Hacking the POGOplug. The definitive guide in progress. [PT2]

[Pt2]

GOAL:
Install all system updates and a handful of useful tools as well as the Webmin utility.

THINGS YOU WILL NEED:

  • Pogoplug that has been hacked from Part 1

LETS GET STARTED:

Fire up your terminal program.  We will do a little maintenance and install a few apps you may want/need down the line.  Copy and paste the following code boxes in order, one at a time.
Make sure to read the content as not all boxes are copy paste.

Step 1:
Updates and Tools:

Lets start by making sure the system is totally up to date with all installed packages

## Update Pacman Sources
pacman -Syy ## package sync
pacman -Syu ## system update

Next lets update the pacman installer.  This step may not be needed but it does not hurt.

## Update Pacman Installer
pacman -S pacman

Followed by some zip and archive tools

## update various apps
pacman -S ntp bzip2 zip p7zip gftp unzip libzip ##tools for later

And then two popular terminal based text editors

## Text Editors Installation
pacman -S vim nano  ## nano and vim text editors

Step 2:
Fixing the clock

From here we are going to edit a file to fix the system clock.  This pogoplug does not support the hwclock, so we will replace it with ntpd.

nano /etc/rc.conf

At the top find TIMEZONE

## REPLACE WITH YOUR TIMEZONE
TIMEZONE="America/Chicago"
## EXAMPLE
TIMEZONE="America/NewYork"

Scroll down to the bottom, and find DAEMONS

Find hwclock replace with ntpd

## BEFORE ##
DAEMONS=(hwclock syslog-ng network netfs crond sshd)
## AFTER ##
DAEMONS=(ntpd syslog-ng network netfs crond sshd)

Hit control+x, follow by “y”, follow by enter.

You have now successfully fixed your system time.

Reboot your Pogoplug.

Step 3:
Webmin Install

Start by downloading webmin

pacman -S webmin perl-net-ssleay ##webmin and perl modules

Once installed you can start the server with

rc.d start webmin

Once you have webmin installed, you can access the admin interface by pointing your browser to https://youriphere:10000

Upon first visit you will be presented with an access denied message, to allow access to more than just localhost we will need to do some slight modifications.

nano /etc/webmin/miniserv.conf

Scroll down to the very bottom and find that line that begins with ALLOW

## add an ALLOW line for whatever IP you plan on accessing the interface from or a range of IPs
ALLOW=127.0.0.1
## Example address configuration
ALLOW=127.0.0.1
ALLOW=192.168.1.0 ## allows all users in that IP range

Hit control+x, follow by “y”, follow by enter.
Return to the boot setup.

nano /etc/rc.conf

Scroll down to the bottom, and find DAEMONS
Add webmin to startup

## BEFORE ##
DAEMONS=(ntpd syslog-ng network netfs crond sshd)
## AFTER ##
DAEMONS=(ntpd syslog-ng network netfs crond sshd webmin)

Save the file.

Reboot your pogoplug.

Once it comes back online you can access many of the pogoplug servers through the webmin page.
Log in with your root username and passwords.

From here you have a fully functional Linux based headless server.  This is a great vanilla start to install anything you want, the possibilities are really unlimited.

** Basic Commands **

rc.d (start/restart/quit) webmin ## basic webmin controls
date - displays device date

In the next installment of “Hacking the POGOplug.  The definitive guide.” We will turn the light on, with a fully functional LAMP server!

Please let me know of any questions that you may have!

If I helped you out consider buying me a beer 😛

[ Part 3 ]