Build stable release with latest packages included?

For Developers
1

I'm trying to save some storage space on my device because I'm running into situations where I can't install packages because I ran out of storage space.

AFAIK the initial mounted overlay is the same after each reboot even if new software has been installed. So if you have a version of package installed that if different than what's on your ROM image then you are using twice the storage space as you would on a traditional filesystem because the original package doesn't get replaced in the image and the updated package is stored on a separate writable partition that is overlaid over the read-only overlay?

Is that what updating the feeds before building an image does? It updates all the packages to the latest versions so that they will be written into the image? If not, how could I go about creating an image of the latest stable release OpenWrt that has the latest versions of the packages built into the image?

2

Yeh you’ve got it right. If you really need to save on space then compiling your own image is the way to go.

3 Likes
3

You did not mention specific versions. I will assume:

  • stable release = v18.06.4
  • latest packages = updates on the openwrt-18.06 release branch beyond v18.06.4

Look for the image builder for your device starting here and its wiki documentation. This solution is easy and fast because it relies on pre-built binary packages.
If you want to change compile-time options, you have to build from source instead.

Also note the progress towards the 19.07 release; the first release candidate has been published 2 days ago.