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Any idear how this router running Linux configures itself?
by Chris Green 21 Sep '14

21 Sep '14

I have a little Solwise 3G router on my boat. I have just discovered it runs Linux and I can telnet into it. Even better it runs dnsmasq so, if I can configure it appropriately then I can get it to provide local DNS. However I can't work out where it configures itself from at boot time. If I edit /etc/hosts for example then, if I reboot, my changes are lost. There's an /etc_ro directory but nothing really much in there gives a clue. There's even an /etc_ro/rcS file which is obviously executed fairly early on in the boot sequence but it's not early enough to indicate where the basic configuration lives. The motd file says:- ------------------------------------------------------ Welcome to HAME Technology Co.,Ltd =System Architecture Department= ------------------------------------------------------ ... oh, it as busybox for most of the commands. Does anyone have any idea how it starts up and configures itself? -- Chris Green

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Is there such a thing as a 'WiFi switch' to add WiFi to a LAN - if so what's it called?
by Chris Green 18 Sep '14

18 Sep '14

I'm not even sure such a thing exists but it feels as if it ought to. I want a 'WiFi switch' that I can plug into an existing LAN such that it allows WiFi access on the *same* subnet. Thus it won't do anything clever like DHCP or DNS or anything as that will be done by existing devices on the LAN. All the 'range extenders' I can find are WiFi both in and out and also tend to create their own subnet. Anyway I need something that hangs on a hard-wired ethernet connection. Is there such a thing? -- Chris Green

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Ubuntu startup scripts
by Mark Rogers 17 Sep '14

17 Sep '14

Where are the various places that processes can be started on desktop login on Ubuntu? Specifically: My laptop has an encrypted Truecrypt partition, and a Dropbox share on it. On login Dropbox tries to start and can't access its directory because at that point I haven't mounted the TC volume. Dropbox is listed in the Startup Applications GUI, which as far as I can tell just lists whatever is in ~/.config/autostart. However, if I remove it from there (either from the GUI or by deleting dropbox.desktop, and with Dropbox stopped when I do it), if I log out and back in again it puts itself back and starts again. Where is that coming from? Furthermore: if I replace dropbox.desktop with an empty read only file, it doesn't get replaced but Dropbox still starts. How? Further furthemore: I have my own bash script which prompts me for the TC volume password, mounts it, then starts dropbox. I have added that to ~/.config/autostart (via the GUI), but my script doesn't seem to start. What might I be doing wrong? Over the years I have spent ages removing viruses on Windows and got used to the idea that there are dozens of places that you can configure applications to start automatically but I thought Linux would be a bit cleaner than that! This has prompted me to learn more about the startup process. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Simple way to find local subnet?
by Chris Green 16 Sep '14

16 Sep '14

Is there a simple way to get the value of the local subnet to which one is connected? I know I can derive it from what ifconfig outputs but using grep to get '192.168.13.0' from output like:- eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr f0:de:f1:2b:f9:13 UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:1533 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:2135 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:820119 (820.1 KB) TX bytes:231948 (231.9 KB) Interrupt:20 Memory:f2500000-f2520000 lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1 RX packets:1181 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:1181 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:126765 (126.7 KB) TX bytes:126765 (126.7 KB) wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:24:d7:6e:3d:08 inet addr:192.168.13.104 Bcast:192.168.13.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::224:d7ff:fe6e:3d08/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:8144 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:8180 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:3358385 (3.3 MB) TX bytes:1152063 (1.1 MB) .... seems a little more difficult than it should be. Presumably arp-scan does it somehow when you use 'arp-scan -l'. -- Chris Green

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Thunderbird oddness
by Bev Nicolson 15 Sep '14

15 Sep '14

Thunderbird seems to be selective about which emails it marks as replied to with the blue arrow now so I'm uncertain whether they've been sent or not. I haven't changed any settings so does anyone know why this might be? (24.2.0) Bev.

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Raspberry Pi hwclock
by Mark Rogers 15 Sep '14

15 Sep '14

Anyone here added a real time clock to the Pi? It's pretty trivial in principle but "The Internet" seems to be littered with various ways to configure the Pi to use it, most of which include adding it to /etc/rc.local rather than (for example) /etc/init.d/hwclock.sh. My objective is to have a solution that (a) requires minimal changes to a stock Raspbian (ie the fewer files to add/modify the better), (b) will detect whether an RTC has been added and roll back to using the fake hwclock concept otherwise, (c) use NTP to maintain the clock (including writing to hwclock) when an Internet connection is available and (d) do all this as early into the boot process as possible so minimal services start up with an inaccurate clock. All of that sounds like a fairly desirable standard but most solutions I've found seem to fall short of at least part, and frequently most, of that. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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How to find IPs on a wireless network?
by Chris Green 15 Sep '14

15 Sep '14

If I have a wired connection to my LAN I can use 'arp-scan -l' to find the IP addresses of other systems on the LAN. However arp-scan only works if *I* have a hard-wired connection. How can one find IP addresses on a LAN when connected by WiFi? -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] How to find IPs on a wireless network?
by Chris Green 15 Sep '14

15 Sep '14

On Sat, Sep 13, 2014 at 07:12:29PM +0100, Laurie Brown wrote: > On 13 September 2014 19:09:17 BST, Chris Green <cl(a)isbd.net> wrote: > > If I have a wired connection to my LAN I can use 'arp-scan -l' to find > the IP addresses of other systems on the LAN. However arp-scan only > works if *I* have a hard-wired connection. > > How can one find IP addresses on a LAN when connected by WiFi? > > Try an Android device running fring... > Not a lot of help when I'm sitting here on a boat in France with two Beaglebone Black systems, an IBM Lenovo laptop, a Siemens Gigaset VOIP phone, an internet radio, but nothing running Android. -- Chris Green

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Broadband puzzle
by Bev Nicolson 11 Sep '14

11 Sep '14

Me again. I hope this is on topic. I like to download a few podcasts from time to time from the BBC and audioboo but recently it's been taking roughly twice as long for them to be saved. It also looks as though it's trying to do two at a time though only one remains on my desktop at the end. Any ideas? (Firefox 26.0) (It's fine for using iPlayer, though.) Bev

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nologin warning - any ideas what causes it?
by Chris Green 09 Sep '14

09 Sep '14

I keep getting the following in my logwatch output:- --------------------- Connections (secure-log) Begin ------------------------ **Unmatched Entries** nologin: Attempted login by UNKNOWN on UNKNOWN: 1 Time(s) Does anyone have any idea what might be causing it? It's separate from the sshd report so isn't an ssh attempt from 'outside'. ... and here's the /var/log record of it:- auth.log:Sep 8 08:20:04 chris nologin: Attempted login by UNKNOWN on UNKNOWN auth.log:Sep 9 08:27:00 chris nologin: Attempted login by UNKNOWN on UNKNOWN auth.log.1:Sep 2 08:05:26 chris nologin: Attempted login by UNKNOWN on UNKNOWN auth.log.1:Sep 3 08:31:55 chris nologin: Attempted login by UNKNOWN on UNKNOWN auth.log.1:Sep 4 08:26:50 chris nologin: Attempted login by UNKNOWN on UNKNOWN auth.log.1:Sep 5 08:21:08 chris nologin: Attempted login by UNKNOWN on UNKNOWN auth.log.1:Sep 6 08:24:48 chris nologin: Attempted login by UNKNOWN on UNKNOWN auth.log.1:Sep 7 08:23:18 chris nologin: Attempted login by UNKNOWN on UNKNOWN So it's happening some time after eight every morning. ... and further, here's the context from auth.log :- Sep 8 08:20:01 chris CRON[16693]: pam_unix(cron:session): session opened for user chris by (uid=0) Sep 8 08:20:02 chris CRON[16693]: pam_unix(cron:session): session closed for user chris Sep 8 08:20:03 chris su[16743]: Successful su for news by root Sep 8 08:20:03 chris su[16743]: + ??? root:news Sep 8 08:20:03 chris su[16743]: pam_unix(su:session): session opened for user news by (uid=0) Sep 8 08:20:03 chris systemd-logind[1106]: Removed session c6. Sep 8 08:20:03 chris systemd-logind[1106]: New session c7 of user news. Sep 8 08:20:04 chris nologin: Attempted login by UNKNOWN on UNKNOWN Sep 8 08:20:04 chris su[16743]: pam_unix(su:session): session closed for user news Sep 8 08:20:04 chris su[16800]: Successful su for nobody by root Sep 8 08:20:04 chris su[16800]: + ??? root:nobody Sep 8 08:20:04 chris su[16800]: pam_unix(su:session): session opened for user nobody by (uid=0) Sep 8 08:20:04 chris systemd-logind[1106]: Removed session c7. Sep 8 08:20:04 chris systemd-logind[1106]: New session c8 of user nobody. Sep 8 08:20:04 chris su[16800]: pam_unix(su:session): session closed for user nobody Sep 8 08:20:04 chris su[16813]: Successful su for nobody by root Sep 8 08:20:04 chris su[16813]: + ??? root:nobody Sep 8 08:20:04 chris su[16813]: pam_unix(su:session): session opened for user nobody by (uid=0) Sep 8 08:20:04 chris systemd-logind[1106]: Removed session c8. Sep 8 08:20:04 chris systemd-logind[1106]: New session c9 of user nobody. Sep 8 08:20:04 chris su[16813]: pam_unix(su:session): session closed for user nobody Sep 8 08:20:04 chris su[16834]: Successful su for nobody by root Sep 8 08:20:04 chris su[16834]: + ??? root:nobody Sep 8 08:20:04 chris su[16834]: pam_unix(su:session): session opened for user nobody by (uid=0) Sep 8 08:20:04 chris systemd-logind[1106]: Removed session c9. Sep 8 08:20:04 chris systemd-logind[1106]: New session c10 of user nobody. Sep 8 08:25:01 chris CRON[16935]: pam_unix(cron:session): session opened for user chris by (uid=0) Sep 8 08:30:34 chris CRON[16935]: pam_unix(cron:session): session closed for user chris Sep 8 08:31:39 chris su[16834]: pam_unix(su:session): session closed for user nobody -- Chris Green

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Disabling BEL on tab auto-complete
by Mark Rogers 08 Sep '14

08 Sep '14

I like to have my PC respond to BEL characters in the terminal, eg to report servers that I'm SSH'd into shutting down when I'm not looking at them. But doing this and retaining the tab auto-complete BEL sound means my PC is constantly making bell sounds. Putting set bell-style none in /etc/inputrc fixes this, except I need to put it into each server I ever SSH into, which is neither practical or desirable (as it affects other users of those servers). Any suggestions? I suspect that I'm going to be stuck as I need my local PC to recognise that the BEL it received came from another server's auto-complete, as opposed to something on another server that I care about. But maybe someone here has an intelligent suggestion that I'm too dumb to have thought of? Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 11th September
by Viperfang 08 Sep '14

08 Sep '14

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 11th September at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Apache mod_rewrite
by Barry Samuels 05 Sep '14

05 Sep '14

I have an .htaccess rule so: RewriteCond %{REMOTE_HOST} !beenthere-donethat\.org\.uk$ [NC] RewriteRule ^(folder/colchester1\.html)$ /folder/tempredir.php?page=$1 [R=302,L] The second line has been wrapped by the mailer but it is actually all on one line. That doesn't work. If I ask for http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk/folder/colchester1.html then that is what I get. No redirection. What am I doing wrong? I do have other rules in .htaccess which all work normally. What I'm trying to achieve is this - I want, eventually, to redirect all pages to the tempredir page with a link on that page which will then take the vistor to the page they requested originally. I don't want any visitor to be redirected yet until I've finished testing so I've put a page (colchester1.html) in a sub-directory that visitors do not normally visit so that I can test it first. I would test it locally on my home version of the site but, for some reason, redirection on my home computer won't work at all even though the Apache module is enabled. -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Is it safe to abort a duplicate dd reimage?
by Mark Rogers 05 Sep '14

05 Sep '14

So I have dd running in one terminal, copying an image to an SD card, and occasionally run "kill -USR1 <pid>" (where <pid> is the dd process id) in another to prod dd into giving me some status info. Every so often I go back to the second terminal, hit "up"+"enter" to re-run the command, and flick back to the first to check progress. Except on one occasion I hit "up"/"enter" on the first terminal, where it had no effect as dd was already running, so I forgot about it. Of-course when dd finished the terminal then grabbed the up/enter from the keyboard buffer and started to re-image the SD card. Given that I'm writing a duplicate image over the top of the SD card is it "safe" to kill the second dd or is there a risk that the SD card will end up corrupt? It's only a 4GB card so I'm not expecting an answer before it's too late to matter, this is more idle curiosity. Unless it turns out I hit up+enter more times than I thought.... Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 5th September.
by Viperfang 02 Sep '14

02 Sep '14

Quick heads up about this months Norwich 2600 meeting, more info at http://www.norwich2600.co.uk

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Power on hours wrong?
by Chris Walker 01 Sep '14

01 Sep '14

Hopefully somebody can answer this query for me. I had a couple of 1TB Seagate discs take their time writing data so I replaced them with a couple of WD drives. One of them is used as a common drive between Windows 7 and linux. The other is the linux system disc. But as they were both installed at the same time, why does one show a power-on hours figure of 76 and the other show a figure of 87 hours? Is it simply because the common disc is used for both operating systems? If that's true, then this isn't a true reading for power-on hours as although the linux disc isn't being used, it's still powered on. Oh, and I'm getting the reading for power-on hours from smartctl. -- __ __| |_ __ __ .----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:alug_cdw@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |______________________________________________|

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Printer XXX may not be connected message, but it works
by Chris Green 28 Aug '14

28 Aug '14

I have an HP Laserjet 1320 printer connected to my network via the USB port on my router. When I print to it I get a pop-up message saying:- Not connected? Printer 'LJ1320' may not be connected However the printer does work, if a little slowly. Does anyone have any idea what's causing the error message? -- Chris Green

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Various hardware - free to good home!
by Steven Rose 26 Aug '14

26 Aug '14

Got lots of boxes full of bits and pieces, some tested, some not. Need to create more space in the flat so its got to go! Free to good home(s), email me off list for more details to save me typing a long list here! -- Regards, Steven Rose @steveyeu // stevey.eu

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New computer - audio and other problems
by Barry Samuels 21 Aug '14

21 Aug '14

As I said in my previous query I have recently aquired a new computer, a Nofan A470 from QuietPC.com with on-board audio Realtek ALC650 6 channel, and I have installed Debian Testing/Jessie from scratch. I have done a lot of internet searching regarding these problems but have not found anything which works. (1) I'm using Fluxbox as my desktop although I have some KDE applications installed. The audio seems to work without problems with any KDE applications but not with anything else. For example - I use mail-notification which shows as an icon in the bottom toolbar and I can set it to play a sound when new mail arrives. That can be set in the configuration, an it is, and which also allows a test play but there is no sound. I believe that mail-notification is Gnome based. I have also installed Timidity plus the standard patch files but can't get any sound although it appears to be playing. There are some Phonon and Alsa packages installed. (2) Also with mail-notification I should be able to click the icon and get it to open Balse, my mail reader, but clicking does nothing. When mail- notification was installed it started Evolution when the icon was clicked but I didn't want Evolution and uninstalled it. I can't find any way to set mail-notification to open Balsa. (3) The last thing is that I use Krusader as a file manager and I want text files, by default, to be opened using Mousepad. At present the default is Libre Office and I haven't been able to change that. In the Krusader configuration there is an option to set which editor to use and I have set it to /usr/bin/mousepad but that appears to be ignored. Any pointers would be gratefully received. -- Barry Samuels

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How to run a command at (about) 1 second intervals securely (i.e. it won't die)?
by Chris Green 20 Aug '14

20 Aug '14

I want to run a command at something like 1 second intervals (the timing isn't at all critical), it's a background task with no screen output. So I want something like 'watch' but which will run without a terminal, and I also want to be sure that the command will always get run. Thus something like a loop in bash with a 'sleep 1' in it isn't suitable because if the command dies it won't restart. I.e. it's a cron job with a 1 second repeat rate and non-critical timing, any ideas anyone? -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] SSH Connection to device behind NAT/firewall
by MJ Ray 19 Aug '14

19 Aug '14

On 08/19/14 15:48, mick wrote: > I wrote a post about this here: > https://baldric.net/2013/03/26/using-an-ssh-reverse-tunnel-to-bypass-nat-fi… Looks OK to me. I mostly use openvpn now, using tricks like port 443 to get through on most 3G networks. Some 3G networks block ssh port 22... > (Your emails are oddly dated. This one appeared from 6 August....) It was double-posted in html so I guess it got held until someone could review it. Hope that helps, -- MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op http://koha-community.org supporter, web and library systems developer. In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Available for hire (including development) at http://www.software.coop/

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SSH Connection to device behind NAT/firewall
by Mark Rogers 19 Aug '14

19 Aug '14

I know others here have experience of this, and I have a potential use for it. Situation: Linux box (Debian/ARM) behind a Draytek router which will variously connect to the Internet via ADSL, WiFi, 3G, etc. I want to have SSH access to the box whenever it is online without relying on having a routable or static IP at the router, ie the box will need to make and maintain an outbound connection to me so that I can access it when needed. I think this is what Chris does on his boat, but any pointers to the right way to go about this appreciated. Not looking for a full VPN (not least because some 3G providers block VPN access). The Draytek is already setup to manage office-to-office VPN but it's the failure of that which has prompted this. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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mini-ITX motherboard
by Jenny Hopkins 18 Aug '14

18 Aug '14

Hello, Can anybody use a Zotac ION ITX board with 2x1GB DIMM? Has instruction manual, cables, originally purchased 2009. Mail off list if interested. Thanks, Jenny

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Mulberry Tree
by samwise 17 Aug '14

17 Aug '14

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- The monthly "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is back tomorrow, 17th August, at 20:00: The Mulberry Tree 5 Woodbridge Road IPSWICH IP4 2EA Tel: 01473 225776 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP4+2EA WWW: https://www.facebook.com/MULBERRYHOSPITALITY The Mulberry Tree, previously known as The Milestone Beer House, is a grade 2 listed building in the centre of Ipswich. It is located at the intersection between Woodbridge Road and the A1156, across the road from the old Odeon cinema and not far from the Regent Theatre. It re-opened on Thursday March 29th 2012 after a major refurbishment, under its original name of The Mulberry House and has already begun to regain a good reputation for its selection of beers and ales. It has a sizeable car park to the rear of the building. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. Cheers, Peter. ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Alternative question to how to run a command once a second - run a command as root
by Chris Green 16 Aug '14

16 Aug '14

The alternative to running a script once a second (as in my other question) is to use a script that's setuid root - nasty and most systems don't let you do it. I'll explain the problem, I'm reading some analog inputs on a Beaglebone Black and want to display them on a numeric LCD. It's basically a voltmeter and ammeter. Thus I want the display to update fairly frequently. The underlying problem is that because of the (stupid?) way the Beaglebone is configured you have to be root to read the ADC inputs. Thus my original solution was to have a root task running in the background reading the ADC values once a second and writing them to a world readable file. The user task can then read them from file as necessary and display the values or send them to me or whatever. The alternative would be to provide some sort of callable routine that runs with root privilege which can be called as needed from user tasks. This would be a much more elegant solution really as much of the time I don't need 'once a second' frequency, only once an hour for sending values across the internet. It's only when I'm in the same place as the Beaglebone that I want 'once a second' values that I can look at. Is there a neat way of running a bit of Python code with root privilege? Security really isn't terribly important, it's only a little SBC monitoring some values. I suppose I could simply run everything as root but that feels all wrong somehow! :-) -- Chris Green

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