I just wanted to noodle this through with some people who know a lot more about this stuff than I do....

Firewall product in question is Firestarter..

When the firewall is installed it automatically assumes root should be the only one messing with it - which is a good thing. If you startx as root the firewall works fine (only after you figure out how to launch it because it doesn't add anything to the desktop as it says it will.)

However users of KDE and GNOME are warned not to run X as root. So in order to launch, configure and monitor the firewall via GUI, one must set themselves up with a regular user account and only su back to root when needed... Seems to make sense. Only problem is, when you log on as a regular user, you have no access to the firewall or any of it's features. Fs-Security provides instructions on how to set up visudo so you can launch the firewall as a reqular user that has been given sudo rights.

So I made those modifications and when I went to launch the firewall, I was met with the above title of this post:
Fatal error: Your kernel does not support iptables. Firewall not started.

The GUI for firestarter comes up and can be configured, but the firewall wont start and the system says there isn't support for iptables - as all users of the stock Slackware 10.2 install know - this isn't true.

So somewhere in this box is a problem. The permissions are incorrect, or something cant shake hands with something else... Who knows?

Ultimately I'd like to know if anyone has any clue on how to approach this. I've been able to wiggle around and make some modifications here and there but I am not sure what the best way to start is?

The only thing I can assume for now is that some sort of link will have to be made in an rc.firewall file telling Firestarter to launch at boot which will mean the firewall will be up and running by the time you log into X and try to launch Firestarter by entering sudo firestarter in a terminal window.

Any ideas?

Not sure if this applies to the slack install, but on my Debian Firestarter there's an option in preferences to "Start/restart firewall on DHCP lease renewal", so my firewall starts anytime I get a network address. Firestarter isn't running, but the rules are loaded into iptables. I only open the gui when I want to change my policy...

It's funny how someone will be at the peak of their frustration with something.. Post a message crying about it, then find the solution 2 minutes later..
I found the answer in this post:




Sorry for the false alarm.. This fixed everything..
What I did was "make uninstall" in the firestarter-1.0.3 directory that had been created during the first install. Then I removed the directories which had been created and followed the instructions for installing the new switch.. It worked great. Was up and running in two minutes and blocked 5 brutes nailing my system when the wall came up. You cant ask for anything better than that..

Once again, thank you so much for this board.