RT firmwares: TCL interpreter - keep it or lose it?

Polls and the resulting discussions.

Do you wish to see the TCL interpreter in future RT firmwares?

No, I never use it / can live without it
33
89%
Yes, I need it!
4
11%
 
Total votes: 37
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jimp
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Post by jimp » Sat Jan 05, 2008 12:30 am

>>I am not sure why using cifs requires an ftp server running on the router.

>Surely it doesn't ? it would be a Samba equivalent wouldn't it ?

A couple of things - tftp, not ftp, and you'd be mounting a remote volume somewhere because there wouldn't really be enough room on the RT box itself to store the files you might want to serve using the tftp server.

If people aren't thinking "that would be useful", then its too much of a niche thing. Anyone who does a variety of remote booting or router debricking might think its a nice idea, but if that isn't very many people then forget I mentioned it.[/quote]
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Post by thechief » Sat Jan 05, 2008 9:05 am

My point is that nothing else needs to be running on the router in order to make use of the feature.
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Post by thechief » Sat Mar 15, 2008 11:24 am

So it looks like Tcl is out. Any objections?
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Post by Shotokan101 » Sat Mar 15, 2008 4:11 pm

Fine by me - basic is better for me - if I can ever think of something to program....
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this and other things

Post by howardiyoung » Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:11 am

Hello, it has been a while since Chief helped me get the router up and running with an RT firmware. I had missed this thread, I think having a sensible language at least available is a good idea as it makes the box more attractive to people like me who want the thing to be something other than a router.
Someone mentioned basic, i know people who love basic so that would be an interesting idea but I took a quick glance at tcl and it looks fine.
This is doubtless useless now as it is presumably removed so my questions are:
1) How hard is it to add and remove packages for the firmware? (so I can add other software), is there a link to some other persons adventures in this area? I am thinking of writing very minimal programs in C compiling and sending to the box if that is sensible, alternatively a tutorial on simply compiling and uploading an existing package such as TCL and then uploading (or if necessary compiling the entire firmware with additional program and uploading); I wanted to screw around with the wireless software available anyway?
2) TFTP, mentioned earlier in this script. Did anyone look at this further? I used to be a network administrator. This was actually something I needed to achieve so my little "yes please" lightbulb lit up when I saw mention of it. I have a network attached disk which runs some rubbish version of SMB and an FTP server. If I could use the TFTP option in DHCP to initiate an FTP connection from the FTP so that any etherboot/pxe/perhaps rpl system can be booted into a GUI without dirtying the hard disk. This makes backup, install and recovery of computers easier and it also allows for decent clustering although WOL tends to be favourable for that type of thing (do we have WOL?).
3) Has anyone used the box for processing and saving information remotely? I expected that TCL/Bash made this possible through whatever socket, FTP or other network programs included?
4)Are there any listing of established branches for this box? I mean with the NAS projects there are lists of packages and various branches aiming to achieve different things are there any for this?
5)My oldest AWR-1200 router (now owned by someone else) had a rather useful DNS server built into its firmware. Is there one available for any of these firmwares?
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Re: this and other things

Post by mstombs » Mon Jun 02, 2008 9:20 am

A start to reply...
howardiyoung wrote:...I took a quick glance at tcl and it looks fine.
This is doubtless useless now as it is presumably removed
It's still there in RT2.5, the debate continues
1) How hard is it to add and remove packages for the firmware? (so I can add other software), is there a link to some other persons
adventures in this area? I am thinking of writing very minimal programs in C compiling and sending to the box if that is sensible, alternatively a tutorial on simply compiling and uploading an existing package such as TCL and then uploading (or if necessary compiling the entire firmware with additional program and uploading); I wanted to screw around with the wireless software available anyway?
It is relatively easy to test new programs running from /var which is a ram disk, or /cifs if you have mounted a samba disk, see the repository here for pre-compiled binaries:

viewforum.php?f=28

and here for an example build script if you want to try compiling your own:

viewtopic.php?t=1324&start=0&postdays=0 ... ght=cflags
2) TFTP,
Busybox minimal implementation of tftp is built into the firmware and can be used to send/get files from a tftp server. There is no option I have seen in the dhcp server though to add/use tftp, maybe you'd have to look at using dnsmasq...
WOL
Yes there is WOL function in the firmware, you can also wake machine by port forwarding magic packets apparently...
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udhcpd (infernal)

Post by howardiyoung » Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:02 pm

The articles were interesting, thank you.

Should you attempt to configure and use udhcpd in such a way that it provides a bootfile via a tftp server, consider trying the BOOTP settings before attempting to use the DHCP OPTIONs. I spent quite some time today fiddling around with the thing and a fair amount of the time was wasted on cycling through configurations of the file name, absolute, relative, in quotes out and so on (plus i had to run up and down stairs each time making me all the more annoyed... imagine). Eventually after a stupid amount of time I tried:

opt siaddr 10.0.0.177
opt boot_file "/pxelinux.0"

which worked. When using DHCP the filename was always wrong (report by the PXE client). The logs for the TFTP server showed that a non standard symbol was being appended in all cases. Using BOOTP made this not happen.

I have not yet tested this on the RT box, just my normal computer using hopefully the same software "UDHCPD".
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Space

Post by howardiyoung » Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:35 pm

1 How may I find out exactly how much data I can put on the box?
2 Is there any way to put additional pages for use as the interface on the box? I would like to make a page with a few forms and a script that it calls to generate some files on the box.
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Post by thechief » Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:40 pm

Theoretically, the free space = sizeof (flash) - sizeof (firmware_image) - give or take a few kilobytes.

Shouldn't this discussion be now moved to another thread?
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Another thread

Post by howardiyoung » Wed Jun 04, 2008 12:50 am

yes,.. but...how do i move it?
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Re: Another thread

Post by Shotokan101 » Wed Jun 04, 2008 12:53 am

howardiyoung wrote:yes,.. but...how do i move it?
"YOU" can't :lol:

Suggest a sensible title via PM and I'll split off the latest discussions :)
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