11 Oct 08 Linux on a Mikrotik 532a, Part 4 - Customization, Debian Scripts, Shaping, Firewall, NAT, picoLCD

Follow On From: 05 Oct 08 APNIC Box - Linux on a Mikrotik 532a, Part 3 - Installing Debian, Prebuilt Disk Image

Following on from the previous article, I’ve written some scripts which you’ll find in the /root/scripts/ directory of the prebuilt image. I’ve attached and commented them here, as they could also be useful elsewhere.

bridge.sh #For setting up a simple bridge
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Tags: 532a, APNIC Box, bandwidth management, bandwidth rate, bridge, cbq, ifconfig, iproute2, iptables, lcd, Linux, picolcd, qdisc, routerboard, routerboard 532a, shaping, tc, time, usblcd, usleep

05 Oct 08 APNIC Box - Linux on a Mikrotik 532a, Part 3 - Installing Debian, Prebuilt Disk Image

Follow on from 01 Oct 08 APNIC Box - Linux on a Mikrotik 532a, Part 2

The device runs a 2.4.30 kernel on a debian woody (mipsel) environment. If anyone can contribute anything for 2.6.x and debian etch, that would be great.

In this part, I’m going to provide a download link to a prebuilt image which you can write directly onto your own CF card with dd or similar tool. I’m also going to provide a step by step to installing debian yourself without my prebuilt disk image.

Prebuilt image is here:

The prebuilt image also contains a number of scripts and tools that I’ll comment on and come to in later parts.

Now installation instructions:
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Tags: 532a, apnicbox, apt-get, atftpd, CF, compile, cross compile, Custom Kernel, dd, debian, dhcpd, dhcpd.conf installer, forward, initrd, initrd.gz, iptables, ip_forward, kernel, Linux, linuxrc, masquerade, mikrotik, mipsel, mkfs, mknod, mount, partition, prebuild image, routerboard, routerboard 532a, scripts, sed, tftpd, vmlinux, wget

01 Oct 08 APNIC Box - Linux on a Mikrotik 532a, Part 2 - Hardware Modifications

Follow on from 01 Oct 08 APNIC Box - Linux on a Mikrotik 532a, Part 1

Custom Hardware Modifications

Here’s a labelled image of the inside of the device. You can also look towards the bottom left of the image for my simple solder modifications. Enlarge the image to see the labels.

1. External 2.4GHz/5GHz antenna. Same on opposite side.
2. 5V solder point
3. 5V connector for miniPCI USB card
4. 2x 2USB Headers. 1 Header in use providing 2x USB interfaces, one to regular host connector for mass storage or other usb connection. Other port for picoLCD on top
5. 512MB CF card
6. miniPCI USB controller

On the underside of the board there is a single miniPCI socket which houses an Atheros 5212 802.11a/b/g miniPCI card. It has two antenna outputs which run under the board and two the two external antennae. I haven’t taken a picture of this but if anyone really wants to see it, I will power down the device, get a picture of it and post it here.

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Tags: 2.4ghz, 532a, 5ghz, 802.11, antenna, APNIC, APNIC Box, atheros 5212, Linux, mikrotik, minipci, minipci usb, picolcd, routerboard, routerboard 532a, solder, soldering, usb interfaces, usb ports

01 Oct 08 APNIC Box - Linux on a Mikrotik 532a, Part 1 - The Device

I put this device together for fun sometime around the start of 2007. The ideas that spawned this was using OpenWRT on a Linksys WRT54G access point. A surprisingly powerful and full linux distro with all kinds of advanced capabilities running on a Linksys wireless router which I’d previously thought to be a reasonably dumb device with computing power more comparable to a calculator than a PC. The project opened my eyes to embedded devices, and I wondered what device base I should start with. To cut a long story short and for reasons that I can’t even remember anymore I came across the Mikrotik Routerboard 532A and decided that I should start with that.

Conception

Here’s a picture of the device from the outside with some labels, view the full image to see them.

1. Status LEDs. Blue at the bottom left shows it’s on, orange at the top right shows that there’s wifi activity.
2. Ethernet (eth0)
3. Standard Serial Console (57600, 8 N 1)
4. Ethernet (eth1)
5. Ethernet (eth2)

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Tags: adsl2+, APNIC, APNIC Box, distro, ethernet, isp, linksys router, Linux, Linux routing, modem, openwrt, picolcd, public IP, redundancy, routerboard 532a, serial console, switch

26 May 08 Custom linux router, the story..

I have two separate internet providers, two separate static ranges, one from each provider, and a LAN. The purpose of the exercise here was to split traffic between the two providers on an equal 50/50 basis.
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Tags: Linux, mikrotik, minipci, openwrt, picolcd, router, routerboard 532a, usb, wireless