FAQforge provides answers for frequently asked questions for the Linux-, MAC and Windows operating systems.
ISPConfig 3: How to send copys of incoming emails to other mailboxes
A copy of a incoming email can be sent to a second email address by adding a cc command to the “Custom Rules” field of the mailbox in ISPConfig.
ISPConfig supports sieve as well as maildrop filter rules. The rule language depends on the LDA / POP3 / IMAP-Daemon that you use on your server. If you use courier, then the filter language is maildrop. When dovecot is installed, then the filter language is ieve.
Example in maildrop syntax:
To send a copy to the email address info@example.tld, add the following code at the beginning of the custom rules field.
cc '!info@example.tld'
Example in sieve syntax:
redirect 'info@example.tld';
keep;
Solve error message: PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library htscanner.so
If you get the following error message in Ubuntu when you use PHP based shell scripts:
PHP Warning: PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library ‘/usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/htscanner.so’ – /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/htscanner.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory in Unknown on line 0
Then edit the file /etc/php5/cli/php.ini:
vi /etc/php5/cli/php.ini
and remove the lines:
[htscanner]
Extension = “htscanner.so”
config_file = “.htaccess”
default_docroot = “/var/www”
As the htscanner module works only for scripts within webservers but not for commandline scripts.
ISPConfig 2: External mailserver setting does not work
Problem: I have set the website to external mailserver in ISPConfig but emails get still delivered to the local server.
Solution: Set all co-domains of this website to external mailserver too. You find the external mailserver setting on the options tab of every co-domain.
Postfix: “queue file write error”
If you get an error like:
Aug 21 12:41:03 webb4 postfix/sendmail[11234]: fatal: web1_user(12967): queue file write error
in your mail log, then the vale for message_size_limit in postfix main.cf is too low. Edit postfix main.cf:
vi /etc/postfix/main.cf
and set the message size limit to a higher value. E.g.
mesage_size_limit = 900000000
and restart postfix:
/etc/init.d/postfix restart
If there is no message_size_limit set in main.cf, just add the line.
Set stricter PHP settings to secure joomla and wordpress installations
If you run a joomla or wordpress installation with mod_php, the following settings in the vhost configuration file or the “Apache directives” field in ISPConfig can be used to set stricter securitypolicys. This helps limit the impact of a possible hack to this websiteand protect the other sites on the server.
php_admin_value disable_functions “show_source system shell_exec passthru exec phpinfo popen proc_open”
php_admin_flag allow_url_fopen Off
php_admin_value session.save_path “/var/www/webXXX/phptmp/”
php_admin_value open_basedir “/var/www/webXXX/:/tmp”
Explanation
disable_functions disables functions that have a potential security impact e.g. because they allow the execution of external applications.
allow_url_fopen disables the ablity to open files via an URL.
session.save_path sets the path were php stores its session files. For ISPConfig 2, the path is e.g. “/var/www/webXXX/phptmp/” and for ISPConfig 3 the path is like “/var/www/clients/client1/web1/tmp/” If you dont use ISPConfig, set this path to a directory which is writable for the webserver user. the directory should be unique for every website.
open_basedir sets the path were php scripts are allowed to open files. For ISPConfig 2, the path is like “/var/www/webXXX/” and for ISPConfig 3 the path is like “/var/www/clients/client1/web1/” If you dont use ISPConfig, set this path to a the root directory of this vhost. With :/tmp we allow php scripts to use also the /tmp directory of the server.
How to eject a CD on a MAC mini with PC keyboard and mouse
There are several options to eject a CD or DVD when the mac mini fails to boot, but most of them dont work if you do not have a mac keayboard at hand. The following options work with a PC keayboard and mouse:
Press the left mouse key while you restart the mac or as alternative press [F12] while the mac is restarted. You have to keep the key pressed until the CD is ejected.
Configure fail2ban to use route instead of iptables to block connections
Fail2ban uses iptables by default to block incoming connections when they exceed the max. login retrys. The iptables rules used by fail2ban might conflict with the firewall rules, so it might be nescessary to reconfigure fail2ban to use the route command for blocking incoming connections.
To reconfigure fail2ban for using the route command instead of iptables, edit or create the route.conf file:
vi /etc/fail2ban/action.d/route.conf
And insert the following lines:
# Fail2Ban configuration file
[Definition]
actionban = ip route add unreachable <ip>
actionunban = ip route del unreachable <ip>
Then add or change the banaction in the jail.local file in the [DEFAULT] section to “route”:
vi /etc/fail2ban/jail.local
And add or edit these lines:
# Fail2Ban configuration file
[DEFAULT]
banaction = route
Webalizer stats only showing 1 or 2 days?
If webalizer statistics of your website are only showing the last 1 or two days instead of all days since the website has been created, you have to activate incremental processing in the webalizer configuration file (/etc/webalizer.conf or /etc/webalizer/webalizer.conf depending on the Linux distribution).
vi /etc/webalizer/webalizer.conf
Change the line:
# Incremental yes
to:
Incremental yes
Backup and restore mysql databases on the shell
One way to create a backup of a mysql database on the shell is to use the mysqldump command. Mysqldump creates a dump of the database in form of sql commands.
Backup
mysqldump -u root -p mydatabase > /tmp/backup_mydatabase.sql
This command creates a backup of the database with the name “mydatabase” in the file /tmp/backup_mydatabase.sql
Restore
To restore the backup, use the command:
mysql -u root -p mydatabase < /tmp/backup_mydatabase.sql
Windows starts slower after defragmenting the harddisk
If your windows installation starts slower after you defragmeted the harddisk, it might be nescessary to run the defragmentation utility on the boot files too which were normally skipped when running the defrag utility. To defragment the boot files, click on “Start” > “Run…” and then enter the command “defrag -b :c”:
