OpenWrt 26.XX (next major release)

[Hauke Mehrtens]

On 11/12/26 21:29, Hauke Mehrtens wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> All targets are on Linux 6.18, we should plan our next major release.
> Linux kernel status: https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/issues/21030
> 
> Problem:
> mbedtls is only supported till April 2027, see:
> https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/issues/26008
> https://lists.trustedfirmware.org/archives/list/mbed- 
> tls at lists.trustedfirmware.org/thread/YPIGCB7WN6GCHOGEGKOJXUYAP7OK527W/ 
> #BSRM3JY6JFNWWEHKMY4JQQON5QB3LP5U
> 
> Is someone else taking over the maintenance?
> 
> We need a SSL library, currently I am aware of the following options:
>   * Stay on mbedtls 3.6
>     * EoL April 2027
>   * Switch to mbedtls 4.1
>     * EoL April 2027
>   * Switch to wolfssl
>     * Needs more space (RAM + flash)
>     * Only major version updates from vendor
>   * Switch to OpenSSL
>     * Even bigger than wolfssl
>     * Has LTS versions
>   * Other library?
> 
> 
> Other open tasks:
>   * Upgrade toolchain:
>     * GCC from 14 to 15
>   * Upgrade most of the packages in core to the most recent version
>     * Get all the security fixes which did not got a CVE number or which 
> we missed
>     * Make security handling in the future easier
> 
> Any other tasks missing before we should branch?
> When will we have enough download storage for some release candidates on 
> our servers?
> Do we need some special handling for signing?
> 
> Hauke

The package version status is listed here:
https://sdwalker.github.io/uscan/index.html

If you have a PR which updates a package to a more recent version in 
main OpenWrt and it was also tested, it would be helpful.


Be aware that the security support for stable releases will be reduced, see:
https://lists.openwrt.org/pipermail/openwrt-adm/2026-October/003061.html
The old stable version will be EoL as soon as the next version was 
released. This new major version will allow us to deprecate 25.12.

Hauke