MLDonkey on my N2100

[bu3baid]

I got my N2100 a week ago and I love it.

The main reason I bought it is to run it as a download server (Bittorrent, eDonkey, ...).

I saw a couple of threads on providing a new bittorrent modules but i could not find a good one, and the Thecus Bitorrent module is not usable.

I compiled my own version MLDonkey on the N2100 and I have been running it for a day now with a great performance, I still need to test few more things to make sure everything is working correctly. I'm not sure if someone tried this before, I read a previous thread on this on: thecususergroup.proboards106.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=wishlist&thread=1165000636&page=1
Member "mael" said that he had a working statically compiled binary of mldonkey (I think he followed a similar steps to what I have done) and he was trying to package it for a module i think, but that was a month ago and I didn't hear from him since.
I don't have any experince in writing modules for the N2100 and I don't have time at the moment to learn and try to do it.

Anyway I will provide very brief steps ( a very rough guide) that i took from installing Debian, compiling and running MLDonkey, I will be very happy to help any module developer to develop a MLDonkey module for the N2100 (Please be carefull, you could lose your data if you are not an expert with the following steps, don't hold me respoinsble):

1- Install chroot Debian, see: onbeat.dk/thecus/index.php/N2100_Debian_Chroot
2- Download and compile static MLDonkey (make mlnet.static) in the Debian chroot, you need to download few additional Dev. packages using apt-get for Debian to have a succesfull compilation. see: mldonkey.sourceforge.net/CompilationProblems
3- Add a new user for MLDonkey, I created "MLDonkey" user on my Thecus and make sure the home directory is on the raid (mine is on /raid/mldonkey) MLDonkey will automaticly save settings in that directory if it was run from that user (in my case in /raid/mldonkey/.mldonkey/)
4- Move the MLDonkey executable (mlnet.static) to the MLDonkey user directory and run it from there.
5- access the web interface through http://<N2100_IP>:4080/ and create a new user account for MLDonkey web interface.

Thats it. You can add links now to your MLDonkey and start downloading. Both eDonkey and Bittorrent support is included among other networks, see MLDonkey website for more information.

I will keep testing MLDonkey for few days and I will keep you updated, I'm also looking to run Webmin (http://www.webmin.com) on my N2100 and compare to the web-based interface provided by Thecus. I will provide more information when I tried that.

I hope this helps and I think its a good news for some of the people here waiting for a better Bittorrent/eDonkey client for the N2100.

I'll keep you updated ....

[jlj]

It works for me also since 4 days now without any issues!
I did not compile anything .I just used the debian package available..

Because i'm a beginner on Linux you could find my story interesting for you.
In fact i'm discovering Linux since 2 weeks with my newly bought N2100.
So, if i have installed successfully MLDonkey on my box you should achieve the same result.

Some things to clarify before describing the way i have installed MLDonkey successfully:
- MLDonkey runs with the root account
As i said i'm a newbie on Linux and then I do not consider yet to run MLDonkey with a standard account.
If someone can help me on that part after reading these few lines...
I run a chroot from my default installation and then i need to "chroot" my debian installation with the root account.
- If you are not an heavy downloader (like me) the P2P-BT module is certainly a better choice for you.
MLDonkey as a lot of settings available and it will make your BOX as an always Internet shared box.
By default MLDonkey rescan your shared folder every 1mn.You can only change this behavior by installing a patch.Apparently no existing setting let you change this feature...
In brief your Hard Disks will never sleep again with MLDonkey!
-Furthermore you will have to pass few hours in order to make your solution working.
But it's a small price to tune your box..


The installation:
1.Install SSH mod + RootPSWmod
onbeat.dk/thecus/index.php/N2100_Module_List
Enable the module and try to access your box via SSH.

2.Debian CHROOT
onbeat.dk/thecus/index.php/N2100_Debian_Chroot

I used this method for "cdebootstrap":
Using the statically compiled binary
onbeat.dk/thecus/downloads/cdebootstrap-static.tar.gz

and this method for chroot:
Using the ready-made chroot
onbeat.dk/thecus/downloads/debian_arm_minimal_chroot.tar.gz

It's the really straightforward procedure!
So, i have installed debian in :/raid/debian

3.MLDonkey Installation

Download the debian package: packages.debian.org/stable/net/mldonkey-server
Choose of course the arm plateform.

put your downloaded package in: /raid/debian/home
Extract the package with dpkg-deb: /raid/debian/usr/bin/dpkg-deb -x mldonkey-server_2.8.1-2etch1_arm.deb mldonkey

run MLDOnkey:
a.chroot /raid/debian
b./raid/debian/home/mldonkey/usr/bin/mlnet
Mlnet will not start because some libraries are missing...
Sorry to leave you there because i do not have a clear list of the missing libraries..You will have to install 7 or 8 libraries if i remember well..

But i followed this dummy process to install the missing libraries:
You have to follow the same process for each missing library..

a. run MLDonkey (/chroot /raid/debian + raid/debian/home/mldonkey/usr/bin/mlnet)
note the missing library..
Mlnet will complain that a "library.o" file is missing for mlnet to work.

b.download the package containing the missing library
Just note the name and go to : www.debian.org/distrib/packages

go to the "Search the contents of packages" section at the very end of the url above.

You should find a corresponding package for the arm plateform.

c.extract the package
ex: /usr/bin/dpkg-deb -x "package.deb" library1

d.Copy the libraries from the extracted package
find and copy your libraries (*.o files) from the created "library1" folder to /raid/debian/lib

and go again to the 1st step ("a.run MLDonkey") by launching mlnet..

After 8 installed missing libraries mlnet should run successfully ..A last message complaining that this version of mlnet has been build with glibc 2.3.6 should appear..My MLDonkey is running since 4 days without any issues..So..

Kill mlnet: CTRL-C

4.MLDOnkey minimum Configuration

The first thing you should do after the installation is to configure the downloads.ini file in order for you to access MLDonkey via your browser.

Open a new ssh sessin on your box and go to /raid/debian/root/.mldonkey
-> vi downloads.ini
find the "allowed_ips" section and change the default "127.0.0.1 " subnet with your local configuration.

Ref:http/mldonkey.sourceforge.net/Allowed_ips


Relaunch MLDONKEY and go to : http://<N2100_IP>:4080/ !

Are you interesting to install some other tools? Like ETHTOOL..
Download the package from the debian web site..
Use dpkg-deb to extract the tool and that's it you can reconfigure your interface to 100FD..

[bu3baid]

Hi jlj

Nice to see that it worked with you too, your instructions are more detailed (I missed to mention few points in my instruction).

Can you please let me know the performance of your machine while MLdonkey is running, mine is running fine I had few problem with the FANRPM module running jobs that will never stop and the machine will get locked after 2 days uptime but that was nothing to do with MLdonkey. Can you let me know what is your memory usage and your uptime. My memory use is very high but that is expected with the statically compiled binary, but I upgraded my machine to 512MB of RAM recently.

Are you using the bittorrent service too? how is the performance with you?

You may like to use sancho sancho-gui.sourceforge.net/ to access MLdonkey remotely, its a very nice program and I can even use it to access MLdonkey from work through SSH, I only have SSH port open on my home firewall. so you have a secure access to your machine and directly to your MLdonkey. Sancho support SSH tunneling from within the program.

I tried webmin breifly but I didn't find it useful for me. I'm trying to run Jbidwatcher on my machine to manage remotely, its a java program so I expect it to use alot of memory too but I hope to modify to act like a deamon server with no GUI loaded into the memory.

there is a possiblity of using Jalied Debian configeration (explained in another thread on this forum) to have other packages working, I will try that and see if i can decrease my memory usage.

Thats all for now, please share your experince.

[stevenh]

What ports did you have to open for mldonkey to work?
I basically followed the steps and got mlnet to run within a chroot but it's not downloading anything...

[falz]

Hi jlj

I got a small problem when trying to extract the mldonkey.deb package, the error when running this command "/raid/debian/usr/bin/dpkg-deb -x mldonkey-server_2.8.1-2etch1_arm.deb mldonkey" gives the following :

/raid/debian/usr/bin/dpkg-deb: /lib/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.3' not found (required by /raid/debian/usr/bin/dpkg-deb)

Not sure if its a mistake im doing or so but this is my first experience with linux hehe, thanks in advance

[stevenh]

Hi falz, I built mldonkey on my system and have packaged it to run as a standalone chroot (no need to do debian chroot anymore).
thecususergroup.proboards106.com/index.cgi?board=modifications&action=display&thread=1180184518
Let me know if you want to try it and I can put it up somewhere for you..