Mixmaster Tutorial - Third Draft
From: Linux Tearwalds (linux_at_buggerall.com)
Date: 08/15/05
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Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 20:34:34 +0200
This is an attempt to tell newbies how to get started using
Mixmaster under Linux so that they can use the remailer system.
I wanted to put this together because documentation understandable
by the average user seems to be lacking.
I hope to provide enough information to get people to the point of
sending simple messages through the remailers.
Please chime in with corrections, additions, etc.
Any examples of command line usage would be most welcome.
Third Draft
Thanks to Anonymous for his help.
I assume you have some version of linux installed and know how to
use the package manager to add programs.
You will need to install:
Mixmaster
Postfix [SEE (1) IN THE NOTES SECTION]
To make things as 'gui' as possible, I strongly recommend you also
install:
Ncurses
webmin for postfix
Mixmaster
I think I took the defaults for this and didn't have a problem.
I think it asks you if you want to install ncurses while you are
at it. Say yes, since ncurses will give you a simple gui when
you want to send a message.
Postfix
This is a mail server which Mixmaster will automatically use for
smtp purposes. Take the defaults when setting this up. The one
exception is when it asks for the internet hostname of the mail
system. Use a fully-qualified domain name. You can get one from
places like dyndns.org or yi.org, which point to your ip.
Webmin for Postfix
This provides a gui for configuring Postfix. The only thing I
had to do was get into general options and change the internet
hostname of the mail system to a fully-qualified name, because
I had taken the non-fully-qualified default when setting up
postfix.
By the way, it isn't obvious how to get into Webmin, so here is
how: open your browser and type localhost:10000. It will ask you
for the root id and password, and will probably re-direct you
to another local url. Remember the new url and use it the next time.
One more thing about Postfix. It is apparently a simplified
version of Sendmail, which is what mixmaster *really* requires;
but it has been jiggered so that mixmaster thinks it is sendmail.
I tried installing sendmail, but got loads of messages about
things being screwed up. Stick with Postfix.
TO RUN MIXMASTER USING THE COMMAND LINE
Here are a couple of command line examples. Since you can do a lot
more with the command line than the elementary gui, it's
probably worth while learning this.
You should change these to fit your wishes and copy and paste
them into a terminal session (Linux has sophisticated scripting,
but I don't know how to use it. If you do, let us know - as long
as your explanation is simple, clear, and sufficient).
The easiest way to send a message using the command line is to
create the message in a file and then specify the file in the
command line. This allows you to put any headers you want in the
message.
Here is an example of sending a mixmaster message to usenet. It
has a subject and a 'from' header (in the file containing the
body of the message). If you want the 'from' header to show up,
you need to use, as the last remailer, one that supports that.
I think Italy and Hastio are two that do.
For easier understanding, the parameters are displayed vertically,
with a comment.
mixmaster
-c 1 send 1 copy of the msg
-p send it to usenet - the headers: Newsgroups:,
From:, etc. will be in the file.
-l italy use this remailer
<tmp/info.txt the file containing the message
Here it is, spread out:
mixmaster -c 1 -p -l italy <tmp/info.txt
N.B. after you run this command, type in: mixmaster -S
That will send the message from the pool. If you don't type in:
mixmaster -S, the message will not be sent.
Here is what the file, info.txt, might look like. Note the
skipped line after the last header. That is essential.
Newsgroups: alt.test
Subject: some test subject
From: joe blow <joeblow@somewhere.com>
start of message
second line of message
Here's a variation of the above, using 4 copies and 4 remailers.
mixmaster mixmaster -c 4 -p -l *,*,*,italy <tmp/info.txt
If you want to TYPE IN THE MESSAGE, here is an example. The only
difference between this and sending using a message in a file is
that you don't specify a file. That makes the line-editor
start up. The main thing to know here is that to get out of the
line-editor, and get the message into the pool, ready for sending,
you have to enter cntl-D. That is, hold down the control key and
press the 'D' key.
mixmaster -c 4 -g misc.test,alt.test -l *,*,*,italy
-s 'Test Subject' --header='From: joe doakes <jodek@adfdf.com>'
TO RUN MIXMASTER USING THE NCURSES GUI
Open a terminal screen and type: mixmaster (if that doesn't work,
type Mixmaster. This is Linux.)
That will bring up the simple gui screen.
Enter m or p for mail or post to usenet.
Enter the email address(es) or newsgroup(s) you want to send to.
Enter the Subject
That will bring up another screen with the defaults for remailers,
and for copies of the message. It should quickly become clear how
to manage those two.
One thing to keep in mind is that you need to specify at least one
random remailer (by using an asterisk) if you are sending more
than one copy of the message.
If you have the message in a file, enter f then the name of the file.
If you want to type in the message, or edit the existing file,
enter e and you will be put into a terrible editor called vi.
SEE (2) IN THE NOTES SECTION, for how to switch to a better editor.
If you can't switch, then read on.
If you are stuck with vi, type in your message.
Now get a load of this: to save and get out of the message,
you have to:
1. Press the 'insert' key
2. enter a colon followed by wq
Amazing, but that's how vi works, and doing that will get you back
to the previous gui.
Enter m to send the message to the spool file.
That brings up another gui screen. At this point you will probably
want to enter s to send the message from the spool, and
then q to quit mixmaster.
If you have postfix properly installed, the message should be on
its way, nicely encrypted.
You will need regularly to update your stats, so SEE (3) IN THE
NOTES SECTION.
You now know everything I do about running mixmaster. That's not
much, but at least you can encrypt mail and usenet posts.
Maybe somebody could also provide us with some more command line
examples, so that we have a better idea of how to use the command
line with mixmaster. It would make learning mixmaster a lot
easier if we had examples to play around with, rather than
coding the command line statements from scratch.
The gui is so elementary, that it looks like command line is the
way to go, once you have familiarized yourself with the utility.
********* NOTES ***************
(1) SHOULD YOU USE POSTFIX TO SEND MAIL FROM MIXMASTER?
You can make a few changes in one of the config files and use your
isp's smtp server.
I actually prefer postfix because it set up and ran without a
hitch.
However, if you have a problem with it, or prefer to use the
kind of smtp you are used to, read on.
Basically you put these in your mix.cfg file and comment out (with a #) or
remove the SENDMAIL option, like this.
#SENDMAIL /usr/lib/sendmail -t
SMTPRELAY smtp.example.net
SMTPUSERNAME foo
SMTPPASSWORD bar
HELONAME example.net
ENVFROM mix-bounce@example.net
The SMTPRELAY option makes mixmaster deliver to that smtp server instead
of sendmail. SMTPUSERNAME and SMTPPASSWORD are options you use if your
smtp server requires authentication. HELONAME is the host name that is
given. ENVFROM is who it will say the mail is from to the smtp server.
In order to edit mix.cfg, you need to open a terminal and type:
kdesu konqueror /var/lib/mixmaster.
Enter your root password when prompted and konqueror should open
and put you into /var/lib/mixmaster.
Open Mix.
Open mix.cfg.
Make the changes.
(2) HOW TO GET MIXMASTER TO USE A BETTER EDITOR THAN VI
My version of linux came with Kate and Kwrite, among other
editors. I use Kwrite. To see if you have Kwrite installed,
open a terminal and type /usr/bin/kwrite. If the editor opens,
it's installed.
Assuming it is installed, go to your /home/user/ folder.
Whatever editor you are using to look at the /home/user folder
should have a VIEW option on the toolbar. Get into that and
click on 'view hidden files'.
You should then see a file called .bash_profile. Open it.
Somewhere in there are a bunch of lines beginning with 'export'.
Insert a line among them and type: export EDITOR="/usr/bin/kwrite"
Reboot the computer.
Run mixmaster again, using its gui, and when you choose 'e' to
edit / create the file, you will find that you are editing with
kwrite rather than vi.
(3) HOW TO UPDATE YOUR STATS AND KEYS
Open a terminal and type: kdesu konqueror /var/lib/mixmaster
It will ask for your password. type it in.
Then it should open the Konqueror file browser and put you into
/var/lib/mixmaster.
Open Mix
Open update.conf and you will see something like this:
# Configfile for mixmaster-update (from the mixmaster package)
# see mixmaster-update(1) for documentation
SOURCE amessage
# PROXY http http://proxy.example.com:3128/
# PROXY ftp http://proxy.example.com:3128/
DESTINATION /var/lib/mixmaster/stats
All you need to do is choose the source. I use amessage, but
use whatever you like best.
Get out of that and back to the terminal.
Type in: kdesu mixmaster-update
Enter the password.
mixmaster-update should now run and get the latest stats from
amessage and update /var/lib/mixmaster/stats.
One thing I don't see getting updated or have even found, is
type2.list. I have no idea why that is not being updated
I'm sure there is a cron job of some kind that can be run to
do the stats update periodically and automatically. Anybody
want to chime in with the info?
- Next message: Ivan Marsh: "Re: OpenSuse Leeching Off the OpenSores Programmers."
- Previous message: Jonathan A.: "Re: MPlayer problem... works as root but not as users"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
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