How to make a Samba NAS with an OpenWrt router
This express howto describes how to create a NAS to share files inside a network out of an USB-capable OpenWrt router and an external hard drive.
Indice
Ingredients
OpenWrt router with USB port (such as TP-Link WR1043ND) already flashed with OpenWrt Backfire and connected to the Internet
- external USB hard drive with a single ext4 partition
- cables to connect and power the hardware
Steps
root@QQ:~# opkg update root@QQ:~# opkg install kmod-fs-ext4 root@QQ:~# opkg install kmod-usb-storage root@QQ:~# opkg install block-mount
- plug the disk into the router's USB port
root@QQ:~# dmesg ... SCSI subsystem initialized Initializing USB Mass Storage driver... scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage USB Mass Storage support registered. usb-storage: device found at 2 usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access WD Ext HDD 1021 2021 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4 sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 1953519616 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/931 GiB) usb-storage: device scan complete sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 17 00 10 08 sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through sda: sda1 sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
- be sure that sda1 is the name of your hard disk's partition.
- edit /etc/config/fstab
config global automount option from_fstab 1 option anon_mount 1 config global autoswap option from_fstab 1 option anon_swap 0 config mount option target /mnt option device /dev/sda1 option fstype ext4 option options rw,sync option enabled 1 option enabled_fsck 0 config swap option device /dev/sda2 option enabled 0
- then:
root@QQ:~# /etc/init.d/fstab enable root@QQ:~# /etc/init.d/fstab start WARNING: /lib/functions/fsck not found root@QQ:~# mount ... /dev/sda1 on /mnt type ext4 (rw,sync,relatime,barrier=1,data=ordered)
- now let's samba:
root@QQ:~# mkdir /mnt/share root@QQ:~# opkg install samba3
- edit /etc/config/samba
config samba option 'name' 'QQ' option 'workgroup' 'openwrt' option 'description' 'QQ NAS' option 'homes' '0' config sambashare option 'name' 'share' option 'path' '/mnt/share' option 'read_only' 'read' option 'guest_ok' 'yes' option 'create_mask' '0700' option 'dir_mask' '0700' #option 'users' 'abc'
- and enable the samba server:
root@QQ:~# /etc/init.d/samba enable root@QQ:~# /etc/init.d/samba start root@QQ:~#
you can now put all the stuff that you want to share inside the harddisk's 'share' directory
Troubleshooting
external hard disk not mounted
- If you cannot access the samba mount from a PC or if by issuing the mount command the drive does not show up in the list then edit /etc/init.d/fstab and add a "sleep 15" command in the start() function as follows:
start() { . /lib/functions/mount.sh sleep 15 config_load fstab mkdir -p /var/lock lock -w /var/lock/fstab.lck && { lock /var/lock/fstab.lck [ -e /tmp/fstab ] || { echo '# WARNING: this is an auto generated file, please use uci to set defined filesystems' > /tmp/fstab } lock -u /var/lock/fstab.lck } config_foreach do_swapon swap config_foreach do_mount mount config_foreach do_swapon swap # do swap a second time so that swap on filesystems is enabled }