OpenWrt version history
Beginning
The OpenWrt project started in January 2004. The first OpenWrt versions were based on Linksys GPL sources for WRT54G and a buildroot from the uClibc project. This version was known as OpenWrt stable release and was widely in use.
In the beginning of 2005 some new developers joined the team. After some months of closed development the team decided to publish the first experimental versions of OpenWrt. The experimental versions use a heavily customized build system based on buildroot2 from the uClibc project.
OpenWrt uses official GNU/Linux kernel sources and only adds patches for the system on chip and drivers for the network interfaces. The developer team tries to re-implement most of the proprietary code inside the GPL tarballs of the different vendors. There are free tools for writing new firmware images directly into the flash (mtd), for configuring the wireless lan chip and to program the VLAN-capable switch via the proc filesystem.
Release history
Stable release version numbers are made from the year and the month when a new stable branch was created. An additional third number indicates a service or interim release from that branch.
Pre-built images of the final stable image for each release are in the Downloads column at the right. Information about the various types of builds is available on the Choosing an OpenWrt version page.
Timeline
The following is a complete history of OpenWrt releases:
Announcement / Release notes | Downloads | Release date | Revision | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bleeding Edge | ||||
Main (master) snapshots | Downloads | Continuously | ||
Release Candidate | ||||
OpenWrt 24.10.0-rc2 | Downloads | 2024 December | r28161-ea17e958b9 | |
Stable Release | ||||
23.05 | ||||
OpenWrt 23.05.5 | Downloads | 2024 September | r24106-10cc5fcd00 | |
OpenWrt 23.05.4 | Downloads | 2024 July | r24012-d8dd03c46f | |
OpenWrt 23.05.3 | Downloads | 2024 March | r23809-234f1a2efa | |
OpenWrt 23.05.2 | Downloads | 2023 November | r23630-842932a63d | |
OpenWrt 23.05.1 | Skipped in favor of 23.05.2 | 2023 November | - | |
OpenWrt 23.05.0 | Downloads | 2023 October | r23497-6637af95aa | |
22.03 | ||||
OpenWrt 22.03.7 | Downloads | 2024 July | r20341-591b7e93d3 | |
OpenWrt 22.03.6 | Downloads | 2023 December | r20265-f85a79bcb4 | |
OpenWrt 22.03.5 | Downloads | 2023 May | r20134-5f15225c1e | |
OpenWrt 22.03.4 | Downloads | 2023 April | r20123-38ccc47687 | |
OpenWrt 22.03.3 | Downloads | 2023 January | r20028-43d71ad93e | |
OpenWrt 22.03.2 | Downloads | 2022 October | r19803-9a599fee93 | |
OpenWrt 22.03.1 | Downloads | 2022 October | r19777-2853b6d652 | |
OpenWrt 22.03.0 | Downloads | 2022 September | r19685-512e76967f | |
21.02 | ||||
Openwrt 21.02.7 | Downloads | 2023 May | r16847-f8282da11e | |
Openwrt 21.02.6 | Downloads | 2023 April | r16842-bc99ce5b22 | |
Openwrt 21.02.5 | Downloads | 2022 October | r16688-fa9a932fdb | |
Openwrt 21.02.4 | Downloads | 2022 October | r16685-82ebc173b3 | |
Openwrt 21.02.3 | Downloads | 2022 April | r16554-1d4dea6d4f | |
Openwrt 21.02.2 | Downloads | 2022 February | r16495-bf0c965af0 | |
Openwrt 21.02.1 | Downloads | 2021 October | r16325-88151b8303 | |
Openwrt 21.02.0 | Downloads | 2021 September | r16279-5cc0535800 | |
19.07 | ||||
OpenWrt 19.07.10 | Downloads | 2022 April | r11427-9ce6aa9d8d | |
OpenWrt 19.07.9 | Downloads | 2022 February | r11405-2a3558b0de | |
OpenWrt 19.07.8 | Downloads | 2021 August | r11364-ef56c85848 | |
OpenWrt 19.07.7 | Downloads | 2021 February | r11306-c4a6851c72 | |
OpenWrt 19.07.6 | Downloads | 2021 January | r11278-8055e38794 | |
OpenWrt 19.07.5 | Downloads | 2020 December | r11257-5090152ae3 | |
OpenWrt 19.07.4 | Downloads | 2020 September | r11208-ce6496d796 | |
OpenWrt 19.07.3 | Downloads | 2020 May | r11063-85e04e9f46 | |
OpenWrt 19.07.2 | Downloads | 2020 March | r10947-65030d81f3 | |
OpenWrt 19.07.1 | Downloads | 2020 January | r10911-c155900f66 | |
OpenWrt 19.07.0 | Downloads | 2020 January | r10860-a3ffeb413b | |
18.06 | ||||
OpenWrt 18.06.9 | Downloads | 2020 December | r8077-7cbbab7246 | |
OpenWrt 18.06.8 | Downloads | 2020 March | r7989-82fbd85747 | |
OpenWrt 18.06.7 | Downloads | 2020 January | r7976-ca47026b7d | |
OpenWrt 18.06.6 | Downloads | 2020 January | r7957-d81a8a3e29 | |
OpenWrt 18.06.5 | Downloads | 2019 November | r7897-9d401013fc | |
OpenWrt 18.06.4 | Downloads | 2019 July | r7808-ef686b7292 | |
OpenWrt 18.06.3 | Skipped in favor of 18.06.4 due to a last minute 4.14 kernel update | |||
OpenWrt 18.06.2 | Downloads | 2019 February | r7676-cddd7b4c77 | |
OpenWrt 18.06.1 | Downloads | 2018 August | r7258-5eb055306f | |
OpenWrt 18.06.0 | Downloads | 2018 July | r7188-b0b5c64c22 | |
17.01 | ||||
LEDE 17.01.7 | Skipped due to GPG signing certs issues | |||
LEDE 17.01.6 | Downloads | 2018 September | r3979-2252731af4 | |
LEDE 17.01.5 | Downloads | 2018 July | r3919-38e704be71 | |
LEDE 17.01.4 | Downloads | 2017 October | r3560-79f57e422d | |
LEDE 17.01.3 | Downloads | 2017 August | r3533-d0bf257c46 | |
LEDE 17.01.2 | Downloads | 2017 June | r3435-65eec8bd5f | |
LEDE 17.01.1 | Downloads | 2017 April | r3316-7eb58cf109 | |
LEDE 17.01.0 | Downloads | 2017 February | r3205-59508e3 | |
Older releases (from svn codebase) | ||||
Chaos Calmer 15.05.1 | Downloads | 2016 March | r48532 | |
Chaos Calmer 15.05 | Downloads | 2015 September | r46767 | |
Barrier Breaker 14.07 | Downloads | 2014 October | r42625 | |
Attitude Adjustment 12.09 | Downloads | 2013 April | r36088 | |
Backfire 10.03.1 | Downloads | 2011 December | r29592 | |
Backfire 10.03 | Downloads | 2010 April | r20728 | |
Kamikaze 8.09.2 | Downloads | 2010 January | r18801 | |
Kamikaze 8.09.1 | Downloads | 2009 June | r16278 | |
Kamikaze 8.09 | Downloads | 2008 September | r14510 | |
Kamikaze 7.09 | Downloads | 2007 September | r7831 | |
Kamikaze 7.07 | Downloads | 2007 July | ||
Kamikaze 7.06 | Downloads | 2007 June | r7204 | |
White Russian 0.9 | Downloads | 2007 January | r6257 |
Important notes
Only supported OpenWrt releases are considered safe. Any use of unsupported versions is strongly discouraged due to multiple, severe, well-known, actively exploited security vulnerabilities in the kernel, third-party applications, and 802.11 protocols.
OEM devices may indicate a specific OpenWrt or LEDE release name in banners or other locations that are built using Qualcomm Atheros' QSDK. These builds, while based on OpenWrt code are not OpenWrt and are often not compatible with OpenWrt configuration approaches. QSDK builds are often very good builds, incorporating proprietary code from Qualcomm Atheros. Support for these OEM builds is best sought from the OEM.
White Russian
2007: The codename of the first OpenWrt release is White Russian. White Russian is a popular cocktail. Subsequent release names in 2007-2016 were based on other cocktails, and the recipe was shown in /etc/banner.
Subsequent releases continue the version scheme without the .0 prefix, and with the version number derived roughly from the year in which the release falls.
White Russian is no longer maintained or supported.
Kamikaze and Buildroot-NG
2006-2010: Substantial improvements to the build environment were made under the Buildroot-NG fork in August and September 2006, and these were merged back into the main Kamikaze development branch in mid-October 2006 and became the first official Kamikaze release. OpenWrt 7 and 8, both in the Kamikaze stream, were released throughout 2007-2008.
Kamikaze and Buildroot-NG are no longer maintained or supported.
Backfire
2010-2011: The first Backfire release, OpenWrt 10.03, was released in April 2010:
Backfire is no longer maintained or supported.
Attitude Adjustment
2013: Attitude Adjustment (AA) was released on 25 April 2013:
- Code revision: r36088
Attitude Adjustment is no longer maintained or supported.
Barrier Breaker
2014: Barrier Breaker (BB) was released in October 2014:
- Code revision: r42625
Barrier Breaker is no longer maintained or supported.
Chaos Calmer
2015-2016: Chaos Calmer (CC) was compiled at the end of January 2016, but hardware problems delayed the release until March.
The maintenance release of Chaos Calmer was released on 16 March 2016:
- Code revision: r48532
- Linux kernel: 3.18
Chaos Calmer is no longer maintained or supported.
LEDE 17.01
2017-2018: Most recent 17.01 release is 17.01.6 in September 2018:
- Code revision: r3979-2252731af4
- Linux kernel: 4.4
LEDE 17.01 is no longer maintained or actively supported.
OpenWrt 18.06
2018-2020: Most recent 18.06 release is the final service release 18.06.9 in December 2020:
- Code revision: r8077-7cbbab7246
- Linux kernel: 4.9 / 4.14 depending on target
OpenWrt 18.06 has been declared End-of-Support in December 2020 and is no longer maintained or actively supported.
OpenWrt 19.07
2020-2022: Most recent 19.07 release is the final service release 19.07.10 in April 2022:
- Code revision: r11427-9ce6aa9d8d
- Linux kernel: 4.14
OpenWrt 19.07 has been declared End-of-Support in April 2022 and is no longer maintained or actively supported.
OpenWrt 21.02
2021-2023: Most recent 21.02 release is the final service release 21.02.7 in May 2023:
- Code revision: r16847-f8282da11e
- Linux kernel: 5.4
OpenWrt 21.02 has been declared End-of-Support in May 2023 and is no longer maintained or actively supported.
OpenWrt 22.03
2022-2024: Most recent 22.03 release is the final service release 22.03.7 in July 2024:
- Code revision: r20341-591b7e93d3
- Linux kernel: 5.10.221
OpenWrt 22.03 has been declared End-of-Support in July 2024 and is no longer maintained or actively supported.
OpenWrt 23.05
2023-: Current stable release 23.05.5 in Septemebr 2024:
- Code revision: r24106-10cc5fcd00
- Linux kernel: 5.15.167
OpenWrt 24.10
2024-: New stable releases 24.10.0-rc2 in Dec 2024:
- Code revision: r28161-ea17e958b9
- Linux kernel: 6.6.63
Main (master) snapshots
The “bleeding edge” aka trunk (SVN age term) where the main development is being made, is called as the master branch in the Git repository. Snapshot images made from master are considered unstable and potentially can brick the device, so they are only supposed to be used by developers or experienced users.
Branch logic
OpenWrt follows this branch strategy:
- All development happens in 'main' (master). It progresses on, but no releases are made from it. Buildbot development snapshots are compiled from 'main'. New devices are added to 'main'.
- Before major releases, a release branch is branched off from 'main'. This branch will get separate fix commits and the releases are made of that. No new features are normally added to the release branches after the branching.
Approximate branching dates of the recent release branches, reflecting the date from which the bulk of the source code also in the later maintenance releases is based on:
- 18.06: May 2018
- 19.07: June 2019
- 21.02: February 2021
- 22.03: March 2022
- 23.05: May 2023
- 24.10: October 2024
In the picture below, you can see 21.02, 22.03 and 23.05 branches with the historical releases made from them.