TomatoUSB

While I love tomato we seem to be on a quite out of date kernel these days. Tomato K2.6 is running 2.6.22.19 which is quite old by kernel standards. Even rhel is running 2.6.32 so I don't buy the stability argument. Many of are new routers have much faster cpu's, lots more ram, and flash to support a newer kernel. So are their any plans to move to a newer kernel. Maybe even 3.0. I would be willing to work on this but my experience with patching kernels is not so good. I am a recent convert to Arch from ubuntu so I do have some nix skills but not that skilled. If anyone is willing to put in the effort to help me I would be willing to start a new dev tree of a K3.0 version. Just want to know if their is any interest out there.

If 2.4 or 2.6 works and is stable, why move up to a newer kernel?

If anyone is willing to put in the effort to help me I would be willing to start a new dev tree of a K3.0 version.

You don't need anybody else. You can just download the new kernel and start the port on your own. It's a LOT of work, though.

Newer is not better or more stable. If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

I know that newer is not better, but it offers newer security patches to the kernel. Also it has optimized networking integration ie. routing, conntrac, and ipv6. I have been doing some research and it looks like it may be a challenge to build a mips toolchain. Their is not allot of documentation out their. So it looks like the ideal is dying before it really started. Just an ideal to modernize the kernel on the firmware I love.

patches and optimization *relevant* to what router appliance use would be the question. do these patches fix anything that tomato is using right now or does it add performance improvement given the kernel and memory foot print that comes along?

openwrt supports rt-n16 !
Now with Kernel 3.0.1 !!!
https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/6580 - scroll at the bottom of the page.
only a few minor issues with the leds from what i've read.
goog luck …and report back :)

Wow, looks like some of the work Broadcom did to put get Opensource drivers into the kernel for newer chips has paid off - and this actually gives a reason to move to the latest kernels. Would like to see some reports on wireless options and stability - then some proper benchmarks comparing throughput on K24, K26 and K30 …

Looks like kernel 3.9.4 is working on dd-wrt as noted under dd-wrt wiki under Asus RT-N66U. So the question is, when will shibby or toastman upgrade the kernel in tomato? It's desperately need especially for 4G modems which use RNDIS.

New kernel only working with newer drivers so backport to old one is'nt doable.

ddwrt either have access to the closed-source drivers or they are talented enough to reverse engineer and link the drivers with the new kernel. that's how they are able to move past the relic linux 2.6.

tomato unfortunately have no such talent or similar access to broadcomm closed drivers. openwrt is probably the only open development that you can rely on if you want something stable, fast and new.