[Preston] IPCop

[Steve Taylor]

Hi John

> Thanks for replying......

NP

> Netgear 32 Bit PCI 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet FA311

This card is not listed in the Hardware Compatibility list on www.ipcop.org.


>  First of all, I had problems creating the actual IPCOP CDROM. I
> downloaded
> the 26MB .ISO file from Sourceforge but being fairly new to all this, I
> simply copied it to a CDROM drive using EASY CD CREATOR 5. It didn't boot
> (of course) so then I downloaded ISOBuster to extract the
> directories/files in the ISO image and then copy them to a CDR using
> Easy CD Creator.

No, that won't work ;-) An ISO image is a ready-made CD. What you need to do
is write the ISO image directly to the CD without any interference. On your
Redhat box, the command would be:
	# cdrecord -data filename.iso

(but if you haven't already got a CD writer working on that machine don't
attempt it yet)

I am certain Adaptec and Nero have the ability to do this... try "Write CD
from Image" or similar.
If you're still having trouble let me have your address and I'll bung you a
disk in the post.

> Next, I copied the boot image off the IPCop .ISO download to a floppy and
> was able to boot from that on the IBM/Cyrix. I tried to get it to install
> from CDROM but the CDROM spins but nothing happens. If I eject
> the CDROM, I am prompted to insert the IPCOP CDROM!!!

It sounds like the loader is looking for something on the CD and not finding
it... because of how you created the CD. If your BIOS supports booting from
CD-ROM then that is the preferable option.


> Next I tried to boot from the floppy disk again (having also created the
> driver diskette). There are no drivers on the driver diskette for
> my netgear
> NIC so I copied the FA311.o file to the driver diskette and tried again.

I'm not sure you can add NIC drivers to the IPCOP installation and I've
never tried it. If the NIC is not supported by IPCOP then it is safest to
assume it will not work. A Realtek 8139 10/100 PCI NIC can be had for about
£5 + VAT.


> The .iso file that I downloaded from sourceforge, am I right in assuming
> that there is more to it than just copying it out to a CD?

Nope, there is not MORE to it, there is LESS to it. See above.

> (the IPCop documentation is not very clear on burning it out to a CD)

See the CD Writing HOWTO on The Linux Documentation Project (www.tldp.org)

> . If so, what
> exactly should appear on the CD after it has been burned if say I were
> browsing it using explorer on windows

D:\>dir
 Volume in drive D is CDROM
 Volume Serial Number is D6C0-C112

 Directory of D:\

16/01/2002  21:42               17,992 COPYING
16/01/2002  21:42                1,423 README.txt
16/01/2002  21:55       <DIR>          bin
16/01/2002  21:56       <DIR>          boot
16/01/2002  21:42       <DIR>          doc
16/01/2002  21:42       <DIR>          dosutils
16/01/2002  21:56       <DIR>          images
16/01/2002  21:42           21,908,832 ipcop.tgz
16/01/2002  21:42       <DIR>          lib
               3 File(s)     21,928,247 bytes
               6 Dir(s)               0 bytes free

> or if I did an "ls -l" on Linux?

[root@live cdrom]# ls -l
total 21427
dr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root         2048 Jan 16  2002 bin/
dr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root         2048 Jan 16  2002 boot/
-r-xr-xr-x    1 root     root        17992 Jan 16  2002 COPYING*
dr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root         2048 Jan 16  2002 doc/
dr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root         2048 Jan 16  2002 dosutils/
dr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root         2048 Jan 16  2002 images/
-r-xr-xr-x    1 root     root     21908832 Jan 16  2002 ipcop.tgz*
dr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root         2048 Jan 16  2002 lib/
-r-xr-xr-x    1 root     root         1423 Jan 16  2002 README.txt*


> In order to get thr driver for my NIC onto the driver floppy and have the
> IPCop install recognise this new driver, what do I have to do?

Use a compatible NIC.

> Once (If?) I finally get IPCop install to recognise my NIC and apply the
> appropriate driver, what do I need to do with the .iso file that I
> originally downloaded?

Nothing at all.

> I have several other machines on my lan:
> Windows ME, Windows 98 and a Redhat 7.3 box. Do I need to set up an HTTP
or FTP server
> on one or other boxes in order to "serve" the ".iso" file? Maybe the .iso
> file should be extracted first using ISObuster or winimage perhaps? I do
> have samba installed on the RH 7.3 box and have a shared partition on the
> windows ME box of 1.2GB does that help me in any way?

Now I'm confused. It isn't meant to be so difficult :-) I recommend against
attempting a network install.

> Would really appreciate any help you can give .....

Feel free to ask for any further clarifications.

Steve