FTP onto the Ubuntu Gutsy Server

Getting an FTP client

Going to the Synaptic Package Manager on my Ubuntu desktop and typing ftp into the search bar, I find a popular little client called gFTP. I mark it for installation and click Apply. It downloads and installs successfully.

Flushed with optimism after the recent success with Apache, I launch the client and try to connect to the server using ftp.sylvarwolf.homelinux.com but the connection gets refused. Mmmm – either there is no ftp server installed on the server or I have not set up an ftp user.

Webmin

I just noticed that in Others>Upload and Download there is a facility to upload files directly to the server. That’s pretty amazing. However it would be nice to have an FTP server running so that I can give other members of the family their own accounts and enable them to build web-pages. So I go to Servers>ProFTPD Server which looks like it might do the job and it tells me that it cannot find it but offers me a chance to download and install using APT. Now that sounds good. So I follow the click here link.

Warning

Yesterday, I navigated away from the Webmin install page while it was installing and the server’s file system corrupted. So now I am just going to be patient and reason that if there is a problem it will timeout and tell me. Still waiting…

30 Minutes later and still the same. I did navigate away and decided to try apt-get install proftpd from the CLI. However, it tells me that /var/cache/apt/archives/lock is locked and I cannot lock the download directory. Mmmm….. I have just used Webmin’s file manager to delete this file and will try again from the CLI. Now that seemed to work. I chose inetd as the ftp server type as I’m not anticipating heavy load and Webmin now shows me all the options.

System Logs

Apparently system log files can consume a lot of space, so I go to System>Log File Rotation>Edit Global Options and set Maximum size before rotating to 50M (Mb) and the Number of old logs to keep to 4.

ProFTPD Configuration

1.      Bases on the howto here, I used the file manager to add the line /bin/false to /etc/shells

2.      Then navigate to /home and check my public directory is there. It is, so no problem there.

3.      Then, using Webmin’s command shell,  I add another ftpuser (coz I don’t know how to add to the one I’ve already got) by

                useradd userftp -p <your_password> -d /home/public -s /bin/false

4.      I switch over to the server to type: passwd userftp to make sure the password has been set.

5.      Using Webmin’s file manager, I create directories called downloads and uploads in /home/public.

6.      Clicking on /home/public in the right pane, I can then click on the Info button and take write access off for users and groups, setting permissions to 0755.

7.      Then going to downloads I do the same (0755) and then uploads, I make sure that all access is enabled with 0777.

8.      Going back to Servers>ProFTPD I then click on the Edit Config Files button to make the following changes:

            UserAlias            gary userftp
            ServerType         standalone      (rather than inetd)
               ShowSymlinks    off
               TimeoutStalled   100
            TimeoutIdle        2200
               RootLogin          off                  (line added)
             #It’s better for debug to create log files             (line added)
             ExtendedLog     /var/log/ftp.log                              (line added)
             TransferLog       /var/log/xferlog                             (line added)
             SystemLog         /var/log/syslog                             (line added)

(so I have to delete the log file lines found later)

             #I don’t choose to use /etc/ftpusers files               (line added)
             UseFtpUsers      off                                                (line added)
             MaxInstances     8

Uncomment PersistentPasswd so it reads ‘off’

             MaxClients          8                                                (line added)
             MaxClientsPerHost   8                                           (line added)
             MaxClientsPerUser   8                                           (line added)
             MaxHostsPerUser    8                                           (line added)

Then  added the whole of the next section:

# Display a message after a successful login
AccessGrantMsg “welcome !!!”
# This message is displayed for each access good or not
ServerIdent                  on       “you’re at home”

# Set /home/public directory as home directory
DefaultRoot /home/public
# Lock all the users in home directory, ***** really important *****
DefaultRoot ~

MaxLoginAttempts      5

#VALID LOGINS
<Limit LOGIN>
AllowUser userftp
DenyALL
</Limit>

<Directory /home/public>
Umask 022 022
AllowOverwrite off
    <Limit MKD STOR DELE XMKD RNRF RNTO RMD XRMD>
    DenyAll
    </Limit>
</Directory>

<Directory /home/public/downloads/*>
Umask 022 022
AllowOverwrite off
    <Limit MKD STOR DELE XMKD RNEF RNTO RMD XRMD>
    DenyAll
    </Limit>
</Directory>

<Directory> /home/public/uploads/>
Umask 022 022
AllowOverwrite on
    <Limit READ RMD DELE>
          DenyAll
        </Limit>

        <Limit STOR CWD MKD>
          AllowAll
        </Limit>
</Directory>

Controlling the Server

To start/stop/restart the server, I should be able to use:

            /etc/init.d/proftpd start
            /etc/init.d/proftpd stop
            /etc/init.d/proftpd restart

Now this all works. It’s not quite what I want, i.e. writing html pages to the webserver but it’s a start.

Powered by ScribeFire.