Re: [mpls-linux-general] Debian GNU/Linux MPLS installation problem

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i tried those packages when i saw it hadn't work (forgot to mention
that); i  also checked most of the discution list, but nothing helped;
the same problems arise :-(

however, the fact that the kernel versions from 2.6.10 on cannot be
patched has nothing to do with Debian (what is involved here is the
mpls support, the linux kernel source code from http://www.kernel.org
and the patch application)

i think i will try working with an earlier version of mpls-linux to
see if that works;

could you please tell me if it is normal for the two headers mpls.h
and gen_spec.h
not to exist in the /usr/include/linux header folder and to be copied manua=
lly

thanks,
Razvan


On 7/17/05, James R. Leu <jl...@mi...> wrote:
> Please see my recent post about debian packages.
>=20
> On Sun, Jul 17, 2005 at 04:43:32PM +0300, Razvan Deaconescu wrote:
> >        Hi everybody,
> >
> > we are trying to install MPLS support on some Linux machines and to get=
 as
> > many things working as we can; we began with configuring the kernel an =
testing
> > the mpls utility using the iproute2 application suite; we chose the Deb=
ian
> > GNU/Linux distribution because we are quite accustomed to it and we can=
 proceed
> > much faster with this project.
> >
> > However we ran into many problems some of which we were able to solve.
> > I will make quite a detailed presentation of the things we did so far b=
ecause
> > we don't want to miss anything important, in case anyone can help us.
> >
> > First of all, if anyone has managed to install a functional MPLS suppor=
t on a
> > Debian GNU/Linux distribution we kindly ask him/her to tell us the step=
s that
> > he/she followed and where we went wrong.
> >
> > Ok, here it goes.
> >
> > We used Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 Sarge as our base system. We used the netw=
ork
> > install minimal CD available at
> > http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/3.1_r0a/i386/iso-cd/debian-31r0a-i3=
86-netinst.iso
> >
> > After the installation, the first thing we had to do was compiling the =
kernel
> > with MPLS support. We used the latest available patch mpls-linux-1.946a=
.
> > We used (as a test) 4 different kernel versions, namely 2.6.9, 2.6.10,
> > 2.6.11.12 and 2.6.12.2.
> >
> > This is where we ran into some of our problems: only the 2.6.9 version =
of the
> > kernel could be successfully patched; these are the links where you can=
 find
> > output for the patch applied to the 2.6.9, 2.6.10, 2.6.11.12 and 2.6.12=
.2 kernel
> > versions.
> >
> > 2.6.9:          http://atlantis.cs.pub.ro/~razvand/output-2.6.9
> > 2.6.10:         http://atlantis.cs.pub.ro/~razvand/output-2.6.10
> > 2.6.11.12:      http://atlantis.cs.pub.ro/~razvand/output-2.6.11.12
> > 2.6.12.2:       http://atlantis.cs.pub.ro/~razvand/output-2.6.12.2
> >
> >        Because we didn't want to loose to much time, we chose the 2.6.9
> > kernel version. We did a
> >        # make menuconfig
> > and added all the options presented in the QUICK.START help file.
> >
> >        Afterwards, we compiled the kernel the Debian way (via make-dpkg=
)
> > and created a debian package containing the compiled kernel image. We i=
nstalled
> > the image, restarted the machine and booted the new kernel. Everything =
went
> > smoothly. The next step was testing our kernel for MPLS support.
> >        By the way, we also tried compiling the 2.6.11.12 kernel (even t=
hough
> > the patching failed). But, as we anticipated, the mpls files attached i=
n the
> > net/mpls directory were not compiled within the kernel (due to the fact=
 that
> > the Makefile in the net/ directory itself couldn't be patched).
> >
> >        Back to our 2.6.9 kernel, we browsed to the net/mpls/ directory
> > and found that the mpls files were indeed compiled and thus inserted in=
 the
> > new kernel. We were left with testing mpls support inside this new kern=
el.
> > As the mplsadm utility is now obsolete, we decided to try the iproute2 =
with
> > MPLS patching (in order to use the mpls command).
> >
> >        We used the RPM source package available at
> >        http://sourceforge.net/projects/mpls-linux
> >
> >        Because Debian also has RPM support we could install the iproute=
2
> > rpm source package; this contained iproute2-2.6.9 and also various patc=
hes.
> > We patched iproute2 (everything went fine).
> >
> >        But when we tried to compile it, a lot of compilation errors eme=
rged.
> > All of them were: "_SOME_KIND_OF_VARIABLE_OR_MACRO_ undeclared". We
> > soon found that the header files mpls.h and gen_spec.h were not present
> > in /usr/include/linux.
> >        I don't know why this happened (or maybe this usually happens). =
So
> > we copied both files from /usr/src/linux/include/linux to /usr/include/=
linux.
> > We also had to install the db library as our system lacked it.
> > A simple command:
> >        # apt-get install lidb4.2-dev
> > solved that problem.
> >
> >        After that we managed to compile and install all the iproute2 ut=
ilities,
> > including mpls.
> >
> >        What we had to do now was test the mpls utility. We used the exa=
mple
> > of James Leu located at http://mpls-linux.sourceforge.net/simple.php. W=
e have
> > four computers connected in a network, so there was no problem choosing=
 two
> > of them to test mpls.
> >        The command for uml1 went fine. However the fifth one, namely:
> >                # mpls nhlfe show
> > lacked the "push gen 10000 set eth0 ipv4 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" part
> > (obviously we were using the eth0 network interface and a private ip ad=
dress)
> >        The next command:
> >                # ip route show
> >        clearly showed the new route being added (but we were left with =
the
> > missing part from the previous command)
> >
> >        We moved to the second machine (this is where our problems incre=
ase).
> > The third command:
> >                # mpls ilm add label gen 10000 labelspace 0
> > give us "Segmentation fault"
> >        the next time we try to run it it just blocks and does nothing. =
We
> > were left with debugging these problems.
> >
> >        Although, somehow empirical, we used printing in order to get a =
grip
> > of the code flow. Thus we managed to find out exactly where our problem=
s take
> > place.
> >
> >        I will show the sequence of function call that finally give us
> > Segmentation fault, and then the sequence that give us the blocking com=
mand.
> >
> >        We are referring to the iproute2-2.6.9 patched source code.
> >
> > segmentation fault:
> >        mpls/mpls.c
> >        int main (void) -> do_ilm -> mpls_ilm_modify -> rtnl_talk
> >        (lib/libnetlink.c) -> status =3D send_msg (rtnl->fd, &msg, 0);
> >                                this is the line where it cracks :-)
> >
> > blocking command:
> >        mpls/mpls.c
> >        int main (void) -> ll_init_map (&rth1) (lib/ll_map.c) ->
> >        -> rtnl_dump_filter (lib/libnetlink.c) ->
> >        -> status =3D recvmsg (rth->fd, &msg, 0);
> >                this is the line where it blocks
> >
> > we am not sure if the failure of this command has anything to do with t=
he
> > failure of the command for uml1 (# mpls nhlfe show - which lacks part o=
f the
> > message)
> >
> > to make matter worse, we think the problem may affect the kernel; after=
 the
> > segmentation fault message, any attempt to shut down or reboot the mach=
ine
> > will end up in a block with the following message:
> >        Deactivating swap ... umount: tmps busy
> >        - remounted read-only
> >        done.
> >        unmounting local filesystems ... umount:
> >        tmpfs busy - remounted read only
> >        umount: /: device is busy
> >        done.
> >        mount: / is busy
> >        Rebooting ...
> >
> >        right here it hangs (have to restart it manually)
> >
> >        Many other thing stop working actually, so the problem may
> > affect the kernel
> > a bit more.
> >
> >        We are sorry for the long message, but we wanted to show in deta=
il
> > everything we have done so that it may be easier for others to spot the=
 problem
> > and help us.
> >
> > Thank you very much,
> > Razvan & Dorin
> >
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------
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> > _______________________________________________
> > mpls-linux-general mailing list
> > mpl...@li...
> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mpls-linux-general
>=20
> --
> James R. Leu
> jl...@mi...
>=20
>=20
>