War Driving Truck

[openbsd-flipp]

It's taken a while but I have finally goten back to the War Truck. I have assembled most of the components for it so I think I am just going to go ahead and get the installation going.

Mother borad and Processor - PC CHIPS VIA CLE266 Chipset Motherboard With VIA Socket 370 C3 CPU kit, Model "M789CG V 2.0"
Ram - 512M crucial 266 ddr
Wireless adapter - Single Rear Slot Universal PCI to PCMCIA Adapter: www.elandigitalsystems.com P111(looking for a cheep replacement), orinocco gold classic

40g 5400 seagate laptop hard drive with adapter

dc2dc power adapter (home built by a friend)

big ol antenna

parts needed
Gigabit ethernet card,
monitor (for now i plan on sshing into it from the laptop)
switches, lights,
building an adapter to use steering wheel remote to control p3 playback

I am installing gentoo stable on it. The only major packages that are going to be added for now is mpg321, kismet, and ogg support.


Any suggestions for additions to it?

[spankers]

What flavor of truck? I'm finishing up an engine conversion on a 1986 Volkswagen Vanagon camper and will eventually add geek stuff.

For wireless have you considered a USB 802.11g device? Coax at 2.4 Ghz is VERY lossy. I'm thinking of using a PrismGT based 802.11g USB implanted in a wok pan cover I bought at World Market for $3. The wok cover is made from aluminum, is lightweight and has a nice parabolic shape... should be able to get 15dB or so apparent gain.

[openbsd-flipp]

I am doing this in a 99 Chervy Blazer. The antenna cable is all lmr400 that I trcieved from a ham radio friend. I have thought about a g band card but I do not want to spent the extra money right now. I will keep that in mind for a futre upgrade.

[spankers]

The only major packages that are going to be added for now is mpg321...

I still like mpg123 better than the mpg321 version. Have you tried any of the ncurses wrappers for mpg123? Something like playmp3list works nicely...

[openbsd-flipp]

looks like a nice wrapper. I have to test that out

[spankers]

There are quite a few good command line wrappers out there. I kinda like mp3burn... it uses mpg123 and cdrecord to burn an audio CD from mp3s. cd to a mp3 directory and...

$ mp3burn *

will give you a nice shiny audio CD. Beats using the GUI any day.

[spankers]

Here's a pic of my future war drive platform. I'll have to install metal ground planes for roof mounted antennas as the camper top is fiberglass.

[openbsd-flipp]

What type of antennas are you planning on using? If you are going to be sneeky about it you can use a CB style antena wiht a boster on it to combat the coax signal loss.Friend had one). Otherwise simple magnetic mounts on the bumbers will work if you are not worried about lossage

[openbsd-flipp]

doh, i just read your earlier post. what you can do if you really want to go commando (not that type) and you dont mind putting a hole in the roof is to cut out and mount the wok in the roof and fabricate a plexiglass top(like conversion vans have for fans) to bounce out the rain

[spankers]

The forward top area above the driver/shotgun seats is fiberglass and there are some convenient voids in the top where I intend to install a USB dongle & 6db+ antenna. Since the fiberglass is (theoretically) RF transparent, I shouldn't see any performance impact. RF antenna design/placement is never straightforward however. Experimentation is called for.

The wok antenna is for pinpointing AP's and where high gain is needed. See:
http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/

[spankers]

The mainboard will be something like the VIA M10000 and I'll have three interfaces:
eth0 - 100Base-T
eth1 - Roof mount wireless
eth2 - Wok mount wireless

[openbsd-flipp]

What distro do you plan on running?

[spankers]

Debian or Ubuntu with selected packages built from source as needed. I like the idea of Gentoo but do not think I want to subject myself to the long upgrade times inherent with a source based distro, particularly since this is a mobile application.

I am pretty much sold on Debian Unstable ("Sid"). Despite being portrayed as "unstable" I have had VERY few problems with it over the last three years. The worst problem I had was GNOME package dependancy issues... this happened on and off about two years ago. That was about the time I started using Xfce4, which in my mind is the very best DE available for *nix systems.

I am still pondering which wireless devices to use, however. I am currently using Intersil/Conexant Prism GT 802.11g mini-PCI adapters. The Prism GT driver has been in the kernel for quite a while but there are still some annoying quirks to the driver... one of the worst is that the interface will lock up every now and then for no apparent reason. You have to do an ifdown/up to get it to reset. The lockup happens most often when using the interface for high bandwidth applications (NFS, Samba, etc.).

Have you had any experience with using RA-Link, Atheros, or Broadcom based devices with Linux? As far as I know the Broadcom stuff still does not have a native Linux driver and you must use the Windows driver in conjunction with NDISwrapper.... something I want to avoid.

[openbsd-flipp]

Yeah, with the broadcom wifi you need to use a ndis wrapper for it the same for my Atheros card. The problem I am getting with my ath card is that it needs the firmware loaded in order to work and that is something the OS community has yet been able to provde me with. But considering I have 2 spare orinocos laying arround it really does not matter to me.

[spankers]

Have you tried the latest Linux native Madwifi driver for Atheros? It's CVS only. I have a 802.11a/b/g mini-PCI lying around collecting dust and thought I might give the latest a try in my frankensteinian WAP.

[openbsd-flipp]

not yet but it is defently worth a look at. For now though that laptop is my gaming system and the only computer in the network runnning windows. I give the windoes install untill another retarted windows issue is released.

[gary_hendricks]

Sorry, excuse my ignorance, but what is a war truck? :dunno

[spankers]

A vehicle that has onboard equipment to conduct wireless access point surveillance using programs like Kismet (for linux) or Netstumbler (for Windows). The objective is to find open wireless access points and catalog them. Usually you have a GPS unit hooked up so all WAP's you acquire are automatically logged.

The main focus of my project is to install an onboard computer in a 1986 VW Vanagon Westfalia (camper) to play mp3's & video, navigate with GPS, and have the ability to use open wireless access points for internet access when on roadtrips.

I'm finishing up with an engine swap now (1992 Subaru EJ22 engine... the stock VW engines were real pieces of junk) but don't know how soon I'll be able to get to the computer bits as I recently found out I'm moving to Seattle.

[gary_hendricks]

The wok antenna is for pinpointing AP's and where high gain is needed. See:
http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/

Very nice setup. I have thought about messing with such antenna's but it's restricted in some countries, like Singapore where I'm located.

[spankers]

Wow... Singapore! I was there for a bit in 1991. Cleanest city in the world but a wee bit restrictive as far as personal liberties go.

In possession of a parabolic antenna? Go to jail.
In possession of chewing gum? Go to jail.
In possession of marijuana? Hang 'em on the gibbet!

[openbsd-flipp]

Are cantenna's illeagle out that way? There was a website I ran into quite some time ago that had plans for all kinds of undercover antennas. They had some really good ones including the guy that turned an older cell phone case into anantena. He wired up the phone to a backpack that had a cell phone holder and kept a laptop running in his packpack wired with gps for war-walking. That would be a nice way to go undercover if you could get away with it. Now oever here I am just being as blunt about it and as obnoxious, in your face, as i can be. Hence the truck that has a big old antenna in the hatch with out being hidden at all.

[spankers]

I was a bit over the top with my earlier comment but the laws in Singapore can be quite restrictive. It works in Singapore though... very low crime rates.

[llbbl]

hey flipp you should post the pic of maniac's car. I was looking for it... its frikken funny eh! I thought we had posted it on DT already.

[spankers]

@flipp

Any updates on your wardriving platform? I've pretty much finished up the mechanical stuff on my van and hope to start with the electronics package after I move to Seattle next month.

[openbsd-flipp]

actually I had to replace the blazer and have started to work on an f150. Switching the computer to a mini mac since it will fit nicely under the rear seats. Work has been killing me lately so progress has been halted.

[spankers]

Sorry to hear about the Blazer. My wardrive/mobile computing platform is stalled as well... just moved to Seattle and between the cost of living and moving expenses I won't have the cash to pursue luxury hobbies for a while.

On the upside, I'm pretty sure I'll be working for Clearwire (http://www.clearwire.com/) , building the Seattle network. 802.16 WiMAX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wimax) stuff is cool!