Bare minimum requirements for FreeBSD installation

[Liquid]

Hey everyone. A family member asked me to setup a gateway in his house
so that the internet can be shared between a couple of tenants. I
realize it can be very easily done using a router, but I have this
486dx2 50mhz at home with 8mb ram. It has a 300mb and 640mb hd in it
too. If I only wish to run a simple router setup using ipfilter and
ipnat, will it run FreeBSD? The only other services running being ssh
and perhaps ftp and I couldn't care less about how fast it runs, as long
as it "does its job" adequately. One other thing, seeing as it'll be
sharing PPPoE adsl, I'll have PPP running in dedicated mode at all
times.

The reason I'm asking is because it only has 30-pin simm ram slots, and
I haven't even seen any for sale anywhere, nevermind whether or not its
close to reasonable. I realize that if it would have 16 MHz it would
probably run just fine.

That brings the list of stuff running to
ppp -d
ftpd (maybe, I might just use the old burn a cdrom and drive over method
instead)0
openssh
ipnat
ipfilter

Any comments more than welcome.


Thanks,
Sandro M.


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with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message

[Doug Poland]

Post by Liquid
Hey everyone. A family member asked me to setup a gateway in his
house so that the internet can be shared between a couple of
tenants. I realize it can be very easily done using a router, but
I have this 486dx2 50mhz at home with 8mb ram. It has a 300mb and
640mb hd in it too. If I only wish to run a simple router setup
using ipfilter and ipnat, will it run FreeBSD? The only other
services running being ssh and perhaps ftp and I couldn't care
less about how fast it runs, as long as it "does its job"
adequately. One other thing, seeing as it'll be sharing PPPoE
adsl, I'll have PPP running in dedicated mode at all times.
The reason I'm asking is because it only has 30-pin simm ram
slots, and I haven't even seen any for sale anywhere, nevermind
whether or not its close to reasonable. I realize that if it
would have 16 MHz it would probably run just fine.
That brings the list of stuff running to
ppp -d
ftpd (maybe, I might just use the old burn a cdrom and drive over
method instead)0
openssh
ipnat
ipfilter
Any comments more than welcome.

I'm successfully running a nework of 16 computers behind a 33MHz
80486 with 16MB memory and a 250MB disk. It has two NICs and runs
sshd, ipfw, and natd on a RoadRunner cable modem. My only problem
is the disk is so small I can't do an installworld to keep up with
-STABLE.
This box doesn't even breath hard.

[Doug Poland]

Post by Liquid
Hey everyone. A family member asked me to setup a gateway in his
house so that the internet can be shared between a couple of
tenants. I realize it can be very easily done using a router, but
I have this 486dx2 50mhz at home with 8mb ram. It has a 300mb and
640mb hd in it too. If I only wish to run a simple router setup
using ipfilter and ipnat, will it run FreeBSD? The only other
services running being ssh and perhaps ftp and I couldn't care
less about how fast it runs, as long as it "does its job"
adequately. One other thing, seeing as it'll be sharing PPPoE
adsl, I'll have PPP running in dedicated mode at all times.
The reason I'm asking is because it only has 30-pin simm ram
slots, and I haven't even seen any for sale anywhere, nevermind
whether or not its close to reasonable. I realize that if it
would have 16 MHz it would probably run just fine.
That brings the list of stuff running to
ppp -d
ftpd (maybe, I might just use the old burn a cdrom and drive over
method instead)0
openssh
ipnat
ipfilter
Any comments more than welcome.

I'm successfully running a network of 16 computers behind a 33MHz
80486 with 16MB memory and a 250MB disk. It has two NICs and runs
sshd, ipfw, and natd on a RoadRunner cable modem. My only problem
is the disk is so small I can't do an installworld to keep up with
-STABLE.
This box doesn't even breath hard.
Regards,
Doug

Was there a helpful document you used to set this scheme up? I would be
interested in whether you use a port or a switch, and how difficult it was
to figure out ipfw. Thanks.
--
Peter Leftwich

Peter,

I started with two 10Mbit hubs but had terrible results when I started adding
100Mbit full-duplexing NICS on some servers. I "splurged" and bought a 16-port
10/100 switch (the best $150US I've ever spent) and never looked back.

I found the following quite useful (not in any particular order)...

http://www.mostgraveconcern.com/freebsd/
http://www.erudition.net/freebsd/NAT-HOWTO
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/firewalls.html
"Building Internet Firewalls" Zwicky, Cooper, & Chapman (ISBN: 1-56592-871-7)
man ipfw
man natd

This configuration requires a custom kernel to enable ipfw but other than that,
there's very little else that has to be done to make a -RELEASE box perform in
this role.

[Jeff Jirsa]

Post by Doug Poland

Post by Liquid
Hey everyone. A family member asked me to setup a gateway in his
house so that the internet can be shared between a couple of
tenants. I realize it can be very easily done using a router, but
I have this 486dx2 50mhz at home with 8mb ram. It has a 300mb and
640mb hd in it too. If I only wish to run a simple router setup
using ipfilter and ipnat, will it run FreeBSD? The only other
services running being ssh and perhaps ftp and I couldn't care
less about how fast it runs, as long as it "does its job"
adequately. One other thing, seeing as it'll be sharing PPPoE
adsl, I'll have PPP running in dedicated mode at all times.
That brings the list of stuff running to
ppp -d
ftpd (maybe, I might just use the old burn a cdrom and drive over
method instead)0
openssh
ipnat
ipfilter

I started with two 10Mbit hubs but had terrible results when I started adding
100Mbit full-duplexing NICS on some servers. I "splurged" and bought a 16-port
10/100 switch (the best $150US I've ever spent) and never looked back.

If you'd rather spend $30 and get something you know will work, you might
consider refurbished netgear products (refurbished, but I've never had a
problem...) from returnbuy.com ... For instance, you can get a decent
router for $19.99 (search for rt311).

- Jeff

[Gary W. Swearingen]

Post by Doug Poland
sshd, ipfw, and natd on a RoadRunner cable modem. My only problem
is the disk is so small I can't do an installworld to keep up with
-STABLE.

Consider running picoBSD off a floppy with or without a hard disk
(eg, for log files). It was quite easy/fast to get going and you can
easily keep it as current as the system you build it on (which is
not the systemn you would run it on).


I suspect that picoBSD would run on an 8 MB computer, but I don't know.

I hope the original poster has considered just finding an old computer
with 16 MB; I've bought them for 5 $US from local government surplus.

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[Liquid]

Actually I am waiting on an auction to end. For some reason I never
thought of looking on ebay, and I hit the jackpot there... 64mb of 30pin
simms!

Where can I get more info on this picobsd though?

-----Original Message-----
Sent: October 1, 2002 10:31 PM
To: Doug Poland
Subject: Re: Bare minimum requirements for FreeBSD installation

Post by Doug Poland
sshd, ipfw, and natd on a RoadRunner cable modem. My only problem
is the disk is so small I can't do an installworld to keep up with
-STABLE.

Consider running picoBSD off a floppy with or without a hard disk
(eg, for log files). It was quite easy/fast to get going and you can
easily keep it as current as the system you build it on (which is
not the systemn you would run it on).
I suspect that picoBSD would run on an 8 MB computer, but I don't know.
I hope the original poster has considered just finding an old computer
with 16 MB; I've bought them for 5 $US from local government surplus.

To Unsubscribe: send mail to ***@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message

[Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.]

From: "Liquid" <***@liquidonline.ca>
To: "'Gary W. Swearingen'" <***@attbi.com>; "'Doug Poland'"
<***@polands.org>
Cc: <freebsd-***@FreeBSD.ORG>
Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 12:16 AM
Subject: RE: Bare minimum requirements for FreeBSD installation


Actually I am waiting on an auction to end. For some reason I never
thought of looking on ebay, and I hit the jackpot there... 64mb of
30pin
simms!

Where can I get more info on this picobsd though?

-----Original Message-----
Sent: October 1, 2002 10:31 PM
To: Doug Poland
Subject: Re: Bare minimum requirements for FreeBSD installation

Post by Doug Poland
sshd, ipfw, and natd on a RoadRunner cable modem. My only problem
is the disk is so small I can't do an installworld to keep up with
-STABLE.

Consider running picoBSD off a floppy with or without a hard disk
(eg, for log files). It was quite easy/fast to get going and you can
easily keep it as current as the system you build it on (which is
not the systemn you would run it on).
I suspect that picoBSD would run on an 8 MB computer, but I don't know.
I hope the original poster has considered just finding an old

computer

with 16 MB; I've bought them for 5 $US from local government

surplus.


The place to start is
<drum roll, please>

$man picobsd

NAME
picobsd - floppy disk based FreeBSD system

SYNOPSIS
picobsd [options] [floppy-type [site-name]]

DESCRIPTION
picobsd is a script which can be used to produce a minimal
implementation
of FreeBSD (historically called PicoBSD) which typically fits on
one
floppy disk, or can be downloaded as a single image file from
some media
such as CDROM, flash memory, or through etherboot.

<snip>

Kevin Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.



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[Gary W. Swearingen]

Post by Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.
The place to start is
<drum roll, please>

Please do us all a favor and start at
<I'll provide my own paradiddle:>

L-R-L-L,R-L-R-R,L-R-L-L,R-L-R-R,L-R-L-L,R-L-R-R

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=etiquette+email+quote

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[Gary W. Swearingen]

Check out http://thewall.sourceforge.net/.

I was sorry I wasted my time there after I investigated picoBSD. Maybe
they've got good stuff, but it looked like it was going to take longer
to determine what it was, what parts I wanted, how it fit in with the
normal distribution, etc, that I just took a stab at following its Unix
manual, picobsd(8), etc., and it went swimmingly.

Refs:

picobsd(8)
http://people.freebsd.org/~picobsd/picobsd.html
http://www.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/ip_dummynet/

P.S. Remember to start your information search with something like:

locate -i picobsd

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[Vallo Kallaste]

Post by Liquid
Actually I am waiting on an auction to end. For some reason I never
thought of looking on ebay, and I hit the jackpot there... 64mb of 30pin
simms!

Hope you have MB manual available, some mobos have strict
requirements for memory and you can easily end up simply wasting
money.

[Erik Trulsson]

Post by Liquid
Hey everyone. A family member asked me to setup a gateway in his house
so that the internet can be shared between a couple of tenants. I
realize it can be very easily done using a router, but I have this
486dx2 50mhz at home with 8mb ram. It has a 300mb and 640mb hd in it
too. If I only wish to run a simple router setup using ipfilter and
ipnat, will it run FreeBSD? The only other services running being ssh
and perhaps ftp and I couldn't care less about how fast it runs, as long
as it "does its job" adequately. One other thing, seeing as it'll be
sharing PPPoE adsl, I'll have PPP running in dedicated mode at all
times.
The reason I'm asking is because it only has 30-pin simm ram slots, and
I haven't even seen any for sale anywhere, nevermind whether or not its
close to reasonable. I realize that if it would have 16 MHz it would
probably run just fine.

(30-pin SIMMs are actually still available from specialized dealers,
but they are fairly expensive, and most of the time it would be cheaper
to get a second-hand computer that has enough memory instead.)


That machine will work just fine as a gateway/router/firewall but you
will have trouble installing FreeBSD 4.x on it.
(I have a 386sx 33MHz w/ 8MB RAM running 4-stable doing this kind of
duty, and it works quite well.)
Recent versions of FreeBSD require at least 16MB RAM to install.
The last version that could be installed on 8MB RAM was FreeBSD 3.2
One possibility is to install 3.2 on it and then upgrade to 4.x in
steps afterwards. (FreeBSD 4.x can run with only 8MB RAM, once you
have configured swap.)
Doing a make world on such a machine will be quite slow, but possible.
If you have some faster machine available where you can do the
buildworlds and then just do the installworld on the slow machine via
NFS it becomes a more viable solution.

[Marc Schneiders]

Post by Erik Trulsson
Recent versions of FreeBSD require at least 16MB RAM to install.
The last version that could be installed on 8MB RAM was FreeBSD 3.2
One possibility is to install 3.2 on it and then upgrade to 4.x in
steps afterwards.

Or put the harddisk in another machine and install/configure FreeBSD 4
there. Some time ago I got some 3 version running that way on a
notebook (486/33) with 5MB (640k + 4MB actually), installing on
another 486, making kernel stripped of all that was not necessary (NFS
costs a lot of bytes) there too, and it did run.


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with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message

[Mike Hogsett]

One options is to spend ~$20 and get more memory...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2057355648

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2057395999

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2057635751

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2058152219


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with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message

[Fernando Gleiser]

Post by Liquid
Hey everyone. A family member asked me to setup a gateway in his house
so that the internet can be shared between a couple of tenants. I
realize it can be very easily done using a router, but I have this
486dx2 50mhz at home with 8mb ram. It has a 300mb and 640mb hd in it
too. If I only wish to run a simple router setup using ipfilter and
ipnat, will it run FreeBSD? The only other services running being ssh
and perhaps ftp and I couldn't care less about how fast it runs, as long
as it "does its job" adequately. One other thing, seeing as it'll be
sharing PPPoE adsl, I'll have PPP running in dedicated mode at all
times.

My home firewall is an old 486DX 50 MHz with 16 MB RAM. It runs ipf/ipnat/
ipmon and uses DHCP to get its IP addr.

Post by Liquid
The reason I'm asking is because it only has 30-pin simm ram slots, and
I haven't even seen any for sale anywhere, nevermind whether or not its
close to reasonable. I realize that if it would have 16 MHz it would
probably run just fine.

I think you need at least 12 MB RAM to install FreeBSD, but it runs with
8. You can try searching EBay, or getting more RAM for other discarded
PCs :)


Fer

Post by Liquid
That brings the list of stuff running to
ppp -d
ftpd (maybe, I might just use the old burn a cdrom and drive over method
instead)0
openssh
ipnat
ipfilter
Any comments more than welcome.
Thanks,
Sandro M.
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message

To Unsubscribe: send mail to ***@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message

[Liquid]

Thanks everyone for your input. Hopefully my cousin will take some
interest in the box and he'll start messing with it until it breaks, so
I can start learning again. My machine hasn't "broken" in months, its
nearly boring now ;)

-----Original Message-----
Sent: October 1, 2002 9:53 PM
To: Liquid
Subject: Re: Bare minimum requirements for FreeBSD installation

Post by Liquid
Hey everyone. A family member asked me to setup a gateway in his

house

Post by Liquid
so that the internet can be shared between a couple of tenants. I
realize it can be very easily done using a router, but I have this
486dx2 50mhz at home with 8mb ram. It has a 300mb and 640mb hd in it
too. If I only wish to run a simple router setup using ipfilter and
ipnat, will it run FreeBSD? The only other services running being ssh
and perhaps ftp and I couldn't care less about how fast it runs, as

long

Post by Liquid
as it "does its job" adequately. One other thing, seeing as it'll be
sharing PPPoE adsl, I'll have PPP running in dedicated mode at all
times.

My home firewall is an old 486DX 50 MHz with 16 MB RAM. It runs
ipf/ipnat/
ipmon and uses DHCP to get its IP addr.

Post by Liquid
The reason I'm asking is because it only has 30-pin simm ram slots,

and

Post by Liquid
I haven't even seen any for sale anywhere, nevermind whether or not

its

Post by Liquid
close to reasonable. I realize that if it would have 16 MHz it would
probably run just fine.

I think you need at least 12 MB RAM to install FreeBSD, but it runs with
8. You can try searching EBay, or getting more RAM for other discarded
PCs :)
Fer

Post by Liquid
That brings the list of stuff running to
ppp -d
ftpd (maybe, I might just use the old burn a cdrom and drive over

method

Post by Liquid
instead)0
openssh
ipnat
ipfilter
Any comments more than welcome.
Thanks,
Sandro M.
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message

To Unsubscribe: send mail to ***@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message