Building OpenWrt firmware for NSLU2 from source

Prerequisites:

• Preconfigured (original) firmware NSLU2 with static IP 192.168.1.77 and correct DNS and gateway
• Linux system with developer tools
• Download (latest) source kamikaze_7.09.tar.bz2 from http://downloads.openwrt.org/kamikaze/7.09/kamikaze_7.09.tar.bz2
• You must manually download Intel IXP400 software - NPE microcode (non-crypto) version 2.4, file IPL_ixp400NpeLibrary-2_4.zip, from http://www.intel.com/design/network/products/npfamily/download_ixp400.htm and put it in the dl/ directory of the build system. You will need to agree to the Intel Public License to do so - please do.

Command line example for kamikaze 7.09

$ mkdir openwrt
$ cd openwrt
$ wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/kamikaze/7.09/kamikaze_7.09.tar.bz2  
$ tar xvjf kamikaze_7.09.tar.bz2
$ cd kamikaze_7.09
$ mkdir dl
$ mv /tmp/IPL_ixp400NpeLibrary-2_4.zip dl
   [moved downloaded file from /tmp to dl dir]
$ make menuconfig
  [select Target System (Intel XScale IXP4xx [2.6]) and Target Profile (Linksys NSLU2)]
$ make
  ...

You will find in bin directory file openwrt-nslu2-2.6-squashfs.bin that can be uploaded to nslu2 using UpSlug2 tool like

 $ sudo upslug2 -i bin/openwrt-nslu2-2.6-squashfs.bin

If you want to change any of the default build configurations under 'make menuconfig', be aware that the naming convention for selected items works a little differently for the OpenWrt tree.

<*> means include package in firmware image
<M> means compile package, but exclude from firmware image
< > means do not compile package

In order to modify the default kernel configuration, run 'make kernel_menuconfig'. Kernel modules tagged for inclusion under 'make menuconfig' seem also to need to be flagged to be built under 'make kernel_menuconfig' - or they will not be compiled and included in your image.

Building snapshot release from trunk

Latest (unstable) release of OpenWrt can be built with checking out from subversion repository

$ svn checkout https://svn.openwrt.org/openwrt/trunk kamikaze
$ cd kamikaze
$ make menuconfig
$ mkdir dl
$ cp /tmp/dl/IPL_ixp400NpeLibrary-2_4.zip dl
$ make

Note that latest version of build firmware defaults network to 192.168.1.1 and that there is no default gateway nor nameserver set. This could be changed by adding

        option dns      192.168.1.1                                                                
        option gateway  192.168.1.1       

Correct /etc/ipkg.conf for snapshot releases is

src snapshots http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/ixp4xx-2.6/packages
src packages http://downloads.openwrt.org/kamikaze/packages/armeb
src nslu2 http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/openwrt/kamikaze-7.09
src optware http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/openwrt-ixp4xx/cross/unstable
dest root /
dest ram /tmp

X-wrt webif

With default OpenWrt selection there is no X-Wrt included and thus no webif interface on http://192.168.1.77/

For that one must manually install webif with the following instructions:

• telnet to 192.168.1.77 There should be no password requested.
• Edit with vi /etc/ipkg.conf and add the nslu2 and optware repositories to package list. /etc/ipkg.conf should look like:

    src release http://downloads.openwrt.org/kamikaze/7.09/ixp4xx-2.6/packages                             
    src packages http://downloads.openwrt.org/kamikaze/packages/armeb                                      
    src nslu2 http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/openwrt/kamikaze-7.09                                      
    src optware http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/openwrt-ixp4xx/cross/unstable                    
    dest root /                                                                                            
    dest ram /tmp                                                                                          

• Update package list with ipkg update
• Install X-wrt webif with ipkg install webif . This will also add a new source at the end of /etc/ipkg.conf:

    src      X-Wrt http://downloads.x-wrt.org/xwrt/kamikaze/snapshots/ixp4xx-2.6/packages