Dear Maintainer,
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Debian Installer (through tasksel) allows to tune the software for certain
specific use cases, such as Web server, Mail server, Print and SQL server, etc.
It would be very nice to have in this list the "Router" option, which will
install all the relevant packages and configure them accordingly for the
computer to become a router. It should have WiFi support and turn the computer
into an Access Point and it should also support DSL and other modems.
Motivation: there are a lot of small, low-power computers out there which are
intended for 24/7 use (see Utilite, Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone, Olinuxino, etc).
Many of them are actually cheaper and much more powerful than todays DSL-
WiFi/Routers. So if Debian provides an easy way to configure them as
routers/AccessPoints people will get cheap and powerful routers that could be
used for a variety of other cases such as home automation, etc. Web UI/GUI for
configuration might be nice at some point but its lack should not prevent the
feature from being released.
Thank you!
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Quoting ST (smntov@gmail.com): Hello, The suggestion is interesting, however, it lacks the mention of the packages you would consider as needed. Please notice that tasksel itself is only a convenient way to install some related packages, not really to configure them for specific needs. So, what it can do is only installing what you would consider as needed for a "router". On the other hand, what you're suggesting seems somehow relevant to the "FreedomBox" idea and may better belong to packages provided inside this project.
Hi Christian, thank you for the info on "FreedomBox". I checked the project and I think that it has a bit more specific agenda, however they are the people who have relevant experience to implement what I was referring to. I think a package "router-conf" should be created and installed through "tasksel" upon user's selection of "Router" option. It should depend on all the relevant packages, install and configure them, depending on the hardware it was able to detect. I personally lack the knowledge and experience to implement something like that. And I also do not have such a device yet. Considering the market potential for such a feature (remember - EVERY Internet user has some kind of router at home) I think it is worth investing effort in it. Once implemented and announced through sites like Engadget, Slashdot, etc. it might bring a lot of new users to Debian. And even not because of ideological but rather pragmatical reasons - why should one pay double or triple price for a weak, incapable and locked device when one can buy a cheap desktop-power-like computer, that can be used for a variety of other tasks ranging from web of file server up to home automation. Christian, if "tasksel" is not the right place for such feature request - could you please reassign it to the proper category? Thanks.
Hi, It seems you have a couple of separate ideas maybe: * a pre-configured system, a project more like a 'Debian Pure Blend' * a generic 'tasksel' task of networking utils The FreedomBox is an example of a more specialised project. Debian Edu also preconfigures its servers for NAT. And there is also https://wiki.debian.org/DebianLAN You may want to look at the third-party project LibreWrt which sounds like it could be optionally built from Debian sources. (Official builds are based on Trisquel, a Debian derivative). FWIW for 7+ years I have used *only* Debian GNU/Linux, Debian GNU/kFreeBSD, or other *BSDs for routers or access points at home, and at some other deployments too. I already know which packages I need, so as long as the installed system has network access I can get them from a network mirror later. If it was viable to create a tasksel task for this, it would be difficult to decide how many packages is enough, or too many. Systems used as routers are often low-powered with very limited space. It is desirable to provide everything possibly needed to get a network connection, then maybe some 'Recommends' on other useful packages. My own ideas are: Wireless: * iw [not kfreebsd-amd64, kfreebsd-i386] * wireless-tools [not kfreebsd-amd64, kfreebsd-i386] * hostapd Modem: * ppp [not kfreebsd-amd64, kfreebsd-i386] * pppoe * pppoeconf * usb-modeswitch Services: * bind9 * isc-dhcp-client * isc-dhcp-server * ntp * openssh-server IPv6: * radvd Diagnostic: * dnsutils * elinks * inetutils-ping * inetutils-traceroute * mtr-tiny * nmap * tcpdump * wget * whois Reporting: * collectd-core * logwatch VPN: * ipsec-tools * openvpn * strongswan Firewall/traffic shaping: * iptables [not kfreebsd-amd64, kfreebsd-i386] * iproute [not kfreebsd-amd64, kfreebsd-i386] * pf [kfreebsd-amd64, kfreebsd-i386] * denyhosts | fail2ban (for protecting the router itself) + more userland tools for managing a firewall (as long as having them installed doesn't mean they are immediately active/conflicting). wondershaper, shorewall, ufw... And offline documentation! Regards,
Actually I would like to see it both - the set of required utils and their proper configuration that creates a Router/AP in tasksel within regular Debian distro and not as a specialized blend. The reason for this: unlocked, generic hardware became powerful/cheap enough to run even Gnome (check this - http://utilite-computer.com/web/utilite-models ). So there is no more reason to hack the weak routers in order dump OpenWrt, risking to brick them, if you can get a real desktop. The idea is to make it easy for a regular mainstream user to enable this feature on such hardware (which will bring him real added value) and in the same time get him acquainted with Debian. No longer... This feature should be oriented on user (who will buy powerful hardware) and not on router manufacturers (who try to be minimalistic in order to keep costs low). Optionally you can have second package - "router-config-minimal". yes, and the non-free firmware should also optionally be provided for the autodetection process. Could you pack your configurations for all this in a separate package, and we are done basically?
It is based on Debian: http://leaf.sourceforge.net/ So maybe integrate into the main Debian?
Looks highly unlikely. The only proejct there that looks active is uClibc based, which clearly isn't going to integrate with a glibc based system very well. Now maybe some components of it could be packaged and somehow be useful. No idea.
is IPFire also uClibc based?
It appears to be a regular linux system with glibc and such.