Guspaz
Guspaz
Premium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
 ·Colbanet
3 edits | Announcing ZeroShell/MLPPP and Linux/MLPPP alphas
I'm proud to announce, with financial support from Candlelight Communications, ZeroShell/MLPPP and Linux/MLPPP.
Since we first released Tomato/MLPPP, there have been a lot of questions from people regarding a port to x86 or generic Linux distributions. Well, Candlelight has sponsored a port of Tomato/MLPPP's connection logic to generic x86 Linux, and UI integration for the ZeroShell routing distribution.
So there are effectively two products here. One is what I'm calling, for lack of a better name, Linux/MLPPP. This is a self-contained package designed to run on generic Linux systems. It's currently x86-specific, but theoretically can be compiled for any system. That means it won't run on the RouterBoards at the moment, but it will run on the PC Engines Alix boards, which are very similar; we're currently doing our QA testing on an Alix 2c3, a 500MHz Geode box with 256MB of RAM that's smaller than a WRT54GL. And let me tell you, that thing flies; saturating two bonded 5mbit DSL line uses about 1% of the CPU. Puts the WRT54GL to shame.
The second component is what I'm calling, again for lack of a better name, ZeroShell/MLPPP. ZeroShell is a Linux-based routing distribution designed primarily for x86 embedded devices like the Alix or Soekris boxes, but runs just fine on a "real" Linux machine. It's designed more for businesses than consumers, since the UI is a lot more complicated than something like Tomato, but it's quite capable. ZeroShell/MLPPP integrates Linux/MLPPP with ZeroShell and provides full UI support in terms of configuring MLPPP links just like regular PPP connections.
One thing to note: Both Linux/MLPPP and ZeroShell/MLPPP fully support an arbitrary number of lines (3+) out of the box. And the Alix seems to have enough power to route a dozen lines if you really wanted to, although since they only have three NICs you'd need a managed VLAN-capable switch to pull that off.
Both these products (projects?) are in alpha, and so may not be entirely stable. And ZeroShell/MLPPP is definitely not feature-complete at this point; we've got a roadmap laid out, with the first beta aiming to be feature-complete.
Current known bugs in ZeroShell/MLPPP
- The PPP configure dialog may experience some layout issues in the advanced section. Make the window wider as a temporary workaround.
- The PPP configure dialog will allow you to add multiple interfaces even when MLPPP is disabled. It will warn you about them, however.
- Users may experience occasional routing issues where ZeroShell will stop routing traffic even though the links are up. This may be related to the similar issue experienced with other Linux-based MLPPP solutions. A workaround fix is planned.
Brief how-to guide on installing ZeroShell/MLPPP
1) Install ZeroShell 1.0 beta 11 (specifically this version is required)
2) Download tarball to the ZeroShell box
3) Extract the tarball (tar jxf mlppp-zeroshell-1.alpha1b2.tar.bz2)
4) Enter the C001 directory (cd C001)
5) Run the install script (./install.sh)
6) You can now remove the tar and the C001 directory.
7) Reconfigure your PPP connectiong as normal. This should be self-explanatory and is very similar to configuring a standard ZeroShell PPP connection. You will have to tell ZeroShell what Ethernet interfaces have modems on them.
Brief how-to guide on installing/using Linux/MLPPP
1) Download the tarball
2) Extract it to your root (tar xjv -C / -f linux-mlppp-ml1alpha1.tar.bz2)
3) Set the required settings using the "db_set" tool. This tool simulates the WRT's nvram: /opt/mlppp/bin/db_set "key" "value"
Here's a list of config options, including which ones are required:
The "in" settings are ones that you can set, the "out" settings can be used to check status and other such info. "ppp0" can be changed to something else if you don't want to call the interface ppp0.
4) Configure your password in /etc/ppp/(pap|chap)_secrets as you would for a regular PPP setup.
5) To start and stop the MLPPP system, you can use "/opt/mlppp/bin/pppoe_start ppp0" and "/opt/mlppp/bin/pppoe_stop ppp0"
6) If you'd like things to start automatically, under Debian, you can edit your /etc/network/interfaces and replace "iface ppp0 inet auto" with:
iface ppp0 inet manual
up /opt/mlppp/bin/pppoe_start ppp0
down /opt/mlppp/bin/pppoe_stop ppp0
Please note that Linux/MLPPP *DOES NOT* set your MTU/MRU/MRRU settings optimally like Tomato/MLPPP and ZeroShell/MLPPP do. You can either use the pppd defaults, or set them yourself manually. Also please note that Linux/MLPPP *DOES NOT* add IPTABLES rules to handle MSS clamping like Tomato/MLPPP and ZeroShell/MLPPP do. These rules are required if you're going to be doing NAT routing. Some Linux distributions already have rules for this, and it's already a requirement even with regular PPP connections.
Downloads
Both ZeroShell/MLPPP and Linux/MLPPP can be downloaded from »fixppp.org .
ZeroShell can be downloaded from »zeroshell.net/eng/ .
Full documentation will follow with later releases. |
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Inssomniak
Premium
join:2005-04-06
Cayuga, ON
| Ill be the first to say nice work. 
I have an alix 500mhz geode board with a single ethernet port, with zeroshell and a managed vlan switch you think it would work? Im not sure of zeroshell's capabilities. |
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Guspaz
Guspaz
Premium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
·Colbanet
3 edits | I've never done anything with VLANs in ZeroShell on the Alix. In theory it should work, but we only got the thing from Candlelight a few days ago, and haven't tried using ZeroShell for anything beyond the basics of MLPPP.
I've got the 2c3, which is a 3-NIC board, so I've got modems plugged into different interfaces.
Taking a brief look now, it seems like you add the VLANs to a NIC on the network page of ZeroShell, and can then add the VLANs as the network interfaces in the PPP config dialog.
You'd then set things up on your managed vlan switch to differentiate the VLANs.
This is, of course, untested by us, since we don't have any managed switches lying around :P
EDIT: The single NIC should be sufficient for almost any number of 5 meg lines, but if you start throwing 16 meg lines at it, you might want to keep it to 5 or less.
EDIT2: It should be noted that under Tomato, pppd crashes when trying to do MLPPP directly on a VLAN. We solve that there by making bridges on the vlans to insulate pppd from the VLANs. If the same problem occurs under ZeroShell, you may need to do the same thing and create bridges on the VLANs in ZeroShell. |
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zacron
join:2008-11-26
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| Hey Guspaz,
Would you be able to put a .deb package on fixppp.org?
I am looking at attempting to get this working with Ubuntu, however compiling from source is not my specialty 
Thanks,
Zacron |
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Guspaz
Guspaz
Premium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
·Colbanet
1 edit | said by zacron  :Hey Guspaz, Would you be able to put a .deb package on fixppp.org? I am looking at attempting to get this working with Ubuntu, however compiling from source is not my specialty Thanks, Zacron We haven't released the source to Linux/MLPPP, it's a binary package. There might be a .deb one day, but since everything goes in /opt when you extract, we don't really need a package. |
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Inssomniak
Premium
join:2005-04-06
Cayuga, ON
1 edit | reply to Guspaz
edit: I cant read  |
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Hank Scorpio
@teksavvy.com
| reply to Guspaz
Let me say THANKYOU! This is what a lot of us have been wanting for quite some time. To free ourselves from the limitations of the WRT54g but still retain the excellent stability of your version of bundles and whatnot. Thank you so much. I will be sure to donate soon, as this is of great interest and use to me.
I would suggest anyone else who has a similar reaction to me give a little back, to show how much we appreciate the work.
cheers
Hank |
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Steve Jobs
American living in Canada
Premium
join:2002-06-23
Scarborough, ON | reply to Guspaz
Will development of Tomato/MLPPP slow down now? |
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Guspaz
Guspaz
Premium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
1 edit | Yes and no. For one thing, Tomato mp3 alpha 5 has been sitting complete waiting for me to test it, and that has been delayed as much by exam period as anything else. |
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HKPolice
join:2002-08-09
Scarborough, ON | reply to Guspaz
So let me get this straight, both of these will run on any x86 linux distro including a regular PC server? The zeroshell version has a more complicated Web GUI whereas the "linux" version has the standard Tomato GUI? |
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xPBxNaStY
join:2007-08-17
Harrow, ON | reply to Guspaz
funny, i have no idea how to do this, even with these simple instructions lol... just a question, can i do this on a windows vista pc? |
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dbsanfte
join:2005-03-15
Montreal, QC | reply to Guspaz
Heh, nice work. How'd you convince them to send you sample hardware? |
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Guspaz
Guspaz
Premium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
·Colbanet
| reply to Guspaz
HKPolice: ZeroShell/MLPPP will only work on ZeroShell, which is a Linux-based routing distribution with its own UI. Linux/MLPPP will work on any x86 Linux computer, and has no UI difficulty is similar to setting up regular PPP yourself via commandline.
xPBxNaStY: No, see above answer. Vista can be made to do MLPPP itself, but not with our connection logic. |
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Guspaz
Guspaz
Premium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
·Colbanet
| reply to dbsanfte
said by dbsanfte :Heh, nice work. How'd you convince them to send you sample hardware? We're under contract with Candlelight to do the development, and they want this working on the Alix platform, so we needed a unit to work with. |
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Inssomniak
Premium
join:2005-04-06
Cayuga, ON
| said by Guspaz :said by dbsanfte :Heh, nice work. How'd you convince them to send you sample hardware? We're under contract with Candlelight to do the development, and they want this working on the Alix platform, so we needed a unit to work with. Ill be doing testing with the alix platform as well. There isnt risk of it becoming a private venture between Candlelight and you guys is there?
(I think Candlelight and I are in the same business if Im not mistaken  ) |
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matt_m
Premium
join:2007-04-07
Ottawa, ON | reply to Guspaz
I am thinking of getting one of these alix boards and building my own router for fun. Any suggestions on the best board to get? |
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GNca George
GorillaNET
Premium
join:2008-07-12
Minden, ON
| reply to Inssomniak
said by Inssomniak :There isnt risk of it becoming a private venture between Candlelight and you guys is there? (I think Candlelight and I are in the same business if Im not mistaken ) This is a completely open source project. The binaries are open, the source is open.
We're delighted that Guspaz and DSL_Ricer decided to particpate. They make the best MLPPPoE code in the business that we could find and are a pleasure to work with.
We gain, but so does anyone else that wants to use it. Seems like a win-win from where we sit. And we sit a very long way from Cayuga!
George
--
"Learn fast; you'll live longer." |
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GNca George
GorillaNET
Premium
join:2008-07-12
Minden, ON
| reply to matt_m
said by matt_m :I am thinking of getting one of these alix boards and building my own router for fun. Any suggestions on the best board to get? »www.xagyl.com/catalog/product_in···s_id=186 (or the newest 2D3) is pretty cool for DSL. Xagyl is local to you I believe. We cleaned them out, but Daniel is supposed to be getting more in 10 days or so.
George
--
"Learn fast; you'll live longer." |
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shepd
join:2004-01-17
Kitchener, ON | reply to Guspaz
Woot++! |
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Guspaz
Guspaz
Premium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
·Colbanet
| reply to Guspaz
Far as I can tell, the only difference between the 2C3 and the 2D3 that most people would care about is that the 2D3 adds an IDE port, letting you plug a hard drive in. The 2C3 doesn't, so storage is limited to CF cards or USB drives.
I know the source isn't posted on the website yet, but that's partially just because we haven't gotten around to setting up public access for the Git repository. We've put a bunch of the stuff in Git, and need to get around to securing it and such. So we can send out the source upon request, but for general public access we just need to get that thing set up. |
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