Hamachi Ubuntu Howto | Doug Melton

HOWTO: install Hamachi on Ubuntu

I used this tutorial as a beginning to install hamachi as a system service:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=135036

A) The ‘tun’ Module

The very first part of the Hamachi installation is to enable IP Tunnelling support in your kernel. This can be done like this:

Code:

sudo modprobe tun

then open your /etc/modules file and add tun to the list of modules:

Code:

 sudo gedit /etc/modules

If you are using a standard Ubuntu kernel, this should be all you need to do. However, if you compiled your own kernel, you made need to recompile it with IP Tunnelling support (only if you recieve an erro with ‘modprobe’). If anyone needs help installing the module, see HOWTO: Hamachi Linux Guide (2.4.x and 2.6.x) By Kamel

B) Installing Hamachi

Okay, now on to the actual Hamachi software. But first, we need to make sure that a valid tunnelling node has been created in /dev. This is done like this:

Code:

ls /dev/net/tun

If you get a “No Such File or Directory” error, you need to create a new node like this:

Code:

sudo mkdir /dev/net
sudo mknod /dev/net/tun c 10 200

Okay, now that we have a valid IP Tunnel node, time to install Hamachi.

Download the latest version of Hamachi from http://www.hamachi.cc/download.
(direct download here: http://files.hamachi.cc/linux/.)

Enter the directory where you downloaded it and here is how to install it:

Code:

#Extract the archive
tar -zxvf hamachi-0.9.9.9-x.tar.gz
cd hamachi-0.9.9.9-x/

#install Hamachi
sudo make install
sudo tuncfg

#Hamachi is installed

C) Setting User Permissions

For security sake, we are going to set the permissions of Hamachi so that it can only be started by members of the ‘hamachi’ group. This is done like so:

Code:

#Create the 'hamachi' group
sudo groupadd hamachi

#Add your user to the group
sudo gpasswd -a user hamachi

#Add root to the group
sudo gpasswd -a root hamachi

#Set socket permissions
sudo chmod 760 /var/run/tuncfg.sock

#Finally, changing the group of the file
sudo chgrp hamachi /var/run/tuncfg.sock

As of Ubuntu 9.10, the hamachi file no longer executed properly without immediately returning “Killed”, with an accompanying crash report. To fix this, I followed this hint at http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1241784.html:

Code:

sudo apt-get install upx-ucl

cd /usr/bin

sudo upx -d hamachi

Now that permissions are done, on to configuration.

D) Hamachi Configuration – System Service

Follow this section if you want Hamachi to run as a system service (in the background). I chose to list this method of configuration first because it seemed most relivant to the guide. If you want to have Hamachi run as a user application and install the gtk frontend, skip to section ‘E’.

D.1) Base Configuration

Creating an initial configuration can be done like so:

Code:

sudo hamachi-init -c /etc/hamachi

Result:

Initializing Hamachi configuration (/etc/hamachi). Please wait ..

  generating 2048-bit RSA keypair .. ok
  making /etc/hamachi directory .. ok
  saving /etc/hamachi/client.pub .. ok
  saving /etc/hamachi/client.pri .. ok
  saving /etc/hamachi/state .. ok

Authentication information has been created. Hamachi can now be started with
'hamachi start' command and then brought online with 'hamachi login'.

Okay, next is to start Hamachi:

Code:

sudo hamachi -c /etc/hamachi start

Now that we are up and running, you need to set your nickname:

Code:

sudo hamachi -c /etc/hamachi set-nick "YourNickHere"

Next, we need to login to Hamachi and then either login to an existing network or create a new one. Like this:

Code:

#Login to Hamachi
sudo hamachi -c /etc/hamachi login

#To join an existing network
sudo hamachi -c /etc/hamachi join network password

#Or to create a new network
sudo hamachi -c /etc/hamachi create network password

#Lastly, to go online to the network you joined
sudo hamachi -c /etc/hamachi go-online network

*NOTE ABOUT NETWORK PASSWORDS*

I would recommend visiting http://grc.com/passwords for a random string password. They are very strong passwords and adds to the security of your setup.

Now your machine is up and running on it’s own Hamachi VPN. The last part of the installation is a script written by Kamel that will allow Hamachi to run on startup.

D.2) Hamachi Startup Script

Open gedit and save the following as /etc/init.d/hamachi

Code:

#!/bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          hamachi
# Required-Start:    $remote_fs $syslog $network
# Required-Stop:     $remote_fs $syslog
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start hamachi at boot time
# Description:       Starts up hamachi daemon. Networking is required.
### END INIT INFO

hamachi_start() {
  echo "Starting hamachi..."
  /sbin/tuncfg
  /usr/bin/hamachi -c /etc/hamachi start
  /bin/chmod 760 /var/run/tuncfg.sock
  /bin/chgrp hamachi /var/run/tuncfg.sock
}

hamachi_stop() {
  echo "Stopping hamachi..."
  killall tuncfg
  /usr/bin/hamachi -c /etc/hamachi stop
}

hamachi_restart() {
  hamachi_stop
  sleep 1
  hamachi_start
}

case "$1" in
'start')
  hamachi_start
  ;;
'stop')
  hamachi_stop
  ;;
'restart')
  hamachi_restart
  ;;
*)
  hamachi_start
esac

Lastly, you need to make the script executable and add it to startup:

Code:

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/hamachi
sudo update-rc.d hamachi defaults

E) Hamachi Configuration – User Application

Follow this section if you want Hamachi to run as a user application and to use the pretty gtk frontend. If you want to have Hamachi run as a system service in the background, go back to section ‘D’.

E.1) Base Configuration

Creating an initial configuration can be done like so:

Code:

hamachi-init

Result:

Initializing Hamachi configuration (/home/user/.hamachi). Please wait ..

  generating 2048-bit RSA keypair .. ok
  making (/home/user/.hamachi directory .. ok
  saving (/home/user/.hamachi/client.pub .. ok
  saving (/home/user/.hamachi/client.pri .. ok
  saving (/home/user/.hamachi/state .. ok

Authentication information has been created. Hamachi can now be started with
'hamachi start' command and then brought online with 'hamachi login'.

Okay, next is to start Hamachi:

Code:

hamachi start

Now that we are up and running, you need to set your nickname:

Code:

hamachi set-nick "YourNickHere"

Next, we need to login to Hamachi and then either login to an existing network or create a new one. Like this:

Code:

#Login to Hamachi
hamachi login

#To join an existing network
hamachi join network password

#Or to create a new network
hamachi create network password

#Lastly, to go online to the network you joined
hamachi go-online network

*NOTE ABOUT NETWORK PASSWORDS*

I would recommend visiting http://grc.com/passwords for a random string password. They are very strong passwords and adds to the security of your setup.

Now your machine is up and running on it’s own Hamachi VPN. The last part of the installation is to install a GUI for Hamachi. Here is how that is done.

First, download hamachi-gui from sourceforge.

Second, simply install the hamachi-gui package.

Code:

sudo dpkg -i [downloaded file]

Start the GUI like this:

Code:

hamachi-gui

F) Tweak Network Routing

At first I could not ping the other members, and this fixed it:

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-208692.html

To check if the problem is caused by invalid routing entry do this:

Code:

ifconfig

Result:

ham0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:FF:CA:D0:F5:AA
inet addr:5.23.68.35 Bcast:5.255.255.255 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1200 Metric:1
RX packets:100 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:244 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:500
RX bytes:26780 (26.1 KB) TX bytes:21076 (20.5 KB)

The IP address of the ham0 interface is the IP of the gateway for all hamachi network bound connections. Check the routing table:

Code:

sudo route -n

Result (the 3rd line defines hamachi connections):

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
64.238.220.160 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.240 U 0 0 0 eth0
169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 1000 0 0 eth0
5.0.0.0 5.23.68.35 255.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 ham0
0.0.0.0 64.238.220.161 0.0.0.0 UG 100 0 0 eth0

If in the Gateway column you don’t see the IP of the ham0 interface, as it was the case with me, delete that line and create the correct routing entry for hamachi.

Code:

#delete invalid route:
sudo route del -net 5.0.0.0 gw 0.0.0.0 netmask 255.0.0.0 dev ham0

#add new route:
sudo route add -net 5.0.0.0 gw 5.23.68.35 netmask 255.0.0.0 dev ham0