Free Alpine Linux Shell Accounts
Update: Sorry, but this wonderful server has been returned to @Cloudie. I hope everyone gets the VPS they want! Best wishes! -- Tom a/k/a @Not_Oles
Friendly greetings to all! ππ
What's New?
-
Alpine Linux seems to have been installed on the MetalVPS antique Intel node at Hurricane Electric Fremont-2.
Want a free Alpine shell account? Maybe with sudo? π With all node resources shared, fair use? π Right now plenty of server resources are available because only a few people are using the Fremont node.
Fremont Node Specs
Server: Intel S2600GZ
CPU: 2 x Xeon E5-2630L v2, 2 x 6 cores = 12 cores = 24 threads
RAM: 32 GB DDR3 ECC (upgrade to 64 GB expected this month)
Hard Drive: 1 x 500 GB SSD, 2 x 1 TB HDD
IP Addresses: IPv4/28, IPv6/48
Connection: 1 GBit/s port
Bandwidth: Fair use
Datacenter: Hardware rented from Cloudie Networks, LLC inside Hurricane Electric Fremont 2, Fremont, California USA πΊπΈ
Node OS: Alpine Linux 3.17 edge! π€© NetBSD might or might not be coming soon! β€οΈ
VM OS: Whatever you install!
Who?
- MetalVPS is a project of @Not_Oles a/k/a Tom Miller a/k/a the cluelessβ’ guy.
Where?
MetalVPS currently has nodes in Falkenstein, Germany π©πͺ and Fremont, California USA. πΊπΈ
This thread is for the Fremont node. πΊπΈ
The Falkenstein node has its own offer thread.
Why?
Why not? It's fun to play with and learn about servers, operating systems, and the internet.
@Not_Oles uses very little of his MetalVPS servers' capacity. It's better to offer the extra capacity to others than to waste it.
Congrats!
Warnings!
Cluelessβ’ administrator! π @Not_Oles frequently messes up! π±
@Not_Oles is especially cluelessβ’ about Alpine since he is an Alpine noob. π€
Hey! Fremont runs Alpine 3.17 edge! π€©
Sometimes trusted MetalVPSians might or might not get sudo. πππ
MetalVPS has no billing panel and no server control panel. π It's all command line until you install a GUI or activate whatever pre-installed GUI you want. π
MetalVPS has no onboarding and no knowledge base. βοΈ If you want to make an LXC or KVM VPS, please be willing to research about how to do it on the command line. π₯°
Account delivery might take awhile! π΄
Accounts subject to cancellation at any time without advance notice! π₯
No warranty, to the extent permitted by applicable law. No service level agreement. Not for business use. Intended especially for computer learning and fun! π€
White Hat stuff only, please! No copyright violations, please. π
@Not_Oles tries to keep the system updated. Frequent maintenance reboots are almost guaranteed! πΊ
Please make your own redundant, offsite backups! It's easy to download or sync or clone your backup to a safe place. Please also make sure that you actually can restore from your backups! Please think of your MetalVPS account as ephemeral! It might blow up! We or you might reinstall the node! π€¦ββοΈ
MetalVPS.com is an indie project of @Not_Oles a/k/a Tom Miller with help from the MetalVPSians and many other friends. MetalVPS.com is not a project of lowendspirit.com, lowendtalk.com, or of Cloudie Networks, LLC. π¨βπ»β
Other MetalVPSians can see your account name, some of the processes you are running, and much other information. So, please do not put confidential information on the server. π€
How To Sign Up
- Please post in this thread. Only if necessary, please PM @Not_Oles or use the email on @Not_Oles profile.
Support
Please post in this thread. Only if necessary, PM or use the email on @Not_Oles profile.
Additional communication channels might be available via Signal App, Discord, Jitsi, etc.
What People Are Saying
- About MetalVPS
"MetalVPS used to be a high end provider, but it's becoming a sorority now."
"fun stuff indeed, appreciating the comfortable computing experience!"
"Nice trial and results! Very interesting "
Metalvps recommended on OGF π
"Wow pretty nice ! Congrats excellent options thanks for being a part of the community"
"the terms seemed exceptionally fair"
"Kernel Linux 5.11 is now in much better shape for AMD "
"Yes, please. Iβll take that."
"it's really quite dedicated. not all dedicated are the same."
"MetalVPS-AX101 has a reasonable price"
"really need a testing ground badly now especially with dedicated core"
"I've been using this one from him. Highly recommend! His support is really amazing!"
"Grab it while the hotel still has vacant rooms."
- About Not_Oles
"Really, you're the best person I've known on the internet."
"It was a pleasure for me to collaborate with Tom, he really knows what he's doing "
"Thanks again to @Not_Oles for valiant testing."
"you've brought a smile on my face countless times "
"Good luck with your new project! Happy to have you around here!"
"I always love how you come up with new ideas Good luck, mate!
"May you continue to learn and inspire others."
"he is the sweetest guy in LES .."
"resplendent as the Sonoran Sun"
"every time I visit les and see that profile picture, it brightens up my day."
"As for the new administrator, I nominate @Not_Oles."
"I would love to see @Not_Oles as a moderator or a bigger role."
"I would also support @Not_Oles as admin "
Thanks
Thanks again and best wishes! πΊπΈπ½π²π½ποΈ
Comments
@Not_Oles this is awesome....
I'd love to try one of them accounts and you know...
Play with and learn about servers, operating systems, and the internet π
Thanks
I would also love to try one of the accounts. Thank you
@Not_Oles Quite interesting, I'd like to give it a try.
@tarasis @localhost Could you guys each please post your ed25519 public key? Please check https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16158158/what-is-the-public-url-for-the-github-public-keys if you are concerned about posting your public key. But, if you prefer not to post your public key, it's okay to PM me. Thanks!
MetalVPS
DM'd
So does Darkstar fade in the dark
While Alpine starts to shine?
If true then my day turn sad,
Though one hopes it won't be so bad.
It's admin's call really, a decision not so tad,
For changing operating systems on servers is nobody's fad.
Metal, o! Metal, to see your Mettle,
Will the apk prevail, and to see txz derail?
composed by a Human. No AI or bots involved.
VPS reviews and benchmarks |
I want one.
Hi @Not_Oles ,
I would also love to try this.
Thank you.
https://microlxc.net/
Hi Guys!
So, in what I think was the default Alpine 3.17 edge install, I went to make an account for @tarasis. First I made a test account for myself.
Wow, I was quite surprised when I logged in to my new notoles account and found that su(1) worked for my new account despite my not having added myself to the wheel group!
It seems:
Alpine seems to have a package called bbsuid, and the linked info page says "Obsolete package that can be removed." Nevertheless,
So, as it stands, it looks like any new account can become root.
Might we have an Alpine freak who can explain to this Alpine noob the context of bbsuid? Maybe the "bb" means "busybox."
What should be done here? One hack might be to change the ownership of /bin/bbsid so that only wheel group members could run it. Or just delete /bin/bbsuid? What happens to /bin/bbsuid when/if sudo is installed?
Aha!
New accounts paused already until I figure this out myself or somebody hits me with the clue bat. Thanks! Friendly greetings!
MetalVPS
Hi! Could you please post or PM me your ed25519 ssh public key? Thanks!
MetalVPS
The thing about Darkstar is that, mysteriously, everything always seems to work. I remember awhile back when I was making several kinds of VMs on one of the AX line servers that I used to have. I just did Slackware as part of the test group. But then, everything worked out of the box on the test VM. So I put Slackware on Darkstar when I bought her. Since then everything seems to work including almost daily updates and compiling various kinds of stuff. So I do not expect to move Darkstar away from Slackware. Darkstar was not mentioned here because those accounts need to be advertised as LES Exclusive due to the pricing rules.
I imagined from the beginning that I might put NetBSD on the new Fremont server. But, as usual, I always want to try various options. Alpine seems especially fun because it seems really fast. From the way it runs in RAM, I think.
@vyas, you are Shakespeare reincarnate! Thank you for your poem!
MetalVPS
Maybe I got it. . . .
I also found https://lists.alpinelinux.org/~alpine/aports/<[email protected]> but I'm unsure of the current status.
Maybe I need to run something like
apk del busybox-suid
? Thanks!MetalVPS
@Not_Oles PM'd
I love Alpine,I have two machine with Alpine,It's small and powerful.
Just a little bit: it can't be switch to google bbr,I am confused.
MMmmkay . . .
On Darkstar
On fmt
So, how to remove a package that is part of alpine-base? No tips in https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Alpine_Package_Keeper#Remove_a_Package.
Friendly greetings!
MetalVPS
Maybe there is more information in the manpage!?
Oh! Cluelessβ’ Haha!
MetalVPS
I would like to have one please, when the new account pause is lifted.
Why?
I would also like to have one, when it resumes.
Thanks!
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I've never used Alpine Linux, so I'm speaking at a distance, but their "About" page says, "Alpine Linux is built around musl libc and busybox". (See https://alpinelinux.org/about/ .) Given this statement alone, I don't think that it would be a good idea to delete busybox or any part of it!
As a general analogy with BSD systems, one shouldn't mess with the base system
My perception of Alpine Linux -- again, at a distance -- has always been that it wouldn't be the best choice for a traditional multi-user system where everyone has a shell account (but perhaps I'm mistaken about this). In my view, Slackware would fit this purpose much better
"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
Not good, of course
In this respect, it's odd that the page https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Setting_up_a_new_user suggests that this doesn't (or shouldn't) happen
(Perhaps install
doas
and edit/etc/doas.d/doas.conf
to deny the newly created user root access? But one shouldn't need to do this ...)"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
sounds great , i would like to have a try
Are ed25519 elliptic-curve SSH keys a technical requirement here, or just a preference to encourage good practice?
Many people prefer to use smartcards for SSH access, which adds an extra physical dimension of security, but are often limited to RSA or, if supporting elliptic-curve, not ed25519.
This project reminds me of my first shell and first Linux learning machine. It was held by Nic-Nac-Project.de - now FreeShell.de - which offered free shells for postcards sent to the owner. I still have that account. These free shells are great ways to learn, test and spin stuff without the fear of breaking something as superuser.
This is a great project @Not_Oles and I hope many newbies will get onboard to learn Linux. Maybe (as a recommendation if I may) you could setup for users some remote desktop based on something light and modern (like LXQT) instead of SSH access. This way users may feel more comfortable nowadays when testing and learning BASH scripting. Back in the days of free shells the problem was computing power and bandwidth, which nowadays might not be the case (just an idea).
Stacksocial link (aff) containing a gift of $10 after your first purchase.
I enjoyed the section of the OP dedicated to complementary comments, including helpful links so they can be verified.
@Not_Oles is it OK really, as
su
isn'tsudo
..? Just need strong root password.Hi Guys!
Thanks for your comments above! More on them soon. . . .
Meanwhile, here are this morning's updates:
MetalVPS
Where is bbsuid used in Alpine Linux 3.17 edge default install?
This seems too many lines to post here on LES, but, if we look inside /bin, we see that almost all the /bin tools are symlinks to busybox. A few, however, maybe because they need SUID, are symlinked to bbsuid.
Inside /bin
grep for bbsuid
From lists.alpinelinux.org
So, grep for bbsuid inside /usr/bin
MetalVPS
Hmm. might there be a way out which involves vlock?
MetalVPS
Hi @brick2008!
I looked at https://github.com/google/bbr, the README.md says
Can you please add some more details about why Alpine can't be swtched to BBR?
Friendly greetings!
MetalVPS
@jmaxwell @sh97 @gomi Can you guys please post or PM your keys? Thanks!
MetalVPS