What is Image Builder
A packaging tool officially distributed by the OpenWrt Project. You can include or delete any opkg file from the beginning in the install image file for each model.
It is of course to exclude unnecessary pkg from the beginning, but by the initial install the pkg you can to reduce the flash memory usage than to install in opkg command later.
Unlike the SDK, to create an image by combining the compiled pkg file
does not have a problem with low-spec of the PC environment. Virtual machines such as VirtualBOX / VMware are also sufficient
Preparing Linux for work
Prepare Linux such as ubuntu, debian, CentOS. The architecture must be x86_64.
Install the packages required for build.
In the case of CentOS7, the following was required.
yum install git gawk gettext ncurses-devel zlib-devel openssl-devel libxslt wget
yum -y groupinstall base "Development tools" --setopt = group_package_types = mandatory, default, optional
For ubuntu 18.04.2 the following was required:
apt-get install build-essential libncurses5-dev zlib1g-dev gawk git gettext libssl-dev xsltproc wget unzip python curl
Obtaining and deploying an image builder
Image Builder is divided by target.
The imagebuilder link is displayed at the bottom of the hierarchy where the installation image is placed. Download and expand it.
When downloading the imagebuilder for “18.06.4” and “ramips” to the current directory while downloading, it will be as follows.
curl https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.4/targets/ramips/mt7621/openwrt-imagebuilder-18.06.4-ramips-mt7621.Linux-x86_64.tar.xz | tar Jxv
Basic operations of Image Builder
1) Display the included target. The model name displayed here is the PROFILE name.
make info
2) Delete the temporary generation file Delete the generated image and intermediate files and make it clean.
make clean
3) Generate image
make image
If no argument is given, an image of all models is generated.
make image PROFILE = "wsr-1166"
If you specify PROFILE displayed by make info, an image of only that model will be generated.
Note that Web Builder’s luci and uhttpd are not included by default in Image Builder.
Custom image creation
You can increase or decrease the number of pkg files with the PACKAGES parameter of make image.
make image PACKAGES = "pkg1 -pkg2"
If so, add pkg1 and exclude pkg2.
Even if it is installed, it may generate a brick image.
Carefully consider the addition and exclusion of pkg, considering its meaning and capacity.
Example of creating an image that excludes USB and wireless drivers including Web-GUI for WSR-1166
make image PROFILE = "wsr-1166" PACKAGES = "kmod-mt7603 -kmod-rt2800-pci -wpad-mini -iwinfo -kmod-usb-core -kmod-usb-ledtrig-usbport -kmod-usb3 -kmod-cfg80211 -hostapd-common -kmod-mac80211 -kmod-mt7603 -wireless-regdb uhttpd luci "
The generated image is in bin / targets /.
The manifest file contains the name of the installed pkg including dependencies.