ubox

Project's git

Package ubox was added in r36427 and package block-mount was dropped in r36988. r37199 finally adds a UCI-default script for fstab generation.

Cf.

for some insight.

call

block detect

to get a sample UCI configuration file. If target is / then it will be used as extroot. block info is also valid to get the uuid.

Whereas desktop distributions use glib+dbus+udev(part of systemd), OpenWrt uses libubox+ubus+procd. This provides some pretty awesome functionality without requiring huge libraries with huge dependencies (*cough* glib).

	Desktop Distributions		OpenWrt		Android	Replicant	mer-based
Typical main memory size	128 MiB to 16 GiB (or more)		32 MiB to 512 MiB¹⁾		min 92 MiB for Android 2.1 min 340 MiB for Android 4.0		?
Supported instruction sets	almost anything		almost anything		x86, 86-64, ARM, MIPS32
non-volatile storage space	100 MiB		8 MiB²⁾		150MiB for Android 2.1 512MiB for Android 4.0		?
kernel	`Linux kernel`
kernel	FOSS and binary drivers		FOSS drivers: e.g. 802.11; Iaccess		Android binary drivers
C standard library	glibc		uClibc, musl		bionic	glibc + libhybris	eglibc 2.15
init	init Upstart Initng	`systemd`	busybox-initd	`procd`	Android init-fork		`systemd`
	rsyslog / syslog-ng		busybox-klogd, busybox-syslogd
	watchdog		busybox-watchdog
	udev		hotplug2
	cron		`busybox-crond`
	atd		na
	D-Bus		ubus		Binder	?	D-Bus
network configuration	NetworkManager + GUI		`netifd`		ConnectivityManager (not ConnMan = ConnectionManager!)	?	ConnMan
	GLib (GObject, Glib, GModule, GThread, GIO)		libubox		?	?	Qt-based?
	PulseAudio		pulseaudio (optional)		PulseAudio	PulseAudio	PulseAudio
Package management system	dpkg/APT RPM/yum portage pacman ...		`opkg`		apk	?	RPM

What's the difference between ubus vs dbus?

dbus is bloated, its C API is very annoying to use and requires writing large amounts of boilerplate code. In fact, the pure C API is so annoying that its own API documentation states: “If you use this low-level API directly, you're signing up for some pain.”

ubus is tiny and has the advantage of being easy to use from regular C code, as well as automatically making all exported API functionality also available to shell scripts with no extra effort.

“Of course, NetworkManager should be renamed to “unetwork”, dbus to “ubus”, PulseAudio to “usound”, and X.Org-Server/Wayland-Compositor to “udisplay”; and then indescribable happiness would come down to all people of this world.” – Lennart Poettering

→file_system / flash.layout
→internal.layout
→preinit_mount/process.boot/requirements.boot.process

PulseAudio does not depend on GLib and does not seem to depends on D-Bus neither: LFS
FOSDEM2013: Can Linux network configuration suck less?

¹⁾

yes, heavily stripped OpenWrt can run on 16 or even 8MiB

²⁾

yes, 4MiB and 2MiB possible

ubox

OpenWrt – operating system architecture

What's the difference between ubus vs dbus?