Mesh/Firmware/Generating

freifunk

Freifunk has a web app called meshkit for generating images.

• live web app
• source code

Meshkit takes a strange approach. From the readme file:

Meshkit itself just writes a uci config file and stores it in
/etc/config/meshkwizard in the resulting firmware image. The actual
configuration is done by meshwizard, which uses community profiles
and the settings from meshkit to configure the device at first boot after
the device has been flashed.

While I understand why community profiles would be a good idea, it seems odd that the configuration would happen on the device. Why not generate all of the required configuration before generating the image? That way you save a bit of space and an extra reboot of the device.

wlan slovenija

wlan slovenija has a firmware generator tool. Here are some links:

• config_generator.py: the core code for the generator
• build_image.py: the command line tool that uses config_generator.py

Some relevant code from config_generator.py:

      buildString = 'make image FILES="../files" PROFILE="%s" PACKAGES="policy-routing olsrd uhttpd tc nodewatcher-core nodewatcher-clients ntpclient hostapd -ppp -ppp-mod-pppoe -wpad-mini kmod-l2tp kmod-l2tp-ip kmod-l2tp-eth tunneldigger wireless-tools qos-scripts %s"' % (profile_map[self.portLayout], pkgs)
      os.chdir(path)
      os.system(buildString)