I deleted IPtables smacks head smacks head

**dhughes** · 11-11-2005

Yes I'm dumb.

I use Debian Sarge.

I installed the Guarddog firewall because I thought I'd try it. I didn't do anything after I installed it and when I rebooted the next day I had no Internet access, I forgot about Guarddog.

This went on for a day or two before I remembered, then I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep it since I wanted to apt-get something else...so I deleted Guarddog, Internet access again!

Next day, after booting into Linux (I dual boot) no Internet access, in fact all I got was a grey screen after logging into my account. So back to Windows to investigate (don't delete IP tables) , back to Linux and if I wait a really long time my desktop will appear. After clicking Home will take a really long time for the window to appear, same for the K menu, or Terminal. When I saw long I mean five minutes for anything clicked!

I downloaded a new Iptables 1.3.4 (or close to that) tarball, but everything takes so long now I'm having trouble figuring out what I'm doing. My plan was to look for a backup file or reinstall it but I didn't have any experience with IPtables before all this.

From what I rememer I deleted /usr/iptables/* I'm quite sure it was in /usr and it was a directory because I remembered my new skill on how to delete directories you use -R :P (a little knowledge is a dangerous thing).

Needless to say I'm not sure what I'm doing. Any advice?

I'm laughing at myself over this, I should have known better.

**eerok** · 11-11-2005

Hmm, well, try this

Code:

# dpkg -r iptables

and if that works:

Code:

# apt-get install iptables

I guess now you know that the best way to manage packages is with ... the package manager?

**dhughes** · 11-11-2005

Thanks, this:

Code:

# dpkg -r iptables

At least made my system work normally, no more five minute wait for the K menu, or other applications and windows to open!

Code:

# apt-get install iptables

Failed. I got some errors but since I have no access to e-mail it to myself or write to my Windwos disk partition (NTFS) I can't paste it here.

More experimenting. Thanks again eerok.

**borromini** · 11-11-2005

I think your system still thinks iptables is installed. Try uninstalling and reinstalling it.

**dhughes** · 11-12-2005

What does the -r switch do after dpkg? I thought it was to remove a package. I always use apt-get to install stuff, but obviously not to remove things :P

Anyway as it stands now it didn't work. The commands I tried worked once but after I rebooted it was back to five minutes to open the K menu, windows, etc.

Even when my system was back to its zippy self Firefox, Thunderbird or apt couldn't access the Internet. I'm guessing iptables was not set up to allow them access or was corrupted. I read the man page for iptables...I'm not sure what it all means...wow.

I'll try apt-get remove iptables (I think that's the correct phrase?).

Oh after dpkg -r iptables I did try apt-get install iptables but the message I got was the newest version was already installed.

**antidrugue** · 11-12-2005

Code:

apt-get remove iptables

is good, but if you want to remove the configuration files... would be

Code:

apt-get remove --purge iptables

**eerok** · 11-12-2005

The "dpkg -r" would remove a package in ordinary circumstances ... but we're not lucky enough to have those.

It might be faster to reinstall your system than to fix this because there's no guarantee that iptables is your only problem.

**antidrugue** · 11-12-2005

Yep, I would do as "eerok" recommand.

Maybe that's a little extreme, but maybe that's the simplest solution right now.

I'm sure your system can be fixed, but it sounds that more than one thing need to be repared.

Anyway, good luck.

**dhughes** · 11-12-2005

It's fixed, but I'm not sure how. I tried various things.

I tried

Code:

apt-get remove iptables

and then

Code:

apt-get install iptables

That didn't work, so I removed iptables again using apt-get and left it uninstalled, then I went into my BIOS and disabled the integrated ethernet card on my motherboard. Booted in and removed eth0 using the Networking application. I figured it was good to do that since maybe eth0 would be autodetected at boot, when I reenabled it, and when I ran the Networking utility again and set it up I may get lucky. I didn't.

Then I remembered Guarddog was still installed, I'm not sure at what point I reinstalled it but there it was. So I started it, went to Protocol>Zone Properties and checked off DNS, HTTP, POP3 and SMTP. Now it works.

I don't know if it was just Guarddog not set up correctly all along, I doubt since I know I deleted that iptables directory and I know my system slowed down to a crawl after that. It was a mix of both.

Everything is good now I'm writing this using Linux.

Time to read up on iptables, know your enemy!

Much thanks for the help guys, you pointed me in the right direction and got the ball rolling.

**borromini** · 11-12-2005

I for one - I'm a CLI fan to some extent - think it's better to stick to iptables and not use any frontends. Take your time, read the documentation, experiment, yell for help on this forum, in the end you'll be fine, and have a lot more knowledge about the internals of your system

.

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