Re: Upgrading Net-SNMP to 5.9 on Raspberry Pi OS (i.e. ARMHF Debian 10 Buster)?

Since you mentioned it Tobias,

In July of last year, I submitted a Debian backport request, but 
received no responses.

https://lists.debian.org/debian-backports/2020/07/msg00004.html

I realize of course that is not the same as RaspianOS, but this is the 
first mention I've seen since then.

Thanks,

John


On 25-Feb-2021 2:37 AM, Tobias Frost wrote:
> Hi Dachshund,
>
> (chiming in as /me being is involved in the Debian project. I'm not involved
> in maintaining net-snmp though)
>
> Am Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 01:59:03PM -0800 schrieb Dachshund Digital:
>> So, Raspberry Pi OS, latest of this date, only has Net-SNMP 5.7.3 available
>> in the official repository.
>> The package owner of the Debian 10 (Buster) package for Pi OS, has not
>> updated the official package for a very long time as well, it appears.
> (One important correction: RaspianOS != Debian. Is is "just" derived
> from Debian but there are many differences as well.  But you can run
> Debian on a Pi.  I will talk about Debian below, it is likely that this
> at least partly not applicable to RaspianOS, for example I dont know if
> they roll a backport or testing suite.)
>
> I think you a refering to Debian stable, likely Debian 10 (buster), as
> buster has 5.7.3. For stable releases, the Debian promise is stability:
> stable releases will generally not get new upstream versions.  This is
> why buster is "only" at 5.7.3.
>
> If you look at https://tracker.debian.org/net-snmp, you'll see the
> package has been updated since then. Testing is at 5.9 testing will
> become the next stable, once ready; Debian is currently freezing, Debian
> 11 (bullseye) is expected to be released sometime this summer)
>
>> I figured I should be able to compile 5.9, which I downloaded and compiled
>> using the posted instructions on Source Forge.  Other than the tweak for
>> shared library issue, and a few compiler warnings, the make and make install
>> worked fine.  I did have to add the libperl-dev package as well. but I
>> suspect that is only because running ./configure I accepted all the
>> defaults, which includes the Perl support?
>>
>> But I have a few questions outstanding.
>>
>> 1) Is there a better way to upgrade to 5.9?  Right now I have 5.7.3 and 5.9
>> both, which I don't really need.
> While you can of course compile yourself and install on Debian, it is
> not recommended, for the reasons described here:
> https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian
>
> Compiling yourself and make install it will likely cause troubles down
> the road, latest when you apt update to a new package version.
>
> Your options could include (in no particular order)
> - Filing a bug in the Debian BTS asking for a "backport".
> - Downloading the new Debian-package source and doing a backport yourself
>    (basically get the debian package sources and try to make a package out
>     of it;)
> - Waiting for bullseye to be released.
>
> (Backports are described here: https://backports.debian.org/)
>
> - If you feel experienced enough and ready to fix stuff if broken:
>    (For a Pi this might be feasible, as you could backup your SD card
>    before trying; otherwise this'd be not recommended)
>    - As Debian is currently freezing, cherry-picking net-snmp from the
>      "testing" distribution might be an alternative.
>    - you might even give "testing" a spin
>
>> 2) Since I already had the current official package installed,
>> /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf existed, is there anything new or special under 5.9
>> that is different from 5.7.3 in the snmpd.conf of key importance?  Ran
>> snmpconf -g basic_setup, to generate a newer conf file, seems to work fine,
>> I did not setup any OID restrictions.
> Before make install-ing anything, you should remove (or even purge, but
> backup the config before!) the Debian packages. But after make install,
> there is no guarantee that you'll be able to install the packages again
> without $fixing, though unlikely if you go for /usr/local or /opt.
>
>> 3) I had to make a small change to the unit file for snmpd, to match the one
>> referenced in the 5.9 sources.  This change included changes to the path and
>> the command line parameters for snmpd. Can someone please explain why the
>> drastic change in the command line parameters used with 5.7.3, but not 5.9?
>>
>> For example... Original 5.9 unit file I had to change the path...
> (systemd unit snipped)
>
> Yes, in your use case this change is correct.
> The path is because of the local rebuild and make install. (According to
> the Linux FSH, software not from the distribution should go to
> /usr/local or /opt) So the default from net-snmp is sane.
>
>
> Am Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 08:26:25PM -0800 schrieb Bart Van Assche:
>> On 2/24/21 1:59 PM, Dachshund Digital wrote:
>>> Type=simple
>>> #ExecStart=/usr/sbin/snmpd -f
>>> ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/snmpd -f
>> The snmpd path is set at configure time. If you want snmpd to be
>> installed into the /usr/sbin folder, please add --prefix=/usr to the
>> configure options (the default is --prefix=/usr/local).
> Please don't for a local build. This will make going back to the
> official Debian packages harder.
>
>>> And the 5.7.3 unit file was quite different, especially the command line
>>> parameters for snmpd...
>> Hmm ... I'm not aware of any command-line parameter changes?
>>
>>> 3) I have done a few basic snmp queries, and so far so good, I think.
>>> Anything I am missing here?  Interesting that the snmpd.conf location
>>> has changed to /usr/local/share/snmp/.
>> Please add --prefix=/usr to the configure options to make snmpd read
>> snmpd.conf from /usr/share/snmp.
> See above.
> Beside that, according to the FSH configuration is expeced in /etc… So
> the Debian package ships it in /etc/snmpd/snmpd.conf. The /usr hierachy
> should be considered to be read-only. (and even be shared between
> hosts.)
>
> Am Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 09:39:07PM -0800 schrieb Dachshund Digital:
>> Bart,
>>
>> Thanks for the reply.  Very informative.
>>
>> One question... Since I accepted all the defaults... and use the official
>> configuration tool?  Should it not default to the correct path for the conf
>> file?
>>
>> Also, the 5.9 unit file has 'snmpd -f' as the only parameter. But the debian
>> 5.7.3 package has the following...
>>
>> snmpd -Lsd -Lf /dev/null -u Debian-snmp -g Debian-snmp -I
>> -smux,mteTrigger,mteTriggerConf -f -p /run/snmpd.pid
>> Maybe the package owner customized?  Specification appears to customize
>> logging, set UID and GID values (not sure what these address from memory),
>> don't fork shell (same as 5.9) and specify the PID file.
> Yes, this is the Debian integration part: My guesses are that Debian
> creates the user/group Debian-snmp when installing the package, so that
> snmp has not to be run as root. and it is not forking, because this is
> how you should do it in systemd unit files.
>
> FWIW, the systemd service file in the Debian package is maintained here:
> https://salsa.debian.org/debian/net-snmp/-/blob/master/debian/snmpd.service
>


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