If you do not have Linux machine, you can do it on virtual one. It is fast and easy way to try how it works. If you have fast computer, it is a bit slower than conventional PC. Our choice of virtual machine is VirtualBox. Also we have chosen xubuntu instead of Ubuntu, which become monster.

Why you should compile if you can use package repository and install only what you need? Answer is very simple. Linux is complex beast. Sometimes when you need functionality tu support 3G modem, webcam, LCD or something else, you need to recompile kernel. Installing single package will not work. When you switch these options on building stage you get it done right way. Using package system might work, but there are big chances there will be some errors. Usually these are dependency errors, but you never know what it will be.

Alternatively you can build Linux with packages you need as modules (set M instead of *). After compiling these packages will be on your computer carambola/bin/ramips/packages/. You will be able to install these packages later using opkg command.

1. Download and install VirtualBox.
2. Download Xubuntu.
3. Install xubuntu to VirtualBox. Basically you just press "New" and next, next, next… Don't forget to add xubuntu-xx.xx.x-desktop-i386.iso to your Storage / CD/DVD disk. After this press "Start". Don't forget to set more than 8G dynamically allocated partition size. You will need this!
4. Install linux. I have chosen test:test as login:pass (easy to remember) and autologin on startup. Everything else left as it is.

1. Install Devices / Install Guest Additions. Run as root "VBoxLinuxAdditions.run". VirtualBox will be much faster with this.
2. Also I have made few adjustments. Added terminal to upper panel and changed it's colors. Installed updates. Disabled screensaver.
3. If your copy/paste procedure between real and virtual machine does not work, just enable bidirectional clipboard. From the VirtualBox app menu: Machine→Settings→General→Advanced then set Shared Clipboard to the Bidirectional.
4. I recommend changing network type to Bridged Adapter instead of NAT. Yoy can do this in VirtualBox→Settings→Network.

Basically just follow these instructions. We have precompiled Carambola image. It will run faster for you.

At time of building virtual image recent tag was v2.2-rc1. In order to get latest sources type

git pull

You can read here about firmware upgrade. For now lets stick to most popular way.

Download firmware to Carambola. (change IP address 192.168.0.113 to your Linux build machine)

scp test@192.168.0.113:/home/test/carambola/bin/ramips/openwrt-ramips-rt305x-carambola-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin /tmp

Flash downloaded image to Carambola.

sysupgrade -v -c /tmp/openwrt-ramips-rt305x-carambola-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

Torrent files can be found below:

• 2012-09-24 - Disk size 20G. Everything else is the same.
• 2012-09-23 - carambola/v2.2-rc1 Forgot to increase 8G limit.