Missing Tools in OpenWrt Live USB

Missing Tools in OpenWrt Live USB | Generated by AI

Home 2026.02

Question: Both commands (zcat and dd) not found when trying to install OpenWrt to internal disk from USB boot

Answer:

You’re booted into the OpenWrt live system from USB (root login, no password), but basic commands like lsblk, dd, or zcat are reporting “command not found”. This happens because the combined .img boot environment in recent OpenWrt versions (especially snapshots or some stable builds) is very minimal — it uses busybox with only essential applets, and many common utilities (including dd, lsblk, zcat, gzip, etc.) are not included by default to keep the image small.

Quick checks first

Run these to confirm your situation:

which dd
which lsblk
which zcat
busybox

If which says not found or empty → those commands aren’t there.
busybox should show a list of supported commands (usually includes things like cat, echo, mount, but not dd or lsblk in minimal initramfs).

Correct & recommended way in 2026 (current official method)

The official OpenWrt x86 guide no longer recommends installing from the booted OpenWrt USB image itself for most users, because of exactly this minimal-tool issue. Instead:

Best & easiest method: Use a normal Linux live USB (e.g. your existing Linux Mint Cinnamon USB or Ubuntu/Fedora live) to write the image

Reboot the laptop and remove the OpenWrt USB for now.
Boot from your Linux Mint live USB (or download a fresh Ubuntu live ISO and make one with Rufus/Etcher/dd).

Once in the live desktop (try without installing):

Open terminal.

Download the OpenWrt image again if needed (or copy it to USB beforehand):

wget https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/24.10.5/targets/x86/64/openwrt-24.10.5-x86-64-generic-ext4-combined-efi.img.gz
gunzip openwrt-24.10.5-x86-64-generic-ext4-combined-efi.img.gz

(or use the ImmortalWrt equivalent if preferred)

Identify your internal 500GB disk (careful — wrong choice wipes data!):
```
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,MODEL
sudo fdisk -l
```
- Internal disk is usually /dev/sda (or /dev/nvme0n1 if NVMe SSD).
- USB live stick is smaller, e.g. /dev/sdb.
Write the image (this wipes & installs OpenWrt):
```
sudo dd if=openwrt-....img of=/dev/sda bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync
```
- Replace /dev/sda with your internal disk.
- Wait for it to finish (may take 5–20 minutes).
```
   sync
```
Shut down, remove the live USB, reboot → laptop should now boot directly into OpenWrt (console login: root, no password initially).

After first boot:

Set password: passwd
Connect to network (Ethernet to modem as WAN usually works by default)
Access LuCI: http://192.168.1.1 → set password again if prompted
Run opkg update && opkg install luci if web GUI not there yet

If you insist on using the OpenWrt USB live (advanced, not recommended)

You need to install the missing tools first — but the live system has no opkg / package manager by default, and usually no internet (unless you manually configure Ethernet/Wi-Fi via ifconfig/wpa_supplicant — complicated).

Some older forum posts suggest:

If /bin/dd exists somehow → use it.
Or fetch image via wget (if network works) then pipe to cat > /dev/sda — but unreliable and dangerous.

Most people abandon this and switch to a full Linux live USB — it’s faster and has all tools (dd, lsblk, wget, gunzip, etc.).

Summary – what to do right now

Reboot → boot your Linux Mint live USB instead.
Use dd from there to write the .img to /dev/sda (internal disk).
This is the standard, reliable way used by almost everyone installing OpenWrt on x86 hardware (laptops, mini-PCs, etc.) in recent years.

Backup any data first (though you mentioned it can run Linux Mint, so presumably nothing critical left). If you tell me exactly what ls or busybox shows, or the full error, I can refine further.

References:

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