Tag: Ubuntu

Configure OVH Failover IP in Ubuntu 20.04/22.04

To configure IP in Ubuntu Server 20.04 guest, create a file

vi /etc/netplan/50-netwrk.yaml

add the following content

network:
    version: 2
    ethernets:
        eth0:
            addresses:
                - YOUR_FO_IP_HERE/32
            nameservers:
                addresses:
                    - 1.1.1.1
                search: []
            optional: true
            routes:
                - to: 0.0.0.0/0
                  via: YOUR_GW_IP_HERE
                  on-link: true

example

root@easyengine:~# cat /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml
network:
    version: 2
    ethernets:
        eth0:
            addresses:
                - 164.132.150.95/32
            nameservers:
                addresses:
                    - 1.1.1.1
                search: []
            optional: true
            routes:
                - to: 0.0.0.0/0
                  via: 51.255.79.254
                  on-link: true
root@easyengine:~#

“on-link: true” is what makes it work. The “on-link: true” option is used to specify that a specific route should be considered “on-link.” This means that the route is directly reachable on the local network segment, and packets destined for that route should be sent directly to the network interface associated with that network segment, rather than being routed through a gateway.

Test network config using

netplan try

If everything works fine, you can apply the changes with

netplan apply

See OVH, netplan

December 21, 2020

Ubuntu Remap keys in the keyboard
Left Shift key on my keyboard started acting up. It some times work, some times it won’t. I never use the caps lock key on my kayboard, this is just above the shift key. So i decided to use this key as left shift key.

To re-assign key, you need to edit file /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc

Lets take a copy of the file before we edit it
```
cp /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc ~/pc-backup
```
Edit
```
sudo gedit /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc
```
Find the line
```
     key  {	[ Caps_Lock		]	};
```
This is on line 22

Replace with
```
     key  {	[ Shift_L		]	};
```
Now you need to restart X-Windows by pressing ALT+F2, then type r. You can also just reboot your computer for the new keymap to work. After restart, i can use Caps lock key as my Left Shift key.

If you want to disable left shift key, you can comment the line
```
    key  {	[ Shift_L		]	};
```
by adding // at beginning of the line.

See Ubuntu
December 21, 2020
Red Hat Killing CentOS Linux, Fight for CentOS clone

RedHat, parent company of CentOS Linux announce it will stop supporting CentOS 8, the latest version of CentOS. CentOS is build from the source code RHEL, making a free version of stable and well-tested enterprise ready RHEL Linux. CentOS 7 will keep getting security updates until it reaches End Of Life June 30th, 2024. For Red Hat, maintaining CentOS wont help with their business. Now they don’t need to maintain CentOS, this will force many users to pay for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

The new version of CentOS known as CentOS Stream is a rolling release. It will be used as a staging version of RHEL. Red Hat expect CentOS Stream to be stable and allow community participation as users will be able to contribute to CentOS Steam. With CentOS, community contribution was limited because it was a copy of RHEL.

CentOS is populary used in web hosting servers as cpanel only supposed RHEL based Linux. With death of CentOS 8, cpanel have announced they will accelerate investment in development efforts to support additional operating systems. cPanel will suport Ubuntu LTS and expect to deliver a production-ready version in late 2021. After Ubuntu LTS, they will look into supporting Debian. Ubuntu is very popular with Cloud Servers as it come with latest software compared to CentOS. With many developers already using Ubuntu on their Desktop, supporting Ubuntu is wise decision by cpanel.

With CentOS 8 unexpected demise, many users will be looking for alternative OS. This opens up market for next CentOS clone.

Rocky Linux

CentOS co-founder, Gregory Kurtzer announced he will be releasing his own Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) replacement Rocky Linux. No ETA on release date yet.

https://rockylinux.org

You can join discussion on their reddit.com/r/RockyLinux/

Project Lenix

Igor Seletskiy, CloudLinux CEO and founder said they will make their own RHEL patch to patch compatible Open Source Linux – Project Lenix.

CloudLinux is a CentOS based commerical Linux, that is popular amoung web hosting providers as it allow resource limit per user and user isolation with CageFS. They also have support for kernel update with out reboot.

CloudLinux will be investing more than a million dollar into Project Lenix. CentOS 8 users will be able to convert into Project Lenix or CloudLinux easily with out reboot. In the announcement Igor Seletskiy said “Red Hat’s announcement has left users looking for an alternative with all that CentOS provides and without the disruption of having to move to alternative distributions. We promise to dedicate the resources required to Project Lenix that will ensure impartiality and a not-for-profit community initiative. CloudLinux already has the assets, infrastructure, and experience to carry out the mission, and we promise to be open about the process of developing Project Lenix”.

See CentOS

December 17, 2020

Ubuntu Server 20.04 set static IP with netplan

First check if you have file

/etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/subiquity-disable-cloudinit-networking.cfg

If the file exists, make sure, you have the following content in it.

root@ubuntu:~# cat /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/subiquity-disable-cloudinit-networking.cfg
network: {config: disabled}
root@ubuntu:~#

Edit

vi /etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml

Replace all content with

network:
    version: 2
    ethernets:
        eth0:
            addresses: [192.168.1.100/24]
            routes:
                - to: default
                  via: 192.168.1.1
            nameservers:
                addresses: [1.1.1.1, 8.8.8.8]

In the above cause 192.168.1.100 is your static IP address. 192.168.1.1 is the gateway. eth0 is the network interface name.

Older versions of netpan used gateway4 instead of routes.

            gateway4: 192.168.1.1

Now try the changes with

netplan try

If all is good, you can make changes permanent with

netplan apply

See IP

December 15, 2020

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04 settings won’t open
On Ubuntu 20.04/22.04 settings won’t open. This may be caused by some software install/update.

I tried to run
```
gnome-control-center
```
From the terminal, I get the error
```
boby@sok-01:~$ gnome-control-center

Command 'gnome-control-center' not found, but can be installed with:

sudo apt install gnome-control-center

boby@sok-01:~$ 
```
To fix the error, I installed gnome-control-center package as the error suggests.
```
sudo apt install gnome-control-center
```
See Ubuntu
December 4, 2020
gsettings

Ubuntu Screen Recorder

December 1, 2020

csf error path to iptables is either not set or incorrect

Whem install csf firewall on Ubuntu 20.04, i get following error

root@ok:~# csf
*Error* The path to iptables is either not set or incorrect for IPTABLES [/usr/sbin/ip6tables] in /etc/csf/csf.conf at /usr/local/csf/lib/ConfigServer/URLGet.pm line 26.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/sbin/csf line 21.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/sbin/csf line 21.
root@ok:~#

This is because path for iptables is changed in Ubuntu 20.04. To fix the error edit csf.conf

vi /etc/csf/csf.conf

Find

IPTABLES = "/sbin/iptables"
IPTABLES_SAVE = "/sbin/iptables-save"
IPTABLES_RESTORE = "/sbin/iptables-restore"
IP6TABLES = "/sbin/ip6tables"
IP6TABLES_SAVE = "/sbin/ip6tables-save"
IP6TABLES_RESTORE = "/sbin/ip6tables-restore"

Replace with

IPTABLES = "/usr/sbin/iptables"
IPTABLES_SAVE = "/usr/sbin/iptables-save"
IPTABLES_RESTORE = "/usr/sbin/iptables-restore"
IP6TABLES = "/usr/sbin/ip6tables"
IP6TABLES_SAVE = "/usr/sbin/ip6tables-save"
IP6TABLES_RESTORE = "/usr/sbin/ip6tables-restore"

Now restart csf with csf -r, it will work.

csf -r
systemctl restart lfd

See csf

November 30, 2020

GNOME Shell Extension
GNOME Shell Extensions allow you to add/modify features in Gnome Desktop. Gnome Desktop is used by Ubuntu.

Shell Extensions are stored in folder
```
/home/USER/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions
```
On Ubuntu 20.04, i installed NoAnnoyance extension. This prevent Annoying Windows Ready notification.

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1236/noannoyance/

To install an extension, go to the web page of the extension, you will be asked to install a browser extension. Once browser etxtension installed, you need to install
```
sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell
```
This is same for both Google Chrome and Firefox. Now you can go to any extension page, select “ON/OFF” button on the page to install an extension.

Extensions i use on Ubuntu 20.04

Ubuntu don’t have a quick way to switch between sound devices. For example switching between headphone and speaker. I used Sound Input & Output Device Chooser for very long. On 2021-03-30, it stopped working. I started using a differnt extension Audio output selector, this have less features, but do the work properly.

List all Gnome Extensions

To list all gnome extensions, run “gnome-extensions list”.
```
boby@sok-01:~$ gnome-extensions list
desktop-icons@csoriano
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
boby@sok-01:~$ 
```
To enable/disable an extension, use
```
gnome-extensions enable EXTENSION_NAME
gnome-extensions disable EXTENSION_NAME
```
Example
```
gnome-extensions disable [email protected]
```
November 23, 2020
Install TeamSpeak Client on Ubuntu
To install TeamSpeak client on Ubuntu, download latest version from

https://www.teamspeak.com/en/downloads/

Download page list both 32 and 64 bit versions. Most computers these days use 64 bit OS. So download 64 bit version unless you are using older computer with 32 bit OS.

On Ubuntu, you can find if you are using 32 or 64 bit version with command arch
```
boby@sok-01:~$ arch
x86_64
boby@sok-01:~$ 
```
Download latest version of TeamSpeak, as for this writing, latest verison is
```
wget https://files.teamspeak-services.com/releases/client/3.5.5/TeamSpeak3-Client-linux_amd64-3.5.5.run
```
Make it executable
```
chmod 755 TeamSpeak3-Client-linux_amd64-3.5.5.run
```
To extract it, run
```
./TeamSpeak3-Client-linux_amd64-3.5.5.run
```
This will cretae a folder with TeamSpeak files. Move it to /opt directory or any other folder you prefer.
```
mv TeamSpeak3-Client-linux_amd64 /opt/
```
Now you can start TeamSpeak from command line with command
```
/opt/TeamSpeak3-Client-linux_amd64/ts3client_runscript.sh
```
To create a shortcut file, create a desktop file
```
vi ~/.local/share/applications/teamspeak.desktop
```
Add following content
```
[Desktop Entry]
Name=TeamSpeak 3
Comment=TeamSpeak 3 VoIP Communicator
Exec=/opt/TeamSpeak3-Client-linux_amd64/ts3client_runscript.sh
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Network;Application;
Icon=/opt/TeamSpeak3-Client-linux_amd64/styles/default/logo-128x128.png
```
Now you will be able to find TeamSpeak 3 in Ubuntu Start menu/Dash.

See Ubuntu
November 22, 2020
bash: man: command not found
When running man command on a debian server, i get error
```
root@lab:~# man sftp
-bash: man: command not found
root@lab:~#
```
This is because man-db package not installed on the server. To fix, install man-db package with
```
apt install man-db
```
See Errors
November 13, 2020
Enable FTP for EasyEngine Website
To Enable FTP for EasyEngine web sites, we need to install pure-ftpd. On Ubuntu/Debian, run
```
apt install -y pure-ftpd
```
Enable virtial FTP users
```
ln -s /etc/pure-ftpd/conf/PureDB /etc/pure-ftpd/auth/PureDB
touch /etc/pure-ftpd/pureftpd.pdb
```
In EasyEngine, we sites files are owned by www-data user, this user have a UID of 33. By default pure-ftpd won’t allow this. To enable users with UD 33 to login, run
```
echo 1 > /etc/pure-ftpd/conf/MinUID
```
Now lets create FTP user for a web site running in EasyEngine.
```
pure-pw useradd  FTP_USER_HERE -u www-data -g www-data -d /opt/easyengine/sites/DOMAIN_NAME_HERE/app/
```
In above command replace

FTP_USER_HERE = FTP user for the web site, this can be any name, no space

DOMAIN_NAME_HERE = the domain name of the web site that is hosted in EasyEngine, that you need FTP access.

When you run above command, you will be asked to select password for the FTP user, this can be used to login to FTP server.

Before you can login to FTP server with newly created virtual FTP user, you need to run
```
pure-pw mkdb
systemctl restart pure-ftpd
```
Change FTP Password

If you want to change FTP user for a user, you can run
```
pure-pw passwd FTP_USER_HERE
pure-pw mkdb
systemctl restart pure-ftpd
```
Passive FTP Configuration

Many cloud hosting providers like AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, AliCloud servers use NAT networking. That is your VM have private IP and your public IP is routed to your VM. In such case, you need to enable Passive FTP, for this run
```
echo "30000 50000" > /etc/pure-ftpd/conf/PassivePortRange
echo "YOUR_PUBLIC_IP" > /etc/pure-ftpd/conf/ForcePassiveIP
```
YOUR_PUBLIC_IP = replace this with your public IP address.

Restart pure-ftpd
```
systemctl restart pure-ftpd
```
Firewall configuration

For Passive FTP, you need to open following ports in your firewall
```
tcp 21
tcp 30000:50000
```
On Oracle Cloud server, i edited file
```
vi /etc/iptables/rules.v4
```
Find
```
-A INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW -m tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT
```
Replace with
```
-A INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW -m tcp --dport 21 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW -m tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW -m tcp --dport 30000:50000 -j ACCEPT
```
Now restore firewall rules with
```
iptables-restore < /etc/iptables/rules.v4
```
Now FTP will work.

See EasyEngine
November 8, 2020

Enable Remote Desktop in Ubuntu from the command line

Method 1: Using x11vnc

Connect to remote computer with SSH

ssh user@REMOTE_PC_IP

Install x11vnc

sudo apt install x11vnc

start x11vnc as the user that is logged in to GUI.

x11vnc -display :0

Now you should be able to connect to the desktop using any vnc client software using

REMOTE_PC_IP:0

Method 2: Using vino

Connect to remote computer with SSH

ssh -Y user@REMOTE_PC_IP

Run

sudo apt-get install vino -y
vino-preferences

You need X11 forward enabled to get this working, so you can run GUI application of remote PC on your PC.

Configure settings as required.

Now run

export DISPLAY=:0.0
xhost +
/usr/lib/vino/vino-server

This will start vino-server, if you want to run in background, run with & at end.

/usr/lib/vino/vino-server &

To verify vino running, run

netstat -nl | grep 5900

Now you have VNC enabled on remote PC.

Start your favorite VNC client and connect to remote PC.

If you don’t have vino-preferences, you can use

export DISPLAY=0.0
gsettings set org.gnome.Vino notify-on-connect false
gsettings set org.gnome.Vino prompt-enabled false
gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.notifications.application:/org/gnome/desktop/notifications/application/vino-server/ enable
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.notifications.application:/org/gnome/desktop/notifications/application/vino-server/ enable false
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.notifications show-in-lock-screen false
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.notifications show-banners false
gsettings set org.gnome.Vino require-encryption false
gsettings set org.gnome.Vino view-only false

To set password for VNC, run

dbus-launch gsettings set org.gnome.Vino authentication-methods "['vnc']"
dbus-launch gsettings set org.gnome.Vino vnc-password $(echo -n "YOUR_VNC_PW_HERE"|base64)

Allow connection from a network interface

eths=$(nmcli -t -f uuid,type c s --active | grep 802 | awk -F  ":" '{ print "'\''" $1 "'\''" }' | paste -s -d, -)
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.sharing.service:/org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/sharing/vino-server/ enabled-connections "[ $eths ]"
dbus-launch gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.sharing.service:/org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/sharing/vino-server/ enabled-connections "[ $eths ]"
gsettings get org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.sharing.service:/org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/sharing/vino-server/ enabled-connections

start vino server

/usr/lib/vino/vino-server --display=:0.0

To view the settings

gsettings list-recursively org.gnome.Vino
gsettings list-recursively org.gnome.desktop.notifications
dconf dump /org/gnome/

November 5, 2020

Tag: Ubuntu

Rocky Linux

Project Lenix

Extensions i use on Ubuntu 20.04

List all Gnome Extensions

Change FTP Password

Passive FTP Configuration

Firewall configuration

Method 1: Using x11vnc

Method 2: Using vino