The kernel has two helper defines that guide about hardware characteristics. MIPS_L1_CACHE_SHIFT defines the cache line sizes (1<<x) of the target. It defaults to 5 - so it is assumed that the device has a cache line size of 32 bytes. This is not true for MIPS 4KEc cores that are driving the RTL838x SOCs. These cores have 16 byte cache line sizes. Adapt the CONFIG properties for this target to match the hardware. ARCH_DMA_MINALIGN definies the alignment for memory allocations. Other than its name suggests on MIPS devices that have non coherent DMA kmalloc() respects this configuration. This ensures that no normal memory is corrupted by DMA blocks that share the same cache line. The default for this is 128 bytes. And kernel states itself "Total overkill for most systems but need as a safe default. Set this one if any device in the system might do non-coherent DMA". Realtek devices use non coherent DMA so they are affected by the setting of ARCH_DMA_MINALIGN. Set this to cache line size for all devices to reduce memory waste. Link: https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/pull/23492 Signed-off-by: Markus Stockhausen <markus.stockhausen@gmx.de>
OpenWrt Project is a Linux operating system targeting embedded devices. Instead of trying to create a single, static firmware, OpenWrt provides a fully writable filesystem with package management. This frees you from the application selection and configuration provided by the vendor and allows you to customize the device through the use of packages to suit any application. For developers, OpenWrt is the framework to build an application without having to build a complete firmware around it; for users this means the ability for full customization, to use the device in ways never envisioned.
Sunshine!
Download
Built firmware images are available for many architectures and come with a package selection to be used as WiFi home router. To quickly find a factory image usable to migrate from a vendor stock firmware to OpenWrt, try the Firmware Selector.
If your device is supported, please follow the Info link to see install instructions or consult the support resources listed below.
An advanced user may require additional or specific package. (Toolchain, SDK, ...) For everything else than simple firmware download, try the wiki download page:
Development
To build your own firmware you need a GNU/Linux, BSD or macOS system (case sensitive filesystem required). Cygwin is unsupported because of the lack of a case sensitive file system.
Requirements
You need the following tools to compile OpenWrt, the package names vary between distributions. A complete list with distribution specific packages is found in the Build System Setup documentation.
binutils bzip2 diff find flex gawk gcc-6+ getopt grep install libc-dev libz-dev
make4.1+ perl python3.7+ rsync subversion unzip which
Quickstart
-
Run
./scripts/feeds update -ato obtain all the latest package definitions defined in feeds.conf / feeds.conf.default -
Run
./scripts/feeds install -ato install symlinks for all obtained packages into package/feeds/ -
Run
make menuconfigto select your preferred configuration for the toolchain, target system & firmware packages. -
Run
maketo build your firmware. This will download all sources, build the cross-compile toolchain and then cross-compile the GNU/Linux kernel & all chosen applications for your target system.
Related Repositories
The main repository uses multiple sub-repositories to manage packages of
different categories. All packages are installed via the OpenWrt package
manager called opkg. If you're looking to develop the web interface or port
packages to OpenWrt, please find the fitting repository below.
-
LuCI Web Interface: Modern and modular interface to control the device via a web browser.
-
OpenWrt Packages: Community repository of ported packages.
-
OpenWrt Routing: Packages specifically focused on (mesh) routing.
-
OpenWrt Video: Packages specifically focused on display servers and clients (Xorg and Wayland).
Support Information
For a list of supported devices see the OpenWrt Hardware Database
Documentation
Support Community
- Forum: For usage, projects, discussions and hardware advise.
- Support Chat: Channel
#openwrton oftc.net.
Developer Community
- Bug Reports: Report bugs in OpenWrt
- Dev Mailing List: Send patches
- Dev Chat: Channel
#openwrt-develon oftc.net.
License
OpenWrt is licensed under GPL-2.0
