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Dalmerv
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Linux Router Project

Fri Feb 21, 2014 12:06 pm

I have an old failing system using Linux Router Project, kernel 2.6.8, that I inherited. It is used to run a few applications, one of which uses a video capture card.
The libraries are old and I would rather not spend the time rewriting stuff for a more modern OS. I would rather try to just get it up and running on modern hardware, if it is less work.

Has anyone here tried getting LRP, or one of its offshoots, to work with PCI-E devices? I was thinking of using something like the Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250, because it seems to be popular among linux media center systems.

Any info or assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
 
bthylafh
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Re: Linux Router Project

Fri Feb 21, 2014 12:27 pm

Help me understand: this computer runs a minimalist Linux distribution that was intended solely to act as a network router, right? The other applications you speak of, do they run right on the computer or is this just a routing appliance with the other applications running on different equipment which get network services from it?

If it's just a routing appliance (and for the sake of your sanity, I hope it is) you'd be better off to just get a good dedicated router.

If not, I don't know when Linux got support for PCIe, but drivers are handled at the kernel level. You should start with compiling a newer kernel and see if that works. You might have to upgrade other packages (compiler, binutils, etc.) though.
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Hz so good
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Re: Linux Router Project

Fri Feb 21, 2014 12:55 pm

bthylafh wrote:
If it's just a routing appliance (and for the sake of your sanity, I hope it is) you'd be better off to just get a good dedicated router.



Agreed. You won't see the same level of performance that a dedicated device will provide, especially if you're attempting to run Hauppage vid capture boards. All that is going to steal resources from your router. If you can't get a good Cisco or Juniper router, consider checking some of MikroTiks offerings. They've still got some teething pains, but they worked great in Hautespot CPE radios (using Ubiquiti), as well as p2mp.
 
Dalmerv
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Re: Linux Router Project

Fri Feb 21, 2014 1:41 pm

If it's just a routing appliance (and for the sake of your sanity, I hope it is) you'd be better off to just get a good dedicated router.

Sorry I didn't clarify that this LRP box is not being used as a router. I believe LRP was chosen at the time because of its small size, originally it was booting off of a 16MB compact flash drive. Some aspects of the system have been migrated off to modern hardware. In the long run I would like to decommission it, but in the short term I am looking in to keeping it running on modern hardware.

Help me understand: this computer runs a minimalist Linux distribution that was intended solely to act as a network router, right? The other applications you speak of, do they run right on the computer or is this just a routing appliance with the other applications running on different equipment which get network services from it?

The other application runs right on the computer, processing video from the video capture card. It then sends info out to another device via the LPT port.
 
bthylafh
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Re: Linux Router Project

Fri Feb 21, 2014 2:53 pm

I'm not a Linux wizard like some of the other posters, so all I can think of is to put together the new system, compile a kernel to suit, then copy over the old system's disk to the new one's, lastly setting the new system to boot with the new kernel.

I won't even swear that's a good idea; maybe someone else has a better one.
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Flatland_Spider
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Re: Linux Router Project

Fri Feb 21, 2014 4:30 pm

Dalmerv wrote:
Any info or assistance would be greatly appreciated.


My advice, make replacing this thing a priority. This has been a bad idea for a while now, and your time would be better spent on a permanent fix rather then hacking this thing up.

To continue the discussion since it is an interesting problem...

Per the LinuxTV.org Wiki, the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1250 has been supported in Linux since kernel 2.6.27, and this version should have PCIe support as well.
(http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Haupp ... V-HVR-1250)

As bthylafh suggested, you could compile a custom kernel, but I would be concerned with having to recompile userland applications due to ABI/API changes. I'm also not sure where you would get LRP source code since it's been defunct since 2003.

You could build a 'like' system with LFS or Gentoo. You would have to reverse engineer everything, and it would essentially be as much work as porting the application to something else that is supported.
 
notfred
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Re: Linux Router Project

Fri Feb 21, 2014 7:12 pm

Hz so good wrote:
Agreed. You won't see the same level of performance that a dedicated device will provide, especially if you're attempting to run Hauppage vid capture boards. All that is going to steal resources from your router. If you can't get a good Cisco or Juniper router, consider checking some of MikroTiks offerings.
Absolute rubbish, a modern PC will pump more than enough traffic through in Linux to satisfy even the most demanding house with a tiny CPU usage. The lower end Cisco, Juniper, Huawei etc boxes are just based on a processor and PCIe. It's only when you go to the high end and start getting fancy silicon in there that it becomes worth it, but by that point you are running a sizeable ISP.

I would try moving to something like Debian stable as a solid foundation that will run the capture card, and just bite the bullet on dealing with any incompatibilities with libraries on the old apps. What you have is so old that it is bound to be vulnerable to all kinds of exploits.

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