1 Dolda Connect - Installation
3 Three main steps are required in order to get Dolda Connect up and
6 1. Compile and install the sources
7 2. Customize the configuration file
10 Each of these steps are detailed below. However, it is first necessary
11 to understand that Dolda Connect can be run in either single-user mode
12 or multi-user mode, and that the chosen mode fundamentally changes how
13 each step should be carried out. The differences between these modes
14 will be described right away. If you have read them and are still in
15 doubt which to choose, go with the single-user mode.
17 In multi-user mode, the daemon runs as root and can serve multiple
18 users simultaneously. The primary advantage is that if you know that
19 several people will be using Dolda Connect, there will be no need to
20 run several instances for each of them, and that they will all benefit
21 from being connected to the same hubs. The primary disadvantages are
22 that there may be unknown security issues with running the server as
23 root, and that, since the hubs are shared, searches will have to be
24 arbitrated by the server, which may be annoying for large values of
25 simultaneous searches. Indirect advantages are mostly that it is
26 easier to start the server at boot time when running as root.
28 In single-user mode, the daemon runs as the user who will be using
29 it. The primary advantages is that no root privileges are required for
30 running the server in single-user mode -- including for tasks such as
31 editing the configuration file -- and that any unknown security issues
32 will at least be restricted to the user running the server. When only
33 one user is using Dolda Connect, there are no known significant
34 disadvantages to running in single-user mode.
36 Compiling and installing the sources
38 Compiling the sources involve the ordinary GNU autotools steps:
39 ./configure, make, and make install, where the last step normally
40 needs to be carried out as root (unless you are installing in your own
41 home directory). You are assumed to be familiar with these steps.
43 However, there are special notes that deserve attention regarding the
44 configure script. Some optional features can be enabled through the
45 use of command-line parameters:
47 * --with-guile enables the Guile extension library, necessary for any
48 clients written in Scheme (such as the automatic downloader).
49 * --enable-gtk2pbar enables graphical progress bars in the Gtk2 GUI
50 client, instead of textual percent indicators. However, these
51 progress bars have proven to be unstable with certain Gtk2 themes,
52 so if the GUI crashes with them enabled, try turning them off
53 before reporting a bug.
54 * --enable-gnomeapplet selects the GNOME panel applet for
56 * --enable-gaimplugin selects the Gaim chat plugin for compilation.
57 * --enable-pidginplugin selects the Pidgin chat plugin for
60 Gtk2 and Kerberos V support are detected automatically by the
61 configure script. Make sure to check the output at the end so that all
62 features that you want are selected. In particular, Gtk2 support
63 requires that the Gtk2 headers can be found, and many Linux
64 distributions ship without these. The author cannot possibly give
65 support for all Linux distributions, so make sure to check this
66 thoroughly. Almost all Linux distributions support installing these as
67 optional packages through its package manager.
69 To use PAM authentication (see below), you also need to install a PAM
70 configuration file. On most Linux distributions, the file
71 pam.d-doldacond in the contrib directory can be installed as
72 /etc/pam.d/doldacond and work perfectly.
74 The GNOME applet and GAIM/Pidgin plugin are marked as experimental not
75 so much because there is anything wrong with them, but because it is
76 tricky to install them. Please see the seperate `INSTALL.applet' and
77 `INSTALL.gaim' files for instructions.
79 Customizing the configuration file
81 When installing Dolda Connect, the configuration file is normally
82 named /usr/local/etc/doldacond.conf, but it depends on the
83 installation prefixes that are chosen. If Dolda Connect will be
84 running in multi-user mode, it should remain there, but if it will be
85 running in single-user mode, it is recommended that you make a copy of
86 it named ~/.doldacond.conf (if ~/.doldacond.conf does not exist, the
87 server will still read the system-wide file, but it will be easier to
88 edit a local copy, as you need not be root to do so).
90 Edit the configuration file. If you do no other changes, make sure to
91 at least change the "cli.defnick" and "share". Most directives are
92 explained in comments in the shipped file and need no further
93 explanation here. However, there are a few points to note.
95 If the computer running the daemon is connected directly to the
96 Internet, no network configuration will be necessary. However, if it
97 is behind a NAT router or similar, some configuration has to be done
98 since Direct Connect requires clients to be able to connect to each
99 other. There are currently two options available:
101 * Running in passive mode. No other clients will attempt to connect
102 to a client in passive mode, which makes Direct Connect work, but
103 with rather severe limitations. Obviously, no two passive mode
104 clients can connect to one another. Also, search results are
105 proxied through the hub, which drains a hub's bandwidth horribly,
106 and is therefore frowned upon by hub owners. Indeed, many hubs do
107 not even allow clients in passive mode. If you even so wish to use
108 passive mode, set the "net.mode" setting to "1" in the
110 * Tunnel a port through the NAT router and set up Dolda Connect to
111 listen specifically to that port. The port to use is set in the
112 configuration file using the "dc.udpport" and "dc.tcpport"
113 settings (evidently, both UDP and TCP need to be tunneled through
114 the NAT router). The daemon also needs to be told of the public
115 IPv4 address of the NAT router, by way of the "net.visibleipv4"
118 There is a large number of configuration directives not covered in
119 this file, nor in the default configuration file. Please see the
120 doldacond.conf(5) manual page for information on the rest.
122 Running clients over the network
124 For convenience of setup, the default configuration file disables
125 running clients over the network. Using the default configuration
126 file, the daemon will only enable clients to connect over a local Unix
127 socket. They will use Unix socket credentials passing for
128 authentication, for maximum security. It is also likely that many will
129 want to keep it that way. However, for those who want to be able to
130 run clients over the network, just follow the instructions in this
131 section to enable UIs over TCP.
133 First, you need to choose how you will authenticate to the server. If
134 you are an administrator of a Kerberos-enabled network using the MIT
135 Kerberos libraries, you can use Kerberos V authentication and get
136 secure single sign-on, which gives the best of all worlds, but for
137 normal users, there are two choices:
139 * PAM based password authentication -- The clients will ask for your
140 password every time they connect to the server. This option can be
141 somewhat cumbersome, but should be perfectly secure. Note, however,
142 that the password is transmitted to the server unencrypted.
143 * Password-less authentication -- The server will simply trust the
144 clients not to lie. This option is completely insecure, but may be
145 a better option where all users are trusted and/or Kerberos is not
148 PAM authentication is always enabled. To enable password-less
149 authentication, set the "auth.authless" setting in the configuration
150 file to "1". If your network is not completely trusted (especially the
151 host running doldacond is globally accessible via the Internet), you
152 really should make sure to set up some firewalling rules.
154 Note that doldacond does *not* support tcp-wrappers, but it does
155 support very simple internal firewalling in the form of the
156 "ui.onlylocal" options. When "ui.onlylocal" is set to true, the daemon
157 will only accept UI connections over a loopback interface. That
158 includes 127.0.0.1, ::ffff:127.0.0.1, ::1 and Unix sockets.
162 To start the daemon, just run "doldacond" -- as root if you are
163 running in multi-user mode, and as your ordinary user if you are
164 running in single-user mode. See the doldacond(8) manual page for more
165 detailed information about command-line switches and related
168 If you are using the daemon in multi-user mode on Gentoo, you might
169 find contrib/gentoo-init.d-doldacond, an init script for Gentoo,
172 The first time you start the daemon, it will need to calculate the TTH
173 hashes on all the files you share (as required by the Direct Connect
174 protocol). The TTH calculation process runs with a higher nice value
175 (+10) than the server itself, and should therefore not conflict
176 terribly with the rest of the system CPU-wise, so that you should be
177 able to work normally meanwhile. However, if you have a fast enough
178 CPU, the I/O bandwidth required to read all files may slow down your
179 system (especially when sharing files from a network mount). The
180 server is usable while calculating TTH hashes, but some hubs may not
181 allow you in if not all TTH hashes are calculated.
185 This document was last updated 2007-07-18, reflecting release 0.5 of