New 1.0.4.6 based custom firmware

[kfurge]

/bin/ash: error while loading shared libraries: /bin/ash: symbol vprintf, version GLIBC_2.0 not defined in file libc.so.6 with link time reference

Try manually running the postinstall script using /opt/bin/bash instead of /bin/sh.

FWIW, I've installed the gcc toolset on my router and while natively compiling various libraries and software packages, I have noticed that *lots* of scripts, makefiles, etc. assume that /bin/sh is actually a bash shell. Your script is probably trying to do something tricky that our busybox ash shell cannot do.

For my next firmware image, I want to give advanced users the ability to hook/replace certain system binaries. This would include being able to redirect /bin/sh to /opt/bin/bash.

- K.C.

[kfurge]

But what is the propose of the screen?

Screen allows you to keep a program (or multiple programs) running even while logged out. You can then log back in, reconnect, and pick up where you left off. The program never even knows you were gone... It's very nice.

- K.C.

[hal2k1]

IMM22: But what is the propose of the screen?

gratitude182: could you tell me, how do get c-torrent to work? i would like to try this....

OK, first thing is to follow all the kfurge instructions, and thus get the firmware installed and running. You have to get an rc.local in the right spot with the right permissions. You have to set up a user account via the web interface, and you have to edit a .profile file for that user. Include the setting of TERM and TERMINFO environment variables. (These are part of kfurges instructions).

In short, you have to do everything in steps 1 through 5, and use rc.local #3 (although you can comment out the section "# Restart the web server").

After doing all that, you should have wget ncurses, ncursesw, termcap & ipkg installed, and bash, dropbear and sudo all installed.

You have to install the following additional optware packages: screen & enhanced-ctorrent. I also installed nano, less & mc.

I also created a symbolic link between /shares/MYVOLUME1/MYSHARE1/Download and /opt/home/<user>/Download.

You have to have an ssh client program running on your client PC. I used ssh or kssh under Linux, but PuTTY under Windows will do as well.

Using ssh or PuTTY on your PC, log in to the dropbear server on the WL700GE. Now we find out how (and why) to use "screen".

On the WL700ge at the command-line prompt, type: 'screen -R' (without the quotes). This creates a new "virtual screen" (which you can "detach" and "re-attach" later on).

On the virtual screen, type 'cd Download' (or cd /shares/MYVOLUME1/MYSHARE1/Download if you don't have the symbolic link).

Type 'wget http://path.to.torrent.file.that.you.want/file.torrent' <== you get the idea here. I always find it best to copy the text of URLs from my browser and paste that text into the terminal programs directly.

Once you have got a local copy of the .torrent file in the Download place, then type:
'enhanced-ctorrent file.torrent'. (... where file.torrent is the name of the torrent file you downloaded in the previous step. I always find it best to type the 'enh', then press the tab key, then type the first few letters of the .torrent filename, then press the tab key).

OK, the bitorent download should start, and begin displaying progress on the screen. After you have got bored watching that for a while, press and hold the Ctrl key, press 'a' and then 'd'. (Ctrl-a-d). This will "detach" the screen.

Type 'screen -R' to re-attach the screen. Press (Ctrl-a-d) to detach it again. Do this as many times as you want. This demonstrates the effect.

When the screen is detached, you may logout (type 'exit'). The torrent download will continue on the WL700GE. You can shutdown your client PC and turn it off, but still the torrent download will continue on the WL700GE.

Even days later, you can fire up your PC, start PuTTY or ssh again, login to the WL700GE, and type 'screen -R' to see how your torrent download is progressing. Once the download has finally completed, type (Ctrl-C) to stop the enhanced-ctorrent program from running. Type 'exit' to kill the virtual screen. Type 'exit' again to logout.

Your torrent download is ready.

[fishin_gnome]

Hi all,

This is my first post on this group. I have been watching this forum for a while, generally being very interested in the potential of this box. I have to say that I'm impressed at the speed the firmware is progressing.

Anyway getting back to my original question, I use newsgroups as opposed to torrents and in particular I use hellanzb to get the posts via .nzb files. I was wondering whether anybody thinks that it would be able to be complied and ran on this box, before I spend some money to investigate it further.

Cheers..

[hal2k1]

I see that the file /etc/hosts on the router is a symlink to /tmp/hosts , and that it contains the very minimalist contents:
--------------------
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
--------------------

The file /etc/nsswitch contains the contents:
--------------------
hosts: files dns
--------------------

That means the the router will use local files for dns lookup and then, if there is no entry for the IP address of interest, it will look up an address on the wider internet.

OK, so that means if I can put static addresses in the /etc/hosts file, my router will know the local LAN addresses when it does a DNS lookup.

At present, my router has a problem finding the hostnames of linux machines on the LAN. I'd rather use MAC addresses and DHCP to assign IP addresses, then put those addresses into /etc/hosts.

So does anyone have a suggestion on how I can get additional info (perhaps on boot) into the /etc/hosts file?

Can anyone suggest some commands to put into rc.local, perhaps?

Possibly something along the lines of :

----------------------------
cat /opt/etc/hosts.lan >> /tmp/hosts
----------------------------

Can I put such a thing in rc.local, or would it have to be part of the firmware?

[hal2k1]

I compiled rtorrent (on the router actually!) and it seems to work OK. If someone is willing to work with me to test out the dependent libraries, I think I could fairly easily turn it into a hand-built ipkg. I believe all of the required libs are already built and ready.

I'm not a big torrent guy, but the combination of screen+rtorrent seems like it would be very good.

- K.C.

I'd be willing to test rtorrent, but I have no way of installing anything that is not an ipkg.

[lewislin]

Dear K.C.

Thanks for the great work!
One quick question, does Step 5.7 (changing default login shell & home directory) survive over router reboot? Any chance to make it do so?

Thanks,
Lewis

[n00ben]

...does Step 5.7 (changing default login shell & home directory) survive over router reboot? Any chance to make it do so?

it already 'survives' at reboot. The info is stored in etc/passwd which is loaded (and not cleared) at each reboot

/regards
Henrik

[d3viant]

Try manually running the postinstall script using /opt/bin/bash instead of /bin/sh.

For my next firmware image, I want to give advanced users the ability to hook/replace certain system binaries. This would include being able to redirect /bin/sh to /opt/bin/bash.

- K.C.

Thanks - pointing the script at /opt/bin/bash worked for me. If you could set it up so that you can change where /bin/sh points in the next release it would be good.

[kfurge]

----------------------------
cat /opt/etc/hosts.lan >> /tmp/hosts
----------------------------

Can I put such a thing in rc.local, or would it have to be part of the firmware?

Sounds like a great solution. Should work fine.

Or even better, symlink /tmp/hosts to /opt/etc/hosts.lan.

- K.C.

[kfurge]

Anyway getting back to my original question, I use newsgroups as opposed to torrents and in particular I use hellanzb to get the posts via .nzb files. I was wondering whether anybody thinks that it would be able to be complied and ran on this box, before I spend some money to investigate it further.

I don't see why not. Look at the huge collection of packages already available!

I've installed the gcc toolkit on my box and compile my applications directly on it. I've even gone so far as to get gphoto (and all of it's dependent libraries) working. I use the front USB port to download pictures straight off of my camera. Works great!

IMHO, the potential of this box is only limited by your desire and expertise.

Some time soon I plan to rework the "copy" button on the front to auto-download pictures when the camera is pugged in, and auto-backup the HDD when an external drive is plugged in. I've already begun experimenting with manipulating the gpio pins. I had a close call, actually, since one of them apparently controls power to the internal HDD.... ;-)

- K.C.

[gratitude182]

@hal2k1

thanks for the tutorial... i will try it when i'm back in my flat to test it (so about in 2-3 weeks)... thanks

@kfurge
great work and thanks to post that all ;-)

[d3viant]

Nice - I have the transmission package working on my router - this does some proper upload/download speed limiting and has a web access page to manage torrents.

Anyone who is interested, this is how I set it up: http://wl700g.info/showpost.php?p=43330&postcount=5

kfurge - do you know if it's possible to use gpio to turn off the front panel lights - I would like to keep my router on, but it's in my bedroom and the flashing lights keep me awake

[hal2k1]

Sounds like a great solution. Should work fine.

Or even better, symlink /tmp/hosts to /opt/etc/hosts.lan.

- K.C.

Neither one worked.

No matter if in rc.local I put:

cat /opt/etc/hosts.lan >> /tmp/hosts

or if I put:

ln -s /opt/etc/hosts.lan /tmp/hosts

... neither has any effect on the file /tmp/hosts after booting.

[kfurge]

Neither one worked.

Maybe it's getting configured after rcex/rc.local is called. Try something like this in rc.local:

(sleep 10; cat /opt/etc/hosts.lan >> /tmp/hosts) &

Dial in the sleep time so that it's not too long. From the looks of the date/time stamps on my box, this file might get touched regularly after boot-up... The hack above might be better as a script to see if the file changes, then update it via a cron job.

We might be able to make this more elegant with the next firmware if I'm able to hook into the system binaries as they're run.

- K.C.