Ubuntu Arizona LoCo Team

Todd and I spent a morning installing and configuring owncloud on the team server. Things worked fairly well – with essentially only one glitch that I’ll discuss at the end.

owncloud was installed on a new virtual machine with Ubuntu server 12.04.3 as the initial install. Immediately after the install from an ISO image, the server was updated with the latest updates.

A web search suggested that there are only install packages for OpenSuse. Later on (more by accident) we found out that Ubuntu has an owncloud package, but we didn’t use that.

The instructions we followed were these:
http://doc.owncloud.org/server/6.0/admin_manual/installation/installation_source.html
We did put the whole owncloud content directly into /var/www. That worked for us, because the server is dedicated to the owncloud service.

Also – make sure that ssl is running.

At that point we were able to get to the opencloud server from within the local network via Firefox.

Getting to the opencloud from the Internet was done by re-directing port 8081 from tempe.from-az.net to the firewall behind which all AzLoco servers sit. The firewall then does forward the request to the https port of the owncloud server.

We encountered two glitches:
Glitch1: The admin page had a line indicating that the WebDAV configuration was broken. After some investigation it was clear that the problem was introduced by our ssl certificate. Owncloud tries to check the WebDAV functionality with Curl. Curl finds it problematic that the server’s certificate’s DN does not match the URL under which the owncloud server is accessed.
This problem got fixed by editing the file /var/www/3rdparty/Sabre/DAV/Client.php. These two lines had to be added to the initialization of the array $curlSettings in function request:

CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER => 0,
CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST => 0,

Glitch2:
after login, the owncloud server was directing to its IP address on the local network, rather than to tempe.from-az.us. The fix for this was to edit the file /var/www/config/config.php. This line had to be added to the initialization of the array $CONFIG

‘overwritehost’ => ‘tempe.from-az.net:8081’,

We didn’t attempt to get CA endorsed certificates, because the intent of this owncloud use is for team members, so overriding the certificate trust on the browser is acceptable. To make the Chrome browser work correctly the DN of the certificate had to be tempe.from-az.us

The basic idea here is to add a VPN connection to an existing residential network. The way its implemented is as an add-on to the existing network, so that the existing network doesn’t need to be modified at all. Turning off VPN is simply done by shutting down the PI, no other reconfigs necessary.

I was perusing the news last night and came to the story that their is a rumor that Microsoft might produce a “free” O/S. Of course Microsoft is silent at this point but it is a very intriguing idea to say the least.

Quite frankly, I never understood the rivalry between Microsoft and Linux. Some take a very mature opinions while others will go out of the way to add fuel to the fire.

My decision to use Ubuntu was based partially on the financial side, performance and security of Ubuntu. What of the people that are not technically or financially gifted? Who speak for them? I truly hope Microsoft can produce such a product. With the share of XP installations at about 25 percent and this O/S is on it’s last lap, Who is really going to abandon a perfectly healthy computer to invest in one just to upgrade the O/S Lean times call for lean measures so purchasing one may be too steep.

My only stumbling block with Ubuntu is the forum support. I understand we have lives to conduct so it makes it difficult to answer every request. It is also hard to follow thread if you are troubleshooting. When you are not in front of the machine, diagnostics is a bit tricky.To fair with both sides of the fence, I chose self education because I would not be a burden to the community and I would get my answers that much faster. I think you have to respect a person’s time and even if they are at rest, their time carries a value

For all of these reasons, I believe in a cooperative effort between the Linux and Microsoft communities. The free version could steer audience to either side depending on their needs and be compatible with each side.

Wake up, grab yourself some coffee and lets have a discussion.