Category Archives: networking

arch linux, boot issues, linux, networking, ubuntu

Stop pulseaudio startup under gdm

GDM is the display manager I’m using under Arch. I think it is the default DM in Arch, but I don’t really remember if I’ve changed it. In any case, the issue that has arisen is that when GDM is started by systemd after a reboot, it is launched with its own pulseaudio daemon. Then when I log in, as dee, I get a second pulseaudio daemon for dee (which is actually the desired one).

Most of the time this doesn’t matter, I guess. But I’m interested in enabling network sources in pulseaudio so I can (perhaps) have the boxes in the basement send their sound upstairs to oregano. Right now avahi is broadcasting two different network sound services on oregano, one from dee and one from gdm.

I want to stop pulseaudio from launching under gdm.

I thought this would be a simple matter of turning off autospawn in the client conf. The client conf is located in ~/.config/pulse (I think it used to be in ~/.pulse and was moved to be more “correct”). And ~ for gdm is /var/lib/gdm, so I tried client.conf in both .config/pulse/client.conf and .pulse/client.conf, but neither worked.

Poked around a little more and discovered that /usr/lib/systemd/user has a pulseaudio.service and pulseaudio.socket so these are actually being launched there by systemd. After a little reading I found that one could mask them by creating a local user override in ~/.config/systemd (for gdm this is /var/lib/gdm/.config/systemd), so I put in a /var/lib/gdm/.config/systemd/user/pulseaudio.socket and symlinked it to /dev/null.

And when I rebooted, sure enough I got not pulseaudio daemon for gdm.

backup, gateways, mac, networking, openssh, raspberry pi, raspbian

Timemachine on Gateway pi

Some people for whom I provide some kinds of support with gateway pis, use Macs. For the pc folk – at least for those on Windows 10, I’ve been seting up to do the filehistory thing, and putting the filehistory onto the /backup drive on the gateway pi. Then it gets sent here overnight. I wanted to do the same for the folks who have Macs, of which there are several.

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arch linux, encryption, fedora, gateways, linux, networking, security

SSH Certificate signing

I’ve encountered a problem migrating from Fedora to Arch which ends up being about ssh and openssh certificates. I look back and discover that I never posted anything about my movement toward openssh certificates. Curious because I wrote a lengthy document about it (because of my leaky brain – not because I am any kind of authority on it).

I will probably go back and write a post about it, and back date it. But now a problem has arisen. Rather than explain, let the boys at openssh speak for themselves, in the release notes for openssh 8.2:

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arch linux, boot issues, fedora, linux, mysql, networking

Moving Oregano to arch

It is by no means certain that I will succeed with this effort, but I’m spending some time trying to get Oregano up on Arch.

The first step was just to get Arch booted up on oregano. My previous installation on a laptop didn’t involve an encrypted root, didn’t have raid arrays, didn’t have separate filesystems for things like /home and /var, didn’t run a web server, etc., so the first challenge is to get the system up with all that stuff.

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apache, centos, cloud, encryption, linux, networking, security, website building

Apache certificate chains

When I switched my main server to CentOS, described in an earlier post, one of the big pains was that I had to use CentOS 7, and there was a lot of software which had come a long way since CentOS 7, and I had to upgrade a log of things from upstream to get functionality that I had grown reliant upon.

I didn’t realize that Apache itself was one of those things that was sufficiently backwards in CentOS 7 that I would have trouble.

Ever since I move the server to CentOSdid that “upgrade”, I’ve been struggling with problems with the certificates not being honored. For the last few days I have been working pretty diligently to try to figure out this nagging problem, and today I finally figured it out. It is owing to an old Apache.

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ipv6, linux, networking, security, vpn

Odd VPN Problem

I have had trouble twice now with modifying a working vpn configuration, and then being unable to get it to start. Both times I never actually solved it, so much as eliminating the problem by switching to a different nordvpn config file.

There was a penetration at nordvpn in which some passwords and userinfo were leaked. I wanted to change my password, and did, and had to get into the vpn router and change it there. And after I did the vpn just would not start. Eventually, I switched to another vpn endpoint, put in a new .conf file in /etc/openvpn/client and it came right up.

I don’t know what this is about.

March 26, 2021: I spent all morning on this again. I was changing scripts on Rosemary and also, double and triple checking that I did not allow IPv6 on obelisk/rosemary (if routable IPv6 addresses are available they will be used in preference to the IPv4 vpn, which is the whole point of obelisk). After a reboot of obelisk, it lost dns. I spent several hours trying to solve this, most of the time spent on obelisk. The vpn would come up, and I could ping raw addresses, but the dns wouldn’t work. I don’t even see what this has to do with the vpn tunnel.

Yet in the end, out of desperation, I tried bringing in a new nordvpn conf file (actually it comes in as an ovpn file, and once I put a password link in it it is saved as a conf file). A link in /etc/openvpn points to whichever of these is active. So I installed a new one, rebooted the router (again), and like magic it began to work.

apache, backup, btrfs, centos, cloud, fedora, linux, mail, mysql, networking, postfix, website building

Tarragon Rebuild 2019

This server, on Amazon, hosts my website and a dozen others, provides mail service for several people’s email including my own with postfix, dovecot, opendkim, amavis, spamassassin and clamd, provides contacts and calendar service using radicale, provides vpn service with openvpn, provides a tor relay, provides nextcloud service, and hosts my svn repository.

The server was last rebuilt in 2017. Long, long ago when I built the first version of it, I was most familiar with Red Hat/Fedora, and since then it has been easiest just to upgrade it with Fedora, always grumbling to myself that someday I’m going to change it. The problem with being on Fedora, of course, is that Fedora changes every 6 months, so I’m constantly behind. And after a year I’m at end of life. This is dumb for a server that I don’t want to be messing with all the time.

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backup, gateways, linux, networking, raspberry pi, ubuntu

Memory on the Gateway Pi

I now have 8 of these gateway boxes out there. This morning as I was checking backups on one of them, I observed that it took quite a long time to respond. I ran a top on it and was horrified to see that its memory use was 100% and so was its swap. Holy @#$%!@ Batman!

Most of the memory was being used by the lxpanel. And (hangs head in embarrassment) there were actually two lxpanels running – one for the console and one in the vnc window I launch at startup.

It seems the lxpanels leak. I don’t know how badly, but it doesn’t matter. These boxes are meant to run forever so even a tiny leak is eventually fatal.

Well this was simple. I will seldom, if ever, need to get into a graphical environment remotely, and if I do I can always start vnc from the command line. So I took out the startvnc from the startup script. And I have even LESS need for a graphical console since there is not even a monitor on these things. So I set the default systemd target to multi-user.target.

Did this on all the gateways that are running on pi-zeros. Those few running on bigger ubuntu boxes I didn’t really have the problem anyway.

After rebooting them they come up with no lxpanels. I’ll watch the memory use, but I think this will fix the problem.

backup, mac, mail, networking, postfix, security, Uncategorized

Setting up a mac remotely

I want to be able to get to my wife’s mac, in another city. She is an unsophisticated user, and I’d like to be able to help her when she needs help, but I can’t ask her to do very much setup. I also want to be able to provide backup for her files.

The first step was to outfit her with one of the little gateway pis previously described. Once that was done, we managed, together, to enable me to get to her mac with ssh, by way of the pi tunnel. And we managed to set up an account on her mac under my name.

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backup, linux, networking, postfix, security, ubuntu

Gateway pi

1 Comment

I realized as I was writing a new post that I had never documented the gateway pi undertaking.

This started when a friend in the mountains got a new internet service where the ISP would not allow him (and therefore me) access to his router. As a result I could no longer use ssh to connect to his systems.

I solved this problem by setting his systems up to use a tool called autossh, with which I could have his system start, monitor, and keep running an ssh daemon with reverse tunnels open to my system. I could then reach him by attaching through the reverse tunnels.

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