Freifunk Weimar Firmware Builder

Work in Progress

Builds Images with Freifunk Firmware :)

This is based on the firmware building code from Freifunk Berlin. Most of the documentation also applies here.

Images

:: Folder Structure

/firmwares/<version>/<target>/<packagelist> 
              ^         ^          ^
              |         |          | weimarnetz         - git master from weimarnetz
              |         |
              |         | ar71xx       - most routers with Atheros SoCs
          |     | ar71xx_tiny  - 4mb flash modells
              |         | ... 
              |         | x86      - 32bit x86 + vm images
              |         | uml      - user mode linux
              |         | ramips_* - most Mediatek SoCs
              |
              | git describe --always from this repo + OpenWRT revision + shorthash

Development

How does this stuff work?

The idea is to download OpenWRT via git, patch it with all patches in the patches folder and configure it according to the configuration snippets in configs. Then use the OpenWRT buildsystem to build all packages and the Imagebuilder and use the latter to assemble the final image with lists of packages in packages for the router.

Dependencies

Only tested on Linux.

:: Debian / Ubuntu: 

# apt-get install sudo git subversion build-essential libncurses5-dev zlib1g-dev \
    gawk unzip libxml-perl flex wget gawk libncurses5-dev gettext \ 
    quilt python libssl-dev rsync 

Structure

Where can I change something? What does these files do?

:: Settings

config.mk             - OpenWRT git repository, revision, select what package lists to build
feeds.conf            - OpenWRT feeds.conf that is used for the package feeds during build

patches/              - Patches against the OpenWRT directory 
packages/             - Package Lists 
profiles/             - List of router profiles for each architecture - names come from the Imagebuilder

:: Building 

Makefile              - Does all the stuff. Cloning and Updating OpenWRT, patching, running make
assemble_firmware.sh  - Script for running the Imagebuilder for a target

:: Images  

firmwares/            - Folder where the final images end up 

Usage

$ git clone https://github.com/weimarnetz/firmware
$ cd firmware
// build all images for ar71xx
// $ make (+OpenWRT build flags i.e. -j$(nproc), V=s ...)
$ make TARGET=ar71xx PKG_LIST=weimarnetz -j$(nproc)
// build all images for 4mb devices 
$ make TARGET=ar71xx_tiny PKG_LIST=weimarnetz
// build for x86
$ make TARGET=x86
// build for ramips_mt72x8 
$ make TARGET=ramips_mt72x8
// build a different package list
$ make PKG_LIST=weimarnetz_usbtether

find your image in firmwares/xxx/branch/target/... 
...

Adding a package

Run a build first and cd in the lede folder and use make menuconfig to the select the package you want. If it's not in the default feeds.conf add the package feed for that package.

Use ./scripts/diffconfig.sh in the lede folder to the symbol for the package or grep for the name in lede/.config

Add the symbol to configs/common.config

i.e. echo "CONFIG_PACKAGE_tmux=m" >> configs/common.config

You can now use the package name in the package list file.

Adding a new router model to an existing architecture

Everything that is in the ToH should work at least in theory. Wifi should be ath9k / ath10k. mt76 also appears to work.

You can use the Imagebuilder to get a list of all supported models for a platform. You can also look in the source for model names.

Just put the name in the /profiles/<target>.profiles and it should work.

Add, modify or delete a patch

In order to add, modify or delete a patch run:

$ make clean pre-patch

Then switch to the OpenWRT directory:

$ cd build/lede

Now you can use the quilt commands as described in the OpenWrt wiki.

Refresh Patches

See: https://wiki.debian.org/UsingQuilt

$ cd build/lede 
$ quilt next # forward to patch 
$ quilt push -f 
$ quilt refresh # refresh patch 

Example: add a patch

quilt push -a                 # apply all patches
quilt new 008-awesome.patch   # tell quilt to create a new patch
quilt edit somedir/somefile1  # edit files
quilt edit somedir/somefile2
quilt refresh                 # creates/updates the patch file

...