“We need to defend ourselves against the predatory practices of some companies making us look bad: a relatively small number of people do enough detective work to realise that it’s the fault of a particular Windows application, but many more simply blame our operating system because it won’t start any more.” Debian developer Colin Watson asks for your help in an effort to mitigate the problems caused by antifeatures built into Windows software that result in broken Windows/Linux double-boot systems.
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~cjwatson/blosxom
computing
29/08/2010
Windows applications making GRUB 2 unbootable
08/01/2010
Redirecting mail for the local root user
postfix is Ubuntu’s default mail transfer agent (MTA) and can be configured to deliver mail using a relay host that requires SMTP authentication.
Get the necessary packages with the following command:
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install postfix bsd-mailx
Begin to configure your postfix installation by choosing satellite system as the general type of configuration. Enter the local machine name as the mail name (eg mycomputer.edafe.org) and the SMTP server address of your email service provider as the SMTP relay host (eg smtp.relayhost.com).
Edit the file /etc/postfix/main.cf and add the following:
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtp_sasl_security_options =
relay_domains =
Create the file /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd and make the following entries:
smtp.relayhost.com user:password
Substitute smtp.relayhost.com with the address of the SMTP relay host and user:password with your login details.
Continue by executing the following three commands:
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo chown root.root /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo chmod 600 /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo postmap hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
Instruct postfix to reload its settings with the following command:
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/postfix reload
Making changes to the alias table
The aliases table provides a system-wide mechanism to redirect mail for local recipients.
Edit the file /etc/aliases to contain the following entries:
postmaster: root
root: user@yourdomain.com
Substitute user@yourdomain.com with the email address that you would like mail for the root user to be redirected to.
Finally, update /etc/aliases.db using the following command:
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo newaliases
Mail for the local root user from now on will automatically be forwarded to user@yourdomain.com , using smtp.relayhost.com as the relay host.
www.postfix.org, help.ubuntu.com
29/12/2009
Monitoring hard disks with smartmontools
SMART stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology and is built into most modern hard disks. The smartd daemon is part of smartmontools and monitors a disk’s SMART data for any signs of hardware problems.
SMART is available with Parallel and Serial ATA disks, drives appearing as either /dev/hd* or /dev/sd*, respectively. Use the following command to obtain relevant information for your system:
user@ubuntu:~$ df -hl
If required, start by configuring postfix to redirect mail for the local root user.
Get the necessary packages with the following command:
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install smartmontools bsd-mailx
Configuring smartd
Edit the file /etc/smartd.conf and comment out any lines beginning with DEVICESCAN.
If you are using a netbook or a laptop, add the following line for the smartd daemon to monitor the device /dev/sda:
/dev/sda -a -d ata -n standby -o on -S on -m root -M daily -M test
If you are using a desktop or a server, add the following line for the smartd daemon to monitor the device /dev/hda:
/dev/hda -a -d ata -n never -o on -S on -s (L/../../7/04|S/../.././02) -m root -M daily -M test
See man smartd.conf for more information on how to tailor the operation of smartd to your needs.
Starting smartd
Edit the file /etc/default/smartmontools and uncomment the line containing start_smartd=yes.
Restart the smartd daemon with the following command:
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/smartmontools restart
Verify that the local root user has received a test message from the smartd daemon.
From now on, the smartd daemon will monitor the disk and, in the event of impending disk failure, alert the local root user by email.
29/09/2009
OpenDocument software
“This is an overview of software support for the OpenDocument format, an open document file format for saving and exchanging editable office documents.”
en.wikipedia.org
03/06/2009
Desktop Linux for the Windows power user
“As a lifelong Windows user, system builder, ex-gamer, and performance freak, I’m not drinking anyone’s Kool-Aid. I just want the most amount of control over my system as possible, and at this point in time, Ubuntu is the best follow-up to Windows XP.” Adam Overa walks the Windows user through the Ubuntu installation process from downloading the CD image to finding help online.
www.tomshardware.com
02/06/2009
How VoIP works
“VoIP can turn a standard Internet connection into a way to place free phone calls. The practical upshot of this is that by using some of the free VoIP software that is available to make Internet phone calls, you’re bypassing the phone company (and its charges) entirely.” Robert Valdes and Dave Roos would like to change the way you communicate.
www.howstuffworks.com
25/05/2009
OpenOffice.org 3.1: the next generation
“The latest version of the open-source office suite OpenOffice.org 3.1 has just arrived, and it’s a good one. While some of the improvements are visible to the naked eye, I found that the most important changes were hidden under the hood.” Steven J Vaughan-Nichols takes the latest OpenOffice.org release for a spin.
www.computerworld.com
23/05/2009
Linux Outlaws 92: New User Special
“We tell you how to burn and install your first distribution, we try to explain some often used terms as well as some philosophical and political issues and we cover the basic concepts behind the OS.” Dan and Fab give an introduction to Linux for new users.
linuxoutlaws.com
14/01/2009
What exactly is LaTeX for?
“Many people discover LaTeX after years of struggling with wordprocessors and desktop publishing systems, and are amazed to find that TeX has been around for over 25 years and they hadn’t heard of it.”
Peter Flynn
LaTeX is a free document preparation system that enables you to create beautifully typeset pages. It implements a set of commands designed to control TeX, the typesetting engine developed by Donald E Knuth. LaTeX stores the information about your documents as plain text, thus avoiding the risk of vendor lock-in and ensuring that your documents will still be editable twenty years from now. LaTeX processes the plain text data and, with pdfTeX working in the background, generates PDF output of the highest typographic quality—perfect for viewing on-screen or printing on paper. LaTeX runs on many platforms and is included as standard with most Linux distributions. Ready-to-run LaTeX systems are also available for Windows and Mac OS X.
miktex.org, tug.org/mactex
14/11/2008
Still sending naked email?
“In a world of repressive governments and a growing reliance on insecure networks, there’s no way anyone can be sure their most sensitive messages aren’t intercepted by the forces of darkness. But you can make it mathematically improbable that all but the most well-funded snoops could ever make heads or tales of your communications.” Use Dan Goodin’s step-by-step guide to email encryption and keep your communications private.
www.theregister.co.uk
30/10/2008
Ubuntu Linux is for everyone
Ubuntu is a relatively new flavour of Linux. Since the release of ‘Warty Warthog’ in October 2004, it has become the most popular Linux distribution worldwide. Similar to its parent, Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu is based entirely on free software. It inherits outstanding package management and provides one-click access to thousands of downloadable applications.
Ubuntu can be installed as an application inside an existing Windows installation. This provides new users with a great opportunity to try Ubuntu at no risk to their existing setup. Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) is the latest version and available for download from today.
www.unbuntu.com
26/10/2008
Linux Outlaws
“Linux Outlaws is a podcast about Linux and free and open source software. We are normal users like yourself rather than part of the in-crowd of community leaders and hardcore kernel hackers.” Dan Lynch and Fabian Scherschel present this weekly podcast for current and future users of the Linux operating system.
linuxoutlaws.com
22/10/2008
Switch to Ubuntu Linux not Apple Mac OS
“Umpteen number of reports have been published telling people why they should consider switching to the Mac OS now that Vista has failed.” Prosenjit Bhattacharyya suggests Ubuntu as another alternative.
prosenjit23.wordpress.com
14/10/2008
OpenOffice.org 3.0
“OpenOffice.org has an impressive feature set, a generally lucid interface, pure open-source credentials, and the decisive advantage of being absolutely free.” Edward Mendelson reviews OpenOffice.org 3.0.
www.pcmag.com
13/10/2008
OpenOffice.org becomes an even better alternative
“If you are considering buying a commercial office suite, don’t do it until you have given OpenOffice.org a shot. That’s particularly true of the new version, which was released today.” Dwight Silverman summarises what’s new in OpenOffice.org 3.0.
blogs.chron.com
10/07/2008
Office 2007 to gain native ODF support early next year
“Users will be able to set ODF as their default file formats under Office 2007, and Microsoft plans to continue support of the OOXML-ODF translator for those using older versions of Office.” Jacqui Cheng details Microsoft’s recent announcement to make Office 2007 compatible with OpenOffice.org.
Personally, I remain sceptical about Microsoft delivering on these promises. But genuine interoperability has to start from somewhere…
arstechnica.com
Users of Microsoft Office may also want to consider the Sun ODF Plugin for Microsoft Office as an alternative solution.
07/05/2008
Hardy Heron makes Linux worth another look
“If you’ve flirted with the idea of switching your desktop operating system to Linux but never took the leap, the time is now.” Kevin Purdy highlights key features of the latest Ubuntu Long Term Support (LTS) release.
lifehacker.com
04/05/2008
Voice over Internet Protocol
“Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a general term for a family of transmission technologies for delivery of voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet or other packet-switched networks.”
wikipedia.org
14/04/2008
Free your documents
“Start using ODF today. It’s the office document format of the future.”
youtube.com
03/04/2008
Switching office suites from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org
“Think of this as a virtual guide, the written version of me coming over to your house on a Sunday afternoon to help get to know OpenOffice.org and figure out all the things you’re not quite sure about.” Solveig Haugland offers a virtual hand to hold.
www.fanaticattack.com