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 on the firmware can be found on the wiki page at: https://wiki.freifunk.net/Berlin:Firmware. There you can also find the
- Release Notes
- a tutorial (en / de) on router configuration
If you have any questions, send an email 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 the build of the firmware (applies patches, integrates custom packages and uses the ImageBuilder of OpenWrt).
The idea is to download OpenWrt via git, patch it with all the patches in the patches/ folder and configure it according to the configuration snippets in configs/. Then use the OpenWrt
build system to build all packages and the ImageBuilder. The packages that will be assembled into the final firmware image are taken from the image flavors defined in packagelist/.
Please take a look at the OpenWrt documentation for a complete and up-to-date list of packages for your operating system.
Alpine:
apk add asciidoc bash bc binutils bzip2 cdrkit coreutils diffutils \
findutils flex g++ gawk gcc gettext git grep intltool libxslt \
linux-headers make ncurses-dev openssl-dev patch perl \
python3 rsync tar unzip util-linux wget zlib-dev
Arch / Manjaro:
# Essential prerequisites
pacman -S --needed base-devel bash bzip2 git libelf libxslt ncurses \
openssl python time unzip util-linux wget zlib
# Optional prerequisites, depends on the package selection
pacman -S --needed asciidoc help2man intltool perl-extutils-makemaker
CentOS / Fedora:
sudo dnf --skip-broken install bash-completion bzip2 gcc gcc-c++ git \
make ncurses-devel patch perl-Data-Dumper perl-Thread-Queue python2 \
python3 rsync tar unzip wget perl-base perl-File-Compare \
perl-File-Copy perl-FindBin diffutils which
Debian / Ubuntu:
sudo apt install build-essential flex gawk gettext git libncurses5-dev \
libssl-dev libxml-perl python3 quilt time unzip wget zlib1g-dev
Gentoo:
echo \
app-arch/{bzip2,sharutils,unzip,zip} sys-process/time \
app-text/asciidoc \
dev-libs/{libusb-compat,libxslt,openssl} dev-util/intltool \
dev-vcs/git net-misc/{rsync,wget} \
sys-apps/util-linux sys-devel/{bc,bin86,dev86} \
sys-libs/{ncurses,zlib} virtual/perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker \
| sed "s/\s/\n/g" \
| sort \
| sudo tee /etc/portage/sets/openwrt-prerequisites \
&& sudo emerge -DuvNa "@openwrt-prerequisites"
On openSUSE:
sudo zypper install --no-recommends asciidoc bash bc binutils bzip2 \
flex gawk gcc gcc-c++ gettext-tools git git-core intltool \
libopenssl-devel libxslt-tools make ncurses-devel patch \
perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker python-devel rsync sdcc unzip util-linux \
wget zlib-devel
To get the source code 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>. With V=s more detailed error messages are output.
An internet connection is required during the build process. A good internet connection can improve the build time.
You will need about 10 GB of disk space for the build.
To develop on a single package or to compile a special package that is not available by default on OpenWrt or Freifunk-Berlin, you can use the SDK. The precompiled SDK of the firmware you are using can be found in the root directory TARGETS.
To build your own package using the SDK, follow these steps:
(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 to create the firmware, including any patches. You can customize the environment, install feeds and packages, and modify the existing code. To build a single package, use the normal OpwnWrt command:
make package/freifunk-berlin-ffwizard/compile
The actual firmware images generated by the ImageBuilder (and the ImageBuilder itself) can be found
in firmwares. The layout looks like this:
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 ("notunnel", "manual", etc.).
These different package lists are defined in packagelists/.
For a description of the purpose of each packagelist, have a look at the Freifunk-Wiki.
With the "OpenWrt-ImageBuilder" you can assemble your own image variant with your
package lists without having to compile everything yourself. The "OpenWrt-SDK" is
the fastest way to build your own packages or programs without compiling OpenWrt yourself.
The "initrd" directory contains some initrd images for netboot, which are used on
some boards for the initial installation of OpenWrt.
By default make uses TARGET and PACKAGES_LIST_DEFAULT which are defined in
config.mk. You can customize this by overriding them:
make TARGET=mpc85xx PACKAGES_LIST_DEFAULT=manual
Additionally, you can create your own image from a pre-built ImageBuilder by doing something like:
make images IB_FILE=<file> TARGET=... PACKAGES_LIST_DEFAULT=...
The default target is ath79-generic. For a complete list of supported targets, see the configs/ directory for target-specific configurations.
Each of these targets needs a matching file in profiles/ with the profiles (boards) to be built with ImageBuilder.
Where can I change something? What are these files for?
config.mk - Generic build parameters, default target to build, choose which
package lists should be built
modules - Defines all external repositories to be used
(see https://gluon.readthedocs.io/en/latest/dev/build.html#feed-management)
configs/ - Target-specific configuration snippets that are passed to the OpenWrt build system
common.config - OpenWrt configuration parameters for all targets
$(TARGET).config - Target specific configuration. Will be added to common.config.
Options from target.config override those from common.config.
common-autobuild.config - Added on top when building with Makefile.autobuild.
patches/ - Patches against OpenWrt / individual feeds
openwrt - Patches for OpenWrt-core
packages/$(FEED) - Patches for each feed used (closely related to the definitions in modules).
packagelists/ - Package lists
profile-packages.txt - Allows you to specify packets on a per-router basis. Allows adding and removing
packages defined in the default OpenWrt list and in our package list.
profiles/ - List of router profiles for each target - profile names correspond to OpenWrt
board definition
Makefile - Does all the stuff. Cloning and updating OpenWrt, patching, running make.
Makefile.autobuild - Slightly reduced Makefile for CI builds (more granular steps, ...)
scripts/assemble_firmware.sh - Script to run the ImageBuilder for a target
The firmware is built automatically via a GitHub Actions workflow. A build is triggered by any PR or commit to the master branch. On each CI-run some artifacts are kept which are linked to the related build. The artifacs include:
buildtools- SDK and imagebuilderbins- the contens of the openwrt/bin/ folder (all packages and "pure" (according to built in package-selection) firmware-images)logs- the contens of the openwrt/logs/ folder (the log that would have been printed when building with V=s)packageslist- the final firmware images build via imagebuilder (each packagelist type creates a separate artifact)
All artifact filenames are prefixed by their target, e.g. ath79-gerneric_, ramips-mt7621_.
Each release has a [semantic version number] (https://semver.org/); each major release has its own code name. We name our releases after important female computer scientists, hackers, etc. For inspiration, please see the related ticket.
A new branch must be created for a new release. The branch name must be a semantic version number. Make sure that you include the semantic version number and, for major releases the codename in the README and configuration files (./configs/*).
Important: All patches should be pushed upstream!
If a patch is not yet included in the upstream, it can be placed in the appropriate subdirectory below the patches/
directory. To create a correct patch file, simply use the make update-patches command. It is a wrapper around
git format-patch to convert local changes to .patch files.
This wrapper is borrowed from the Freifunk Gluon build system, so
have a look at their documentation.
To add a patch file, update your build environment by running:
make clean patchThen switch to the OpenWrt directory:
cd openwrtor continue to the respective feed directory:
cd feeds/luciuse the normal git commit workflow to apply your changes to the code of the patched branch. When you are done,
switch back to the root folder and run:
make update-patchesThis will update all patches and show the changes through git status patches/. Check them manually and commit the required
changes. Your new patch should show up as an untracked file in the appropriate subfolder.
To update an existing patch, proceed as described above:
make clean patch
cd openwrt
cd feeds/luciThen simply add a new commit with your changes and squash it or rebase it to the original commit. To update the
patch file, use the same make update-patches sequence as when you initially created the patch.
By squashing / rebasing you ensure that your changes do not become a separate patch file, but stay in a clean patch file.
To remove a patch file, you must 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 for. If you are already a 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://openwrt.org/submitting-patches