I recently covered how to change the static motd in Raspbian Jessie. If you are interested or want some background for this article, you can read about that here. This post will cover how to setup a dynamic motd in Rapsbian (and therefore Debian) Jessie to give users up to date, relevant information about the system upon login.
I have an awesome OpenVPN server setup on a Raspberry Pi to help protect my privacy when I travel. I have used it a couple times, and it has worked without a hitch; until last weekend. Prior to taking a weekend trip, I fired up the Pi, started the OpenVPN server, but I didn’t test to make sure I could connect. That would have been helpful, since I left out a critical step: opening up the proper port on my router. That’s right, my OpenVPN server ran all weekend waiting for connections that could not be made, while I used my cellular data rather than the free, insecure WiFi I had available to me. This got me wondering whether I could edit the message that is displayed when logging into the Pi via ssh. The answer: yes I can, and yes you can.
In a recent post, I discussed setting up an OpenVPN server on a Raspberry Pi. I relied on a nice tutorial from readwrite that you can find here. However, I found a discrepancy with the guide pertaining to its discussion of firewalls. The tutorial states that Raspbian has a firewall enabled by default. While iptables is certainly present by default (it’s part of the kernel), and it is often the basis for a very powerful firewall, it is not configured to be a firewall by default. Read on to learn how to enable a firewall on your Internet-facing Pi (including OpenVPN servers)!
I recently upgraded my laptop to Ubuntu 16.04 and save one issue, it has been rock solid. The problem? Wi-Fi, of course. Prior to the install, I ran Ubuntu in a live session and poked around. I even installed the proprietary Broadcom drivers, and they worked straight away. During the installation process, I checked the box directing that proprietary drivers, codecs, etc. be installed. However, upon boot I discovered that the Wi-Fi drivers had not been installed! The following instructions provide a quick offline fix for this issue using either the GUI or the terminal.
The Raspberry Pi Zero (Zero) is awesome. It has a 1Ghz single-core CPU, 512MB RAM, and mini HDMI all in a USB flash drive-sized package. It can, however, be more difficult to get setup than other Raspberry Pis. This guide will give you a few tips to help get your Pi up and running more quickly. It also assumes that you already have Raspbian on the Micro SD card you intend to use in the Pi. If you need help getting Raspbian installed, you can find more information here.
Unlike the other Pi models, the Zero does not have ethernet. This, combined with it’s lack of full-sized USB, makes initial setup tricky. My first instinct was to connect to the Zero via SSH. Afterall, I didn’t plan to use it with a GUI or plan on needing to interact with it directly anyway. That plan fell by the wayside as soon as I realized that the Zero would not be able to connect to the network at all, without my inputing the Wi-Fi password. In short, no SSH. Unfortunately, booting it up connected to my monitor did not work either, because I could not get the Pi to power my keyboard, even with an extra power supply plugged into the MicroUSB hub.
All was not lost though. Fortunately, you can mount the MicroSD card with Raspbian already installed on it to your PC, search its directories, and create and edit files. After mounting the MicroSD card, you will need to edit two files in order to connect to your Wi-Fi: /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf.