Instructions for re-creating my build environment
My firmware release contains also a script to re-create my full build environment in a few minutes. I use Ubuntu as my buildhost, so the prerequisites etc. are tailored for that.
The creation script runs pretty automatically. The needed few steps are:
- Create the base directory (I use /Openwrt) and make it writable by your normal user account (non-root)
- Download from my newest firmware the newBuildroot.sh file and the three/four *.patch files to /Openwrt
- Run newBuildroot.sh. It creates the complete build environment and applies the patches
- Build firmware with hnscripts/updateNmake.sh
Detailed explanation of the steps in the build environment creation process :
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Create the base directory (like e.g. /Openwrt) to your buildhost. chown/chmod that directory to be writable by your normal user account (chmod 755). Buildroot will be created in that directory, e.g./Openwrt/master or /Openwrt/owrt2305
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Download the "newBuildroot.sh" file from my newest firmware build package to /Openwrt and chmod "newBuildroot.sh" to be executable
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Download the firmware's three/four patch files: -main.patch (or -openwrt.patch), -packages.patch, -luci.patch (and -routing.patch) to /Openwrt. Note that the master build environment needs the master patches, and correspondingly the openwrt-23.05 environment needs the openwrt-23.05 patches.
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Verify that "newBuildroot.sh" references the correct patches: Check that the FILESTAMP variable definition matches the timestamp in actual patch names.
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Run "newBuildroot.sh". It installs the needed prerequisite packages to Ubuntu, creates trunk or chaos git repository and downloads the feeds' sources, patches them and also adds the new files to version control as well as chmods the known script files to be executable.
- If patch names are correctly set in"newBuildroot.sh", all sources will get patched by the script. Main source needs to be patched first, as that patch possibly contains changes to feeds.conf.defaults. Then it updates the feeds (packages, luci, routing), patches the feed files and finally installs the packages from feeds with "scripts/feeds install -a".
- Check the attributes of the possible script files added by the patches and chmod them executable, if needed. e.g. /etc/reinstall-packages.sh and other scripts in /etc
Note: With the current button hotplug procd functionality also the button scripts in /etc/rc.button need to be executable. (E.g. files/etc/rc.button/BTN_2) - Verify that the build script files located in /hnscripts are executable and have been added to git version control.
- Verify that the new files have been added to git tracking. The script has commands for the "files" directory & ".config.init", but you should check if there are other unknown files added by the patches. The script tries to automatically include the noticed new files created by the patches.
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Copy possibly needed additional files and prepare the build system:
- Download and extract llvm toolchain tar.gz for qosify building
- Copy extra custom files to /files . E.g. your personal settings to be the included in the firmware.
- Copy build keys to if you want to maintain the same build key in the new environment
- Possibly also create a file share for transferring files. For example, I need /media/windows-share to easily move files from Virtualbox to PC.
- Additionally, I need to set git options (username etc.) and to set minor OS options like gedit not producing backup files etc.
Steps 1-5 should be done automatically by the script, but verify the results 
After this you should have an identical build environment as I have. I have actually recreated my current build environment several times with this process.
Note: The -main.patch also contains the device profile recipe ".config.init" with all the needed package selections and all build scripts used in my build environment.
Steps in the actual firmware build process in /Openwrt/master:
- cd into /Openwrt/master
- Copy .config.init as the new .config to initialize the build profile:
cp .config.init .config
("make defconfig" will expand the recipe to a full .config . You can run that command also manually.) - Do the actual make:
hnscripts/updateNmake.sh - transfer files from bin/target/ipq806x to wherever you need them. I use a script:
hnscripts/mountNcopy.sh
Explanation of the scripts in /hnscripts:
- updateNmake.sh is the main build script that updates sources and builds the firmware
- mountNcopy.sh is the script that I use to copy firmware files to my PC
- newBuildroot.sh is the build environment creation script
- Other scripts (timestampVersion, parallelcompile, singlecompile, kernelcompile, copypackages2tmp) are just helpers. createbuildinfo.sh creates the firmware release package with docs & patches and is automatically called at the end of a build. (Usually there is no need to call that manually.)