Arch GNS3 Helper Script

This repository contains a helper script based on one of my early blog posts about installing GNS3 on Arch/Manjaro.

Purpose

The purpose of the script is to automate GNS3 installation on Arch Linux and Arch-based distros.

Pre-requisites

A user with sudo privilidges. git needs to be installed to clone the repo. Most users will have git pre-installed with the system.

The install-gns3.sh script will automate most of the installation process.

Features

Error checking

The script checks for errors along the way. If one of the steps did not succeed the script will be ended and the user notified.

Example:

cd "$my_repo_folder"/vpcs || exit # <1>
  makepkg -C && sudo pacman -U vpcs-0.8beta1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz --needed --noconfirm # <1>

  cd "$HOME" || exit
  if [[ -z $(which vpcs) ]]; then # <2>
    printf %b\\n "${On_Red}
  Unable to find VPCS after install....
  Aborting the script${Color_Off}"
    exit
  fiit
fi
  1. Build the VPCS package from the official binaries
  2. WHICH(1) - shows the full path of (shell) commands. If VPCS installed it would be in the path. -z flag in the if statement means: “if the output of which vpcs is an empty string - VPCS is NOT installed”

Usage

The script aims to provide a complete and functioning GNS3 experience. Using the script is simple. Recommended usage is to clone the repo and to execute the script via bash.

git clone https://github.com/SirToffski/Arch-GNS3-Helper.git
cd Arch-GNS3-Helper/
bash install-gns3.sh

Manual Installation

One could accomplish everything the script does via manual installation process outlined below.

Enable AUR and Install YAY

Manjaro:

$ sudo pacman -Syu
$ sudo pacman -S yay

Arch:

edit /etc/pacman.conf:

$ sudo tee -a /etc/pacman.conf > /dev/null << EOL
> [archlinuxfr]
> SigLevel = Never
> Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch
> EOL

Now clone the YAY AUR repo and build the package - it will be installed after building:

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
makepkg -si

Dependencies and all the necessary stuff

Dynamips

Install
$ sudo pacman -S libelf libpcap cmake
$ yay -S dynamips --noconfirm
$ sudo setcap cap_net_admin,cap_net_raw=ep $(which dynamips)
Verify
$ cd $HOME
$ dynamips 2> /dev/null | grep version
Cisco Router Simulation Platform (version 0.2.19-amd64/Linux stable)
$ getcap $(which dynamips)
/usr/bin/dynamips = cap_net_admin,cap_net_raw+ep

VPCS

Install

Recently VPCS no longer successfully builds from souce of Arch (at least with Kernel 5.6). A workaround is to download the binary off the VPCS GitHub repository: https://github.com/GNS3/vpcs

Since we are using pacman for everything - we will first create a package using makepkg. Check out the vpcs folder in this repository for a PKGBUILD file.

If you are installing everything manually the easiest way is:

# Download the PKGBUILD file from this repo
$ mkdir vpcs && cd vpcs
$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SirToffski/Arch-GNS3-Helper/master/vpcs/PKGBUILD
$ makepkg -sCfi
Verify
$ cd $HOME
$ which vpcs
/usr/bin/vpcs
$ vpcs -v | grep version
Welcome to Virtual PC Simulator, version 0.8 beta1

IOUYAP

Similarly, IOUYAP does not build from source. GNS3 does not provide the binary. However luckily I had a cached package saved from some time ago. It’s been added to the repository. Easiest way to install is:

Install
$ sudo pacman -S iniparser
$ wget https://github.com/SirToffski/Arch-GNS3-Helper/raw/master/pkg/iouyap-0.97-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
$ sudo pacman -U iouyap-0.97-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz --needed --noconfirm
$ sudo setcap cap_net_admin,cap_net_raw=ep $(which iouyap)
Verify
$ iouyap -V
iouyap version 0.97.0
$ getcap $(which iouyap)
/usr/bin/iouyap = cap_net_admin,cap_net_raw+ep

IOL (IOS on Linux)

Due to obvious reasons, this guide will not provide information on where to get IOL, license, etc. Only the steps with required dependencies and configuration are provided for educational purposes only. Reader assumes all responsibility of researching and deciding whether to use IOL.

Dependencies

$ sudo pacman -S lib32-openssl lib32-gcc-libs
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib32/libcrypto.so.1.0.0 /usr/lib32/libcrypto.so.4
# Prevent EXCESSCOLL error
$ sudo sysctl net.unix.max_dgram_qlen=10000
# To make the above change persistent
$ sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf > /dev/null << EOL
> # Prevent EXCESSCOLL error for IOL
> net.unix.max_dgram_qlen=10000
> EOL
Verification
$ sysctl net.unix.max_dgram_qlen
net.unix.max_dgram_qlen = 10000
$ tail -2 /etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf
# Prevent EXCESSCOLL error for IOL
net.unix.max_dgram_qlen=10000

uBridge

Installation
$ yay -S ubridge --noconfirm
Verification
$ cd $HOME
$ ubridge -v
ubridge version 0.9.18
$ getcap $(which ubridge)
/usr/local/bin/ubridge = cap_net_admin,cap_net_raw+ep

QEMU

$ sudo pacman -S qemu qemu-arch-extra

Docker

Installation
$ sudo pacman -S docker
$ sudo systemctl enable docker.service
$ sudo systemctl start docker.service
$ sudo gpasswd -a $USER docker
# Log out and back in for the new group membership to take effect.
Verification
$ sudo pacman -S docker
$ id -Gn
user wheel docker
$ docker info

Wireshark

Installation
$ sudo pacman -S wireshark-qt
$ sudo gpasswd -a $USER wireshark
# Log out and back in for the new group membership to take effect.
Verification
$ id -Gn
user wheel wireshark docker

GNS3

pip2pkgbuild

Install pip2pkgbuild from AUR to create PKGBUILD from GNS3 pip packages. It will also be used to create packages on which GNS3 depends

$ yay -S python-pypi2pkgbuild-git --noconfirm

GNS3 dependencies:

First, install the packages which are in official Arch Linux repositories

$ sudo pacman -S qt5-svg qt5-websockets python-pip python-pyqt5 python-sip python-async_generator python-jinja python-distro python-jsonschema python-aiohttp-cors --noconfirm --needed

Second, we need to satisfy GNS3 requirements.

$ mkdir -p "$HOME"/GNS3-Dev/python-requirements/{aiohttp,aiohttp-cors,aiofiles,psutil,async-timeout,py-cpuinfo,yarl}
$ cd "$HOME"/GNS3-Dev/python-requirements
$ cd "$HOME"/GNS3-Dev/python-requirements/aiohttp \
&& pip2pkgbuild aiohttp -v 3.6.2 \
-n python-pip2pkg-aiohttp && makepkg -sCfi
$ cd "$HOME"/GNS3-Dev/python-requirements/yarl \
&& pip2pkgbuild yarl -v 1.3.0 \
-n python-pip2pkg-yarl && makepkg -sCfi
$ cd "$HOME"/GNS3-Dev/python-requirements/aiofiles \
&& pip2pkgbuild aiofiles -v 0.4.0 \
-n python-pip2pkg-aiofiles && makepkg -sCfi
$ cd "$HOME"/GNS3-Dev/python-requirements/psutil \
&& pip2pkgbuild psutil -v 5.6.6 \
-n python-pip2pkg-psutil && makepkg -sCfi
$ cd "$HOME"/GNS3-Dev/python-requirements/async-timeout \
&& pip2pkgbuild async-timeout -v 3.0.1 \
-n python-pip2pkg-async-timeout && makepkg -sCfi
$ cd "$HOME"/GNS3-Dev/python-requirements/py-cpuinfo \
&& pip2pkgbuild py-cpuinfo -v 5.0.0 \
-n python-pip2pkg-py-cpuinfo && makepkg -sCfi
GNS3-Server

Clone the repository and checkout the latest stabe release. Build the package with pypi2pkgbuild.

$ cd "$HOME"/GNS3-Dev
$ mkdir {gns3-server,gns3-gui}
$ cd gns3-server
$ pip2pkgbuild gns3-server -v 2.2.31 -n python-pip2pkg-gns3-server
$ makepkg -sCfi
$ cd ..
GNS3-GUI

Repeat the process with GNS3-GUI.

$ git clone https://github.com/GNS3/gns3-gui.git
$ cd gns3-gui
$ pip2pkgbuild gns3-gui -v 2.2.31 -n python-pip2pkg-gns3-gui
$ makepkg -sCfi
Verification
$ pacman -Qe | grep gns3
python-gns3-gui-git 2.2.7.r0.gb1ec9d53-1
python-gns3-server-git 2.2.7.r0.g087cba39-1
Gnome launcher

To create a Gnome launcher, the following may be used.

$ sudo tee -a /usr/share/applications/gns3.desktop > /dev/null << EOL
> [Desktop Entry]
> Type=Application
> Encoding=UTF-8
> Name=GNS3
> GenericName=Graphical Network Simulator 3
> Comment=Graphical Network Simulator 3
> Exec=/usr/bin/gns3
> Icon=gns3
> Terminal=false
> Categories=Application;Network;Qt;
> EOL

Changelog

June 29th 2019

May 24th 2020