Optware
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Introduction
With the latest DD-WRT v23 SP2, it is possible to install Optware packages from NSLU2-Linux project. This port of Optware is tailored for DD-WRT and extends the router to full feature linux if enough storage is provided for packages (jffs, mmc, USB?).
The main feature of this package is that it installs all required files under /opt with 600+ ported applications. With buildroot toolchain, system library independence is also added. This means that packages now depend on /opt/lib/uClibc.so and dynamic loader also in /opt/lib with separate /opt/etc/ld-opt.so.conf for custom .so cache. Applications are built with wchar and locale support which makes uClibc library somewhat greater than other uClibc packages, but still far smaller than glibc based aplications.
Buildroot toolchain features:
- GCC 4.1.1
- uClibc 0.9.28 with many patches
- uClibc++ 0.2.2
- Native POSIX Threads Library (NPTL) Support for uClibc
Basic preparation of /jffs is required (enable, clean). On WRT54GS there is room for some aplications. SD card (/mmc) may give enough space for many applications. For testing purposes also smbmount can be used. It should be noted that writable /jffs partition must be provided as /bin/ipkg script requires it to save some data there. If a non /jffs filesystem is available, it is recommended to unmount /jffs and then mount eg. mmc in place of /jffs.
Example scenario of installing some packages on WRT54GS
Preparing /jffs for /opt
First step is to prepare /opt mount point for Optware and create ipkg.conf file for packages download
~ # mkdir /jffs/opt ~ # mkdir /jffs/tmp ~ # mkdir /jffs/tmp/ipkg ~ # mount -o bind /jffs/opt /opt ~ # mkdir /opt/etc ~ # vi /opt/etc/ipkg.conf
Edit and insert the following content
src optware http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable dest root /jffs
Now we will point /bin/ipkg script to this config with setting environment variable
~ # export IPKG_CONF_DIR=/opt/etc
This is enough to retrieve list of available packages with
~ # ipkg update Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable/Packages ... Connecting to ipkg.nslu2-linux.org[140.211.166.82]:80 Packages 100% |**********************************************| 259 KB 00:00:00 ETA Done. Updated list of available packages in //jffs/usr/lib/ipkg/lists/optware
If nothing is reported after /bin/ipkg update then probably /etc/resolv.conf does not contain proper name server address like:
search local.lan nameserver 192.168.1.1
Installing ipkg-opt and uclibc-opt
First we will install uClibc library required by all packages and better ipkg-opt packager. Installing package ipkg-opt will automatically install also uclibc-opt package.
~ # /bin/ipkg install ipkg-opt Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable/uclibc-opt_0.9.28-12_mipsel.ipk ... Connecting to ipkg.nslu2-linux.org[140.211.166.82]:80 uclibc-opt_0.9.28-12 100% |******************************************| 832 KB 00:00:00 ETA Done. Unpacking uclibc-opt...Done. Configuring uclibc-opt...Updating /opt/etc/ld.so.cache Done. Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable/ipkg-opt_0.99.163-9_ mipsel.ipk ... Connecting to ipkg.nslu2-linux.org[140.211.166.82]:80 ipkg-opt_0.99.163-9_ 100% |******************************************| 75896 00:00:00 ETA Done. Unpacking ipkg-opt...Done. Configuring ipkg-opt...Configuration file `/opt/etc/ipkg.conf' ==> File on system created by you or by a script. ==> File also in package provided by package maintainer. What would you like to do about it ? Your options are: Y or I : install the package maintainer's version N or O : keep your currently-installed version D : show the differences between the versions (if diff is installed) The default action is to keep your current version. *** ipkg.conf (Y/I/N/O/D) [default=N] ? y Done.
Note that we answered 'y' to install maintainer /opt/etc/ipkg.conf with the following contents:
#Uncomment the following line for native packages feed (if any) #src/gz native http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/native/stable src/gz optware http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable dest /opt/ /
If anything goes wrong when installing ipkg-opt then I recommend erasing /jffs/jffs and /jffs/usr directories with
rm -rf /jffs/jffs rm -rf /jffs/usr
and repeat /bin/ipkg update and /bin/ipkg install ipkg-opt
Installing ipkg-opt package will maintain all packages installed in /opt directory along with its /opt/lib/ipkg directory where /opt/bin/ipkg maintains its status files. There is also /opt/bin/ipkg-opt to save us from confusion. To update list of available packages issue
~ # /opt/bin/ipkg-opt update Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable/Packages.gz Inflating http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable/Packages.gz Updated list of available packages in /opt/lib/ipkg/lists/optware Successfully terminated.
List of available packages is provided with
~ # /opt/bin/ipkg-opt list
List of installed packages
~ # /opt/bin/ipkg-opt list_installed Successfully terminated.
will not show ipkg-opt and uclibc-opt as status file is now located in /opt/lib/ipkg/status and not /jffs/jffs/usr/lib/ipkg/status . To correct this issue we will reinstall the package itself with
~ # /opt/bin/ipkg-opt install ipkg-opt Installing ipkg-opt (0.99.163-9) to /opt/... Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable/ipkg-opt_0.99.163-9_mipsel.ipk package uclibc-opt suggests installing ipkg-opt Installing uclibc-opt (0.9.28-12) to /opt/... Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable/uclibc-opt_0.9.28-12_mipsel.ipk Configuring ipkg-opt Configuring uclibc-opt Updating /opt/etc/ld.so.cache Successfully terminated.
With clean Optware install two packages should be listed
~ # /opt/bin/ipkg list_installed ipkg-opt - 0.99.163-9 - The Itsy Package Manager uclibc-opt - 0.9.28-12 - micro C library for embedded Linux systems Successfully terminated.
From now on no files outside /opt tree will be required for maintaining Optware packages. I even recommend erasing spurious files with
# rm -rf /jffs/jffs /jffs/usr
Exporting IPKG_CONF_DIR is not neeeded any more.
/opt backup
Now we have prepared /opt for adding more packages. We can also create backup of the whole /opt tree in case of router upgrade, to give preinstalled /opt to a friend or just safety backup. We will create such backup with
~ # tar czf /tmp/opt-backup.tar.gz /opt
Destination for /tmp/opt-backup.tar.gz should be large enough! Beware that /tmp is RAM. Destination should be disk or remote smbfs partition. Extracting /opt backup could be:
cd / rm -rf opt/* tar xvzf /tmp/opt-backup.tar.gz
If /opt space is tight and no packages requiring libstdc++ will be used (like Amule) then removing this large shared library is recommended
~ # rm /opt/lib/libstdc\+\+.so /opt/lib/libstdc++.so /opt/lib/libstdc++.so.6 /opt/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.8
ipkg-opt downloads packages into /opt directory and erases them after installing. If you have enough free RAM and /jffs only then adding --tmp-dir /tmp is recommended instead of default /opt
Search PATH
Adding /opt/bin to search PATH will save us from tedious typing of /opt/bin for each command from /opt/bin. For running applications from /opt tree search path should be expanded with
~# export PATH=/opt/bin:/opt/sbin:$PATH
Now we can install any package from a list of available packages.
~# ipkg-opt list | more
or less or this Quick list of Optware packages
Installing ncFTP client
We want to get list of packages containing name ftp
~ # /opt/bin/ipkg-opt list '*ftp*' atftp - 0.7-6 - Advanced TFTP server and client ftpcopy - 0.6.7-3 - A simple FTP client written to copy files or directories (recursively) from a FTP server. ftpd-topfield - 0.6.10-2 - FTPD for the Topfield TF5000PVRt ncftp - 3.2.0-2 - Nice command line FTP client proftpd - 1.3.0a-1 - Highly configurable FTP server with SSL-TLS tftp-hpa - 0.45-1 - A tftp package tnftp - 20050625-1 - tnftp (formerly lukemftp) is what many users affectionately call the enhanced ftp client in NetBSD. tnftpd - 20061217-2 - tnftpd (formerly lukemftpd) is a port of the NetBSD FTP server to other systems. vsftpd - 2.0.1-7 - ftp daemon with an emphasis on speed and security Successfully terminated.
For example we will install ncFTP client with:
~ # /opt/bin/ipkg --tmp-dir /tmp install ncftp Installing ncftp (3.2.0-2) to /opt/... Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable/ncftp_3.2.0-2_mipsel.ipk Installing ncurses (5.6-1) to /opt/... Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable/ncurses_5.6-1_mipsel.ipk Configuring ncftp Configuring ncurses Successfully terminated.
and run it
~ # /opt/bin/ncftp ftp.si.debian.org NcFTP 3.2.0 (Aug 05, 2006) by Mike Gleason (http://www.NcFTP.com/contact/). Copyright (c) 1992-2005 by Mike Gleason. All rights reserved. Connecting to 164.8.6.249... CAMTP Debian mirror [ftp.si.debian.org] Logging in... Anonymous access granted, restrictions apply. Logged in to ftp.si.debian.org. ncftp / > ls backports/ debian-cd/ debian-sl/ openoffice/ debian/ debian-non-US/ favicon.ico robots.txt ncftp / > bye You have not saved a bookmark for this site. Would you like to save a bookmark to: ftp://ftp.si.debian.org Save? (yes/no) yes Enter a name for this bookmark, or hit enter for "si": debian Bookmark "debian" saved.
Always check available size of your /opt partition with
~ # df Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/root 1984 1984 0 100% / /dev/mtdblock/4 5248 3860 1388 74% /jffs /dev/mtdblock/4 5248 3860 1388 74% /opt
Remove unneeded packages with
~ # /opt/bin/ipkg remove ncftp Removing package ncftp from /opt/... Successfully terminated.
You will notice that ncurses as depended package will not get removed. To correct this issue
~ # /opt/bin/ipkg remove ncurses Removing package ncurses from /opt/... Successfully terminated.
unless some other package require this package.
Installing torrent client
Of course there are many more packages which should run on router without a problem. All binaries have built in /opt/lib search path and there should be no problem with libraries clash like problems with OpenWRT packages. All packages have builtin package dependencies and will install required libraries automagically. Lets show this on installing torrent clients:
~ # /opt/bin/ipkg -t /tmp install enhanced-ctorrent Installing enhanced-ctorrent (dnh2.2-6) to /opt/... Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable/enhanced-ctorrent_dnh2.2-6_mipsel.ipk Installing libuclibc++ (0.2.2-4) to /opt/... Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable/libuclibc++_0.2.2-4_mipsel.ipk Installing openssl (0.9.7l-3) to /opt/... Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable/openssl_0.9.7l-3_mipsel.ipk Configuring enhanced-ctorrent Configuring libuclibc++ Configuring openssl Successfully terminated.
We will not show running example for this clients as normally huge amount of storrage is required.
Remarks
- DD-WRT provided /bin/ipkg is not full feature ipkg but it can do the job.
- Using samba share for /opt is not easy as there is no notion for symbolic links on SMB. This is most problematic for symbolic links on shared libraries. Rewriting "ln" to act as a script and put it on the head of search path could be used to copy instead of link. Possibility of mounting filesystem in a file as a loop device on a samba share is not yet verified.
- DD-WRT kernel lacks many "server" features like NFS, USB support, ... Provided samba, mysql, thttp-php and other applications can do the job if enough space is provided. This means that external storage is required for memory hungry applications. Experience from nslu2 and Oleg firmware showed that 512MB swap space is recommended. And this can only be provided with external USB harddisk.
- Optware for DD-WRT is alpha-stage feature. Report problems and suggestions in DD-WRT forum under Optware.
- For instuctions on some other packages look at http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Unslung/Packages
- Package feed will eventually change to official NSLU2 package feeds
- Optware package tracking and repository access