Month: June 2013

Enabling the Global Status Monitor – Data Synchronizer.

In Synchronizer Web admin, click Global Status Monitor to display the instructions for enabling the Global Status Monitor. Initially, the current section of the documentation displays in your browser so that you can enable the Global Status Monitor.

As root in a terminal window, enter the following command:

root#: /opt/novell/datasync/previewfeature.sh --monitor --action enable

Restart the Synchronizer services. Refresh the Synchronizer Web Admin browser window to replace the link to the documentation with the link to the Global Status Monitor.

Recover root password.

1. Boot the LiveCD or rescue CD/USB, and mount your root (/) partition. For example:

mkdir /mnt/root
mount /dev/sdaX /mnt/root

and then edit the password file with your editor:

vim /mnt/root/etc/shadow

and then delete the second field on the root line:

root:$1$KmZw.u7l$JI6aYJRrSU7ZcUivaNQpZ1:15833:0:99999:7:::

2. Boot the LiveCD or rescue CD/USB, and mount your root (/) partition. For example:

mount -o remount,rw /dev/sdaX /mnt/root
chroot /mnt/root
passwd root

3. INIT or /bin/bash mode

Another trick is to add “init=/bin/bash” (LILO “linux init=/bin/bash” or add it to the Grub “kernel” line). This will dump you to a bash prompt much earlier than single user mode, and a lot less has been initialised, mounted, etc. You’ll definitely need the “-o remount,rw” here. Also note that other filesystems aren’t mounted at all, so you may need to mount them manually if you need them. Look in /etc/fstab for the device names.

passwd root

🙂

Understanding I/O streams numbers.

Handle Name Description
0 stdin Standard input
1 stdout Standard output
2 stderr Standard error

Redirecting the standard error stream to a file. The following will redirect program error message to a file called error.log:

$ program-name 2> error.log
$ command1 2> error.log

Redirecting the standard error (stderr) and stdout to file
Use the following syntax:

$ command-name &>file

OR

$ command > file-name 2>&1

Another useful example:
$ find /usr/home -name .profile 2>&1 | more

How to install and set up VPN (PPTP) server on Debian Linux.

PoPToP Point to Point Tunneling Server, this implements a Virtual Private Networking Server (VPN) that is compatible with Microsoft VPN clients. It allows windows users to connect to an internal firewalled network using their dialup.

Install pptpd:

root:# apt-get install pptpd

and then edit the configuration file:

root:# vim /etc/pptpd.conf

and add the following lines to:

localip 192.168.1.144
remoteip 192.168.1.200-225, 192.168.1.230

# Specifies the local and remote IP address ranges.
#
# Any addresses work as long as the local machine takes care of the
# routing. But if you want to use MS-Windows networking, you should
# use IP addresses out of the LAN address space and use the proxyarp
# option in the pppd options file, or run bcrelay.

then edit the configuration file:

root:# vim /etc/ppp/pptpd-options

and add the following lines to:

ms-dns 192.168.1.44 # my DNS server
nobsdcom
noipx
mtu 1490
mru 1490

edit another one configuration file:

root:# vim /etc/ppp/chap-secrets

and add the following lines to:

username * password *

then restart the pptpd service:

root@server: service pptpd restart

and don’t forget to enable 1723 on a firewall.

Data Synchronizer Mobility Connector and a self-signed cert.

In order to be able to use Mobility Pack with a self-signed cert (normally for testing purposes), you’ll need to follow these instructions: NOTE: You can name the .key and .cert files anything you’d like initially because you’re going to need to change it to “mobility.pem” later. Open the terminal and perform the following commands:

openssl genrsa 1024 > anything.key
chmod 400 anything.key
openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -sha1 -days 365 -key anything.key > anything.cert

Now that you’ve created the key and cert file you need to concatenate the two files into a .pem file with this command, private key first, then cert. You can also remove the .key file for security purposes in the same command.

cat anything.key anything.cert > anything.pem && rm anything.key
chmod 400 anything.pem

Once you’ve created the .pem file you need to rename it to “mobility.pem” and then replace it with the mobility.pem file in /var/lib/datasync/device.
WinMobile devices require a .cer certificate file (as opposted to .pem). You’ll need to create a copy of the .pem file and convert it to .cer:

openssl x509 -in mobility.pem -inform PEM -out mobility.der -outform DER

rename the mobility.der to mobility.cer and move it in the /var/lib/datasync/device directory.
Restart the connectors and resync with your device, now you shouldn’t have cert issues with your device while trying to connect with your self-signed cert.