Usage

After the system has installed a README file will be generated which contains passwords and some brief advice on using the installed systems. You can read this with the following commands:

ssh username@domainname -p 2222
emacs ~/README

You should transfer any passwords to a password manager such as KeepassX and then delete them from the README file. To save the file after removing passwords use CTRL-x CTRL-s.

To exit you can either just close the terminal or use CTRL-x CTRL-c followed by the exit command.

To improve ssh security you can generate an ssh key pair on your system and then upload the public key to the Freedombone.

On your local machine:

ssh-keygen

For extra security you may also want to add a passphrase to the ssh private key. You can show the generated public key with:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Log into your system and open the control panel.

ssh username@domain -p 2222

Select Administrator controls then Manage Users then Change user ssh public key. Copy and paste the public key here, then exit.

It's a good idea to also copy the contents of ~/.ssh/id_rsa and ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub to you password manager, together with the private key password if you created one.

There are advantages and disadvantages to using ssh keys for logins. The advantage is that this is much more secure than a memorised password, but the disadvantage is that you need to carry your ssh keys around and be able to install them on any computer of mobile device that you use. In high security or hostile infosec environments it may not be possible to carry or use USB thumb drives containing your keys and so memorised passwords may be the only available choice.

If you wish to only use ssh keys then log in to the Freedombone, become the root user and open the control panel with the 'control' command. Select Security Settings then keep hitting enter until you reach the question about allowing password logins. Select "no" for that, then apply the settings. Any subsequent attempts to log in via a password will then be denied.

You can also access your system via the Tor system using an onion address. To find out what the onion address for ssh access is you can do the following:

ssh username@freedombone.local -p 2222

Select Administrator controls then select "About this system" and look for the onion address for ssh. You can then close the terminal and open another, then do the following on your local system:

freedombone-client

This will set up your ssh environment to be able to handle onion addresses. In addition if you use monkeysphere then you can do:

freedombone-client --ms yes

Then you can test ssh with:

ssh username@address.onion -p 2222

Subsequently even if dynamic DNS isn't working you may still be able to administer your system. Using the onion address also gives you some degree of protection against corporate or government metadata analysis, since it becomes more difficult to passively detect which systems are communicating.

The way that RSS reading is set up on Freedombone gives you strong reading privacy. Not only is there onion routing between you and the server but also between the server and the source of the RSS feed. The only down side is that many RSS feeds are still http only, and so could be vulnerable to injection attacks, but it's expected that more of this will go to https in the foreseeable future due to a combination of growing recognition of security issues and systems like Let's Encrypt which make obtaining certificates much easier.

Github is ok, but it's proprietary and funded by venture capital. If you been around on the internet for long enough then you know how this story eventually works itself out - i.e. badly for the users. It's really only a question of time. If you're a software developer or do things which involve the Git version control system then it's a good idea to become accustomed to hosting your own repositories, before the inevitable Github shitstorm happens.

A Git hosting system called Gogs can optionally be installed. This is very similar to Github in appearance and use. It's lightweight and so well suited for use on low power ARM servers.

Navigate to your git site and click the Register button. The first user registered on the system becomes the administrator. Once you've done that then it's a good idea to disable further registrations. Currently that's a little complicated, but you can do it as follows:

sudo username@domainname -p 2222

Select Exit to the comand line.

sudo su
sed -i "s|DISABLE_REGISTRATION =.*|DISABLE_REGISTRATION = true|g" /home/gogs/custom/conf/app.ini
sed -i "s|SHOW_REGISTRATION_BUTTON =.*|SHOW_REGISTRATION_BUTTON = false|g" /home/gogs/custom/conf/app.ini
systemctl restart gogs
exit; exit

This will stop any spam accounts being created by random strangers or bots. You might want to mirror existing repos, and at any time a mirror can be converted into the main repo.

Log into the system with:

ssh username@domainname -p 2222

Select Administrator controls then User Management. Depending upon the type of installation after selecting administrator controls you might need to enter:

sudo su
control

Everyone except for advertisers hates adverts. Not only are they annoying, but they can consume a lot of bandwidth, be a privacy problem in terms of allowing companies to track your browsing habits and also any badly written scripts they contain may introduce exploitable security holes. Also if you're poor then adverts often make you want things that you can't have.

You can block ads for any devices connected to your local network by installing the pihole app from Add/Remove Apps on the administrator control panel. This may help to improve overall performance of your devices by not wasting time downloading unwanted images or scripts.

Also don't expect perfection. Though many ads may be blocked by this system some will still get through. It's a constant cat and mouse game between advertisers and blockers.