Adding Internet Based Repositories in Alpine Linux

What I like about alpine linux is, it is very fast to get to a working linux with a shell inside a VM, and I can start testing whatever I need to test straight away. But the default setting of alpine linux does not preconfigured to get any packages from the internet, which is a pity. So we have to add it manually.

To add the main and community repositories manually, run below commands
# echo 'http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community' >> /etc/apk/repos
# echo 'http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main' >> /etc/apk/repos

Update repository indexes
# apk update

That's it. You can now search for any package
# apk search openssh

And install any package
# apk add openssh-client

Enable pfsense Web Interface from WAN Temporarily

By default pfsense only allow access to web interface from LAN. But sometimes you need access from WAN, just for a very short time. For example, you do not have any machine in LAN that have web interface, and you need the web interface to make some changes.

The steps are as follows, if you have access to pfsense text based console

1. Access the text based console

2. Choose option 8, to access the pfsense shell

3. Run this command: pfctl -d

4. Once you get the message "pf is disabled", you can now access pfsense web interface using WAN ip, in this case, 192.168.20.3, and make your changes in the web interface. Once you activate the changes, the firewall will be turned on again, so you won't be able to access web interface via WAN anymore.

5. If by any chance you want to enable back firewall manually, run: pfctl -e

If you do not have access to the console, you have to use ssh.

1. ssh into any linux machine on the LAN side

2. From the linux machine, ssh into pfsense

3. Run pfctl -d

4. Access your pfsense web interface via WAN IP. The firewall will automatically started if you "Apply Change" in web interface.

5. If you want to enable pf manuallt, run pfctl -e.

6 Logout from pfsense

Credit to this site for the great tutorial.

Uploading iso to Proxmox

To upload iso to proxmox, so that the iso can be used to create VM, please follow below steps

1. Login to proxmox

2. On the left hand side, expand Datacenter, until you see node/s

3. Expand the node until you see local. Click on "local"

4. On the right hand side, click "Content"

5. Click "Upload"

6. Select the iso file that you want to upload, and click "Upload"

7. Once uploaded, you will see the iso listed on the right hand side. Please refer below picture for clearer view

Install and Use Vagrant on Linux Mint 19 with Virtualbox

Vagrant is a tool for building and managing virtual machine environments in a single workflow. With an easy-to-use workflow and focus on automation, Vagrant lowers development environment setup time, increases production parity, and makes the "works on my machine" excuse a relic of the past.

We can always install vagrant from the repository, but the one in the repository is quite an old version, which is 2.0.2. So we will download the latest version from https://www.vagrantup.com/downloads.html. Since they do not provide a package for ubuntu/mint, we will use debian package.

To download the installer

$ wget -c https://releases.hashicorp.com/vagrant/2.2.7/vagrant_2.2.7_x86_64.deb 

To install vagrant

$ sudo apt install ./vagrant_2.2.7_x86_64.deb -y

Download virtualbox, if you still have not install it

$ wget -c https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.1.4/virtualbox-6.1_6.1.4-136177~Ubuntu~bionic_amd64.deb

Install  virtualbox

$ sudo apt install ./virtualbox-6.1_6.1.4-136177~Ubuntu~bionic_amd64.deb -y

Let's say we want to create an ubuntu bionic virtual machine (VM) using vagrant. First we have to run init

$ mkdir -p  vagrant/ubuntu-bionic

$ cd vagrant/ubuntu-bionic

$ vagrant init hashicorp/bionic64

$ vagrant up

The init command will create a standard Vagrantfile, which can be used to define the specs of virtual machine we want to make.

The up command will use the Vagrantfile, and create a VM out of it.

Once all the downloading is done, the VM will be created, and you can login into the box using ssh command

$ vagrant ssh

And within just a few commands, you already have a working virtual machine without having to do the standard operating system installation just like when you create a virtual machine using the traditional way.

Installing Wordpress on Ubuntu 18.04 Using LEMP Stack

Installing wordpress on LEMP stack is not much different from installing in LAMP stack. For those who do not know, LEMP stands for Linux + Nginx + Mariadb + PHP stack, and LAMP stands for Linux + Apache + Mariadb/mysql + PHP stack. Check out my other post on how to install wordpress on LAMP stack on ubuntu.

As per the stack definition, there are 3 main components to be installed: nginx, mariadb and php.

Install nginx:
$ sudo apt install nginx -y

Install mariadb:
$ sudo apt install mariadb-server -y

Install php, php-mysql and php-fpm
$ sudo apt install php php-mysql php-fpm -y

Download wordpress code
$ wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

Start mariadb
$ sudo systemctl start mariadb

Secure mariadb installation
$ sudo mysql_secure_installation

Create a database for wordpress
$ sudo mariadb -u root
MariaDB [none]> create database wpdb;
MariaDB [none]> grant all on wpdb.* to wpuser@localhost identified by 'wppassword';
MariaDB [none]> flush privileges;
MariaDB [none]> exit

Test the newly created user and db
$ mariadb -u wpuser -p wpdb
MariaDB [wpdb]> exit

Download wordpress
$ wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

Extract wordpress
$ tar -xvf latest.tar.gz

Move wordpress directory to /var/www/html
$ sudo mv wordpress /var/www/html

Change ownership of the wordpress directory
$ sudo chown -R www-data /var/www/html/wordpress

Create nginx virtualhost configuration for wordpress
$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/wordpress.conf

Add in below code (change the server name to refer to your ip address, since we do not have any domain at the moment)
server {
        listen   80;

        root /var/www/html/wordpress;
        index index.php index.html;
        server_name wordpress.10.0.0.5.nip.io;

        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$request_uri;
        }

        error_page 404 /404.html;
        error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
        location = /50x.html {
              root /usr/share/nginx/www;
        }

        location ~ .php$ {
                try_files $uri =404;
                fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
                fastcgi_index index.php;
                fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
                include fastcgi_params;
        }
}

Save the file and exit

Test nginx config for any syntax error

$ sudo nginx -t

Start nginx

$ sudo systemctl start nginx

Start php-fpm

$ sudo systemctl start php7.2-fpm

Open a web browser and put in you server_name address in the address bar, and you should be able to get the wordpress installation wizard. Press "Continue"

Press "Let's go!"

Fill up database details and press "Submit"

If everything is correct, you will get to "Run the installation" page. Click on "Run the installation" button. 

Fill up the necessary information for your wordpress blog, and click "Install wordpress" to finish wordpress installation