Maybe you will think I am bit mad, but I would like to ask a question if there is some initiative to use OpenWRT on non router devices like DVD players ex. Samsung BD 8900, or UBD-K8500, from hardware point of view these devices are quiet interesting, have some good cpu, mem, usb, some of them have also hdd, lan, WIFI module etc... can be used as Squid or NFS etc. media server etc... as reuse the old hardware - due to the DVD-CD physical medias are not very interesting these days...
OpenWrt is Linux based, specifically targeting routers (and the likes). So if you are taking about other devices, you may as well just start from Linux kernel and build on that.
OpenWrt as a Linux distro has its own pros and cons.
Determine your goals.
Identify hardware resources.
Select a distro best suited to your needs, which can run on those resources.
I like OpenWRT and would like to run OpenWRT on the above devices if possible, well I am not a big developer but I am learning quickly :-), I would like to start to somehow work on it, but have no idea where to begin. I know that these devices are running Linux like OS already - because I already developed some apps - and loaded in dev mode to the devices and get several infos from /proc/*, the hardware is quite interesting just my problem is how to get some Linux based OS there and start to develop the things.
I like openWRT due to the whole philosophy. that's why I would like to run OpenWRT on these devices.
Like the simplicity, the packages etc... and the whole things, just I have no idea where to begin, and how to get some OpenWRT distro to these devices... maybe if you can give me some hints where to begin, that will help me a lot.
OpenWrt spends quite a bit of its development energy on router-specific things like SoC support, wireless drivers and switch drivers, so non-router SoCs and chips providing TV tuners, video decoders and the like are going to be about the same (read "unsupported") in any Linux-based distro.
With Raspberry Pi class devices available for US$5-10, it's hard for me to think of why taking the time to replace the firmware on a piece of hardware with low processing needs (past that offloaded to tuner, decoder, ... ASICs) to obtain a general-purpose platform makes much sense.
This is a wrong way of thinking, because you will come to a bad aftertaste, if you find out that the OpenWrt doesn't match your needs after tons of effort invested in it.
You can start from identifying the hardware specs.
We love OpenWrt, but if we put sentiment aside, unless the "connectivity" is the main part of the device function, adapting OpenWrt for these devices will only complicate things. I imagine the developers have enough on their plate supporting a growing number of routers.
Plus, trying to adapt OpenWrt for other devices would be similar to, for instance, buying a car to transform it to a boat. It's probably easier to just get an engine and boat body and build a boat!
So, simply put:
As for packages, that's how Linux work in general, not particular to OpenWrt.
Well, Raspberry Pi Zero and Zero W are available only as 1 device per user (and there would be delivery overhead charges if you buy more than one form different retailers), and then there is the price of the memory card, power adapter, network adapter for Zero, but yeah, for a general purpose a Raspberry Pi would certainly serve much better as an affordable general purpose platform.
Hmm, than I don't understand why OpenWRT is available on DCS 930/932 cameras when it is targeted mainly for routers as example.
anyway, thanks for answer...
I think the main difference is the encrypted/signed firmware, to these devices it is very easy to upload new custom firmware, but the Blu/DVD etc. players has usual encrypted/signed firmware.
as example.