• RADIUSdesk can function perfectly without CoovaChilli.
• CoovaChilli however is the best open source captive portal software around.
• If you want to install CoovaChilli on a machine; make sure that there are at least two functional network cards present.
• One network card will be used by CoovaChilli as the Internet connection (WAN).
• The second network card will be used to run a captive portal on (LAN).
• This captive portal is created by the CoovaChilli program who in turn receives it's instructions from FreeRADIUS (RADIUSdesk)

• The version of CoovaChilli is 1.5 as of this writing.
• We will download and build the .deb package from source.
• First ensure the required packages to build the .deb package are installed.

sudo apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev libjson-c-dev gengetopt
sudo apt install devscripts debhelper

• Download the release 1.5's .tar.gz file of the source here: https://github.com/coova/coova-chilli/releases
• A point of interest is that although the source's tar file specifies it as version 1.5; the package itself will be specified as 1.4.
• Before we can build the package, we have to remove a dependency (hasrl) specified in the Debian control file.
• This dependency is not required and including it causes trouble when you want to install the package.

tar -xzvf 1.5.tar.gz
cd coova-chilli-1.5/
 
 
vi debian/control
#Look for this part
#------
#Depends:
# ${shlibs:Depends},
# iptables,
# haserl,
# adduser,
#------
#------ CHANGE TO THIS (remove haserl as a dependency)
#------
#Depends:
# ${shlibs:Depends},
# iptables,
# adduser,
#-----
 
debuild -i -us -uc -b
cd ..
sudo dpkg --install coova-chilli_1.4_amd64.deb

• From the output of the dpkg command you will see that CoovaChilli is by default disabled. In the next section we will configure it to become a working entity.
• You can also see it is listed as version 1.4 although we actually downloaded and built version 1.5

 sudo dpkg --install coova-chilli_1.4_amd64.deb
[sudo] password for system:
Selecting previously unselected package coova-chilli.
(Reading database ... 119514 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack coova-chilli_1.4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking coova-chilli (1.4) ...
Setting up coova-chilli (1.4) ...
Chilli default off. Look at /etc/default/chilli
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.27-3ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (237-3ubuntu10.33) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-21) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-2ubuntu0.1) ...

• Edit the following file

    sudo vi /etc/default/chilli

• Change it to look like this

    START_CHILLI=1
    CONFFILE="/etc/chilli.conf"
    HS_USER="chilli"

• Save the file and start CoovaChilli

   sudo systemctl enable chilli
   # Feedback code should be...
   # chilli.service is not a native service, redirecting to systemd-sysv-install.
   # Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable chilli
   sudo systemctl start chilli

• Check the feedback on our startup attempt.

sudo systemctl status chilli

• Because we have not yet configured anything; we do get some errors. This will be fixed and Coova should run fine once we configured the program.

● chilli.service - LSB: Start CoovaChilli daemon at boot time
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/chilli; generated)
   Active: active (exited) since Fri 2019-12-20 20:07:51 UTC; 1s ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
  Process: 14452 ExecStop=/etc/init.d/chilli stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 14491 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/chilli start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 
Dec 20 20:07:51 osboxes chilli[14580]: TX queue length set to 100
Dec 20 20:07:51 osboxes coova-chilli[14585]: PID 14585 loading binary options file /var/run/chilli.14580.cfg.bin
Dec 20 20:07:51 osboxes coova-chilli[14585]: Loading modules
Dec 20 20:07:51 osboxes coova-chilli[14585]: USER root(0/0), GROUP root(0/0) CHILLI[UID 113, GID 116]
Dec 20 20:07:51 osboxes coova-chilli[14585]: Running /etc/chilli/up.sh (0/0)
Dec 20 20:07:51 osboxes chilli[14580]: No such device: ioctl(SIOCSIFFLAGS) failed on eth1
Dec 20 20:07:51 osboxes chilli[14580]: No such device: ioctl(SIOCSIFFLAGS) failed
Dec 20 20:07:51 osboxes chilli[14580]: No such device: ioctl(SIOCSIFADDR) failed
Dec 20 20:07:51 osboxes chilli[14580]: No such device: ioctl(d=2, request=35111) failed
Dec 20 20:07:51 osboxes chilli[14580]: Failed to create dhcp listener on eth1

• CoovaChilli is configured by editing or creating certain files under the /etc/chilli directory.
• Before we proceed with the config we have to touch the bit about our interfaces.
• For CoovaChilli to work correct; there needs to be at least two network interfaces on the machine. (Excluding the loopback interface lo)
• One interface will be directly connected to the Internet. We will refer to this interface as the WAN interface
• The other interface will be running the captive portal on top of it. We will refer to this interface as the LAN interface.
• With previous versions of Ubuntu, the network interfaces would have fairly predictable names like eth0 and eth1.
• With the current versions of Ubuntu, the naming convention changed.
• We would advice you to issue the ip addr command to see which it present.

 ip addr
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:00:27:fe:57:09 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.1.111/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic enp0s3
       valid_lft 256221sec preferred_lft 256221sec
    inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fefe:5709/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: enp0s8: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:00:27:8c:d3:32 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe8c:d332/64 scope link

• Using this, on our system, the WAN will be enp0s3 and the LAN will be enp0s8.
• Next lets look at how to configure CoovaChilli under /etc/chilli.

• Use the following /etc/chilli/config file as a guideline to configure CoovaChilli

HS_LANIF=enp0s8              # Subscriber Interface for client devices
HS_NETWORK=10.1.0.0        # HotSpot Network (must include HS_UAMLISTEN)
HS_NETMASK=255.255.0.0     # HotSpot Network Netmask
HS_UAMLISTEN=10.1.0.1      # HotSpot IP Address (on subscriber network)
HS_UAMPORT=3990            # HotSpot UAM Port (on subscriber network)
HS_UAMUIPORT=4990          # HotSpot UAM "UI" Port (on subscriber network, for embedded portal)
HS_NASID=localhost
HS_RADIUS=localhost
HS_RADIUS2=localhost
HS_RADSECRET=testing123    # Set to be your RADIUS shared secret
HS_UAMSECRET=greatsecret     # Set to be your UAM secret
HS_UAMALIASNAME=chilli
HS_SSID="Struisbaai"
HS_NASIP=127.0.0.1    # To explicitly set NAS-IP-Address
HS_UAMSERVER=$HS_UAMLISTEN
HS_UAMFORMAT=http://\$HS_UAMLISTEN/cake2/rd_cake/dynamic_details/chilli_browser_detect/
HS_MACAUTH=on              # To turn on MAC Authentication
HS_TCP_PORTS="80 23 8000"
HS_MODE=hotspot
HS_TYPE=chillispot
HS_WWWDIR=/etc/chilli/www
HS_WWWBIN=/etc/chilli/wwwsh
HS_PROVIDER=Coova
HS_PROVIDER_LINK=http://www.coova.org/
HS_LOC_NAME="My HotSpot"           # WISPr Location Name and used in portal
HS_COAPORT=3799

• Comment the following line out of /etc/chilli/defaults.

#   Same principal goes for HS_UAMHOMEPAGE.
#HS_UAMHOMEPAGE=http://\$HS_UAMLISTEN:\$HS_UAMPORT/www/coova.html

• Also comment the DNS server settings out in /etc/chilli/defaults to force CoovaChilli to use the DNS servers of the system that it is running on.

# OpenDNS Servers
#HS_DNS1=208.67.222.222
#HS_DNS2=208.67.220.220

• Use the following /etc/chilli/ipup.sh file as a guideline

#UAM server specified as 10.1.0.1 
iptables -I INPUT -i tun0 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 --dst 10.1.0.1 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -i tun0 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 443 --dst 10.1.0.1 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -i tun0 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 22 --dst 10.1.0.1 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -i tun0 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 8000 --dst 10.1.0.1 -j ACCEPT

• Use the following /etc/chilli/ipdown.sh file as a guideline

#UAM server specified as 10.1.0.1 
iptables -D INPUT -i tun0 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 --dst 10.1.0.1 -j ACCEPT
iptables -D INPUT -i tun0 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 443 --dst 10.1.0.1 -j ACCEPT
iptables -D INPUT -i tun0 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 22 --dst 10.1.0.1 -j ACCEPT
iptables -D INPUT -i tun0 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 8000 --dst 10.1.0.1 -j ACCEPT

• By default CoovaChilli does not do NAT between the two interfaces. We have to add NAT support during start-up in order to have a working system.

• Edit the /etc/init.d/chilli file and add the following:

test ${HS_ADMINTERVAL:-0} -gt 0 && {
    (crontab -l 2>&- | grep -v $0
        echo "*/$HS_ADMINTERVAL * * * * $0 radconfig"
        ) | crontab - 2>&-
}
 
#NAT mod
iptables -F POSTROUTING -t nat
iptables -I POSTROUTING -t nat -o $HS_WANIF -j MASQUERADE
#END NAT mod
 
ifconfig $HS_LANIF 0.0.0.0

• Restart CoovaChilli for the latest changes to be effected.

sudo /etc/init.d/chilli stop
sudo /etc/init.d/chilli start

• Confirm it started fine

sudo tail /var/log/messages
 
.......
 
May 23 13:17:01 RADIUSdesk-Beta1-1 CRON[2427]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
May 23 13:18:28 RADIUSdesk-Beta1-1 coova-chilli[2109]: chilli.c: 5511: DHCP Released MAC=08-00-27-90-61-AE IP=10.1.0.2
May 23 13:20:48 RADIUSdesk-Beta1-1 crontab[2444]: (root) LIST (root)
May 23 13:20:48 RADIUSdesk-Beta1-1 crontab[2446]: (root) REPLACE (root)
May 23 13:20:48 RADIUSdesk-Beta1-1 coova-chilli[2109]: chilli.c: 7544: CoovaChilli shutting down
May 23 13:20:48 RADIUSdesk-Beta1-1 coova-chilli[2448]: main-script.c: 94: Running /etc/chilli/down.sh (107/0)
May 23 13:20:51 RADIUSdesk-Beta1-1 coova-chilli[2561]: CoovaChilli(ChilliSpot) 1.3.0. Copyright 2002-2005 Mondru AB. Licensed under GPL. Copyright 2006-2012 David Bird (Coova Technologies) <support@coova.com>. Licensed under GPL. See http://www.coova.org/ for details.
May 23 13:20:51 RADIUSdesk-Beta1-1 coova-chilli[2561]: tun.c: 605: TX queue length set to 100
May 23 13:20:51 RADIUSdesk-Beta1-1 coova-chilli[2563]: main-script.c: 94: Running /etc/chilli/up.sh (0/0)
May 23 13:21:01 RADIUSdesk-Beta1-1 cron[809]: (root) RELOAD (crontabs/root)
 
.......

• Ensure that CoovaChilli will start up after reboots.

sudo update-rc.d chilli start 99 2 3 4 5 . stop 20 0 1 6 .

• Reboot the system and make sure CoovaChilli started up fine