I think it will be a great benefit for many embedded system developers if OpenWRT would allow more user-configurable options. This would include the kernel config parameters, boot image details, such as include or not include squashfs and where to search for rootfs. Ideally the user would be able to create his own profile or even a hardware target, without modifying the OpenWRT source code.
With such possibilities, OpenWRT has a good perspective to become a base system for all kinds of embedded applications, not only wireless routers. regarding WL-700gE, I couldn't yet find where exactly it does what you describe, but I didn't yet have time to spend more time on it. ----- Original Message ---- > From: Stefan Monnier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 9:01:08 PM > Subject: Re: [OpenWrt-Devel] [PATCH] Edimax BR6104KP profile with rootfs on a > USB drive > > > -- Building the flash image is too platform-specific. For Edimax > > routers, you need to add the header, for other platforms you might > > not need it, or do something else. Also The Edimax makefiles always > > assume there's always a JFFS or Squashfs partition, while in my case > > there should be none. > > But that's a "solved problem" for OpenWRT. And the need/desire to use > a USB-rootfs is orthogonal to this (such a need might show up on > all kinds of systems). > > > so, with these considerations, a separate profile for a Edimax-like > > router with USB rootfs is the thing that could be done with little > > blood (still, I require few updates in the core makefiles). > > You may want to take a look at how it's done for the WL-700gE, which > only has 2MB of flash, but which comes with an IDE disk: basically, > a stripped-down version of OpenWRT is built (stripped down, but > "normal": it comes with a kernel and a squashfs root), but instead of > layering a jffs2 filesystem above the squashfs filesystem, the boo > scripts just switch to the IDE-root instead, so the squashfs basically > acts as an initrd. > > This requires much smaller changes to the scripts and can be made to > work for pretty much any system (the main issue is to find the rootfs > device, which (in the case of USB) may require waiting for it). > Also if the root device is not found, the script can continue the boot > using squashfs and provide a useful fallback. _______________________________________________ openwrt-devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openwrt.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openwrt-devel
