How can then those guys make sub 4MB builds for their devices?
apples and bananas, they "only" need to strip the images, since those devices were already supported.
that's not the case here.
You clearly wont assist. But not everyones like you friend, someone out there might have a helping mind.
Let me make myself clear again, they got these required images because a dev/s worked on those devices and RE315 doesnt have the required files because no one worked on it. Am i right? The only limitation is no one worked on 315 and not the device.
yes
then add the 4mb flash EOL fact ...
I might need more assist than this guide, like from a experienced guy who also made a sub 4MB build. Hence this thread.
you will not find justice here. ask the guy who made 4MB build. You can still have bootable like BSD or eCos in 4MB, but not modern Linux.
Right.
and EOL support is subjective. its not a must have. Or any damaging for not having support for future versions. If EOL is not cared about at all, i dont see anything else stopping developement for a 4/64 device.
I think ill try that. I believe its achievable. Just unnecessary restrictions stopping the developement.
I mean, who cares if future versions are available or not if a lower version is supported and its still miles ahead of what official manufacturer provides latest., Its worthy enough to release a build for it when the manufacturer itself abandoned the support.
It is extremely unlikely that you'll find somebody willing to put the hours in to find the magic sauce to make your device work.
Even if you did, you'd be left with a device that works but has known weaknesses and vulnerabilities in it, which are impossible to fix because the fixes are not compatible with the old, unmaintained, end of life codebase.
There's nothing stopping you trying, but that would be a fairly academic exercise. Sometimes, just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
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I edited the post with my expectations. I clearly know about this and i dont care at all. Because im pretty sure no one is trying to "hack" me expoiting those vulnerabilties, out there everytime. Its exaggeration. i personally dont consider these reasons should stop a device developement.
You need to put a link for OpenWRT running on RE315, I see no signs of it being supported in that old revisions.
There is a slim chance old LTS kernel can be upgraded with little effort
https://www.kernel.org/category/releases.html
Then you need to backport patches to installed programs
Then claim fame for developing OpenWRT-LTS keeping 4MB (or in a year or two 8MB) devices out of dumpster.
I promise it is a lot of work.
But when people do care about this, they would want a firmware that can close out the loophole in the firmware.
Yes, you can try, I've seen other folks in the forum trying to build a super small one for their own purpose, but what they did was really doing some work on the code, on trying different software removal, and ask question when they hit the roadblock.
You keep saying "could try if anyone helps", please start your work, and then post your question(s) when getting trouble, what others feeling here is "hey can you start the work because I want it? I can help you once you start it", no this is not the way how to get involved into this community.
Not going to debate about the 4MB flash thing, even when other folks bringing in newer devices (you can check out the Cudy TR3000 post), the OP spent time to find UART, boot the device with initramfs of another device trying to see what happened on it, this is the real way to get others to involve. Please get your hands wet first before asking others' support, and the popularity might affect the interest of others on this topic as well.
To clarify, it would have needed a person willing to do the work in ~2017-2019 at the latest, which obviously predates the vendor-release of this device by over two years.
Support for new devices is only (exclusively!) merged via the main snapshots, which is impossible for a device with less than 8 MB flash at this point (as brada brought up, you can't get modern OpenWrt below ~5.5 MB, even if you disregard all the essential bits and pieces for a release). That is a fact, so there is no way to get this device supported officially. openwrt-19.07 has been EOL for over 2.5 years by now, without any security- or bugfixes being applied - and certainly not new device support (that stopped hard in 2021).
If you nevertheless care about running 'OpenWrt' on this device, there is one quite reasonable option -not one I'd entertain, nor would I expect anyone else to share enthusiasm for it-, but it's at least a possibility that goes beyond wasting time on abandoned/ ancient code. Replace the flash chip with a compatible 8- or 16 MB chip and do the development for device bring-up. No, this wouldn't get your code merged (as it would be a one-off device, modified by you and not available on the market), but it would be sensible way forward - if you can do it (and if you have any questions about the process at this point, you can't) and are prepared to keep doing it for the remainder of the natural life cycle of your device. Even though you will never be able to get it supported officially, it would still provide you with a sensible result (and workable security support) with a realistic chance of success (it's not sensible, but possible).
But, given the above, this would be your private hobby, not anyone else's
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