Coyote Linux 4.0 base OS downloads
The base operating system images for the Coyote Linux 4.0 Security Appliance have been added to the downloads section of the site. The downloads contain a live CD image and a VMWare appliance image based on OpenSUSE 11.2 and contain all of the required software to run the upcoming Coyote Linux security administration services and front-end. These images are being release as technology previews only and do not contain a fully functional release of the Coyote Linux security software.
Embedded Firewall Prototyping System
The following are some images of a system which was assembled to facilitate the prototyping of embedded firewall appliances for Coyote Linux. The embedded systems used are made by Soekris Engineering.
The system consists of a Core2 Duo based computer running CentOS 5.3 and 3 external Soekris appliances (net4501, net4801, and net5501). The internal system power supply is used to provide 12v DC power to the external appliances via a relay board and a series of external power switches. The networking for the system contains 3 discreet LANs which are connected to 5 port hubs mounted in the 5.25" bays in the main system.
The consoles of each of the external appliances are connected to the main system via USB to RS232 conversion cables.
Coyote Linux is on FaceBook
If you are a FaceBook user, you can show your support for Coyote Linux by visiting our FB profile and becoming a fan. To visit our FB profile, click here. I will post additional information and send fan updates about Coyote as the distribution continues to develop.
Wolverine 2.10.1062 Available for Download
Wolverine 2.10 build 1062 has been released and is available for download from this site. This build of Wolverine does not require activation and all features are available for use without the need to purchase an additional license. This release is the last version of Wolverine that will be made available. Future releases of Coyote Linux will contain all of the features present in this release. Other than the removal of the activation requirement, there are no other feature changes present in this release of Wolverine. To download Wolverine, please use the Downloads link from the menu at the top of the page.
Coyote Linux Forums Imported
After several hours and an equal number of Ibuprofen from beating my head into my desk, I managed to get all of the old Coyote Linux forum threads imported. The forums now cover the last 10 years of Coyote Linux history and contain over 40,000 post. I have also added the Wolverine Firewall and VPN server forum as the Wolverine project will be getting merged back into the Coyote Linux project over the course of the next week or so. I will post downloads for Wolverine to the Coyote Linux site shortly. If you run into any broken posts or missing content in the forums, feel free to report it and I will attempt to get it corrected.
Coyote Linux Forums Online
After a couple years of downtime, I have brought the Coyote Linux forums back online. I have not imported the old post data as of yet due to very different database structures with the new forum software and the fact that the old data is a mess. After having to hand-prune thousands of spammer comments out of the old forum databases, there are tons of orphaned records and broken posts. As time permits, I will attempt to get the data cleaned up and imported.
The old user database will not be imported, however. The password hashing mechanisms are not compatible and I have no way of setting the passwords correctly on any imported accounts. If you would like to post to the new forums, please take a few moments and create a new account. Please also note that (at this time), the user accounts created on this site and the forums sites are separate. If you create an account on one, you will still need to create an account on the other in order to log in.
You can access the forums at http://forums.coyotelinux.com or from the link in the right-hand menu on this page.
Coyote Linux Design Philosophies
Many of you are going to question some of the decisions made when I selected the tools, platforms, and techniques for the development of Coyote Linux 4. I am going to write up a post as a preemptive set of answers which I will refer to when the questions, comments, flames, etc start pouring in.
One of the biggest changes to this release of Coyote Linux is the use of C# as the primary development language used for most of the administration, configuration, and maintenance utilities. Previous implementations of Coyote Linux made heavy use of C, Pascal (namely Delphi), and Bash shell scripting for this purpose. The change is being made to C# after nearly 2 years of working with the language in a cross-platform setting which involved the use of both Red Hat Linux and Windows 2003/2008 servers. The ability to use a single development environment (in my case, Visual Studio 2008) and produce executables that will execute in unmodified form on both Linux and Windows has seriously put the "R" in RAD programming. I am still actively involved in projects that require the development of cross-platform utilities and am already paying for all of the necessary licenses to provide my company with a full array of software and hardware to develop applications that work in a mixed server OS environment.
I have spent a great deal of time testing C# applications under Linux using Mono as the executing environment. While this is not necessarily the best choice for small, embedded hardware (486 / ARM class processing power) it works very well for anything using i686 or better technology. Another wonderful advantage of using this technology is the ability to run the same set of executables on both 32 and 64 bit hardware without the need for compatibility libraries to be installed. The installation of Mono dictates the 32/64 bit execution environment, preventing the need to recompile the full Coyote Linux software package.
Coyote Linux 4.0 will target 2 installation platforms. The first release of the Coyote Linux security suite will be as an add-on to existing installations of Red Hat or CentOS 5. After the suite has stabilized as an addon for existing distributions, a new installation OS will be added to accommodate the install on bare metal hardware and as both a Xen and VMWare hypervised guest.
The web sites that make up the Coyote Linux and Vortech Consulting customer services, product distribution sites, and e-commerce transaction processing consist of a mix of both Linux and Windows 2008 servers. The design chosen allows me to make use of the last 2 years of my work developing e-commerce and software delivery systems.
If you have any further questions or comments, you are welcome to visit the forums or post a comment to this blog.
