[Release] AB-Solution 3 - The Ad Blocking Solution

[tomsk]

I just whitelist youtube.com and history is back.

I recently found out that whitelisting as implemented in AB, is a "wildcard" process, meaning that if you whitelist utube.com then you will whitelist *utube.com. So all hosts that match will be removed from the block list. You will likely find that along with your history, you will also get back some ads and other goodies that may have been previously blocked. You will need to whitelist including the chosen sub domain if you want a more granular control.

 

[jtp10181]

Has anyone ever thought of having a command line way to enable / disable the ad blocking?
Thought it would be nice, and I could maybe even tie it to the useless WPS button.

Suppose one could just extract the chunk of the script that does it and put it into a separate script file, but then you have to repeat that if there is any updates.

 

[tomsk]

Has anyone ever thought of having a command line way to enable / disable the ad blocking?

You mean the "a" selection on the AB main menu?

 

[thelonelycoder]

Has anyone ever thought of having a command line way to enable / disable the ad blocking?
Thought it would be nice, and I could maybe even tie it to the useless WPS button.

Suppose one could just extract the chunk of the script that does it and put it into a separate script file, but then you have to repeat that if there is any updates.

Be aware, it's not just the chunk of the script you mention that does it.
If pixelserv is installed, it also shuts that down, in a way it knows to start it again if (a) is enabled next time.
The config file is written, postconf is rewritten, pixelserv startscript is rewritten.
Those all involve a lot more code from the main script, as well as the addon file.
If done wrong, AB may no longer know the correct state of the installation.

 

[jtp10181]

Be aware, it's not just the chunk of the script you mention that does it.
If pixelserv is installed, it also shuts that down, in a way it knows to start it again if (a) is enabled next time.
The config file is written, postconf is rewritten, pixelserv startscript is rewritten.
Those all involve a lot more code from the main script, as well as the addon file.
If done wrong, AB may no longer know the correct state of the installation.

True, that's why it would be cool if there was a command line switch to enable / disable it

 

[thelonelycoder]

True, that's why it would be cool if there was a command line switch to enable / disable it

That would require a complete rewrite of the code. Unlikely to happen.

 

[tomsk]

Thought it would be nice, and I could maybe even tie it to the useless WPS button

You should do a quick search of the forums to discover what happened when other people have suggested interesting functions for the "useless" WPS button....

 

[apvm]

I recently found out that whitelisting as implemented in AB, is a "wildcard" process, meaning that if you whitelist utube.com then you will whitelist *utube.com. So all hosts that match will be removed from the block list. You will likely find that along with your history, you will also get back some ads and other goodies that may have been previously blocked. You will need to whitelist including the chosen sub domain if you want a more granular control.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[abescalamis]

Some of the google hosts are blocked, which one is a matter of finding out through looking at the (f) option and select 2. Then browse and make a good guess which of the blocked hosts may be the culprit.

I would like to report that I withelisted YouTube as suggested, and history started to work then I removed it from the withelist, because I wanted to go use the f command instead but there was no need, adding youtube to the withelist and the removing it fixes the youtube history issue.

yes, I process the withelist many times and rebooted router to make sure

 

[intelligo]

I installed AB-Solution 3 on my RT-AC68U without a problem a couple of weeks ago using curl, and for which I am truly grateful to this community. Ad-blocking appeared to be working properly. Today, I noticed in my log that ab-solution was failing to update the host files (Medium), so I ssh'd into my router and attempted a manual update of the host files. Ab-solution started up fine, but when I tried to update the host files and ab-solution, both failed. When the update of ab-solution failed, it said it couldn't reach ab-solution.info. After cruising the forum, I decided to reformat my USB to ext2 and re-install ab-solution. Unlike the last installation, which went smoothly, when I ran curl the installation failed and I received the message: "curl: (6) Couldn't resolve host 'www.ab-solution.info'." I now have a blank ext2-formatted USB installed, but no ab-solution. I would be grateful for any guidance.

 

[thelonelycoder]

I would like to report that I withelisted YouTube as suggested, and history started to work then I removed it from the withelist, because I wanted to go use the f command instead but there was no need, adding youtube to the withelist and the removing it fixes the youtube history issue.

yes, I process the withelist many times and rebooted router to make sure

Remember that the whitelist is a list that is used every time the hosts files are updated to remove these hosts.
Next time it runs on update day or you run (u) whatever you filtered will be back if you deleted it in the whitelist.

 

[thelonelycoder]

I installed AB-Solution 3 on my RT-AC68U without a problem a couple of weeks ago using curl, and for which I am truly grateful to this community. Ad-blocking appeared to be working properly. Today, I noticed in my log that ab-solution was failing to update the host files (Medium), so I ssh'd into my router and attempted a manual update of the host files. Ab-solution started up fine, but when I tried to update the host files and ab-solution, both failed. When the update of ab-solution failed, it said it couldn't reach ab-solution.info. After cruising the forum, I decided to reformat my USB to ext2 and re-install ab-solution. Unlike the last installation, which went smoothly, when I ran curl the installation failed and I received the message: "curl: (6) Couldn't resolve host 'www.ab-solution.info'." I now have a blank ext2-formatted USB installed, but no ab-solution. I would be grateful for any guidance.

Can you reach the website with a browser?
Also, updating the hosts files is completely independend of ab-solution.info running or not. I do not host any of the hosts files on my server.

 

[abescalamis]

Remember that the whitelist is a list that is used every time the hosts files are updated to remove these hosts.
Next time it runs on update day or you run (u) whatever you filtered will be back if you deleted it in the whitelist.

You were right, so I went to use the F & 2 command/option, and the specific domain that causes this issue is s.youtube.com, this is the domain that youtube uses to store statistic information and it uses for sugestions, history, etc, you should consider add it to the whitelist permanently that domain is not used for ads.

Thank you for your guidance.

 

[Netbug]

everytime i reboot my router and load up ab-solution.sh it says "not running" if i type ps and hit enter i get " Entware is not running. Investigate first." Not sure why but happens everytime i reboot and not sure how to fix it.

Running Asuswrt Merlin firmware 380.65_beta2 + ab-solution 3 on RT-AC68U.

Only way i can solve it is if i delete ab-solution and start with a fresh install.

It seems pixelserc refuses to startup after a reboot or firmware upgrade.

Cheers.

 

[tomsk]

everytime i reboot my router and load up ab-solution.sh it says "not running" if i type ps and hit enter i get " Entware is not running. Investigate first." Not sure why but happens everytime i reboot and not sure how to fix it.

Running Asuswrt Merlin firmware 380.65_beta2 + ab-solution 3 on RT-AC68U.

Only way i can solve it is if i delete ab-solution and start with a fresh install.

It seems pixelserc refuses to startup after a reboot or firmware upgrade.

Cheers.

Pixelserv is not running because your installation of entware is not running. Probably due to your jffs/scripts/post-mount script has been removed or overwritten. Can you post the contents?

 

[Netbug]

Pixelserv is not running because your installation of entware is not running. Probably due to your jffs/scripts/post-mount script has been removed or overwritten. Can you post the contents?

post-mount

#!/bin/sh

# DO NOT EDIT this part of the file #
# generated by AB-Solution 3
if [ -d "/tmp/mnt/NetworkUSB" ];then
    service restart_dnsmasq
    logger "AB-Solution added entries via post-mount"
    cp -f /jffs/.ash_history /home/root/.ash_history
    ln -s /tmp/mnt/NetworkUSB/ab-solution.sh /home/root/ab-solution.sh
fi

services-start

#!/bin/sh

# DO NOT EDIT this part of the file #
# generated by AB-Solution 3
RC='/opt/etc/init.d/rc.unslung'

i=30
until [ -x "$RC" ] ; do
    i=$(($i-1))
    if [ "$i" -lt 1 ];then
        logger "Unable to start Entware"
        exit
    fi
    sleep 1
done
$RC start
# end of DO NOT EDIT #

services-start

#!/bin/sh


# DO NOT EDIT this part of the file #
# generated by AB-Solution 3
/opt/etc/init.d/rc.unslung stop
# end of DO NOT EDIT #

wan-start

#!/bin/sh


# DO NOT EDIT this part of the file #
# generated by AB-Solution 3
psState=off
if [ $psState == "on" ];then
ifconfig br0:pixelserv 192.168.1.2 up
logger -t $tag "br0:pixelserv 192.168.1.2 created."
fi
# end of DO NOT EDIT #

dnsmasq.postconf

#!/bin/sh

# DO NOT EDIT this part of the file #
# generated by AB-Solution 3
if [ -d "/tmp/mnt/NetworkUSB" ];then
    source /tmp/mnt/NetworkUSB/adblocking/scripts/ab_dnsmasq_postconf.sh
    logger "AB-Solution linked dnsmasq.postconf to ab_dnsmasq_postconf.sh"
fi
# end of DO NOT EDIT #

Cheers.

 

[thelonelycoder]

This is not the complete post-mount file for an AB installation. Post all of it.
If this is indeed everything in that file, delete all these /jffs files you posted.
Then delete the entire folder /adblocking/ on the USB device:
/tmp/mnt/NetworkUSB/adblocking

Rename or delete the Entware folder before installing.

Then reinstall AB-Solution as per post #1.

 

[tomsk]

There is no symlink to opt in your post-mount. Try adding the following to your post-mount

if [ "$1" = "/tmp/mnt/NetworkUSB" ] ; then
  ln -nsf $1/entware-ng /tmp/opt
fi

Assuming your entware folder is named entware-ng ( ain't necessarily so)

Edit: What @thelonelycoder said

 

[Netbug]

This is not the complete post-mount file for an AB installation. Post all of it.
If this is indeed everything in that file, delete all these /jffs files you posted.
Then delete the entire folder /adblocking/ on the USB device:
/tmp/mnt/NetworkUSB/adblocking

Rename or delete the Entware folder before installing.

Then reinstall AB-Solution as per post #1.

I've never touched or looked at the file before and this is what was in the file.

I don't alter the entware folder name as didn't know you could. This is what i basically have to do after each reboot, delete the files mentioned in my post above, then delete the adblocking folder and delete the entware folder, this is the only way i can get it to start, basically everytime i reboot i have to do what you and i mention. i don't edit the files or anything.

Will do what you said and take a look at post-mount file after new install to see if changes or anything weird. Will post in a few minutes.

Cheers.

There is no symlink to opt in your post-mount. Try adding the following to your post-mount

if [ "$1" = "/tmp/mnt/NetworkUSB" ] ; then
  ln -nsf $1/entware-ng /tmp/opt
fi

Assuming your entware folder is named entware-ng ( ain't necessarily so)

Edit: What @thelonelycoder said

just replied to theloneycoder. Cheers.

 

[thelonelycoder]

I've never touched or looked at the file before and this is what was in the file.

I don't alter the entware folder name as didn't know you could. This is what i basically have to do after each reboot, delete the files mentioned in my post above, then delete the adblocking folder and delete the entware folder, this is the only way i can get it to start, basically everytime i reboot i have to do what you and i mention. i don't edit the files or anything.

Cheers.

Do as I say, delete the jffs files and start from scratch.
Instead of deleting the jffs files, it might be best to reformat the jffs partion just to be sure there is not a problem with it.
In Administration / System, click 'Format JFFS partition at next boot' and reboot the router.
Then install AB again.