Optware Home Page

What is Optware?
Optware was originally developed as a distribution mechanism for software for the Unslung Linux project for the Linksys NSLU2 (a small low cost network storage device). That consumer storage device ran on Linux, and the community opened it up, but they needed a lightweight distribution mechanism for their lightweight devices.

Since 2004 Optware has been adopted by a variety of Linux communities and device developers including the webOS community working on the Palm Pre and Pixi, and developers for devices as diverse as Asus WL-500g,WL-HDD, WL-500gx, WL-500gP routers, the Synology DS-101, Plug Computers ([=PogoPlug=] V1, V2, Pro, Biz, Dockstars, etc.) and DS-101g+ NAS devices. In late 2010, the first Optware for Android was released by the Novaports team for the Barns and Noble Nook Color. See other platforms for a partial list.

At its core, Optware is a package manager to allow you to easly install and uninstall cross-compiled linux applications on your device over the internet. At this time, optware supports the automatic download and installation of over 1500 programs.

Despite the Optware package system being made available on many platforms, much of the documentation hasn't been updated so you may still see references to Unslung and the NSLU2 when the information also applies to other platforms. Don't panic.

Packages
See the Packages page for more information about the available packages and how packages work.

Optware platforms
Optware packages currently run on the following devices:

or [|openWRT] or [|dd-wrt] firmware
 * Linksys NSLU2 with Unslung/HomePage Unslung firmware
 * [|Asus routers with USB and WL-700gE WL-HDD] with [|Oleg's]
 * [|Synology DS-101] with DS101/HomePage custom bootstrapping
 * [|Synology DS-101g+] with custom bootstrapping
 * [|Synology DS-101j] with custom bootstrapping
 * Maxtor Shared Storage with [|OpenMSS firmware]
 * Maxtor Shared Storage II (MSSII) with custom bootstrapping
 * Iomega NAS 100d with LudeOS
 * Nokia N800/N810 from cs05q1armel feed (install ipkg-opt).
 * Freecom FSG-3 with custom bootstrapping
 * Palm Pre and Pre Plus (install ipkg-opt from Preware)
 * Palm Pixi and Pixi Plus (install ipkg-opt from Preware)
 * Palm Pre Emulator (install ipkg-opt from Preware)
 * PlugComputers (Sheevaplug, Pogoplug V1, V2, Pro, Biz, Dockstar, etc.)
 * WD TV Live HD Media Player [="http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=2637&hilit=optware"=]
 * Android devices. For the Nook Color see [|the Nookdevs.com Optware page].

And many more...

You can get more information about the hardware from each device at the Platforms page.

Manually setup Optware on a device
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 * First make sure you have sufficient space on /opt, you can either symlink or "mount -o bind" so that /opt is big enough.
 * Setup (only require wget, awk, and tar), with cs08q1armel as example below
 * 1) feed=http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/cs08q1armel/cross/unstable
 * 2) ipk_name=`wget -qO- $feed/Packages | awk '/^Filename: ipkg-opt/ {print $2}'`
 * 3) wget $feed/$ipk_name
 * 4) tar -xOvzf $ipk_name ./data.tar.gz | tar -C / -xzvf -
 * 5) mkdir -p /opt/etc/ipkg
 * 6) echo "src cross $feed" > /opt/etc/ipkg/feeds.conf
 * Usage (with nano and less as example packages)
 * 1) export PATH=/opt/bin:$PATH
 * 2) ipkg update
 * 3) ipkg install nano less
 * 4) ipkg list | less
 * Some devices also have native feed, some have kernel image/modules feed