Couple of Linux Questions from E2 newb

[briz]

Hi all,

Just upgraded from Skybox F3 to Vu+ Uno (ViX 2.4 image) and very happy so far, got loads of stuff setup with the great help found on here. However a couple of things are bugging me that I'd appreciate a few pointers on:

I'm not new to Linux, but not an expert either and my experience is with the desktop/server distros, and the linux embedded in ViX 2.4 image that I'm using is a little different to what I'm used to.

1) There is no su/sudo. I like to secure SSH for remote access. So far I've configured the dropbear init script to disable password logins and use public key auth only on a non standard port. But I'd really like to disable root login too if possible, login as a different user and use su/sudo to get the root privs I need.

2) There's no iptables firewall support. I use OpenVPN, but like to 'split' the tunnel so that I can choose the traffic that goes via VPN with the rest going via my ISP as usual. Currently I'm using ip routing table commands to do this. However, for one particular case the IP address is provided by dyndns so a simple ip route is not ideal. I'd like to filter by destination port, but the only way I know to achieve this is to use iptables to 'mark' the packets and then use an 'ip rule' to redirect those packets to the VPN tun interface.

I have installed iptables with ipkg, but it only sets up the default 'filter' table, and I'd need the 'nat' and 'mangle' tables to do port filtering.

Anyone have any advice on these? I'm new to E2 and ViX is the only image I've tried so far. Do any of the other images (VTI/PLI/BH) provide this support, or is there a way to do what I want in ViX?

TIA.

[Bann32]

E2 newb? Im not so convinced you are

Not all commands are added to each box, ive added a pdf I come across, might be more insightful to you than me at the moment

Sorry mate cant help you, think your linux abilities are better than mine, good luck though

[briz]

E2 newb? Im not so convinced you are

Not all commands are added to each box, ive added a pdf I come across, might be more insightful to you than me at the moment

Sorry mate cant help you, think your linux abilities are better than mine, good luck though

Thanks for the busybox reference. Interestingly su is listed in there, so I guess it's just not been compiled into the version used by ViX team. That's encouraging anyway since I hope there's either a way to replace/recompile it with su included, or that other images may support it.

As for E2/Linux. I am comfortable with traditional PC based Linux (e.g. Ubuntu) but ViX is my first taste of E2 which is put together a little differently due to embedded requirements (e.g. busybox replaces bash and SUS tools, dropbear replaces OpenSSH etc)

BTW, is this the best section? I posted here thinking it's generic E2 chat, but since realize it's maybe more intended for E2 variants of DM boxes, and peeps with those boxes will probably be using other images? Perhaps a friendly mod can move this over to the Vu+ section?

Thanks.