OpenWrt Project is a Linux operating system targeting embedded devices. Instead
of trying to create a single, static firmware, OpenWrt provides a fully
writable filesystem with package management. This frees you from the
application selection and configuration provided by the vendor and allows you
to customize the device through the use of packages to suit any application.
For developers, OpenWrt is the framework to build an application without having
to build a complete firmware around it; for users this means the ability for
full customization, to use the device in ways never envisioned.
Sunshine!
Development
To build your own firmware you need a GNU/Linux, BSD or MacOSX system (case
sensitive filesystem required). Cygwin is unsupported because of the lack of a
case sensitive file system.
Requirements
You need the following tools to compile OpenWrt, the package names vary between
distributions. A complete list with distribution specific packages is found in
the Build System Setup
documentation.
gcc binutils bzip2 flex python3 perl make find grep diff unzip gawk getopt
subversion libz-dev libc-dev
Quickstart
-
Run
./scripts/feeds update -ato obtain all the latest package definitions
defined in feeds.conf / feeds.conf.default -
Run
./scripts/feeds install -ato install symlinks for all obtained
packages into package/feeds/ -
Run
make menuconfigto select your preferred configuration for the
toolchain, target system & firmware packages. -
Run
maketo build your firmware. This will download all sources, build the
cross-compile toolchain and then cross-compile the GNU/Linux kernel & all chosen
applications for your target system.
Related Repositories
The main repository uses multiple sub-repositories to manage packages of
different categories. All packages are installed via the OpenWrt package
manager called opkg. If you're looking to develop the web interface or port
packages to OpenWrt, please find the fitting repository below.
-
LuCI Web Interface: Modern and modular
interface to control the device via a web browser. -
OpenWrt Packages: Community repository
of ported packages. -
OpenWrt Routing: Packages
specifically focused on (mesh) routing.
Support Information
For a list of supported devices see the OpenWrt Hardware Database
Documentation
Support Community
- Forum: For usage, projects, discussions and hardware advise.
- Support Chat: Channel
#openwrton freenode.net.
Developer Community
- Bug Reports: Report bugs in OpenWrt
- Dev Mailing List: Send patches
- Dev Chat: Channel
#openwrt-develon freenode.net.
License
OpenWrt is licensed under GPL-2.0