openwrt-auto-extroot/README.md

# What

It's a script to build a customized OpenWRT firmware image.

If this image is flashed on a device it will try to automatically
set up [extroot](http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/extroot) on **any
(!)** storage device plugged into the USB port (`/dev/sda`). Keep in
mind that **this will erase any inserted storage device while the
router is in the initial setup phase**! Unfortunately there's little
that can be done at that point to ask the user for confirmation.

# Why

So that e.g. customers can buy a router on their own, flash our
firmware, plug in a pendrive, and manage their SIP (telephony) node
from our webapp.

# Status

This is more of a template than something standalone. You most
probably want to customize this script here and there; search for
`CUSTOMIZE` for places of interest.

I've extracted this from a project where OpenWRT nodes auto-provision
themselves in 3 stages, but I thought it's useful enough for making it
public (stage 1: extroot setup; stage 2: install packages; stage 3: a
Python script for app-level sync).

At the time of writing it only supports a few `ar71xx` routers but
it's easy to extend it.

## Tested with

[OpenWRT Chaos Calmer 15.05 RC1](https://downloads.openwrt.org/chaos_calmer/15.05-rc1/)
on a TP-Link WDR4300.

# Building

e.g. `./build.sh TLWDR4300`

Results will be under `build/OpenWrt-ImageBuilder-ar71xx_generic-for-linux-x86_64`.

To see a list of available targets, run this in the ImageBuilder dir: ```make info```.

# Usage

After flashing the firmware the router will have the standard
`192.168.1.1` IP address, and SSH will listen there using the keys
specified in `image-extras/etc/dropbear/authorized_keys`.

Once connected, you can read the log with `logread -f`.

The autoprovision script will wait for any `/dev/sda` to show up, then
erase it and set up a `swap`, an `extroot`, and a `data` filesystem,
and then reboots.

In stage 2 it will need an internet connection, so you should connect
to its [LuCI interface](http://192.168.1.1) to set up an Internet
upstream, and then it will automatically continue installing packages,
finishing the whole process, and then do a final reboot.

# Troubleshooting

* If the build doesn't yield a firmware file: if there's not enough
space in the flash of the target device to install all the requested
packages then the OpenWRT ImageBuilder silently skips that target. Remove
some packages from the build and try again.