Raqcop 1.4.21

[Davesworld]

An IPCop update to 1.4.21 just landed and since it updates files that we don't have to change, IE no kernel update, it is safe to use the IPCop 1.4.21.tgz.gpg file provided by them. On my main machine I just uploaded it and it was quick and painless. I will provide 1.4.21 Images before the morning if you are installing fresh in which case you might as well use a 1.4.21 image to start with.

The Flash install is highly recommended as of now. In a Qube/Raq3/4 the Flash drives use next to no power and run silent compared to the aging 20GB drives. Something you don't need on a firewall/router and unless you need many years worth of logs, lose the hard drive but don't skimp on the ram. Besides, you could send logs to a server anyway.

[weizen_42]

Thx Dave.

Flash looks fine.

1 minor point is the bad formatting of /etc/rc.d/rc.local

Code:

Running rc.local
: bad interpreter: No such file or directoryin/sh

cause is the DOS CR/LF formatting instead of the Unix one, what do you use to edit your files Dave?

Another (even more minor): NTP servers are not pre-configured to use {0,1}.ipcop.pool.ntp.org. Caused by a backup-restore from a previous installation?

[Davesworld]

Ah yes, I saw that error too. At one time I used the local file to start the old Cobalt showip script. I think my raqcop_public floppy restore image is the culprit here too. The build tree has the untouched 2003 version of rc.local. Yup, need to not use the floppy restore each time to push a build.

I created the public IPCop restore floppy image late last year so yes, that is the cause of the pool.ntp.org. I can just as well set it up from scratch each build, only takes a few minutes extra anyway. Personally, I use us.pool.ntp.org as the primary and ipcop.pool.ntp.org as the secondaryfor MY locale. I went on the premise that people will change everything from the addresses to network type, hostname and so forth. I should have realized that many may not touch the time server defaults.

Now a question for you on the console descriptor, you see that I commented out the tty's in rc.sysinit but how much of the setting console fonts section do we need if we have only two methods of access, serial and ssh? It still reports "couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console" and it's just a minor annoyance.

If 1.4.22 is not too far off, would it make more sense to wait other than the rc.local file which can be easily provided and replaced? The next update is supposed to be a snort update, correct?

[Davesworld]

Yes, my backup floppy image I made last year was messing it up. The command in rc.local goes to nowhere as of May24th builds of Raqcop. I am in the process of cooking up images from a 1.4.21 fresh install using no floppy backup.

[Davesworld]

Ok, new CF images are up but this time I did NOT use a restore floppy to install initially to make the images from. The corrected vmdk image will be up shortly as well. If you already have 1.4.21 installed prior to August 1st, just edit /etc/rc.d/rc.local and remove the command that points to lcd_showip as it is long since deprecated. Another area to look at is to change the  ntp time servers to something other than pool.ntp.org. The new default in IPCop is ipcop.pool.ntp.org. You probably can use your country's abbreviation followed by pool.ntp.org. In my case, us.pool.ntp.org. There is no need to reinstall for such minor gaffes carried over from my raqcop floppy image from late last year. If you install from August 1st and on, you're golden as is.

Thanks for pointing that out Olaf.

[weizen_42]

Now a question for you on the console descriptor, you see that I commented out the tty's in rc.sysinit but how much of the setting console fonts section do we need if we have only two methods of access, serial and ssh? It still reports "couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console" and it's just a minor annoyance.

IIRC the consolefonts are important for setup (so you are able to display all those weird special characters correctly).
The file descriptor is interesting, does not seem to be anything wrong with /dev/console /dev/tty* etc. 

If 1.4.22 is not too far off, would it make more sense to wait other than the rc.local file which can be easily provided and replaced? The next update is supposed to be a snort update, correct?

Might be a while before the next update.

[Davesworld]

Well, the fact that the next release is a ways off is not a bad thing. 1.4.21 sure showed up quickly.