Text based alternative to Firestarter?

[PJBonoVox]

Hi all.

I've got a machine set up as a NAT router/gateway and am using Firestarter to configure the forwarding/policies etc...

I have a simple question-- Is there a text based (console) alternative to Firestarter that's fairly easy to use? Ideally I'd like to run a 'headless' server if possible.

Any help much appreciated!

[brianmsu80]

iptables

It's built in.

[PJBonoVox]

iptables

It's built in.

Hi there. Thanks for the info. Ideally I was looking for a firewall & frontend or at the very least, a frontend to iptables.

Do you know of a console based frontend to iptables that's relatively straightforward to configure?

[brianmsu80]

Console nope. But you can just start vncserver and vnc in from any computer and configure your firewall the way you do now.

[PJBonoVox]

Thanks once again for the quick reply!

I'll do that for the time being, but I also would like to pick your brains again :)

Whilst on the subject of VNC, is there any possibility (and I know this is a long shot) that vncserver can start up X when a connection comes in, and then shutdown X and the end of the session? If followed a couple of tutorials using xinetd but they all need X to be running.

[brianmsu80]

I don't understand why you want X to startup, I thought you wanted to take the monitor off.

Do you mean have vncveiwer on a remote computer automatically launch the vnc session from the vncserver EVERYTIME your firewall is hit by traffic? If that's what you want, I HAVE NO IDEA.

But if you want to monitor your firewall just
tail -f /var/log/secure

You can setup email alerts.

[PJBonoVox]

Hiya mate, thanks again for the quick reply.

The misunderstanding here is due my lack of understanding of the terminology! When I said headless, I meant without a GUI, not without a screen. I want to run the server in console mode to save resources only using X when necessary.

What I like to do is have X start up when I vnc into the box, so I can use a GUI session whilst I'm VNCing (most of the time it'll be over the internet) and then have X shut down when I disconnect my VNC session.

Like I said, I realise it's a long shot ;)

[brianmsu80]

Ok, I think I'm getting closer to understanding. I think you just want to the computer to boot up to command line, and not load "a GUI". You can start the "GUI" by just typing startx and the logout (back to a command line). You are just booting Linux in runlevel 3 instead of runlevel 5.

You don't need X ("GUI") started to use vncserver. VNCSERVER will use it's own that is started via vncserver and stopped via vncserver -kill :1.

Try this, reboot your linux machine, when it comes up grub boot editor where you select your kernel, hit the letter e on the kernel you usually boot with. It will then let you edit the kernel for this 1 time. When editing add a space then the number 3 to the end of whatever you already have there. Then let it boot. You will get a Login:, just type your username, then password. Now you have the command line. If you want X to load type startx.

So it looks something like this:

title Fedora Core (2.6.15-1.1824_FC4smp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.1824_FC4smp ro root=LABEL=/ quiet 3

Is this what you mean? If it is, we can make the change permanent very easy, so you don't have to edit at boot.
The change is in /etc/inittab
change from id:5:initdefault:
to id:3:initdefault:

[Zigzagcom]

This might be a bit overkill, but you could install Webmin onto the server, set up SSL and then sort out the firewall (iptables) from the module that comes with it. It is quite neat, cause it helps you to learn iptables, so at some point you'll be doing it from the cli.
Do a search here on the forum for "webmin".

[PJBonoVox]

@brianmsu80

Thanks again for the help-- I'm aware of how to change the default runlevel and I've already done that. If I start a vncserver on my machine (in runlevel 3) what will I see on the client when I connect to this VNC server? Ideally I want to see a GDM login prompt.

@Zigzagcom

Thanks for the info on webmin, I've seen it a couple of times before but never used it. I'll try it tonight!

[brianmsu80]

You will see whatever is in ~/.vnc/xstartup file.
You can have is start Gnome KDE twm blackbox etc.

Here's a pretty good article on vncserver and user's: http://www.raoul.shacknet.nu/2005/11/10/configure-vnc-server-in-fedora/

For setting it up to use GDM, you'll have to search this forum, I know you can, but not sure how.

[wdgiles]

....
For setting it up to use GDM, you'll have to search this forum, I know you can, but not sure how.


~/.vnc/xstartup

add these lines to the bottom ot the file and comment out others that are similar:

gdm &
gnome-session

[PJBonoVox]

Thanks for all the help, much appreciated!

I got my Fedora server set up last night (took ages because of issues with a crap BIOS and a 300GB disk!) but it's all running.

I'll try these tips out today and post back with my results.

Thanks again!

[mauldus]

For other users searching this problem, you can run firestarter without x installed if you ssh in from another workstation with X forwarding. Keeps you from having to install x on the server.