Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 11:42:44 -0600 (CST) From: Ryan Thompson <ryan@sasknow.com> To: Philippe Charron <garry@stella-net.fr> Cc: hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: someone has an idea ? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0004281117000.60643-100000@ren.sasknow.com> In-Reply-To: <3909B215.CAC1563D@stella-net.fr>
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Philippe Charron wrote to hardware@FreeBSD.ORG:
> Hello,
>
> Im a trying to do a FreeBSD box without any keyboard (this machine will
> be a Squid, HTTP and FTP serveur for non specialist person that can't
> handle with a Unix system).
>
> As the user can't shutdown properly the computer, he has to press the
> power button to switch off the box.
> This leads to problems with fsck and inode lost in the system.
>
> Does anyone have an idea to solve this problem ?
Assuming the user isn't experienced enough to handle a full root login,
what about the following:
create another user with uid '0', gid '0', different password, name =
halt, shell = /sbin/halt.
Be sure to add /sbin/halt to /etc/shells and remake the password database
if you don't use vipw.
Note I haven't actually 'tried' this. :-)
Then, all that must be done is--with an ssh client and root logins
enabled--put a login icon on their desktop. At the prompts, they have to
remember 'halt' and a password. Not rocket science.
Of course, this is kind of a kludge. You could accomplish the same with a
cgi web form (if Apache is running) that inputs a password for the 'halt'
user. Then, that password is passed along to a cgi script (probably using
expect(1)) that runs 'su halt -c /sbin/halt'... and make sure that you
added /sbin/halt to /etc/shells! Then, rebooting the system is as easy as
clicking on a hyperlink and entering a password.
OR... The other option that I see is the following. Create a root run
shell script that can be detached (&) that sleep(1)s for 20 or 30 seconds
and looks for a flagfile. The flag file directory can be owned by a
normal user (say, with ftp access) and when halt.flag is created, reboot
the system.
Below is a shell script that we use for things like restarting daemons,
etc. I've modified it for you so that it will halt a system when
/var/db/sysflags/halt is created.
#!/bin/sh
#
# $Id: sysflagd,v 1.1 2000/01/18 17:33:11 ryan Exp ryan $
#
# Synopsis:
# Monitors for the existence of predetermined flag files and executes
# commands as root.
#
# (C)2000 SaskNow Technologies
# All Rights Reserved
if [ ! -e /var/log/sysflagd.log ] ; then
touch /var/log/sysflagd.log
logger -i -p local0.info New log started
fi
logger -i -p local0.info Started on `date`, `hostname`
while true ;
do
if [ -f /var/db/sysflags/halt ] ; then
logger -ip local0.info System shutdown initiated
rm /var/db/sysflags/halt
/sbin/halt
fi
# Default sleep interval of 30 seconds
sleep 30
done
simply run the 'sysflagd' shell script as root like:
# ./sysflagd &
or add a script to /usr/local/etc/rc.d/ to start it at bootup.
Then, creating that flagfile is as simple as creating the directory, chmod
755 to a regular user of choice, and make a batch file in windows that
invokes microsoft's stock ``ftp'' program with a name and password and
uploads that file. Create a shortcut to that, and anyone with that batch
file can remote shutdown the machine. :-) You will probably want to
tweak /etc/login.access to allow logins only from a specific host for the
user.
--
Ryan Thompson <ryan@sasknow.com>
Systems Administrator, Accounts
Phone: +1 (306) 664-1161
SaskNow Technologies http://www.sasknow.com
#106-380 3120 8th St E Saskatoon, SK S7H 0W2
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