It's theorically possible to setup a VPN server on an EV3

[eldablo81]

I was tinkering with my EV3 in which i downloaded the ev3dev mod whoch allow to run linux on it, and i was wondering if I can run on it a VPN server using OpenVPN or WireGuard. I mean i think it's possible, it will run very poorly but still possible.

[Eigenvektor]

If you can run Linux on it, then you should be able to install OpenVPN on it, yeah.

 

~says here it's based on Debian. So you should have access to its packages, which includes both OpenVPN and Wireguard.

[NoLeafClover]

Theoretically, yes, it should be possible. Wireguard would be significantly lighter on a lower end hardware, and much simpler to configure. If the package is already available through apt then both should work.

 

4 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

~says here it's based on Debian. So you should have access to its packages

Debian-based does not necessarily imply full access to Debian's packages. It's possible that they "repackage" a subset of Debian's packages are serve them through their own repository. This should be obvious from "/etc/apt/sources.list" and/or "/etc/apt/sources.list.d". If the file(s) contain direct reference to upstream Debian mirror, and likely the addition of a bespoke e3dev mirror, then you will have full access to the Debian packages. On the other hand, if the files only reference e3dev mirrors, then chances are some (or maybe all) of Debian's packages are repackaged/mirrored and made available.

 

Given that Debian "stretch" is over 7 years old atm and upstream support has long ended, I suspect e3dev serve repackaged versions of all of the packages that they make available. If a package is missing, you may be able to get the latest upstream for the target architecture, but it can be a tricky endeavour as you'll also need to take into account any and all necessary dependencies.

 

It doesn't look like they have a newer release, unfortunately.

 

There's also the option to compile from source... but this too can be cumbersome on low-end hardware and you might not be able to get the latest versions to compile against older libraries. Trying is one way to know.

[Ralphred]

6 hours ago, eldablo81 said:

very poorly

I don't think so, well I'm slightly above 50/50 on the matter; VPN's are relatively simple, the heavy lifting is done at a kernel level, as long as the hardware supports the "heavy lifting" modules I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

I'll consider it a success if you manage to make a router than can plug/unplug it's own WAN connection!

[eldablo81]

Little Update:

Im going to try using openvpn since wireguard is not availeble for installing (i dont know why)

[NoLeafClover]

4 hours ago, eldablo81 said:

wireguard is not availeble for installing (i dont know why)

Likely due to the archaic version of Debian - "stretch" is quite old (released 2017) and Wireguard was in its very days then. Wireguard kernel modules didn't enter the mainline kernel tree until 2020 and it for Debian it was a few months later.

 

Unless e3dev is upgradeable to a more modern version, which I would strongly recommend, you might be stuck with whatever it currently has.