• MississippiNetworkDiagram

Mississippi Network Diagram and Configuration

Buick serves DHCP, and does round-robin load-balancing between 2 DSL lines. (It doesn't actually, someone needs to set up the link to the second line and configure this)

All of the metrix boxes run STP. (We should probably pick a root bridge, and configure it. The SW NAYA metrix looks good. The commons metrix got elected by default.)

Last Thursday (Oct 19, 2005), Keegan and I had some trouble when we tried to swap master/client modes between metrix-naya-sw and metrix-commons (needed for commons to start relaying backhaul traffic via its omni antenna from multiple sites). When we swapped metrix-naya-sw to client mode, things puzzlingly stopped working. This evening I did some comparisons between the three metrixes I can reach from buick and think I've found the problem. I tar'd each metrixes root filesystem onto another machine and then did a diff -ru to find differences. Mostly, the differences I found between the metrixes were understandable. The only one I didn't understand was that metrix-naya-sw was missing a strange line in /etc/modules.conf: options ath_pci countrycode=840. I think I've discovered, thanks to [http://www.news4neighbors.net/article.pl?sid=05/07/30/1541232&mode=nested&tid=1 a News4Neighbors article], the explanation:

• The only modification needed to make it work properly is setting the countrycode properly. /etc/modprobe.d/madwifi contains the line: options ath_pci countrycode=840 for this purpose.

I think that smells suspiciously like a smoking gun. --RussellSenior

On October 24, around 2:45pm, having added the /etc/modprobe.d/madwifi and run update-modules on metrix-naya-sw as referenced above, I reconfigured metrix-naya-sw and metrix-commons to be managed and master, respectively, and rebooted. The metrix-commons box came up fine, but metrix-naya-sw failed to bring up its radios automatically. I modprobe'd ath_pci and ifdown/ifup'd the ath0 and ath1 interfaces manually and it is working. Not sure why ath_pci didn't load initially. Needs investigating. --RussellSenior

The whole network is bridged, and in the 10.11.104.0/22 network.

Access points

As of Oct 21, 2005, Cecily's metrix is disfunctional (needs a swapout) and needs to have its ath0 antenna replaced with a 17dBi 11a backfire. Ed's is mounted on the chimney, but is currently non-operational. NAYA SW is currently not visible from Commons mast due to vegetation, may want to use NAYA NW for 11a backhaul and eliminate SW 11a, perhaps even replacing the metrix there with a single-radio device. Another option is to leave both metrixes pointing at Commons. The STP should pick one to use and self-heal if one goes down. --RussellSenior

MAC addresses

We need to complete this table next time we are in the field. IP addresses for metrix-west and metrix-ed were taken from buick:/etc/hosts. --RussellSenior

The metrix at 10.11.104.3 is now named metrix-naya-nw internally, reflecting its current location. The corresponding change to buick:/etc/hosts is pending. --RussellSenior

Firmware Image

The image for the Metrix boxen is at http://cornerstone.personaltelco.net/~brj/metrix-missnet.img It is setup with all 3 interfaces bridged, and br0 set to 10.11.104.5/22.

To flash:

• Setup a sarge installer pxeboot environment.

  • Instructions at http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch04s06.html.en

  • The pxelinux included with debian tries to use both the VGA emulation and the serial console. This causes problems. Use pxelinux.0 from http://centerclick.org/net4801/pxelinux/ instead.

  • Use the serial console pxeboot config.
  • Change all the 9600 to 19200 in the config.
  • You probably want to add DEBIAN_FRONTEND=text to the boot options of the kernel you'll use. Use expert26.
• Netboot the metrix into the installer
  • Attach a serial terminal.
  • 19200 baud, 1 bit parity, no flow control
  • Press ctrl+p at the prompt to get to the BIOS

  • boot f0

  • Use expert26. You don't need any extra options.
• Go through the installer up through step 9 (Download installer components). This is where device drivers are loaded.
• After the drivers are loaded, go to a shell.

• wget -O - http://somewhere/foo/metrix-missnet.img | dd of=/dev/discs/disc0/disc bs=1M (don't get it straight from cornerstone, copy it to your machine first)

• Reboot

Note: as of 2005-10-11 this process isn't working for me. The Metrix stalls during the PXELINUX stuff. I think it's probably just an issue with my setup but I've got it working fine using the documentation from Metrix. (- KeeganQuinn)

The way the Metrix website says to do it is actually better. When I was working on the metrixes, though, that documentation didn't exist, to my memory. The debian netboot was simply the easiest way I could find to get a shell netbooted. (- BenjaminJencks)

[CategoryDocumentation]