I've packaged up the dnscache and daemontools programs by Dan J Bernstein (djbdns) and would like someone to test the ipk for me. I've got the full thing installed on my Freerunner now, including unnecessary files and additional files used for testing and unused services, so installing the package on my Freerunner would really only be a valid test if I reflashed first.
daemontools is simply a daemon/service management system, and dnscache is the caching-only DNS server binary from the djbdns package. (which includes full DNS server, email RBL blackhole server, client and testing tools, etc) The effect of having them installed and running on the Freerunner is that any DNS lookups (like the tangoGPS lookup for every single map tile downloaded!!) are cached locally, so that repeat lookups are nearly instant - a big difference when using GPRS in particular. It starts several tasks, which normally consume about 1% of RAM and 0% of CPU, and about 300k on disk. I've been running it on 2008.08 (regularly 'opkg update'd) for a week now with no ill effects, only benefits. (well, apart from having to putz with /etc/resolv.conf frequently, which I've overcome personally but not yet in the ipk) I'm hoping someone can try to install it and let me know if all works well. There are a few things as yet incomplete: if uninstalled, the package removes the files, folders, and created user, but doesn't presently remove the startup line from /etc/inittab. Also, it's currently up to the user to cause their /etc/resolv.conf to always read 'nameserver 127.0.0.1' - more properly the installation should short-circuit ifup and so on so that they do not overwrite resolv.conf. I'm working out the best approach for that right now. (again it works on my Freerunner, but I want it simpler and more 'proper') It would be easier if all Freerunner networking utilized resolvconf... So the package is NOT ready for public consumption, though the programs it installs work as expected on my system. It is presently configured largely as it would be on a server in a network center, with modified paths, including logging all queries. (though logging is severely limited, I plan to eliminate it entirely for final release ipk) Any takers can download the ipk at http://newkirk.us/om/dnscache_2.1.5_armv4t.ipk and let me know of any problems encountered. NOTE: the installer does modify /etc/inittab, by adding the line "SV:123456:respawn:/usr/local/djbdns/package/admin/daemontools/command/svscanboot" at the end, and it does NOT yet remove that line when uninstalled. Once installed, make sure you have a working internet connection from the Freerunner, then check "cat /etc/resolv.conf" and invoke "echo 'nameserver 127.0.0.1' >/etc/resolv.conf", then try hitting a FQDN, like "ping google.com" and see if it resolves the IP from the FQDN. If you remove it you will need to manually remove the svcscanboot startup/respawn line from /etc/inittab, then reboot, then uninstall. (polish on the install/uninstall scripts will eliminate the need for that when released, but for now uninstall just uninstalls and removes created folders, links, and user 'dnscache') Separately, I had a query: Since this is technically two programs, from two separate packages of sourcecode, should it be distributed as two ipks? dnscache depends on daemontools, and packaging separately would be pretty simple, but I don't presently see the usefulness. j _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
