boltblog

Note, this is not something I recommend doing. In fact, the only reason why I’m documenting it is that I am removing this solution from the last box I used to have it on.

Anyway, edit the /etc/sudoers file (with visudo, as root), then add lines under the default one for root, like this:

# User privilege specification
root	ALL=(ALL) ALL
bolt    ALL=(ALL) ALL
bolt    ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL

(replace “bolt” with your own username)

If you would rather want to not type a password only for specific commands, specify them like this:

bolt	ALL=NOPASSWD: /sbin/shutdown, /bin/mount, /bin/umount

(replacing the username and commands with the ones you want)

Here’s a simple example script, showing how to deal with different inputs depending on the flag preceding them:

#!/bin/bash
USAGE="Usage: Enter a noun after either -p (polite) or -i (insulting)."

while getopts ":p:i:" OPTIONS; do
  case $OPTIONS in
    p ) polite=$OPTARG;;
    i ) insulting=$OPTARG;;
    h ) echo $USAGE;;
    \? ) echo $USAGE
         exit 1;;
    * ) echo $usage
        exit 1;;
  esac

if [ $polite ]; then echo "Your $polite smells good."; fi
if [ $insulting ]; then echo "Your $insulting smells bad."; fi
done

Stolen from http://www.okboot.org/2010/04/using-flags-and-arguments-in-bash.html

Note to self:

To use a smarthost you have to authenticate to with exim4, edit /etc/exim4/passwd.client

# password file used when the local exim is authenticating to a remote
# host as a client.
#
# see exim4_passwd_client(5) for more documentation
#
# Example:
### target.mail.server.example:login:password
*:myusername:myawfullylongpassword

Here I added a username and password for all target mail servers (*) because this host sends everything through the smarthost.

If yours does not, you have to be more specific (like the example).

Surprisingly, there is no need to reload or restart exim4 after modifying the passwd.client file.

If you’re using DHCP to get your public IP, Smoothwall doesn’t allow you to override the DNS addresses given by your ISP through the DHCP protocol. Time to override Smoothwall 🙂

Edit /etc/rc.d/rc.updatered, and add “DNSMASQ_DNS1=208.67.222.222” and “DNSMASQ_DNS2=208.67.220.220” at the bottom of the DHCP section, making the file look like this:

#!/bin/sh

. /var/smoothwall/ethernet/settings

if [ "$RED_TYPE" = "DHCP" ]; then
 DNSMASQ_DNS1=`/usr/bin/smoothwall/getdnsfromdhcpc.pl 1`
 DNSMASQ_DNS2=`/usr/bin/smoothwall/getdnsfromdhcpc.pl 2`
 . /var/lib/dhcpc/dhcpcd-${RED_DEV}.info
 echo "$IPADDR" >/var/smoothwall/red/local-ipaddress
 echo "$GATEWAY" >/var/smoothwall/red/remote-ipaddress
 DNSMASQ_DNS1=208.67.222.222
 DNSMASQ_DNS2=208.67.220.220
elif [ "$RED_TYPE" = "STATIC" ]; then
 DNSMASQ_DNS1=$DNS1
 DNSMASQ_DNS2=$DNS2
 echo "$RED_ADDRESS" >/var/smoothwall/red/local-ipaddress
 echo "$DEFAULT_GATEWAY" >/var/smoothwall/red/remote-ipaddress
fi

echo -n "$RED_DEV" >/var/smoothwall/red/iface
touch /var/smoothwall/red/active
echo "$DNSMASQ_DNS1" >/var/smoothwall/red/dns1
echo "$DNSMASQ_DNS2" >/var/smoothwall/red/dns2

/usr/bin/smoothcom dnsproxyrestart $DNSMASQ_DNS1 $DNSMASQ_DNS2

/usr/bin/smoothcom setxtaccess
/usr/bin/smoothcom setincoming
/usr/bin/smoothcom snortrestart
/usr/bin/smoothcom upnpdrestart
/usr/bin/smoothcom trafficrestart

/usr/bin/smoothwall/setddns.pl
/usr/bin/smoothwall/updatelists.pl

/etc/rc.d/rc.vpn.up
/etc/rc.d/rc.machineregister

The next time you Smoothwall connects, the setting you just put will override the ones from your ISP. Reboot or reconnect to apply.

Short reference on switching around alsa sound cards, making another one the default.
Needed to do this since my computer has 3 sound cards (M-Audio, SoundBlaster and the G35 headset)

List alsa modules:

cat /proc/asound/modules
0 snd_ice1724
1 snd_ctxfi
2 snd_usb_audio

Edit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf, adding the following lines (note the underscores from above are now dashes):

options snd-ctxfi index=-2
options snd-usb-audio index=-2
options snd-ice1724 index=-1

Done.
If you’re reading this, and you’re not me, customize the above to match your settings, and the priorities you want for your modules.