Newbie Wanting to Contribute

[myk]

Ok. I'm new to this, I want something, and I'm willing to do the grunt work if I can get some guidance.

I now run Mandrake 9.1 on my PII/266. I use it to do some Latex and I'm trying to learn more about Linux. Importantly, this Linux box is my router and firewall for the rest of the family's Windows PC's.

I've tried Knoppix on my PII. It ran perfectly first time no fuss no muss. So, I thought it would be great if Knoppix could be my firewall/router. Plus, with Knoppix I could have that live CD security (reboot = original config all nasties in ramdisk gone). If I'm not home, my wife could reboot without worry if there were a problem. Can other distros do this? No because they are dedicated only to FW/router. I want a little more.

So what needs to be done for me to make this happen? Where do I get info? What should I consider? Like I say, I will happily do the work but at this point I'm not sure where to begin. Any guidance would be appreciated. TIA.

[kayl]

You really want to be playing on your family's router? My "learning computer" is constantly in pieces have its guts ripped out, getting repartitioned/installed/de-installed, etc.

Linksys BEFSR41 is a $40, turn on and run, small, low power, bullet proof, easy to play with, 4-port switch, DHCP servering, etc, etc, etc.

Insist on a computer router? Check out FreeSco - GNU/Linux router on a floppy solution. All the advantages of a CD and you don't have to reburn whenever you want to change one lousy bit. Even if you don't like FreeSco and want to do it yourself, working with FreeSco will give you ideas and point you in the right direction.

Insist on a "big" distro for the "learning experience"? If you're on the low-end of the Linux curve, get your hands held by Chris Negus in the "Red Hat Bible" (9 or Fedora) books. He steps you through a zillion tasks (ip-chains, etc) and the distro is in the book. What you learn there will transfer to other distros: often in practice, sometimes only in theory.

No, I'm not plugging LinkSys, FreeSco or RedHat. Debian kicks butt. Knoppix is astounding. It let's me do lot's of things easily. Fills a few needs that would be tough to do otherwise. Helps me learn certain aspects. But if you want a router, get a router (hardware or software). If you want to learn, go where you can travel along the learning curve the fastest with the least effort and inconvenience to others.

I've seen a lot of "beginners" try to do it alone on man-pages, internet searches and forums. It's really frustrating for them and many go back to WinBloze.

Good luck.

[myk]

I'm not the first post to ask about this functionality ... and the pat reply is to get a specialized OS on a floppy, etc. I've seen Mono, Devil, floppyfw, coyote, etc. They are not what I want. Obviously, I want the ability to do more than just have a router/FW.

What is it that makes Knoppix unable to perform as desired i.e. OS, apps, FW, router, etc. The last two don't take much room. Think about the PR value. Walk in, toss in a CD, up comes the OS/nice apps, ... and the ability to provide internet sharing with a firewall. It seems natural enough. So why hasn't it happened? ... obviously I'm a newbie Still, I'm curious.

[kayl]

Nothing says it can't be done. Rest assured, it can. It's a question of difficulty and expertise.

If you install to a hard drive, even if you want something Knoppix doesn't already have, apt-get or dpkg-X can get it.. From your post, I assume you don't know what you need to make what you want. That's why I recommended the Bible book... it offers a lot of hand-holding on Linux: ip-chains, etc.

If you want it completely on the CD, you *MAY* have to remaster the packages/settings. Remastering is not for the feint of heart.

There is some room on the CD, especially if you Hack some of the PDF files. If you don't want to do much, you can probably set up a login script in the KNOPPIX folder that takes care of it all... but, it assumes you have a background in Linux.

As for PR: with kick-butt $40, 5"x5"x2" routers out there, anything that takes the above kind of expertise just isn't impressive... except as a learning experience.