Table of Contents
How to Build a Single Package
Useful e.g. if you want to upgrade a package without reflashing the router, etc.
Follow Building OpenWrt up to the point when you make menuconfig. In here, select the target platform, then tick the package you want to build, and also its dependencies. If the package isn't ticked, the below commands will succeed without actually building the package. If you don't know the dependencies, you can ask the router. Let's assume we want to build nano: run opkg info nano:
Package: nano Version: 2.2.5-1 Depends: libncurses Provides: Status: install user installed Architecture: ar71xx Installed-Time: 1300757537
The Depends: line is what we're interested into. The same information can also be found in the Packages file from http://downloads.openwrt.org.
Now issue the following commands:
make tools/install make toolchain/install
The next step is building the dependencies. Back to our nano example:
make package/ncurses/compile make package/ncurses/install
And finally, you get to build the package:
make package/nano/compile make package/nano/install make package/index
Done! You will find your coveted package in the bin/ directory.
 | If you get errors about not finding opkg in the staging directory, compile and install package/base-files. |
Package Maintenance on Self-Compiled Kernel from Latest Snapshot
The problem we face when using the Latest snapshot, is that opkg quickly becomes incompatible with the snapshot as it moves forward in time. The idea is to use the feeds script with -a flag to prep all possible packages.. then when you want to install packages down the road, you go into make menuconfig, set the packages you want as modules <M>. then do make package/compile to compile them as IPK files to the bin directory. Then you can scp them to the router /tmp for instance, and opkg install them. Sometimes opkg complains about MD5 mismatch with remote, or kernel version mismatch. Use opkg override flags if you must, –force-depends and/or –force-checksum
Kernel Modules
One way or another you'll need the toolchain first. make package/[kernel-module] will not build modules, only package them; if they weren't built previously then you'll only get empty module packages. Instead:
make menuconfig
In the menuconfig, select your module such that an <M> appears, save and exit.
make target/linux/compile make package/kernel/linux/compile make package/kernel/linux/install
And then the ipk is in the bin/[arch]/packages/kernel directory. You can scp it to the router and use opkg install.
If the above does not work
…you can always just rebuild everything. Instead of make tools/install etc., after make menuconfig just run
make
