OpenWRT: WRT54GL: Backfire: IPv6 issues

While having a Debian boxen as a router feels nice, I kept on longing for something smaller and quieter. I then remembered that I still had my old WRT54GL somewhere. After upgrading the OpenWRT firmware to the latest supported version for that hardware (Backfire 10.03.1, r29592), I installed radvd and wide-dhcpv6-client. Configuring radvd to deliver consistent results was easy enough.

The issue I keep on experiencing is the external interface (wan) dropping the IPv6 address it received from the ISP via router advertisement, which in turn kills the default IPv6 route to the outside world. Logging in via SSH and manually running "rdisc6 eth0.1" restores the IPv6 gateway. I just honestly wished I didn't have to do this every time I need to reboot the router.

Does this issue sound familiar to anyone? What was the solution?

PS: No, I won't just go and ditch this WRT54GL just because new toys exist on the market. This is obviously a software issue, so I need a software solution.

PPS: IPv6 pretty much works out of the box on the Debian boxen I had been using as my router. I previously wrote about this on my blog. Basically, it's unlikely to be an ISP issue.

OpenWRT Backfire on WRT54GL signal strenght

Because I wanted my home router to use at least decently supported software that provides complete out-of-the-box support for native IPv6, I recently got around upgrading my WRT54GL's firmware from White Russian to Backfire, which is the most recent OpenWRT release that fits the hardware's limited amount of flash memory.

One issue remains unanswered:

In GNOME shell's top panel and WiFi menu, the signal strength remains at 2 out of 4 bars. Given how the router sits only a few meters behind me, I would have expected much better signal strength than that.

Would anyone happen to know how to improve on these results? Thanks!

OpenWRT: SLAAC and DHCPv6 on White Russian

As I recently reported, I have been trying to configure my Linksys WRT54GL running the OpenWRT firmware (version 0.9 a.k.a. White Russian) to support SLAAC and DHCPv6 out of the box.

Most of the feedback I got involved upgrading the OpenWRT firmware to a more recent release that might not fit the available storage capacity of the device, which felt like too risky of an operation to attempt.

The solution I found instead involved adding ipkg sources to OpenWRT's backports repository, which offers a minimalistic DHCPv6 client. Although I haven't been able to find any proper documentation for this client, the content of its configuration file is mostly intelligible. What remains now is to actually configure it to cooperate with the kernel's native SLAAC implementation and, whenever an IPv6 network is found on the ISP side, to propagate the address space, DNS and routing information to my LAN using radvd.

Would anyone located within the Helsinki metropolitan area happen to have an IPv6 testing environment that would at least allow me to configure and test my router?

OpenWRT: accepting Router Adverts from the ISP in White Russian?

As we are getting closer to the World IPv6 Day, I thought that I'd see if I can upgrade my WRT54GL's OpenWRT (White Russian) installation to accept Router Adverts from the ISP to acquire an IPv6 address (rather than via a 4-to-6 tunnel broker, which seems to be the most documented case), and to propagate its IPv6 address space to my local network via my WRT45GL's radvd. Unfortunately, most of the instructions out there concern newer OpenWRT releases to which I cannot upgrade to because their software base takes up significantly more space than White Russian does. Still, I figure that someone in the community must have already succeeded at configuring their WRT54GL for this and might be able to help. Anyone? :)

partial answer to "unexplainable WiFi connection drops"

Previously, I blogged about some unexplainable WiFi connection drops I have been experiencing since a few days. Many thinks to everyone who replied by expressing their ire against Network-Manager. Unfortunately, it seems that the fault might indeed be on the WRT54GL's OpenWRT setup:

See, I have this old ThinkPad that I keep for Debian development purposes and that one runs whatever is on Debian/Testing, connecting to my LAN, using either an RTL8139-based Ethernet or an ATH5K-based WiFi adapter, plugged into the Cardbus slot; these days, more often the Atheros.

Now, this morning, I noticed that my Geode desktop stopped being able to ping both the Dell and the ThinkPad at the same time. Bingo! Now, the question is, how do I track the source of the problem, on this WRT54GL running White Russian?

unexplainable WiFi connection drops on Dell D430

Dear Lazyweb,

Since a few days, my Dell D430 running Ubuntu Jaunty has started to experience random WiFi connection drops. After a few hours of normal operation, even though the Network Manager applet indicates that the connection is still with me and with a strong signal, doing a ping to my WRT54GL running OpenWRT 0.9 (White Russian) replies with "Destination Unreachable".

My D430 comes with the following WiFi adapter:

0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN [Kedron] Network Connection (rev 61)

Does this situation sound familiar to anyone? If yes, how did you resolve it?