On 04/11/2007, manuel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello. > > I'd like to replace my FritzBox (popular german dsl modem + nat...) > with an ALIX/OpenBSD installation, since I dislike the current policy > locking down the firmware and really like OpenBSD (thanks to all the > developers, it's a great OS!).
You probably already know that these FritzBox DSL modem/router/VoIP boxes are really embedded Linux PCs, which, in principle at least, are somewhat hackable. (Your mailheader tells me that you're probably German, so in case you don't know it, here's a German site about FritzBox hacking: http://www.wehavemorefun.de/fritzbox/Main_Page ) Now I haven't tried this and I personally don't have a FritzBox, but I wonder whether it might be possible to install OpenBSD on the actual FritzBox? Probably not right now, because AFAIK the FritzBoxes use the AR7 CPU ( http://tinyurl.com/37lwuc ) which is probably not compatible with anything OpenBSD currently runs on. However, if the FritzBox hardware isn't too blob-infested/undocumented, then that might be an interesting project. (Again, I'm a non-coder talking out my arse here, but anyway.) In case OpenBSD did perchance run on this hardware: then there was a thread recently ( http://marc.info/?t=119204747100007&r=1&w=2 ) about installing OpenBSD on a Windows box, and in that thread some people contributed useful info regarding booting OpenBSD from Linux bootloaders. If this AR7 based hardware unexpectedly turns out to be compatible with one of these http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq1.html#Platforms (ARMish perhaps?) then that may be a nice upgrade path. > I don't need the telephone features at > all, neither analog nor VOIP. But I do have one question: is it > possible to operate an modem (miniPCI or USB; it might be off-list, > but: can anybody recommend one?) as an answering machine? I found the > mgetty+sendfax package, has anybody some experience? I understand that you're now NOT referring to a PPPoE DSL modem ( http://google.ie/search?q=pppoe+openbsd ), but rather to a conventional POTS 56k modem. With these, I would always advise against internal or USB-based solutions. If your board has a usable RS-232, then I'd always recommend getting a proper external modem. It saves you hassle. I personally haven't yet played with Asterisk ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterisk_%28PBX%29 ), but I'm semi-confident that what you want can be done with it. It is in ports, and a package is available at least for i386 ( http://www.openbsd.org/4.2_packages/i386/asterisk-1.2.22.tgz-long.html ) and maybe for others archs; I haven't checked. > Especially with > an ALIX board? I presume this is what you mean: http://pcengines.ch/alix.htm I've no experience, but it seems to be a i386 based board, and it lists OpenBSD as a compatible OS, so that's nice. > Another more general question (as it might be already answerd some > times, you might drop it silently): are there problems (and > workarounds) with OpenBSD and ALIX boards? http://google.ie/search?q=openbsd+alix > Thank you all! > > Manuel > > Please apologize my (poor) english. It's grand mate, you're easily understood. :) cheerio, --ropers
