Why do you prefer OpenWrt over RouterOS on the Mikrotik switches?

I recently upgraded to a CRS326-24S+2Q+RM, and the experience with RouterOS feels much better compared to OpenWrt. Winbox is super polished, everything is well laid out, and it makes even advanced configuration very easy.

I do run OpenWrt on a few APs, and it works fine for that simple use case, but for anything more advanced, I prefer RouterOS. Sure, it's not open source, and not as extensible to allow you to run a bunch of services on it, but those can run on any other server just as well.

I didn't like routeros because it would try to connect to strange ip addresses out of the box.

I like that with openwrt, it doesn't do that, and you can configure all kinds of things just like you want. At first I would use the regular releases and install the packages I wanted. As I got more comfortable with it, I would just build it myself.

It's pretty easy:

   git clone https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt
   cd openwrt
   ./scripts/feeds update -a
   ./scripts/feeds install -a
   make menuconfig
   make -j$(nproc)

make menuconfig is where you choose how your system is configured (packages, kernel modules, config settings, etc)

my initial builds were sort of experimental, but it was kind of fun and eventually I learned to customize exactly what I wanted. For example I would use ipv4 only and strictly control the ip addresses of all my machines. (current openwrt doesn't allow it, you have to turn off ipv6 using sysctl). I configure out wifi/bluetooth from some machines that don't or shouldn't use them. I set up privoxy and some machines do updates through the proxy which whitelists what they can get to. I use vlans, and it keeps traffic segregated well. It's nice to put a weird device on a vlan and know it won't go uploading to the cloud, or update itself without your say so.

Thanks a lot, this is great info!

I had no idea about RouterOS connecting to strange IPs, I'll look into that. Can you link to some research that confirms this, why it's done, and how it can be disabled?

I do like how configurable OpenWrt is, and didn't know it was that easy to make a custom build. I'll probably give that a try the next time I have to set it up. Thanks again.

Sorry, this was a long time ago, and my switches are all running openwrt now.

Just a tip, after

  make menuconfig

run

  make -j kernel_menuconfig

To select some additional options for the kernel, then

  make -j $(($(nproc)+1))

That can be a bit faster nowadays.

last time i checked, CRS3xx not really supported by openwrt.

My point is that the experience of RouterOS is much better than OpenWrt, so I'm curious why someone would choose to run OpenWrt on Mikrotik switches.

on switches - no point. extra no points because openwrt won't support configuring HW features. On the other side I wanted to run OpenWrt on Mikrotik AP, because my other APs at home run it. ALso there is a much bigger selection of 3rd party packages for OpenWrt than for Mikrotik. I guess it will be main point for many people

Yeah, I feel the same way. My main switch runs RouterOS, but I use OpenWrt on APs for simplicity and flexibility. I recently went all in with RBM11Gs for APs, and OpenWrt is a great fit there, but I'm still considering whether I should go with OpenWrt for my upcoming router replacement, stick with my current pf/OPNsense, or double down with a Mikrotik router and RouterOS.

The package selection on OpenWrt is an appealing factor, but I can also run any of those on a standalone server or RPi.

i am using plain debian for past 20 years or so for my routers/gateways. i tried for a while openwrt on ubiquity whatever router, but it felt kind of "wrong".

Thanks for throwing in yet another choice for me to consider... :)

I feel like a router is best served by a purpose-built OS, that is heavily focused on that task, and restricts the execution of arbitrary software, for obvious reasons. I suppose one could single-handedly customize a general purpose distro for that task, but I'd rather trust a group of dedicated and more talented hackers to do this for me.

That, and I'd rather not manage nftables rules directly. :) Though it would be a great learning experience, so I'll think about it.

>I feel like a router is best served by a purpose-built OS, that is heavily focused on that task, and restricts the execution of arbitrary software, for obvious reasons

well, in this case, unless something changed recently this is definitely not openwrt

Well, that settles it then!

(care to elaborate?)