Joseph Zikusooka ~ Zik

A software engineer specializing in open source technologies | Very experienced in building and configuring UNIX/Linux systems and servers. Passionate about developing software applications and hardware for the smart home | Currently serving as the CEO of Jambula Labs and the project leader at JambulaTV, a smart home automation and entertainment platform - https://jambulatv.com | This blog focuses on the following areas: Linux How-Tos and Tutorials ::: IT Security News ::: Free and Libre Open Source Software ::: Smart Home Software ::: Digital Innovations in East Africa https://mastodon.social/@jzik | https://github.com/zikusooka

How to receive Linux server alerts on your phone via WhatsApp

In my last article, I wrote about how to receive Linux server alerts on your phone via telegram. While telegram has a rich feature set, it is still not as popular as whatsapp at least in most regions. Almost, everyone I know is using whatsapp. With the recent addition of end-to-end ecryption, I’ve since relaxed my negative opinions of this service. Therefore, I decided to write a follow-up to my previous article, and show you how to get alerts from your Linux server via whatsapp. I will not delve into the setup of icinga2, however, once you are able to send messages to whatsapp, things should be pretty much self explanatory.

Thanks to Tarek Galal, who wrote a python library called yowsup to interface with whatsapp API.

First install it as follows:

pip install yowsup2

If installation fails, ensure that your have installed all the required dependencies on your Linux box which include python2.6+, python-dateutil, argparse,readline, pillow. If you intend to use encryption, you will need to install protobuf, pycrypto, python-axolotl-curve25519

Yowsup comes with a command-line tool appropriately named; yowsup-cli. For a full understanding of its usage, please visit the yowsup-cli wiki

Registration

As expected, you will need to register your phone. This can be done simply as follows:

yowsup-cli registration -d -E android -m 641 -n 10 -p 256XXXXXXXXX -C 256 -r sms

The arguments explained:
-d For debugging
-E This is the environment. Specifically set this to android. The default will cause you to run into ‘no_route’ errors.
-m This is the MCC for your country. In my case 641 is for Uganda. Use the site: http://mcclist.com/mobile-network-codes-country-codes.asp to locate yours
-n This is the MNC for your Telecom provider. Again, use the site: http://mcclist.com/mobile-network-codes-country-codes.asp to locate yours
-p This is your phone number. Include the country code specified in next option -C
-C This is the country telephone code. In my case 256 is for Uganda.
-r (sms|voice) This is method by which pin code will be sent to you

If execution of the above command is successful, you will receive, either a text message or voice call with the PIN code. Use this code to complete the registration process as follows:

yowsup-cli registration -d -E android -p 2567XXXXX -C 256 -R PIN-CODE

The arguments are similar to above, except for:
– R which allows you to register using the provided PIN-CODE

Once the command above has been executed successfully, the results displayed will look like the following

kind: free
pw: dfggHHSGGdIcdddRN567gjy=
price: US$0.99
price_expiration: 147567899
currency: USD
cost: 0.99
expiration: 4444444444.0
login: 256XXXXXXXXXX
type: new

Take note of the 2 fields: pw and login

Sending Messages

You should now be able to send messages using the command line. Test sending as follows:

yowsup-cli demos -d -l "256XXXXXXXX:dfggHHSGGdIcdddRN567gjy=" -s 256XXXXXXXXX "This is a test – Hello World"

The arguments explained:
-d For debugging
-l login. Enter in format [login:password]
-s The recipient’s phone number

At this point your recipient should be able to receive your message.

For monitoring with icinga2, you will need to create a script using the above command for sending messages. Make it executable and place it in location of your scripts. From, here, setup of icinga2 is like any other as shown in my previous article.

If you need more assistance or are interested in Linux and Open Source stuff, follow me @jzikusooka.

How to receive Linux server alerts on your phone via WhatsApp

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