Latest Tech Articles
Installing OPNSense on PCEngines’ APU2
How to install Webmin on OPNSense
Configuring static IP address and virtual interfaces in Webmin
Disable BIND recursion while keeping local queries resolvable
Override dhclient and use manual DNS entries
List installed packages by size with RPM
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Installing OPNSense on PCEngines’ APU2
I have been looking for a good alternative which could handle my gigabit internet connection and I believe I made a good choice going with PCEngine’s APU2 embedded system.
I tried following various tutorials dedicated for installing both pfSense and OPNsense on this device, however they didn’t quite work on the APU (or in my case), so I tried a personal method which worked successfully.
How to install Webmin on OPNSense
Webmin is not part of the OPNSense repository packages, however as OPNSense is more vanilla FreeBSD than pfSense it is relatively easy to install additional packages.
For compatibility and stability reasons the FreeBSD repository is disabled by default, but it can be enabled…
Configuring static IP address and virtual interfaces in Webmin
When assigning multiple IP addresses to a single server by using virtual interfaces on the same single main interface it is necessary to switch to a static IP configuration.
Doing network configuration remotely is a bit risky but with the correct sequence of steps it is possible to switch from DHCP to static IP without any downtime.
Disable BIND recursion while keeping local queries resolvable
For security and efficiency reasons, a hosting system DNS server should not answer recursive queries (solve DNS requests for domains it is not authoritative for).
However, the DNS server needs to accept recursive queries for the services hosted on the same system for these services to work correctly and be able to resolve forward and reverse hosts/IPs.
Override dhclient and use manual DNS entries
In some instances using the ISP’s DNS service is not desirable. Maybe for speed or maybe for privacy concerns a trusted DNS provider is preferred instead.
While the DNS settings can be manually changed after each (re)connection, applying a permanent solution requires a bit of file fiddling.
List installed packages by size with RPM
Data always piles up and on a small VPS the storage space can quickly get consumed by leftover or unused programs.
When things get too crammed it’s time to use the available tools and clean up some of the unwanted things.
Clean up older installed kernels on CentOS
Linux generally keeps multiple versions of the kernel installed. This is done to maintain backwards stability and allow the selection of an older (tried and tested) kernel if the latest update fails in any way.
On a small system all these kernel versions can quickly add up and waste valuable space. In such case keeping only the needed versions (the latest and the one currently booted, if different) is an acceptable risk to take.
How to grab videos from YLE
You’ll need a fairly recent operating system distro (CentOS is too conservative and failed for me, but Ubuntu 16.04 LTS worked fine) and a couple of programs and packages.