I have installed firestarter via urpmi - no probs
I noticed after I first installed it that I got this message -

"You have to decide whether to let iptables startup script
or firestarter to control your firewall, using chkconfig."

I ran chkconfig but I don't have a clue what to do with it to get firestarter to start!

when I try to start firestarter from the menu system I get the error message -

"A proper configuration for Firestarter was not found. If you are running Firestarter from the directory you built it in, run 'make install-data-local' to install a configuration, or simply 'make install' to install the whole program."

If I try to start it under root from a terminal I get this message -

"/usr/sbin/firestarter
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified
(firestarter:10425): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:"

I am running Mandriva 10.1 and I am very new to Linux. Any help with this would be much appreciated.

I think mandrake uses shoerewall to manage iptables(the firewall)
http://www.shorewall.net/
If you want to use firestarter you may need to stop shorewall + stop it from starting at boot. I would use shorewall.

You might find the services thing in Mandrake COntrol Centre->System easier to use to enable/disable services. Disable and stop the shorewall service, and try firestarter. If it doesn't work (as in the rules don't seem to have been applied) try also stopping/disabling the iptables service.

That looks like you're trying to start it when X windows (the GUI) isn't running. Login to the GUI as you normally would then open a terminal from there (use the 'su' command to become root) and run firestarter. Alternatively if you just want to run something as root without needing to open a terminal go menu->Run Command and click 'Options' and select 'Run as a different user'.

Thanks for the replies

re: shorewall, I don't see anything in "services" that I can stop that's called shorewall. Nothing is found when I run a "find / -name "shorewall" -print" as root either. Iptables is already stopped in the "Services" tool and it says firestarter is running. I still get the same error message -

"A proper configuration for Firestarter was not found. If you are running Firestarter from the directory you built it in, run 'make install-data-local' to install a configuration, or simply 'make install' to install the whole program."

I get this regardless of whether I open it via the menus or as suggested "su"ing then running it, or even using the Run Command and 'Options' and select 'Run as a different user'.

It has got me totally stumped

Have you tried uninstalling then reinstall firestarter?
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedo.../msg04996.html

This might be a little late but...

You have to run firestarter as root. The error message you're getting when you try to start it as root is due to the fact that root doesn't have access to connect to the X server.

Type "xhost +localhost" as your user account and then su root and it should work.

Not sure yet what security implications this has (if any) but it shouldn't be a big deal. Each time you reboot your machine it'll revert and you'll have to type it again.

man xhost will give more info on this command as will google.