Hi all, I got two OpenWRT based Smart Switches that can be possibly connected to the Thinger cloud; I wonder whether any body knows whether Thinger client library can be compiled for OpenWRT OS.
Link to OpenWRT cross compiler: https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/buildroot.exigence
Hi! It should work without problems.
You can try to use the Thinger.io Client for Linux Devices, like the one used for Raspberry Pi. Did you tried to compile the client in OpenWRT?
Thanks for your input. I doubt its that straight forward. OpenWRT is embedded system many of the libraries you use are probably not supported. See this link: https://www.gargoyle-router.com/old-openwrt-coding.html
Iām still chasing solution for this issue. Any guidance is appreciated :).
Is there a guideline on how to compile onUbuntu OS for OpenWRT (Archi: AR71xx)
Link for the OS:
https://downloads.openwrt.org/barrier_breaker/14.07/ar71xx/generic/
Does the Thinger client depend on other libraries?
Hi, the linux client library only depends on Open SSL, but it is optional. So you can compile the libraries in any stock linux. Did you tried to compile the main.cpp with the compiler available on OpenWRT, i.,e, gcc?
Found the guide below. I will have to install OpenWRT in a VM environment.
Eveninā
Havenāt gotten to compile it with libssl supportā¦
But at least it runs and connects to iot.thinger.io on OpenWRT running on Carambola2 deviceā¦
root@OpenWRT:~# thingerio
[3826331.561000]: Not connected!
[3826331.563000]: Connecting to iot.thinger.io:25200 ...
[3826331.914000]: Connected!
[3826331.915000]: Authenticating...
[3826332.325000]: Authenticated!Cool, how did you manage to compile it?
How? Quick and dirty hackā¦no cmake involvedā¦needs lot of cleanup and nice integration into the make menuconfig systemā¦
At least it also connects now with SSL (o;
root@OpenWRT:~# /sbin/thingerio
[3827837.935000]: Not connected!
[3827837.938000]: Connecting to iot.thinger.io:25202 ...
[3827839.666000]: Connected!
[3827839.667000]: Authenticating...
[3827839.719000]: Authenticated!I mean on what OS did you compile it and what modifications so you could target openWRT? my OpenWRT device has very limited flash - so I cant install any compiling libraries.
You always have to compile OpenWRT on Linuxā¦I am using Debian 9ā¦
you might get away on macOS on a case-sensitive filesystemā¦but it is 15 years ago I cross-compiled Linux images on Mac (o;
Thinger application isnāt that big:
root@OpenWRT:~# ls -l /sbin/thingerio
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 53285 Oct 24 10:47 /sbin/thingerio
But you can save space in not using SSL as libssl and libcrypto are heavy:
root@OpenWRT:~# ls -l /usr/lib/libssl.so.1.0.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 320496 Oct 24 10:47 /usr/lib/libssl.so.1.0.0
root@OpenWRT:~# ls -l /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.1.0.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1430860 Oct 24 10:47 /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.1.0.0
As mentioned above I am using Carambola2 which has 16MB of flashā¦dunno what platform you haveā¦
The IoT device is OpenWRT 2.0 MB flash. I think the left should be enough for the binaries.
Iām interested in the instructions of compiling Thinger client on Linux (I have Ubuntu) and targeting OpenWRT.
Have you already flashed it with an own OpenWRT image?
How much space is left on the flash when you log in?
Iāve spent the whole day understanding Thinger. I had never been in touch with such IoT, Iām just hobbist. Neither I had cross-compiled anything. By other hand, Iām very used to Openwrt and C programming, PICs and Arduino. So it was just matter of time.
After fighting for a while, researching and trying, I sucessfully crosscompiled Thinger into my Openwrt router!
Itās very easy once you know what to do. Thinger uses cmake, we can tell cmake what compiler to use.
I used Ubuntu 18.10 with no problems.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install dkms build-essential git-core libssl-dev libncurses-dev unzip gawk zlib1g-dev subversion mercurial cmake
(Current Openwrt Stable version: 18.06.02)
git clone https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt.git
cd openwrt
git checkout v18.06.2
./scripts/feeds update -a
./scripts/feeds install -a
make menuconfig
Now select your Target System and Target profile, and exit saving changes.
make
You can speed it up by using multicore processing
make -j5 (Your CPU cores+1)
Depending on your system, it will take a while.
It took 20 minutes on mine (i7-3770K running at 4.4GHz, 16GB RAM, running on SSD), however, my old Athlon X2 6400 would take 2 hours!
I donāt remember having any errors, I used a fresh Ubuntu system and installed only those dependencies I said.
git clone https://github.com/thinger-io/Linux-Client.git
cd Linux-Client
Now edit the CMakeLists:
gedit CMakeLists.txt
I deleted all the stuff related with arduino, openssl, etcā¦ as SSL libraries use a lot of space that small routers donāt have!
#---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#Change this lines for your Openwrt router. Mine is a WDR4900 with PowerPC processor
#Typical Atheros router will have Mips architecture
#Check the stanging_dir in your openwrt directory and correct these lines.
#---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
set(tools /home/user/openwrt/staging_dir/toolchain-powerpc_8540_gcc-7.3.0_musl)
set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER ${tools}/bin/powerpc-openwrt-linux-musl-gcc)
set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER ${tools}/bin/powerpc-openwrt-linux-musl-g++)
# #Don't edit past this !
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.9)
project(thinger)
set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH} "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake/modules/")
#check c++11 support
include(CheckCXXCompilerFlag)
CHECK_CXX_COMPILER_FLAG("-std=c++11" COMPILER_SUPPORTS_CXX11)
CHECK_CXX_COMPILER_FLAG("-std=c++0x" COMPILER_SUPPORTS_CXX0X)
if(COMPILER_SUPPORTS_CXX11)
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11")
elseif(COMPILER_SUPPORTS_CXX0X)
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++0x")
else()
message(STATUS "The compiler ${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER} has no C++11 support. Please use a different C++ compiler.")
endif()
SET(OPEN_SSL 0)
set(SOURCE_FILES src/main.cpp)
add_executable(thinger ${SOURCE_FILES})
target_link_libraries(thinger ${ADDITIONAL_LIBS})
set_target_properties(thinger PROPERTIES COMPILE_DEFINITIONS "DAEMON=0")
Save, and youāre ready!
Edit your src/main.cpp file for your needs.
This was my first test. Yes, itās ugly as hell, but it works!
I did a simple program that reads the first line of the file /tmp/readings.txt, converts the read string into int and sends the result to Thinger.
I have another script running on Openwrt that read the serial port and updates that file.
As the file is located in /tmp, itās stored in the ram, so no stress is done to the flash.
#include "thinger/thinger.h"
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#define USER_ID "MyUserID"
#define DEVICE_ID "MyDeviceID"
#define DEVICE_CREDENTIAL "MyDeviceCredential"
int watts;
int GetWatts(void){
FILE *fp;
char str[16];
/* opening file for reading */
fp = fopen("/tmp/readings.txt" , "r");
if(fp == NULL) {
perror("Error opening file");
return(-1);
};
fgets(str, 10, fp); // Read the first line from the file */
str[strlen(str)] = '\0'; // Attach a null character to the end of the string
fclose(fp); // Close file
int w = atoi(str); // Convert the string into integer
return w;
};
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
thinger_device thing(USER_ID, DEVICE_ID, DEVICE_CREDENTIAL);
thing["Contador"] >[](pson& out){
out["Watts"] = watts;
};
while(1){
thing.handle();
watts=GetWatts();
thing.stream(thing["Contador"]);
sleep(5);
};
return 0;
};
Now it should compile flawlessly:
sudo chmod +x ./run.sh
./run.sh
However, as the run.sh script runs the executable after compiling, it will drop and error, absolutely normal, because the file is made for our routerās architecture, not our computerās.
As long as you see this at the end, itās OK
[100%] Built target thinger
The easiest way is by scp, as it comes installed in ubuntu by default:
(Assuming we still are inside the Linux-Client folder)
cd build
scp thinger root@192.168.1.1:/usr/bin
Will ask for the password, and done. Of course, you should have set a password in openwrt or the SSH wonāt work.
Now enter the openwrt shell by ssh or telnet:
Thinger needs the libstdc library to work:
opkg update
opkg install libstdcpp
chmod +x /usr/bin/thinger
Now it should work!
root@OpenWrt:/# thinger
Error opening file: No such file or directory
[830216.665000]: Not connected!
[830216.666000]: Connecting to iot. thinger. io:25200 ...
[830216.767000]: Connected!
[830216.767000]: Authenticating...
[830216.827000]: Authenticated!
Error opening file: No such file or directory
Of course, that error is because I didnāt create the /tmp/reading.txt file! But the client is working
Letās try something quick:
root@OpenWrt:/# echo "1234">/tmp/readings.txt
root@OpenWrt:/# thinger
[830337.401000]: Not connected!
[830337.402000]: Connecting to iot. thinger. io:25200 ...
[830337.457000]: Connected!
[830337.457000]: Authenticating...
[830337.518000]: Authenticated!
Now my Thinger bucket was receiving data! of course just ""1234.
Good luck everyone! 
Thank you for the nice tutorial! just one question, is the target CPU relevant in the compilation process?
My OpenWRT is running on āar71xxā.
Sorry, I just noticed. The target selection is done at this point: āmake menuconfigā
Of course, itās the most important part, as it will download and install the correct compiler.
Ar71xx is MIPS architecture,while others may be ARM, PowerPC, etc.
Thatās why you need to correct these lines:
set(tools /home/user/openwrt/staging_dir/toolchain-powerpc_8540_gcc-7.3.0_musl)
set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER ${tools}/bin/powerpc-openwrt-linux-musl-gcc)
set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER ${tools}/bin/powerpc-openwrt-linux-musl-g++)I got some errors during compilation.
ā Configuring done
ā Generating done
ā Build files have been written to: /home/user/crosscompile/openwrt/Linux-Client/build
[ 50%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/thinger.dir/src/main.cpp.o
mips-openwrt-linux-musl-g++: error: ā: No such file or directory
mips-openwrt-linux-musl-g++: fatal error: no input files
compilation terminated.
/bin/sh: 1: -std=c++11ā: not found
CMakeFiles/thinger.dir/build.make:62: recipe for target āCMakeFiles/thinger.dir/src/main.cpp.oā failed
make[3]: *** [CMakeFiles/thinger.dir/src/main.cpp.o] Error 127
CMakeFiles/Makefile2:67: recipe for target āCMakeFiles/thinger.dir/allā failed
make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/thinger.dir/all] Error 2
CMakeFiles/Makefile2:79: recipe for target āCMakeFiles/thinger.dir/ruleā failed
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/thinger.dir/rule] Error 2
Makefile:118: recipe for target āthingerā failed
make: *** [thinger] Error 2
my cmakelist looking like this:
set(tools /home/user/crosscompile/openwrt/staging_dir/toolchain-mips_24kc_gcc-7.3.0_musl)
set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER ${tools}/bin/mips-openwrt-linux-musl-gcc)
set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER ${tools}/bin/mips-openwrt-linux-musl-g++)
#Donāt edit past this !
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.9)
project(thinger)
set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH} ā${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake/modules/ā)
#check c++11 support
include(CheckCXXCompilerFlag)
CHECK_CXX_COMPILER_FLAG(ā-std=c++11ā COMPILER_SUPPORTS_CXX11)
CHECK_CXX_COMPILER_FLAG(ā-std=c++0xā COMPILER_SUPPORTS_CXX0X)
if(COMPILER_SUPPORTS_CXX11)
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS ā${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11ā)
elseif(COMPILER_SUPPORTS_CXX0X)
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS ā${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++0xā)
else()
message(STATUS āThe compiler ${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER} has no C++11 support. Please use a different C++ compiler.ā)
endif()
SET(OPEN_SSL 0)
set(SOURCE_FILES src/main.cpp)
add_executable(thinger ${SOURCE_FILES})
target_link_libraries(thinger ${ADDITIONAL_LIBS})
set_target_properties(thinger PROPERTIES COMPILE_DEFINITIONS āDAEMON=0ā)
Is this path correct? Double check everythingā¦
/home/user/crosscompile/openwrt/staging_dir/
I did triple check; all paths seem ok. Do you think your instructions missing something towards the mips?