HOWTO install debian on 128 mb usb stick

[iiivx]

install debian on a usb stick

Setup good firmware

I used phedny's custom firmware (1.9.2.7-3b) with ipv6 support, you can download it here (http://masteen2.iiivx.net/wl500g/WL500g-1.9.2.7-3b+ipv6.trx). Howto install new firmware is described in other howto's on the wl500g forums.

If you don't want ipv6, you can skip setting it up. But hey, why not use ipv6 when I included all kinds of neat ipv6 things like radvd, iproute2, ping6 and traceroute6! Well, read howto setup your wl500g as a ipv6 router (http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=1685&highlight=ipv6)

I disabled the stupid-ftp server, because it's .. to simple. Why not use a cool ftpd server when you have a working debian installation? :-) If you have disabled the ftp server on the admin webpages, the usb-storage modules won't be loaded into the kernel. Make sure you have loaded the required modules into the kernel:


insmod /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/scsi/scsi_mod.o
insmod /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/scsi/sd_mod.o
insmod /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/usb/storage/usb-storage.o

Download the image and store it on the usb memory stick:


wget -O /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc http://masteen2.iiivx.net/wl500g/debian/debian-sarge-128mb-mipsel.image

this image includes a partition table and stuff, because the ipv6 firmware doesn't have e2fsprogs out of the box. Mount the crazy thing so you can start messing around.


mount /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 /tmp/harddisk

Get into your debian installation.


chroot /tmp/harddisk/debian-distro /bin/bash
mount -t proc none /proc
mount -t devfs devfs /dev
swapon /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part2

Generate your own key's and start dropbear

rm /etc/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key && rm /etc/dropbear/dropbear_dss_host_key
dropbearkey -t rsa -f /etc/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key
dropbearkey -t dss -f /etc/dropbear/dropbear_dss_host_key
/etc/init.d/dropbear start

Use your fresh debian installation

Now the second part, using your debian installation!

Ssh to your router using the account 'normaluser' and the default password 'userpasswd'. Change your password and type 'su', the default root password is 'rootpasswd'.

Do something kinky like

apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade

And enjoy! Don't forget to regulary clean up the useless stuff I mentioned before.

Additional information

Example of how things can look when everything goes okay

Feanor:~ iiivx$ ssh normaluser@192.168.1.1
normaluser@192.168.1.1's password:
Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.
normaluser@wl500g-router:~$ su
Password:
wl500g-router:/home/normaluser# uptime
21:08:10 up 2 days, 8:38, 1 user, load average: 0.29, 0.36, 0.69
wl500g-router:/home/normaluser# uname -a
Linux wl500g-router 2.4.20 #57 Thu Feb 10 14:29:29 CET 2005 mips GNU/Linux
wl500g-router:/home/normaluser# cat /etc/debian_version
3.1
wl500g-router:/home/normaluser#


How did I make this? How can this work?

Indeed, "cdebootstrap -amipsel sarge debian-distro http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian" creates a 100 megabyte filetree, and if you unpack the stuff it gets even worse. So I decided to delete all the 'useless' crap.

The first reduction technique is to remove the documentation from the root filesystem. They include the Perl .pod files and everything under the following directories:

/usr/doc
/usr/info
/usr/man
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/info
/usr/share/man
Two others that should either be trimmed or eliminated are . . .

/usr/share/locale
/usr/share/zoneinfo
/usr/share/locale provides locale information, so that users can see the system in their own languages, currency formats, etc. /usr/share/zoneinfo provides timezone definitions, so that users can see local time and perform timezone conversions. Both of these could certainly be trimmed down -- a server which is going to be administered by a single person does not need locale information for languages that person does not speak; and a server which will be used in one place, and does not do complex time-related applications (e.g. calendaring) will never use more than one timezone definitions.

However, removing all of the documentation, the locale, and timezone information only reduces the size of the Debian root filesystem that much, so I also deleted a bunch of not-required libraries and packages. If you miss them, you can install them using apt-get(8).

I ended up using this packages list: debian-sarge-128mb-mipsel-packages.txt (http://masteen2.iiivx.net/wl500g/debian/debian-sarge-128mb-mipsel-packages.txt)

output of my df -h & free -m


root@wl500g-router:/# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1
112M 78M 29M 74% /
root@wl500g-router:/# free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 13 12 1 0 0 5
-/+ buffers/cache: 6 7
Swap: 10 1 9
root@wl500g-router:/#

[Oleg]

Just to let you know: 1.9.2.7-4 includes ipv6 and has fdisk and e2fsprogs.
So, it's better to pack your image as tar.gz and include an info on partitioning disks to the how-to, as even 128MB flash drives could be different.

[iiivx]

Just to let you know: 1.9.2.7-4 includes ipv6 and has fdisk and e2fsprogs.
So, it's better to pack your image as tar.gz and include an info on partitioning disks to the how-to, as even 128MB flash drives could be different.

I am aware of the fact that this howto isn't capable of handling slightly different setups. As soon as I have time to test 1.9.2.7-4, I will update the howto and include information on partitioning the stick and tarball's.

[rinco]

Great stuff... but I have a conundrum.

I can see usbdevfs:

[admin@mouser root]$ ls /proc/bus/usb/
001 devices drivers

But usbdevfs doesn't seem to appear in the chrooted environment:

[admin@mouser admin]$ ls /tmp/harddisk/debian-distro/proc/bus/
pci usb
[admin@mouser admin]$ ls /tmp/harddisk/debian-distro/proc/bus/usb/
[admin@mouser admin]$

Do you have any suggestions as to how I can execute the Debian software
and access usbdevfs?

edit: someone on #wrt54g suggested -obind with mount, which seems to have done the trick.

[iiivx]

edit: someone on #wrt54g suggested -obind with mount, which seems to have done the trick.

Indeed, either way you can mount /proc and /dev from within the chrooted enviroment, or perform a binded mount. I'm glad you liked this :-)

[Darkstar]

Hi iiivx,
I am a bit lazy with cleaning, so I would like to take a 1024MB USB stick, but the cdebootstrap command failes with "E: Couldn't install root!" after extracting the last package. What is going wrong?

Darkstar.

[iiivx]

Hi iiivx,
I am a bit lazy with cleaning, so I would like to take a 1024MB USB stick, but the cdebootstrap command failes with "E: Couldn't install root!" after extracting the last package. What is going wrong?

Darkstar.

The cdebootstrap command is expected to fail, since you aren't bootstrapping on a mipsel machine. Thus it cannot execute the binaries it want's to execute. Read the tutorial on the wiki, it should help you enough to get something up and running.

[Darkstar]

Ok, got this. But I have another question: Is it possible to boot into the Debian distribution in order to start the desired services via the /etc/rcX.d/... framework?

Darkstar.

[rdk]

Unfortunately the wiki is not acessible right now?! I really would like to try the debian on the wl500g...
Do you still plan to post an image of debian without the partition table ? :o

What can you do exactly with it? Can in the chrooted environment thttpd and mysql be run? mysql seems to be avaible in debian mipsel package....

Thanks for your help.

Rainer

[therealhunter]

i have done everything the wy you explaind
but after i add this command

mount /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 /tmp/harddisk

i get this error


mount: mount point /tmp/harddisk does not exist


i don't know what i'm doin wrong,

i'm using olegs latest firmware version

thx hunter

[Styno]

Unfortunately the wiki is not acessible right now?! I really would like to try the debian on the wl500g...
Wiki is running fine here: http://wiki.wl500g.info/

[Kleinertuerke]

Hello
Thanks for the great tutorial. It worked fine for me.
But now i have a little problem:
after "apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade" i have very little space left for other packages. So is there a way to resize the image???
I use a 6GB Harddisk and Olegs Firmware 1.9.2.7-6b.

[Styno]

If you attach your USB device to a PC, you can use Partition Magic for that or otherwise Ranish Partition Manager.

[Kleinertuerke]

Hello
Thanks for your answer Styno. Partition Magic is telling me that the harddisk is defectiv :confused: and i cant do anything except creating a new partition.
iiivx wrote that the image includes a partiton table. Is there no easy way to change that?? I guess i should ask google ;)

[molski]

I installed Debian onto a 256MB USB disk, everything is working great.
The output of 'df -h' is as follows:

root@Asus:/# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1
112M 78M 29M 74% /
root@Asus:/#

What I understand from this is that only half of the size of my USB disk is used.
Is it possible to extend the size of this partition to use every available space that is still on the USB disk? If so, how can I do this?


Regards,

Molski

[Styno]

Molski, see my post 2 above yours.

Kleinentuerke, I have no idea....sorry.

[nerodark]

styno, i tried, partition magic and ranish partition manager, and both wouldn't detect my usb key (if they do it is really hard to find the option to show the partitions on my usb key)

i had the same problem than most of you: i have a 512MB usb key and when i tried to install debian on it, it created something like a 120MB partition (linux ext3) and a 15MB partition (linux swap2)

i recommend you use Paragon Partition Manager to do the following steps to resize the partition (you have to get the FULL VERSION ONLY to unlock limited features)

using paragon you will see something like (i will use this example during this little tutorial), it must look like this because the debian installation created this special partition table designed for a 128MB usb key:
[--------120MB(ext3)--------][---15MB(swap2)---][----------unallocated space(369MB)----------] = ~512MB

1- you will see there is a lot of free space after the swap partition, the first thing you would probably do, instinctively, is delete the swap partition (because you think it doesnt contain any data and wont hurt the debian installation), then resize the ext3 and recreate a swap space. well no, you must not do that.

2- first you have to play with the current swap space: set the free space after to 0MB and the free space before to 389MB (according to the example, still do it based on the size of your usb memory key). then resize the ext3 partition to the maximum allowed based on your unallocated free space.

[--------120MB(ext3)--------][----------unallocated space(369MB)----------][---15MB(swap2)---] = ~512MB

[------------------470MB(ext3)------------------][---15MB(swap2)---] = ~512MB

3- apply the changes, reboot your computer (if necessary), now you are safe to remove the usb key, plug it in your asus router, reboot your router to load, mount, and then you are good

NOTE: if Paragon Partition Manager tells you that it cannot proceed to apply the changes because the usb memory key is used by another program (in other words, it is already in used by Windows itself because it loaded the driver for it to be browsable), simply reboot your computer, do not unplug the usb key leave it in the slot, paragon will lauch the task to apply the changes before windows start loading his drivers

[David]

Did anybody tried QTParted ?

Available on Knoppix and SysRescueCd.

[cadderly]

Hi!
I had the same problem.
Solved it this way under RH:

1) Install the image on the USB-stick as described.
2) Open a terminal and make the following steps:

#Dump the image onto your harddisk
dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/path_where_to_store_dumpfile/file bs=512

#Run fdisk, delete all existing partitions, create resized partitions
#In my case 196Mb Linux and 32Mb Linux swap
#sda=usbdevice

fdisk /dev/sda

#copy back image

dd if=/path_where_to_store_dumpfile/file of=/dev/sda1 bs=512

# run e2fsck t check the partition

e2fsck -f /dev/sda1

#resize filesystem

resize2fs -p /dev/sda1

This worked fine for me.

Hope that helps
Cad

[lohmueller]

Sorry for my bad english...

Im trying to boot from a Debian Sarge installation on an external memory-stick.

I installed debian and it works great when I use chroot.

I set the memory-stick as boot-device:

nvram set boot_dev="/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1"
nvram commit

When I reboot the system boots from memory-stick. The light on the stick is flashing and the system is not reachable.

I'm pretty sure the debian-configuration is incomplete. This is what I configured:

/etc/fstab

/proc /proc proc defaults
devfs /dev devfs rw 0 0
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 / ext3 rw 0 0
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part2 none swap sw 0 0

/etc/network/interfaces

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto vlan0
iface vlan0 inet static
pre-up ifconfig eth0 up
pre-up vconfig add eth0 0
address 10.1.1.12
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 10.1.1.10

I have not yet added an ssh-server to the init-scripts since not even ping to 10.1.1.12 works.

Is there a kernel-module missing? If yes, can I copy the modules from flash and add a line to /etc/modules?

I have no serial-console available. So it's very hard to find the problem. Please help me!

Many thanks

[acidbao]

Hello,

I tried the method in the wiki to install Debian.

But after i have the skeleton in /tmp/harddisk/debian-distro (i made it on a Debian PC with cdebootstrap).

When i do chroot /tmp/harddisk/debian-distro /bin/sh everything is ok
but after that any mount command give me the message "Illegal instruction"



[admin@routeur debian-distro]$ chroot . /bin/sh
[root@routeur /]$ mount -t proc none /proc
Illegal instruction
[root@routeur /]$

[acidbao]

Ok, i found all of my problems, my USB key was a data corruptor, so i changed it. And know everything works fine :cool:

I installed debian with cdebootstrap, and inside it i have only dropbear and samba installed so when i telnet the router i get in Oleg's Linux and when i ssh it i get in the debian realm.

The USB key is mounted in /opt in that example.

Here is my /usr/local/sbin/post-boot if it can help



#!/bin/sh
insmod scsi_mod && insmod sd_mod && insmod usb-storage
mount -t ext3 -o rw,noatime /dev/discs/disc0/part1 /opt
swapon /dev/discs/disc0/part2

if [ -d /opt/debian-distro ]; then
chroot /opt/debian-distro /etc/rc.asus
fi


And the /opt/debian-distro/etc/rc.asus that i made and chmodded a+x



#!/bin/sh

mount -t proc none /proc
mount -t devfs devfs /dev

invoke-rc.d rc 5


First it mounts the proc & dev and then it launch the installed services by switching to runlevel 5. That way everything is launched in a neat manner (even if it launches cron and inetd that i don't need).

If you run the script manually you would see somthing like this


Starting Dropbear SSH server: Starting internet superserver: inetd.
Starting Samba daemons: nmbd smbd.
Starting periodic command scheduler: cron.


And after 4 nights of searching i finally have samba 3.0.14 running on my WL500G Deluxe. :)

[herskegut]

Thanks to everyone inhere :) i finally got i working!!

Created my own cdebootstrap, and took it from there.. now the router is running web/php/mysql/samba server, and all is working perfectly! :D


:edit
Forgot to tell that it is running on a 512 mb usbkey, Not the fastest thing in the world.. but it get's the job done ;)

[astudent]

I'm trying to boot Debian from a USB flash drive on my Asus WL500gP. Does anyone know if I'm attempting the impossible? I've search high and low in this and other forums and haven't found any details on doing this successfully. If I missed something obvious, please tell me - I'll gladly accept feeling stupid in exchange for an answer :)

According to this site: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianWRT
Under the "What Works Now" section, you can use Oleg's firmware to "actually boot Debian".

I followed the directions on http://wl500g.dyndns.org/ under the "Root file system on the external USB drive" section, with the exception of step 2. I did fdisk, and format the drive for ext3, but didn't copy Oleg's root fs like this:

# copy everything
tar cvO -C / .version bin/ etc/ lib/ sbin/ usr/ www/ var/ | tar x -C /mnt
# create required dirs
mkdir -p /mnt/tmp && mkdir -p /mnt/dev && mkdir -p /mnt/proc && mkdir -p /mnt/mnt

Instead, I copied a working Debian system onto the drive using the instructions here: http://wiki.wl500g.info/index.php/Debian%20Distribution
Specifically I did this:
#


1.1 Steps on PC with Debian (sarge)

* Create debian-distro directory on PC which will contain the distribution.
* cdebootstrap -amipsel sarge debian-distro http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian
* That will fail after a while leaving you with a skeleton.
* Copy entire directory tree to the Asus harddisk, e.g. /tmp/harddisk/distributions/debian.

#

1.2 Steps on Asus

* ssh to your Asus device
* change to debian directory ? where is debian directory? , e.g. /tmp/harddisk/distributions/debian?
* create etc/fstab hosts resolv.conf apt/sources.list
*

chroot /tmp/harddisk/distributions/debian /bin/sh
o (The first three steps are only needed if you need swap space, wl500g needs it)
o mkdir /swap
o dd if=/dev/zero of=/swap/16Mb bs=1024 count=17000
o mkswap /swap/16Mb
o swapon /swap/16Mb
o mount -t proc none /proc
o mount -t devfs devfs /dev
o cd /var/cache/apt/archives/ (if there are no packages here, try also /var/cache/cdebootstrap/ and /var/cache/bootstrap)
o dpkg --force-all -i libc6*deb
o dpkg --force-all -i dpkg*deb
o dpkg --force-all -i libc6*deb
o dpkg -iGREB . (repeat this step until the number of errors have stabilized, most likely at zero)
o check remaining dpkg errors if any
o /usr/sbin/base-config
* you have now an entire Debian installation (incl. apt-get etc.)


Now I'm not sure if those directions were supposed to be for just setting up Debian to be used in a chroot jail, but I couldn't find any other instructions for setting it up so that's what I did.

I can mount the flash drive and chroot to it and run the Debian binaries just fine, including apt-get to download new packages (as a test I used apt-get to download lynx and it worked fine). However, what I'd REALLY like to do is not chroot it, but actually boot from it.

So I did this:

nvram set boot_dev="/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1"
nvram commit

and rebooted and watched as the router made the LED on my flash drive blink a lot (seemingly indicating that it was booting from the flash drive). But even after waiting for the activity light on the flash drive to settle down, I'm unable to get ping responses from the router.

So my question is: is the router not able to boot this Debian drive that I set up, or is maybe the problem just that the network isn't coming up right after it boots Debian?

[astudent]

I made some progress in figuring out what the problem is, although I haven't been able to fix it yet. I thought maybe some people would be interested to hear what I've found out so far.

Instead of continuing to stumble around in the dark I decided to try getting a console so that I could see some startup messages while the router boots.

To get a serial port, I basically did what is described in this thread:
http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=1993&highlight=add+serial

I didn't find any threads talking about adding a serial port to the 500gP, but it's basically the same as how that thread describes it for the 500gx. The main difference that I had to deal with was that there are no headers on the board for the UART on the 500gP so I had to solder those in myself. In the thread for the 500gx some people said they were able to add the serial port without even taking out all the screws on the casing - preserving their warranty sticker.... not possible with the 500gP. If you can solder in headers onto the PCB without removing all the screws then you must be a soldering god.

Anyway, once I got a serial port on UART0 and hooked up my computer, I was able to read the boot messages when it tries booting from my USB stick with Debian on it.



CFE version 1.0.37 for BCM947XX (32bit,SP,LE)
Build Date: ¤T 12¤ë 14 15:54:18 CST 2005 (root@localhost.localdomain)
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002,2003 Broadcom Corporation.

Initializing Arena
Initializing Devices.
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 3.90.23.0
rndis0: Broadcom USB RNDIS Network Adapter (P-t-P)
CPU type 0x29006: 264MHz
Total memory: 33554432 KBytes

Total memory used by CFE: 0x80800000 - 0x8089B590 (636304)
Initialized Data: 0x80831700 - 0x80833DE0 (9952)
BSS Area: 0x80833DE0 - 0x80835590 (6064)
Local Heap: 0x80835590 - 0x80899590 (409600)
Stack Area: 0x80899590 - 0x8089B590 (8192)
Text (code) segment: 0x80800000 - 0x80831700 (202496)
Boot area (physical): 0x0089C000 - 0x008DC000
Relocation Factor: I:00000000 - D:00000000

Device eth0: hwaddr 00-17-31-D6-3C-DD, ipaddr 10.84.0.220, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
Null Rescue Flag.
Loader:raw Filesys:raw Dev:flash0.os File: Options:(null)
Loading: .. 3560 bytes read
Entry at 0x80001000
Closing network.
Starting program at 0x80001000
cpu probe
prom init
cpu report
CPU revision is: 00029006
Primary instruction cache 16kb, linesize 16 bytes (2 ways)
Primary data cache 16kb, linesize 16 bytes (2 ways)
Linux version 2.4.20 (root@omnibook) (gcc version 3.2.3 with Broadcom modifications) #46
Thu May 25 22:40:57 MSD 2006
Setting the PFC value as 0x15
Determined physical RAM map:
memory: 02000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
On node 0 totalpages: 8192
zone(0): 8192 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock2 noinitrd init=/linuxrc console=ttyS0,115200
CPU: BCM4704 rev 9 at 264 MHz
Calibrating delay loop... 263.78 BogoMIPS
Memory: 30068k/32768k available (1776k kernel code, 2700k reserved, 248k data, 72k init,
0k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
Checking for 'wait' instruction... unavailable.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
PCI: Fixing up bus 0
PCI: Fixing up bridge
PCI: Fixing up bus 1
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
Journalled Block Device driver loaded
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
NTFS driver v1.1.22 [Flags: R/O]
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
ttyS00 at 0xb8000300 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
ttyS01 at 0xb8000400 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
HDLC line discipline: version $Revision$, maxframe=4096
N_HDLC line discipline registered.
loop: loaded (max 8 devices)
PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
PPP Deflate Compression module registered
PPP BSD Compression module registered
MPPE/MPPC encryption/compression module registered
Amd/Fujitsu Extended Query Table v1.3 at 0x0040
number of CFI chips: 1
Flash device: 0x800000 at 0x1c000000
Physically mapped flash: squashfs filesystem found at block 945
Creating 5 MTD partitions on "Physically mapped flash":
0x00000000-0x00040000 : "pmon"
0x00040000-0x003e0000 : "linux"
0x000ec55c-0x003e0000 : "rootfs"
0x007f0000-0x00800000 : "nvram"
0x003e0000-0x007f0000 : "config"
sflash: found no supported devices
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 2048 bind 4096)
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (256 buckets, 2048 max) - 344 bytes per conntrack
ip_conntrack_pptp version 1.9 loaded
ip_nat_pptp version 1.5 loaded
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ipt_time loading
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
IPv6 v0.8 for NET4.0
IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
NET4: Ethernet Bridge 008 for NET4.0
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.7 Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
All bugs added by David S. Miller <davem@redhat.com>
FAT: bogus logical sector size 60672
FAT: bogus logical sector size 60672
NTFS: Unable to set blocksize 512.
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly.
Mounted devfs on /dev
Freeing unused kernel memory: 72k freed
Algorithmics/MIPS FPU Emulator v1.5
insmod: ide-mod.o: no module by that name found
Using /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/usb/usbcore.o
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
insmod: usb-ohci.o: no module by that name found
Using /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/usb/host/ehci-hcd.o
PCI: Enabling device 01:03.2 (0000 -> 0002)
ehci_hcd 01:03.2: PCI device 1106:3104
ehci_hcd 01:03.2: irq 2, pci mem c0025000
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
PCI: 01:03.2 PCI cache line size set incorrectly (0 bytes) by BIOS/FW, correcting to 32
ehci_hcd 01:03.2: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2003-Dec-29/2.4
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 4 ports detected
Using /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/usb/host/usb-uhci.o
usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 00:43:25 May 25 2006
usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled
PCI: Enabling device 01:03.0 (0000 -> 0001)
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x100, IRQ 2
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
PCI: Enabling device 01:03.1 (0000 -> 0001)
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x120, IRQ 2
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
hub.c: new USB device 01:03.2-1, assigned address 2
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0xc76/0x5) is not claimed by any active driver.
Using /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/scsi/scsi_mod.o
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
Using /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/scsi/sd_mod.o
Using /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/usb/storage/usb-storage.o
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Vendor: 3SYSTEM Model: USB FLASH DISK Rev: 1.00
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
SCSI device sda: 512000 512-byte hdwr sectors (262 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
Partition check:
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1
USB Mass Storage support registered.
EXT3-fs: INFO: recovery required on readonly filesystem.
EXT3-fs: write access will be enabled during recovery.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
INIT: version 2.86 booting
/etc/init.d/rcS: line 57: 34 Segmentation fault $i start
/etc/init.d/rcS: line 57: 50 Segmentation fault $i start
/etc/init.d/rcS: line 57: 51 Segmentation fault ( trap - INT QUIT TSTP; set start
; . $i )
Activating swap.
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on sd(8,1), internal journal
/etc/init.d/rcS: line 57: 56 Segmentation fault ( trap - INT QUIT TSTP; set start
; . $i )

< a lot more sementation faults, trimmed out because of space limitation in post >

INIT: Id "4" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "6" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "5" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "3" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "2" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: no more processes left in this runlevel


After that last message the system just hangs there. After 5 minutes it repeats the messages at the end that start with "INIT", but that's all.

So, we can see that it started booting from the USB stick, but kept getting "segmentation fault", which may have led to the hang up at the end. Another time when I tried booting I got something slightly different. Instead of a bunch of "segmentation fault" messages, I got a bunch of "bus error" messages.

Both of these messages seemed to indicate to me that maybe there was something wrong with my USB stick, so I tried the whole process again with an external USB harddrive instead. Unfortunately I got the same thing.

Any suggestions?

[tron1]

I also try to put Debian on my wl-hdd. So this looks quite interestining to me.

What 'bout the kernel? Is it from Debian or is it that from Asus/Oleg?

I guess there are some problems with the usb driver

[astudent]

The past several weeks I've been taking a break from trying to get this to work, but it was just a break - I haven't given up completely yet.

I feel like I do need to post an update as to what I've been able to get working so far because my past post was somewhat misleading...

I said that I was able to get Debian working properly in a chroot jail and that I could use apt-get to install packages. That is true, but I had posted that before trying to use Debian from within that chroot jail for a while.

I got to a point where I was going to give up on trying to get it to boot and just use it from the chroot jail, but after installing a few packages with apt-get, I started getting those same "bus error" and "segmentation fault" messages that I would get when trying to boot! I would get them whenever I tried running any command, including just "ls". Sooo, I can't say that I've gotten it working 100% from chrooting it, since the amount of time that it works is limited. I'm not sure if it's really a time issue or if it's the result of installing certain packages with apt-get. :confused:

I'll post more info as I figure it out. If there's anyone out there who has gotten debian to run successfully on their asus router, please post here and let me know. In particular, I'd be interested in the exact model of router that you're using, as well as the steps you took in getting debian to run.

[eset]

I am also going downt his path...did you have any luck? I am running debian within chroot. I followed this:
http://wpkg.org/index.php/Running_Debian_on_ASUS_WL-500G_deluxe#Downloads

but i couldnt get the custom 2.6 firmware to boot so i am stuck with the chroot...eeek...


eset

[astudent]

Thanks for the link - I tried the firmware and base system that was provided there, but STILL got a ton of bus errors! I'm starting to think that my router is just broken. :(

I think if I didn't get the bus errors than everything would be working fine because the router did manage to boot up, but it's certainly not usable with all the bus error's that it got.

What firmware are you using to chroot to debian?
Have you ever gotten any of these "Bus error" warnings?
Are you using the asus premium or deluxe model?

If you're trying to use an external USB harddrive instead of a USB stick that may be the reason why you aren't able to boot with that openwrt firmware given in the link - when I tried that firmware with my external usb harddrive it wouldn't detect it (oleg's firmware does), but it would detect my usb flash drive.

Below is a paste of what I got from my serial console while booting the router with the firmware and base system provided in the link.


Waiting 10sec before mounting root device...
Vendor: 3SYSTEM Model: USB FLASH DISK Rev: 1.00
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
SCSI device sda: 512000 512-byte hdwr sectors (262 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: assuming drive cache: write through
SCSI device sda: 512000 512-byte hdwr sectors (262 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: assuming drive cache: write through
sda: sda1 sda2
sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sda
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 132k freed
Algorithmics/MIPS FPU Emulator v1.5
INIT: version 2.86 booting
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 118 Bus error $@
Setting hostname to 'asus-debian'...done.
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 129 Bus error $@
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 132 Bus error $@
* Files under mount point '/dev/shm' will be hidden.
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 151 Bus error $@
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 168 Bus error $@
/etc/rcS.d/S10checkroot.sh: line 22: 175 Bus error ( [ "$PASS" != 0 ] && [ "$PASS" != ""
/etc/rcS.d/S10checkroot.sh: line 22: 176 Bus error ( [ "$FSTYPE" = "nfs" ] || [ "$FSTYPE
4" ] )
Activating swap:swapon on /dev/sda2
Adding 11584k swap on /dev/sda2. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:11584k
.
/etc/rcS.d/S10checkroot.sh: line 22: 182 Bus error which on_ac_power >/dev/null 2>&1
EXT3 (no)acl options not supported
EXT3 (no)user_xattr options not supported
EXT3 FS on sda1, internal journal
* Cannot initialize /etc/mtab.
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 172 Bus error $@
/etc/rcS.d/S12mtab.sh: line 143: 195 Bus error /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh start
* Cannot initialize /etc/mtab.
/lib/init/mount-functions.sh: line 23: 209 Bus error which selinuxenabled >/dev/null 2>&
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 193 Bus error $@
Setting the system clock..
Cannot access the Hardware Clock via any known method.
Use the --debug option to see the details of our search for an access method.
Cannot access the Hardware Clock via any known method.
Use the --debug option to see the details of our search for an access method.
System Clock set. Local time: Sat Jan 1 00:00:20 UTC 2000.
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 236 Bus error $@
Cleaning up ifupdown....
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 242 Bus error $@
Loading modules...
/etc/rcS.d/S20module-init-tools: line 52: 255 Done(1) grep '^[^#]' $MODULES_FILE
256 Bus error | while read module args; do
[ "$module" ] || continue; if [ "$VERBOSE" != no ]; then
echo " $module"; modprobe $module $args || true;
else
modprobe $module $args >/dev/null 2>&1 || true;
fi;
done
All modules loaded.
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 253 Bus error $@
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 258 Bus error $@
Setting the system clock again..
Cannot access the Hardware Clock via any known method.
Use the --debug option to see the details of our search for an access method.
System Clock set. Local time: Sat Jan 1 00:00:22 UTC 2000.
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 265 Bus error $@
/etc/rcS.d/S30checkfs.sh: line 60: 272 Bus error which on_ac_power >/dev/null 2>&1
Will now check all file systems.
fsck 1.39-WIP (31-Dec-2005)
Checking all file systems.
Done checking file systems.
A log is being saved in /var/log/fsck/checkfs if that location is writable.
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 271 Bus error $@
/etc/rcS.d/S30procps.sh: line 22: 278 Bus error which sysctl >/dev/null
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 277 Bus error $@
Will now mount local filesystems:.
Will now activate swapfile swap:done.
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 285 Bus error $@
/etc/init.d/bootclean: line 161: 299 Bus error which find >/dev/null 2>&1
/etc/rcS.d/S36mountall-bootclean.sh: line 13: 298 Bus error /etc/init.d/bootclean
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 297 Bus error $@
Setting up networking.../etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 303 Bus error $@
Configuring network interfaces...ifup: failed to open statefile /etc/network/run/ifstate: No such file o
ory
/etc/rcS.d/S40networking: line 72: 311 Bus error ifup -a
failed.
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 310 Bus error $@
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 320 Bus error $@
/etc/init.d/bootclean: line 161: 326 Bus error which find >/dev/null 2>&1
/etc/rcS.d/S46mountnfs-bootclean.sh: line 13: 325 Bus error /etc/init.d/bootclean
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 324 Bus error $@
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 330 Bus error $@
sed: can't read /etc/ntp.conf: No such file or directory
Running ntpdate to synchronize clockError : Temporary failure in name resolution
Error : Temporary failure in name resolution
Error : Temporary failure in name resolution
Error : Temporary failure in name resolution
/etc/rcS.d/S51ntpdate: line 15: 340 Bus error /usr/sbin/ntpdate -b -s $NTPOPTIONS $NTPSE
.
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 336 Bus error $@
/etc/rcS.d/S55bootmisc.sh: line 16: 347 Bus error chgrp utmp /var/run/utmp
/etc/rcS.d/S55bootmisc.sh: line 16: 350 Bus error which dmesg >/dev/null 2>&1
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 344 Bus error $@
Initializing random number generator...done.
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 352 Bus error $@
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 364 Bus error $@
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 368 Bus error $@
INIT: Entering runlevel: 2
Starting system log daemon: syslogd/etc/rc2.d/S10sysklogd: line 14: 378 Bus error chown
/dev/xconsole
/etc/rc2.d/S10sysklogd: line 58: 379 Segmentation fault start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --exec
-- $SYSLOGD
.
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 376 Bus error $@
Starting kernel log daemon: klogd.
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 384 Bus error $@
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 390 Bus error $@
/etc/rc2.d/S20ssh: line 7: 392 Bus error ( /usr/sbin/sshd -\? 2>&1 | grep -q OpenSSH ) 2
ll
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 391 Bus error $@
Starting periodic command scheduler....
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 401 Bus error $@
Running local boot scripts (/etc/rc.local)/etc/rc2.d/S99rc.local: line 16: 412 Bus error
.local
.
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 411 Bus error $@
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 417 Bus error $@
/etc/rc2.d/S99stop-bootlogd: line 17: 419 Bus error /etc/init.d/bootlogd stop
/etc/init.d/rc: line 77: 418 Bus error $@

Debian GNU/Linux testing/unstable asus-debian ttyS0

asus-debian login:

[mangoo]

Now, you can run Debian on both WL-500G Deluxe and WL-500G Premium - I corrected the firmware on http://wpkg.org/index.php/Running_Debian_on_ASUS_WL-500G_deluxe

[MMCM]

mangoo: Your approach to debian looks very interesting, since I am currently building my WL-500gx with OpenWrt Kamikaze 2.6 kernel, and there are some problems with it...

Does debian on a 2.6 kernel support the bcm43xx driver? Is it working?
Compared to OpenWrt: http://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=7842

If everything is stable with debian, I'd switch immediatly :-)

[mangoo]

mangoo: Your approach to debian looks very interesting, since I am currently building my WL-500gx with OpenWrt Kamikaze 2.6 kernel, and there are some problems with it...

Does debian on a 2.6 kernel support the bcm43xx driver? Is it working?
Compared to OpenWrt: http://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=7842

If everything is stable with debian, I'd switch immediatly :-)

Actually, I started that thread...

Kernel panics on wl-500g deluxe, and does not panic on wl-500g premium.

[MMCM]

Actually, I started that thread...


I know that :-)

But what's the difference (that matters) between the gx and gp?

[georgij]

Hi

I want to run debian on wl-500gP.
I followed this instructions http://wpkg.org/index.php/Running_Debian_on_ASUS_WL-500G_deluxe
but after I flash "openwrt-brcm-2.6-jffs2-128k.trx" image to my box I cant telnet to my router. Also I can't ping it. Power and LAN led are on.

TNX in advance Jure, Slovenia

[Tronix]

I think, you need write Debian into your USB drive (flash or HDD), and make network configure (steps 2 and 3 in wiki). And may-be you need connect to your router via SSH (not telnet).

[astudent]

You should get a serial port hooked up so you can see what's going on. There could be a large number of reasons that it isn't working.

[astudent]

Latest update:

This whole time I had been using my WL-500gPremium with the 32MB RAM expansion trick:

nvram set sdram_init=0x0008
nvram set sdram_ncdl=0
nvram commit
reboot


After finding out that the "Bus error" messages that I kept getting were probably coming from the kernel trying to use memory that didn't exist, I decided to set the memory back to just using 16MB:

nvram set sdram_init=0x000b
nvram set sdram_ncdl=0
nvram commit
reboot


And ever since doing that I haven't gotten a single "Bus error" message again - everything has been working quite well (except for the fact that I'm now running on just 16MB :( )


1.) What do these values that I'm setting to sdram_init mean exactly!? I found http://wl500g.dyndns.org/sdram.html , but does that apply to the WL500gP?

2.) Has anyone else had trouble after enabling the full 32MB on their premium box?

3.) Is it possible that there could be something physically wrong with one of the chips on my board?

4.) I don't remember ever changing my sdram_config. It's currently set to 0x0062 - what's everyone else's set to?

[georgij]

You should get a serial port hooked up so you can see what's going on. There could be a large number of reasons that it isn't working.


Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
us
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb usb1: Seri
drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.6:USB HID core driver
ip_conntrack version 2.4 (128 buckets, 1024 max) - 236 bytes per conntrack
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
TCP vegas registered
NET: Registered protocol family 1
NET: Registered protocol family 17
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
All bugs added by David S. Miller <davem@redhat.com>
Waiting 10sec before mounting root device...
Vendor: VBTM Model: Store 'n' Go Pro Rev: 5.02
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 00
ready
SCSI device sda: 1019391 512-byte hdwr sectors (522 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: assuming drive cache: write through
SCSI device sda: 1019391 512-byte hdwr sectors (522 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: assuming drive cache: write through
sda: unknown partition table
sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sda
VFS: Cannot open root device "sda1" or unknown-block(8,1)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,1)

[georgij]

Hi

Now I sucessfuly started Debian on Premium!
Now I wish to configure network. I access internet via Linksys wrt54g router as shown:

INET ======= WRT54g ~~~~~~~~ WL-500gP ======== computer

legend: === cable, ~~~~ wireless

IP settings of WRT54g are:
local IP 192.168.1.1
netmask 255.255.255.0

ifconfig on Premium:


asus-debian:~# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:17:31:B4:22:88
inet addr:192.168.111.177 Bcast:192.168.111.191 Mask:255.255.255.192
UP BROADCAST RUNNING PROMISC MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:167 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:48 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:25237 (24.6 KiB) TX bytes:3072 (3.0 KiB)
Interrupt:4

eth0.1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:15:F2:6A:E8:34
inet addr:192.168.111.178 Bcast:192.168.111.191 Mask:255.255.255.192
UP BROADCAST RUNNING 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:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:34 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:34 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:3210 (3.1 KiB) TX bytes:3210 (3.1 KiB)


Please, help me editing /etc/network/interfaces file on Debian and TCP/IP settings on my comp! I am totaly newbie on networking.

here is default /etc/network/interfaces file:


# Used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8). See the interfaces(5) manpage or
# /usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples for more information.

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.111.177
netmask 255.255.255.192
gateway 192.168.111.129

auto eth0.1
iface eth0.1 inet static
hw_mac_address 00:15:F2:6A:E8:34
address 192.168.111.178
netmask 255.255.255.192
network 192.168.111.128
broadcast 192.168.111.191 1

[georgij]

Anybody ?!?

[lexxdark]

build a bridge between the wireless and network interface (i think you have set the wan and lan ports there....)
check if you have the wireless interface

[The Joker]

Hi,
can somebody upload a complete Chrooted DebianEdge tar for the Wl500gp please? My old chrooted debian gets broken and the download links in the forum are dead.

thanks
joker

[parper]

Hi,
I know that I've read somewhere that there is a alternative to run only debian on a w500gp, and that is with Oleg's firmware and a debian directory which you run chrooted.

I want to do this because of the lack of wifi support in debian kernel 2.6.x.

I can not however find the instruction on this, so if anybody knows anything about this and could post me some pointers or links on how this is done, it would be great.

/P

[newbiefan]

Well, here it is: http://wiki.wl500g.info/index.php/Debian%20Distribution

[dolphs]

Hi guys, I am trying to get Debian on my asus 500w via this page (http://wpkg.org/Running_Debian_on_ASUS_WL-500G_deluxe) however since I am a bit in the dark I get stuck at 4 where the author states 4. When all the tools are made, copy the .config file (download below) to trunk/build_mipsel/linux/.

With the latest revision this path (soft link) does not exist, instead it should be somewhere in " trunk/build_dir/mipsel " I guess. My main goal is to use both the BroadCom 4704 ethernet as BroadCom 4321 WiFi in kernel 2.6 with usb2 support.

I hope you guys like to contribute to the wiki at http://wpkg.org/Running_Debian_on_ASUS_WL-500W

[vikasghavate]

Hi,
I had managed to boot debian from USB drive on WL-500W. But the USB soundcard is not recognised. I have installed alsa-base, alsa-utils, alsa-oss drivers, yet USB soundcard is not recognised. Could anyone please assist me? its the only thing holding me back to complete my project.

[Sleep_Walker]

Hi,

I'm working on putting Debian on USB stick on my Asus WL-500gP. Everything is prepared but /etc/network/interface configuration file.

I don't know how to do bridge and switch configuration in the same way as it is in OpenWRT by default for this device.

Can someone save me some time and paste me his configuration so I won't need to learn it?

(it will also be stored here as hint for others...)

Thanks!

[skylin3d]

I'm thinking of trying debian on my WL-500gP V2, but all topics and guides I've found are for V1. What should I do to get debian on my V2?

Here is a nice tutorial: http://wpkg.org/Running_Debian_on_ASUS_WL-500G_deluxe
But the OpenWRT-image ("openwrt-brcm-2.6-jffs2-128k.trx" image) seems to be only for V1 and there is also one for the the newer WL-500W, but none for WL-500gP V2.
How would I get the OpenWRT kernel image for V2? Or can I use Oleg to load debian in some way?

[YVM]

http://downloads.openwrt.org/kamikaze/8.09.2/brcm47xx/
I have installed on my wl500gpv2 without any problems.

[WL500gPv2dev]

I once installed custom OpenWrt 2.6.31.9 w/ USB boot on v2(!) december 2009,
fixed b44 driver netconsole issue, some other issues, discovered missing USB host controller kernel callback issue on OpenWrt's SSB USB driver sources.
Currently running this kernel with FTDI USB, USB storage boot, Debian etch.
usb-audio (one of the more important uses for me) does NOT work on 2.6.31.9 (OOPS due to DMA issues suspected - see lengthy LKML discussions on MIPS / ARM cache coherency).

Etch is working absolutely lovely on this thing, IMHO much better than a more limited OpenWrt setup (imagine a box with functionality equivalent to any small-scale x86 server you set up, just that this box uses only 7 Watts with USB hub plus SEVEN USB devices connected...). Would need to do an upgrade to current Debian stable soon, though.

Will now transfer that working setup to my second (non-development: no serial headers, not cracked open, ...) box, then I'll work on getting an OpenWrt setup running with current OpenWrt repository/kernels.

Booting kernel images externally stored on USB is said to be supported, too, since some guy got kexec working. Sounds like a very interesting option to me, no more flashing, just generic "bootloader-type" use like on any x86 boot. :)