In order to manipulate bridges and tun devices we need two programs, "brctl" and "tunctl". There are Debian packages for these which can be installed as follows:
#apt-get install bridge-utils uml-utilities
Gentoo users can do the following:
#emerge bridge-utils usermode-utilities
If you don't happen to be using Debian or Gentoo, alternative links are below.
| Package | URL |
|---|---|
| Bridge Utils (RPM) | bridge-utils-0.9.6-1.i386.rpm |
| Bridge Utils (Source) | bridge-utils-0.9.6.tar.gz |
| Tun Utils (Source) | UML download page |
The links above were correct at the time of writing but it is advisable to check the bridge page at Sourceforge for the latest tools if you are not using a package manager. If you are using a RPM based distribution it may also be advisable to check and see if the bridge-utils package comes with it. The bridge-utils RPM supplied with Fedora Core 1 is reported to work.
Instructions for compiling the bridging utilities from a source archive can be found in the Bridge-STP-Howto.