Open The Linux!

How to configure NAT with iptables on a VPS

2010-03-06T14:12:00.000-08:00

How to configure NAT with iptables on a VPS

How to install .deb files using dpkg

2009-10-18T07:30:00.002-07:00

How to install .deb files using dpkg

How to install winrar for Linux

2009-10-18T07:30:00.001-07:00

How to install winrar for Linux

Install file splitter for Linux.

2009-10-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

Install file splitter for Linux.

How to change Linux root password temporarily.

2009-10-18T07:28:00.001-07:00

How to change Linux root password temporarily.

“World’s first” 3D camera launched by FUJIFILM

2009-10-18T07:28:00.000-07:00

“World’s first” 3D camera launched by FUJIFILM

FIX : Unable to open pty: No such file or directory

2009-07-21T06:46:00.000-07:00

While trying to SSH or enter into a VPS from the node, you may get the following error :

Unable to open pty: No such file or directory

root@tip~]# vzctl enter 900
enter into VE 900 failed
Unable to open pty: No such file or directory

There is a temporary and permenant fix for this issue.

Temporary Fix :-

Execute the following commands from the node

vzctl exec VEID /sbin/MAKEDEV pty
vzctl exec VEID /sbin/MAKEDEV tty
vzctl enter VEID

Where VEID is the VPS id.

Permanent Fix :-

First temporarly fix the issue and enter into the VPS.

1) vzctl enter VEID

2) Edit the file /etc/rc.sysinit of the VPS

vi /etc/rc.sysini

3) Search for the line /sbin/start_udev and comment it

#/sbin/start_udev

4) Add the following two lines under /sbin/start_udev

#/sbin/start_udev
/sbin/MAKEDEV tty
/sbin/MAKEDEV pty

Logout from your VPS (Ctrl d)

5) Reboot the VPS and you are done!

vzctl restart VEID

Migrating to a Domain

2009-06-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

My title

page contents

My new Blog under construction: Visit :

www.techinterplay.com

How to enable log rotation on Linux ?

2009-05-23T03:17:00.000-07:00

logrotate is a program which will automatically backup your old log files and gzip them. You can specifiy how often logrotate should backup your logfiles and how long it should keep them. The advantage of logrotation is that you can save disk space without the deletion of log files. The logrotation can be configured for automatic rotation, compression, removal, and mailing of log files.

The default configuration file is /etc/logrotate.conf

# see "man logrotate" for details
# rotate log files weekly
weekly

# keep 4 weeks worth of backlogs
rotate 4

# create new (empty) log files after rotating old ones
create

# uncomment this if you want your log files compressed
#compress

# RPM packages drop log rotation information into this directory
include /etc/logrotate.d

# no packages own wtmp -- we'll rotate them here
/var/log/wtmp {
monthly
minsize 1M
create 0664 root utmp
rotate 1
}

# system-specific logs may be also be configured here.

Service or server specific configurations stored in /etc/logrotate.d directory, for example here is sample apache logrotate configuration file:
less /etc/logrotate.d/httpd

/var/log/httpd/*log {
monthly
rotate 52
compress
missingok
notifempty
sharedscripts
postrotate
/sbin/service httpd reload > /dev/null 2>/dev/null || true
endscript
}

Now you need to set a cronjob for the logrotation to run. crontab -e

00 00 * * * /usr/sbin/logrotate -s /home/humanlinux/config/logrotate.status

Cron ensures that the command runs at midnight everyday. The command has three parts. /usr/sbin/logrotate is the path to logrotate. The -s /home/humanlinux/config/logrotate.status option specifies where logrotate keeps its status information. This file has to be writeable by the user running the cron.

run the command /usr/sbin/logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.conf to begin the log rotation

Thanks & Regards
tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to create a shutdown button on a Linux desktop.

2009-05-23T03:03:00.000-07:00

A shutdown button can be created on a Linux desktop using a single lined script.

Open your favorite text editor

eg : vi shutdown or
: gedit shutdown

append the following lines

#!/bin/bash
poweroff

save and quit. Move the file location to your desktop

chmod 777 shutdown
chmod +x shutdown (made the file 'shutdown' executable)

Now double click on your 'My Computer" icon to open the file browser window.

goto Edit-->Preferences-->Behavior-->Run executable text files when they are clicked-->close

Now you can double click on the 'shutdown' file to shutdown the machine. You can rightclick on it to choose an appropriate icon for the button.

How to assign swap area in Linux to increase speed?

2009-05-15T19:05:00.000-07:00

We can assign swap area in linux either on a partition or a file.

I am creating here swap area using a file.

First we need to create the swap file.

dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1024 count=2000000

this will create a file 'swapfile' under / of size above 2gb

Type the following commands :-

mkswap /swapfile

swapon /swapfile

Now we can add the swap entry on fstab so that on every reboot, system will automatically loads the awap area.

vi /etc/fstab

append the following line to the bottom

/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0

save and quit

To see the swap usage use the command top

thanks & regards

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to reset the lxadmin password?

2009-05-14T04:09:00.000-07:00

What if the password of lxadmin is lost?

We can reset the lxadmin password using the following commands.

1) cd /usr/local/lxlabs/lxadmin/httpdocs

2) /usr/bin/lphp.exe ../bin/common/resetpassword.php master

3) type your new password.

4) After that login to lxadmin at https://xx.xx.xx.xx:7777/ (xx.xx.xx.xx is your server IP address) using username : admin and password : your new password.

thanks & regards

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to put the grub password in linux!

2009-05-14T04:02:00.000-07:00

In Linux anyone can reset the root password from single usermode . So it is considered as a security fault if the machine is public. There comes the importance of putting the grub password, so that only admin is allowed to login if the machine is rebooted.

Here are the steps to put the grub password.

1) open the command prompt and type the following commands

2) grub

3) md5crypt

4) type the password

5) copy the encrypted password generated

6) Ctrl c

7) vi /boot/grub/grub.conf

8) paste the following line just above the 'title'

password --md5 "encrypted password here"

9) save and quit. Done.

I have give the sample grub file here.

======================================

#boot=/dev/hdb
default=0
timeout=15
splashimage=(hd1,8)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
password --md5 %&mkj89(*$*J)$OO*=*

title CentOS (2.6.18-92.el5)
root (hd1,8)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-92.el5.img

======================================

thanks & regards
tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to install flash player on centos/redhat linux !

2009-05-09T15:50:00.000-07:00

This post can also answer the question " how to fix the firefox error on centos/redhat linux"

Installing the flash player on centos/redhat linux seems to be very difficult sometimes. But the installation is quite simple :). The flash player may not be installed automatically using firefox. While trying install firefox, you may get the error following error " Firefox could not install this item because "install-0zr..rdf" (provided by the item) is not well-formed or does not exist. Please contact the author about this problem."The Screeshot of error is provided. To fix this issue, you need to upgrade/install certain libraries using yum. I have mentioned the commands below.

1. First you need to install those libraries (.i386 and .x86_64):

yum install curl compat-libstdc++-33 glibc nspluginwrapper

2. Once done with the libraries, we need to download the flash player rpm.

mkdir flash

cd flash

download the rpm inside the folder flash.

click here to Download

3. Next we need to execute the command below to install the rpm. This command should be executed inside the folder, where the rpm is downloaded. Ours is in the folder 'flash'.

rpm -ivh flash-plugin-10.0.12.36-release.i386.rpm

(replace with the version of rpm you have downloaded)

4. Close the Firefox and restart it. You should be able to see the flashes hereafter.

thanks & regards

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to browse files in an ISO image?

2009-05-07T15:20:00.001-07:00

Its always easy to do things using the command lines in Linux. To browse files of an ISO image is an easy task in Linux. Open a terminal window and type in the following commands.

sudo mkdir /media/iso

sudo modprobe loop

sudo mount filename.iso /media/iso -t iso9660 -o loop

cd /media/iso

Hereafter you will be able to navigate to the /media/iso folder and see the contents of the ISO image. To unmount the ISO, use the following command:

sudo umount /media/iso

I will explain the commands and options used specificly:

sudo modprobe loop ->loads/ installs the module for loopback file system support

iso9660 -> the file system used by CD roms

-t -> specify the file system type

-o loop -> for additional options while using a loopback filesystem

thanks & regards

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to change the default text editor in ubuntu!

2009-05-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

In ubuntu , the default text editor for editing the configuration files may be nano. For eg: to set a cronjob crontab -e , the configuration file opens up with the nano text editor. But we can set the default text editor as our favourite editor by using a simple command.

update-alternatives -- config editor

once this command is entered, it asks to enter the no: of our favourite editor. eg:

humanlinux@localhost:~# update-alternatives --config editor

======================================

There are 3 alternatives which provide `editor'.

Selection Alternative
-----------------------------------------------
1 /usr/bin/vim.tiny
2 /bin/ed
*+ 3 /bin/nano
======================================

Just enter the corresponding no: of your favourite editor.
Here i have choosed 1.

======================================
Press enter to keep the default[*], or type selection number: 1
Using '/usr/bin/vim.tiny' to provide 'editor'.
======================================

thanks & regards
tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

how to install csf in ubuntu / linux servers!

2009-05-05T01:15:00.000-07:00

CSF instllation in ubuntu / linux servers!

CSF is a firewall that can be installed on linux based severs to enhance the security. It can be installed even on a server based on cPanel. It can be configured to find out hacking attempts through ssh etc. Can be used for ip whitelisting and blacklisting.

The csf instllation is quite easy. Just follow the documentation I have given below.

1)Create a folder 'csf'

mkdir csf
cd csf

2)Download the csf into this directory and instal.

wget http://www.configserver.com/free/csf.tgz
tar -xzf csf.tgz
cd csf
sh install.sh

3)Now we need to test whether we have the required iptables modules in the system

perl /etc/csf/csftest.pl

you may get a result like this
======================================================================================
root@humanlinux-desktop:/home/hlinux/Downloads/csf/csf# perl /etc/csf/csftest.pl
Testing ip_tables/iptable_filter...OK
Testing ipt_LOG...OK
Testing ipt_multiport/xt_multiport...OK
Testing ipt_REJECT...OK
Testing ipt_state/xt_state...OK
Testing ipt_limit/xt_limit...OK
Testing ipt_recent...OK
Testing ipt_owner...OK
Testing iptable_nat/ipt_REDIRECT...OK

RESULT: csf should function on this server
=======================================================================================

Don't worry if you cannot run all the features, so long as the script doesn't
report any FATAL errors

4)You should not run any other iptables firewall configuration script. For
example, if you previously used APF+BFD you can remove the combination (which
you will need to do if you have them installed otherwise they will conflict
horribly):

sh /etc/csf/remove_apf_bfd.sh

5)That's it. You can then configure csf and lfd by edit the files
directly in /etc/csf/*, or on cPanel servers use the WHM UI

csf installation for cPanel is preconfigured to work on a cPanel server with all
the standard cPanel ports open.

csf installation for DirectAdmin is preconfigured to work on a DirectAdmin
server with all the standard DirectAdmin ports open.

csf auto-configures your SSH port on installation where it's running on a non-
standard port.

csf auto-whitelists your connected IP address where possible on installation.

You should ensure that kernel logging daemon (klogd) is enabled. Typically, VPS
servers have this disabled and you should check /etc/init.d/syslog and make
sure that any klogd lines are not commented out. If you change the file,
remember to restart syslog.

See the readme.txt file for more information.

Webmin Module Installation/Upgrade:-

To install or upgrade the csf webmin module:

Install csf as above
Install the csf webmin module in:
Webmin > Webmin Configuration > Webmin Modules >
From local file > /etc/csf/csfwebmin.tgz > Install Module

Uninstallation of CSF :( :-

Removing csf and lfd is even more simple:

On cPanel servers:

cd /etc/csf
sh uninstall.sh

On DirectAdmin servers:

cd /etc/csf
sh uninstall.directadmin.sh

On generic linux servers:

cd /etc/csf
sh uninstall.generic.sh

un-installation Completed

ref: http://www.configserver.com/free/csf/install.txt

thanks & regards
tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Baseline Monitoring for troubleshooting in Linux!

2009-05-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

The Baseline Monitoring is useful in :-

troubleshooting
essential for healthy systems
help plan for further growth
can aide with security

A good baseline monitoring of systems is very helpful in troubleshooting. A good baseline of system activity and use can be used to compare when a system appears to be behaving erretically, or more activity to report when a system is operating outside of specified parametres.

It can aslo be used to tighten the security. As we can build up trends for our systems and networks over time, using these we can more easily spot events outside of the norm which could be attempts to gain access to our systems or a rogue system already under the control of external influences.

Deciding what to monitor is very dependant on the work that a system does. For database servers or file servers then disk space, service availability and load might be important. For a desktop system we might justcheck to see that its up and running.

Data gained from longer monitoring can be used outside of the purely technical. We can use it to measure the growth of system load over time, and to predict when a new server of file store might be required. We can use to how improvements made are impacting service availability and therefore helping work flow and numerous others.

thanks & regards

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Get free Ubuntu stickers ! :)

2009-05-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

Get ubuntu stickers for free! All you need to do is to mail a self addressed stamped envelope to your local address: The addresses for different countries are give here!

Argentina

Ubuntu Sticker Offer

Av. Maipu 2259 PB C

ZIP: 1636

Buenos Aires

Argentina

Thanks to the Ubuntu Argentina Team!

Australia

Sticker Offer

P.O Box 1412

Lavington, NSW 2641

Thanks to the Ubuntu Australia Team!

Belgium

p/a Lange Vesting 100

8200 Brugge

Belgium

Thanks to the Ubuntu Belgium Team!

Bolivia

Rolando Espinoza La Fuente

Calle 16 de Julio #424 / Zona Central

Cochabamba, Cochabamba

Bolivia

Thanks to the Bolivian Ubuntu LoCo Team!

Brazil

Comunidade UbuntuBR

A/C Etiquetas Ubuntu

Av. Rui Barbosa, 2095 cj63

Santana - Sao Jose dos Campos/SP

CEP: 12211-000

Thanks to the Ubuntu Brazil Team!

Canada

Ubuntu Sticker Offer

2448 Cadboro Bay Rd.

Victoria BC

V8S 4C1

Canada

Thanks to the Ubuntu Canada Team!

Chile

Stickers Ubuntu Chile

Arlegui #573 E-11

ViÃƒÂ±a del Mar

CHILE

Thanks to the Ubuntu Chile Team!

Colombia

Javier A Miranda R

Carrera 118Bis NÂ°89A-26

Int. 4, Apto. 102

Bogota, DC -111011

COLOMBIA

Thanks to the Colombian Ubuntu Team!

France

Ubuntu-Sticker

105, rue de l'Ourcq

75019 Paris

France

http://www.ubuntu-fr.org/contact

Thanks to the French Ubuntu Team!

Germany

http://ubuntu.kamerastars.de

Thanks to the German Ubuntu Team!

Hungary

Ubuntu Hungarian LoCo Team

ORY Mate

H-1163 Budapest

Gordonka u. 32.

Hungary

Thanks to the Hungarian Ubuntu Team!

India

Baishampayan Ghose

214/4, Sher-e-Punjab Society

Andheri (E), Mumbai --- 93

India

Thanks to the Ubuntu Indian LoCo Team!

Italy

Palma Salvatore

Via Magna Grecia, 14

87029 Scalea (CS)

Italy

Thanks to the Italian Ubuntu LoCo Team!

Mexico

Stickers Ubuntu

Avenida Adolfo Lopez Mateos Condominio 1 Casa 41

Fraccionamiento Rancho San Lucas

Metepec, Mexico

CP: 52172

Thanks to the Mexican Ubuntu LoCo Team!

Netherlands

Ubuntu Stickers

Hyacintstraat 13

4587 AV Kloosterzande

The Netherlands

Thanks to the Dutch Ubuntu Team!

New Zealand

Ian Beardslee c/o C/- Catalyst IT

PO Box 11053

Manners St

Wellington New Zealand

Thanks to the New Zealand Ubuntu Team!

Norway

Ubuntu Stickers Scandinavia

c/o FreeCode AS

Nydalsveien 30 B

0484 OSLO

Thanks to the Norwegian Ubuntu Team!

Peru

Gonzalo L. Campos Medina

Av. Peru K-134 / Urb. Garibaldi

ILO, ILO

PERU

Thanks to the Peruvian Ubuntu Team!

Serbia

Ivan Jelic

Bore Stefanovica 2/1

36000 Kraljevo

Serbia

Thanks to the Serbian Ubuntu Team!

Switzerland

Pro-OpenSource

Stichwort: Ubuntu-Stickers

c/o Ruben Richiger

Dietlistrasse 2

9000 St. Gallen

Thanks to the Swiss Ubuntu Team!

Tunisia

Ubuntu Stickers

B.P. 57 Monastir RÃ©publique

5060 Monastir

Tunisie

Thanks to the Tunisian Ubuntu Team!

Turkey

Atila Sendil

TUPRAS Gn.Md.

Bilgi Sistemleri Md.

Korfez / Kocaeli

Thanks to the Turkish Ubuntu Team!

United Kingdom

The Linux Emporium

Bridge House

17a Maybrook Road

Sutton Coldfield

Birmingham

B76 1AL UK

Thanks to the United Kingdom Ubuntu Team!

United States

System76, Inc. (Free Stickers)

1582 S. Parker Rd. Ste. 310

Denver, Colorado 80231

Venezuela

Nathalie Colina

Calle Dabajuro

Casa # 4

Urbanizacion El SeÃ±orial

Puerta Maraven

Punto Fijo, Estado FalcÃ³n

Venezuela

Thanks to the Venezuelan Ubuntu Team!

ref:http://system76.com/article_info.php?tPath=3&articles_id=9&osCsid=5f9879db81c873e7a8e169de0963010a

thanks & regards

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to monitor a system remotely using conky?

2009-04-30T05:37:00.000-07:00

How to monitor a linux machine remotely using conky or just an "easy way"!

Here are the steps to remotely monitor a linux machine using conky. The example here is done on an Ubuntu Box.

1)Install conky on the system(remote server/system) you need to monitor

sudo apt-get install conky

2)Then install the "xauth" program onto the system(remote server/system) tunneling X (file server)

sudo apt-get install xauth

3)Then we have to edit the ssh server side file /etc/ssh/sshd_config and make sure "X11Forwarding yes" is enabled

4)Then from your local system , you can log into the remote system via SSH with the -X flag. Example:

ssh -X username@192.168.1.100

the user name should be the user of the (remote server/system)

5)once you are logged-in to the remote system, just type conky on the command prompt. You will be able to see the services like:-

uptime
frequency
RAM usage
SWAP usage
CPU usage
Processes
File systems:
Networking:
and currently running processes of the remote system

All in GUI on your local system. Happy Monitoring :)

thanks & regards
tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Fixing Opera error in Ubuntu!

2009-04-30T01:54:00.000-07:00

Is your Opera browser not working on your ubuntu desktop?. Then this post may help you.

In some cases when we click on the opera icon , it wont respond. And if we type 'opera' in the terminal it shows the following error.

human@localhost:~$ opera

ERROR: ld.so: object 'libjvm.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.
ERROR: ld.so: object 'libawt.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.
/home/human/lib/opera/9.64/opera: error while loading shared libraries: libqt-mt.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

This happens when some libraries get corrupted ,broken or missing.To fix this just do the following steps.

1)human@localhost:~# sudo apt-get install libqt3-mt

If you get the following message

"You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:

libqt3-mt: Depends: libaudio2 but it is not going to be installed

E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution)."

2)then execute the following comand
human@localhost:~# sudo apt-get -f install

It will automatically install the needed packages and the issue must be fixed by now.

thanks & regards

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to install AIDE?

2009-04-26T13:43:00.000-07:00

What is AIDE:-

AIDE (Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment) is an intrusion detection program. It is a free replacement for Tripwire.It can find out any changes made on the system binaries, libraries, header files , and configuration files etc by "comparing" regularly with the database of these files which was made at the time of its instllation.

How Does AIDE works:-

Once AIDE is installed, It creates a database of the files specified in AIDE’s configuration file. The AIDE database stores various file attributes like permissions, inode number, user, group, file size, mtime and ctime, atime, growing size, number of links and link name. AIDE also creates a cryptographic checksum or hash of each file using message digest algorithms like sha, md5, rmd160, tiger etc. Also acl, xattr and selinux can be used if enabled during compile time.This databse is created before the server/system is bought into the network.The AIDE should be installed to the system before it is exposed to the internet.

So Initially the administrator need to create an AIDE database on a new server before it is setup for networking eg hosting.This AIDE database is an excat summary of the Linux system before it is bought into the network.This database(db) will hold information about system binaries, libraries, header files etc that are expected to remain the same throughout.Suppose someone has broken-into the system, though it is easier to manipulate file dates, sizes etc, it will be quite difficult for him to manipulate cryptographic checksum like md5. Thus by rerunning AIDE after a break-in, the administrator can quickly identify changes to files with high degree of accuracy.

How to Install AIDE in UBUNTU?

1)You need the root access to install AIDE:- sudo su -

2)Install These prerequisites (packages) for AIDE:

GCC compiler for C : apt-get install gcc byacc

GNU Flex : apt-get install flex

GNU Bison : apt-get install bison

GNU Make : apt-get install make

Mhash library : apt-get install libmhash2 libmhash-dev

PostgreSQL Development Library : apt-get install postgresql-server-dev-8.3

Some of the above packages maybe already installed on your box, in that case when you execute the above commands it shows " 0 upgraded".so need not worry about that packages.

Or else you can check manually whether the packages are installed or not by using the follawing command: dpkg –get-selections | grep gcc

If the result is : gcc-4.3 install

then gcc is installed otherwise if you get no output ,then it means that gcc is not installed.

3)Once all the packages are installed then download aide from here . The downloaded packaege will be zipped in tar.

4)Create a folder 'downloades' and extract the tar achieve into this folder using the command: tar -xzvf aide-x.xx.x.tar.gz (replace x with version number)

Now you wil get the folder aide-x.xx.x

goto that folder by: cd aide-x.xx.x

Then execute the following commands :

./configure

make

make install

make clean

5)NOw you need to open the aide configuration file and determine the location where the aide database is stored. Go to that location

6)To initialise the database perform:

aide -i

mv aide.db.new aide.db

7)Now we can check wether the AIDE works by using the following command:-

aide

8)Configuration of AIDE

AIDE has its config file located inside (if installed via package management software like synaptic, config file is /etc/aide/aide.conf) /usr/local/etc/aide.conf .

And it’s default executable is located inside /usr/local/bin/aide.

9)Explanation of the aide.conf file

database=file:/var/lib/aide/aide.db

location of the database to be read (This is the database taken as benchmark)

database_new=file:/var/lib/aide/aide.db.comp

location of the database for –compare is read (This is not present by default and is used only when we have to compare two distinct databases.)

database_out=file:/var/lib/aide/aide.db.new

location of the database to be written

10)Useful Commands

aide -C : Performs a check on the filesystem ? (also same as: aide)

aide -i : Initialises or creates the benchmark database supplied by database_out directive (here it is aide.db.new)

aide -u -c /etc/aide.conf : update the database and use the specified config file

11)Usage

Before putting one’s server into the network, the admin will have to save a secure configuration of the system by:

aide -i

mv aide.db.new aide.db

The second command transfers the server’s earlier state(aide.db database) with the new one(aide.db.new). So be careful when you do this. It is advisable to keep a backup of the earlier database.

Next time in-order to check for any break-in perform

aide

aide -C

To compare the current database with some earlier backed-up database, give the path of the backed-up database to database_new option in aide.conf and perform:

aide –compare

The task of saving the old database and comparing with a new one has to be done periodically (preferably daily with the help of a cron task).

Reference Links

http://www.cs.tut.fi/~rammer/aide.html

http://supportsages.com/blog

thanks & regards

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Antivirus For Linux!

2009-04-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

These days I was dealing with some security related packages. I had gone through the changes to be made on IPTABLE to enhance the firewall, and a little bit about SELinux.I came to know about ClamAV, an anti-virus package for Linux..

Clam AntiVirus (ClamAV) is a free, cross-platform antivirus software tool-kit. One of its main uses is on mail servers as a server-side email virus scanner. The application was developed for Unix and has third party versions available for AIX, BSD, HP-UX, Linux, Mac OS X, OpenVMS, OSF and Solaris.

ClamAv has the following features!

a command line scanner
automatic database updater
scalable multi-threaded daemon
running on an anti-virus engine from a shared library
a Milter interface for sendmail
on-demand scanning
supports many document formats, including Microsoft Office, HTML, Rich Text Format and Portable Document Format.
It also support for Zip, RAR, Tar, Gzip, Bzip2, OLE2, Cabinet, CHM, BinHex, SIS formats, most mail file formats, ELF executables and Portable Executable files compressed with UPX, FSG, Petite, NsPack, wwpack32, MEW, Upack and obfuscated with SUE, Y0da Cryptor.

The ClamAV virus database is updated several times each day and as of 25 December 2008 contained 479,371 virus signatures.

Latest Stable Release:

Latest ClamAV® stable release is: 0.95.1
Total number of signatures: 545288
ClamAV Virus Databases:
main.cvd ver. 50 released on 15 Feb 2009 16:47 :0500
daily.cvd ver. 9274 released on 22 Apr 2009 13:17 :0400 (on 04/23/09)

Download the production quality stable release here

Download the latest virus database:

main.cvd ver. 50 released on 15 Feb 2009 16:47 :0500
daily.cvd ver. 9274 released on 22 Apr 2009 13:17 :0400

How to install clamAV in Debain ?

The Debian packages are maintained by Stephen Gran. ClamAV has been officially included in the Debian distribution starting from the sarge release. Run apt-cache search clamav to find the name of the packages available for installation.

You can also use one of the Debian volatile repositories to keep your ClamAV installation updated on your system.

Always choose the mirror near to you.
Edit /etc/apt/sources.list and add a line like this to it:

stable/etch:

deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile etch/volatile main contrib non-free

Then run apt-get update and apt-get install clamav
If you need clamd, you may also want to run apt-get install clamav-daemon

How to install clamAV in Ubuntu?

The Ubuntu packages are maintained by Ubuntu MOTU Developers. ClamAV has been officially included in the Ubuntu distribution since the first Ubuntu release. Run apt-cache search clamav to find the name of the packages available for installation.

The released set (release, *-updates, and *-security) are patched for security updates. Following extensive testing of clamav and the packages that use it in the backports repository, they may be updated to a newer version. These are official Ubuntu packages and supported by community developers.

The Ubuntu backports repository will contain the newest clamav version that has been at least lightly tested to work with that version. These packages can be installed by enabling the backports repository in your system. These are official Ubuntu packages and supported by community developers.

How to install calmAV in Redhat/Fedora ?

Two very good repositories are maintained by Dag Wieers dag at wieers*com:

http://packages.sw.be/clamav/

and Oliver Falk:

SRPMS: http://filelister.linux-kernel.at/?current=/packages/SRPMS/
FC devel: http://rpms.linux-kernel.at/?current=/lkernAT/fedora/core/development/i386
FC 3: http://rpms.linux-kernel.at/?current=/lkernAT/fedora/core/3/i386
RedHat 8.0: http://rpms.linux-kernel.at/?current=/lkernAT/redhat/extras/8.0/i386

How to install clamAV in Mandriva ?

Official Mandriva packages for cooker and supported updates (2006.0 and newer) are maintained by Oden Erikkson. For updates, use the software package manager or urpmi:

urpmi.update—update

urpmi—update—auto clamd

Unofficial packages for current and several older Mandriva distributions are maintained by Bill Randle and are available from his web server.

How to install clamAV in SuSe ?

Official SuSe packages for clamAV are maintained by Reinhard Max.

You can get it from here .

Thanks & regards

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Open Source antivirus - ClamWare .

2009-04-19T06:28:00.000-07:00

ClamWin is free, open source antivirus software for Microsoft Windows,(dont worry you can run it on Ubuntu using Wine).I Liked ClamWin because , it is OpenSource and also its PORTABLE. Yes, it has a portable version that can be used from a USB flash drive. Scan baby Scan!!!

some of the features of ClamWin are:

Standalone virus-scanner
Scanning scheduler.
Automatic virus database updates on a regular basis.
Context menu integration for Windows Explorer.
Add-in for Microsoft Outlook.
And is portable that can be used from a USB flash drive :)
Extensions availabe to scan file that are downloaded.
Addin to Microsoft Outlook to remove virus-infected attachments automatically.
Standalone virus scanner and right-click menu integration to Microsoft Windows Explorer

The latest version of Clamwin Free Antivirus is 0.95.1.Please note that ClamWin Free Antivirus does not include an on-access real-time scanner. You need to manually scan a file in order to detect a virus or spyware.ClamWin Free Antivirus is based on ClamAV engine and uses GNU General Public License.

Download ClamWare.

Portable ClamWin on a USB or Removable Drive:

Follow this guide to make your own portable ClamWin

You can take ClamWin Free Antivirus with you on a USB pen drive, CD or DVD

1)Install ClamWin on a host PC with Windows XP or higher

2)Copy all the files from "c:\program files\clamwin" to a "clamwin" folder on a removable drive. unins000.exe and unins000.dat files are not needed

3)Copy the following files:

Microsoft.VC80.CRT.manifest

msvcm80.dll

msvcr80.dll

from "c:\program files\clamwin\bin\Microsoft.VC80.CRT" to the "clamwin\bin" folder on your removable drive.

4)Copy this ClamWin.conf (right-click to Save) file to "clamwin\bin" folder on the removable drive (note Standalone=1 setting)

5)Create the folowing foldres on the removable drive:

"clamwin\log"

"clamwin\db"

"clamwin\quarantine"

6)Copy the database files (main.cvd and daily.cvd) from your database directory on the host PC (default location is "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\.clamwin\db") to the "clamwin\db" folder on the removable drive.

That's it, you can now run clamwin.exe from clamwin folder on your removable drive.

Notes:

It may take a while to load ClamWin.exe depending on the removable drive speed

If you use ClamWin Free Antivirus on a read-only drive (CD or DVD) your need to burn the latest database before use and won't be able to change preferences.

Tip: Click here to see the list of some portabe softwares.

thanks & regards

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

nagios installation steps!

2009-04-18T05:51:00.000-07:00

Nagios is a popular open source computer system and network monitoring software application. It watches hosts and services, alerting users when things go wrong and again when they get better.Nagios, originally created under the name NetSaint, was written and is currently maintained by Ethan Galstad, along with a group of developers actively maintaining both official and unofficial plugins.Nagios was originally designed to run under Linux, but also runs well on other Unix variants.Nagios is free software licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation.

Download nagios 3.1.0(latest)

As a newbie i decided to install the nagios in my ubuntu 9.04 to monitor my own system services & i succedeed in it. The nagios documentation was pretty simple to follow. But i have written a documentation of my own. This documentaion is for those who are lazy(like me :)) to read whole crap given in the official documentaion.Here i just posted the step by step instllation.

N.B: This is the documentaion for Ubuntu. If need to install on other distros goahead and follow this Documentation.
And use sudo in appropriate places.

Lets begin:

1)Nagios need Apache & gdlibrary to work.

sudo apt-get install apache2 (will install apache 2)

sudo apt-get install build-essential

sudo apt-get install libgd2-xpm

2)Create an Account for nagios

sudo useradd -m nagios ( -m is used to create home if donot exist)

passwd nagios

If you are using server edition do the next step , else skip it and goto a).

/usr/sbin/groupadd nagios
/usr/sbin/usermod -G nagios nagios

a)Create a new nagcmd group for allowing external commands to be submitted through web interfacw. Add both nagios & Apache user to the group.

/usr/sbin/groupadd nagcmd

/usr/sbin/usermod -a -G nagcmd nagios

/usr/sbin/usermod -a -G nagcmd www-data

3)Download nagios & Plugins

mkdir ~/downloads
cd ~/downloads

download the nagios & plugins in this folder(downloads). Extract the package.

wget -c http://osdn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/nagios/nagios-3.0.6.tar.gz

wget http://osdn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/nagiosplug/nagios-plugins-1.4.11.tar.gz

Extract the packages:

tar xzf nagios-3.0.6.tar.gz

cd nagios-3.0.6

Run the Nagios configure script, passing the name of the group you created earlier like so:

./configure --with-command-group=nagcmd

Compile the Nagios source code.

make all
make install
make install-init
make install-config
make install-commandmode

4)Don't start Nagios yet, we have to do some more.

Edit the /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/contacts.cfg config file with your favorite editor and change the email address associated with the nagiosadmin contact definition to the address you'd like to use for receiving alerts.

vi /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/contacts.cfg

just change the email address you need to receive the alerts.

5)Configure the webinterface.

dont leave the current directory ( ~/downloads/nagios-3.0.6)

make install-webconf

Create a nagiosadmin account for logging into the Nagios web interface. Remember the password you assign to this account - you'll need it later.

htpasswd -c /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users nagiosadmin

Restart Apache to make the new settings take effect.

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload (restart)

6)Compile and install nagios plugin

Extract the Nagios plugins..

cd ~/downloads
tar xzf nagios-plugins-1.4.11.tar.gz
cd nagios-plugins-1.4.11
Compile and install the plugins.

./configure --with-nagios-user=nagios --with-nagios-group=nagios
make
make install

7)login to your web interface(Browser)

You should now be able to access the Nagios web interface at the URL below. You'll be prompted for the username (nagiosadmin) and password you specified earlier.

http://localhost/nagios/

type the nagiosadmin username & password

Click on the "Service Detail" navbar link to see details of what's being monitored on your local machine. It will take a few minutes for Nagios to check all the services associated with your machine, as the checks are spread out over time

DONE! :)

For detailed instllation documentation refer: here

thanks & regards
tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to create a local Repository for Linux!

2009-04-16T11:26:00.000-07:00

Creating a Local Repository of Yum and apt:-

You should have a FTP server or HTTP server to make yum actually working. However since we haven't really gone through setting up FTP or HTTP server, please read-on and understand the process. If you have got vsftpd installed, use that. Otherwise, don't forget to actually set it up yourself later.

Here we will create a local repository for Fedora and CentOS in the easy way.

0. You should have the yum as well as the createrepo package installed first.

1. Create the directory to hold the repository.

mkdir -p /var/ftp/pub/yum-repo/centos/
mkdir -p /var/ftp/pub/yum-repo/fedora/

2. createrepo /var/ftp/pub/yum-repo/centos/ ; createrepo /var/ftp/pub/yum-repo/fedora/ will create the local yum repository by creating a folder named "repodata with four xml files named, filelists.xml.gz, other.xml.gz, primary.xml.gz and repomd.xml

You will have to run the createrepo command each time a rpm is added there.

3. Now in the client's yum.conf, add the repo directly. However in recent versions, the repositories are put in a separate directory called /etc/yum.repos.d/ . If so, put the contents in a filename, with the extension .repo

[humanlinux repo]
name=Fedora Core $releasever - humanlinux Local Repo
baseurl=file:///var/ftp/pub/yum-repo/fedora/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
#gpgkey=file:///path/to/your/RPM-GPG-KEY

Fedora Specific Local Repository:-

NB : You can create directories inside /var/ftp/pub/yum-repo/fedora/ to look like /var/ftp/pub/yum-repo/fedora/base/8/i386 , /var/ftp/pub/yum-repo/fedora/updates/8/i386 , /var/ftp/pub/yum-repo/fedora/base/9/i386, /var/ftp/pub/yum-repo/fedora/updates/9/i386 and so on.

1) Filling the repos with RPMs:-

Copy the rpm packages to /var/ftp/pub/yum-repo/fedora/ or /var/ftp/pub/yum-repo/fedora/base/8/i386 from the DVD's Packages directory.

OR

rsync from a rsync supported mirror from the list, http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org//mirrorlists/publiclist/Fedora/8/ like rsync://ftp.sh.cvut.cz/fedora/linux and

rsync -avrt rsync://ftp.sh.cvut.cz/fedora/linux/releases/8/Everything/i386/os/ /var/ftp/pub/yum-repo/fedora/base/8/i386 (remember to have a slash after os/ :-))

2) Updates and regular downloading:-

/var/ftp/pub/yum-repo/fedora/updates/8/i386

rsync the updates from rsync://ftp.sh.cvut.cz/fedora/linux/updates/8/i386/ to /var/ftp/pub/yum-repo/fedora/updates/8/i386

And then enter the command in a cron job too, to download the updates frequently.

Creating Apt repository:-

This is done using the apt-mirror tool. Download and install apt-mirror first and then edit the /etc/apt/mirror.list ( to list which packages tree should be mirrored ) which is similar to /etc/apt/sources.list.

apt-mirror will do the rest of the job. Once it is finished, clean up the repositories by running /var/spool/apt-mirror/var/clean.sh.

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to sent gmail from/using terminal!

2009-04-15T22:07:00.000-07:00

We can sent emails using the terminals. This is an advantage if the internet connection is very slow , since it take much time to load the GUI web interface.
Here are the steps to sent a gmail using/from the terminal.

1)We have to install a package
for Debain : apt-get install ssmtp
gnu/linux : yum install ssmtp

2)edit the file /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf with your favourite editor.
Add the following lines at the end.

AuthUser=youremailaddress(senders adress)
AuthPass=email password
FromLineOverride=Yes
mailhub=smtp.gmail.com
Use STARTTLS=YES

save & quit!

3)To sent an email, type this on the terminal

echo "This is a test mail' | mail -s "hello" receiptemailaddress@gmail.com

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to turn-on the num lock on every boot-up!

2009-04-15T05:40:00.000-07:00

It is frustating to see that the numlock is turned off on very reboot in ubuntu. But it is quite easy to fix it.Just install a tiny package.

sudo apt-get install numlockx

This can:-
1)Control the state of NumLock

2)Provides control over the keyboard number lock from scripts.
3)Particularly useful for use with .xinitrc/.xsession or GDM/XDM/KDM sessions
4)Included is an optional script that can be used to start numlockx automatically
in every X session.

thankyou:-
tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to put .htpasswd protection for a web directory!

2009-04-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

Protecting content on the web is something that most savvy users will have to do at one point or another. Whether the content is personal or professional, there comes a time when that content must only be seen by "authorized" eyes. The Apache web server ( that daemon that serves up your marvelous content ) allows a user to configure two files to facilitate this very purpose. Those files are .htaccess and .htpasswd.

.htaccess: The .htaccess file is a simple text file placed in the directory you want the contents of the file to affect. The rules and configuration directives in the .htaccess file will be enforced on whatever directory it is in and all sub-directories as well. In order to password protect content, there are a few directives we must become familiar with. One of these directives in the .htaccess file ( the AuthUserFile directive ) tells the Apache web server where to look to find the username/password pairs.

.htpasswd: The .htpasswd file is the second part of the affair. The .htpasswd file is also a simple text file. Instead of directives, the .htpasswd file contains username/password pairs. The password will be stored in encrypted form and the username will be in plaintext.

Apache Server
We have to make some changes on the apache conf file, & rester the service.The procedure is explained below.

Creating an .htaccess file:-
goto the directory you need to password protect. create a file named .htaccess.
add the following lines into it.

AuthName "Hello user!"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /usr/local/humanlinux/.htpasswd   (this is the location of the .htpasswd, you have to specify accourdingly)
Require user john  (replace the john with desired username)

Save the file.


Creating an .htpasswd file:-

To create a .htpasswd file in /usr/local/humanlinux

htpasswd -c /usr/local/humanlinux/.htpasswd john

Note the '-c' is only used when creating a new .htpasswd file.

To add dave to an existing .htpasswd file located in /usr/local/humanlinux/ the following command will be used.

htpasswd /usr/local/humanlinux/.htpasswd dave

Sample .htpasswd File

Below is a sample .htpasswd file that contains users john and dave

john:n5MfEoHOIQkKg
dave:9fluR/1n73p4c

Changes in the apache conf file:-

open the httpd.conf file using your favourote editor.goto the diretory area.

AllowOverride All

you have to specify the correct path for the directory you need to pasword protect.Here i have protected the directory /home/humanlinux/public_html/protected.

Restart the apache service.

Troubleshooting

Make sure that the path specified in AuthUserFile is the correct full path. This is a major cause of problems. If Apache cannot find the .htpasswd file, then all attempts will fail.
Make sure the permissions on the .htaccess and .htpasswd files are set so that Apache can read them.
- chmod 0644 .htaccess
- chmod 0644 .htpasswd
Other issues may be out of your control. Web administrators can lock down Apache so that it ignores all .htaccess files it encounters. This can be achieved with an AllowOverride None directive and option on the ServerRoot/DocumentRoot directories. If this is the case (.htaccess not allowed) you will have to kindly ask your web administrator to allow .htaccess files with authorization directives in your personal web directory. This can be achieved with AllowOverride AuthConfig directive and option.

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to create an account in cPanel!

2009-04-11T13:50:00.000-07:00

cPanel is a linux based web hosting control panel that provides a graphical interface and automation tools designed to simplify the process of hosting a web site. cPanel utilized a 3 tier structure that provides functionality for administrators, resellers, and end-user website owners to control the various aspects website and server administration through a standard web browser.  In addition to the GUI interface cPanel also has command line and API based access that allows third party software vendors, web hosting organizations, and developers to automate standard system administration processes.

cPanel is designed to function either as a dedicated server or virtual private server and it supports centOS, Red Hat Linux, and FreeBSD.

Application based support includes Apache, PHP, mySQL, Postgres, Perl, Python, and BIND. Email based support includes POP3, IMAP, SMTP services.

Here are the steps to create an account in cPanel.

1)Login to the whm using your root username and password.

2)to view the currently created accounts , click on 'account information'->list accounts.

3)To create, on the right hand side of the page you can see a menu, click on Account Functions -> Create a new account.

4) give the account details.
Domain name :
user name :
password :
email :

The new account has been created. To goto to the cpanel for the next time for a particular account from whm, goto the account information->list account info.

you will be able to find an icon of cPanel next to the domain.click on that to navigate to the cpanel.

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to install wordpress!

2009-04-10T15:25:00.000-07:00

WordPress is an open source blog publishing application. WordPress is the official successor of b2\cafelog which was developed by Michel Valdrighi. The latest release of WordPress is version 2.7.1, released on 10 February 2009.WordPress has a templating system, which includes widgets that can be rearranged without editing PHP or HTML code, as well as themes that can be installed and switched between. The PHP and HTML code in themes can also be edited for more advanced customizations. WordPress also features integrated link management; a search engine-friendly, clean permalink structure; the ability to assign nested, multiple categories to articles; multiple author capability; and support for tagging of posts and articles. Automatic filters that provide for proper formatting and styling of text in articles (for example, converting regular quotes to smart quotes) are also included. WordPress also supports the Trackback and Pingback standards for displaying links to other sites that have themselves linked to a post or article. Finally, WordPress has a rich plugin architecture which allows users and developers to extend its functionality beyond the features that come as part of the base install.

The instllation of wordpress is quite simple.

1)Download the latest version of wordpress and extract it.

2)Place the WordPress files in the desired location on your web server,using FTP

* If you want to integrate WordPress into the root of your domain (e.g. http://example.com/), move or upload all contents of the unzipped WordPress directory (but excluding the directory itself) into the root directory of your web server.
* If you want to have your WordPress installation in its own subdirectory on your web site (e.g. http://example.com/blog/), rename the directory wordpress to the name you'd like the subdirectory to have and move or upload it to your web server. For example if you want the WordPress installation in a subdirectory called "blog", you should rename the directory called "wordpress" to "blog" and upload it to the root directory of your web server.

3)Here i am uploading the folder(blog) to public_html, using ftp. Make sure that you upload the folder as a user, not the root.

4)now goto the cpanel,and create a mysql user and a database.please remember the dbname, user and password.

5)then goto filemanager, inside the uploaded folder (blog), edit the file wp-config-sample.php

6)rename the wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php.

7)edit the wp-config.php and insert the db details of the one which we have created.

Here is the default wp-config-sample.php, you will need to replace the default values in this file with your own specific database settings.

define('DB_NAME', 'putyourdbnamehere'); // The name of the database
define('DB_USER', 'usernamehere'); // Your MySQL username
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'yourpasswordhere'); // ...and password
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); // 99% chance you won't need to change this value

usually the DB_HOST must be 'localhost'.if it is not working contact your web hosting provider.

8)Run the WordPress installation script by accessing wp-admin/install.php in your favorite web browser.

* If you installed WordPress in the rootl directory, you should visit: http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php
* If you installed WordPress in its own subdirectory called blog, for example, you should visit: http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php

9)The instllation process will now beging. The screen shots fir the instllation is given below.

10)goto www.yourdomain.com/blog/wp-login.php to login for the next time.

thankyou
tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to re-register the nameservers from godaddy.com!

2009-04-09T13:31:00.000-07:00

In computing, a name server (also called nameserver or DNS server) consists of a program or computer server that implements a name-service protocol. It will normally map (i.e. connect) a human-recognisable identifier of a host (for example, the domain name 'en.wikipedia.org') to its computer-recognisable identifier (such as the Internet Protocol (IP) address 145.97.39.155), and vice versa.

We can re-register the nameservers to a different ip's , if we need so. Here are the simple steps to re-register the nameservers from godaddy.com

1)login to godaddy.com

2)click on 'my domains'

3)select your domain name

4)unlock the domain by clicking the lock symbol.

5)then clilck on your domain name

6)navigate to host summary and click on 'edit'

7)insert your new ip assigned for the nameserver,save. you can edit the second nameserver to update the ip.

The 'whois' record will be changed to the new nameserver assigned. You can 'host' to the nameservers to check whether the ip's are updated.

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

OpenDNS!

2009-04-08T15:36:00.000-07:00

OpenDNS offers DNS resolution for consumers and businesses as an alternative to using their Internet service provider's DNS servers. By placing company servers in strategic locations and employing a large cache of the domain names, OpenDNS usually processes queries much more quickly, thereby increasing page retrieval speed. DNS query results are sometimes cached by the local operating system and/or applications, so this speed increase may not be noticeable with every request, but only with requests that are not stored in a local cache.

Other features include a phishing filter, domain blocking and typo correction (for example, typing wikipedia.og instead of wikipedia.org). By collecting a list of malicious sites, OpenDNS blocks access to these sites when a user tries to access them through their service. OpenDNS recently launched Phishtank, where users around the world can submit and review suspected phishing sites.

OpenDNS is not, as its name might seem to imply, open source software.

OpenDNS earns a portion of its revenue by resolving a domain name to an OpenDNS server when the name is not otherwise defined in DNS. This has the effect that if a user types a nonexistent name in a URL in a web browser, the user sees an OpenDNS search page. Advertisers pay OpenDNS to have advertisements for their sites on this page. While this behavior is similar to VeriSign's previous Site Finder or the redirects many ISP's are placing on their own DNS servers, OpenDNS states that it is not the same, as OpenDNS is purely an opt-in service (compared to Site Finder's effect on the entire Internet, as VeriSign is an authoritative registry operator) and that the advertising revenue pays for the customized DNS service. Note that web browsers are not the only users of DNS resolution service and for any other user, this way of resolving names is at best useless, and may be worse than replying that the name does not exist, as is normal.

According to OpenDNS, it may in the future provide additional services that run on top of its enhanced DNS service, and may charge money for some of them.

One example of such an added service was the company's April 22, 2007 launch of "shortcuts", letting users make custom DNS mappings, such as mapping "mail" to "mail.yahoo.com". This feature launch was covered by a large number of publications, including the New York Times, Wired, and PC World.

On May 13, 2007, OpenDNS launched a new domain blocking service which provides the ability to block/filter web sites visited based upon categories. This provides for corporate, educational and parental control over the type of sites that are deemed appropriate by the networks owner. On August 9, 2007 OpenDNS added the ability to override the filter through individually managed blacklists and whitelists. On February 20, 2008 in an effort to make their domain block list current with new website additions OpenDNS changed from a closed list of blocked domains to a community driven list whereby individual OpenDNS subscribers can suggest sites for blocking. If a sufficient number of other subscribers concur with the categorization of the site it is added to the appropriate category for blocking. The threshold of votes required to add a new site to the filter has not been disclosed. Over 50 categories now exist for categorizing websites providing for fine grained control over web browsing habits.

visit the official site:- http://www.opendns.com/

the details to setup openDNS is provided in the website.

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to set the Google repository for gnu/Linux.

2009-04-03T14:28:00.000-07:00

Google's Linux software repositories make it easier to download and stay up-to-date with current releases of Google Linux applications.First, we have to use rpm to install the key. Here are the steps to do!

Command line configuration for RPM.

On an RPM-based system (Fedora, SUSE, Mandriva, RHEL, etc.), download the key and then use rpm to install it.

Run these commands as root:

1) wget https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub
2) rpm --import linux_signing_key.pub

You can verify the key installation by running:

3) rpm -qi gpg-pubkey-7fac5991-4615767f

To manually verify an RPM package, you can run the command:

4) rpm --checksig -v packagename.rpm

Command line configuration for YUM

As root, create a file 'google.repo' in /etc/yum.repos.d/ and add the following lines to it.

[google]
name=Google - i386
baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/rpm/stable/i386
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

If your .repo file contains gpgcheck=1, signatures will automatically be verified during installation.

If you are running a 64-bit distribution, you should also add the x86_64 repository, which will provide you with native 64-bit versions of some of google's software:

[google64]
name=Google - x86_64
baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/rpm/stable/x86_64
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

You can then use yum as usual, e.g.

yum install picasa
yum install desktop-backgrounds-basic

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Faster YUM search!

2009-04-03T14:20:00.000-07:00

Yum fastest mirror plugin (yum-plugin-fastestmirror) allow yum to select the closest and freshest mirror around you for your yum update. Once the yum fastest mirror plugin is activated, whenever you perform yum update or install, you will get a better connection. As yum will search the mirror based on your IP thru the GeoIP system. Yum select the fastest mirror based on:-

1. The connecting location of the client.
2. The current freshness/staleness of the mirrors for that region.

yum fastest mirror plugin (yum-plugin-fastestmirror) sound interesting? Want to try?
To install yum fastest mirror plugin (yum-plugin-fastestmirror) you can use this command:-

yum install yum-plugin-fastestmirror
or
yum install yum-fastestmirror

Once the installation completed, you have to edit the file /etc/yum.conf and add the following line to the file:

plugins=1

If it is already there , no need to add!

Done. you have just installed yum fastest mirror plugin.
if you perform yum install or yum update now,
you will notice there is a new line added like below

Loading “fastestmirror” plugin
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories

Happy yumming!

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

How to transfer website between two VPS's!

2009-04-01T13:35:00.000-07:00

How to transfer a Website from one to cPanel VPS to Another cPanel VPS?

lets say you find a new Hosting Provider however they don’t support you in transferring your old data or website from your Old VPS here is what you need to do.

First you have to make sure that you have cPanel installed on both the New and the Old VPS. Then only with the click of a few buttons you can transfer your complete website to your New VPS. Hope both have the cPanel installed!

1)Login to your Old VPS with the root username and password for e.g:

http://100.100.00.00:2082 or http://100.100.00.00/cpanel

Type the user name & password! ,u have to :) !
username - your username
password- your password

2)Go to Backup’s option in the cPanel Menu and then click on the “Download or Generate a Full Backup” option.

Then under Generate a Full Backup option find the Backup Destination and select the Home Directory

under the option Enter Email Address: enter your email address.

Then click on the generate backup button.

Once the back up is generated you will receive a notification on your email address specified earlier.

3)Then go to the File Manager option on your cPanel and there go to the Home Directory >> /home/username and here you will find the backup that was just generated for you in the following format “backup-11.03.2008_18-06-35_username.tar.gz”

4)Select the backup file and Move it to the public_html directory and then click on the public_html and you will see the backup there.

5)Now change the file permission for the Backup file to 644.

6)Now once this is done login to the New VPS and go to the path where the backup is supposed to be downloaded.

7)Now to get the backup from the old server use the “wget” command in the following way.

wget -c http://the pld VPS ip/~old vps username/backup-11.03.2008_18-06-35_username.tar.gz

8)Then once this is done all you need to do is restore the backup Folder.

To restore the backup,type :-

/scripts/restorepkg --force username

The account restoration process will begin, this will take a long time & the backup process will also consumes a long time.

thankyou
mail me @ tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Opera Browser installation in GNU/Linux

2009-04-01T12:58:00.000-07:00

Here i am discussing the step-by-step process to install Opera Browser in GNU/Linux:-

I am installing Opera/9.64 (X11; Linux i686; U; en) Presto/2.1.1 in Redhat linux/Centos 5 Version

1)Download the opera from the folowing url

http://www.opera.com/browser/download/

Select distribution and vendor as Redhat 5 or your current version

And check the box : Download this package in TAR.GZ format

Click on DOWNLOAD OPERA

2) The download begins

after completion,goto the downloaded location

Move it to the home
Create a directory 'opera'

mkdir opera

move the downloaded package to opera

mv opera-9.64.gcc4-shared-qt3.i386.tar.gz opera

3)Extract the package using the following command

tar xzf opera-9.64.gcc4-shared-qt3.i386.tar.gz

4)then open the directory opera

cd opera

list the files

ls

you can see some files & Folders

You can see one named install.sh

5)type

./install.sh

It starts the instalations process

It ask for the confirmation

Type 'y' to complete the instllation.

6)After the instllation,the Opera opens up

For the next time if you want to browse using Opera

7)Click on Application->internet->Opera

mail me at :- tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Class 12 Installing Packages in gnu/Linux.!

2009-03-28T17:27:00.001-07:00

Redhat Package Manager - RPM
---------------------------------------------------------
* Can install, remove, query, and verify the software on your system
* Can run as root only, since it can change the underlying system.
* Used in other distro's like SuSe and Mandrake too
* have a local database and related files at /var/lib/rpm
* have four common elements : Name , Version (major.minor.patchlevel), Revision and Architecture.
* has frontends like Yum and up2date
* has Five basic modes of operation :
Installing - rpm -i
Uninstalling - rpm -e
Upgrading - rpm -U
Querying - rpm -q
Verifying - rpm -V

Querying:-

Examples :

(1) rpm -qa | more -> what software you have installed on your system.

-q -> Query option
-a -> List all the packages

(2) rpm -qf /etc/sysctl.conf

-f -> Display the package that contains a particular file.

(3) rpm -qpl package_2.0.2-i386.rpm

-p -> Query a (uninstalled package file).
-l -> List the files in packages.

(4) rpm -qilsdc quota

-i -> displays package information including name, description, release, size, build date, install date, vendor, and other miscellaneous information.
-s -> displays the state of all the files in the package.
-d -> displays a list of files marked as documentation (man pages, info pages, READMEs, etc.).
-c -> displays the configuration files.

(5) rpm -q whatrequires package

print the other packages that depends on the package, installed

(6) rpm -qpR package_2.0.2-i386.rpm

to get the list of packages and programs that are required for instalation of the package_2.0.2-i386.rpm

Installing:-

1. rpm -ivh package_2.0.2-i386.rpm

-v -> verbose
-h -> print hashes

Other options:-

--test # simulate what will be done when executing "rpm -ivh package.rpm"
--nodeps # Don't perform a dependency check when installing or upgrading a package
--replacefiles # Install package even if it overwrites existing files
--replacepkgs # Install package even if it's already installed
--force # Combination of --replacefiles, --replacepkgs, and --oldpackage

Upgrading or Freshening:-

Upgrading to a New package can be done in 2 ways, by freshening the package and by executing:

rpm -Uvh new-package.rpm

"-U" Upgrading option simple removes the old and installed package, then install the new one. The "-Uvh" can be used to install a package too, while freshening can upgrade only installed packages.

For downgrading also the same -U has to be used, but with an extra option though.

rpm -Uvh --oldpackage package_1.0.1-i386.rpm

Freshening --> rpm -Fvh package_2.0.2-i386.rpm <-- will upgrade only if old version of package exists. Erasing or Removing- rpm -e package rpm -e --test package - Don't actually remove package. Just show what will be removed. rpm -e --repackage package - A backup copy is made. The Old RPM will be generated on "_repackage_dir" RPM macro, usually /var/spool/repackage. _repackage_dir can be confirmed by the command, "rpm --showrc" rpm -q --whatrequires package - See a list of packages that requires the RPM package you're trying to erase Verification rpm -V package - Verify installed package rpm -Vp package_VVV-RRR.i386.rpm -- Verify package file, before installing rpm -Va -- Verify all packages Verify the packages downloaded using the GPG-Key rpm --import RPM-GPG-KEY (need to download the key first)
Debian Package Management:-

.deb is the extension

Installation:-

apt-get install packagename

for installing from the repository.

Examples for package installation:-

dpkg --status package - To determine exactly which files are preserved during an upgrade.
dpkg -i package_2.0.2-1_i386.deb - Install package file
dpkg -R /usr/local/src - Install all packages recursively
dpkg --unpack package_2.0.2-1_i386.deb - Unpack the package, but don't configure it.
dpkg --configure package - Configure the unpackaged package
dpkg -r package - Remove an installed package, but leave the config file intact
dpkg -P package - Purge an installed package, including the config files.
dpkg -C package - Searches for packages that have been installed only partially on your system
dpkg -c package_2.0.2-1_i386.deb / dpkg --contents - List contents of package_2.0.2-1_i386.deb
dpkg -l mp3 - List packages matching the word mp3
dpkg -l - List all installed packages, along with package version and short description
dpkg -L package - List files installed to your system from package
dpkg -S 'search pattern' - Search for a filename from installed packages.
dpkg -p package - Display details about package.
dpkg --fsys-tarfile package_2.0.1-i86.deb | tar -xf - config.conf - Extract a single file named config.conf from the package.

Building binary packages from a source debian package:-

You will need all of package_*.dsc, package_*.tar.gz and package_*.diff.gz to compile the source. If there is no, package_*.diff.gz, don't panic. It's "OK".

Make sure dpkg-dev and fakeroot package is installed and dpkg-source command is available. After that,

dpkg-source -x package_version-revision.dsc

will extract the package into a directory called package-version.

If you want just to compile the package, you may cd into package-version directory and issue the command

dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b

Conversion b/w rpm and deb formats:-

Redhat Package Manager - http://labix.org/smart
Alien - http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/alien/

Package Managers:-

Yum, Apt, Slap-get, Emerge, pkgadd and so on are the package management tool or s/w that act as a automatic updater and package installer/remover for rpm, deb and tar.gz based systems.

Yum (Yellow dog Updater, Modified) is mainly used in the rpm based distros, like redhat, fedora, centos and so on.
Apt (Advanced Package Tool) is for debian based systems. Slap-get, slackpkg is for Slackware, Portage, Emerge for Gentoo and pkgadd for root linux, urpmi for Mandriva and Yast is used by SuSe

These are client server architecture for a software.

Some Yum Options:-

Escape the wild characters using the \.

yum install package
yum groupinstall "MySQL Database"
yum localinstall package.rpm

yum update package
yum groupupdate ""MySQL Database"

yum remove package
yum groupremove "MySQL Database"

yum list package - Search for specific package by name
yum grouplist - List all groups.
yum search mp3 - Searches the names, descriptions, summaries and listed package maintainers of all of the available packages to find those that match
yum provides libc.so - search for all packages that include files called libc.so

yum clean headers , yum clean packages , yum clean metadata , yum clean all - to redownload the indexes and cached files.

yum check update
yum upgrade

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Class 11 File Types

2009-03-28T16:54:00.000-07:00

FileTypes:-

Ordinary - text, ./binary, .images, html and conf files
Directory - Also known as folders
Special/Device File - Hardware
Devices - /dev/lp0 , /dev/hda1, /dev/sda1, /dev/fd0
Logical Devices - /dev/null , /dev/zero
Links - Hardlinks and SoftLinks + Difference of Hardlinks & SoftLinks
Sockets - A socket refers to a special file with which communication between locally running processes happens
FIFOs Or Named Pipes - act more or less like sockets and form a way for processes to communicate with each other, without using network socket semantics

FIFO is a one way communication pipe, while Unix domain sockets (otherwise called as IPC Sockets) are two way communication pipes

ls -l /dev/console
crw------- 1 root root 5, 1 2008-03-30 17:45 /dev/console

- Regular file
d Directory
l Link
c Special file
s Socket
p Named pipe

Maximum number of characters for a file name --> 255
Use backslash for special characters
Case sensitivity for files

Color codes:-

blue directories
red compressed archives
white text files
pink images
cyan links
yellow devices
green executables
flashing red broken links

Suffix Schemes:-

nothing regular file
/ directory
* executable file
@ link
= socket
| named pipe

PathNames:-

Relative Path and Absolute path

Relative Path: the relative path is the path to the destination file /directory from the current location.

Absolute Path : the absolute path is the path from the '/'

Maximum length of PathNames including slashes - 4096

Examples:-

/root/humanlinux/Desktop/FIL-102 - Absolute Path (beginning with /)

relative pathe are:

../Desktop/FIL-102

./FIL-102

~/FIL-102

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Class 10 The gnu-Linux File System

2009-02-28T11:44:00.002-08:00

The first thing that most new users shifting from Windows will find confusing is navigating the Linux filesystem. The Linux filesystem does things a lot more differently than the Windows file system.This article explains the differences and takes you through the layout of the Linux filesystem.there is only a single hierarchal directory structure.Everything starts from the root directory, represented by '/', and thenexpands into sub-directories.Windows, the various partitions are detected at boot and assigned a drive letter. Under Linux, unless you mount a partition or a device, the system does not know of the existence of that partition or device. This
might not seem to be the easiest way to provide access to your partitions or devices but it offers great flexibility.

the file system can be classified accourding to the purpose
1)Sharable/Variable
2)Unsharable/Static For eg:

Sharable Unsharable
..................................................................................
Static /usr /etc

/opt /boot

..................................................................................
Variable /var/mail /var/run
/var/spool/news /var/lock

We cant load them in a different file system location(partition) for eg, we cant load /etc & /lib in other partiotion.it should be under / the (root).here is the list of files n directories under / for fedora linux:

bin
boot
dev
etc
home
lib
lost+found
media
mnt
opt
proc
root
sbin
selinux
srv
sys
tmp
usr
var

some explanations:
/usr->Unique System resource
/etc->Configuration files
/opt->Optional packages
/boot->boot files
/var->variable
/bin->essential executables for every user & to be used in single user mode
/sbin->essential system executables
/lib->essential shared libraries & kernel modules
/boot->static files of bootloader
/dev->device files & scripts called MAKEDEV,device types-c,h,d,b,l

the major no: & minor no: is used by kernel to identify a device
Major no:- it is an indication for which device driver should be used to acess a particular device.
Minor no:- is which tells the kernel the special characterstics of the device to be acessed.

to know the malor & minor no: of a device :- ls -la 'device name' eg: ls -la sd*

we should be familiar with the most of the files n directories under /etc. These files are of high imoprtance and should be modifiled for administration and for trouble shooting! the files n directories under /etc for fedora are:

adjtime
aliases
aliases.db
alsa
alternatives
anacrontab
anthy-conf
asound.conf
asound.state
at.deny
audisp
audit
avahi
bash_completion.d
bashrc
blkid
bluetooth
bonobo-activation
chkconfig.d
ConsoleKit
cron.d
cron.daily
cron.deny
cron.hourly
cron.monthly
crontab
cron.weekly
csh.cshrc
csh.login
cups
dbus-1
default
depmod.d
dhcp6c.conf
DIR_COLORS
DIR_COLORS.256color
DIR_COLORS.xterm
dirmngr
dnsmasq.conf
dnsmasq.d
dumpdates
enscript.cfg
environment
esd.conf
ethers
event.d
exports
favicon.png
fb.modes
fedora-release
festival
filesystems
fonts
foomatic
fstab
gconf
gcrypt
gdm
ghostscript
gimp
gnome-vfs-2.0
gnome-vfs-mime-magic
gnupg
gpm-root.conf
gpm-syn.conf
gpm-twiddler.conf
gre.d
group
group-
grub.conf
gshadow
gshadow-
gssapi_mech.conf
gtk-2.0
gtkmathview
hal
host.conf
hosts
hosts.allow
hosts.deny
httpd
idmapd.conf
init.d
initlog.conf
inittab
inputrc
iproute2
issue
issue.net
jwhois.conf
kde
kernel
kerneloops.conf
krb5.conf
ldap.conf
ld.so.cache
ld.so.conf
ld.so.conf.d
lftp.conf
libaudit.conf
libuser.conf
localtime
login.defs
logrotate.conf
logrotate.d
logwatch
lvm
mail
mailcap
mail.rc
makedev.d
man.config
mime.types
minicom.users
mke2fs.conf
modprobe.conf
modprobe.d
motd
mtab
mtools.conf
multipath.conf
netconfig
netplug
netplug.d
NetworkManager
networks
nscd.conf
nsswitch.conf
nsswitch.conf.bak
ntp
ntp.conf
obex-data-server
openldap
openvpn
opt
PackageKit
pam.d
pam_pkcs11
pam_smb.conf
pango
passwd
passwd-
pcmcia
pki
pm
pm-utils-hd-apm-restore.conf
PolicyKit
popt.d
portreserve
ppp
prelink.cache
prelink.conf
prelink.conf.d
printcap
profile
profile.d
protocols
pulse
purple
quotagrpadmins
quotatab
rc
rc0.d
rc1.d
rc2.d
rc3.d
rc4.d
rc5.d
rc6.d
rc.d
rc.local
rc.sysinit
redhat-release
resolv.conf
rmt
rpc
rpm
rsyslog.conf
rwtab
rwtab.d
samba
sane.d
sasl2
scim
scsi_id.config
securetty
security
selinux
sensors3.conf
services
sestatus.conf
setroubleshoot
setuptool.d
sgml
shadow
shadow-
shells
skel
smartd.conf
smolt
smrsh
sos.conf
sound
ssh
statetab
statetab.d
stunnel
sudoers
sysconfig
sysctl.conf
system-release
system-release-cpe
terminfo
udev
updatedb.conf
virc
vpnc
warnquota.conf
wpa_supplicant
wvdial.conf
X11
xdg
xinetd.d
xml
yp.conf
yum
yum.conf
yum.repos.d

Most of the configuration files for the system lies under /etc. So please be sure before you edit them, or else take a back-up of it and edit to feel the changes on your system :)

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

class 9 Answers

2009-02-28T11:44:00.001-08:00

will be updated soon!

Class 8 A few exercises.

2009-02-19T09:15:00.000-08:00

Here let us do some exercises using the commands i have mentioned in the above classes.Please try yourselves, answers will be posted in next class!

1)list the last modified file at the beginning.(last modified file should be listed first)
2)descent the files according to its size.
3)to list the files and directories in a list and not in lines
4)to make directories recursively or like a tree ,one inside the other in a single command(ie a ,b inside a,c inside b ...etc)
5)needs to find all the .txt files in the current directory and copy it to a file in a single command
6)to list the files belonging to a user using uid
7)to copy all the files except the directories to a folder
8)to know the disk usage of the current folder

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Class 7 continued

2009-02-17T07:16:00.000-08:00

cat >filename :to i/p the items to a file, but replaces the old data.
cat >>filename :will append the files,wont delete old data.
cat file1 file2 >file3 :file3 contains o/p of file file1 & file2 which are concatenated.
sort : hit enter, n type the data, n press ctrl D . it will sort the data alphabetically.
sort :will sort the contents of 'file' alphabetically.
who | sort :here a pipe '|' is used to o/p the sorted list of users.
host www.website.com : to display the static ip of a 'website'.
grep: to seach inside a file
grep -i "word" file : will search for files with "word" within a directory recursively.
grep -r "word" /etc :will search for "word" inside /etc, recursively.
grep 'word' *.c : to search for files with particular extension *.c
man heir :to know file system hierarchy.

next i wil post the file system hierarchy,some more commands n files.

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Class 6 more commands!

2009-02-14T11:47:00.000-08:00

More commands:

Here I am discussing some useful commands that might be helpful to work with,And some explanations for them.*NB: use tab to get the complete list of possible commands
for eg: if we pres tab, after typing 'trace' , will list the possible commands like
tracepath,tracepath6, traceroute, traceroute6. Then type the next letter n tab to display the correct command!

ifconfig:ifconfig (short for interface configurator) serves to configure and control TCP/IP network interfaces from a command line interface (CLI).
here is the screen short for the ifconfig command result--->

lspci:lists PCI devices in the system, pci --v gives more detailed
description.
lsusb:lists the usb port details,lsusb --v gives more detailed description.
tty:to find the terminal location
type command :shows the type of the command "command".
eg: type reboot shows the result /sbin/reboot,(sbin will be described in the file system,later)
ls -R :recursive listing
ls -r :reverse listing of files directories
ls -lt:longlisting with last modified file at first
ls -sSt: size in bytes,Sorted,longlisting
ls -F:to classify accouirding to directories n files
ls -lh:lists in human readable format

rm -r dir :removes the directory, but wont work if it is empty.
rm -rf dir : removes the directory dir recursively and forcefully.
mkdir -p dir1 dir2 dir3 :makes directories dir1,dir2 and dir3 in a single command
findfs LABEL=/ :to search the file system using label or UUID(universially unique identifier)
dumpe2fs /dev/sda1 | more :shows the UUID for the device dev/sda1, | more is used to show the output of the first command. ' | ' is called as grep which is used to input the output of the first command.
su username : to switch the user to username,su(substitute user)
su - username :goes to the home directory of the username
less /etc/services : will lists all available ports and to which it is assigned to.
ps :shows current running process
ps -aux : all user server process
top :lists live processes

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Class 5 gnu-Linux basic commands

2009-02-14T10:16:00.000-08:00

Linux Basic Commands!

There are two kinds of commands used in gnu/Linux: Built-in Shell Commands and Linux Commands.
Please note: Commands might vary somewhat in syntax and usage from one distribution of Linux to another, and from one type of shell to another. The command libraries here are provided as general references. Use the 'man command' to see how a command is used in a particular shell and on your particular Linux distribution. This session doesn't covers all commands in gnu-Linux, it just covers the basic commands used to work with for a normal user! I have categorized the commands as:

FILE OPERATION COMMANDS
SYSTEM INFO
PROCESS MANAGEMENT
FILE PERMISSIONS
COMPRESSION
NETWORK
INSTALLATION
SHORTCUTS
SSH
SEARCHING

1)FILE OPERATIONS:

ls – directory listing
ls -al – formatted listing with hidden files
cd dir - change directory to dir
cd – change to home
'cd -' - to goto the previous directory
cd . - current directory
cd.. - previous directory
pwd – show current directory
mkdir dir – create a directory dir
rm file – delete file
rm -r dir – delete directory dir
rm -f file – force remove file
rm -rf dir – force remove directory dir *
cp file1 file2 – copy file1 to file2
cp -r dir1 dir2 – copy dir1 to dir2; create dir2 if it doesn't exist
mv file1 file2 – rename or move file1 to file2 if file2 is an existing directory, moves file1 into directory file2
ln -s file link – create symbolic link link to file
touch file – create or update file
cat > file – places standard input into file
more file – output the contents of file
head file – output the first 10 lines of file
tail file – output the last 10 lines of file
tail -f file – output the contents of file as it grows, starting with the last 10 lines

2)SYSTEM INFO:
date – show the current date and time
cal – show this month's calendar
uptime – show current uptime
w – display who is online
whoami – who you are logged in as
finger user – display information about user
uname -a – show kernel information
cat /proc/cpuinfo – cpu information
cat /proc/meminfo – memory information
man command – show the manual for command
df – show disk usage
du – show directory space usage
free – show memory and swap usage
whereis app – show possible locations of app
which app – show which app will be run by default

3)PROCESS MANAGEMENT:
ps – display your currently active processes
top – display all running processes
kill pid – kill process id pid
killall proc – kill all processes named proc *
bg – lists stopped or background jobs; resume a
stopped job in the background
fg – brings the most recent job to foreground
fg n – brings job n to the foreground

4)FILE PERMISSIONS:
we can assign permission for every file and directories.It means that we can define a file/dir as read-only,write only,execute-only or several combinations of it.

chmod octal file – change the permissions of file
to octal, which can be found separately for user,
group, and world by adding:
● 4 – read (r)
● 2 – write (w)
● 1 – execute (x)
Examples:
chmod 777 – read, write, execute for all
chmod 755 – rwx for owner, rx for group and world
For more options, see man chmod.

5)COMPRESSION:
we can compress a file/Dir to reduce its size using just simple commands, no s/w's needed like windows,be careful with the options used.

tar cf file.tar files – create a tar named file.tar containing files
tar xf file.tar – extract the files from file.tar
tar czf file.tar.gz files – create a tar with Gzip compression
tar xzf file.tar.gz – extract a tar using Gzip
tar cjf file.tar.bz2 – create a tar with Bzip2 compression
tar xjf file.tar.bz2 – extract a tar using Bzip2
gzip file – compresses file and renames it to file.gz
gzip -d file.gz – decompresses file.gz back to file

6)NETWORK:
netstat - to know the network status
ifconfig - to find the ip of our computer
ping host – ping host and output results
whois domain – get whois information for domain
dig domain – get DNS information for domain
dig -x host – reverse lookup host
wget file – download file
wget -c file – continue a stopped download

7)INSTALLATION:
To Install from source:
./configure
make
make install

dpkg -i pkg.deb – install a package (Debian)
rpm -Uvh pkg.rpm – install a package (RPM)

8)SHORTCUTS:
Ctrl+C – halts the current command
Ctrl+Z – stops the current command, resume with
fg in the foreground or bg in the background
Ctrl+D – log out of current session, similar to exit
Ctrl+W – erases one word in the current line
Ctrl+U – erases the whole line
Ctrl+R – type to bring up a recent command
!! - repeats the last command
exit – log out of current session

9)SSH:
ssh user@host – connect to host as user
ssh -p port user@host – connect to host on port
port as user
ssh-copy-id user@host – add your key to host for
user to enable a keyed or passwordless login

10)SEARCHING:
grep pattern files – search for pattern in files
grep -r pattern dir – search recursively for
pattern in dir
command | grep pattern – search for pattern in the
output of command
locate file – find all instances of file

*please use the commands careafully.Be caution with the options used.

For more options for the commands look 'man'.

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Class 4 do's on gnu-Linux?

2009-02-14T09:58:00.000-08:00

Reasons for choosing Linux | advantages of linux | Linux gaming | Linux Music Player

Linux Games , Linux music players , features of Linux , why Linux is less virus infected ,

Linux is Less virus infected:

To be very precise about this point,I should say that Linux is multi user operating system by linux less virus and advantagesbirth itself, whereas Windows got transformed to a multi user OS from its original Single user model. Many of those Single user design is still used in modern version of windows.

So if a virus infect a Linux system it is limited to that particular user alone where as in windows access to system files and access to every users is pretty easy. Hence the consequences of virus attach can be much more.

No cost for your operation system:
We have different options to get free linux OS , We may need to pay for support but If you have a good Linux administrator then Security can be handled by them.

Efficient package management system:-

RPM , APT are few efficient package management system implemented in different flavours of linux. These Pakcage management system help in unified and easy patching,More Open source support.Since Linux is developed with a open source concept , most of the applications are available freely. Regular updates are available freely

Different desktop managers:

In Linux we have option to select different desktops such as KDE , GNOME etc.

More security:

As discussed earlier security patches are available easily and freely,most of the Linux systems are secure. Even the patching is made easy with the help of different package managers.

Less restarts:
Most of the updates and upgrades can be done on the fly. so less restarts are required. This is very Ideal for servers.

Gaming support:
With the evolution of X-windows gaming in Linux developed to a far extent. Battle for wesnoth America’s Army A Tale in the Desert Second Life Open Racing .

In the next class i will be dealing with some basic commands that is needed to work with gnu/linux!

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Class 3 Getting Help!

2009-02-13T11:35:00.000-08:00

Getting Help!

I was very disturbed when i saw the black screen of gnu/linux for the first time.I was used with the GUI of windows XP , which i was using for years. I thought windows was better,since its easy to work with. But time proved that i was wrong. The "Black Window" is so powerful and we can do what ever we would like to with the hepls of "commands".Every task is done using these commands. Comands are case sensetive. The gnu/linux has thousands of commands. Its very hard to remember these commands,so gnu/linux provides help for its users for easy and correct execution of it.

some of the helping agents are:

man
help
whatis
apropos
howto etc...

eg: 'ls' is a command to list all the files and directories.
the format of a command is - command -[option] [argument]
(command space - option space argument)
ls -a "file.txt"
here command is ls ,option is 'a' , and argument is file.txt.

so there are lots of options available to get different results for the ls commands.If we donno the options , we can ask for help by typing ' man ls ' which list all the detailed options and its explanations. The man pages are saved in the location /usr/share/man.when we goto the above location we can find several directories named as man1,man2,man3...man9 likewise.

Man Pages (short for manual pages) are a standard form of documentation found on most distributions of Linux and Unix. They are broken up into 9 sections as follows:

Executable Programs or shell commands
System Calls
Library Calls
Special Files
File Formats and Conventions
Games
Macro Packages
System Administration
Kernel Routines

to know more about man pages ,just type "man man".

Commands:-
commands helps us to do our tasks .we can type the command after logging to the computer as the root or as a different user.A root is a user who has all the privileges on a computer, or else he is the administrator of a gnu/linux based system.After logging with the user name and password we can type the command.

The 'command line' is the line on which commands are typed in a console or terminal window. A command is an instruction given to a computer to do something, e.g., to execute a program.

The functions of a command prompt are to inform the user that the system is ready for the next command, data element or other input and to help the user plan and execute subsequent operations.Prompts are found on the command line interface of any operating system that provides a CLI(Command Line Interface). This includes not only Unix-like operating systems but also MS-DOS and the various Microsoft Windows systems.

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Class 2 gnu-Linux Desktops

2009-02-13T10:28:00.000-08:00

The image i have provided here is the desktop image of a gnome gnu/linux.There are several types of gnu/linux desktops

KDE

Xfce

Enlightenment

Fluxbox

fvwm

icewm

WindowMaker

Openbox

xmonad

Other

most commonly used enviornment is GNOME and KDE. KDE is more 3D enhanced that other enviornments .while downloading OS we can select GNOME oR KDE. In gnu/linux the GUI is considered as an application.One can switch between consoles by pressing Alt+Ctrl+(F1,F2,F3..F7 respectively.)

The Window Manager:-what is a window manager?

A window manager is a program responsible for coordinating all the windows on the screen.Some os them are:

FVWM,ICEWM,FLUXBOX,ENLIGHTMENT,BLADEBOX & METACITY .

better to work with the 'Black Screen than GUI, because it dont have any limitations!.

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Class 1 GNU/LINUX Freedom

2009-02-13T08:42:00.000-08:00

GNU/LINUX Freedom:

what makes the GNU/LINUX differ from Windows.
the answer is simple, its the "FREEDOM".
GNU-LINUX provides us several freedom:

freedom 0: The freedom to run the program for any purpose
freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works & adapt it to our needs.
freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies ,so we can help our neighbors n friends!
freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program,& can deploy commercially.
lets grab our first freedom.
lets have a free copy of gnu-linux on our computer, run it ,& enjoy!
there are different versions of gnu-linux available for free:
some of them are:-
(click the links to download)

and many more. you can also order for a free disc by mail from www.ubuntu.com.

The downloads will be in the form of ISO file , burn it to a disc, put the disc in and reboot the computer. you can work with gnu/linux either without installing into hard disc ( booting it from the cd on restart) or installing it to the hardisk.

1.And for a desktop user, most importantly, the freedom from viruses, as long as you use the software downloaded from the software repository of your OS :-)

2. Multi-User Environment

3. Potability

4. Intimate knowledge of the hardware

5. No BSOD - Blue Screen of Death

6. Upgradeability

7. Customization

8. Security - viruses, worms and trojans

9. Maturity - Stable, Reliable (except for kernel upgrades, no reboot) and Extremely powerful

10. Support

11. Complete development environment while a C compiler for Windows alone would set you back hundreds of dollars

tell2humanlinux@gmail.com

Introduction -

2009-02-13T07:24:00.000-08:00

Linux is an operating system: a series of programs that let you interact with your computer and run other programs.The most important part of an operating system is the kernel. In a GNU/Linux system, Linux is the kernel component. The rest of the system consists of other programs, many of which were written by or for the GNU Project. Because the Linux kernel alone does not form a working operating system, we prefer to use the term “GNU/Linux” to refer to systems that many people casually refer to as “Linux”.

so here onwards let's say 'GNU-LINUX' instead of Linux. That's what i learn from my first class!

It beggined here:-

In 1984 Richard Stallman started the GNU project.He wrote GCC, emacs, bash etc..
The GNU is not a Unit. Bash is a free software Unix shell written for the GNU projects. Its name is an acronym which stands for "Bourne-again shell".

Linus Benedict Torvalds born in December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland is a Finnish software engineer best known for having initiated the development of the Linux kernel. He later became the chief architect of the Linux kernel, and now acts as the project's coordinator.Authority on Linux

About 2% of the Linux kernel as of 2006 was written by Torvalds himself. Since Linux has had thousands of contributors, such a percentage represents a significant personal contribution to the overall amount of code. Torvalds remains the ultimate authority on what new code is incorporated into the standard Linux kernel.

Does Linux have a future? and what is open source?

The idea behind Open Source software is rather simple: when programmers can read, distribute and change code, the code will mature. People can adapt it, fix it, debug it, and they can do it at a speed that dwarfs the performance of software developers at conventional companies. This software will be more flexible and of a better quality than software that has been developed using the conventional channels, because more people have tested it in more different conditions than the closed software developer ever can.

The Open Source initiative started to make this clear to the commercial world, and very slowly, commercial vendors are starting to see the point. While lots of academics and technical people have already been convinced for 20 years now that this is the way to go, commercial vendors needed applications like the Internet to make them realize they can profit from Open Source. Now Linux has grown past the stage where it was almost exclusively an academic system, useful only to a handful of people with a technical background. Now Linux provides more than the operating system: there is an entire infrastructure supporting the chain of effort of creating an operating system, of making and testing programs for it, of bringing everything to the users, of supplying maintenance, updates and support and customizations, etc. Today, Linux is ready to accept the challenge of a fast-changing world.Yes Linux have a Future!

so ˳Expunge the idleness˳®- by faheem