For more than 3 years I’m using 2 hAPac2 routers and am happy with them
(I have also some more MT devices like some big switches).
Just for fun today I installed the open source router software OpenWRT
on one of the hAPac2, initially just in RAM only for just testing first.
It works
It has a WebGUI and a Linux shell as CLI with root access.
This means one can install packets from the OpenWRT repository,
as well write and run own programs on the router by using a
C/C++ cross-compiler toolchain (gcc) on the desktop PC.
I haven’t installed the toolchain yet (see link below), but will do soon.
I’ve some experience in such cross-compiler toolchains as I did similar some years ago on a MIPS board.
Since OpenWRT was installed in RAM (initramfs), after rebooting
the router again boots RouterOS, but one can of course also install OpenWRT on the flash memory.
But can docker be used on such a small device like the hAPac2 ?
As I understand it, docker requires much disk memory, 100+ MB or so, whereas such a hAPac2 has got only 128 MB
USB flash for Docker? I did not try that.
Docker images could be really small, on Alpine Linux only few megabytes.
ac2 is an old device anyway to run ROS 7 on it.
I need to do some network programming and install the program on the router (I can’t and won’t use docker etc. for this).
RouterOS is closed source and the user does not have any root access,
OpenWrt is open source and the user has root access, so my task can be realized only in OpenWrt.
I don’t think it has an effect on the warranty.
But it is surely safer to do/try it first on an older similar hardware with expired warranty.
Yes, it’s possible to revert to RouterOS safely. There are multiple methods:
a) Install OpenWrt just in RAM only. At next reboot of the router it reverts back to RouterOS.
b) Overwrite OpenWrt by doing a netinstall of RouterOS, and then restore from your backup file (named *.backup).
I’m just a beginner in OpenWrt myself. I would say to try out the “Installing OpenWrt into RAM” method, see #3a above.
