OpenWrt Forum Archive

Topic: How to install openwrt on a PC (x86)

The content of this topic has been archived on 19 Apr 2018. There are no obvious gaps in this topic, but there may still be some posts missing at the end.

I have tried to install for 2 weeks. There are some links all over the internet. But I didn't succeed. I hope someone here can point me how to install it successfully.

What I tried to accomplish: Install openwrt on a Pentium 4 PC

Machine information:
  CPU: Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz
  Controller: Serial ATA Port: SATA-0 (manufacturer Maxtor)


What I have done step by step:

1. Using ubuntu 12.04 CD to boot the machine, I don't install but using "Try Ubuntu"
2. Once machine is up, open firefox browser to download backfire 10.03 x86 openwrt-x86-ext2.image.gz  to local say: /tmp, the link address is: http://downloads.openwrt.org/backfire/1 … 2.image.gz
3. Under /tmp, do:
   gunzip openwrt-x86-ext2.image.gz
which generates openwrt-x86-ext2.image
4. using command:
  dd if=openwrt-x86-ext2.image of=/dev/sda
5. Reboot the machine

After reboot, I do see the boot loader message where I chose "OpenWrt", the boot log information appears, eventually it stuck at:
...
e100: eth0 NIC Link is UP 100 Mbps Full Duplex
ne2k-pci.c: v1.03 9/22/2003 D. Becher/P. Gortmaker
device eth0 entered promiscuous mode
br-lan: port 1(eth0) entering forwarding state
pcnet32.c: v1.35 21.Apr.2008 tsbogend@alpha.franken.de
sis900.c: v1.08.10 Apr. 2 2006
via-rhine.c: v1.10-LK1.4.3 2007-03-06 Written by Donal Becker


Do you guys know why my installation is stuck? Is there any document on installing openwrt on a PC? I tried https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=20478 but unfortunately it didn't work for me. I felt most of the documents I found online is like this one. It didn't work and felt like lots of interior information was omitted.

Thanks.

(Last edited by webinfinite on 10 Nov 2013, 22:10)

I've been trying the latest generic x86 for trunk in Virtualbox and one of the conditions to boot is to disable SATA and enable IDE for the storage device so if you are using a SATA disk then maybe there is no SATA modules in the kernel to boot from your HDD.

The discussion might have continued from here.