IraqiGeek’s Blog

New build delayed

I am working on a rebuild of the base system on which the router is based but this build is being delayed due to a bug in Busybox 1.01 init applet. Since we are in the christmas holydays season, the developers of Busybox aren’t available to help me solve this. I hope to solve this issue early January.

I managed to squeeze the base system down to 8.7MB, including an http server, and PHP. With this new build, the router will hopefully be under 10MB in size. I have also added an interactive startup script to setup the network interfaces on the first startup of the system. Another change is moving the Busybox applet calls from hard links to the Busybox binary, to a wrapper for each applet, which eanbles backing up the system through tar. The wrappers add about 520 byts per applet.

I hope to get the web interfaces for Zebra (routing) and iptables (firewall) running in the next build, and probably look at making a compressed root filesystem image to fit the whole system in an 8MB image.

Other things I am considering are compiling a custom stripped down kernel with only the essential requirements compiled, compressing some of the larger binaries in the system with UPX, adding wireless capabilites (such as the ability to operate as an access point if a WiFi adapter is present),and probably moving from glibc to uclibc.

The other mini-distro I am planning to build, based on the same bases system of the router, is an Asterisk VOIP PBX. Like the router, the target size is under 16MB, and it should have a web interface for configuration.

Finally, I want to wish everybody a merry crhistmas and a happy new year.

Linux Independance

Its up, and its running.

The linux section now runs completely independant from the main portal blog.

This new blog will be the home of my new mini distros Tiny-Router and Tiny-PBX (both still under development). I am almost done with the base system which the mini distros will run on. The base system is based on ttyLinux with some changes.

First pre-alpha build of Tiny-Router

I am glad to announce the first build of another Linux router mini-distribution. This router distro fits on a 16MB CF card (currently at 12MB, and that is without compressing the root filesystem). The system is based on ttyLinux with some tiny modifications, Zebra, and a vanilla 2.6.11.12 kernel which I have previously compiled for my LFS build.

The router supports the traditional static routing found in all the previous Linux routers, as well as RIP, RIP V2, BGP, and OSPF.

This is the first build. I am planning to call this new mini distro Tiny-Router. I am also hoping to follow this with an Asterisk based mini distro which I plan to call Tiny-PBX.

The main reason I have chosen Zebra for the dynamic routing protocols is that Zebra implements its own terminal which is very similar to working on a Cisco router. If you are familiar with Cisco routers, you will feel at home when working with the zebra daemons.

I chose ttyLinux because its a very basic and small distro, built around glibc and busybox, which saves a good deal of space and helps render the entire router distro so small.

There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, some of the things on my todo list include:

- Adding PHP.
- Adding a web configuration interface for the zerba daemons through MRLG.
- Writing a shell script that helps in configuring the ethernet interfaces.
- Adding a web interface to configure iptables.
- A kernel recompilation, and most probably move to a newer kernel version (2.6.12 or 2.6.13).

Another thing I am considering is adding the capability to operate as an access point, so the router can bridge wired and wireless network transparently in networks that are managed with Cisco routers.

Currently, I am looking for people to help me in writing some documentation about this, as I really suck in writing techical documents. If you think you can help in anyway, please drop me an email.

To download this early build click HERE.

I have setup a section at my forum section dedicated to discussions about this project