[clug] Re: Q: 2.2.16 pcmcia for my LRP forewall (From linux Digest, Vol 58, Issue 18, Message 5)

[Miles Goodhew]

Hi Eyal/All,

On 15/10/2007, at 10:00 PM, linux-request at lists.samba.org wrote:

> Message: 5
> Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 08:08:39 +1000
> From: Eyal Lebedinsky <eyal at eyal.emu.id.au>
> Subject: [clug] Q: 2.2.16 pcmcia for my LRP forewall
> Message-ID: <47129367.6040409 at eyal.emu.id.au>
>
> For the last few (almost 10?) years my firewall is LRP running from
> a floppy on Pentium machines that come off the end of my upgrade
> cycles. It is now a PII/550.

	The last system like this I set-up (I now use an off-the-shelf NAT  
router) used Debian Server running on a VIA Epia ME-6000 motherboard.  
It booted off an old laptop drive and had the following interesting  
packages installed:
	* Shorewall (for "easy as falling off a log" NAT/firewalling)
	* PPPoE (WAN connection)
	* dnsmasq (for reasonably sensible simplification/integration of  
local DNS serving/proxying with DHCP serving)
	* Samba (Shared-out file-storage from there).

	I had planned to migrate over to booting off a compact flash card  
mounted in a CF<->IDE adaptor card (But I never had a good DMA- 
capable card to hand before I went another way). I'd long since  
decided the LRP distros were too dead for me to continue using.

> I never used the pcmcia subsystem and I now want to move my firewall
> to an old laptop (reducing power usage 55w -> 17w).

	Can I make these two assumptions about your situation (let me know  
if I assume wrongly):
	1) You desire a floppy-based system for the write-protection ability.
	2) Your laptop can only use a floppy through a PC-Card (PCMCIA)  
interface.

	If you really want the write-protection, then perhaps a customised  
knoppix-derivative might do. Otherwise maybe you could make a small- 
enough 2.4 Gentoo setup that could fit what you want on a floppy.  
Personally, I can live with a writable root partition. Whichever way  
- I wouldn't bother with LRP any more.

> After spending some time with it I am unsure about how easy it will
> be to modify the floppy to do that. This is 2.2.16 and pcmcia was then
> an add-on package. I do have access to the compiled pieces.
>
> Can I do this by just loading the necessary kernel modules? A first
> attempt at this failed. I loaded 'pcmcia_core' OK, but 'ds' did not
> load and gave no meaningful message. Last I need to load 'xirc2ps_cs'.

	I recall there being talk of PC-Card modules for LRP stuff - but  
last time I touched one of those was in... 2002... I think?

> Do I need to build a kernel with some special options or should it
> work with just loadable modules?
>
> Do I have to use the user side card manager? I do not plan to
> [un]plug the cards, this is going to be a static setup.
>
> Failing this I might bite the bullet and configure a new firewall
> to run on an Edimax BR-6104KP which has a mips-linux distro and
> doco aplenty. Cheap, uses even less power and is probably more
> powerful than the P/133 laptop.

	I had some of my home lan stuff running on an "uNSLUng" Linksys NSLU  
for a while (DNSmasq and Samba), but it wasn't stable enough.

Hope that helps,

M0les.

--
Miles Goodhew
miles at m0les.com
http://m0les.com/bl0g





--
Miles Goodhew
miles at m0les.com
http://m0les.com/bl0g