Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

> > I don't understand but I have something that works now.  I also added
> > ipchains ability (modular or built-in) to my small laptop kernel and
> > removed ISA and Joliet and hotplug (needs kmod) and a few other things
> > that should not be there.  The modular kernel (modular ipchains and cdrom
> > support) is 600K, insmod ipchains.o to use a firewall.  650K if you have
> > enough RAM for built-in support.  I have 12MB in one computer.
>
> A whole 12M of RAM? Such riches!

I prefer not to waste 50K of it on cdrom and ipchains support when not 
needed.  The computer which only has loop linux (and crashes in Win98 with 
the cardbus card) has 48MB, so I would like to get 2.4.31 working R/W on 
it in loop linux.

2.4.X is also needed to put linux on a USB memory stick and write files to 
it with linux rather than DOS.  2.2.X seems about as actively developed as 
mdacon.

> > http://keesan.freeshell.org/bl/2.4.31 (I hope it all landed there):
> > bzimaglm.431 nad bzimagly.431 (M - modular) (Y - built into kernel).
> > With configs.
> >
> > I am stymied about why 2.4.31 kernels are not letting me write to the BL3
> > loop filesystem.  I can boot to ext2 linux with 2.4.31 kernel and mount
> > initfs -o loop and write to it.
>
> Maybe you need to reset the kernel params to RW instead of RO? With
> rdev or at boot.

But I can write to any mounted partition except the loop one.

> > On the front porch I got three different signals but no connection.  The
> > early radio fanatics must have felt like this.  When the signal is too
> > weak, instead of signal level -155 dBm you get 1/48 or 17/48, and raising
> > the computer a few feet increased the number.  If I had a working battery
> > or a very long extension cord I could walk around figuring out where the
> > linksys and netgear and apple and 2wire signals come from.  There is also
> > some background noise with SSID "" and stronger signal levels than the
> > others but of course no connection.
>
> I used to be a ham. You could make an antenna to help with
> reception/transmission.. I'd guess the frequency range is very
> high, so a small dish made from steel or copper mesh would work
> great. Otherwise, a yagi would work.

We have a pringles can.  What size dish?  Why mesh? I have several 
stainless steel strainers of various mesh sizes.  Do you use these to 
reflect a signal like you can do with low-quality radio signals? 
Sometimes I pick up a station better by standing on the opposite side of 
the radio from the source.

> Both are directional.
>
> Get me the frequency range/center frequency and I'll do the math
> and send you the plans.

All these signals are 2.4GHz, same as newer (newest?) cordless phones.
iwlist with the airo card (orinoco card does not support it) shows the 8 
strongest signals.  First has address FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF - maybe this is a 
cordless phone?  Next is the one I briefly picked up in the kitchen, 
followed by two lines of 00:00:etc. which sometimes change so that one or 
both match the second line, and four more lines.  I have picked up the 
existence of SSID "" "Netgear" "Apple" "Linksys" and "2Wire".

I think udhcpc can choose the address with -r switch.  Will experiment.
The county-wide signal will hopefully be more stable and work without 
added antenna.

There is nothing to hook an antenna to.  I will research using the router 
as antenna (it has two pointable ones) if it is part of the network, or 
must it all go through 192.168.0.1?  One router has a pcmcia wireless card 
in it and I could plug a cable into the back.


> > Do I need a firewall on my gateway if the library has its own
> > firewall?
>
> With Linux? Probably not. But a simple one with ipchains that
> didn't allow any connections that you didn't initiate wouldn't
> hurt.
Okay.

> > My smf and ly and lm (with ipchains.o inserted) kernels should
> > all work as gateways with ipchains. I made scripts to run
> > pcmcia start, then the correct line for ipchains or route add
> > gw, and will then run udhcpc on the gateway. I don't want to
> > bother with udhcpd on the gateway, ifconfig is simpler.
>
> Be sure to get all the ipchains manpages. I'll send them to
> you if you want.

They come with the tcpip2 package.

> ipchains (8)         - IP firewall administration
> ipchains-restore (8) - restore IP firewall chains from stdin
> ipchains-save (8)    - save IP firewall chains to stdout
>
> Lee