GL-AR750 disk space / layout

zwoop · 2018-07-24T02:28:07.298Z

Hi,

I just got my GL-AR750, and trying to set it up like I’ve done before with the AR_300m. However, the disklayout on my new AR750 is much different:

root@GL-AR750:/etc# df -kh
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 8.3M 8.3M 0 100% /rom
tmpfs 61.1M 1.2M 59.9M 2% /tmp
/dev/mtdblock6 6.1M 1.6M 4.5M 27% /overlay
overlayfs:/overlay 6.1M 1.6M 4.5M 27% /
tmpfs 512.0K 0 512.0K 0% /dev

This seems to leave only ~4MB for /etc. This is not nearly enough to keep my rather large OpenVPN configuration set, which currently is a total of 33MB. Where is all the disk space going? Or is the disk on this device this much smaller compared to the AR300 ?

I know I can install an external disk, so I’ll obviously look into that (hints welcome how to do this right). But curious if there’s something I’m doing wrong here first?

Thanks!

– Leif

kyson-lok · 2018-07-24T03:09:14.786Z

The device of GL-AR750 with 16MB nor flash, and the total size of the firmware about 11MB, so it leaves ~4MB, that’s normal. As you say, AR300M with 128MB nand flash, it is enough for you to keep your large OpenVPN configuration files.

zwoop · 2018-07-24T17:39:44.434Z

Ah, ok. Are there any details on how what packages are needed to mount an external micro SD card? And perhaps even some details on how I’d make e.g. /etc mounted on that card? I can probably figure it out myself, but if there are details already documented, I figure it might save me some hassles and potential for “bricking” :-).

Cheers,

– Leif

unixfy · 2018-07-24T23:06:38.038Z

You may want to try extroot. It allows you to mount the entire filesystem on an external SD card. I’m currently using it on my AR750 with a 64GB Samsung MicroSD card and it works perfect

zwoop · 2018-07-25T05:35:56.620Z

Great! I was looking at that, but wasn’t sure if it applied to our system :). I’ll give it a shot, worst case I’ll recover with a firmware reset presumably? :-). Did you just follow the instructions as outlined in that Wiki page, or did you have to do anything special? What FS did you use, ext4?

I’ve just ordered a 32GB Samsung Micro SD, which I think will be plenty big.

Cheers!

– leif

unixfy · 2018-07-25T14:25:21.503Z

If it doesn’t work and your router gets bricked, you can always restore the firmware using the Uboot utility (make sure you have a firmware.bin file downloaded before you try extroot!) with the steps here. I am using ext4 on the partition on my SD card holding the OS, but I also added a 512MB swap partition (you can do this if you want but it’s not strictly necessary).

The only thing I had to do that isn’t in the wiki page is edit the mountpoints, the guide uses /mnt as the mountpoint of the SD card but I had to mount the SD card in a subdirectory of /mnt (if you don’t mount your SD card at /mnt make sure you replace all instances of /mnt with your mountpoint, especially on the step where you copy the contents of the NOR flash to the SD card, otherwise you will probably brick your router).

lp6970 · 2020-03-05T10:06:34.895Z

The exroot procedure worked great for me. Thanks to you that suggested it and main of all to who documented it!
I used this memory: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B007JTKLEK/
The router (GL-AR750) performs very well and I’ve a lot of space to use for add-ons and VPN configurations.
Bye. LP

AnonyOne · 2020-03-05T19:03:03.637Z

overall great idea, but have to ask -
what do you do when a new firmware is released? what would be the migration/upgrade method?

lp6970 · 2020-03-07T20:38:38.275Z

Hi AnonyOne
Honestly, it’s the first time I bought a GL-iNet router and so I’m not so experienced in advanced management. My router was already updated with the latest available firmware; so I actually don’t know what will happen when a new firmware release will be available and installed.
I hope the upgrade will be ‘transparent’. In any case, I regularly take a backup of the configuration and I keep a log of additional plugins I install. So, if something will go wrong I am able to restore the router configuration after re-configuring the disk ‘layout’.
If someone knows what happens when a new firmware release is installed on a router with ‘custom disk layout’ and which ‘countermeasures’ can be taken to avoid reconfiguration, please provide some hints …
Bye. LP

tedzstonz · 2021-03-07T04:19:06.497Z

Hello thanks for the information but Can you share what you actually did with setting up the sd card – im totally cluesless thanks

Henry_Bruns · 2021-04-13T08:37:20.277Z

It can be its supported now on 3.2 gl firmware and can be found on advanced admin menu. A how too of how to use are not now for me. A it can be more information can be found on openwrt website, where this feature was implemented in openwrt and the primary part of firmware are from.