I have found that these files are different from flashing to flashing of an image even if the image in question is the same:
etc/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key
etc/ksmbd/ksmbd.subauth
etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key
etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub
etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key
etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub
etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
etc/uci-defaults/urandom.seed
Question: Is there any reason I should preserve the two enboldened ones across image versions, i.e. by putting them in the "FILES" being included in the image building?
The question arises from the following context.
To preserve your settings, I understand that you have to include the relevant config files in the "FILES" segment of this command:
make image PROFILE=[router-model] PACKAGES="luci" FILES=files/
This User Guide
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/sysupgrade.cli
lists the config files that are preserved in a firmware upgrade process, i.e.
- listed by
opkg list-changed-conffiles- listed within the text files in
/lib/upgrade/keep.d/(for example,/lib/upgrade/keep.d/base-files-essential)- listed in
/etc/sysupgrade.conf
I looked at them and saw that they were all in /etc. Therefore I extracted the whole contents of /etc from the router (using [a] sudo rsync -avh from router to computer or [b] tar -c in router followed by scp to computer and sudo tar -x) before and after a modification that affected only /etc/config/network.
Then I compared the before and the after sets of /etc using sudo meld.
The result was that Meld flagged (apart from /etc/config/network and some "Dangling Symlinks") the files you see at the top of this post as "different."
I believe I understand what a change in host keys means. I will be asked to accept an "unknown host," which is fine.
That leaves me with these two:
etc/ksmbd/ksmbd.subauth
etc/uci-defaults/urandom.seed
If they are generated anew from flashing to flashing, and therefore also from image to image, is that going to cause grief down the line? (If so I can "fix" them by including a particular instance in the make image command.)
Maybe some word on what each files does may also help. Thanks.