OpenWRT is lightweight Linux distribution targeting routers. It runs on very limited resources, usually ARM or MIPS architecture with only 16-64MB of RAM and 2-8 MB of Flash.
iMX233-OLinuXino is noW officially in OpenWRT trunk which makes very easy to build OpenWRT image for OLinuXino
In OpenWRT WIKI is given detailed description how to prepare SD-card when you have the images: http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/olimex/imx233-olinuxino
To build OpenWRT from the sources you should do this:
# git clone https://github.com/mirrors/openwrt # cd openwrt # make menuconfig then Select Freescale imx233 + Olimex boards Save and quit # make -j10 precompiled files are available at: http://filez.zoobab.com/openwrt/imx233/openwrt/bin/imx23/
olimex 
Jul 08, 2013 @ 10:40:59
“iMX233-OLinuXino is not officially in OpenWRT trunck”
Replace is by:
“iMX233-OLinuXino is now officially in OpenWRT trunck”
Jul 08, 2013 @ 10:44:45
thanks (facepalm)
Jul 08, 2013 @ 10:43:31
And I think GPIOs in /sys/class/gpios are not supported in this version, but I might me wrong.
Jul 10, 2013 @ 23:38:05
This might solve the GPIO sysfs support:
https://github.com/mirrors/openwrt/commit/586b9dcb368b9e05217bd1cc997cb044745dc60c
Jul 11, 2013 @ 01:09:44
Now recompiled bins in http://filez.zoobab.com with the GPIO sysfs patch:
http://filez.zoobab.com/openwrt/imx233/openwrt/bin/imx23/openwrt-imx23-root.ext4
Jul 24, 2013 @ 10:00:49
Trunck 😀
Jul 24, 2013 @ 10:09:17
fixed, thanks 🙂
Jul 25, 2013 @ 22:34:36
Does the olimex imx233 openwrt pre-built image include support for the mod-wifi (rtl8192cu) adapter?
Aug 28, 2013 @ 11:34:04
Great stuff! This project seems like a perfect solution to create some quality wifi mesh infrastructure. Thank-you very much for your previous links to my questions I asked! OpenWRT looks like a perfect solution to quickly deploy a radio packet mesh, I’m still investigating and learning heaps of ideal radio & information setups to make a robust error corrective, ad-hoc free mesh network. Admittedly for ease I have been prone to use DD-WRT in the past, There are many great projects surrounding OpenWRT! The mesh epiphany I had wouldn’t of been possible without such tools like these!
Did you know? Only a handful of engineers know how GSM really works! 802.11 Wifi is unlicensed and very well documented, most governments won’t be able to object to people setting up their own mesh networks 🙂 802.11 limits are only people power in numbers! Newer wifi standards only add more radios with some clever error correction and radio routing techniques.
Oct 17, 2013 @ 20:36:55
Agreed – OpenWRT is very flash friendly and seems to also be running faster than other distros on the imx233s. Can anyone point to some help on how to get a wifi USB RLT8192CU type radio working with this distro? Its sorta important to have untethered capability for this class of devices. Also, noting that OpenWRT is targeting router installations, are there any comments on all the changes needed for it to behave with only one network interface. The out-of-the-box trunk build needs a lot of config tweaks to make it place nice on a network.
Nov 13, 2013 @ 14:30:35
Hello,
has anyone managed to get RTL8188 working in OpenWRT?
Thanks
Nov 13, 2013 @ 17:47:16
Yes, you should just load this kernel module:
http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/imx23/packages/kmod-rtl8192cu_3.10.15%2b2013-06-27-1_imx23.ipk
And the RTL8188 should be loaded as a wlan0 device.
I am waiting for my order of my RTL8188 device to confirm it works fine with the IMX233. The previous order was lost by the post.
May 13, 2014 @ 09:50:43
Hello,
There seems to be a problem using the RTL8188 in Access Point mode — Apple devices (iPhones, iPads) cannot connect. The DHCP transaction succeeds but then the client disconnects for no obvious reason. Any other devices such as Android phone, Linux, Windows computers work good.
I am using hostapd + dnsmasq as provided by OpenWRT. Exactly same configuration works also for Apple devices when using TP-LINK TL-WN721N.
Any ideas?
Thanks!