This doesnt work with the PV73100 v7.3.X.r4368 firmware. The new firmware uses squashfs instead of yaffs2 which is read only. Doing this I still end up with root using 100%. And even if there's somehow some free space, its read only so it can't be modified anyway.

Is it possible to create a symbolic link for the required directory for optware in root to another directory with write access? I'm unsure how to modify the upg file for the squashfs directory.

In order to create a symbolic link to the root you would have to be able to write to the root which you can not. It would be very nice if the POHD firmware would provide a symbolic link to let say /usr/local/etc/ from /opt in their firmware. Until they do this you are pretty stuck unless you can modify the upg file yourself. The big problem with that is that the POHD firmware is also encrypted so there's one more obstacle. So just using unsquash on the upg file does not work you first must removed the encryption that has been applied to the upg file first.

Unfortunately optware expect to be installed under the /opt directory as well as there dependencies hence you really need a /opt directory unless you fell like recompiling the software you want to use into a stand alone app. using static libraries.

Those with a squashfs who aren't averse to trying some command line shenanigans but don't want to repack the firmware could try the following:

This is called fun with chroot:
mkdir /usr/local/etc/newroot
cd /usr/local/etc/newroot
mkdir bin dev etc lib mnt proc sbin sys tmp tmp_orig usr var opt
touch Test.fat
touch linuxrc
mount -o bind /bin bin
mount -o bind /dev dev
mount -o bind /etc etc
mount -o bind /lib lib
mount -o bind /mnt mnt
mount -o bind /proc proc
mount -o bind /sbin sbin
mount -o bind /sys sys
mount -o bind /tmp tmp
mount -o bind /tmp_orig tmp_orig
mount -o bind /usr usr
mount -o bind /var var
mount -o bind /Test.fat Test.fat
mount -o bind /linuxrc linuxrc
mount -o bind opt /path/to/you/opt/location

cd /usr/local/etc
chroot newroot

And voila, you have /opt on the root of your chroot-ed filesystem
Do a
stopall
AND rexecute:
/usr/local/etc/rcS

And everything *should* work as it did before, but with your opt stuff available to you.
and if you like that you could script the whole thing to happen at startup.

-wigout

I think I'm in the process of getting optware to work on r4368 without modding the firmware (I havn't actually seen any guides for this, except the mount commands from wigout.

I also did a:

as this path is mounted to a different dev

Additionally, I needed to download the ipkg-cl, as this wasn't at the system (never done this on earlier versions, so don't really know if its supposed to be there).

I am not sure why you are overmounting your /usr/local/etc since it is already writable and your new root system is mounted on that directory. Oh well if this works for you.

You are correct ipkg-cl is no longer available on the new firmware. You will need that to install it's big brother ipkg and ipkg-opt.

Here's the next commands you are going to need after you are done with the overmount stuff in case you have not figure that out yet: Disregard the underscore in "w_get"




Now you can install any optware by using the command:

/opt/bin/ipkg update
/opt/bin/ipkg install "whatever you want" that is in this specific repository.

Good luck!

Well, the idea is, i noticed that /usr/local/etc was mounted from some other location, didn't note the exact one, but was some memblock. When then bind-mounting /usr into our root jail, this will only map the paths from that file system, in other words, if not mounting /usr/local/etc as well, we will not find what files we expect to find, as well as the location being read only (and yeah, I tried )




Thanks! Had some time to play around yesterday, and things seem to work like a charm!

Glad you have this working this could be useful to many people.

Cheers!!!

Olphink-

It would be great if you'd start a new thread and put all of the exact steps you found necessary to get this going, including all the downloads, mount variations, etc.

I'm glad it worked for you,
wigout

I'll probably try to cook something together when I have the time.

Great help/activity in this forum, I'd love to give something back

Hi

After I install the hacked firmware, I can install the POD successfully. Now, I have one question now. If I upgrade my firmware to the latest, will the driver still be there? I am so new in the playOnHD.

Thank you.