Topic: Running openWRT i386 compilation inside VMware?

5 Jan 2007, 18:36

I want to add a package to openWRT - namely: something like ser2net.
It seems to me that it may be easier to test a build release if one were able to run it as a i386 build inside a VM player.
I love how easy it was to use Ubuntu inside VMplayer to setup a development system of openWRT right there on my windows desktop. And adding kamikaze was nice and easy as well.

I am thinking that one could benefit from testing within a i386 VM player environment. Unfortunately I do not have a workstation version of VM player, I only have the Free Player edition, and thus can not setup en new environment, I can only run an excisting environment.

Anyone that would be able to setup a test environment of i386 of openWRT on a VM workstation?
I suppose that I would then be able to load my own compilations as a firmware upgrade.

Also I should note that I DO have a soekris net4801, a WRT54Gv2 and a FON box (2100) sitting on my desk, so further testing on real hardware is possible, I just really want a test environment where I am not as likelly to brick something running the first tests.

Any help or good ideas will be appreciated.

5 Jan 2007, 23:40

Load Linux on the host, and put VMware Server (it's free also) on top of it, then you can build your own VMs.

6 Jan 2007, 16:33

Hey that sounds great! Thanks for the tip. I'll find a way to set that up.

(Last edited by MrAlvin on 6 Jan 2007, 16:36)

8 Jan 2007, 06:24

vmware server can work on a windows host too, but vmware really works better on a linux host IMO

13 Jan 2007, 11:09

So far I only have access to a Win2003 Server, so I have now installed VMplayer Server edition on the windows server.

Next challenge will be to load one of the files from the "bin" folder into the VMplayer.
So far I have the following files in the "bin" folder:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~/kamikaze/bin$  ls -s
total 65156
16404 openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2.fs
20960 openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2.image
 4548 openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2.image.kernel
 1032 openwrt-x86-2.6-jffs2-128k.fs
 5584 openwrt-x86-2.6-jffs2-128k.image
 4548 openwrt-x86-2.6-jffs2-128k.image.kernel
 1032 openwrt-x86-2.6-jffs2-64k.fs
 5584 openwrt-x86-2.6-jffs2-64k.image
 4548 openwrt-x86-2.6-jffs2-64k.image.kernel
  908 openwrt-x86-2.6-vmlinuz
    8 packages

From the size of the files I suppode that it is either the "openwrt-x86-2.6-jffs2-128k.image" or the "openwrt-x86-2.6-jffs2-64k.image" file that I will need to get loaded inside VMplayer.

On other operating systems I would just make a cd and run the install program, but loading openWRT on a "virgin" router system would normaly be done using the JTAG port. I would be greatly surprised if such port exists on the VMplayer.

So I suppose that some kind of file system must be established inside the VMplayer, and then a bootloader established, and then the i386 image of can be made to load.

While I research how to load the image file, any and all advice on the subject will be greatly appreciated.

[edit]
Okay, I found this web page http://www.graynetwork.org/ddwrtx86/ for the DD-WRT image, and I am hopeing that something like it will also apply to getting openWRT to run under VMware Player.
[/edit]

(Last edited by MrAlvin on 13 Jan 2007, 16:20)

29 Jan 2007, 10:41

Hi,

I had exactly the same idea of running OpenWRT within a VMWare. Did you already succeed? Please keep us up to date!

Regards

Kai Koehne

29 Jan 2007, 12:51

I get it working until 'Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.' That's it. If it's working maybe the devs integrate it into the buildsystem to automatically generate a vmdk image.

I just converted openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2.image to openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2.vmdk with qemu-img:

qemu-img convert -f raw openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2.image -O vmdk openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2.vmdk

Output running in VMware Player (then it hangs):

GRUB loading stage1.5.


GRUB loading, please wait...
Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.

Maybe this helps someone else to fix the rest.

EDIT: Hmm, probably it's booting fine but the output is redirected to the serial console...

(Last edited by forum2006 on 29 Jan 2007, 13:07)

29 Jan 2007, 14:00

YAY. Works fine

    GNU GRUB  version 0.97  (638K lower / 260032K upper memory)

 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 | OpenWrt                                                                 |
 |                                                                         |
 |                                                                         |
 |                                                                         |
 |                                                                         |
 |                                                                         |
 |                                                                         |
 |                                                                         |
 |                                                                         |
 |                                                                         |
 |                                                                         |
 |                                                                         |
 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
    Use the ^ and v keys to select which entry is highlighted.
    Press enter to boot the selected OS, 'e' to edit the
    commands before booting, or 'c' for a command-line.


    The highlighted entry will be booted automatically in 1 seconds.
  Booting 'OpenWrt'

root    (hd0,0)
 Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel  /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 rootfstype=ext2 "" noinitrd console=ttyS0,
38400n8 reboot=bios
   [Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1200, size=0xdefe3]
boot
Linux version 2.6.19.2 (ubuntu@ubuntu) (gcc version 4.1.1) #1 Sun Jan 28 10:18:10 CET 2007
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000000dc000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000000fef0000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000fef0000 - 000000000feff000 (ACPI data)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000feff000 - 000000000ff00000 (ACPI NVS)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000ff00000 - 0000000010000000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec10000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000fffe0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
256MB LOWMEM available.
Zone PFN ranges:
  DMA             0 ->     4096
  Normal       4096 ->    65536
early_node_map[1] active PFN ranges
    0:        0 ->    65536
DMI present.
Allocating PCI resources starting at 20000000 (gap: 10000000:eec00000)
Detected 1919.916 MHz processor.
Built 1 zonelists.  Total pages: 65024
Kernel command line: root=/dev/hda2 rootfstype=ext2 "" noinitrd console=ttyS0,38400n8 reboot=bios
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Initializing CPU#0
PID hash table entries: 1024 (order: 10, 4096 bytes)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
Memory: 257404k/262144k available (1335k kernel code, 4172k reserved, 324k data, 128k init, 0k highmem)
virtual kernel memory layout:
    fixmap  : 0xffffc000 - 0xfffff000   (  12 kB)
    vmalloc : 0xd0800000 - 0xffffa000   ( 759 MB)
    lowmem  : 0xc0000000 - 0xd0000000   ( 256 MB)
      .init : 0xc02a2000 - 0xc02c2000   ( 128 kB)
      .data : 0xc024ddc4 - 0xc029edc8   ( 324 kB)
      .text : 0xc0100000 - 0xc024ddc4   (1335 kB)
Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 3852.98 BogoMIPS (lpj=19264930)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
CPU: CLK_CTL MSR was 0. Reprogramming to 20000000
CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: L2 Cache: 512K (64 bytes/line)
Compat vDSO mapped to ffffe000.
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+ stepping 00
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
NET: Registered protocol family 16
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfd9a0, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
Setting up standard PCI resources
Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI quirk: region 1000-103f claimed by PIIX4 ACPI
PCI quirk: region 1040-104f claimed by PIIX4 SMB
PCI: Using IRQ router PIIX/ICH [8086/7110] at 0000:00:07.0
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:01.0
  IO window: disabled.
  MEM window: disabled.
  PREFETCH window: disabled.
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP route cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
TCP established hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 8192 bind 4096)
TCP reno registered
scx200: NatSemi SCx200 Driver
squashfs: version 3.0 (2006/03/15) Phillip Lougher
devfs: 2004-01-31 Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
JFFS2 version 2.2. (NAND) (C) 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler deadline registered (default)
Limiting direct PCI/PCI transfers.
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Real Time Clock Driver v1.12ac
Non-volatile memory driver v1.2
Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 2 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
serial8250: ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
hda: VMware Virtual IDE Hard Drive, ATA DISK drive
hdc: VMware Virtual IDE CDROM Drive, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdd: VMware Virtual IDE CDROM Drive, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: max request size: 128KiB
hda: 41903 sectors (21 MB) w/32KiB Cache, CHS=41/16/63
 /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2
 hda: p2 exceeds device capacity
block2mtd: version $Revision: 1.30 $
ip_conntrack version 2.4 (2048 buckets, 16384 max) - 240 bytes per conntrack
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
TCP vegas registered
NET: Registered protocol family 1
NET: Registered protocol family 17
Bridge firewalling registered
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
All bugs added by David S. Miller <davem@redhat.com>
Using IPI Shortcut mode
Time: tsc clocksource has been installed.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
Mounted devfs on /dev
Freeing unused kernel memory: 128k freed
init started:  BusyBox v1.4.0 (2007-01-28 05:03:37 CET) multi-call binary

Please press Enter to activate this console. EXT2-fs warning: mounting unchecked fs, running e2fsck is recommended
natsemi dp8381x driver, version 2.1, Sept 11, 2006
  originally by Donald Becker <becker@scyld.com>
  http://www.scyld.com/network/natsemi.html
  2.4.x kernel port by Jeff Garzik, Tjeerd Mulder
PPP generic driver version 2.4.2



BusyBox v1.4.0 (2007-01-28 05:03:37 CET) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

  _______                     ________        __
 |       |.-----.-----.-----.|  |  |  |.----.|  |_
 |   -   ||  _  |  -__|     ||  |  |  ||   _||   _|
 |_______||   __|_____|__|__||________||__|  |____|
          |__| W I R E L E S S   F R E E D O M
 KAMIKAZE (bleeding edge, r6224) -------------------
  * 10 oz Vodka       Shake well with ice and strain
  * 10 oz Triple sec  mixture into 10 shot glasses.
  * 10 oz lime juice  Salute!
 ---------------------------------------------------
root@OpenWrt:/# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD
cpu family      : 6
model           : 10
model name      : AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+
stepping        : 0
cpu MHz         : 1919.916
cache size      : 512 KB
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 1
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse syscall mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow ts
bogomips        : 3852.98

root@OpenWrt:/# free
              total         used         free       shared      buffers
  Mem:       257648         4336       253312            0          108
 Swap:            0            0            0
Total:       257648         4336       253312
root@OpenWrt:/# df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root                15.8M      2.5M     12.5M  17% /
root@OpenWrt:/# cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.19.2 (ubuntu@ubuntu) (gcc version 4.1.1) #1 Sun Jan 28 10:18:10 CET 2007
root@OpenWrt:/# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
ip_conntrack_tftp       1432  0
ip_nat_irc               704  0
ip_conntrack_irc        2480  1 ip_nat_irc
ip_nat_ftp              1280  0
ip_conntrack_ftp        3088  1 ip_nat_ftp
ppp_async               4672  0
ppp_generic            14964  1 ppp_async
slhc                    3616  1 ppp_generic
crc_ccitt                960  1 ppp_async
natsemi                15488  0
root@OpenWrt:/# ifconfig
lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

root@OpenWrt:/#

Now play a bit with the serial console (named pipe), package a different NIC driver (I think ne2kpci would do the job) and write up a howto for it.

You can connect to VMware Players virtual serial console via \\.\pipe\com_1 at 38400n81 using PuTTY. You have to modify the VMX configuration file manually. See the links below.

For the VMX file:

# First serial port, physical COM1 is available
serial0.present = "TRUE"
serial0.fileType = "pipe"
serial0.fileName = "\\.\pipe\com_1"
serial0.tryNoRxLoss = "TRUE"
serial0.pipe.endPoint = "server"

Interesting links for VMware
- http://sanbarrow.com/vmx-serial-ports.html
- http://www.virtualization.info/2006/03/ … le-on.html
- http://www.easyvmx.com/
- http://www.vmware.com/download/player/

Soon, maybe at the end of the week I can provide a OpenWrt Kamikaze testimage with webif^2 for VMware Player.

(Last edited by forum2006 on 29 Jan 2007, 15:23)

3 Feb 2007, 18:09

Opened ticket #1317 in the ticket system which adds the possibility to create VMware images out of the buildroot.

22 Feb 2008, 09:57

Is there a working VMWare Image out there?
Maybe with the newest sources?

I would be very happy if someone shares his Image with me.

The onces I found aren`t working when just adding to VMWare,...
Maybe if you know how to modify the stuff it can work - but I am searching for an Image I just have to add to my VMWare and can start it without troubless

Greet`s Erich

3 Apr 2008, 13:48

does anyone have any working image for VMware ?
when I create an image with qemu its size is 6MB on VMware and thus I am unable to do anything.

3 Apr 2008, 14:05

sorcerer wrote:

does anyone have any working image for VMware ?

Compile your own...

3 Apr 2008, 14:16

sorcerer wrote:

does anyone have any working image for VMware ?
when I create an image with qemu its size is 6MB on VMware and thus I am unable to do anything.

http://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=9504&p=3