Hello everyone,

Introduction :

This is going to be a Badwidth Arbitrator (ver 9.62) install guide on Debian Sarge

First of all you will need to download Debian Sarge cd1 from here http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/3.1_r2...86-binary-1.iso .

Note about the computer I used for my network of 145~ computers and a 512kbit/s down, and 512kbit/s up optical line :

CPU : Intel Pentium 3Ghz
RAM : 256 MB DDR
HDD : 80GB Western Digital ( because I was unable to find a smaller drive at the time)
ETHERNET : 2x Realtek 100Mbps (RTL8193too) ( but any other will do, if you can go with intel , intel seems to be better supported by some software)

START

You put in the Debian Sarge cd1 into your machine and you just install it choosing the apropriate time zones , locations ... root password etc,etc.

Once you went trough the installer which is quiet simple for Debian Sarge. You will do the following,
first login as root and type the following.



This will take a while to download, once it is done do the following :



With this the kernel is in place, so now let's go focus on the bridge utils :



Now it's time to move on to the kernel source (2.6.5) :



WARNING:
If you used for example realtek cards when you install rh9 it detected them and it is working, but if you look at Network Devices and 100mbps ethernet in menuconfig you'll see that they are compiled in as modules only, now this will be a problem , since rh9 will no longer see the realtek cards once you reboot to the 2.4.19 kernel, so instead of using the rtl8139 as module you must compile it in , change that M in front of it to a * .

Once done edit your /usr/src/linux/.config file and make sure the following are set to Y otherwise
you'll have problems.

config_fb=y
config_fb_vesa=y
config_framebuffer_console=y

Then search for EXT3 in the config file and select Y for everything that has a EXT3 in it , otherwise the new kernel won't be able to see your file system, thus wont boot.


With this the bridge utils and kernel menu config are done for now, let's continue with installing Arbitrator9.62.



You basically select Y till the end, that will install arbitrator to the right places, so now we compile
bridge-utils again.



Now we'll continue compiling the new kernel :



Now we need to create the /boot/initrd.img-2.6.5 so you'll need to download the right tools and do
the following :



So the finall step is to add the new kernel into your /boot/grub/menu.lst file , add the following few
lines right after the original Debian Sarge kernel 2.4.x entry :



You might wanna remove vga=788 if you get a blank screen , otherwise it's gona enable you to view the screen at a higher resolution.

Once this is done type , you'll need to edit the following file to make arbitrator autostart on restart :

/etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh

Add the following few lines to the end of it :



Don't forget to modify the ip addresses here according to your own needs.

Now copy the brctl and brctld file to the following location /usr/local/sbin/ like this :



Once done edit /etc/arbdefault.conf make sure the ip address there matches the ip address you used for the bridge !!!

Reboot, and there you have it Arbitrator 9.62 on kernel 2.6.5 running .

This would be recommended for those who used the older Arbitrator on 2.4.19 kernel and encountered panics sometimes. Those should try to upgrade to this newer Arbitrator.

END

Sincerely
Robert B