Semi-Official PBO custom packs ..

[eruisi]

Hi, guys:

I have a generic question for custom firmwares:
I flashed a custom firmware to my PBO. There are some optwares pre-installed at /opt (in flash ROM I believe) and I installed internal HDD want to install more optwares.
My question is how can I move /opt from flash rom to hdd diskvolume? I want to create a sympble link /opt to the path of HDD opt directory.

I tried mount -o remount r,w / but I still can not move /opt directory.
Thanks for any help!

[aasoror]

Which custom firmware are you using ?
the command should be "mount -o remount,rw /"
But if I remember correctly the symlink should be to an ext3 partition not an NTFS one.

[eruisi]

Which custom firmware are you using ?
the command should be "mount -o remount,rw /"
But if I remember correctly the symlink should be to an ext3 partition not an NTFS one.

Sorry I use mount command as you said still no luck.
I am using a Chinese firmware (squashFS, not yafFS. I guess this is the reason). Here is my disk info, it shows / is 100% used:

~ # df -h
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 49.6M 49.6M 0 100% /
/dev/mtdblock/2 40.0M 1.8M 38.2M 5% /usr/local/etc
/dev/rd/0 40.0k 40.0k 0 100% /mnt/rd
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 931.0G 109.1G 821.9G 12% /tmp/hdd/volumes/HDD1
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part3 151.9M 4.0M 140.0M 3% /tmp/hdd/root
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 931.0G 109.1G 821.9G 12% /tmp/usbmounts/hdd

Any ideas how to make / writable?

[snappy46]

Sorry I use mount command as you said still no luck.
I am using a Chinese firmware (squashFS, not yafFS. I guess this is the reason). Here is my disk info, it shows / is 100% used:

~ # df -h
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 49.6M 49.6M 0 100% /
/dev/mtdblock/2 40.0M 1.8M 38.2M 5% /usr/local/etc
/dev/rd/0 40.0k 40.0k 0 100% /mnt/rd
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 931.0G 109.1G 821.9G 12% /tmp/hdd/volumes/HDD1
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part3 151.9M 4.0M 140.0M 3% /tmp/hdd/root
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 931.0G 109.1G 821.9G 12% /tmp/usbmounts/hdd

Any ideas how to make / writable?

If you do actually already have a /opt directory and have a squashfs filesystem the only thing you can do to make it writable is to overmount it. Since you have room available on the /usr/local/etc I recommend that you overmount there which is an EXT3 filesystem to avoid problems. To do this issue the following commands:

# mkdir /usr/local/etc/opt
# mount -o bind /usr/local/etc/opt /opt

That's it your /opt will now be writable. You can put that mount command "mount -o bind /usr/local/etc/opt /opt" at the end of /usr/local/etc/rcS so that the overmount occurs automatically on boot up. Also if the /opt does exist and is not empty you will need to copy it to /usr/local/etc/opt before you issue the overmount (mount -o bind) command.

 cp -r /opt /usr/local/etc

This previous command will do that for you.


If a /opt directory do not already exist then you are out of luck; you will need to unpack your firmware; add the /opt ; repack firmware and flash your media player.

Good luck.

[eruisi]

Thank you for your detailed instruction. Really appreciate it. Is it possible to overmount /opt to HDD? I can format it to ext3 if necessary. This way I won't be facing disk space issue.

Thanks!

If you do actually already have a /opt directory and have a squashfs filesystem the only thing you can do to make it writable is to overmount it. Since you have room available on the /usr/local/etc I recommend that you overmount there which is an EXT3 filesystem to avoid problems. To do this issue the following commands:

# mkdir /usr/local/etc/opt
# mount -o bind /usr/local/etc/opt /opt

That's it your /opt will now be writable. You can put that mount command "mount -o bind /usr/local/etc/opt /opt" at the end of /usr/local/etc/rcS so that the overmount occurs automatically on boot up. Also if the /opt does exist and is not empty you will need to copy it to /usr/local/etc/opt before you issue the overmount (mount -o bind) command.

 cp -r /opt /usr/local/etc

This previous command will do that for you.


If a /opt directory do not already exist then you are out of luck; you will need to unpack your firmware; add the /opt ; repack firmware and flash your media player.

Good luck.

[snappy46]

Thank you for your detailed instruction. Really appreciate it. Is it possible to overmount /opt to HDD? I can format it to ext3 if necessary. This way I won't be facing disk space issue.

Thanks!

You can do that however keep it mind that to get the PBO firmware happy it needs some specific partition on the HDD to stop it from wanting to format the HDD everytime you turn on the PBO. Basically when the PBO format the HDD it creates 3 partitions:

1) Large NTFS Partition
2) small linux swap Partiton
3) small EXT3 partition (This one is actually mounted as /tmp/hdd/root )

If the PBO (firmware) does not find those partition it will bug you about formatting your HDD. To avoid this you could just let the PBO format the disk for you and then connect your PBO to a PC (running linux) using the mini usb connecting and manipulate the partition size with something like gparted. I suggest you just shink the NTFS partition and then create a new 4th partiton or you could increase the size of the EXT3 partition /tmp/hdd/root and create your optware directory on the /tmp/hdd/root/opt .

Cheers !!

[eruisi]

/user/local/etc/ doesn't have enough space for /opt, will have to overmount to HDD.
I am planning to enlarge ext3 partition using fdisk (empty data first, of course). How much space I should reserve for ext3? I want enough space for complete ipkg, even though I am not planning install all packages.

Thanks you so much for the help! Really appreciate it!

You can do that however keep it mind that to get the PBO firmware happy it needs some specific partition on the HDD to stop it from wanting to format the HDD everytime you turn on the PBO. Basically when the PBO format the HDD it creates 3 partitions:

1) Large NTFS Partition
2) small linux swap Partiton
3) small EXT3 partition (This one is actually mounted as /tmp/hdd/root )

If the PBO (firmware) does not find those partition it will bug you about formatting your HDD. To avoid this you could just let the PBO format the disk for you and then connect your PBO to a PC (running linux) using the mini usb connecting and manipulate the partition size with something like gparted. I suggest you just shink the NTFS partition and then create a new 4th partiton or you could increase the size of the EXT3 partition /tmp/hdd/root and create your optware directory on the /tmp/hdd/root/opt .

Cheers !!

[aasoror]

/user/local/etc/ doesn't have enough space for /opt, will have to overmount to HDD.

remove /user/local/etc/linked/scripts/bin folder, this will free 8 MBs for you.

[snappy46]

I am planning to enlarge ext3 partition using fdisk (empty data first, of course). How much space I should reserve for ext3? I want enough space for complete ipkg, even though I am not planning install all packages.

Can't really help you there I have no idea just how big the full optware repository actually is. Therefore your guess is as good as mine .... probably better.

[eruisi]

Can't really help you there I have no idea just how big the full optware repository actually is. Therefore your guess is as good as mine .... probably better.

NP. You helped me a lot, especially the overmount part... Thanks!