ArjenandJohnathan Corgan
22a5b3e5c6
The shared fips.yaml ships ethernet.wan.interface: "eth0", the default WAN port on OpenWrt 24 and earlier. OpenWrt 25 (DSA) boards, which the .apk package targets, name the WAN port "wan" instead. Rewrite the staged copy at build time so the as-installed config binds the Ethernet transport to the right port out of the box, without maintaining a second copy of the config file. The .ipk package keeps "eth0". Update the openwrt README to document eth0 (24) vs wan (25/DSA) and add a CHANGELOG entry.
FIPS OpenWrt Package (apk)
Builds a FIPS .apk for OpenWrt 25+, where apk-tools is the mandatory
package manager. apk is also available opt-in on 24.10 (where opkg remains
the default). For OpenWrt 24.x and earlier, the .ipk package in
../openwrt-ipk/ still works.
Like the .ipk build, this is SDK-free: it cross-compiles with
cargo-zigbuild and assembles the package directly — no OpenWrt SDK image. The
.ipk format is a plain tar.gz we can hand-roll, but the .apk (apk-tools v3
ADB) container is not, so we drive the official apk mkpkg applet — the same
tool OpenWrt's own include/package-pack.mk
calls. The only extra requirement over the .ipk build is the apk binary.
Layout
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
build-apk.sh |
Cross-compile + assemble the .apk via apk mkpkg |
apk-version.sh |
Map a release tag / commit height to an apk-tools-valid version |
apk-version.test.sh |
Case-table test for apk-version.sh (sh apk-version.test.sh) |
The installed-filesystem payload (init scripts, fips.yaml, sysctl drop-ins,
hotplug, uci-defaults, …) is shared with the .ipk package — there is one
canonical copy in ../openwrt-ipk/files/. build-apk.sh
stages from there, so the two packages always ship the same files. Keep the
staging block in build-apk.sh in sync with ../openwrt-ipk/build-ipk.sh.
Versioning
apk-tools enforces a strict version grammar
(<digit>(.<digit>)*(_<suffix><digit>*)*(-r<N>)). apk-version.sh builds a
valid version from structured inputs rather than rewriting an already-flattened
string:
| Input | apk version |
|---|---|
tag v1.2.3 |
1.2.3-r0 |
tag v1.2.3-rc1 |
1.2.3_rc1-r0 |
dev 1234 (commit height) |
0.0.0_git1234-r0 |
The human-readable version (v1.2.3, master.123.abcdef0) is still used for the
artifact filename; only the metadata embedded in the package is normalized.
Building
Prerequisites
| Requirement | Notes |
|---|---|
cargo install cargo-zigbuild + zig |
Rust musl cross-compilation (as for .ipk) |
apk-tools v3 apk binary |
Provides apk mkpkg; not packaged for most distros — build from source |
fakeroot |
Optional; makes packaged files root-owned on an unprivileged build host |
apk-tools is not in Debian/Ubuntu repos, so build the pinned release from source.
Pin the same commit the targeted OpenWrt release ships (see
package/system/apk/Makefile upstream) so the .apk is readable by the device's
apk. CI builds 3.0.5 (b5a31c0d…):
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential meson ninja-build pkg-config \
zlib1g-dev libssl-dev libzstd-dev liblzma-dev lua5.4-dev scdoc
git clone https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/apk-tools.git
cd apk-tools && git checkout b5a31c0d865342ad80be10d68f1bb3d3ad9b0866
meson setup build && ninja -C build src/apk
export APK_BIN="$PWD/build/src/apk"
Build the package
# from the repo root
./packaging/openwrt-apk/build-apk.sh --arch aarch64 # or x86_64, mipsel, mips, arm
Output: dist/fips_<version>_<openwrt-arch>.apk. Override the version with
PKG_VERSION (filename) and APK_VERSION (embedded metadata); otherwise both are
derived from git.
Installing on the router
Packages are unsigned (the same posture as our .ipk), so install with
--allow-untrusted:
scp -O dist/fips_<version>_<arch>.apk root@192.168.1.1:/tmp/
ssh root@192.168.1.1 apk add --allow-untrusted /tmp/fips_<version>_<arch>.apk
On OpenWrt 25.x, installing from a signed repository requires the publisher's
key; a single --allow-untrusted package install does not. If we ever publish an
apk feed, add ECDSA (prime256v1) signing via apk mkpkg --sign and distribute the
public key to /etc/apk/keys/.
/etc/fips/fips.yaml is marked as a config file (via
/lib/apk/packages/fips.conffiles), so apk preserves local edits across upgrades,
and /lib/upgrade/keep.d/fips preserves /etc/fips/ across sysupgrade — the
same guarantees as the .ipk package.