There are various ways to get 3rd party applications running on the DNS-323. One of it is to compile the program into binaries suited for DNS-323 environment and run it. The other way would be setting up a debian environment on the DNS-323. This type you can compile sources on your own and run on the debian. Kind of kind another Operating System within the DNS-323′s Operating System. No matter which way you choose to go, you would require telnet access, so check out the entry on enabling telnet access on DNS-323.

In this entry we are going the debian way. More advanced users can choose to compile their own images of debian for use on DNS-323. Users like me would pretty much prefer precompiled images that are available to the public.

There are 2 available images:
Debian Sarge 3.1 (83MB) and Debian Edge 4.0 (169MB). Personally I am using the latter so I will be writing this entry in etch flavor.

Pre-requisites
1. Telnet access to DNS-323
2. Internet connectivity for DNS-323

Step 1
Download Debian Edge 4.0 (169MB) to your DNS-323′s Volume_1 share. What I meant by downloading to the share is that you download it to the network drive. So it should look like

\\DNS-323\Volume_1\etch.tar

Step 2
Telnet into your DNS-323 and you should be greeted by a command prompt (if you have followed the telnet guide correctly). Next issue the following commands.

# cd /mnt/HD_a2
# ./lnx_bin/busybox3 tar -xf etch.tar

It will take some time for archive to unpack. When the command prompt is back to you. Issue the following command to trigger the Debian environment

# ./lnx_bin/busybox3 chroot etch

You should be in a new shell in the Debian root with the following prompt

sh-3.1#

Step 3
Update your /etc/resolv.conf so that it can resolve hostnames! You can edit the file using the vi command or simply use the command (echo “nameserver 208.67.222.222″ >> /etc/resolv.conf). We will be using opendns in this example. My /etc/resolv.conf now looks like this

nameserver 208.67.222.222

Step 4
You would need to update the packages. So type in the following commands.

sh-3.1# apt-get update
sh-3.1# apt-get dist-upgrade

You should be greeting by a long list of of updates. Let it run while you go for a short coffee break.

Step 5
Secure your new environment by setting a password for root.

sh-3.1# passwd root

Step 6
Installing of various packages so that you can compile sources.

sh-3.1# apt-get install gcc
sh-3.1# apt-get install make
sh-3.1# apt-get install unzip
sh-3.1# apt-get install flex bison
sh-3.1# apt-get install g++
sh-3.1# apt-get install gawk

Your Debian should be fully set up by now. Everytime you wish to access it, you would need to first telnet into your DNS-323 after which you would chroot etch. If you wish to auto start Debian then you would need to edit your fun_plug file. Have fun.