Optware Introduction

For a detailed description of Optware's history and current state, see the Optware Home Page.

For information on installing Optware on the NSLU2, see the Slug Install page.

Note about the OptWare documentation

Much of the documentation hasn't been updated to remove NSLU2 references, so you may still see references to Unslung and the NSLU2 when the information also applies to other platforms. Don't panic.

What are Packages?

In general, packages are commonly-available software programs that we have simply ported to the Optware environment. The effort to do this work is provided by the volunteer Optware community.

If you have a question on how to use a particular package, please use Google or something to search for the general documentation about the package before asking questions that are not specific to the platform's port of the package. For example, Google "man tar" for information on how to use the "tar" application.

How To Use ipkg

You can update your ipkg database on your device with ipkg update.
You can ensure you have the latest (and greatest?) versions with ipkg upgrade.
To check out a list of available packages, use ipkg list.
To see the packages you already have installed, use ipkg status.
To install a new package, use ipkg install <package name>.
To uninstall a package, use ipkg uninstall <package name>.

The complete package list is also browsable here.

The package format is compatible between the all versions of the Unslung firmware. Some packages have also been ported to the Asus WL-series of wireless routers.

Package Sources and Locations

The Optware package repositories can be found at http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/

Mirrors

nslu2-linux, US (main)

OSUOSL, US

Can't Find A Package You Want?

If there is a package you would like that is not part of unslung already, you have two options:

You can contribute it yourself (to learn more, see AddAPackageToOptware).
Or you can add it to the PackageWishList and hope that someone else provides it.

Found A Bug?

If you find any problems with the packages, please report them to the nslu2-linux mailinglist.

Please search the wiki to see if your problem is a known problem with a workaround.

In the chance that the problem might be fixed with the help of the package maintainer, come to the IRC channel and politely ask for help. You can also Browse the IRC Logs.

The easiest way to find a maintainer is to look at the cvs log - "cvs log make/foo.mk" - for package foo. This will tell you who originally checked in the package and who has modified it since. The usernames in the cvs log are @users.sourceforge.net addresses.

Specific Package Details

More details are available for the following packages:

Apache - Popular heavyweight web server
appWeb - Embedded Web Server
Asterisk - Open Source VoIP PBX System
atop - is an interactive monitor for Linux-systems to view the load on system-level and process-level.
amule - eMule-like client for the eD2k and Kademlia networks
BarracudaDrive - Embedded Application Server
Bash - Bourne Again SHell
BitTorrent - mainline python BT client packaged as py-bittorrent (launch by btdownloadcurses.py)
Btpd - lightweight command line torrent daemon+client
BusyBox
calculators - bc, calc, nickle
castget - a command-line podcast downloader
ccollect - pseudo) incremental (parallel) backup
ccxstream - Media streaming server for Xbox Media Center
cherokee - Flexible and Fast Web server.
clutch - Bittorrent GUI based on transmission, originally a Mac application.
cpio - CoPy In/Out file archiver
crosstool-native - Bootstrap toolchain including GCC 3.3.5, Glibc 2.2.5, Binutils 2.15.94.0.2, and Linux 2.4.22 headers.
CTorrent - BitTorrent client written in the C programming language.
CUPS - CUPS printer system.
diffutils - GNU Diffutils
ddclient - Ddclient dynamic ip updater.
digitemp - temperatur logger software
distcc - Distributed C/C++ compiler
DnsMasq - DNS and DHCP server
dovecot - Dovecot is an open source IMAP and POP3 server for Linux/UNIX-like systems
dstat - dstat is a versatile replacement for vmstat, iostat, netstat, nfsstat, and ifstat
Enhanced CTorrent - command line client for BitTorrent
emacs22 - OS^h^hEditor, see also jed, joe, jove, mg, qemacs, uemacs, zile
erlang - concurrency oriented language and runtime
extract-xiso - XBOX iso creation/extraction tool
findutils - File find utility
FreeRadius - An opensource Radius server
git - distributed version control tool
gphoto2 - Command line digital camera software applications
gnokii - a multisystem tool suite and modem driver for the mobile phones (including smsd)
Haserl - a small program that uses shell or Lua script to create cgi web scripts.
ipcalc, sipcalc - IP address and subnet calculation tool
Hplip - A HP Printers and scanners set of drivers and tools
ipkg-web - A web frontend for ipkg
irssi - console IRC client
less - Less is more file pager, see also most
kissdx - a versatile PC-Link clone for KiSS media players
libbt C BitTorrent library with sample downloader.
lighttpd (LLMP) - lightweight web server.
logrotate - Used to compress and rotate log messages
m4 - GNU macro preprocessor
make - GNU make tool
Mailx - Mail client (formerly nail)
mc - Midnight Commander File manager
MediaWiki - The Wiki software used to run Wikipedia
memtester - A runtime memtest utility
mercurial - packaged as py-mercurial, fast distributed version control tool.
mimms - MMS:// stream ripper
mldonkey - multi-network peer-to-peer, availabe on unslung
Mt-daapd - iTunes Server
mutt - text mode mail client
MySQL - The most popular Open Source SQL Database
nagios-plugins - Plugins for the nagios network monitor program
Nail - Mail client
Nano - Pico like Editor
NanoBlogger - a small weblog engine written in Bash for the command line
nbench-byte - BYTE's Native Mode Benchmarks
ncFTP - A user friendly FTP client with background spooling.
net-snmp - The opensource implementation of snmp
Nethack - Greatest RPG of all time
netio - A cross platform network benchmark tool for tcp and udp.
nrpe - Nagios remote program execute daemon
Nfs-utils - The recommended NFS server
nginx - small web server and reverse proxy
ntfsprogs - NTFS filesystem libraries and utilities
Ntpclient - Network Time Protocol client
OpenSSH - the recommended SSH server
patch - GNU patch
phoneme advanced - java j2me CDC JVM from Sun
phpMyAdmin - Web-based administration for MySQL
postgresql - A highly-scalable, SQL compliant, open source object-relational database management system
proftpd - Highly configurable and feature packed FTP server
python - An interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language
qemu - An processor emulator - allows running i386 binaries on the slug
rtorrent - bittorent client, runs well on Slugosbe, has some problem on unslung
samba - Samba 3.0.14a-4 on Unslung 4.2x beta
samba2 - Samba 2.2.12
SWAT - the Samba Web Administration Tool
scponly - Allows users to access the slug with SCP, but not with SSH
GNU screen - console screen manager
ser - SIP Express Router
slrn - console nntp news reader
slsc - console spreadsheet
Smalltalk - squeak, gnu-smalltalk, littlesmalltalk, or syx
sudo - Run commands as root
svn - Subversion version control system
Syslog-ng - replacement for the standard syslog utility with remote logging capability
tar - Heavyweight version of the tape archiver
tftp-hpa - A simple tftp package
tin - console news reader
torrent - Torrent processing scripts for libbt
TorrentFlux - a web-based torrent manager
Transmission - Lightweight BitTorrent client and daemon with WWW interface
unfs3 - User-space NFS V3 server (not recommended - use nfs-utils instead)
upslug2 - The upslug2 package to update a other slug.
ushare - Free open source uPnP media server.
vblade - A program that makes a seekable file available over AoE.
vim - Vi iMproved, see also nvi
vsftpd - Fast and secure FTP server. (Supplemental page: vsftpd-FTP)
webalizer - server stats program.
wiki - mediawiki, dukuwiki, yawk, moinmoin, trac
X11 - X Windows for your slug. No display hardware in the NSLU2 so it's remote access only.
xinetd - Highly configurable and secure inetd replacement
xmail - An easy(ish) to use mail server
yawk - A wiki.cgi script written in gawk
zip - a compression and file packaging utility

Todo: please add details of other packages

NOTE: The complete package list is available at http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/nslu2/.

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