[gentoo-user] really old box for a firewall

[gentoo-user] really old box for a firewall

[alex stone]

Hello all, my first post here.

Since installing Gentoo on my working audio box, i've had a good run,
with no problems. (I'm a full time classical composer)
The audio packages are stable and i get to work all day every day
without having to spend time tweaking anything in the OS. (At last)

So with that in mind, i have an interest in turning a very old box i
have here (pentium-mmx) into a firewall/router.
I tried a live cd, with the intent of building up a 32bit chroot in my
big box, and syncing it into the old one. (All 64bit native in the
studio boxes)

when i inserted the live cd to begin the process, i got an error
message at boot which said (along the lines of ):

"There is a feature missing in your CPU (0:15). and the live cd cannot boot."

That was the end of the process, and i couldn't install anything.

So my questions are:

Do i need to install an older version of Gentoo in order for this to work?

Do i need to flag the boot in some way with options in order to get
this to install?

I'm on PPTP cable with a vpn address from the provider. Will an older
version of Gentoo be capable of handling this protocol?

Help would be appreciated, even if it's along the lines of turning the
old box into a boat anchor, as it's not fit for purpose.

Alex.

-- 
Parchment Studios (It started as a joke...)

Re: [gentoo-user] really old box for a firewall

[Daniel de Oliveira]

> Do i need to install an older version of Gentoo in order for this to work?

No, never. You can use the last portage.

> Do i need to flag the boot in some way with options in order to get
> this to install?

I can be wrong, but I believe the livecd is i686, so will not run in
your box (pentium-mmx is i586).
You can use another livecd to do the chroot, btw.


-- 
Daniel de Oliveira
----
Network and System Analyst
Security Specialist
IBM RISC Specialist
IBM Storage Specialist
Linux/Unix Specialist
Linux User #: 405334

RE: [gentoo-user] really old box for a firewall

[Adam Carter]

> have here (pentium-mmx) into a firewall/router.
> I tried a live cd, with the intent of building up a 32bit chroot in my
> big box, and syncing it into the old one. (All 64bit native in the
> studio boxes)
>
> when i inserted the live cd to begin the process, i got an error
> message at boot which said (along the lines of ):
>
> "There is a feature missing in your CPU (0:15). and the live
> cd cannot boot."

Pentium-mmx is i586, so the usual i686 livecds wont work. The install cds are called x86, so I assume that means they're i386 and should be ok, otherwise;
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/altinstall.xml

> Do i need to install an older version of Gentoo in order for
> this to work?

Gentoo doesn't really have versions...

> Do i need to flag the boot in some way with options in order to get
> this to install?
>
> I'm on PPTP cable with a vpn address from the provider. Will an older
> version of Gentoo be capable of handling this protocol?

Since gentoo doesn't have versions, you will be able to run any software that you run on any other Gentoo box.

Re: [gentoo-user] really old box for a firewall

[alex stone]

Thank you gentlemen. That gives me something to chase.

The help is appreciated.

Alex.

On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 4:18 AM, Adam Carter <Adam.Carter@optus.com.au> wrote:
>> have here (pentium-mmx) into a firewall/router.
>> I tried a live cd, with the intent of building up a 32bit chroot in my
>> big box, and syncing it into the old one. (All 64bit native in the
>> studio boxes)
>>
>> when i inserted the live cd to begin the process, i got an error
>> message at boot which said (along the lines of ):
>>
>> "There is a feature missing in your CPU (0:15). and the live
>> cd cannot boot."
>
> Pentium-mmx is i586, so the usual i686 livecds wont work. The install cds are called x86, so I assume that means they're i386 and should be ok, otherwise;
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/altinstall.xml
>
>> Do i need to install an older version of Gentoo in order for
>> this to work?
>
> Gentoo doesn't really have versions...
>
>> Do i need to flag the boot in some way with options in order to get
>> this to install?
>>
>> I'm on PPTP cable with a vpn address from the provider. Will an older
>> version of Gentoo be capable of handling this protocol?
>
> Since gentoo doesn't have versions, you will be able to run any software that you run on any other Gentoo box.
>
>



-- 
Parchment Studios (It started as a joke...)

[gentoo-user] Re: really old box for a firewall

[James]

alex stone <compose59 <at> gmail.com> writes:


> So with that in mind, i have an interest in turning a very old box i
> have here (pentium-mmx) into a firewall/router.


Ah, I do this all the time.


Use knoppix to boot your target mmx system into a viable linux.
Follow the handbook and get the system so you can ssh into it.
Run 'lspci' and note what hardware you have, for building a
kernel later on.

Once you go chroot and grab the tarballs 

(Code Listing 2.5: Unpacking the stage
# tar xvjpf stage3-*.tar.bz2 )

and

(Code Listing 3.4: Extracting the Portage snapshot
# tar xvjf /mnt/gentoo/portage-latest.tar.bz2 -C /mnt/gentoo/usr)


Continue to follow the handbook.


It's kind of funky, but, gentoo does not really support
it's own install media anymore. I think it's
some sort of test, to see how thick your
skin is.....



Understand that we now have "autobuilds" but the docs
have not been updated to reflect those changes yet.

hth,


James

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: really old box for a firewall

[alex stone]

Thanks fellas.
I'm D/L the knoppix as i write, and we'll see what happens.

Alex.

On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 5:43 AM, James <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> alex stone <compose59 <at> gmail.com> writes:
>
>
>> So with that in mind, i have an interest in turning a very old box i
>> have here (pentium-mmx) into a firewall/router.
>
>
> Ah, I do this all the time.
>
>
> Use knoppix to boot your target mmx system into a viable linux.
> Follow the handbook and get the system so you can ssh into it.
> Run 'lspci' and note what hardware you have, for building a
> kernel later on.
>
> Once you go chroot and grab the tarballs
>
> (Code Listing 2.5: Unpacking the stage
> # tar xvjpf stage3-*.tar.bz2 )
>
> and
>
> (Code Listing 3.4: Extracting the Portage snapshot
> # tar xvjf /mnt/gentoo/portage-latest.tar.bz2 -C /mnt/gentoo/usr)
>
>
> Continue to follow the handbook.
>
>
> It's kind of funky, but, gentoo does not really support
> it's own install media anymore. I think it's
> some sort of test, to see how thick your
> skin is.....
>
>
>
> Understand that we now have "autobuilds" but the docs
> have not been updated to reflect those changes yet.
>
> hth,
>
>
> James
>
>
>
>
>



-- 
Parchment Studios (It started as a joke...)

Re: [gentoo-user] really old box for a firewall

[Yahya Mohammad]

> Help would be appreciated, even if it's along the lines of turning the
> old box into a boat anchor, as it's not fit for purpose.

I would say it's more efficient to use your old box as a boat anchor :)
and get a cheap low power consuming embedded box like the popular
WRT54GL or NSLU2. Those would be more reliable and you'd probably make
up the cost in energy savings in a few months.

Re: [gentoo-user] really old box for a firewall

[Mick]

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On Tuesday 28 April 2009, Yahya Mohammad wrote:
> > Help would be appreciated, even if it's along the lines of turning the
> > old box into a boat anchor, as it's not fit for purpose.
>
> I would say it's more efficient to use your old box as a boat anchor :)
> and get a cheap low power consuming embedded box like the popular
> WRT54GL or NSLU2. Those would be more reliable and you'd probably make
> up the cost in energy savings in a few months.

I'd second that unless the OP wants to learn how to install/configure Gentoo, 
in which case an old box would be a slow protracted process.

BTW, is it possible to install Gentoo in a NSLU2?  I thought that there was a 
problem with glibc ...
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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