Setting up Dansguardian and Squid on a Debian Linux system

[Directed]

I am a Linux NEWBIE. I got a nice Debian (latest stable) box going just fine. I enabled it to be a web server and file sharer and print server. I got squid to configure, make and make install just fine. But Dansguardian isnt installing well.

So here is my muddled, uninformed question making:

Should I be logged in as root to install these guys?

Should I be a su in a terminal window to install these guys?

I am attempting to do this all through the gnome interface. Is that ok?

Does anyone know what they are doing in installing Linux programs, and can they give me a good tutorial on it. THe world of configure, make and make install and binary things and compiling is all strange and new to me.

I am attempting to make a http proxy web cache and web filter with a linux box.

It is an AMD athlon xp box with 1 gig of ram.

I guess that is all for now.

[vladi]

Do you know about apt-get and Synaptic? They are Debian's package management system, and probably the best package management system out there.

Apt-get is the core of it, Synaptic is a GUI front-end. You said that you did the whole autotools (configure/make etc) bit, however, Debian has something like 20K pre-compiled packages available through its repositories, which you can install using apt-get and/or Synaptic. Now for your questions:

1) Generally, whenever you want to install something not in your home directory (/home/Directed for example), you need to be logged in as root.

2) Being su is being root. So most likely, yes.

3) I'm not sure what you mean through the gnome interface hehe. You mean a console inside the Gnome environment? If so thats fine.

A quick tutorial on configure etc.

Most programs that you want to install by source (meaning you have to compile them yourself), will go like this:
./configure
make
su
<enter root password>
make install

Most distributions have pre-compiled binaries available, meanign that you can use apt-get or Synaptic to download and install these binaries, without going through the hassle of compiling. Using apt-get/Synaptic will also automatically pull in all the required dependencies. So if you havn't done this already, open a terminal:

su
<enter root password>
apt-get install synaptic
exit (when its done)

Now start Synaptic either from a place in the Gnome menu, or just by typing Synaptic in the console. It should prompt you for your root password, enter it. Click search, and type in what you are looking for and go from there. If you've done this and know it then disregard :-)

Also, IRC is a good place to get help. You can ask questions on #debian on freenode.

[Directed]

THank you very much. I have used linux before, but never installed anything. Now I am doing things I am not familiar with. I kind of like it, but it is frustrating to learn.

[wolfpac181]

Yeah...

Apt is the bomb, Synaptic ices that cake really nicely too.
For the command line part of it, apt-get and apt-cache are the goodies.

you're prolly going to be in situations where you need to install something, but you dont know the full name of it or the version. apt-cache will help ya fill in the blanks for it. apt-cache -search "package". it'll help ya good, especially if you're using a command line only box.

Debian distros are pretty good with functionallity and not too easy to break. The biggie you are going to have to deal with are conf files in /etc. after a while though, you'll breeze through them and get stuff up and running really fast. Ubuntu is fairly nice with conf files, they pretty much fill in the blanks for ya, and you just tighten the bolts.

Good luck. if ya have more questions, ask around and I'll help:)

[Directed]

I have squid working perfectly. It ended up being a file rights problem. For some reason even my root account was prevented from writing files in some areas. So I clicked around and seized back those areas with rights for root. So quid is working great.

I can't get dansguardian to install though, it is giving me this error:

(to be posted later)

[Directed]

I have to attach it as a jpg, because for some reason it is freaking out zgeeks server otherwise:

http://www.zgeek.com/forums/gallery/files/8/2/9/3/error2_thumb.jpg

[vladi]

Are you trying to compile Dansguardian? I use Mepis 6.0 which draws from both Ubuntu and Debian sources, and searching in Synaptic I found a precompiled Dansguardian - its likely that Debian would have it too so you can just use the precompiled binary.

The first warning it gives is that zlib.h is missing. Zlib is a compression library, and can be installed through apt-get/synpatic by searching for zlib and installing the zlib1g and zlib1g-dev packages. If you install it that way and run ./configure, the configure script should hopefully pick up on the fact that you have it installed already.

[Directed]

So anyway, while I was mucking through getting dansguardian to work I found clarkconnect (www.clarkconnect.com). It is a linux OS with squid and dansguardian installed, a few other cool things, and it is set up to be a firewall, web cache, filter, DNS server and email and web server as well. THe cool thing is you just install it, and after that it has a graphical interface to walk you through the rest. I got this baby going in 1 afternoon, and it is free for the home version.

The cool thing is I can control it from any computer in my network through a website. So I highly recommend this product. It did everything I needed and more. (its based on red hat linux I believe)

[vladi]

Nice! I will have to check that one out. You've pointed out another very useful thing about Linux, in that there exists special-purpose distributions for a wide range of activities. Distrowatch.com does a good job of indexing most of them.

[Directed]

I think I am going to set up clarkconnect at my parent's house too. It is just so easy to do. Honestly. Plus it appears to work fast and fine on anything PII or faster with 128 MB RAM and 4 gig hd or so. My particular box is way over spec for what I am having it do.

I am not really using the web server or email part of it. Apparently if you pay 100 to 125 bucks you get a system that does virus checking and other things too if you work in a company that needs it. I haven't found anything that works this easy and well. BUt I admitadly am new at all this.

[stinky]

If the system is going to be attached to the internet most of your services should run as a non-root user. That's not saying you can't install them as root as a lot of programs ( like apache ) will start as root and switch over to a different user by itself.

I prefer not to use package management for a lot of stuff. For example apache I'll do it from source and will install it into /usr/local/apache-2.x ( ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache --blah --blah ) and symlink /usr/local/apache to it. This keeps it all in it's own space and allows you more freedom when it comes to things like jailling it if you want to get really paranoid.

When I upgrade I will install the next version along side it, configure it up when it's ready shut down the old, turn on the new. If it all works smoothly I'll symlink /usr/local/apache to it and leave the old version there inactive incase something goes wrong. After a while I'll archive the old version and delete it.

I do the same for mysql, squid etc.

[Directed]

Sounds like a great way to do it. The only problem is I have no earthly idea how to accomplish anything you jsut said. LOL.

[stinky]

I guess that's why I get paid the big bucks eh? :)

[ewe2]

yeah it seems you were compiling from source there directed. the program thinks you're missing an important library from the system, libz, which is a little unusual because very many programs use it. but running ./config.cache isn't a good idea, you should try running ./configure instead. if you get the same error, do a quick ls /usr/include/zlib.h to check if the file is there or not. you'll have to install libz or possibly libz-dev depending on the results of `apt-cache search libz`

[Directed]

I actually had the zlib thingy, but on the computer it was called zlib.g, not zlib.h

In any case, I was able to get things going with Clarkconnect, and that made me happy. I can't customize quite as much with it, but it is good enough for what I need it to do, and really easy to use.

[ewe2]

zlib.g?! that's really odd, good that you found a mini-dist that does what you want though.