rbv
10-12-2005, 02:06
I just got an Asus WL-500g Deluxe, and I am going to put community firmware on it in preparation for serious customization. I expect to need to compile my own kernel, and if possible I'd like to try new kernels without reflashing and using up the flash write cycles, also potentially bricking the device.
I'm supposing that the CFE bootloader doesn't support USB, and from the descriptions I've read, if it receives an image from the network, it will flash it rather than booting it from RAM.
So I think this function would have to be supported by the kernel flashed onto the unit. I found http://wiki.openwrt.org/UsbStorageHowto,
but while that changes the root partition, it can't boot a kernel from the USB HDD.
Ideally, the firmware could have a kernel with usb support, or load the usb modules, check for a USB mass storage device with a recognized filesystem with, maybe look for a particular filename (/boot/bzImage-wl500g), read it into memory, and transfer control.
It seems possible, because it's done by loadlin, kexec, bootimg (http://bootimg.sourceforge.net/), monte (http://sourceforge.net/projects/monte/), and a number of PDAs have apps for the native OS to start linux. Anyone know if anything like this is available in Oleg's firmware or OpenWRT?
I'm supposing that the CFE bootloader doesn't support USB, and from the descriptions I've read, if it receives an image from the network, it will flash it rather than booting it from RAM.
So I think this function would have to be supported by the kernel flashed onto the unit. I found http://wiki.openwrt.org/UsbStorageHowto,
but while that changes the root partition, it can't boot a kernel from the USB HDD.
Ideally, the firmware could have a kernel with usb support, or load the usb modules, check for a USB mass storage device with a recognized filesystem with, maybe look for a particular filename (/boot/bzImage-wl500g), read it into memory, and transfer control.
It seems possible, because it's done by loadlin, kexec, bootimg (http://bootimg.sourceforge.net/), monte (http://sourceforge.net/projects/monte/), and a number of PDAs have apps for the native OS to start linux. Anyone know if anything like this is available in Oleg's firmware or OpenWRT?