Zsun OpenWRT

Hello Rene,
no i did not but with telnet i now get in, thank you so much!

Now i have to find a way to start Piratebox or maybe install Luci again.

Thanks

For those who are interested: My Zsun Piratebox installation labnotes

---
link correction



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2016 05:20PM by meduza.

Nice finish-up! I was having issues getting the imageboard running as well; seems you fixed it. I'll run through your steps and verify.... as soon as I find that small thing.

---

PirateBox Installs:
2x Zsun's (both testing, one with serial interface)
A5-V11 (mostly for OpenWRT testing DIY)
2x RPi Zero's
(one active in car 24/7, gets a lot of hits at Walmart, movie theaters and the mall)
2x RPi3's (both home servers, one Ubuntu custom install along side a ton of other services)
1x RPi2 (currently work server)

Zsun running PirateBox and MQTT server talking to ESP8266 showing PB chat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgNWvtpxRlc

Hello everybody,

can someone explain me how i can get work inserted SDCARD on this ZsunOpenwrt device.I tried every tutorials like extroot, and the tut of TheExpertNoob dont worked for me.. And now i dont know what i can do..

Mehmet Karatas Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello everybody,
>
> can someone explain me how i can get work inserted
> SDCARD on this ZsunOpenwrt device.I tried every
> tutorials like extroot, and the tut of
> TheExpertNoob dont worked for me.. And now i dont
> know what i can do..


stuck where on tutorial did you get?
did you try this?

---

PirateBox Installs:
2x Zsun's (both testing, one with serial interface)
A5-V11 (mostly for OpenWRT testing DIY)
2x RPi Zero's
(one active in car 24/7, gets a lot of hits at Walmart, movie theaters and the mall)
2x RPi3's (both home servers, one Ubuntu custom install along side a ton of other services)
1x RPi2 (currently work server)

Hi all,

I've followed the tutorial from here to get the OpenWRT on my Zsun device. I did have a bit of an issue with one of them, but it's no worry, as I was able to get it to work.

The second tutorial I used was the one just previously mentioned, this one here.

That one seemed to work, but I must have done something wrong with it. I am unable to get my Zsun to broadcast any longer.

I tried to read some of the past posts about setting up the unit and how if the Zsun is at 192.168.1.1 and my internet router is the same, I'll need to use the "sta" parameter. But that didn't quite work out as planned, and I believe I may have messed it up a bit.

I'm not upset in the slightest, but I figured I'd turn to the forum for further instruction. I can and have changed my regular network to be that of 192.168.0.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.254.0 . I tried to get the Zsun unit back up, but it didn't work.

I understand I may need to connect an Ethernet jack to recover, but since I have another Zsun unit ( I wisely bought extra because I might screw it up) I wanted to attempt to do the Piratebox upgrade, but this time do it right.

What kinds of things would you need to know from me in order to assist me? I'm not the most proficient Linux user(my main computers are Windows based) But I do have some Linux devices at home, Pogoplugs running Debian and connecting to LMS, so I am fairly comfortable with the Linux command line.

Thank you in advance for any advice you can give me. And if it is possible to recover from my failure, it would be nice to know that too.

Quote
mxhdrm
...I can and have changed my regular network to be that of 192.168.0.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.254.0 . I tried to get the Zsun unit back up, but it didn't work.

Your regular network is still within the same ip range as the zsun's. Please change your subnet to 255.255.255.0.

And note that when you have a working openwrt zsun you can easily reset the device accourding to stylesuxx hint:

Quote
stylesuxx
Also if you already flashed the custom FW, you can easily go back to factory mode in case you fuc*ed up your network config by simply putting in the SD card while the zsun is booting - just wait until the LED starts blinking, then push in the SD card, after this the OpenWrt network should come up.

There is no need to connect to a network jack!

You say you have used the piratebox:zsun wiki, have you seen scratchrobot youtube?

Quote
scratchrobot
Zsun running PirateBox and MQTT server talking to ESP8266 showing PB chat
[www.youtube.com]

Interesting stuff you have on your youtube channel, the install of piratebox was to see how others use the wiki.
According to your wifi names, are you speaking Dutch? Lets PM

Hello meduza,

Thank you for the quick reply. I knew I was doing something not quite right with it. I actually purchased 3 units. One I really messed up by not doing it correctly in the slightest. However, I will look tomorrow and see what guide I followed that borked that particular one. I was under the assumption I needed to use the Ethernet jack to correct that one. But even if that's a total loss, I've still learned quite a bit here.

As for the second one, I will try sliding in the card at boot up. Sorry I missed that part of it, but I was sure that someone would be able to illuminate the dark for me. That one should work fine then.

As for the third one, All it has is OpenWRT. I've held off on that one because it still works alright and I wanted one that was still working, but with the tip, I should be able to get the other one up.

My question is, should I change the network to be that of 192.168.0.1 *and* keep the subnet mask of 255.255.255.0? My default network on my internet router is 192.168.1.1 (for reference).

When it comes to that Youtube video, I have not seen it. However, when I return from work tomorrow, I will watch it (three times. I've learned that I need to see something, or read something three times to make sure I don't screw it up. 1 to familiarize myself with it.2 to bring up questions, and the third to understand completely. ) I appreciate the link to the video. I hadn't come across it and I'm happy to view it.

Again, thank you for your assistance. I'll write back with my experiences tomorrow. And to find the guide that I had attempted to follow, but didn't do right. I'm sure you've seen the guide, but I didn't do it right.

Thanks,

mxhdrm

Quote
mxhdrm
My question is, should I change the network to be that of 192.168.0.1 *and* keep the subnet mask of 255.255.255.0? My default network on my internet router is 192.168.1.1 (for reference).

Your own/default network CAN'T be on the same (sub-)net as your zsun's. When you activate the additional WiFi channel on the zsun there will be routing problems. You MUST change your default network to something like 192.168.0.x/24 (that is for your router IP 192.168.0.1 with netmask 255.255.255.0)
(Or make a test WiFi network with an additional WiFi router )



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2016 04:23PM by meduza.

Hello everybody

i have an another problem now for 4 days ago i tried to install some packages via SSH on my zsun und also tried to configure my network settings but i fucked it up so styluxx says i must only insert/remove the sdcard after blinking LED, so it worked around 5 time ( because i tried really to much to connect it with my router) so after 6th or 7th time, it will not more reset it. i think its bricked.. have somebody how can i solve this or method to unbrick (if its bricked) this device..?

i don't have any experience with bricked. the SD reset trick alway worked for me:

Quote
stylesuxx
Also if you already flashed the custom FW, you can easily go back to factory mode in case you fuc*ed up your network config by simply putting in the SD card while the zsun is booting - just wait until the LED starts blinking, then push in the SD card, after this the OpenWrt network should come up.

What i do: I have a usb verlängerung cable, so i can easily insert/remove the sd while connected.
Plug in the zsun, led continuously on for approx. 5 sec, than led turns of for about 7 sec.
Than when it turns on again (= start of blinking) I insert/remove the sd multiple times.
When the led starts to blink really rapidly you know the zsun is back to factory settings.

Another option, If you can still access LuCi interface at piratebox.lan:9080 or piratebox.lan:80 is to go to Backup/Flash firmware and click the reset button. That is what I do now.

But if you cant access it via wifi, the "plug-in SD card on blinking(slow) light" reset SHOULD work. It should start blinking fast again.

---

PirateBox Installs:
2x Zsun's (both testing, one with serial interface)
A5-V11 (mostly for OpenWRT testing DIY)
2x RPi Zero's
(one active in car 24/7, gets a lot of hits at Walmart, movie theaters and the mall)
2x RPi3's (both home servers, one Ubuntu custom install along side a ton of other services)
1x RPi2 (currently work server)

Thanks for the options and ways. I tried to insert the sdcard after it starts blinking but no theres no reaction. I explain what i have done: at first i used an usb extension cable to insert easier the card, i inserted it after it began to blinking and i think what ive done was "correct", because zsun booted new up and takes litte longer than normal bootup procedure. But i checked avaible wifi networks around me and no wifi, nothing about it. But it blinks continuously so i think it works normal..

I got a lot of errors using:

[piratebox.cc]

for example: The imageboard superuser password must be set with vi. (The script in the setup is broken)

Can i edit the setup?

try this: [piratebox.cc]

@meduza

Works perfect! PHP stats also displayed.


I ignored the usual warnings from the OpenWrt repository.

I have to setup 1-3 zsun per day in the next weeks.

I will report any problems here.

@meduza
Your setup is now on 25 zsuns. No problem at all.

Many, many thanks.

Our project is let the zsun mesh with batman adv. We will connected the internet by thetering many Android Smartphones to the zsun, if we move in 8+ teams. (Geo location game, we own all Accu-pacs with serval USB-chargeing ports, one for the zsun, one for the smartphone or the teammates smartphone)

If two or more zsun - owners/players come close, a directory will sync automatically (players profile, greetings) and the owners get a push on the smartphone for an opportunity to play together. The players home-routers and favorite places with internet-router will be part of the mesh with the "A5-V12" OpenWRT device. (No way to get batman adv working on hundreds of home-routers and smartphones. (Manufactors branding, bootloader-locking and issues with the equipment warrantys)

We also will do some modification the pirate box landing page. (Credits/links to the piratebox, of course)

If we are successful with the moving mesh (walking, biking, e-biking) and our static mesh around our A5-V12 places, we are very happy to share our experience with you.

I think there are serval efforts to mesh pirateboxes together at bigger public places?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/2016 08:36AM by zsunuser.

Hi Medusa, Yes i'm Dutch. I don't have an account here but you can contact me trough my YT channel.

@zsunuser
25 zsun's in Mesh, pretty cool.
Do you have a project web side where we can read more about the geo-location/hi-tech game and/or we follow your experiences? I'd love to get some additional info,
What's a "A5-V12" for instance

@meduza

We are just at the begining.

A5-V11 / mifi / unbranded router for US$ 6
[wiki.openwrt.org]
(installed at home / public place / in the pocket with a USB-SIM-Dongle)

But the freifunk developer are working at a batman adv based "Gluon Firmware" for the zsun (For a cheap mesh node).
Because the freifunk developers Berlin (inventors of batman adv) have a lot of experience, i guess the future meshing PIRATEBOX-firmware can profit from this development, long before our firmware is ready.

At the moment 30 players have 24/7 a Piratbox zsun in the Accupac. (Still with your landingpage)

The game we are playing is "ingress". It is a simple sozial game. You walk around in the green and in Citys with other gamers and we join 8+ Gamers for "farming-events".

Our firmware for the zsun will also autosync with the newest audio/video files on the players home-entertainment-system. So these files are also "on the move", no need to sit at home watching videos, all "important" files available on the move and KODI is installed at the Smartphones and Tablets.... (Our zsun have 64 GB or 128 G.

If the login is done by "Piratbox - share freely" the zsun will be offline only.

However when the login is done by "IngressNet" the ingress related internet-traffic will go directly to the internet and all other pakets will be routed through TOR. (Posts may also sync to our G+ forums, visitor chat will also sync to all zsun if a experienced player is online.

I will post the links when it is done. (Github and G+) As it is a community development it will take a lot of time. But i guess about 500-700 Gamers will use it in Switzerland.



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2016 07:48AM by zsunuser.

@meduza
druss.org down, at the moment.
(zsun piratebox installation look for a file there)

druss.org isn't mine but i have al local backup.
which file(s) are you looking for?

edit:
Content of the file 'parts':

# to create the partitions programatically (rather than manually)
# we're going to simulate the manual input to fdisk
# The sed script strips off all the comments so that we can 
# document what we're doing in-line with the actual commands
# Note that a blank line (commented as "defualt" will send a empty
# line terminated with a newline to take the fdisk default.
sed -e 's/\s*\([\+0-9a-zA-Z]*\).*/\1/' << EOF | /tmp/usr/sbin/fdisk /dev/sda
o # clear the in memory partition table
n # new partition
p # primary partition
1 # partition number 1
  # default - start at beginning of disk 
+$(( ($(cat /sys/block/sda/size) / 2048) - 500 ))M # all except last 500 MB
n # new partition
p # primary partition
2 # partion number 2
  # default, start immediately after preceding partition
  # default, extend partition to end of disk
a # make a partition bootable
1 # bootable partition is partition 1 -- /dev/sda1
p # print the in-memory partition table
w # write the partition table
q # and we're done
EOF

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2016 07:10PM by meduza.

Hey sorry about the down time. I had to take the server offline due to a lightning storm moving in.
Mirrored here
[raw.githubusercontent.com]

---

PirateBox Installs:
2x Zsun's (both testing, one with serial interface)
A5-V11 (mostly for OpenWRT testing DIY)
2x RPi Zero's
(one active in car 24/7, gets a lot of hits at Walmart, movie theaters and the mall)
2x RPi3's (both home servers, one Ubuntu custom install along side a ton of other services)
1x RPi2 (currently work server)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/2016 11:36PM by TheExpertNoob.

No problem, we have also local backups. Thank you



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/2016 04:39AM by zsunuser.

@zsunuser
What version of batman-adv are you using? As I am getting compile errors for the kernel module.

Language: HTML
types.h:386:26: error: expected ';)'; before numeric constant
 DECLARE_EWMA(throughput, 1024, 8)

Ive tried 2016.1, 2016.2, 2014.1, 2014.2. Same errror for all of them. The batman-adv kernel module from the repository wont load (causing the zsun not to load past mount_root: loading kernel modules) So it has to be built specifically for the zsun. (all kernel modules must)

---

PirateBox Installs:
2x Zsun's (both testing, one with serial interface)
A5-V11 (mostly for OpenWRT testing DIY)
2x RPi Zero's
(one active in car 24/7, gets a lot of hits at Walmart, movie theaters and the mall)
2x RPi3's (both home servers, one Ubuntu custom install along side a ton of other services)
1x RPi2 (currently work server)

zsunuser Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @meduza
> Your setup is now on 25 zsuns. No problem at all.
>
>
> Many, many thanks.
>
> Our project is let the zsun mesh with batman adv.
> We will connected the internet by thetering many
> Android Smartphones to the zsun, if we move in 8+
> teams. (Geo location game, we own all Accu-pacs
> with serval USB-chargeing ports, one for the zsun,
> one for the smartphone or the teammates
> smartphone)
>
> If two or more zsun - owners/players come close, a
> directory will sync automatically (players
> profile, greetings) and the owners get a push on
> the smartphone for an opportunity to play
> together. The players home-routers and favorite
> places with internet-router will be part of the
> mesh with the "A5-V12" OpenWRT device. (No way to
> get batman adv working on hundreds of home-routers
> and smartphones. (Manufactors branding,
> bootloader-locking and issues with the equipment
> warrantys)
>
> We also will do some modification the pirate box
> landing page. (Credits/links to the piratebox, of
> course)
>
> If we are successful with the moving mesh
> (walking, biking, e-biking) and our static mesh
> around our A5-V12 places, we are very happy to
> share our experience with you.
>
> I think there are serval efforts to mesh
> pirateboxes together at bigger public places?

Hi everyone,

I recently got a couple of these devices to tinker with ([edit]: a big thanks to everyone who made it possible!). I followed the Piratebox on the Zsun guide and had a few issues which I had to sort out. This is a bit of a long post, there's three main sections. In the first part I have some thoughts/questions about the setup guide. Then in the second section I'll explain what I've done so far with the device which someone will hopefully find useful. Finally in the last section I would like to ask for some help with php.

---

Piratebox on the Zsun guide

1. Connection to main WiFi

[*] I hadn't realised that the AP will not broadcast if the STA cannot connect. This was more of an issue for me because there's apparently a problem with my device which is limiting its connection range to about 1.5 m. It may help to add a note in the guide to first do a scan to check what networks it can see.
[*] Being a novice I found the part about the sub-net mask rather confusing. I got it to work by setting the zsun's lan ip address to 192.168.10.1 but I'm still not really sure if that's all that's needed. I think what has me confused is that the settings are ipaddr and netmask but the guide refers to the sub-net mask. Perhaps a link to a more thorough explanation could be added?

2. Formatting SD card

[*] wget wouldn't download the parts script. It was something about ssl and only worked after I installed the full version of wget.
[*] Once I had the parts script it wouldn't work saying that fdisk wasn't given appropriate arguments. I did it manually instead. I now see that there's a difference on line 7 comparing the one that was on druss.org with the one currently on githubusercontent.com. I think the original would have worked. Anyone know why it was changed to /tmp/usr/sbin/fdisk ${TGTDEV} and how it's supposed to work? Should the guide now have ./parts /dev/sda instead of just ./parts?

3. Optional bits

[*] I did the part to enable IRC but I think there's a problem because when I run /etc/init.d/piratebox I see the error:
miniircd.py: error: Must be root to use --setuid. I had no plans to use to straight away so I just disabled it again to stop the error.
[*] I also did the fix for MiniDLNA and noticed the guide forgot to say to press Escape before "Press SHIFT+Z, SHIFT+Z on the keyboard to save".

(couldn't get the bullet points to work properly for some reason )

---

What I've done so far

After following the guide I added a Poweroff option to the OpenWRT LuCi web interface. I wanted an easy way to nicely shutdown the device before cutting the power. Here's how I did to in case anyone's interested:

In /usr/lib/lua/luci/controller/admin/system.lua I added

Language: CSS
entry({"admin", "system", "poweroff"}, call("action_poweroff"), _("Poweroff"), 110)

to the end of the function index() and added the new function

Language: CSS
function action_poweroff()
        local poweroff = luci.http.formvalue("poweroff")
        luci.template.render("admin_system/poweroff", {poweroff=poweroff})
        if poweroff then
                luci.sys.poweroff()
        end
end

after the function action_restart.

Next, in /usr/lib/lua/luci/sys.lua I added the following

Language: CSS
function poweroff()
        return os.execute("poweroff >/dev/null 2>&1")
end

after the function restart.

Finally, I added the new file /usr/lib/lua/luci/view/admin_system/poweroff.htm (copied and edited reboot.htm):

Language: HTML
<%#
 Copyright 2008 Steven Barth <steven@midlink.org>
 Copyright 2008 Jo-Philipp Wich <jow@openwrt.org>
 Licensed to the public under the Apache License 2.0.
-%>
 
<%+header%>
<h2><a id="content" name="content"><%:System%></a></h2>
<h3><%:Poweroff%></h3>
<p><%:Powers off the operating system of your device%></p>
<%-
local c = require("luci.model.uci").cursor():changes()
if c and next(c) then
-%>
        <p class="warning"><%:Warning: There are unsaved changes that will be lost while powering off!%></p>
<%-
end
if not poweroff then
-%>
<p><a href="<%=controller%>/admin/system/poweroff?poweroff=1"><%:Perform poweroff%></a></p>
<%- else -%>
<p><%:Please wait: Device powering off...%></p>
<script type="text/javascript">setTimeout("location=';<%=controller%>/admin';", 60000)</script>
<%- end -%>
<%+footer%>

I also added links between the PirateBox and OpenWRT LuCi web interfaces for easier access. Annoyingly I couldn't figure out how to add it to the OpenWRT LuCi top banner so I added it to the login page instead (if someone knows how to add links to the banner I'd appreciate any hints).

In /usr/lib/lua/luci/view/sysauth.htm after line 9 I added

Language: HTML
<script language="JavaScript">
	document.write(';<h1><a href="http://'; + window.location.hostname + ';/content/'; + ';" >PirateBox</a></h1> '; );
</script>

and in /opt/piratebox/share/content/index.html after line 28 I added

Language: HTML
<script language="JavaScript">
	document.write(';<li><a href="'; + window.location.protocol + ';//'; + window.location.hostname + ';:9080'; + ';" data-l10n-id="navbarSettings">Settings</a></li> '; );
</script>

---

What I'm stuck on

Now after I managed to muddle my way through all that (and you read all that), I'm stuck trying to install DokuWiki. I've enabled php and phpinfo.php works. I unpack DokuWiki in /opt/piratebox/share/dokuwiki and added a symlink to it in /opt/piratebox/www/. Then to be able to execute it I added

Language: PHP
$HTTP["url"] =~ "^/dokuwiki/" {
        fastcgi.server = (
                ".php" => ((
                                "bin-path" => "/usr/bin/php-cgi",
                                "socket" => "/tmp/php.socket",
                                "max-procs" => 1
                        ))
        )
}

to /opt/piratebox/conf/lighttpd/fastcgi-php.conf. The problem is when I try to access http://piratebox.lan/dokuwiki/install.php I get a blank white page. I've tried other php applications such as punBB and MediaWiki which give give me a response (complaining about missing dependencies but at least that shows they're working).

I've tried enabling php error logging in /etc/php.ini but it won't produce the log in the specified location. Here's what I changed in /etc/php.ini:

error_reporting  =  E_ALL
;& ~E_NOTICE & ~E_STRICT

display_errors = On
display_startup_errors = On
log_errors = On
log_errors_max_len = 1024
ignore_repeated_errors = Off
ignore_repeated_source = Off
report_memleaks = On
;report_zend_debug = 0
track_errors = Off
html_errors = On
;docref_root = "/phpmanual/"
;docref_ext = .html
;error_prepend_string = "<font color=#ff0000>"
;error_append_string = "</font>"
; Log errors to specified file.
error_log = /var/log/php_errors.log
; Log errors to syslog.
;error_log = syslog

Any help to get DokuWiki to install or suggestions on an alternative wiki that will work will be very appreciated!

Thanks =)

Update: As it turns out DokuWiki wasn't working because of missing dependencies. I'm not sure which but installing the following fixed it: mbstring, xml, ctype, json, iconv, fileinfo, zoneinfo-core, php5-mod-session, php5-mod-dom, uclibcxx, libncursesw and libreadline.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2018 03:13PM by zelmon64.

As the creator of that wiki page, I may try to walk through the reasoning of it all.

First, the wifi issue:
OpenWRT by default assigns the zsun 192.168.1.1 and acts as an access point. When we configure our zsun to connect to our home router for configuration, and if said home router is ALSO 192.168.1.1 it creates an IP conflict. There was some discussion on this in the past and my personal fix was just to put my home router as a gateway 192.168.0.1/23 to prevent that IP conflict. Hope that helps explain that better.

Second, parts:
It was my attempt to create a script to make partitioning the USB drive easier. I originally had parts (short for partitions) hosted on my home web server. Then I moved and took my server with me where I have no "always on" internet, so my server has been down for some time. Trying to find a place to host said script without ssl has been like finding a needle in a haystack! So if you have a place to host it, that would be grand! Nothing should have changed from moving the script from my home server to github hosting, unless the ssl mesed with it's syntax somehow. That is not to say fdisk may have been updated since I wrote that script and may work differently now. Script originated from here I believe and modifications were made to make use of it here. ${TGTDEV} represents Target Device and should have /dev/sda after fdisk as you have it. Not sure what happened where. I'll look into it.

Third, options:
I haven't tested IRC in the past few releases (like the only thing I haven't tested) since we already kinda have the chatbox on the hosted webpage. I THINK IRC may have been a thing before the bugs of the chatbox were worked out. Now we have the chatbox and the IRC is kinda outdated, but still there as an option.
MiniDLNA, that part was more of a "how to use vi" mini-tutorial that used to be at the top of the wiki. I believe that got lost in an update 0 whoops. This will get updated on the next major release when its tested. and the vi mini-tutorial will have its own wiki sub-section. Also, I will test miniIRC on the next major (alpha/beta) release.

I like the idea of the power off option in LuCi, personally, I hate the LuCi web interface, but to each their own.

Yea, running software on a setup this custom can get tricky! Ive never used DokuWiki, but when Im messing with directories for php to run, I always first test that directory with a php file containing the phpinfo() line to rule that out.

Finally, keep in mind this is a low end device. PHP memory will run out FAST! I tried running phpGallery on it and it ran out of memory fast trying to render thumbnails. Also, wifi distance on it is really limited to an average size bedroom.

---

PirateBox Installs:
2x Zsun's (both testing, one with serial interface)
A5-V11 (mostly for OpenWRT testing DIY)
2x RPi Zero's
(one active in car 24/7, gets a lot of hits at Walmart, movie theaters and the mall)
2x RPi3's (both home servers, one Ubuntu custom install along side a ton of other services)
1x RPi2 (currently work server)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2018 05:11PM by TheExpertNoob.