Window's user problems using Firmware Mod Kit...

[Tsaukpaetra]

Well, guess what, i'm a Windows user, so, running the firmware mod kit is slightly difficult for me.
I'm actually fairly decent at the command line, but I'm not sure as to how to get this (seemingly) amazing software package to work  .
Of course, I've researched a little (read: little) on how to compile things but I'm stuck right now.

I've decided to post this to the forum, in hopes that my questions can be exposed to more than one person (the (main) developer). I have e-mailed him before, but as I realize he may be busy, here is the message I sent him:

I bet you get a lot of messages of this sort, but here is mine...
I'm a dabbler in the Linux world (not quite a newbie, but not one to know all of the console commands) and am trying to use this kit to add a few files to the micro plus build of ddwrt 24 for the wrt54gv5 router.
What I originally thought would be as simple as download-extract-go process has ended up in downloading several linux live distros and trying to get the thing to compile...
I am using a virtual PC (which isn't the source of the problem btw) in an effort to ease this for future windows users (yeah, right! ).
Thus far, I haven't found a version that isn't less than 100 Mb with the ability to compile and has a basic X gui and has svn. (I don't expect people to need to download a gigantic file just to extract and compile a simple firmware image!)
I need to know what the easiest method of installing a tiny Linux distro would be with the following qualities:
•   Has a GUI, with some sort of file manager and desktop (with icons that I can shortcut for various functions when done)
•   Has compiling abilities to recompile the latest version of the kit when needed
•   Has an easy-to-use (no bells-and-whistle-overloads) text editor
Um... I think that's it for starters. I can try and spend days doing research on this, but if you have a few pointers I would greatly appreciate it!
Who knew such a simple task as adding a 50K file was so difficult? I'm out to change that (hopefully).
I believe this can be accomplished within the range of 30Mb max (since it will be running in a virtual PC, I think i can safely strip out a lot of extra drivers and stuff that can't be used...) and will be easy enough to use that I can just download an image to the virtual pc, drag it onto a shortcut, modify, drag the mod folder on a different shortcut, and upload the modded firmware to the router. Easy, right? At least, that's the goal .

Thanks for all of your hard work, btw. This software (once I get it working) will be the coolest thing i can get for my router yet!

So if anyone can help, please do, and Thanks!

[Jeremy Collake]

I got your email, but didn't how to respond. I personally use UBuntu in a virtual machine. It is very easy to install and use. Any linux distribution should work though.

You could try andLinux, which is a pre-packaged UBuntu install using coLinux (cooperative linux). This runs the linux kernel along-side Windows without a virtual machine. Just make sure you are using a case sensitive ext3 file system.. I mean, make sure not to extract the firmware to a Windows NTFS or FAT share as you will lose files and have extraction errors. I dunno what the total size is.

As for general questions about how to install linux, and/or how to get a distribution under a certain size, I am not really in a position to help with that. There are surely forums out there targeted towards general linux installation questions.

The FMK makes modifying compatible firmwares very easy, but the user must be able to at least install and use a linux shell. Porting to Windows is not feasible due to the difference in the file system. I'm a Windows user and developer too, so if it was easy to port it, I would have. I did try porting it to Cygwin, and it might work there, assuming you are operating on an ext3 (or similar) case sensitive file system with appropriate permission and device support.

Also, please remember I am not affiliated with DD-WRT, and have had to work around DD-WRT's efforts to make it MORE difficult for you to modify their firmwares. The FMK is just what it is, nothing else is offered.