Free Online Book : Google Wave - Learn How to Use it.

The Complete Guide to Google Wave is book authored by Gina Trapani (Lifehacker fame) and Adam Pash. This book is freely available for reading online. The book is divided into 8 comprehensive chapters and 2 appendices. A very good book on Google Wave indeed.

Bookmark the link for future reference and read the free online book to get to know Google Wave inside-out. "The Complete Guide to Google Wave" book will be available in PDF and print sometime next year.

Now if only someone will send me a Google Wave invite.....

Free Open Source Screencasts for Linux System Administrators and Newbies alike

There has always been a dearth in quality training material in Linux System Administration. And if there are resources on the Net, they are hard to find. Now here is a new venture by John Yerhot who endevours to provide very well made videos which explain how to use different commands in Linux, useful to people who administer Linux servers.

FOSSCasts are short, free screencasts covering Linux, Unix, and Open Source software in general. Each episode is under 10 minutes and covers a different piece of Open Source software or a set of tips and tricks novice and seasoned veterans will both find useful.

The videos are available for download in two formats namely - Ogg Theora and Apple Quicktime. I checked out the latest episode - Sysstat Part 1 : vmstat & iostat; and the quality of the screencast is stellar.

The site is still in its inception stage and so you will find only a couple of screencasts at present. But their schedule is to provide one new screencast per week.

Do check out the screencasts - It is a job well done.

Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10 Released

Ubuntu today released its latest offering namely Ubuntu Karmic Koala version 9.10. Ubuntu Karmic Koala comes with lots of new features.

New Features in Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10

•  Upstart - an event-based replacement for the /sbin/init daemon which handles starting of tasks and services during boot, stopping them during shutdown and supervising them while the system is running. 
•  Software Center - a graphical utility for package management in Ubuntu. It replaces the Add/Remove programs tool.
  
•  GNOME version 2.28
• Quickly - An easy way to develop applications for Ubuntu and package them in a deb format.
• Ubuntu Karmic Koala is available in 25 languages.
• Linux kernel 2.6.31
• Ubuntu One - Integrates your Ubuntu machine with the cloud providing you free 2 GB of space to store and synchronize all your data like Tomboy notes, imortant files, contacts et al. More space is available for a nominal price of $10 / month.
  
• Better support for Intel chipsets.
• Ext4 file system by default.
• Grub 2
• Improved and enhanced AppArmor.
  

Of course, Ubuntu 9.10 is not without its share of glitches. Do check out the release notes for the lengthy list of issues that users might face while running this Ubuntu version.

How to download Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10

You can download Ubuntu 9.10 by visiting this page and choosing a mirror closest to your geographical location. You are encouraged to use bittorrent to download the ISO as it will ease the load on the Ubuntu servers.

Abicollab.net - A free web based collaboration service

A collaboration service allows multiple people spread across the world to remotely get  together and edit a single document simultaneously. AbiCollab is one such service. What is interesting about AbiCollab is that it is based around the popular open source wordprocessor Abiword.

Once you create an account in AbiCollab.net, you can create Abiword documents, open existing Abiword documents for collaboration with others, even view the documents right within the web browser. If you have created any documents in Abiword on your computer, you can also upload your Abiword documents to your online account.

I do like Abiword and find it a superior wordprocessor which holds a lot of promise. Visit AbiCollab.net and give this new service a try.

[News via Slashdot]

Yahoo Geocities brings fond memories... Not!

My first web page was in Yahoo Geocities. That was a time when the now ubiquitous server side technologies like PHP had yet to make an appearance. Yahoo was one of the few web hosts who were providing amateur website builders like myself a platform to host our files.

While I did find Geocities very useful to host files, I was always irritated by the protruding Yahoo ads on my website which were ruining my web page design. If you are wondering how my web site looked, then here is a screenshot I saved for nostalgic reasons.

You will be surprised to know that my Geocities website featured Linux resources as well - mostly links to useful resources on the net.

It had been a while since I have visited my very first web page though. To be honest, I had forgotten about my website till this day.

26th October 2009 is the last day stipulated by Yahoo after which, it will delete all the Geocities hosted websites.

It is my take that Yahoo has milked Geocities to make a ton of money through the ads it ran on each of the over a million websites hosted on the Geocities portal. And unlike Google, it hasn't shared even a penny with the webmasters who diligently maintained their sites.

I guess it is time to bid adieu to a portal that has well over, served a useful purpose for millions of people.

Windows 7 Gets a Thumbs Up from Linus Torvalds

Didn't even dream such a day would dawn, did you ? Now here is the father of Linux posing before a Windows 7 stall in Japan with a thumbs up sign.

The story behind the picture

The occasion was a Linux Symposium held in Japan in which Linus Torvalds was an attendee. Microsoft knowing about the Linux Symposium erected a Windows 7 promotion booth right across the venue.

During the break, when Linus Torvalds was dragged to the Windows 7 booth by a few of his buddies, he chose to pose as seen in the picture.

If you are wondering, No! Linus didn't buy a copy of Windows 7.

Source of News : Engadget
Photo Credits : Chris @ Japan Linux Symposium

Google Search will now include Twitter Tweets

Google has reached an agreement with Twitter to include real time tweets from Twitter in Google search results. All the more reason to take tweeting and tweets seriously.

So how is this news relevant to the lay person like you and me ? Twitter is synonymous with real-time updates of data. There are millions of people the world over who are tweeting information each day, which translates to billions of tweets. Now our Google search will also have real time data from people who have tweeted about the same topic. You can get real time information about disasters that have happened in a region, weather, traffic conditions in your area ... the list goes on and on. The basic premise is that someone, somewhere, is tweeting about these topics at any given time which makes this information valuable to the seeker.

This blog also has a twitter account associated with it. I concede, I am a late entrant to the twitter field. However, my twitter account already has 195 followers. You may follow my tweets at twitter.com/aboutlinux if you haven't done so already. It will contain atmost one or two tweets a day on relevant topics. So you won't be inundated with tweets from me.

[Source of news : Google Blog]

Cheat Sheet For Networking Professionals

Free download of a collection of cheet sheets for computer networking professionals. All the cheat sheets are in PDF and are beautifully made. The cheat sheets are segregated into different categories such as -

1. Protocols (BGP,EIGRP, First Hop Redundancy, IEEE 802.11 WLAN, IEEE 802.1X, IPsec, IPv4 Multicast, IPv6, IS-IS, OSPF, Spanning Tree)
2. Applications (tcpdump,Wireshark display filters)
3. Reference (IOS IPv4 Access Lists, IPv4 Subnetting, Common Ports)
4. Syntax (Markdown, MediaWiki)
5. Technologies (Frame Mode MPLS, QoS, VLANs)
6. Miscellaneous (Cisco IOS Versions, Physical terminations)

Courtesy of PacketLife.net

I had put together a small Cheat Sheet for MySQL a couple of years back which helped me in remembering the command line parameters used in manipulating MySQL database.

The idea of a cheat sheet is to help a person keep track of all the essentials of a topic. Thus cheat sheets play an invaluable role in brushing up ones knowledge in the least possible time.

Blogger to Wordpress Migration - Step by Step Tutorial

I often see the Blogger domain of this blog and have a sinking feeling that I am stuck with this blogspot sub-domain. Believe me, there is nothing wrong in running your blog on a blogspot sub domain. There are instances of blogging successes on a blogspot domain too. It is just that with a custom domain and paid hosting, you have more flexibility and control over the various elements that comprise your blog. And for SEO benefits, it is advised to always run your blog on a custom domain - preferably using a blogging software like Wordpress - though Drupal would also make a good fit.

Today, I stumbled upon a very useful article written by Amit Agarwal which explains how to migrate your blog from blogger to paid Wordpress hosting and your own custom domain. What is relevant about this article is, Amit explains how to do the migration without losing any of the visitors to your old blog hosted on blogspot domain.

Check out Amit's article to learn how to do the search engine friendly switch of your blog from Blogger to Wordpress platform without losing any link juice.

How to make your website mobile friendly

Do you run a website or blog ? If yes, how accessible is it on a mobile device ? Now a days, with more and more people browsing the net straight from their mobile devices like cell phones, it is very important to make your website as accessible to this group of users. Google teaches you how.

Steps to make your website mobile friendly

The following are the steps you need to take to make your website easily accessible on cell phones and other mobile devices.

1. Provide an obvious link to the mobile version of your website from the desktop version of your site.
2. Use a conventional "mobile URL" and advertise it. Eg: Gmail uses the m.gmail.com URL to provide the mobile version of Gmail.
3. Your mobile version of website should have a mobile friendly web design and should provide large, actionable, clickable UI elements.
4. Mobile phones can be broadly classified into different categories - depending upon the degree of internet connectivity they support. Design your mobile friendly website for all these categories.
5. Reduce the number of requests and the amount of data transferred.
   
   • Sprite your images using CSS or transfer your images using a data URI scheme.
   • Consolidate all your page's dependencies like CSS code, JavaScript and so on into a single file.
   • Compress your HTML code where ever possible.
   • Eliminate redirects.
   • Transfer data when needed and preload where appropriate.
     
6. Take advantage of new features in HTML.
   
   • Use an application cache for local content storage.
   • Use CSS3 instead of images where ever possible.
   • Plan for the lowest common denominator. For example, Flash is not widely supported by many mobile devices. Dito for JavaScript. So these are best left out from your mobile friendly website design.
     
7. Last but not the least, extensively test your mobile friendly website on multiple devices - which includes, actual devices like iPhone, Windows mobile and mobile simulators like Blackberry simulator, Opera Mini simulator, Android Emulator and so on.
   

[Source : Google]

Sir Tim Berners Lee apologizes for forward slashes in web addresses

Sir Tim Berners Lee - the creator of the World Wide Web (WWW) has apologized for the mandatory forward slashes in web addresses. He says he could easily have deviced web addresses without the forward slashes.

This apology was made in the mist of a light hearted talk with a Times newspaper reporter.

However, Berners Lee need not be unduly worried. Most modern web browsers assume the http:// part and prepend it to an address when a user type a web address.

Web browsers are getting more and more intelligent. For example, if you type a phrase in the address bar of Firefox, chances are it will display the results for the query in your default search engine (usually Google). More over, if it is a well known phrase associated with a particular website, then you may even be taken directly to that website.

[Source : BBC]

Bash Examples - Mistakes to Avoid

A bash script is a text file containing a list of commands to be executed by the bash shell. A long time back, I had written a guide on Bash scripting which teaches you the basic syntax of bash scripts in a mere 10 seconds.

However, while writing bash scripts, you should keep a sharp lookout for any mistakes that may arise in your bash syntax. This is where Greg's wiki comes into the picture. Greg's wiki has a page which lists around 29 bash examples that highlight all the common mistakes that people usually make while writing bash scripts.

Google Wave Explained in Plain English

I was raring to try out Google Wave but havin't received an invite yet. So I did the next best thing which is to scrounge the Net for more info on Google Wave. Thus I chanced upon this wonderfully made video explaining in plain English what Google Wave is all about.

What is Google Wave ?

Simply put, Google Wave, as I have understood, is about removing duplicity in our communication. All the conversation that takes place within Google Wave is one huge wave. There is only one copy of a conversation stored (on a centralized server). And that conversation can be shared amoung countless people, with these people adding bits and pieces here and there to make the conversation grow. You can add not just text but videos, attach files, add voice and pictures, embed maps - all of which merge seamlessly with the wave. There is even a playback feature to help people to keep track of the conversation that is happening.

Some people are calling Google Wave a morph of - Instant Messaging, Email, and Web Conferencing - All rolled into one application.

Excited ?

Then check out the following informative video which explains the Google Wave technology to lay persons like you and me.

Handy Tips To Be More Productive Using GIMP

GIMP - also known as the GNU Image Manipulation Program - is well known as an excellent graphics editor. Many people even consider it as useful as Adobe Photoshop for creating images for the web. I have been using GIMP for a long time now and have used it for such tasks as screen capturing, optimizing images, retouching photos, scaling images, special effects and so on. GIMP is available for multiple platforms including Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Why, GIMP is even available as a portable application  which allows you to run it directly from a USB pen drive.

The following are a few handy tips which will help you be more productive in GIMP.

Handy Tips for GIMP users

1. Add the PSPI plugin - This plugin will allow you to install and use most Photoshop filters in GIMP.
2. Install the Layer effects plug-in  - This plug-in will club filters such as drop shadow, color overlay, bevel and embross, inner shadow, inner glow and so on into one group thus easing your work.
3. Install the Separate+ plug-in which will bring CMYK color separation in GIMP.
4. Install the Liquid Rescale plug-in.
5. Add additional brushes. GIMP already comes with a default set of brushes but you can download more variety from websites such as blendfu.com.
6. Anchor the windows - There is an always on top option for GIMP dialog windows. Use them to your advantage.
7. Install the GIMP Animation Package (GAP) - Helps you create animated GIFs, surrealistic landscapes and realistic water motion.
8. Enable GEGL in GIMP. This feature is available only in GIMP 2.6 and above.
   

[Source: Smashing Magazine]

Damn Small Linux - DSL

Damn Small Linux - also known as DSL - is a fully functional Desktop oriented Linux distribution which fits in a business card sized (50 MB) CD.

How to run DSL

You can run DSL from the following.

1. Bootable USB Pen Drives
2. Business Card CD (>= 50 MB)
3. Compact flash card
4. Zip drive
   
5. Installed on your Hard Disk
6. Entirely in RAM (Memory).
7. From within another operating system such as Windows through virtualization.
   

What can DSL be used for ?

DSL, even while small in size (50MB) has applications for all your computer needs. It works flawlessly on old computers with just 64 MB memory so can be installed on old machines. DSL is ideally suitable for use by people on the move to be run from USB pen drives and business card CDs. Damn Small Linux has applications for almost any task you may want to do on your computer.

DSL Screenshot

The following is a screenshot of DSL version 4.4.10.

List of Applications in DSL

DSL, despite its small size is packed with a valuable set of applications suitable for your basic computer use. A few applications worth noting are as follows :

• Firefox web browser
• Ted word processor
• Sylpheed email client
• Beaver text editor
• Siag spreadsheet
• xpdf PDF viewer 
• Monkey web server.

This is just a subset of the useful applications bundled with DSL.

Damn Small Linux - DSL Review

Read my DSL Review.

More About DSL

DSL Home Page - Click here.
Official DSL Forum - Click here.

50 Time Saving Tips For Ubuntu Users

If you are an avid Ubuntu Linux user and wish to be more productive in using Ubuntu, these 50 time saving tips are for you. These 50 tips range right from doing mundane tasks to doing something spectacular all the while helping you save on time.

50 Time Saving Ubuntu Tips

The 50 time saving tips are divided into 5 separate sections for easy reference namely -

1. System performance
2. Default Gnome desktop
3. The KDE desktop
4. System wide tips, and
   
5. The command line.

Read more @ techradar.com.

Clipboard Managers in Linux

A clipboard manager is a computer program that adds additional functionality to basic clipboard usage. The main tasks of a clipboard manager are as follows :

1. To store data copied to the clipboard so that it can be pasted after closing the host application of the data copied.
2. To store and retrieve multiple clips from the clip history available – any number of times.

This means you need to copy text or images only once and it will be available for pasting through out the duration of your computer use. Linux has a plethora of clipboard managers. But the one program which comes to my mind the most is the one available by default in all KDE installations namely Klipper.

The following is a list of clipboard managers which you can try out in Linux.

• Glipper (for GNOME users)
• Klipper (for KDE users)
• Clipman (for XFCE users)
• Parcellite
• DDM

Penguin Inside has written an article explaining the pros and cons of the above mentioned clipboard managers which makes an interesting read. Using clipboard managers is one way of saving on repetitive tasks and thus improving your productivity in using computers.

How many Operating Systems can you name ?

The other day when I was trying out Haiku, I had a sudden brain wave. How many operating systems - old or otherwise can I really name? And how many of these have I actually used? To tell you honestly, I could name only a few including the ones I have used. Of course, I lumped all Linux distributions as one entity.

In fact, this is the list of operating systems I could name :

• DOS (MSDOS, FreeDOS, PC DOS ...)
• Linux (Fedora, OpenSuSE, Ubuntu, DSL, PCLinuxOS, ....)
• Solaris (OpenSolaris, Belenix, Nexenta, ...)
• BSD (FreeBSD, NetBSD,OpenBSD, PCBSD,...)
• Apple MAC OS X (Tiger, Leopard, ...)
• Microsoft Windows (Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7)
• IBM OS/2, z/OS ...
  
• Other Unix (Xenix)
• Qnx
• Haiku, BeOS

Over a period of time, I have written a couple of reviews of the ones I have used. So here is a question for you. How many operating systems can you really name? And out of those how many have you actually used (or tried out) ? Do you know of any really old operating systems apart from the ones mentioned in this list ?

Is Linux kernel getting bloated ? Linus Torvalds says Yes!

A lot of bloat is creeping into the Linux kernel. This was the startling revelation made by none other than Linus Torvalds - Founder of the Linux kernel. He said this in his talk at LinuxCon - an event that brings together Linux gurus and open source leaders to provide collaboration and education space for all matters on Linux.

The word bloat is historically associated with Microsoft Windows because each major updates in the form of Windows Service Packs installs 100s of MB data on your machine.

The term "bloat" can be defined as software that provides minimal functionality while requiring a disproportionate amount of diskspace and memory. It is especially used for application and OS upgrades.

This is what Linus Torvalds said when the question on performance drops in each release of the kernel was posed to him (and I quote) :

We’re getting bloated and huge. Yes, it’s a problem.
...
I’d like to say we have a plan.
...
Sometimes it’s a bit sad that we are definitely not the streamlined, small hyper efficient kernel I envisioned 15 years ago. The kernel is huge and bloated and our iCache footprint is scary. There’s no question about that, and whenever we add a new feature, it only gets worse.

So do you think each version of Linux kernel is really providing marginal new features, all the while increasing the size of the kernel ?

Haiku - A new Operating System inspired by BeOS

Haiku is an open source operating system that specifically targets personal computing. It is inspired by  the now defunct BeOS and reimplements both the BeOS technologies as well as the end user experience.  Recently the Haiku team unveiled the first release candidate RC1 by releasing a liveCD of Haiku R1 Alpha1.

The Haiku R1 Alpha1 live CD ISO is only 380MB in size. Succumbing to curiosity, and because of its tiny size, I downloaded Haiku live CD and took it for a run. Simply put, I was really impressed with the user interface and the stability of the OS. I found the Haiku Desktop interface to be unique providing a radical approach to desktop computing.

Haiku live CD at present is more of a showcase and has little applications to be of any use to the lay person. However, it does bundle with it the Firefox web browser though. One thing which impressed me was the smoothness with which some of the demo OpenGL applications ran - even in a Virtual environment. Below are a few images of the Haiku operating system for your peruse.

Haiku at present works only on x86 systems and require a minimum of 128MB RAM. However, it also comes with a few handicaps namely - no wireless support yet, no package management yet, Haiku boot manager supports only a single hard disk, A few device drivers related to printing are missing ... and so on. But hey, that is why it is called Alpha. Read the full release notes to know more.

Haiku has a shell similar to the Bash shell and many of the commands are similar to the commands you use in Linux. For example, to know the version of the OS, open Haiku shell and type uname -a, Use ls command for listing directories and so on. And many open source tools have been ported to Haiku as well.

Check out the following video of the Haiku desktop to get a better feel of this promising new operating system based on BeOS.



You can download Haiku R1 Alpha1 live CD from its official website.

Assuming you have reached this far, I would like to pose a question to you. Suppose Haiku were to have more applications than Linux and if it were to meet all its goals of being a remarkable personal desktop OS, would you ditch Linux ? While answering this question, keep in mind that Haiku is as open source as Linux itself.

Screencast - Install OpenSolaris in VirtualBox

Installing OpenSolaris on your machine may require some gentle hand holding if you are a first time user of the operating system. More so if you are thinking of installing OpenSolaris in VirtualBox. But help is at hand. I came across an exceptionally done screencast which walks you through installing and configuring VirtualBox in Windows, and then installing OpenSolaris in VirtualBox.


The screencast is divided into 7 parts namely -

• Introduction
• Getting the software - OpenSolaris & VirtualBox
• Installing VirtualBox
• Creating a Virtual Machine
• Starting OpenSolaris LiveCD in VirtualBox
  
• Installing OpenSolaris
• Guest Additions.

If you are wondering ... Installing Guest Additions will allow you to move your mouse pointer seamlessly between the host and the guest operating system.

At the end of the screencast, you get a link to another screencast which explain how to install additional packages in OpenSolaris the easy way.

Watch the full screencast.

This screencast could come in handy in installing any of the offshoots of OpenSolaris such as Belenix, Nexenta, and SchilliX.

Netcat, nc command

Netcat - also known as nc is considered the Swiss army knife of system administrators. In its most basic usage, netcat acts as a simple utility which reads and writes data across network connections, using TCP or UDP transport protocols. But this simple tool finds diverse uses for system administrators (Unix & Linux alike). Hence the name Swiss army knife.

Here is a tiny list of the things Netcat can accomplish -

• Simultaneously act as a server at one end and a client at the other to seamlessly transfer files between remote machines.
• Scan for open ports on the host machine or on a remote machine.
• Setting up a chat server
• Act as a web proxy

... just to name a few.

You will be amused to know that a few people have even broadcast the World Cup Soccer live in Ascii characters, which you can view using netcat command.

If you are looking for more uses of netcat, then you should check out the examples listed on the netcat Wikipedia page.

Netcat is available for Unix, Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows platform.

GNOME vs KDE - Income and Expenses

Being avid users of GNOME and/or KDE, have you ever wondered how much revenue these well known open source projects generate ? If popular perception is taken into account, GNOME should generate far more revenue, in-turn more profits, than KDE. But reality is somewhat different.

The following are some nuggets of information gleaned from the quarterly reports that give a birds eye view of the income and expenses of GNOME and KDE respectively.

• For second quarter of 2009, GNOME's income is $102567.00 vs KDE's first quarter income of $111059.97. 
• If you exclude Desktop summit fees (one time fees) of $65000 from GNOME's income above, it is found that KDE has twice the budget of GNOME in each quarter. 
• GNOME has traditionally relied on corporate supporters but is switching to a more community based source of income.
• KDE does not seem to be affected by recession, where as GNOME's income seem to have declined across quarters.
• KDE was reporting a positive bank balance of over $288,000. Chances are GNOME's bank balance is nowhere near that of KDE.
  
• However, KDE's administrative costs are less than half GNOME's, despite its larger income. The implications are clear - KDE runs a much more lean ship than GNOME as far as expenses are concerned. 

[Sources : KDE 2009 Q1 report, GNOME 2009 Q2 report, Linux Magazine ]

Scribus - Free Desktop Publishing Software

Scribus is an open source Free DTP software in the same league as Adobe Pagemaker. Scribus is the ideal free page layout program for business, education, and small- and home-office professionals who want to create high-quality publications such as brochures and newsletters.

Some of the notable features of Scribus are as follows :

• Support for professional publishing features such as CMYK color, separations and spot colors.
• ICC color management.
• Versatile PDF creation.
• Embed PDF documents.
  
• Available at an unbeatable price - Free.

I had covered Scribus a few years back. Now Natan Willis has written an article describing in detail the Scribus interface. He also dwells on how to create labels of your exact specifications using Scribus.

Apple - Exploring the innards of a Mac Mini

I have always been allured by Apple products - more for their aesthetic beauty than for their function - be it iPhone, iMac,  iPod, iNano et al. Yes, Apple products usually cost the bomb to buy compared to similar products from contenders and we ordinary users may as well stay away from them if we do not want to splurge on gadgets. However, all things said and done, Apple products do appeal to most people's sense of beauty and they are getting popular as days go by.


One Apple product which has especially caught my fancy is the Apple Mini. It is small enough to fit into the palm of your hand, is compact, has almost all interfaces you might expect in a full blown PC, can be connected to non-Apple hardware peripherals such as keyboard, mice, monitor etc, and more importantly - it is priced in the same range as a PC which makes it quite affordable.

If you are curious what a Mac Mini looks within its Aluminium casing, your wish has been granted. Macminicolo.net who provide Mac Mini servers for hire have put together a photo op of the unveiling of the Apple Mac Mini. They unwrap the Apple Mac Mini from its package and then in a step by step manner, show you the hardware that powers this aesthetic beauty. Check out the article.

Now if you are wondering whether you can install Linux on an Apple Mac Mini, yes you can. Find out how you can install Linux on a Mac Mini.

However, anytime you ask me, I will opt for a PC over an Apple Mac for sure. But that is just me saying it.

I will leave you pondering over the following picture of a server farm run entirely using Apple Mac Minis'. (Image courtesy: Macminicolo.net)

Linux servers can now be infected - Or can they ?

Linux gurus have always vouched on the safety and security of Linux - especially Linux running as servers. However, now after a developer named Denis Sinegubko has published his findings, they may just have to ponder over their words.

According to Denis, the Linux servers can be infected to be used in a botnet used to distribute malware.  The modus operandi of attack is as follows :

1. The bots target a domain name and inject a hidden <iframe> code in one of the web pages on the website pointing to the domain. 
2. The hidden iframe will contain link(s) pointing to web sites that host malicious content. 
3. These bots also infiltrated Linux web servers (mostly running nginx) and set up sites by using 100s of domain names registered on free dynamic DNS hosting providers such as dynDNS.com and no-IP.com.
4. When they set up sites, they invariably used the less checked 8080 port instead of the default port 80. 

Read the details of Denis Sinegubko's finding here.

Open Solaris vs Linux - A Comparison

OpenSolaris and Linux to a layperson can seem similar in many ways. They both use more or less the same end user applications, have similar desktops, and are open source. But scratch the surface and you find that they are entirely different products all together.
Some of the notable differences which an end user may encounter are as follows :

1. Directory structure differences. For example, in Linux, the Home directory is located at /home whereas in OpenSolaris it is at /export/home.
   
2. Linux and OpenSolaris use different commands for doing the same things. Some commands are similar in name but take different options.
3. Linux supports more hardware than OpenSolaris. This means, Linux runs on more machines than OpenSolaris.
4. One of the main reasons for using OpenSolaris is ZFS. Linux doesn't support ZFS yet.
   
5. Taking snapshots of filesystem in OpenSolaris is a snap. Again courtesy of ZFS. Linux users are, by default, left in the lurch on this front.
   
6. OpenSolaris supports a variety of virtualisation technologies with different degrees of isolation, flexibility, performance and ease of use. Eg: VirtualBox, A port of Xen called xVM Hypervisor, Zones et al. Linux supports VirtualBox and Xen but not Zones.
7. Linux has more applications than OpenSolaris. Period.
8. OpenSolaris boots slower than Linux on the same hardware.
   

Tuxradar runs a detailed comparison between Linux and OpenSolaris with a few accompanying tips and tricks. Check it out.

Comics - Learn how ZFS safeguards your data

I am sure you have heard euologies about ZFS - the default file system on Solaris. But do you really know why ZFS is considered to be a superior file system ? If you are in doubt, never fear, Nexenta Man has come to your rescue.

Read the exploits of Nexentaman to learn how ZFS keeps your data safe.

Tornado - An open source web server, courtesy of Facebook

Facebook has released one of its core piece of infrastructure called Tornado under an open source license.

From the Facebook announcement:

Tornado is a relatively simple, non-blocking Web server framework written in Python, designed to handle thousands of simultaneous connections, making it ideal for real-time Web services.

Tornado was originally developed by Friendfeed to power its real time web infrastructure prior to it being acquired by Facebook.

Check out the other open source projects from Facebook.

Read in detail about the technology behind Friendfeed's web server Tornado here.

Apple Open Sources Snow Leopard's Grand Central Dispatch

Apple has again jumped on to the open source bandwagon by releasing the code for its Grand Central Dispatch technology.

Grand Central Dispatch takes full advantage by making all of Mac OS X multicore aware and optimizing it for allocating tasks across multiple cores and processors. Grand Central Dispatch also makes it much easier for developers to create programs that squeeze every last drop of power from multicore systems.


Apple Insider writes :

The user-space implementation of the Grand Central Dispatch services API, called libdispatch, has been delivered as its own open source project, joining with other components that are part of projects Apple has already designated as open, including the kernel components in the Darwin OS XNU kernel and the blocks runtime that is part of the LLVM project.

A few other Apple related open source projects that come to mind are Webkit and CUPS, just to name a few.

25 Linux Tips for Windows Users

Are you an exclusive Microsoft Windows user who wishes to switch to Linux? Perhaps you are looking forward to embracing Linux for the following reasons -

1. Microsoft Windows is closed source and you seek an open source alternative.
2. You want to check out what the hype on Linux is all about.
3. You are fascinated by the rock solid stability and security you will get in using Linux which is lacking in Windows.
4. You seek change just like the American President Obama, albeit at a much more subdued, personal level.
   

What ever your reason for ditching Windows, there is help at hand. Techradar has published 25 Linux tips for Windows switchers which makes an interesting read.

The article starts from the basics of choosing the right Linux distribution, package management basics, and rounds off with a few tips on troubleshooting in Linux when you hit a snag.

Full RSS feeds now enabled for this blog

I am happy to let you know that now you can read full posts directly in your RSS reader without visiting this blog. Till date, when anyone subscribed to this blog, they were provided only a teaser of the post, and to read the full post, they had to click the link and visit this blog. Now no more. You can read the full articles right in your RSS reader itself. Hope you find this new change useful.

Please let me know if you are unable to access the full posts of this blog in your RSS feeds.

Moderating Comments

I'm afraid that I've been forced to moderate comments on this blog due to someone who appears to be posting sexually explicit comments in Japanese. I tried just deleting them as they appear, but I'm getting tired of doing that.

If you're the person posting the comments, go open your own blog.

Blogger finally gets the 'Read More' link as in Wordpress

It is good news for all Blogger fans out there. Your favourite blogging platform finally gets the "Read more" link.

It had been a sticking point that a blogging platform as versatile as Blogger didn't have such a basic functionality as "Read more" which most other blogging software considered passe. But not any longer. Now you can stop using code hacks to get what you want.

Enabling the "Read more" link is as simple as inserting a <!-- more --> tag somewhere in your blog post. And Voila! your blog post gets truncated at the position of the tag and your visitors have to click on the "Read more" link to view your full article. If you are reading this article from the Home page of this blog, click on the "Read more" link below to continue reading this article.

If you feel like changing the "Read More" text to your own custom phrase, you can easily do this from the Layout | Page Elements tab. Click Edit on the Blog Post widget, and then change the Post page link text to whatever you'd like.



Note: If you are using a heavily customized template - like this one, you will have to insert the following snippet of code directly below the <data:post.body/> in your HTML template. Don't forget to select - "Expand widget template" checkbox.

<b:if cond='data:post.hasJumpLink'>
<div class='jump-link'>
<a expr:href='data:post.url + "#more"'> <data:post.jumpText/> </a>
</div>
</b:if>

I couldn't get the 'Insert Jump Break' toolbar icon enabled on my post editor though, but I can live with it for the time being.

More details on enabling the "Read more" link in Blogger can be found here.

Solaris 10 Operating System for x86 installation check tool

Solaris Operating System for x86 Installation Check Tool checks the system on which you try to install the operating system and report if the system can run the Sun solaris OS properly.
The download is a simple ISO file which then needs to burnt onto a CD to create a boot CD. Once created, start the X86 system with the CD. The ISO can be downloaded from here.

For Sun Solaris Express Edition, click here

The tool checks and reports whether your x86 system can install the Solaris 10 8/07 OS. The Installation Check Tool loads the Solaris 10 8/07 kernel and looks for a hard disk on your system. Reports whether Solaris drivers are available for the devices the tool detects on your x86 system. This information helps you to determine whether the Solaris 10 8/07 OS is likely to run on your system.
Installation Check Tool also produces a table that shows whether a Solaris driver is available for each device the tool detects. The table tells you whether the driver is built in to the Solaris OS or whether a third-party driver is available.

Installation Check Tool first loads the Solaris 10 8/07 kernel. Then the tool generates a report that shows the major PCI components in the system and whether Solaris drivers exist for these devices.

This report package is written to a tar file that is compressed with gzip. You have the option to copy this report file to a floppy disk or to USB storage. The report package includes the following files:

A text file that shows the same information as the screen output.
An HTML report file that shows the full content of the report. No abbreviations are used.
The output of prtconf -pv, prtdiag, and prtconf -v.
The following is an example of the text information that is displayed on your monitor:

If the system includes two devices that require a third-party driver, the driver for the second such device is labeled “T-2” in the driver column of the table and in the Third Party Driver Legend.
If a report such as the example shown above is displayed on your screen, and if you do not receive any warning message that no disk is found, then the Solaris 10 8/07 OS can be installed on this system.
The next step is to check whether drivers exist for other on-board devices, such as network devices, video devices, and audio devices.
NOTE: Sun does not warrant the behavior of any third-party driver.

Installation Check Tool gives you the option to copy this driver report to a floppy disk or to USB storage.

Solaris Operating System for x86 Installation Check Tool displays a message if your system is suitable for installing the Solaris 10 8/07 OS.

Installation Check Tool is updated periodically to include knowledge of new drivers in the driver database that the tool uses. Drivers that are integrated into the Solaris OS and third-party drivers that are known to work with the Solaris OS are included in these updates. Check this web page periodically to make sure you are using the most current release of Installation Check Tool. The tool also displays a message to remind you to check for a new release.

Tags: drivers, solaris, solaris-express, sun, x86

Sun Device Detection Tool 1.2 for x86 systems

The Sun Device Detection Tool can help you to determine if the Devices on the system is detected by the Sun Solaris Operating System.
If your device or system is already on the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) then this may not be necessary. Click here for the HCL in Sun Solaris.

However, there is no harm in running the tool. The tool also allows you to submit the device to HCL under the Reported to Work Function (RWF).

The tool can test the X86 system for either Sun Solaris OS or for the Sun Solaris Express Edition.
The Sun Device Detection Tool 1.2 can be downloaded from here and can run on X86 systems running Windows XP, Linux (with PCI tools installed) with Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed.
Acccept the License Agreement and download the tool.

1. Once downloaded, click Run to start the tool.

2. Select the Operating System (Solaris OS or Solaris Express Edition) and click Start.

This starts the tool and checks all the detected tool in the system.
3. Once complete, the tool will provide a list of device detected and the status of the drivers available.
A Green indicates the device is compatible with the Sun Solaris OS
A Red indicates that the device is not compatible with Sun Solaris or in other words there is no driver for the device
A Yellow indicates tha the device has limited support and may or may work properly with Sun Solaris Operating System.

Tags: , device-detection, hcl, java, jre, pci, runtime, rwf, solaris, solaris-express, sun

Solaris 10 & Solaris Express Hardware Compatibility list(HCL)

As you are aware of, every Operating System has a Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). The Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) identifies hardware that is compatible with the Operating System and provides information about available software support.

Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) for Solaris 10 OS:

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/data/sol/

There are totally 906 system which includes OEM & System Vendor Products, VMWare,Servers, Desktops, Laptops andMotherboards and 1568 system components

Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) for Solaris Express Developer Edition:

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/data/sx/

This includes 975 Systems and 1602 system components

Tags: hardware, hcl, solaris, solaris-express, sun

How to recover/reset root password in Sun solaris (SPARC)

There is every little chance that one loses or rather forgets the root password of his Sun Solaris servers. In the event, this happens, there is a way out of it. Well the way and infact the only way is to reset the password as there is no way to recover it. Recovering/restting the password involves booting the server in Single User mode and mounting the root file system.

Ofcourse, it is recommeded that the security for the physical access to the server is restricted so as to ensure that there is no unauthorized access and anyone who follows this routine is an authorized personnel.

Boot the server with a Sun Solaris Operating System CD (I’m using a Solaris 10 CD but doesn’t matter really) or a network boot with a JumpStart server from the OBP OK prompt.

OK boot cdrom -s

or

OK boot net -s

This will boot the server from the CD or Jumpstart server and launch a single user mode (No Password).

Mount the root file system (assume /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 here) onto /a

solaris# mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /a

NOTE: /a is a temporary mount point that is available when you boot from CD or a JumpStart server

Now, with the root file system mounted on /a. All you need to do is to edit the shadow file and remove the encrypted password for root.

solaris# vi /a/etc/shadow

Now, exit the mounted filesystem, unmount the root filesystem and reboot the system to single-user mode booting of the disk.

solaris# cd /

solaris# umount /a

solaris# init s

This should boot of the disk and take you to the single-user mode. Press enter at the prompt to enter a password for root.

This should allow you to login to the system. Once in, set the password and change to multi-user mode.

NOTE: Single-User mode is only to ensure that the root user without password is not exposed to others if started in multi-user mode before being set with a new password.

solaris# passwd root

solaris# reboot

This should do. You should now be able to logon with the new password set for root

Tags: password, recovery, root, solaris, sun

How to recover/reset root password in Sun solaris (x86)

about resetting the password on Sun Solaris Operating system in SPARC platform. While the procedure is almost the same wherein you boot with the CD into single user mode and mount the root partition, here we discuss the procedure to reset the password for the root user on the x86 platform.

It is recommeded that the security for the physical access to the server is restricted so as to ensure that there is no unauthorized access and anyone who follows this routine is an authorized personnel.

Boot the server with a Sun Solaris Operating System CD (I’m using a Solaris 10 CD but doesn’t matter really) or a network boot with a JumpStart server. Change the Boot order accordingly in your x86 system and start the server and launch a single user mode (No Password).

In Solaris 10, you have the default Fail Safe boot option in the Boot Loader. With this you do not need a CD or JumpStart server as selecting it will launch the Single-User shell. I haven’t used the early Solaris versions on an x86 system so if anyone knows it is availabe then please post your comments.

When you boot from the CD, select the option for the Sigle-user mode (Option 6 on Solaris 10 CD)

This will look for the currently installed Solaris OS on your system and prompts a Yes/No question to mount the Root filesystem as a Read/Write file system onto /a.

Select yes to mount the root file system (/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 here) on /a. If you select No, no harm as you still can mount it manually using:

solaris# mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /a

NOTE: /a is a temporary mount point that is available when you boot from CD or a JumpStart server

Now, with the root file system mounted on /a. All you need to do is to edit the shadow file and remove the encrypted password for root.

solaris# vi /a/etc/shadow

Now, exit the mounted filesysten, unmount the root filesystem and reboot the system to single-user mode booting of the disk.

solaris# cd /

solaris# umount /a

solaris# init s

This should boot of the disk and take you to the single-user mode. Press enter at the prompt to enter a password for root.

This should allow you to login to the system. Once in, set the password and change to multi-user mode.

NOTE: Single-User mode is only to ensure that the root user without password is not exposed to others if started in multi-user mode before being set with a new password.

solaris# passwd root

solaris# reboot

This should do. You should now be able to logon as root with the new password.

Tags: password, recovery, root, solaris, sun, x86

Sun Solaris Patch Management return codes

When you install Patches on Solaris, you will find quite often see error codes or Exit/Return codes when the patch installation fails.

These are the return codes that indicate the cause of the failure to install the specified patch and are very helpful as point to start with in troubleshooting.

The most commonly seen return codes are Return code 2, Return code 8, Return code 25, Return code 35.

Return Code 2 indicates that the patch you are trying to install is already been applied.

Return Code 8 indicate that the patch you are trying to install is for a package that is not already installed.

Return Code 25 indicates that a patch required for this patch to be installed in not found.

Return Code 35 indicates that the revision of the patch is older and that a later version of the patch is already applied to the system.

The following are a list of the Return/Exit codes that you may come across while patching your Solaris server:

Exit Code / Return Code	Description
0	No error
1	Usage error
2	Attempt to apply a patch that’s already been applied
3	Effective UID is not root
4	Attempt to save original files failed
5	pkgadd failed
6	Patch is obsolete
7	Invalid package directory
8	Attempting to patch a package that is not installed
9	Cannot access /usr/sbin/pkgadd (client problem)
10	Package validation errors
11	Error adding patch to root template
12	Patch script terminated due to signal
13	Symbolic link included in patch
14	NOT USED
15	The prepatch script had a return code other than 0
16	The postpatch script had a return code other than 0
17	Mismatch of the -d option between a previous patch install and the current one
18	Not enough space in the file systems that are targets of the patch
19	$SOFTINFO/INST_RELEASE file not found
20	A direct instance patch was required but not found
21	The required patches have not been installed on the manager
22	A progressive instance patch was required but not found
23	A restricted patch is already applied to the package
24	An incompatible patch is applied
25	A required patch is not applied
26	The user specified back out data can’t be found
27	The relative directory supplied can’t be found
28	A pkginfo file is corrupt or missing
29	Bad patch ID format
30	Dryrun failure(s)
31	Path given for -C option is invalid
32	Must be running Solaris 2.6 or greater
33	Bad formatted patch file or patch file not found
34	The appropriate kernel jumbo patch needs to be installed
35	Later revision already installed

Tags: patch-management, return-codes, solaris, sun

NFS Security – nfs_portmon to restrict client source port to privileged ports

Network File System (NFS) security in Sun Solaris can be enhanced by restricting the source ports for the client connections for NFS to be only privileged ports. The privileged port range is from 512 to 1023. Enabling this security feature for NFS in solaris, checks if the source ports from the clients from privilege ports. This prevents malicious users from gaining access to files exported/shared by the NFS server by preventing custom RPC based scripts or applications being used on unprivileged ports.

In Sun Solaris 10 this is enabled by default. In Solaris 9 and earlier, this can be enabled by simply editing the /etc/system file and adding an entry for nfs_portmon.

Edit the /etc/system file

sunsolaris# vi /etc/system

Add the following line

set nfssrv:nfs_portmon = 1

If you by any chance run Solaris 2.5 or earlier then

set nfs:nfs_portmon = 1

This change requires a reboot of the server for it to take effect.

Reboot the server

sunsolaris# init 6

When the server reboots, the changes take effect.

In Solaris 8 and later, run the following to confirm the change:

sunsolaris# adb -k

nfs_portmon /D

If this returns “1″ indicates nfs_portmon is enabled else if it returns “0″ indicates nfs_portmon is not enabled.

Tags: , network-file-system, nfs, nfs_portmon, privileged-source-ports, security