This is my first post on this group, and since the search function is not working i hope i'm not posting an old subject...if i am, i apologize.

I'm wondering what set of minimal packages we would need to install to get a router+firewall+dhcp system working (and Masquerading).

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Welcome alc, here's a recent thread about this: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=385705

Basically, you'll need packages from a/ ap/ l/ n/ and d/ (this one if you want to compile something) series. After that, start removing unneeded programs and you should be fine. If you'll use it only as router/firewall/dhcp you can remove a lot of stuff from that series, just read each packages description.

if you use Coyote Linux, you only need a floppy and 2 nics

Thank's for your replies, i'll try post the results of my findings here when i am over and maybe then create a setup where we just select BASIC+DHCP+FIREWALL (some other services)and we are done.

Making progress...
Still some packages descriptions leave room for doubts...so if someone could cast some light and tell me if its safe to leave out the following packages that would be great :

group A:
bzip2-1.0.3-i486-1?
gawk-3.1.5-i486-1
gettext-0.14.3-i486-1
getty-ps-2.1.0b-i486-1
gzip-1.3.3-i386-2
hdparm-6.1-i486-1
hotplug-2004_09_23-noarch-5
infozip-5.52-i486-1
pciutils-2.1.11-i486-6
procps-3.2.5-i486-1
slocate-2.7-i486-3 (find...)
smartmontools-5.33-i486-1
syslinux-2.13-i486-1 (nao me parece)
usbutils-0.11-i486-3
utempter-1.1.3-i486-1

group AP:
acct-6.3.2-i386-1
at-3.1.8-i486-2
lsof-4.72-i486-1
group L:
expat-1.95.8-i486-1
libidn-0.5.17-i486-1
libxml2-2.6.21-i486-1
libxslt-1.1.15-i486-1
libxslt-1.1.15-i486-1
ncurses-5.4-i486-2
group L:
portmap-5.0-i486-1
rsync-2.6.6-i486-1
iptables-1.3.3-i486-1

Thanks.

I don't think that bzip2, gzip, infozip (file compressing), ncurses ("gui"), slocate (search) and at (similar to cron) should be needed, but iptables should be kept, as it's the basic firewall.
Hotplug probably won't be needed either, as long as you make sure the correct modules are loaded in the rc.d-scripts.
For the rest, I have no idea.

You could also leave slocate out and just use find command when you need to find something.
You'll need more basic stuff, like aaa_base, aaa_elflibs, glibc-solibs, check this: http://amigolinux.org/docs/minstall/20MB3leg.htm

/a

bzip2-1.0.3-i486-1 - If you want to compress and decompress bzip2 files, then yes.

gawk-3.1.5-i486-1 - AWK support. Some programs are written in it, or might rely on it. I'd reccommend you keep it.

gettext-0.14.3-i486-1 - International support. If you only use English you can probably safely drop this.

getty-ps-2.1.0b-i486-1 - The default getty is agetty. Unless you specifically need getty-ps, you can remove it.

gzip-1.3.3-i386-2 - You *need* this for gzip support. No gzip, no Slackware packages.

hdparm-6.1-i486-1 - Enables high performance modes on an ATA/IDE drives. Up to you as to whether you want it or not.

hotplug-2004_09_23-noarch-5 - Support for loading relevant modules when devices are plugged and unplugged. If you are dealing with relatively unchaging hardware, you could configure your system for that hardware, and remove hotplug.

infozip-5.52-i486-1 - Support for zip files.

pciutils-2.1.11-i486-6 - Utilities and information for the kernel about PCI devices.

procps-3.2.5-i486-1 - Provides information about your system. Whilst you may not *need* it, it may be useful for other things regarding your system.

slocate-2.7-i486-3 - slocate creates a database of all the file names on your computer. It is a lot faster than find, but you do have to keep it updated.

smartmontools-5.33-i486-1 - Most hard drives support SMART (Self Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) these days. If you don't turn SMART on, then you can get rid of this.

syslinux-2.13-i486-1 - If you don't dual boot, or at least won't be booting from the Windows partition (i.e. you use Lilo or Grub instead), you shouldn't need this.

usbutils-0.11-i486-3 - Tools to provide information about your USB devices. If you don't have any, you don't need this.

utempter-1.1.3-i486-1 - ? (Don't know)

/ap

acct-6.3.2-i386-1 - If you need processes logged, keep this.

at-3.1.8-i486-2 - Delayed commands. Probably depends if you need them or not.

lsof-4.72-i486-1 - Lists all open files. Do you need this?

/l

(I don't really recommend removing anything from /l)

ncurses-5.4-i486-2 - If you want to use any tools based on ncurses (such as some of the Slackware setup/ installation scripts), you will need this!

/n

iptables-1.3.3-i486-1 - You *need* this package if you want a firewall, full stop.

Some apps such as terminal emulators (xterm for sure) might not work properly without this.

Should just install everything from A and L series. Unless hard drive space is really on the short, alot of those things fall under the category of "generally usefull to have". Much of the A series could be considered "basc linux". And it just makes for alot less headache to do all of the L series.

Personally every slack box I build regardless of purpose includes everything from the A, L, and D series.