Intro

It's useful to extend the storage capacity of your USB enabled Wrt router f. e. making a central file server. This can easily be done with connecting USB storage devices (like a USB stick or a external USB harddisc) to the USB port on your router.

Requirements

Supported router by OpenWrt with USB (f. e. the Asus WL-500G or the Asus WL-500G deluxe)
a recent OpenWrt version installed (at least White Russian RC3)
some kind of a USB storage device (a USB stick or a external USB harddisc) supported by Linux
a USB hub (optional) to add more USB ports (it's probably a good idea to use an active USB hub with it's own PSU)

NOTE: Devices supporting USB v2.0

Installation

TIP: Some routers are USB 1.1 and 2.0 compatible. To use both devices with both versions install the modules for USB 1.1 and 2.0.

Modules for USB 1.1

For USB 1.1, try installing the UHCI drivers first:

ipkg install kmod-usb-uhci
insmod usbcore
insmod uhci

If you see the message:

insmod: init_module: uhci: No such device

then your hardware does not have a UHCI compliant device, so you might as well remove the package:

ipkg remove kmod-usb-uhci

TIP: Most USB chips have UHCI controllers. If you received a “No such device” error, then try installing the

kmod-usb-ohci

package instead. The BCM4710 and BCM4712 based routers require

kmod-usb-ohci

ipkg install kmod-usb-ohci
insmod usb-ohci

If you see the message:

insmod: init_module: usb-ohci: No such device

then your hardware does not have a OHCI compliant device, so you might as well remove the package:

ipkg remove kmod-usb-ohci

Modules for USB 2.0

This package includes the modules for USB 2.0.

NOTE: USB 2.0 support in White Russian is broken. There are some threads in the forum and some tickets as well if you like to read about what happens. (Im using WR 0.9 on an ASUS WL-500g Premium and USB 2.0 works just fine)

ipkg install kmod-usb2
insmod ehci-hcd

If you see messages like this:

insmod: unresolved symbol usb_calc_bus_time

try loading usbcore and then try ehci-hcd again:

insmod usbcore
insmod ehci-hcd

Note that you may want to have available the utility, lsusb. To enable it in Kamikaze, run “opkg install usbutils”.

Modules for storage

To add storage support finally install

ipkg install kmod-usb-storage
insmod scsi_mod
insmod sd_mod
insmod usb-storage

Clean up

TIP: The

max_scsi_luns=8

bit is needed for multi-card readers and should be added to the end of the

scsi_mod

line in the

/etc/modules.d/60-usb-storage

file.

OpenWrt uses

/etc/modules.d

directory to load the modules automatically on the next reboot. So reboot the router with

reboot

Now check if OpenWrt sees your USB device (of course inserting it into your Wrt router). If it's correct you should see similar messages as on the

dmesg

dump below.

dmesg

usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
uhci.c: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v1.1
PCI: Enabling device 01:02.0 (0000 -> 0001)
uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x100, IRQ 2
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
PCI: Enabling device 01:02.1 (0000 -> 0001)
uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x120, IRQ 2
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
hub.c: new USB device 01:02.0-2, assigned address 2
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0xd7d/0x100) is not claimed by any active driver.
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
 Vendor: Apacer    Model: Drive             Rev: 1.05
 Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
SCSI device sda: 256000 512-byte hdwr sectors (131 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
Partition check:
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1
WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
USB Mass Storage device found at 2
USB Mass Storage support registered.

Configuration

Usage as a storage device to extend storage

First install the kernel file system modules, for example:

ipkg install kmod-vfat

Under Kamikaze 7.07 or later, use

ipkg install kmod-fs-vfat

TIP: After installing the modules, you should either reboot the device or load the installed modules manually:

insmod fat
insmod vfat

TIP: You can install support for more file systems by installing the appropriate packages.

File system	Package name	Comment
VFAT/MSDOS	kmod-vfat (kmod-fs-vfat)	File system generally used in USB devices and older Windows
EXT2	kmod-ext2 (kmod-fs-ext2)
EXT3	kmod-ext3 (kmod-fs-ext3)

Now install the

fdisk

package from the White Russian's backports repository. How to use the backports repository see Packages.

ipkg install fdisk

TIP: If you don't find fdisk in the rc6 backports repository, you can use the rc5 backports version:

ipkg install http://downloads.openwrt.org/backports/rc5/fdisk_2.12r-1_mipsel.ipk

Create the

/mnt

directory for the mount point on the flash

mkdir /mnt

Check what partition you like to mount from your USB device

fdisk -l

Finally you can mount and use your USB device (with relevant modules for your file system in memory and created directory for mount):

mount /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 /mnt

Be happy and use your USB device like on every other GNU/Linux system or create a file server using Samba.

If you go with ext2 with journaling and install kmod-fs-ext2 , kmod-fs-ext3 and e2fsprogs you can use it like a normal unix type disk. Create the script /etc/init.d/usbdrive ( changing the mount point to match yours )

#!/bin/sh /etc/rc.common
START=99
STOP=40
start()
{
       echo -n "Testing USB Partition:  "
       e2fsck -p /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 &
       sleep 5
       echo -n "Mounting USB drive: "
       mount -t ext3 -o noatime /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 /usb
       echo "Done."
}
stop()
{
       echo -n "Umounting USB drive:  "
       sync
       sync
       umount /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1
       echo "Done."
}
restart()
{
       stop
       start
}

then do a ./usbdrive enable

You may need language packages to support the filenames on various file systems:

kmod-nls-base - Kernel modules for basic native language support

kmod-nls-cp437 - Kernel module for codepage 437

kmod-nls-cp850 - Kernel module for codepage 850

kmod-nls-iso8859-1 - Kernel module for iso8859-1 charset support

kmod-nls-iso8859-15 - Kernel module for iso8859-15 charset support

kmod-nls-utf8 - Kernel module for utf8 support

How do I boot from the USB device (prep)

For this to work you need the same kernel modules for USB as described above. You also need the modules for the EXT3 file system:

/!\ NOTE: IMPORTANT: There are reports that this procedure bricks routers running Kamikaze with 2.6 kernel - proceed at your own risk! (It works for some, not for others)

ipkg install kmod-ext2 kmod-ext3

After installing the modules, you should either reboot the device or load the installed modules manually:

insmod ext2
insmod jbd
insmod ext3

The next step is to partition the USB device and create an EXT3 FS partition. This requires

fdisk

(install it as described above). You can do the partioning in OpenWrt it self or on a normal PC.

In OpenWrt do

fdisk /dev/sda
-OR-
fdisk /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc

On a GNU/Linux desktop PC do

fdisk /dev/sda

/!\ IMPORTANT: Make sure you are modifying the right device. If you have any other USB drives, or a SCSI or SATA drive, your USB device might be at

/dev/sdb

/dev/sdc

(and so on) instead! Also, you do not want to use a partition such as

/dev/sda1

(note the number at the end); you do want the base device name.

For more information about using

fdisk

, see http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/fdisk_partitioning.html.

Next, “format” the newly created partition.

In OpenWrt do

For doing this in OpenWrt you first have to install the

e2fsprogs

package from the White Russian's backports repository. How to use the backports repository see Packages.

ipkg install e2fsprogs

Then “format” your partition with

mke2fs -j /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1

mke2fs may fail on large disks (e.g. 300GB) if there is not enough memory, consider adding a swap partition, even if it is only used during mke2fs.

If you keep getting errors like:

Creating journal (4096 blocks): mke2fs: No such file or directory
       while trying to create journal

then run the following command:

ln -s /proc/mounts /etc/mtab

Now, we will copy everything from the flash to the USB device (make sure the EXT3 modules are loaded):

# mount it
mount -t ext3 /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 /mnt
# now, we need to mount the root contents somewhere so we can copy
# them without copying /mnt and /proc to the new usb device
mkdir /tmp/root
# if you're using squashfs, you want to copy the squashfs contents,
# not the jffs2 symlinks, so use the command:
mount -o bind /rom /tmp/root
# if you're using jffs2 then use the command /
mount -o bind / /tmp/root
# now /tmp/root contains the root filesystem with no extra directories mounted
# so we just copy this to the usb device
cp /tmp/root/* /mnt -a
# and now we unmount both the usb and our /tmp/root
umount /tmp/root
umount /mnt

/!\ Problems with booting from USB storage were reported with WhiteRussian RC4 or later, which is the version that introduced USB hotplug support. If you encounter problems as well, try disabling USB hotplug. (more info on this?)

As earlier stated on this page (to remove

/etc/hotplug.d/usb/01-mount

) is NOT a good idea, as this is where usbfs is mounted, so usb-storage might work fine but lsusb wohn't list your devices, and most software using USB won't be able to find devices since /proc/bus/usb will remain empty?

So either remove the file and mount usbfs somewhere else, or everything inside except the line which goes: [ -f /proc/bus/usb/devices ] | mount -t usbfs none /proc/bus/usb

Boot Configuration - (White Russian)

Next, remove

/sbin/init

from the JFFS2 partition (this is just a symlink to BusyBox anyway):

rm /sbin/init

And replace it with this script:

#!/bin/sh
# change this to your boot partition
boot_dev="/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1"
# install needed modules for usb and the ext3 filesystem
# **NOTE** for usb2.0 replace "uhci" with "ehci-hcd"
# **NOTE** for ohci chipsets replace "uhci" with "usb-ohci"
for module in usbcore uhci scsi_mod sd_mod usb-storage jbd ext3; do {
       insmod $module
}; done
# this may need to be higher if your disk is slow to initialize
sleep 4s
# mount the usb stick
mount "$boot_dev" /mnt
# if everything looks ok, do the pivot root
[ -x /mnt/sbin/init ] && {
       mount -o move /proc /mnt/proc && \
       pivot_root /mnt /mnt/mnt && {
               mount -o move /mnt/dev /dev
               mount -o move /mnt/tmp /tmp
               mount -o move /mnt/jffs2 /jffs2 2>&-
               mount -o move /mnt/sys /sys 2>&-
       }
}
# finally, run the real init (from USB hopefully).
exec /bin/busybox init

Make sure your new

/sbin/init

is executable:

chmod a+x /sbin/init

Now just reboot, and if you did everything right it should boot from the USB device automatically.

If it could not boot from the USB device it will boot normally from the file system found on the flash as fallback.

Note that it is safest to leave the 'pivot_root' procedure as an ordinary script file, not part of the code automatically run on startup, at least until you are certain that it is operating as desired. This allows you to recover from any problems created by this script by simply rebooting the router without it.

Boot Configuration (Kamikaze)

First Create a script /etc/init.d/pivotroot

#!/bin/sh
# change this to your boot partition
boot_dev="/dev/sda1"
# install needed modules for usb and the ext3 filesystem
# **NOTE** for usb2.0 replace "uhci" with "ehci_hcd"
# **NOTE** for ohci chipsets replace "uhci" with "usb-ohci"
for module in usbcore uhci scsi_mod sd_mod usb-storage jbd kmod-fs-ext2 kmod-fs-ext3 ; do {
       insmod $module
}; done
# this may need to be higher if your disk is slow to initialize
sleep 4s
# mount the usb stick
mount "$boot_dev" /mnt
# if everything looks ok, do the pivot root
[ -x /mnt/sbin/init ] && {
       mount -o move /proc /mnt/proc && \
       pivot_root /mnt /mnt/mnt && {
               mount -o move /mnt/dev /dev
               mount -o move /mnt/tmp /tmp
               mount -o move /mnt/jffs2 /jffs2 2>&-
               mount -o move /mnt/sys /sys 2>&-
       }
}

Note: for Kamikaze 2.4 kernel that may not have hotplug2 then try using this instead. Tested with openwrt-brcm-2.4-squashfs.

#!/bin/sh
# change this to your boot partition
boot_dev="/dev/discs/disc0/part1"
# install needed modules for usb and the ext3 filesystem
# **NOTE** for usb2.0 replace "uhci" with "ehci-hcd"
# **NOTE** for ohci chipsets replace "uhci" with "usb-ohci"
for module in usbcore uhci scsi_mod sd_mod usb-storage jbd ext2 ext3 ; do {
       insmod $module
}; done
# this may need to be higher if your disk is slow to initialize
sleep 4s
# mount the usb stick
mount "$boot_dev" /mnt
# if everything looks ok, do the pivot root
[ -x /mnt/sbin/init ] && {
       mount -o move /proc /mnt/proc && \
       pivot_root /mnt /mnt/mnt && {
               mount -o move /mnt/dev /dev
               mount -o move /mnt/tmp /tmp
               mount -o move /mnt/jffs /jffs 2>&-
               mount -o move /mnt/sys /sys 2>&-
       }
}

Note: for Kazimate 2.6 kernel, add this before insmod loop.

/sbin/hotplug2 --override --persistent --max-children 1 --no-coldplug &

And kill it after the loop.

killall hotplug2

Make it executable:

chmod +x /etc/init.d/pivotroot

Then install the modules, for Kamikaze 7.07 or later (Kernel 2.6), use

ipkg install kmod-fs-ext2 kmod-fs-ext3

Test to see if pivotroot works:

/etc/init.d/pivotroot
df -h

You may safely ignore errors saying ”

insmod: cannot insert ...

” If pivotroot worked, then df will show that your USB storage is mounted on ”/” (root). Now reboot.

reboot

after that edit /etc/init.d/rcS

#!/bin/sh
# Copyright (C) 2006 OpenWrt.org
if test $2 == "boot" ; then
/etc/init.d/pivotroot
fi
{
       for i in /etc/rc.d/$1*; do
               $i $2 2>&1
       done
} | logger -s -p 6 -t '' &

now your System should Startup nicely either from USB or from internal Flash if the USB-disk is not available.

Installing and using OPKG packages in mount point other than root

The Optware packages already make use of a similar concept, by which ipkg-opt uses a config file (/opt/etc/opkg.conf) that points / to /opt in order to force the packages to install there. The settings to control where new packages are installed are defined by single-line entries in /etc/ipkg.conf with the original default being 'root / '. If you have external flash or hard drive, you may want to install packages there and add the corresponding directories to $PATH in /etc/profile.

/!\ NOTE: This is not tested. Please report if it's working for you.

-Works for me (MikkoKorkalo)

-Works for me (ElbenfreunD)

/!\ NOTE: PackagesOnExternalMediaHowTo, OpenWrtDocs/KamikazeConfiguration/PackagesOnExternalMediaHowTo and OpenWrtDocs/KamikazeConfiguration/BootFromExternalMediaHowTo contain additional important infos.

/!\ NOTE: Destination needs not to have trailing slash in order to make following script work (Nijel).

/!\ NOTE: Following script has been adjusted to reflect kamikaze using

opkg

instead of

opkg

Configure

opkg

for a non-root destination

echo dest usb /mnt/usb >> /etc/opkg.conf

then install a package to a non-root destination

opkg -dest usb install kismet-server

Copy & paste this script into

/bin/opkg-link

(or somewhere in your

$PATH

#!/bin/sh
COMMAND=$1
PACKAGE=$2
setdest () {
       for i in `grep dest /etc/opkg.conf | cut -d ' ' -f 3`; do
               if [ -f $i/usr/lib/opkg/info/$PACKAGE.list ]; then
                       DEST=$i
               fi
       done
       if [ "x$DEST" = "x" ]; then
               echo "Can not locate $PACKAGE."
               echo "Check /etc/opkg.conf for correct dest listings";
               echo "Check name of requested package: $PACKAGE"
               exit 1
       fi
}
addlinks () {
       setdest;
       cat $DEST/usr/lib/opkg/info/$PACKAGE.list | while read LINE; do
               SRC=$LINE
               DST=`echo $SRC | sed "s|$DEST| "`
               DSTNAME=`basename $DST`
               DSTDIR=`echo $DST | sed "s|$DSTNAME\$| "`
               test -f "$SRC"
               if [ $? = 0 ]; then
                       test -e "$DST"
                       if [ $? = 1 ]; then
                               mkdir -p $DSTDIR
                               ln -sf $SRC $DST
                       else
                               echo "Not linking $SRC to $DST"
                               echo "$DST Already exists"
                       fi
               else
                       test -d "$SRC"
                       if [ $? = 0 ]; then
                               test -e $DST
                               if [ $? = 1 ]; then
                                       mkdir -p $DST
                               else
                                       echo "directory already exists"
                               fi
                       else
                               echo "Source directory $SRC does not exist"
                       fi
               fi
       done
}
removelinks () {
       setdest;
       cat $DEST/usr/lib/opkg/info/$PACKAGE.list | while read LINE; do
               SRC=$LINE
               DST=`echo $LINE | sed "s|$DEST| "`
               DSTNAME=`basename $DST`
               DSTDIR=`echo $DST | sed "s|$DSTNAME\$| "`
               test -f $DST
               if [ $? = 0 ]; then
                       rm -f $DST
                       test -d $DSTDIR && rmdir $DSTDIR 2>/dev/null
               else
                       test -d $DST
                       if [ $? = 0 ]; then
                               rmdir $DST
                       else
                               echo "$DST does not exist"
                       fi
               fi
       done
}
mountdest () {
       test -d $PACKAGE
       if [ $? = 1 ]; then
               echo "Mount point does not exist"
               exit 1
       fi
       for i in $PACKAGE/usr/lib/opkg/info/*.list; do
               $0 add `basename $i .list`
       done
}
umountdest () {
       test -d $PACKAGE
       if [ $? = 1 ]; then
               echo "Mount point does not exist"
               exit 1
       fi
       for i in $PACKAGE/usr/lib/opkg/info/*.list; do
               $0 remove `basename $i .list`
       done
}
case "$COMMAND" in
 add)
       addlinks
 ;;
 remove)
       removelinks
 ;;
 mount)
       mountdest
 ;;
 umount)
       umountdest
 ;;
  *)
       echo "Usage: $0  "
       echo "       Commands: add, remove, mount, umount"
       echo "       Targets: , "
       echo "Example:  $0 add kismet-server"
       echo "Example:  $0 remove kismet-server"
       echo "Example:  $0 mount /mnt/usb"
       echo "Example:  $0 umount /mnt/usb"
       exit 1
       ;;
esac
exit 0

Make sure the

/bin/ipkg-link

script is executable:

chmod a+x /bin/opkg-link

Examples howto use the script:

Link a single package to root:

opkg-link add kismet-server

Link all packages on a mount point to root:

opkg-link mount /mnt/usb

Remove symlinks:

opkg-link remove kismet-server

Remove all symlinks for all packages:

opkg-link umount /mnt/usb

Patinya's

2009年9月15日火曜日

USB storage howto(OpenWrt)