Entware/Transmission on Merlin AsusWRT removes after reboot?

[Niklas Nyberg]

Hi

I have an AC68U router (newly buyed) and installed Merlin AsusWRT on it. Im am trying to install, and keep, Entware/Transmission. The installation of Entware works fine (following the guide here https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/wiki/Entware), install Transmission and configure it and got everything working (from guide here: https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/wiki/Installing-Transmission-through-Entware)

But every time I reboot the router, everything disappears, Entware and Transmission.
Im guessing that it is installed wrong in some way but I cant figure out what I doing wrong.

Can anyone help me?

Best regards
Niklas

 

[joegreat]

But every time I reboot the router, everything disappears, Entware and Transmission.
Im guessing that it is installed wrong in some way but I cant figure out what I doing wrong.

Hi Niklas,

Where and when do you start Entware after a reboot?
You need to put the command: /opt/etc/init.d/rc.unslung start into one of the user scripts - most likely it will be post-mount (to have your USB-drive mounted where Entware is installed).

Below the example of my post-mount script to start Entware after both USB devices (thumb drive and USB HDD) are mounted - regardless of the mount order (which can change after updating the firmware).

With kind regards
Joe

#!/bin/sh
# Logging of the script start
/usr/bin/logger -t START_$(basename $0) "started [$@]"
SCRLOG=/tmp/$(basename $0).log
touch $SCRLOG
NOW=$(date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
echo $NOW "START_$(basename $0) started [$@]" >> $SCRLOG
#
# Executing the script commands
#
if [ $1 = "/tmp/mnt/usb-stick" ] # Replace the mountpoint with your one
then
ln -sf $1/entware.arm /tmp/opt >> $SCRLOG
if mount | grep /tmp/mnt/Data > /dev/null; then # Replace the mountpoint with your one - if you have 2 devices
/bin/sleep 2
/opt/etc/init.d/rc.unslung start >> $SCRLOG
else
echo "Data disk not mounted yet! Script: $0" >> $SCRLOG
fi
fi
#
if [ $1 = "/tmp/mnt/Data" ] # Replace the mountpoint with your one - if you have 2 devices
then
if mount | grep /tmp/mnt/usb-stick > /dev/null; # Replace the mountpoint with your one - if you have 2 devices
then
/bin/sleep 2
/opt/etc/init.d/rc.unslung start >> $SCRLOG
else
echo "USB stick not mounted yet! Script: $0" >> $SCRLOG
fi
fi
#
# Logging the finishing of the script
NOW=$(date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
if [ "$?" -ne 0 ]
then
echo $NOW "Error in script  execution! Script: $0" >> $SCRLOG
else
echo $NOW "Script execution OK. Script: $0" >> $SCRLOG
fi
/usr/bin/logger -t STOP_$(basename $0) "return code $?"
exit $?

 

[Niklas Nyberg]

Hi Joe and thanks for your answer.
I dont know when Entware starts, I have just followed the guides above to install Entware and Transmission. My knowledge in Unix is ..... nothing . I expected that it should work as long as I followed the guides.

I came from Padavans firmware to the Asus N56u router and everything worked "out of the box" as long as I did like the guide says.

How does the postmount work? Is it a script called from ....startupscripts??

Sorry about my lack of Unix knowlegde :-(

Regards
Niklas

 

[Niklas Nyberg]

Hm... do I have to enable JFFS to have Entware/Transmission?

 

[Zirescu]

Yes

Hm... do I have to enable JFFS to have Entware/Transmission?

 

[Niklas Nyberg]

Ok, JFFS enabled, Then what?

 

[Zirescu]

It would probably be best to follow the installation steps again just to be sure that everything is in place where it should be.

 

[Niklas Nyberg]

JFFS enabled, reinstalled everyting. Didnt see after installation of Entware:
Info: Add '/opt/etc/init.d/rc.unslung start' to startup script for Entware.arm services to start

Looked at the guide again, below "The old way":

Now we have to configure Asuswrt to automatically stop/start services:

echo "#!/bin/sh" > /jffs/scripts/services-start
echo "sleep 20" >> /jffs/scripts/services-start
echo "/opt/etc/init.d/rc.unslung start" >> /jffs/scripts/services-start
echo "#!/bin/sh" > /jffs/scripts/services-stop
echo "/opt/etc/init.d/rc.unslung stop" >> /jffs/scripts/services-stop
chmod a+rx /jffs/scripts/*

Added this lines to the startup files and now everythinh works.

Thanks, people above

 

[joegreat]

Info: Add '/opt/etc/init.d/rc.unslung start' to startup script for Entware.arm services to start

Hi,

As suggested by my posting above you should put the Entware start into the post-mount user script.
The reason is simple: Entware requires you to add a USB drive and you want to make sure that it's mounted before(!) you start Entware...

Below the current timing of my router startup:
Jan 1 01:00:50 START_services-start: started []
Jan 1 01:00:51 START_wan-start: started [0]
Jan 1 01:00:54 START_nat-start: started []
Jan 1 01:00:54 START_nat-start: started []
Jan 1 00:00:55 START_pre-mount: started [/dev/sdb1]
Jan 1 00:00:55 START_pre-mount: started [/dev/sda2]
Jan 1 01:00:55 START_firewall-start: started [eth0]
Jan 1 00:00:55 START_post-mount: started [/tmp/mnt/Data]
Jan 1 01:01:11 START_pre-mount: started [/dev/sdb5]
Jan 1 01:01:11 START_post-mount: started [/tmp/mnt/usb-stick]

As you can see the USB drive is mounted far later then the service-start script runs - of course you can use a long sleep command to overcome the issue, but you never know if the sleep is long enough...

With kind regards
Joe

PS.: the service-stop script approach is fine and shows good practice in handling of start/stop scripts!

 

[kvic]

As suggested by my posting above you should put the Entware start into the post-mount user script.
The reason is simple: Entware requires you to add a USB drive and you want to make sure that it's mounted before(!) you start Entware

Putting into post-mount is the very right thing to do! To celebrate the joy, here is my post-mount. lol

#!/bin/sh

tag=$(basename $0)

logger -t $tag $1

if [ "$1" == "/tmp/mnt/sandisk" ]
then
    ## workaround firmware bug
    ## the bug: mount in mount_r() instead of mount_fstab()
    mount /tmp/mnt/sandisk -o remount,rw,nodev,noatime,barrier=1,data=writeback
   
    ## turn on swap file
    swapon /tmp/mnt/sandisk/swapfile

    ## link entware.arm to /opt
    ln -sf $1/entware.arm /tmp/opt

    /opt/etc/init.d/rc.unslung start
fi