[ 6 January 1998 The Linux Dial-On-Demand mini-HOWTO is not being maintained by the author any more. If you are interested in maintaining the Dial-On-Demand mini-HOWTO, please get in touch with me at . NOTE: The "idle-disconnect" is *no* longer a working option. This option has changed and is now "idle".] Dial-On-Demand mini-HOWTO Rodney.van.den.Oever@tip.nl Version 1.0, 28 July 1996 / updated and submitted 29 february 1997 Introduction: This document describes how to do dial-on-demand dialling and how to use a Linux host connected to a private local network as a dial-on-demand PPP-router. The kerneld-mini-HOWTO already describes how kerneld can execute a 'request-route' script, I'd like to describe a working setup in more detail. If you have a small network at home, this is a very elegant way to provide transparent Internet-access for a couple of other machines. ______________________________ __|__ ___|___ | | local network | | ______ PPP-link to provider | PC | 192.168.1.0 | Linux |--|modem |------------------> | | | Router| |______| x.x.x.x |_____| |_______| (dynamic IP-address) named pppd This setup requires: * Kernel 2.0.0 or later. * ppp-2.2.0f.tar.gz or later * modules-2.0.0.tar.gz or later * ipfwadm-2.3.tar.gz (http://www.xos.nl/linux/ipfwadm) The following steps need to be taken: 1. Kernel Configuration 2. Modules Installation 3. PPP Installation 4. Serial Port and Modem Configuration 5. PPP Configuration 6. Dial-On-Demand 7. Network Configuration 8. Masquerading configuration 9. Workstation configuration ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- 1. Kernel Configuration: First we need to compile a kernel with kerneld, ppp and IP-masquerading support. I'll only show the options required for this setup, other options like firewall logging or transparent proxying can be turned on, but are not required: cd /usr/src/linux make config (or make menuconfig) * Code maturity level options * Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers (CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL) [Y/n/?] * Loadable module support * Enable loadable module support (CONFIG_MODULES) [Y/n/?] Set version information on all symbols for modules (CONFIG_MODVERSIONS) [N/y/?] Kernel daemon support (e.g. autoload of modules) (CONFIG_KERNELD) [Y/n/?] * Networking support (CONFIG_NET) [Y/n/?] * * Networking options * Network firewalls (CONFIG_FIREWALL) [Y/n/?] TCP/IP networking (CONFIG_INET) [Y/n/?] IP: forwarding/gatewaying (CONFIG_IP_FORWARD) [Y/n/?] IP: firewalling (CONFIG_IP_FIREWALL) [Y/n/?] IP: masquerading (EXPERIMENTAL) (CONFIG_IP_MASQUERADE) [Y/n/?] * * Protocol-specific masquerading support will be built as modules. * IP: always defragment (CONFIG_IP_ALWAYS_DEFRAG) [Y/n/?] IP: optimize as router not host (CONFIG_IP_ROUTER) [Y/n/?] * * Network device support * Network device support (CONFIG_NETDEVICES) [Y/n/?] * PPP (point-to-point) support (CONFIG_PPP) [M/n/y/?] * * CCP compressors for PPP are only built as modules. * Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit) (CONFIG_NET_ETHERNET) [Y/n/?] NE2000/NE1000 support (CONFIG_NE2000) [Y/m/n/?] The latter option depends of course on the netword card used! Compile the kernel with: make zlilo make modules make modules_install If you don't use LILO, copy /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/zImage to the proper location for your setup. The modules are installed in /lib/modules/x.x.x, Where x.x.x reflects the version-number of your kernel. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- 2. Modules Installation: The following module-utilities are required: /sbin/insmode Loads module requested /sbin/rmmod Removes module no longer needed /sbin/depmod Creates depedencies /sbin/kerneld Kerneld extension to load modules automatically If you don't have these yet, install 'm by: cd /usr/src tar zxf modules-2.0.0.tar.gz make install To load kerneld at startup we need to edit /etc/rc.d/rc.S or create a seperate script rc.modules which is called from rc.S. Add or change the following lines: /etc/rc.d/rc.modules: if [ ! -f /lib/modules/`uname -r`/modules.dep ] ; then echo "Updating module dependencies for Linux `uname -r`:" /sbin/depmod -a fi [ -x /sbin/kerneld ] && /sbin/kerneld The first part checks for the module-dependencies and creates them if they don't exist yet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- 3. PPP Installation: The following stuff is required to setup a PPP-link: /usr/sbin/pppd PPP-daemon /usr/sbin/pppstats PPP-statistics /usr/sbin/chat Execution of scripts Install these by: cd /usr/src tar zxf ppp-2.2.0f.tar.gz cd ppp-2.2.0f ./configure make kernel Since later kernels already include the PPP-code, 'make kernel' won't replace anything. Check the README and Makefile for shadow-support (if you also want to dial-in to this host) and other options. Then do: make make install ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- 4. Serial port and modem configuration: This setup requires a modem. Serial port setup is done in /etc/rc.d/rc.seria l: ${SETSERIAL} /dev/cua0 uart 16450 port 0x3F8 irq 4 ${SETSERIAL} /dev/cua1 uart 16550A port 0x2F8 irq 3 spd_vhi In this setup COM1 is used by the mouse and COM2 by an internal 28k8 modem. The spd_vhi-parameter replace the 38400 bps-entry in the speeds-table with 115200. Likewise, spd_hi replaces this by 57600. Use spd_vhi with a 28k8 modem and spd_hi with a 14k4 modem, but start with 38400, just to be on the safe side. You can check your modem setup by running 'minicom' or some other terminal program. Your modem should echo the characters typed. Use Ctrl-A, P to change the communication parameters. Check if it still works at 57600 or 115200 bps. Entering 'ATZ' should return 'OK'. Use Ctrl-A X to leave minicom. Minicom can also be used to dial your provider manually. Make a note of what you need to enter to setup the link and what the response are from the remote server. If your provider doesn't use PAP or CHAP you probably need to enter a username and password and possibly enter a command to setup the link in PPP-mode. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- 5. PPP Configuration: pppd searches /etc/ppp for scripts and the file 'options'. /etc/ppp/options: /dev/modem 38400 crtscts modem noipdefault defaultroute idle-disconnect 120 Meaning: /dev/modem In my setup a link to /dev/cua1. 38400 Gets replaced by 115200 (spd_vhi-parameter in /etc/rc.d/rc.serial) crtscts Hardware handshake, RTS/CTS, don't use Xon-Xoff-handshaking! noipdefault The IP-address is assigned automatically. defaultroute This sets the default route to the PPP-interface when the link is up. idle-disconnect PPP-2.2.0f automatically disconnects an idle link after 120 seconds. Now we need to create a script, just name it 'default', meaning the ISP you normally use. If you want to make other connections too, creates differents scripts for these sites and name them with the remote IP-address. /etc/ppp/default: "" ats11=55dtXXXXXXXX CONNECT "" rname: UUUUU sword: PPPPP > ppp Meaning: ats11=55 shortens the duration of the dial tones to speed up dialing. XXXXXXXX Enter the phone-number for your provider here. CONNECT chat waits for your modem to return 'CONNECT'. rname: chat waits for 'rname', and enters 'UUUUU' sword: chat waits for 'sword', and then enters 'PPPPP'. Replace 'UUUUU' and 'PPPPP' by your username and password. I use 'rname' and 'sword' because sometimes the first letter gets missed or could be upper- or lowercase and language-dependent. Some ISP's require you to enter 'ppp' after your enter the username and password, so I wait for the last character of the routerprompt ('>'). If you get errors like 'serial line looped back' or 'serial line not 8-bit clean' the link is not yet in PPP-mode. This command is long enough to place it in a small script: /etc/ppp/ppp: #!/bin/sh /usr/sbin/pppd connect '/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/default' You should now be able to connect to your ISP, you might add the 'debug' parameter to the /etc/ppp/options-file, make sure you increase the loglevel of syslogd to see whats going on: /etc/syslog.conf *.debug /var/log/messages If you edit syslog.conf be sure to notify syslogd about this change. Depending on the location of its PID-file, do: kill -1 `cat /var/run/syslog.pid` or kill -1 `cat /etc/syslog.pid` After the connection is made, check with 'ifconfig' for the existing of a 'ppp0'- interface. Check your default route with 'netstat -r', it should point to your ISP. Try pinging a remote server, e.g. your providers nameserver. If this works you could add this nameserver to your /etc/resolv.conf: search your.isp.domain nameserver x.x.x.x ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- 6. Dial-on-Demand: Kerneld can be used to load modules, like ppp, on demand. An additional feature, described in the kerneld-HOWTO, is the ability to invoke a script, if a particular route is missing. Kerneld will look for '/sbin/request-route'. The script below is an almost exact copy of the script included with the modules-2.0.0.tar.gz: /sbin/request-route: #!/bin/sh LOCK=/var/run/request-route.pid export PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH # for ppp-2.2* # This script will be called from kerneld with the requested route as $1 chatfile=/etc/ppp/$1 # If no chatscript exists use a default value (symlink to preferred script): [ ! -f $chatfile ] && chatfile=/etc/ppp/default # Check if we're already running: if [ ! -f $LOCK ] ; then pppd connect "chat -f $chatfile" & # Timer to be killed by ip-up, tunable! Check kerneld delay as well sleep 60 & sleepid=$! echo $sleepid > $LOCK wait $sleepid rm -f $LOCK exit 0 fi exit 1 Kerneld will run this script using the missing route as an argument: /sbin/request-route x.x.x.x The script uses a lock-file to prevent multiple 'request-route'-instances. At first I used a script that was triggered by a nameserver query, but since I like to run a local nameserver, this lookup would be cached and a second query wouldn't bring the link up. That's why I changed the script to use a default chat-script if none exists. This also allows you to create multiple chat-scripts for different links and use a default chat-script to connect to your ISP. After the link has been brought up, pppd executes the script /etc/ppp/ip-up which removes the lock-file. Add commands you'd like to execute everytime the link is brought up, like a sendmail queue-run: #!/bin/ash LOCK=/var/run/request-route.pid [ -f $LOCK ] && kill `cat $LOCK` # Execute these commands after connecting: #/usr/sbin/sendmail -q The 'idle-disconnect'-option automatically disconnects an idle link, use 'ppp-off' is you want to disconnect immediately: /usr/sbin/ppp-off:. #!/bin/sh LOCK=/var/run/request-route.pid DEVICE=ppp0 rm -f $LOCK # # If the ppp0 pid file is present then the program is running. Stop it. if [ -r /var/run/$DEVICE.pid ]; then kill -INT `cat /var/run/$DEVICE.pid` # # If unsuccessful, ensure that the pid file is removed. # if [ ! "$?" = "0" ]; then echo "removing stale $DEVICE pid file." rm -f /var/run/$DEVICE.pid exit 1 fi # # Success. Terminate with proper status. # echo "$DEVICE link terminated" exit 0 fi # # The link is not active # echo "$DEVICE link is not active" exit 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- 7. Network Configuration: If your Linux-box has another network interface, like an Ethernet-card or if you use PLIP to connect to another machine, you can configure this box to function as a router. This is how I configured my network, I always enter all IP-addresses in /etc/hosts so I only have one file to maintain: /etc/hosts: 127.0.0.1 localhost 10.0.0.1 your.domain.com host 10.0.0.2 some.other.machine /etc/networks: loopback 127.0.0.0 localnet 10.0.0.0 /etc/rc.d/inet1: # Loopback interface: ifconfig lo localhost route add -net loopback # Local interface: ifconfig eth0 host route add -net localnet eth0 The last rule adds a route to the local network. We don't need to enter the default gateway here, since we don't have one until a PPP-link is setup. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- 8. Masquerading Configuration: If you need to connect multiple machines, but only have one IP-address, you can use the Linux masquerading feature. This allows you to configure an internal network- number (preferably a private IP-address) which gets translated to the IP-address assigned to the PPP-interface. You are free to use the following network numbers: Class A: 10.0.0.0 Class B: 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.0.0 Class C: 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.254.0 Add the following rules to /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1: FW=/sbin/ipfwadm ${FW} -F -f ${FW} -F -a m -P tcp -S localnet/8 -D default/0 ${FW} -F -a m -P udp -S localnet/8 -D default/0 # Masquerading timeout-values (tcp tcpfin udp), defaults: ${FW} -M -s 3600 0 0 # Load module for special protocols: /sbin/modprobe ip_masq_ftp /sbin/modprobe ip_masq_raudio /sbin/modprobe ip_masq_irc The two masquerading rules will translate UDP and TCP-traffic to the IP-address used as the default gateway (the PPP-interface). Ping, which uses the ICMP-protocol, will fail from other hosts, it will only work from the router. I used network 10.0.0.0 with subnet mask 255.0.0.0 or in CIDR-notation: '/8'. The next rule prevents FTP-DATA connections from timing out, by increasing the TCP- timeout value. The modules are only required if you want to use these protocols across the firewall. E.g. if you want to use normal ftp through the firewall, you need to load the ip_masq_ftp-module. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- 9. Workstation Configuration: Configure your other machine for your local network number and set them up to use the Linux-box as their default gateway. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- 10. Disclaimer This document describes a configuration that works for me, use it at your own risk. If anything substantial is missing or if something is terribly wrong, please let me know! One thing I could add is a description of how to setup a local nameserver. Rodney van den Oever