Files
fips/packaging/openwrt-ipk
Johnathan Corgan 5abf9a9325 docs: four-section /docs/ restructure with new-user content, accuracy pass, and gateway feature-set rewrite
Restructures /docs/ by reader purpose (tutorials, how-to,
reference, design), adds the new-user-progression and
operator-recipe content the prior layout lacked, runs an
accuracy pass against current source across the pre-existing
design docs, and rewrites the gateway feature-set documentation
end-to-end around its actual operational profile (a niche
feature designed for systems already serving DHCP/DNS to a
LAN, with two independent halves — outbound LAN→mesh, inbound
mesh→LAN — sharing one nftables table, one binary, and one
control socket). Top-level README and getting-started rewritten
around two equally-weighted deployment modes (overlay on
existing IP networks; ground-up over non-IP transports).

## Additions

- 11 new tutorials in docs/tutorials/: an 8-step new-user
  progression from single-daemon test-mesh peering through
  to a ground-up two-device mesh, an IPv6-adapter side-trip
  walkthrough, an Advanced Tutorials index, and a hand-held
  OpenWrt walk-through for fips-gateway deployment that
  exercises both halves of the feature.
- 12 new how-tos in docs/how-to/: firewall activation,
  Nostr discovery (resolve / advertise / open across five
  scenarios), Tor onion (directory + control_port modes),
  UDP buffer tuning, unprivileged-user setup, persistent
  identity, host aliases, Bluetooth LE peering, MTU
  diagnostics, manual Linux-host gateway deployment (covers
  both halves), gateway troubleshooting (organised by half),
  and a section index.
- 9 new reference docs in docs/reference/: configuration,
  wire formats, control-socket protocol, four CLI references
  (fips, fipsctl, fipstop, fips-gateway), security posture
  matrix, and Nostr events catalog. Configuration and
  wire-formats are renamed-and-extended from prior design/
  versions; the other seven are net-new.
- 6 new design docs: fips-concepts, fips-architecture, and
  fips-prior-work split out of the deleted fips-intro.md;
  consolidated fips-mmp and fips-mtu aggregations; and a
  new generic port-advertisement-and-nat-traversal doc
  (Nostr-signaled port advertisement plus UDP NAT-traversal
  protocol, FIPS as an example implementation, suitable for
  eventual NIP submission).
- Top-level docs/getting-started.md walking through the
  binary-installer-only Install story.
- packaging/common/hosts pre-populated with the eight public
  test-mesh nodes so shortnames resolve out of the box on
  every fresh install.

## Changes

- 23 wire-format diagrams relocated to reference/diagrams/
  alongside the wire-formats move.
- 4 design diagrams corrected against source code
  (fips-protocol-stack, fips-identity-derivation,
  fips-coordinate-discovery, fips-routing-decision).
- 10 pre-existing design docs reconciled with current
  source. Numeric corrections: stale link-MMP report bounds
  (now [1s, 5s] with 200 ms cold-start floor); UDP default
  MTU (now 1280, IPv6 minimum); node_addr formula
  (SHA-256(pubkey)[..16]); Noise patterns (IK at link, XK
  at session); peer-ACL semantics (strict allowlist requires
  ALL in peers.deny); daemon DNS upstream ([::1]:5354);
  on-the-wire bloom-filter size (1,071 bytes); obsolete
  Cargo-feature references (PR #79 dropped them) removed.
- Transport framing tightened across the docs: TCP is for
  UDP-filtered networks (not NAT traversal); Tor is a
  deployment mode (not failover); WebSocket dropped (not a
  shipped FIPS transport); WiFi promoted to Implemented via
  Ethernet in infrastructure mode; classic-Bluetooth row
  removed (BLE is the only Bluetooth-mode transport).
- docs/design/fips-gateway.md rewritten end-to-end to lead
  with the niche-feature framing and the two-halves
  structure. Title moved from "FIPS Outbound LAN Gateway"
  to "FIPS Gateway"; architecture section describes the
  common machinery (the fips-gateway service, the nftables
  table, the control socket) before splitting into separate
  "Outbound Half" and "Inbound Half" sections of equal
  weight; security considerations split per-half; no Future
  Work section (speculative directions live in the project
  tracker, not in protocol design docs). Inbound port
  forwarding is a first-class half rather than a buried
  "Implemented Extensions" subsection.
- Gateway terminology unified across all gateway docs as a
  separate Linux service running alongside the fips daemon
  (its own systemd unit / OpenWrt init script). Container-
  pattern terms (sidecar) are reserved for the
  Docker/Kubernetes sidecar deployment examples — the
  testing/sidecar/ tree, examples/k8s-sidecar/,
  examples/sidecar-nostr-relay/,
  examples/wireguard-sidecar-macos/, and the related
  CHANGELOG / top-level README entries — where the term
  carries its standard container meaning.
- Net-new design body content: rekey section in
  fips-mesh-layer (Noise IK msg1/msg2 over the established
  link, K-bit cutover, drain window, smaller-NodeAddr-wins
  tie-breaker on dual-init); Mesh Size Estimation and
  Antipoison FPR Cap sections in fips-bloom-filters;
  Mesh-Interface Query Filter subsection in
  fips-ipv6-adapter; failure-suppression knobs and clock-
  skew tolerance in fips-nostr-discovery; loop-rejection
  and mid-chain ancestor swap added to spanning-tree
  propagation / stability rules; Priority Chain in
  fips-mesh-operation renumbered to match the
  routing-decision diagram.
- Top-level README: dropped the stale nostr-discovery
  cargo-feature parenthetical. docs/README.md and the four
  section READMEs (tutorials, how-to, reference, design)
  refreshed for the new structure; index rows reflect both
  halves of the gateway feature and the new fips-gateway
  CLI reference.
- Cargo.toml [package.metadata.deb] assets path updated for
  the fips-security.md move; .gitignore /reference/ rule
  anchored to repo root so docs/reference/ is trackable.
- packaging/openwrt-ipk/files/etc/fips/fips.yaml
  configuration-doc URL updated to the new
  docs/reference/configuration.md location.

## Deletions

- docs/design/fips-intro.md (split into the three new intro
  design docs).
- docs/design/document-relationships.svg (orphan, no longer
  referenced).
- docs/proposals/ tree removed; the only proposal it
  contained (the Nostr UDP hole-punch protocol) was
  rewritten as the new generic
  design/port-advertisement-and-nat-traversal.md.
2026-05-08 03:02:12 +00:00
..

FIPS OpenWrt Package

This directory is an OpenWrt feed package that builds and installs FIPS on any OpenWrt 22.03+ router via the standard opkg package system.

For ad-hoc deployment without the build system, see deploy/native/ instead.

Package contents

Installed path Purpose
/usr/bin/fips Mesh daemon
/usr/bin/fipsctl CLI control tool (fipsctl peers, fipsctl links, …)
/usr/bin/fipstop Live TUI dashboard
/etc/init.d/fips procd service (auto-start, crash respawn)
/etc/fips/fips.yaml Node configuration (edit before first start)
/etc/fips/firewall.sh Firewall helper — accepts traffic on fips0
/etc/dnsmasq.d/fips.conf Forwards .fips DNS queries to the daemon
/etc/sysctl.d/fips-bridge.conf br_netfilter settings for Ethernet transport
/etc/hotplug.d/net/99-fips Applies firewall rules when fips0 comes up
/etc/uci-defaults/90-fips-setup First-boot kernel module and firewall setup
/lib/upgrade/keep.d/fips Preserves /etc/fips/ across sysupgrade

Requirements

Build host

Requirement Notes
OpenWrt SDK 22.03+ Older versions lack fw4 / nftables support
Rust host toolchain Enable in make menuconfig → Advanced → Rust, or install rustup
Rust target for your router Added automatically by the Makefile via rustup target add

Router

Requirement Notes
kmod-tun Required for fips0 TUN interface
kmod-br-netfilter Required for Ethernet transport on bridge member ports

Both kernel modules are listed as package dependencies (DEPENDS) and will be installed automatically by opkg.

Target architectures

The Makefile maps the OpenWrt ARCH variable to the correct Rust musl target:

OpenWrt ARCH Rust target
aarch64 aarch64-unknown-linux-musl
x86_64 x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
mipsel mipsel-unknown-linux-musl
mips mips-unknown-linux-musl
arm arm-unknown-linux-musleabihf

To add a missing architecture, add an ifeq block in Makefile mapping the OpenWrt ARCH value to the Rust target triple.

Building with the OpenWrt SDK

1. Obtain the SDK

Download the SDK for your router's target from downloads.openwrt.org and extract it.

2. Add this package

Copy or symlink this directory into the SDK's package/ tree:

# From inside the SDK root:
ln -s /path/to/fips/packaging/openwrt package/fips

Or add the FIPS repository as a feed in feeds.conf:

src-git-full fips https://github.com/jmcorgan/fips.git

Then update and install feeds:

./scripts/feeds update fips
./scripts/feeds install -a -p fips

3. Build

make package/fips/compile V=s

The resulting .ipk is placed in bin/packages/<arch>/.

4. Pin the source version

For reproducible production builds, replace PKG_SOURCE_VERSION:=master in Makefile with a specific commit SHA and set PKG_MIRROR_HASH to the correct hash (or keep skip for development):

PKG_SOURCE_VERSION:=bf117dfabc123...  # full 40-char SHA
PKG_MIRROR_HASH:=skip

Installing on the router

scp bin/packages/<arch>/fips_0.1.0-1_<arch>.ipk root@192.168.1.1:/tmp/
ssh root@192.168.1.1 opkg install /tmp/fips_0.1.0-1_<arch>.ipk

First-time configuration

Edit /etc/fips/fips.yaml on the router before starting the daemon:

ssh root@192.168.1.1
vi /etc/fips/fips.yaml

The default config enables:

  • Persistent identity (key generated on first start, saved to /etc/fips/fips.key)
  • TUN interface fips0
  • DNS responder on 127.0.0.1:5354
  • UDP transport on 0.0.0.0:2121

For Ethernet transport, uncomment the ethernet: section and set the correct physical interface names for your router. Always use physical port names (eth0, eth1), never bridge names (br-lan). See deploy/native/README.md for details.

Service management

/etc/init.d/fips start
/etc/init.d/fips stop
/etc/init.d/fips restart
/etc/init.d/fips enable    # start at boot (already enabled by opkg postinstall)
/etc/init.d/fips disable

Inspection and logs

# Peer table
fipsctl peers

# Active sessions
fipsctl sessions

# Transport links
fipsctl links

# Live TUI dashboard
fipstop

# Daemon logs (OpenWrt syslog)
logread | grep fips

Upgrading

Install the new .ipk over the existing one:

opkg install --force-reinstall fips_<new-version>_<arch>.ipk

The config in /etc/fips/fips.yaml and the identity key /etc/fips/fips.key are preserved by opkg (the yaml is installed as a conffile; the key is not a package file). Both survive sysupgrade via /lib/upgrade/keep.d/fips.