Proftpd - How to start??

[Dutch Mafia-boy.]

I'm trying to get Proftpd working. I have to set it up for about 30 users...I have been following the following tutorials:

http://lxuser.tripod.com/linux/proftpd.html
http://www.castaglia.org/proftpd/doc/INSTALL.html

I can of course get the "demonstration" (the script that creates PFTEST directory) to work......but what comes after that?? Are we somehow supposed to point it back to proftpd.conf...?? or just leave things as they are....??

what does nobody & nogroup mean (in the proftd.conf) ?? Can I replace this simply with root???....or is that too risky?? How about a generic user??

How do you start it?? what do these switches mean after Proftpd....like -n -d 5 -c ....give me examples

Is there a special passwd file that needs to be used?? I would think we could just use the default /etc/passwd....I did see the ftp user/group in there...

I would like to create that ftp group /home.....so users accounts would then point to /home/ftp/john.....john being a simple example.

I'm sure I'll have more questions pop in my head over the next 24 hours...but the above are the main ones....

Thanks in advance for all you input & advice....

[liquidbraino]

can't you just type in:

proftpd start

this should read your proftpd.conf file

nobody is what proftpd runs as, you shouldn't have mess with that

to create a user for linux you just type:

adduser whoever

passwd whoever

this should allow you to long into via ftp

I am trying to figure out how I can get my user...example ftpuse to have a root dir of /home/ftpuser

I don't want them to change directorys to cd /home or cd /

I tried to edit proftpd.conf defaultroot /home/ftpuser ftpuser

but that didn't seem to work

any ideas?

[Dutch Mafia-boy.]

I found this:

http://proftpd.linux.co.uk/localsite/Userguide/linked/chroot.html#AEN714

I just woke up.....I 'm a few hours away from getting back to the beloved penguin...

I'll keep you posted on how i make out.....let's work with eachother until be get this solved!

Thanks

[liquidbraino]

Jeez, I go back and read what I wrote. I suck :)

[Dutch Mafia-boy.]

i got Proftpd to start!!

Either you have to make a group/user called "nogroup" or create a generic group....ie) ftpusers......and replace it with in where "nogroup" is.....

Once you do that.....go into the proftpd source directory and type "proftpd"...it should start without any errors...

My journey continues.....trying to see if i can put all the created users for the ftp server in a separate passwd file, and a welcome message...how to create that and get it working...

If you know how to do this, or have had experience with it.....tell me how you did it....

Thanks

[kkhan]

Hi Dutch Mafia:

Could you give me some step by step guide how you got proftp to work. I tried it with webmin with most of it selected to default. I have also copied a sample proftpd.conf file in the /etc directory, but for some reason it does not work. I have also tried to setup VSFTP since now it comes standard with RH 8.0, I followed these instructions at http://www.engardelinux.org/howto/vsftp_howto.html

When I do an ftp localhost
I get an error:
500 OOPS: vsftpd: must be restarted as root even though I am logged in as root from a client ssh connection. Also, if I do vsftp start

I get
500 OOPS: vsftpd: cannot open specified config file

If I do a proftpd start I do not get any error but if I try to $ftp localhost I still see the 500 error for vsftp.

I am confused, I need help setting up an ftp server.

Thanks

[Dutch Mafia-boy.]

I will try to help you out the best I can....I am only a few steps ahead of you, this is all new to me also:

First, some words of advice...

- copy & paste your error messages into a Google search and see what it comes up with.....odds are pretty good that people have had the same problems you are experiencing...Google knows everything!!

I also have Webmin installed......although it can simplify daily administrative tasks quickly instead of scrolling through config files, I would suggest trying to set up applications/utilities in Linux through the command line interface (CLI).....scrolling through config files....I strongly feel Webmin skips the learning process....

OK, the only thing I did to get vsftpd up and running was go to the config file called "vsftpd" located in etc/xinetd.d.... cand change the line that says "disable = yes" to disable = no

Here's how to it.....step by step.

- type "pico vsftpd"

- write in "no" where it says disable = yes. We don't want it to be disabled.....we want it enabled an we do this by saying "no". Hit CTRL + x to write out the config file and say "yes" or "y" to save the changes and hit the enter key to keep the filename vsftpd

- once back at the terminal, type "service xinetd restart" to restart xinetd.....pretty self-explanatory....

- now try typing "ftp [ip address of your box] " or go to a windows machine on the same network , and go to the command prompt of course and type the same command.....ftp [ip address]...try logging in as a generic user instead if root....if you don't know how to create a generic user......type "adduser johndoe"...johndoe being the new name of the user you are about to create. then type "passwd johndoe" to give johndoe a password.


As for Proftpd......I have it up and running, but there's alot more you can configure....ie) login message. I'm in the process of learning these....

I downloaded the latest proftd-1.2.7rc3 from the website...I am assuming you already have that installed....if you don't, here's how to do it.

--> gunzip proftd-1.2.7rc3.tar.gz
--> tar -xvf proftd-1.2.7rc3.tar
--> move into the directory it made....type "cd profrpd-1.2.7rc3"...all in the command terminal of course!
--> type "./configure" in the directory it makes....it'll compile some stuff....
-->type "make"
--> type "make install"

once I installed it....it put the "proftd.conf" file in /usr/local/etc. Go and check you "passwd" file located in /etc. To do this, type "cat proftpd.conf | more"....the pipe | more means you can view one page at a time by pressing space bar instead of it flying by to the bottom all at once ......and you'll see a group/user called "ftp". We'll use this group to replace the "nogroup" that exists in the proftpd.conf file. So, go back to the proftpd.conf located in /usr/local/etc and type: pico proftpd.conf .....because we want to edit it...I replaced both the User and Group, both with "ftp"...so it looks like this:

User ftp
Group ftp


--> hit CTRL + x to write it out......"yes" to save it, and enter to keep the filename the same...

--> type "service xinetd restart"
-->try "ftp [ip address of your linux box] "...or try it from a windows box...
--> log in as a generic user...

Thats about as far as I can take you.....good luck.

Dutch

[Dutch Mafia-boy.]

Does anyone know how to disable anonymous ftp access in Proftpd??

Thanks