*BSD News Article 48653


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From: mikye@jove.acs.unt.edu (Myong In Kye)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Loopback-only mode
Date: 14 Aug 1995 22:36:36 GMT
Organization: University of North Texas
Lines: 102
Distribution: inet
Message-ID: <40oj5k$hpf@hermes.acs.unt.edu>
References: <DDBC5u.BoB@seas.ucla.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: jove.acs.unt.edu
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Arthur D. Jerijian (jerijian@cloudburst.seas.ucla.edu) wrote:
> Hi,
> 	First of all, forgive me, for I come from the Linux camp.  Anyway,
> is there a way I can configure FreeBSD, using the boot floppy, to have
> loopback-only networking without a bunch of errors and warnings during
> bootup?  Should I edit config files manually in this case?  Did I forget
> to RTFM?

I'm no expert in unix network configuration. But trying to give some
guessed or yet undetermined answers in network configration menu at 
install time (FreeBSD 2.0.5R) made me feel a little worrysome. 
Instead, at my second install time -
I think many users go through several times of installing and reinstalling
like me, I just skipped the network configuration part at all.
Since I felt sure that UN*X should be manually configurable also besides
GUI-based configuration, I decided to configure network install part
afterwards.

(As a side issue, some problematic parts in installation menu were:
1. package install 2. network configuration and 3. X windows configuration.
Package install gives some serious errors at install time - that is not 
something users want at install time. Using pkg_manage after installation
was more sensible.  Users want to have a stable working installation first, 
and then extras...
Network configuration at install time could be confusing
at install time. 
I simply ignored menu-based X configuration, did it manually later.
Don't get me wrong: I am a satisfied FreeBSD user, and
I see FreeBSD getting ever better with each new release.)

I edited the /etc/sysconfig file to my need after installing FreeBSD-2.0.5R.
The following is the modified parts of /etc/sysconfig file for loop-back only
connection. It does not allow any connection to outside world - not even a
slip/ppp connection. I do not know why you need this absolutely isolated
configuration.
Add other connections as needed. FreeBSD Handbook web site gives good
explanation on slip/ppp etc.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
#

# This is sysconfig - a file full of useful variables that you can set 
# to change the default startup behavior of your system.
#
#	sysconfig,v 1.14 1995/05/17 04:46:57 rgrimes Exp

######################### Start Of Netconfig Section #######################

# Set to the name of your host - this is pretty important!
#----------------------------------------
# Give your machine a name!
hostname=xxxxxx
#----------------------------------------

#
# Set to the list of network devices on this host.  You must have an
# ifconfig_${network_interface} line for each interface listed here.
# for example:
#
#	network_interfaces="ed0 sl0 lo0"
#	ifconfig_ed0="inet 10.0.0.1 netmask 0xffffff00"
#	ifconfig_sl0="inet 10.0.1.0 netmask 0xffffff00"
#
#----------------------------------------
network_interfaces="lo0"
ifconfig_lo0="inet localhost"
#----------------------------------------

#
# Set to the list of route add lines for this host.  You must have a
# route_${static_routes} line for each static route listed here.
#
#----------------------------------------
#static_routes="multicast loopback"
#route_multicast="224.0.0.0 -netmask 0xf0000000 -interface ${hostname}"
#route_loopback="${hostname} localhost"
#----------------------------------------
static_routes="loopback"
route_loopback="${hostname} localhost"
#----------------------------------------


# Set to the host you'd like set as your default router, or NO for none.
#----------------------------------------
defaultrouter=NO
#----------------------------------------

# These are the flags you'd like to start the routing daemon with
#----------------------------------------
routedflags="NO"
#----------------------------------------

######################### End Of Netconfig Section #######################

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

--
MyongIn Kye
Univ. of North Texas
mikye@jove.acs.unt.edu