"When you miss Dave, modprobe sch_cake!" — A tribute to the soul of bufferbloat mitigation.
(A Linux Pun: In our world, a wish ending in .sh is a command to be executed!)
(Making a time-traveling dream come true!)
"一支穿雲箭，千軍萬馬來相見" (One arrow pierces the clouds, and ten thousand troops come to meet.)
This Chinese idiom describes a signal so powerful it rallies everyone. Dave was that arrow. Just like fireworks are most mesmerizing in the darkest night, Dave shone brightest when fighting the invisible enemy of Bufferbloat.
- "The darker the night, the brighter the light."
- He worked tirelessly in the dead of night (just as we often do) to tame the network chaos.
- Now, "Ten Thousand" (萬) legacy devices are rallying to his call.
While digging through Dave's old blog posts and presentations, I found a chilling coincidence that proves this project was meant to be.
1. The "Archer" & The Arrow The router series I ported this to is named "Archer" (TP-Link). An Archer shoots an Arrow. This perfectly matches our tribute slogan: "一支穿雲箭 (One Cloud-Piercing Arrow)".
2. The C7 Origin In the original 2015 "Cake" presentation at Battlemesh v8, Dave and Jonathan Morton used a TP-Link Archer C7 to demonstrate that CAKE could shape traffic at 115Mbps while HTB failed.
"HTB can’t shape at 115Mbps. Cake can." — Battlemesh v8 (2015)
3. The C2 Connection In his 2016 blog post "Finally... the real net-next 4.8 fq_codel results", Dave wrote:
"I pulled the odroid C2 out, and made it the test driver..." Today, we have successfully ported his work to the TP-Link Archer C2.
Dave was the Archer. The Code is the Arrow. And we are the target: A bufferbloat-free world.
Sources:
In his famous 2016 blog post "Hardware from hell", Dave expressed his frustration with locked hardware. But amidst the chaos, he had his eyes on a specific target—the MediaTek (mt76) platform.
"I tried to get a mt76 box from alibaba - sold out - this is the new hotness in the OpenWrt 802.11ac world... A turris omnia will probably become my next eval platform unless I can get a mt76 up and running." — Dave Täht (2016)
The Tragedy: He couldn't get one. It was sold out. He was forced to struggle with older devices. The Fulfillment: This repository is dedicated entirely to MT7620/MT7621 devices.
We finally got that "mt76 box" up and running for you, Dave. The "new hotness" you foresaw is now the stable foundation carrying your legacy.
🇹🇼：遲來的約定 當他在 2016 年苦尋不到一台 MT76 路由器時，也許沒想到，幾年後會有成千上萬台 MT76 設備，運行著他的 CAKE 演算法，在網路上奔馳。 Dave，這台 MT76，我們幫你跑起來了！
Source: Hardware from hell (Dave Täht, 2016)
"The darker the night, the brighter the light."
Did you know? Dave's surname "Täht" literally means "Star" in Estonian.
If this project helps you, or if you simply want to honor his legacy, please Light up the "Star" in the top-right corner of this repository.
Let's keep his Star shining bright in the open-source world, guiding packets through the dark.
We are fulfilling a specific wish he made 5 years ago on Reddit:
The BEST engineering result I ever had: Essentially the summation of my 16+ years of work to that point on making wifi better. Unpatented. Please share and enjoy. Help port the code to more chipsets.
— Dave Täht (Reddit, 5 years ago)
Original Source: Reddit - r/Starlink
Dave turned down numerous lucrative contracts to keep his code Free and Open Source. He valued global impact over prestige. Because of him, millions of devices—from Starlink satellites to rural ISP routers—deliver smoother connectivity.
👉 Read the full Memorial at LibreQoS
We firmly support the "Right to Repair" and extending the life of legacy hardware. Between our Legacy (Kernel 3.4) and Performance (Kernel 4.4) branches, we support over 100+ specific hardware targets.
Note: Distinct hardware revisions (e.g., V1 vs V4) count as separate build targets due to hardware differences.
Optimized for MT7620/MT7621 devices. Bringing CAKE to the masses.
| Brand | Supported Models (Select in Workflow) |
|---|---|
| TP-Link | Archer C2 (V1), C20 (V1/V4/V5), C5 (V4), C50 (V1/V3/V4), EC220-G5 (V2), MR200 (V1), MR3020 (V3), MR3420 (V5), WDR7300 (V5), WR840N (V4/V5/V6/RU), WR841N (V13/V14), WR842N (V5), WR845N (V3/V4) |
| Xiaomi | MI-3, MI-3C, MI-4 (A/C/SPI), MI-4A (100M), MI-MINI, MI-NANO, MI-R3G (v1/v2/SPI), MI-R3P (Pro), R2100 (AC2100), RM-AC2100 |
| ASUS | RT-AC1200 (GU/HP), RT-AC51U, RT-AC54U, RT-N10+, RT-N11P (B1), RT-N12+, RT-N13U (B1), RT-N14U, RT-N56U (A1/B1/GE2), RP-AC56 |
| ZyXEL | Keenetic Series: Giga III, Ultra II, Extra (I/II), Lite (I/II/III/3B), Omni (I/II), Start II, Viva, 4G III (B) |
| D-Link | DIR-300 (B1/B7), DIR-320 (B1), DIR-620 (A1/D1), DIR-860L, DIR-882 |
| Newifi | Newifi D1, Newifi D2, Newifi Mini, Newifi Y1S |
| GL.iNet | GL-MT300A, GL-MT300N (V1/V2) |
| Phicomm | K2P (PSG1218), 256PSG1218 |
| ZBT | WE1326, WE1626, WE826-T2, WG3526 (-32), WR8305RT |
| Others | Ubiquiti ER-X, Linksys EA-8100, Belkin F9K1103, Totolink A3004NS, HiWiFi HC5661A, Youku L1/L1C, ZTE E8820S |
| OEM/Misc | 5K-W20, A5-V11, ALR-U270, MQ-WITI, Nexx WT3020 (A/H), Samsung SWR1100, Sercomm (S1010/SmartBox), SNR (MD1/ME1/W4N), Tuoshi TS7620N, Unielec U7621, Wall-AP, Youhua WR1200JS |
Targeting modern MT7621/MT7615 devices. Legends only.
| Brand | Supported Models (Select in Workflow) |
|---|---|
| Phicomm | K2P (The Legend), K2P-NANO, K2P-USB |
| Xiaomi / Redmi | MI-R3P (Pro), MI-R3G, RM2100 (Redmi AC2100), CR660x |
| D-Link | DIR-878, DIR-882 (EXO AC2600) |
| Newifi | NEWIFI3 (Newifi D2) |
| JCG | JCG-AC860M, JCG-836PRO, JCG-Q20, JCG-Y2 |
| Netgear | NETGEAR-BZV (R6800/R6700v2 series) |
| Others | MR2600, XY-C1 |
We believe in a borderless internet. The firmware now supports 14 Languages out of the box!
- English_Only (Default)
- CN (繁體中文) - Traditional Chinese
- RU (Pусский) - Russian
- ES (Español) - Spanish
- BR (Brazil) - Portuguese
- CZ (Česky) - Czech
- DA (Dansk) - Danish
- DE (Deutsch) - German
- FI (Finsk) - Finnish
- FR (Français) - French
- NO (Norsk) - Norwegian
- PL (Polski) - Polish
- SV (Svensk) - Swedish
- UK (Українська) - Ukrainian
This repository contains the Source Code. To build the firmware easily using GitHub Actions, please visit our dedicated Builder repositories:
👉 Choose Your Weapon (Repository Guide):
For Kernel 3.4 Devices (The list above 🟢):
- Target: Padavan Builder Workflow (3.4)
- Action: Fork THAT repository, go to Actions, and run the workflow to build for Legacy devices.
For Kernel 4.4 Devices (The list above 🔵):
- Target: Padavan-4.4 (Performance Edition)
- Action: Fork THAT repository, go to Actions, and run the workflow to build for High-Performance devices.
This fork contains specific backports of CAKE for MediaTek (MTK) based routers running older Linux kernels (Padavan Firmware).
| Directory | Kernel Version | Description |
|---|---|---|
/Padavan 3.4.113 |
Linux 3.4.x | Legacy Backport. Highly optimized for MT7620/MT7621 devices running the classic Padavan 3.4 kernel. Allows older hardware to run CAKE! |
/Padavan 4.4.198 |
Linux 4.4.x | Modern Backport. For newer MT7621/MT7615 devices running the Padavan 4.4 kernel (hanwckf/padavan-4.4). |
/ (Root) |
Upstream | The original upstream source code from dtaht/sch_cake. |
If you are building Padavan firmware, simply replace the sch_cake directory in your kernel source (usually under linux/net/sched/) with the contents of the folder matching your kernel version.
(Forever maintaining an open and open-source spirit)
This repo exists to keep Dave's spirit alive by ensuring the code remains accessible for "Do-It-Yourself" router enthusiasts and custom firmware builders. We believe in the power of the community to sustain what industry giants often abandon.
"Dave’s impact on society was immense... He wanted, ultimately, to speed up the internet so that a drummer in London could play in real-time with a guitarist in Los Angeles." — Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
"I will miss him but will be always grateful to have known him." — Vint Cerf
"Without him, Netflix and similar services might still be plagued by glitches and stutters." — Eric S. Raymond
This is the out-of-tree version of CAKE, the Linux qdisc that combines scheduler and traffic shaper for effective bufferbloat mitigation.
Note: sch_cake is part of the upstream Linux kernel since kernel version 4.19. This repository exists primarily as a resource for building the qdisc with older versions of the kernel (like 3.4 and 4.4).
Forked from dtaht/sch_cake