TomatoUSB

I've just finished getting avahi up & running on my Asus RT-N16, and configured to advertise the following services:

• Tomato's admin webif
• shared USB printing
• ssh login
• a few others…

It works perfectly, but is still a work in progress, has some of cruft under the hood, and could be pared down a lot (so it could fit in routers that have a smaller flash chip)…nevertheless…

It is useful,

• since any Bonjour-enabled web browser can find the webif automagically,
• the printer automatically advertises itself over the network, so it is easier to set up, and
• in general, all services can be advertised over the network and are easier to configure on the client.

This isn't all my original idea… avahi & Bonjour have been around for years, and "howl" also has been around for a long time. When I was working/helping with foonas (foonas.org), it was used to advertise the AFP protocol for an opensource TimeCapsule (alternative to Apple's product) and for p910nd as well. The article here Adventures w/ dd-wrt and Avahi is definitely dd-wrt-centric, but it gave me a foothold/template for what to do.

Tomato and dd-wrt are far from identical, so what I did was not identical to what was done in the article, but it follows the same idea. There is definitely cruft here… I share this with the thought that others will try it, find it useful, and make improvements and clean up the cruft and any errors.

This is roughly what I did:
1. Install TomatoUSB Ext, configure & check that I have telnet/internet access and can reach the servers that have the Optware feeds.

• I used the dd-wrt mini rt-n16 build as a preliminary step to install the latest Ext build for the R2 chipset. Be careful that you have enough space on your router.
• Set your network parameters so that you can ping something like yahoo.com, and change the hostname from 'unknown' to whatever you want.
• Test that you have telnet access.

2. Set up the jffs partition, install Optware and adjust some directories & symlinks so that flash is not overused.
*In the Admin:JFFS page, enable and format the jffs partition. This will give you persistent storage on the flash chip.
*Install Optware, either in /jffs, on a USB hdd, or some other location, according to this excellent guide from dd-wrt . I basically followed steps 2.1-2.2. Even routers with just a little space in jffs can be fitted with optware, using an attached USB drive. Since my RT-N16 has a lot of space for jffs, I didn't use the usb storage for /opt.

mkdir /jffs/opt
mount -o bind /jffs/opt /opt
wget http://www.3iii.dk/linux/optware/optware-install-ddwrt.sh -O - | tr -d '\r' > /tmp/optware-install.sh
sh /tmp/optware-install.sh

You should see something similar to this:

Checking system config …
Using 192.168.1.1 as default gateway.
Using the following nameserver(s):
nameserver 192.168.1.30
Warning: local nameserver is different than gateway!
Check config or enter:
sed -i s/192.168.*/192.168.1.1/ /tmp/resolv.conf
to correct this.
Installing package uclibc-opt_0.9.28-13_mipsel.ipk …
Connecting to ipkg.nslu2-linux.org[140.211.166.82]:80
uclibc-opt_0.9.28-12 100% |*| 832 KB 00:00:00 ETA
Updating /opt/etc/ld.so.cache
/opt/sbin/ldconfig: can't create /opt/etc/ld.so.cache~ (No such file or directory)
Installing package ipkg-opt_0.99.163-9_mipsel.ipk …
Connecting to ipkg.nslu2-linux.org[140.211.166.82]:80
ipkg-opt_0.99.163-9_ 100% |*| 75896 00:00:00 ETA
Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable/Packages.gz
Inflating http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable/Packages.gz
Updated list of available packages in /opt/lib/ipkg/lists/optware
Successfully terminated.
Installing uclibc-opt (0.9.28-12) to /opt/…
Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable/uclibc-opt_0.9.28-12_mipsel.ipk
package uclibc-opt suggests installing ipkg-opt
Configuring uclibc-opt
Updating /opt/etc/ld.so.cache
Successfully terminated.
Installing ipkg-opt (0.99.163-9) to /opt/…
Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ddwrt/cross/stable/ipkg-opt_0.99.163-9_mipsel.ipk
Configuring ipkg-opt
Successfully terminated.

You can read a bit more about how ipkg works at the dd-wrt Optware instruction page.

Now we take care of a potential problem: over-use of the flash memory. /opt/var is in /jffs, really, and we don't want to do too many writes to jffs. So we will delete the actual directory, and replace it with a symlink to /tmp/var, which is in (non-persistent) RAM.

rm -r /opt/var
ln -s /tmp/var /opt/var

Now fire up ipkg and install avahi and its dependencies.

/opt/bin/ipkg-opt --tmp-dir /tmp install avahi unzip

This will install avahi, dbus, expat and a bunch of other packages. Unfortunately, the optware maintainers didn't configure the build of dbus the way we need, it so you have to force a reinstall of a "good" dbus package. Download/wget it from here : discussion about broken ipkg 's in the optware feed : get the file dbus_1.2.16-2_mipsel.ipk.zip, unzip it, and then force installation.

cd /tmp
wget http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/download.php?id=14992&sid=bc4f40382d4c2fa597a8cdf6aa8ef452
mv download.php?id\=14992 dbus-nopie-option.zip
unzip dbus-nopie-option.zip
ipkg -force-depends install dbus_1.2.16-2_mipsel.ipk

3. Add in some scripts in /jffs and in the webif to start services at the right time during the boot process.

In the webif, in Admin:Scripts:Firewall, I added in the following:

 sleep 5
mount -o bind /jffs/opt /opt
mount -f   -o noatime,remount -t ext3 /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 /opt 
echo "netdev:x:1:" >> /tmp/etc/group 
echo "avahi:x:2:" >> /tmp/etc/group 
echo "avahi:x:2:2:avahi daemon:/opt/sbin/avahi-daemon:/bin/false" >> /tmp/etc/passwd
sleep 5
for f in /opt/etc/init.d/S* ; do [ -x $f ] && $f start ; done
sleep 5
for f in /opt/etc/init.d/S* ; do [ -x $f ] && $f start ; done

Cruft alert: Yes, I know there are two occurences. I'm not 100% sure what the problem is or why two starts are needed to get dbus and avahi both successfully up. I suspect it is something to do with the chown command around line 90? in the dbus init script.

The dbus init script is included in the ipkg, and it resides at /opt/etc/init.d/S20dbus. Oddly, the optware maintainers did not provide an initscript for avahi-daemon, so we must add in one manually at /opt/etc/init.d/S21avahi-daemon as follows:

#!/bin/sh
EXE=avahi-daemon
BIN=/opt/sbin/$EXE
OPTIONS="-D"
RUN_D=/opt/var/run/$EXE
case $1 in
 start)
  mkdir -p $RUN_D
  $BIN $OPTIONS
  ;;
 stop)
  $BIN -k
  ;;
 reload)
  if [ -f $RUN_D/pid ]; then
        $BIN -r;
  else
        mkdir -p $RUN_D;
        $BIN $OPTIONS;
  fi
  ;;
 restart)
  if [ -f $RUN_D/pid ]; then
          $BIN -k
  fi
  mkdir -p $RUN_D
  $BIN $OPTIONS
  ;;
 *)
  echo "usage: $0 (start|stop|reload|restart)"
  exit 1
esac
exit $?

4. Tweak avahi's config with some definitions of services that you will probably be running.
For shared USB printing, here is a definition that should be created at /opt/etc/avahi/services/p910nd.service.

<service-group>
<name replace-wildcards="yes">p910nd printer on %h</name>
<service protocol="any">
<host-name></host-name>
<type>_pdl-datastream._tcp</type>
<port>9100</port>
<txt-record>product=usb shared network printer</txt-record>
</service>
</service-group>

So that any Bonjour-enabled webbrowser can easily find the Tomato webif, add this at /opt/etc/avahi/services/webif.service :

<?xml version="1.0" standalone='no'?><!*-nxml-*>
<!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">
<service-group>
<name replace-wildcards="yes">%h admin webif</name>
<service>
<type>_http._tcp</type>
<port>80</port>
</service>
</service-group>

Research on your own how to add more service definitions such as Samba, if you wish.

5. Restart and enjoy. If you use OS X, Linux (or to a lesser extent, Windows w/ Bonjour installed) you will be able to configure your client more easily now.

If you use these directions, please keep a record of your results, and post back with problems that you found.

This is great… any chance of getting Avahi service broadcast integrated directly into TomatoUSB without having to use Optware? For those with room to spare on their routers (i.e. RT-N16 users), this would be an excellent usability upgrade.

Well, I posted it on the "Wish List" subforum here : Feature Requests : Avahi/Bonjour Service Advertising... … and I see that you already voted for it… thanks JPorter900.

It is functional as is, but I'm sure that the initscripts need to be cleaned up a lot, and maybe the group/user structure simplified. The setup that OpenWRT uses may be a bit more to our needs.

You don't need to mess with jffs at all, if you have an attached USB hard drive. Just create an opt directory on it and then do the "mount -o bind" command on it. If you are using a relatively recent TomatoUSB, then you can take advantage of the autorun feature of disk automounting.

Just create a script like this in the top directory of your USB drive. Don't forget to do chmod a+x on it, to make it executable.

cat /tmp/mnt/ext_160/05-setup_opt.autorun

#!/bin/sh

logger This is $1/05-setup_opt.autorun  [$0] [$1]

[[ xx == x$1x ]] && (logger No pathname parameter [$0] ; exit)

[[ -d $1/opt ]] && logger $1 has OPT directory
# Mount the opt directory on this disk to /OPT
# But only if it hasn't been done yet.
[[ -d $1/opt ]] && [[  $1/opt -ef /opt ]] && logger "/OPT is already mounted."
[[ -d $1/opt ]] && [[ ! $1/opt -ef /opt ]] && mount -o bind $1/opt /opt

# Start up various programs & daemons.
if [ -d $1/opt/config ] ; then
$1/opt/config/watchdog-start
# $1/opt/config/torrent-start
fi

cp $1/restart /home/root/

You don't need to mess with jffs at all,…

yep, ray123, I agree… USB will work fine, and (though I've never tried it) apparently CIFS will do as well. I just opted to make some use out of the 24.5 MB of flash that I had left over… seemed a terrible waste of space. As long as one has the space and it isn't written to frequently (repeatedly with log files, etc.) there is no great danger.

One thing that should be mentioned is that if a user upgrades Tomato's firmware, then it is a good idea to backup everything in /jffs and note any significant changes that were made, so that a complete reinstallation isn't necessary.

I'm thinking that this might be doable with the zcip applet/services in busybox. I've never tried it by using just Busybox, though, and it would require a rebuild of busybox with zcip enabled.

a bit of a twist for this… if you are using OS X, you can modify/tweak the service files so that a particular icon is shown in the finder bar:

My Samba share from my RT-N16 shows up as an Xserve.
The code for this is simple: create a file /opt/etc/avahi/services/samba.service as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" standalone='no'?><!--*-nxml-*-->
<!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">
<service-group>
<name replace-wildcards="yes">%h</name>
<service>
<type>_smb._tcp</type>
<port>139</port>
</service>
<service>
<type>_device-info._tcp</type>
<port>0</port>
<txt-record>model=Xserve</txt-record>
</service>
</service-group>

The Xserve isn't really the best choice I guess, Airport might be better, since it is wireless.

OK, refined:

<?xml version="1.0" standalone='no'?><!--*-nxml-*-->
<!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">
<service-group>
<name replace-wildcards="yes">%h AirDisk</name>
<service>
<type>_smb._tcp</type>
<port>139</port>
</service>
<service>
<type>_device-info._tcp</type>
<port>0</port>
<txt-record>model=AirPort</txt-record>
</service>
</service-group>

yields a more appropriate result:

… the icon even looks like the Asus RT-N16, as a coincidence…

For the file /opt/etc/init.d/S21avahi-daemon, I had to change RUN_D=/var/run/$EXE to RUN_D=/opt/var/run/$EXE, otherwise S21avahi-daemon reload would fail because the pid file was not being read and the program would try and start again and fail because it's already running.

Also, before the echo commands in step 3 (where you add code to the Firewall Up script), I removed the RUN_D directories because dbus wasn't starting (there may be a less brutal method than this, but it works for me and the init.d script recreate the folders anyway):

rm -rf /opt/var/run/dbus
rm -rf /opt/var/run/avahi-daemon

Finally, I created an Avahi services file for telnet, which on OS X will display under Shell > New Remote Command. The file /opt/etc/avahi/services/telnet.service contains:

<?xml version="1.0" standalone='no'?>
<!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">
<service-group>
      <name replace-wildcards="yes">%h</name>
      <service>
          <type>_telnet._tcp</type>
          <port>23</port>
      </service>
</service-group>

Thank you davygravy for posting this information!

I've followed everything above to get avahi to run and it won't as the D-bus daemon won't load. Here is the tomato log:

aemon.info avahi-daemon[723]: Successfully dropped root privileges.
Jun 20 12:16:09 RT-N16 daemon.info avahi-daemon[723]: avahi-daemon 0.6.30 starting up.
Jun 20 12:16:09 RT-N16 daemon.warn avahi-daemon[723]: WARNING: No NSS support for mDNS detected, consider installing nss-mdns!
Jun 20 12:16:09 RT-N16 daemon.err avahi-daemon[723]: dbus_bus_get_private(): Failed to connect to socket /opt/var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket: Connection refused
Jun 20 12:16:09 RT-N16 daemon.warn avahi-daemon[723]: WARNING: Failed to contact D-Bus daemon.
Jun 20 12:16:09 RT-N16 daemon.info avahi-daemon[723]: avahi-daemon 0.6.30 exiting.
'
When I use the command 'S20dbus start' in /opt/etc/initd.d I get system message bus already started; not starting.'

So I try 'S20dbus restart' and I get 'Stopping system message bus: kill: can't kill pid 725: No such process'

Anyone have any ideas?

I can manually get dbus to load by 'rm -rf /opt/var/run/dbus' and then '/opt/etc/init.d/S20dbus start'. Then avahi loads fine manually.

Dbus is not loading when those commands are in the firewall script in tomato. There is no mention of dbus trying to load just of avahi loading and not finding dbus.

Anyone else run into this?