[WLANware] ff-meraki-pack?

Wed Apr 25 16:17:19 CEST 2007

Hello Dan,

because the (old) bcm firmware will stay alive, I thinks it's best to keep 
the Freifunk "face". The Kamikaze technical approach has it's advantages, 
but the current FF has some specifics too. Also I do not want to jump into 
the gap between (X|Free|Open)Wrt ;-)

Hopefully, the meraki folks find their way back into the kamikaze/target 
directory. Otherwise someone has to do the job of backporting necessary 
changes back into OpenWrt. And yes - the Kamikaze firmware builder is 
preferred.

I'm currently experimenting a bit with the UML version of Kamikaze to speed 
up development. Obviously UML needs some repairs due to hotplug2... The 
nerve recking little Atheros-SoC with this damn slow serial flash is too 
slow to develop, UML may help.

// Sven-Ola

""Dan Flett"" <conhoolio at hotmail.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag 
news:BAY141-DAV13A8BE676092E5B684109DAF490 at phx.gbl...
Hi Sven,

I think releasing Freifunk Firmware as packages is a great idea.  It'll make
things easier for you too. :)

I would be nice if we could see a stable release of Kamikaze soon though.
It's hard to work with a moving target!

The Meraki Firmware is forked from OpenWRT but is a little bit different.
It uses a /storage directory as it's jffs2 writable partition.  I hope a lot
of the packages you are doing for the Fonera will work on the Meraki without
modification.  Although with a Meraki we don't need the Fon stuff, we just
want the OLSR stuff.

With a package-based Freifunk Firmware, will you use the Freifunk Webadmin,
or use X-WRT's webif^2?  There are some guys working with X-WRT who are
"backporting" the freifunk webadmin into a webif^2 OLSR interface - maybe
they need some help from the Master. ;)

I like the idea that with Kamikaze, I could create a Freifunk Live-CD and
run it on my laptop, or in a VMWare window. :)

Cheers,

Dan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: wlanware-bounces at freifunk.net
> [mailto:wlanware-bounces at freifunk.net] On Behalf Of Sven-Ola Tuecke
> Sent: Monday, 23 April 2007 12:30 AM
> To: wlanware at freifunk.net
> Subject: Re: [WLANware] ff-meraki-pack?
>
> Hi Dan,
>
> catching up with the ever evolving/changeing hardware front
> with monolitic one-upload-does-it-all firmwares will be too
> much work. Just if you're ready with one, another interesting
> thing will pop out of the supermarket. The fonera stuff costs
> me by far to much time - and I'm due upgrading the standard
> bcom-freifunk-firmware...
>
> For this reason, I am willing to maintain the broadcom
> firmware as it exists. This will stay on kerel 2.4 and will
> run on those things we already have on the roofs. This
> includes devices with 2Mb Flash + 8Mb RAM.
>
> The fonera pack is a special. I used it to learn for the next
> wave. Which will simply consist of an ipkg to be installed on
> top of a standard OpenWrt.
> No more (other) monolitic firmwares from my side. Installing
> an ipk will require medium skills and will also adress the
> needs of the more nerdy audience. Even the most eleet are
> lazy - and so normally their from-scratch mesh installations
> typically suffers from missing services / misconfigured
> stuff. In other words: they install + maintain what they need
> and do not think too much for others. Doing only ip transport
> is not enough in my opinon. An ipkg will help, but will leave
> enough room for lots of customizations.
>
> // Sven-Ola
>
> ""Dan Flett"" <conhoolio at hotmail.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
> news:BAY141-DAV25306636C877BDE5345BAAF540 at phx.gbl...
> It depends on the situation and the people who are doing the
> installing.  I want to let end-users do the installation.  So
> I want them to have an easy as an experience as possible -
> like just hitting "Upload" in the router's "firmware upgrade"
> web interface..
>
> Loading OpenWRT on the Meraki involves either pulling the
> unit apart and attaching a serial cable - which isn't too
> hard for most of us but too difficult for some.  Or you need
> to monkey around with ip addresses and try to catch the short
> Redboot Telnet window to get in via telnet.  not for the non-hacker.
>
> If you are going to install them yourself, then get a serial
> cable, and installing 20 won't be too hard.  But it might be
> too difficult for an end-user to install.
>
> Dan
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: wlanware-bounces at freifunk.net
> > [mailto:wlanware-bounces at freifunk.net] On Behalf Of Daniel Paufler
> > Sent: Sunday, 22 April 2007 4:51 AM
> > To: WLAN-Hard+ Software, Antennen
> > Subject: Re: [WLANware] ff-meraki-pack?
> >
> > Hey Dan
> >
> > > This is a fantastic idea - I would really like to see
> > something like
> > > this for the Meraki.  While it is possible to install
> > OpenWRT on the
> > > Meraki, it is difficult unless you have a Serial cable, and
> > that has it's own problems.
> > > I am thinking that a ff-meraki-pack would solve these
> > problems - the
> > > vendor Meraki firmware allows you SSH access, and it has
> > IPKG installed.
> > Why exactly is it difficult to install openWRT on meraki?
> > What are their "own problems" regarding openWRT?
> >
> > I ask, because we might use ~20 of them for ghana. If it is a real
> > problem to do meshing with them, we should consider not to use them.
> >
> > Thanks for hints.
> >
> > Daniel
> >
> > --
> > Angewandte Informatik - Computer Aided Facility Managemnt
> FHTW Berlin
> > (http://www.fhtw-berlin.de)
> >
> >
>
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