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How to Give the Backup User Read‑Only Access to /var/log via ACLs Without Granting sudo
ACLs for log‑only access
When you need a user to read system logs but you don’t want to give them sudo or pull them into a privileged group, POSIX ACLs are the cleanest way to do it.
They let you hand out read rights on a per‑file or per‑directory basis, and you can set defaults so that every new file inherits the same restrictions.
A backup account that pulls logs to an off‑site archive but never touches the live system is the classic case. ACLs keep the principle of least privilege intact while still letting the job run unattended.
[Read More]Detecting and Stopping Rogue DNS Leaks on a VPN with resolvectl and systemd‑resolved
Why DNS leaks matter
A VPN’s promise is simple: keep every packet, DNS included, inside the encrypted tunnel.
When a client still talks to the local resolver or the ISP’s DNS server, the very
destination of that query is exposed. Even a single leak can give away browsing
habits, slip past content filters, or make a user a target for a phishing or
man‑in‑the‑middle attack. Detecting and stopping those leaks is a routine part
of hardening any VPN‑based deployment.
Rootless Podman on a Raspberry Pi – Solving the “Cannot Bind Mount /home/user/data” Permission Issue
Rootless Podman on a Raspberry Pi – Solving the “Cannot Bind Mount /home/user/data” Permission Issue
The Raspberry Pi has become a favorite platform for home‑lab enthusiasts, and Podman’s rootless mode lets you run containers without granting the container process full system privileges.
On a Pi running Raspberry OS Bookworm (Debian 12), a common stumbling block is the error
Error: cannot bind mount /home/user/data: permission denied
when you try to persist data with -v /home/user/data:/data.
Below is a step‑by‑step guide that explains why the error happens, how to fix it, and what security trade‑offs you should be aware of.
Finding the Most Frequent Syslog Lines in /var/log/syslog with awk, sort, and head
Why you need it
Syslog is the first place you look when something goes wrong. In a busy server or a home lab, the same message can appear thousands of times a day. Knowing which lines dominate the log helps spot misconfigurations, repeated failures, or malicious activity that repeats silently. A quick frequency count is a low‑overhead sanity check that can turn a noisy log into a focused list of suspects.
[Read More]Preventing Disk Space Woes on a Home NAS by Configuring Logrotate for Docker Container Logs
Why Docker logs can eat a NAS
A home NAS is usually a single‑disk or a small RAID array.
When you run several containers—media servers, databases, CI runners—each one writes a JSON log file under
/var/lib/docker/containers/<id>/<id>-json.log.
If you leave the default json-file driver untouched, those files grow indefinitely.
On a 1 TB NAS, a handful of containers can fill the drive in weeks, forcing you to delete data or upgrade hardware.
Keep a 1 GB VPS from dying: a single cron job that purges /var/log/syslog after 30 days
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When firewalld blocks HTTP traffic even though port 80 is open: the services vs ports trap
Why firewalld blocks HTTP even when port 80 is open
I’ve run Fedora, CentOS, and RHEL for the past two decades, and firewalld is the default manager on those distros. It hides the nitty‑gritty nftables/iptables behind zones, services, and ports. That abstraction is handy, but it can also mask a subtle mismatch that ends up dropping HTTP traffic even though you’ve “opened” port 80. The culprit is almost always a services vs. ports trap.
[Read More]Stuck in emergency mode after adding an NTFS mount to /etc/fstab: how to fix it
Stuck in emergency mode after adding an NTFS mount to /etc/fstab
Adding a Windows‑style partition to a Linux system is a routine part of dual‑booting or sharing data with a PC.
When the entry in /etc/fstab is off by a single character, the initramfs aborts the boot and you end up in emergency mode.
The message is unmistakable:
Failed to mount /mnt/windows.
Failed to mount all filesystems.
Entering emergency mode.
Below is a quick, practical walk‑through to diagnose and fix the problem—no fluff, just what I do on the spot.
[Read More]How to Stop Podman From Creating 0777 Permissions on Bind‑Mounted Directories When Running as a Non‑Root User
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