How do I make my Knoppix PC into an ftp server?

markbuenafe · 01-11-2003, 01:31 AM

I would like to make my PC running KNOPPIX into a temporary FTP server.
I want to share some files as well as help my Win98 friends turn their PCs into FTP server without installing new software. I know how to mount my D drive (FAT32) so that it is read-write.

How do enable the ftp service?
What do I need to do to make a directory /d/share available to ftp clients?
Can I create guest ftp accounts?

Thanks!
Mark

**roberto** · 01-11-2003, 08:15 AM

to mount a volume read-write simply right-click on it and select mount as read-write. for details see here:

https://sourceforge.net/docman/displ...group_id=70773

as far as FTP server im pretty useless for now!

thx

**Dave_Bechtel** · 01-17-2003, 09:33 AM

--I actually managed to do this once, to bkp my Dad's rig... AFAI can remember:

UPDATE: 2003-0123
UPDATE: 2003-0125

On Knoppix, as root of course:

1. ' /etc/init.d/inetd start ' == Start FTP daemon (see /etc/inetd.conf)
1a. ' ps ax ' -- You should see inetd running.

2. ' ls -l /etc/hosts ' == You will see the symlink (optional)

3. ' rm /etc/hosts ' == Remove non-editable symlink
3a. ' rm /etc/hosts.allow ' == Remove non-editable symlink

4. ' cp /KNOPPIX/etc/hosts /etc ' == Copy from wherever the LS sez
4a. ' cp /KNOPPIX/etc/hosts.allow /etc '

5. ' jstar /etc/hosts ' == Use your favorite editor, and add in the CLIENT's IP address and machine-name, as well as the Knoppix box's info. (' man hosts ')

Code:

 It should look like this:
#
# hosts         This file describes a number of hostname-to-address
#               mappings for the TCP/IP subsystem.  It is mostly
#               used at boot time, when no name servers are running.
#               On small systems, this file can be used instead of a
#               "named" name server.
# Syntax:
#
# IP-Address  Full-Qualified-Hostname  Short-Hostname
#
# special IPv6 addresses

127.0.0.1       localhost
10.0.0.1        hostbox.melvinseries.org   hostbox

10.0.0.2        clientbox.melvinseries.org   clientbox

5b. ' jstar /etc/hosts.allow ' == Comment out the last line, that says:

Code:

ALL : ALL@ALL : DENY

...with a '#' char at the beginning of the line:

Code:

#ALL : ALL@ALL : DENY

6. ' killall pump ' == If you need to manually config your eth0
6a. Make sure you have eth0 up and running:
' ifconfig eth0 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0 up '
(...or 192.168.1.0 / 255.255.255.0 or whatever)

7. Ping the client box and the Knoppix box from both sides using numeric IP (10.0.0.1)

8. ' passwd knoppix ' == Assign a password to knoppix user (can be 'blah' or whatever is convenient. UPDATE: This works from CD with no additional changes.) You can also do ' adduser whatever ' and then ' passwd whatever ' but then you have to "copy-down" /etc/gshadow before the "adduser."

--To ftp to Knoppix box from Linux:
' ncftp -u knoppix 10.0.0.1 ' == It will ask for the password, and you should be good to go.

--You may have to edit /etc/fstab for your FAT32 partition to make it *writable* - post again if you need help with this. It should be *readable* by anybody logging in.

--Now the original post is all from memory, but it SHOULD work. I've updated it with what worked for me. Let me know if it doesn't, and I'll try doing it again on my Knoppix rig.

--NOTE: Securing the box is YOUR responsibility. This is just a quick-n-dirty hack to get FTP downloads up and running.

Originally Posted by markbuenafe

I would like to make my PC running KNOPPIX into a temporary FTP server.
I want to share some files as well as help my Win98 friends turn their PCs into FTP server without installing new software. I know how to mount my D drive (FAT32) so that it is read-write.

How do enable the ftp service?
What do I need to do to make a directory /d/share available to ftp clients?
Can I create guest ftp accounts?

Thanks!
Mark

**Hermanh** · 01-20-2003, 10:21 PM

I did try this exactly as it's writen down, but I had trouble to log in.
I was also not able to add a user. Is it possible that this is because I am running frm CD?
Or need the user knoppix other rights? I also tried to login with user root. This did also not work. And I thought root should have all rights, but I am not a very experienced Linux-user.

The client I use is a Windows 98 client. On the console of knoppix I could see that that machine has tried to log in, but the user-field stayed empty, also the password field stayed empty.
On the client I did get the logon-screen.
What could be wrong?

**Dave_Bechtel** · 01-22-2003, 03:55 PM

--Sorry about that; I'll have to look into it. Hopefully a solution will present itself by tomorrow. BTW, most secured Linux installations will not allow root to login remotely. You have to login as somebody else and ' su ' to root (you have to know root's password and be in the "su" config file for this IIRC.)

--Post exactly how you are trying to login from Win98; if I interpret you correctly, you're using the DOS FTP command. You have to login as "knoppix" and use the password that you assigned on the Knoppix box for the knoppix userid.

--As for adding another userid, check and see if /etc/passwd and /etc/groups are symlinks to the cdrom; if so, you'll have to copy them down to /etc as already described, so they can be changed.

--Also see this thread (Hermanh at 8:53 am) for more info:
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=497

Originally Posted by Hermanh

I did try this exactly as it's writen down, but I had trouble to log in.
I was also not able to add a user. Is it possible that this is because I am running frm CD?
Or need the user knoppix other rights? I also tried to login with user root. This did also not work. And I thought root should have all rights, but I am not a very experienced Linux-user.

The client I use is a Windows 98 client. On the console of knoppix I could see that that machine has tried to log in, but the user-field stayed empty, also the password field stayed empty.
On the client I did get the logon-screen.
What could be wrong?

**Hermanh** · 01-22-2003, 07:40 PM

Dave_Bechtel,

I did succeed in addinjg a user. So that part is solved.

I tried to connect to knoppix using MS internet explorer 6.0.
I just put ftp://192.168.0.10 in the adress.
I got the login-screen, but I could not connect to the ftp-server.

It is saying that the user - password combination is wrong, although I'm sure it was the right one.

I tried it with 3 different users (root, knoppix and the new one). I read that knoppix also was not allowed to login remotely in the security-file on the CD. Maybe the new made user has the same profile, but I do not know where to change that.

I also tried an FTP-client, called FTP-explorer. I've got exactly the same problem with that one.

Just for your information:

What I want is an FTP-server to connect to through the internet, when I'm helping people with their computers at their homes. The server will only be activated when I'm doing that or when I'm working on one of the PC's in my own network. All the (7) clients are Windows-machines (Win98SE and/or WinXP corp).

Next step will be finding out how to prevent remote users to get into knoppix and ruin everything. The first step, to put root in the file ftpusers was already done on the CD. I would like to redirect the ftp-user's home-directory to /mnt/HDA1/ftp/ and remove all other rigths, I'll first try to find out how myself.

After I have the FTP-server running and configured, I have to confige my firewall, so it can be contacted from outside, without people getting into my home-network.
So this machine will be in a different network as soon as it's running.

My firewall is also a Linux machine, but not Knoppix. That distro works from a floppy on a 486 with only 16 MB memory, no harddisk, no CD-drive and the floppy removed as soon it's running.

If that's working I think I will try to remaster the CD, so everything I want will be on that CD. The original I will probably use next to Win98SE and WinXP on my own PC (as workstation).

So you will probably see more topics from me just needing a little push to get to the next step.

Thanks for your reaction so far.

**Hermanh** · 01-23-2003, 01:00 PM

I noticed that my harddisk stayed read-only allthough I did change that on the desktop. Also user knoppix could not write to the disk. I think it's caused by the fact I'm using a swap-file. This is also the reason why I could not remount hda1 as root.
Could this also be the problem users cannot connect remote?

**Dave_Bechtel** · 01-23-2003, 07:12 PM

--Did you try ' mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 -oremount,rw ' as root?

--BTW, see me edited post above; I got it working.

Originally Posted by Hermanh

I noticed that my harddisk stayed read-only allthough I did change that on the desktop. Also user knoppix could not write to the disk. I think it's caused by the fact I'm using a swap-file. This is also the reason why I could not remount hda1 as root.
Could this also be the problem users cannot connect remote?

**Hermanh** · 01-23-2003, 09:07 PM

I've got the harddisk mounted rw. Thank you.

The login on the ftp-server does not function jet.
I've changed hosts.allow like you told me.
That did not work.

I've added an extra line:

Code:

ALL : ALL@ALL : ALLOW

That did not work.

To add a new user I still have to remove the symlink and copy /KNOPPIX/etc/gshadow to /etc/gshadow.

I still get an error-message on adduser, but the new user exists (incl. /home/new user).
The message is:

Code:

rpcinfo: can't contact portmapper: RPC: remote system error - connection refused

This message appeared 3 times
After that the home-directory is created, etc.

**Hermanh** · 01-23-2003, 09:37 PM

This is what I did so far:

As root:

Code:

modprobe 3c509

As knoppix:
goto K -> knoppix -> Network/internet -> Network card configuration
IP: 192.168.0.10
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Broadcast: 192.168.0.255
Gateway: 192.168.0.2
DNS: 62.251.0.6 62.251.0.7

As Root:

Code:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 -oremount,rw
/etc/init.d/inetd start
cd /etc
rm /etc/hosts
rm /etc/gshadow
rm /etc/hosts.allow
cp /KNOPPIX/etc/hosts hosts
cp /KNOPPIX/etc/gshadow gshadow
cp /KNOPPIX/etc/hosts.allow hosts.allow
jstar hosts

On second line added:

Code:

192.168.0.51    hah
192.168.0.10    knoppix
192.168.0.2      t-floppy

^kx

Code:

jstar hosts.allow

Commented last line out and added:

Code:

ALL : ALL@ALL : ALLOW

^kx

Code:

adduser newuser

And then tried to login on ftp:/192.168.0.10 from my win98 box (IE explorer 6.0 and FTP explorer) as newuser and as knoppix. I do get the login screen, but could not logon:
Translated error-message (from dutch):
logon to FTP server with given username and given password is not possible

I also tried to login as newuser on the knoppix-box itself. No problems with that.