Before I install Voxel on Orbi

[mith_y2k]

Hi all, I’m new to this forum and excited about Voxel’s work!

I only have 1 Orbi set of devices and a sheltered in place family so can’t risk bricking the network

can I install Voxel’s firmware and not configure any of the additional features like USB overlay?

Once it looks like it’s stable I’m looking to add DNSCrypt first, USB share and maybe transmission.

 

[ouzycn]

yes you can run w/o USB overlay.

 

[mith_y2k]

Ok, so last night I installed @Voxel ’s firmware. So far so good. I have a few questions I’m not 100% sure if I did something wrong or if that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

1. I added my public key to the authorized_keys file and it worked nicely; after reboot the file is gone - I don’t have the USB overlay and I didn’t find in the QuickStart or readme I should do anything special unless I want to create server keys

2. I activated DNSCrypt and edited the conf file in /etc, again, after reboot the conf is reset; I think this is something I need to put in the USB overlay right?

3. again about DNSCrypt: I could see the process running on the Orbi, but my clients were using the standard DNS configured via the Web GUI. Has anyone created a configuration so that clients go to the standard 53 port of Orbi’s DNS proxy, handle local resolve inside the Orbi and any outgoing DNS requests use the DNSCrypt protocol (I.e. be encrypted). I can configure my own clients to use DNSCrypt, but relying on the DHCP-set DNS AND using port 53 would make it magically work for all clients (PC, phones, etc) without installing a specific client on every device

 

[Voxel]

I don’t have the USB overlay and I didn’t find in the QuickStart or readme I should do anything special unless I want to create server keys

README is for R7500/R7800/R9000/R8900 users. Quick Start from the latest yesterday's RBK50-V9.2.5.1.17SF-HW.zip:

2. Overlay partition on USB.

Original stock firmware uses tmpfs overlay partition (in RAM). So all you changes in
the files/dirs are kept only until next reboot of router/satellite. If you need to keep
your changed/added files you should use external USB disk/stick formatted as
ext2/ext3/ext4 with /overlay directory on the root where you should add your new or
modified files keeping the dirtree of Orbi. For example, if you wish to use your own
/etc/dnscrypt-proxy-2.toml just place it into /overlay/etc/dnscrypt-proxy-2.toml.​

So if you keep your authorized_keys as /mnt/sda1/overlay/root/.ssh/authorized_keys file it will survive reboot.

The same is for DNS Crypt.

I could see the process running on the Orbi, but my clients were using the standard DNS configured via the Web GUI.

You should clear DNS cache on your clients. It should be (and is de facto) working. I myself use it. I mean DNS Crypt. And my clients confirm this.

Voxel.

 

[mith_y2k]

Thank you for your replies. Let’s archive this one as user error, I must not have committed the changes before rebooting.

tonignt I tried both DNSCrypt and stubby and both worked perfectly.

FWIW in both cases I edited the configuration files and manually restarted the services. I know I’ll lose the edits at the next reboot, but now that I know what to do I’ll prepare the USB overlay.

Any chance that in a next release we can make the samba shares configurable? I’d like to name the share (something other than USB) and also change the IP to a name (READYSHARE so that I can drop in replace my existing samba share from an old Netgear router). Alternatively I’m thinking of making my own script in the USB overlay to add the same in the dnsmasq file

 

[Simon Roberts]

During boot, everything from /tmp/mnt/sda1/overlay/ is copied over top of / - so if you want to configure the shares, get it working, the copy it to the corresponding place in ../overlay and it'll get copied back on boot.

This is done by /sbin/hotplug2.mount:

# Copy overlay
if [ -d /mnt/$1/overlay ]; then
cp -arp //mnt/$1/overlay/* /
fi

Edit: this may not be the complete story. It looks like overlayfs is also used to merge /tmp/overlay into /
mount:
overlayfs:/tmp/overlay on / type overlayfs (rw,relatime,lowerdir=/,upperdir=/tmp/overlay)

https://www.datalight.com/blog/2016/01/27/explaining-overlayfs-–-what-it-does-and-how-it-works/