Floppy Disk based Linux Routers and Firewalls

Linux has great networking abilities (TCP stack)

What is "LRP"
    LRP is a linux distribution just like RedHat, Debian or Suse.
    it comes with a system [boot] loader, a linux kernel and
    a collection of packages.  Unlike RH, Suse or Slackware, you
    cannot yet buy an LRP distribution on CD.  You need to
    download it from the web.

What can LRP do?
    http://beta.linuxrouter.org/whatis.html

LRP Distributions
    LRP 2.9.8 (Dave Cinege)
    Matterhorn & Eiger (Matthew Grant)
    Eigerstein (Charles Steinkuehler)
    Oxygen (David Douthitt)
    Coyote (Joshua Jackson)
    Linux Embedded Appliance Firewall
    Reference: http://lrp.c0wz.com/dox/versions.txt

LRP Package Archives:
    LRP Package Archives are tarred and gzipped collections
    of files to implement a function.  file extension is set
    to .lrp
    
R/O Floppy provides security from network attacks.
   No writable media.  If a hacker gets in, he has
   no tools to attack your internal systems. No 
   files to be corrupted in an attack.  turning the
   computer off and back on will restore an attacked system.
   Reference: http://lrp.c0wz.com/dox/monkeynoodle/LRP-why.txt

Booting Process
   Bootloader (syslinux 1.48)
   load root.lrp onto Ram Disk
   Boot kernel
   set /dev/ram0 to /
   load other packages
   Run Startup Scripts
   
Kernel
   at least two kernel patches required for 2.2.16
   initrd-archive (allow ramdisk functionality)
   linuxrc-always (run linuxrc script after packqage loading)
  
   optionally, freeswan or VPN Masquerading patches

Working with floppies
   fdformat, mtools and superformat
	file:/usr/src/linux/Documentation/devices.txt
	man fdformat
	# fdformat /dev/fd0u1680
   mknod
	# mknod /dev/fd0u1680 b 2 44 
	# mknod /dev/fd0u1722 b 2 60 
	# mknod /dev/fd0u1743 b 2 76 
   dd
	# dd if=file of=/dev/fd0u1440 bs=512 
   mount
	# mount -t msdos /dev/fd0u1680 /mnt   (on RedHat)
	# mount -t minix /dev/fd0u1680 /mnt   (on firewall)


Configuring Eigerstein Floppies
   Configure Ethernet Modules
	Delete Unneed Modules to free up space
   Configure Network Config Script
     Ports
     Servers
   Configure additional Packages
   Backup Changes to Floppy

Supporting Servers inside Firewall
   port forwarding
	eigerstein scripts
   proxy arp
        eigerstein LRP-CD
   Static-NAT
	eigerrstein extended scripts

Building your own LRP packages from source
   For floppy based system, need "old" C library
   because of it's smaller size.  Debian v2.1 (Slink)
   and RedHat 5.2 (Apollo) are suitable

Floppy too small?
   Add second floppy drive
   Use ZIP drive or build a cdrom
   boot from floppy and mount packages using NFS or tftp


Other Addons
   (Seattle Firewall Scripts) http://seawall.sourceforge.net/
	IPChains firewall scripts
   Busybox http://busybox.lineo.com/
	unix utilities for embedded systems

Reference
   http://lrp.c0wz.com/
   http://www.linuxrouter.org/
   http://leaf.sourceforge.net/

Bibliography