OpenWrt installation on Raspberry Pi 4B

A guy who admitted to not being comfortable with this stuff asked for detailed instructions about the equipment he already owns. Then come you out of the left field with a totally irrelevant piece of information that makes a person already confused want to give up.

Yes, you have a right to throw a spanner into what appeared to be a well oiled thread, obviously. By the same token, I have a right to remind you what the initial request was. Sometimes, if you have nothing to add to a discussion, it may be a good idea to move on and use your precious time and even more precious expertise to help someone who can actually use your advice.

Do you want to take over? I’ll be happy to bow out of this thread to please you so that you stop your childish passive-aggressive comments and do something useful for a change.

The reason I asked is that I tried to compile in macOS, and it didn’t work even with the instructions posted on the OpenWRT Wiki.

I wanted to make sure you are not sending the guy on a wild-goose chase because he self-admitted to not being comfortable with the complexity of the task at hand. So do you mind walking him through the procedure of compiling OpenWRT for the Raspberry Pi 4B in WSL step-by-step, since you think it’s an easier way to proceed than following a YouTube video that details the process of installing a Linux VM for that very purpose?

I'm not exactly sure what further instructions you think are necessary here. The MS page on WSL clearly explains how to install WSL, a Linux distro, and then how to access it. You've already linked him to a video that explains how to compile OpenWRT through a Linux terminal. The commands are exactly the same in the WSL terminal.

That’s what I thought. Thanks.

@schubsi

If you need my help, please PM me, and I will be happy to assist on a one-on-one basis.

Otherwise, @krazeh and @Hegabo will be delighted to walk you through the procedure, using this thread. They’ve been most helpful so far with their invaluable advice.

Cheers!

I'm in a somewhat similar situation as in the OP regarding having gotten an rpi4 before realizing openwrt does not yet supply official releases for it. Perhaps also in being a bit impatient to use the device for the purpose intended when I got it.

Having done a bit more searching recently I found this https://github.com/robcollins55/Raspberry-Pi-4-OpenWrt-Router-Custombuild which looks to almost perfectly suit my current needs. My only point of hesitation is that the rpi4 I have is the 1GB RAM model while, according to minimum specifications listed at the github site just referenced, the rpi4 used should have at least 2 GB RAM.

Based on my experience over the years with flashing open source ROMs to consumer routers it seems a bit strange to me that, as things currently stand, more than 1 GB of RAM would be required to run a home gateway/router/AP. Can anyone knowledgeable in these matters please chime in here as to whether the 2 GB RAM requirement listed at the github link above is accurate?

PS For the record I am a longtime linux user and have some experience with compiling. I'd just rather rely on someone else's labors if they are aiming at pretty much the same ends and are kind enough to make their productions available to others.

Just install snapshots: https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/bcm27xx/bcm2711/

grab all the kmods: https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/bcm27xx/bcm2711/kmods/5.4.87-1-3093b325eca0c7f19f6befffb058adb2/

Install whatever modules you need to make your USB NIC or whatever you're using for WAN work...

once you get a WAN connection, log in via ssh, and install luci

opkg update
opkg install luci

No compiling required.

Your 1GB should work fine.

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Thanks for your response and for clarifying about the RAM question. As to using snapshots, see the "Aims of this Customised Build" section at the link I provided, which is a description of pretty much every option I'd want on my router and every configuration I would tweak. If I use the snapshot approach, every time I want to update I'd have to reconfigure/re-enable all that stuff, right? Like I said, if he's already doing that and is kind enough to make available the fruits of his labors and expertise, I'm inclined to take advantage of that.

Just give it a try! You can't brick your Pi, it's a huge advantage. Just pull the SD and overwrite something else!

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If you want something stable with most of the important packages and modules preinstalled, consider flashing wulfy's build. I am running it myself for half a year already.

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Focus seems to have gotten onto what sorts of pre-configured snapshot builds are available for the pi4 and away from my question about whether my 1GB RAM version will be adequate to run OpenWRT, given a home gateway/router/AP/DHCP server scenario. One respondent replied that 1GB RAM will, as I assumed it would, be sufficient. Are we all in agreement on that more important point then?

It doesn't make any sense to buy the 1 GB RAM variant, as the 2 GB variant costs just as much - but as far as OpenWrt and a 'normal' package set for a router (yes, it would be possible to install more RAM hungry packages) are concerned, 1 GB RAM will remain plenty for quite some time to come.

2 Likes

I went with wulfy23's build. The major hiccup for me with that build was related to the fact that wulfy23 had left a very key wifi module out of this build (kmod-mac80211) for some strange reason. So I had to add that to get wifi working. As to RAM, 1 GB proves way more than enough for my use case: I am showing about 800 MB free.

Looping @anon50098793 in the topic.

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thanks... feedback, suggestions and comments are always welcome...

curl -sSL https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/bcm27xx/bcm2711/profiles.json | jq | grep 802
curl -sSL https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/bcm27xx/bcm2711/openwrt-bcm27xx-bcm2711.manifest | grep 802

probably best addressing this at the mainline level before including in the build...

Hello to all interested people!

Because my vodafone internet line was down this weekend again I wanted to integrate my smartphone as USB tethering device as fallback.
My latest installation of RPi 4 was November 2020 and the old snapshot was not online anymore.

I decided to go a new way after an install procedure like in the youtube video, it was successfull but I didn't understand what I was doing... I found a post in this forum how to copy (rsync) the actual snapshot and saved the files on my NAS (ASUSTOR). After clean install I changed the sources for opkg and was able to install LUCI an all what I want without internet connection.

USB tethering now runs fine and I hope that my regular internet line will run again tomorrow.

Until a featured image of OPENWRT for my RPi4 will be released I will use the today files and now I need not to be scared that files will not be available, my ASUS NAS hat 2 hard disks (RAID) and I have a backup :wink:

Thanks to all users that gave me usable links and hints! :+1:

Best regards!

-==[Schubsi]==-

Pi4B

It hadn't been so tidy in my drawer for a long time. :wink:
The VLAN construction works wonderfully! like a charm! :+1:
The USB cable is prepared so that I can quickly connect my smartphone using USB tethering if Vodafone has a line fault again. :shushing_face: :thinking: :face_with_hand_over_mouth:
The USB3 network card is only a fallback level in case I change settings that then exclude me, probably unnecessary, but who knows ...

I am satisfied with my line and the performance of the small Raspberry Pi 4B :heart_eyes:

Although this is still a bit away from 1 GBit / s, it is still quite decent!
It always means: ... up to ...

Best Regards!

-==[Schubsi]==-

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