Friday, February 18, 2005

ipmon log in /var/log/messages & /var/log/security ?!

Yes IPFilter is really loggin. But it's loggin in /var/log/messages and /var/log/security. I googled fer some answer and FreeBSD mailin list archive seems to have the same topic answered. Anyway accordin to the archive, I can change the line contained in /etc/rc.conf:

ipmon_flags="-Ds"

to

ipmon_flags="-D /var/log/ipfilter.log"

which change ipmon from usin syslogd fer loggin to directly writin /var/log/ipfilter.log. Hmm. There must be another way to use syslog and ipmon.

I took a glimpse of Sendmail configuration and yeow I'm gettin a headache already. Ah well, it's sooner or later. So, later then :P.

Thursday, February 17, 2005

IPFilter rules for centericq user

I've solved the problem of my centericq can't log in to ICQ, YM! and MSN servers.

# Allow outbound access to ICQ, YM! & MSN
pass out quick on tun0 proto tcp from any to any port = 5190 flags S keep state
pass out quick on tun0 proto tcp from any to any port = 5050 flags S keep state
pass out quick on tun0 proto tcp from any to any port = 1863 flags S keep state


Make sure that tun0 is replace accordin to your outbound device. Keep in mind that I'm not an expert on IPFilter and my rules might be a loose security. As far as I've test it, centericq is workin fine now.

The /var/log/ipfilter.log file is still empty and I dunno if IPFilter is really loggin or not. Btw, I recompile my kernel with this option:

options       IPFILTER_LOG     # Option to make IPMon (IPFilter loggin) works correctly

Because it's stated that ipmon uses the option to work correctly. I'll search fer some answer bout IPFilter loggin later.

IPFilter is working.

Yup. I have to set IPFilter rules for tun0. And now, centericq is not workin. Haha! A good and bad news altogether. Good because I know that my IPFilter is workin and bad because I can't IM *sigh*. Strangely, IPFilter didn't log anythin. There must be somethin that skipped my sight somewhere. I'll google somethin fer help on this matter.

Next project: Mutt + vim + Sendmail + Fetchmail. Later.

IPFilter project started.

I've just finished (can't say this is the correct word as I'm still testin the firewall) settin up IPFilter with my 5.3-R. Usin my newbiest approach, I shamelessly took example from the FreeBSD Handbook which is the way to go fer me :). Why IPFilter? Because it's already in the base system. Not to mention that it's covered quite extensively in the Handbook. Oh yeah, my ipf.rules is the Handbook's near-exact copycat :D.

Got some interestin issue tho. The rule I set fer rl0 (my NIC) seems like not workin. I'm takin a wild guess that Streamyx & tun0 got somethin to do with this. What's the problem? Although I copy most of the Handbook's ipf.rules informations (I changed the dc0 in the handbook to rl0 to reflect my NIC), IPFilter log nothin. So like I've said, I guess I have to set the tun0 device usin the same rules just fer testin purpose. More on this later. I wanna reboot to test my IPFilter out. Later.

Understanding E-Mail @ ONLamp.com

Understanding Email is a live saver! If you're lost in tryin to get your console mail up (like me) then this is a great read. It'll shed some beautiful light on the mysterious issue of FreeBSD email.

Cone mail client

COnsole Newsreader and Emailer is a simple console based mail agent that can handle multiple mail accounts simultaneously. Support fer local maildirs, remote POP and IMAP plus experimental support of SMAP account. It has PGP and GnuPG support and built-in mail filter (mostly called milter). It has dedicated text editor to compose emails and all this is very tempting.

I'm still searchin fer somethin similar to Elmo mail agent. Right now I have a few candidates:

1. Elmo (Sadly discontinued)
2. Mutt (Very popular but requires settin of additional MTA and/or milter)
3. Cone (As tempting as Elmo. I need further reading on this.)

My 1st project will still be setting up firewall (either IP Filter, standard in FreeBSD or Packet Filter, also standard fer FreeBSD taken from OpenBSD) so it'll be soon. Later.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Elmo - The Electronic Mail Operator

Elmo - The Electronic Mail Operator is a ncurse based email program. I've been confused with the default FreeBSD way of handlin emails (Sendmail, Fetchmail, Mutt to send, receive and read/compose email which is a lot of work) and Elmo does look promisin. It's a swiss-knife of email program. It'll send, get, filter and compose email all by itself. I haven't download it yet but it's in my 1st list. Sadly, the program is discontinued just a few month ago (stated as closed on 6th January 2005) with the last stable release at version 1.2.0 and development version at 1.3.2. There's a possibility that someone somewhere will continue where it left off hopefully. Later.

Things I want to do.

Here's the list of things I wanna do fer my 5.3-R.

1. Set up firewall
2. Set up mail (send and receive email, periodic email checker)

That's it fer now, I'm kinda blurry right now. I think there's somethin else I want to add but I dunno what. Later.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Copyin files from 5.3 to ad0s5 (Fat32)

I've changed the mount value fer ad0s5 in my /etc/fstab from ro (Read-Only) to rw (Read-Write). When I try to copy my screenshot files from 5.3 to the /backup (ad0s5) slice, there's no problem whatsoever. Great. It's now safe to automount it with Read-Write value on every boot. Here's the line:

/dev/ad0s5       /backup     rw   0   0

I'm still searchin fer zgv's info. Later.

Screenshots uploaded

2 screenshots has been uploaded. It seems that my url redirection is havin some problem. Here's my direct link to my homepage.

http://home.graffiti.net/alsemo/

So please bookmark that in case my short url don't work. Here's my short url.

http://www.alsemo.isdangerous.com

Later. Enjoy the shots!

Sound works!

Shame. The Winamp's playlist can be loaded with mp3blaster but because the mp3(s) is listed from E:/mp3_dir (from XP's perspective) instead of /backup/mp3_dir, so the mp3s is basically not found. Ah. I tried playin a few songs and it sounds great. I'll take a screenshot (Yeah a new hobby) later and post it on my homepage. Still searchin fer infos on tweakin zgv. More on that hopefully.

Mount Fat32 & Sound not workin?

Yup. My bad. The correct slice was ad0s5. That's the place where all my backup files reside. I'll find out what ad0s2 holds later. This is the line fer /etc/fstab now:

/dev/ad0s5 /backup msdosfs ro 0 0

I better mount it as Read-Only (ro) first till I can be sure I won't cause any mess. Can't let meself ruin the files contained.

On the other hand, I try openin my mp3 playlist from the backup slice and mp3blaster seems to do a great job on that. But I can't play the mp3s yet. No output somethin. Hmm. I'll figure out somehow. I'm too sleepy now. Later then.

p/s: I notice my boot image looks sharper than image loaded with zgv. Hmm. There's must be some configuration that skipped my sight. More on this too, later. Nite!

Console screenshot taken

Ho boy. This is great. I've just taken some console screenshot usin vidcontrol. This is the packages that you'll need to take console screenshot.

scr2png
scr2txt


scr2png is essential and scr2txt is optional but I just want it to be installed too. After googlin fer some answers, I found out that man scr2png have the clearest information on usin vidcontrol to take console's screenshot. Here's what I do:

#1. Log into another tty (virtual console). Make sure you have the current tty displayin the information that you want to capture.
#2. issue this:

vampire# vidcontrol -p < /dev/ttyv0 | scr2png > screenshot_name.png

Make sure /dev/ttyv0 is replaced with the virtual console you're tryin to capture. Change screenshot_name.png to somethin that make more sense.
#3. The screenshot file will reside on your current workin directory so now try openin it with zgv.

vampire# zgv screenshot_name.png

If the image appears then it's ok. I got 2 console screenshot and I'll upload it to my homepage later. Fer more info:

man vidcontrol
man scr2png
man zgv


p/s: I assumed that your FreeBSD has been set up like mine. Eg. with VESA console and stuff. This is not a howto. It's just a reminder. Later

Thursday, February 03, 2005

centericq test, can't mount ad0s2, accidently detached screen session & links www browser.

I've tried messagin via centericq and so far, my YM account is cool. A bit of guessin needed to play with it but so far, it's pretty user-friendly.

Still can't mount the darn Fat32 partition (ad0s2) and it seems that there's a few others who's havin the same difficulty. It's sometin bout bein an Extended DOS partition that's messin this up. More on that later.

I've accidently detached my screen while I'm havin a chat in centericq. And thank God the manual is pretty much complete (man screen) and this is what I do to attach the screen session back.

# screen -list

This is to list the screen session which is currently runnin.

# screen -r [ttyid].[name].[host]

This command is to attach the desired screen which was detached earlier. Fer more info just type man screen.

After a brief search through http://www.freebsd.org/ports, I found out that links 2 is the one residin at /usr/ports/www/links and the old links is in /usr/ports/www/links1. Phew, I got the file right afterall so no need fer me to deinstall it. I've tried out the image viewin capability of links (although you will need some other console-based image viewin program like zgv) and it turn out ok (although the pic is quite pixelated/not sharp). I'll write bout it later (I'm not comfortable bloggin at the office).

Later.

Links@Sourceforge.net

Links@Sourceforge.net is a site to watch fer links user (lynx-like text based web browser). I've installed links from the ports collection but I found out that there's another version of links (links 2 to be exact) which has the ability to view images in console. Ouch. I guess I have to deinstall the old links and install the other version. Later hopefully.

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Ports are added.

I'm currently writin this in console, with screen console manager, using links and installin centericq usin port. Installin software usin port is easier than I perviously thought. Well, with my 5.3 is online then port installations is not a mess at all.

centericq is a console based multi messaging program which allows you to connect to Yahoo!, ICQ, Jabber, Gadu Gadu, AOL, MSN even LiveJournal and a few others I fergot. I've installed it and now is the time to test it out. I've done testing it and it works! Wow! Nice multi-protocol messaging program.

My console mp3 player is now mp3blaster which is also available in FreeBSD Ports Collection. Can't play any mp3s yet because my mp3s is in the E: partition (ad0s2) and I currently can't mount the partition. No problem with ad0s1 (XP partition) though so I'm sure somethin is wrong with my /etc/fstab.

1024x768 console resolution?

Yes I've blogged bout this site: The FreeBSD Console - Living without X. And now after I revisit the site again, it've been updated and whoa, he (the author) is usin 1024x768 resolution console! Ouch, I can't stop droolin. I want it too! There's somethin bout SVGAlib before playin with that resolution so I'll keep that in mind. If I can make this D270S console displayin 1024x768 resolution, I'll post the walkthrough. Later.

New 5.3-RELEASE installation

After a long while, I've just finish doin a fresh installation of 5.3-R on my D270S. If I recall correctly, this is my 4th installation exercise after I wrote bout FreeBSD here and in my homepage. My newest installation is very minimal with just a few package chosen and even without X. This is what I remember:

Base
CompatX-X
Doc
Man
/usr/src/sys


Why no X? I guess I just wanna learn and have fun playin with just a minimum FreeBSD installation. I guess I wanna let meself be more comfortable with console (command-line) environment.

Custom kernel has been compiled and by the looks of it, it's charmin. I used the last VAMKERNEL config file taken from my 5.2.1 installation (still have it in my homepage.) with some new 5.3-R specific addition like:

# Sound device fer my D270S
device sound
device "snd_ich"


I still havent test out the sound yet but it'll be soon.

VESA has been compiled into the custom kernel and it's workin like a charm.

PPPoE has been configured and it's workin. Still havent test out the auto dial (usin /etc/rc.conf) yet because I just boot to XP from 5.3-R just now (to write this blog :). I used my 5.2.1 ppp.conf as a reference.

Things that I want which is still incomplete:
1. Personalise the normal user (zsh shell, add into other groups etc.)
2. Edit /etc/fstab so that I can mount the NTFS and Fat32 partition from 5.3.
3. Make acd0 (CDRW Drive) and fd0 (Floppy Drive) user-rewritable.
4. Add some usefull package like screen, Midnight Commander, a console mp3 player + sound mixer and other I can think of.
5. Rewrite the Run FreeBSD, Run section in my homepage which I've been delayin fer quite a long time now. The new format is up in my head now.
6. Upload all the important 5.3-R configuration files to my homepage.

I just found out that links can be set to display color. While in links, press [Esc] and top bar with some options will be displayed. The settin is there somewhere but I can't recall the exact option(s). I'll write bout it later.

Amazingly, after I've done reinstallin 5.3 and when I log in XP, my XP starts to display BSoD with an error message sayin somethin bout wspdrvnt.sys (or somethin) havin a page fault bla bla bla. After I log in usin Safe Mode, I found out that Sygate Personal Firewall has gone wacko and after I reinstalled it, XP was ok. Hmm, weird.

How to view pictures or movie in console huh? I'll try to find out the answer later. I need to sleep..

6.5 amd64: Modify existing certbot certificates.

Hi, It's been quite some time eh. As you can see, I still upgrade my OpenBSD system regularly but currently I do not have the time to ...