4. Configure Free Radius to use Hotcakes
Now that you have the Hotcakes LAMP side of your 802.11 hotspot working we can continue by setting up Free Radius.
Hotcakes does not just use any version of Free Radius.
 | Hotcakes needs version 1.1.4 or above of Free Radius. Version 1.1.6 is recommended. Version 1.1.7 can cause problems. |
I know you might be tempted by just installing the version that comes standard with Ubuntu, but then you are in for a half baked solution.
This half baked solution will not be able to do proper book keeping of quotas for time or data (bytes).
 | As a technical note, I experienced problems with data quotas even with the latest Free Radius. Thus, this guide will show you how to use a custom Perl script to do proper book-keeping in conjunction with the latest compiled version of Free Radius. |
4.1. Compiling Free Radius
Before you compile version 1.1.6 of Free Radius, ensure the following packages are installed.
They ensure that Free Radius can use the Perl and MySQL modules.
sudo apt-get install build-essential libmysqlclient15-dev libperl-devIf you don't know how to install these packages on Ubuntu, please visit the InstallingSoftware page for more information.
You can download the latest version of Free Radius Here (version 1.1.7 as of this writing)
tar -xzvf freeradius-1.1.6.tar.gz cd freeradius-1.1.6 ./configure make sudo make installThis will install Free Radius in the '/usr/local' directory.
You can test to see if Free Radius works by issuing the following command:
sudo /usr/local/sbin/radiusd -XThis will start Free Radius in debug mode ( To stop it -> Ctrl+c).
4.2. Configure Free Radius the quick way
Rather than going through the setup of Free Radius step by step, we take the shorter route.
Copy the sample files
sudo cp /var/www/cake/hotcakes/db/radius/dictionary /usr/local/etc/raddb sudo cp /var/www/cake/hotcakes/db/radius/proxy.conf /usr/local/etc/raddb sudo cp /var/www/cake/hotcakes/db/radius/radiusd.conf /usr/local/etc/raddb sudo cp /var/www/cake/hotcakes/db/radius/rlm_perl.pm /usr/local/etc/raddb sudo cp /var/www/cake/hotcakes/db/radius/sql.conf /usr/local/etc/raddb sudo cp /var/www/cake/hotcakes/db/radius/sqlcounter.conf /usr/local/etc/raddb sudo cp /var/www/cake/hotcakes/db/radius/users /usr/local/etc/raddb sudo cp /var/www/cake/hotcakes/db/radius/dictionary.chillispot /usr/local/share/freeradiusChange the permissions and ownership.
sudo chown www-data. /usr/local/etc/raddb/proxy.conf sudo chmod 644 /usr/local/etc/raddb/dictionary
4.3. Specifying the paths used by Hotcakes
Hotcakes needs to know the location of files or directories. You need to verify that they are correct.
You can change these settings by going to the following page as the Admin 'Settings -> Paths & Misc'.
Table 3. Please verify the following
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| path_to_dictionary_files | /usr/local/share/freeradius/ |
| main_dictionary_file | /usr/local/etc/raddb/dictionary |
| location_of_radscenario | /var/www/cake/hotcakes/webroot/files/radscenario_wip |
| radius_proxy_file | /usr/local/etc/raddb/proxy.conf |
 | When you deviate from this standard install, you may have to tweak the 'radscenario_wip' file a bit. It is a Perl script. |
4.4. Testing the waters
Now you just need to restart Free Radius again, and then you can select any of the existing users in Hotcakes, click on its 'view' action (The magnifying glass), and select the 'Testing' tab.
Here you can select to test plain authentication, or authentication and accounting.
Depending on the user's profile, you will see how each time the accounting gets added, the user's 'cap' gets depleted in the feedback.
4.5. Making things permanent
We need to ensure Free Radius will start-up each time when the machine is rebooted.
sudo cp /usr/local/sbin/rc.radiusd /etc/init.d/radiusd sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/radiusd /etc/rc2.d/S80radiusd
This brings us to the last section, which will set up ChilliSpot. After that is completed, we will have a working hotspot.