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Distributions

The Tomato firmware distribution is maintained, primarily by Jonathan Zarate at Polar Cloud as a derivation of LinkSys's open-source code. Tomato is built in two flavors, a standard version that should run on all routers and the "New Driver" (ND) version for newer routers. Warning! Loading an ND version on an unsupported router could brick the router.

As such, others have further derived new distributions, named by the authors' usernames in the http://www.linksysinfo.org/forums^[1].

Feature comparison

Mod Name	Base Tomato Version	Min Flash MB	Min Connections	Max Connections	SpeedMod	SFTP	VPN Client	VPN Server	SNMP	SD Card Support	USB Support	VLANs	IPv6 Support
Tomato	1.28	4MB		4096	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Tomato ND	1.28	4MB		4096	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
TomatoVPN	1.27**	4MB		4096	No	No	OpenVPN (GUI Setup)	OpenVPN (GUI Setup)	No	No	No	No	No
hardc0re	1.25	4MB		4000+	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
jyavenard	1.27^***	4MB					PPTP/OpenVPN	PPTP/OpenVPN	Yes			No	No
Neorouter	1.25^***						proprietary	proprietary				Yes	No
roadkill	1.21					Yes	OpenVPN	OpenVPN		SD, MMC		No	No
SgtPepperKSU	1.27v3.6^***				No	No	OpenVPN (GUI Setup)	OpenVPN (GUI Setup)	No	No	No	No	No
slodki	1.28^**	4MB		10240	Yes	Yes	OpenVPN with GUI	OpenVPN with GUI	No	SDHC, MMC with GUI	Print, NAS	No	No
Teddy Bear	1.28^**	4MB/8MB	128	10240	Yes	Yes	OpenVPN (GUI Setup)	OpenVPN (GUI Setup)	No	No	Print, NAS	No	Yes^****
Toastman	1.28^**	4MB/8MB+	128	Configurable	Yes	Yes	OpenVPN	OpenVPN	Yes	No	Print,NAS,FTP,Media	Yes	Yes
Thor	1.25^**	8MB		8192	Yes	FTP only	OpenVPN	OpenVPN	Yes	SDHC, MMC	NAS	No	No
Trzepako	1.21	4MB		?	Yes		No	No	No	No		No	No
Victek	1.28^***	4MB		8192	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No

^*	Tomato standard only
^**	Tomato ND (New Driver) only
^***	Tomato standard and ND
^****	With GUI, in current git builds only
NAS	= Network-attached storage

hardc0re Mod

Latest version: 10 jul 2009^[2] (as of 08/2009)

Based on Tomato 1.25
aims to improve the router's performance under high load (many connections, more than 4000 or so).
Tuned route cache and conntrack hash sizes.
Tuned route cache parameters.
Updated conntrack and netfilter components to later versions.
Modified hash function to a newer one.

jyavenard Mod

Latest version: 30 jan 2010^[3] (as of 01/2010)

Based on Tomato 1.27
has been modified to include a PPTP client (PPTP server included but no GUI)
OpenVPN client and server
and an SNMP server.

Neorouter Mod

Latest version: 0.9.8, 12 oct 2009[2] (as of 10/2009)

Based on Tomato 1.25
Cross-platform zero-config VPN solution that connects computers into a virtual LAN.

roadkill Mod

Latest version: 16 oct 2008^[4] (as of 08/2009)

TomatoMod 1.21 *TEST VERSION 5* - This is a new test version it is only half baked for those who want to try.

LZO 2.03
OpenVPN v2.1rc13 + Management
VPN GUI Interface
SD/MMC GUI Interface with switchable gpio
SFTP-Server
QoS Limit
App Limit
Arp Binding
IPID Adjust

slodki Mod

Latest version: 1.28.02, 18 Feb 2011^[5] (as of 02/2011)

Tomato firmware ver. 1.28
Optimized SDHC/MMC driver ver. 2.0.1 - this adds up to 32GB build-in storage on flash memory
Higher transfers then previous mmc driver ver. 1.3.5 - +40% writing, +10% reading
GPIO pins parametres selectable via GUI
Detailed card ID data available via GUI
Support for mounting ext2, ext3 and vfat partitions
OpenVPN, vsFTP, Samba, print server etc - the same as in Teddy Bear Mod

SgtPepperKSU Mod

Latest version: 01 jun 2009^[6] (as of 08/2009)

Based on Tomato 1.25 (ND also available)
OpenVPN 2.1rc16 is compiled in and fully integrated as a system service.
LZO 2.0.3 is compiled in for VPN compression option
Two separately configurable instances of each clients and servers can be configured in the GUI
TLS (optionally with static key HMAC authentication) and static-key encryption is supported
Custom configuration field is added to the end of the dynamically generated config file
UDP and TCP protocols supported
TAP and TUN style tunnels supported
Site-to-site tunnels without any custom configuration
Status tabs displaying connected clients, VPN routes, and/or statistics.
Sets up and tears down (including module insertion/removal) interfaces as appropriate to save memory
Automatically adds and removes firewall rules as needed.
Option to automatically start server/client with router
Option to redirect Internet traffic over tunnel
Options to accept/push DNS options.
Encryption cipher settings are available.
Client address allocation is handled via GUI.
Added capability to use hostnames in the access restrictions page (unrelated to VPN, but I wanted it)
and more...

Teddy Bear Mod

Latest version: 30 November 2010^[7] (as of December 20, 2010), available for download from Tomatousb.org/download.

Currently based on the 1.28 build of Tomato, this is the list of changes made to official Tomato ND (New Driver):

Support for USB 1.1 (OHCI and UHCI) and USB 2.0, configurable via Tomato GUI.
USB storage (Ext2/Ext3, FAT/FAT32 and NTFS filesystems) and USB printing support.
Auto-mounting for USB drives (added in v05). When this feature is activated in the GUI, and USB drive is plugged in, all mountable partitions will be automatically mounted to a directory under /mnt. If you want to override default mount point, mount your partition manually in the satrtup, wanup, or hotplug script, i.e.: mount -o noatime,nodev /dev/discs/disc0/part1 /opt, or by using /etc/fstab file and "mount -a" command. If you mount the partition manually, it will not be re-mounted to a default mount point. If after mounting the drive you want to execute some additional scripts - to run the programs etc - it's a good idea to add several seconds sleep before doing so.
Support for /etc/fstab, and mounting by label and UUID.
Network File Sharing using built-in Samba server 2.0.10. Please check this post if you're experiencing problems copying files to Samba shares, and this post if you have issues with authenticated access to Samba shares.
Printer server (p910nd) is included and started automatically if you enable printing support. Bidirectional copying can be disabled via GUI if it causes problems with your printer. Only one instance of printer server is started automatically, and listens on port 9100. If you need to support more than 1 printer, add commands to run additional instances of p910nd to your startup script. Follow these directions to set up your printer in Windows.
USB Hotplug script - it can be useful for configuring USB devices after connecting them to the router or on boot-up, for example loading firmware into HP1018 or similar printer (there're some posts on page 11 of this thread with more details about HP1018 printer).
Fixed slow running clock problem on Asus WL-520GU. After flashing this firmware you have to reboot the router at least once for clock to get fixed (this fix is included into official Tomato releases starting from Tomato 1.24).
Fixed WLAN LED on Asus WL-520GU, SES button and WLAN led on Asus WL500gP v1 and Buffalo WBR2-G54 (these fixes are included into official Tomato releases starting from Tomato 1.24).
Built-in FTP server daemon (vsftpd) with GUI.
L7 filter patterns are updated to the latest official version (2009-05-28), removed experimental rtp-2 pattern.
Added CGI scripts support to HTTP daemon - you can place your CGI scripts into "/www/ext/cgi-bin" folder, and they will be executed when you access them via http://<router_ip>/ext/cgi-bin/my_script_name.
Included SpeedMod by Rodney H.
Added new "NAT Target" setting to "Advanced -> Firewall" (SNAT or MASQUERADE).
Upgraded Broadcom Wireless driver to version 4.158.4.0.
UPnP daemon is replaced with MiniUPnPd with NAT-PMP support (MiniUPnPd is included into official Tomato releases starting from Tomato 1.24. This mod however adds additional GUI settings for UPnP). UPnP is disabled by default, NAT-PMP is enabled by default.
Added new "Regulatory Mode" setting (off|g|h) and "Country/Region" setting to "Advanced -> Wireless".
Added wireless auto channel selection.
Changed to use passive mode for wireless scan (generally should pick up more APs).
Replaced JFFS2 filesystem driver by JFFS ver 1.3 from ray123 to provide more available JFFS space.
Replaced ramfs by tmpfs.
Updated busybox and dnsmasq.

The mod (starting from build 20) comes in 4 different flavours:

Standard: all standard features described above; ~180KB JFFS space (3 blocks) available on 4MB flash routers;
Extras: all features of Standard plus Linux Ext2/Ext3 and FAT32 filesystem utilities (fdisk, e2fsck, mke2fs, mkswap, mkdosfs), built-in loop device support, additional color schemes. ~60KB JFFS space (1 block) available on 4MB flash. This version is for people who don't really need JFFS space, or have 8MB flash routers, and would like to be able to partition/format drives in Linux native Ext2/Ext3 format or in FAT32 format directly on the router without installing any additional tools.
Lite: all features of Standard but no Samba; some very minor features are stripped out of Busybox, about 540KB JFFS space (9 blocks) available on 4MB flash routers;
No CIFS: all features of Standard but no CIFS Network filesystem support, about 300KB JFFS space (5 blocks) available on 4MB flash routers;

Toastman Mod

Latest version; 9 Mar 2012^[8]

Toastman-RT-1.28.7496.2-RT MIPSR2 K2.6 for RT-N16 etc. Toastman-RT-1.28.0496.2-RT-N MIPSR2 K2.6 for E4200, RT-N66U etc.

(New versions are available frequently, check Linksysinfo.org for releases).

With Teaman Client Monitor (IPTMon or BWclimon depending on build, can have graphical monitoring of all clients in realtime or last 24 hours and download statistics for all clients.

Web Portal "NoCatSplash" (splashd) integrated by Victek.

VLAN builds include the VLAN-GUI by Augusto Bott and experimental Multi-SSID.

CPU frequency display, CPU % useage, CPU Overclock menu.

Static ARP Binding, Bandwidth Limiter per client,

Significant improvements to Tomato's QOS includes new IMQ based ingress system with class priorities, and an incoming class bandwidth pie chart, making it much easier to evaluate QOS rule effectiveness.

Configurable QOS class names, comprehensive example QOS rules loaded as default. Many useful features/tools for easier administration of networks.

Up to 250 clients in Static DHCP, Access Restrictions, 500 in Wireless Restrictions. Suitable for large installations such as hotels and condominiums as well as the normal user.

MiniDLNA 1.0.22: cvs 2011-08-25
Miniupnpd ver. 1.6 (20110725)
Dnsmasq: 2.59 update
Busybox 1.18.5 update
radvd: 1.8.1 update
Dropbear 0.54 update
ebtables: update to 2.0.10-2 (August 11th, 2011)
Samba 3: security updates CVE-2011-2522 & CVE-2011-2694
ntfs-3g release 2011.4.12
IPV6 improvements
BCM SDK: 5.10.147.0: wireless driver in RT builds
BCM SDK: 5.100.138.9: wireless driver in RT-N builds
PPP: single line MLPPP support
Support for Belkin F7D3301/F7D3302/F7D4301/F7D4302/F5D8235v3, ASUS RT-N12 B1/RT-N10U/RT-N66U routers.
Added support for USB led on E3000, WRT610Nv2, DIR-320, H-618B routers.
Various optimizations backports and fixes from upstream 2.6 kernel.
PPTP Client with GUI by Jean-Yves Avenard
Support for 3G USB Modems
Udpxy v1.0-Chipmunk-build21

Includes the new updates from Tomato-USB/RT by Fedor Kozhevnikov. The RT wireless driver has however been reverted to 5.10.147.0 in the interests of stability.

Thor Mod

Latest version; 27 jul 2009^[9] (as of 08/2009)

Tomato_RAF_1.25.8515 ND USB .8 v3

Based on Tomato 1.25
ND only
recent versions need more than 4 MB
includes USB / NAS / FTP / VPN / SNMP
includes all the updates and changes up till now (15/07/2009)
Based on Victek's sources so it has all his features
Wrt54 Skin based on absolon
tomato-FS-patches 27062009
net-snmp 5.0.9 & Interface
OpenVPN 2.1rc13 & Inteface(Keith Moyer's implementation)
Optware options under USB
NTFS support with RW

Trzepako Mod

Latest version: 03 aug 2008^[10] (as of 08/2009)

Based off the Tomato 1.21 build, this modification adds:

conanxu mod 1.5 (IP/MAC Bandwidth, pps, connection limiter, SPEEDMOD and so on...)
ipt_ROUTE & ipt_random

Victek Mod. Tomato RAF

Latest version: 1.28 as of 4 Jan 2010^[11]

This modification has two branches; Standard Version (A) & ND (New Driver) Version (B).

(A) Common in both versions (and not included in Official Tomato version):

BusyBox 1.14.2
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (16384 buckets, 8192 connection max)
DNSMasq 2.49
Dropbear 0.51 extended RWIN cli command
Extended static DHCP / MAC restriction (up to 140 clients)
IP/MAC Bandwidth Limiter (up to 140 clients)
ARP Binding (up to 140 clients)
Extended miniupnpd
Extended themes (18 themes)
CPU Freq. Display & Overclock (125-300MHz)
Previous WAN IP
ISP Concentrator ID
Two additional button script windows
System command window built into GUI (Tools-System)
ARP command included
Extended command in BusyBox; chown, hostname ..

(B) Additionally in ND version:

Wireless & Ethernet driver 4.158.4.0
Added new "Regulatory Mode" setting (off|d|h) and "Country/Region" setting to "Advanced -> Wireless" in ND version
Added wireless auto channel selection.
Wireless Scan 'passive mode' (shows more AP's if they exist in the neighborhood).

References

↑ List of Tomato mods
↑ hardc0re release announcement.
↑ jyavenard release announcement.
↑ roadkill release announcement.
↑ slodki release announcement.
↑ SgtPepperKSU release announcement.
↑ Teddy Bear's TomatoUSB Changelog
↑ [1]
↑ Thor release announcement.
↑ Trzepako release announcement.
↑ Victek Mod. Tomato RAF release announcement.

[1] List of Tomato mods

[2] rdc0re release announcement.

[3] yavenard release announcement.

[4] roadkill release announcement.

[5] slodki release announcement.

[6] SgtPepperKSU release announcement.

[7] Teddy Bear's TomatoUSB Changelog

[8] [1]

[9] Thor release announcement.

[10] Trzepako release announcement.

[11] Victek Mod. Tomato RAF release announcement.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]