Why do an SD Card Mod?

Post new topic   Reply to topic    DD-WRT Forum Index -> Hardware DIY / Hardware Mods
Author Message
tmoore4748
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 24 Feb 2011
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 21:21    Post subject: Why do an SD Card Mod? Reply with quote
So, the subject line is pretty self-explanatory. I've looked all over the forum, and Google, and can only seem to find how-to's and not come up with a reason WHY to do any of these mods. I'm a major geek myself, and planned on doing a mod just to add a fan/heatsink to aid in cooling when I jack up the signal, and wanted to look into other stuff.

It seems that I can't increase my flash capability (say, for using MEGA on a WRT54G) by adding an SD card, but what capability would adding an SD card port give me? I'm guessing being able to run programs and such from the router, but how's about a few general ideas? I'm (very) new to programming and coding, so compiling my own code (for now) is out of the question, but being pointed in the right direction to do new cool stuff would be nice.

Thanks all for the newbie patience, it's much more appreciated than you could ever know.
Sponsor
RainMotorsports
DD-WRT User


Joined: 16 Feb 2011
Posts: 51

PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 2:27    Post subject: Reply with quote
Another guess would be sparing the routers flash over use with stuff that stores data on the remaining flash with JFFS. Mind you id rather have something over a particular size its probably still useful for something.

My router has 32mb of flash and uses less than 8 for a build so if someone wasnt worried about killing it DDWRT, tomato and other firmware/mods allow for utilizing the extra flash for jffs. Its just inadvisable to use it for something thats doing alot more writing than just reading.
tmoore4748
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 24 Feb 2011
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 15:17    Post subject: JFFS info Reply with quote
After reading your post, I looked up what JFFS was, and from what I can tell, it's a file transfer protocol that allows the use of USB and stuff, and what I'm finding is that JFFS has a major conflict with VPN, and has for the most part been removed from DD-WRT. I'm sure that there's plenty of use for JFFS, but even a basic explanation of it would help.

Anyone got any other ideas? I've got no idea what the different services are, and reading the Wiki only goes so far.
RainMotorsports
DD-WRT User


Joined: 16 Feb 2011
Posts: 51

PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 22:20    Post subject: Reply with quote
JFFS is a file system for flash memory. It can be utilized for a number of tasks by a number of addons and features. The point being alot of use of left over router flash will wear it out. NOR flash while cheaper has less life expectancy. Anything you might wish to use to store data on the router flash would be better off done with an sd card. What those would be is of course your question that i cant answer. But thats a reason for adding on small flash sd cards.
tmoore4748
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 24 Feb 2011
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 21:07    Post subject: Reply with quote
Seems like there's plenty of reasons to add an SD card, but I'm just looking for a generalized list of things that I could do; add programs to run. But, how's about a few ideas of WHAT programs to run? I have no idea what I want to do, because I honestly don't know what I CAN do. Anyone?
tmoore4748
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 24 Feb 2011
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 22:36    Post subject: Reply with quote
bump
Tranthom
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 18 Aug 2008
Posts: 19

PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 20:14    Post subject: Reply with quote
bump X2

I'm also interested about such kind of improvements.
if it can't run a bigger firmware (ex: mega) then what's is it usefull for?

I would like some clear example of what it can do more please.
bskchaos
DD-WRT User


Joined: 07 Feb 2009
Posts: 198

PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 15:39    Post subject: Reply with quote
To store more stuff in your router.

Sometimes flash/nvram is too small for complex firewall rules, QOS, scripts, VPN certificates, large dns host file, pixel-serv ad-blocking, etc, etc...

If you don't know WHY is probably because you have not reached the limit of your router flash.
dow
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 17 Apr 2011
Posts: 7

PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2011 17:29    Post subject: Reply with quote
well, for starters, you could install a much more robust linux variant while using the flash space for the base kernel and core boot loaders.

some other ideas:

- install a packet sniffer allowing you to use your router to test network security.

- run a DB server and store the database directly on the device instead of having it point to a network location

- install and run apache and have the web pages on the device instead of having to use NFS

- on some routers, the SoC even contain a PCI bridge meaning if you could figure out how to mod in a pci slot you could add various functionalities while storing the needed drivers/software on the SD card (some also have IDE capability!)

- use it as wirelessly attached network storage (even better with a USB mod though)

- run a POP/IMAP mail server directly off the router and store mail, access lists, and virus scanners

- use it as a login server for your entire network (Open Directory Master)

- run a streaming server relay

- run a headless x-windows VNC server with any flavor of window manager you can think of

- run a coding slave

- run a system update cloud

since ddwrt is basically a very small linux variant, you can add any of these features and more by using a pkg manager of your choosing and installing the required dependencies. essentially, the more memory you add to the machine, the possibilities become endless
Oloi
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 28 Aug 2011
Posts: 3

PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 18:56    Post subject: A lightweight X11 on a WZR-HP-G300NH router? Reply with quote
I have a WZR-HP-G300NH router and I want to make it more interactive by getting Xwindows to run remotely from it. I don't know how to do this.
Has any one had any experience getting Xwindows running remotely from a wireless router Question
Oloi
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 28 Aug 2011
Posts: 3

PostPosted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 12:41    Post subject: X-windows VNC server Reply with quote
@dow
-run a headless x-windows VNC server with any flavor of window manager you can think of...

I am interested in running this on a WZR-HP-G300NH router.
Please how can I do this?
Display posts from previous:    Page 1 of 1
Post new topic   Reply to topic    DD-WRT Forum Index -> Hardware DIY / Hardware Mods All times are GMT

Navigation

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You cannot download files in this forum