Entware basics

[BigWhoop]

Hi Guys,
iam not new to linux. But this entware is a little confusing.
cause of not persistent files. If i add a user for the sshd. next reboot its gone.
I know that there is an alternative installation of entware with no symlink to passwd.
But how do i install this on my R9000? I see only one install file from Voxel.

And is there a documentation about this? many package are in entware without docomentation about
the config files or startup scripts.

Also i dont know if i can read howtos about entware software from another router and copy it 1:1 to
this Entware repo from Voxel.

eg. the howtos about openssh doesnt work cause of the user that dont survive a router reboot.

Any Hints, Links, Docus, advices are welcome.

Thanks folks,
Big

 

[eevanskiteboards]

I just set up entware on my R7800 with the help of others on this forum and Voxels "readme guide" from his website https://www.voxel-firmware.com/Downloads/Voxel/html/index.html.
to my understanding entware will be installed and always running on an attached usb stick, the router will know how to find and use it due to how it was formatted and labeled etc..

I dont know if this answered anything, but just trying to help as others did for myself

 

[BigWhoop]

thank you. But entware is up and running
usb stick is in there. But the passwd file with users will resetet every reboot, too.
You need an sshd user for accessing openssh server. This is possible with an alternative entware installation.
But i cant find some from Voxel. And also i want to know a lot more about entware. But it seems that every device
has an own howto.

 

[eevanskiteboards]

understood. I am sure he will help you with your issue in further detail. You will find you answer soon

 

[kamoj]

I don't understand what your problem is.
I kindly ask you to be very specific when you have a problem.

In general you should set these variables to get many entware programs working ok:

export PATH=/opt/bin:/opt/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
export TERMINFO=/opt/share/terminfo
export TERM=vt100

You can add these lines to something executed at boot/start, e.g. one of these files:

• /etc/profile
• /etc/rc.local

 

[BigWhoop]

we didnt talked together in the past kamoj!
My entware runs fine. But there is a passwd/group etc. reset after reboot.
cause of symlinks. all i want to know are resources about entware documentations.
Best specific for this Routermodel R9000. And how to overcome this reboot problem,
without the alternative entware install option.

To become clearer:

I have to do this code every time after router reboot to become the ssh daemon up and running.

adduser -h /opt/tmp -s /opt/bin/false -D -H sshd 
/opt/etc/init.d/S40sshd start
passwd

 

[kamoj]

So why not add that line to the file /etc/rc.local ?
Have you tried that?

we didnt talked together in the past kamoj!
My entware runs fine. But there is a passwd/group etc. reset after reboot.
cause of symlinks. all i want to know are resources about entware documentations.
Best specific for this Routermodel R9000. And how to overcome this reboot problem,
without the alternative entware install option.

To become clearer:

I have to do this code every time after router reboot to become the ssh daemon up and running.

adduser -h /opt/tmp -s /opt/bin/false -D -H sshd
/opt/etc/init.d/S40sshd start
passwd

 

[BigWhoop]

Thanks for your answer kamoj,
the passwd thing is interaktiv. did you use openssh on your R9000?
is entware a nerdy sideproduct with no community? i cant believe that.
There must be a good documentation for all this staff. I think Voxel can light it up.
But he is without inet at the moment

Maybe i can delete the symlinks and use own files for the users/group. But didnt know.
i dont want to brick my device. As you can read in post #1 its a little bit tricky with
all these devices out there.

And i cant find a website with usefull informations about entware and this router that does work instantly. Maybe i searched for the wrong content.

 

[BigWhoop]

i try it the other way round:
Where can i find the entware home community?
maybe someone there can answer the questions.

 

[Voxel]

I think Voxel can light it up.
But he is without inet at the moment

Sometimes I can get access to inet

You need so called alternative installation of Entware. Check this:

https://www.voxel-firmware.com/Downloads/Voxel/Entware/Entware-3x-Voxel/installer/

namely alternative.sh script. It is rather for advanced users. Thus I simplify only generic installation especially for R7800/R9000/R7500. Script assumes that you have already proper /opt. I.e. not internal flash memory of router but external USB. So I do not recommend to run this script w/o absolute understanding how to organize your /opt (manually).

Voxel.

 

[BigWhoop]

is it possible to oranize the things with default installer and then change to the alternative?

 

[Voxel]

is it possible to oranize the things with default installer and then change to the alternative?

Yes. Key commands from alternative.sh are installation of busybox from Entware and copying special files, see the lines in alternative.sh after comment:

# now copy default files - it is an alternative installation

(I cannot type them here, forum defense robot blocks such mention as /e t c/p a s s w d )


Voxel.

 

[BigWhoop]

i tried it myself. And it blocks the post. even if i write it in code-tags.
Maybe thats not the best solution for IT-Boards

 

[BigWhoop]

Voxel if you have the time a howto about the alternative way is definitely usefull for other users of Entware.
You can set a Link here if done and/or post it in your readme.docx, too

 

[Voxel]

Well. IMO if people are using Entware they are already experienced enough to setup it as they wish. There are explanations standard vs alternative install in Entware github

https://github.com/Entware/Entware/wiki/Alternative-install-vs-standard

and Linux admin can do what he need w/o significant problems. 99 per cents do not need my additional explanations.

OK. Maybe later I'll prepare initial installation tarball for alternative setup...

Voxel.

 

[BigWhoop]

yea i know this github link. and iam also aware of the alternative installation. This is why i ask about it

But i also know that Entware is not the same on all devices. This is why i came to you with my questions.

And after all this posts here and in other thread iam afraid that there is no #1 board for entware questions or the community?

iam a journalist and very interested in this!

 

[Voxel]

And after all this posts here and in other thread iam afraid that there is no #1 board for entware questions or the community?

There is a thread (this forum):

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/e...-rt-ac86u-with-asuswrt-merlin-firmware.44393/

Entware guys are: ryzhov_al, and zyxmon.

or Zyxmon's forums, but it is in Russian:

https://forums.zyxmon.org/

BTW, mirror of my version is:

http://cortex-a15.zyxmon.org/binaries/cortex-a15-3x/

Voxel.

 

[eevanskiteboards]

question 1: I think i have entware up and running(voxel user guide), but when i use the command opkg update i get and error with a package name. i am assuming that it means that the file does not exist etc. when it only shows this one error does that mean entware is all current and updated?

/tmp$ opkg update
Collected errors:
* opkg_download: Failed to download http://downloads.openwrt.org/attitude_adjustment/12.09-rc1/ipq806x/generic/packages/Packages.gz: Error.
Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/attitude_adjustment/12.09-rc1/ipq806x/generic/packages/Packages.gz.


question 2: what is the proper way to add a program/package to entware(https://www.voxel-firmware.com/Downloads/Voxel/html/entware.html). wget command to the web link of a specific package? For example i want to download and install fdisk and more later.

any information/help will be appreciated. thank you

 

[Voxel]

Answer to both:

Try to run
/opt/bin/opkg update
/opt/bin/opkg install fdisk

But not just "opkg" w/o full path.

Voxel.

 

[eevanskiteboards]

i used the propper command(thank you) and this is the result:

/opt/bin/opkg update
Downloading http://www.voxel-firmware.com/Downloads/Voxel/Entware/Entware-3x-Vox el/Packages.gz
Updated list of available packages in /opt/var/opkg-lists/entware

next do i(to install what it downloaded): /opt/bin/opkg install Entware-3x-Vox el/Packages.gz or is this just a list of packages that the router will let me install from your entware downloads site?