https://wiki.freifunk.net/Berlin:Firmware
This is the build-system for the Firmware of Freifunk Berlin. The firmware is based on vanilla OpenWrt with some modifications (to fix broken stuff in OpenWrt itself or for example LuCI) and additional default packages/configuration settings.
More user relevant information about the firmware are on the wiki page at: https://wiki.freifunk.net/Berlin:Firmware. There you can also find the
- ReleaseNotes
- a tutorial (en / de) on router configuration
For questions write a mail to [email protected], open a discussion with @freifunk-berlin/firmware or come to our weekly meetings. If you find bugs please report them at: https://github.com/freifunk-berlin/firmware/issues
For the Berlin Freifunk firmware we use vanilla OpenWrt with additional patches and packages. The Makefile automates firmware creation and apply patches / integrates custom freifunk packages. All custom patches are located in patches/ and all additional packages can be found at http://github.com/freifunk-berlin/packages_berlin.
Please take a look at the OpenWrt documentation for a complete and uptodate list of packages for your operating system.
On Ubuntu/Debian:
apt-get install git build-essential libncurses5-dev zlib1g-dev gawk time \
unzip libxml-perl flex wget gawk gettext quilt python libssl-dev
On openSUSE:
zypper install --type pattern devel_basis
zypper install git ncurses-devel zlib-devel gawk time \
unzip perl-libxml-perl flex wget gawk gettext-runtime quilt python libopenssl-devel
On Arch/Antergos:
pacman -S base-devel git ncurses lib32-zlib gawk time unzip perl-xml-libxml \
flex wget gettext quilt python2 openssl
To get the source and build the firmware locally use:
git clone https://github.com/freifunk-berlin/firmware.git
cd firmware
make
The build will take some time. You can improve the build time with build options
such as -j <number of cores>. V=s will give more verbose error messages.
An internet connection is required during the build process. A good internet connection can improve the build time.
You need approximately 10GB of space for the build.
To develop on a single package or to compile a special package, which is not available by default on OpenWrt or Freifunk-Berlin, you can use the SDK. The prebuilt SDK of the firmware you are running on can be found in the TARGETS root-folder.
To build your own package with the SDK do the following:
(cd /tmp; wget https://firmware.berlin...SDK*.tar.xz)
git clone https://github.com/freifunk-berlin/firmware.git
cd firmware
make setup-sdk SDK_FILE=/tmp/<SDK-file from above>
cd sdk-<target>
This folder represents the environment, that was used during building the firmware, including all patches. You can customize the environment, install feeds and packages and update the existing code. To build a single package use the normal OpwnWrt command:
make package/freifunk-berlin-ffwizard/compile
You can find the actual firmware images generated by the ImageBuilder (and the ImageBuilder itself)
in firmwares. The layout looks like the following:
firmwares/
TARGET/
backbone/
images..
default/
images..
...
OpenWrt-ImageBuilder-....tar.xz
OpenWrt-SDK-....tar.xz
initrd/
images..
packages/
packages/<ARCH>
base/*.ipk
luci/*.ipk
packages/*.ipk
packages_berlin/*.ipk
routing/*.ipk
targets/MAINTARGET/SUBTARGET/packages/
*.ipk
As you notice there are several different image variants ("backbone", "default", etc.).
These different packages lists are defined in packages/.
See the "Features" section above for a description of the purpose of each package list.
With the "OpenWrt-Imagebuilder" you can assemble your own image variant with your
packages lists without having to compile everything yourself. The "OpenWrt-SDK" is
the fastest way to build your own packages or programs without compiling OpenWrt itself.
The "initrd" directory contains some initrd-images for netboot, which are required on
some boards to initially install OpenWrt.
make will use by default TARGET and PACKAGES_LIST_DEFAULT defined in
config.mk. You can customize this by overriding them:
make TARGET=mpc85xx PACKAGES_LIST_DEFAULT=backbone
in addition you can build your own image from a prebuilt imagebuilder by something like:
make images IB_FILE=<file> TARGET=... PACKAGES_LIST_DEFAULT=...
The default target is ar71xx-generic. For a complete list of supported targets look in configs/ for the target-specific configs.
Each of these targets need a matching file in profiles/ with the profiles (boards) that should be build with the imagebuilder.
The firmware is built automatically via a GitHubActions workflow. A build is triggered by any PR or commit to the master branch. We switched from a selfhosted Buildbot-setup to GitHubActions because this reduced the maintenance we need.
Since the switch to GitHubActions nobody reimplemented a way of deploying / publishing the builds, so the following sentences are just some kind of reminder for this ToDo.
All branches whose name complies to the "X.Y.Z" pattern are built and put into the "stable" downloads directory:
http://buildbot.berlin.freifunk.net/buildbot/stable/
All branches with names not fitting the "X.Y.Z" pattern are built and put into the "unstable" directory:
http://buildbot.berlin.freifunk.net/buildbot/unstable/
Note that in the directory there is no reference to the branch name; unstable builds can be identified by build number only.
Every release has a semantic version number; each major version has its own codename. We name our releases after important female computer scientists, hackers, etc. For inspiration please take a look at the related ticket.
For a new release, create a new branch. The branch name must be a semantic version number. Make sure you change the semantic version number and, for major releases, the codename in the README and config files (./configs/*)
The buildbot will build the release and place the files in the stable direcotry
once you pushed the new branch to github.
Important: all patches should be pushed upstream!
If a patch is not yet included upstream, it can be placed in the corresponding subdirectory below the patches
directory. To create a correct patch-file just use the make update-patches command. It's a wrapper around
git format-patch to transform local-changes into .patch files.
This wrapper is borrowed from the Freifunk Gluon buildsystem, so
check their documentation.
In order to add a patch file update your build environment by running:
make clean patchThen switch to the openwrt directory:
cd openwrtor continue to the relevant feed directory:
cd feeds/luciuse the normal git commit workflow to apply your changes to the code of the patched branch. When done convert
change back to the root folder and run:
make update-patchesThis will update all patches and show the changes by git status patches/. Mannually review them and commit the requred
changes. Your new patch should show up as an untracked file in the relating subfolder.
To update an existing patch do the same as above:
make clean patch
cd openwrt
cd feeds/luciThen just add a new commit with your changes and squash it or rebase it to the originating commit. To update the
patch-file use the same make update-patches sequence as you did when creating the patch initially.
By squashing / rebasing you ensure, that your changes will not become a separate patch-file, but stays just a clean patch-file.
To remove a patch-file you have to remove it from the patch-subdirectory and update the build- environment:
git rm patches/openwrt/0010-unrelevant-change.patch
make update-patchesPlease create a pull request for the project you want to submit a patch. If you are already member of the Freifunk Berlin team, please delete branches once they have been merged.
Create a commit in the openwrt directory that contains your change. Use git format-patch to create a patch:
git format-patch origin
Send a patch to the OpenWrt mailing list with git send-email:
git send-email \
[email protected] \
--smtp-server=mail.foo.bar \
--smtp-user=foo \
--smtp-encryption=tls \
0001-a-fancy-change.patch
Additional information: https://dev.openwrt.org/wiki/SubmittingPatches