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firejail in Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS
Rosika
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March 23, 2016 - 9:36 am
Member Since: November 27, 2014
Forum Posts: 68
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Hello everybody,

I´m using Ubuntu 14.04.4.LTS as a VM (host: Windows 8.1 64bit).
The following concerns Ubuntu:

In order to be able to run my browser sandboxed I installed firejail and in addition to that firetools as a GUI.
The installation process went well and it seems to be running fine.

Yet there´s something bothering me. At least I cannot explain how it works.

When opening the text-editor "gedit" sandboxed and make some changes to the text those changes are saved.

That is when opening the respective text non-sandboxed all the changes are there.

I would have thought that any modifications applied to the text within the sandbox are just there as long as gedit is opened within the sandbox and that they are gone when closing the sandbox.

Am I missing here something or didin´t I get the real functionality of firejail?

Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance.
Rosika

dandl
Lexa, AR
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March 23, 2016 - 7:06 pm
Member Since: April 29, 2013
Forum Posts: 740
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Hi Rosika
You got me on this one, I for one have never even heard of or ever ran "firejail" or "firetools. I did google it and sure enough they are a sandbox type of application. As for as gedit is concerned I am not sure as to how it would open and save in the sandbox window.
No suggestions, but am a little curious as to why you would need a sandbox application running on a Linux VM? Have a good day. Daniel.

Rosika
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March 24, 2016 - 10:57 am
Member Since: November 27, 2014
Forum Posts: 68
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Hi Daniel,

so nice to hear from you again. I hope you´re fine and everything is o.k.

As for my problem - I did a little research myself and found out the following:

Programmes running within the sandbox can access almost every directory only as far as reading is concerned and thus cannot manipulate important data.
Only the following directories can be accessed in writing mode:

/home, /tmp and /var.

There´s a pretty good description of how firejail works on

http://www.linux-community.de/Internal/Artikel/Print-Artikel/LinuxUser/2015/04/Heisse-Zelle/%28language%29/ger-DE .
(Yet the article is in German).

I didn´t know the facts when I asked for help with my "problem", otherwise I wouldn´t have have dared to bother anybody. Sorry for that.
But now everything seems clear.

As for your second question:

I like to get acquainted with Ubuntu as thoroughly as possible because I´d like to use it as a (secondary) productive system, possibly by utilizing dual-boot (WIN8.1/Ubuntu).
I mean as far as WIN10 is concerned - that´s not really an option for me.
We already discussed that earlier and I´m very grateful for the insights I gained. Thanks again for that.

Have a great Easter season and best wishes.

Rosika

dandl
Lexa, AR
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March 24, 2016 - 12:48 pm
Member Since: April 29, 2013
Forum Posts: 740
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Hi Rosika
I have to admire the logical approach you have taken with your PC setup. Do feel free to ask questions when you get to Linux and W8.1 dual boot. The Ubuntu VM is just the place to learn and to try different applications.
You too have a Great Easter and will praying that the violence in France and Belgium doesn't spread over into Germany. Always a pleasure. Daniel.

Rosika
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March 24, 2016 - 1:23 pm
Member Since: November 27, 2014
Forum Posts: 68
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Hi Daniel,

thank you so much for your renewed feedback. That´s really kind of you.

It´s so nice exchanging opinions with you and by doing so learning more of the respective subjects.
Plus it´s not always easy to find someone who knows a lot about Linux and is willing to share his wisdom.

Thanks also for your good wishes and again have nice holidays.

Many greetings
Rosika

Jim Canfield
Mesquite, NV
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April 10, 2016 - 3:55 am
Member Since: April 18, 2015
Forum Posts: 8
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Hi Rosika, my name is Jim C. I am a little late to the thread but wanted to share something that might be of interest to you. I was not sure why you could not move to Windows 10 but FYI, The next major release of Windows 10 will have the ability to run Ubuntu within the actual Windows environment. Yes you heard that correctly, not in a VM but in Windows. That is pretty exciting but if you happen to code, you will be able to write in C++ in Visual Basic and compile it but may also send the same code to Ubuntu in Ruby and it will compile it in Linux.

In any case, hope you have the sandbox feature in control.

Running a sandbox feature is a very good idea in my opinion. Linux is engineered in a way that makes it harder for viruses and malware to infect the OS but it does happen and more often than Linux users want to admit about 10% of all Linux OS machines have been infected and more than 20% have been hacked. Nothing like Windows but in reality malicious code can infect any computer through email attachments, applications like Firefox, Rootkits and even malicious URL's (Phishing sites.)
I don't even know of a business environment running Linux where some form of protection is not required by employees.

In any case keep safe.

Jim C.

Rosika
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April 10, 2016 - 8:24 am
Member Since: November 27, 2014
Forum Posts: 68
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Hi Jim,

thank you so much for your comments. That´s really very nice of you.

I was not sure why you could not move to Windows 10

The whole question of moving to WIN10 is a bit tricky in my case.
There are several things that don´t really work out for me.

Amongst them the fact that my internet connection is established via a web-stick.
I´ve got a 5 GB-flatrate (per month); after that my speed will be throttled considerably.
Add this to the fact of forced updates (patches) with WIN10 plus the fact that the OS
transmits up to 60 MB per day to microsoft (data-collection ...) there is not much for me to get out of my web-stick.
Web-stick-based internet plus WIN10 = a real no-go.

Plus with my laptop there´s the added problem of the lack of graphic-card-drivers. None available for me.
In fact I tried it last year only to be forced to go back to my WIN7-system.

These are just a few of my special problems with WIN10.
So I decided that Ubuntu/Linux would be more to my taste. I hope it works out.

Windows 10 will have the ability to run Ubuntu within the actual Windows environment.

Well, I didn´t know that. But it sounds really interesting. Who would have thought ....?

In any case running programmes within a sandbox is a really good idea even with Ubuntu. I couldn´t agree more.

Thanks again for your post and have a nice weekend.
Rosika

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