[HECnet] PyDECnet and IPv6

[Paul Koning]

> On Dec 1, 2020, at 5:15 PM, David Moylan <djm at wiz.net.au> wrote:
> 
>> From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-
>> hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On Behalf Of John H. Reinhardt
>> Sent: Wednesday, 2 December 2020 6:18 AM
>> To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
>> Subject: Re: [HECnet] PyDECnet and IPv6
>> 
>> I had an Edgerouter Lite for my internet but upgraded to an Edgerouter 4 last
>> year when I set up the VPN to the MacMini Colo in Las Vegas.
>> 
>> Next I have to see if I can put Paul's PyDECnet on it for HECnet routing.
> 
> That sounds like an awesome challenge, however I don't know if you'll meet the base requirements.
> 
> The edgerouter 1.x firmware ships with Python 2.7.3 and the 2.x firmware ships with Python 2.7.13.
> Memory wise you have 1GB with around 600MB free on the ER4 and 500MB with around 200MB free on the ERL.
> 
> And yes - you can add in linux packages to get Python 3 running on the Edgerouter, but I would recommend that you don't.
> 
> The issue comes down to firmware upgrades. When you install a new firmware image, you risk breaking the third party addons.

My approach would be to build a Python 3 from source and install it in the directory used for locally built code, which is under /usr/local (that's what the default installation procedure does).  That's a standard convention that should keep you out of the way of any packager-supplied standard bits.

I install Python3 and PyDECnet on my (old, 2 GB total flash size) BeagleBone Black.  To run the build locally rather than cross-building -- slower but easy -- I had to plug in a micro-SD card for extra space, but once the build was done the actual installed code fit fine on that root file system.  You can see the result on HECnet, node PYBBB.

	paul