Tomato (firmware)

Last updated
Tomato Firmware
Original author(s) Jonathan Zarate
Developer(s) Tomato Project
Initial releaseDecember 2006;17 years ago (2006-12)
Final release
1.28 / June 28, 2010;
13 years ago
 (2010-06-28)
Written in C++
Operating system Linux
Platform MIPS, ARM
Type Routing software
License Freeware
Backend: GNU General Public License
Frontend: proprietary [1]
Website www.polarcloud.com/tomato
FreshTomato
Stable release
2024.1 / February 12, 2024;0 days ago (2024-02-12)
Repository bitbucket.org/pedro311/workspace/repositories
Platform ARM, MIPS
Website freshtomato.org

Tomato is a family of community-developed, custom firmware for consumer-grade computer networking routers and gateways powered by Broadcom chipsets. The firmware has been continually forked and modded by multiple individuals and organizations, with the most up-to-date fork provided by the FreshTomato project.

Contents

History

Tomato was originally released by Jonathan Zarate in 2006, using the Linux kernel and drawing extensively on the code of HyperWRT. It was targeted at many popular routers of the time, most notably the older Linksys WRT54G series, Buffalo AirStation, Asus routers and Netgear WNR3500L. [2] His final release of the original Tomato firmware came in June 2010, by which point its popularity had grown large enough that development and support continued through the user community, resulting in a series of releases (dubbed "mods") by individual users or teams of them that continues to the present day.

Fedor Kozhevnikov created a notable early mod he called TomatoUSB, which ceased development in November 2010. [3] It was then forked by other developers [4] and remains the nearest common ancestor to all of the forks with any recent activity. The project saw a boost in recognition when Tomato was chosen by Asus as the base used to build the firmware currently preinstalled on their entire line of home routers, ASUSWRT. [5] [6]

Currently, FreshTomato appears to be the only project that has seen active development and new releases. [7]

Features

Several notable features have been part of Tomato long enough to be common to all forks, among them are:

Feature comparison

Mod nameBase
version
Mod
version
Latest
release
5 GHz
(802.11
a/n/ac/ax)
IPv6 USB
support
Memory card
support
VPN
protocols [lower-alpha 1]
SFTP Virtual LANs
TomatoVPN
(SgtPepperKSU) [8]
1.27 [lower-alpha 2] 1.27vpn3.6Jan 2010NoNoNoNo OpenVPN NoNo
Tomato1.28 [lower-alpha 3] 1.28Jun 2010NoNoNoNoNoNoNo
Tomato ND1.28 [lower-alpha 4] NoNoNoNoNoNoNo
SpeedMod
(hardc0re)
1.28 [lower-alpha 2] 120Jul 2010NoNoNoNoNoNoNo
TomatoUSB
(Teddy Bear) [9]
1.28 [lower-alpha 4] Build 54Nov 2010YesYes Printer sharing,
NAS (CIFS/FTP),
DLNA server
No OpenVPN Via
Optware
Yes
slodki1.28 [lower-alpha 4] 1.28.02Feb 2011NoNo Printer sharing,
NAS (CIFS/FTP)
SD,
SDHC,
MMC
OpenVPN Via
Optware
No
DualWAN [10] 1.28 [lower-alpha 2] 1.28.0542Jan 2012NoYes Printer sharing,
NAS (CIFS/FTP),
DLNA server,
3G Modem
No OpenVPN,
PPTP
Via
Optware
Yes
Teaman [11] 1.28 [lower-alpha 4] v0025Jun 2012YesYes Printer sharing,
NAS (CIFS/FTP),
3G Modem
SD,
SDHC,
MMC
OpenVPN,
PPTP (server)
Via
Optware
With GUI
EasyTomato [12] 1.28 [lower-alpha 2] 0.8Jun 2013YesYes Printer sharing,
NAS (CIFS/NFSv3/FTP),
DLNA server,
3G Modem
SD,
SDHC,
MMC
OpenVPN,
PPTP
Via
Optware
With GUI
Victek RAF [13] 1.28 [lower-alpha 2] 1.28.9013 R1.3Jul 2014YesYes Printer sharing,
NAS (CIFS/NFSv3/FTP),
DLNA server,
3G Modem
SD,
SDHC,
MMC
OpenVPN,
PPTP
Via
Optware
With GUI
Toastman [14] 1.28 [lower-alpha 2] RT: 1.28.7511.5
RT‑N: 1.28.0511.5
ARM: 1.28.9008.8
Jan 2017YesYes Printer sharing,
NAS (CIFS/NFSv3/FTP),
DLNA server,
3G Modem
SD,
SDHC,
MMC
OpenVPN,
PPTP
Via Entware-ng
or
Optware-ng
With GUI
Shibby1.28 [lower-alpha 2] v140‑MultiWANMay 2017YesYes Printer sharing,
NAS (CIFS/NFSv3/FTP),
DLNA server,
3G/LTE Modem,
UPS monitoring
SD,
SDHC,
SDXC,
MMC
OpenVPN, PPTP,
L2TP (client),
tinc (server)
Via Entware
or
Optware-ng
With GUI
AdvancedTomato V21.28 [lower-alpha 2] 3.5-140Nov 2017YesYes Printer sharing,
NAS (CIFS/NFSv3/FTP),
DLNA server,
3G/LTE Modem
and UPS monitoring
SD,
SDHC,
SDXC,
MMC
OpenVPN, PPTP,
L2TP (client),
tinc (server)
Via Entware
or
Optware-ng
With GUI
FreshTomato‑ARM
and
FreshTomato‑MIPS
1.28 [lower-alpha 2] 2024.1 [15] Feb 2024YesYes Printer sharing,
NAS (SMB2/NFSv4/FTP),
DLNA server,
3G/LTE Modem
and UPS monitoring
SD,
SDHC,
SDXC,
MMC
OpenVPN, PPTP,
L2TP (client),
tinc (server)
Via Entware
or
Optware-ng
With GUI
Mod nameBase
version
Mod
version
Latest
release
5 GHz
(802.11
a/n/ac/ax)
IPv6 USB
support
Memory card
support
VPN
protocols
SFTP Virtual LANs

Feature comparison (cont.)

Name
Static ARP
Bandwidth limiter
NFS server
BitTorrent client
Guest WiFi
PPPoE server
Tor client
Multi-WAN
Siproxd VoIP
LED control
Theming  [16]
Per-IP traffic stats
TomatoVPN
(SgtPepperKSU)
NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
TomatoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
Tomato NDNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
SpeedMod
(hardc0re)
NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
TomatoUSB
(Teddy Bear)
NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoYesNo
slodkiNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
DualWANYesYesNoYesNoYesNoNoNoNoYesNoNoNoNoNoYesYesYes
TeamanYesYesNoNoWith
GUI
NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoYesYesYes
EasyTomatoYesYes Version 3 NoWith
GUI
NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoYesYesYes
Victek RAFYesVLAN Version 3 NoWith
GUI
NoWith
GUI
With
GUI
NoNoNoWith
GUI
With
GUI
by scriptNoNoYesYesYes
ToastmanYesYes Version 3 NoWith
GUI
NoNoWith
GUI
NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoYesYesYes
ShibbyYesVLAN Version 3
(with GUI)
With
GUI
With
GUI
NoWith
GUI
YesWith
GUI
YesYesNoYesYesYesby scriptYesYesYes
AdvancedTomato V2YesVLAN Version 3
(with GUI)
With
GUI
With
GUI
NoWith
GUI
YesWith
GUI
YesYesNoYesYesYesby scriptYesYesYes
FreshTomato‑ARM
and
FreshTomato‑MIPS
YesVLAN Version 4
(with GUI)
With
GUI
With
GUI
NoWith
GUI
YesWith
GUI
YesYesNoYesYesYesby scriptYesYesYes
Name
Static ARP
Bandwidth limiter
NFS server
BitTorrent client
Guest WiFi
PPPoE server
Tor client
Multi-WAN
Siproxd VoIP
LED control
Theming  [16]
Per-IP traffic stats
  1. Firmware supports listed protocols in client and server modes unless specified
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Tomato standard and ND
  3. Tomato standard only
  4. 1 2 3 4 Tomato ND (New Driver) only

See also

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References

  1. Zarate, Jonathan. "Tomato Firmware, tomato/release/src/router/www/tomato.js source file". Sourceforge.net. Retrieved 23 September 2014. Copyright 2006-2010 Jonathan Zarate For use with Tomato Firmware only. No part of this file may be used without permission.
  2. "Tomato Firmware | polarcloud.com". www.polarcloud.com. Retrieved 2016-10-05.
  3. "Tomato by Shibby » About Tomato (ang.)". tomato.groov.pl. Retrieved 2016-10-05.
  4. List of Tomato Mods on the TomatoUSB website
  5. "Asus ASUSWRT" . Retrieved 2018-01-03.
  6. "Asuswrt-Merlin » About" . Retrieved 2018-01-03.
  7. "FreshTomato source code" . Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  8. TomatoVPN official website
  9. TomatoUSB Mod (Teddy Bear) Home page.
  10. DualWAN Mod Home page.
  11. Teaman Mod Home page. Augusto Bott is the author of the VLANs GUI, Per-IP Traffic Stats (author of cstats, which keeps per-IP data/track/history), Client Monitor Graphs (author of IPTraffic) and author of the Guest SSID GUI.
  12. "EasyTomato Home Page" . Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  13. Victek RAF Mod Home page
  14. Toastman Mod Home page. Tomato builds with many useful added features. Lean, stable, and fast with minimal bells and whistles, with a focus on QoS and Administration. Based on TomatoUSB and RT (selected features included from other firmware, plus new mods).
  15. "FreshTomato - Alternative open source firmware for Broadcom-based routers".
  16. 1 2 "About Tomato Theme Base" . Retrieved 2019-05-09.