Jun
17
Using Built-in Policy Installer in Firewall Builder
June 17, 2009 | By: Vadim Kurland | Leave a Comment
Posted in How To
This article continues the series of articles on Firewall Builder, a graphical firewall configuration and management tool that supports many Open Source firewall platforms as well as Cisco IOS access lists and Cisco ASA (PIX). Firewall Builder was introduced on this site earlier with articles Getting Started With Firewall Builder and Using Built-in Policy Importer in Firewall Builder.
More information on Firewall Builder, pre-built binary packages and source code, documentation and Firewall Builder Cookbook can be found on the project web site at www.fwbuilder.org. Watch Project Blog for announcements and articles on all aspects of using Firewall Builder.
After firewall configuration has been generated by one of the policy compilers and saved in a file on disk in the format required by the target firewall, it needs to be transferred to the firewall machine and activated. This function is performed by the component we call "Policy Installer" which is part of the Firewall Builder GUI.
Starting with version 2.0, Firewall Builder comes with built-in installer that uses SSH to communicate with the firewall. Installer works on all OS where Firewall Builder is available: Linux, FreeBSD, Windows and Mac OS X. On Linux, *BSD and Mac OS X it uses standard ssh client that comes with the system; on Windows it uses putty.
Installer needs to be able to copy generated firewall script to the firewall and then run it there. In order to do so, it uses secure shell. The program does not include ssh code, it uses external ssh client. On Linux, BSD and Mac OS X it uses standard ssh client ssh and secure shell file copy program scp that come with the system; Read more
Jun
17
Mono – Discussion With a Developer
June 17, 2009 | By: UbuntuLinuxHelp | 31 Comments
Posted in Editorials
Earlier I posted Mono in Ubuntu, Yes or No? It was a post where I learned a bit about the issues surrounding Ubuntu's default inclusion of Mono. During that post, I arrived at the position that it should not be included by default (and that I'd prefer to remove it from my system). A developer that uses Mono, provided a lengthy, well thought out comment post. It was a comment that I think all users, both pro and con should consider. I strongly believe the heightened emotions and zealotry (is there such a word?) needs to take a back seat, as it has no place - We really need to hear other people out. It seems this is a hot topic, so readers... tread carefully... here be dragons... Here is what he had to say:
"Hey UbuntuLinuxHelp,
I really liked your article, if nothing else it does help me see where some people, especially outsiders, are coming from on this issue. First I should mention that I am a core developer of GNOME Do and as such I obviously hold a positive view of Mono. I’d like to share my view on this whole thing, and I will take it piece by piece. Please keep in mind that as you read it, I intend it all with a very even, and calm tone. I hope it comes across well.
anti-Mono camp:
Most of them are fairly level headed and will have a decent talk with you actually. Some however have spammed our bug tracker and mailing list in the past and left defamatory comments about my personal work. It is upsetting that someone would do that to something I do in my free time. I do not push it on anyone after all. I’d really like to see a lot of the emotions put aside so we can have a real nice talk about the serious issues.
pro-Mono camp:
We have made mistakes and been a bit too strong sometimes. I have gotten too upset when my bugtracker gets spammed or someone tells me I am trying to kill Linux. We need to be clearer, and calmer.
Microsoft (patents ignored):
I don’t think Read more
Jun
16
Mono in Ubuntu, Yes or No?
June 16, 2009 | By: UbuntuLinuxHelp | 15 Comments
Posted in Editorials
It seems there's a fair bit of discussion (heated at times), about the current issues with Mono being installed by default in Ubuntu Linux. I've seen and read some of the flame wars currently in blog posts and forums. Seems that an ordinary person like myself can be easily mislead if not properly informed. The following post is simply my opinion, I'm not suggesting that it's fact. I asked one of my blog readers ("ql"):
"What’s the scoop with mono (I don’t use it), I’ve seen a fair bit of flame wars over it. I appreciate that it can be removed. Why aren’t some people happy with that (the ability to remove it)? I guess I’m missing something there? I would think if nobody used it anymore (or the majority stopped using it) that it would go the way of the Dodo - No?"
And received this reply:
"Yes, it’s currently a political hot potato, but, in my view, there is an issue about its use which is significant and should really be an informed choice to use or not to use. The debate is over-heated, with ludicrous statements on both sides of the fence. The fact that mono is largely Novell-backed doesn’t sit comfortably with the community at the moment, and the way that it is being pushed into the default installation of Ubuntu and Debian (Fedora have decided against it) via gnome is a judgment call with which some find inflammatory. It is a working of a current and critical Microsoft technology, whose legal status is, until MS chooses to clarify it, debatable. That’s enough to make me uncomfortable, but, on top of that, for me, I prefer zim and gthumb to the two apps that ship as default which require mono - tomboy and f-spot. The fact that by replacing those two apps, nearly 50MB of disk space is saved is a bonus."
Needless to say, the answer was astute in that it summarized some issues in a Read more
Jun
16
Installing ATI R128 – Reader Questions
June 16, 2009 | By: UbuntuLinuxHelp | 3 Comments
Posted in Q & A
"Danny", one of our readers asks:
"I have a ati r128 graphics driver. I dont see the driver in hardware drivers at all. The driver is a inf file. I dont know how to install it. Please help me!"
I don't have much information provided in the question (more information is always helpful and allows for better answers). However, I hope the following will help.
First, the inf file is a Windows based file, you don't need that in Linux. I had an ATI Rage 128 card a while back, and a do remember having issues. If I recall correctly (this was a few years ago for me), the issue was that the card was not detected properly. In your case, I'd suggest that the card driver is not ATI, instead you'll want R128 because (again, if I remember correctly) X11 detects the card incorrectly.
If you're not sure what "X11" means, please see the article: X Window System
From their site:
"...The X Window System (commonly X or X11) is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for networked computers, and was initially developed as part of Project Athena. It implements the X display protocol and provides windowing on raster graphics (bitmap) computer displays and manages keyboard and pointing device control functions..."
Here's one approach you can take to try and fix this... Read more
Jun
16
Ubuntu Updates Versus Disk Space – Reader Questions
June 16, 2009 | By: UbuntuLinuxHelp | 1 Comment
Posted in Q & A
One of our readers "Garry" writes:
"I restored ubuntu 8.04 and it wanted to do 188 updates and then 294 updates. The problem is it takes up all disc space and then the system is unstable. What can be done to fix this problem? Thanks"
There is a way you can approach this...
1) Only select a few updates at a time (that way the package manager will not download all 188 or 294 updates). Doing so gives you the opportunity to remove some of those used package updates (saving disk space) before you begin the next update session.
2) After each (edited) update session has completed, you can remove the downloaded update packages by Read more
