Update: Please use the newer and improved version of this script: ghostship.
In one of my earlier articles, I released a little script which keeps Ultrasurf connected by generating traffic every minute. Today I’ve gone one step further and made a script that does the following:
- Ultrasurf starts invisible in its very own (vnc)X-server, which makes it possible to start it before you even started your X session
- Generates traffic every 20 seconds and by doing that it checks at the same time whether Ultrasurf is still connected to the internet
- It writes a status-file which you can use with conky to display whether Ultrasurf is currently working or not
- When Ultrasurf is down, the script tries a few more times (with less waiting between the tries) and then it restarts the whole vncserver, thus killing everything inside it and starting clean (by doing normal restarts, sometimes Ultrasurf binds the wrong or simply no port)
Ready? Here’s my step by step tutorial:
- install Ultrasurf (in its own wineprefix)
- install tightvnc
- run vncserver && vncserver -kill :1 once to set a password for your vnc server
- open up ~/.vnc/xstartup and copy paste the following
#!/bin/sh
if [ $VNCDESKTOP = "ultrasurf-tools" ]; then
# you'll need to edit this line, so that it points
# to your Ultrasurf installation
WINEPREFIX=/home/you/.wine-ultrasurf wine c:/u.exe
else
xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title \
"$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
twm &
fi
- paste the following to a file called ~/ultrasurf-tools or something and give it the executable flag
#!/bin/bash
# configuration
# warning, statusfile will get removed!
statusfile=~/.ultrasurf
# internal variables
errors=0
# functions
function restart_ultrasurf {
vncserver -kill :96
vncserver :96 -name "ultrasurf-tools" -localhost
errors=0
# echo "sleeping for 20 seconds"
sleep 20
}
# the main loop
# echo "starting ultrasurf..."
rm "$statusfile"
restart_ultrasurf
while [ 1 ];do
# echo "performing connection check..."
dyndns=`http_proxy="127.0.0.1:9666"\
wget --no-cookies checkip.dyndns.org -O - -q -nv`
if [ -z "$dyndns" ]; then
let errors+=1
# echo "error ($errors): couldn't request\
data through ultrasurf."
if [ $errors = 2 ]; then
rm "$statusfile"
fi
if [ $errors = 4 ]; then
# echo "error limit reached! restarting ultrasurf..."
restart_ultrasurf
else
# echo "sleeping for 3 seconds"
sleep 3
fi
else
errors=0
# echo "success. sleeping for 20 seconds..."
touch "$statusfile"
sleep 20
fi
done
- to use the statusfile with conky, add a line similar to this one to the TEXT area (make sure you use your username):
ultrasurf: ${if_existing /home/you/.ultrasurf}${color}online$else${color red}offline$endif
- you can now add this to your /etc/rc.local in order to start ultrasurf before you start your X (the result will be that as soon as your X is started, you are ready to go and do not need to wait for Ultrasurf anymore):
su yourusername -c ~/ultrasurf-tools &
- if you would like to check what is going on, execute vncviewer :96 (but you usually don’t need that)
)
