shorewall_code/Shorewall-docs2/support.xml
2005-11-15 22:12:12 +00:00

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">
<article id="IPIP">
<!--$Id$-->
<articleinfo>
<title>Shorewall Support Guide</title>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Tom</firstname>
<surname>Eastep</surname>
</author>
</authorgroup>
<pubdate>2005-11-11</pubdate>
<copyright>
<year>2001-2005</year>
<holder>Thomas M. Eastep</holder>
</copyright>
<legalnotice>
<para>Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version
1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with
no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover, and with no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
<quote><ulink url="GnuCopyright.htm">GNU Free Documentation
License</ulink></quote>.</para>
<important>
<para>Problem reports that do not include the information requested in
the <link linkend="Guidelines">Problem Reporting Guidelines</link>
below <emphasis role="bold">will not be answered by the Shorewall
author.</emphasis></para>
</important>
</legalnotice>
</articleinfo>
<caution>
<para><emphasis role="bold">This article applies to Shorewall 3.0 and
later. If you are running a version of Shorewall earlier than Shorewall
3.0.0 then please see the documentation for that
release.</emphasis></para>
</caution>
<section>
<title>Before Reporting a Problem or Asking a Question</title>
<para>There are a number of sources of Shorewall information. Please try
these before you post.</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>The two currently-supported Shorewall <ulink
url="ReleaseModel.html">major releases</ulink> are 3.0 and 2.4.</para>
<note>
<para>Shorewall versions earlier than 2.4.0 are no longer supported;
we will only answer your question if it deals with upgrading from
these old releases to a current one.</para>
</note>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>More than half of the questions posted on the support list have
answers directly accessible from the <ulink
url="Documentation_Index.html">Documentation Index</ulink></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The <ulink url="FAQ.htm">FAQ</ulink> has solutions to more than
50 common problems.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The <ulink url="troubleshoot.htm">Troubleshooting
Information</ulink> contains a number of tips to help you solve common
problems.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</section>
<section id="Guidelines">
<title>Problem Reporting Guidelines</title>
<para>Please refer to the following flowchart to guide you through the
problem reporting process.</para>
<graphic align="center" fileref="images/Troubleshoot.png" />
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>If your problem is that an <emphasis
role="bold">error</emphasis> occurs when you try to
<quote><command>shorewall start</command></quote> or if Shorewall is
otherwise failing to start properly, then please:</para>
<blockquote>
<programlisting><command>/sbin/shorewall trace start 2&gt; /tmp/trace</command></programlisting>
<para>Forward the <filename>/tmp/trace</filename> file as an
attachment compressed with gzip or bzip2.</para>
</blockquote>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>If you are unsure if Shorewall is starting successfully or not
then first note that if Shorewall starts successfully, the last
message it produces is "Shorewall Started":</para>
<blockquote>
<programlisting>
Activating Rules...
<emphasis role="bold">Shorewall Started</emphasis>
gateway:~#</programlisting>
</blockquote>
<para>If you are seeing this message then Shorewall is starting
successfully.</para>
<para>If you are still unsure if Shorewall is starting or not, enter
the following command:</para>
<blockquote>
<programlisting><command>/sbin/shorewall status</command></programlisting>
</blockquote>
<para>If Shorewall has started successfully, you will see output
similar to this:</para>
<blockquote>
<programlisting>Shorewall-2.5.4 Status at gateway - Tue Aug 30 14:07:29 PDT 2005
Shorewall is running
State:Started (Tue Aug 30 07:18:07 PDT 2005)</programlisting>
</blockquote>
<para>If Shorewall has not started properly, you will see output
similar to this:</para>
<blockquote>
<programlisting>Shorewall-2.5.4 Status at gateway - Tue Aug 30 14:08:11 PDT 2005
Shorewall is stopped
State:Stopped (Tue Aug 30 14:08:11 PDT 2005)</programlisting>
</blockquote>
<para>The "State:" refers to the <ulink
url="starting_and_stopping_shorewall.htm%23State">Shorewall State
Diagram</ulink>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>If Shorewall is starting successfully and your problem is that
some set of <emphasis role="bold">connections</emphasis> to/from or
through your firewall <emphasis role="bold">isn't working</emphasis>
(examples: local systems can't access the internet, you can't send
email through the firewall, you can't surf the web from the firewall,
etc.) then please perform the following six steps:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>If Shorewall isn't started then <command>/sbin/shorewall
start</command>. Otherwise <command>/sbin/shorewall
reset</command>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Try making the connection that is failing.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><command>/sbin/shorewall dump &gt;
/tmp/status.txt</command></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Post the <filename>/tmp/status.txt</filename> file as an
attachment compressed with gzip or bzip2.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Describe where you are trying to make the connection from
(IP address) and what host (IP address) you are trying to connect
to.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">Please do not edit the diagnostic
information</emphasis> in an attempt to conceal your IP address,
netmask, nameserver addresses, domain name, etc. These <emphasis
role="bold">aren't secrets</emphasis>, and concealing them often
misleads us and may prevent your problem from being looked at all
together.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Otherwise please include the following information:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>the exact version of Shorewall you are running.</para>
<programlisting><emphasis role="bold">/sbin/shorewall version</emphasis></programlisting>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>the complete exact output of</para>
<programlisting><command>ip addr show</command></programlisting>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>the complete exact output of</para>
<programlisting><command>ip route show</command></programlisting>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Please remember we only know what is posted in your message. Do
not leave out any information that appears to be correct, or was
mentioned in a previous post. There have been countless posts by
people who were sure that some part of their configuration was correct
when it actually contained a small error. We tend to be skeptics where
detail is lacking.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Please keep in mind that you're asking for <emphasis
role="bold">free</emphasis> technical support. Any help we offer is an
act of generosity, not an obligation. Try to make it easy for us to
help you. Follow good, courteous practices in writing and formatting
your e-mail. Provide details that we need if you expect good answers.
Exact quoting of error messages, log entries, command output, and
other output is better than a paraphrase or summary.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Please give details about what doesn't work. Reports that say
<quote>I followed the directions and it didn't work</quote> may elicit
sympathy but probably little in the way of help. Again -- if ping from
A to B fails, say so (and see below for information about reporting
<quote>ping</quote> problems). If Computer B doesn't show up in
<quote>Network Neighborhood</quote> then say so. If access by IP
address works but by DNS names it doesn't then say so.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Please don't describe your environment and then ask us to send
you custom configuration files. We're here to answer your questions
but we can't do your job for you.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Please do NOT include the output of <command>iptables
-L</command> — the output of <emphasis role="bold">shorewall
show</emphasis> or <command>shorewall status</command> is much more
useful.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>As a general matter, <emphasis role="bold">please do not edit
the diagnostic information</emphasis> in an attempt to conceal your IP
address, netmask, nameserver addresses, domain name, etc. These
<emphasis role="bold">aren't secrets</emphasis>, and concealing them
often misleads us (and 80% of the time, a hacker could derive them
anyway from information contained in the SMTP headers of your
post).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Do you see any <quote>Shorewall</quote> messages
(<quote><command>/sbin/shorewall show log</command></quote>) when you
exercise the function that is giving you problems? If so, include the
message(s) in your post along with a copy of your
/etc/shorewall/interfaces file (and /etc/shorewall/hosts file if you
have entries in that file).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Please include any of the Shorewall configuration files
(especially the /etc/shorewall/hosts file if you have modified that
file) that you think are relevant. If you include
/etc/shorewall/rules, please include /etc/shorewall/policy as well
(rules are meaningless unless one also knows the policies).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">The list server limits the size of posts
to the lists, so don't post graphics of your network layout, etc. to
the Mailing List -- your post will be rejected</emphasis>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The author gratefully acknowleges that the above list was
heavily plagiarized from the excellent LEAF document by <emphasis>Ray
Olszewski</emphasis> found <ulink
url="http://leaf-project.org/index.php?module=pagemaster&amp;PAGE_user_op=view_page&amp;PAGE_id=6&amp;MMN_position=21:21">here</ulink>.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</section>
<section>
<title>When using the mailing list, please post in plain text</title>
<para>A growing number of MTAs serving list subscribers are rejecting all
HTML traffic. At least one MTA has gone so far as to blacklist
shorewall.net <quote>for continuous abuse</quote> because it has been my
policy to allow HTML in list posts!!</para>
<para>I think that blocking all HTML is a Draconian way to control spam
and that the ultimate losers here are not the spammers but the list
subscribers whose MTAs are bouncing all shorewall.net mail. As one list
subscriber wrote to me privately <quote>These e-mail admin's need to get a
(expletive deleted) life instead of trying to rid the planet of HTML based
e-mail</quote>. Nevertheless, to allow subscribers to receive list posts
as must as possible, I have now configured the list server at
shorewall.net to convert all HTML to plain text. Sometimes the conversion
process fails in which case, the post sent to the list is empty. Even when
conversion succeeds, the converted post is difficult to read so all of us
will appreciate it if you just post in plain text to begin with.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Where to Send your Problem Report or to Ask for Help</title>
<para><emphasis role="bold">If you run the current development release and
your question involves a feature that is only available in the development
release</emphasis> (see the <ulink url="ReleaseModel.html">Shorewall
Release Model page</ulink>) -- please post your question or problem to the
<ulink url="mailto:shorewall-devel@lists.sourceforge.net">Shorewall
Development Mailing List</ulink>. <emphasis
role="bold">IMPORTANT</emphasis>: You must subscribe to the list before
you will be able to post to it (see link below).</para>
<para><emphasis role="bold">If you run Shorewall under MandrakeSoft Multi
Network Firewall (MNF) and you have not purchased an MNF license from
MandrakeSoft then you can post non MNF-specific Shorewall questions to the
<ulink url="mailto:shorewall-users@lists.sourceforge.net">Shorewall users
mailing list</ulink>. Do not expect to get free MNF support on the
list</emphasis>.</para>
<para>Otherwise, please post your question or problem to the <ulink
url="mailto:shorewall-users@lists.sourceforge.net">Shorewall users mailing
list</ulink>. <emphasis role="bold">IMPORTANT</emphasis>: You must
subscribe to the list before you will be able to post to it (see link
below).</para>
<para>Please <emphasis role="bold">read the list usage
instructions</emphasis> (found on the information page for each list)
before posting.</para>
<para>For <emphasis role="bold">quick questions</emphasis>, there is also
a #shorewall channel at irc.freenode.net.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Subscribing to the Users Mailing List</title>
<para>To Subscribe to the users mailing list go to <ulink
url="https://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/shorewall-users">https://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/shorewall-users</ulink>.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Subscribing to the Announce Mailing List</title>
<para>To Subscribe to the announce mailing list (low-traffic,read only) go
to:</para>
<para><ulink
url="https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/shorewall-announce">https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/shorewall-announce</ulink></para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Subscribing to the Development Mailing List</title>
<para>To Subscribe to the development mailing list go to <ulink
url="https://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/shorewall-devel">https://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/shorewall-devel</ulink>.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Other Mailing Lists</title>
<para>For information on other Shorewall mailing lists, go to <ulink
url="http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=22587">http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=22587</ulink>
.</para>
</section>
</article>