Posting an example on what I did in lieu of a standard-ish way to modify Mastodon code that could be updated and removed on any updates. I created a super simple “me.html” page with a redirect to the Mastodon URL on the /public root path of the Mastodon instance in linux like this <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Owner Validation Page</title> </head> <body>...
termux-repo-change
Anyone running termux on Android doing pkg upgrade and seeing a ton of repos from China and Russia can change their settings.
Run termux-repo-change to get the config to select individual or group repos by geographic area.
Nextcloud Cron Issues on Debian Fix
I started having problems with cron running as recommended on Debian because something changed and it makes sense that it would not be able to run because the webserver Debian user doesn’t have a default shell. I don’t know how this really was working technically at all ever, but I swear it was at one time. Anyway, it got annoying to see alerts on the cron task in NextCloud not...
Microsoft Teams on Debian Linux Install Fix
MS Teams Download From Microsoft Quick post here but if you are having issues playing an install of Microsoft Teams Desktop application for Linux on a Debian Buster system, like I initially was, it could be due to the use of su and sudo. I have always, just out of habit, immediately prefer dropping to root on all things when needed, but that is not helpful in Debian on default paths, etc. So...
Using fail2ban To Mitigate Excessive Apache 403, 404, 500, and 503 Attacks
I finally spent some time last weekend to address the botnets attacking my site and specifically looking for known exploits, bad WordPress plugins, and just general random stuff. I should disclaimer that messing around and systematically blocking hosts viewing your website generating 404s may or may not make sense for you. If you create a fail2ban filter, jail, and start picking off hosts that...
Fixing the fail2ban filter for Postfix unverified address / user unknown spam attacks
For whatever reason, the default distributed postfix filter I had on my fail2ban setup on ubuntu was not triggering on: 450 4.1.1 Receipient address rejected: unverified address: unknown user mail.log errors. The failregex line was in there for it, but it wasn’t hitting on the endless dictionary attack random attempts from spammer servers across the world. This was annoying because, in...
NUT ups.conf configuration for OMNIVS 1500XL USB
The Tripplite OmniVS 1500XL is a great home/SOHO USB UPS that is expandable with external battery packs. But, the NUT support on Debian-based linux distros is no bueno. They support Redhat-based with some software, but Debian users are stuck with NUT and tripplite_usb driver support. The unit doesn’t dish a few variables via the tripplite_usb driver so you kind of want to add a few...
Blocking garbage gTLDs with postfix header_checks
In looking at my Postfix mail.logs, I only see the new ICANN vanity gTLDs really generating garbage spam. Lots of press on the mess this all is causing. I got kind of sick of even dealing with that, so here is the header_checks lines I use to block them via postfix if you want to do that on your setup. There are a lot of articles on the internet for this, but I here is what works for me. YMMV...
Repairing a badly damaged package system in Ubuntu
Recently, I did something really stupid and damaged my whole dpkg system. It was pretty bad. I did an “apt-get purge” with a pattern and wildcard and thought it was only going to remove everything around a specific package. It didn’t. It did much much more. Not helping the whole situation was the interrupt I issued when I saw apt going through and yanking stuff that I...