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OpenWRT Compilation Setup

wifi-security-advanced-labs-custom-firmware | Level: Easy  | Total Lab Runs: 0 | Premium Lab

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OpenWRT is a Linux operating system for embedded devices which allows the user to the customization of the device firmware as per the requirement of the user. It is an open-source project which supports 1200+ devices and has 3500+ packages.

In this lab, OpenWRT build system is provided to practice building custom OpenWRT firmware and kernel module.

Objective: Compile the firmware and kernel modules for a device of your choice.

Commands to create your own build setup

# Updating the packages

apt-get update

# Upgrading the packages

apt-get upgrade -y

# Installing the dependencies

apt-get install -y subversion g++ zlib1g-dev build-essential git python rsync man-db libncurses5-dev gawk gettext unzip file libssl-dev wget zip time git-core 

# Adding a low privilege user john

adduser --disabled-password --gecos "" john

# Switching to user John

su john

# Switching to home directory of user John

cd /home/john

# Download a stable OpenWRT code release

wget https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/archive/v18.06.2.zip

# Unzip the archive

unzip v18.06.2.zip

# Renaming the directory

mv openwrt-18.06.2 latest 

# Changing to the directory

cd latest

# Creating the initial configuration

make menuconfig 

# Creating the download directory

mkdir -p dl

# Updating the feeds

./scripts/feeds update -a

# Installing the feeds

./scripts/feeds install -a 

# Creating the final config

make menuconfig

# Cleaning the build system 

make clean

# Downloading the required systems

make download

# Building the firmware

make -j8

Setting variables for kernel module compilation

# Locating staging directory of build system

export STAGING_DIR=/home/john/latest/staging_dir

# Adding binaries to PATH

export PATH=$PATH:/home/john/latest/staging_dir/toolchain-mips_24kc_gcc-7.3.0_musl/bin

# Pointing to Linux kernel code tree

export KERNEL_ROOT=/home/john/latest/build_dir/toolchain-mipsel_24kc_gcc-7.3.0_musl/linux-4.14.95

# Setting alias for make with arguments for MIPS architecture

alias mipsmake='ARCH=mips CROSS_COMPILE=mips-openwrt-linux- make'

Compiling kernel module

# Switch to kernel module source file directory and run mipsmake

mipsmake

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