About the Linux Kernel Version of the firmware of ASUS WiFi 7 router

[Logi]

Latest RT-BE88U/BE7200 just released, seems to be based on the same 4.19 kernel going EOL in 6 months, doesn't make sense to me

 

[JTnola]

The silly part is they picked 4.19 for their Wifi 7 platform. Wifi 7 devices based on that SDK started coming to market in 2023. And the end of support for kernel 4.19 is... December 2024.

That means by the time 90% of devices based on that SOC will come to market, the kernel will be only a few months away from being EOL.

5.10 or 5.15 would have made much more sense for a platform that is expected to see new products released for the next ~2 years.

Annnnnd…. you need at least 5.2 to use OVPN-DCO (data channel offload)… huge disadvantage not being able to use DCO.

 

[raven-au]

The silly part is they picked 4.19 for their Wifi 7 platform. Wifi 7 devices based on that SDK started coming to market in 2023. And the end of support for kernel 4.19 is... December 2024.

That means by the time 90% of devices based on that SOC will come to market, the kernel will be only a few months away from being EOL.

5.10 or 5.15 would have made much more sense for a platform that is expected to see new products released for the next ~2 years.

Unless forward porting of the new drivers was hard due to changes in needed dependent source code infrastructure.
It depends on what they were using during the development.

 

[MusicLover2112]

Annnnnd…. you need at least 5.2 to use OVPN-DCO (data channel offload)… huge disadvantage not being able to use DCO.

Yep for VPN performance it's a big deal. My GT-X6000 from 2022 (802.11ax) is running Linux kernel 4.19 from 2018 while my Linksys E4200 V2 router from 2011 (128MB flash/128MB RAM with 802.11n) is running OpenWRT 25 RC5 with Linux kernel 6.12 - I realize it's a different situation but still rather funny...