This is my first commit to Slackbuilds! Not a very big contribution, but very cool nonetheless! Every little bit counts!
Robby Workman commit a2ecf74a7618ecd1341a70006af9d50bbb8bcf05
Author: Robby Workman <rworkman@slackbuilds.org>
Date: Wed Oct 15 16:39:32 2014 -0500
multimedia/flashplayer-plugin: Updated for version 11.2.202.411.
Thanks to Diego Pineda.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Friday, October 10, 2014
Modification to rsync_slackware_patches.sh
On the Slackware docs page, in the beginners_guide--Watching for updated packages section--I noticed a flaw/feature/something I didn't like in the example script provided. Just a simple mod really. The script by default has the arch hardcoded, when honestly it would be better pulled from the system.
There is the option to set the arch to something different, which is fine if you want to rsync for a different arch than whats on your system (say have a local copy for another machine at your employ), but I believe it should have been set to the following:
# What architecture will we be mirroring? The default is 'x86' meaning 32bit.
# Alternatively you can specify 'x86_64' meaning 64bit. The value of SARCH
# determines the name of the slackware directories.
# This value can be overruled via the '-a' commandline parameter;
SARCH=${SARCH:-"x86"}
It should be changed to this:
SARCH=$(arch)
This will set the correct arch according to what your system has. Using the case statement -a switch will also allow you to set it should you need to still.
Links:
http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:beginners_guide
rsync_slackware_patches.sh - original
rsync_slackware_patches.sh - modified
There is the option to set the arch to something different, which is fine if you want to rsync for a different arch than whats on your system (say have a local copy for another machine at your employ), but I believe it should have been set to the following:
# What architecture will we be mirroring? The default is 'x86' meaning 32bit.
# Alternatively you can specify 'x86_64' meaning 64bit. The value of SARCH
# determines the name of the slackware directories.
# This value can be overruled via the '-a' commandline parameter;
SARCH=${SARCH:-"x86"}
It should be changed to this:
SARCH=$(arch)
This will set the correct arch according to what your system has. Using the case statement -a switch will also allow you to set it should you need to still.
Links:
http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:beginners_guide
rsync_slackware_patches.sh - original
rsync_slackware_patches.sh - modified
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Regular Expressions
I suck with regular expressions.
I'm always finding myself in the situation where I am using google to try and find a solution to an answer.
So, today I was trying to figure out an expression to use in a script when, I stumbled upon the following site:
http://www.regexr.com/
The nice feature of this site: it allows you to test your expression on the fly, and show you your results on the site.
Interactive learning at its best. I was actually able to figure out the regex I needed after testing a few combinations.
Diego
I'm always finding myself in the situation where I am using google to try and find a solution to an answer.
So, today I was trying to figure out an expression to use in a script when, I stumbled upon the following site:
http://www.regexr.com/
The nice feature of this site: it allows you to test your expression on the fly, and show you your results on the site.
Interactive learning at its best. I was actually able to figure out the regex I needed after testing a few combinations.
Diego
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Updating timestamp across filesystem
So my poweredge 750 still believed it was 2004. After updating the system time, I realized my x86 Slackware
14.1 install had all of the files installed with timestamps from 10
years ago. This is not good, and will make your computer blow up with a
bunch of wierd errors. So I had to resolve to the ancient fighting art of bash fu to resolve it:
boot to install disk:
mkdir /foo
boot to install disk:
mkdir /foo
mount root partition to foo (in my case R0 array)
mount /dev/md1 /foo
mount dev, proc, and sys via bind mountpoints. First define temporary variable:
a='dev proc sys'
and then apply the following for loop:
for i in $a; do mount --bind /$i /foo/$i; done
I almost forgot to add this; you need to chroot into foo:
chroot /foo
Since we want to update all directories with the exception of dev, proc, and sys, we can make another variable containing all root sub directories except the ones we've mounted via --bind, and update the timestamps on the results.
I wrote the following script to accomplish this task:
#!/bin/bash
# update timestamp.sh
b=$(ls / | egrep -v "dev|proc|sys")
for i in $b; do
cd /$i && find . -exec touch -h {} \;; \
done
exit 0
#EOF
Notes:
It is important to update the hwclock of the system prior to running this script, otherwise it will keep whatever time was on the BIOS. If your system can access the rtc device, you can update via hwclock:
hwclock --set --date "11/23/2014 13:50:30"
at which point you can update the system time via:
hwclock -s
I've tried this script once before w/o the -h switch, but it screwed up my system. It updated all the timestamps on files great, with the exception of the important ones--symlinks. Think vmlinuz.. right.
With the -h switch however it ran great and everything was good to go.
(I originally shared this in late august on my fb page, but realized it would be better served here since I only have like 4 friend in RL that understand Linux.)
Links:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/update-time-stamp-during-mount-4175520145/
Notes:
- November 23, 2014: I realized that the script wouldn't run as it was written. The for loop needs to be changed from:
for i $b; do
cd /$i \
find . -exec
to:
for i in $b; do
cd /$i && find . -exec touch -h {} \;; \
the 2nd iteration forces the find/touch command to be executed upon completion of the initial change directory command.
mount /dev/md1 /foo
mount dev, proc, and sys via bind mountpoints. First define temporary variable:
a='dev proc sys'
and then apply the following for loop:
for i in $a; do mount --bind /$i /foo/$i; done
I almost forgot to add this; you need to chroot into foo:
chroot /foo
Since we want to update all directories with the exception of dev, proc, and sys, we can make another variable containing all root sub directories except the ones we've mounted via --bind, and update the timestamps on the results.
I wrote the following script to accomplish this task:
#!/bin/bash
# update timestamp.sh
b=$(ls / | egrep -v "dev|proc|sys")
for i in $b; do
cd /$i && find . -exec touch -h {} \;; \
done
exit 0
#EOF
Notes:
It is important to update the hwclock of the system prior to running this script, otherwise it will keep whatever time was on the BIOS. If your system can access the rtc device, you can update via hwclock:
hwclock --set --date "11/23/2014 13:50:30"
at which point you can update the system time via:
hwclock -s
I've tried this script once before w/o the -h switch, but it screwed up my system. It updated all the timestamps on files great, with the exception of the important ones--symlinks. Think vmlinuz.. right.
With the -h switch however it ran great and everything was good to go.
(I originally shared this in late august on my fb page, but realized it would be better served here since I only have like 4 friend in RL that understand Linux.)
Links:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/update-time-stamp-during-mount-4175520145/
Notes:
- November 23, 2014: I realized that the script wouldn't run as it was written. The for loop needs to be changed from:
for i $b; do
cd /$i \
find . -exec
to:
for i in $b; do
cd /$i && find . -exec touch -h {} \;; \
the 2nd iteration forces the find/touch command to be executed upon completion of the initial change directory command.
Sunday, October 5, 2014
CCISS on Slackware 14.1
So I'm going to fast forward a bit, I want to share this because its important. I needed a decently modern system for work, and this time I was willing to shell out extra for it. I found a Gen5 HP ML 350, a dual proc mobo w/ 1 quad core X5355 Xeon, 8Gb Ram, 2x 15k 3G SAS drives, which I got for 150. I had to use Windows 7 on it for work purposes, but I finally was able to get rid of it and load up Slackware 14.1 x64.
After I bought the system I bought a couple extra SAS drives. I currently have 4x 15k 73.4 GB 3G SAS drives. This system has a HP Smart Array E200i SAS Controller. Although the huge kernel loads both hpsa and cciss, the system auto defaulted to using cciss.
I wanted to try out hardware raid in this install. So in the Smart Array ROM BIOS, I created a single logical array (drive), using all four disks, into a single RAID 0 array. No redundancy at all in this scenario--I know, but thats ok.
(I have a few emulex adapters I'm planning to setup a SAN with and setup a chron to periodically rsync to my storage server throughout the day, so i'm not concerned.)
CCISS is HP's deprecated block driver, which has since been replaced by HPSA which is a SCSI driver.
So, when you see your devices in the system, they are shown under /dev/cciss as such:
bash-4.2# cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name
104 0 286617757 cciss/c0d0
104 1 8388608 cciss/c0d0p1
104 2 4194304 cciss/c0d0p2
104 3 274033821 cciss/c0d0p3
So c0d0 is the 1st logical drive the controller sees, and the partitions are listed as such.
bash-4.2# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/cciss/c0d0: 293.5 GB, 293496583168 bytes
255 heads, 32 sectors/track, 70249 cylinders, total 573235514 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x73841e94
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 2048 16779263 8388608 82 Linux swap
/dev/cciss/c0d0p2 16779264 25167871 4194304 83 Linux
/dev/cciss/c0d0p3 25167872 573235513 274033821 83 Linux
So when I run through the installer, I used the partition layout shown above, and thought everything was peachy until I got to the end, after rebooting, was stuck in an infinite loop where my system didn't know what to boot.
This comes down to a lilo configuration issue.
I essesntially followed the directions given by Nasser here:
http://linax.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/slackware-boot-on-cciss-dev/
but, the layout he describes didn't work for me. In his directions, he designates the boot= directive to a partition.
I found you have to designate the boot directive to the logical disk. In other words:
boot = /dev/cciss/c0d0
Afterwards simply follow the steps as given by Nasser. Here is a step by step:
1. Run through setup as normal. Partition disks as you see fit.
2. Setup Lilo as normal. We will edit it after installation is complete.
3. Post Install--Modify Lilo:
chroot /mnt
and edit lilo.conf to ensure boot designates the logical disks your partitions reside on, i.e.
boot = /dev/cciss/c0d0
4. Install Lilo
lilo -M /dev/cciss/c0d0 mbr
lilo
Here is my lilo.conf which got my system to finally boot (I am in fact using this system to make this very post):
# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/cciss/c0d0
#compact # faster, but won't work on all systems.
# Standard menu.
message = /boot/boot_message.txt
# Append any additional kernel parameters:
append="root=/dev/cciss/c0d0p3 vt.default_utf8=0"
#prompt
#timeout = 5
# Normal VGA console
vga = normal
# Ask for video mode at boot (time out to normal in 30s)
#vga = ask
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769
# ramdisk = 0 # paranoia setting
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/cciss/c0d0p3
label = s14164
read-only # Partitions should be mounted read-only for checking
# Linux bootable partition config ends
Further reading:
http://cciss.sourceforge.net/
After I bought the system I bought a couple extra SAS drives. I currently have 4x 15k 73.4 GB 3G SAS drives. This system has a HP Smart Array E200i SAS Controller. Although the huge kernel loads both hpsa and cciss, the system auto defaulted to using cciss.
I wanted to try out hardware raid in this install. So in the Smart Array ROM BIOS, I created a single logical array (drive), using all four disks, into a single RAID 0 array. No redundancy at all in this scenario--I know, but thats ok.
(I have a few emulex adapters I'm planning to setup a SAN with and setup a chron to periodically rsync to my storage server throughout the day, so i'm not concerned.)
CCISS is HP's deprecated block driver, which has since been replaced by HPSA which is a SCSI driver.
So, when you see your devices in the system, they are shown under /dev/cciss as such:
bash-4.2# cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name
104 0 286617757 cciss/c0d0
104 1 8388608 cciss/c0d0p1
104 2 4194304 cciss/c0d0p2
104 3 274033821 cciss/c0d0p3
So c0d0 is the 1st logical drive the controller sees, and the partitions are listed as such.
bash-4.2# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/cciss/c0d0: 293.5 GB, 293496583168 bytes
255 heads, 32 sectors/track, 70249 cylinders, total 573235514 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x73841e94
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 2048 16779263 8388608 82 Linux swap
/dev/cciss/c0d0p2 16779264 25167871 4194304 83 Linux
/dev/cciss/c0d0p3 25167872 573235513 274033821 83 Linux
So when I run through the installer, I used the partition layout shown above, and thought everything was peachy until I got to the end, after rebooting, was stuck in an infinite loop where my system didn't know what to boot.
This comes down to a lilo configuration issue.
I essesntially followed the directions given by Nasser here:
http://linax.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/slackware-boot-on-cciss-dev/
but, the layout he describes didn't work for me. In his directions, he designates the boot= directive to a partition.
I found you have to designate the boot directive to the logical disk. In other words:
boot = /dev/cciss/c0d0
Afterwards simply follow the steps as given by Nasser. Here is a step by step:
1. Run through setup as normal. Partition disks as you see fit.
2. Setup Lilo as normal. We will edit it after installation is complete.
3. Post Install--Modify Lilo:
chroot /mnt
and edit lilo.conf to ensure boot designates the logical disks your partitions reside on, i.e.
boot = /dev/cciss/c0d0
4. Install Lilo
lilo -M /dev/cciss/c0d0 mbr
lilo
Here is my lilo.conf which got my system to finally boot (I am in fact using this system to make this very post):
# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/cciss/c0d0
#compact # faster, but won't work on all systems.
# Standard menu.
message = /boot/boot_message.txt
# Append any additional kernel parameters:
append="root=/dev/cciss/c0d0p3 vt.default_utf8=0"
#prompt
#timeout = 5
# Normal VGA console
vga = normal
# Ask for video mode at boot (time out to normal in 30s)
#vga = ask
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769
# ramdisk = 0 # paranoia setting
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/cciss/c0d0p3
label = s14164
read-only # Partitions should be mounted read-only for checking
# Linux bootable partition config ends
Further reading:
http://cciss.sourceforge.net/
Adventures in 2014
So when I decided to move back into my folks place, it was the smartest move I've made at that point in 2014. Its expensive living on ones own. Furthermore I've been making plans on finally making use of my A.S. degree and transferring to a 4 year degree program. I've already hashed out the details with a guidance counselor at ASU's Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering. Basically I'm going to go for a B.S in Computer Science, or a B.E in Computer Engineering, or both. Really its the difference in the theory of computer science or a few applied courses in microcontroller programming. Honestly both sound awesome. (Thats been my biggest problem in school--I want to learn everything.)
In light of my plans of continuing my education, living off of my folks--I meant, living with my folks! Makes plenty of sense. Ahem.
While mosing about on my travels unfortunately I had to sell most of my possesions just to get by (its expensive living on ones own, and especially hard when your unemployed). So, first item on my agenda was obtaining a decent computer of sorts. So I hit craigslist with a bloodthirst.
(Up to this point I had been doing my programming stuff via a shell account I purchased at xshellz at Tempe Library via putty. This actually worked out quite well. The shell account cost 4 buckaroos.)
I've been hooked on the idea of getting a server since I first purchased a Gen3 HP ML350. The thing was a monster, it had dual core 32 bit Xeon processors (it was the last line of processors Intel made prior to including emt64), but it supported up to 12 GB of ram (which I maxed out--and made use w/ PAE). It also had a 6 bay SCSI bay. The system I bought actually came loaded w/ 6 SCSI drives. I bought it at the time (2010-11ish?), for a whopping 50 bucks. The dude I bought it from was some 20 year old kid who was most likely was cleaning old stuff out of his parents garage and was eager to figure out how to afford his next 8th of kind buds. I've seen the same server, and ones w/ similar specs, being sold for up to 200 bucks on craigslist. After spending 50 on the Gen3, I'm looking at their asking price thinking, "these guys are nuts."
I was hoping to get an HP. However after my stint at GoDaddy I had some hands on experience w/ Poweredge servers. So I decided to widen my horizens and look into Dell's stuff. My price range: 50-100 bucks.
I finally found a guy that had an awesome deal: Poweredge 1850, dual proc, 4Gb Ram, $75. That is a great deal. However I only had 50 bucks to spend. I sent the guy an email, and thankfully he was willing to work with me. But get this, that wasn't even the coolest part. I bought the server, and it came fully loaded w/ 6 10k7 SCSI drives! Before I left he also threw in a Poweredge 750!
So I got two servers, at the discounted price of 50 bucks! I don't think I can ever beat that! Thanks to the awesome dude who shall remain anonymous, rest assured he is indeed awesome!
In light of my plans of continuing my education, living off of my folks--I meant, living with my folks! Makes plenty of sense. Ahem.
While mosing about on my travels unfortunately I had to sell most of my possesions just to get by (its expensive living on ones own, and especially hard when your unemployed). So, first item on my agenda was obtaining a decent computer of sorts. So I hit craigslist with a bloodthirst.
(Up to this point I had been doing my programming stuff via a shell account I purchased at xshellz at Tempe Library via putty. This actually worked out quite well. The shell account cost 4 buckaroos.)
I've been hooked on the idea of getting a server since I first purchased a Gen3 HP ML350. The thing was a monster, it had dual core 32 bit Xeon processors (it was the last line of processors Intel made prior to including emt64), but it supported up to 12 GB of ram (which I maxed out--and made use w/ PAE). It also had a 6 bay SCSI bay. The system I bought actually came loaded w/ 6 SCSI drives. I bought it at the time (2010-11ish?), for a whopping 50 bucks. The dude I bought it from was some 20 year old kid who was most likely was cleaning old stuff out of his parents garage and was eager to figure out how to afford his next 8th of kind buds. I've seen the same server, and ones w/ similar specs, being sold for up to 200 bucks on craigslist. After spending 50 on the Gen3, I'm looking at their asking price thinking, "these guys are nuts."
I was hoping to get an HP. However after my stint at GoDaddy I had some hands on experience w/ Poweredge servers. So I decided to widen my horizens and look into Dell's stuff. My price range: 50-100 bucks.
I finally found a guy that had an awesome deal: Poweredge 1850, dual proc, 4Gb Ram, $75. That is a great deal. However I only had 50 bucks to spend. I sent the guy an email, and thankfully he was willing to work with me. But get this, that wasn't even the coolest part. I bought the server, and it came fully loaded w/ 6 10k7 SCSI drives! Before I left he also threw in a Poweredge 750!
So I got two servers, at the discounted price of 50 bucks! I don't think I can ever beat that! Thanks to the awesome dude who shall remain anonymous, rest assured he is indeed awesome!
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Wireless Repeater via DD-WRT
Currently listening to: Deftones, Diamond Eyes album 2010.
For those of you who just want the meat of how to setup ddwrt, and don't give a damn about my little story, scroll down until you see the screenshot and start reading the paragraph above that. (Oh, and screw you!)
So, the turion lappy (who I've happily named neptune64), is temporarily being held hostage by a group of mexican thugs (no, seriously). (Well not quite hostage but they've requested a ransom--at a modest price, so I can't complain. Ah the perils of the physical world).
This leaves me entirely dependent on my old celeron lappy (which was meant to be purposed as a server; in fact, this was the system I setup to host a pxe server and nfs). My Celeron lappy, which I've happily named centauri, has a Family 15 cpu, Model 2, Stepping 9, 128KB cache, 2790.8 mhz, which I recently upgraded from 256MB of PC2700 ddr, to 512 MB at PC2100 (sure 2700 is faster, but twice the ram is much faster!). When I have money I'll upgrade this sucker to 4GB. Too bad there aren't more ram slots or I could use Physical Address Extension (PAE).
As I somewhat explained in a previous blogpost, centauri has a problem with the internal wireless adapter (bcm4306). Whereas before the BIOS would boot stating a IRQ resource conflict with the bcm4306 as the culprit, now lspci -v fails to even show the device present in the system). So, attempting any software hacks will definetely not work at this point--we need a new physical solution.
So, sometime in the past 7 years I came across a Linksys WRT54GL. I rarely used it, as I would rely on my 5-port gigabit airlink switch instead (and later my asus 8-port gigabit switch). Eventually, I used slackware to setup my own router via gigabit interfaces using a bridge (in conjunction with the 8-port-gigabit-asus), I decided to let the Linksys go to my parents where they could use it in the house. Since I am currently unemployed and living with my parents (bummer!), I had to fix the network a couple of times. I am the IT admin/ lackey/ janitor here, and my pay is no rent plus food (not a bad deal if you ask me, although when I do find work I'd love to upgrade the dsl connection to something > than 1.5 MB).
So, I was told the Linksys no longer worked. My family went and purchased a wireless N capable Dlink. However, they were having a host of other problems. Turns out the actiontec modem/ap was broadcasting one ssid, and the dlink was broadcasting an entirely different network. Little did they know even though they purchased the dlink, they weren't in fact actually using it. All of the clients would connect to the airlink, that is, everyone except the little netflix streaming roku, which I have yet to explain why.
So I had to consolidate everything to one network, disable the ssid on the actiontec, and bingo everything works on the dlink (while of course setting the dlink on a seperate lan, 192.168.1.x).
Note: do not read the next paragraph unless you are absolutely curious as to the process of what I had to endure in order to fix my home network. If you truly don't care, I promise I wont be upset. Also, it may confuse most of you. Those of you who are interested purely for the challenge, feel free to comment on my gimped setup (i.e. seasoned *nix users, I welcome your input).
(That was the shortened instruction set. Most people would disable dhcp entirely on the first router, or place it in bridge mode (I seriously think only 2wire routers have this option). And, since most instructions would have you connect the first ap to the 2nd ap via the lan ports, I was having trouble passing NAT and DNS via the 2nd ap's wifi. Since there is no bridge mode on the actiontec, I opted to simply leave dhcp on in the first ap/modem while disabling the ssid, set the 2nd ap on a seperate lan, while connecting ap 1 to ap 2 via the wan port. Although a bit convoluted, I no longer have issues with dns. Well, mostly. Most of the windows clients, except my little sisters laptop and mine, which I had to hardcode dns in /etc/resolv.conf, oh and her ipod. Oh, and get this, the actiontec will randomly re-enable the ssid, simply because it feels compelled to be the boss. I've seriously had to disable it like 5 times already. It's frustrating.)
If anyone needs help with a similar setup, feel free to comment / Email me.
So anyways, I was told the Linksys no longer works. I called bullshit (especially considering the mess my family of computer geniuses left everything in). I perused the settings to see if there was anything remote to using the AP as a repeater, or set it up via a wifi wpa2 bridge, but nothing was in the linksys firmware. Now, I had originally intended to use openwrt for this project, however although I am certainly not opposed to the *nix style environment (I'd actually prefer this), according to the wiki there are a host of packages you need to download in order to get a wpa2 bridge going:
http://wiki.openwrt.org/oldwiki/wirelessbridgewithwpahowto?s[]=wireless&s[]=repeater .
Furthermore, the setup isn't exactly straightforward. That and considering I have a deadline on some projects I'm working on (note: submitting resumes to find jobs--there is a contract I'm trying to settle as we speak), I figured I'd settle for a working solution for now until I have the time to setup the environment I'd prefer (this is a trade-off I did when I first started using linux--my first home distro was fedora. That plus my redhat training made my transition to slack much smoother).
So, my instructions were gleamed from Brian Purdy's post on lifehacker. I will do you folks the favor of simplifying his post. It looks like he had to do a lot of extra work, my setup was actually pretty simple.
First, go to ddwrt's site http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index . Next, lookup your router in the router DB, and browse to the appropriate link. According to Brian, the micro firmware will suit our purposes just fine. (This is acceptable, since my next upgrade will be openwrt). He mentions that you should powercycle the hell out of your router, although I found I had no such need to do so. Simply go your routers homepage and find the appropriate link: mine was Linksys > Administration > firmware link, and begin the upgrade by loading the micro.bin firmware. (Note, if your router doesn't have a webgui option to load firmware, you may have to utilize tftp. Consult the dd-wrt wiki for more info). You should see a "Upgrade is Successful," message appear (sorry guys I didn't take a screenshot, but it is a very simple webpage). Afterwards, your router will reboot, and you'll need to re-authenticate with the following credentials:
username: root
password: admin
(It took me a couple tries to figure it out.. I know I ride the short bus, bare with me.)
Next, comes for the configuration:
A. Edit Wireless: Wireless Tab (Basic Settings)
> Switch wireless mode to repeater
> For wireless network name, input the SSID of the network you will be rebroadcasting (or repeating).
>> Save settings (do not apply just yet)
> Below the main section you edited is a Virtual Interfaces section. Add 1 virtual interface
> Add a NEW name for your repeater (i.e., the original SSID appended with a 2, which is what I did. Or you can use an entirely different SSID).
>> Save settings (do not apply just yet)
>> Head to wireless security subtab
> Ensure you use the same security settings your primary router/wifi access point utilizes in both the primary and virtual interfaces. For WPA2, take care to notice whether you use TKIP, AES, or both.
>> Save settings (do not apply just yet)
B. Network configuration: Network setup tab (Basic Configuration)
> Alter the routers Local IP Address to something different than the primary access point. I.e. if your main router uses 192.168.1.1, you can use 192.168.2.1 (which is what I did).
>> Save settings (do not apply just yet)
>> Switch to the Security subtab (Still under Main Network Setup tab)
> disable SPI firewall
> Under Block WAN requests, disable the following:
- Block Anonymous WAN Requests (ping)
- Filter WAN NAT Redirection
- Filter IDENT (Port 113)
> Leave Filter Multicast disabled
(Note: the above settings are to ensure the simplest configuration in case anything goes wrong. If you feel compelled to re-enable them after your configuration is working, feel free to do so and report your results).
>> Save settings (and for the love of god don't apply yet!)
> Head over to the administration, and for Pete's sake--change the password to something you can remember (if you haven't already done so).
>> Once again, save settings. Now you can Apply!
So first things first, since you changed the lan ip your ap is using, you will need to renew your dhcp lease for your interface. Now in my configuration, this ap repeater is providing internet over ethernet to my gimped celeron lappy. For those of you who are using this over wireless, configure your wireless as normal.
Best thing is to simply bring down the interface, and re-initialize it. This way, the routing table will be reset. When I first tried it I noticed it was still trying to use 192.168.1.1 as the primary gateway under route -a.
After you have established a link over your desired interface, perform a basic network check:
> ping your accesspoint, i.e. in my case 192.168.2.1. Also a good time to see if you can browse to your repeater ap, and to test your new login credentials.
> if this is good, now try pinging the primary access point (in my case 192.168.0.1)
> if this is good, you should also be able to browse to the primary ap's interface (a good check).
> Now, hold your breath, a real WAN test. Ping the following IP (which i'm told is a DNS for Verizon): 4.2.2.2
> If the above works, you are online! Now, for a dns test: ping your favorite website, i.e. slugman01.blogger.com
> if you receive replies, you are golden. If not, you may need to hardcode the dns listed in your modem/primary ap's page in /etc/resolv.conf
At this point you should be able to browse the interwebs. Note: if you had your browser open prior to this point, you may need to restart it if you have problems loading webpages. For some reason, even after the above network test confirmed I was online, firefox hung on loading basic webpages. Restarting it did the trick.
If you experience any problems, feel free to post here and I'll do the best I can to help. Important points to remember are:
> ensure your physical interface is working properly. If it isn't, you'll fail right off the bat when you try to ping your access points.
> if you can ping your repeater access point, but not the primary, doublecheck your routing table to ensure it is using the correct primary gateway. A simple ifconfig interface down; ifconfig interface up will clear the routing table. If you are statically assigning your addresses you can setup via ifconfig and add the gateway via route as normal. Otherwise, if you are using a dhcp lease then make sure to kill the process id (or killall -9), the process for the dhcp application (in my case, dhcpcd), prior to re-initializing the interfaces, or it may screw up when it tries to grab the new lease.
> if you can ping & browse your primary access point, but can't ping WAN (4.2.2.2), make sure your primary access point doesn't have ping requests blocked, or has its firewall disabled. (Remember, in my case I have 3 access points, the modem/ap, the dlink ap, and my repeater. The dlink provides the firewall.) Or, it may be possible you temporarily lost internebs while seting up: check the status page of your modem/ primary ap to doublecheck.
If you are fortunate enough to have a linux system connected to the primary ap/ or a windows system with putty, or any *nix environment with ssh, try making sure they can ping said IP- 4.2.2.2 . If they can't ping it, but can still browse, its likely ping requests have been disabled from the primary ap. I recommend re-enabling ping just to make sure you can perform the "ping a domain name," test afterwards. It really helps to narrow down if you are having a WAN or DNS issue.
Good hunting!
- Slug
For those of you who just want the meat of how to setup ddwrt, and don't give a damn about my little story, scroll down until you see the screenshot and start reading the paragraph above that. (Oh, and screw you!)
So, the turion lappy (who I've happily named neptune64), is temporarily being held hostage by a group of mexican thugs (no, seriously). (Well not quite hostage but they've requested a ransom--at a modest price, so I can't complain. Ah the perils of the physical world).
This leaves me entirely dependent on my old celeron lappy (which was meant to be purposed as a server; in fact, this was the system I setup to host a pxe server and nfs). My Celeron lappy, which I've happily named centauri, has a Family 15 cpu, Model 2, Stepping 9, 128KB cache, 2790.8 mhz, which I recently upgraded from 256MB of PC2700 ddr, to 512 MB at PC2100 (sure 2700 is faster, but twice the ram is much faster!). When I have money I'll upgrade this sucker to 4GB. Too bad there aren't more ram slots or I could use Physical Address Extension (PAE).
As I somewhat explained in a previous blogpost, centauri has a problem with the internal wireless adapter (bcm4306). Whereas before the BIOS would boot stating a IRQ resource conflict with the bcm4306 as the culprit, now lspci -v fails to even show the device present in the system). So, attempting any software hacks will definetely not work at this point--we need a new physical solution.
So, sometime in the past 7 years I came across a Linksys WRT54GL. I rarely used it, as I would rely on my 5-port gigabit airlink switch instead (and later my asus 8-port gigabit switch). Eventually, I used slackware to setup my own router via gigabit interfaces using a bridge (in conjunction with the 8-port-gigabit-asus), I decided to let the Linksys go to my parents where they could use it in the house. Since I am currently unemployed and living with my parents (bummer!), I had to fix the network a couple of times. I am the IT admin/ lackey/ janitor here, and my pay is no rent plus food (not a bad deal if you ask me, although when I do find work I'd love to upgrade the dsl connection to something > than 1.5 MB).
So, I was told the Linksys no longer worked. My family went and purchased a wireless N capable Dlink. However, they were having a host of other problems. Turns out the actiontec modem/ap was broadcasting one ssid, and the dlink was broadcasting an entirely different network. Little did they know even though they purchased the dlink, they weren't in fact actually using it. All of the clients would connect to the airlink, that is, everyone except the little netflix streaming roku, which I have yet to explain why.
So I had to consolidate everything to one network, disable the ssid on the actiontec, and bingo everything works on the dlink (while of course setting the dlink on a seperate lan, 192.168.1.x).
Note: do not read the next paragraph unless you are absolutely curious as to the process of what I had to endure in order to fix my home network. If you truly don't care, I promise I wont be upset. Also, it may confuse most of you. Those of you who are interested purely for the challenge, feel free to comment on my gimped setup (i.e. seasoned *nix users, I welcome your input).
(That was the shortened instruction set. Most people would disable dhcp entirely on the first router, or place it in bridge mode (I seriously think only 2wire routers have this option). And, since most instructions would have you connect the first ap to the 2nd ap via the lan ports, I was having trouble passing NAT and DNS via the 2nd ap's wifi. Since there is no bridge mode on the actiontec, I opted to simply leave dhcp on in the first ap/modem while disabling the ssid, set the 2nd ap on a seperate lan, while connecting ap 1 to ap 2 via the wan port. Although a bit convoluted, I no longer have issues with dns. Well, mostly. Most of the windows clients, except my little sisters laptop and mine, which I had to hardcode dns in /etc/resolv.conf, oh and her ipod. Oh, and get this, the actiontec will randomly re-enable the ssid, simply because it feels compelled to be the boss. I've seriously had to disable it like 5 times already. It's frustrating.)
If anyone needs help with a similar setup, feel free to comment / Email me.
So anyways, I was told the Linksys no longer works. I called bullshit (especially considering the mess my family of computer geniuses left everything in). I perused the settings to see if there was anything remote to using the AP as a repeater, or set it up via a wifi wpa2 bridge, but nothing was in the linksys firmware. Now, I had originally intended to use openwrt for this project, however although I am certainly not opposed to the *nix style environment (I'd actually prefer this), according to the wiki there are a host of packages you need to download in order to get a wpa2 bridge going:
http://wiki.openwrt.org/oldwiki/wirelessbridgewithwpahowto?s[]=wireless&s[]=repeater .
Furthermore, the setup isn't exactly straightforward. That and considering I have a deadline on some projects I'm working on (note: submitting resumes to find jobs--there is a contract I'm trying to settle as we speak), I figured I'd settle for a working solution for now until I have the time to setup the environment I'd prefer (this is a trade-off I did when I first started using linux--my first home distro was fedora. That plus my redhat training made my transition to slack much smoother).
So, my instructions were gleamed from Brian Purdy's post on lifehacker. I will do you folks the favor of simplifying his post. It looks like he had to do a lot of extra work, my setup was actually pretty simple.
First, go to ddwrt's site http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index . Next, lookup your router in the router DB, and browse to the appropriate link. According to Brian, the micro firmware will suit our purposes just fine. (This is acceptable, since my next upgrade will be openwrt). He mentions that you should powercycle the hell out of your router, although I found I had no such need to do so. Simply go your routers homepage and find the appropriate link: mine was Linksys > Administration > firmware link, and begin the upgrade by loading the micro.bin firmware. (Note, if your router doesn't have a webgui option to load firmware, you may have to utilize tftp. Consult the dd-wrt wiki for more info). You should see a "Upgrade is Successful," message appear (sorry guys I didn't take a screenshot, but it is a very simple webpage). Afterwards, your router will reboot, and you'll need to re-authenticate with the following credentials:
username: root
password: admin
(It took me a couple tries to figure it out.. I know I ride the short bus, bare with me.)
Next, comes for the configuration:
A. Edit Wireless: Wireless Tab (Basic Settings)
> Switch wireless mode to repeater
> For wireless network name, input the SSID of the network you will be rebroadcasting (or repeating).
>> Save settings (do not apply just yet)
> Below the main section you edited is a Virtual Interfaces section. Add 1 virtual interface
> Add a NEW name for your repeater (i.e., the original SSID appended with a 2, which is what I did. Or you can use an entirely different SSID).
>> Save settings (do not apply just yet)
>> Head to wireless security subtab
> Ensure you use the same security settings your primary router/wifi access point utilizes in both the primary and virtual interfaces. For WPA2, take care to notice whether you use TKIP, AES, or both.
>> Save settings (do not apply just yet)
B. Network configuration: Network setup tab (Basic Configuration)
> Alter the routers Local IP Address to something different than the primary access point. I.e. if your main router uses 192.168.1.1, you can use 192.168.2.1 (which is what I did).
>> Save settings (do not apply just yet)
>> Switch to the Security subtab (Still under Main Network Setup tab)
> disable SPI firewall
> Under Block WAN requests, disable the following:
- Block Anonymous WAN Requests (ping)
- Filter WAN NAT Redirection
- Filter IDENT (Port 113)
> Leave Filter Multicast disabled
(Note: the above settings are to ensure the simplest configuration in case anything goes wrong. If you feel compelled to re-enable them after your configuration is working, feel free to do so and report your results).
>> Save settings (and for the love of god don't apply yet!)
> Head over to the administration, and for Pete's sake--change the password to something you can remember (if you haven't already done so).
>> Once again, save settings. Now you can Apply!
So first things first, since you changed the lan ip your ap is using, you will need to renew your dhcp lease for your interface. Now in my configuration, this ap repeater is providing internet over ethernet to my gimped celeron lappy. For those of you who are using this over wireless, configure your wireless as normal.
Best thing is to simply bring down the interface, and re-initialize it. This way, the routing table will be reset. When I first tried it I noticed it was still trying to use 192.168.1.1 as the primary gateway under route -a.
After you have established a link over your desired interface, perform a basic network check:
> ping your accesspoint, i.e. in my case 192.168.2.1. Also a good time to see if you can browse to your repeater ap, and to test your new login credentials.
> if this is good, now try pinging the primary access point (in my case 192.168.0.1)
> if this is good, you should also be able to browse to the primary ap's interface (a good check).
> Now, hold your breath, a real WAN test. Ping the following IP (which i'm told is a DNS for Verizon): 4.2.2.2
> If the above works, you are online! Now, for a dns test: ping your favorite website, i.e. slugman01.blogger.com
> if you receive replies, you are golden. If not, you may need to hardcode the dns listed in your modem/primary ap's page in /etc/resolv.conf
At this point you should be able to browse the interwebs. Note: if you had your browser open prior to this point, you may need to restart it if you have problems loading webpages. For some reason, even after the above network test confirmed I was online, firefox hung on loading basic webpages. Restarting it did the trick.
If you experience any problems, feel free to post here and I'll do the best I can to help. Important points to remember are:
> ensure your physical interface is working properly. If it isn't, you'll fail right off the bat when you try to ping your access points.
> if you can ping your repeater access point, but not the primary, doublecheck your routing table to ensure it is using the correct primary gateway. A simple ifconfig interface down; ifconfig interface up will clear the routing table. If you are statically assigning your addresses you can setup via ifconfig and add the gateway via route as normal. Otherwise, if you are using a dhcp lease then make sure to kill the process id (or killall -9), the process for the dhcp application (in my case, dhcpcd), prior to re-initializing the interfaces, or it may screw up when it tries to grab the new lease.
> if you can ping & browse your primary access point, but can't ping WAN (4.2.2.2), make sure your primary access point doesn't have ping requests blocked, or has its firewall disabled. (Remember, in my case I have 3 access points, the modem/ap, the dlink ap, and my repeater. The dlink provides the firewall.) Or, it may be possible you temporarily lost internebs while seting up: check the status page of your modem/ primary ap to doublecheck.
If you are fortunate enough to have a linux system connected to the primary ap/ or a windows system with putty, or any *nix environment with ssh, try making sure they can ping said IP- 4.2.2.2 . If they can't ping it, but can still browse, its likely ping requests have been disabled from the primary ap. I recommend re-enabling ping just to make sure you can perform the "ping a domain name," test afterwards. It really helps to narrow down if you are having a WAN or DNS issue.
Good hunting!
- Slug
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