Synology NAS (DS412+) exploits

So, I've had my DS412+ for a while now, and have slowly been tweaking and playing with it.
I've turned it into an SSH gateway server, using several firewall rules, an extremely restrictive SSH config and a chroot jail to lock down any exposure to anything.

I used to use a TinyCoreLinux directory to chroot into and use cryptsetup (I can't be bothered to recompile all dependencies for the native NAS environment) so that I can mount an eSATA drive and rsync the data onto a backup drive... But I've found I also want to use NBD-server and attach a usb DVD-drive to the NAS so I can mount data disks and just generally use my NAS as a central block device location (why waste laptop power / usb ports / cables?) .

So, I said fairwell to TCL (the chroot environment I hacked together just wasn't stable enough) and said hello to Arch!
I was able to mostly follow the base steps from this page (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_Guide#Install_the_base_system) - the exception being instead of a 'pacstrap /mnt base' I used 'pacman -r / -Sy base' since I was already in the chrooted environment I wanted to be in - and I have a setup where I get access to a great deal of Arch packages (going forward too as it's rolling release), minimal size, and fair support (I've always found their wiki's to be amazingly helpful).

Over the next few entries I'll post the raw commands in order to set up a basic Arch chroot install, how to build synology kernel modules, how to use the NBD (or how badly it works). I'll have to probably redo the kernel modules after a DSM update so I'll re-blog at that point too.

DNS issues with router resolved (android walkthrough)

Recently (10 minutes ago) I ran into a problem with my routers' DNS being amazingly poor.

I have had to change the DNS settings on my laptop and android phone to make them usable.

To test and resolve follow these steps:

1) Try to go to a nonsense  page like "onetwo.com.uk" (it should hang for a long time loading):

2) Edit the wifi settings you're currently connected to:

3) Tick the "advanced settings" tickbox:

4) Change the IP settings to static (be careful with the IP address here - make sure it's high enough to avoid other DHCP clients), change the DNS to 8.8.8.8 .

5) Test another nonsense website (acespade.com.uk), and it should return straight away:

Time, and the past!

Well, today (after being awakened at 5.15am for a callout) I learned an important lesson:
"If your BIOS is ever set to use local time, and you run Linux, fix it so that you can set the BIOS to UTC!!"

I dual boot Windows/Linux on my laptop for a couple of reasons (remote logging into work, some video games, the nvidia optimus drivers) - but am usually in Linux.

I have found that my time has always been off, but I just thought that it had to be something to do with it being off the network and some sort of NTP foul-up.
.... NOPE!!

I found that seemingly 2 parts of the booting sub-system (hwclock and the kernel) didn't work together correctly, and seemed to shift the time back by exactly an hour on bootup (and saved it that way too).
The way to fix it?
Set your BIOS to using UTC time, correct /etc/adjtime (UTC instead of LOCAL on the third line), then get a registry entry for Windows called "RealTimeIsUniversal" (this should probably be the first step - but like I said, I usually use Linux).

I also learned that setting your clock in the future can cause problems with mounting filesystems on bootup - so keep a USB stick handy!!

Spring Cleaning

Been tidying up my hard drive lately.
Putting all my scripts and code snippets that I use slowly into github (https://github.com/old486whizz) so that I am versioning my changes to my scripts.

I will slowly put more up there as I get myself more organized.

But the latest I've been tidying is my music, and using Amazon to buy MP3s - that was strange!
I had to use clamz to download the files since their Linux client is 3 Fedora versions out of date (soon to be 4... So that's ~2 years!!).

Salsa is going well, I'm getting some new shoes: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B003D46WNY/ref=ox_ya_os_product

ok, so it has been a while...

ok, so I thought I would try and post stuff up semi regular like, get into a routine.
more also to type up about what software and hardware I've been fooling about with, and what my plans are.... With minor life stuff thrown in sometimes.

So, brief summary of my last 2 or so years since my last post: shit happens.

I've moved a couple of times, and bought various things. Read various books, sung various hymns (yes, a sort-of ryhme on purpose!).
But overall, where I thought I was making progress in the past, I haven't. Where I hoped things would change, they haven't. And instead of things getting better I lowered my expectations.

Now, onto the tech stuff.
I'm typing this on my Motorola XOOM tablet, I have a raid-mirrored PC, which has Fedora Linux on it. I have 2 laptops, again both with Fedora on them.
The hardware stuff I plan to do soon (in no particular order) is:
1) Root the xoom and put a different ROM on there (Motorola have pissed me off!)
2) Symultaniously upgrade/migrate my pc to have raid 2tb drives (currently has raid 1tb drives), and also upgrade Fedora to the latest version.

... I will update any further actions but I am not much into hardware...
I'm more into software!!!
1) Correct my linux auto-installer method to re-install to previous partitions instead of recreating the volume group (good if I wanna keep a snapshot of a filesystem)
2) Investigate GIT some more (currently understanding it bit by bit)
3) read through and help contribute to the bumblebee project on github.com (project to help get my graphics card working better on linux).
4) sync up my data in a better fashion (I need a pop up box to tell me I have to sort out any errors).
5) investigate integration of git into work, how it may help there
6) progress my c++ and opengl knowledge, get some stuff done here!!
7) fix my backup system to be a bit more smoother and backup only the valuable things.

This last week I've been looking at git, and how it works.. I've also been reading through systemd, the new linux boot initialization system (very interesting stuff)..
I shall try to give an update soon and it should be much better...

See you then!

Dear Nokia:

This is not a question, it is a statement.
If you wish to reward your customers for buying sub-par, BETA hardware & software and testing it for you, give a little more than £10 in VOUCHERS every 3 months.
This is the biggest *HOAX* I have ever seen.

I work in the IT department of a large UK company, and all employee's are moving away from Nokia due to their poor practices.
I am particularly insulted by Nokia using all N97 owners as beta testers without paying us a penny.
Keeping up these practices (non-functional software/hardware, keeping updates behind in the UK) will lead Nokia to ruin.
If you wish to report on anything, report on THAT.

--
Paul Sanders
Unix Administrator
x44957
+44 (0)2392 494 957

--Quote--
I don't just like it - I LIKLE it!

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Test blog update #3

This is a test blog entry from my phone.
Just using email because mms doesn't work (obviously).