Entware-arm - synced with Entware (mips) 2015.09

[zyxmon]

Entware-arm is a port of entware for arm routers (armv7-a/cortex-a9 architeture). It is based on Qnapware - so its system libary is glibc, not uclibc. It has a seperate dynamic-linker to run binaries. Search google for more info on Qnapware.

If you have writable /opt folder (by making symlink to usb drive) - you can test Entware arm:

1. download http://qnapware.zyxmon.org/binaries-armv7/installer/entware_install_arm.sh
2. chmod +x ./entware_install_arm.sh
3. run ./entware_install_arm.sh

Next you need to
(a) modify PATH and add /opt/bin and /opt/sbin to it and execute /opt/etc/profile on ssh session start.
(b) run /opt/etc/init.d/rc.unslung start on router startup.

(a) is done automatically in Asuswrt-merlin
(b) can be done through jffs scripts

Please enable swap before running script if your router RAM is 128MB or less.

I'll post a full script for Asuswrt-merlin later.

Update
1. I have modified the previous script. If it fails to create locale-archive in case of low memory it'll download it.
2. http://qnapware.zyxmon.org/binaries-armv7/installer/entware.arm-setup.sh this is a slightly modified entware installation script from mipsel builds. Download and run it. It will do the rest for asuswrt-merlin firmware. logoff/logon from ssh session after installation. Install packages.

The list of packages is here - http://qnapware.zyxmon.org/binaries-armv7/Packages.html

PS Entware-arm binaries use separate copies of locales. en_EN.UTF-8 and ru_RU.UTF-8 are installed. One can easily add more locales. Probably swap will be required because locales adding procedure requires a lot of memory.

 

[JGrana]

Thanks Zyxmon. I just installed using your latest install script on my RT-AC87U. Worked fine.

I have installed rsync and it is working good. Even more fun, I have installed hubicfuse using ryzhov_al's fine instructions from this post:

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=21673&highlight=hubicfuse

Working like a charm. Thanks again!

 

[JGrana]

Hmm, might have spoken too soon...

I have been running all day with the entware base, /opt pointing to my ext3 partitions /tmp/mnt/sda5/entware directory.

For the most part, things seemed fine. I installed rsync, hugicfuse and htop.
Over the course of the day, I noticed some odd behavior.

ssh'ing into the RT-AC87u would pause between the displaying the /etc/motd string and the actual command prompt.
Even more, as I worked inside ssh, checking things, the router would hang for either a short period (3-5 seconds) or, hang up completely and disconnect.

I reboot the router a few times. No difference.

I then renamed the entware directory to entwareOLD and rebooted. Not /opt.

Things seem much more stable now.

I will continue to debug/investigate.

 

[RMerlin]

Once this gets stabilized, either submit a pull request to have the script installed on ARM-based routers, or let me know when the current script is ready for inclusion as an ARM alternative to the MIPS script.

 

[zyxmon]

JGrana Thanks for testing. I am also running Entware on a Broadcom-arm based router. It is not made by asus. But I do not think it makes a big difference. The latest 378.50 Asuswrt.merlin firmware is installed.
I have installed Entware many times to test installation and installed different packages. I had some strange issues after I've tested installation with swap enabled. This allowed me to generate locale-archive on a router with 128MB of ram.
I think the strange issues were caused by a slow or an old flash drive. They disappeared after I have disabled swap.
If I have the issues you describe, I'll also try to investigate them.

All By default the ru_RU.UTF-8 locale is used. It is defined in /opt/etc/profile file. Change it to en_US.UTF-8. I'll make the change to en_US without a notice in glibc-opt package. One can add some more locales (de_DE, en_GB, fr_FR, it_IT) by running something like

localedef.new -c -f UTF-8 -i de_DE de_DE.UTF-8

These locales are used only by Entware binaries. If you need more locales - download and unpack http://qnapware.zyxmon.org/sources/i18n.tar.gz to /opt/usr/share before running localedef.

You can also report issues here - https://github.com/zyxmon/entware-arm/issues
Everything needed to compile Entware-arm is here - https://github.com/zyxmon/entware-arm (I need to compile everything from scratch to be sure I have not forgotten something to include. I'll check it at the weekend).

 

[ryzhov_al]

Even more fun, I have installed hubicfuse using ryzhov_al's fine instructions from this post:

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=21673&highlight=hubicfuse

Working like a charm. Thanks again!

Is it free from those bug?

 

[TeHashX]

Thanks, added guide here https://www.asuswrt.eu/how-to-install-entware-arm/

 

[JGrana]

Is it free from those bug?

First, taking the advice of zyxmon, I have swapoff'ed the swap partition.
The swap partition is on the same USB 3.0 Toshiba drive as the entware partition. The drive shows it is running in USB 3.0 mode.
I also updated /opt/etc/profile and changed to en_US.

I have not had a hang up for the past 30 mins. Much progress so far (turning swap off for now).
Thanks!

ryzhov_al,
I tried to duplicate your error flow. In my /jffs directory, I created a symlink from /rom. I then did a cp -r /jffs to /tmp/mnt/hubic/bug.

As expected, when it got to the symlink, it complained:

cp: can't create symlink '/tmp/mnt/hubic/bug/lrom': Function not implemented

When the cp completed, I checked all the files and directories, especially those copied after the error.

All are fine. No truncated files.

I am going to run for a while without swap.

One thing I noticed. The Toshiba USB drive powers off pretty quickly. It takes an access to wake it, and I did notice it takes a few seconds to go active.

I might try to put swap on a fast USB stick and plug it into the USB 2.0 port.
I will try that later today.

Running 378.50ta on an RT-AC87U.

 

[zyxmon]

TeHashX Thank you for your remarks and suggestions posted on GitHub - https://github.com/zyxmon/entware-arm/issues/1

Here is a new installation script (your modification) - http://qnapware.zyxmon.org/binaries-armv7/installer/entware.arm-setup.sh

The main changes are:
1. ext4 partition can be used for installation
2. entware.arm folder is created and used instead of entware folder.

 

[zyxmon]

entware-arm mirror

I am observing some strange 408 errors from some ip's that try to access Entware-arm on my hosting (EU). I have created a mirror (USA) -
Here is an installation script that uses a mirror

http://entware-arm.zyxmon.org/binaries-armv7/installer/entware.arm-setup.sh

To change repository location to mirror edit /opt/etc/opkg.conf and change the first line to

src/gz packages http://entware-arm.zyxmon.org/binaries-armv7

PS May be (but very unlikely) entware-arm + swap is the cause. I had some strange crc errors when trying to "opkg install" with swap enabled.

 

[TeHashX]

PS May be (but very unlikely) entware-arm + swap is the cause. I had some strange crc errors when trying to "opkg install" with swap enabled.

I don't have this issue with an usb3 disk, all seams ok

https://asciinema.org/a/16295

 

[Rankdropper84]

Probably a stupid question but how do i create a symlink to my usb drive? All of this is looking like chinese to me right now. Thanks

 

[TeHashX]

Probably a stupid question but how do i create a symlink to my usb drive? All of this is looking like chinese to me right now. Thanks

Symlink is created automatically, read tutorial.

https://www.asuswrt.eu/how-to-install-entware-arm/

 

[Rankdropper84]

Symlink is created automatically, read tutorial.

https://www.asuswrt.eu/how-to-install-entware-arm/

Appreciate that!

 

[JGrana]

ARG... Forget most everything in this reply...read the next post....


Well, I have spent some time off and on today trying to get to the bottom of the hang ups.

First, I don't believe it is swap related. I first had a swap partition on an external Toshiba USB 3 drive. I did a swapoff and it appeared to be working better. Then, an hour later, ssh hang up, connection timed out. I also noticed that all router activity seemed to freeze. For 5-10 seconds. I had the GUI up as well and it was tracking memory usage. Nothing unusual but it also froze.

Another data point on swap being the culprit. My system at this point never swaps. 0 usage. Plus, not sure how any application could have strange interaction with swap - it's fully managed by the kernel.

So, I took a fast USB thumb drive. Put a 500MB swap partition on it and then did the swapon.

BTW, running 378.50_ta on an RT-AC87U

System ran fine for quite some time. The, I was in vi looking at a shell script - and hang up. ssl connection closed. I looked at dmesg and /tmp/syslog.log.
Nothing unusual, an occasional "htb: htb qdisc 13: is non-work-conserving" but that's about all I could see in the logs.

Last, I ran dstat (after installing via opkg ;-) and let it run while I ran some errands.
When I returned an hour later, the ssh session had timed out. The last line in dstat show the system 100% idle, memory in the low range and some minor network traffic, again, no paging.


At this point I am going to back out entware.arm (rename the directory to entware.arm.OLD) and reboot. I will make sure there is nothing in /opt and see how it goes.

 

[JGrana]

I am on to something...

I read a post today where Merlin warned someone that debugging with an overclocked router is not wise.

Well, I had recently (like last weekend) overclocked my RT-AC87U to 1200,800.

Seemed to run fine. I have done this in the past with 66U's and 68U's.

On a whim, I decided to leave entware and swap fully enabled and simply reset the nvram setting for clkfreq back to 1000,800. Did the reboot...

I have been frankly beating on it for the past hour. Editing shell scripts, running rsync from a NAS to the routers attached USB drive, now an rsync to Hubic (thanks again ryzhov_al).

No hang ups, delays, stalls etc.

I will continue to test this evening.

For now, please accept my apologies....

 

[cosmoxl]

forgive me if this is a dumb question..

my AC68U with USB drive has optware installed already via installing download master. that was many iterations of firmware ago.

can I install this entware as well, or do I need to format the USB drive and start fresh?

Thanks

 

[Rankdropper84]

I think I am missing a step somewhere. Is there anything else that needs done to get the packages to work besides installing them? I am sure it is something i am doing, although i cannot pinpoint it.

Edit: Looks like I might not have had all the repositories installed for lighttpd seeing as how I just installed a couple packages no problem.

 

[zyxmon]

cosmoxl Entware cannot coexist with Optware.

 

[Rankdropper84]

All the packages I install are being downloaded to my SD card correct?