Collabora ports Debian to OpenWrt One

OpenWrt One is the first own router of the OpenWrt project. It was developed in cooperation with Banana Pi and Mediatek. Of course, the router operating system OpenWrt runs on it with a U-Boot bootloader. Now, however, Collabora, otherwise known primarily for office software, has ported the Debian Linux distribution to the device.

OpenWrt One has an upgradeable hardware base, which is based on Mediatek's ARM processor MT7981B, also known as Filogic 820, with two Cortex-A53 cores. This is complemented by an MT7976C WLAN module that supports Wi-Fi 6. It comes with 256 MByte Flash memory and a recovery bootloader in a 16 MByte NOR flash memory connected via SPI. The developers have also included an SSD slot for NVMe SSDs with lengths of 30 or 42 mm.

Debian on OpenWrt One: Install SSD

According to a blog post by Sjoerd Simons on Collabora's website, this is also necessary to get the Debian system onto the OpenWrt One. “With OpenWrt-One-Debian, you can now install and run a complete Debian system using the NVMe storage of the OpenWrt One,” explains Simons. He further enthuses that this “enables everything from custom services and containers to development tools and lightweight server workloads, all on open hardware.”

Simons has made his project available on GitHub as open source. He emphasizes that with the full Debian on NVMe SSD, it's not just a restricted embedded system running. This allows the use of familiar package management programs, usual services, and development processes. He names experimentation, edge computing, self-hosting services, or development use as purposes.

Simons lists an OpenWrt One, an NVMe SSD in the device, access via serial console (via the front USB-C port at 115200 baud), and a USB stick for installation as prerequisites for installation. The latest build can be downloaded via a dedicated link and should be transferred to the USB stick with a FAT or FAT32 file system. The installation is said to proceed in two steps, with the U-Boot bootloader being replaced in the first step and then the system being flashed from the USB stick to the SSD in the second step. The project page on GitHub details the necessary steps. If testers want to switch back to OpenWrt, Simons refers them to the corresponding instructions from the OpenWrt project.

(dmk)