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= Welcome to FreeWRT =

'''FreeWRT''' is a meta GNU/Linux distribution for embedded systems. In this context "meta" means, you can build the complete distribution from source. FreeWRT is meant to be an ''appliance development kit'' (ADK) especially designed for embedded system developers and advanced users.

Our latest stable release is '''FreeWRT 1.0.3'''!

The FreeWRT developer team provides a menu based configuration to choose between embedded boards, root filesystem flavours and hundreds of software packages for your own Linux based appliance. The ADK downloads all software packages via the internet and creates
a working toolchain (compiler, assembler, debugger), kernel and base system containing only the minimal set
of software and drivers to support all integrated hardware of your embedded system. The default firmware image configures existing non-wireless network interfaces so that you can connect via secure shell client to your embedded system after the installation of the
firmware image.

The best way to install FreeWRT on a supported device is to use our ADK. One of our goals is, to provide a
host independent ADK, which can be used to create your own appliance on Linux, *BSD, MacOSX and
Windows. Check the list of the [wiki:Documentation/HostSystems supported build systems] to see how many are supported now.

Alternatively you can create a firmware image with our [http://wib.freewrt.org Web Image Builder]. The Web Image Builder does not have so many customization options, but is useful to get a feeling about the possibilities of FreeWRT.

FreeWRT supports following [wiki:Documentation/TargetSystems embedded devices]. We only have support for Broadcom based devices with Linux 2.4. Some very popular wireless lan routers
are based on Broadcom hardware, e.g. [wiki:Documentation/Hardware/LinksysWrt54GL Linksys WRT54GL], [wiki:Documentation/Hardware/AsusWL500GP Asus WL500g premium] and [wiki:Documentation/Hardware/NetgearWgt634u Netgear WGT634u].

If you like start with FreeWRT, check at [wiki:Documentation/HostSystems supported Hostsystems] if your operating system is a supported buildsystem.
Then get the latest stable release from our repository via subversion command line tool:[[BR]]
{{{$ svn co svn://www.freewrt.org/tags/freewrt_1_0_3}}}

'''Please never build as root! '''

You can start the menu based configuration via "make". If the prerequisite checks are successful you will get a menu, where you should at least choose a target system. If you exit the menu, you can start the build process via "make" or in more verbose mode via "make v".
The buildprocess will download all needed sources via internet (typically about 200MB) and will build a working toolchain (compiler, assembler, debugger), a kernel and a usable basic root filesystem for your target.

If you find any bugs or have any feature requests, please [http://www.freewrt.org/trac/newticket report] them to us.

If you like to help please contact us via our [https://www.freewrt.org/lists/listinfo/freewrt-developers developer mailinglist].
The [https://www.freewrt.org/lists/listinfo/freewrt-users users mailing list] provides some basic support, but remember we are unpaid volunteers.

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