Install OpenWrt 10.03 on a Seagate Dockstar

Overview

So you want to put OpenWrt on a Pogoplug V2 (Pink)? Good Choice! It is hard, but worth it. These instructions also work for the Seagate Dockstar

The Basic Procedure is this:

1. Boot the Pogoplug into a basic debian rescue environment
2. Format the rootfs mtd partition
3. mkfs, mount, and untar the openwrt rootfs onto it
4. Reboot to the bootloader, install the kernel uImage
5. Save your Environment
6. Boot it

For reference, your nand partitions look like this:

dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 00100000 00020000 "u-boot"
mtd1: 00400000 00020000 "uImage"
mtd2: 07b00000 00020000 "rootfs"

Tftp Prep Work

First on the server, Prep the tftp stuff: (Adjust the location of your tftp root directory as needed)

cd /var/lib/tftpboot/
wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/backfire/10.03.1/kirkwood/openwrt-kirkwood-uImage
wget http://download.xkyle.com/other/openwrt-kirkwood-uImage-ramroot

Put the Root filesystem on the nand

First set the right environment variables in Uboot via the console: (adjust your tftp server ip and ipaddr as needed)

setenv mainlineLinux yes
setenv arcNumber 2097
setenv serverip 192.168.3.33
setenv ipaddr 192.168.3.32
setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200
saveenv
reset

Now we are going to tftp over the ram based openwrt stuff:

tftp 0x2000000 openwrt-kirkwood-uImage-ramroot
bootm 0x2000000

In the Openwrt Ram Environment

Once you are at a shell on the pogoplug, you are free to lay the groundwork for openwrt. The udhcpc in the beginning is to grab the image, by default openwrt is set to a static ip.

udhcpc -i br-lan 
cat /proc/partitions
mkdir /target
mtd erase mtd2
mount /dev/mtdblock2 /target -t jffs2
cd /target
wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/backfire/10.03.1/kirkwood/openwrt-kirkwood-rootfs.tar.gz
tar xzvpf openwrt-kirkwood-rootfs.tar.gz
rm openwrt-kirkwood-rootfs.tar.gz
cd ..
umount /target

Now you can restart the pogoplug gracefully, and get back to the uboot prompt for more

Installing the Openwrt Kernel

Now tftp the uImage over and flash:

setenv serverip 192.168.3.33
setenv ipaddr 192.168.3.32
tftp 0x2000000 openwrt-kirkwood-uImage
nand erase 0x100000 0x100000
nand write 0x2000000 0x100000 0x100000
setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200 root=/dev/mtdblock2 rootfstype=jffs2 panic=10
setenv bootcmd 'nand read.e 0x2000000 0x100000 0x100000; bootm 0x2000000'
setenv mainlineLinux yes
setenv arcNumber 2097
saveenv
reset

Post Install Stuff (Optional)

You have room to grow on your openwrt, I recommend these packages to make you feel more comfortable:

opkg update
opkg install bash bash-completion e2fsprogs vim-full vim-runtime avahi-daemon openvpn kmod-leds-gpio kmod-usb2
/etc/init.d/avahi-daemon enable
sed -i 's/ash/bash/' /etc/inittab
sed -i 's/ash/bash/' /etc/passwd
opkg install procps --force-overwrite
rm /bin/ps
ln -s /usr/bin/ps /bin/ps

If you need some swap, this can get you started. Remember how swap works, it can't really work on a jffs2 partition because it is non-contiguous. (assuming a swap file). Dedicated partitions would work.

dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/backups/swap.file bs=1024 count=100000
mkswap /mnt/backups/swap.file
opkg install block-hotplug block-mount

Your /etc/config/fstab needs this:

config mount
        option target   /mnt/backups
        option device   /dev/sda1
        option fstype   ext3
        option options  rw,sync
        option enabled  1
        option enabled_fsck 0

config swap
        option device   /mnt/backups/swap.file
        option enabled  1