185 lines
5.4 KiB
ReStructuredText
185 lines
5.4 KiB
ReStructuredText
User Manual
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###########
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This manual is an early work in progress, not least because Liminix is
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not yet ready for users who are not also developers.
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Configuring for your use case
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*****************************
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You need to create a ``configuration.nix`` that describes your router
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and the services that you want to run on it. Start by copying
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``vanilla-configuration.nix`` and adjusting it, or look in the `examples`
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directory for some pre-written configurations.
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Your configuration may include modules and probably _should_
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include the ``standard`` module unless you understand what it
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does and what happens if you leave it out.
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.. code-block: nix
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imports = [
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./modules/standard.nix
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]
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Building and flashing
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*********************
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An example command to build Liminix might look like this:
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.. code-block:: console
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nix-build -I liminix-config=./tests/smoke/configuration.nix \
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--arg device "import ./devices/qemu" -A outputs.default
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In this command ``<liminix-config>`` points to your
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``configuration.nix``, ``device`` is the file for your hardware device
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definition, and ``outputs.default`` will generate some kind of
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Liminix image output appropriate to that device.
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For the qemu device in this example, ``outputs.default`` is an alias
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for ``outputs.vmbuild``, which creates a directory containing a
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squashfs root image and a kernel. You can use the `mips-vm` command to
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run this.
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For the currently supported hardware devices, ``outputs.default``
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creates a directory containing a file called ``firmware.bin``. This
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is a raw image file that can be written directly to the firmware flash
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partition.
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Flashing with :command:`flashcp`
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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This requires an existing Liminix system, or perhaps some other
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operating system on the device which provides the :command:`flashcp`
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command. You need to locate the "firmware" partition, which you can do
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with a combination of :command:`dmesg` output and the contents of
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:file:`/proc/mtd`
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**Don't do this on a device that's running on the same flash partition
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as you're about to overwrite, otherwise you're likely to crash it. Use
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kexecboot (see "Updates to running devices" below) first to reboot
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into a RAM-based system.**
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.. code-block:: console
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<5>[ 0.469841] Creating 4 MTD partitions on "spi0.0":
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<5>[ 0.474837] 0x000000000000-0x000000040000 : "u-boot"
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<5>[ 0.480796] 0x000000040000-0x000000050000 : "u-boot-env"
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<5>[ 0.487056] 0x000000050000-0x000000060000 : "art"
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<5>[ 0.492753] 0x000000060000-0x000001000000 : "firmware"
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# cat /proc/mtd
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dev: size erasesize name
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mtd0: 00040000 00001000 "u-boot"
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mtd1: 00010000 00001000 "u-boot-env"
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mtd2: 00010000 00001000 "art"
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mtd3: 00fa0000 00001000 "firmware"
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mtd4: 002a0000 00001000 "kernel"
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mtd5: 00d00000 00001000 "rootfs"
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Then you can copy the image to the device with :command:`ssh`
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.. code-block:: console
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build-machine$ tar chf - result/firmware.bin | \
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ssh root@the-device tar -C /run -xvf -
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and then connect to the device and run
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.. code-block:: console
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flashcp -v firmware.bin /dev/mtd3
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Flashing from OpenWrt (untested)
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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If your device is running OpenWrt then it probably has the
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:command:`mtd` command installed and you can use it as follows:
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.. code-block:: console
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mtd -r write /tmp/firmware_image.bin firmware
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For more information, please see the `OpenWrt manual <https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/sysupgrade.cli>`_
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Flashing from the boot monitor
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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If you are prepared to open the device and have a TTL serial adaptor
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of some kind to connect it to, you can probably flash it using U-Boot.
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This is quite hardware-specific: please refer to the Developer Manual.
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Updates to running devices
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**************************
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To mitigate the risk of flashing a new configuration and potentially
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render the device unresponsive if the configuration is unbootable or
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doesn't bring up a network device, Liminix has a
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"try before write" mode.
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To test a configuration without writing it to flash, import the
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``kexecboot`` module and build ``outputs.kexecboot`` instead of
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``outputs.default``. This generates a directory containing the root
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filesystem image and kernel, along with an executable called `kexec`
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and a `boot.sh` script that runs it with appropriate arguments.
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For example
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.. code-block:: console
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nix-build --show-trace -I liminix-config=./examples/arhcive.nix \
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--arg device "import ./devices/gl-ar750"
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-A outputs.kexecboot && \
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(tar chf - result | ssh root@the-device tar -C /run -xvf -)
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and then login to the device and run
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.. code-block:: console
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cd /run/result
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sh ./boot.sh .
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This will load the new kernel and map the root filesystem into a RAM
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disk, then start executing the new kernel. *This is effectively a
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reboot - be sure to close all open files and finish anything else
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you were doing first.*
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If the new system crashes or is rebooted, then the device will revert
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to the old configuration it finds in flash. Thus, by combining kexec
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boot with a hardware watchdog you can try new images with very little
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chance of bricking anything. When you are happy that the new
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configuration is correct, build and flash a flashable image of it.
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Module options (tbd)
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**************
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Foo module
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==========
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Module docs will go here. This part of the doc should be autogenerated.
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Bar module
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==========
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Baz module
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==========
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Quuz net device
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===============
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