ubuntu
Ubuntu Flash
Apr 12th
To install flash in Ubuntu use:
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
This works on Ubuntu 32bit and 64bit. Flash is slightly unreliable on 64bit Ubuntu, but it works nonetheless.
You can also install two open source versions of flash that have limited to good support.
Gnash supports most older versions of swf animations, and newer versions should work better as updates are rolled out. Install gnash with:
sudo apt-get install gnash
You can also try swfdec:
sudo apt-get install swfdec
VirtualBox 3.1.4 – Debian Lenny SMP Instability
Mar 27th
I use an Ubuntu Karmic desktop environment for my host. I use VirtualBox with Debian Lenny for virtual machines. Most of the time virtual machines work fine with multiple processors enabled in VirtualBox, but Debian Lenny does have some instability forcing the VirtualBox configuration to use 1 processor to maintain stability. Maybe changing the kernel, particularly to an SMP kernel, is required; this would make sense. I can try that or just leave it as a single core virtual machine which is stable. I’m not really inclined to do anything because everything works fine as is.
Detecting a Security Breach – Ubuntu and Linux Machine
Jan 25th
Detecting a security breech is sometimes as easy as logging into the machine, using ssh, and viewing the last login attempt from a completely unrecognized ip address or domain. Subsequently check your auth.log file, in /var/log, for login attempts. If you see countless failed login attempts you have been the victim of a brute from attack. In gedit, or nano you can search for “attempt” or “access”. When several failed login attempts occur a log entry saying “possible breaking attempt” is posted. The first think a hacker will do, on a Linux machine, is attempt to change the root password, which will lock down the machine completely. If they cannot change the root password, they may just try and install a backdoor to the particular user that was breached. A backdoor can be a daemon running on any port, so check with “ps aux | grep user”. Grepping the ps command will bring up all of your active processes and if any process name looks funny you have identified a concern. You can also check what ports are accepting communication (open). A backdoor can also be an installed authorized key, which will allow password-less ssh access to the system.
Ultimately if a hacker changes the root password of your machine, there is nothing you can do. You must either restore from a backup, or rebuild the entire machine. No questions asked.
Clean Up Ubuntu
Dec 25th
There are two commands that clean thing up nicely. Apt-get autoclean and localepurge, which is in sbin. Also a graphical utility to cleanup the kernel and other caches. Install localpurge and bleachbit:
sudo apt-get install localpurge bleachbit
The run terminal cleaning:
sudo apt-get autoclean && sudo localepurge
Then open the graphical utility:
sudo bleachbit
Ubuntu Karmic – Mac Mini – MythTV
Dec 15th
I gave up on OSX. I could not get the media center working the way I wanted. Plex and XBMC have their bugs, as previously posted, twice, preventing predictable functionality. MythTV for OSX simply is not as refined as its native Linux counterpart. It feels like running Windows applications via wine. I just scrapped OSX for Ubuntu Karmic. Out of the box, off of the cd, things work great. Audio works perfect. What didn’t work? The Mac Mini remote control. I tried for a day to get it to work the hard way. I saw that /dev/usb/hiddev1 was working and displaying data; shown with cat. But lirc would not bind to the device. Ultimately I removed the program, and ran a system update. Problem resolved; clearly a bug report was filed and a resolution provided.
Fanart and coverart work fine. The Linux based fronted is seamless compatible with the Linux based MythTV server. I didn’t even need to input the servers ip information manually. I did have to set the repeat feature, for each key in ~/.lirc/mythtv.
Now all I want is to have MythTV sleep the system and wake the system. I get it to sleep the system by making the halt script sudo pm-suspend. Adjust your /etc/sudoers files to allow passwordless sudo for /usr/sbin/pm-suspend. The halt script is configured in setup-general settings. Waking the computer is another thing that I have yet to get working.
Microsoft Windows – New OS Why? People Don’t Update Either Way
Nov 22nd
The problem with Internet security nowadays is largely in part because people do not know how to update their computers. I fix computers as a side job, and you’d be surprised that many people have told me they don’t click the Microsoft gold shield in their system tray because there is a virus going around. What absolute ignorance. The Gold shield will update your computer to protect you as much as possible with critical updates. I am continuously flabbergasted with genuine stupidity. The default setting in all MS Windows products should be to automatically install updates, because the general public simply does not understand the importance of keeping their software shiny new.
Every time you see the gold shield in the bottom right hand corner of your computer, it is your obligation to click it and process the updates. As a Windows user, if you have a virus, a Trojan, or anything in between you are contributing to the massive problems that plague the Internet nowadays. Spam, phishing and lots of other things are predominantly broadcast from exploited machines.
Recent exploits in old versions of Internet Explorer have resurfaced this very issue of security.
“Symantec has conducted further tests and confirmed that it affects Internet Explorer versions 6 and 7,” the company wrote on its Web site Saturday. “We expect that a fully-functional reliable exploit will be available in the near future.”[Source]
People have relatively new installations of Windows Vista and they are using Internet Explorer 6 and 7. Why? There is Internet Explorer 8? “Ohhh, I don’t like the new version”, they say. But the new version is more secure, and more up to date. Get used to change; accept change for the better. It is necessary.
There is another major problem. PC manufacturers like to sell antivirus software packages. They preinstall them on machines, and give 60 free trials, and then expect people to pay the subscription fees to keep them active. This is absurd. Who in their right mind will pay those fees? By far the vast majority of people do not pay those fees and are using high vulnerable, non up to date software. This is a shame because AVG, and other companies, offer free anti virus that is continuously updated! Yes, I said continuously updated. New updates are issued all the time for free; do you understand free does not cost money?
If you are using a Windows computer update your antivirus right now. Do the world a favor and remove that botnet from your computer. Stop sending out mass spam emails right now. Run S right now. Install it from www.spybot.com. Install the apps, update them, then reboot your computer in safe mode. Hold f8 when your booting and select safe mode! Run AVG, then Spybot, then AVG, and Spybot again. Clean your machine now!
Now this will take some time to clean your virus infested Windows machine thoroughly. Maybe a day or two. Maybe you will have to reinstall the entire OS alltogether. Either do this now, or download Ubuntu and never think about antivirus again.