OLSR mesh GUI $400 {awarded}
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Ok, I'll keep watch for the next imbedded beta or snapshot.
Thank you, -Pete -
I've been testing this snapshot most of today:
http://www.pfsense.com/~sullrich/RELENG_1-SNAPSHOT-05-05-2006/pfSense.img.gzI have this snapshot running on two wrap.2c units (tis all I have at home with me this weekend) meshed with one WRT54GL running Freifunk, and a laptop running olsr for windows. I am unable to test multi-hop relayed mesh communications at home (need more UPSs), but I plan to test this Monday or Tuesday at work. If the multi-hop relay test works, and pfSense OLSR seems basically functional enough to deploy a test mesh, I'll go ahead and Paypal the first half of the bounty.
The only issues I encounted thus far:
10. When "Enable Dynamic Gateway" is Unchecked it seems like it's still may be on. The other nodes are listing every pfSense unit in their HNA entries list.
11. The "default" route sometimes gets deleted from the route table; perhaps this happens when I enable olsr on two ports or when I change IPs on interfaces. When I go to the Wan GUI and click save at the bottom it puts the "default" route back. This unit does have HNA enabled. When this happened the unit would stop routing mesh traffic to my internet gateway (dsl modem w/ nat & dhcp). However, if I only enable olsr on the interface of the wireless mesh, I don't think I've seen this problem occur. Or, perhaps this could be a result of me doing something I'm not suppose too…?
12. I have Not been successful in getting the olsr stats web page to display in a browser window. Before, in issue #3, it would show a blank page; but now, it's as if the port is not functional.
And, I sometimes encounter miscellaneous quirks after changing configurations, but a reboot normally fixes.I didn't see changes yet to these formerly reported issues:
4. When olsr is checked enabled, alter the DHCP server/forwarding GUI so that DHCP may be enabled on wan/all interfaces.
5. For HNA (Dynamic Internet gateway) to function, the Wan Gateway should be unset, which is currently not possible in the gui.Thank you,
- Internet Professionals, LLC
- Pete
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I will look into 10-12. However the other items have very much been commited. WAN should be showing up on the DHCP server tab and there should be an option in OLSR to kill the default route.
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" WAN should be showing up on the DHCP server tab "
I just checked again, and didn't see this on either of my test units. Is it possible that it's only missing in the imbedded version? -
[from testing 5/6 snapshot] The seemingly random deletion of the default route (with nothing being put back in it's place; it's just gone) is hampering testing. Not being able to turn off HNA announcement on non-gateway nodes is also sometimes causing their their IP to incorrectly replace the default route on other nodes.
Will test beta4 over the next few days.
Thank you, -Pete -
Another minor Issue:
13. I need the ability to set the DHCP subnet mask manually on the wireless (olsr) interface. When a non-olsr dhcp client connects, their subnet mask should to be restricted to the local node's allocated IP range so the node may "relay" their traffic across the olsr network to the internet gateway.
Thank you,
-Pete -
14. I just tried beta4, olsrd isn't starting when "Enable Dynamic Gateway" is checked.
10. It still appears that every node is advertising itself as an HNA and overwriting default routes on other nodes, even though enable dynamic gateway unchecked. I was able to "supersede" this behavior with a kludge by adding the following two static routes on my gateway node (my private IP range is 10/8):
route 0/1 to 10.0.0.1
route 128/1 to 10.0.0.1-Pete
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Its starting just fine here.
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I'm Awarding the first half (50%) of the Bounty Award for all the hard work thus far. I really appreciate you sullrich!
I Paypal'd to the pfSense general donation email. If it was sent to the wrong address, please forward it on; thanks.Transaction Details
Payment Sent (ID #0CU71202AT6032931)
Original Transaction
Date Type Status Details Amount
May 11, 2006 Payment To Chris Buechler Completed … -$150.00 USDRelated Transaction
Date Type Status Details Amount
May 11, 2006 Charge From X Completed Details $150.00 USDName:
Chris Buechler
Email:
paypal@chrisbuechler.comTotal Amount:
-$150.00 USDDate:
May 11, 2006
Time:
11:44:59 PDT
Status:
CompletedSubject:
First 1/2 of Bounty Award for OLSR GUI
Note:
Thank you for all the hard work on OLSR GUI to date. When it's completed and passes our functionality and stability tests, the second half of the bounty will be awarded.
Thank you,
-Internet Professionals, LLC
-Pete
Shipping Address:No Address Provided
Funding Type:
X
Funding Source:
$150.00 USD - X
This X transaction will appear on your statement as "PAYPAL *CBUECHLER". -
" Its starting just fine here. "
I need to discover what setting I changed to cause that then. Perhaps it was assigning Wan to ethernet interface and Lan to wifi interface. I'll do some investigating. -
Try starting olsrd from the console.
I believe the command is olsrd -f /var/etc/olsrd.conf (but I cannot check at the moment)
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I think I discovered the when/why issue #14 occurs: When the IP/netmask of an interface is improperly set to conflict/overlap with the IP/netmask of another interface, and "Enable Dynamic Gateway" is checked, olsr won't start.
I'm still having problems with issue#10, though.
I look forward to pfSense getting RIP; setting up routes for the non-olsr systems is quite burdensome.
Thanks, -Pete -
To solve issue #10:
Add a check box for "Announce self as Dynamic Gateway" underneath "Enable Dynamic Gateway".
The following line found in olsr.conf should only exist if "Announce self as Dynamic Gateway" is checked:
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0
Thank you, -Pete -
I
I look forward to pfSense getting RIP; setting up routes for the non-olsr systems is quite burdensome.
Thanks, -Petea route for a non olsrd system you setup with the hna config
adding
10.0.1.0 255.255.255.0
adds a route to 10.0.1.0/24 tru the olsrd server
10.0.1.1 255.255.255.255 adds a olsrd route to pc 10.0.1.1 tru the olsrd server
this you have to do only on the server that nows the route to the non olsrd network or pc
and the olsrd server will let the other olsrd servers now tru hna that tose pc's /networks can be found tru him -
A very handy tip, jeroen234!
Unfortunately, in pfSense imbedded, edits to /var/etc/olsr.conf are Not persisting after reboot. After editing, I deleted /tmp/config.cache but it didn't help. Is there any way to get around this? Or, could a field such as "Announce Dynamic local routes: [IP/Netmask]" be added to the GUI so I don't have to edit the file? This would be added directly below where the "0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0" entry in olsr.conf.
Thanks, -Pete -
Summary Post:
Our tests of OLSR in pfSense are going well, and it appears to be solid. I can go ahead and Award the second half of the Bounty if we can resolve these remaining issues (mostly mundane revisions to gui/config):10. This fixes issue#10:
Add a check box for "Announce [self as] Dynamic Gateway" underneath "Enable [reception of] Dynamic Gateway" in the OLSR config.
The following line found in olsr.conf should only exist if "Announce [self as] Dynamic Gateway" is checked:
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.015. In the OLSR GUI, I recommend making Link Quality Level "2" the default.
16. Please add a field such as "Announce Dynamic local route: [enter IP / Netmask]" in the OLSR GUI (these values should be inserted into olsr.conf directly below the "0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0" entry). Thanks jeroen234!
17. Please allow in the DHCP GUI, a manually entered Netmask, when OLSR is enabled on that interface.
(the purpose of this is to force a node's non-olsr ad-hoc wifi clients to route through the current node as a gateway onto olsr, so it may communicate with nodes that are otherwise out-of-range for non-olsr wifi clients when they use the netmask of the interface).18. Please advise us on how to manually edit/tweak the olsr.conf config, so that changes remain after reboot on imbedded version. At some point in the future we may want to alter values, such as: Willingness and Weight. If this isn't possible, please add more detail fields to the gui.
19. I'm not quite sure how other olsr implimentations do this but… when a "Ping" host is specified in the OLSR GUI, only when ping fails should "Enable [reception of] Dynamic Gateway" be overwriting the default route, and when the ping succeeds, the default route should be set to the specified "Ping" host (or pfSense default route, aka Gateway, specified in the WAN GUI?). Also, at times when there are no Dynamic Gateways being received from the OLSR mesh, instead of deleting the default route in the route table thus leaving no default route, it should set it back to the default route, aka Gateway, specified in the pfSense WAN GUI (or the "Ping" host?). Please advise if this is impossible or if you have no control over any of this.
Thank you,
- Internet Professionals, LLC
- Pete
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We'll up the total bounty payout to $400 if the issues directly above can be resolved within a week, and made available in an imbedded snapshot/beta shortly thereafter.
Thank you,- Internet Professionals, LLC
- Pete
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10. This fixes issue#10:
Add a check box for "Announce [self as] Dynamic Gateway" underneath "Enable [reception of] Dynamic Gateway" in the OLSR config.
The following line found in olsr.conf should only exist if "Announce [self as] Dynamic Gateway" is checked:
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0Done.
15. In the OLSR GUI, I recommend making Link Quality Level "2" the default.
Done.
16. Please add a field such as "Announce Dynamic local route: [enter IP / Netmask]" in the OLSR GUI (these values should be inserted into olsr.conf directly below the "0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0" entry). Thanks jeroen234!
Done.
17. Please allow in the DHCP GUI, a manually entered Netmask, when OLSR is enabled on that interface.
(the purpose of this is to force a node's non-olsr ad-hoc wifi clients to route through the current node as a gateway onto olsr, so it may communicate with nodes that are otherwise out-of-range for non-olsr wifi clients when they use the netmask of the interface).Done.
18. Please advise us on how to manually edit/tweak the olsr.conf config, so that changes remain after reboot on imbedded version. At some point in the future we may want to alter values, such as: Willingness and Weight. If this isn't possible, please add more detail fields to the gui.
This is not so easy, its auto generated on each bootup.
19. I'm not quite sure how other olsr implimentations do this but… when a "Ping" host is specified in the OLSR GUI, only when ping fails should "Enable [reception of] Dynamic Gateway" be overwriting the default route, and when the ping succeeds, the default route should be set to the specified "Ping" host (or pfSense default route, aka Gateway, specified in the WAN GUI?). Also, at times when there are no Dynamic Gateways being received from the OLSR mesh, instead of deleting the default route in the route table thus leaving no default route, it should set it back to the default route, aka Gateway, specified in the pfSense WAN GUI (or the "Ping" host?). Please advise if this is impossible or if you have no control over any of this.
This is out of our control.
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We'll up the total bounty payout to $400 if the issues directly above can be resolved within a week, and made available in an imbedded snapshot/beta shortly thereafter.
Thank you,- Internet Professionals, LLC
- Pete
I'll have an update for you shortly.
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My, that was fast! Thank you Scott!
" This is not so easy, its auto generated on each bootup. "
I see, could anything at all be accomplished by adding xml hooks in /cf/conf/config.xml ?
If not, I think we can live with simply having "Weight" added to the olsr gui (though, this could be a little complicated for the gui because a distinct weight should be specified for each interface that olsr is enabled on).
Will test the next imbedded snapshot/beta as soon as I see it, and paypal the bounty.Thanks, -Pete