SidecarForLinuxInstallInstructions

this is based on a long email about installing sidecar. It may ramble, as i just sat down and wrote it [the email] in one fell swoop without any planning

So you want to run sidecar

Okay, but first:

make sure that you have kerberos working on your system (so that you can get tickets from kerberos.dartmouth.edu). See SettingUpKerberosOnLinux.

starting the install

Setting up sidecar can be broken into these parts:

Installing a dozen files in different places.
Making sure that your machine isn't firewalling certain ports.
checking the install.
debugging (if you had problems)

....and we're off!

Note: all of the files listed below are on the northstar webpage: http://northstar-www.dartmouth.edu/~qubit/sidecar

Installing the sidecard script

get the script sidecard (belongs in /etc/rc.d/init.d/sidecard)

inside that file you should see this:

if /usr/local/sbin/sidecar -D5 -d /tmp > /tmp/sidecar.log 2>&1; then

The "-D 5" is a debugging level. the output isn't HUGE, but it is sizable. To debug, make sure that that feature is enabled. But once you have the thing running properly, the debug option generates lots of output and might create an annoyingly large file, so you'll want to disable the "-D" feature.

You'll want to put the sidecar executable in /etc/rc.d/init.d/sidecard.
(except on debian, where it seems that all of the daemon scripts are in /etc/init.d)

Make sure to install it as root, and to make sure that it's executable. You can type:

  > chomd u+x sidecard

to make sure.

SIDE NOTE: Sidecard runs as root, and appears that it's taking up a bit of processor time (seems like it's working too hard). Let me know what you see (run 'top' or something)

Installing the sidecar executable

The sidcar executable is availiable statically linked or dynamically linked. the binary resides in /usr/local/sbin/sidecar.

You can get the sidcar executable from the website listed above, but please note that you'll be downloading a file named sidecar.static or sidecar.dynamic.

No matter which one you choose, don't forget to rename the file to sidecar. Otherwise, you'll be scratching your head, wondering why the daemon isn't starting.

As with the sidecard script, make sidecar executable by root:

  > chomd u+x sidecard

NOTE: the dynamic executable was compiled on a RedHat 7.3 system that has been upgraded using Rawhide and 8.0 rpms. I believe that the kerberos libraries it links against will be the same on your system. Hopefully there won't be any problems with differing versions of libc

controlling the sidecar daemon

just use /etc/rc.d/init.d/sidecard start (or stop).

Remember: you'll have to be root in order to start or stop this script.

NOTES: perhaps we should figure out the best way to use sudo to let ordinary users restart the sidecar daemon if it gets killed....

firewalling:

Make sure that 913 is open. Rather, make sure that any server you are going to connect to (like bannerstudent, cobweb, kerberos (?) can connect to that port. I'd just wrap it to the dartmouth campus...

So basically, if you're having problems:

try to find out if you have a firewall installed
if you have a firewall, put in a rule to allow tcp/udp connections to port 913 from the 129.170.xxx.xxx block of ip addresses.

for more information about firewalls, try the topic LinuxFirewall?.

sidecar debugging

some debugging output gets sent to a couple of different places, but the most useful one (and pretty much all of the output) is in /etc/sidecar.log (but this makes sense if you read through the sidecard script :)

good luck! (let me know how it works for you..)

RobinsonTryon - 06 Nov 2002