Their provided latest version of the pre-built firmware is OpenWRT version 21.02.3 and I would like to make the move to the latest version of openwrt.
This would mean having the packages required to run luci, but more importantly the firmware to run the second Ethernet port (which doesn't come with the official OpenWRT CM4 image).
Basically what my question is, is there a way to export the list of all currently installed packages, as in this example, and make sure they all get built into my new image without having to manually check each of them off in the menuconfig?
The dfrobot build is likely customized quite a lot beyond the openwrt official firmware.
You’ll need to have a complete manifest of the vendor’s included packages, as well as the chipset information to know what drivers (kmods) to install for the 2nd Ethernet port. Once you have all that, you can build a custom image using the online firmware selector and image builder.
Can't that manifest be exported from a live board running that pre-built image and if so is there a way to import such a manifest into the build process?
The chip itself is a Realtek8111 so finding the appropriate kmod shouldn't be too tough.
The only other thing I think they've done aside from supporting the realtek chip and installing luci is having the network interfaces & firewall pre-configured
There may be packages that don’t exist in the official openwrt repos, but you can try putting that Kay into the image builder. And of course add the kmod for the other Ethernet port.
Lan and firewall are always preconfigured on openwrt’s default config. You may need to add a wan.