[Cerowrt-users] Some setup questions

Fri Oct 26 14:55:10 EDT 2012

First, thanks for your answers.

On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 07:10:11AM -0400, Dave Taht wrote:
> It is kind of my hope more folk try running the debloat package on
> openwrt AA final, rather than trying to run cerowrt as their main
> router.

That was my understanding, thanks for confirming. Since I only have limited
time to tweak my main home router, and fix it if it breaks when I'm not home
but my wife is :) , I'm trying to see which one of the two options will work
best.
Initially I'm leaning towards openwrt mostly because they have all those
precompiled packages, some I will want, but it might be possible to somehow
make them work with cerowrt since both installs are supposed to be pretty
much compatible binary wise I'm guessing.

> > 2) I'm going to need usb to serial (pl2303) support. I already read that cerowrt
> > doesn't have most packages from openwrt, but since they should be mostly compatible
> > can't I just point cerowrt to
> 
> cerowrt has these usb-serial packages built. They are used by gpsd among others.

I'll check thanks.

> You can see the package list in the relevant release's package directory.
> 
> > http://downloads.openwrt.org/attitude_adjustment/12.09-beta2/ar71xx/generic/packages/Packages
> > and use those packages instead, including
> > http://downloads.openwrt.org/attitude_adjustment/12.09-beta2/ar71xx/generic/packages/kmod-usb-serial-pl2303_3.3.8-1_ar71xx.ipk ?

So I was confused because you don't use the same package names than they do,
and assumed you didn't have a pl2303 kernel module.

On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 08:39:32AM -0400, Dave Taht wrote:
(...)
> The research benefit from the bufferbloat project has been enormous -
> not just the development of fq_codel, but the insights gained from a
> hard look at the device driver problems (BQL, TCP small queues,
> codel), from routing everything, trying to make ipv6 work, tracking
> the work of the homenet and mdnsext working groups, etc, so I would
> hope to find matching funds from a set of corporate donors for the
> next round.

Absolutely, I want to be just one more person to thank you for it.
That's why I wanted to donate even if I end up using openwrt in the end.

> I seem to have missed your contribution on this page:
> http://cero2.bufferbloat.net/cerowrt/credits.html
> I will go look at the backlog from paypal.

I think the may have been a problem. I donated yesterday after trying
earlier with the amazon thing that didn't work, but I can't see a trace of
that in my paypal activity. Please contact me off list if it didn't go
through and I'll try again.

> > - bind
> 
> I ripped bind out of the sugarland build as we'd encountered memory
> use problems on 64MB and lower systems and went back to dnsmasq.

Makes sense. I actually use bind and dhcp on my much smaller wrt600n with
dd-wrt because I like being able to share config files between my PC server
and my router servers (I copy dhcp.conf around with static leases and use
bind to replicate internal zones maintained on my main server).

> Also bind was on it's 5th CVE for the year. I was kind of fed up.

Yeah, that sucks :(
But either way, I should be able to re-add bind and isc dhcp after the fact
for my own use like I did on my wrt600n.
(this is also non internet facing, so security isn't as crucial).

Speaking of which, dd-wrt allowed me to run ssh on another port than 22 on
the internet facing ip, while using 22 on the internal IP. I don't think openwrt
does without me tweaking startup scripts by hand, correct?

> > - minicom
> > - screen
> 
> I can add those to the next build. Probably.

Are you sure we can't just use the openwrt packages directly instead of you
having to rebuild them? Surely, you ought to be compatible with the latest
openwrt beta, no?

> > Given that, am I better off with openwrt 12.09-beta2 if I want a long term
> > stable build or the latest cerowrt?
> 
> I would wait on both counts - wait for openwrt to go final, wait for
> cerowrt to sync up.

I see. Fair enough. I'll give it a shot now since I just got the hardware,
but if it doesn't work, I'll just wait a bit.

> And in the meantime, play a little with both sets of ideas. A huge
> core difference between openwrt and cerowrt is that openwrt is
> bridged, cerowrt is routed. Cerowrt also does a few other things
> differently, and comes with a boatload of test tools, mostly
> documented here:
> http://cero2.bufferbloat.net/cerowrt/about.html

I read about your routing idea, which I think it good for most.
For me, it's not. I use nfs on my laptop and switch between wired to 2.4G
and 5G without changing my IP, so it has to be bridged.
Am I going to be having a hard time changing cerowrt to make all 3
interfaces bridged again?

> However, given your desire for multi-year LTS, that really isn't in
> the cards for cerowrt.

I'm not expecting to ask you for LTS support :) for that matter, dd-wrt
sucks in many ways, and upgrading with them can definitely make things worse.
I was able to install it and make it work the way I needed it a long time
ago and leave it alone.  I'm planning on doing the same here if I can :)

> It is my hope that we'll get a cerowrt-3.3.8 stable release soon, but
> i wasn't planning on maintaining that for more than a few months,
> preferring to launch back into tracking 3.6 and later with new
> de-bufferbloating fixes that are waiting in the wings.

Right. That's obviously what cerowrt is about. 
If I can:
- make openwrt packages work on it out of the box
- change it to bridge instead of route
- run bind/dhcp with my current config files
I'll be all set.

If not, I'll try openwrt and try again.
And if that still doesn't work, I'll wait a while as you recommended.

Thanks again for your work,
Marc
-- 
"A mouse is a device used to point at the xterm you want to type in" - A.S.R.
Microsoft is to operating systems ....
                                      .... what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking
Home page: http://marc.merlins.org/  