How to install OpenWrt packages in RAM “permanently” on space-constrained devices

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OpenWRT is a great open-source operating system for embedded devices with great extensibility, benefiting from thousands of additional packages with extra functionality.

These additional packages can be installed on the device’s internal storage when such storage is available. For situations where the storage space is limited, OpenWRT can also install those packages in RAM memory instead of flash storage – with the side-effect of such installations not surviving reboots.

Making the Brovi E3372-325 4G/LTE modem work on OpenWRT 22.03

Linux   / / / / / / 3 Comments

The device seems to have some compatibility quirks concerning Linux support at least with the firmware version I received it with. An elusive update which cannot be found anywhere is claimed to resolve the issues.
For OpenWRT I eventually managed to use information from multiple sources to botch up a script that performs the necessary mode switching to get it working.

First glance and adding external antennas to the GL.iNet GL-MT300N-V2

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I recently got some new toys to play with, one of them being the GL.iNet GL-M300N-V2 mini (read that as ultra-small) smart router.
The “Mango” is indeed very small, and for the price packs some pretty decent hardware specs, not to mention that it’s running a (slightly modified – with good additions I’d say) OpenWrt release.

How to update OpenWRT while retaining existing configuration and all custom packages

Linux   / / 1 comment

OpenWRT upgrades itself by saving configuration files from known locations (plus manually defined files), overwriting the partition with the latest firmware and then restoring the saved configuration.

This usually works for the configuration itself, however the process doesn’t take care of any custom packages that were previously installed manually (either through LuCI or with opkg). These packages need to be noted down beforehand and then reinstalled.

How to serve custom DHCP configuration with OpenWRT’s dnsmasq

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There are times when you need to filter out what some hosts in the network can or cannot do. When you have a router running OpenWRT this can be done at the firewall level.

But if you’re not much into advanced configuration and just want to completely block out some network hosts from reaching the internet (and hence phoning home) then it’s a lot simpler to do this directly from the DHCP and simply leave them without a DNS and gateway configuration.