Linux-Tip.net: Set up SSH-based point-to-point connection (VPN)

OpenSSH version 4.3 introduced a new feature: the ability to create on-the-fly "Virtual Private Networks" via the tunnel driver (the so-called "tun" driver). This allows you to create a network interface that bridges two physically disparate network segments in different locations. This article explains how to use SSH to set up SSH-based point to point connections with OpenSuse 11.0 which can then be used to create routes that create virtual private networks.



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If you don't mind living on the 'bleeding edge' of technology as I do you can try installing Mozilla's Minefield, the latest nightly build of their Firefox 3.x development effort, currently 3.1b. 

Here are directions for installing the 64-bit version into openSUSE 11.0 to your $HOME directory:




1) Download the zipped tarball firefox-3.1b2pre.en-US.linux-x86_64.tar.bz2

2) Open a terminal window and extract tarball with:
 

tar xjf firefox-3.1b2pre.en-US.linux-x86_64.tar.bz2
(all files will be extracted to /home/$USER/firefox)

3) Link your branded openSUSE Firefox plugins to Minefield

a) cd firefox/plugins
b) for i in `ls /usr/lib64/browser-plugins/*.so`; do ln -s $i; done
(typing about:plugins in your awesome bar should show all plugins)

4) Add a link in your search path to preference Minefield over Firefox with:

cd ~/bin && ln -s ../firefox/firefox
(your search $PATH looks in $HOME/$USER/bin first so it will find Minefield!)

5) Enable the JIT compiler with:

a) type about:config in your awesome bar
b) click on "I'll be careful, I promise!"
c) type in the filter field: javascript.options.jit.chrome
d) double-click to toggle the boolean false to 'true'

That's it.  By default, if you click your Firefox icon, it should find Minefield in the search path first and load all of your custom settings from /$HOME/$USER/.mozilla.

Rock On!
--Dietrich

SuSEGeek: rsnapshot - Local/Remote Filesystem backups utility in openSUSE

Posted by admin on October 4th, 2008

rsnapshot is a filesystem backup utility based on rsync. Using rsnapshot, it is possible to take snapshots of your filesystems at different points in time. Using hard links, rsnapshot creates the illusion of multiple full backups, while only taking up the space of one full backup plus differences. When coupled with ssh, it is possible to take snapshots of remote filesystems as well.

rsnapshot is written in Perl, and depends on rsync. OpenSSH, GNU cp, GNU du, and the BSD logger program are also recommended, but not required. rsnapshot is written with the lowest common denominator in mind. It only requires at minimum Perl 5.004 and rsync. As a result of this, it works on pretty much any UNIX-like system you care to throw at it.

rsnapshot can run almost out of the box with very little configuration changes although advanced configurations can be done with little more effort.

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