed.
- Security fixes for the Linux kernel, GNU patch, Glibc, BZip2, Grub, OpenSSL, and MbedTLS.
- IPv6 and network service fixes.
Few of the users are happy about this release and they think despite small teams and budgets, the team at OpenWrt has done a wonderful job by powering so many routers. One of the comment reads, “The new release still works fine on a TP-Link TL-WR1043N/ND v1 (32MB RAM, 8MB Flash). This is an old router I got from the local reuse center for $10 a few years ago. It can handle a 100 Mbps fiber connection fine and has 5 gigabit ports. Thanks Openwrt!”
But the question is if cheap routers affect the internet speed. One of the users commented on HackerNews, “My internet is too fast (150 mbps) for a cheap router to effectively manage the connection, meaning that unless I pay 250€ for a router, I will just slow down my Internet needlessly.”
Read more about this news on the OpenWrt’s official blog post.
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