TL-MR3420 Ver1.2 [ USB & Swap support with ExtRoot ]

Reference, thanks & credits go to the following Smile :

 


[Optional] Setup as Standalone Device

 

I setup the device as standalone unit as follows, with main gateway pointing to my TL-WR1043ND [192.168.1.1], which is also running OpenWRT

 

Disconnect PC from the device, connect and attach the device to existing LAN switch, open browser and type the device's new IP

 

I disabled some of the following services

 

Also named the device

 

Reboot the device after the above setup

 


Prepare USB2 External 2.5" HDD

 

I use Minitool Home Free to create 2 partition as follows on an USB2 external 2.5" SATA HDD

  • Partition 1 : about 1GB for Linux Swap
  • Partition 2 : all remaining size for data on ext3 filesystem

(Note: Refer HERE for more information on HDD partitioning)

 


Setup USB, Swap and ExtRoot

 

To install package, go to " System --> Software tab "
Click Update lists

 

Once the list updated, type " kmod-usb-storage ", click Find package
Click on Available tab, click Install the following package

 

Continue to finish install the following packages

 

 

Plug-in the USB2 HDD now

Go to " System --> Reboot tab "
Click Perform reboot

 

After reboot, launch PuTTY, type the following command lines, then reboot the device again

 

After reboot, launch WinSCP, go to " /etc/config " folder
Locate & edit the file fstab

 

Change to the following, take note the partition numbering:

  • /dev/sda1 = Partition 1 (LinuxSwap)
  • /dev/sda2 = Partition 2 (ext3 for data)

 

Back to LuCI, reboot the device

 

After re-boot, go to the following section, notice the free space now, YEAH ! Wink

 

Go to check the Mount Points, the ext3 is mounted correctly to /overlay, however in my case, the swap seem not working, not sure why ....
So I click Edit it

 

Enable the swap as follows

 

Go to Startup, ensure the fstab is Enabled

 

Reboot the device, again ....

 

Wah-la, all mounted nicely ! Smile

 

Launch PuTTY to re-confirm again

 


To spin down the HDD after some time of idling
Install the luci-app-hd-idle

 

Noticed there is a new tab under Services, setup the HDD idling accordingly.

 


Finally, USB HDD + SWAP + ExtRoot all done  Cool