Menuconfig prompt for target & subtarget

Hi all, could I respectfully suggest that -on the long run- menuconfig prompts for target and subtarget should be the same string as it appears in techdata page?

I think it makes techdata page mostly useless for new openwrt users, don't you think so?

I'm able to ask for that information in the forum, of course, in case I need to do. But that shouldn't be necessary, and that would be better for everybody, I guess.

Best wishes

Can you please give an example of such a mismatch of menuconfig vs. dataentry page?

1 Like

https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/tp-link/tp-link_tl-wr841n_v11

Target: ar71xx-ath79
Subtarget: tiny

menuconfig prompts:
Target System (Atheros AR7xxx/AR9xxx)
Subtarget (Devices with small flash)

https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/tp-link/tp-link_tl-wr841n_v13
Target: ramips
Subtarget: mt76x8

menuconfig prompts:
Target System (MediaTek Ralink MIPS)
Subtarget (MT76x8 based boards)

Second example is not that bad, but friends of mine, who are being trained to manage their non-profit organization, and are new users, are unable to link "tiny" with "Devices with small flash" or "Ralink MIPS" with "ramips" and so on...

Tried to explain that one could see in help that "Devices with small flash" shows the string "CONFIG_TARGET_ar71xx_tiny:" so they can get a clue there. They understand but think it could be easier. I agree, at least I think that work done in techdata pages is not as useful as it would be by giving that information in Gump mode.

Cheers,

Target + subtarget in the dataentries are derived from the download link and have nothing to do with menuconfig.

If we would adapt the dataentries to menuconfig, this would be inconsistent with the download links and create new questions, so nothing gained.

2 Likes

Sorry, that would be just the other way, i.e, adapt menuconfig prompt to dataentries.

That's not in my hands, i.e. you need to propose that change to the developers.

OK. Where should I do it? I thought that this was the place to do it.

I still that change, if made, would be useful, so in

https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/additional-software/beginners-build-guide

this:

2.3 Determining Target (Selecting the router model)

  1. Do a web search for <your router model> wikidevi. For instance, if you have an Asus RT-N56U then search for RT-N56U wikidevi. This would give https://wikidevi.com/wiki/ASUS_RT-N56U as the first response on most search engines. Find CPU on the page. In the case of RT-N56U it says Ralink RT3662F. If you type / in the builder you can search for RT-N56U. This will give a bunch of hits, which among other things says Symbol: TARGET_DEVICE_PACKAGES_ramips_rt3883_DEVICE_rt-n56u. Notice the ramips part. Now select Target System. In the list you will find “Mediatek Ralink ARM” and “Mediatek Ralink MIPS”. Given the information we have you can probably guess that the correct choice is “Mediatek Ralink MIPS”.

would become something like:

"Go to https://openwrt.org/toh/start, there you'll get the list of supported devices. Please note first line has empty fields because it's a search engine, write down your model there and press Enter. In search results page look for your model and hardware version. Then click on record's "device techpage" link. There you'll find target and subtarget strings for your device. Select the very same strings in menuconfig prompts. Done"

And newcomers will not be puzzled by statements like " Given the information we have you can probably guess the correct choice".

Don't get me wrong, OpenWRT is useful for us and here we are all grateful for all the hard work done. Just thought this could make things easier and give a better impression overall to newcomers. And easier to document.

Best wishes,

@jow Any chance to make the selection of target/subtarget in menuconfig more userfriendly or consistent with the target/subtarget of the image download location?

Examples see above.

Please send an rfc patch to the mailing list.

A post was split to a new topic: Adding a new SUBTARGET