Configure sftp with /home chroot

While there are many resources dedicated to this very configuration, it was difficult to make any one of them work. The current configuration is CentOS 6.5. Here is the script to get a fully-functional sFTP server with chroot using the /home directories.

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Linux List Partitions with fdisk

There are several commands that may be used to list the partitions of a Linux computer. Likely the most common one is the fdisk command. While it fdisk command is capable of just about anything, I am not always in the need to see all the information that listing the partitions provides, particularly when there are many partitions. So, I…

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Match empty lines and commented lines using grep

An example of a configuration file with many commented lines is /etc/sysctl.conf. If you wanted to display the contents of the file without the commented lines, the following command may be issued. However the resulting contents will be displayed with the remaining blank lines. To get around this one of a couple of commands may be issued. Source(s) http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18566169/match-empty-lines-in-a-file-grep http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3432555/remove-blank-lines-with-grep

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Use Your VPN Connection in a Linux CentOS VirtualBox Instance

Running Oracle’s VirtualBox on a Microsoft Windows 7 desktop to test applications and operating systems has proven to be very productive. As a result of a VPN connection using Citrix, a VirtualBox VM of CentOS 6.5 Linux could not connect to the remote network. After combing through the Internet, a solution is born. I know that there are many variables…

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Install Adobe Reader on CentOS 6.5

While perusing through the Internet, I found this site called iF !1 0 “If Not True then False“. I found this write-up on how to install Adobe Reader on one of many different flavors on Linux. I couldn’t pass up on this, since I was in the hunt for Adobe Reader. The process worked great, so here is my slight…

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The Easiest Method To Install Adobe Flash on CentOS/RHEL

This should be easy, install Adobe Flash on a Linux operating system to watch Youtube videos in Firefox. After an hour or so fighting with Adobe Flash, through every method I could find on the Internet, I finally found one that worked, the first time! There are many who write of downloading a compressed file and extracting the needed file…

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Linux: A Homemade script to monitor your websites

It was discovered days later that one of my websites was offline displaying only 500 error messages. As it turned out, it was as a result of the .htaccess files. The .htaccess files did not include <IfModule XXXXX> </IfModule> around the directives. Tracking down the offending lines, it was determined that the lines were all part of the mod_headers.c module….

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A Quick Guide to VNC Server on CentOS 6

After searching through several guides, all complete in one way or another, however, not complete enough, I put the pieces together into this guide. This particular configuration is a basic VNC server with two users. After creating the second user, the process can be repeated for additional users. Install the VNC Server Edit the /etc/sysconfig/vncservers file. Note that on the…

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Windows XP: Blue Screen After Installing SP3

On a relatively fresh installation of Windows XP with SP2 on a Compaq Presqrio desktop running an AMD processor, Windows XP SP3 was applied. After an apparently successful installation, upon reboot, at the Windows XP logo, the system quickly flashed a blue screen of death and rebooted. Fortunately, I was able to login to the computer in safe mode to…

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Convert a CentOS 6 install to a Scientific Linux 6 install

CentOS, Scientific Linux (“SL”), and Oracle Linux are all based on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (“RHEL”) code base. Though there are differences between them, the similarities are more than not. For whatever the reason, there are documented processes that permit the conversion from one of the aforementioned Linux distros to another. This conversion will document another approach based on…

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RPM –import vs GPG –import

GPG keys are stored in the /etc/pki/rpm-gpg directory, as part of the CentOS 6/RHEL 6 install. Looking though the contents of this directory, files like RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-release exist. To actually use the key to verify packages, it must be imported. The following command provides the contents of /etc/pki/rpm-gpg There are two seemingly independent methods to import the keys: one using gpg,…

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Embed an Image Into A Shell Script

Instead of having to distribute an image file with a shell script that called for the file, an idea came to mind to embed the image into the shell script. Although one way was found, I devised an alternate simpler method to distribute the image file embedded in the script. The first method uses four lines of code. This method…

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Vsftpd FTP Server With Virtual Users ( MySQL + PAM )

vsftpd (“Very Secure FTP Daemon”) is an FTP server for Linux and supports PAM (“pluggable authentication modules”). A virtual user cannot login to the Linux system and is considered more secure than using a “real” user whom can login to a Linux system. This guide offers a script that demonstrates yet another way to setup a vsftpd server using PAM…

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Hyperic Server init Script to Autostart

Hyperic is a tool that offers visibility into applications and infrastructure across physical, virtual, and cloud environments. It consolidates discovery, monitoring, analysis and control of application, system, and network assets. Hyperic is available as vFabric Hyperic, the commercial version, and as Hyperic HQ, the open-source version. While similar, vFabric Hyperic offers additional features over the open source version. What this…

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A Bash Script Shortcut to Echo Multiple Lines To A New File

Script or batch file writing can be very rewarding, especially when the script written works as planned. What is particularly rewarding is when a shortcut is found that greatly simplifies how the script is written and executed. Here is a couple of shortcuts that I picked up from the Internet. The end result all seem to be the same. This…

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Install JBoss on CentOS with Two Scripts

Several years ago, I wrote a set of instructions how to install JBoss on a RHEL / CentOS Linux operating system. Then, the procedure utilized the GUI, mouse clicks, and the terminal. Well, as my comfort level with Linux has grown, so has the instructions into a script. A prerequisite for JBoss is Java JDK. For JBoss 5.1.0.GA, I elected…

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Dual Monitors with Laptop

A user has a laptop with one VGA connection which is currently connected to an external monitor. The user wanted to add another external monitor to the equation. The laptop is neatly tucked away and hidden from sight, so the use of the laptop screen is not an option. The docking station that compliments this laptop does not offer support…

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