> >>>>> "Keith" == Keith Lofstrom <[email protected]> writes:
> Keith> After beating my head against the OpenWRT wall for weeks - one
> Keith> thing after another not working as expected [...]

On Tue, Jan 06, 2009 at 03:02:26AM -0800, Russell Senior wrote:
> Not to say there isn't a learning curve with OpenWrt, but ... you
> could have asked me more questions!  I am a willing resource, if
> possessing finite capacity, but I would certainly be (have been) eager
> to try to help.

Again, the stumper was related to the Verizon connection and udhcpc,
and that is a real bastard of a problem to help with remotely.  I
was having trouble enough trying to get tcpdump to provide useful
data - as I understand it, it won't listen to a port before it is
up, and it is the DHCP handshake that I care about.  Lots of quick
juggling of cables before software timed out.  The tasks following
that would have involved SSL and OpenVPN, and probably porting a
couple of apps.  The barriers seemed far too high, especially for
a heterodox solution when a "just like all the other machines"
solution seems to work.  The only real problem is that the distro
image is bigger, and it takes much longer to write a CF card than
the tiny squashfs OpenWRT image does.

For simpler setups doing what OpenWRT does best, then of course 
that is the right way to go for PTP.  In fact, if you someday 
want to try out a solution to the Verizon DHCP Problem, bring a
CF card by and we will try it.  I can give you the MAC address
of my WAN port off the list.  But if Verizon FIOS is not needed
for any PTP nodes right away, you can safely defer that problem.

The "Scientific ALIX" process is going well, mostly since it is an
almost direct copy of something working (I would not want to try it
with a non-X86, small RAM/Flash machine).  In fact, I mentioned what
I was doing on the Scientific Linux mailing list, and I've already
gotten emails from a few of them, wanting to copy the setup for
scientific experiments.  With a solar panel, one of those laptop
extender batteries, and a daytime-only radio in the miniPCI slot,
the ALIX makes a great remote data taking and massaging system,
and with all the scientific and mathematical additions to Scientific
Linux, that is an easy platform to develop on.  With a couple of
high gain antennas, it could be miles from the grid, or possibly
even connect through multiple hops in a mesh, given ALIX repeater
boards with two miniPCI slots.

BTW, this might be something to talk to the Humaninet people about.
I imagine the ALIX/OpenWRT combo would be really handy in a mesh
system in the field, and could be made more theft-resistant than a
PC or laptop-based solution.  

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          [email protected]         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs

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