F11 iptables can't disable

[Marko Vojinovic]

On Monday 14 December 2009 06:40:28 KC8LDO wrote:
> I've been trying to track down a problem where I can't browse the local
> network using samba. As one experiment I disabled iptables, or so I thought
> I did, using the services GUI. I can disable the ip6tables firewall it
>  seems OK, but not the iptables firewall. The GUI shows the service
>  disabled but still running, red dot and the plug icon in.

"Disabled" (the red dot) means that the service will not be started on next 
boot. "Running" (the plug) means that the service is currently active.

Those are two separate concepts, you should never confuse them.

>  Something
>  is screwed up with how some of the services work on F11 where they don't
>  stop, start etc. the way they should and ask for a root password, through
>  a pop-up dialog box, to allow making changes.

The password is asked on your first attempt to change something, and 
authorization lasts until some reasonable timeout (couple of minutes or so, I 
don't know exactly). This is if you use GUI. If you use the "service" command 
in the terminal, there is no pop-up window, you should be logged in as root 
instead.

Are you not being asked for the root password?
 
> How do you tell iptables to quit, pass all packets through,

service iptables stop

> and stay that
> way even after rebooting?

chkconfig iptables off

Be warned though, that not running a firewall is a Very Bad Idea if the 
machine is connected to the Internet. If you have trouble with samba, I 
suggest configuring the firewall appropriately, rather than disabling it 
completely.

> That's a major issue for me. I would suspect that
> some system script file(s) are not done right or missing etc.

No, everything is working as expected. The "service" command does what it is 
intended to do --- start or stop the service. This has of course nothing to do 
with configuring what will happen at next boot.

The "chkconfig" command configures what services will or will not be started 
at boot.

> I keep getting some mysterious authorization failure message box that pops
> up with no description of where, why and from what caused it. So far I
> haven't had any luck finding what it is and stopping whatever the
> application or service that's causing it.

Could it be that these are the root password requests that you were asked for 
while playing with the services GUI? If I understood your comments above, the 
services GUI failed to ask you for a root password, right? And now you find a 
bunch of password requests waiting somewhere else, right?

It might be that your desktop environment has something screwed up and the 
pop-up requests do not appear on the same desktop as the originating app. 
IIRC, this is configurable somewhere, depending on the DE you use.
 
HTH, :-)
Marko