Strongswan-swanctl introduces the new configuration format for IPsec on Debian Bookworm. Unfortunately the configuration is more convoluted. Start by installing charon-systemd, which will bring in the required packages: sudo apt install charon-systemd Key component packages: Example road-warrior config shown below, using IKEv2 with a certificate to authenticate the server and a user ID and password … Continue reading IPsec on Debian Bookworm with Swanctl
Category Archives: Linux
How to install Debian from Windows without writing a USB or CD-ROM, on UEFI system
This post outlines how to install Debian without requiring writing the ISO image to a USB or burning to DVD drive.
Rename a user in Linux
If you have a single user account it is not possible to rename the user login name whilst logged on. To do so use cron to run the necessary commands. Create a script with the required commands: nano /usr/local/bin/rename_user # First rename the user login: /usr/sbin/usermod –login newlogin oldlogin # Second rename the group account: … Continue reading Rename a user in Linux
Conky diskiograph scale
When using conky to monitor disk I/O, the default scale is dynamic. This makes it unclear how much I/O is actually happening – a high bar will appear even when little activity is occurring due to the scaling. Unfortunately the scale feature is not documented well. Using a non-logarithmic scale of 1000 seems to present … Continue reading Conky diskiograph scale
Making Weston a Usable Wayland Desktop
Weston is the reference compositor for Wayland, the replacement to X11 desktop. In default layout Weston is not a user friendly desktop for those used to a traditional PC desktop. Follow the steps below to make it feel more familiar: apt install weston apt install xwayland apt install wlogout ~/.config/weston.ini: [core] xwayland=true [shell] background-image=/home/user/Pictures/Wallpapers/Wallpaper.jpg background-color=0xff002244 … Continue reading Making Weston a Usable Wayland Desktop
Exim HELO hostname on Debian
By default Exim4 presents the system hostname as the HELO greeting during an SMTP session. If you are using the Debian Exim with the “single file config” and want to define a specific hostname to use, create the following file containing the line below: /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.localmacros primary_hostname = my.server.fqdn.net Restart Exim for the change to take … Continue reading Exim HELO hostname on Debian
Qemu 5+ on Windows Host With WHPX
Running Linux guests using Qemu 5.0+ on a Windows host, using the WHPX accelerator, may fail to start and freezes on this line: [ … ] Freeing unused kernel image memory: … These guests work fine using Qemu 4 on the same Windows host, configured to use a SkyLake CPU type. The issue can be … Continue reading Qemu 5+ on Windows Host With WHPX
config for PXE Booting using isc-dhcp-server
Here is a section of the config file for isc-dhcp-server, showing the syntax to cater for a variety of PXE client types
Invalid Signature with GRUB
A MacBook Pro 7.1 configured for triple booting between MacOS, Linux & Windows failed to load Windows from Grub bootloader, reporting “invalid signature”. Configured with Refind boot manager and a Hybrid MBR, which initially had the Ext4 Linux partition in the MBR but not the NTFS Windows partition, we attempted to chainloader the Windows boot … Continue reading Invalid Signature with GRUB
PXE Booting Guide
Configure DHCP ServerConfiguration below is for isc-dhcp-server on Linux: # For hardware LAN Boot ROMs:option tftp-server-address 192.168.1.200;filename “pxelinux.0”;# For HyperV Guests:# option 60 = client identifieroption dhcp-client-identifier “PXEClient”;# option 66 = TFTP server nameoption tftp-server-name “192.168.1.200”;# option 67 = Bootfile nameoption bootfile-name “pxelinux.0”; 2. Configure TFTP ServerOn Linux, tftp-hpa is recommended, with a directory structure … Continue reading PXE Booting Guide