Running Xlink on alternative devices

Kai Beginner Joined: 15 Sep 2020 Posts: 4

Hi

I'm new to the Kai community and wondering if it's possible to setup Kai on certain non-traditional devices such as routers, linux based IPTV boxes, old Android phones etc.?

I've read that running Kai on dd-wrt is/was possible but may not have ongoing support. I'd like to learn how to set it up that way, understanding that it may not receive future updates.

I'm trying to get as many of my friends on Kai as possible and not having them purchase new hardware (such as Pi) makes the process a bit easier. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Team XLink Developer Joined: 30 Aug 2017 Posts: 2

Let me try to answer this as well as I can, even though it has been a month, I do think this is an interesting subject.

Lets start with the bad news, dd-wrt support is no longer there and will probably never resume.

As for the other types of devices:
Now that XLink Kai has ARM and ARM64 support this is certainly a possibility.
Possibly also for an ARM-based openwrt router?

There is no official support, but if you're persistent, it's possible:

Now the following information might come in handy if you want to attempt this:

- You still need a supported setup to do this, so your device at the very least needs to be wired (or you need to have a specific kind of wifi usb stick that supports promiscuous mode, there aren't a lot of these)

- For Android your kernel needs to support the Ethernet adapter you're going to use.

- Also on Android, you would need a rooted phone, and the way I did it, also a Linux chroot.

This is really hobbyist stuff though, and not easy to use for anyone really.
If you're trying to get friends connected, might be best for them to use their actual laptops/computers.

Kai Beginner Joined: 15 Sep 2020 Posts: 4

Thanks codedwrench.

You're right this won't work for most people I'm trying to bring online but I really do appreciate the feedback. I might even give this a shot sometime just to tinker with it.