OpenWRT 21.02.x with MESHdesk packages

• The minimum hardware requirements are:
  • 8M Flash
  • 64M RAM
• Although the system can potentially support hardware with less resources, supporting them in 2021 is not practical any more.
• The hardware does not need a radio on it.
• Hardware without radios can be managed using APdesk.
• Mediatek and Atheros / Qualcomm SOC devices are supported.
• Other target systems are also supported but have not been thoroughly tested to date.
• If you are not sure if your hardware will work please visit the OpenWRT website and check. They have an ever growing list of supported hardware.
• Next we will look at the steps you need to take to get MESHdesk working with it.

These steps you have to do ONCE ONLY

1. Build OpenWRT with MESHdesk firmware (MESHdesk disabled).
2. Flash your device.
3. Prepare the wan_network file for specific device.
4. Prepare meshdesk config file for specific device.
5. Prepare captive_config.json file for specific device.

1. Build OpenWRT with MESHdesk firmware containing the device specific files for
   1. wan_network
   2. captive_config.json
   3. meshdesk
2. Flash your device with the final built of firmware.

• So without further ado, lets get going with the first draft built.
• In this page we will take a Xiaomi 4A 100M Access Point as a sample unit.
• You can use the hardware of your choice and simply apply the same principles.
• Make sure you followed these instructions to prepare the environment.

• Check out the OpenWRT-MESHdesk package from the SourceForge repository.

#Do this in the working directory e.g. cd 21.02.0
git clone https://github.com/RADIUSdesk/openwrt-meshdesk.git openwrt-meshdesk

• The package has three main components. Each one is located in a unique folder.

1. MESHdesk - This is the MESHdesk package which will be build by the SDK.
2. files - This is the override structure containing files to override during the build process.
3. luci-app-meshdesk - This is the Luci application used to enable central control.

• The MESHdesk folder needs to be copied under the package folder (openwrt/package).

#cd to the working directory
cp -R ./openwrt-meshdesk/MESHdesk ./openwrt/package 

• The files folder needs to sit directly under the openwrt folder (root level).

#cd to the working directory
cp -R ./openwrt-meshdesk/files ./openwrt 

• The luci-app-meshdesk folder needs to be copied under the feeds/luci/applications folder.

#cd to the working directory
cp -R ./openwrt-meshdesk/luci-app-meshdesk ./openwrt/feeds/luci/applications

• Since we added a Luci application, we need to tell the SDK about it.
• After you copied the packages across issue the following command:

#cd to the working directory
cd ./openwrt
scripts/feeds update -i
#Install the package to make it visible 
scripts/feeds install luci-app-meshdesk

• The result is that the MESHdesk Luci application will be listed as one of the available Luci applications.

• Select the following packages when building the firmware.
• When selecting a package there are the options to build it as a module (M) or fully include it (*).
• Make sure you select with the (*) option to fully include the package.
• Package names in bold are required.
• The Mosquitto packages are for MQTT support.
• The Batman packages are for mesh support.

• After you selected these packages you can save the configuration and issue make to build the firmware.
• The firmware you just built will be standard OpenWRT in effect and you can flash your hardware as with normal OpenWRT then access it on 192.168.1.1.
  • Username and Password is root and admin for Luci and ssh.
• The next section will cover the files you have to attend to for the specific hardware tweaks.

• Use ssh to gain access to the device in order to tweak these files.

• Refer to the default /etc/config/network file.

network

config interface 'loopback'
	option device 'lo'
	option proto 'static'
	option ipaddr '127.0.0.1'
	option netmask '255.0.0.0'
 
config globals 'globals'
	option ula_prefix 'auto'
 
config device
	option name 'br-lan'
	option type 'bridge'
	list ports 'eth0.1'
 
config interface 'lan'
	option device 'br-lan'
	option proto 'static'
	option ipaddr '192.168.1.1'
	option netmask '255.255.255.0'
	option ip6assign '60'
 
config device
	option name 'eth0.2'
	option macaddr '9c:9d:7e:f6:22:1c'
 
config interface 'wan'
	option device 'eth0.2'
	option proto 'dhcp'
 
config interface 'wan6'
	option device 'eth0.2'
	option proto 'dhcpv6'
 
config switch
	option name 'switch0'
	option reset '1'
	option enable_vlan '1'
 
config switch_vlan
	option device 'switch0'
	option vlan '1'
	option ports '4 2 6t'
 
config switch_vlan
	option device 'switch0'
	option vlan '2'
	option ports '0 6t'

• Next look at the /etc/MESHdesk/configs/wan_network file that is derived from it.

wan_network

config interface 'loopback'
    option proto 'static'
    option ipaddr '127.0.0.1'
    option netmask '255.0.0.0'
    option ifname 'lo'
 
config interface 'lan'
    option ifname 'eth0.1'
    option type 'bridge'
    option proto 'dhcp'
 
config interface 'client_0'
    option proto 'dhcp'
 
config interface 'client_1'
    option proto 'dhcp'
 
config switch
    option name 'switch0'
    option reset '1'
    option enable_vlan '1'
 
config switch_vlan
    option device 'switch0'
    option vlan '1'
    option ports '0 6t'
 
config switch_vlan
    option device 'switch0'
    option vlan '2'
    option ports '4 2 6t'

• We took the switch config sections from /etc/config/network and simply swapped vlan nr 1 and vlan nr 2 around.
• This means that eth0.1 is now on the WAN port.
• We also kept the old config style which is still supported in 21.02
• client_0 and client_1 interface sections can always be kept as is.
• lan interface section is in actuality the WAN port. (This is due to the historical nature of the project and also that we support hardware with a single Ethernet port)

• Lets look at another sample file. This time the Xiaomi 4A Gigabit Edition. This board does not have any switch sections and is much simpler.

wan_network

config interface 'loopback'
    option proto 'static'
    option ipaddr '127.0.0.1'
    option netmask '255.0.0.0'
    option ifname 'lo'
 
config interface 'lan'
    option ifname 'wan'
    option type 'bridge'
    option proto 'dhcp'
 
config interface 'client_0'
    option proto 'dhcp'
 
config interface 'client_1'
    option proto 'dhcp'
 

• Here you can see there is no switch sections and we specified the ifname for the lan interface as wan. Plain and simple.
• Next we will look at the /etc/config/meshdesk file and tweak it to work with our environment and our hardware.

• MESHdesk use the LEDs of the device it is installed on to signal about the environment
  • It signals during startup about the method it uses to try and fetch its settings at that moment.
  • If the device is used in a mesh network it will signal how many neighboring nodes it sees after startup.
  • There is also another LED used to indicate if the device has proper contact with the controller. (The LED can be either ON or OFF in such a case)
  • Finally on mesh networks we can also specify a LED that will indicate mesh traffic flowing through a node.
  • Again lets look at the Xiaomi 4A 100M as a sample.

#change directory to where the LEDs are
cd /sys/class/leds/
ls 
#These are the LEDs available
blue:power    mt76-phy0     mt76-phy1     yellow:power
#turn it off
echo "0" > yellow\:power/brightness
#turn it on
echo "1" > yellow\:power/brightness
#turn it off
echo "0" > blue\:power/brightness
#turn it on
echo "1" > blue\:power/brightness

• In our case we can use the yellow LED to light up if the comms to the controller is broken.
• We can use the blue LED to signal during startup and neighbor counts.
• There is no extra LED so we will not define one for the mesh traffic.
• With this info we can create a hardware section in /etc/config/meshdesk

config hardware 'xiaomi_4a_100'
	option morse_led '/sys/class/leds/blue:power/brightness'
	option internet_led '/sys/class/leds/yellow:power/brightness'
	option wifi_led 'led0'

• This have to match the value for hardware under the settings section

config settings 'settings'
	option hardware 'xiaomi_4a_100'
	option id_if 'eth0'
	option lan_up_file '/tmp/lan_up'

• Later we will also use the value of xiaomi_4a_100 to define the hardware on the controller.
• The final tweak for the hardware in the config file is the interface that must be used as the id_if.
  • It will typically be eth0.
  • On devices like the MT7621 based boards it will typically be wan.
• Since we want the yellow LED to be off when the comms to the controller is fine we need to check what the current setup is

vi /etc/MESHdesk/reporting/report_to_server.lua 
#Look for this section
    if(ok_flag)then                                 
        internetLED('0'); -- NOTE Here we can swap thme around eg make it 0 to turn off a red LED when the internet is OK
        checkForContollerReboot('1');                   
    else                                                                             
        internetLED('1');                                                        
        checkForContollerReboot('0');                  
    end

• The following table lists some of the important items with comments

• The following table lists some of the important items with comments

• We are nearly done. The last stop is to edit the captive_config.json file to fit our specific hardware.

• Edit the file /etc/MESHdesk/configs/captive_config.json.
• This file is a JSON structure that the device uses as a reference to configure itself with a special captive portal when it is not yet managed by the controller.
• There are only two items that might need to be tweaked
  • The radio number for the 2.4G band.
  • The ifname for the lan interface (We use the WAN port in out implementation)
• With the Xiaomi 4A 100M Edition radio0 is the 2.4G radio so no need to tweak that item. (If the hardware has radio1 as the 2.4G band simply look for all the references to radio0 and make them radio1)
• See this snippet of a device which has radio1 using the 2.4G band

"wireless": [
            {
                "wifi-device": "radio1",
                "options": {
                    "channel": 1,
                    "disabled": 0,
                    "hwmode": "11g",
                    "htmode": "HT20"
                }
            },  
            {
                "wifi-iface": "two",
                "options": {
                    "device": "radio1",
                    "ifname": "two0",
                    "mode": "ap",
                    "network": "ex_two",
                    "encryption": "none",
                    "ssid": "_Replace_",
                    "key": "",
                    "hidden": false,
                    "isolate": false,
                    "auth_server": "",
                    "auth_secret": ""
                }
            },
            {
                "wifi-iface": "web_by_w",
                "options": {
                    "device": "radio1",
                    "mode": "sta",
                    "network": "web_by_w",
                    "encryption": "psk2",
                    "key": "radiusdesk",
                    "ssid": "meshdesk_config",
                    "disabled": "1"
                }
            }
        ],

• With the Xiaomi 4A 100M Edition the ifname we use is eth0.1 for the lan interface definition.

{
    "interface": "lan",
    "options": {
        "ifname": "eth0.1",
        "type": "bridge",
        "proto": "static",
        "ipaddr": "10.50.50.50",
        "netmask": "255.255.255.0"
    }
},

• With the Xiaomi 4A Gigabit Edition it will look like this

{
    "interface": "lan",
    "options": {
        "ifname": "wan",
        "type": "bridge",
        "proto": "static",
        "ipaddr": "10.50.50.50",
        "netmask": "255.255.255.0"
    }
},

• Once the tweaks are completed we can test everything out.
• The following link shows how to point the device to the controller using the GUI
• Xiaomi Access Points Running MESHdesk Firmware
• Point the device to your controller and reboot it.
• If all goes well it will show up in Unknown Nodes
• If it is a new hardware type add it to the controller as described here: Hardwares (Again Once Off)
• Attach A Device To Demo1 Mesh

• If everything on the device work as intended you can use those tweaked files to build a final version of the firmware for the specific hardware.
• Copy the files to a temporary folder on the machine where you are building the firmware.
• Use the following as a lookup for the location inside the SDK where the tweaked files need to go.

• This brings us to the end of the page on how to build MESHdesk firmware for specific hardware.