Saturday, January 28, 2017

Temporary Post Used For Theme Detection (60e1939a-2979-48b7-9892-1855b83f8069 - 3bfe001a-32de-4114-a6b4-4005b770f6d7)

This is a temporary post that was not deleted. Please delete this manually. (89a2fa30-3b9d-43f0-bf13-34e357c31505 - 3bfe001a-32de-4114-a6b4-4005b770f6d7)

Friday, October 19, 2012

Apple Losing the Patent War Against Samsung In UK

Samsung smartphone and Apple iPhone

Apple (AAPL) lost again in its epic war against Samsung (005930) concerning the design and utility patents on its smartphone and tablet. The UK appeals court has upheld the previous ruling that Samsung did not infringe upon Apple's iPhone and iPad designs. In July, the UK judge Colin Birss made headlines around the world, saying Samsung products were “not as cool” as Apple's despite similarities, therefore no copyright infringement. Now, Apple has to publicly announce on select newspapers and its Web site that Samsung didn't copy its products.

Apple publicly denouncing its previous claim that Samsung copied its designs would be quite humiliating and a blow to its reputation. Therefore, I think Apple will once again burn its huge cash to go all the way to the UK supreme court and avoid humiliation. To me, it's just an amusing circus that's meaningless to watch. Apple is desperate to keep its stronghold in the lucrative smartphone and tablet market that is rapidly taken over by Android appliances.

I honestly hope Apple could put its ample cash to better uses, such as helping needy people around the world by donating its luxury iPhones and iPads. Perhaps, I am dreaming.

via Reuters

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

To Install the Same Set of Packages as Another Debian Machine

I know this is a well-known trick with the Debian package system, but I'm going to sum it up here. Suppose that you want to install the same set of packages on box A as box B. At box B, type the following command to get the list of installed packages.



dpkg --get-selections > select.txt


Then, take select.txt to box A and run on box A:



apt-get update
dpkg --set-selections < select.txt
apt-get -u dselect-upgrade

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Share your Linux desktop with x11vnc

x11vnc is a pretty useful program that you can use to share your Linux desktop with someone far away. To start x11vnc while using X11 windows, issue the following command:



x11vnc -display :0


This command will work in most cases, assuming there is only one instance of X11 Windows server running. However, the display number could be different. To be sure, type the following command:



xdpyinfo | head


x11vnc will output a lot of information, including the port number it runs on:



The VNC desktop is:      bootcd:2
PORT=5902


Subtracting 5900 from the port number (5902), you'll get the display number (2). Use this number to connect to your desktop remotely. I use gvncviewer.



gvncviewer 192.168.200.83:2


TightVNC viewer on Windows Vista




Administrator To Monitor Someone's Desktop with X11VNC



Let's assume that you are a system administrator with root privilege and want to monitor a user's X11 Windows desktop. You can't just run “x11vnc -display :0” because you are not the user currently using display :0. In that case, you need access to the X11 Windows' xauth file which is located at one of the following locations:




  • /var/lib/gdm
  • /var/lib/kdm
  • /var/lib/xdm/authdir/authfiles
  • /home/USER/.Xauthority


Once you locate the xauth file associated with the user's X11 desktop, you can use x11vnc to monitor his desktop activity.



x11vnc -display :0 -auth /var/lib/gdm/\:0.Xauth


Then, on your desktop as administrator, connect to the user's desktop with a vnc client.



gvncviewer 192.168.200.83:2


x11vnc with SSL



x11vnc supports various connection schemes, including SSL. On Debian and Ubuntu, type the following command to create a SSL certificate for use with x11vnc.



cat /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem > /tmp/x11vnc.pem


Then, start x11vnc with -ssl option to run x11vnc in secure mode.



x11vnc -display :0 -auth /var/lib/gdm/\:0.Xauth -ssl /tmp/x11vnc.pem


ssvnc and gvncviewer can be used to connect to x11vnc via SSL connection. The following example command starts x11vnc in anonymous SSL mode that doesn't require X509 exchange.



x11vnc -display :0 -xauth /var/lib/xdm/authdir/authfiles/A\:0-R2x5Db -xkb -nopw -nc_cr -ssl /tmp/x11vnc.pem -vencrypt newdh:nox509:support

Setting Up XDM on Debian/Ubuntu Linux

XDM, short for X Display Manager, is my favorite login manager for its simplicity. Sure, gdm and kdm are visually pleasant, but why do I have to install all the dependencies if xdm provides the same functionality as them? After all, xdm can launch GNOME and KDE for you — you just need to fix your ~/.xsession file. This post will serve as my notes on installation, configuration and customization of xdm.



All configuration of xdm, except for distribution-specific settings, is done by modifying the files in the /etc/X11/xdm directory. For now, I'll just go over what I have in my xdm files.



/etc/X11/xdm/Xaccess



This file is used to tell xdm who can use xdm. Therefore, if you are happy to let anyone access the X-Windows desktop locally or remotely, then you would just put an asterisk (*) in Xaccess as I did.



*


If you are very keen on security, you would put only the following in Xaccess. This only allows local users to have access to xdm.



localhost
127.0.0.1


However, even if Xaccess is set up as above, remote xdm login may still be possible with SSH X11 forwarding.



/etc/X11/xdm/Xresources



Xresources file is used to fine-tune the behavior and appearance of XDM. Here is what I put in my Xresources file:



Xcursor.theme: redglass

xlogin*login.translations: #override \
Ctrl<Key>R: abort-display()\n\
<Key>F1: set-session-argument(failsafe) finish-field()\n\
<Key>Delete: delete-character()\n\
<Key>Left: move-backward-character()\n\
<Key>Right: move-forward-character()\n\
<Key>Home: move-to-begining()\n\
<Key>End: move-to-end()\n\
Ctrl<Key>KP_Enter: set-session-argument(failsafe) finish-field()\n\
<Key>KP_Enter: set-session-argument() finish-field()\n\
Ctrl<Key>Return: set-session-argument(failsafe) finish-field()\n\
<Key>Return: set-session-argument() finish-field()

xlogin*greeting: Welcome to CLIENTHOST
xlogin*namePrompt: Login:\040
xlogin*passwdPrompt: Password:\040
xlogin*fail: Login incorrect

xlogin*greetFace: Serif-21:bold:italic
xlogin*face: Sans-15
xlogin*promptFace: Sans-15:bold
xlogin*failFace: Sans-16:bold

xlogin*geometry: 600x400
xlogin*borderWidth: 1
xlogin*frameWidth: 5
xlogin*innerFramesWidth: 2
xlogin*shdColor: grey30
xlogin*hiColor: grey90
xlogin*background: grey
xlogin*greetColor: Blue3
xlogin*failColor: red
*Foreground: black
*Background: #fffff0

xlogin*logoFileName: /usr/share/X11/xdm/pixmaps/penguin_doll_200x300.xpm
xlogin*useShape: true
xlogin*logoPadding: 10


I think the settings are self-explanatory. This is how xdm would look with the above settings. The penguin image was taken from here.



xdm-screenshot

/etc/X11/xdm/Xresources



The Xresources file allows you to specify how many X servers to run and their command arguments. In my case, I run Xorg and Xvfb. Xorg is the standard X server, and Xvfb is a server that runs totally in memory without depending on the video hardware. To see what's going on with Xvfb, I use x11vnc and gvncviewer.



# Default X.org server
:0 local /usr/bin/Xorg :0 vt7 -br -dpi 96 -nolisten TCP

:1 local /usr/local/bin/Xvfb :1 -dpi 96 -screen 0 1024x768x16


/etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup



Xsetup allows you to write any command to run when xdm displays the login screen. In my case, I run gm to set up the background image and run x11vnc to remotely access Xvfb via VNC.



#!/bin/sh
#
# This script is run as root before showing login widget.

gm display -window root /usr/share/wallpapers/Board_Tile_Gray.jpg
xkbcomp -dflts -I/usr/share/X11/xkb /etc/X11/xkb/server-0.xkm $DISPLAY

PID_XVFB=$(pidof Xvfb)
PID_X11VNC=$(pidof x11vnc)
if [ -n "$PID_XVFB" -a -z "$PID_X11VNC" ]; then
x11vnc -display :1 -bg -xkb -nopw -nc_cr -forever -listen localhost -auth $(find /var/lib/xdm/authdir/authfiles -name \*:1\*) > /var/log/x11vnc.log 2>&1
fi


/etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config



In xdm-config, there is only one line that I bother to change. This line enables remote xdm logins.



! SECURITY: do not listen for XDMCP or Chooser requests
! Comment out this line if you want to manage X terminals with xdm
DisplayManager.requestPort: 177


/etc/X11/xdm/xdm-options



I think xdm-options is Debian specific. I don't think I made any change in this file.



# configuration options for xdm
# See xdm.options(5) for an explanation of the available options.

no-ignore-nologin
no-restart-on-upgrade
no-start-on-install
use-sessreg


Resetting XDM



There are other files in /etc/X11/xdm directory that you can safely leave as is. After you make any change with the files, have xdm reread the config files.



kill -1 $(pidof xdm)


If you want to force xdm to kill all running sessions and restart, enter the following command.



/etc/init.d/xdm restart


That's all I have to write about xdm for now. In summary, xdm is a simple, yet functional login manager that is easy to set up.

Monday, October 15, 2012

To Create SSL Certificates for Personal / Intranet Use

lock

I'm not a security guru, but I'm writing this as a personal note. Normally, I'll have to pay some company to have my SSL certificate digitally signed for commercial uses. That's because people and businesses won't acknowledge or recognize my SSL certificate in transactions unless it is signed by a reputable company. However, I can create SSL certificates myself for personal / intranet use.



On Debian and Ubuntu systems, after the ssl-cert package is installed, a SSL certificate is automatically created at /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem, and the corresponding key is created at /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key. You can just distribute ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem to other peer machines to set up SSL connections. To manually create your own SSL certificates, follow these steps. In this guide, we will use the arbitrary filenames: my-site.key, my-site.crt and my-site.pem.




  1. Generate a public/private key pair:

    openssl genrsa -out my-site.key 1024


  2. Generate a self signed certificate:

    openssl req -new -key my-site.key -x509 -days 3653 -out my-site.crt


  3. Generate the PEM file by just appending the key and certificate files:


    cat my-site.key my-site.crt > my-site.pem


  4. The private key should be kept secret, so change the file permission.


  5. chmod 600 my-site.key my-site.pem


    You can distribute the trust certificate server.crt to your SSL client hosts that will connect securely to the SSL-enabled server. The server may need *.crt files from clients for proper client authentication.





Read Also:



Linux: Transmitting a Bunch of Files using socat

computer

socat is a nifty, versatile tool for establishing a secure data channel between two computers. To install socat on Debian, use apt-get:



apt-get install socat


I was trying to use socat and tar to duplicate the contents of an entire filesystem securely between two computers. In this case, I copied all files in partition /dev/sda5 on box A to partition /dev/sdb6 on box B (IP 192.168.200.83).



Using the SCTP protocol



This method does not involve encryption, so it is relatively simple to follow.




  1. First, I opened a terminal at box B (192.168.200.83) and changed the current directory to /mnt/sdb6 where I will unpack the incoming stream of files.


    cd /mnt/sdb6

    Then, I typed the following command to have socat establish a SCTP connection listening on port 7749. tar would be expecting to receive incoming files.


    socat EXEC:"tar xzf -" SCTP4-LISTEN:7749

  2. Then, I opened a terminal at box A. Here I would transmit a bunch of files to box B (192.168.200.83). I changed directory to /mnt/sda5 containing files to send.


    cd /mnt/sda5

    Then, I typed the following command to transmit all the files in the current directory.


    socat EXEC:"tar czf - ." SCTP4-CONNECT:192.168.200.83:7749



Using the SSL connection



This method involves encrypted connection and requires SSL certicates on both sides of the link. Read this post to learn how to create self-signed SSL certificates if you don't already have one.




  1. Debian and Ubuntu automatically create a local SSL certificate at /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem. Both parties of an SSL connection — box A and box B — should exchange each other's ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem in order to have SSL connections between them.



  2. On box B, I typed the following command to run socat in SSL listening mode at port 7749.

    cd /mnt/sdb6
    socat EXEC:"tar xzf -" OPENSSL-LISTEN:7749,reuseaddr,cert=/etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem,key=/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key,cafile=box-A.pem


  3. On box A, I typed the following command to run socat in SSL mode while running tar to pack all the files and send them through the pipeline.

    cd /mnt/sda5
    socat EXEC:"tar czf - ." OPENSSL:192.168.200.83:7749,cert=/etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem,key=/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key,cafile=box-B.pem




Thus I have duplicated the whole directory tree from Box A to Box B. Using socat and tar, I was able to mirror a filesystem over the network. As shown above, socat alone can be a good substitute in situations where ssh, scp and/or netcat are needed. socat has many other features I have yet to explore.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

How to Extract Boot Images from Acronis Bootable CD

Acronis Backup and Restore is a great software to purchase for any business that wants to protect and preserve their digital assets from natural or accidental loss. After you purchase Acronis software and deploy it on your computers, you have a chance to create a bootable CD for emergency purpose. The Acronis boot CD will prove useful when you need to restore backups on a compromised or corrupted system.



However, you may want to incorporate Acronis software into your own custom boot CD. The custom CD can be a live Linux CD or live Windows CD. In that case, your ideal CD will have a menu of choices to run Acronis in addition to booting Linux or Windows. To create such a disc, you need to extract boot images from Acronis Boot CD. This post illustrates the steps needed to creat a custom CD containing Acronis software.




  1. Bring your Acronis emergency CD and use the following command to create an ISO file. This assumes that you are using Linux. On Windows, you can use the readom program from my cdrkit build.



    readom dev=/dev/sr0 f=ABR11.5AWUR_en-US.iso speed=8 retries=16 -nocorr -noerror


  2. Acronis uses a special bootloader called BootWiz. To extract the boot image, you need to find the location of area that begins with BOOTWIZ0 string inside the ISO file. This is a hit-or-miss process. hexedit can be used here.



    hexedit ABR11.5AWUR_en-US.iso


  3. In hexedit, press Ctrl+S, then enter 424F4F5457495A30, which translates to BOOTWIZ0. Hit Enter.



    hexedit

  4. Hexedit will find the given string (BOOTWIZ0). Note the address of the line
    (0x1A000). The address (0x1A000) is equivalent to 106496 in decimal, and 208 sectors. After you write down the address, quit Hexedit by pressing Ctrl+C.



    hexedit

  5. Use dd to extract the FAT filesystem image.



    dd if=ABR11.5AWUR_en-US.iso of=abr11.bin skip=208


  6. Use WinImage to convert the image file (abr11.bin) — actually a FAT filesystem image — to a hard disk image format with MBR.



    winimage_export_to_image_mbr

    Normally, you can just put the hard disk image on the CD and boot it using isolinux & memdisk.



    LABEL abr11
    MENU LABEL Acronis Backup & Restore 11
    KERNEL memdisk
    INITRD abr11.bin


  7. Alternatively, you can mount the image file (abr11.bin) and extract only the kernel and initramfs.



    mount -t msdos -o loop,ro abr11.bin /mnt
    cd /mnt
    cp dat*.dat /boot


    The following is an example boot entry for isolinux that starts 64-bit Acronis Backup & Restore.



    LABEL abr11x
    MENU LABEL Acronis Backup & Restore 11 (64-bit)
    KERNEL dat5.dat
    INITRD dat4.dat
    APPEND video=vesa:mtrr vga=0x317 product=bootagent media_for_windows quiet


    The kernel parameters to put as APPEND string can be taken from the efi/boot/bootx64.xml.





Aria2 shell script and batch file

I wrote a BASH shell script and a DOS batch file that can be used to download files using aria2 — Aria2 is a command-line tool for downloading files. The script and the batch file take 2 arguments; the first one is for the bittorrent hash in 40-digit hexadecimal number and the second one is for arbitrary one-word description.





aria2.bat can be used on Windows, and aria2.sh can be used on Linux and *BSD. Make sure that aria2c is in PATH. For example, if you want to download an ISO file for the OpenSUSE DVD, you would type something like:



aria2.bat 198472f5217d843cceb1a4c82233f009ed6608af opensuse-dvd-586


To find the value of a bittorrent hash (that long hex number), you can cut it from a magnet link you find on a Web site — Magnet links allow you to download actual files without first having to download bittorrent files (*.torrent). When you see a magnet sign, right-click on it to display the shortcut menu and select Copy Link Location.



btih-demo1

Then, paste it somewhere, for example, inside the URL address bar. The hash value comes after the btih: string.



btih-demo2

After you find the bittorrent hash, use it as the first argument to the script and make up anything for the second argument, as shown in the example above.


Tuesday, October 9, 2012

isolinux.cfg for a live CD

isolinux is a bootloader included in the syslinux package and is used to boot a CD or DVD. isolinux is one of several popular bootloaders used to create a bootable CD for open-source operating systems, including Linux and FreeDOS. Another bootloader is GRUB, which I rarely use except for booting Windows 7 with BIOS emulation.



To create a bootable CD with isolinux, just copy the file isolinux.bin to a folder that will hold CD contents for ISO mastering. On Debian or Ubuntu, the file is located at the /usr/lib/syslinux folder.



ISOFS contents

A file named isolinux.cfg needs to be created in order to provide a menu or boot entries. A sample isolinux.cfg is shown below. It makes use of vesamenu.c32 which helps display a nice graphical menu with a background picture. Vesamenu.c32 is also located in /usr/lib/syslinux and needs to be copied too.





# isolinux.cfg
# Configuration for ISOLINUX

# Wait for 60 seconds before booting up the default entry.
TIMEOUT 600
F1 help.txt #ff702640

UI vesamenu.c32
MENU RESOLUTION 640 480
MENU BACKGROUND back642.jpg
MENU COLOR border 30;44 #40dfdfdf #00000000 std
MENU COLOR title 1;36;43 #e0fdff49 #804206ef none
MENU COLOR sel 7;37;40 #e0000000 #40ffffff all
MENU COLOR hotsel 1;7;37;40 #e0af0000 #40ffffff all
MENU COLOR disabled 1;30;44 #ffe4de6f #00000000 std
MENU COLOR scrollbar 30;44 #40000000 #e0af0000 std
MENU TITLE Boot Menu
MENU CLEAR

MENU ROWS 14
MENU TABMSGROW 20
MENU CMDLINEROW 20
MENU TIMEOUTROW 22
MENU HELPMSGROW 24
MENU VSHIFT 1

# The default is to boot the first hard drive.
DEFAULT hd0
ONERROR hd1

MENU BEGIN livecd_menu

MENU TITLE Linux Live CD Menu

LABEL livecd_heading
MENU LABEL Boot Linux live CD
MENU DISABLE

LABEL livecd_640x480
MENU LABEL 640x480 screen
MENU INDENT 1
KERNEL 360.lnx
INITRD initram.lzm
APPEND root=/dev/sr0 edd=off vmode=640x480

LABEL livecd_800x600
MENU LABEL 800x600 screen
MENU INDENT 1
KERNEL 360.lnx
INITRD initram.lzm
APPEND root=/dev/sr0 edd=off vmode=800x600

LABEL livecd_1024x768
MENU LABEL 1024x768 screen
MENU INDENT 1
KERNEL 360.lnx
INITRD initram.lzm
APPEND root=/dev/sr0 edd=off vmode=1024x768

MENU SEPARATOR

LABEL livecd_console_heading
MENU LABEL Boot Linux live CD into text console
MENU DISABLE

LABEL livecd_console
MENU LABEL text-mode console
MENU INDENT 1
KERNEL 360.lnx
INITRD initram.lzm
APPEND root=/dev/sr0 nox

LABEL livecd_console_old
MENU LABEL text-mode console for an old computer
MENU INDENT 1
KERNEL 360.lnx
INITRD initram.lzm
APPEND root=/dev/sr0 acpi=off irqpoll nox

MENU SEPARATOR

LABEL exit0
MENU LABEL Return to the main menu.
MENU EXIT

MENU END

MENU BEGIN cdram_menu

MENU TITLE Linux on RAMdisk Menu

LABEL cdram_heading
MENU LABEL Boot Linux on RAMdisk
MENU DISABLE

LABEL cdram_640x480
MENU LABEL 640x480 screen
MENU INDENT 1
KERNEL 360.lnx
INITRD initram.lzm
APPEND boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 edd=off vmode=640x480

LABEL cdram_800x600
MENU LABEL 800x600 screen
MENU INDENT 1
KERNEL 360.lnx
INITRD initram.lzm
APPEND boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 edd=off vmode=800x600

LABEL cdram_1024x768
MENU LABEL 1024x768 screen
MENU INDENT 1
KERNEL 360.lnx
INITRD initram.lzm
APPEND boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 edd=off vmode=1024x768

MENU SEPARATOR

LABEL cdram_console_heading
MENU LABEL Boot Linux RAMdisk into text console
MENU DISABLE

LABEL cdram_console
MENU LABEL text-mode console
MENU INDENT 1
KERNEL 360.lnx
INITRD initram.lzm
APPEND boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 nox

LABEL cdram_console_old
MENU LABEL text-mode console for an old computer
MENU INDENT 1
KERNEL 360.lnx
INITRD initram.lzm
APPEND boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 acpi=off irqpoll nox

MENU SEPARATOR

LABEL exit1
MENU LABEL Return to the main menu.
MENU EXIT

MENU END

LABEL hd0
MENU LABEL First Hard Drive
LOCALBOOT 0x80

LABEL hd1
MENU LABEL Second Hard Drive
KERNEL chain.c32
APPEND hd1 swap

MENU BEGIN hd0_menu

MENU TITLE Partition in First Hard Drive

LABEL hd0_part1
MENU LABEL 1st partition
KERNEL chain.c32
APPEND hd0 1

LABEL hd0_part2
MENU LABEL 2nd partition
KERNEL chain.c32
APPEND hd0 2

LABEL hd0_part3
MENU LABEL 3rd partition
KERNEL chain.c32
APPEND hd0 3

LABEL hd0_part4
MENU LABEL 4th partition
KERNEL chain.c32
APPEND hd0 4

LABEL hd0_part5
MENU LABEL 5th partition
KERNEL chain.c32
APPEND hd0 5

LABEL hd0_part6
MENU LABEL 6th partition
KERNEL chain.c32
APPEND hd0 6

LABEL hd0_part7
MENU LABEL 7th partition
KERNEL chain.c32
APPEND hd0 7

LABEL hd0_part8
MENU LABEL 8th partition
KERNEL chain.c32
APPEND hd0 8

LABEL hd0_part9
MENU LABEL 9th partition
KERNEL chain.c32
APPEND hd0 9

LABEL hd0_part10
MENU LABEL 10th partition
KERNEL chain.c32
APPEND hd0 10

MENU SEPARATOR

LABEL exit3
MENU LABEL Return to the main menu
MENU EXIT

MENU END

LABEL fd0
MENU LABEL Floppy Drive
LOCALBOOT 0x00

LABEL next
MENU LABEL Next in boot sequence
LOCALBOOT -1

LABEL memtest
MENU LABEL Test your computer memory
LINUX memtest.bin
TEXT HELP
Run Memtest86 to test your computer memory
ENDTEXT

LABEL help
MENU LABEL Help
MENU HELP help.txt #ff702640


isolinux boot menu

The example above is one that I use for my live CD, so some settings are specific to my situation. Thus, KERNEL and APPEND settings may have to be adapted for other users. However, all the keywords shown above is standard and acceptable.


Monday, October 8, 2012

Linux: Building X.org Kdrive Server Xfbdev on Debian Wheezy

Kdrive is a minimal X11 server that runs as a single executable with little dependencies. I use Kdrive for my Web-only/Rescue Linux systems. Before compiling Kdrive, I installed the following packages on my box running Debian Sid — which will be eventually rolled into Wheezy release:



  • bison

  • g++-4.7

  • libexpat1-dev

  • libpciaccess-dev

  • libpixman-1-dev

  • libssl-dev

  • libudev-dev
  • libxdamage-dev

  • libxfont-dev

  • libxi-dev

  • libxkbfile-dev

  • libxmu-dev

  • libxxf86vm-dev

  • make

  • pkg-config

  • x11proto-bigreqs-dev

  • x11proto-composite-dev

  • x11proto-randr-dev

  • x11proto-render-dev

  • x11proto-resource-dev

  • x11proto-scrnsaver-dev

  • x11proto-video-dev

  • x11proto-xcmisc-dev

  • x11proto-xf86dga-dev

  • x11proto-xinerama-dev

  • xkb-data



Installing X Protocol Headers



The current RandR protocol headers from Debian didn't meet the required version, so I had to download the latest one from freedesktop.org. I installed randrproto like this.



tar xjvf randrproto-1.4.0.tar.bz2
cd randrproto-1.4.0
./configure --prefix=/usr
make install


Compiling Xfbdev



I got the latest X.org release from freedesktop.org. The following commands will build Xfbdev:



tar xjf xorg-server_1.13.0.tar.bz2

cd xorg-server-1.13.0/

./configure --prefix=/usr --disable-xorg --enable-kdrive --enable-kdrive-evdev --enable-config-udev --disable-aiglx --disable-glx --disable-dri --disable-dri2 --disable-drm --disable-record --with-xkb-path=/usr/share/X11/xkb --with-xkb-output=/var/lib/xkb --with-xkb-bin-directory=/usr/bin --with-default-xkb-rules=xorg --with-default-xkb-model=pc105 --with-default-xkb-layout=us

make

make install


Installed Files



The following files are installed after successfully building a Kdrive server.


/usr/bin/Xfbdev

/usr/bin/Xnest

/usr/bin/Xvfb

/usr/lib/xorg/protocol.txt

/usr/share/man/man1/Xnest.1

/usr/share/man/man1/Xserver.1

/usr/share/man/man1/Xvfb.1

/var/lib/xkb/README.compiled


To Use Xfbdev



An executable file Xfbdev will be created in /usr/bin. To be able to use the Xfbdev server, framebuffer video must be enabled either in the kernel or as a module. If CONFIG_FB_VESA option was enabled in the kernel, you can use the syslinux bootloader in the following way to boot Linux into a framebuffer video mode:



LABEL minimal
KERNEL vmlinuz-2.6.31.5
INITRD initramfs.lzma
APPEND vga=0x314 video=vesafb:mtrr


Once the framebuffer video has been activated, Xfbdev can be started in the following way:



Xfbdev :0 vt7 dpms -ac -br +bs -dpi 96 -mouse evdev,5,device=/dev/input/event2 -2button -keybd evdev,,device=/dev/input/event3 -fp /usr/local/share/fonts,/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu -nolisten TCP


Download my X.org build 1.13.0



Download

Here you can obtain my compiled binaries Xfbdev, Xnest and Xvfb:





Also Read:



Saturday, October 6, 2012

My Live CD based on Debian Linux Sid

I created a Live CD from my Debian Linux installation. It is based on the unstable version (Sid). However, the live CD still lacks the capability to automatically configure X-Windows and the network, and uses IceWM for minimalist desktop. It can be downloaded from Google Drive. This Live CD has many uses, such as:



  • To troubleshoot and fix computer problems
  • To create backups and restore them
  • To partition a hard drive before installing Windows or Linux
  • To set up GRUB bootloader or enter boot commands
  • To install Debian, Ubuntu or Fedora
  • To access a Windows partition when it is unbootable
  • To survey and diagnose wireless and wired networks
  • To enjoy the Internet with the Web, IM, IRC and VoIP
  • To run a simple FTP or HTTP server
  • To participate in peer-to-peer networks
  • To do basic word processing and spreadsheet
  • To listen to music or watch movies
  • To rip CD's and DVD's


livecd-001

The snapshot above shows idesk icons on the desktop. Idesk is a neat application that displays icons on the desktop for you to quickly launch. Currently, I use IceWM instead of GNOME or KDE desktop to save space on the CD. So idesk is used to provide desktop icons for IceWM.





livecd-002

The snapshot above shows mlterm running. mlterm is my favorite terminal application. It allows me to use many languages.



livecd-003

Gparted is a cool application to have on a live CD. It lets you divide the hard drive into many partitions so you can run multiple operating systems.



livecd-004

IceWeasel is rebranded Firefox from Debian. Sorry, Chrome is not included.



livecd-005

LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice.org suite. I use it to create documents or read Microsoft Office documents.



Specifying the locale at boot time



To see your own language with the live CD, select an entry from the menu, click Tab and append LANG= option to the command line. For example, if you speak French, append LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Using GraphicsMagick to Set the Background

GraphicsMagick is a powerful graphics tool that can be used to set the background on Linux. I've been using xsetbg from the xloadimage package to set X-Windows background. However, I realized that GraphicsMagick can replace xloadimage and netpbm that I've used for setting background and converting images.



So far I just learned a few tricks for setting background with GraphicsMagick. To tile an image on the background, type a command like this:



gm display -window root background.jpg


To fill the background with an image smaller than the screen size, use the -geometry option:



gm display -window root -geometry 1440x960 Background.jpg


You can also use the percentage (%) sign to zoom in or out the image and place it on the background.



gm display -window root -geometry 300x200% background.jpg


You can add the -gamma option to darken or brighten the image. If gamma is less than 1, the output image will be darker. If gamma is greater than 1, the image will be brighter.



gm display -window root -gamma 0.5 BG_pix.jpg


There are many more options that you can use with GraphicsMagick, for example, -crop, -dither, -trim etc. Read the manual page of GraphicsMagick and documentation for further information.

Setting the Locale on Linux

A locale is a system setting that allows users to configure the operating system for their own language, date, currency, etc. on Linux. There are slightly different ways to set up locales on different Linux distributions. Here I write how I would normally set up locales on Linux.



To set the system-wide default locale, I would append the LANG= variable to the Linux kernel. The kernel will happily accept the LANG= variable and pass it to the operating system. With syslinux, I would have an entry in syslinux.cfg as follows.



LABEL debian
KERNEL vmlinuz-3.6.0
INITRD /boot/initramfs.lzma
APPEND LANG=en_US.UTF-8 TERM=vt100 root=/dev/sda9


On Debian, Ubuntu, Mint and MEPIS, the system-wide locale may be specified in /etc/environment or /etc/default/locale.



LANG=C.UTF-8


To set your own locale different from the system-wide locale, just add a line to your .bashrc or .xsession:



export LANG=zh_CN.UTF-8


Generating locale-archive Again



The number of locales available on the system may be incomplete in order to save disk space. To see which locales are available, run the following command:



locale -a


If you want to add or remove locales, edit /etc/locale.gen. The following is a sample locale.gen.



ar_SA.UTF-8 UTF-8
bn_IN UTF-8
de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_US ISO-8859-1
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
es_MX.UTF-8 UTF-8
fa_IR UTF-8
fr_FR.UTF-8 UTF-8
gu_IN UTF-8
hi_IN UTF-8
id_ID.UTF-8 UTF-8
it_IT.UTF-8 UTF-8
ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8
kn_IN UTF-8
ko_KR.UTF-8 UTF-8
ml_IN UTF-8
mr_IN UTF-8
or_IN UTF-8
pa_PK UTF-8
pt_BR.UTF-8 UTF-8
ru_RU.UTF-8 UTF-8
ta_IN UTF-8
te_IN UTF-8
th_TH.UTF-8 UTF-8
tr_TR.UTF-8 UTF-8
vi_VN UTF-8
zh_CN.UTF-8 UTF-8
zh_TW.UTF-8 UTF-8


After changing the file locale.gen, you need to run locale-gen to regenerate the file /usr/lib/locale/locale-archive.



locale-gen


Enabling All Possible Locales


If you have plenty disk space, then you can enable all locales supported by the current glibc implementation. The list of supported locales is at /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED. Just copy it to /etc/locale.gen and rebuild the locales. It will regenerate the file /usr/lib/locale/locale-archive to about 100MB.



cp /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen


Running Applications In Different Locales



Use the env command to run an application in a different locale. For example, to run pidgin in Chinese on an English desktop, I would issue:



env LANG=zh_CN.UTF-8 pidgin

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Disk Cloning / Imaging over Network with SSH, Netcat, DD and XZ

Today we have affordable, ample storage and faster bandwidth to facilitate partition imaging and disk cloning over network. Nowadays, it's common and feasible to take the image of a whole partition for various reasons. Compared to file-based backups using tar, disk imaging provides the following advantages.




  • The boot sector is preserved so that it's easy to make it bootable after the restore.
  • Information such as UUID and LABEL is presered, which helps identify the partition in booting and mounting.
  • Information such as ACL and XATTR is preserved, which helps restrict file access and secure the system.
  • Every bit in the unused sectors is preserved, which may assist in digital forensics to uncover deleted or hidden information.


There are commercial programs for disk imaging and backup (Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image). However, Linux users can use readily available tools to get things done. For disk cloning/imaging, we can use ssh, netcat, dd and xz. Note that dd will fail on physically damaged disks. For such disks, use ddrescue instead.



For security and compression, we are going to use ssh and xz in this tutorial. If you don't like xz, feel free to substitute xz with gzip, bzip2 or lzop. Also, netcat is used to stream the dd output over the network. On Debian and Ubuntu derivatives, you need the following packages.




  • bzip2, gzip, lzop, lzma OR xz-utils
  • dd
  • netcat
  • ssh


We are making these assumptions in the following scenarios.




  • Sending computer S

    This computer has IP address 192.168.1.1 and needs to back up partition /dev/sda1.
  • Sending Port

    We'll send using port 5525.
  • Receiving computer T

    This computer has IP address 192.168.1.2 and needs to restore partition /dev/sda2.
  • Receiving Port

    We'll receive at port 7749.


Disk Cloning using dd, xz, netcat and ssh


In this scenario, we will clone a disk partition, simultaneously sending an image of the source partition /dev/sda1 from computer S (192.168.1.1) and restoring it at /dev/sda2 on computer T (192.168.1.2). Make sure that the source partition is not mounted or is mounted read-only. Also, make sure that the target partition size is greater than or equal to the source partition size.




  1. At the sending computer, compress the source partition /dev/sda1 with xz and set up netcat to send it at port 5525:

    dd if=/dev/sda1 bs=16M | xz | nc -l 5525

  2. At the receiving computer, set up a SSH tunnel to the sending computer (192.168.1.1):

    ssh -f -N -L 7749:127.0.0.1:5525 username@192.168.1.1

  3. At the receiving computer, type the following command to receive the partition image and restore it at /dev/sda2:

    nc 127.0.0.1 7749 | xz -d | dd of=/dev/sda2 bs=16M



Alternatively, we could take the following steps to achieve the same thing. However, we start at the receiving computer.




  1. At the receiving computer with the target partition /dev/sda2, type the following command to receive the partition image:

    nc -l 7749 | xz -d | dd of=/dev/sda2 bs=16M

  2. At the sending computer with the source partition /dev/sda1, set up a SSH tunnel to the receiving computer (192.168.1.2):

    ssh -f -N -L 5525:127.0.0.1:7749 username@192.168.1.2

  3. At the sending computer, type the following command to compress the source partition /dev/sda1 and transmit it over the SSH tunnel:

    dd if=/dev/sda1 bs=16M | xz | nc 127.0.0.1 5525

    Note that the transfer may take many hours for a large partition.




Disk Imaging using dd, xz, netcat and ssh


In this scenario, we will just send an image of the source partition /dev/sda1 to the receiving computer T (192.168.1.2) without restoring it. Make sure that the source partition is not mounted or is mounted read-only. A question remains whether to compress the image at the sending or receiving computer. The answer depends on which computer is more powerful. For this example, we'll compress at the sending computer (for network bandwidth reason).




  1. At the sending computer, compress the source partition /dev/sda1 with xz and stream it using netcat:

    dd if=/dev/sda1 bs=16M | xz | nc -l 5525

  2. At the receiving computer, set up a SSH tunnel to the sending computer (192.168.1.1):

    ssh -f -N -L 7749:127.0.0.1:5525 username@192.168.1.1

  3. At the receiving computer, type the following command to receive the file:

    nc 127.0.0.1 7749 > partimg.xz



Alternatively, we could take the following steps to achieve the same thing.




  1. At the receiving computer, set up netcat to listen at port 7749 and save the incoming data to a file partimg.xz.

    nc -l 7749 | dd of=partimg.xz bs=16M

  2. At the sending computer, establish a SSH tunnel to the receiving computer (192.168.1.2) first:

    ssh -f -N -L 5525:192.168.1.2:7749 username@192.168.1.2

  3. At the sending computer, type the following command to compress the source partition /dev/sda1 and transmit it over the SSH tunnel:

    dd if=/dev/sda1 bs=16M | xz | nc 127.0.0.1 5525

    Note that the transfer may take many hours for a large partiiton.




Alternative Simple Commands for Disk Cloning / Imaging


I don't like these methods for some reason, but here I show the simpler methods where netcat is not needed. For disk cloning, type something like this:



dd if=/dev/sda1 bs=16M | xz | ssh username@192.168.1.2 "xz -d | dd of=/dev/sda2 bs=16M"


Just to send an image file, run a command as follows:



dd if=/dev/sda1 bs=16M | xz | ssh username@192.168.1.2 "dd of=partimg.xz bs=16M"


Also Read:


Monday, October 1, 2012

Bittorrent Info Hash Values for Windows 8 ISO

Windows 8 ISO files have the following BTIH hash values. Use them with my aria2 script to download Windows 8.




  1. en_windows_8_x86_dvd_915417.iso

    C5D92B32277685436DEDE9957B80083D26062C03
  2. en_windows_8_x64_dvd_915440.iso

    144C7E2B46103FF84F83A1E6A12D66B740F00CF6

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Download Linux Kernel 3.5.4 / 3.6.0



I am sharing my kernel builds for Linux 3.5.4 and 3.6.0. Hope it works for everyone.



To Compile ndiswrapper 1.58rc1 for Linux 3.5.4

ndiswrapper allows Linux users to use Windows drivers for PCI/USB network adapters on Linux. If you own a network device for which Linux support is still absent or premature, then you need to compile ndiswrapper yourself and install Windows driver for your network device. Fortunately, today's Linux supports most network devices out-of-box, so most distributions don't bother to include ndiswrapper. However, I am compiling ndiswrapper believing that Windows NDIS drivers would outperform native Linux drivers.





To my surprise, building the latest version of ndiswrapper (1.58rc1) did not require any patch. After compiling Linux 3.5.4, I downloaded the ndiswrapper source from the sourceforge site. I chose the testing version because I thought it would work better with Linux 3.5.x. I unpacked the source.



tar xzvf ndiswrapper-1.58rc1.tar.gz
cd ndiswrapper-1.58rc1


I typed the following commands to compile and install ndiswrapper.



KVERS=3.5.4 make uninstall
KVERS=3.5.4 make
KVERS=3.5.4 make install


Then, I generated modules.* files again.



depmod -e -m -F /boot/System.map-3.5.4 3.5.4


The following files were installed by ndiswrapper.



/lib/modules/3.5.4/misc/ndiswrapper.ko
/sbin/loadndisdriver
/usr/sbin/ndiswrapper
/usr/sbin/ndiswrapper-buginfo
/usr/share/man/man8/loadndisdriver.8
/usr/share/man/man8/ndiswrapper.8


Also read:



Happiness the Movie 2007

Happiness is a Korean movie that makes you think seriously about the true meaning of happiness in life. It tells a story of two terminal patients who met at a remote nursing home and fell in love with each other. However, the guy leaves the girl for a careless, material life in the city. In the end, he comes back to the girl only to find her dying and regrets having left her. The movie tries to teach us that true happiness is about being close to someone you care about no matter how sick or poor he/she is.



Saturday, September 29, 2012

My All-Purpose Init Script for initrd / initramfs Boot Images

Here I post my init script. It is used in my initrd/initramfs boot images for the following purposes.




  • Boot from a live CD / DVD
  • Boot from a read-only filesystem image, compressed in SquashFS
  • Copy the filesystem image to a RAM disk and run Linux entirely on memory
  • Boot Linux from a USB flash drive
  • Boot Linux from a local disk partition
  • Run a rescue shell without booting Linux


I have yet to implement network booting. Right now it is good enough for my current needs. It takes the following boot parameters.




  • root=

    Specifies the root partition to boot Linux from. For example, /dev/sda2.
  • label=

    Specifies the label of the device to boot from. For example, label=DEBIAN.
  • uuid=

    Specifies the UUID of the device to boot from. For example, uuid=dcfd6a0a-2a0f-4b3d-8a1a-5e7d642ebfbd
  • boot=

    Can be cdrom, loop, ram, usb or ata.
  • vmode=

    Specifies the screen resolution of the framebuffer video. For example, vmode=640x480
  • single

    Boot into the single-user mode.
  • nox

    Boot into the console mode in runlevel 2




#!/bin/dash

# Define a function to parse kernel command line options.
get_opt() {
echo $@ | cut -d "=" -f 2
}

# Define a function to load drivers.
loadmod() {
for i in $@ ; do
for j in $(grep $i /tmp/pcimodules.txt); do
modprobe $j
done
done
}

# Define a function to guess the partition type.
gpart() {
for i in $(blkid | grep $1); do
case $i in
*\=*)
eval $i
;;
*)
true
;;
esac
done
}

# Define a function for mounting the root partition.
mountr() {
if [ $uuid ]; then
if [ $# = 2 ]; then
mount -r -U $uuid $2
elif [ $# = 1 ]; then
mount -r -U $uuid $1
else mount -r -U $uuid /mnt
fi
elif [ $label ]; then
if [ $# = 2 ]; then
mount -r -L $label $2
elif [ $# = 1 ]; then
mount -r -L $label $1
else mount -r -L $label /mnt
fi
else
gpart $1
case $TYPE in
ext*)
e2fsck -p $1
[ $# = 2 ] && mount $1 $2 || mount $1 /mnt
;;
jfs)
jfs_fsck $1
if [ $# = 2 ]; then
mount -t jfs -o ro,iocharset=utf8 $1 $2
else mount -t jfs -o ro,iocharset=utf8 $1 /mnt
fi
;;
vfat)
if [ $# = 2 ]; then
mount -t vfat -o ro,gid=100,dmask=2,fmask=113 $1 $2
else mount -t vfat -o ro,gid=100,dmask=2,fmask=113 $1 /mnt
fi
;;
*)
[ $# = 2 ] && mount -r $1 $2 || mount -r $1 /mnt
;;
esac
fi
}

# Create a union filesystem
union() {
mount -t tmpfs none /opt/tmp
modinfo unionfs > /dev/null 2>&1 &&
mount -t unionfs -o dirs=/opt/tmp=rw:/opt=ro none /mnt ||
( mkdir /opt/tmp/.change
modprobe fuse
unionfs-fuse -o allow_other,use_ino,suid,dev,nonempty,kernel_cache \
-o cow,chroot=/opt,max_files=32768 /tmp/.change=RW:/=RO /mnt )
}

# Mount proc and sysfs.
mount -t proc none /proc
mount -t sysfs none /sys

# Find the available PCI hardware
mount -t tmpfs none /tmp
pcimodules > /tmp/pcimodules.txt

# Populate /dev (Needs kernel >= 2.6.32)
mount -t devtmpfs none /dev
mkdir -m 755 /dev/pts
mount -t devpts -o gid=5,mode=620 none /dev/pts

# Set default values
boot=ata
root=/dev/sda6

# Find the root=, label=, uuid= and boot= values on kernel command line.
for i in $(cat /proc/cmdline); do
case $i in
root\=*)
root=$(get_opt $i)
case $root in
/dev/cdr* | /dev/dvd* | /dev/sr* | /dev/scd*)
boot=cdrom
;;
0x200)
root=/dev/fd0
;;
esac
;;
label\=* | uuid\=* | boot\=* | vmode\=* )
eval $i
;;
single)
RUNLEVEL=single
;;
nox)
RUNLEVEL=2
;;
esac
done

# Activate framebuffer display devices.
if [ $vmode ]; then
if [ $boot = cdrom ]; then
modprobe uvesafb scroll=ywrap mode_option=$vmode-16
else for i in $(grep fb /tmp/pcimodules.txt); do
case $i in
atyfb)
modprobe $i mode=$vmode-16
;;
nvidiafb | rivafb)
modprobe nvidiafb mode_option=$vmode bpp=16 hwcur=1
;;
radeonfb | savagefb)
modprobe $i mode_option=$vmode-16
;;
sisfb)
modprobe $i mode=$vmodex16 mem=12288 font=SUN12x22
;;
viafb | vt8623fb)
modprobe viafb viafb_mode=$vmode viafb_bpp=16
;;
*)
modprobe $i
;;
esac
done
if grep -q i915 /tmp/pcimodules.txt; then true
else [ -c /dev/fb0 ] || modprobe uvesafb scroll=ywrap mode_option=$vmode-16
fi
fi
fi

case $boot in
cdrom)
# Boot Linux from a live CD.
loadmod ata_ ahci pdc_adma ^.hci-hcd
modprobe usb-storage &&
modprobe sr_mod &&
sleep 7
modprobe isofs
mount -t iso9660 /dev/sr0 /media
[ -d /media/isolinux -o -d /media/boot/isolinux ] ||
mount -t iso9660 /dev/sr1 /media
if [ -f /media/*.[Ss][Qq]* ]; then
SQF=$(ls -t /media/*.[Ss][Qq]* | head -n 1)
if [ $root = /dev/ram ]; then
echo "Please wait until the RAM disk is ready."
dd if=$SQF of=/dev/ram1 bs=2048 &&
mount -t squashfs /dev/ram1 /opt
else modprobe loop
mount -t squashfs -o loop $SQF /opt
fi
else
mount --move /media /opt
fi
union
;;
loop)
# Boot Linux from an image file.
loadmod ata_ ahci pdc_adma ^.hci-hcd
modprobe usb-storage &&
modprobe sd_mod &&
sleep 7
mountr $root /media
modprobe loop
if [ -f /media/*.[Ss][Qq]* ]; then
SQF=$(ls -t /media/*.[Ss][Qq]* | head -n 1)
mount -t squashfs -o loop $SQF /opt
elif [ -f /media/*.[Ii][Ss][Oo] ]; then
ISO=$(ls -t /media/*.[Ii][Ss][Oo] | head -n 1)
modprobe isofs
mount -t iso9660 -o loop $ISO /opt
fi
union
;;
ram)
# Boot Linux from ramdisk.
loadmod ata_ ahci pdc_adma ^.hci-hcd
modprobe usb-storage &&
modprobe sd_mod &&
sleep 7
mountr $root /media
echo "Please wait until the RAM disk is ready."
if [ -f /media/*.[Ss][Qq]* ]; then
SQF=$(ls -t /media/*.[Ss][Qq]* | head -n 1)
dd if=$SQF of=/dev/ram1 &&
mount -t squashfs /dev/ram1 /opt
elif [ -f /media/*.[Ii][Ss][Oo] ]; then
ISO=$(ls -t /media/*.[Ii][Ss][Oo] | head -n 1)
dd if=$ISO of=/dev/ram1 bs=2048 &&
modprobe isofs
mount -t iso9660 /dev/ram1 /opt
fi
union
;;
usb*)
# Boot Linux from a USB drive.
loadmod ^.hci-hcd
modprobe usb-storage &&
modprobe sd_mod &&
sleep 7
mountr $root
;;
ata*)
loadmod ata_ ahci pdc_adma &&
modprobe sd_mod &&
mountr $root
;;
esac

# Make sure that init exists and is executable.
if [ -x /mnt/sbin/init ]; then
mount --move /dev /mnt/dev
mount --move /proc /mnt/proc
mount --move /sys /mnt/sys
umount /tmp

# Start init from the root filesystem.
cd /mnt
[ -f /media/updates.zip ] && unzip -o /media/updates.zip
case $boot in
cdrom)
[ $root = /dev/ram ] && umount /media
[ $RUNLEVEL ] || RUNLEVEL=3
;;
loop | ram)
umount /media
[ $RUNLEVEL ] || RUNLEVEL=3
;;
*)
[ $RUNLEVEL ] || RUNLEVEL=5
;;
esac
[ -d initrd ] && pivot_root . initrd
exec chroot . /sbin/init $RUNLEVEL
fi

# Start a shell as a last resort.
echo "Error booting from the root filesystem. Starting a shell."
exec /bin/dash


The following are examples of boot parameters that can be used with my init script.




  • Boot Linux from the local hard drive partition /dev/sda8

    boot=ata root=/dev/sda8

  • Boot Linux from the latest squashfs file (*.sq*) on /dev/sda1

    boot=loop root=/dev/sda1

  • Boot Linux from the CD-ROM with 1024x768 video resolution

    boot=cdrom vmode=1024x768

  • Copy the squashfs image from CD-ROM into memory and run Linux on memory

    boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 vmode=800x600

  • Boot Linux from the second partition of a USB drive

    boot=usb root=/dev/sda2



Also read:


Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Using UnionfsFuse on Debian/Ubuntu Linux

Unionfs-fuse is a user-space implementation of unionfs that makes it possible to run Linux over a read-only medium, such as CD-ROM. Unionfs-fuse is a convenient alternative to kernel implementations (unionfs, aufs and overlayfs), so users don't have to patch the kernel in order to try unionfs. There are many possible uses of unionfs:




  • Create a live CD
  • Run Linux from a read-only filesystem image, such as a squashfs file
  • Freeze an existing Linux system and save all changes in the memory


Unionfs achieves all this by merging a read-only filesystem and a writeable filesystem into a single virtual filesystem and mount it at a certain mount point. Let's try and apply unionfs-fuse to the third situation above. Basically, we need to create an initramfs file containing unionfs-fuse and a custom init script. The basic procedure is like this:






  1. Load kernel drivers necessary to access the underlying storage device
  2. Mount the read-only filesystem image at /opt
  3. Mount tmpfs at /opt/tmp and create a directory /opt/tmp/.change
  4. Use unionfs-fuse to merge the two and mount it at /mnt
  5. Use chroot and start /sbin/init to boot the new unionfs filesystem


To carry about the above steps, an init script might look like this:



#!/bin/dash
# Use the small but functional dash to process this script

# Mount /proc, /sys, /dev and /dev/pts just in case
mount -t proc none /proc
mount -t sysfs none /sys
mount -t devtmpfs none /dev
mkdir -m 755 /dev/pts
mount -t devpts -o gid=5,mode=620 none /dev/pts

# Write commands here to load modules necessary to access a hard drive
modprobe pata_via
modprobe sd_mod

# Mount the Linux filesystem read-only at /opt
mount -r /dev/sda6 /opt

# Mount tmpfs at /opt/tmp
mount -t tmpfs none /opt/tmp
mkdir /opt/tmp/.change

# Create a unionfs mount at /mnt
modprobe fuse
unionfs-fuse -o allow_other,use_ino,suid,dev,nonempty,kernel_cache \
-o cow,chroot=/opt,max_files=32768 /tmp/.change=RW:/=RO /mnt

# Make sure that init exists and is executable
if [ -x /mnt/sbin/init ]; then
mount --move /dev /mnt/dev
mount --move /proc /mnt/proc
mount --move /sys /mnt/sys

# Start init from the root filesystem with runlevel 5.
exec chroot /mnt /sbin/init 5
fi


The computer will boot into a virtual unionfs, consisting of writable tmpfs on top of read-only root filesystem. Make sure to modify /etc/rc.local so that it contains the following snippet of code.



for i in `ps ax | grep unionfs | grep -v grep | awk '{print $1}'`; do
echo $i > /var/run/sendsigs.omit.d/unionfs.$i;
done


This prevents Linux from killing unionfs-fuse during shutdown so the system will properly shut down.



Related Posts



To Build Transmission-Daemon for Windows

transmission-bittorrent icon

Transmission is a free bittorrent application available on Linux. It is a pretty neat tool compared to other bittorrent software. It is possible to compile and use Transmission on Windows, thanks to Cygwin. First, install Cygwin using the Cygwin installer(setup.exe). I set the Root directory to C:\Cygwin and chose to install the following packages in addition to base packages.






  • bison
  • gettext-devel
  • libtool
  • make
  • binutils
  • gcc4-g++
  • patch
  • pkg-config


Compile zlib.


./configure --prefix=/usr --static
make
cp -iv zconf.h zlib.h /usr/include
cp -iv libz.a /usr/lib


Build OpenSSL.


./Configure -DHAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC -lz -lpthread threads zlib --prefix=/usr cygwin
make
make install


Build CURL.


./configure --prefix=/usr --disable-shared --with-ssl --with-ca-bundle=ca-bundle.crt
make
make install


Compile libevent.


./configure --prefix=/usr --disable-shared
make
make install


Lastly, build transmission.


./configure --prefix=/usr --disable-shared --enable-static --disable-nls --without-gtk CPPFLAGS=-DHAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC
make
make install


If you get snprintf error with libutp, insert the following line into utp.cpp:



extern int snprintf(char *, size_t, const char *, ...);

Saturday, September 22, 2012

To Compile UnionFS-fuse 0.26 on Debian Linux

I am trying to switch to unionfs-fuse for my live CD, but so far I haven't much success yet. Debian's unionfs-fuse package in Sid is outdated (version 0.24), so I compiled version 0.26. I had to install libfuse-dev in order to be able to build UnionFS-fuse. I probably needed cmake too, but I didn't choose to install cmake.






  • cmake
  • gcc
  • libfuse-dev
  • make


I edited Makefile to change PREFIX.



PREFIX=/usr
BINDIR=/bin
SBINDIR=/sbin


I just typed make to begin compilation.



make
make install


The following files are installed.



/usr/bin/unionfs
/usr/sbin/mount.unionfs
/usr/share/man/man8/unionfs-fuse.8


To make it compatible with Debian and derivatives, I renamed unionfs.



mv /usr/bin/unionfs /usr/bin/unionfs-fuse

Friday, September 21, 2012

Reign of Assassins 劍雨 2010

Reign of Assassins (劍雨) is a Chinese wuxia (武俠) film starring Michelle Yeoh. In my opinion, it's a pretty enjoyable movie. The following clip has both English and Vietnamese subtitles.



Thursday, September 20, 2012

Download Aria2 1.15.2

Download to folder

Here you can download my Windows builds of aria2. This is the result of my previous post on how to build aria2 for Windows.





I didn't expect my Windows build to depend on libstdc++-6.dll. I think that's because I used Cygwin's mingw64 compiler. It still works, though.



Aria2c Usage


aria2c --file-allocation=prealloc ftp://192.168.1.64/pardus.iso

If aria2 aborts a download due to a connection error, you can resume the download any time using aria2c like this:


aria2c -c ftp://192.168.1.64/pardus.iso

To download files from URL's written in a file urls.txt to a folder Downloads, run aria2 as follows. The urls.txt should contain one download per line with URL's seperated by a tab:


aria2c -i urls.txt -d Downloads

Compile Aria2 1.15.2 with MinGW

Aria2 is a command-line download utility. It can be used to download files quickly from http(s), ftp, bittorrent, magnet and metalink locations. I prefer this handy tool over other programs, such as Free Download Manager and Frostwire because it's lean, fast and full of features. It took me a couple of days to compile Aria2 with all the features available. The following step-by-step guide will help you build your own aria2 program (aria2c.exe) the way I did.







  1. Install MinGW

    Follow one of the following guides to install MingW:




  2. POSIX Threads

    Download the source for Pthreads library (pthreads-w32-2-9-1-release.tar.gz) and compile it like this:


    make clean GC-static
    cp pthread.h semaphore.h sched.h /mingw/include/
    cp libpthreadGC2.a /mingw/lib/libpthread.a


  3. zlib

    Zlib is needed by the OpenSSL library below. Download the zlib source and compile it like this:


    make -f win32/Makefile.gcc
    make -f win32/Makefile.gcc install BINARY_PATH=/mingw/bin INCLUDE_PATH=/mingw/include LIBRARY_PATH=/mingw/lib


  4. OpenSSL

    Aria2 requires either GnuTLS or OpenSSL for secure transfers. In this guide, OpenSSL is chosen over GnuTLS. Use 7-zip to unpack the tarball because it contains symbolic links.


    ./Configure -DHAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC -DPTW32_STATIC_LIB -L/mingw/lib -lz -lpthread -lws2_32 --prefix=/mingw threads zlib mingw
    make
    make install


  5. Expat


    Aria2 can use either LibXML2 or Expat for XML parsing. In this guide, Expat will be used. Download the expat source and compile expat like this:


    ./configure --build=i686-w64-mingw32 --prefix=/mingw --disable-shared --enable-static
    make
    make install


  6. C-Ares


    C-Ares is a C library that performs DNS requests and resolves DNS names asynchronously. Download the C-ares source from c-ares.haxx.se and unpack it. Then, compile C-Ares as follows:


    ./configure --build=i686-w64-mingw32 --prefix=/mingw --disable-shared CPPFLAGS='-I/mingw/include -DCARES_STATICLIB'
    make
    make install


  7. SQLite 3


    Download the SQLite source (sqlite-amalgamation-3071300.zip) and build SQLite 3:


    gcc -O2 -DNDEBUG=1 -DTHREADSAFE=1 -c *.c
    ar ru /mingw/lib/libsqlite3.a sqlite3.o
    cp -iv *.h /mingw/include

    Create sqlite3.pc and put it in /mingw/lib/pkgconfig.


    prefix=/mingw
    exec_prefix=${prefix}
    libdir=${exec_prefix}/lib
    includedir=${prefix}/include

    Name: SQLite
    Description: SQL database engine
    Version: 3.5

    Libs: -L${libdir} -lsqlite3
    Cflags: -I${includedir}


  8. aria2c


    Finally, we are ready to compile Aria2. Download the Aria2 source from aria2.sf.net and unpack the source. Then, configure aria2 as follows:


    ./configure --build=i686-w64-mingw32 --prefix=/mingw --enable-threads=posix --with-ca-bundle=ca-bundle.crt --disable-nls LIBS='-lpthread -lws2_32 -lcares -lz' CPPFLAGS='-DPTW32_STATIC_LIB -DCARES_STATICLIB'


    aria2_config

    Then, issue the following commands to compile Aria2:


    make
    make install


  9. Optionally, strip and compress the executable aria2c.exe.

    strip aria2c.exe
    upx --best --strip-relocs=0 aria2c.exe



To download my Windows builds of aria2, go here.



Aria2c Usage


aria2c --file-allocation=prealloc ftp://192.168.1.64/pardus.iso

If aria2 aborts a download due to a connection error, you can resume the download any time using aria2c like this:


aria2c -c ftp://192.168.1.64/pardus.iso

To download files from URL's written in a file urls.txt to a folder Downloads, run aria2 as follows. The urls.txt should contain one download per line with URL's seperated by a tab:


aria2c -i urls.txt -d Downloads

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

To Compile Linux Kernel 3.5.4

It's been a long time since I compiled a Linux kernel last time. The last one I built was version 3.1.4 on December 3, 2011. I need to build a new kernel so that my Linux system is kept up-to-date. In order to compile a kernel, I made sure that all the necessary packages were installed.




  • binutils
  • gcc & g++
  • libglade2-dev, libqt3-mt-dev or libqt4-dev
  • make
  • module-init-tools
  • patch
  • pkg-config


I downloaded the kernel source from kernel.org and unpacked the kernel source package.



tar xjf linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2
cd linux-3.5.4




I copied the config-* file of my current kernel to the kernel source tree and renamed it to .config. This makes kernel configuration easier because I only need to set the values for new kernel settings.



cp /boot/config-3.1.4 .config


If you can't find your current kernel config at /boot, you'll find a copy at /proc.



zcat /proc/config.gz > .config


Type one of the following commands to start configuring the kernel.




  • If libglade2-dev is installed:

    make gconfig

  • If libqt3-mt-dev or libqt4-dev is installed:

    make xconfig



xconfig


When you finish configuring the kernel, save the changes by selecting File, Save. To see what changes you made, try the following command:



diff -ub .config.old .config


Optionally, open Makefile with an editor and define EXTRAVERSION if necessary.



VERSION = 3
PATCHLEVEL = 5
SUBLEVEL = 4
EXTRAVERSION = -586mmx


It is useful to set EXTRAVERSION when you are building different kernels for several CPU types. Now let's compile the kernel.



make bzImage
make modules
make install
make modules_install
depmod -e -m -F /boot/System.map-3.5.4 3.5.4


Set the default root device and ramdisk size for the new kernel.



cd /boot
rdev vmlinuz-3.5.4 1,0
ramsize vmlinuz-3.5.4 4096


Here's my config for kernel 3.5.4 if you need it. Make sure to change the processor family to suit your computer before building the kernel.



Also read:


Setting up MinGW64 with Cygwin

This is just another version of my previous post on Cygwin with focus on MinGW64. I hope this guide will more or less make it easy to install MinGW on Windows. After following this guide, you'll be ready to develop genuine Windows applications. Just download and run setup.exe from the Cygwin website and choose the following packages.




  • bison
  • gettext-devel
  • libtool
  • make
  • mingw64-i686-gcc-g++
  • mingw64-x86_64-gcc-g++
  • patch
  • pkg-config


To select a package for installation, type the name of the package in the Search box, expand the category by clicking the + sign, and click on the package until its version number shows up.



cygwin_setup_mingw64

When you see the Resolving Dependencies window, just accept and click Next.



cygwin_setup_dependencies

Mounting /mingw



If you're building 32-bit applications, add the following line to /etc/fstab so that /mingw is properly set up.


/usr/i686-w64-mingw32/sys-root/mingw /mingw none bind


If you're building 64-bit applications, add the following line to /etc/fstab instead.


/usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/sys-root/mingw /mingw none bind


Creating Symbolic Links



Start the Cygwin terminal and create symbolic links to gcc and g++ in this manner.



ln -s /usr/bin/i686-w64-mingw32-gcc.exe /usr/i686-w64-mingw32/bin/gcc.exe
ln -s /usr/bin/i686-w64-mingw32-g++.exe /usr/i686-w64-mingw32/bin/g++.exe
ln -s /usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc.exe /usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/bin/gcc.exe
ln -s /usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++.exe /usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/bin/g++.exe


Setting up environment variables



If you're building 32-bit applications, type the following commands or put them in ~/.profile:



export CC=/usr/bin/i686-w64-mingw32-gcc.exe
export CFLAGS="-mtune=pentium2 -mthreads -mms-bitfields -O2"
export CXXFLAGS="-mtune=pentium2 -mthreads -mms-bitfields -O2"
export CPPFLAGS="-I/mingw/include"
export LDFLAGS="-L/mingw/lib -Wl,--enable-auto-image-base -Wl,--enable-auto-import -Wl,--enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc"
export PATH=/mingw/bin:/usr/i686-w64-mingw32/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/mingw/lib/pkgconfig


If you're building 64-bit applications, type the following or put in ~/.profile:



export CC=/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc.exe
export CFLAGS="-mtune=core2 -mthreads -mms-bitfields -O2"
export CXXFLAGS="-mtune=core2 -mthreads -mms-bitfields -O2"
export CPPFLAGS="-I/mingw/include"
export LDFLAGS="-L/mingw/lib -Wl,--enable-auto-image-base -Wl,--enable-auto-import -Wl,--enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc"
export PATH=/mingw/bin:/usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/mingw/lib/pkgconfig


For more information on possible -mtune values, look here.



Monday, September 17, 2012

Quick 2011 with English/Spanish/Turkish/Arabic Subtitle

Quick is a Korean action movie that delivers thrilling action and speedy storyline.



With English subtitles




Quick.2011.part1 by wagamit1

Quick.2011.part2 by wagamit1

Quick.2011.part3 by wagamit1

Quick.2011.part4 by wagamit1

Quick.2011.part5 by wagamit1

Quick.2011.part6 by wagamit1

Quick.2011.part7 by wagamit1

With Arabic Subtitle




With Turkish Subtitle



Quick.2011.sa-rang-001.yeppudaa by onerepulic

Quick.2011.sa-rang-002.yeppudaa by onerepulic

With Spanish Subtitle


[Peliculas Coreanas] Quick 2011 (Divertidisima)

How to Compile libssh2 for Windows with MinGW

libssh2 is a client-side C library implementing the SSH2 protocol, according to the definition on libssh2.org. I am compiling libssh2 because it enables me to build applications for transferring files securely between Unix/Linux sites and Windows machines. Although there seems to be a way to build libssh2 with Visual Studio, this post focuses on using MinGW. If you haven't set up MinGW yet, just follow one of these posts on how to install MinGW.





First, I compiled zlib. I downloaded zlib source code from zlib.net, unpack the tarball, and typed the following commands:



make -f win32/Makefile.gcc
make install -f win32/Makefile.gcc BINARY_PATH=/mingw/bin INCLUDE_PATH=/mingw/include LIBRARY_PATH=/mingw/lib


Then, I compiled OpenSSL as shown in this post. For your information, libgcrypt can be used instead of OpenSSL (See this post). I typed the following commands to build OpenSSL.



./Configure -DHAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC -L/mingw/lib -lz -lws2_32 --prefix=/mingw zlib mingw
make
make install


I downloaded the latest libssh2 tarball from libssh2.org and unpacked it. I typed the configure as follows:



./configure --prefix=/mingw --with-libz --with-openssl --disable-examples-build


libssh2_configure

Then, I typed make.



make
make install


Somehow, only the static library was generated, but that's okay. I think that's because openssl was only compiled statically.



Saturday, September 15, 2012

The Man from Nowhere - 아저씨 [Eng SUB]

The Man from Nowhere is a pretty well-made Korean action movie that has set the new standard for violence in Korean films but also manages to touch the emotional side of the viewers. The movie tells the story of a reclusive former special-ops agent who becomes attached to a neighbor girl and gets himself involved with cold-blooded Korean underground gangs in a bid to save the girl. The fighting scenes are brutal and realistic, and there are some nasty scenes with the criminals doing business, so viewer discretion is recommended. Other than that, the storyline is well structured and the flow is flawless. Overall, most viewers will like the movie.



Friday, September 14, 2012

Movie that enraged Muslims around the World

I was curious what on earth caused Muslims around the world to be mad and attack American embassies lately. It turns out that a movie has been made in the United States that makes fun of prophet Mohammed and the whole religion of Islam. The movie trailer is still on YouTube. Here's the movie snippet that's highly controversial and provocative even in the eyes of non-Muslims.





Halfway along the film, I wondered who in his right mind would think of making such a provocative movie. Indeed, there are several clues in the movie that hint on the movie's motive and its messages. The movie is boldly mocking Mohammed and depicts Islam as violent, immoral religion. Obviously, the movie is intended to ridicule and provoke Muslims and their religion. The movie questions the way Islam forced conversion of non-Muslims to the its religion.



I have to say the movie producer is outright bold and gutsy whoever he is. But I don't know who'll ever enjoy watching the movie other than hatemongers.

About This Blog

KBlog logo This blog is about current events and issues concerning general population. Thanks for visiting the blog and posting your comments.

© Contents by KBlog

© Blogger template by Emporium Digital 2008

Followers

Total Pageviews

icon
Powered By Blogger