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Installation and Startup FAQ

1999/12/12 by Crescent


Q: How do I install FTP4ALL ?
A: First, get the latest distribution archive from our website. Then unpack it (tar -xfvz ftpd-x.yy.tar.gz), and run the configure (./configure) script. It asks you one question (read the next question ahead), which you have to answer. If this is your first time installing FTP4ALL just answer "no" to this question.
Then think about how long filenames can be on your site. The maximum length that FTP4ALL allows is 32 by default. If this is not sufficient, edit file src/common/tweak.h and increase the value of MAXFILENAMELENGTH.
Then run make (just type make). It SHOULD compile without any error messages and store the binaries in the binary directory (./bin/). Move the ./standard/ directory to some place you want have it and copy the three binaries form ./bin/ into sbin of the new standard directory. Then, edit etc/ftpd.reg in the new standard directory. You need to set only port and basedir. Then run sbin/ftpd. After that you can connect with any FTP client the the port. If you want to use the GUI, set adminport in the ftpd.reg before running the binary.

Q: The configure script exits with the message:
ERROR: Machine word length must be 32 or 64 bit or
ERROR: Your system does not support 32 bit integer or
ERROR: Your system does not support 64 bit integer or
ERROR: Your C-Library does not support 64 bit integer in scanf and printf functions

What does this mean ?

A: This means that FTP4ALL v3 will not work on your system. Try v2 or another daemon.

Q: What is the "want DES encryption (y/n) ?" thing good for ?
A: FTP4ALL has the ability to encrypt the users and groups file on your shell account, to protect it from hackers or curious system administrators. If you say yes to this option, then DES encryption will be compiled into FTP4ALL. I included a third-party encryption package, so I will give no guarantee that this package will compile and/or work on your system. If you are planning to use DES encryption you should first build a test server and verify that everything works ok.

Q: Does this DES encryption feature encrypt all data files that are uploaded to the site, too ? How do I enable encryption of data files ?
A: No it doesn't. And sorry, there is no way to encrypt data files.

Q: I've been running a site without DES encryption and now I want to switch to encryption. Can I still use the old user and group files with the new daemon ?
A: Yes you can, just start the new daemon with the old user and group files. It will detect that the files are not encrypted and read them accordingly.

Q:I've been running a site with DES encryption and now I want to switch to a version without encryption. What do I have to do in order to re-use the encrypted user and group files ?
A: Log in to the site that supports DES encryption. Then issue the command:
SITE REG SET desencryption off
This will turn off DES encryption. Then send a HUP signal to ftpd, in order to force it to save the user and group files, e.g.
kill -HUP 1234
The user and group files are now unencrypted and can be used with the new daemon.

Q: I'm using Linux and can't compile the server. The make program fails because of missing header files in the linux and/or asm subdir, like:
linux/limits.h: No such file or directory.

A: Please install the kernel sources, at least the kernel header files and try again. The kernel sources contain header files which are essential for compiling programs, they should always be installed.
After that, make sure that the directories /usr/include/linux/ and /usr/include/asm/ are symlinks to the related directories in the kernel source !

Q: There are several subdirectories under the standard/ directory. Can you explain what they are meant for ?
A: There are five subdirectories: bin/ etc/ log/ msg/ and sbin/. The purpose of these are:
Q: When I try to start the daemon, it just outputs one line and then quits out, and I can't ftp in to the selected port. Any ideas ?
A: Generally (read: almost always) this is caused by an error in the registry file. Look for a file called "log/ftpd.err", and read what's in there. In 90% of cases there will be a simple problem that is easy to fix.

Q: What is the login/password when I want to login to a fresh installed server ?
A: Login name is root, password may be any.

Q: What should I do on the first login ?
A: The first thing you should to is to set a new root password using the SITE PASS command. You should also assign an owner to the root directory by using the SITE CHOWN command. Next you should assign permissions to the root directory using the SITE CHMOD command. After verifying the result using the SITE MOD command you may also want to update the default permissions for newly created files and directories, do so with the umaskuser registry option. And also you may want to set up the basic directory structure, to ease this set the umaskroot option in the configuration file before creating directories. Next you may want to check out additional options on the FTP4ALL homepage. Yes, it does sound a little complex, but before long all this will become second nature to you. :)

Q: I've forgotten the root password
Q: I deleted the root user
Q: I fucked up the ident/IP ranges of the root user
now I cannot log in as root. How do I fix it ?

A: Shut down the server by killing it from a shell (e.g. kill `cat /site/log/ftpd.pid`). Then restart it with the -s command line option (e.g. /site/sbin/ftpd -s). After that, you can login as root with any password from any IP.