====== Installing MLDonkey 3.2.1 ======

How to have MLDonkey running on a **Debian 12 Bookworm**.

===== Compiling the source code =====

The compilation procedure can be executed on a development machine, where you install all the required packages. Then you can copy only the **mlnet** binary into the production host.

Download the source code from the new **[[https://github.com/ygrek/mldonkey|GitHub repository]]** (the old [[http://mldonkey.sourceforge.net/|Sourceforge repository]] was abandoned in August 2023). We downloaded the tag **Release 3.2.1**.

<code>
mkdir -p /usr/local/src/mldonkey
cd /usr/local/src/mldonkey
wget https://github.com/ygrek/mldonkey/archive/refs/tags/release-3-2-1.zip
unzip mldonkey-release-3-2-1.zip
</code>

Some Debian packages are required to make the basic compile. We don't need the **GUI**, so we compile to have only the **Command Line Interface** (CLI) and the **web interface**; the package ''liblablgtk2-gnome-ocaml-dev'' referred by the build instructions is not required:

<code>
apt install ocaml camlp4 libnum-ocaml-dev
</code>

You may want to install some additional libraries to get more options working:

<code>
apt install libmagic-dev libgd-dev libbz2-dev
</code>

<code>
/usr/local/src/mldonkey/mldonkey-release-3-2-1
./configure
make
make install
</code>

The binary **mlnet** can be copied into another machine **(/usr/local/bin/** is the suggested directory). You can verify tha all the libraries are insalled using the command **ldd mlnet**.

===== Running as non-privileged user =====

<code>
mkdir /var/lib/mldonkey
addgroup --system mldonkey
adduser --system --home /var/lib/mldonkey --no-create-home \
    --shell /usr/sbin/nologin --ingroup mldonkey mldonkey
chown -h mldonkey:mldonkey /var/lib/mldonkey
chown -R mldonkey:mldonkey /var/lib/mldonkey/
</code>

<code>
su --shell=/bin/bash - mldonkey
</code>

If the program is started by the root user, you can force a setuid to the non privileged user by settings into the **downloads.ini** the following option (in the example the 128 is the GID of the MLDonkey user):

<file>
run_as_useruid = 128
</file>

FIXME Need to create a **systemd unit** to start the program.


==== Logging ====

<code>
mkdir /var/log/mldonkey
chown -R mldonkey:mldonkey /var/log/mldonkey
</code>

FIXME Need to create the **/etc/logrotate.d/mldonkey-server** logrotate file.

===== Opening the firewall =====

===== Using the Command Line Interface =====

<code>
telnet localhost 4000
</code>

<code>
> auth admin MySecret
Full access enabled
</code>


===== Initializing the server list =====

As explaind into this [[https://www.emule-security.org/e107_plugins/faq/faq.php?0.cat.6.5|eMule FAQ]], you need a list of some servers to initialize your client to the p2p network.

The default URL used by MLDonkey to fetch the server list is **[[http://www.gruk.org/server.met.gz]]**, but it seems outdated now (October 2024). So we fetched the list from the URL provided by the FAQ: **[[http://upd.emule-security.org/server.met]]**.

FIXME: How to fetch from the URL or alternatively how to get the file and copy it into the MLDonkey home directory.

To view the servers listed by the emule-security.org site in an human-readable format, visit the URL **[[https://www.emule-security.org/serverlist/]]**; so you can view each IP address and port. You can manually add each server from the MLDonkey command line:

<code>
> n 45.82.80.155 5687
New server 45.82.80.155:5687
</code>

===== Initializing the Kademlia network =====

As explained by this [[https://www.emule-security.org/e107_plugins/faq/faq.php?0.cat.6.6|eMule FAQ]], a list of some other users already connected to the Kademlia network can be downloaded here: **[[http://upd.emule-security.org/nodes.dat]]**.

Copy the **nodes.dat** file into the MLDonkey home directory and execute the following MLDonkey command line:

<code>
> kad_load nodes.dat
285 overnet peers loaded
</code>

Then you can check if the connection succeeded:

<code>
> kad_stats
Kademlia is enabled
Kademlia Connectivity: NOT enough online peers ,there maybe a problem with incoming udp packets
</code>

It is possibile also to boot the Kademlia network with just one peer using the command:

<code>
> kad_boot <ip> <port>
</code>

The Kademlia network **is not properly initialized** if you have zero peers:

<code>
> kad_boots
Boot peers: 0
</code>

===== The GeoIP database =====

===== Web References =====

  * **[[https://www.emule-security.org/e107_plugins/faq/faq.php?0.cat.6.6|How to connect to Kademlia network?]]**
  * **[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kademlia|Kademlia (Wikipedia)]]**
  * **[[https://medium.com/coinmonks/a-brief-overview-of-kademlia-and-its-use-in-various-decentralized-platforms-da08a7f72b8f|A Brief Overview of Kademlia]]**
  * **[[https://mailfud.org/geoip-legacy/|Free updated GeoIP legacy databases]]**