Installing Puomi

Puomi is Internet router software for home and small office use. It consists of Debian with a custom configuration to enable use of a PC as a router.

To use Puomi you need:

• A PC with at least two Ethernet ports and UEFI. Below, we call it "the router PC".
  • a USB-Ethernet adapter is fine for the second port
• A USB drive to hold the installer image.
• A second machine to provision the router. Below, we call it the "laptop", but it can be any machine.

To install, short version:

• Download a v-i installer image.
  • v-i is a custom installer for Debian
• Write the image to a USB drive.
• Configure the USB drive.
• Boot your router PC from the USB drive.
• Copy the Puomi specification file and playbook to installer.
• Install Puomi on the PC.
• Boot the PC.

These steps will be covered in more detail below.

Get installer image

• Download the 0.2 release image and helper scripts, using any download you like.
  • https://files.liw.fi/v-i/0.2/v-i.img.xz
  • https://files.liw.fi/v-i/0.2/write-and-config.sh
  • https://files.liw.fi/v-i/0.2/configure-installer
• Decompress the image.
  • unxz v-i.img.xz
• Create an installer configuration, like the one below. Below, we call it your.yaml. The simplest is to set one configuration key to the name of your SSH public key file.

authorized_keys_file: mykey.pub

• Insert the USB drive to a USB port, and find out the device name. (GNOME Disks is a good tool for this. Kernel messages will also tell you.) Below, we call it /dev/sdx.
• Write the installer to the USB drive and configure it.

./write-and-config your.yaml /dev/sdx

• Make sure everything is written to the drive, then remove it.

eject /dev/sdx

• You may want to label the physical drive so you remember which one is the installer.

Install on your PC.

• Connect the router PC's main Ethernet port to your home Internet connection. This can be directly to the external network, or to your existing router.
  • the main port is the one know to Linux as "eth0"
  • you may have to boot into the installer and experiment to find out which one it is
• Connect your laptop to any other Ethernet port in the router PC.
• Insert the installer USB to the router PC and boot off it. This may involve telling your BIOS which drive to boot from. Every BIOS is different about this.
• Your laptop should get an address 10.1.1.something from the router DHCP. Your laptop won't be able to access the Internet, but you can log into the installer. Check that you can log, then log out again.

ssh root@v-i

• Create a "specification" file to describe the installation you want to do. Below we call it x220.yaml. You can pick any host name. The drive must be the drive from which the PC boots. You may want to check what it is called when the installer runs: it may change when the installer USB drive is plugged in.

drive: /dev/sda
hostname: x220
extra_playbooks:
  - puomi-playbook.yml
ansible_vars:
  user_pub: |
    YOUR SSH PUBLIC KEY GOES HERE

• Copy the spec file and the Puomi initial playbook to the installer.

scp x220.yaml puomi-playbook.yml root@v-i:

• Log back into the installer, and do the install. Run the following in the installer:

./v-i --verbose x220.yaml

• Reboot.

The router PC should now boot into a Debian system that has been configured as an Internet router. Your laptop, still connected to the router, should be able to access the Internet normally. DNS should work just fine.

The router implements NAT, which means that your laptop won't be accessible directly from the public side of the router PC: any connections must be initiated by the laptop. There is, however, no firewall, unless you set it up yourself.

Configure the installer as you wish

You have root. You can configure the router as you wish. The puomi Ansible role in the Puomi source tree may be useful, if Ansible is your kind of thing. You can also use any other configuration management tooling you prefer.