Diff: mwgapHacking

--- Version 1 

+++ Version 2 

@@ -1,14 +1,30 @@ 

-! MWGAP Hacking 

 

-The goal is to port OpenWrt to this device. I'll document the process on this page  and include links to any patches that are created along the way. 

+This page contains information about the MWGAP AP from Minitar. This device was developed by Minitar as a replacement for the MNWAPB and resulted form a consultative process Minitar performed with users on their forums. 

+ 

+! OpenWRT port 

+The goal is to port OpenWrt to this device. I'll document the process on this page  and include links to any files that are created along the way. At some stage I'll build a master patch and set things up to pull in the appropriate bits as needed. 

 

 The steps are: 

 * Select the correct build options 

 * Build mips big-endian tool chain with non-mips patent free patch 

-* Add a build target for the MNGAP 

+* Building the kernel 

+ 

+!! Select correct build options 

+The target device does not have a configuration in the build environment. We need to add one and select the correct target and target options befre we can build either the toolchain or the firmware itself. 

+* Add the following to trunk/target/Config.in at line 191, just before the endif 

+  config LINUX_2_4_RTL8186 

+    bool "Realtek RTL8186 [2.4]" 

+    select LINUX_2_4 

+    depends BROKEN 

+    select mips 

+    select BIG_ENDIAN 

+    select USES_JFFS2 

+    help 

+      Build firmware for Realtek RTL8186 based boards 

+      ( eg Minitar MWGAP ) 

+* Add the following line to trunk/include/ 

 

-! Select correct build options 

-oops, skip ahead to Add a build target before doing this 

+* Select the configuration options to build the right platform 

  make menuconfig, 

  select Advanced configuration options for developers, 

  select Toolchain options, 

@@ -19,7 +35,7 @@ 

  select the target system you added ( Realtek RTL8186 [2.4] ) 

  save your config 

 

-! Patent free toolchain 

+!! Patent free toolchain 

 This step looks surprisingly simple. I was going to apply the patches we used for the Minitar MNWAPB development from (http://nonmips.sourceforge.net here), but after looking into the toolchain build there is already a option to build gcc 3.4.6 with a patent-free patch applied. The patch is different ( not sure of the origin ) but addresses the same instructions that the Lexra core does not support. 

 

 Getting it to build needed a couple of hacks: 

@@ -27,17 +43,17 @@ 

 # When the tar is unpacked it will by default unpack into gcc-3.4.6 and the patches will fail to apply. In the trunk/toolchain/gcc/Makefile find the place where the compiler is unpacked ( line 115ish )and add this line: 

   mv $(PKG_BUILD_DIR)/../gcc-3.4.6/* $(PKG_BUILD_DIR) 

 

-! Add build target 

-Add the following to trunk/target/Config.in at line 191, just before the endif 

-  config LINUX_2_4_RTL8186 

-    bool "Realtek RTL8186 [2.4]" 

-    select LINUX_2_4 

-    depends BROKEN 

-    select mips 

-    select BIG_ENDIAN 

-    select USES_JFFS2 

-    help 

-      Build formware for Realtek RTL8186 based boards 

-      ( eg Minitar MWGAP ) 

+!! Building the kernel 

+Building against the 2.4.32 kernel needs an updated .config and a number of patches. 

+* create a dir trunk/target/linux/rtl8186 & trunk/target/linux/rtl8186/patches 

+* cd into linux/mtl8186 and copy the makefile from ../brcm/Makefile to . 

+* get (/files/misc/minitar/mwgap/config patched config ) 

+* cd mwgap/patches and wget the (/files/misc/minitar/mwgap/patches/jumbo_kernel.gz kernel patches ) 

+* create a dir trunk/target/image/rtl8186 

+* cd into image/rtl8186 and cp ../brcm/Makefile and the dir lmza-load ( there's an alternative loader as well - more later ) 

+ 

+The Minitar firmware builds a kernel with an embedded ramdisk. This is a problem in some ways and good in others. It's a problem in that you can't change the rootfs without having to rebuild the kernel  but good in that once the kernel loads it has also loaded the rootfs into RAM. This was great for testing builds a you could tftp an image to the device and then jump to it to run it - no need to touch the flash at all. This allowed you to borrow a device for a short while to test on it. 

+ 

+! Minitar firmware 

 

-That's all for tonight - next comes the target/linux/rtl8186-2.4 dir with the kernel config 

+! Bootloader