Software update: Freesco 0.33

Version 0.33 of Freesco has been published. This piece of software allows you to use some old hardware to build a software router. The basic components fit on a floppy, so a hard drive is not necessary and that makes everything whisper-quiet. Version 0.33 is based on the 2.0.40 kernel and includes improved PPPoE/A support and faster boot time. There is extensive information on the Freesco website documentation to find and also the forums are a valuable source of information. We close as usual with the changelog:

FREESCO v0.3.3 released 7/1/2004

• 033 has all of the current bugs in 032 repaired as well as new features which include:
• A new version of dnsmasq version 1.14 which solves the problem of a blank dhcpd.leases file. Thanks to Simon Kelly.
• A new filter.cfg as well as repairs to rc_diald so that dialup Internet connectios will timeout correctly and the filter.cfg is actually used.
• The hard drive sleep mode has been fixed with the removal of the update binary.
• Modified useradd and useredit, so that users defined without a home directory are given a generic home directory and do not default to the root directory. The control panel has been modified to reflect the changes to the useradd command.
• Capability to trust local networks on an individual basis. So network 2 and 3 can be trusted while network 4 is not. This feature is especially useful for building new unpatched machines in a hostile envirement or isolating infected machines to fascilitate there repair.
• Boot speed has been improved dramatically, so that 033 can run effectively on a 386 as well as much quicker on any speed CPU. Shutdown speed has been increased to around 5 to 10 seconds on any speed CPU. Your mileage may vary.
• Dialin RAS services no longer effect dialup, PPPoE, or PPtP. As with all previous versions of FREESCO including the 02x series. If a dialin user connected and then requested a dialout or PPP connection of any kind. The masq file would not function with the correct ppp? interface. This problem has now been corrected and regardless of the ppp# interface the external ppp# connection it will be reflected in all other scripting and firewalling. New feature added which is the ability to turn off the RAS server. RAS dialin server has been rewritten to not require the client to use a script. This means that it uses standard pap authentication and any Windows client can just use a username and password added to there standard dialup connection to connect to the FREESCO RAS. This also aplies for FREESCO to FREESCO connections. A dialin user must be created for any dialin connection. Scripting is still an option for dialout. But only pap authentication for dialin.
• The mgetty script has been changed to include null modem connections as well as dialin. This solves the previous timeout issues in 032 for nullmodem connections.
• Debugging is now added for chat in the RAS as well as dialup mode.
• DHCP has now been enabled for PPtP and PPPoE connections. As with previous versions the ENADHCP0= variable was ignored when in PPtP or PPPoE mode. Now it is possible to have both if the ISP requires it for the main PPP connection. DHCP logging capabilities have been enabled in the setup. There is also a new DHCP mode that can be used. If you install only one network card and configure as an ethernet router or server, then the DHCP server will give out the true upstream gateway rather than defaulting to FREESCO’s internal IP to all clients that connect. In this mode the caching DNS server can also be used to resolve internal names.
• New feature, static DHCP leases can now be added from the web control panel rather than only through the setup program. This was a request that seemed reasonable.
• The defaults are now in “minicom” so that when it is used without parameters it will use the default modem rather than always requiring a device to be stated.
• There is new a test mechanism for the rc_masq in the “rc_main newip” so that when the newip is called from the ip-up script that there can not be more than one instance of it running at a time. This has been a bug in the 03x series that caused PPPoE routers to fail connectivity at the first boot, because before the first usage of rc_masq had finished it could on some machines start it again when the connection came up and therefor create all kinds of duplicate and bogus information, thus causing complete failure until until the firewall was ran again manually.
• A change to the passwd function is so that normal users are now allowed to change there own password rather than only root being able to change passwords.
• A small bug in the pkg command is now fixed so that when a package is saved it is no longer executable. This was a problem if the user stored them in the /www directory or any subdirectory for the HTTP server.
• The /www/cgi/example script has been removed. It was brought to my attention while doing a search for FREESCO that this script is in reality a breach in security if the user has there default web browser open the the world. The script is now gone and therefor removes the vunerabilty. There also is a change in the /www directory is not a symlink but rather a ram directory and in the setup if the www server is enable the question is asked if a permanent www directory is wanted. At that point a /boot/www directory is created if the user answers “y”. This directory is also created by default if the system is moved to a hard drive
• Changes to the command prompt. I think everyone will like the new one.
• New feature in the mv2hd command allow a user to restore a previous .bak copy of FREESCO.
• Ram disk have now been repaired so that the check date will never expire and cause errors in the log as well as a minor increase in it’s size to 3MB unformatted.
• A new 2.0.40 kernel that has tested very stable even with PPtP and IPSEC enabled, Although neither of these options are enabled by default. loose_udp has also been disabled as it was linked to problems with FTP downloads failing on long file lists.
• 033 has all of the features that 032 has as well as the new features and bug fixes listed above. It now has 88K free on the floppy which is 38K more than what 027 was released with and 54k more than what 032 was released with. This should resolve all space problems on a floppy based FREESCO. [break]