custom firmware

[Oleg]

Yes, these features are for advanced users, who needs more precise control on the hardware (e.g. to change the default settings for wlan card), firewall settings, establishing vpn tunnels, solving the network problems and so on. This requires linux knowledge.
If you don't need this, just don't use it. There are no new features available via the regular web interface.

[Ark+]

It works perfectly (except the fact that the WLAN settings are now set to '1Mb/s to 11Mb/s', but it is still working in 54Mb/s mode).

Looking in the conf files, i have understood how to properly activate the anonymous login on the FTP server :
- disable the anonymous login
- create an anonymous account, password: * and rights are Read Only

By the way, i have asked this request to the asus support team and i am still waiting for an answer....

[Oleg]

Ark, I've not touch anything inside the firmware in regard to wireless stuff, so it's probably 1.6.5.3 issue and not a fault of mine. ;-)

[Phantome]

I have one question regarding the custom firmware.
Is there any command in the telnet session that i can use to edit files on the router? Couldn't find one when i was playing around

[Technik]

You can find the link to newest complete Busybox compiled by Oleg in that thread: http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?s=&threadid=92 There's also VI editor included...

[Technik]

I am thinking about some useful things which would be nice to have implemented in next release of customized firmware. What do you think about that? Would somebody of our Linux/Firmware gurus be able to do it?

1) wl.o module to be replaced by wl_apsta.o from Linksys WRT-54G 1.42.3 (or later). The newer wl_apsta.o module allows to put the WL-500b/g module into Client mode.
2) adding option for web folder location change so the web folder could be moved to USB flash disk - it would allow us to start working on configuration web pages design change (to create some additional configuration buttons / boxes in the web configurator). The released on-board flash space would be an advantage.
3) serial port emulation on parallel port - it would be really nice to have something like serial port on WL-500b/g (I am afraid the tip from Linksys forum for UART assembly does not apply to WL-500b/g). I would like to connect a mobile phone to WL-500b and try to setup a GPRS connection to Internet provider. An additional driver for USB<->RS232 converter would be also nice but AFAIK there are many chipsets for that purpose... And I don't plan to use parallel port for any shared printer.
4) OV511 webcam driver update with current version 1.61 I still can't make my Creative Labs WebCam III USB working in monitoring mode. The newer drivers are available here: http://alpha.dyndns.org/ov511/ . Unfortunately I am too stupid to compile it and update my WL-500b.

[defje]

Originally posted by Technik
I am thinking about ...

2) adding option for web folder location change so the web folder could be moved to USB flash disk - it would allow us to start working on configuration web pages design change (to create some additional configuration buttons / boxes in the web configurator). The released on-board flash space would be an advantage.

Telnet to my.router (well yours!)
CD to the dir that contains your index.asp CD /mnt/usbfs/whatever
Kill the HTTPD task
killall httpd
Restart HTTPD
httpd

Note: some of the configuration web pages seem to use relative paths to the configuration utilities/scripts/enviroment vars and don't work if you simply copy the entire web dir!

[bramfm]

Originally posted by Oleg
nvram set bootCmd0="/usr/sbin/wl -i eth2 txpwr 50"
nvram set bootCmd1="/mnt/usbfs/init"

Also you need to commit this using

nvram commit

Then just reboot your wl500g, and check /tmp/bootCmd.log for the output messages if any.

Oleg, I am trying to extend the PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH via the nvram method but no luck. Is there a way to extend the path (without compiling new firmware)?
greetings Marco

[Oleg]

If you need this for telnet sessions - try restarting telnet daemon right in the bootCmd after setting needed variables. Or you can launch alternative telnetd on different port for testing. As seems current firmware does not setup the PATH & LD_LIBRARY_PATH in any way.
The other way is to generate /etc/profile which is read by shell during the invocation. Seems this is the most preferable way. You can do this with the same nvram commands or copy it right from the USB flash.

Regards,
Oleg.

[bramfm]

Originally posted by Oleg
If you need this for telnet sessions - try restarting telnet daemon right in the bootCmd after setting needed variables. Or you can launch alternative telnetd on different port for testing. As seems current firmware does not setup the PATH & LD_LIBRARY_PATH in any way.
The other way is to generate /etc/profile which is read by shell during the invocation. Seems this is the most preferable way. You can do this with the same nvram commands or copy it right from the USB flash.

Thank you Oleg, the latter method worked flawlessly!

Greetings Marco

[frodik]

Hi, just wondering if someone is also interested in creating of customized firmware with support for traffic shaping, QoS features and SSH. I am no Linux guru, just someone who knows how to compile things. If somebody likes to help, I would really appreciate it I will try to play around with own firmware and see what will come up.
Have fun everyone and thanks Oleg !

[tartigas]

I m looking for the same functions in thw new firmware.....

and what about rddtool?

[RCR]

I just realized that the watchdog program has its configureation hard-coded into the binary . This will be a problem for anyone wanting to make significant changes to the way the router runs. For example, you can't disable the HTTP server.

[Oleg]

Watchdog is not a big problem - the functionality could be easily recoded. Mostly it contains
1) checker for the processes which is need to be run (from /etc/watchdog.conf) - once any of this dies it will call usb-eject and reboot the router
2) ntpclient
3) firewall refreshing stuff based on the current time (it is calling /init/firewall.refresh)
4) reset to defaults functionality - provided by signal handler (signal are sent by splink_led module)

Most of this stuff not needed at all.

The big problem is the printing - too much code required...

[RCR]

Originally posted by Oleg

4) reset to defaults functionality - provided by signal handler (signal are sent by splink_led module)

Most of this stuff not needed at all.

I agree that most is not needed. Could you explain #4, though? How does the splink_led module cause a reset, and what triggers it?

After some experimentation, I decided to avoid watchdog entirely. The one thing that it does that I want but can't figure out is how to use call the NTP client program so that the "date" command give local, not UTC time.