[Janus / twin Alix2] #2 Setup IPKG and add packages

[PatrickB]

Hello.

I had already extended routers and NAS devices this way. I didn’t have the toolchain to compile for them and even with the toolchain, due to provider’s options, compatibility issues may remain with the binaries already installed… When you need to add only 1 or 2 utilities, it is a pain.

The projects NSLU2, Optware etc. feature many useful packages in ready-to-use binaries, were ported to various architectures, then finding the good repository is affair of luck.
Need to try…

For instance this promising repository was bad luck 🙁
https://downloads.openwrt.org/barrier_breaker/14.07-rc3/x86/alix2/packages/

…but:
root@janus2> file ssmtp
ssmtp: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV),
dynamically linked (uses shared libs), corrupted section header size 👿

This one was bingo ! 😀
http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/syno-i686/cross/stable/

Remap /opt

The packages above like to install in /opt then I don’t want to stress them.
But /opt is mounted to RAM (and quite empty) in Zeroshell on Alix.
So at first I change that to make /opt persistent at reboot.

I create /DB/opt and bind /opt to it.

Here is my PreBoot script:

# Support for extensions from NSLU2 repository:

# We need a persistent /opt, then it is located at /DB/opt.

# Zeroshell defaultly mounts /opt to the RAM and just creates 2 links there:

#   nmap -> /var/register/system/AutoUpdate/pkgs/40400/pkg/prefix/nmap

#   shibboleth-sp -> /usr/local/shibboleth-sp/



mount -o bind  /DB/opt /opt



# Optimizations:

# / is mounted to the RAM, only few subdirs are mounted to the CFlash, including /Database.

# Mount all fugitive data inside /Database to the RAM (it will also save the CFlash):



mount -t tmpfs -o mode=1755,nosuid,nodev      tmpfs /Database/LOG

mount -t tmpfs -o mode=1755,nosuid,nodev      tmpfs /Database/var/register/system/mrtg/counters

mount -t tmpfs -o mode=1755,nosuid,nodev      tmpfs /Database/var/register/system/mrtg/html

mount -t tmpfs -o mode=1755,nosuid,nodev      tmpfs /DB/opt/var/samba

(the optimizations using tempfs were added later)

Manually setup IPKG

root@janus2> wget http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/syno-i686/cross/stable/ipkg-opt_0.99.163-10_i686.ipk



root@janus2> tar zxvf ipkg-opt_0.99.163-10_i686.ipk

./debian-binary

./data.tar.gz

./control.tar.gz



root@janus2> tar zxvf data.tar.gz

...



root@janus2> vi ./opt/etc/ipkg.conf

=> add there:

src syno-i686 http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/syno-i686/cross/stable

Then move the content of the ‘opt’ created locally to /opt.

Also add /opt/bin and /opt/sbin to the PATH and IPKG works. It will install the wanted packages properly in /opt/…

Then using IPKG I already installed several packages from this repository, all working fine:
– samba2
– rsync
– nail
…

You may find there others fitting your own needs. Enjoy ! 😉

Any idea of improvement is welcome too.

Best regards.

[Author]

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