[Commotion-dev] commotion on tp-mr3020 and other low resource devices via extroot

Tue Jan 21 00:10:30 UTC 2014

Thanks Ben & Paul!

Ben - I'm attempting to build a factory image with that kernel now.

Paul- yes, I have USB extroot working, but without extensive testing. 
I've documented my work here: 
https://wiki.commotionwireless.net/doku.php?id=usb_extroot_installation
feel free to try this out on your devices to confirm.

Thanks! Chris

On Mon 20 Jan 2014 07:01:46 PM EST, Paul Gardner-Stephen wrote:
> We are using MR3020's for Serval Mesh Extenders, and happy to pool our
> ignorance.
>
> On the extroot issue, we have had endless trouble getting it to
> actually work, and in the end gave up on it, and just mount external
> partitions, and use LD_LIBRARY_PATH and other sub-optimal things.  If
> you have extroot working, that would be interesting for us.
>
> Paul.
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 3:50 AM, Ben West <ben at gowasabi.net
> <mailto:ben at gowasabi.net>> wrote:
>
>     I've been running TL-MR3020's and TL-WR703N's with moderate
>     success as very lightweight WasabiNet nodes, albeit not yet with
>     any additional firmware loaded via USB port.  Just been squeezing
>     everything into 4MBytes.
>
>     I believe opkg errors you're seeing are from the commotiond
>     packages, etc, not being from the same compile run as the stock AA
>     images you're initially flashing onto the device.  It should work
>     if you flash the device with a pared-down AA image from the same
>     compile run as commotiond.
>
>     I'm attaching the .config I've used for compiling WasabiNet
>     firmware (based on AA r39154) for TL-MR3020.  This produces an
>     image just about 300kbytes smaller than the 4MB flash (done partly
>     via the "-funit-at-a-time" compile optimization), although it
>     excludes luci and any USB support.  This config also depends on
>     modded versions of libcyassl and libcurl, to permit curl to
>     operate with the smaller libcyassl library instead of libopenssl.
>
>     Since Commotion-OpenWRT doesn't use it, you should be fine to
>     disable libcurl/curl and then re-enable USB support at whatnot,
>     along with whatever other pruning is needed to get the image to
>     fit in 4Mbytes.
>
>     A couple details I can share about experience with the little
>     TP-Link units, after having them in regular use for several months
>     now:
>
>     1. The popular instructions linked to on the OpenWRT wiki for
>     adding an external antenna seem to leave the devices badly
>     susceptible to ESD damage.  I've seen 2 MR3020's mysteriously lose
>     much of their TX power after lightning storms passed over (even
>     though the units were inside).  This tutorial from a very diligent
>     Australian appears to get it right, by attaching the antenna
>     pigtail so as not to bypass filter / matching circuits that could
>     protect the radio chip from surges.  I'm awaiting the next strong
>     thunderstorm to see if this has any improvement in ESD protection.
>     https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=46543
>     https://app.box.com/s/cispknq8b9zgog8k5vxn
>
>     2. In lieu of external antenna mods possibly not being viable for
>     MR3020 or WR703N due to ESD vulnerability, I'm hoping to soon
>     check out the TL-MR3220 and/or TL-MR3420.  These units have
>     similar specs, 32MBytes RAM, 4MByte flash, USB, but they also
>     include stock external antennas /and/ LAN ports. Amazon sells the
>     MR3220 for $30, and Musti claims it could be had cheaper elsewhere.
>
>
>
>     On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 10:31 AM, Chris Ritzo
>     <critzo at opentechinstitute.org
>     <mailto:critzo at opentechinstitute.org>> wrote:
>
>         Greetings commotion-devs:
>
>         I've been working on proof of concept instructions for running
>         Commotion
>         Router on lower resource devices with a USB port using OpenWRT's
>         extroot, in particular testing on the TP Link MR3020.
>
>         If you have comment on improving this test plan, please feel
>         free to
>         weigh in. In progress documentation is here:
>         https://wiki.commotionwireless.net/doku.php?id=usb_extroot_installation
>
>         I've run into a snag which I'm hoping someone might have some
>         ideas
>         about resolving. I get dependency errors when attempting to
>         install
>         Commotion packages via opkg:
>         https://wiki.commotionwireless.net/doku.php?id=usb_extroot_installation&#install_commotion_packages_on_the_router
>
>         I assume from this error that the stock OpenWRT image needs to
>         have
>         kernel (= 3.3.8-1-ccd7796d0ebc3a2e79984d7dd2214393)
>
>         At this point I am working on modifying our build server script to
>         attempt building an OpenWRT image without Commotion packages
>         but with
>         the kernel version we're using when we build with Commotion.
>
>         Any ideas appreciated!
>
>         --
>         Chris Ritzo
>         Technologist - Open Technology Institute
>         New America Foundation
>         _______________________________________________
>         Commotion-dev mailing list
>         Commotion-dev at lists.chambana.net
>         <mailto:Commotion-dev at lists.chambana.net>
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>
>
>
>
>     --
>     Ben West
>     http://gowasabi.net
>     ben at gowasabi.net <mailto:ben at gowasabi.net>
>     314-246-9434
>
>     _______________________________________________
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>     <mailto:Commotion-dev at lists.chambana.net>
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>
>

--
Chris Ritzo
Technologist - Open Technology Institute
New America Foundation