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How to install and configure various software on Debian. Step by step.

Keywords: Debian GNU Linux, Manual, How To, How-To, howto, Installation, Configuration, Easy, From Windows XP to Debian, Wireless WPA2, anti-spam, fax, Documentation, MoinMoin Wiki, Linux, servers, Windows, Windows NT, ?HowTo, vmware, vmwaretools, vmware tools, vm, tool, AMD64, 64 bit

Debian Services

FTP Server

Install

• Install Ftp Server ("Very secure ftp server")

aptitude update
aptitude install vsftpd

• Ftp server has been installed

Configure

• Now configure your server
• Edit /etc/vsftpd.conf

vi /etc/vsftpd.conf

• [Optional] Disable Anonymous account by finding the line that says anonymous_enable=YES and make it

anonymous_enable=NO

• [Optional] Allow Write access (upload access). Find and uncomment the following line:

write_enable=YES

• [Optional] Add you banner when people log in. Find and uncomment this #ftpd_banner=Welcome to blah FTP service. line and make it:

ftpd_banner=Welcome to example.com FTP service. Enjoy.

• [Optional] Allow local users to log in. Uncomment the following line:

local_enable=YES

VMware Server On Debian

• A very good how-to which didn't require from me any additional configuration to install vmware on Debian and then Windows XP as a guest OS is here:

http://lucasmanual.com/out/Debian-vmware-windows-xp.jpg

• See VMware article.

VMware Kernel Upgrade

• On an upgrade when your kernel has been updated you need to download the kernel headers and reconfigure vmware.

aptitude update
aptitude install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl

VMware on amd64

• In order to install vmware on amd64 you have to install few extra libs:

aptitude install linux-headers-`uname -r` libx11-6 libx11-dev x-window-system-core x-window-system xspecs libxtst6 psmisc build-essential ia32-libs

Debian Configuration

Change from dhcp to static ip

• edit /etc/network/interfaces
• comment the line that says "iface eth0 inet dhcp" and below type:

iface eth0 inet static
[tab]address 192.168.1.200
[tab]network 192.168.1.0
[tab]netmask 255.255.255.0
[tab]broadcast 192.168.1.255
[tab]gateway 192.168.1.1
[tab]dns-nameservers 192.168.1.1

• Your file should look like:

#iface eth0 inet dhcp
iface eth0 inet static
    address 192.168.1.200
    network 192.168.1.0
    dns-nameservers 192.168.1.1 
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    broadcast 192.168.1.255
    gateway 192.168.1.1

• or

iface eth0 inet static
    address 192.168.5.200
    network 192.168.5.0
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    broadcast 192.168.5.255
    gateway 192.168.5.254
    dns-nameservers 192.168.5.254

Subversion

• Svn is a software that manages any type of data. It monitors its changes, lets you update them, and if something went wrong you can go back to previous version with no problems.
• Let's install it on Debian:

apt-cache search svn
aptitude install subversion

• Subversion is installed

• The story goes like this: I have a project I am working on. It is located at

/home/lucas/my_best_project

• This folder includes

/home/lucas/my_best_project/trunk/install.c
/home/lucas/my_best_project/trunk/readme.txt

• I keep my working files in trunk. I want it in subversion now!
• We need to tell subversion where it can store its repositories:
• It will be in

/usr/local/src/

• Now create repository directory:

svnadmin create /usr/local/src/my_best_project

• Now I am going to import my_best_project to svn

svn import /home/lucas/my_best_project file:///usr/local/src/my_best_project -m "initial import"

• Folder /home/lucas/my_best_project is not important anymore. SVN is not concerned what you are going to do with it.

• Now we need to start working with subversion and we do that by creating a folder where we can work on my best project with subversion. It will be in /home/lucas/new_folder/ We need to go to that folder. And from that folder we issue command:

svn checkout file:///usr/local/src/my_best_project

• Now it created

/home/lucas/new_folder/my_best_project

• This folder contains files I kept in a trunk. I can now work on it and let svn take care the version tracking.
• Optional, you could use subversion over ssh. You need to install subversion on your computer and then:

svn co svn+ssh://your.remote-server.com/usr/local/src/my_best_project

• Done. Now its time to make that tool great.

Mount Windows Share

• You need to have smbfs installed. If you don't do this:

aptitude update
aptitude install smbfs

• To mount Windows share drive you need to create a folder:

mkdir somefolder

• As root or with root privileges ("su root" or "sudo")

mount -t smbfs -o username=administrator,password=password
//windowsservername/folder /home/lucas/somefolder

If you don't want the password to show up you could do

mount -t smbfs -o username=administrator //windowsservername/folder /home/lucas/somefolder

[Optional] You can replace administrator with your username. You can also replace windowsservername with ip address //192.168.1.10/folder ....

Add a network card

• See if your card is in a list.

lspci -v

• Add a network card by a hardware number. Replace 00:00:..:00 with your hardware number. It should be 16 characters.

ifconfig eth1 hw ether 00:00:..:00 uo

Power Users

Sudo

• If sudo command is not installed, install it.

aptitude update
aptitude install sudo

• Then run visudo

visudo

• Copy root ALL=(ALL) ALL and paste it right below. Then change root to your user name on the pasted line.

yourusername    ALL=(ALL) ALL

Disable ssh root access

• Edit the sshd_config file

vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

• On a line where you see "Permit root login" change it to no

PermitRootLogin no

• Restart or reload ssh

/etc/init.d/ssh force-reload

• This will prevent other users from trying to get guess your password. 100s of lines on your system that look:

Security Events
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Feb  5 07:21:15 localhost sshd[8586]: Failed password for root from xx.xx.xx.xx port 60618 ssh2
Feb  5 07:21:15 localhost sshd[8588]: Failed password for root from xx.xx.xx.xx port 60637 ssh2

AWStats on Debian

• Install AWStats

apt update
apt install awstats

• Configure the apache2 for awstats - copy configuration file for apache2.

cp /usr/share/doc/awstats/examples/apache.conf /etc/apache2/conf-available/awstats.conf

• Then edit /etc/awstats/awstats.conf file and make sure the file contains (double check the log file path)

LogFile="/var/log/apache2/access.log"
SiteDomain="mysite.org"
LogFormat=1

• Enable awstats and reload apache

a2enconf awstats
service apache2 restart

• Generate stats

awstats -update 

• And visit:

http://localhost/cgi-bin/awstats.pl?config=awstat.conf or http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/awstats.pl?config=awstat.conf [Optional]

• To make it easier to remember the address you can edit /etc/apache2/conf-available/awstats.conf and add this line.

RedirectMatch ^/logs /cgi-bin/awstats.pl?config=awstat.conf

• Now you can access the awstats statistics by going to

http://www.mysite.com/logs

• Done.

unixODBC

• Install odbc, and mssql drivers (tdsodbc)

aptitude update
aptitude install tdsodbc unixodbc

• Create a driver template.

vi /etc/freetds/tds.driver.template

• Inside add :

[TDS]
Description     = FreeTDS Driver for Linux & MSSQL on Win32
Driver          = /usr/lib/odbc/libtdsodbc.so
Setup           = /usr/lib/odbc/libtdsS.so

• Now dsn file:

vi /etc/freetds/tds.dsn.template

• And inside add:

[DSN_NAME]
Description     = Descripton of you DSN connection.
Driver          = TDS
Trace           = No
Database        = DefaultDatabase [replace with your database name]
Server          = mysqlserver.inter.net [replace with your SQL server's host,ip]
Port            = 1433 [replace with the port that SQL is listening on]

• OR If you are using mssql with multiple instances and dynamic port allocation you can use the following:

[SQLServer2008]
Description     = Production Server
Driver          = TDS
Trace           = No
Server          = servername\instance_name
TDS_Version     = 8.0

• Now run this command to add your driver to unixodbc

odbcinst -i -d -f /etc/freetds/tds.driver.template

• Now you add dsn. You have 2 options.
• Add system DSN for all users

odbcinst -i -s -l -f /etc/freetds/tds.dsn.template

• Add dsn to a user your are running a command on:

odbcinst -i -s -f /etc/freetds/tds.dsn.template

• Now test your connection:

isql -v DSN_NAME username password

• You should get something like

**********************************************
* unixODBC - isql                            *
**********************************************
* Syntax                                     *
*                                            *
.
.
.
more
.

Troubleshooting

• If you can not connect it is probable that your database is listening on a different port.
• Try this:

telnet myserver 1433

• You should see something like:

Trying 10.3.3.10...
Connected to myserver.
Escape character is '^]'.

• type quit to exit. Replace 1433 with a port number, replace myserver with your servers name.

If you still get connection refused try telnet from Windows and see if you get same answer.

Apt Preferences

• As of October 1st 2007 apt installs recomended packages as well.

• If you would like to view packages from other distrubutions, (testing, unstable)
• Create a file

vi /etc/apt/preferences

• And inside put these lines. Change the Pin-Priority to reflect your default install.
• If you are using Debian testing make sure testing has the bigger number.
• This file will install only from the highest pin but it will show you if the package is available in testing or unstable

Package: *
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 600
Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 450
Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 400

• Now add testing and unstable to /etc/apt/source.list by coping and paste deb and deb-src lines and change stable to testing, and then again stable to unstable.

• Update list

aptitude update

Debian User Configuration

Change default editor

• Install your editor
• Example:

aptitude update
aptitude install vim

• Run configuration change

update-alternatives --config editor

• From a list pick your editor. And you are done.

Change default pdf viewer

• Install your pdf viewer
• Click right mouse button on a pdf file

• Change: 'Properties -> Open with' to your favorite pdf viewer.

Check installed browser plugins

• Input "about:plugins" into URL of browser

Laptop and Debian

Authenticate with wpa using PSK TKIP

• Install wpasupplicant

aptitude update
aptitude install wpasupplicant

• Open /etc/network/interfaces

vi /etc/network/interfaces

• If you see "iface eth2..." add the following lines, but change ssid and password:

iface eth2 inet dhcp
wpa-ssid thisismynetworkname
wpa-psk thisismypassword

• Exit, and now type:

ifup eth2

• Done. If you want you your wireless card to connect each time you boot your computer add this above "iface eth2.."

auto eth2

• Done. [Optional](see the WPA page for status on wpa support in Debian)

Intel Graphic card - Higher resolution

Not required for DebianLenny and later releases. Support is included within xserver-xorg-video-intel.

• Install 915resolution

aptitude install 915resolution

• See what resolutions are available

915resolution -l

• If the resolution you desire is not listed you will need to dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg and add new resolutions.

• For example (using mode 5c (1920x1440):

sudo 915resolution 5c 1280 800 24

Troubleshooting

SSH terminal connection timeout

• If you get an error:

Read from remote host example.com: Connection reset by peer
Connection to example.com closed

• Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and add:

ClientAliveInterval 150

Dynamic MMap ran out of room

• If you see an error like:

Reading package lists... Error!
E: Dynamic MMap ran out of room
E: Error occurred while processing vlc (NewVersion1)

apt-get update -o APT::Cache-Limit=25165824

Useful Debian Programs

Digital Camera

* Digikam, for all your digital camera needs

aptitude update
aptitude install digikam

Players and Viewers

How to Remote connect to Windows

• You can connect to Microsoft Windows Remote Connection via rdesktop
• Install rdesktop

aptitude update
aptitude install rdesktop

• Then you can start rdesktop or from a command line

rdesktop ip.add.re.ss

or

rdesktop remoteconnection.example.com

• CategorySoftware | CategoryRedundant