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OpenWRT on x86_64
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openwrt-on-x86_64.md

OpenWRT on x86_64

This is a very brief tutorial on getting OpenWRT installed on a regular computer, it assumes you know your way around Linux. If you find this and need additional details, please like, subscribe, and comm... oh wait this isn't youtube, just comment.

Updated: Current version is 22.03.5, this was originally written for 18.6.x in 2019.

What You'll Need

  • 1 USB Stick
  • Linux Live ISO

Use dd or Rufus and create your live Linux ISO.

Installation

Boot off your live Linux USB.

Open terminal and download the latest OpenWRT, I'm using the generic-ext4-combined-efi image.

cd ~/Desktop
wget https://archive.openwrt.org/releases/22.03.5/targets/x86/64/openwrt-22.03.5-x86-64-generic-ext4-combined-efi.img.gz
gunzip openwrt-22.03.5-x86-64-generic-ext4-combined-efi.img.gz
# May throw this, it can be ignored.
gzip: openwrt-22.03.5-x86-64-generic-ext4-combined-efi.img.gz: decompression OK, trailing garbage ignored

Find your hard drive.

fdisk -l

Should show your hard drive and USB stick.

Disk /dev/loop0: 2.34 GiB, 2515390464 bytes, 4912872 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/sda: 223.57 GiB, 240057409536 bytes, 468862128 sectors
Disk model: Patriot Burst El
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/sdb: 14.32 GiB, 15376000000 bytes, 30031250 sectors
Disk model: Ultra
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 07896644-3E61-4841-B41A-CA3F44823CCE

Device       Start      End  Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sdb1       64  5228883  5228820  2.5G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb2  5228884  5237379     8496  4.1M EFI System
/dev/sdb3  5238784 30031186 24792403 11.8G Linux filesystem

This shows /dev/sda which is my SSD, a /dev/loop0 which is a mount image file, and /dev/sdb which is my USB stick.

Write your image to your drive:

sudo dd if=./openwrt-22.03.5-x86-64-generic-ext4-combined-efi.img of=/dev/sda bs=256 status=progress

88248576 bytes (88 MB, 84 MiB) copied, 2 s, 44.1 MB/s
492670+0 records in
492670+0 records out
126123520 bytes (126 MB, 120 MiB) copied, 3.25015 s, 38.8 MB/s

Fix & Sort & Resize Partitions

sudo fdisk /dev/sda

GPT PMBR size mismatch (246303 != 468862127) will be corrected by write.
The backup GPT table is corrupt, but the primary appears OK, so that will be used.
The backup GPT table is not on the end of the device. This problem will be corrected by write.

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

sudo fdisk /dev/sda

Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 223.57 GiB, 240057409536 bytes, 468862128 sectors
Disk model: Patriot Burst El
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: BF7A017B-4794-7EEB-750B-7774328FBD00

Device      Start    End Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1     512  33279   32768   16M Linux filesystem
/dev/sda2   33280 246271  212992  104M Linux filesystem
/dev/sda128    34    511     478  239K BIOS boot

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

Command (m for help): x
Expert command (m for help): f
Partitions order fixed.
Expert command (m for help): r
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

From here I resize using gparted as I constantly mess this up in fdisk.

sudo gparted /dev/sda

Select the last partition which is your root file system. Select Partition and Resize/Move.

Drag the partition, so it takes up the entire space. Then set the Free space following (MiB) to 4096. If you skip this, it probably will not boot for some reason.

Click the Resize/Move button, then close out of gparted.

Reboot

This should take about a second or two, then reboot.

sudo reboot

First Boot

Grub should automatically boot to OpenWRT.

You may have to hit enter a couple of times if the boot seems to hang, it'll drop you to the command prompt and complain that there's no password.

Edit your /etc/config/network file with vi.

You'll want to modify your lan interface giving it a static IP within your network.

Here's mine for example, if you use 192.168.x.x instead of 10.10.x.x you'll want to change this here.

config interface 'loopback'
  option device 'lo'
  option proto 'static'
  option ipaddr '127.0.0.1'
  option netmask '255.0.0.0'

config globals 'globals'
  option ula_prefix 'fd4d:4e18:f1a2::/48'

config device
  option name 'br-lan'
  option type 'bridge'
  list ports 'eth0'

config interface 'lan'
  option device 'br-lan'
  option proto 'static'
  option netmask '255.255.255.0'
  option ip6assign '60'

config interface 'wan'
  option device 'eth1'
  option proto 'dhcp'

config interface 'wan6'
  option device 'eth1'
  option proto 'dhcpv6'

Then do service network reload and you should be able to ping your gateway and outside the network. If you have more than one NIC you may need to adjust your ethernet cable as needed.

From here you can use ifconfig to determine your DHCP address.

br-lan    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:01:2E:80:09:70
          inet6 addr: fd77:e6c7:809b:4::1/62 Scope:Global
          inet6 addr: fd4d:4e18:f1a2::1/60 Scope:Global
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:01:2E:80:09:70
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:01:2E:80:09:71
          inet addr:10.10.10.169  Bcast:10.10.10.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::201:2eff:fe80:971/64 Scope:Link
          inet6 addr: fd77:e6c7:809b::68e/128 Scope:Global
          inet6 addr: fd77:e6c7:809b:0:201:2eff:fe80:971/64 Scope:Global
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:5494 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2866 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:1545729 (1.4 MiB)  TX bytes:1001285 (977.8 KiB)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:1483 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1483 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:142201 (138.8 KiB)  TX bytes:142201 (138.8 KiB)

Now you'll want to open your firewall a bit to allow WAN connections. Open /etc/config/firewall with vi.

If you use this as a router, you should not keep these rules permanently.

config rule
  option name 'Allow-LuCI-http-on-WAN'
  option src 'wan'
  option proto 'tcp'
  option dest_port '80'
  option target 'ACCEPT'

config rule
  option name 'Allow-LuCI-https-on-WAN'
  option src 'wan'
  option proto 'tcp'
  option dest_port '443'
  option target 'ACCEPT'

config rule
  option name 'Allow-SSH-on-WAN'
  option src 'wan'
  option proto 'tcp'
  option dest_port '22'
  option target 'ACCEPT'

To restart the firewall execute:

fw4 reload

You should now be able to get into the gui from any computer in the same subnet.

Configuration

Update Packages

opkg update

Packages I Use

opkg install vim-full nano usbutils pciutils

Use Bash Instead of Ash

opkg install bash
sed -i 's/ash/bash/' /etc/passwd

bash completion

opkg install ca-bundle ca-certificates openssl-util
mkdir ~/bin && cd ~/bin
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pjobson/bash-completion/master/bash_completion
chmod +x ~/bin/bash_completion
echo ". ~/bin/bash_completion" >> ~/.profile

Adblocking

opkg install adblock luci-app-adblock

Reload luci and you should find Adblock under Services.

Setting Up Git

opkg install git git-http ca-bundle wget

Generate your ssh keys.

mkdir -p ~/.ssh
dropbearkey -t rsa -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa
dropbearkey -y -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa | sed -n 2p > ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Add your ssh key to github.

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Add to: https://github.com/settings/keys

Git will not work correctly with ssh from the server, this is the workaround.

mkdir ~/bin && cd ~/bin
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pjobson/onion_omega2p_experiments/master/bin/ssh-git
chmod +x ssh-git

Edit your .profile and add:

export GIT_SSH=~/bin/ssh-git
export GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="USER NAME"
export GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL="user@email.address"
export GIT_COMMITTER_NAME=$GIT_AUTHOR_NAME
export GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL=$GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL
export PATH=~/bin:$PATH

Then source your .profile.

Now you should be able to connect to github.

Intel

opkg install kmod-iwlwifi iwlwifi-firmware-iwl6000g2

@tfcarlin
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tfcarlin commented Aug 9, 2020

Thanks for the detailed instructions. How do you go about what is typically a "sysupgrade"?

@pjobson
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pjobson commented Aug 10, 2020

Thanks for the detailed instructions. How do you go about what is typically a "sysupgrade"?

Thanks for the feedback @tfcarlin !

I'm messing around with a VirutalBox right now, you can use this to update all of your packages: https://roll.urown.net/router/router-upgrade.html

For a version update, normally there's a sysupgrade download for most releases, I don't see the same thing for x86_64.

What I'd do is create a backup:

sysupdate -b /tmp/backup.tar.gz

Then copy that off your router to your workstation. Then re-flash the router with the latest OpenWRT version. Then copy the backup back from your workstation to your router and restore it:

sysupdate -r /tmp/backup.tar.gz
reboot

@tfcarlin
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Thanks!

PS: Should sysupdate be sysupgrade in your backup example? I don't have a sysupdate.

@pjobson
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pjobson commented May 20, 2022 •
edited

raadhey @ reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/openwrt/comments/ut9yr8/x86_install_on_emmc/

Hit me up if you need help, I don't have one of those units though they look interesting, I'd consider getting one. I wonder if you could use refind to get it to boot into openwrt.

Edit: I ordered a couple to mess with.

@raadhey
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raadhey commented May 20, 2022

Thank you @pjobson I will give try this out. I looked around some more and found this with some steps as well.
Additionally, last night I found this script which from my understanding is using an update from an official change which has made it to 22.03.1rc1. I tried the script but hit into an error and have reported it.

This device is certainly very interesting. I am not surprised that its not fixed till now. I think I misunderstood its an eMMC problem. It seems like its an Atom SOC support problem.

raadhey @ reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/openwrt/comments/ut9yr8/x86_install_on_emmc/

Hit me up if you need help, I don't have one of those units though they look interesting, I'd consider getting one. I wonder if you could use refind to get it to boot into openwrt.

Edit: I ordered a couple to mess with.

@pjobson
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pjobson commented May 20, 2022

@raadhey happy to help if I can. There was a thing called respin which was used to fix ISOs for booting ATOM, maybe that's the issue, I haven't messed with that thing in a VERY long time: https://github.com/kenorb-contrib/isorespin

I'll make a new gist when I get my units. They looked interesting enough that I wanted a couple. Thanks.

@raadhey
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raadhey commented May 23, 2022

I tried installing the latest 22.03.0-rc1 and it successfully completed. It also makes a 3rd partition for the efi. After this when I rebooted I got a lot of squashfs errors on my monitor. I didn’t capture these. On booting up I’m able to see the openWRT/ openWRT failsafe options. But that’s it. Choosing either goes to a blank screen and nothing further happens. I tried also plugging in via Ethernet opening luci and ping 192.168.1.1 but yields no result.

I also thought of trying something like a router on stick, boot off the USB like a live disk/ img, but it doesn't really boot up.

I gave up after multiple attempts and trying to reformat the eMMC and install ubuntu has left me with a number of partitions (loop0- loop7 and mmclk0boot0/boot1) that I cant delete and reallocate.

I gave up and tried to go try opnsense over the weekend. That didn't go well either. It has a few quirks I had to unset a variable related to uart to get it to even boot for install and permanently modify it post install. I was able to complete install and get it to work. Speeds are poor and I cant hit full 500Mbps of my ISP which I guess are due to the Realtek NIC. Then it has a problem of not booting up headless.

So while this is a neat little box, I don't think it is well suited for running like a router/ gateway or at least not for someone like me with limited skills.

Please do let me know if you make progress with openWrt I would be willing to try again if you can make progress and get it to boot up post install. Thanks

@pjobson
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pjobson commented May 26, 2022

@raadhey

I had no luck with OpenWRT on the eMMC. The EFI and non-EFI versions just won't go, messed with reFIND a bit with the MBR version, no luck. I'm going to try putting a boot partition on a USB stick, with reFIND on it and see if I can get it to "see" the eMMC. Will post back with updates later.

@raadhey
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raadhey commented May 26, 2022

@pjobson Thanks for the update. The latest rc has a fix in a6b7c3e and I get the 3rd EFI partition on the device as well. But it doesn't boot.
I am not familiar with how to report this to the team. Not sure if it is an Atom SOC incompatibility issue or eMMC issue.

@pjobson
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pjobson commented May 28, 2022

@raadhey

I'm putting notes for the device on this page: https://gist.github.com/pjobson/873d567b7a84cee2f3340d9539bd63a0

It boots just takes a VERY long time, I'm going to keep experimenting with it this weekend.

@pjobson
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pjobson commented Nov 30, 2022

@raadhey

If you're still experimenting OpenWRT & ATOM CPUs, my Dell Wyse 3040 build may work for you.

https://github.com/pjobson/dell-wyse-3040-openwrt

@Smok07
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Smok07 commented Nov 10, 2023 •
edited

Has anyone managed to get the built-in m.2 Marvell 88W8897 WiFi card to work with OpenWrt?

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