📡 OpenWrt Routers & Embedded Gateways

Turn any OpenWrt Wi-Fi router, travel router, or CPE gateway with a USB port into a silent (< 5 W), always-on On My Disk Direct P2P personal cloud and remote SSH/TCP gateway — with zero port forwarding, zero DDNS, and full compatibility behind ISP CGNAT.

The OpenWrt node (DEFINES+=ROUTER) is built from the exact same native C++ P2P codebase as the Linux and Windows nodes, compiled against musl libc with embedded WebRTC DataChannels (libdatachannel) and packaged as standard .ipk archives.

1. Supported OpenWrt Architectures (.ipk)

Architecture Typical Router SoCs & Targets Package Download
mips (big-endian) Qualcomm Atheros (ath79), Lantiq, Realtek, InnBox (mips_24kc) onmydisk-latest-mips.ipk
mipsel (little-endian) MediaTek MT7621, MT7628 (ramips / mipsel_24kc) onmydisk-latest-mipsel.ipk
armv7 (32-bit ARM) Cortex-A7 / Cortex-A9 (ipq40xx, mvebu, bcm53xx) onmydisk-latest-armv7.ipk
arm64 (aarch64) MediaTek Filogic (mt7981/mt7986), Qualcomm ipq807x, Rockchip, RPi onmydisk-latest-arm64.ipk

Flash & RAM Recommendations

  • RAM: 128 MB+ recommended (256 MB–1 GB on modern MT7621 / Filogic / ipq routers gives plenty of headroom for concurrent WebRTC streams).
  • Flash Space: Routers with 128 MB+ NAND/eMMC flash can install /opt/bin/onmydisk directly to internal storage. On older routers with small 16–32 MB SPI NOR flash, configure OpenWrt extroot (or mount /opt onto your external USB drive) before installing the .ipk.

2. Installing onmydisk on OpenWrt

Connect to your router via SSH (ssh root@192.168.1.1) and check its target architecture:

# 1. Inspect your OpenWrt CPU architecture:
opkg print-architecture

# 2. Download the matching .ipk (choose mips, mipsel, armv7, or arm64):
wget -O /tmp/onmydisk.ipk https://forge.onmydisk.net/repo/OpenWrt/onmydisk-latest-arm64.ipk

# 3. Install and clean up temp archive:
opkg update
opkg install /tmp/onmydisk.ipk
rm -f /tmp/onmydisk.ipk

Enable autostart on router boot and launch the daemon:

/etc/init.d/onmydisk enable
/etc/init.d/onmydisk start

Installed Paths on OpenWrt

  • Daemon Binary: /opt/bin/onmydisk
  • Init Script: /etc/init.d/onmydisk (start / stop / restart / enable)
  • Configuration & PKI: /etc/onmydisk/onmydisk.conf (and user overrides in /etc/onmydisk/onmydisk.conf.user)
  • LAN Discovery Companion: /opt/bin/wsdd (/etc/init.d/wsdd)

3. Claiming the Router (Port 8081 — LuCI-Safe)

Because OpenWrt’s LuCI administration panel occupies port 80, the router configuration (/etc/onmydisk/onmydisk.conf) binds the local On My Disk Claim Page on port 8081 and automatically excludes internal system partitions (IgnoredDevices="/dev/mmcblk0,/dev/zram"):

  1. Plug an external USB flash drive, SSD, or HDD into your router’s USB port (formatted as ext4, exFAT, or NTFS mounted under /mnt/...).
  2. Sign in to direct.onmydisk.net in your browser.
  3. Open http://192.168.1.1:8081 (replace 192.168.1.1 with your router’s LAN IP if different).
  4. Click Connect in On My Disk to pair the router with your decentralized DID identity (PairedDIDs).

Your router immediately appears in the On My Disk Direct sidebar and workspace as an always-on storage node.

4. Remote Router Shell (WebSSH) & Reaching LuCI Behind CGNAT

Once paired, your OpenWrt router also acts as a zero-configuration P2P gateway into your home or office network:

  • In-Browser Router Terminal (WebSSH): Open the Terminal workspace in direct.onmydisk.net to connect straight to OpenWrt’s local dropbear / openssh server (127.0.0.1:22) over an encrypted WebRTC DataChannel.
  • Remote Access to LuCI Without Exposing Port 80: Use omd-tunnel on your laptop to forward a local port to your router’s LuCI interface (:80) from anywhere in the world: 
    omd-tunnel --listen 18080 <router-node-linkID> 80
# Now open http://127.0.0.1:18080 in your browser to use LuCI securely over P2P!
  • AI Chat Alongside Router Storage: While the router itself runs in lightweight Storage-Only mode (localAI=false), On My Chat in your browser seamlessly uses Automatic (Auto) mode — connecting to the On My Chat Public Cloud AI Node (or your home GPU workstation whenever it is awake) while reading and saving files directly on your router’s USB drive.