Category Archives: Linux Mint

Linux, Linux Mint, Ubuntu

Easily Configure a Host-Based Firewall on Ubuntu to Block Incoming Connections

The default firewall configuration tool for Ubuntu is UFW (uncomplicated firewall). It was developed to ease iptables firewall configuration. By default UFW is disabled, and there are no packet filter rules in the Linux kernel:

# iptables -L -n --line-numbers
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
num  target     prot opt source               destination

When you turn UFW on, it uses a default set of rules that should be fine for the average home user. In short, all incoming connections will be denied, thus protecting the system from intruders. To turn UFW on:

# ufw enable
Firewall is active and enabled on system startup

Once enabled, you are done! All future incoming connections will be denied. This configuration will be reloaded at boot.
You can easily view the status of ufw:

# ufw status
Status: active

If you are interested in seeing what UFW did, then run the following command to output the current UFW rules that are applied to your iptables. While it looks like UFW has done a lot, most of this is benign. UFW basically sets up a framework in order for it to easily add additional rules in the future, as well as faciliting logging.

# iptables -L -n --line-numbers
Chain INPUT (policy DROP)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    ufw-before-logging-input  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
2    ufw-before-input  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
3    ufw-after-input  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
4    ufw-after-logging-input  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
5    ufw-reject-input  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
6    ufw-track-input  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
Chain FORWARD (policy DROP)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    ufw-before-logging-forward  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
2    ufw-before-forward  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
3    ufw-after-forward  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
4    ufw-after-logging-forward  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
5    ufw-reject-forward  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    ufw-before-logging-output  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
2    ufw-before-output  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
3    ufw-after-output  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
4    ufw-after-logging-output  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
5    ufw-reject-output  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
6    ufw-track-output  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
Chain ufw-after-forward (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain ufw-after-input (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    ufw-skip-to-policy-input  udp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            udp dpt:137
2    ufw-skip-to-policy-input  udp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            udp dpt:138
3    ufw-skip-to-policy-input  tcp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            tcp dpt:139
4    ufw-skip-to-policy-input  tcp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            tcp dpt:445
5    ufw-skip-to-policy-input  udp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            udp dpt:67
6    ufw-skip-to-policy-input  udp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            udp dpt:68
7    ufw-skip-to-policy-input  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            ADDRTYPE match dst-type BROADCAST
Chain ufw-after-logging-forward (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    LOG        all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            limit: avg 3/min burst 10 LOG flags 0 level 4 prefix "[UFW BLOCK] "
Chain ufw-after-logging-input (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    LOG        all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            limit: avg 3/min burst 10 LOG flags 0 level 4 prefix "[UFW BLOCK] "
Chain ufw-after-logging-output (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain ufw-after-output (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain ufw-before-forward (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    ufw-user-forward  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
Chain ufw-before-input (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    ACCEPT     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
2    ACCEPT     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
3    ufw-logging-deny  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            state INVALID
4    DROP       all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            state INVALID
5    ACCEPT     icmp --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            icmptype 3
6    ACCEPT     icmp --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            icmptype 4
7    ACCEPT     icmp --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            icmptype 11
8    ACCEPT     icmp --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            icmptype 12
9    ACCEPT     icmp --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            icmptype 8
10   ACCEPT     udp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            udp spt:67 dpt:68
11   ufw-not-local  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
12   ACCEPT     udp  --  0.0.0.0/0            224.0.0.251          udp dpt:5353
13   ACCEPT     udp  --  0.0.0.0/0            239.255.255.250      udp dpt:1900
14   ufw-user-input  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
Chain ufw-before-logging-forward (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain ufw-before-logging-input (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain ufw-before-logging-output (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain ufw-before-output (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    ACCEPT     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
2    ACCEPT     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
3    ufw-user-output  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
Chain ufw-logging-allow (0 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    LOG        all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            limit: avg 3/min burst 10 LOG flags 0 level 4 prefix "[UFW ALLOW] "
Chain ufw-logging-deny (2 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    RETURN     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            state INVALID limit: avg 3/min burst 10
2    LOG        all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            limit: avg 3/min burst 10 LOG flags 0 level 4 prefix "[UFW BLOCK] "
Chain ufw-not-local (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    RETURN     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            ADDRTYPE match dst-type LOCAL
2    RETURN     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            ADDRTYPE match dst-type MULTICAST
3    RETURN     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            ADDRTYPE match dst-type BROADCAST
4    ufw-logging-deny  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            limit: avg 3/min burst 10
5    DROP       all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
Chain ufw-reject-forward (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain ufw-reject-input (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain ufw-reject-output (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain ufw-skip-to-policy-forward (0 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    DROP       all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
Chain ufw-skip-to-policy-input (7 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    DROP       all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
Chain ufw-skip-to-policy-output (0 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    ACCEPT     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
Chain ufw-track-input (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain ufw-track-output (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    ACCEPT     tcp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            state NEW
2    ACCEPT     udp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            state NEW
Chain ufw-user-forward (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain ufw-user-input (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain ufw-user-limit (0 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    LOG        all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            limit: avg 3/min burst 5 LOG flags 0 level 4 prefix "[UFW LIMIT BLOCK] "
2    REJECT     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            reject-with icmp-port-unreachable
Chain ufw-user-limit-accept (0 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    ACCEPT     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
Chain ufw-user-logging-forward (0 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain ufw-user-logging-input (0 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain ufw-user-logging-output (0 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
Chain ufw-user-output (1 references)
num  target     prot opt source               destination

This is the rule in the INPUT chain above that drops incoming connections:

DROP       all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0

You may want to install gufw. It is a graphical user interface for UFW that provides an easy and intuitive way to manage your Linux firewall. It supports common tasks such as allowing or blocking ports. There is a status switch that can be turned on and off, which basically performs the commands “ufw enable” and “ufw disable“.

My System Configuration

  • Linux Mint 16 Petra x86 64-bit

References

Linux, Linux Mint, Linux Mint 16 Petra, Ubuntu, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)

Configure Ubuntu to be Verbose at Boot

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Configure Ubuntu to output more verbosely to the screen at boot.

GRUB 2

Configure GRUB 2 /etc/default/grub:

# How long to time out showing blank screen. Commenting this out or setting no value
# after the = sign means the menu will be displayed for the number of seconds
# designated by GRUB_TIMEOUT.
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=
# Setting to false means grub menu will be displayed
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=false
# How many seconds the grub menu will be displayed
# before defaulting the value set in GRUB_DEFAULT
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
# Remove the kernel parameters "quiet" and "splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""
# Disable graphical terminal
GRUB_TERMINAL=console

After updating, run

update-grub

to create a new /boot/grub/grub.cfg file.

My System Configuration

  • Linux Mint 16 Petra x86 64-bit

References

Linux, Linux Mint, Linux Mint 15 Olivia, VMware, Workstation 9

VMware Workstation "Enter License Key" Button Doesn't Work

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On VMware Workstation 9.0.2 running on Linux Mint 15 Olivia, “Help > Enter License Key > Enter License key” doesn’t do anything.
To enter your license key, run this command:

sudo /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-enter-serial

A window will then pop up prompting for your license key, which you may now enter.

Linux, Linux Mint, Linux Mint 14 Nadia, RSSOwl, Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal)

RSSOwl was unable to create a browser for reading news

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Unfortunately, I failed to solve this issue, but I got around it.
Initially I downloaded RSSOwl for Linux (64 Bit) from here: http://www.rssowl.org/download. However, I would start to get the error message:
Error Creating Browser: RSSOwl was unable to create a browser for reading news. Please refer to the FAQ for further help. Click 'Ok' to open the FAQ now..
This issue is described in RSSOwl’s FAQ (http://www.rssowl.org/help#item_6j). However, following those instructions did not resolve my problem. Ultimately I downloaed the Ubuntu 64-bit Debian package from here: http://www.ubuntuupdates.org/package/getdeb_apps/precise/apps/getdeb/rssowl. Executing that installation of RSSOwl did have this problem.

References