[Openswan Users] Questions from a beginner ;)

[Thomas Henneberger]

Hello list

I want to set up a Linux-Box for VPN, and after reading tons of 
documents and howtos, I decided
to use Openswan, because it is well documented, has a Mailinglist and an 
Irc channel. But reading all that stuff still left me with some questions.

The first decision I have to make is what Distribution and Kernel to 
use. According to some docs
I read I could use a 2.6 Kernel with the internal IpSec-stack and just 
install the Userland-Tools, other docs tell me that using a 2.6 Kernel 
could make problems with Klips and the internal Ipsec stack. Some people 
told me to use a 2.4 Kernel and stick with Klips. Nate Carlson writes 
that a 2.4. Debian should work fine without touching the Kernel.
All that got me confused ;)

I decided to give this a try on a 9.1 Suse with a 2.6.5 Kernel, and it 
didn t work (ipsec verify returned no ipsec in kernel activated). I 
talked to a friend of mine (who knows a lot more about Linux then me) 
and he told me to use Debain instead.

So, my questions:
What distribution and kernel should I use? Please bear in mind that I am 
no Linux-Professional. I am willing to learn and read, but I need a good 
documentation !!! (I don´t think I could work with a sparsely documented 
developers release)

Thanks for your time and help, and greetings from Germany ;)

Thomas Henneberger