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Custom firmware build for R9000 v. 1.0.2.42HF/1.0.2.42HF-HW

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Voxel

Part of the Furniture
Continuation of:

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/custom-firmware-build-for-r9000.40125/
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/custom-firmware-build-for-r9000-v-1-0-2-41hf-1-0-2-41hf-hw.40481/

New version of my custom firmware build: 1.0.2.42HF/1.0.2.42HF-HW).

Changes (vs 1.0.2.41HF):

1. ReadyCLOUD GUI access problem is fixed (problem reported by Bartman).
2. ReadyCLOUD version is upgraded 20170214->20170711.
3. expat package is upgraded 2.2.2->2.2.3.
4. e2fsprogs package is upgraded 1.43.4->1.43.5.
5. OpenVPN clinet startup script is optimized.
6. Host tools: one component is upgraded.

Difference 1.0.2.41HF-HW vs 1.0.2.41HF: “HW” version means hardware acceleration of OpenSSL.

The link is:

http://www.voxel-firmware.com

No reset is needed to upgrade from my previous versions.

Voxel.
 
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Hi Voxel, all seems brilliant, no problems yet, only been testing for about an hour, will let you know more as a day or two passes.
I do have a request if it is at all possible, in advance settings, the log screen in the Administration settings, can you make it bigger so we can read it without increasing the screen size to 175% (Chrome),
Netgear do such poor design on their UI's, feels like it's done for/by 3 year olds.


Thanks buddy.
 
I do have a request if it is at all possible, in advance settings, the log screen in the Administration settings, can you make it bigger so we can read it without increasing the screen size to 175% (Chrome),
Netgear do such poor design on their UI's, feels like it's done for/by 3 year olds.

OK. It is not so difficult. You can do it even right now from console. You should correct the file /www/FW_log.htm: just find the string:

Code:
<pre><textarea style="font-size:9px;overflow-y:auto;" NAME="log_detail" ROWS="20" id="log_detail" cols="120" WRAP="vitural" readonly><% log_message() %></textarea>

and change font-size:9px; to say font-size:14px;

Voxel.
 
OK. It is not so difficult. You can do it even right now from console. You should correct the file /www/FW_log.htm: just find the string:

Code:
<pre><textarea style="font-size:9px;overflow-y:auto;" NAME="log_detail" ROWS="20" id="log_detail" cols="120" WRAP="vitural" readonly><% log_message() %></textarea>

and change font-size:9px; to say font-size:14px;

Voxel.


Hahaha, this is why we have people of your skills and talent, but you have asked someone with the exact opposite, none of the above skills or talent (still learning), I got lost at the console part, I know about windows command prompt console, but I can take a wild stab in the dark and presume that this is the wrong console by looking at the code to change the font size.


Complete dimwit ------> Bartman.

Regards

BTW : 54F85259N6589164D
 
Hahaha, this is why we have people of your skills and talent, but you have asked someone with the exact opposite, none of the above skills or talent (still learning), I got lost at the console part, I know about windows command prompt console, but I can take a wild stab in the dark and presume that this is the wrong console by looking at the code to change the font size.

See P.M.

Regards,
Voxel.
 
OK, I have been using Voxel's enhanced firmware for a day or so, and compared to the original Netgear firmware it has not dropped a connection, it has not rebooted on its own and it is quicker, there is only one noticeable difference and thats the firmware name in the top right indicating that is Voxel's version of firmware, I do hope he keeps updating it as Netgear does theirs as it is 110% better and well maintained. Voxel is also very helpful, not like the guys at Netgear.

You don't have anything to lose as you can go back to the stock (substandard) if required.

I hope X10 users will have a try and decided for themselves.

Thanks Vortel for a great firmware, it should be the stock firmware.

Regards
 
Thanks for your thanks.

it has not dropped a connection, it has not rebooted on its own and it is quicker

Software should correspond to hardware. R9000 is really nice hardware.

there is only one noticeable difference and thats the firmware name in the top right indicating that is Voxel's version of firmware

It is already very different internally.

it should be the stock firmware.

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here... :)


Voxel.
 
Thank you so much for your effort and time Voxel. I appreciate it.

If I could a question or get some guidance? I understand how to use Service Blocking to Block outgoing ports on the R9000. I would ideally like to add some iptables xxxx -j LOG commands survive on startup/restart or even better send to a Syslog Server. Is this possible?

I was running am Merlin build on a different router previously and they had an option to LOG all Traffic, or LOG Denied Traffic. I am trying to achieve the same? But happy to create the iptables Rules manually if I can find where to put them :)

I looked through https://github.com/SVoxel/R9000 but don't really see any references to where those default rules are kept. If you could please assist that would be greatly appreciated and can you also PM me a link to contribute to your efforts please.

Thanks in advance for anyone reading or helping..
 
Thank you so much for your effort and time Voxel. I appreciate it.

If I could a question or get some guidance? I understand how to use Service Blocking to Block outgoing ports on the R9000. I would ideally like to add some iptables xxxx -j LOG commands survive on startup/restart or even better send to a Syslog Server. Is this possible?

I was running am Merlin build on a different router previously and they had an option to LOG all Traffic, or LOG Denied Traffic. I am trying to achieve the same? But happy to create the iptables Rules manually if I can find where to put them :)

I looked through https://github.com/SVoxel/R9000 but don't really see any references to where those default rules are kept. If you could please assist that would be greatly appreciated and can you also PM me a link to contribute to your efforts please.

Thanks in advance for anyone reading or helping..

Thanks for you "thanks" :).

Regarding your own iptables rules. NETGEAR does not use iptables but its specific firewall "net-wall" which is distributed in binary form (pre-built). Due to security or so. As far as I understand it is a shell above standard iptables. As I found it works as:

net-wall rule
(creates the file /tmp/netwall-rules text file, you can check)

net-wall start
(uses this /tmp/netwall-rules file)

net-wall stop
(stops firewall)

To overcome this obstacle (at least partially) I use my own shell over net-wall. I.e. net-wall is now my script, but original net-wall from NETGEAR is renamed to net-wall-bin. And my shell calls this original net-wall-bin from itself. And I can set my own rules inside my script. E.g. see my own rules for OpenVPN client.

https://github.com/SVoxel/R9000/blob/master/git_home/net-wall.git/net-wall

You can play with this. Just let's original firewall sets somehow iptables rules, after this you should set your own rules modifying this script.

Voxel.
 
Thanks for you "thanks" :).

Regarding your own iptables rules. NETGEAR does not use iptables but its specific firewall "net-wall" which is distributed in binary form (pre-built). Due to security or so. As far as I understand it is a shell above standard iptables. As I found it works as:

net-wall rule
(creates the file /tmp/netwall-rules text file, you can check)

net-wall start
(uses this /tmp/netwall-rules file)

net-wall stop
(stops firewall)

To overcome this obstacle (at least partially) I use my own shell over net-wall. I.e. net-wall is now my script, but original net-wall from NETGEAR is renamed to net-wall-bin. And my shell calls this original net-wall-bin from itself. And I can set my own rules inside my script. E.g. see my own rules for OpenVPN client.

https://github.com/SVoxel/R9000/blob/master/git_home/net-wall.git/net-wall

You can play with this. Just let's original firewall sets somehow iptables rules, after this you should set your own rules modifying this script.

Voxel.
hi I am new here ....just like to know if I put this firmware on my 9000,,, will it keep the plex app ,,, thanks jimmy
 
hi I am new here ....just like to know if I put this firmware on my 9000,,, will it keep the plex app ,,, thanks jimmy


Yes jimmyjj, it as close to the original as it can, just works better :)

Regards
 
Hi Voxel,

Firstly I wanted to thank you for your support and effort on this project!
Secondly, I want to point out that most links to you point to "http://ownweb.eu/Downloads/" and that domain has been down for at least the last few days - fortunately, I found a link to your site again here.

Thirdly, I am desperately seeking where you / how you choose to build up the packages for this CPU/Architecture. The one package that really bugs me is the samba one because it's limited to SMBv1. I tried to use Plex with your firmware and it would not start and stay up so I reverted back to stock - but in either case, both you and Netgear use a samba binary/library that only supports SMBv1 (based on it not being in your change long) and considering the recent events surrounding SMBv1 you can hopefully understand my concern.

I am new to the firmware modding scene and still wrapping my head around compatible Arm binaries. I use LEDE with my Linksys EA-8500 and getting packages for it is easy because of its active support, but I don't know what directory to browse to find compatible packages for this architecture because I don't know how it would be labelled in a package repository. The stock firmware points to a broken */r9000 directory on the OpenWRT list so that's no help.


Edit: Voxel has confirmed as per the image below that Plex is working. If upgrading from a stock installed library and it does not load, follow the instructions provided by Voxel below.
 
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Hi Voxel,

Firstly I wanted to thank you for your support and effort on this project!
Secondly, I want to point out that most links to you point to "http://ownweb.eu/Downloads/" and that domain has been down for at least the last few days - fortunately I found a link to your site again here.

Thirdly, I am desperately seeking where you / how you choose to build up the packages for this CPU/Architecture. The one package that really bugs me is the samba one because it's limited to SMBv1. I tried to use Plex with your firmware and it would not start and stay up so I reverted back to stock - but in either case, both you and Netgear use a samba binary/library that only supports SMBv1 (based on it not being in your change long) and considering the recent events surrounding SMBv1 you can hopefully understand my concern.

I am new to the firmware modding scene and still wrapping my head around compatible Arm binaries. I use LEDE with my Linksys EA-8500 and getting packages for it is easy because of its active support, but I don't know what directory to browse to find compatible packages for this architecture because I don't know how it would be labelled in a package repository. The stock firmware points to a broken */r9000 directory on the OpenWRT list so that's no help.

Netgear released a new beta firmware just for giving options of enabling/disabling SMB1/2/3 support.

Link:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Ni...00-Beta-Firmware-1-0-2-106/m-p/1354046#M64864
 
Firstly I wanted to thank you for your support and effort on this project!
:)

Secondly, I want to point out that most links to you point to "http://ownweb.eu/Downloads/" and that domain has been down for at least the last few days - fortunately I found a link to your site again here.
I am sorry. vladlenas helps me with hosting (many thanks to him) and he has changed the name of domain too quickly. I did not correct all links in my posts yet, only in threads heads.


I tried to use Plex with your firmware and it would not start and stay up so I reverted back to stock
Plex is working with my firmware. Screenshot from my laptop:
wMYy6T


The only problem maybe: if you upgrade stock from my version and are using Plex it is necessary after flashing to:
1. Disable Plex in GUI.
2. Enter by telnet to router and remove already installed Plex ( rm -rf /tmp/plexmediaserver/* )
3. reboot router
4. Enable Plex again
(to force its download and installation from the scratch).

Or reset of router (but your settings will be lost).

The one package that really bugs me is the samba one because it's limited to SMBv1.
Samba. NETGEAR really is using old version of samba. Plus their codes are significantly modified by NG's developers (hard linked to NG's ReadyCLOUD). My previous attempt to upgrade samba were failed. Too many undocumented changes made by NG. So I left it while. Experienced users can use samba from Entware with fixed security holes. Or as avtella informed us: untill NG will release new version with upgraded samba.

Voxel.
 
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avtella - thanks for the update, I look forward to that being released.

Voxel - thanks for the comprehensive and timely response! :) I had a feeling Plex might work if I rebuilt it since I highly doubted you would overlook a feature and not point it out in your documentation, so, glad that's confirmed (editing my last post after this)

(A little O/T) My Plex foray (a little over a year) has been abandoned on two fronts. Emby lets you ACTUALLY and easily stream direct video that's h/x.264 encoded without transcoding it no matter how...:mad: OT... also because I couldn't find a way to get the trakt.tv plugin working on the Nighthawk - This again comes down to architecture and finding a compatible binary, which is another reason why I added the last section of my previous post.

Again, thanks!
 
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I am not a Plex user, sorry. For me minidlna is more than enough.

Just for info, this Plex is relatively independent software. IMU it is compiled by Plex developers, not by NETGEAR. All specific is in main binaries, i.e. to use loader /lib/ld-uClibc.so.0 (firmware dependent). After this it uses its own libraries (*.so) not libraries from firmware. Most probably you can find analogous version of Plex (e.g. for ARM NAS with use of uClibc) and to use with R9000. I tried long time ago just for fun and testing purposes to run Plex on R7500. Only run, checking that it works and removing after 5 min (because I am not sure that it is legal...)

Voxel.
 
Netgear released a new beta firmware just for giving options of enabling/disabling SMB1/2/3 support.

Link:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Ni...00-Beta-Firmware-1-0-2-106/m-p/1354046#M64864

Interesting, as that would imply Samba 4.x - something I haven't seen outside of Intel-based NASes so far. Unless they'd go with a proprietary solution like Tuxera.

EDIT: I unpacked their firmware image - it's indeed Samba 4.6.4, with the samba_multicall patch (same patch OpenWRT and myself use but on 3.6.x). That's really interesting. However as I expected it's one big bastard, the main binary is 15M, versus 3.4M for the Samba 3.6.25 that I compile for my own firmware. It's possible that it could be optimized somewhat, depending on whether Netgear stripped the binary or not, for instance.
 
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it's one big bastard, the main binary is 15M
Even more bastard: plus ~9MB of "lib*samba*" ... So 24MB total ;-)

I guess this is requirement of Plex (Samba4). To get media from shared disks in LAN. But now it is practically only R9000 with its large internal flash can allow this.

Voxel.
 
Interesting, as that would imply Samba 4.x - something I haven't seen outside of Intel-based NASes so far. Unless they'd go with a proprietary solution like Tuxera.

Nothing to keep it off ARM except for resource restrictions - it's a bit of a beast...

Outside of the Router/AP space - which, by nature seems to be cost driven towards the lowend with minimal memory/storage configurations, and perhaps also some BSP/SDK limitations...

I'll agree though, it is interesting to see this on a consumer Router/AP device...
 

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