[TriLUG] Thoughts from the IPv6/OpenPGPG hack day

[Brian McCullough]

I too must add my thanks to Kevin and Bill.


Although I didn't necessarily have anything written down as far as project goals, my plan was, I guess, to take the OpenBSD box that I had built a year ago, and finish getting it configured properly to take the place of an older sibling that is currently my main network firewall.

There were also thoughts of working with my Linux laptop, which I briefly confirmed as being able to live comfortably in both dual-stack and ipv6-only networks, although there were serious problems in the ipv6-only network when real Internet work was being attempted.  So many North American web sites cannot be reached.


As far as the firewall, it has two ethernet ports, one on the main board and one added, and two video ports, one on the main board and one added.

When I started it, I discovered the OpenBSD 4.9 install disk in the CD drive, left from a year ago.  I had brought along a 5.0 disk, with the intention of upgrading during the day, so I put that in, and started the re-install.

That went well, with a little help from Kevin with network questions, but when I tried to boot "normall," that failed.  After some work, I found that the on-board AGP video "card" was not reasonably functional, and that was why the PCI card had been attached.  Unfortunately, the OpenBSD driver for that AGP card completely stalled the system.  I tried going back to 4.9, with no more success.

Finally, after a lot of Internet searching, I found that I could interrupt the boot sequence, and tell the kernel not to use that driver at all.

So, back to 5.0, install for the third time, and try booting, this time, disabling that driver.


Success!!!


Finally, I was able to start what I was there to do.


Kevin provided me with a connection as if I was plugged into my ISP ( either DSL or Cable Modem ), IPv4 dynamic and NO IPv6 capability.

We then changed the endpoint of my Tunnelbroker.net tunnel, configured the firewall box to use that, and hey presto!  I had IPv6 capability to and from that machine.

I plugged my laptop into the "inside" port on the firewall box, and it was able to get to the Internet, too, both IPv4 and IPv6!

I started working on the firewall configuration, and made progress, but didn't get it complete until this afternoon.


Now I just have to screw up my courage and shut down its predecessor, that has been up for about 450 days continuously, and replace it with this.



I must also thank Lenore for the very good bars and brownies, and also the provider of the chocolate chip cookies.


A good time was had by all.


See you next month?


B-)