Source code

As detailed in the User Manual the software included in each Opengear's console server and management gateways contains copyrighted software that is licensed under the GPL.

You may request the latest release source code package by sending an email to [e-mail]. Please include your Name, Company Name and which firmware version you are requesting. The cost is $5 which is payable via check or money order, sent to Opengear Support (9270 South 500 West, Suite I, Sandy, UT 84070, USA).

The complete source code corresponding to each released firmware version is available from Opengear for a period of three years after its last shipment. 

Components of the software are licensed under the GPL include:

• Most firmware is built on uClinux kernel and embodies a selection of busybox utilities
• The console server and management gateways use U-Boot boot loader code
• SDT Connector builds from the sdtcon tool (which Opengear sponsors) 
• All console server and management gateways are built upon the okvm console management software (which Opengear sponsors)
• The power management is built on the Network UPS Tools, Powerman and ipmitool software 
• The Lighthouse central management solution embeds nagios monitoring software
• The console server and management gateways embed security software - OpenSSH, stunnel, Openswan, OpenVPN and OpenSSL

Creating an executable firmware image

1. You can create a firmware image for the range of Opengear products using the source code. The full source snapshot is some 200MB so is generally provided on a disk rather than downloaded. 
   
   
2. Download build tools:
   • uClinux tool chain for ARM - use this for most Opengear console servers and management gateways - arm-linux-tools-20061213.tar.gz binary distribution (source available here)
   • Generally speaking the tool chains consists of at least the binutils, gcc, gdb (from www.gnu.org)
   
   Some targets also require additional tools for generating FLAT format binaries (uClinux targets), filesystem creation tools (genromfs, genext2fs, etc) or checksumming utilities. Original source, patches and build scripts for all binaries are available using the source links above. You can browse the tools directory here. 
   
   
3. Ensure you have sufficient privileges, then install the relevant toolchain(s):
   1. cd /
   2. tar zxvf /path/to/downloaded/arm-linux-tools-20061213.tar.gz
   Repeat for each toolchain as necessary. 
   
   
4. Build the firmware with the following procedure:
   • select OpenGear
   • select the product you want to build for (SD4002 for example)
   • select the linux-2.6.x kernel (although earlier releases were built on the linux-2.4.x kernel
   • select uClibc
   • answer 'Y' to Default all settings
   • answer 'N' to any following questions
1. cd /path/to/opengear-source
2. make config
3. make dep
4. make
5. The resulting firmware will be placed in the images/ sub-directory. The resulting .bin file can be flashed into the Opengear console server using the web UI or netflash command line tool (see faq 253), or loaded temporarily into RAM using a BOOTP/TFTP network load (see faq 263).

Alternative custom images

1. If you are using the source code to build a custom firmware image then you might also consider using the Custom Development Kit (CDK). 
   
   Opengear provides a CDK which allows changes to be made to the software in console server firmware image. The CDK is essentially a snapshot of the Opengear build process. It is taken after the programs have been compiled and copied to a temporary directory (romfs) just before the compressed file systems are generated. 
   
   You can obtain a copy of the CDK for the particular Opengear console server you are working with from https://ftp.opengear.com/download/cdk/. 
   
   This will be a gzipped tarball and you can obtain details on using the CDK from faq 284. 
   
   
2. All Opengear console servers and management gateways also run the GNU bash shell, enabling you to write custom scripts. These custom scripts can be run manually or run automatically on boot or on particular alert events or whenever a particular configurator runs. See faq 255.