Stale Optware

The question of "how do I install <xyz> on my DiskStation?" is usually answered by the instruction to install optware on the device.  This is done via a process called Bootstrapping.  There is a wiki page that covers all of this:

http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Overview_on_modifying_the_Synology_Server,_bootstrap,_ipkg_etc#Installing_compiled.2Fbinary_programs_using_ipkg

I followed these instructions and had no problems at all on my DS211j.  The issue now is that no one seems to be updating any of the optware packages and the "current" recommendation on the IPKG Synology forum is to manually bootstrap the device and point it to a stale package that is "somewhat" compatible with the newer ARM-based Synology devices.

I'm sure this is fine for 90% of the users that just want to be able to run "sudo" or whatever, but it bugs me that I have a multi-core ARMv7 device that is running stale, unoptimized ARMv5-compiled code.

So - I'm probably just being a huge nerd, but that goes without saying.  I'd rather do this the hard way (and hopefully learn something in the process).  I won't be installing IPKG optware on my DS215j.  I will compile from source, given the choice (or install someone else's package).  That means I have no build environment on the DS itself and I will need to setup a build environment somewhere else.  Fortunately, Synology provides guidance and tools for that, too.