IPFire Installation

Boot From CD






After burning the IPFire ISO on a CD, put it in the computer that will be your IPFire machine and set your BIOS so it will boot from CD. Next you will be presented a screen where you must adjust your screen settings. Usually accepting the default setting works fine. If you use a monitor that doesn't support 1024×768 pixels, you must enter novga.



The boot options are:



novga

dma

memtest

Boot from USB drive

First you have to prepare the USB drive



If you are installing from one USB drive onto another USB drive it can occur that the BIOS will be unable to find any boot device. In this case, just start the installation without inserting the second USB device. After the welcome screen appears, connect the second USB device and IPFire should complete the installation without any problems.



Installation





After a few seconds you will be presented with a screen where you may decide the language for the installation and the web interface. Use the arrow keys to move around the available languages and the enter key to select one. Choose between German, English and Danish. If you want to translate IPFire into another language, please contact the developer-team at “entwickler@ipfire.org”.



On the next screen you will see a welcome screen in your chosen language. You'll be informed that if, at one of the following screens, you press “Cancel”, the setup will be aborted and the PC will be restarted.



Format & Copy





Next, you will be advised that all data on your hard drive will be erased and that the hard drive will be prepared for IPFire.







Any file system and current data on the target drive will be permanently deleted and replaced by the IPfire File structure









Note: It is a good idea to only connect the hard drive on which IPFire will be installed to prevent mistakes.









Next you must choose the filesystem to use. Available options are: Reiser4, ReiserFs and ext3. Most installations run on ext3, so select this if you are unsure. Some of our developers see Reiser4 as a better choice for larger environments.



If you need more information, please contact our developers directly.















If your target drive is small the install process will give you advice but will continue. Be carefull because the install will continue and might be aborted at any time (leaving incomplete tasks or a very small swap that may harm perfomance) if you run out of space









Now the hard drive is being partitioned and formatted for real. This process can take several minutes depending on the size of the hard drive. After this, the system files will be unpacked on the hard drive.







After the copy process has completed the CD is ejected and should be removed from the drive.





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Local Settings





On the next screen the keyboard layout and the timezone need to be selected. In a german setup the default settings will be “de-latin-nodeadkeys” and “Europe/Berlin” and should be left that way.







Hostname & Domain





When the keyboard layout and timezone have been chosen, continue with configuring the “hostname”. This is the name IPFire will be known by on the network.







If your network will be working with VPNs, it is necessary to use a different name for each IPFire machine.









The name “gateway” is reserved and can not used.





Since you must have a domain-name, this is being asked for on the next screen. In a default installation this is “localdomain”. If you own a domain, please enter it here.







Passwords





Once you have finished this, continue on setting the passwords.



Here you are asked for the root password. You have to write it twice to confirm is ok.







Be careful, if you're new to *nix systems, Is a common behavior that writing the password makes no echo on the screen(you can't see the * * * * or - - - - that tell when you pressed a key)









Usually this is not the same as the Admin password and for security reasons better not be. Even if you'll be the only manager of IPFire box, that may change on the time, and giving the root password to anyone is not the smartest thing talking about computer security





You will be asked for admin password in the next screen.



For an explanation of the different passwords, please read here.



Network

Number Of Networks





Now we are coming to the heart of IPFire, the setup of the network. As described in the preparations, you should already know how your own network will be set up in the following steps.







In a standard IPFire installation it is Green + Red, which means 2 Networks. Typically you have one network for your home computers, your Green network, and then an Internet connection for the other network, your Red network.



A maximum of 4 networks is possible - namely Green, Blue, Orange and Red.



Red WAN External network, Connected to the Internet

Green LAN Internal/Private network, Connected locally

Orange DMZ Unprotected/Server network, DeMilitarized Zone

Blue WLAN Wireless Network, Seperate network for wireless clients



Assigning the NICs





Next, all of the previously chosen networks must have a network interface card (NIC) assigned. In some cases, you may not have a NIC to assign to Red, for example when using a dialup modem. More information about the different Linktypes. If you know what MAC address is related to which NIC you can assign them here.



In the simplest networks, Red and Green, you basically have a 50/50 chance. The easiest thing is just assign one to each, if you can't ping out from your IPFire installation, change the network cables and try again. Keep in mind that you may have to reset your ISP's equipment (cable modem, etc.) before it will recognize a new device. A different NIC counts as a different device.











Network Addresses





Now addresses must be assigned to your network interfaces. Any valid IP addresses reserved for a LAN will work here (192.168.*.*). It is standard practice for the interface to be on .1 of the range for a local network. Here you must configure your networks an subnet masks. A standard setting for a Green interface would be 192.168.0.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0.







Don´t use IPs twice! Also, the IPs of the different interfaces must not be in the same subnet. As an example: Red=192.168.2.X, Orange=192.168.1.X, Green=192.168.0.X)













This warning can be ignored when installing from a physical CD, since you are not yet connected to a network. You will have to take care when modifying networking settings afterwards from a remote shell using the command “setup”.











The “Red” interface is special because its configuration depends on your ISP and the way it configures your external connection (your Internet connection).







Depending on your connection type you must setup your corresponding details. If you are unsure, try DHCP. If necessary, get the required settings from your ISP, like which type of authentication is required and What authentication credentials (if any) you will have to provide.



DNS and Gateway Installation





In addition to specifying your connection type you might have to set up your Gateway (the next hop after your IPFire) and most probably your preferred DNS (Domain Name Service) servers. If you've selected DHCP in the previous step, then these values will be configured automatically, so no need to specify them here.







DHCP Server





The last thing to configure is the DHCP(Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) Server for the green interface. You just have to enable the DHCP server by enabling the tick within the brackets and enter the start and end values of your desired IP range. A widely used range is 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.254 so type it into the corresponding fields unless you prefer another IP range. You can not use the IP Address of your Green Interface and also the last IP of your green network range. P.e. for your 192.168.0.0/24 network it is 192.168.0.255 you can not use. You can narrow always it down to a smaller range if you do not plan to use that many PCs in your green network, or to reserve space for static IPs. These settings can always be changed later using the command line program “setup”.



You have now reached the end of the installation procedure.







You are not done yet, but you have completed the largest part of the configuration.







Installation on a USB device

if you install IPFire on a USB Stick or on a USB harddisk, the installer will recognize the device as sd(X). After a reboot it can happen that udev just renames the device to ub(X), which is very unlucky because neither grub.conf nor fstab are correct at this point. If this problem occurs first take a note of the new name of the USB-device (mostly uba). After that, you can take the easy way and start the installation once again and before you reach the point where the installer prompts you to reboot, press ALT+F2 to change to the console. In /harddisk you should still be able to see the current target-harddisk. Now rename all entrys sd(x) to ub(x( in the file /harddisk/etc/fstab. Repeat this for the file /harddisk/boot/grub.conf (can also be done with edit at boot-time). Now, change back to the installer and reboot normally.



The faster and a “little” harder way is to start the installer but to abandon a new installation. Instead, mount the target harddisks with the console (ALT+F2) and apply changes just as described above under fstab and grub.conf (you should have some experience using mount and umount).



Installation on a Alix-Board

The Alix Board is a embedded PC by the swiss producer PC Engines based on a AMD Geode LX CPU. The main advantage of using such a embedded system is the decreased amount of power your router consumes. An Alix Board consumes about 5W at a current of 12 V DC. Because most of the boards have 'only' a console ouput via RS232, rather than an expensive video output, the installation procedure of ipfire on a Alix-board is quite worth an article.



Requirements

Alix Board

CF Card

CF Card reader

null-modem line

Download the Image

First of all you should get the latest image for the Alix-board : Downloads. The name of the image is “ipfire-2.5.1gb-ext2-scon.i586-full-coreXX 1).img.gz”. As you maybe noticed the filename already tells you that this image fits on a 1GB-CF-Card and that it uses the file-system ext2. As already mentioned above Alix Boards have been desinged to boot of flash memory (e.g. CF Cards). Flash memory is very sensitive in terms of writing procedures on it. Therefore we need a special file system which extends the life expectancy of your CF Card dramatically. Ext2, the file system that's used in this special 'embedded' edition of ipfire minimizes the access to your flash memory because this filesystem hasn't got the so called 'journaling' features that cause a lot of access to your harddisk or flash memory.



To avoid a lot of trouble with faulty downloads you should check your image's md5 hash, using a tool of your choice. You'll find the checksum for the image by appending the suffix '.md5' to the download URL.



Writing the Image to a CF-Card

Depending on the OS you use, there are several possibilities how to get the image onto your CF-Card.



OS independent steps



Put the CF-Card into your card reader

connect your card reader to your PC

Microsoft Windows



The most comfortable way is using physdiskwrite, a tool written by Manuel Kasper the main developer of the m0n0 Project Put all the files you need (physdiskwrite.exe, ipfire-2.5.1gb-ext2-scon.i586-full-coreXX.img.gz) into a folder. Then open the Command Linem go to this previously created folder (useful commands: dir cd) and execute 'physdiskwrite ipfire-2.5.1gb-ext2-scon.i586-full-coreXX.img.gz'. Physdiskwrite will ask you onto which device you want to write.







Be careful, if you enter a wrong number, physdiskwrite could destroy data on your computer's hdd!



The process may take a while, so get yourself a coffee and enjoy the show.



Linux



Put your CF-card into your cardreader. With the command “tail -f /var/log/messages” as what the card is recognized. It is important to know if the card is named sde, sdf, sdc or something simiral. You can exit this view by pressing Strg+C.



In Ubuntu / Kubuntu you will get root by entering “sudo su -”. In this case, a simple “sudo” wont work because we will access the hardware directly. With



zcat ipfire-2.5.1gb-ext2-scon.i586-full-coreXX.img.gz > /dev/sdx



the image will be written to the CF-Card. Please remember to substitute the sdx with the output of “tail -f /var/log/messages”.



This procedure will take about 20-30 minutes, depending on the speed of your computer.



The Alix-Board

Put the finished CF-card into the Alix-board. Connect a cross-link-cable to the alix-board and the other end to a computer. Start the minicom program on your computer and set it so it can talk to the Alix-board:



Enter Ctrl+A followed by the z-key to get into the main-menu. Enter the configuration with “O” and then “settings for the serial connection”. Here you will see the settings for the serial connection. Press e to set the transfer-speed to 38400 (the D-key). Now you see that the baudrate 38400 is marked. Press enter several times to exit the menues.



IPFire configuration

Turn on your Alix-board and watch what is happening on your screen. The Alix-board transfers what it announces to the serial connection and minicom shows you what is arriving at the computer.



You will see that the Alix-board starts up, followed by Linux booting. At first start, the initramdisk will be rebuild and setup will be started to configure the basic settings. You will be asked for the keyboard layout and more. Its also important to assign your network-cards (to red, green, orange and blue).



the, metaphorically speaking, red connection leads to the internet, where you can get all sorts of potentially bad things. Because of that, we chose the signal-color red.



The green connection leads inwards to your personal network (to your computer or switch). Nothing harmfull can come from here, hence the color green.



The color orange tells us that here is something that needs our attention - your server, which is connected totally free without any protection to the outside world.



Blue symbolizes the sky….the air, through which your wireless-LAN transports its data…in a radius up to 300 meters everyone can see your wlan and try to penetrate it. Because of that, it needs special care and attention when configuring it.



Now you have configured your connections with the functions they will fullfill in the future.



Next, it is important to activate and set the dhcp-server. Please pay attention to that the used ip-range must fit the ip-address of the router. If the router has f.ex. the ip-address of 192.168.0.1, the ip-range must be 0 (the second last number). The ip-range is something like a department of a company. One department cannot see the other and because of that the ip-ranges must be the same. So the dhcp-server should assign ip-addresses from 192.168.0.x to 192.168.0.y



At startup you will see several error-messages, which you should ignore, because the setup actually is made for cd-installation and the scripts want to stop service-tasks that have not been started.



It should startup fine once you put power on the device and once it is started, you should be able to access it on the address you gave it in the setup. For this example I just assume it to be 129.168.0.1. The webserver will be listening on port 444. So just enter the following into your webbrowser



http://192.168.0.1:444



and press enter. Now you should see the web-interface. You will be prompted to accept the certificate. Your browser needs this certificate to classify the webserver as trustworthy and to allow to view the pages.



Now you can look at the webpages and amongst others enter the data for your internet-provider….



Have fun !