Noah Beach Musings on Linux, networking, technology, and sometimes life.

Installing GNS3 on CentOS/RHEL/Fedora

This post will walk through the process of installing GNS3 on CentOS/RHEL/Fedora. Specifically this applies to CentOS 6.X, RHEL 6.X, and Fedora 15, but should work with earlier version with minor modifications. Its important to note that you will be compiling lots of libraries from source, and thus this installation will take some time. Another note is that the system I'm installing this on is running CentOS 6.0 x86_64, clean install and then ran updates. Lets get into it.

Ok first thing is to install some dependencies:

Throughout this install I make use of the "sudo" command vs logging in as root, you can do this as well or if you are using the root user just omit "sudo" from all the lines where you see it below.

[user@centosbox]$ sudo yum install python python-devel xorg-x11-proto-devel libXext-devel gcc-c++

Now we gotta download and install Qt4:

[user@centosbox]$ cd /tmp

[user@centosbox tmp]$ wget ftp://ftp.qt.nokia.com/qt/source/qt-x11-opensource-src-4.5.3.tar.gz

[user@centosbox tmp]$ tar xzf qt-x11-opensource-src-4.5.3.tar.gz

[user@centosbox tmp]$ cd qt-x11-opensource-src-4.5.3

[user@centosbox qt-x11-opensource-src-4.5.3]$ sudo ./configure -nomake examples -nomake demos -qt-gif -no-exceptions -debug -qt3support

[user@centosbox qt-x11-opensource-src-4.5.3]$ sudo gmake <==This will take a long time.

[user@centosbox qt-x11-opensource-src-4.5.3]$ sudo gmake install <==This will take a long time.

[user@centosbox qt-x11-opensource-src-4.5.3]$ PATH=/usr/local/Trolltech/Qt-4.5.3/bin:$PATH

[user@centosbox qt-x11-opensource-src-4.5.3]$ export PATH


Now we'll install SIP:

[user@centosbox qt-x11-opensource-src-4.5.3]$ cd /tmp

[user@centosbox tmp]$ sudo wget http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/static/Downloads/sip4/sip-4.12.4.tar.gz

[user@centosbox tmp]$ sudo tar -xvf sip-4.12.4.tar.gz

[user@centosbox tmp]$ cd sip-4.12.4

[user@centosbox sip-4.10]$ sudo python configure.py

[user@centosbox sip-4.10]$ sudo make

[user@centosbox sip-4.10]$ sudo make install


And then we'll install PyQt4:

[user@centosbox sip-4.10]$ cd /tmp

[user@centosbox tmp]$ sudo wget http://ftp.pardus.org.tr/pub/source/2009/PyQt-x11-gpl-4.8.4.tar.gz

[user@centosbox tmp]$ sudo tar xvf PyQt-x11-gpl-4.8.4.tar.gz

[user@centosbox tmp]$ cd PyQt-x11-gpl-4.8.4

[user@centosbox PyQt-x11-gpl-4.8.4]$ sudo python configure.py -q /usr/local/Trolltech/Qt-4.5.3/bin/qmake

[user@centosbox PyQt-x11-gpl-4.8.4$ sudo make

[user@centosbox PyQt-x11-gpl-4.8.4]$ sudo make install


Finally we're done with the compiling, lets get down to GNS3 itself:

[user@centosbox PyQt-x11-gpl-4.8.4]$ cd /opt

[user@centosbox opt]$ sudo wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/gns-3/GNS3/0.7.4/GNS3-0.7.4-src.tar.gz

[user@centosbox opt]$ sudo tar -xvf GNS3*.tar.gz && sudo rm GNS3*.tar.gz

[user@centosbox opt]$ sudo mv GNS3* GNS3


Create some directories for GNS3 to use and give them the right pos:

[user@centosbox opt]$ cd GNS3

[user@centosbox GNS3]$ sudo mkdir Dynamips

[user@centosbox GNS3]$ sudo mkdir IOS

[user@centosbox GNS3]$ sudo mkdir Project

[user@centosbox GNS3]$ sudo mkdir Cache

[user@centosbox GNS3]$ sudo mkdir tmp

[user@centosbox GNS3]$ sudo chmod o+rw -R ./Project

[user@centosbox GNS3]$ sudo chmod o+rw -R ./tmp

[user@centosbox GNS3]$ sudo chmod o+rw -R ./IOS


Now lets download the Dynamips binary, which does all the heavy lifting for GNS3:

For 64bit users:
[user@centosbox GNS3]$ cd Dynamips

[user@centosbox Dynamips]$ sudo wget http://www.noahbeach.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/dynamips-0.2.8-RC2-amd64.bin

[user@centosbox Dynamips]$ sudo chmod +x dynamips-0.2.8-RC2-amd64.bin


For 32bit users:
[user@centosbox GNS3]$ cd Dynamips

[user@centosbox Dynamips]$ sudo wget http://www.noahbeach.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/dynamips-0.2.8-RC3-x86.bin

[user@centosbox Dynamips]$ sudo chmod +x dynamips-0.2.8-RC3-x86.bin


Creating a menu icon, cleaning up, and configuring GNS3:

Download the icon:
[user@centosbox]$ cd /opt/GNS3

[user@centosbox]$ sudo wget http://www.noahbeach.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/gns3.png


In order to create a menu item in Fedora 15/RHEL6/CentOS6 you need the alacarte application:


[user@centosbox]$ sudo yum install alacarte


You'll then have a "Main Menu" application you can open.

Then create a new menu item, I put mine under Education, you can put it where you like.

Type in the information as seen below and then click the springing thing to choose the correct icon:

Navigate to /opt/GNS3 and choose the icon we downloaded earlier:

At this point you should see:

Press OK and then should see the added item:

And now you should see GNS3 in your application menu:

Finally fire up GNS3 and do the following

- Go to edit | preferences and in the ‘Terminal command:’ section type in:
gnome-terminal -t %d -e 'telnet %h %p' > /dev/null 2>&1 &

- Under ‘Paths’ change the ‘Project directory:’ to
/opt/GNS3/Project
and the ‘IOS/PIX directory:’ to
/opt/GNS3/IOS

- Click on Dynamips tab on the left
For the ‘Executable path:’ type in
/opt/GNS3/Dynamips/dynamips-0.2.8-RC3-x86.bin

- Change the ‘Working directory:’ to
/opt/GNS3/tmp
Click on the Capture tab on the left

- For the ‘Working directory for capture files:’ change it to
/opt/GNS3/Project

All thats left now is to sit back and sim up some networking equipment!