reference http://blog.csdn.net/zxl1217/archive/2008/11/22/3345757.aspx
1.run following script:(my environment is Ubuntu8.04LTS) to install all packages needed for compiling OpenWRT
#!/bin/sh
PSWD=your_password
#install packages
for PKG in emacs wireshark minicom gtkterm cutecom samba samba-config libc xinetd tftpd tftp subversion flex autoconf ziplib sshlib yacc libncurses-dev bison automake g++ zlib1g-dev gawk patch rpm libgtk2.0-dev
do
echo $PSWD | sudo -S apt-get install $PKG -y
done
#change default shell to bash
echo $PSWD | sudo rm /bin/sh
echo $PSWD | sudo ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh
2. extract openWRT package to directory:
tar xvjf file-1.0.tar.bz2
3. goto diretory and make
sudo make V=99
the first time of make will ask you to configure it, and download toolchains which takes a long time. V=99 will let you know the ouput incase there will be unexpected error.