Getting Started with OpenWRT

OpenWrt is an open-source Linux operating system which runs on embedded devices/ routers. It offers more features, performance and security than a traditional router. It has a filesystem that’s fully writable and includes a package management system. You can make use of these packages to suit your applications in various ways.

By using OpenWrt you can have various features such as:

• Increase overall network performance when multiple devices are connected
• Share files between devices via an external storage drive connected directly to the router
• Increase network security
• Run a BitTorrent client from the router
• Connect a printer directly to the router to create a networked printer
• Limit bandwidth usage of a particular device in the network
• Active queue management
• Real time network monitoring
• Create Dynamic DNS
• Set Up a VPN client or server

Now let's dive into using OpenWrt on Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board for Raspberry Pi CM4 and ODYSSEY - X86J4125.

Note: This guide works for ODYSSEY - X86J4105 as well.

Hardware Required

You need to prepare the following hardware before getting started with OpenWRT on Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board for Raspberry Pi CM4 and ODYSSEY - X86J4125

• 1 x Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board for Raspberry Pi CM4
• 1 x Power adapter (5V/3A) with USB Type-C cable
• 1 x ODYSSEY - X86J4125 with the included power adapter
• 2 x Ethernet cables

Initial Set Up

Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board for Raspberry Pi CM4

First we will explain how to install and set up OpenWrt on Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board for Raspberry Pi CM4

Flash OpenWrt Image

Now we need to flash OpenWrt image on to the eMMC storage of the board so that it can run on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4. Once the necessary drivers are installed, you just have to connect the USB Type-C port of the CM4 in to your PC, and it will show as an external drive. Follow the steps below according to your operating system.

For Windows

• Step 1. Download the latest OpenWrt Image compiled by Seeed for this board from here

Note: Choose openwrt-bcm27xx-bcm2711-rpi-4-ext4-factory.img.gz file

• Step 2. Download and run this installer to install the necessary drivers and the boot tool

• Step 3. Search for rpiboot tool that we installed and open it

• Step 4. Connect a jumper wire between Boot and GND pins as follows to enable the BOOT mode

• Step 5. Connect Carrier Board to the PC via USB Type-C cable

Windows will now find the hardware and install the necessary drivers

• Step 6. Open file explorer and you will see the eMMC of the Computer Module 4 shown as a USB mass storage device

• Step 7. Download balenaEtcher software by visiting this link according to your operating system

• Step 8. Run balenaEtcher as administrator

• Step 9. Click Flash from file and point to the OpenWrt image file that you downloaded before

• Step 10. Click Select target and select the connected eMMC drive

• Step 11. Finally, click Flash!

Please wait a few minutes until the flashing process is complete.

For Mac/Linux

• Step 1. Download the latest OpenWrt Image compiled by Seeed for this board from here

Note: Choose openwrt-bcm27xx-bcm2711-rpi-4-ext4-factory.img.gz file

• Step 2. Open a Terminal window and type the following to update the packages list

sudo apt update

• Step 3. Install Git by the following command

sudo apt install git

• Step 4. Git might produce an error if the date is not set properly. Type the following to correct this

sudo date MMDDhhmm

NOTE: Where MM is the month, DD is the date, and hh and mm are hours and minutes respectively.

• Step 5. Clone the usbboot tool repository

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/raspberrypi/usbboot
cd usbboot

• Step 6. Enter the following to install libusb

sudo apt install libusb-1.0-0-dev

• Step 7. Build and install the usbboot tool

make

• Step 8. Run the usbboot tool and it will wait for a connection

sudo ./rpiboot

• Step 9. Connect a jumper wire between Boot and GND pins as follows to enable the programming mode

• Step 10. Connect Carrier Board to the PC via USB Type-C cable

• Step 11. Download balenaEtcher software by visiting this link according to your operating system

• Step 12. Run balenaEtcher as administrator

• Step 13. Click Flash from file and point to the OpenWrt image file that you downloaded before

• Step 14. Click Select target and select the connected eMMC drive

• Step 15. Finally, click Flash!

Please wait a few minutes until the flashing process is complete.

Dual Gigabit Ethernet Ports Connection

Once OpenWrt is finished flashing onto Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board for Raspberry Pi CM4, you can connect Ethernet cables to the board as follows:

The OpenWrt image has already included the necessary network configurations for the dual Gigabit ports to work out-of-the-box, so that you don't have to configure them by yourself. However, here is an explanation of how the 2 ports are configured.

One port is configured as a LAN interface and the other as a WAN interface. The WAN interface is the one which can be connected to the internet and it is configured as a DHCP client. On the other hand, the LAN interface is the one which can be connected to the client devices and it is configured as a DHCP server.

Here the LAN interface is configured so that it has a static IP address of 192.168.2.1. However, if you connect this OpenWrt router to another router with default gateway IP of 192.168.2.1, you might want to change the IP address on the LAN interface or otherwise OpenWrt will have IP conflict. Please follow the FAQ below to learn more!

ODYSSEY - X86J4125

Next we will explain how to install and set up OpenWrt on ODYSSEY - X86J4125

Flash OpenWrt Image

Now we need to install OpenWrt on to the eMMC/ HDD/ SSD of the ODYSSEY - X86J4125 so that it can run on the board. To do this, we first need to create a bootable USB with the OpenWrt image. Follow the steps below

• Step 1. Download the latest OpenWrt Image compiled by Seeed for this board from here

Note: Choose openwrt-x86-64-generic-ext4-combined-efi.img.gz file

• Step 2. Insert a USB drive to the PC

• Step 3. Download balenaEtcher software by visiting this link according to your operating system

• Step 4. Run balenaEtcher as administrator

• Step 5. Click Flash from file and point to the OpenWrt image file that you downloaded before

• Step 6. Click Select target and select the connected USB drive

• Step 7. Finally, click Flash!

Please wait a few minutes until the flashing process is complete.

Dual Gigabit Ethernet Ports Connection

Once OpenWrt is finished flashing onto the USB drive, you can connect Ethernet cables to the board as follows:

The OpenWrt image has already included the necessary network configurations for the dual Gigabit ports to work out-of-the-box, so that you don't have to configure them by yourself. However, here is an explanation of how the 2 ports are configured.

One port is configured as a LAN interface and the other as a WAN interface. The WAN interface is the one which can be connected to the internet and it is configured as a DHCP client. On the other hand, the LAN interface is the one which can be connected to the client devices and it is configured as a DHCP server.

Here the LAN interface is configured so that it has a static IP address of 192.168.2.1. However, if you connect this OpenWrt router to another router with default gateway IP of 192.168.2.1, you might want to change the IP address on the LAN interface or otherwise OpenWrt will have IP conflict. Please follow the FAQ below to learn more!

Install OpenWrt

Now that we have created a bootable USB drive previously, let's move on to installing OpenWrt to ODYSSEY - X86J4125

• Step 1. Insert the bootable USB drive to the ODYSSEY board and connect the board to a display and a keyboard

• Step 2. Turn on the board and keep pressing F7 to enter the boot manager screen

• Step 3. Select the bootable USB and press ENTER

Now OpenWrt will start to run live from the USB drive.

• Step 4. Turn on the board, open a web browser and type 192.168.2.1 in the search bar

• Step 5. Once OpenWrt portal opens, navigate to System > FileTransfer

• Step 6. Click Choose File under Upload and select the OpenWrt image that we downloaded before

Note: Make sure the .gz file is extracted to the .img file before

• Step 7. Click Upload

Now the image is saved under /tmp/upload/ directory

• Step 8. Navigate to System > TTYD Terminal and login with root as the username

• Step 9. Type lsblk to list the connected storage devices

• Step 10. Type the following to flash the OpenWrt image to the storage device connected (eMMC/ HDD/ SSD)

dd if=/tmp/upload/openwrt-x86-64-generic-ext4-combined-efi.img of=/dev/sda 

Note: /dev/sda correponds to the storage device connected

• Step 11. Once it's finished flashing to the storage device, reboot the board, remove the USB drive and it will start to boot OpenWrt from the connected storage device.

Run OpenWrt

Now that we have finished setting up the OpenWrt software and the dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, we will move on to running OpenWrt on Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board for Raspberry Pi CM4 and ODYSSEY - X86J4125. This section will not be divided according to the 2 boards because both will have the same OpenWrt functionality along with the same web-interface.

Once the ethernet cables are connected as before and the OpenWrt image is flashed, proceed to the steps below

• Step 1. Power on the board

• Step 2. Open a web browser and type 192.168.2.1

You will see the OpenWrt Luci web-interface here. The OpenWrt image compiled by Seeed is included with many packages out-of-the-box. So you can use these package to realize many applications!

Network Speed Test

Finally we will move on to testing the network speeds on the Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board for Raspberry Pi CM4 and ODYSSEY - X86J4125 with OpenWrt installed.

Dual Gigabit Board as a Server and ODYSSEY as a Client

We will first use Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board as a server and ODYSSEY - X86J4125 as a client for the network test

Note: Make sure to change the IP address of the LAN interface on the ODYSSEY board to 192.168.3.1 by following this

• Step 1. Connect the boards as follows

• Step 2. Open a web browser and log in to both the boards and enter the terminal as follows:

Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board

• Type 192.168.2.1 on the web browser search box

• Navigate to System > TTYD Terminal and login with root as the username

ODYSSEY - X86J4125/ X86J4105

• Type 192.168.3.1 on the web browser search box

• Navigate to System > TTYD Terminal and login with root as the username

Note: Make sure both devices are not on the same IP range on the LAN interface

• Step 3. Install iperf3 network performance test tool on both devices

opkg update
opkg install iperf3

• Step 4. On the TTYD Terminal window of Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board, type the following to start iperf3 as a server

iperf3 -s

• Step 5. On the TTYD Terminal window of ODYSSEY - X86J4125, type the following to start iperf3 as a client and connect to the server created before

iperf3 -c 192.168.2.1

Note: Here the IP address of the Dual Gigabit Board server is written

Now you will see the network speed test results as follows

Note: Here you can see the speed is close to 1Gbps

ODYSSEY as a Server and Dual Gigabit Board as a Client

We will now use ODYSSEY - X86J4125 as a server and Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board as a client for the network test

• Step 1. Connect the boards as follows

• Step 2. On the TTYD Terminal window of ODYSSEY - X86J4125, type the following to start iperf3 as a server

iperf3 -s

• Step 3. On the TTYD Terminal window of Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board, type the following to start iperf3 as a client and connect to the server created before

iperf3 -c 192.168.3.1

Note: Here the IP address of the ODYSSEY-X86 server is written

Now you will see the network speed test results as follows

Note: Here you can see the speed is close to 1Gbps

FAQ

Q1: What if I connect the OpenWrt router to my existing router which has a default gateway IP of 192.168.2.1?

Seeed OpenWrt image comes preconfigured with the necessary network settings. You might only need to change one network setting for the scenario which involves the Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board for Raspberry Pi CM4 or ODYSSEY - X86J4125 connecting to your existing router, and the router has the default gateway IP set to 192.168.2.1 which is the same as the default gateway IP for OpenWrt. In this scenario, you need to change the default IP of LAN interface on OpenWrt as follows:

• Step 1. Open a web browser and log in to the OpenWrt portal by typing 192.168.2.1

• Step 2. Navigate to System > TTYD Terminal and login with root as the username

• Step 3. Open the following file

vi /etc/config/network

• Step 4. Change the static IP address on the LAN interface as follows

config interface 'lan'
        option type 'bridge'
        option ifname 'eth0'
        option proto 'static'
        option ipaddr '192.168.3.1'
        option netmask '255.255.255.0'
        option ip6assign '60'

Note: Here the static IP is changhed to 192.168.3.1. However, you can type any IP address of your choice

• Step 4. Reboot the router

reboot

Q2: What if I have the Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board non-CM4 version and attach a CM4 without emmC?

If you want to use a Compute Module 4 without eMMC on the Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board, then you need to flash OpenWrt on to a micro-SD card and insert it into the board. Follow the steps below according to your operating system.

• Step 1. Insert a micro-SD card to the computer using a micro-SD card reader connected to the computer, or by using a built-in card reader on a laptop

• Step 2. Download balenaEtcher software by visiting this link according to your operating system

• Step 3. Run balenaEtcher as administrator

• Step 4. Click Flash from file and point to the OpenWrt image file that you downloaded before

• Step 5. Click Select target and select the connected micro-SD card

• Step 6. Finally, click Flash!

Please wait a few minutes until the flashing process is complete.

• Step 7. Eject the micro-SD card from computer and insert it into the Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board

Q3: I cannot successfully set up Rclone from web UI

Rclone is a program to manage files on cloud storage drives. You can use it to make sure your cloud files are always in sync with the local storage.

Eventhough there is a UI to configure Rclone within OpenWrt Luci interface, you need to first do all the configurations within a command line. After that only you will be able to view your files by using the web UI.

Please follow the steps below:

• Step 1. Visit OpenWrt Luci web UI and navigate to Services > Terminal

• Step 2. Log in with your OpenWrt credentials

• Step 3. Start the rclone configuration process by typing the following

rclone config

• Step 4. Press n and press Enter to create a new remote.

• Step 5. Type a name of your choice for the new remote

• Step 6. Find the type of storage you are creating a remote connection to, and enter the corresponding number from the long list

Note: Here number 13 is chosen for Google Drive as an example

• Step 7. When you are prompted for a Client ID, press Enter to accept the default

• Step 8. When you are prompted for a Client Secret, press Enter to accept the default

• Step 9. Choose 1 as the scope that rclone should use when requesting access from the drive

Note: This will give full access to all the files in the drive

• Step 10. When you are prompted for root folder ID, press Enter to accept the default

• Step 11. When you are prompted for service account credentials JSON file path, press Enter to accept the default

• Step 12. On Edit advanced config prompt, press Enter which selects No by default

• Step 13. On Use auto config menu, press n and then press Enter

• Step 14. Copy and paste the link shown on a web browser

• Step 15. Sign in to your Google account and Allow access

• Step 16. Copy the code shown on the Google sign in page and paste it inside the command line that we used before

• Step 17. On Configure as a team drive press Enter to accept the default

• Step 18. Press Enter to confirm the creation of the remote

You will see the output as follows:

• Step 19. Type q to quit the configuration

• Step 20. Navigate to NAS > Rclone, check the box next to run Rclone as daemon and click SAVE & APPLY

• Step 21. Copy the rclone address

• Step 22. Click WEBUI REACT and a new web page will open

• Step 23. Paste the previously copied rclone address on to the first blank column

• Step 24. Type admin for both username and password, and press Verify

You will see the following output if the connection is verified

• Step 25. Click Login and go to Explore from the side menu

• Step 26. Type the name of the remote we created before and click Open

Now you will see all your files in available in your drive

Resources

• [Web Page] OpenWrt Offficial Documentation

• [GitHub] Seeed OpenWrt

• [OneDrive] Seeed OpenWrt Images

Tech Support

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