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<p>Fellow developers-</p>
<p>I wanted to follow up on this topic, as it pertains to anyone
considering using OpenWRT/LEDE on Ubiquiti wireless gear (I can't
speak to the EdgeRouter, etc. devices).</p>
<p>I have been speaking with one of the executives at Ubiquiti, and
he disclosed that they have been feeling pressured by the FCC to
deal with the perceived issue of firmware being able to alter the
RF characteristics of the hardware, particularly in the 5 GHz.
band. He pointed to this note from the FCC as evidence: <a
href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2339685/fcc-software-security-requirements.pdf">https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2339685/fcc-software-security-requirements.pdf</a></p>
<p>This is an interesting document - I really don't understand what
legal standing it has - wasn't this the proposal that set us all
to the web last year to try to make the FCC be sensible? In its
First Review and Order of July 13 (<a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-17-93A1.pdf">https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-17-93A1.pdf</a>)
the FCC specifically mention in the footnotes that they are NOT
addressing "...provisions to prevent the unauthorized modification
of the software and firmware that ensure that and RF device
complies with FCC rules that prevent harmful interference..."</p>
<p>So it appears, at this point, that the FCC's position is that the
replacement of firmware on devices is perfectly legal, but, to
have a U-NII (5 GHz) device authorized in the U.S., it must have
its firmware locked so it cannot be modified.<br>
</p>
<p>Whatever the legality is, the folks at Ubiquiti have made the
decision to lock the bootloader on all their models so that
firmware that is not specifically "signed" by Ubiquiti cannot be
flashed on to their products. Models with locked bootloaders are
just being introduced now - my last batch of Loco M2 units (note
that these are 2.4 GHz. radios) were very odd: on units running
AirOS 5.6.12 (as they shipped) I could load LEDE via the Web UI,
but I could not load it using tftp. I updated some units to AirOS
6.0.6 and could not load LEDE at all via any method. Even
connecting to the serial port did not help - the console stops
when the firmware starts booting.</p>
<p>The bottom line is this: effective in the very near future, we
will not be able to load OpenWRT/LEDE on to Ubiquiti wireless
gear, unless I'm missing something here.</p>
<p>And we should expect every vendor to follow suit.</p>
<p>This represents an interesting problem for getting commercial
vendors to adopt and support OpenWRT/LEDE - if Ubiquiti is
interpreting the FCC's notes correctly, any company that wants to
use OpenWRT/LEDE will have to sign the images so they cannot be
modified. This seems to contradict the real value of OpenWRT/LEDE
- and how would that even work with opkg, etc?).</p>
<p>I wanted to report what I have found to this group and see if
anyone has any brilliant ideas. I haven't any at the moment.<br>
</p>
<p>Thanks,</p>
<p>Bill<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 08/14/2017 10:46 AM, Adrian Draus
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:topic%2F5760%2F23771@forum.lede-project.org">
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<td style="vertical-align:top;width:55px;"> <img
src="http://forum.lede-project.org/letter_avatar/r43k3n/45/5_e919f74e387e99c6ab048078e2669f9f.png"
title="r43k3n" moz-do-not-send="true"
height="45" width="45"> </td>
<td> <a
href="http://forum.lede-project.org/users/r43k3n"
target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none;
font-weight: bold; color: #006699;;
font-size:13px;font-family:'lucida
grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;color:#3b5998;text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold"
moz-do-not-send="true">r43k3n</a> <a
href="http://forum.lede-project.org/users/r43k3n"
target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none;
font-weight: bold; color: #006699;;
font-size:13px;font-family:'lucida
grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;text-decoration:none;margin-left:7px;color:
#3b5998;font-weight:normal;"
moz-do-not-send="true">Adrian Draus</a> <br>
<span
style="text-align:right;color:#999999;padding-right:5px;font-family:'lucida
grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px">August 14</span>
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<td style="padding-top:5px;" colspan="2">
<p style="margin-top:0; border: 0;">Ubiquiti still
refuses to release images for complete system recovery
for EdgeRouter devices. So when your EdgeOS firmware
gets corrupted beyond repair and your out of warranty
then the only course of action is to install LEDE. No
official restoration procedure for EdgeOS is
available.</p>
<p style="margin-top:0; border: 0;">That is not
understandable for me since most TP-Link devices and
Netgear units too have a way to restore the entire
firmware using TFTP.</p>
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<h4 style="color: #222;; font-size: 17px; color: #444;
margin-bottom:10px;">In Reply To</h4>
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<td style="vertical-align:top;width:55px;"> <img
src="http://forum.lede-project.org/user_avatar/forum.lede-project.org/bmoffitt/45/161_1.png"
title="bmoffitt" moz-do-not-send="true"
height="45" width="45"> </td>
<td> <a
href="http://forum.lede-project.org/users/bmoffitt"
target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none;
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font-size:13px;font-family:'lucida
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moz-do-not-send="true">bmoffitt</a> <a
href="http://forum.lede-project.org/users/bmoffitt"
target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none;
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#3b5998;font-weight:normal;"
moz-do-not-send="true">Bill Moffitt</a> <br>
<span
style="text-align:right;color:#999999;padding-right:5px;font-family:'lucida
grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px">August 14</span>
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<td style="padding-top:5px;" colspan="2">Yes, they are not
being very friendly towards us...</td>
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