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Raspberry Pi OpenWrt Software Router Configuration Guide

ImmortalWrt Raspberry Pi License Status Online Docs

Transform Your Raspberry Pi into a Smart Gateway

Docs Portal: Raspi ImmortalWrt Docs

🎯 Core Features

🚀 Whole-Home Network Access • 📱 Intelligent Traffic Routing • 🔒 Secure & Reliable • ⚡ High Performance

📚 Quick Navigation

🔥 Quick Start • ⚙️ Initial Setup • 🌐 Network Config • 🎨 Extensions • 📖 Full Documentation

🌟 Project Introduction

💡 Editor's Note: After graduation, I bought a Raspberry Pi 4B and installed Ubuntu to learn Linux operations, but it soon became idle. By chance, I heard that it could be flashed with OpenWRT system to achieve multicast and serve as a software router for network access, so I embarked on another journey of tinkering, which I document here.

This project provides a complete Raspberry Pi software router configuration solution, from firmware selection and system flashing to advanced feature configuration, helping you easily build a powerful smart gateway.

✨ Why Choose ImmortalWrt?

FeatureOfficial OpenWrtImmortalWrt
Plugin QuantityBasic🎯 Rich
CDN AccelerationNone✅ Supported
Chinese SupportAverage✅ Excellent
Update FrequencyStandard🚀 Active

All references to OpenWrt below refer to ImmortalWrt

🎁 What This Project Offers

📝Complete Configuration Guide
Detailed step-by-step instructions		🛠️Practical Toolset
Flashing, backup, expansion tools
🌐Network Access Solution
Optimized OpenClash configuration		📊Automation Scripts
One-click backup and updates

Common Settings and Documentation:

  1. Flashing Tools and Steps:
  1. Dial-up Settings
  1. OpenWrt Backup & Restore: If you have backup and restore needs:
  1. Software Space Expansion
  1. OpenClash Network Access Settings

Preface

The official OpenWrt firmware is too minimalistic, so I chose the feature-rich ImmortalWrt, which provides more plugins and CDN acceleration sources, greatly enhancing the user experience. This article documents my complete process of configuring an OpenWrt software router on a Raspberry Pi 4B, hoping to help others with similar needs.

All references to OpenWrt below refer to ImmortalWrt. You can understand ImmortalWrt as a more feature-rich OpenWrt, but it is still essentially an OpenWrt system.

Hardware Environment

  • Device: Raspberry Pi 4B/400/CM4 (64bit)

Firmware Selection

  • Firmware Source: ImmortalWrt Firmware Selector
  • Important Notes:
    • EXT4 version will overwrite all user settings (Overwrite mode - flash this firmware if you need to reconfigure!)
    • SQUASHFS version preserves user configurations after flashing (Incremental mode)

Specific firmware packages can be found in the release section.

Flashing the Firmware

For detailed steps, see documentation: docs/Write_Image.md

Initial Configuration

Connecting to OpenWrt

Method 1: Wireless Connection (SSH) - Recommended

  • i. Connect to Raspberry Pi WiFi (default name: ImmortalWrt)
  • ii. Enter 192.168.1.1 in your browser to access the admin panel, default password is empty, just click confirm
  • ii. (Alternative) Use local SSH tool, address: 192.168.1.1, port: 22, Username: root, Password: empty by default / password set during firmware compilation, see Firmware Selection

Method 2: Wired Connection

  • i. Connect directly to the Raspberry Pi with an Ethernet cable
  • ii. Change your local Ethernet IPv4 address to the 192.168.1.x subnet with subnet mask 255.255.255.0 (the last x can be any integer from 2-255), set gateway to 192.168.1.1
  • iii. Access 192.168.1.1 to enter the OpenWrt web admin panel
  • iv. Default username: root; Default password: (empty) or the password set during flashing

Method 2 is suitable for complex campus network environments (especially when different LANs exist in the same laboratory)

Basic Settings

After connecting, first change the password. Second, disable IPv6 settings.

Network Configuration

Next, you need to configure the network. If you connect the router's LAN port to the Raspberry Pi's network port, you don't need to make any changes - simply connect to the Raspberry Pi's WiFi to access the internet.

Choose your scenario first (to avoid common mistakes):

  1. Upstream router LAN uplink (Pi Ethernet -> upstream router LAN): read LAN Connection
  2. Main router / campus PPPoE: read PPPoE guide

Simplest Usage

Connect the Raspberry Pi's single network port to the LAN port of your optical modem or router. Any terminal device connected to the Raspberry Pi's WiFi can then access the internet. Step-by-step screenshots: docs/Lan_Connectioin.md

However, if you're in a campus network environment or want the Raspberry Pi to act as the main router (i.e., you have dial-up requirements), please see the following methods.

Single Network Port Raspberry Pi WAN and LAN Configuration

For details, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEf-MjqTFJ4&list=PLma6Xp9L8ZNkhKv2AFYMrwY4_Vb1J3uxG&index=2

Initially considered using VLAN technology to separate WAN and LAN on a single port, but ultimately abandoned this approach as the switch did not support VLAN.

In plain language: Since the Raspberry Pi has only a single network port, using the simplest method, other devices can only connect via WiFi, not through Ethernet cable. How can you enable other devices to connect to the Raspberry Pi via Ethernet? Answer: Use a switch with VLAN functionality (but I don't have one, haha).

Campus Network Dial-up Solution

For home dial-up, the software router acts as the main router. Related dial-up account acquisition is not covered here. Please see Bridging Mode Tutorial.

Campus network dial-up is more complex and may fail due to device type detection.

For specific dial-up configuration steps, see: docs/PPPoE_Connection.md

At this point, all devices in your home connected to the Raspberry Pi WiFi can successfully access the internet!

Next, let's configure the exciting network access plugins to achieve whole-home global internet access!

Feature Extensions

Theme Customization

Install cargo luci theme to enhance interface aesthetics (refer to video at 33:12) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfSJmPFiL_s&t=1992s

If you know how to install it yourself, follow these steps directly:

System--Software Packages--Update Lists--No errors--Install luci-theme-argon--Install luci-i18n-ttyd-zh-cn

Plugin Installation:

  • luci-app-openclash
  • luci-i18n-passwall-zh-cn
  • luci-i18n-homeproxy-zh-cn
  • luci-i18n-quickstart-zh-cn
  • iStore App Store (installed via imm.sh)

Plugin location: In the "Services" tab on the sidebar.

Command-line installation (ARM64 & x86-64 universal):

# Install iStore App Store
wget -qO imm.sh https://cafe.cpolar.cn/wkdaily/zero3/raw/branch/main/zero3/imm.sh && chmod +x imm.sh && ./imm.sh

# Install quickstart wizard and homepage
is-opkg install luci-i18n-quickstart-zh-cn

Once plugins are installed, complete the final step of configuring the proxy tool, and you'll be able to achieve network access on any terminal device in your home!

Network Access Configuration

Honestly, isn't this what all the software router tinkering has been for? When you successfully configure network access and see all your home devices freely and quickly accessing the internet, that moment of satisfaction is absolutely the meaning of all this effort.

Some say network access is just a tool - why not just install proxy tools on each device? But for tinkerers, achieving elegant network access is absolutely worth the effort. From node selection, DNS splitting to transparent proxy, every step has its secrets. Configure it well, and your network flows like silk; configure it poorly, and you're stuck in an endless loop of "can't connect" and "won't open".

Next, let's configure OpenClash and see how to make OpenWrt's software router truly "fly".

1. Install Network Access Plugins such as OpenClash

Download and add according to personal preference (cannot use multiple simultaneously!)

  • OpenClash (Highly recommended, most widely used, this tutorial is based on it)
  • passWall
  • etc.

After installing the OpenClash plugin, watch this video first and complete the basic configuration step by step: Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U9xkpexHOE

Unlike in the video, the config.yaml in the video has two issues in actual use: first, LinkedIn cannot be accessed normally, and second, academic websites like IEEE cannot correctly identify academic network IPs, requiring frequent network switching to download papers. The configuration provided in this article adjusts rules and DNS splitting to solve these issues and provides reproducible examples and verification steps.

Please use config_linkedin.yaml as the configuration file.

Configuration notes: Academic literature repositories and Steam downloads use direct connection, LinkedIn uses overseas DNS to prevent redirection to domestic sites. For more features, please submit a PR!

2. Advanced Usage

Custom rule additions:

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s84CWgKus4U&t=105s

Conclusion

Through the above configuration, I successfully transformed a Raspberry Pi into a powerful software router, solving network connection issues in campus environments and implementing advanced features like network access. ImmortalWrt provides richer plugin support compared to official OpenWrt, greatly enhancing the user experience.

I hope this configuration guide helps you! If you have any questions, feel free to discuss in the comments section.

Other

OpenWrt Backup & Restore:

If you have backup and restore needs:

Software Space Expansion

❤️ Thanks for visiting!

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