A bunch of simple questions

[desbotar]

Hi,

I've had debian for a few months now, but I'm sometimes kept from using it because of some small but nasty problems which I do not always feel for working around them.
I decided to put them all in one post, because I don't want to spam the forum with small simple (stupid?) questions.

So here we go:

1. The usual NTFS-problem. I decided not to switch to some program which allows writing to ntfs, some people discouraged me and said it wasn't reliable.

But I do not have the rights to read from a NTFS disc as a normal user. What can I do?
Also, is there some way that I can allow a normal user to mount an external disc?

2. How can I make my terminal (or any program, for that matter) start automatically when my graphical manager (KDE) is started?

3. Is there a way (in KDE) to make the window control buttons (minimize, restore, close) of a maximized window appear in the very end of the top right corner.

This is a very small detail, but as someone who often uses windows, I'm used to be able to blindingly close my window. It's not that big of a deal, but if it's fixable, I would like to change it :)

4. Security... How can I control which deamons are launced at startup (not X.org related I guess, suchas a sshd deamon), and how can I keep some ports closed to the outside?

I found some tutorial to discover the opened ports, but I couldn't really figure out how to close them. Perhaps there's even a better tutorial you guys know of, anyway, I would like to learn something like this :)

Also, when I close the connection of my NIC to the outside using the command
$> ifconfig eth0 down
and then reinitialize it, ($> ifconfig eth0 up) there seems to be a problem of reconnecting, but it could be that this problem is only for HTTP.
Is this a known problem, and if so, how do I fix it?

Thats all...for now ;-)
I hope you guys can help me with some answers.
Thanks in advance!

desbotar

[Daylung]

I think I can help with at least one question, maybe two. To get a user to be able to mount and unmount a filesystem, add "user" to the option section in /etc/fstab like this:

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/dev/sda7       /disk2          ext3    rw,user,noauto  0       0


of course you need your own mount point, device and other stuff.
To get programs to start automatically in KDE, I think you can put a link to the program in /home/USER/.kde/Autostart/

something like:

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ln -s /usr/bin/firefox ~/.kde/Autostart/

Also I think kde starts up all the programs that were running when you logged out, but things in .kde/Autostart/ will always start.

[bluesdog]

3. Try a different window style: Kcontrol > Appearance and Themes > Window Decorations

4. Use a firewall to control port access. Example:

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apt-get update
apt-get install kmyfirewall

5. Command to bring up eth0:

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# ifup eth0

command to bring down eth0:

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# ifdown eth0

[desbotar]

Thanks for the quick answers!
With your help, I also discovered a guide about fstab and managed to give a normal user read rights to an NTFS disc.

However, (3.) if I cange the window style, the window layout changes, but it does not really seem to affect the button positions. I was thinking more of a real maximalisation option where the window really uses the whole screen except the bottompanel.

If there's anybody who can help me with the other questions, be my guest :)
Thanks a lot!

desbo

[bluesdog]

Kcontrol > Appearance & Themes > Window Decorations > Buttons
Select 'Use custom titlebar button positions'

Move 'em where you like 'em!

Almost every kde theme I've encountered has the three buttons in the right end of the title bar. Unless I'm not understanding you, which is quite likely

In kde you can also choose to 'autohide' the kicker panel at the bottom of your screen.

You can also set up hot keys to min/max-imize windows etc.

[muskrat]

In KDE the Control Panel has the controls for most of your questions. I never used the Autostart system in KDE because they have thier own method it's called restore session.

You can find it in Control Panel > KDE Components > Session Manager + Select restore session. It does a lot more than start the program. For example your in your file manger in a certain folder, when you restart, that's where you'll be.

The buttons are controled from there also Control Panel > Appearance and Themes > After which you'll find that the themes aren't like the themes in that other Lagacy OS.

In KDE you have Themes for "Windows Decorations", that's where you'll find your buttons. Then Themes for other asspects of the desktop. You'll find some themes change others, but just go back and reset the other one to your liking and the major theme stays. So you can mix and match themes as you like.

As for security, That's a whole areana of it's own. There are whole libaries written on that subject. There is no one patch fits all. You should at least read Hardening Linux. Then decide just how deep you want to beef up your system.

Do a google on Hardening Linux, Here's a link http://flaviostechnotalk.com/wordpress/index.php/2005/06/16/hardening-linux-a-10-step-approach-to-a-secure-server/
Just one of a whole bunch.

There's also a harden-doc which applies to debian just apt-get install harden-doc. At any rate there is no secure PC, just defferent stages of security. The problem is the more secure your PC, generally means the harder it is to use. So that's your call.