Etikettarkiv: ubuntu

Getting Teamviewer to work on Ubuntu 16.10

Teamviwer relies on a bunch of 32 bit dependencies you need to enable for it to install. This procedure should work:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update
wget http://download.teamviewer.com/download/teamviewer_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i --force-depends teamviewer_i386.deb
sudo apt-get install -f
sudo teamviewer --daemon start

I always suggest you take a snapshot before if your file system supports this just in case.

More effective CIDR-blocking

Previously we have talked about how to block certain addresses using the firewall in Linux (iptables) but if you have a large number of CIDR blocks, say whole countries like China (about 7000 blocks) this will not be keen on the CPU in the server.

Especially the script that inserts it by repeatedly calling iptables. The first few hundred calls will be quit but then is slows down as the kernel won’t process so many insertions in the iptables lists.

There is another way that is just as effective called blackholing the ip ranges you wish to block from your server. This is done by adding routes for those packest that leads nowhere.

# ip route add blackhole <ip address>

This works quite beautifully with tens of thousands of addresses of course. As before we should read the CIDR files we want in order to create the null routes that is needed.

Here is a script that will read a directory of CIDR files and null route all of them.

for f in /etc/iptables/hosts-banned/*
do
    LINES=$(wc -l $f | awk '{print $1}')
    echo -n "Processing k-line file $f with $LINES blocks... "
    date +"%H:%M:%S"
    while read p
    do
        ip route add blackhole $p
    done < $f
done

The CIDR files in this case resides in /etc/iptables/hosts-banned/ an they can be gotten from online or you may add any address ranges you want, perhaps based on automatic firewalling.

To remove a certain blacholed range or ip you can do the same thing again changin the ip route add to an ip route del command instead.

ip route del <ip address>

You can produce a script that removes them by doing the following:

ip route | grep blackhoe | awk '{ print "ip route del " $2 }' >unblock
chmod 700 unblock
./unblock

That’s it, they are all now cleared.

 

Ubuntu persistent network interface names

In Ubuntu 16.x the systemd is used more than in the previous versions. This also means it is now responsible for setting up your network cards. Many people have been sort of surprised that their eth0 have changed to something like enp0s25. This is of course an improvement from before, there was no real telling in which order NICs would be assigned names so potentially a hardware change could offset eth0 and eth1 and so on.

The new way is actually not too bad but if you like me do a lot of manual configurations on the fly to the network interfaces their names can be tedious to type and also remember. But of course there is a rather simple mechanism to change this so you can select your own names for the interfaces such as lan0 and dmz1 or why not wifi plain and simple if there is never to be any more than one wifi card in the computer.

This is a step-by step guide that was tested under Ubuntu 16.10 and worked for me. Please leave your comments if you have problems, improvements or any such things to add.

Getting the names

First of all we need to find out what the names of the NICs we have in the system actually are. Here is a dump from my laptop using the ifconfig command to list all interfaces:

root@kraken:~# ifconfig -a
enp0s25: flags=4098<BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
 ether f0:de:f1:8d:89:fe txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
 RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
 RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
 TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
 TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
 device interrupt 20 memory 0xf2a00000-f2a20000

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING> mtu 65536
 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0
 inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x10<host>
 loop txqueuelen 1 (Local Loopback)
 RX packets 3143 bytes 204307 (204.3 KB)
 RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
 TX packets 3143 bytes 204307 (204.3 KB)
 TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

wlp3s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
 inet 192.168.1.3 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255
 inet6 fe80::846f:cc3d:2984:d240 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link>
 ether 00:24:d7:f0:a3:a4 txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
 RX packets 4600 bytes 5069857 (5.0 MB)
 RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
 TX packets 3348 bytes 592050 (592.0 KB)
 TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

wwp0s29u1u4i6: flags=4098<BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
 ether 02:80:37:ec:02:00 txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
 RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
 RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
 TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
 TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

We are looking for two things in the above, the MAC address and the name of the network interface card we want to rename. The NICs we have here are named after the type of card, the bus it is attached to etc. What used to be called eth0 is now referred to as enp0s25 and wlan0 is wlp3s0 and there is also a WAN card in the machine called wwp0s29u1u4i6 which definitely is a mouthful.

Okay, so we would like to rename these to more sensible names. First we pick the names such as eth0, wlan0, wan0 etc. Then we note down the MAC address of each card. You find this highlighted in red in the above dump next to the keywork ”ether”. Once we have that we can tell the systemd to rename the cards in the way we want. By connecting the name to the MAC address it should also be persistent and not affected by inserting a new card into the computer system.

In directory /etc/systemd/network we will create the following files:

root@kraken:/etc/systemd/network# ll
 total 20
 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 11 04:28 ./
 drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Nov 24 15:03 ../
 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 55 Dec 6 23:44 01-eth0.link
 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 56 Dec 6 23:39 02-wifi.link
 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 55 Dec 6 23:40 03-wan.link

These link files can be used to match a device and then change its parameters. So they consists of a matching section and then a link section. The first one called 01-eth0.link contains the following lines:

[Match]
  MACAddress=f0:de:f1:8d:89:fe

[Link]
  Name=eth0

We can then create the other ones in the same way. When we are done with that we need to do two things. First we need to update the initial ram file system in boot because some of these may already be up during boot time (such as eth0). This is done with the following command:

root@kraken:/etc/systemd/network# update-initramfs -u
 update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.8.0-30-generic
 W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin for module i915
 W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/bxt_guc_ver8_7.bin for module i915
 W: mdadm: /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf defines no arrays.

Once we have done this we can reboot our computer.

When up again we can check the network names again:

anders@kraken:~$ ifconfig -a
eth0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
 ether f0:de:f1:8d:89:fe txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
 RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
 RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
 TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
 TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
 device interrupt 20 memory 0xf2a00000-f2a20000

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING> mtu 65536
 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0
 inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x10<host>
 loop txqueuelen 1 (Local Loopback)
 RX packets 1732 bytes 110296 (110.2 KB)
 RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
 TX packets 1732 bytes 110296 (110.2 KB)
 TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

wan0: flags=4098<BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
 ether 02:80:37:ec:02:00 txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
 RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
 RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
 TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
 TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

wlan0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
 inet 192.168.1.3 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255
 inet6 fe80::1ed7:d5ac:433d:70c5 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link>
 ether 00:24:d7:f0:a3:a4 txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
 RX packets 93 bytes 71048 (71.0 KB)
 RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
 TX packets 137 bytes 18113 (18.1 KB)
 TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

As you can see we now have eth0, wlan0 and wan0 instead of the default names. So if you like me work from the command line mainly you will be happy that ifconfig eth0 now works just like it did before the systemd entered the scene and if you have firewall scripts you can of course rename your interface to something that is useful to you such as lan, wan and dmz or whatever makes sense.

Ubuntu 14.04 virtual host user selection broken (mpm_itk)

I recently moved some virtual hosts from an older Ubuntu 12.10 to the newer 14.04. The problem I had was that I could not get the automatic user selection in apache to work for the mpm-itk modules. The module can be installed but it does not appear to configure properly.

To fix it I had to add the following line to /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

LoadModule mpm_itk_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mpm_itk.so

After doing that the virtual host definitions including the directive

AssignUserId <user> <group>

Started working as expected again. I thought it was weird it did not work out of the box, people have reported various issues with mpm_itk under Ubuntu 14.04 but I never found a solution to my particular problem so I hope this helps someone else to sort it out.

Samba does not start on boot in my Linux

Remember you can always check the status of samba using the commands

# service smbd status
# service nmbd status

I found that they where running and started as they should but still did not accept connections. The bind interfaces in my samba.conf file is the interfaces rather than the ip address but it does not seem to solve the problem. However restarting samba did solve the problem and I nailed it down to the ”Samba IP sensitivity problem”.

Samba really does not like when you use DHCP for the server and even if you set it up so that it always gets the same IP from the DHCP server it does not matter, Samba does not like it.

The simple solution to this is to add the two following lines to the last part of /etc/rc.local which is the script that runs last upon boot.

service smbd restart
service nmbd restart

However, also changing your networking setup to fixed IP generally works well, this is in case you do not want to do that or can’t do that.

Another way would be to change it to the dhcp lease script so when the samba server gets a new lease, an automatic restart of the related daemons happen. However, that would also interrupt any service being served at the moment and break long file transfers or streams. I would therefore advice against it.

The best solution so far is to use a fixed IP. The above workaround is a kludge. You have been warned.

Running Samba in Linux in less than 5 minutes

So you want to share files over the network with perhaps windows machines or you want to be able to have networked file systems that are not requiring Kerberos to become secure but there are something fishy going on with your Samba installation?

Read on, here is the recipe to get it going. First of all make sure you have samba installed. An easy way to check this is to type the following two comnmands:

# service smbd status
 smbd start/running, process 27562
# service nmbd status
 nmbd start/running, process 27540

If either of those are not running, please install the samba package on your machine according to your OS recommendations, it may differ slightly depending on Linux distribution.

When you are done with this it’s time to modify the configuration file for Samba. Use your favorite editor (as root) and start by backing up your original configuration file.

# cp -a /etc/samba/smb.cfg /etc/samba/smb.bak

Then start your favorite editor and start off with this configuration:

[global]
 workgroup = WORKGROUP # change this to be unique on your network
 domain master = yes # there can only be one master
 local master = yes
 preferred master = yes
 os level = 65

 server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)
 name resolve order = bcast host

 interfaces = 127.0.0.1 lo eth0
 bind interfaces only = yes

 log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
 max log size = 10000
 syslog only = no
 syslog = 0

 map to guest = bad user

[guest]
 comment = networked file system
 path = /mnt/guest # set this to your preferred place
 read only = yes
 guest ok = yes

[anders]
 comment = private file system for anders
 path = /home/anders # be careful with your home folders
 read only = no
 guest ok = no
 valid users = anders

[google-drive]
 comment = private file system anders
 path = /mnt/raid/google-drive # another folder requiring password
 read only = no
 guest ok = no
 valid users = anders

[upload]
 comment = put your upload here
 path = /mnt/raid/upload # something where anyone can upload
 read only = no
 valid users = %S

Make sure the folders you have pointed out are actually valid folders. Then create the users needed to access the system:

# smbpasswd -a username

Type the password and create the users needed as per the shares that you have defined above. The valid users = %S means any user in the system can use that if they give the right password. To delete users from your samba system when no longer needed

# smbpasswd -x username

Next thing is to restard the name server for Samba and the actual server daemon:

# service nmbd restart
nmbd stop/waiting
nmbd start/running, process 28297
# service smbd restart
smbd stop/waiting
smbd start/running, process 28309

When this is done you should be able to connect giving the right username/password or as a guest if you have created the shares for the guest accounts.

Mounting the smb file system on a command line is done like this:

# mount -t cifs //server.name.or.ip/share /mnt/share -o username=yourname

If needed it will ask for your password also.

To list shares on an SMB server, use the following:

# smbclient -L //server.name.or.ip/ -U user%pass

You can skip -U user%pass if you prefer working as guest.

This should get you up and running easily. It’s not sophisticated and you have to manually work the passwords and they are not synced with with the rest of the users on the local machine, that is more complex to set up, this was meant to be a quick starter to get you going.

If you need to list the users in the database (to remove any you do not want any more) you can use the command:

# pdbedit -L

Read the man page for more information.