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Posts Tagged ‘arch’

set up ssh / encrypted socks tunnel

Posted by jamba on July 19, 2010

So I had started this a long time ago, and forgotten all about it as I really didn’t have a use for it.  Now that I have the ability to tether, and I have my eeePC working again, combined with attending LUGs–now I have the use for a secure tunnel.

In case you aren’t aware (I wasn’t), passwords and logins are sent in PLAIN TEXT–yes, I said plain text.  Nuts, huh?  Anyway, so when you are not on a known or somewhat secure network, this could be dangerous.

Setting up SSH is very easy to do, and it comes in very handy.  ArchLinux has a terrific wiki entry, as usual, which speedifies things quite a bit.  It is very straightforward, and I can certainly not do better here.

There is also a section for creating an encrypted SOCKS tunnel.  Once the SSH on the client and SSHd on the host have been configured, creating the tunnel is a breeze.  You just run a command:

$ ssh -ND 4711 user@host
and then configure your web browser:
  • For Firefox: Edit → Preferences → Advanced → Network → Connection → Setting:
Check the “Manual proxy configuration” radio button, and enter “localhost” in the “SOCKS host” text field, and then enter your port number in the next text field (I used 4711 above).
Make sure you select SOCKS4 as the protocol to use. This procedure will not work for SOCKS5.
I created a bash alias “sshtunnel” as menoned in the wiki so I have less to type.
Also worth mentioning, is that since my IP is dynamic, and my ssh host computer is behind a router, I have to have some kind of way to broadcast my REAL ip externally.  So, I wen on over to DynDNS.com and set up a free account for a subdmain. Then I just configured my router to forward my ssh port, as well as tell it to update DynDNS with my real IP address when it changes (It has been a built-in feature with my current Netgear as well as my past LinkSys routers).
Very simple, over all.  And it can definitely come in handy.   I have @NYBill to thank again, he reminded me I needed to finish setting this up.

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Making Backups

Posted by jamba on February 22, 2010

Backups can be very important, no one wants to lose any of their data–especially if it has happened to you before.

I have previously setup my x64 desktop PC with softRAID, so everything I have in my /home folder is mirrored across 2 drives.  However, I am not sure if I am overly paranoid, or maybe I just like to be extra secure because now I have implemented an additional backup measure.

It started when I read some of this stuff about backups and solutions, so I decided I should probably do something similar.  The one from distrowatch really pushed me a long though, as the Q&A thing really made sense.

To start off, I began by reading the ArchWiki backup tools page: wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Backup_Programs.  I chose to try a few of them, I didn’t like arch-backup, backerupper didn’t really work the way I liked.  A few more just didn’t work for me. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in linux | Tagged: , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Intel Wireless pains on a Sony VAIO (mirrorlist snafu part 2)

Posted by jamba on February 15, 2010

As I mentioned in the last post, I re-installed Arch onto my laptop.  This went very well, and quickly–everything really fell into place.  I was going by the beginner’s guide, as detailed previously, but it was not really needed this time.

Where I left off last time, Xorg was installed and I was about to install Gnome.  That went well enough, although I had to re-rank my mirrors and put the most updated first as there was some kind of discrepancy with some that had not been sync’ed in a few days.

I then started having problems with…wireless, of all things.   It would work manually:

ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid x key xxxx 
dhcpcd wlan0

On boot, however it would not work.  Oddly enough, I had done all of the updating and everything to this point on a wired connection…all of a sudden, the wired connection won’t work, either.

Read the rest of this entry »

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doh! (mirrorlist snafu)

Posted by jamba on February 12, 2010

So, I’ve been rolling along find with my Arch Linux installs.  Well, almost.  When I installed the system on my laptop, I had somehow forgotten the root password, but was still able to do everything with sudo.

However, I could not run rankmirrors with sudo, so I figured “hey, I can run rankmirrors on my desktop, and then copy that mirrorlist file over to the laptop”–good idea, right?  Yeah…if your laptop and desktop are both the same architecture.  My laptop is 32 bit, and my desktop is 64 bit.  That did not work out so well, and I realized exactly what I had done as soon as I hit ‘enter’ after typing “powerpill -Syu’.  Okay, after the installation started, if I had realized sooner I could have hit ctrl+C to stop it.

Anyway, this gave me an excuse to do a fresh install.  I thought about just doing Ubuntu or something easier like that, but I really think I like Arch too much.  This time actually went really smooth. X worked without a hitch, all of the other setup was a no-brainer.  I have still made use of the beginner’s guide document, though.  Now I am just installing gnome, and I am more or less done, just a few small things left to set up.

At least this time I remember my root password!

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in linux | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Some Stuff

Posted by jamba on January 12, 2010

Interview: Arch Linux Team

“Linux can do that”

California blesses Open Source as “acceptable”

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Inactivity

Posted by jamba on November 29, 2009

Once again, it appears that life is being busy and getting in the way of online affairs.  I haven’t really had the time (or creative desire) to update this site lately, but I’m sure I’ll get back into it at some point.  Things wax and wane in life, that is just how it goes.

Some quick notes…
(I may touch on some of these topics in more detail at a later time):

On the tech side of things:

  • I am still using Arch Linux, on 2 of the 3 computers in my house (eeeBuntu on my wife’s eeePC).  My softRAID setup is working perfectly, and everything is going smoothly.

On the other side of everything:

  • common government healthcare is not a good solution for America
  • I love the Band of Brothers miniseries
  • Christmas is coming up fast!  We got our tree yesterday, set it up and have it all decorated.
  • a friend started a new blog site: thewordofbowers.com
  • I have a bad headache
  • I am currently drinking coffee

Now I am just writing out random things, which is probably not any good for any content.

I will post something later when I have a mind to do so.

Cheers.

 

Posted in Random, linux, news, politico | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

My adventure installing Linux on softRAID0/1 (part 3)

Posted by jamba on September 10, 2009

Part 1
Part 2

I fiddled around with this for a while, and ALMOST had it working.  However, on boot, my root RAID was not built, so boot would not continue.  I’m pretty sure something is out of order somewhere in some setting, but as of yet I have not been able to figure this out.

So,  I am still running on 1/2 of a RAID setup… on 64-bit Arch Linux, Loving it, as usual.  Have gnome up and everything, and it went MUCH quicker this time, as I had done it previously (installing 32-bit version on my laptop).  Actually, it went a lot smoother, since I knew what to expect, and when to do things and whatnot.

Anyhow, so I have half of this array going, and I believe what I am going to do is alter my design again, and enable/build the /home array and use that (which is the most important, and sole reason of doing this, anyway).  Then figure out the / and /boot parts later on when I get a chance.

As for right now…I’m off for the beach.  It will do me good to leave computers alone for a few days.  It has so far, I haven’t done anything computer related all week! (been on vacation)

Have a  good weekend, and I will continue (and hopefully/probably conclude) with part 4 when I return.

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My adventure installing Linux on softRAID0/1 (part 2)

Posted by jamba on September 4, 2009

This is a continuation of Part 1.

After fiddling with Ubuntu and my RAID setup for a while, I got to thinking.  After every upgrade I would run into this same issue, and would have to re-do the array create/build/assembly process while making sure the kernel was placed properly, as well as the initramfs.

So… combining that realization with my positive experience with Arch Linux, I decided to give up on Ubuntu and proceed forward using Arch.  I have had no problems thus far with running Arch on my laptop, but on my desktop I will be much more focused on stability, rather than latest-and-greatest.  Luckily for me, they just annouced a kernel26-lts not very long ago–this is a kernel that will stay supported for a longer period of time with no major changes.  I will also put Gnome and Xorg on hold so they will not update automatically. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in linux | Tagged: , , , , , | 3 Comments »

This month in Distro Hopping

Posted by jamba on August 17, 2009

Well… running Arch Linux has put a halt to my distro hopping for now…  I am totally happy with this distribution.  I guess I will have to keep going, though, if I want to have anything to write about :-)

Of everything I have tried so far, my top 3 favorites at this point in time are:
1. Arch
2. Ubuntu
3. Sabayon

*. Linux Mint  — Still what I recommend to new users/converts

1. Arch is still pretty amazing to me, at least enough to be #1 this time!  It is simple, but complicated at the same time, but upgrades are a snap and the community is great and filled with information.  I could see Arch stopping my distro hopping.  The main downside (for me) is the amount of time that it takes for the initial set up.  This is a sweet distro…if you’re into The Arch Way, that is.

2. Ubuntu – I recently upgraded from 8.04LTS to 9.04, and I’m still liking it a lot.  I don’t use my desktop computer nearly as much these days as I have my iPhone for most emails, and Arch on my laptop which is  usually just more convenient.  Still hard to beat the easy setup/little maintenance of Ubuntu, but did get bumped to # 2.

3. Sabayon is still my third favorite, even though it is pretty dang large.  Here is what I said last time:
“It is based on Gentoo, it is definitely powerful, and runs well even on this junky-ish laptop. Entropy is well laid out and handles updates and package dependencies. Also, emerge/portage is available for packages not contained in the Sabayon repositories. Pros: fast. flexible. stable, for the most part. everything works as it should. Cons: have had a couple of bugs, but definitely nothing major.“

I liked sidux a lot, but it had to get bumped by Arch.  sidux may end up bumping Sabayon though….I’m not too sure yet.

Forum link

Posted in linux | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Review: Arch Linux (2009.02)

Posted by jamba on August 8, 2009

I was going to review sidux next, but Arch has really been tempting me.  In the last week or so I had tried to install Arch a couple of times in a Virtualbox instance on my desktop (running Ubuntu) –however this did not yield positive results.

Or more descriptively,  the live cd would boot, and the install process would proceed normally and then stall once completed.  After a little searching, I realized this was due to an incompatibility between the 2.6.30 kernel and Virtualbox.  So naturally, I decided the only way to proceed was an actual install.

Firstly, I most definitely recommend making good use of the extraordinary ArchWiki, especially the Beginners Guide, Beginners Guide Appendix, and the Official Install Guide.  There is a ton of information in the wiki, and also in the forums.  following the beginners guide (and occasionally referencing other wikis…ie xorg, and the arch wireless guide), I was able to successfully set up the Arch system that I am using right now.

If I can do it, almost anyone can.  I have used Linux on/off since about 2001, and the last 2 or 3 years have used it exclusively.  At the same time,  I have not been very involved or too in-depth until the last year or so as most of that time I have used Ubuntu (and I’m talking relative to gentoo or some other more  “difficult” distro), not that there is anything wrong with Ubuntu.

When I first booted with the Arch livecd version 2009.02 (which is really just a snapshot of Arch since it uses a rolling release cycle), the main menu came up, which gave me some options to boot hard disk, some tools, and install Arch.  I chose install.
This brought up a command prompt where you can either login as arch (user) or root, neither of which have a password.  You can also switch between the virtual consoles by pressing Alt+F1 through Alt+F7. This would allow you to open the text official install guide from the cd using a “less” command which is supplied in the prompt (“# less /arch/arch-linux-official-guide.txt”).  I had my laptop beside my desktop, so I had the wikis open there so I could view them easily.

Another option I also used was the links browser, opening the wikis with it after I had my internet connected.

Onward! I logged in as root on virtual console 1 (the default), and ran cfdisk to partition my hard drive.  This laptop has 1 sata drive ~60Gb, and at the time had Sabayon 4.2 dual-booting with sidux.  cfdisk came up with an error with my extended partition, and said I needed to fsck.  Did that , still had error…so to make the story short I decided to wipe my drive entirely clean.  To do this I used parted magic boot disc and used gparted to just delete all of the partitions.

So now booting the Arch disc again, logged in as root, and ran “/arch/setup” to start the install process.  I selected FTP/HTTP as source (instead of the core cd I was using, as on one of the previous installs I had ran into problems upgrading to the latest kernel and libraries…easier to use FTP than figure out what was causing the problem).
The next step is prepare hard drive…where I had ran into trouble earlier. Although now I had a clean disk so  I was able to proceed normally– using auto prepare which splits the drive into 3 sections:  /boot, /, and /home.  I changed the default values to use 150mb, 15gb, and whatever was left went t o /home.
After assigning mount points,  package group and package selection.  base and base-devel are the two groups–I only selected base.  base-devel also is recommended for beginners.  The Next step was package selection within the groups, I left all of base selected, and grabbed a handful out of the base-devel group (and if I recall correctly there may have been a few from “other”…but I may be wrong).  All of the packages were installed next.
Then came the configuration.  This is where it gets even more important to follow the beginners (or the official install) guide…or both.  It is imperitive that you open to at least look at all of the files listed, to ensure that they are created.

/etc/rc.conf — this is the main centralized configuration file for Arch.  You will need to know all about this file, and if you’re like me you will learn to love it.
Most of the other files I only opened to ensure the variables were all correct, maybe changing a thing or two but nothing of note.
In the configuration you also set the root password, and then it is done!  The Arch base system is installed.  I was very glad to finally have a successful Arch install after the reboot.

Now…there is a command prompt, and only a command prompt.
And right  about now it is a good idea to do

pacman -Syy
and then
pacman -Syu

This will sync the pacman db and then upgrade the entire system.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in linux | Tagged: , , | 9 Comments »