Gluon 2018.2
############

OpenWrt has been updated to the new major release 18.06.x. Depending on the
target, this includes the Linux kernel 4.9.146 or 4.14.89.

The new OpenWrt release introduces a dependency on GNU time. On Debian/Ubuntu,
this can be found in the package *time*. The shell builtin *time*, which is
available by default, is not sufficient.

Added hardware support
**********************

ar71xx-generic
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

* AVM

  - Fritz!WLAN Repeater 450E

* OCEDO

  - Koala

* TP-Link

  - Archer C7 v5
  - TL-WR810N v1

* Ubiquiti

  - UniFi AC Mesh Pro

* ZyXEL

  - NBG6616


ipq40xx [#newtarget]_ [#noibss]_
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

* AVM

  - FRITZ!Box 4040

* GL.iNet

  - GL-B1300

* NETGEAR

  - EX6100v2
  - EX6150v2

* OpenMesh

  - A42
  - A62

* ZyXEL

  - NBG6617
  - WRE6606

ramips-mt7621 [#noibss]_
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

* D-Link

  - DIR-860L B1

* ZBT

  - WG3526-16M
  - WG3526-32M

.. [#newtarget]
  New target

.. [#noibss]
  AP+IBSS mode unsupported: This target is not built when *GLUON_WLAN_MESH* is
  set to ``ibss``.

New features
************

Besides many smaller improvements and optimizations, we'd like to highlight the
following larger new features:

OpenStreetMap-based map in config wizard
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

When the features *web-wizard* and *web-osm* are enabled, the configuration
wizard will try to load an OSM-based map to allow the user to specify the node
location. Loading the map requires a working internet connection, for example
via WLAN (while connected to the Gluon node via Ethernet).

See the :ref:`config_mode <user-site-config_mode>` section for the *site.conf*
configuration of this feature.

Experimental support for the Babel mesh routing protocol
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

As the layer-2 based routing protocol batman-adv does not scale well in large
mesh networks, we are experimenting with alternatives. Babel is a promising
layer-3 mesh routing protocol, which might become the recommended protocol in a
future version of Gluon.

Use the feature flag *mesh-babel* for Babel. Note that our Babel support is
still **experimental** and not ready for production. If you are interested in
trying it out, please contact us on our mailing list or in our IRC channel.

gluon-ebtables-limit-arp enabled by default
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The :doc:`../package/gluon-ebtables-limit-arp` package, introduced in Gluon
2018.1, is now included by default. In case of issues, it can be removed by
adding ``-gluon-ebtables-limit-arp`` to *GLUON_SITE_PACKAGES*.

Site changes
************

No changes need to be made to *site.conf* or *site.mk* when upgrading from
Gluon v2018.1.x.

Internals
*********

* We have switched from LuCI's *nixio* library to the more actively developed
  *luaposix*

Known issues
************

* Default TX power on many Ubiquiti devices is too high, correct offsets are
  unknown (`#94 <https://github.com/freifunk-gluon/gluon/issues/94>`_)

  Reducing the TX power in the Advanced Settings is recommended.

* The MAC address of the WAN interface is modified even when Mesh-on-WAN is
  disabled (`#496 <https://github.com/freifunk-gluon/gluon/issues/496>`_)

  This may lead to issues in environments where a fixed MAC address is expected
  (like VMware when promicious mode is disallowed).

* Inconsistent respondd API
  (`#522 <https://github.com/freifunk-gluon/gluon/issues/522>`_)

  The current API is inconsistent and will be replaced eventually. The old API
  will still be supported for a while.

* Frequent reboots due to out-of-memory or high load due to memory pressure on
  weak hardware specially in larger meshes
  (`#1243 <https://github.com/freifunk-gluon/gluon/issues/1243>`_)

  Optimizations in Gluon 2018.1 have significantly improved memory usage.
  There are still known bugs leading to unreasonably high load that we hope to
  solve in future releases.