OpenWRT on the TP-Link TL-MR3020

Date: 2012-Mar-30, I used the files most recent at the time of this writing.

I use the TP-Link TL-MR3020, hardware revision 1.6. Marketed as a WiFi to 3G router, it is a very small internet router, nevertheless featuring everything required to run OpenWRT. See the OpenWRT website (or the "Table of Hardware" on the project's website) for more details on what OpenWRT is and what not. There is also a Wiki page for each supported device, so look here for more information.

Installing OpenWRT on this box is easy. Just fetch the right "trunk" firmware image for the OpenWRT device page and install this using the web configuration tool shipped on the router. So 5 minutes after unwrapping, you're done. Like usually, it is crucial to be connected to the device via a direct LAN cable, don't even try to do this via WiFi!

This first time you connect to your device, you have to use "telnet 192.168.1.1". Then set a root password using the "passwd" command. DON'T USE YOUR REAL root PASSWORD HERE AS telnet CONNECTIONS ARE NOT ENCRYPTED. The next time you log into the box you will use ssh and then it is the time to set your final root password. If you mess something up -- for example you filled up the /overlay volume and want to reset to original config -- you have to use the failsafe mode.

In my network configuration the DSL internet router is 192.168.1.1, it is both the default router AND the DNS server to ask. Let's configure the device to some fixed IP address. Needless to say that the IP address must not lie within the your internet router's DHCP address pool, but has to be within the same subnet.

root@OpenWrt:~# uci set network.lan.ipaddr=192.168.1.2
root@OpenWrt:~# uci set network.lan.dns=192.168.1.1
root@OpenWrt:~# uci set network.lan.gateway=192.168.1.1
root@OpenWrt:~# uci set dhcp.ignore=1
root@OpenWrt:~# uci set dhcp.lan.ignore=1
root@OpenWrt:~# uci commit

The dhcp.ignore=1 line disables OpenWRT's DHCP server. This is obviously very important since two DHCP servers in the same network at the same time can bring chaos into your network! After "uci commit" and the reboot the changes take effect. Reconnect your computer to your local network and connect the OpenWRTed TL-MR3020 to the same network. When you log in, it looks like

cl@clnb:/tmp/x$ ssh root@192.168.1.2
root@192.168.1.2's password:


BusyBox v1.19.3 (2012-03-13 08:32:03 MST) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

  _______                     ________        __
 |       |.-----.-----.-----.|  |  |  |.----.|  |_
 |   -   ||  _  |  -__|     ||  |  |  ||   _||   _|
 |_______||   __|_____|__|__||________||__|  |____|
          |__| W I R E L E S S   F R E E D O M
 ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT (bleeding edge, r30919) ----------
  * 1/4 oz Vodka      Pour all ingredients into mixing
  * 1/4 oz Gin        tin with ice, strain into glass.
  * 1/4 oz Amaretto
  * 1/4 oz Triple sec
  * 1/4 oz Peach schnapps
  * 1/4 oz Sour mix
  * 1 splash Cranberry juice
 -----------------------------------------------------
root@OpenWrt:~#

Then

root@OpenWrt:/# opkg update
Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/packages/Packages.gz.
Inflating http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/packages/Packages.gz.
Updated list of available packages in /var/opkg-lists/snapshots.
root@OpenWrt:/# opkg install openvpn

OpenVPN will eat up most of the memory in /overlay. After installing OpenVPN, we have

root@OpenWrt:/# df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs                    1536      1096       440  71% /
/dev/root                 1536      1536         0 100% /rom
tmpfs                    14688      1700     12988  12% /tmp
tmpfs                      512         0       512   0% /dev
/dev/mtdblock3            1536      1096       440  71% /overlay
overlayfs:/overlay        1536      1096       440  71% /
root@OpenWrt:/#

You see that FLASH storage is _really_ at a premium in these internet routers! In our application it would pay to build a custom ROM image as the ROM filesystem is more efficient than the /overlay FS where the new files go.

For the OpenVPN configuration proceed like if this client where some PC. Then you can start openvpn on the command line entering

root@OpenWrt:/# openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/client.conf

The nice thing about OpenWRT is that you can make use of your Linux network administration skills here. The device runs a Linux kernel 3.2.9 with iptables firewalling.

wget

The wget in busybox is not sufficient for the planned application (no HTTP authentication support), so I installed the 'real' wget tool -- but without SSL support. This saves lots of precious FLASH memory -- but let's check if it has dependicies ...

root@OpenWrt:/tmp# opkg info wget-nossl
Package: wget-nossl
Version: 1.13.4-1
Provides:
Status: install user installed
Section: net
Architecture: ar71xx
Maintainer: OpenWrt Developers Team 
MD5Sum: cc1d314928228c8caec30d5a8286e4db
Size: 130769
Filename: wget-nossl_1.13.4-1_ar71xx.ipk
Source: feeds/packages/net/wget
Description: Wget is a network utility to retrieve files from the Web using http
 and ftp, the two most widely used Internet protocols. It works
 non-interactively, so it will work in the background, after having
 logged off. The program supports recursive retrieval of web-authoring
 pages as well as ftp sites -- you can use wget to make mirrors of
 archives and home pages or to travel the Web like a WWW robot.
 This package is built without SSL support.

No deps. Then let's install it entering opkg install wget-nossl.

Impressum