Linux as Wireless Windows Terminal with Printer

•  start Debian Stable (3.0r2) from CDROM with command line

  bf24

  (it provides many more options than the older 2.2 kernel)

•  choose your favorite installation language and keyboard settings.
•  partition your hard disk:

  (delete any existing partitions first)

  hda1 (primary): /boot, 8 - 20 MB, set it bootable
hda5 (logical): / (root), 100 - 200 MB
hda6 (logical): /usr, 500 MB - 3 GB
hda7 (logical): /var, 500 MB - 1 GB (+ what your DBMSs will need)
hda8 (logical): SWAP, 2 x RAM - 4 GB, set type to swap!
hda9 (logical): /home, rest of free space; not for terminals

  •  here /tmp is excluded because it will later be defined as a virtual memory file system.
  •  a more popular scheme is to make a swap partition and a single huge Linux partition:

    hda1 (primary): / (root), all disk space - swap size
hda2 (primary): SWAP, 2 x RAM - 4 GB, set type to swap!

    •  any file system corruption may then affect the whole system.

  Write the partition table to disk, then quit.

•  activate the swap partition by hitting enter a couple of times
•  format the actual file system partitions
  •  use ext3 as file system all over
  •  start from hda5 to use it as the root file system
  •  use Alternative option to format the other partitions
•  install base system from the CDROM

1.1.1  Configuring a PCI Network Card

1.1.2  Configuring a PCMCIA Network Card

•  you should not need any other drivers at this point
•  you can leave the hostname as the default for now; later you can redefine it (in /etc/hostname) or install support for setting it by DHCP
•  configure network by DHCP
  •  skip this for now, if you use a PCMCIA network card
•  install the base system from the CD (it will be upgraded later)
  •  you can of course install from network as well
•  don't care what it says, just let it run lilo for now (2)
  •  it will ask about including other partitions in the boot menu if you have other operating systems installed, or if you installed /boot on a different partition from / (root). In latter case, you can just ignore it.

•  accept GMT in machine clock (if time is of any importance, you should use ntpdate anyway)
•  pick your time zone (Europe, Helsinki for instance)
•  enable MD5, shadow passwords
•  pick an easy-to-type password for root at this point; change to random noise when moving to production
•  create user account like "winuser"; disable its password when moving to production
•  remove PCMCIA packages - unless you know you need them, like when you have a PCMCIA network card
•  do not use PPP unless you are working in the voice modem era
•  Apt Configuration, method to access the Debian archive:
  •  for installing over an already configured network (see 1.1.1):

    http, finland, ftp.fi.debian.org, proxy 'none' (YMMV)

  •  otherwise from CDROM
  •  choose to use non-free and contrib software only if you definitely need optimum support for Flash applets
  •  no other apt sources, but use security updates if you install from network.
•  do not run tasksel or dselect; installation is best controlled from command line (3).
•  let the installer erase PCMCIA and used package files.

1.2.1  mail configuration

•  log into the newly installed system as root

1.3.1  if you use a wireless network connection

1.3.2  Change Package Repository Address

1.3.3  Upgrade

1.3.4  Activate Intelligent Command Line Completion

1.4.1  Wireless Network Encryption (WEP) Support

1.4.2  Remote Administration

1.4.3  Kernel

The 'iptables' package should be installed by default.

You can see standard network services and their port numbers in the /etc/services file.

You can inspect your current packet filter rules with command

iptables -L

•  switch -v shows exact settings, interface limitations included
•  switch -n shows raw IP addresses and port numbers
•  switch --line-numbers shows line numbers

3.1.1  create your packet filter rules

3.1.2  When you have what you need

3.2.1  move /tmp from root partition to virtual memory

3.2.2  disable writing to partitions holding most binaries

3.2.3  disable devices on any other than root partition

Lock user accounts that are not used for logins

passwd -l winuser

Set root password to a string of line noise

•  generate a strong password

  perl -e 'print map(chr(32+rand 94), (0..9+rand 9)), "\n"'

•  write it down and enter it as the root password

  passwd

nano lilo.conf

•  remove any extra boot options ('image=...')
•  add a global 'password=""' entry to force asking for it
•  add a global 'restricted' entry to allow default booting but ask password for a modified boot command
•  save (Control-O, Enter) and exit (Control-X)

lilo

•  you will be asked to give a password

apt-get install localeconf

•  choose your local (fi_FI) language with Latin (8859-1) and Euro sign (8859-15) support where possible. Generating UTF locales will take forever on old machines.
•  unless you want to enjoy a funny mixup of english and your own language in system messages, keep LC_MESSAGES in the C locale.

apt-get install ntpdate

cat >>/etc/dhclient-exit-hooks

perl -we 'use Socket; `ifconfig eth0` =~ /addr:([0-9.]+)/ && system("hostname", scalar(gethostbyaddr(inet_aton($1),AF_INET)))'

•  hit Ctrl-D to finish feeding text to the file

•  the above Perl script reads IP address associated to first ethernet device (from command 'ifconfig'), resolves the full name associated with that address and sets it as this machine's host and domain name (with command 'hostname').

apt-get clean

nano /etc/lilo.conf

•  reduce 'delay=' entry to 20 tenths of a second
•  remove 'prompt' option
•  save (Control-O, Enter) and exit (Control-X)

lilo

apt-get install x-window-system-core

This installs quite some cruft with it, but avoids a lot of hassle with configurations. You are free to try more optimal combinations of the packages it chooses to install.

•  check your video card on another terminal (2)

  lspci

•  look for 'VGA compatible controller'
•  for keyboard use 'xfree86', 'pc105' (International), 'fi' (YMMV), and leave the special fields empty (YMMV).
•  mouse device is either '/dev/psaux' for modern or '/dev/ttyS0' for antique mouse
•  if 'Auto' doesn't work for you as the Mouse Protocol, after first installation of the 'xserver-xfree86' package details of mouse protocols can be read with command

  zless /usr/share/doc/xserver-xfree86/README.mouse.gz

•  monitor and video mode selection is a mess beyond our scope
•  if you want automatic detection of your hardware, after finishing the installation for the first time, you can run

  X -configure

  to get a file with settings good for your monitor. Look at 'Section "Monitor"' options 'HorizSync' and 'VertRefresh' for respective values in 'advanced' monitor selection method. You can reconfigure the X server with the command

  dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86

•  test X11 startup with command

  X

  if successful, it will start a graphical user environment with nothing but a black-and-white background and a cross-shaped mouse cursor in it.

  You can kill it by pressing Control-Alt-Backspace.

apt-get install rdesktop

That's all there is to install rdesktop.

•  make a script ("/usr/local/bin/runterminal") that
  •  starts up X11 as root
  •  waits until X11 is ready to serve
  •  while X11 serves
    •  starts rdesktop as given user with your preferred settings
    •  waits until rdesktop finishes
  •  when X11 exits, shuts down the computer
•  make an init script ("/etc/init.d/runterminal") to start the previous script in the background
•  soft link the init script from /etc/rc2.d starting with 'S99':

  ln -s ../init.d/runterminal /etc/rc2.d/S99runterminal

•  make your scripts executable

  chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/runterminal /etc/init.d/runterminal

Connect the printer and power it up.

cat >/dev/lp0

•  write some plain text to be printed
•  hit Control-L to feed form
•  hit Control-D to finish writing

You should get that plain text printed. Otherwise you have hardware or kernel level problems beyond our scope.

6.2.1  Technical breakdown

6.2.2  installation

http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=hpijs

Below "Printing system interfaces", select your printer from the pull-down menu, check "download" and "GUI texts limited to 39 characters", and click on "Generate PPD file". Save the resulting file as

/usr/share/cups/model/HP-LaserJet_1015-hpijs.ppd

lpadmin -p LaserJet -E -v parallel:/dev/lp0 -m HP-LaserJet_1015-hpijs.ppd

lp /etc/motd

apt-get install samba smbclient

•  enter the name of local windows workgroup
•  use password encryption (unless disabled in your domain)
•  do not enable using DHCP for WINS resolution (you'd need to install the dhcp3-client package first; I haven't tried this out)
•  run Samba as daemons
•  let the installation create a samba password database

After the installation finishes, you should be able to access the machine's service list from a Windows machine.

nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

•  uncomment the following lines

  load printers = yes
printing = cups
printcap name = cups

•  comment out any file shares, like this:

  ;[homes]
; comment = Home Directories
; browseable = no
...
; writable = no
...
; create mask = 0700
...
; directory mask = 0700

•  make [printers] and [print$] shares available with option 'public' (or 'guest ok') as 'yes'
•  create new share for printing

  [laserjet]
printable = yes
printer name = LaserJet
public = yes

•  printer name refers to the CUPS printer
•  save (Control-O, Enter) and exit (Control-X)

•  restart samba to use the new configuration

  /etc/init.d/samba restart

•  check that you can see the printer shared from another machine

  smbclient -L [HOSTNAME]

•  test printing from a Unix machine

  smbclient -N -c "print /etc/motd" //[HOSTNAME]/laserjet

nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

•  let root use Samba by commenting out the following

  ; invalid users = root

•  enable following settings under their respective titles:

  [printers]

  printer admin = root

  [print$]

  write list = root

•  load new settings

  /etc/init.d/samba reload

•  give root a password for Samba

  smbpasswd root

•  get the CUPS driver package (cups-samba-[VERSION].tar.gz) from

  http://www.cups.org/windows.php

•  unpack it into a directory on the host to configure
•  run the installation script

  ./cups.install

  •  do wish to install the CUPS-SAMBA Drivers
  •  agree the license (GPL, LGPL)
  •  now there should be a directory /usr/share/cups/drivers/ containing the Windows driver files.

cupsaddsmb -v -U root laserjet

•  give root password for Samba

Install the printer as a network printer to a Windows machine. It should download and install the CUPS printer driver. You can do this from a remote session as a normal user.

•  go to Control Panel / Printers ... / Add a printer
•  connect to \\[HOST]\laserjet
•  trust the driver installation
•  try to print a document.

nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

•  enable the following

  invalid users = root

You may of course consciously choose to take the risk of someone accessing the host over Samba with root privileges.

•  this can probably be fixed easily in the rdesktop Finnish keymap.

Virtual terminals provide multiple access points to Linux through its single physical console. A terminal is chosen and its screen shown by a key combination

•  in text mode, Alt-Function key #x
•  in graphical mode, Contrl-Alt-Function key #x

#x marks both the number of the Function key and the number of the virtual terminal. How convenient! Default virtual terminal is #1 in text mode; graphical terminals start from #7 up.

To get started with virtual terminals in text mode, hit Alt-F2 to see another screen appear. Type a few random letters just to convince yourself that it's an actual, working interface. Hit Alt-F1 to get back to the default terminal.

To get started with virtual terminals in graphical mode, hit Control-Alt-F1 to see the text mode screen as it was before the X11 graphics system changed to virtual terminal #7. Hit Alt-F7 (no Control needed since we now are in text mode) when you want to return to the graphical screen.

After first phase of installation you can always get into your system, even if LILO doesn't start up correctly or you forget the root password.

If LILO starts up (you can see the text 'LILO' on your screen), you can force it to show a prompt by holding down the Control key. At the 'boot:' prompt you can see your available boot commands by hitting the tabulator key. The default boot command is usually 'Linux'. If you need to change the root password, type the following;

Linux init=/bin/bash

to get straight into shell without being prompted for a password. Then change the root password with the following commands:

mount -o remount,rw / (mount root file system as writable)
passwd (change root password)
mount -o remount,ro / (finish writing to disk)

Then just do a cold, hard reboot.

If you want to manage the system without starting all the services, type the following at the LILO prompt:

Linux 1

If LILO doesn't start up, you can use the Debian install media for booting. At the Syslinux prompt, type

rescue root=/dev/hda5

•  assuming your '/' root partition is on partition 'hda5'

This will load the kernel from the install media but boot from your own root partition. Then you can edit the lilo configuration

nano /etc/lilo.conf
lilo

then try to boot normally.

You can search for packages with the command

apt-cache search [what]

where [what] is a name the thing you are looking for. If you get too many answers, you can

•  redefine [what] to be more specific
•  pipe the output to 'grep' to get only matching rows:

  apt-cache search [what] | grep [match]

•  pipe the output to 'less' for browsing:

  apt-cache search [what] | less

Files contained in an installed package can be listed with the command

dpkg -L [package]

•  this is especially useful for quickly finding out documentation of a system contained in a package

The package that contained a given file can be found out fith

dpkg -S [fullfilename]

Whenever you want to reconfigure a package, just run

dpkg-reconfigure [package-name]

from the command line as root.

If you accidentally install packages you'd do better without, do

dpkg --purge [package-names]

to remove their configuration files with them.