Compiling your own firmware - Possible for a non-computer science professional??

[Mark the Red]

Hello All,

I've been having lots of trouble with my Sony BDP-s790 streaming mkv files from my rt-n66u samba server:

After bothering a whole bunch of people, I have received this link to a patch you can make to the minidlna to allow it to work:

http://www.bayofrum.net/~crees/patches/minidlna-fix-sony-bdp-sx90.diff

Now I understand Merlin posts his source code on his website, and I have managed to download it, and find the relevant code to "patch" so speak within the upnpsoap.c

My question is:

Am I opening up Pandora's box trying to fix this myself? Is there a detailed how-to on doing this?

I try to be as self reliant as possible, but I don't know where to start with this......

Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated..

 

[nubyOz]

Hello All,

I've been having lots of trouble with my Sony BDP-s790 streaming mkv files from my rt-n66u samba server:

After bothering a whole bunch of people, I have received this link to a patch you can make to the minidlna to allow it to work:

http://www.bayofrum.net/~crees/patches/minidlna-fix-sony-bdp-sx90.diff

Now I understand Merlin posts his source code on his website, and I have managed to download it, and find the relevant code to "patch" so speak within the upnpsoap.c

My question is:

Am I opening up Pandora's box trying to fix this myself? Is there a detailed how-to on doing this?

I try to be as self reliant as possible, but I don't know where to start with this......

Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated..

Hi,
I would avoid a DIY job unless you are quite familiar with the process.
You have a reasonable risk of stuffing up your router.
Might be better to ask Merlin nicely if he could consider to add the fix in his next drop.

Cheers

 

[got_milk]

You may find this handy.

https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/wiki/Compile-Firmware-from-source-using-MINT-13

 

[TeHashX]

It's not (that) complicated, just follow the guide.
If you want, I will apply the patch for you.

 

[RMerlin]

Hardest part isn't compiling itself. It's debugging things if compiling does not work. The build process has quite a few dependencies of his own.

 

[TeHashX]

I compiled the firmware for you, just flash normally on web ui than stop minidlna, delete the db from usb disk and start minidlna again.
It's from Merlin's sources + patch attached, nothing else.

 

[RMerlin]

I compiled the firmware for you, just flash normally on web ui than stop minidlna, delete the db from usb disk and start minidlna again.
It's from Merlin's sources + patch attached, nothing else.

Did you build it from the current Github snapshot or from an older one? The latest Github snapshot would contain highly experimental code, so it might not be a good idea to rely on it at this point for a stable firmware.

 

[TeHashX]

Actually is from current snapshot but I have another one from 3 weeks ago if something is going wrong. Now I wait feedback from Mark the Red first.

 

[Mark the Red]

^^^^^^^^^^^^

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

It works. Thank you so very much! (and Merlin for posting the source code)

Thank you so much taking the time to do this to help me!!!!

 

[TeHashX]

I added a wiki here if you want to apply your Sony patch to source files and compile the latest firmware for yourself.

 

[Mark the Red]

Thank you TeHashex.

I am still not comfortable enough in a linux OS to make patches myself just yet.

For instance, your guide command:

git clone https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.git

Leaves me unsure as to which firmware version source I am downloading to edit. 266.22 beta1? 266.,24 beta2, 270.xxx? Obvious question to you, but to me I'd probably end up making a "new" firmware from some derelict code by accident and creating more problems than I resolve.

Until I see some major glitches with my firmware just yet, I will continue using the firmware you made for me. Thanks again.

The only issue I am having currently is my blu-ray player does not like the dynamic IP assignment from my router and requires a full reboot every 3-4 weeks to fix internet access. It's entirely the blu-ray players fault and nothing to do with the firmware AFAIK.

 

[got_milk]

For instance, your guide command:

git clone https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.git

Leaves me unsure as to which firmware version source I am downloading to edit. 266.22 beta1? 266.,24 beta2, 270.xxx? Obvious question to you, but to me I'd probably end up making a "new" firmware from some derelict code by accident and creating more problems than I resolve.

All that command does is download the latest code from the Asuswrt-Merlin repository. It won't necessarily have a build number to it, it'll just be the most recent code that Eric has committed and pushed to the repository, if that makes sense.

Do keep in mind that the code might not necessarily be in a working state at any given time - the build may just fail outright, or it might not work on the router, or it might not work as expected - any number of things can go wrong. Not to scare you off - it's definitely cool that you've taken the interest in building the software yourself - but it's definitely something to keep in mind. Luckily for you, however the RT-N66U is practically unbrickable with a recovery mode that'll let you reflash firmware if something goes wrong, so unless you're tinkering with your CFE you should be fine.

@RMerlin: it might be helpful to tag releases in git, so if others want to apply patches to fix certain issues, they can have stable codebases to work off of rather than pulling the latest code which might not be ready for prime time usage just yet.

 

[RMerlin]

@RMerlin: it might be helpful to tag releases in git, so if others want to apply patches to fix certain issues, they can have stable codebases to work off of rather than pulling the latest code which might not be ready for prime time usage just yet.

I tried to do it for a while but couldn't get into the discipline of doing it constantly. I'll see what would work best with Github.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[got_milk]

I tried to do it for a while but couldn't get into the discipline of doing it constantly. I'll see what would work best with Github.

git tag -a 3.0.0.4.266.24 -m "Release version 3.0.0.4.266.24"
git push --tags

is generally how I do it on GitHub.

 

[Mark the Red]

Thanks all.

I'll guess have to just bribe either Merlin or TeHashX with paypal donations or sexual favors to include this sony dlna fix on future firmware releases.

 

[TeHashX]

Money serve at nothing...

Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk 2

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks all.

I'll guess have to just bribe either Merlin or TeHashX with paypal donations or sexual favors to include this sony dlna fix on future firmware releases.

Need to be sure it won't break other devices - that's the actual important thing.

 

[RMerlin]

git tag -a 3.0.0.4.266.24 -m "Release version 3.0.0.4.266.24"
git push --tags

is generally how I do it on GitHub.

Can a clone be specified a tag? That's where I wasn't sure if it would make cloning a stable copy easier, or would be better off having a separate Stable branch to which I would push whenever I release a new stable version.

I might start looking at a few other big Github projects (like XBMC) to see how they handle it on their end.

But tagging would definitely be a good idea, if only for making it easier to figure out important points in the timeline.

 

[got_milk]

Can a clone be specified a tag?

No. It's one extra step to get to a tag, however:

git clone git://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.git
git tag -l (optional, lists all tags)
git checkout 3.0.0.4.266.24

Also, GitHub allows to download tarballs and zipped versions of the repository at that particular tag, so instead of cloning the repo, they could just download an extract a tarball. I'm not sure if you could then do a fetch and merge in newer changes from that, or if you're stuck with that particular tagged code. I've never tried.

 

[RMerlin]

No. It's one extra step to get to a tag, however:

git clone git://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.git
git tag -l (optional, lists all tags)
git checkout 3.0.0.4.266.24

That looks like an acceptable solution to me. Just need to document it on the Wiki for easy access to newcomers. Using branches might prove to be more confusing than tags (since branches in the Github concept aren't exactly the same thing people are used to in other RCS).

Also, GitHub allows to download tarballs and zipped versions of the repository at that particular tag, so instead of cloning the repo, they could just download an extract a tarball. I'm not sure if you could then do a fetch and merge in newer changes from that, or if you're stuck with that particular tagged code. I've never tried.

That would probably imply including the history or at least some other metadata to allow one to do a pull afterward. Probably cleaner to rely on tags IMHO.