This repository contains the site configuration and build automation for the Freifunk Aachen Gluon firmware.

Build Requirements

For build requirements, dependencies, and environment setup, please refer to the official Gluon Documentation: Getting Started.

Building Firmware

This site repository contains a top-level Makefile wrapper that handles checking out the matching Gluon version, applying local patches, and compiling firmware images.

1. Build all targets and manifests

Simply clone this repository and run:

git clone https://github.com/ffac/site.git
cd site
make manifest

This will automatically:

• Download the required Gluon release (configured in release.mk) into gluon-build/
• Apply custom patches in patches/
• Update Gluon package feeds/modules
• Compile all configured targets (defined in targets.mk)
• Generate manifests for experimental, beta, and stable autoupdater branches

The finished images and manifests will be located in the output/ directory (e.g. output/images/).

2. Build specific target(s) or device(s)

To build only a specific target (e.g. mediatek-filogic or ramips-mt7621):

make build GLUON_TARGETS=mediatek-filogic

To build only specific hardware device(s):

make build GLUON_DEVICES="openwrt-one asus-rt-ax52"

(Device-specific builds output images into devices/)

3. Useful Make Options

• make print-targets: Lists all targets defined in targets.mk.
• make build: Compiles images without generating autoupdater manifests.
• make manifest: Compiles images and generates autoupdater branch manifests.
• make sign: Builds images, manifests, and signs them (requires ${HOME}/.gluon-secret-key or SECRET_KEY_FILE).
• make clean: Cleans up gluon-build/, output/, and devices/.
• JOBS=<N>: Controls parallel jobs (defaults to available CPU cores via nproc).
• GLUON_RELEASE=<version>: Override the firmware release string (otherwise derived from git tag/commit).
• BROKEN=0: Disable building devices marked as broken (broken devices are included by default).

Architecture Details

• WireGuard Mesh: Uses upstream gluon-mesh-vpn-wireguard ¹.
• WireGuard Key Registration: Done via custom wg-registration package which registers keys via POST to our broker.
• Changelog: See CHANGELOG.md.
• Aachen Wiki: Freifunk Aachen Firmware Wiki.

Footnotes

1. https://gluon.readthedocs.io/en/latest/features/vpn.html#wireguard ↩