[Solved] eBlockerOS VM-Edition feedback

We just published the „how to install the VM-Edition“ in our blog 👍🚀

Please share your experiences 💬 

Works good so far. Easy to install on Virtual Box. Was a bit of hassle for me, because I use VMware.
So my path was (for VMware Users) intall Virtual Box temporarely.

• Install Eblocker as shown in the docu.
• Don't start the machine, but chose "Export Virtual Appliance"  and export it using "Open Virtualization Format 1.0".
• Open it in VMWare Player or Workstation - first import shows an error, but choose "retry" to import it anyway. (VMWare is much more strictly than Virtual Box with machine settings).
• If you want it on ESX -> VMware Converter is the fastest way.

Only problem for me is now, when I import the backup from my old Eblocker there is still much work left to set it up correctly again.

Hello, everyone. I just installed the virtual machine on a Synology DS2118+ NAS. I imported the OVA file directly, which didn't cause any problems.

Then the VM started with no problem. Logged in and configured like browser. Runs great and very fast.

If this runs reliably, that would be a very good solution.

I recommend that the eBblocker team urgently contact Synolgy. Maybe you can get official support/cooperation there. The Synolgy NAS is available for small home/team to large companies removed link

Greetings from Central Switzerland., Rene von Euw

I can't set an admin password in the virtual Edition (tested several Browsers). It says Password accepted but then when I refresh the page or something it's deactived again.

And I can't set up a certificate.... same error.

@paddyk Are you using the official VirtualBox image - or the VMware image you've build yourself?

Regarding the certificate, can you please share a screenshot or be more verbose of what you are doing. I'm not clear where you are at as "set up certificate" can mean many things (cert generation, cert download, cert install in browser, cert acceptance when using SSL, ...).

THX!

@random I'm using it on ESX...

Generating the certificate wo

rks well, but it is not saved

@paddyk Thanks for the feedback. We are officially supporting VirtualBox only.

Sorry, unfortunately I can not help with ESX (or other VM conversions).

THX!

@random OK never had a problem with a converted machine, but sometimes it's always the first time 😉
I'll dig out an raspy from one of my other project and use that one. VirtualBox is unusable for me, there has to be a PC running. 

@paddyk @all

I've prepared (unofficial) private for myself the following clean images for the following hypervisors

1) VMWare & ESXi:  https://eblocker.org/unofficial-downloads/eBlockerVM.7z

2) Microsoft HyperV:  https://eblocker.org/unofficial-downloads/eBlockerVM-HyperV.7z

3) QNAP Virtualization Station:  https://eblocker.org/unofficial-downloads/eBlockerVM-qnap.7z

After downloading you have to unzip the files and import it to your favorite hypervisor.

VMware is working without any issues, I am testing it again in a few minutes against my ESXi 6.7U3 machine... -> it works with the same image without any issues for me!

4.) for Synology Virtual Machine Manager, you can use the ova, which was provided by the eBlocker Team. Only importing, checking config (2 cpu, 4GB Ram, network ...)

If you find any issues, please post them here and I try to help 

Thanx and regards
Sven 

@calimero Hi Sven, thank you. 

I‘ll try it out. I think my problem is related to the import of my backup config, not to the migration to VMWare. But with this great service from you, I‘ll try it soon. (My Raspi doesn‘t start up after the update anyway).

Paddy

@paddyk If you want, get in contact with me via

calimero@existiert.net

Regards

Sven 🙂

@calimero Thank you I‘ll do. Saves me a lot of time, instead of building it myself from the sources.(When I would have find the time)

@paddyk Same with me. Password for Admin login wont activate. Might be a issue with VM version of the software.

@chrve I have also installed my eBlocker VM on a Synology DS1520+ with DSM 7.1. As far as I have tested it, everything works as desired and I could also activate the certificate. However, I cannot set up an admin password. I get the message "successfully saved" but the setting is not active. Were you able to set up your password?

@ploher 

Here Work the Passwort Change fine...

@chrve @calimero @ploher @paddyk

Thanks very much for your feedback!

To sum up (from my perspective): 

• The originally provided .ova runs without problems in VirtualBox and Synology (@chrve which Synology version & hardware are you using?)
• @Calimero‘s images run without problems in the VMs he stated above

@all who are not using @calimeo‘s images or a different VM environment, please try @Calimero‘s images (see above) first and if it doses not run well, please state exactly the VM, version, hardware platform etc.

Please @all understand that @calimero is supporting his images only and we (with the core team) are supporting the VirtualBox .ova only.

Any other „home brew“ VM images are unfortunately not within our scope of our support… - but we are eager to learn about issues and solutions…👍

@chrve I got it to work, too. The system needed an additional reboot, since then everything works flawlessly.

Update: my own VMWare-Edition works great. My problem was (I think) I did the administration from a different VLAN and that caused the problems in the web gui. 

When I use the admin website from the network side the Eblocker is, everthing works.

Hi,

I'm new at eBlocker and test it since last weekend on a Synology DS920+ with 20GB RAM Hack and DSM 7.0.1-42218 Update 3.

In the Virtual Maschine Manager it's absolutely easy to import the ova and so far the VM runs absolutely without problems. The VM runs with 4 CPU Cores, 4 GB RAM and 5.9 GB from 10 GB Disk.

Best Regards, Thomas 

Proxmox users might find this helpful (partial in German):  https://eblocker.org/wp-content/uploads/wpforo/attachments/1044/722-Anleitung.pdf

https://eblocker.org/unofficial-downloads/eBlocker-VM-disk001.vmdk

Found this uploaded by @anonymous 🤔. No warranty. No support. 😉 

THX!

I've eBlocker VM running on Windows Server 2019 since two days without issues.

Took me a little to understand how to configure autostart virtual box VM as service but finally succeeded.

Concerning the remark on eBlocker vm page
"We explicitly do not recommend the VM-Edition for continuous operation on larger computers or servers, since they consume a unreasonable amount of energy. For sustainability reasons, eBlockerOS should rather be run on a Raspberry Pi for long-term continuous use."

I have to say that I do not fully agree....

It is a valid statement if eBlocker is your only system or at least one of not too many.
I used to have raspberries or similar systems for home-automation, eBlocker and some other services  and a QNAP NAS with TV Backend.

Some time ago I migrated to a Fujitsi server which runs all services and on top Blue Iris and now also eBlocker.

Even with all systems running and watching two TV channelsover server backend my UPS says server consums about 20-25 W.
eBlocker Stand alone on a RPi 4B consumes about 4 W.

I agree that RPi solution are in general more efficient but at some point it makes sense if one good server hardware may make more sense.

Thanks a lot for having a chance to migrate EeBlocker now also to that!!!!
I'll do a test phase and if everything is stable for a while I will do an extra donation additionally to my fixed periodical ones.

Best regards

Detlef

Posted by: @purchasedetlef-kunz-de

Even with all systems running and watching two TV channelsover server backend my UPS says server consums about 20-25 W.
eBlocker Stand alone on a RPi 4B consumes about 4 W.

I don‘t want to argue, but that is 6 times more power consumption! This only makes sense if the server is running permanently anyhow and eBlocker is „just another application“ on top. 

I take the „unless you run a server permanently anyhow“ addition as a suggestion to be added to our recommendation. Thanks a lot for this remark and your valuable feedback. 👍

@purchasedetlef-kunz-de 

We‘ve now added „eBlockerOS on a server only makes sense if you operate a permanently running server in your home network anyway.“ to the warning note - and I hope everyone is happy now 👍 Thanks again. 

@benne I was also very happy with everything before, just wanted to share my experience that in some cases "bigger" can be more efficient. I fully agree with :

I don‘t want to argue, but that is 6 times more power consumption! This only makes sense if the server is running permanently anyhow and eBlocker is „just another application“ on top. 😀 

I tryed to download the VM-Version but I get only code in my browser. What is the problem?

Thank you!

Posted by: @matten

but I get only code in my browser

Which browser are you using? (Probably it‘s misconfigured to display .ova files instead of saving them)

Which download link are you using?

I’d try a different browser… (and/or make sure there is no crazy MIME binding to .ova files taking place).

THX!

I use Chrome and I tryed Edge, the same thing.

@matten Right mouse click on the download link and „save as file“ will work too.

Again: Your windows file association is set wrong (probably for .ova) - or I‘m not sure which download link you‘ve used (see my question above).

THX!

Thank you, now I use an download manager. The download ist going on.

@matten @random

Thanks for your feedback. We’ve adjusted the webserver so the correct MIME type is always send now. This should hopefully avoid issues even on clients where the MIME types have be (accidentally) wrongly configured.

Hope this helps 👍

@benne Thank you for your fast reaktion! Have a nice day.

Posted by: @random

Proxmox users might find this helpful (partial in German):  https://eblocker.org/wp-content/uploads/wpforo/attachments/1044/722-Anleitung.pdf

https://eblocker.org/unofficial-downloads/eBlocker-VM-disk001.vmdk

Found this uploaded by @anonymous 🤔. No warranty. No support. 😉 

THX!

The tutorial was created by me, so I'm happy to provide support.

I was able to get it to work on UNRAID

1. Download the .ova
2. open the build in Terminal in Unraid 
   1. cd to location of downloaded file (cd /mnt/user/folder containing .ova)
   2. tar -xvf
   3. qemu-img convert xxxxx.vmdk xxxxxx.qcow2 -O qcow2 (use " to surround names with whitespace)
3. Use linux as preset
4.  make sure to use SeaBIOS
5. set the primary vDisk location to manual and point it to the qcow2 file created in 3.
6. Set network bridge to br0 (if not present, stop array, activate in Network settings and restart array)
7. DONE

@all @random @bpr 

Short feedback running the eBlocker VM in a Synology via Virtual Machine Manager

I can reproduce the issue that function eblocker mobile is not working, if you set it up, everything is working fine until the tests. Ports can be set automatically, hostname resolves properly, but when testing  connection it fails before finishing the wizard.

In the logs I found lots of errors with the certificate thing

One of it telling: Jun 28 17:03:01 eblocker (squid-1): FATAL: The ssl_crt_validator helpers are crashing too rapidly, need help!#012

I will dive a little deeper in it, as I think, there is something missing in the ova image for the synology to function properly.

If you have any other idea, for what I can look, your feedback is very welcome 🙂

 best regards

@calimero 

@bpr is on vacation and neither @random nor I am VM experts, unfortunately.

@allofmybrain

Are you also having issues with eBlocker Mobile running on your eBlocker VM-Edition Synology install? See @calimeros post above. 

It would be helpful if each of you could share the diagnosis report of the VM after trying eBlocker Mobile. mailto support at eblocker dot org.

Thanks a lot 🙏

As far as I can see is the certificate thing / key generation not working when I understand this right. I'll send all the diags I have right now.

Edit: Logfiles sent

Update:

Tested the fresh downloaded ova in Windows Virtual Box.

Same issue appears! eblocker mobile doesn't work for me, logfiles will be uploaded in a minute.

Router: eBlocker enabled to open ports automatically

eBlocker: eBlocker mobile -> edit settings -> continue -> continue -> enter dyndns name and continue -> continue -> map ports now and apply settings -> Test Hostname -> OK but Test connection FAILED.

You can start the server even if the test fails, but the ports are still not opened because of the certificate/keystore issue.

@calimero 

There are no SSH keys on the VM image (otherwise every clone would have the same keys).

You can generate new SSH keys with:

dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server

(But this is not related to any problems with eBlocker Mobile, because it does not use SSH.)

@calimero 

I tested eBlocker Mobile on an original eBlocker VM image and it worked.

Could you please try again to set it up and manually configure the port forwarding on the router?

Letting eBlocker set up the forwarding often does not work, unfortunately. Maybe we should remove this option.

@Boris  Thank you for your reply.

I tested a new and clean download install of your ova under Windows & Virtual Box and still have this issue. 

How is this (generate ssh keys) done after a device reset? 

The Port forwarding is working fine, either in manual or automatic mode, that is inot the problem. The problem is, that the openssh service is not starting up properly and therefor this thing is not working... I've sent you a lot of logfiles, but I will again build it up from the scratch and test it step by step and document what is working and what not.

For now what I have seen, is that your openvm tools are not the same as mine. I will provide more and deeper details for what else I've found.

Thanks again and sunny greetings

Sven

@bpr

@calimero 

To enable SSH permanently this should work:

dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server && systemctl enable ssh && systemctl start ssh

But again: eBlocker Mobile has absolutely nothing to do with SSH. Eblocker Mobile is based on OpenVPN (not OpenSSH) and uses different key files.

@bpr Sorry Boris, posted the wrong image with the ssh issue. 

The main issue is with the eblocker mobile, which is not working. I will download the image again and post the steps and the error.

Regards Sven

@calimero Sorry, I’ve lost track regarding your eBlocker Mobile feedback. My VM (on Virtual Box) runs great including eBlocker Mobile. Is this error still prevalent/reproducible or was it false alarm?

THX!

@random Actually I am on vacation and not able to test.

Beginning August I will be back and test everything again and provide feedback.

Sunny greetings Sven

Hallo,

meine Anfrage liegt bei.

mfg

@pnman your problem is within your Bios settings.  You have to enable all virtualization features to use Virtualization 🙂

So go to your bios and check rhe settings there. When they are all enabled, the vm will work.

https://support.bluestacks.com/hc/de/articles/115003910391-Wie-kann-ich-Virtualisierung-VT-auf-meinem-PC-aktivieren-

Regards 

@calimero 

thanks for your help. It works!

Best regards

I do apologize if I'm posting in the wrong Topic--

Hello eBlocker forum,

I’m really new here just a novice when it comes to this sort of technology. I owned several security/privacy products before my last one was Winston device suppose to do the same-thing for security than they close up shop and no more updates a waste of money again, tired of being taken. $$$. I’m tired of these promises these companies make then they don’t stick to it so I thought I would try eBlocker for once. So here goes, I recently downloaded eblocker VM OS 2.9.1-amd64 on my desktop computer running Windows 10 Pro.

Device Specifications: Lenovo-P520c-Desktop-Intel(R) Xeon(R) W-2133 CPU @ 3.60GHz 3.60 GHz-8.00 GB (7.59 GB usable)-64-bit operating system, x64-based processor. Internet speed 100mbps-Cable Modem

I finally got it up and running with no issues so far but when it comes to connection to devices and so on I have problems. I’m really not understanding all the details in setup for beginners that well there is a lot there to understand need more explanation. I Installed eBlocker HTTPS certificate for Firefox and Brave and Thunderbird.

First: It’s blocking my “Lastpass” manager in browser not sure how to configure it.

Second: Sometimes it does not want to connect to web-pages very slow in doing.

Third: I keep getting a network-error on my FireTV stick does not want to connect when the eBlocker is active.

Forth: Android Smartphone wants to slow down apps will not update searching for network I guess.

Fifth: The dashboard in eBlocker what is showing under the “Function Test” the several causes of explanations of many issues either not connecting or responding.

Sixth: When I close-out eblocker I get several selections to 1. Save Machine, 2. Send Shut-down signal, 3. Power off machine not sure which one to select or their meaning.

I’ve been searching through many of the help articles and Readme first article but some seem confusing to me maybe this isn’t the product for me or not. Anyways thanks so much.

desertsandstorm

@sandstorm9091 Thanks for your questions. As they are mostly not VM edition related I would suggest to add a new thread. To see more clearly please share (as good as you can) all the info asked in the README. 

Here are some brief answers (based on guessing as more info is needed):

First of all make sure all checkmarks in Dashboard Function Test show green. And please stick to one client device only to keep the focus for trouble shooting. If Function Test does not show all green - this needs to be fixed first. Have you also checked the eBlocker Doctor‘s suggestions (in the Settings)?

To your questions:

1. As you have enabled eBlocker HTTPS, you might need to add a Trusted App for Lastpass. This can easily be done via manual recording.
2. I‘m not clear which client is connecting where. Please be more specific/verbose. 
3. Make sure eBlocker HTTPS is disabled for firestick (as you can‘t install the certificate). For the very first initial setup of a brand new firestick, eBlocker needs to be disabled. After registration at amazon it can be re-enabled i.e. to anonymize the IP of the firestick. Works great for me but it only makes sense if kodi on firestick is used (otherwise you login into amazon and your anonymity is gone). 
4. Please describe the use case more verbosely. I have no idea where you are at.
5. Please share screenshot of Function Test. (see above, this needs to be solved fist). And yes: the Function Test is client specific and needs to be run on each client.
6. eBlockerOS is designed to run continuously - also running in a VM. To shutdown the VM I would choose „save machine“, so it returns to the very same state it was in before shutdown.

Generally: I would recommend to not enabled eBlocker HTTPS initially and rather make myself comfortable with the eBlocker UI and anonymization features first. Then after a while enable HTTPS for just one client. Make sure this client works well first (setting Trusted Apps etc) and move on to the next client.

BTW: Most users following the Setup Instructions closely were very happy afterwards… It pays off but it needs some learning curve (unless you are a tech geek) and time to configure everything for your individual setup. As a result you‘ll get the best privacy solution available - for free.

THX!

Thank you for the feed-back I will take this all into consideration and try my best to apply it however I'm not that tech savvy regarding this software but I will try; I did create a new topic in a forum with the something I also attempt to try Manual Recording Configure manual HTTPS diagnostics but did not see a Lastpass word manager there so I passed it up for now. I had no ide what to do. I did post the same thing and ask question and some screen-shots. thank again..

As this thread is getting quite long I've added all here mentioned community images for other VMs to the original VM blogpost (also in German). This way they are easier to find 😉
Thanks again everyone for sharing!

From my perspective the VM-Edition works flawlessly on all VMs.

@Calimero You had mentioned an issue with eBlocker Mobile above. Was this "false alarm" or is the issue persistent/reproducible?

THX!

I'll check this tomorrow and provide feedback.

Regards

@random you can take that as 'false alarm' Whatever went wrong with my tests is now working.

Thx

Good Morning from the USA-Hope all you slept well. However, I run into an issue with eblocker-I reset eblocker on Windows 10-but now not sure on how to reactivate it again . The Oracle VM Virtual Box Manager is still active and running but I'm not sure on how to get the eblocker back-up and running, though. Where to start and reenter the license key again. Can't connect to eblocker website or the settings in the webpage . Very limited info on website regarding reinstalling or resetting eblocker and setting up again or starting over.

@sandstorm9091 Sorry, I‘m not really sure where you are at 🤔 - but I try my best by guessing…

eBlocker’s license activation is only necessary once - no need to look for it. If you’ve shutdown and saved the VM‘s state and now started the saved state again: everything is exactly as previously. eBlocker can be reached by the same IP, via eBlocker.box or via our Apple iOS/macOS app. In case you don‘t remember the configured IP check out the documentation how to find eBlocker‘s IP.

If you want to start all over with a VM installation, just download the .ova file anew and follow the instructions again. Alternatively you can also do a Factory Reset (I just searched „reset“ in the documentation btw.)

As said above eBlocker is designed to run continuously - this is also the case if run in a VM. I would personally not recommend to shutdown the VM/eBlocker. 

Hope this helps.

THX!

@sandstorm9091 

In case VirtualBox is started, you maybe still need to start/resume eBlocker‘s VM again. This is always additional to starting VirtualBox - if you terminated the VM as you‘ve said above. See „Start eBlocker Virtual Machine“ here https://eblocker.org/en/magazine/eblockeros-for-virtual-machine/

Once the VM is started you can probably get access to eBlockerOS. See @random‘s post above.

Good luck 🍀

@random Ths..

@benne thks

@all

I’m closing this thread now as it got quite long and the result is clear:

eBlockerOS runs great and without any issues on various VMs.

In case you run into issues with a VM - it’s probably not related to the VM but a different issue - then please open a new thread.

BTW: Yesterday, @benne tested and documented the eBlockerOS installation on Synology DSM 7. THX for this, mate 👍

As of today eBlockerOS VM-Edition runs on VirtualBox, Synology, Qnap, HyperV, ESXi, Proxmox and Unraid. All the VM images as well as instructions can be found here https://eblocker.org/en/magazine/eblockeros-for-virtual-machine/

THX!