PacketTracer
Cisco Packet Tracer is a powerful network simulation program that allows students to experiment with network behavior and ask “what if” questions. As an integral part of the Networking Academy comprehensive learning experience, Packet Tracer provides simulation, visualization, authoring, assessment, and collaboration capabilities and facilitates the teaching and learning of complex technology concepts. Source
Disclaimer
Understand if you have permission from Cisco Systems to use this software. If you do not meet eligibility, discontinue your progress and consider alternatives such as GNS3.
Installation
Download source package tarball
packettracerAUR can not be installed using automated methods (e.g. AUR helper) because the software's tarball must be installed first before building the package.
So, first acquire the build files for packettracerAUR package.
Download Packet Tracer deb package
It is time to download the Packet Tracer deb package distributed in Cisco's website so it can be used to build packettracerAUR for Arch Linux.
- Log into Cisco Networking Academy (netcad) using your Cisco Account. Register an account if you do not have it.
- Once in the Networking Academy portal, download the Packet Tracer from Resources menu > Download Packet Tracer (you should land in here). The downloaded filename should be something like
PacketTracer_800_amd64_build212_final.deb
. - Place the .deb file inside the folder where packettracerAUR's build files are located—that is the same folder where the PKGBUILD file is found.
Build and install
With all the build files and the deb file ready, time to build and install:
- Change the directory to where build files (e.g.
PKGBUILD
) are (if you are not in there already) - Build the package; alternatively, build in a clean chroot
- Install the package.
End-user License Agreement
Finally, please read the copyright file at /usr/share/licenses/packettracer/COPYRIGHT
for the End-user License Agreement (EULA) and the Supplemental End-user License Agreement (SEULA), and uninstall if you do not agree with them. If you agree, the program can be found under most menu systems in the Internet category, or you run the packettracer binary.
Assessment environment check
The Cisco Packet Tracer-based Assessment Environment Check is used to confirm that students can start packet tracer activities for assessments such as practice and final exams. It is critical that you have a working version of Java installed. Perform the check at https://assessment.netacad.net/check/check.html to confirm whether or not this ability is functional.
javaws PT-Assessment-Client.jnlp
Troubleshooting
Crashes under Wayland
If Packet Tracer crashes when started in a Wayland session, try running it with the QT_QPA_PLATFORM
environment variable set to xcb
. See Wayland#Qt for more details.