Installing GNS3 on Fedora 10 (and other Linux)
In my last post I showed you how to install GNS3 in Windows so that you can build a fully functional Cisco lab to practice for you Cisco certifications, as I promised in this post I’ll show you how to install GNS3 package into your favourite Linux distribution.
During the whole post I’ll be using a Red Hat based distribution (Fedora 10 x64) but the same isntallation steps should apply to your favourite distribution. To work with our beloved penguin GNS needs some package which in detail are :
- Qt
- Python
- Sip
- PyQt
Let’s start installing the above dependencies, you can hunt the single packages in package manager (I personally use Yumex) or simply issue the following command in a terminal windows :
yum -y install PyQt4
or if you’ve configured sudo :
sudo yum -y install PyQt4
This will take care of installing all the above dependencies in a single step. Once you’re done installing dependencies you can download GNS3 source packages . Once you’re done downloading the necessary files just unzip in a convenient directory, now we need to download Dynamips executable you can find the 64 bit version for Linux and the 32 bit version, now all is left to do is to make Dynamips file executable. Right click on Dynamips bin, dynamips-0.2.8-RC2-amd64.bin in my case, file and select Properties and make sure it appears as in the figure :
I know this is in Italian but I’m sure you’ll figure out which check box you need to select, anyhow below there is a list of permissions on Dynamips file just as reference :
Congratulations you’re done installing GNS3 under you Linux distribution! The remaining configuration steps are the same we used for the installation under Windows, you can find the post here. On a side note for Ubuntu users, if you upgraded to latest version, as per this writing 8.10, now GNS3 is officially part of the Operating System repositories so all you’ll need to do is to browse the synaptic package manager and find GNS3 package or issue the following command to get it installed :
sudo apt-get install gns3
Keep in mind once installed GNS3 will use xterm as the default console access terminal, I personally don’t like it and prefer to use putty for this kind of stuff you can find a guide on how to configure putty console access under Linux here.
I hope you did enjoy this article as I enjoyed writing it, until next!
Cheer Lethe.
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tried your tip on newly installed ubuntu 8.10 64-bit
sudo apt-get gns3
-E: Invalid operation gns3
please advise.
thanks
sudo apt-get install gns3
looks like I answered my own question =)
Ops so sorry for my mistake, I did forgot the install option but I’ve corrected it on the post now.
Cheer Lethe.
I have installed gns3 on fedora successfully.Thanks.But I’m not able to load .net file , so I cant save my topology.Any help???
Hi Arun, well actually you have to open a .net file only if you have an already configured topology or simply ignore the message and configure you own and fron the File menu you can save a new topology (.net file) where you prefer, just keep in mind you can’t open dynamips files with GNS3.
If you problem is you lose all configurations settings when closing GNS3 probably you have the “auto clean working directory” under you preferences (this is the default). To disable this just go to Edit Menu and select Preferences, then under the Dynamips node clear the checkbox under Working Directory that read “Automcatically clean the working directory”.
If you still have problems or can’t find something just let me know, I’ll be glad to post this on the blog.
Lethe.
Hi Lethe,
I tried saving topology (.net file) , but it didnt get saved , it didnt give me any error also though.Next time when I search for the same it wont be there.
Arun
Hi Arun,
I think your problem is you left enable the “auto clean working directory” option, what I find wierd is that you don’t see the saved .net file as if GNS3 can’t write it you should see and error. Tonight, after work, I’ll post a smal tutorial on how to disable this feature so that you can follow that :)
Cheer Lethe.
Hi Lethe,
No luck even after disabling auto clean working directory option :-(
Thanks
This is really wierd, may I ask you if you see any error message when trying to save the .net file? In case there is a problem with it you should see it, an you’re using linux or windows?
Lethe.
i’m using fedora 10.i’m not seeing any error messages.i have seen one other guy also reported the same issue in a forum. please see the link below
Hmmm I really don’t know what could be, only thing I can think of could you please send me one of the .net files just to check it?
Otherwise I really don’t know what to tell…
I have worked well with GNS3 on fedora9 & Qt4.
But after updating to fedora11 & qt4.5, I can no longer telnet to the router using xterm, though the router has been started!
Have you ever faced this problem yet? Plz give me some advice. Thks!
P.s: I have disabled the firewall before starting GNS3.
Now I got it, the Termianl Command must be:
gnome-terminal %d -e ‘telnet %h %p’
The new Fedora has stupid changes & silly bugs!
Hi mx, glad you’ve solved the problem. Sorry if I could not reply per time even if I should have checked this by myself as I’m preparing for ONT exam so using mainly SDM and real routers for this.
Fedora 11 is a great release even if I agree with you it has a few annoying problems like the one I’m facing to make VMware workstation to properly work with it.
Lethe.
hi i tried to install in centos
yum -y install PyQt4
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: mirror.widexs.nl
* updates: mirror.widexs.nl
* addons: mirror.widexs.nl
* extras: mirror.widexs.nl
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
No package PyQt4 available.
Nothing to do
i got this message. any suggestion
Thanks
Hi there, sorry I’m on a kiosk computer so can’t verify this at the moment anyhow the right name of the package should be just yum -y install PyQt (can’t remmeber if it is lower case or not), try and let me know and I’ll check on my workstation and let you know.
Lethe.
Thanks Lethe
i am able to intall all the packages
but as i do ./gns3 it gives me the Error:
Can’t import Qt modules, PyQt is probably not installed …
Hmmm ok it seems the packege PyQt, or some of the other dependencies needed by GNS3, is not installed. What I would try is a rpm -qa PyQt to check the package is installed and it is indeed version 4 (even if in case you should get a different error message), secondly check that you have installed all the required packages needed by GNS which are Qt, Pythom Sip and PyQt.
You can easily rpm -qa | grep from the command line and see if these are correctly installed or if you prfer the gui install yumex (yum install yumex) to see if all the packages are there.
I’ve just tested this on one of my machines and I got the same error when of the packages was not installed but after solving this it works like a charm.
On a side note I had a similar problem some time ago, maybe Fedora 9 if memory serves, in which I had 2 trees (or instances if you prefer) of Python (older and newer version) which was causing a lot of problems and headaches on my side :)
Try what I’ve told, if you’re unable to solve feel free to contact me via mail or the contact form so that we further troubleshoot this.
Lethe.
Manish,
I get the same error – but it looks like it’s because PyQt4 does not exist for Red Hat 5 ES that I’m trying to install GNS3 on.
Looks like I’m stuck in the command line world and using Dynamips without a GUI frontend…
Ken
rhel5_140 ~ # yum install PyQt4
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
Bad id for repo: Red Hat site FTP, byte = 3
This system is not registered with RHN.
RHN support will be disabled.
DAG 1.1 kB 00:00
DAG/primary 3.4 MB 00:43
DAG 9396/9396
Setting up Install Process
No package PyQt4 available.
Nothing to do
rhel5_140 ~ #
Hmmm well it really depends on the repos you’re using, if memory serves PyQT is not included by default with CentOS repos as well, anyhow you can download and compile it by hand the link to download it, compile it and you should be up and running :)
hi
i have installed gns3 on fedora 12 and after dealing with few problems in works. My question is why cann`t i ping my router from the fedora terminal or my pc from the router console. on windows 7 it works but on fedora it does not. Should i disable the firewall add routes???
Hi there, have you tried disabling the firewall on your linux host? It happened to me as well (I always forget to reconfigure iptables or disable it as I’m behind a Cisco router with NAT and firewall enabled) and the only problem was the firewall on the linux host which by default will let pass only SSH.
Let me know if you need further help!
Cheer Lethe.
Hi i hope you will help me.I install PyQt4 than i downloaded GNS3 source packages and just unzip in directory which i want.Than download dynamips to that directory were i unzip GNS3 and make file executable as on your 1 pictures.but i did not understand your 2 pictures.Now i press two times gns3 file in GNS3 directory and it open I install my cisco Iso image but when i try to open comandline it doesnot open and i could not config my router.I have FEDORA 11.
Hi there Oleg, thanks for your comment I think the problem is that GNS3 by default use xterm as the terminal application for dynamips and that is not installed, you could install it with yum install xterm or simply install putty and configure GNS3 to use that as illustrated on the post. If this still does not solve your problem maybe you did not install all dependencies for GNS3.
Let me know if this solved your problem or not and I'll try to help you further troubleshoot this.
Lethe.
well xterm was install alredy in my fedora before but it does not work. I tried to install GNS3 as you said but it was the same.I still can not configure my router.
Hmmm werid, one thing to check is that Dynamips is actually starting (you can test this under the settings menu of GNS3 if it is green you’re good to go). I’ve mentioned xterm because I read you were running Fedora 12 (not 11 as you wrote) as xterm it’s not installed by default.
Other things to check are that your firewall is not actually blocking ports used by Dynamips and that you don’t multiple versions of Python installed, this once happened to me and GNS3 silently refused to start.
By the way have you tried using putty instead of xterm as the terminal application? If the routers and Dynamips are starting normally the problem should lay there.
Lethe.
No i have Fedora 11. Can you tell me how i can see if i have multiple versions of Python installed and solve this problem if i really have it. And what ports need to be opened for my firewall.
I tried to work with putty but it is the same problem when I try to log into the router for a second window appears and disappears then.
And i want to show one pictures with my GNS3,how can i do it ?maybe then you can help me more.
Hi there, you can easily find my email address in the contact page and send me the images via mail, just keep in mind I’m not able to reply immediatly due to the fact I don’t have access to the internet for most of the day.
Regarding the Pythong thing I can’t be sure that is the problem, that was something happened to me in the past but you can easily check that with an rpm -qa | grep python and check the results, if you’re using something like Yumex (gui front end to yum) just open it and type python” in the search box and see which version is installed.
Regarding the firewall you have to check Dynamips settings, the ports used by the hypervisor are reported there, bydefault if memory serves it uses Base port 7200, UDP 10000 and 2000 for the console access.
I’ll be waiting for your follow up, cheer Lethe.