Discovering Linux !

ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

2011-03-06T14:33:00.001+05:30

If you get this error on Ubuntu while connecting to MySQL database (mysql -u root -p)

ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

Then to get rid of this problem try to connect by specifying localhost as shown below:

mysql -u root -h 127.0.0.1 -p

Changing the login shell from csh to bash

2011-01-25T01:31:00.005+05:30

Often on many Unix like operating systems, the default shell is csh.

But many of us find it convenient to work on bash shell. To make bash as your default login shell, place following line in ~/.login file

exec bash

Installing Oracle XE on Ubuntu

2010-12-30T04:00:00.002+05:30

Came across following links using which I was able to install and configure Oracle XE on Ubuntu within minutes. Hope this helps everyone.

To install: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Oracle

To configure: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Oracle10g

And in case you are not being able to login through command line even after following above configuration steps then execute following command:

chmod 6751 $ORACLE_HOME/bin/oracle

Using sudo without password

2010-12-22T09:29:00.003+05:30

Here is how you need to configure sudo to not prompt for password:

1. Login as root (su – root)

2. Execute: visudo

3. Append following line at the bottom of the file

ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL

How to display wireless Network icon in top panel of Ubuntu

2010-12-21T12:50:00.003+05:30

Few days back all of a sudden my wireless Network icon was not getting displayed under top pannel and it was kinda annoying.

The ugly hack to restore this icon in Ubuntu 10.10 is to execute following command:

gconftool --recursive-unset /apps/panel

And after which I had to reboot my machine.

Installing Mac on Ubuntu

2010-12-15T13:25:00.001+05:30

Well I know most of you are looking for a genuine way to install Mac on Ubuntu. Not sure when that would be possible but till that time you can try this

Its really cool...Trust me...

Using Cisco VPN on Ubuntu

2010-12-15T13:12:00.002+05:30

Most of us so called Engineers work in some or the other Software Company. Which also means we have to often work from home. :)

Logging into Windoze just because we have to work from home doesn't make sense. You can connect to Office network from Home and Ubuntu.

First install the client:

sudo apt-get install vpnc

Place following entries in the file: /etc/vpnc/default.conf depending on your company specific settings:

IPSec gateway company_host.your_company.com
IPSec ID
IPSec secret
Xauth username foobar
Xauth password NoTrust
Target networks

You are almost there, just need to connect now:

sudo vpnc-connect

Time to disconnect:

sudo vpnc-disconnect

Sharing Desktop on Ubuntu over the Internet

2010-12-15T13:01:00.002+05:30

I often need to share the desktop with my brother who lives in India. Before this we used to use CrossLoop (download) since he was a Windoze User.

Now he uses Ubuntu.

I have come across 2 applications using which we can share the desktop on Ubuntu:

Yuuguu (Download it from here )

Skype (Download if from here )

Exporting PATH variable in csh (C shell)

2010-12-10T04:54:00.003+05:30

Tried and tested way of exporting Path variable in C Shell (csh)

echo 'setenv PATH "$PATH":/usr/local/test/bin' > ~/.cshrc

echo 'set PATH = $PATH\:/usr/local/test/bin' > ~/.cshrc

Enabling "password-less" login for ssh between 2 Linux machines

2009-01-25T12:16:00.004+05:30

1. Generate a dsa or rsa public & private keys:
#ssh-keygen -t dsa
or
#ssh-keygen -t rsa

2. Copy the public key and complete the required formalities on the remote machine:
#ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub user@IP-address

Manually copy the content of ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub or ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub to remote machines's ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

3. Make sure permission of public key on source is moderated to say 600. If all goes well you have successfully enabled password-less communication with the remote machine. Test it using "ssh"
#ssh IP-address

How to connect to a Windows from Ubuntu !!!

2009-01-24T21:43:00.001+05:30

1. Ubuntu comes bundled with "rdesktop". In case it's not install use:
$sudo install rdesktop

2. Make sure before connecting to the Windows machine the user with which you want to login has a password set against it.

3. You are all set to connect to the windows machine using "rdesktop" as show below:
#rdesktop -u administrator -g 750x500 -a 16 192.168.1.3

In case you don't want the password to be used, refer the following:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=303846

Compressing PICS in Linux using command line !!!

2009-01-20T02:06:00.004+05:30

Following example shows how I brought a 32 MB album to 7.6 MB

root@station3:/tmp/images/friends# ls -lh

total 32M
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.4M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00949.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.5M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00950.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.4M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00951.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.4M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00952.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.4M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00953.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.4M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00954.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.3M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00955.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.4M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00956.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.3M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00957.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.4M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00958.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.4M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00959.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.5M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00960.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.4M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00961.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.2M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00962.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.2M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00963.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.2M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00964.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.4M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00965.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.4M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00966.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.3M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00967.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.3M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00968.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.3M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00969.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.3M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00970.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.3M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSC00971.JPG
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.1M 2009-01-18 00:38 DSCN3857.JPG

root@station3:/tmp/images/friends# mogrify -verbose *JPG -quality 60 *JPG

root@station3:/tmp/images/friends# ls -lh
total 7.8M
-rwx------ 1 root root 435K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00949.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 363K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00950.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 269K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00951.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 253K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00952.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 331K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00953.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 334K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00954.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 285K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00955.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 349K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00956.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 314K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00957.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 380K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00958.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 312K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00959.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 305K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00960.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 258K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00961.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 204K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00962.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 274K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00963.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 270K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00964.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 286K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00965.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 259K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00966.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 305K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00967.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 313K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00968.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 307K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00969.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 312K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00970.JPG
-rwx------ 1 root root 252K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSC00971.JPG
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 874K 2009-01-18 00:40 DSCN3857.JPG
root@station3:/tmp/images/friends#

Alternatively we can also use:
root@station3:/tmp/images/friends#mogrify -verbose -resize 800x600 *JPG

Now it's time to further compress the album.
root@station3:/tmp/images/friends# cd .. ; tar -czvf friends.tar.gz friends
friends/
friends/DSC00954.JPG
friends/DSC00961.JPG
friends/DSC00953.JPG
friends/DSC00956.JPG
friends/DSC00949.JPG
friends/DSC00958.JPG
friends/DSC00965.JPG
friends/DSC00962.JPG
friends/DSC00969.JPG
friends/DSC00963.JPG
friends/DSC00967.JPG
friends/DSC00951.JPG
friends/DSC00952.JPG
friends/DSC00970.JPG
friends/DSC00964.JPG
friends/DSC00968.JPG
friends/DSC00971.JPG
friends/DSC00950.JPG
friends/DSC00955.JPG
friends/DSC00966.JPG
friends/DSC00960.JPG
friends/DSC00957.JPG
friends/DSCN3857.JPG
friends/DSC00959.JPG

root@station3:/tmp/images# ls -lh
total 7.6M
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K 2009-01-18 00:24 friends
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7.6M 2009-01-18 00:45 friends.tar.gz
root@station3:/tmp/images#

Alternatively you can also convert all the pics into pdf as shown below:
root@station3:/tmp/images# convert -verbose *JPG all_in_one.pdf

BASH IDE plugin for GVIM

2008-10-20T02:09:00.003+05:30

http://www.linux.com/feature/114359

Download location of plugin:
http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=365

Or just execute the script given below to download and install the IDE.
(Script "unit" tested on Debian & OpenSUSE but should work out of the box on any other NIX flavor .)

Couldn't test this script on FreeBSD.
(as couldn't find "gvim" port under ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports)

#!/bin/bash
#===============================================================================
#
# FILE: gvim_bash_ide.sh
#
# USAGE: ./gvim_bash_ide.sh OR sh gvim_bash_ide.sh
#
# DESCRIPTION: The scripts downloads the bash ide plugin for gvim, extracts it & copies it under ~/.vim
#
# OPTIONS: ---
# REQUIREMENTS: gvim
# BUGS: ---
# NOTES: The script assumes gvim installed. Revision 1 of this file was tested on Debian 4.0 R2 & OpenSUSE 10.3.
#
# AUTHOR: Parag Kalra, paragkalra@gmail.com
# COMPANY: As of now (19-Oct-08) Persistent Systems LTD
# VERSION: 1.0
# CREATED: Sunday 19 October 2008 09:40:49 IST IST
# REVISION: 1
#===============================================================================

SRCID=9304

if [ -f /etc/debian_version ]
then
echo -e "\nSeems as if you are using Debian. Please make sure that gvim is installed. It comes packed with DVD ... \n"
elif [ -f /etc/SuSE-release ]
then
echo -e "\nSeems as if you are OpenSUSE or may be SLES. Please make sure that gvim is installed. It comes packed with DVD ...\n"
elif [ -f /etc/redhat-release ]
then
echo -e "\nSeems as if you are using Redhat or Fedora. Please make sure that gvim is installed. \n"
else
echo -e "\nPlease make sure that gvim is installed before adding bash ide plugin ... \n"
fi

if [ -d ~/.vim ]
then
echo -e "Directory ~/.vim already exists ... \n"
else
echo -e "Creating vim directory under user's home directory ... \n"
mkdir ~/.vim
echo -e "Navigating into ~/.vim \n"
cd ~/.vim
fi

echo -e "Downloading bash ide plugin for gvim from www.vim.org ... \n"
wget --verbose -P~/.vim http://www.vim.org/scripts/download_script.php?src_id=$SRCID -O bash-support.zip

#As of now this script downloads latest bash ide plugin. To download the latest plugin:
# 1. get the latest "src_id" from http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=365
# 2. and change the the "SRCID"

echo -e "Navigating into ~/.vim \n"
cd ~/.vim

echo -e "Unzipping bash ide plugin for gvim ... \n"
unzip bash-support.zip

echo -e "\nDeleting unused files ... \n"
rm -rf bash-support.zip

if [ -f ~/.vim/plugin/bash-support.vim ]
then
echo -e "Seems as if all went good. Open gvim and check the bash ide plugin ... \n"
else
echo -e "Something got screwed. Figure it out yourself ... \n"
fi

Just go through it and let me know if you happen to come across any bug in it. eMail me at paragkalra@gmail.com

When the File-System Crashed.

2008-06-08T18:07:00.007+05:30

Although it's a old story but still it's give a lump in my throat to tell that you that Hans Reiser, the programmer that created the ReiserFS filesystem, was convicted on 28th April, 2008 of first-degree murder for killing his estranged wife, Nina Reiser.

The verdict followed a nearly six-month trial and nearly three days of deliberation. Reiser faces a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

Reiser was a child prodigy who dropped out of junior high school and enrolled at the University of California Berkeley at age 15. After college, he made his mark in the business world, starting a technology company and developing a new computer file system some consider revolutionary.

So how did a self-described "computer nerd" capture the heart of a beautiful obstetrician born in Russia? Reiser went to Russia looking for cheap labor for his computer business, and a bride. A dating service arranged a meeting at a café in St. Petersburg, but Reiser didn't fall for his date -- he liked the woman who came along to translate.

"She has the most beautiful voice," Reiser said. "When I first heard it I thought, 'This is someone special.'"

Just over a year later, Reiser married his Russian bride, who was by then five months pregnant. A bizarre wedding video shows a nontraditional wedding -- Reiser's best friend Sean Sturgeon, dressed in drag, was the maid of honor.

"I think that what interested [Nina] in Hans was that he was different from everyone else," said her friend Ellen Doren.

"Nina is entirely unique," Reiser said. "Try to imagine a well-educated Marilyn Monroe, who's a doctor."

The birth of their son Rory, now 8, and daughter Niroline, now 6, were happy times for the couple. "Nina was one of the best parents I've seen in my life," Doren said.

Reiser, who lost custody of his children in the divorce proceedings before his wife's disappearance, said, "I miss them so much. It's been so long."

But fights about how those children were being raised were at the center of a marriage that began to crumble. Doren said she was witness to the emotional disputes.

"They just could not agree on how to raise the kids," she said. "And there were very many, many fights and conflicts."

Open source developers say Reiser, now 44, is a brilliant software programmer who dropped out of school at 14 and fast tracked to UC Berkeley where he focused on file system development for Linux. His genius notwithstanding, Reiser was said to have interpersonal problems and exhibited anti-social behavior that aliented some members of the Linux kernel project and the judge in the murder case against him.

Ted Ts’o, a top linux kernel developer and fellow at the Linux Foundation, heads up the ext3 file system and ext4 open source project that competes with Reiser’s file system. Ts’o contends that Reiser is a talented programmer whose work was overshadowed by his temperament but whose file system technology may have a better shot under new management.

“Hans was not the easiest person to work with and and it’s ironic that that having some of these folks [who now work on the Reiser4 project] interact with the Linux comunity allows Reiser4 to make more of a focus toward mainline inclusio simply because hans was his won worst enemy and questionable social skills,” Ts’o said. “Hans was technically brilliant but socially not at quite the same level.”

Concept of Volume Label in Linux

2008-06-01T20:31:00.012+05:30

Initially when I bought my first PC 4 years back I started off with Windows XP. Assigning volume label or renaming a partition in windows was indeed very easy. It was just a "right click" stuff. After a year or so I then switched over to Linux and have never looked back since then.

In Linux I never felt the need to rename a partition because Linux treats partitions by device files or mount points. However if you are still interested in assigning a volume label to a partition from Linux, here is what you should:

# umount /dev/sdmn
# tune2fs -L /dev/sdmn
# mount -a

e.g.
# umount /dev/sdb3
# tunefs -L DEBIAN /dev/sdb3
# mount -a

The best of this is that same volume-label which is assigned to the partition under concern is also visible in Windows as well and rightly so.

The million dollar question is how can you use volume-label in Linux. I will explain it using my own example. I have many disk-drives (more than 5 hard-disks in my home pc) each disk-drive having some or the other Linux installed on it. Every now & then I take my disk-drives out of the box for data-exchange or for maintenance. In that process sometimes a disk drive is attached to a new slot or interchanged with some other slot as a result of which position of disk-drives (hda, hdb, sda, sdb, sdc) gets changed and eventually it leads to mismatch between disk-drive position and it's entry in "/etc/fstab". This makes the system non-bootable or partition having it's entry in "/etc/fstab" doesn't gets mounted.

To avoid this it's always advisable to assign a volume label to the partitions and refer the partitions in "/etc/fstab" by it's volume label. A typical example of an entry referred by it's volume label in "/etc/fstab" is shown below:

# cat /etc/fstab | grep -i label
LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=DEBIAN /debian ext3 defaults 0 0

The 1st & 2nd entry in above example could also have been:
/dev/sda1 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/sdb3 /debian ext3 defaults 0 0

But if the disk-drive /dev/sda or /dev/sdb are removed for some reason or if their positions are interchanged then they won't get mounted.

However if the partitions are referred by volume labels then this situation of crisis will never arise. Thats amazing. Kindly share your views and don't hesitate to shoot in your queries if any.

Accessing ext2/ext3 formated Linux partition from Windows in read/write mode.

2008-05-14T17:19:00.002+05:30

I didn't know that it was so easy to access ext2/ext3 formated Linux partition from Windows and that too in read/write mode. There is a superb lightweight opensource software "fs-driver" that can be installed on Windows (NT4.0/2000/XP/2003/Vista) which enables this feature. Just download the software from following URL, install the software and enjoy the stable & reliable ext2/ext3 Linux partitions:
http://www.fs-driver.org/

Opening CHM Files in Linux

2008-04-27T19:24:00.003+05:30

The most dismaying thing encountered by a Linux user is the inability to view CHM (Compressed HTML) files in Linux. However thanks to Firefox for making this awesome addon that enables you to view CHM files through Firefox itself.

Just go here to download it and also read the steps to use it:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3235

Debian and it's Doors & Windows!

2008-04-13T03:10:00.005+05:30

Flowchart of the Life Cycle of a Debian Package.

Diagram of the Organizational Structure of the Debian Project.

Release Cycle of Debian Linux till 12th April, 2008

Second Update of Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 released

2007-12-28T23:23:00.000+05:30

Source: http://www.debian.org/News/2007/20071227

Installing Windows over Linux made easy.

2007-12-28T23:11:00.000+05:30

If you think installing Windows over Linux is a pain then use "EasyBCD".

It allows you to place entries in boot loader and thereby enabling you to customize your boot menu.

You can download it from here:
http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

Enabling "root" user account in Ubuntu

2007-12-28T22:31:00.000+05:30

In Ubuntu, you can change the root password or activate the root account with this command :

$ sudo passwd root

But still GDM will not allow you to log on as root in the GUI.

If you still want to do it (bad idea), you have to allow "root login" (or something similar) in "gdmsetup" :

$ gksu gdmsetup

Mounting NTFS partition on DEBIAN in RW mode.

2007-12-28T20:58:00.001+05:30

FIRST METHOD

The first and the best method to mount a NTFS partition on DEBIAN in RW mode is to use the application called "ntfs-3g"

All you need to follow the steps prescribed below:

1.] First download the following two binaries:

ntfs-3g
libntfs-3g

2.] Then install the dependencies if at all there are using following command:

#sudo apt-get install fuse-utils libfuse2

P.S: There should not be any dependency in Debian 4.0 (Etch) but to be on the safer side verify it using above command .

3.] Finally you can install ntfs-3g (using the 2 Debian packages you just downloaded) using:

#sudo dpkg -i libntfs-3g0_0.0.0+20061031-6_i386.deb
#sudo dpkg -i ntfs-3g_0.0.0+20061031-6_i386.deb

4.] To use the utility ntfs-3g, execute #man ntfs-3g and understand the command and it's options.

SECOND METHOD

You can also mount the NTFS partition by placing following entry in /etc/fstab:

/dev/sda1 /windows ntfs rw,users,umask=022 0 0

However I am not being able to write over the NTFS partition from Linux box using second method

LPI Linux Certification

2007-12-27T21:03:00.000+05:30

Most of the us are advised to qualify RHCE if we want to make a career in Linux. No doubt RHCE tests almost all the basic and network based Linux Skills but RHCE is an expensive exam.

Also RHCE inspite of being 100% practical exam and a networking related certification is distro centric, ie for fedora or redhat only. It also doesn't test your core Linux skills.

So if you are interested in Core Linux, you should appear for LPI (Linux Professional Institute) certification.

LPI exams are recognised by Redhat, Novell, Cannonical, IBM etc and LPI exams are of 3 or more types. LPI covers basic commands of your expertise in Linux distros be it debian derivative or rpm ones and the icing on the cake is after LPI I & II, if you attend a small exam, you can get Ubuntu Certification!

Here is their official website:
http://lpi.org/

Red Hat CEO Steps Down

2007-12-24T22:02:00.000+05:30

The man who led Linux seller Red Hat from a newly public but largely unproven open-source company to a force to be reckoned with is giving his office to an executive largely unknown in the software industry.
In a surprise move, Red Hat said Thursday that Matthew Szulik is as president and chief executive on January 1, to be replaced by James Whitehurst, 40, Delta Air Lines' former chief operating officer.
Szulik, who took over as CEO from Bob Young in 1999 just a few months after its initial public offering, said he's stepping down because of family health issues.
"For the last nine months, I've struggled with health issues in my family," and that priority couldn't be balanced with work, Szulik said in an interview. "This job requires a 7x24, 110 percent commitment."
Szulik, who remains chairman of the board, praised Whitehurst in a statement, saying he's a "hands-on guy who will be a strong cultural fit at Red Hat" and "a talented executive who has successfully led a global technology-focused organization at Delta."
On a conference call, Szulik said Whitehurst stood "head and shoulders" above other candidates interviewed in a recruiting process. He was a programmer earlier in his career and runs four versions of Linux at home, he said.

LVM SCENARIO for RHEL5

2007-11-12T01:29:00.000+05:30

LVM

I have a 13.9 GB harddisk (/dev/sda). Initially it just had one partition /dev/sda1 of size 5766 MB. To demonstrate LVM, using fdisk utility I partitioned my harddisk in following manner:

PARTITION
SIZE (MB)
TYPE
FILESYSTEM
/dev/sda1
5766
PRIMARY
ext3
/dev/sda2
1653
PRIMARY

/dev/sda3
1653
PRIMARY

/dev/sda4
4886
EXTENDED

To use /dev/sda2 & /dev/sda3 for Logical Volume Manager, follow the following steps:

1.] Using fdisk utility change the partition id of /dev/sda2 and /dev/sd3 to lvm (8e)

fdisk /dev/sda
m
p
l
m
t
Partition number: 2
Hex Code: 8e
p
w

fdisk /dev/sda
p
l
t
Partition Number: 3
Hex Code: 8e
p
w

#partprobe

#pvdisplay
#pvcreate /dev/sda2
#pvdisplay
#pvscan

#vgdisplay
#vgscan
#vgcreate Volgroup001 /dev/sda2
#vgscan
#vgdisplay

#lvdisplay
#lvscan
#lvcreate -L 788.48m -n cdrive /dev/Volgroup001
#lvdisplay
#lvscan

#lvdisplay
#lvscan
#lvcreate -l 196 -n ddrive /dev/Volgroup001
#lvdisplay
#lvscan

#pvdisplay
#vgdisplay
#vgscan
#vgextend /dev/Volgroup001 /dev/sda3
#vgscan
#vgdisplay

#lvscan
#lvdisplay
#lvextend -L +788.48m /dev/Volgroup001/cdrive
#lvscan
#lvdisplay

#mke2fs -j /dev/Volgroup001/ddrive
#mount /dev/Volgroup001/ddrive /var2
#dd if=/dev/null /var2/file1 count=780MB
#lvextend -l +196 /dev/Volgroup001/ddrive
#resize2fs /dev/Volgroup001/ddrive
#dd if=/dev/null /var2/file1 count=780MB

--
Discovered, Composed and Documented by Parag Kalra.

FAQ on how to configure POSTFIX on RHEL 5

2007-11-04T20:33:00.000+05:30

Emails have become an inseparable part of our lives. We have all heard about GOOGLE and YAHOO mail servers. But did you ever wondered how do they work. Well I don't won't to drag you into technicalities. I will make try to make it look simple. There is one central server where you make authentication (username and password). You compose an email using any of Mail User Agent (MUA). Your email is then sent to Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) and then the ball keeps on rolling.

This article is all about configuring an EMAIL SERVER on RHEL 5 (Redhat Enterprise Linux 5) using POSTFIX. I will configure and explain it using a simple scenario.

The scenario is as follows:

I have four boxes.

STATION1 (192.168.0.1) running Windows Vista Ultimate

STATION2 (192.168.0.2) running RHEL 4 [FQDN: station2.cosec.com]

STATION3 (192.168.0.3) running RHEL 5 [FQDN: station3.cosec.com]

STATION4 (192.168.0.4) running RHEL 5 [FQDN: station4.cosec.com]

192.168.0.3 will be the email server. What it means that you can check your emails from any of the above machines but the authentication will take place on 192.168.0.3. So the 192.168.0.3 box will store all the user accounts and their password and also the emails

192.168.0.3 will also be our DNS server

We would move slowly and in steps.

STEP1.] Check whether you can send the emails locally or not on you mail server [192.168.0.3].

To check that you should have any one of the Mail User Agents [MUA] and local user accounts. In our case the Mail User Agent is MUTT and we had the following user accounts on our POSTFIX server:

1.] root
2.] parag

Try sending emails locally to the users using your MUA. It should work in one go without editing any configuration file.

STEP2.] Configuring DNS server.

The entry that I placed in /etc/named.conf

zone "cosec.com" IN {

type master;

file "cosec.com";

};

The entry that I placed in /var/named/chroot/var/named/cosec.com

@ IN SOA cosec.com root.cosec.com (

2007102901 ;serial

1D ;refresh

1H ;retry

1W ;expiration

1D ) ;min

IN NS 192.168.0.3

cosec.com. IN MX 0 station3

station2 IN A 192.168.0.2

station3 IN A 192.168.0.3

station4 IN A 192.168.0.4

Restart the named service and your DNS server should be up and running
#service named restart

You can check it using dig.
For EG:
#dig @192.168.0.3 station4.cosec.com
#dig cosec.com mx

If you get the answer in both cases then your DNS is configured correctly

STEP3.] Try sending emails remotely. In our case we sent emails to users on remote machines on their Fully Qualified Domain Name [FQDN]

EG: dean@station2.cosec.com
EG: mike@station4.cosec.com

192.168.0.2 had an user account dean where as 192.168.0.4 had an user account mike.

For this to work you need to edit the file /etc/postfix/main.cf on 192.168.0.3. It is the main configuration file of POSTFIX. Make sure it contains following entry:

inet_interfaces = all

Now restart the following services.
#service postfix restart
#service dovecot restart

You remote emailing should work now.

STEP4.] Before you send remote emails on domain, you need to put following entry in /etc/postfix/main.cf [on 192.168.0.3]

mydomain = cosec.com
mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain, localhost, $mydomain

Restart the postfix and dovecot service
#service postfix restart
#service dovecot restart

Keep in mind remote domain emails can be send to only those user accounts that are present on 192.168.0.3. In our case users from 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.4 where able to send emails to root and parag that had accounts on 192.168.0.3. You can use mutt.

EG: root@cosec.com
EG: parag@cosecc.om

All emails send to root@cosec.com and parag@cosec.com will get stored on 192.168.0.3

STEP5.] If you are being able to send the mails on above user accounts, your email server is alive and kicking.

Just to feel the things you can use email clients like thunderbird on any of the machine (including windows vista) to send or receive emails

Just make sure that you make following settings will creating accounts in Email clients (say thunderbird)

Settings for USER ACCOUNT root:

USER NAME: root
EMAIL: root@cosec.com
POP/IMAP SERVER: 192.168.0.3
SMTP SERVER: 192.168.0.3

Settings for USER ACCOUNT parag:

USER NAME: parag
EMAIL: parag@cosec.com
POP/IMAP SERVER: 192.168.0.3
SMTP SERVER: 192.168.0.3

---
Discovered, Composed and Documented by Parag Kalra.

Wanna Learn and Know more about Linux, log on to
http://discoverlinux.blogspot.com/

FAQ on how to configure DNS server on RHEL 5

2007-10-30T17:20:00.000+05:30

Aim: There are three machines: 192.168.0.2 (FQDN: station2.cosec.com), 192.168.0.3 (FQDN: station3.cosec.com), 192.168.0.4 (FQDN: station4.cosec.com). Configure station3.cosec.com as Master Name Server and 192.168.0.4 as Slave Name Server for the zone " cosec.com"

STEPS:

1.] Edit the file /etc/named.conf of station2.cosec.com
#vi /etc/named.conf

2.] Place the following entry in it:

//Cosec Comercial Zones
zone "cosec.com" IN {
type master;
file "/var/named/cosec.com";
allow-transfer {192.168.0.4;};
};

3.] Create a file "cosec.com" in the directory path /var/named/chroot/var/named
#touch /var/named/chroot/var/named

/cosec.com

4.] Place the following entry it:
@ IN SOA cosec.com root.cosec.com (
2007102901 ;serial
1D ;refresh
1H ;retry
1W ;expiration
1D ) ;min

IN NS 192.168.0.3

station2 IN A 192.168.0.2

station3 IN A 192.168.0.3

station4 IN A 192.168.0.4

5.] Give the file /var/named/chroot/var/named /cosec.com ownership of system user "named"
#chown named:named /var/named/chroot/var/named/cosec.com

6.] Go to station4.cosec.com and place the following entry in the file /etc/named.conf

//Slave Server for Cosec Commercial
zone "cosec.com" IN {
type slave;
file "/var/named/slaves/cosec.com";
masters {192.168.0.3;};
};

*.Note: /var/named/slaves/cosec.com is used because "slaves" directory is owned by the system user "named" so when the master server transfers the file cosec.com there are no issues related to root permision.

7.] Go to station3.cosec.com and start the service /usr/sbin/named
#service named start

8.] Go to station4.cosec.com and start the service /usr/sbin/named
#service named start

9.] On station4 see the contents of the log /var/log/messages to check whether the file "cosec.com" has been transfered from station3 or not.

#tail /var/log/messages

Oct 29 18:41:00 station4 named[3541]: transfer of 'cosec.com/IN' from 192.168.0.3#53: connected using 192.168.0.4#55025
Oct 29 18:41:00 station4 named[3541]: zone cosec.com/IN: transferred serial 2007102901
Oct 29 18:41:00 station4 named[3541]: transfer of 'cosec.com/IN' from 192.168.0.3#53: end of transfer
Oct 29 18:41:00 station4 named[3541]: zone cosec.com/IN: sending notifies (serial 2007102901)

10.] Your Domain Name System with Master and Slave Server is up and running. You can also verify it. From any system (station2, station3 or station4), execute the following commands and you should get the output given below the commands.

#dig @192.168.0.3 station2.cosec.com

O/P:
; <<>> DiG 9.3.3rc2 <<>> @192.168.0.3 station2.cosec.com
; (1 server found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 51163
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;station2.cosec.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
station2.cosec.com. 86400 IN A 192.168.0.2

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
cosec.com. 86400 IN NS 192.168.0.3.cosec.com.

;; Query time: 3 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.0.3#53(192.168.0.3)
;; WHEN: Tue Oct 30 01:28:34 2007
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 78

#dig @192.168.0.4 station2.cosec.com

O/P:
; <<>> DiG 9.3.3rc2 <<>> @192.168.0.4 station2.cosec.com
; (1 server found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 22084
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;station2.cosec.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
station2.cosec.com. 86400 IN A 192.168.0.2

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
cosec.com. 86400 IN NS 192.168.0.3.cosec.com.

;; Query time: 61 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.0.4#53(192.168.0.4)
;; WHEN: Mon Oct 29 19:57:32 2007
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 78

############################## ################################################################################

SCENARIO 2

Aim: There are three machines: 192.168.0.2 (FQDN: rhct.cosec.edu), 192.168.0.3 (FQDN: rhce.cosec.edu), 192.168.0.4 (FQDN: rhca.cosec.edu). Configure 192.168.0.3 as Master Name Server and 192.168.0.2 as Slave Name Server for the zone "cosec.edu"

STEPS:

1.] Edit the file /etc/named.conf of 192.168.0.2
#vi /etc/named.conf

2.] Place the following entry in it:

//Cosec Educational Zones

zone "cosec.edu" IN {
type master;
file "/var/named/cosec.edu";
allow-transfer {192.168.0.2;};
};

3.] Create a file "cosec.edu" in the directory path /var/named/chroot/var/named
#touch /var/named/chroot/var/named /cosec.edu

4.] Place the following entry in it (/var/named/chroot/var/named /cosec.edu):

@ IN SOA cosec.edu root.cosec.edu (

2007102901 ;serial
1D ;refresh
1H ;retry
1W ;expiration
1D ) ;min

IN NS 192.168.0.3

rhct IN A 192.168.0.2

rhce IN A 192.168.0.3

rhca IN A 192.168.0.4

5.] Give the file /var/named/chroot/var/named /cosec.com ownership of system user "named"
#chown named:named /var/named/chroot/var/named/cosec.com

6.] Go to 192.168.0.2 and place the following entry in the file /etc/named.conf

//Slave Server for Cosec Education Zones

zone "cosec.edu" IN {
type slave;
file "/var/named/slaves/cosec.edu";
masters {192.168.0.3;};
};

*.Note: /var/named/slaves/cosec.com is used because "slaves" directory is owned by the system user "named" so when the master server transfers the file cosec.com there are no issues related to root permision.

7.] Go to 192.168.0.3 and start the service /usr/sbin/named
#service named start

8.] Go to 192.168.0.2 and start the service /usr/sbin/named
#service named start

9.] On 192.168.0.2 see the contents of the log /var/log/messages to check whether the file "cosec.com" has been transfered from 192.168.0.3 or not.

#tail /var/log/messages

Oct 29 19:16:54 station2 named[4478]: zone cosec.edu/IN: transferred serial 2007102901
Oct 29 19:16:54 station2 named[4478]: transfer of 'cosec.edu/IN' from 192.168.0.3#53: end of transfer
Oct 29 19:16:54 station2 named[4478]: zone cosec.edu/IN: sending notifies (serial 2007102901)

10.] Your Domain Name System with Master and Slave Server is up and running. You can also verify it. From any system (192.168.0.2, 192.168.0.3 & 192.168.0.4), execute the following commands and you should get the output given below the commands.

#dig @192.168.0.3 rhca.cosec.edu

O/P:

; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> @192.168.0.3 rhca.cosec.edu
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 1268
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;rhca.cosec.edu. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
rhca.cosec.edu. 86400 IN A 192.168.0.4

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
cosec.edu. 86400 IN NS 192.168.0.3.cosec.edu.

;; Query time: 25 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.0.3#53(192.168.0.3)
;; WHEN: Mon Oct 29 20:31:10 2007
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 74

# dig @192.168.0.2 rhca.cosec.edu

O/P:
; <<>> DiG 9.3.3rc2 <<>> @192.168.0.2 rhca.cosec.edu
; (1 server found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 41875
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;rhca.cosec.edu. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
rhca.cosec.edu. 86400 IN A 192.168.0.4

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
cosec.edu. 86400 IN NS 192.168.0.3.cosec.edu.

;; Query time: 11 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.0.2#53(192.168.0.2)
;; WHEN: Tue Oct 30 02:00:02 2007
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 74

--
Discovered, Composed and Documented by Parag.A.Kalra

FAQ on how to configure SAMBA server on RHEL 5

2007-10-30T17:07:00.000+05:30

AIM: To configure a SAMBA Server on RHEL 5

PROBLEM STATEMENT (SCENARIO): Configure a SAMBA Server on RHEL5 with a NETBIOS name STATION2-NIX. Create a SHARE in it having name STATION2-RHEL5-VM and mapped to the directory /network-places/station2. Windows Machine workgroup being WORKGROUP. The share should be writable to the user "root"

SOLUTION: Before you configure SAMBA SERVER make sure following packages are installed:
system-config-samba-
samba-common-
samba-
samba-swat-
samba-client-

The easiest way to configure SAMBA server is to use samba-swat utility. By default it is turned off. First check whether it has been bind to port 901 or not using:
#cat /etc/services | grep swat

After this you need to start the swat service. Use #system-config-services and check mark "swat". Save the changes and closed the window.

Open a web-browser and type the link given below:
http://localhost:901/

It will ask for username and password. It's always advisable to login with root credentials. You will presented with a Web Based GUI.

Configuring a SAMBA server is just a 3 step process:

STEP 1: Go to "GLOBAL" section. Change the workgroup to the workgroup being used by Windows Machine. It can be anything like MSHOME, MYWORKGROUP,MYGROUP etc. But both Windows and Linux should use the same workgroup name. In my case workgroup="WORKGROUP". Change the netbios name to "STATION2-NIX". Change the security to "USER". Commit the changes.

STEP 2: Go to "SHARES" tab. Create a new share having the name "STATION2-RHEL5-VM". Set the path to "/network-places/station2". Make sure this directory path exits. Also make sure "browsable" and "available" options are set to yes. Add the user "root" to "write list". Commit the changes.

STEP 3: Go to the "PASSWORD" section. For the user "root" set the password and click "Add New User". You can now verify that a new entry must have been added to /etc/samba/smbpasswd. Start the smb service.
#service smb start

You all set to access the Linux Machine from Windows. Just go to Windows Box and your share would be browsable in "My Network Places"(XP) or "Network"(VISTA). Just double click the icon having you netbios name and login using "root" credentials.

--
Discovered, Composed and Documentated by Parag.A.Kalra

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Hits the Street

2007-03-15T00:22:00.000+05:30

The release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 at a media event in San Francisco on March 14 reflects not only years of engineering work by Red Hat itself, but also its collaboration efforts with strategic partners such as IBM.

This collaboration resulted in the integration of Real-Time Linux capabilities, improved virtualization features and security enhancements into the latest version of the company's operating system, said Dan Frye, vice president for open systems development at IBM.

Paul Cormier, executive vice president of engineering at Red Hat, also acknowledged the contributions of others to the product.

"RHEL 5 is much more that just an upgrade to Linux—it is the culmination of a complete enterprise architecture that includes a broad ecosystem of certified, reliable solutions from partners like IBM," he said.

RHEL 5 includes the Xen virtualization technology found in the Linux kernel, which helps businesses lower management costs by increasing server utilization.

For more details log on to:

http://www.redhat.com/solutions/thankyou/

Mandriva Power-Pack DVD 2007

2006-12-29T02:33:00.000+05:30

I am using LINUX from past two years in fact its been more than two years and believe me I have never looked back. But through out my journey of discovering LINUX, one question has always pondered me that “Can LINUX ever beat Microsoft’s WINDOWS in DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT?” To be very honest I always felt no! If you don’t have INTERNET or if you couldn’t configure INTERNET on LINUX then installing drivers, softwares and also tweaking various other parameters of LINUX is a real pain in the neck. Even if you have INTERNET still it requires loads and loads of patience, passion and perseverance to DISCOVER LINUX in depth.

The bottom line is that:
Not every newbie can enjoy LINUX to its fullest extent for the simplest of reason that he or she is not aware of various commands, drivers and softwares required to do simple things like playing music, video files or editing basic office documents. There are times when he or she can’t even install LINUX. Accessing Windows DATA is not always a child’s play for a beginner. Forget doing things like making Webcams, SCANNERS, PRINTERS, PDAS, MOBILE PHONES etc work with LINUX in one go. No doubt they can be done but for some one who doesn’t know even ABC of LINUX, for him it’s a tough nut to crack.

I was in constant search for a distro that could remove all these complications for starters. And I fell glad to tell you that my wait is over. There is no doubt what so ever that MANDRIVA POWER PACK DVD 2007 is the next future generation OS. Believe me it’s more user friendly than MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS. I was not even required to install the drivers of my NVIDIA GRAPHICS CARD for enabling 3D graphics feature. It worked with a bang. Every thing was taken by default. There are more than 5 VIDEO PLAYERS with all plugins installed and thus in working condition. Same is the case with AUDIO PLAYERS. There are tons of games present right from small games to large games. The biggest catch is the fact that installation couldn’t have been so easy. It’s an ideal OS for a newbie who wants to try his hand out on LINUX. Every thing will work in one go. Although X-Server is slightly sluggish but still the OS is rock solid.

Well I have captured Massive Mandriva Desktop Screenshots. It’s my New Year gift to all you guys and gals.

ALSO TODAY IS THE FIRST BIRTHDAY OF MY LINUX BLOG. YES MY LINUX BLOG IS NOW ONE YEAR OLD
http://discoverlinux.blogspot.com/

It couldn’t have been bigger gift than this. It contains 70 screen shorts. To feel the 3D effect, open the pics in full zoom mode.

DOCUMENTATION, CONCEPT, COSTUME, REVIEW, STORY, SCREENPLAY, LYRICS, MUSIC, PRODUCED & DIRECTED BY
PARAG.A.KALRA

Small Linux Games

2006-12-22T22:23:00.000+05:30

Its a common myth buster that LINUX cannot be used as an ENTERTAINMENT BOX. No doubt presently it cannot be used for XTREME GAMES due to lack of support from the GAME MAKERS, but not every one is HARD CORE GAMER. Most of us use WINDOWS for small office applications, listening music, watching favorite movies and playing mild games that don't consume much of the system resources. Even Linux can handle these areas and that too in pretty efficient manner.

Well I have brought some of these types mild games, hope you like it:

All these games are from:
http://kde-apps.org

First one is kBilliards. It has got a good interface and excellent soft background score.
Download it from here:
http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=17723

Second one is Knights. Its a chess game.
Download it from here:
http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=20534

Third one is Falling words. Its a Typing Tutor cum Game. So entertainment and education both go hand in hand.
Download it from here:
http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=43265

Fourth one is Gnometrics TETRIS game. Its an Arcade game and is present by default in SUSE 10.2 LINUX

DOCUMENTATION, CONCEPT, COSTUME, REVIEW, STORY, SCREENPLAY, LYRICS, MUSIC, PRODUCED & DIRECTED BY
PARAG.A.KALRA

SoundKonverter N BlueTooth

2006-12-19T01:30:00.000+05:30

Compressing MP3 songs in LINUX and Sending it Via BLUETOOH using LINUX

It feels great to tell you that now I use LINUX to compress my MP3 songs and on the same lines I use LINUX only to send the same song via inbuilt BLUETOOTH facility provided by SUSE LINUX.

PREREQUISITES

SUSE LINUX preferably SUSE LINUX 10.2
BlueTooth Dongle
BlueTooth Compatible Handset. (I am having a L6 Motorola)

4. MP3 Compressor Software.

I received a CD along with my BlueTooth Dongle. But that CD contains drivers only for windows and Nice GUI based software for sending and receiving data.

However coming back to LINUX when I inserted my BlueTooth dongle into one of my USB port in LINUX, It showed no message. Then I clicked kbluetoothd which is nothing but the BlueTooth server or can be treated as BlueTooth daemon in SUSE LINUX, a message was displayed at topmost left corner indicating kbluetoohd – Bluetooth Adaptor found.

Unfortunately My L6 Motorola has only 10 MB internal Memory and no scope for external memory, so I can't afford to listen high quality songs on my cell. Thus I needed a software that could compress my songs. I went to http://kde-apps.org/

Then I went to Multimedia section and in Multimedia section I went to Sound section. Fortunately I found a software named soundKonverter right at the top in second position. I downloaded the rpm belonging to SUSE 10.2 RC1 (RELEASE CANDIDATE) version. This is the short cut:

http://kde-apps.org/content/download.php?content=29024&id=10

Just copy this in your browser's address bar and it will ask you to download or you can download the appropriate rpm depending upon your distro.

I installed the software using:

[root@localhost]# rpm -ivh soundkonverter-0.2.95-1.suse10.2.i686.rpm

Bang it got installed very neatly in one go (pretty rare scene in LINUX, anyways)

Now it was time to run the software, I just fired this at the KONSOLE:

[root@localhost]# soundkonverter

COMPRESSING MP3s

There are two options first one is SIMPLE and second one is DETAILED right at the top.
It always advisable to select DETAILED.
Select the RESAMPLE or SAMPLING FREQUENCY to 32KHz though not a hard fast rule. It depends on the clarity of the song you want. If you want high clarity keep the SAMPLING FREQUENCY less but it will take more time.
Make BIT RATE constant (cbr) and set BIT RATE to 128. Bit rate controls the size of the song. Thus more the BIT RATE more will the MP3 size
Also make the channel to STEREO
Now add the file music file and select the appropriate O/P source directory.
Finally start the compression.
Once compressed your music file is ready to get transfered.
Now click Applications –> Utilities --> Obex File Transfer.
Drag the file you are suppose to transfer and Enjoy Music on your Handset using LINUX.

LITTLE THINGS THAT MATTER MUCH

BIT RATES

Bit rate refers to the speed at which a bit stream (compressed audio data in this case) will travel, or the amount of bits per second. With MP3, you usually refer to it in terms of kbps or how many thousands of bits per second. Many MP3 enthusiasts will convert to MP3 at 128 kbps (kilobytes per second) as a good medium in sound quality and file size. However, I recommend 160 kbps , especially if you are a musician or if you have a sensitive ear to musical quality. Bit rate can be used to predict the size of the encoded file. It is simply calculated by whatever bit rate you have chosen to encode with multiplied by the length of the song.

Standard Bit Rates and their qualities:

96kbs: The sound clearly lacks definition: as an example, hall's noises are perceived as some breath. The result is comparable to a good FM radio.

112kbs: The sound seems less present and less natural than the original. The definition is a bit less good, the voice is less clear. Attacks are less spontaneous. The spatialization is different from the original recording: the sound seems to be located more far and more lower. There is however a very noticeable improvement compared to 96kbs.

128kbs: Hall's noises are slightly less defined than the original. The violin is a bit less present and the piano attacks a bit less sharp. The voice is nearly identical to the original recording but sibilants are less pronounced. We can notice the same spatialization problem as with the 112kbs's one although there is again a good improvement compared to the 112kbs rate.

160kbs: The sound is more natural than 128kbs but the improvement is less spectacular than during the two preceding stages. The sound is different from the original, without however being possible to tell in what. I think that the difference resides more in what we feel rather than in what we hear.

192kbs: The sound is not felt as the original recording. It is however totally impossible to tell in what.

256kbs: The sound is indiscernible from the original. It is impossible to make the difference with the original recording.

320kbs: The sound is indiscernible from the original. It is impossible to make the difference with the original recording.

CD Audio : The sound of the burned CD is strictly identical the manufactured CD. This test, although it could appear useless, is however necessary so in order to insure that it is impossible that the burning step introduces differences, that would have falsified tests.

SAMPLING FREQUENCY

The sampling frequency (or sample rate) is the number of samples per second in a Sound. For example: if the sampling frequency is 44100 Hertz, a recording with a duration of 60 seconds will contain 2,646,000 samples. The available sampling frequencies are 32, 44.1 and 48 kHz. 44.1 kHz is almost always used

Relation between Bit Rate and Sampling Frequency
Bit Rate = (Bits/sample) * Sampling Frequency

Now comes the million dollar question, What is more important BIT RATE , SAMPLING FREQUENCY or BIT PER SAMPLE

Any MP3 compressor gives you the option of controlling both BIT RATE & SAMPLING FREQUENCY but it doesn't allow you to play with BITS PER SAMPLE. So how to decide what is important and what is not.

First and Foremost size of any MP3 music file depends solely on is BIT RATE (kbps) and its pretty acceptable because SIZE (kb) = BITRATE (kbps) * TIME (s)

Thus the file's bit rate is simply an indicator of data size. You can, for example, have a 64kbps 44.1kHz stereo sound, or a 64kbps 22.05kHz stereo sound, or a 64kbps 44.1kHz mono sound. All will take up the same amount of disk space.

On the other hand SAMPLING FREQUENCY is the measure of COMPLEXITY of the encoder. Thus more the SAMPLING FREQUENCY less will the BITS PER SAMPLE required to encode , less complex will be the encoding process and lesser will the time required i.e. your song would get compressed much faster but at the cost of clarity.

On the same lines if SAMPLING FREQUENCY is less, more will be the BITS PER SAMPLE required to encode the music file, complexity involved will be more also compression will take comparatively more time but music file will have some what better clarity.

To be very honest SAMPLING FREQUENCY hardly makes any difference. CLARITY is more or less the same in facts its very difficult to make out any difference if at all it exits. It may just control the time it takes for the song to get compressed. Thus more the sampling frequency less would be the time required for compression or encoding process. Hence its a common practice to keep the sampling frequency high usually 44100 Hz

DOCUMENTATION, CONCEPT, COSTUME, REVIEW, STORY, SCREENPLAY, LYRICS, MUSIC, PRODUCED & DIRECTED BY
PARAG.A.KALRA

Wanna Learn and Know more about Linux, log on to
http://discoverlinux.blogspot.com/

BitTorrent Client Ktorrent For Linux

2006-12-15T16:21:00.000+05:30

It was nice for Novel to ship Ktorrent a Bittorrent Client for Linux. I use BitComent for Windows and it's a smashing bittorrent client. Likewise I was in search for a good Bittorrent Client from a very long time for Linux. It was a bliss to see a Bittorrent Client installed by default in SUSE 10.2 Linux.

KTorrent is a BitTorrent client written in C++ for KDE using the Qt user interface toolkit. It is maintained in the KDE Extragear. It seem to be far superior than BitComet.

Here are some of its corner stones:

It gives the user the tool to decide the Upload / Download ratio , coz some of the Torrent Websites ban the users if their Upload / Download ratio is poor. No doubt you can do the same in other clients, but they don't let u decided the ratio. You just have the control over Upload Speed and Download Speeds. Thus through Ktorrent User is not required to do all the tedious calculations.
The other dazzling facet of it is that multiple torrent tasks (downloading as well as uploading) can all be stopped or started at the same time in one go. So you are not required to do the tiresome job of starting or stopping each and every task one by one.
Another noteworthy highlight of it is the colorful graphical manner in which it portrays the part of torrents downloaded and parts of torrent still remaining.
The most exemplary trait I came across was that it can even play uncompleted songs. Though it plays in random manner and not in sequential manner depending on the parts of song downloaded but still its quite praiseworthy. Well I haven't check it for Videos

Coming to other side of the coin, I just came across one goof. At times speed of the downloading tasks droops all of a sudden. In that state of affair you have to stop the downloading task and restart it. However it may be the blemish of the tracker or peer as well, coz I examined the software just using two torrents both having ample of seeds.

Here are some of its Screen Shorts:

3D Graphics of SUSE 10.2 LINUX

2006-12-13T18:56:00.000+05:30

First and Foremost, the installation of SUSE has become far simpler.......

Its fast, userfriendly and highly optimized.....

Once Installation and Post installation formalities were completed, machine rebooted....

I got a bolt from the blue to see an animated boot menu…

The best thing about it was that it detected my already installed FEDORA CORE 6 and displayed it in the boot menu…

Coming back to animated boot menu, it has many penguins wearing Christmas clothes and moving back and forth in a Christmas mood….

I then logged in with very high expectations…..

openSUSE has developed a new interface for My Computer…..

Applications are grouped in different manner….ands it’s a quite innovative style…Good work Novel….

ENABLING 3D GRAPHICS
Well enabling 3D Graphics in Linux was never so easy........

All hats off to Novel.......

You first need to install your Graphics Card Drivers…

Click Yast

Click Installation Source

Click ADD

Select HTTP

Under SERVER NAME, place an entry:

download.nvidia.com

Provided you have an Nvidia Graphics Card, as I am having 6200 Turbocache GT Nvidia

Under DIRECTORY ON SERVER, place an entry:

/opensuse/10.2/

Or just place an entry

download.nvidia.com/opensuse/10.2

under the SERVER NAME.

When you add the above address and click next, a warning message about an unknown GPG key will come up. Click the checkbox next to Do Not Show This Message Again and click Yes. The next screen will ask if you'd like to import the aforementioned GPG key. Click Import.

Apply the changes & and exit Installation Source application

Under the Application YAST, click Software Management and search for:

nvidia-gfx-kmp-default
x11-video-nvidia

Install these drivers and reboot the machine.

Go to Desktop Effects under control panel and enable 3D graphics…..

Bang you are done with the settings …Enjoy the highly optimized 3D revolution..

PLAYING MP3S
Well all MP3s can be played using Helix Banshee Audio Player. It’s installed by default.

PLAYING VIDEOS
Using YAST change the installation source to:packman.unixheads.com/opensuse/10.2/

Using Yast and Soft Management search for the video player Xine and w32 codecs.

Install the video player xine and win32 codecs, using which you would be able to play all videos.

Wanna Learn and Know more about Linux, log on to

http://discoverlinux.blogspot.com/

GMAIL on LinuX email Client Sendmail !

2006-12-13T01:37:00.000+05:30

MAKING GMAIL WORK WITH LINUX EMAIL CLIENT SENDMAIL

We all use GMAIL email service. Its a Google way of describing emails. Its an excellent service, no arguments on that. Also we all use MICROSOFT OUTLOOK. Again a good email client software made by MICROSOFT. But what if you are a LINUX USER, What to Do? Solution is pretty simple, USE SENDMAIL. SENDMAIL IS LINUX'S answer to MICROSOFT'S OUTLOOK. But can GMAIL BE INTERGRATED WITH SENDMAIL. Off course it can be, read below.

First of all for all those who don't know how to make GMAIL WORK WITH OUTLOOK, follow this excellent online official GMAIL documentation.
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?ctx=%67mail&hl=en&answer=12103

Unfortunately GMAIL doesn't provide any documentation for SENDMAIL, but its pretty simple, just follow the following steps:

Go to Applications --> Internet --> Email
First it will ask you for your Identity, give your name and a valid email address which you want to integrate with SENDMAIL.
It will then ask you to select your Incoming email server, select it to POP. In the same section under host place an entry: pop.gmail.com and under username your valid gmail email address including @gmail.com. On the same window make SSL to Always, set authentication type to Password and ask the computer to remember the password.
Then set the time you want SENDMAIL to check for the new emails.
Under sending mail options, set server type to IMAP, Host to smtp.gmail.com, SSL to Always, set username to your valid gmail email address including @gmail.com and finally ask the OS to remember the password.
Give any name to your account say GMAIL.
Apply the settings.

Boom you are done with settings on your LinuX box. Login into your gmail account and enable the POP ACCESS under SETINGS

Thats it you are done......Now its time to check and work your on Linux Email Client Sendmail

In the Sendmail window, the second tab consists of SEND/RECIEVE click it to check any new mails

Heres the Screen-Short:

Enjoy Gmail on Sendmail.......

3D effects of Fedora Core 6

2006-11-16T03:37:00.000+05:30

After 3 re installations and reading through millions of articles on, I finally managed to get everything up and working!! I don't know What the hell is the problem with Fedora Core 6

If you are planning to install FC6 on an i686 architecture - make note of this!! Anaconda screws up BIG TIME, and installs the i586 kernel and kernel-devel on ur i686 machine. Normally this is not a problem, however, CPU Frequency controller daemon will not work and it’ll be a pain in various parts of the anatomy if your driver / program requires a kernel-module to be installed along with it. The worst part - your architecture is still maintained as i686!! Just that anaconda installs the i586 kernel!!

ENABLING 3D EFFECTS IN FEDORA CORE 6

Solution:

1. Install yumex
# yum -y install yumex

2. Once the installation is over, get into yumex [Applications->System Tools->Yum Extender]

3. Go to the Install View once it’s done updating everything and add kernel and kernel-devel packages, but for the i686 architecture

4. Go to yumex again and remove kernel and kernel-devel packages currently for the i586 architecture

5. Once it is done, reboot into the non-xen kernel and remove kernel-xen and kernel-devel-xen packages

6. Boom you are done and you can get to installing the packages for nvidia/ati drivers, ntfs support etc.

7. # yum install kmod-nvidia –enablerepo=livna-testing

8. Reboot the maching, before the login screen you must see the NVIDIA screen.

9. After loging in Click over Enable 3D effects Tab and Bang. Enjoy the 3D revolution.

10. Here are some of the command line short cuts:

ctrl + alt + down = unfold
ctrl + alt + right/left = next/back cube face
ctrl + alt + + shift+ right/left = next/back cube face, with current window
ctrl + alt + Button1 (usually left click) = rotate cube
ctrl + alt + d = show desktop
alt + tab = switch window
pause = Scale / Previously exposé
super + mouse scroll = zoom
alt + scroll = transparency

PLAYING AUDIO AND VIDEO FILES ON FEDORA CORE 6

SOLUTION

# yum install mplayer xine vlc gstreamer-plugins-ugly easytag banshee xmms xmms-mp

INSTALLING GOOGLE EARTH ON FEDORA CORE 6

SOLUTION

# wget http://dl.google.com/earth/GE4/GoogleEarthLinux.bin

# sh GoogleEarthLinux.bin

Run it using:

#googleearth

INSTALLING PICASA ON FEDORA CORE 6

SOLUTION

# rpm -ivh http://dl.google.com/linux/rpm/stable/i386/picasa-2.2.2820-5.i386.rpm

Run it using:

#picasa

MOUNTING NTFS PARTITION

# yum -y install ntfs-3g

SYNTAX

# ntfs-3g -o ro

For more details just #man ntfs-3g

INSTALLING MICROSOFT'S Internet Explorer on FEDORA CORE LINUX 6

Before you start you'll need to make sure you have >wine and cabextract installed:

# yum -y install wine cabextract

Now download the script from here:

http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/download.html

Then follow the following steps:

# gtar xzvf ies4linux-2.0.5.tar.gz

# cd ies4linux-2.0.5

# ./ies4linux

Welcome, greg! I'm IEs4Linux.

I can install IE 6, 5.5 and 5.0 for you easily and quickly.

You are just four 'enter's away from your IEs.

I'll ask you some questions now. Just answer y or n (default answer is the bold one)

IE 6 will be installed automatically.

Do you want to install IE 5.5 SP2 too? [ y / n ] y

IEs 4 Linux installations finished!

To run your IEs, type:

ie6

ie55

ie5

MICROSOFT & NOVELL LINUX to work together!

2006-11-04T16:16:00.000+05:30

Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. today announced a set of broad business and technical collaboration agreements to build, market and support a series of new solutions to make Novell and Microsoft ^® products work better together. The two companies also announced an agreement to provide each other's customers with patent coverage for their respective products. These agreements will be in place until at least 2012. Under this new model, customers will realize unprecedented choice and flexibility through improved interoperability and manageability between Windows ^® and Linux.

"They said it couldn't be done. This is a new model and a true evolution of our relationship that we think customers will immediately find compelling because it delivers practical value by bringing two of their most important platform investments closer together," said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. "We're excited to work with Novell, whose strengths include its heritage as a mixed-source company. Resolving our patent issues enables a combined focus on virtualization and Web services management to create new opportunities for our companies and our customers."

Under the agreement, Novell is establishing clear leadership among Linux platform and open source software providers on interoperability for mixed-source environments. As a result, Microsoft will officially recommend SUSE Linux Enterprise for customers who want Windows and Linux solutions. Additionally, Microsoft will distribute coupons for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server maintenance and support, so that customers can benefit from the use of an interoperable version of Linux with patent coverage as well as the collaborative work between the two companies.

"Too often technology companies ask their customers to adapt to them. Today we are adapting to our customers," said Ron Hovsepian, president and CEO of Novell. "Microsoft and Novell are enabling customers to take advantage of each other's products where it makes sense in their enterprise infrastructure. We jointly believe that our business and patent agreements make it possible to offer the highest level of interoperability with the assurance that both our companies stand behind these solutions."

Agreement Has Broad Scope

The two companies will create a joint research facility at which Microsoft and Novell technical experts will architect and test new software solutions and work with customers and the community to build and support these technologies. The agreement between Microsoft and Novell focuses on three technical areas that provide important value and choice to the market:

•	Virtualization. Virtualization is one of the most important trends in the industry. Customers tell Microsoft that virtualization is one way they can consolidate and more easily manage rapidly growing server workloads and their large set of server applications. Microsoft and Novell will jointly develop a compelling virtualization offering for Linux and Windows.
•	Web services for managing physical and virtual servers. Web services and service-oriented architectures continue to be one of the defining ways software companies can deliver greater value to customers. Microsoft and Novell will undertake work to make it easier for customers to manage mixed Windows and SUSE Linux Enterprise environments and to make it easier for customers to federate Microsoft Active Directory ^® with Novell eDirectory.
•	Document format compatibility. Microsoft and Novell have been focusing on ways to improve interoperability between office productivity applications. The two companies will now work together on ways for OpenOffice and Microsoft Office system users to best share documents, and both will take steps to make translators available to improve interoperability between Open XML and OpenDocument formats.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer discusses resolution of patent issues between Microsoft and Novell that will enable a combined focus on virtualization and Web services management and create new opportunities for both companies' customers.

Click for high-res version.

"As a result of this collaboration, customers will now be able to run virtualized Linux on Windows or virtualized Windows on Linux," said Jeff Jaffe, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Novell. "Customers continually ask us how they can consolidate servers with multiple operating systems through virtualization. By working together, Novell and Microsoft enable customers to choose the operating system that best fits their application and business needs."

The patent cooperation agreement enables Microsoft and Novell to give customers assurance of protection against patent infringement claims. It gives customers confidence that the technologies they use and deploy in their environments are compliant with the two companies' patents.

As part of this agreement, Microsoft will provide a covenant not to assert its patent rights against customers who have purchased SUSE Linux Enterprise Server or other covered products from Novell, and Novell will provide an identical covenant to customers who have a licensed version of Windows or other covered products from Microsoft.

"Both companies had to think creatively about how to create an intellectual property bridge between the two worlds of open source and proprietary software," said Brad Smith, senior vice president and general counsel of Microsoft. "This bridge is built on respect for the innovations of each company and the open source community, and a passion for what we can deliver for our customers together."

Customer and Partner Reaction

Microsoft and Novell announced the new alliance at an event attended by several customers and partners.

"We applaud Novell and Microsoft in their efforts to provide greater Windows and Linux interoperability," said Paul Otellini, president and chief executive officer of Intel Corporation. "Customers want solutions that meet their individual needs, and higher levels of software interoperability give them the ability to more easily make the best choices."

"Windows and Linux are extremely important to our enterprise customers and the industry, and AMD strongly supports both," said Hector Ruiz, chairman and chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices. "This agreement by Novell and Microsoft helps customers bridge the gap between these platforms, giving them greater flexibility in doing what works best for them. This is a great example of vendors working together to resolve complexity so their customers don't have to."

"This technology and business collaboration provides a model that allows Microsoft and Novell to develop new solutions to enable open source and proprietary software to work better together in a mixed-source environment," said Shane Robison, executive vice president and chief strategy and technology officer at HP. "We applaud these two companies for doing the hard work to build a bridge between Windows and Linux"

"IBM encourages more industry endorsement of mixed-source solutions that promote open standards," said Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive at IBM Software. "Microsoft support for interoperability with the industry-standard OpenDocument Format is most welcome. Open documents give customers choice and help unlock broad industry creativity, allowing access to a new generation of innovative applications. Our view continues to be that interoperability and choice are key values that customers demand and deserve."

"We are pleased to see that Novell and Microsoft have come together to address customer needs with heterogeneous operating environments," said Kevin Kettler, CTO at Dell Inc. "As an industry leader in the IT market, we are excited to see the technology investments being made around virtualization and interoperability by both companies with this agreement."

"SAP has been the first enterprise application vendor to run our apps on Linux, while we have more Windows-based deployments than any other platform," said Shai Agassi, president of Product and Technology at SAP. "Today's announcement means that customers can now choose their preferred operating system for each part of their SAP implementation with the confidence that the systems will have strong interoperability and be supported by SAP, Novell and Microsoft — both companies being strong SAP partners."

"One of the key challenges in government is IT interoperability," said Thomas Jarrett, secretary of the Department of Technology and CIO of the state of Delaware. "We commend Microsoft and Novell for their collaboration and their efforts to build bridges in the interoperability area, which will help government to better serve our customers, our business community and our citizens."

Good for the Open Source Community

Click for high-res version.

Novell officials noted that one of their priorities in working toward the agreement with Microsoft was making sure the agreement made sense for the open source community. As part of today's agreement, Novell and Microsoft are announcing three important commitments. First, Microsoft will work with Novell and actively contribute to several open source software projects, including projects focused on Office file formats and Web services management. Second, Microsoft will not assert its patents against individual noncommercial open source developers. And third, Microsoft is promising not to assert its patents against individual contributors to OpenSUSE.org whose code is included in the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform, including SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop.

"Today's announcement by Microsoft and Novell marks a significant milestone in the adoption of Linux," said Stuart Cohen, CEO of Open Source Development Labs. "By choosing a course of co-opetition, Microsoft acknowledges the critical role that open source plays today in an enterprise IT infrastructure. We appreciate the role Novell is playing to help bridge the gap between Microsoft and the open source community. We are glad to see these two companies collaborating to further diminish the legal threat posed to developers and customers by patent assertions. This is good for customer confidence in Linux, the open source community and the broader IT ecosystem."

Additional Announcement Details

Like many commercial transactions, the financial terms of the agreement are not being disclosed at this time.

Under the technical collaboration agreement, the companies will create a joint research facility and pursue new software solutions for virtualization, management and document format compatibility. These are potentially huge markets — IDC projects the overall market for virtual machine software revenue to be more than $1.8 billion by 2009, and the overall market for distributed system management software to be $10.2 billion by 2010 — and the companies believe their investment in interoperability will make their respective products more attractive to customers.

Under the patent cooperation agreement, both companies will make upfront payments in exchange for a release from any potential liability for use of each other's patented intellectual property, with a net balancing payment from Microsoft to Novell reflecting the larger applicable volume of Microsoft's product shipments. Novell will also make running royalty payments based on a percentage of its revenues from open source products.

Under the business collaboration agreement, the companies will pursue a variety of joint marketing activities to promote the adoption of the technologies they are collaborating on. In addition, Microsoft will purchase a quantity of coupons from Novell that entitle the recipient to a one-year subscription for maintenance and updates to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Microsoft will annually make available approximately 70,000 of these coupons to customers, with a mix of priority and standard support services. By providing its customers with these coupons, Microsoft is enabling companies to benefit from the use of the new software solutions developed through the collaborative research effort, as well as a version of Linux that is covered with respect to Microsoft's intellectual property rights.

The parties are assessing the accounting treatment for the agreements and will provide information as required in the course of their filings with the SEC.

For more information on SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell, see http://www.novell.com/linux.

For more information on Microsoft Windows, see http://www.microsoft.com/presspass.

Iptables

2006-10-18T22:16:00.000+05:30

IPTABLES

PACKET FILTER

A packet filter is a piece of software which looks at the header of packets as they pass through, and decides the fate of the entire packet. It might decide to DROP the packet (i.e., discard the packet as if it had never received it), ACCEPT the packet (i.e., let the packet go through), or something more complicated.

Under Linux, packet filtering is built into the kernel (as a kernel module, or built right in), and there are a few trickier things we can do with packets, but the general principle of looking at the headers and deciding the fate of the packet is still there.

HOW PACKETS TRAVERSE THE FILTERS?

The three chains are called INPUT, OUTPUT and FORWARD.

                          _____

Incoming                 /     \         Outgoing

       --> [Routing] --->|FORWARD|------->

          [Decision]     \_____/        ^

               |                        |

               v                       ____

              ___                     /    \

             /   \                  |OUTPUT|

            |INPUT|                  \____/

             \___/                      ^

               |                        |

                ----> Local Process ----

The three circles represent the three chains mentioned above. When a packet reaches a circle in the diagram, that chain is examined to decide the fate of the packet. If the chain says to DROP the packet, it is killed there, but if the chain says to ACCEPT the packet, it continues traversing the diagram.

A chain is a checklist of rules. Each rule says `if the packet header looks like this, then here's what to do with the packet'. If the rule doesn't match the packet, then the next rule in the chain is consulted. Finally, if there are no more rules to consult, then the kernel looks at the chain policy to decide what to do. In a security-conscious system, this policy usually tells the kernel to DROP the packet.

When a packet comes in (say, through the Ethernet card) the kernel first looks at the destination of the packet: this is called `routing'.
If it's destined for this box, the packet passes downwards in the diagram, to the INPUT chain. If it passes this, any processes waiting for that packet will receive it.
Otherwise, if the kernel does not have forwarding enabled, or it doesn't know how to forward the packet, the packet is dropped. If forwarding is enabled, and the packet is destined for another network interface (if you have another one), then the packet goes rightwards on our diagram to the FORWARD chain. If it is ACCEPTed, it will be sent out.
Finally, a program running on the box can send network packets. These packets pass through the OUTPUT chain immediately: if it says ACCEPT, then the packet continues out to whatever interface it is destined for.

Removing Red Hat Enterprise Linux

2006-10-09T19:51:00.000+05:30

If you just want to remove the Red Hat Enterprise Linux boot loader information from your master boot record (MBR), insert WINDOWS 98 CD and use the undocumented flag: fdisk /mbr

If you need to remove Linux from a hard drive, insert CD1 of Redhat Enterprise Linux, Once you have booted off the CD, a boot prompt appears. At the boot prompt,

type: linux rescue

You are prompted for your keyboard and language requirements. Complete the formalities as you would during the installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

You are then given a command prompt where you can access the partitions you would like to remove.

First, type the command list-harddrives. This command lists all hard drives on your system that are recognizable by the installation program, as well as their sizes in megabytes.

To remove partitions, use the partitioning utility parted. Start parted, where /dev/hda is the device on which to remove the partition:

parted /dev/hda

Using the print command, view the current partition table to determine the minor number of the partition to remove:

print

The print command also displays the partition's type (such as linux-swap, ext2, ext3, and so on). Knowing the type of the partition helps you in determining whether to remove the partition.

Remove the partition with the command rm. For example, to remove the partition with minor number 3:

rm 3

After removing the partition, use the print command to confirm that it is removed from the partition table.

Once you have removed the Linux partitions and made all of the changes you need to make, type quit to quit parted.

After quitting parted, type exit at the boot prompt to exit rescue mode and reboot your system, instead of continuing with the installation. The system should reboot automatically. If it does not, you can reboot your computer using [Control]-[Alt]-[Delete].

Wanna Learn and Know more about Linux, log on to

http://discoverlinux.blogspot.com/

Discovering Shell Scripting

2006-10-07T22:00:00.000+05:30

How to write shell script

1. I generally use editor like vi to write shell scripts.

2. After writing shell script set execute permission for your script as follows
syntax:
chmod permission your-script-name

3. Execute your script as
syntax:
bash your-script-name
sh your-script-name
./your-script-name

Examples:
$ chmod +x your-script-name $ chmod 755 your-script-name

NOTE In the last syntax ./ means current directory, But only . (dot) means execute given command file in current shell without starting the new copy of shell, The syntax for . (dot) command is as follows
Syntax:
. command-name

Example:
$ . foo

MY FIRST SHELL SCRIPT

#vi first_scp

# MY First Shell Script echo "Help others and God will help you!"

#chmod 777 first_scp

#./first_scp

A SHELL SCRIPT TO GET THE information

#vi getinfo_scp

# Script to print user information who currently login , current date & time

clear

echo "Hello $USER"

echo -e "Today is \c ";date

echo -e "Number of user login : \c" ; who | wc -l

echo "Calendar"

cal

exit 0

#chmod 777 getinfo_scp

#./getinfo_scp

Discovering Apache

2006-10-07T21:16:00.000+05:30

Apache gets its name from the fact that it consists of some existing code plus some patches. The FAQ 1 thinks that this is cute; others may think it's the sort of joke that gets programmers a bad name. You have to understand that Apache is free to its users and is written by a team of volunteers who do not get paid for their work. Whether or not they decide to incorporate your or anyone else's ideas is entirely up to them. If you don't like this, feel free to collect a team and write your own web server.

URL stands for Universal Resource Locator. A URL such as http://www.butter-thlies.com/ comes in three parts:

:///

Macintosh On Linux

2006-09-22T03:06:00.000+05:30

Monopoly of Microsoft!

2006-09-17T18:12:00.000+05:30

You got every thing bang on target………I have become a great fan of yours………Didn’t knew that u are Linux fan as well………..anyways ……….what u thought and wrote was absolutely dead right…………..and there is no element of doubt what so ever…………….Seriously the ease with which u expressed your thoughts is indeed praise worthy……………U indeed deserve a pat on your back…………

Well coming to technicalities let me share some of my view points about Microsoft and its dirty Monopoly………

First of all earning money is not bad at all but how u earn and for whom do u earn is what it counts at, least to me…………..What Microsoft believes is that cheat and copy others as much as u can………….Even if end user knows it still copy the code…………….Not only that even if it comes into notice of the company or the manufacturer from whom the code was copied still copy……copy …….copy ………….and keep copying……..Let me tell u onething that some of the Vista features have been blindly copied from Mac Os X Tiger………..it crossed its limits when even the fonts and colors of the applications where kept as they were on Macintosh………….hoooooooo this Micorosoft raises my blood pressure………….

One of my friend (Kartik Mohta) who studies in IIT Bombay told me that entire IIT (administrative block and hostel) uses Linux…..There are only handful of pcs using “THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH”……….and the reasonis very obvious…………….say if u use a Microsoft Operating System which costs 5000 Rs (appox)………….then u will also need Microoft Office which will cost another 15000 Rs…………also u will need antivirus again costing 15000 Rs………U will also need softwares like photoshop, page maker, etc….which again put pressure on your wallet………also students will require softwares like autocad, matlab, pcb design, orcad ………etc….etc….etc…..and the ball will keeps on rolling………..the total deal will settle for at least 60000 Rs for each machine ………….now as onkar said due to Monopoly of microsoft u need to buy license for each n every machine……..now this was just on softwares………a good hardware comes for atleast 40000 Rs …………if der are at least 500 machines (including hostel and addministrative office)………then IIT will be required to spend 500 * 1 Lakh = 500 Lakhs………………..and this is a handsome amount……….and hence IITs, IIMs and in fact all govt offices and departments along with private firms are switching over to Linux…….some of them are LIC, UTI bank, Airtel, AajTak, Cisco, NASA….etc…….
…….so I guess time has come when u seriously think Linux……………

How true its said: Software is like sex, its better when its free.”

Hence Use Linux , Be Free !

Go Open Source! stop Piracy and kick Microsofts Dirty Monopoly out of buisness…..God Bless U!

Parag. A. Kalra, The Linux Man

Live Linux! Love Linux! Learn Linux!

http://discoverlinux.blogspot.com/

© Centre Of Discovery

LINUX theme GNOME 2.16 released!!

2006-09-08T11:06:00.000+05:30

GNOME Project has released the latest stable version 2.16. GNOME 2.16 is the
latest version of the popular GNOME desktop for Linux, UNIX & other platforms.
The GNOME Desktop is released every six months with many new features, bug
-fixes, improvements, translations etc.,

This version includes some stunning eye-candy effects like Windows that wobble,
vanish, fade, shrink, or explode!!

Features:

* A longer life for your laptop
* Note taking made simple
* Enhanced menu editing
* Finer control of disk space
* New screen reader
* Totem with improved Media browsing
* Spell-checker for Epiphany web browser
* Switch between the open windows of certain applications using the shortcut Alt + F6
* Move applications between different workspaces by dragging their taskbar icon
onto the wanted workpace.
* Spot password-protected files easily (with a new emblem)
* Burn DVDs directly with Nautilus Cd burner , no need to make an image anymore.

Read the GNOME release notes here

© Centre Of Discovery

......Lets PLAY mpeg & avi VIDEO FILES IN SUSE 10.1 LINUX ------[PLAYING VIDEOS IN LINUX WAS NEVER SO EASY]

2006-08-11T06:17:00.000+05:30

Its time to celebrate......Suse has just changed the face of Mutlimedia Applications in Linux.......Go to the following link

If the link for playing videos in SUSE LINUX is not working as some of my friends have told me then try this out....

http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=42

and follow step by step instruction............

Now you can literally play video files of any format ALSO number of video players have increased though they are in primitive stage.........GREAT GOING LINUX.

*NOTE: When you add the three URLs as given in documentation......Don't forget to make the refresh button on for all the three urls......Also when you will click finish button.......It will take atleast 30 min to update the database of your system.....just have patience........

Once done...........

Under YAST click SOFTWARE and in SOFTWARE click SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT......and then search for required codecs and softwares as given in the documentation........just chech mark what ever you want ........n in the end click UPDATE........

NJOY PLAYING VIDEOS IN SUSE LINUX.....

FOR MORE INVENTIONS IN LINUX, LOG ON TO
http://discoverlinux.blogspot.com

© Centre Of Discovery

Changing your Login Manager Screen!

2006-08-03T00:32:00.000+05:30

You will find ample of web-sites having Various Desktop Themes and Login Manager Themes. Just Search in Google and thousands of results will be available to you. Just to reduce your work go to:

http://art.gnome.org

Its an excellent site.

Here you will get ample of Desktop backgrounds, Icons, Splash Screens, Login Manager Themes etc.

Download any login manager from the various themes available under Login Manager Section which is present under Desktop Themes.

I downloaded Morning-Light theme Login manager which had file of following format:

GDM-Morning.tar.bz2

Configuring it is very simple task.

Just find the section called “Login Screen”. Most Probably you will find it under “system settings”.

Click on it. On the pop menu, click the tab called “Graphical Greeter”. At bottom you would find tab called “Install New Theme”. Click on it and It will ask you the path where you have stored your tape archive file. Select your downloaded file and click the “install” tab.

Enjoy the new login manager.

Shell Scripting frm Scratch!

2006-07-15T15:53:00.000+05:30

Semicolon (;) is used to separate two or more commands. We can also use parenthesis to group commands. Under such circumstances shell creates a copy of itself called a subshell for each group treating each group of commands as jobs and creating a new process to execute the command.

You can also put a special sequence of characters at the first line of shell script to indicate to the operating system that it is a shell script.

#!/bin/bash

#!/bin/tcsh

[root@station1 ~]# os=fedora

[root@station1 ~]# echo $os

fedora

[root@station1 ~]# echo "$os"

fedora

[root@station1 ~]# echo '$os'

$os

[root@station1 ~]# echo \$os

$os

[root@station1 ~]#

To unset a value from a variable, use unset command.

[root@station1 shellscp]# linux=redhat

[root@station1 shellscp]# echo $redhat

[root@station1 shellscp]# echo $linux

redhat

[root@station1 shellscp]# unset linux

[root@station1 shellscp]# echo $linux

readonly command makes the value assigned to the variable permanent.

Syntax: #readonly

EG:

[root@station1 shellscp]# graphics=mac

[root@station1 shellscp]# echo $graphics

mac

[root@station1 shellscp]# readonly graphics

[root@station1 shellscp]# echo $graphics

mac

[root@station1 shellscp]# graphics=suse

bash: graphics: readonly variable

Variables are local to the process in which they are declared. Variable of one shell script doesnot have access to the value assigned to same variable in some other shell script. However this limitation can be over come by using export command.

Syntax:

#export

EG:

#vi mac1

export mac

mac=tiger

echo "I have $mac"

bash mac2

#vi mac2

echo "You have $mac"

mac=leopard

echo "i will give u $mac

# bash mac1

I have tiger

You have tiger

i will give u leopard

A shell script to take input from the user:

echo -n "Please enter you name: "

read name

echo "hello $name";

A shell script to take input from the user:

echo "Please enter a command: "

read com

$com

EG:

read w1 w2 w3 w4 w5

echo "The 5 words which you entered are:"

echo " $w1"

echo " $w2"

echo " $w3"

echo " $w4"

echo " $w5"

O/P:

[root@station1 16july06]# bash shlscp3

Please enter any 5 words:

one two three four five

The 5 words which you entered are:

one

two

three

four

five

EG:

path=$(pwd)

echo "You are in dir $path"

O/P

[root@station1 16july06]# bash shlscp4

You are in dir /root/shellscp/16july06

[root@station1 16july06]#

ScreenShots of My Suse 10.1 Desktop!--II

2006-07-10T00:55:00.000+05:30

ScreenShots of My Suse 10.1 Desktop!

2006-07-05T06:06:00.000+05:30

3D EFFECTS (XGL) in Linux SUSE 10.1 accomplished SUCCESSFULLY!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-07-04T04:23:00.000+05:30

Hi everyone,

It feels great to tell u dat I have successfully activated the 3D effects of Linux SUSE 10.1

Now everything is in terms of cubes.

I can turn the cube, burst the cube, dissolve the cube, rotate the cube and
what not.....

I can also make the cubes and various windows translucent.....

I can also make cubes and various Windows dance on my tunes....

Let me tell u this suse 10.1 distro and XGL (3D effects) just rocks.....

It will drive u mad......

You will just spend hours moving the cubes and windows.......

All hats off to NOVEL for making the distro like SUSE 10.1

Windows XP is now where near SUSE 10.1

Infact its a very bad and illogical comparison.....

" I suspect whether Windows Vista would be ever able to achieve this same
milestone....".

It wouldn't have been possible without this excellent documentation which I found here

http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/17174.html

also not to forget my best friend Samir Sachdev (also called as SAM http://maconamdintel.blogspot.com/ ) for his appropriate, precise and overwhelming support and guidance .....

So anyone having Nvidia Graphics card and SUSE 10.1 LINUX installed on his/her machine, go through the above documentation and enjoy the power and magic of 3D......................!!!!!!

!!!............

Linux Quotations Like Never Before!

2006-05-18T00:29:00.000+05:30

A Linux machine! because a 486 is a terrible thing to waste. -- unknown

All of the important files that make Linux systems work are right out in the open. They are always ASCII text files, so you don't need special tools to read them. You can look at them any time you want, which is good, and you can mess them up and render your system totally dysfunctional, which is not so good. -- Neal Stephenson, science fiction writer

Avoid the Gates of Hell. Use Linux. -- unknown

Linux -- a weapon of mass construction. -- a Bellevue Linux Users Group member, March, 2004

Linux: because a PC is a terrible thing to waste. -- unknown

Linux: Choice of a GNU Generation! -- unknown

Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches. -- Steve Ballmer, CEO Microsoft, June, 2001

Linux is much more than just another operating system. And it is more than just a great operating system. It represents a fusion of the superb craftsmanship of UNIX with a new, superior way of organizing creativity. -- a Bellevue Linux Users Group member, April 2004

Linux is not the wave of the future. It is the tsunami of the future. -- a Bellevue Linux Users Group member, February, 2004

Linux is obsolete. -- Andrew Tanenbaum, creator of the MINIX operating system, 1992

Linux itself is a clone of an operating system that is 20-plus years old. That's what it is. That is what you can get today, a clone of a 20-year-old system. I'm not saying that it doesn't have some place for some customers, but that is not an innovative proposition. -- Steve Ballmer, April, 2003

Linux - the Unix defragmentation tool. -- unknown

Linux was made by foreign terrorists to steal money from true AMERICAN companies like Microsoft who invented computing as we know it, and are being punished for their success... -- unknown

Microsoft isn't evil, they just make really crappy operating systems. -- Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux

Never show the source. -- Craig Mundie, Senior VP at Microsoft, June, 2003 (explaining the secret to success in software)

Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect. -- Linus Torvalds, September 2003

Software is like sex. It's better when it's free. -- Linus Torvalds

There appear to be few if any technical reasons to move from UNIX to Windows NT. The performance of Linux exceeds that of NT 4.0 and Linux appears to be more reliable. -- David Korn, creator of the ksh shell, 1997

There's no roadmap for Linux. Nobody is held accountable for security problems with Linux. -- Steve Ballmer, October 2003

Thus, of course, Linus didn't sit down in a vacuum and suddenly type in the Linux source code. He had my book, was running MINIX, and undoubtedly knew the history (since it is in my book). But the code was his. The proof of this is that he messed the design up. -- Andrew Tanenbaum

Unix? What's that? Is that like Linux? -- unknown

Update ur Kernel

2006-05-16T03:23:00.000+05:30

1. Download the Linux kernel from the linux kernel website, http://www.kernel.org

2. Extract the .Bz2 (BZip2) archive to /usr/src/, by doing the following.
Open a terminal, if you are in graphical environment or if it's your login shell, just continue.
Remember, You must be of group wheel to su in.

$ su
(root password)

# cd /usr/src
This moves you to /usr/src directory.

# tar -xvjpf /linux*.tar.bz2
This extracts the bz2 image to the /usr/src directory. Substitute the with the location of your file.
Now, we have to update the linux symlink for your earlier kernel to our new kernel source.

# rm linux

# ln -s linux-2.6.12* linux

this -s option instructs the ln command to create a symlink instead of a hard link. Make sure that the new link points to your new kernel.
Now, cd into directory and make the kernel.

# cd linux

# make menuconfig

This fires up a n-curses based menu that performs the kernel configuration. Here, I have nothing to do. Browse each option and take your time to fully read the help associated with each option. The commands lspci and lsmod can help you identify hardware info if you have installed pciutils package. Additionally you can also view boot messages for help, using dmesg. You can either compile stuff into the kernel using brutal compilation or compile stuff as modules in a more subtle way.

A few keystrokes to help you,
[Enter] --> Activate Current Item
[Esc] --> Go backwards
[Tab] --> Toggle through the interface.
/ --> Search
? ([shift] + /) --> Help for the associated item.
With item Selected,
Y --> Compile into kernel
N --> Donot Use the Item in the kernel.
M --> Compile as Module which you can insert, remove using insmod, modprobe commands.

Sometimes it opens up a submenu there you can either walk around using Arrow keys and select the stuff or type if it's a text input box.

After doing all your work, Go to the top most hierarchy and select [Exit] and select [yes] to save your config.
After you are dropped in the terminal, do the following.

# make

# make modules_install

This creates a hot new bz kernel for you to use. Copy it to the /boot partition using the following commands.

# cp arch/i386/boot/bzimage /boot/newkernel

Now, update your boot loader for booting with the new kernel, for example create new section in /boot/grub/grub.conf or in /boot/grub/menu.lst as,

# emacs /boot/grub/grub.conf

title newkernel26
root (boot partition in boot loader lingo) // Example (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/newkernel root=/dev/hda* (your root partition)

Save and close.
Now, you can boot your new kernel from the boot time. Enjoy Linux!!

NOTE: Don’t attempt it unless and until you have tried it before. It this procedure fails it may lead to unbootable system. It takes around 1 hour to update the kernel.

Sending in your queries and suggestions at paragkalra@gmail.com

Best of Luck!

New SUSE 10.1 Linux to debut this week

2006-05-09T06:55:00.000+05:30

SUSE Linux 10.1 Final will be released on Thursday, 11th of May," a Web site which coordinates development of the software currently states.

Version 10.1 of SUSE Linux is understood to be an important milestone for Novell as it prepares to release the landmark version 10 of its business-focused SUSE Linux Enterprise (formerly known as the Novell Linux Desktop) operating system later this year.

The company's president Ron Hovsepian has flagged version 10 of the operating system as mature enough to kickstart enterprise deployments in the next 12 to 18 months.

Bringing Entire Website to your Home!

2006-05-08T06:36:00.000+05:30

One of my friend told me about #wget command.
I fired
[root@localhost ~]# wget -r http://www.santabanta.com/wallpapers/
You know what, this command made a directory called www.santabanta.com in the root directory
and started downloading entire website.
Now no need to open each and every page of the websites.
Just fire #wget and Entire Website will in your home within hours.

Changing Your Splash Screen Image! (Courtesy 'DIGIT' magazine)

2006-04-23T21:04:00.000+05:30

If you are bored with seeing the same blue grub screen every time, then take a break as you can change the grub splash image by editing the grub's config file.

The following are the image requirements:
The image has to be of 14 colors with maximum 640x480 resolution and in the xpm format. The first question would be how to obtain such an image?” Well some Linux Distros like RedHat have command line utility called ImageMagick.

Do
[root@localhost~] man ImageMagick
to know more about it.

Let us assume that you have any jpeg file that you want to load as your splash screen. Suppose that name of the photo is tux.jpg and it is present in root user's home directory. First of all login as a root user and then use following procedure:

[root@localhost~] convert -depth 8 -colors 14 -resize 640x480 /root/tux.jpg /root/tux.xpm
This command converts an image from one format to other format.

It is necessary to compress this file to gz format.
[root@localhost~] gzip tux.xpm

This tux.xpm.gz needs to be copied to /boot/grub
[root@localhost~]cp /root/tux.xpm.gz /boot/grub/

Last step is to edit grub.conf file found in /boot/grub directory. Open the file in vi editor.
[root@localhost~] vi /boot/grub/grub.conf

Look for the line 'splashimage=' . Change the path of splash screen image from /grub/boot/splash.xpm.gz to /boot/grub/tux.xpm.gz

Reboot your system to see the changes.

Send in your queries at paragkalra@gmail.com

MOUNTING A NTFS PARTITION IN REDHAT AND FEDORA LINUX!

2006-04-22T02:52:00.000+05:30

Which RPM

It is important to install exactly the same version of NTFS kernel module as the kernel you have installed. Below are some simple instructions to help you find the file you need.

A quick way to find the version is to use the 'whichrpm' script. Save the file and run it. Then go to the install section.

[root@localhost]# chmod 700 whichrpm
[root@localhost]#./whichrpm

This Script will tell you every thing about your system. It will even give you the url from where you can download your required rpm

In case you are finding it difficult to run this script just use the commands given below to find your system information and then go to following link and download the required rpm

http://www.linux-ntfs.org/content/view/128/64/

[root@localhost]#cat /etc/redhat-release

and you will probably see one of the following responses:
Fedora Core release 3 (Heidelberg)
Fedora Core release 4 (Stentz)
Fedora Core release 5 (Bordeaux)
Red Hat Linux release 9 (Shrike)
Next find out your kernel version:
[root@localhost]#uname -r

You should see a response something like one of these:
2.4.18-3
2.4.18-17.7.x
2.4.22-1.2115.nptl
2.6.8-1.521
The version might also have one of the following suffixes:
smp
bigmem
hugemem
BOOT
Note: If the result ends with smp then you have a multi-processor computer (you probably already knew that).Next find out what sort of processor you have. This command will ask which kernel rpm was installed for you.
If your version number had a suffix, then use it here, e.g. replace kernel with kernel-smp, or kernel-bigmem.
rpm -q --queryformat "%{ARCH}\n" kernel
Most people will have an i686 processor (a recent Pentium computer). Other options are athlon, i586 or i386.Next download the RPM. Follow the links for
* Fedora 4 (Stentz)* Fedora 3 (Heidelberg)* Fedora 2 (Tettnang)* Fedora 1 (Yarrow)* RedHat Enterprise 4 (Nahant)* RedHat Enterprise 3 (Taroon)* RedHat 9 (Shrike)* RedHat 8.0 (Psyche)
* RedHat 7.3 (Valhalla)
When you have downloaded the RPM, we will continue with the installation instructions.
[root@localhost ntfs]# rpm -ihv kernel-module-ntfs-2.6.9-5.EL-2.1.20-0.rr.4.10.i686.rpm
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
1:kernel-module-ntfs-2.6.########################################### [100%]
[root@localhost ntfs]#

There should be no errors, just some '#'-charakters.

Note: newer NTFS RPMs will also print a message telling you if install succeeded.

Next load the kernel module
[root@localhost ntfs]# /sbin/modprobe ntfs

There should be no output. If there are a lot of error messages see the Help Section.The next command, dmesg prints the kernel logs. We search them for NTFS using grep.

[root@localhost ntfs]# dmesg | grep NTFS
NTFS driver 2.1.20 [Flags: R/W MODULE].

We can now check that the kernel really understands NTFS. The output may vary slightly, but you are looking for the entry ntfs.

[root@localhost ntfs]# cat /proc/filesystems
nodev sysfs
nodev rootfs
nodev bdev
nodev proc
nodev sockfs
nodev binfmt_misc
nodev usbfs
nodev usbdevfs
nodev futexfs
nodev tmpfs
nodev pipefs
nodev eventpollfs
nodev devpts
ext2
nodev ramfs
nodev hugetlbfs
iso9660
nodev mqueue
ext3
vfat
nodev rpc_pipefs
nodev autofs
ntfs
[root@localhost ntfs]#

First you need to know which device your NTFS Volume is on and you need to create a directory as a mount point.

[root@localhost ntfs]# /sbin/fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80032038912 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9730 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 785 2824 16386300 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 2825 7760 39648420 5 Extended
/dev/hda3 7761 8015 2048287+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/hda4 8016 8178 1309297+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda5 2825 4609 14337981 b W95 FAT32
/dev/hda6 4610 5884 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda7 5885 7159 10241406 83 Linux

This shows that my hard disk has two two ntfs partions one is /dev/hda1 and other is /dev/hda6. Supose I want to mount /dev/hda1. Follow the procedure
[root@localhost ntfs]# mkdir /mnt/windows
[root@localhost ntfs]# mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows/ -t ntfs -r -o umask=0222

Thats it..... Go to /mnt/windows via your browser and enjoy your Windows in Linux!

Uninstall

If you wish to remove the NTFS RPM, first list all the RPMs with ntfs in their name. You output might look something like this:

[root@localhost ntfs]# rpm -qa | grep -i ntfs
kernel-module-ntfs-2.6.9-5.EL-2.1.20-0.rr.4.10

[root@localhost ntfs]# rpm -e kernel-module-ntfs-2.6.9-5.EL-2.1.20-0.rr.4.10
[root@localhost ntfs]#

Send in your queries and suggestions at paragkalra@gmail.com

MINIX Gets (X) Windows

2006-04-01T11:36:00.000+05:30

Nearly 15 years ago, Linux creator Linus Torvalds posted his first public announcement about open source operating system Linux in a post to the MINIX newsgroup.

Since then, Linux has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. But what of MINIX, the "inspiration" for Linux?

MINIX is still quite alive and is on the cusp of releasing its first version with a windowing system as it continues its (long) march to becoming a serious operating system as the shadow of its Penguin disciple continues to grow.

What is MINIX?

MINIX is a UNIX (define) clone that began back in 1987 by Andrew Tanenbaum. It is perhaps best known because of its relationship to Linus Torvalds, who began experimenting with MINIX in March of 1991. In October of 1991, Linux was announced in the MINIX newsgroup, which Torvalds at the time described as "a free version of a minix-lookalike for AT-386 computers."

MINIX version 3 was released in October of 2005, heralding a new era for Tanenbaum's UNIX clone.

"MINIX 1 and 2 were intended only for teaching, not for serious use," Tanenbaum told internetnews.com in an e-mail interview. "MINIX 3 is intended for serious use as well and to be highly reliable and self-healing as well."

But in its nearly 20 years of existence, MINIX has not had a windowing system for graphics support. But in the 3.1.2 version, which officially hit public beta this week, MINIX will sport X Windows.

X Windows is the basis of all modern graphical user interfaces on Unix and Linux. It's currently overseen by the X.ORG foundation.

Tanenbaum noted that because MINIX 3 is for serious use, it is also adding more features to make it "seriously usable".

"With X Windows and over 400 UNIX programs, including emacs, vi, cc, gcc, perl, python, ssh, and many more, it is on the way to becoming a serious system," Tanenbaum said.

Tanenebaum also said other new features are expected in upcoming versions. Among them is the ability to withstand crashes of the disk driver with automatic recovery and not interfering with running programs. Virtual memory, threads, better support for printing and more reliability features are also expected.

"We are still early on the curve," Tanenbaum said. "But we have had over 300,000 visits to the site and over 50,000 downloads so far, so we are starting to make some progress."

Torvalds did not respond to request for comment via e-mail by press time.

Considering that Torvalds is 15 years removed from MINIX, it's likely that the one-time MINIX user isn't overly concerned of the march of MINIX.

Linux Torvalds Releases Linux 2.6.16 Kernel

2006-03-29T11:10:00.000+05:30

The wait is over, and the new Linux kernel, release 2.6.16, was put out by Linux creator and steward, Linus Torvalds, last week at kernel.org. While the support for the "Cell" Power-derived processor created by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba is interesting, what is more applicable to enterprise Linux customers is the improved support for NUMA clustering and support for new file systems.

Torvalds was brief in his announcement of the final release of the Linux kernel that will be at the heart of the commercial and private Linuxes that get packaged up for the next year or more. "Not a lot of changes since -rc6, but there's various random one-liners here and there (a number of Coverity bugs found, for example), and there are small MIPS and PowerPC updates," he said in his release note. "It looks like both Fedora and SuSE end up using a kernel that is pretty close to this 2.6.16 release, so let's all hope it's good. Give it a good testing, please."

You can view the changelog for the Linux 2.6.16 kernel here, and you can, of course, get the kernel and play around with it from kernel.org.

This is not, obviously, what the vast majority of enterprise Linux customers will do. They like packaged operating systems from Red Hat and Novell and a few other players. Now, the trick is to get the the new kernel rolled into the upcoming releases of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, which is due in May, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, which is due by year's end, as well as in the other releases from Turbolinux, Mandriva, the various Debian variants, and a few other regional players.

Sun Microsystems is obviously happy with Linux 2.6.16, since its patches to the kernel that allow it to support Linux on the new "Niagara" Sparc T1 processor made it into the final code. That means Sparc T1 support has a chance of becoming mainstream relatively soon as opposed to being a Linux variant that companies have to create on their own by compiling their own kernel. No potential Sparc T1 customer is going to compile their own Linux kernel, much less support such a compilation in a production environment. Similarly, as Sony and IBM try to build up the ecosystem for the Cell chip, support for Cell right out of the box is important if these companies want to drive the deployment of Cell in game machines (Sony) and in workstations and supercomputing visualization systems (IBM). As it is, the sophisticated co-processor design of the Cell chip, which has a Power5-derived core and eight special vector processors that are used to render graphics, is so different from a regular Power chip that it will require a significant amount of programming to make it useful. Having Linux support through the 2.6.16 kernel and, presumably, in future products from Red Hat and SUSE, means the Cell architecture can become something companies and academia can play with and then figure out how to deploy in real products.

While all of this is good, two changes that enterprises will be most interested in with the Linux 2.6.16 kernel are updates to the NUMA clustering algorithms and support for Oracle Cluster File System 2, which as the name suggests is a second generation of the cluster file system contributed to the open source community by database maker and application provider Oracle.

NUMA clustering is the way most high-end servers today are created, although most of the big iron server vendors still call it symmetric multiprocessing because early NUMA implementations had latency issues that made them relatively poor performers. NUMA stands for non-uniform memory access, and with a NUMA setup, you take a cell board from a server and carve up a piece of main memory to be local to that cell board and then another piece that can be accessed by any other cell board in the system. Since big servers based on Xeon, Power, Sparc, and now Opteron processors can have a dozen or more cell boards, the efficiciency and speed of communication between memory on one cell board and processors on a remote one is an important factor in the scalability of a server running a particular operating system and software stack. Unix machines have been NUMA-aware for many years, and Linux has been catching up quite nicely, as has the Windows platform from Microsoft. With the Linux 2.6.16 kernel, some changes have been made in the way this shared memory is allocated. If a processor is looking for data that is stored in the memjory on adjacent cell boards, the Linux 2.6.16 kernel can grab that information and move it over to local memory (which runs a lot faster) and then do the operation required on it without having to restart that operation. This is, in a way, a means to make NUMA clusters look more like a shared memory SMP cluster. Exactly who contributed this code to Linux is unclear, but this is one of the ways that Linux is going to be more scalable in the coming months.

Linux 2.6.16 also includes support for a similar protocol called TIPC, which is a message passing protocol that cell phone and switch maker Ericsson created for its switches and has contributed to the open source community to bolster the Carrier-Grade Linux project. TIPC can move small messages of under 1 KB between processors in a machine from 25 to 35 percent faster than TCP/IP and inside processes running on a single processor at 75 percent faster than TCP/IP. The connection mechanism in TIPC allows connections between processes to be initiated with as little as two messages, compared to a minimum of nine messages for TCP/IP links.

OCFS2 is a cluster file system that allows server clusters to share data stored on common storage area networks (SAN) or network-attached storage (NAS) arrays. It has been bundled in Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 since Service Pack 2 last summer. While OCFS2 is not bundled with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, since Red Hat has its own Global File System, it does run on this implementation of Linux. OCFS2 will run on any Linux 2.6 distro, but you have to go get it and do the work yourself. This is, again, not something most enterprises are interesting in doing. (You can find out more about OCFS2 at this link.) The Linux 2.6.16 kernel also has support for the Hierarchical File System for the Mac OS X operating system, which is called HFSX. What this will presumably allow is users on Macs to have a file system that Linux can also read.

Notes in Progress!

2006-03-28T13:33:00.000+05:30

Directory Structure!
Programs are often referred to as "executables" or binaries. The essential binaries necessary to boot and maintain the system reside in /bin. These directory generally contains frequently used binaries. /sbin contains system binaries. Binaries like graphical environments, web browsers, ofice tools, games and so forth are installed in /usr/bin and /usr/sbin. On new installed there will also be /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/sbin directories, but they will be empty. Third party software installed by the administrator, such as software compiled from source code, will usually go in these directories

While dragging a file or folder, use the alt key. This will provide you the option to either cut or copy.

***********************************************************************************

Notes 1

MODULE 1

The history of Linux begins with UNIX. The story goes back to late 1960s when researchers from “General Electric”, “AT&T” and “MIT” started a new research project on special operating system called MULTICS (Multiplex Information Computing System). In 1969 Ken Thompson and Denis Ritchie and various other researchers at AT&T Bells Laboratory developed a new operating system called UNIX

Now we shall discuss the history of Linux. First of all Linux is an Operating System. Multi-user capability, Powerful Networking and Server tools are some of its outstanding features. Linux may also be called as another version of UNIX. Linux was developed by Linus Benedict Torvalds. He is considered as Father of Linux. He was born on December 28, 1969 in . The strange coincidence about this birth-date was that UNIX was developed during the same year i.e. 1969. He grew up in , the capital of . Linus was a Computer Science Student in . At that time he was using UNIX like operating system called MINIX. Minix had many limitations so he thought of developing a new operating system free from limitations of MS-DOS and Minix. He posted his queries on internet and asked for feed back and suggestions. This is what he pasted on the website comp.os.minixnewsgroup via Internet:

“Hello everybody out there using Minix. I am doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like GNU) for 386 (486) AT clones:”

The response was overwhelming. Large number of developers all across the Globe gave in their expertise and inputs for the development of Linux Kernel. It took few years for its full fledged development. So in this way a hobby project started by Linux became a full featured, stable and highly secure operating system called Linux and it was made available for download absolutely at free of cost.

user root:

In linux there is a default user called root. He is having entire control of the operating system. He posses all privileges. He decides the accessing powers of other users.

*:Note: Not all command rights are available to users other than root.

useradd command:

If you want to add a user, then use #useradd command:

syntax:

#useradd

EG:

#useradd u1

Just creating a user in linux is not sufficient. You have to either give him a password or make him password less without which he won't be able to login.

MODULE 1 contd….

passwd command:

syntax:

#passwd

EG:

#passwd u1

The screen will ask user to I/P the password, which user cannot see while inserting.

If you want to make a user password less i.e. you don't want to give him a password, then use the -d option with #passwd command in following manner:

#passwd -d

cd command:

In linux if you want to navigate from one directory (folder) to other directory (folder), use #cd command. cd stands for change directory.

syntax:

#cd /

EG:

#cd /folder1/folder2/folder3

This just implies that you are asking kernel (or say operating system) to take you to folder3 which is present in folder2, which is present in folder1 which in turn is present in root drive represented by /

pwd command:

If you want to check the directory in which you are present then just use the command #pwd.

syntax:

#pwd

EG:

#pwd

/home/harshad/sam

This implies that you are present in directory sam which is present in directory harshad, which is in present in home which in turn is present in root drive. represented by /

pwd stands for print working directory or present working directory.

#cat command

In linux command #cat is used to create a file and write over it.

syntax:

MODULE 1 contd….

cat >> /

When cat command is fired, the cursor will blink asking the user to I/P values. After inserting values, press enter and then press ctrl + d to save

EG:

# cat >> /unix/linus/linux

Linux was created by Linus

This example illustrates that you have written the text “ Linux was created by Linus” on the file linux present in linus folder which is present in folder unix. Then we pressed enter and ctrl + d to save the content written to the file.

The difference between cat and touch command is that touch command just changes the time stamp rather it just creates the file but you cannot write over it. You will have to use cat command even if you have created the file using touch command.

syntax:

touch /file-name>

EG:

touch /world/asia/india

Here you have just created the file india in the folder asia which is present in folder world which in turn is present in root drive indicated by /

shut down command:

To shut down the machine from command prompt use the command #init 0

syntax an EG:

# init 0

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Notes 2

If you already have a file say mac present in folder harshad which is present in folder home which in turn is present in root drive.

/home/harshad/mac

You have written some data on it. Now you use the following command . It will wait till you insert some text. Say you insert in following manner:

#cat > /home/harshad/mac

mac is a good operating system.

This is text will overwrite the text already present.

If you want to read the data or content written on the file, use the command # cat

syntax:

#cat /

EG: #cat /home/harshad/mac

This will display the text written on the file mac. Note that this command doesn't uses any greater than sign.

ls command:

If you want to see the contents of a directory, use the command # ls

If just #ls command is fired then, it shows the contents of the directory in which the user is present. He can check his working directory by firing #pwd. If you want to see the contents of some other directory, then specify the path along with #ls command.

Syntax:

#ls /

EG:

#ls /home/prashant

It will display the contents (both files and directories) present in folder prashant.

You cannot use #ls command to list the content of file.

In linux file names starting from . are hidden files. If you want to see the hidden files as well, use the commnd:

#ls -a

mkdir command

mkdir command is used to create a directory (folder).

Syntax:

# mkdir -p /

EG:

#mkdir -p /one/two/three

This implies that you are creating a folder named three in folder two which will be present in folder one which in turn will be present in root drive /

The directories prior to your present working directory is called base directory. You need to use -p option in mkdir command if base directory is not present.

Suppose you want to create a folder sarang in /home/harshad/chandak/. If /home/harshad/chandak which is the base directory is already present, there is no need to use -p option. Thus sarang directory can be created in following manner.

#mkdir /home/harshad/chandak/sarang

rm command:

This command is used to remove a folder or a file. rm stands for remove.

syntax for a file:

#rm /

EG:

#rm /home/akash/ec

Here ec is the file to be removed.

syntax for a directory:

#rm -r /

EG:

#rm -r /home/akash/hod

Here hod is the folder to be removed.

The only difference in the syntax of rm for a file and a folder is the use of -r

Under normal conditions you cannot remove a directory which is not empty.

Suppose you want to remove a directory which contains further more directories and files, then by default linux descends into directory structure until it finds a empty directory and removes it. This process is continued until the directory which you wanted to remove is made empty so that it gets ready to be removed. At each and every stage it will ask you question and you can accordingly abort the removing process.

Take for instance there is a folder f1 which contains a folder f2 which further contains two folders f3 and f4. Suppose you want to remove the folder f1. Now since folder f1 is not empty linux will first try to make the f1 empty by descending into it and removing its contents one by one as shown below.

[root@localhost /]# rm -r f1

rm: descend into directory `f1/'? y

rm: descend into directory `f1//f2'? y

rm: remove directory `f1//f2/f4'? y

rm: remove directory `f1//f2/f3'? y

rm: remove directory `f1//f2'? y

rm: remove directory `f1/'? y

[root@localhost /]#

This tedious process can be avoided just by using -f option. Here f stands for forcibly.

#rm -rf f1

This will clean up f1 without asking any question.

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Redhat's RHCE the hottest cert for 2006!

2006-03-07T13:39:00.000+05:30

The RHCE qualification has made Certcities.com's list every year since 2002, but this is the first year that it managed to trounce Microsoft and Cisco certifications for the top spot.

"Redhat is well known for the quality of its RHCE lab exam which tests candidates' hands-on skills with Red Hat Enterprise," notes the report.

Buli Tikolo, training manager at South African Redhat partner Obsidian Systems, explains why this hands-on approach is so important. "Many other certifications make use of multiple choice exams, where no indication is given of a student's true affinity to the technology they are studying. However, the RHCE makes use of practical exams where a student's grasp of what they have learnt can be better gauged."

"Quite simply, if someone has an RHCE, you know that they know what they're talking about," she says.

Tikolo explains that Linux adoption rates have also added to the popularity of the course. "There is a massive migration towards Linux taking place in the local marketplace. And with this migration comes the need for more Linux professionals.

Amidst the many certifications available for Linux, Tikolo believes Redhat Certified Engineer is ahead of the pack. "Just as Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the preferred enterprise Linux operating system at the moment," explains Tikolo. "The RHCE certification should be the most sought after qualification for Linux professionals."

The only other Linux certification to make the list nipped in at position 10. The LPI's Level 2 certification was noted for being the only serious option for mid-level Linux administrators wanting a vendor-neutral title.

CertCities.com’s 10 Hottest Certifications for 2006

#9: Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP)
Vendor: (ISC)2
Reader Interest Score (out of 20): 13
Buzz Score (out of 10): 4
Total: 17

(ISC)’s flagship title, the CISSP, was a staple on this list until two years ago, when so many of you earned it simply took the title out of the running for this list of up-and-comers. Those who sent us hate mail back then can take some solace that the program’s lower-level SSCP title has found its way onto this list, debuting at No. 9.

While SSCP is, of course, often widely seen as a stepping stone to the CISSP, it’s also beginning to earn a reputation in its own right. Like its big brother, the SSCP is a vendor-neutral security title. It comes with its own experience requirement (one year, instead of the CISSP’s five) and even focuses on the same body of knowledge (seven areas, instead of the CISSP’s 10).

Contributing Editor Greg Neilson was pleased to see this title make the cut this year because it fills a niche for the industry. “There are so many wanting to move into security and are looking for a program that will both structure their learning and provide a validation of their security skills,” he commented.

Contributing Editor Andy Barkl agreed, saying that the title “deserves to climb the ranks,” because its ability to stand on its own as well as lead candidates to the CISSP pinnacle.

#8: MCSE: Security
Vendor: Microsoft
Reader Interest Score (out of 20): 12
Buzz Score (out of 10): 6
Total: 18

This title debuted on last year’s 2005 Hot Cert list No. 2, and while many of you obtained the title last year, enough of you still plan to get it in 2006 that it was able to hang on for another year, coming in at No. 8.

In fact, with its combination of Windows networking and security, the title would probably be poised to become an industry staple -- if not for Microsoft’s recent announcement that it will completely revamp its certification program over the next few years. And while the company has said it won’t retire or discontinue any of its current certifications, candidates will find it hard to justify the cost of an eight-exam title when its next-generation replacement (most likely featuring less exams) is just around the corner.

Despite the uncertainty, thanks to your reader interest score and continued buzz, MCSE: Security should continue strong through at least 2006. Three of our four contributors agree, placing it somewhere on their personal top 10 lists, with its highest placement coming on Barkl’s at No. 4.

#7 Cisco Certified Network Professional
Vendor: Cisco
Reader Interest Score (out of 20): 12
Buzz Score (out of 10): 7
Total: 19

If you’re looking for perpetual hotness, it’s hard to beat the CCNP. After a few years on this list, most title rise to the level of the truly established credentials, such as Microsoft’s MCSE and CompTIA’s A+. But no matter how many of you achieve this title, every year more of you line up, making this one of only two titles that we’ve called a Hot Cert for all five years we’ve done this list.

And the CCNP shows no sign of slowing down. “Cisco certifications are extremely popular,” commented Barkl, who said that the mid-level title is right for those who don’t want to rise to the CCIE level.

Dulaney agrees that the future is getting brighter for the CCNP, calling it a “doorway to many positions…It has now become what the CCNA once was.”

#6: Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert
Vendor: Cisco
Reader Interest Score (out of 20): 11
Buzz Score (out of 10): 9
Total: 20

Okay, don’t freak out. We know this was our No. 1 title last year. And we also know that this title probably the most respected certification in the world thanks to its grueling, day-long lab exam that tests candidates’ hands-on skills with Cisco hardware at the highest levels.

And no, the title’s reputation isn’t sinking. Quite the opposite: Its buzz is stronger than ever, and all of contributors once again placed the CCIE on their personal top 10 lists, with two putting it at No. 1.

So why did it end up at No. 6? It all comes down to the reader score. This year, slightly less of you said that you plan to achieve the title in the next 12 months -- perhaps the reality of exactly how difficult that goal is has set in for some. Also, more of you reported already being CCIEs than even before. While the increase is only a handful, the two factors combined are enough to keep the title “hot,” just not hot enough to take first place again.

Even with this explanation, we know some of you will still be very disappointed with this ranking. At least it leaves some suspense for the 2006: What will be No. 1? Just five more to go, so let’s move on to our next entry -- two actually, as there’s a tie at position No. 4 (read note at start of article if you’re wondering why there’s no No. 5).

#4 (TIE): Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP), Project Management Professional (PMP)
Vendors: Cisco, Project Management Institute
Reader Interest Score (out of 20): 13, 14
Buzz Score (out of 10): 8, 7
Total: 21

Since we’re already on a Cisco roll, let’s continue with the CCSP -- the company’s mid-level security title. It’s no surprise to find this title so high our list for 2006, as it combines two of the hottest certification areas today: Cisco and security.

CertCities.com contributor and CCIE Scott Morris placed the CCSP at No. 4 on his personal top 10 list, citing the popularity of security plus the title’s role as a stepping stone to the security track of the CCIE.

Dulaney thinks this is the title for 2006, placing it at No. 1 on his personal list. As he puts it, “You can’t go wrong with security and Cisco.”

PMI’s PMP title also made a strong showing this year, rising from its debut stop at No. 10 last year, thanks in part to even stronger buzz for this industry-neutral title within the IT community. Our contributors like it as well. The title placed at No. 4 on Neilson’s personal top 10 list for 2006, and Barkl placed it at No. 5. “There’s always a need for those who understand project management,” he said.

Dulaney agrees, saying there’s a lot to like about this title, which he placed at No. 8 on his personal list. “The recent updates to this certification have kept it current,” he commented. “[It’s] useful for administrators, engineers -- just about anyone.”

#3: Microsoft Certified Architect
Vendor: Microsoft
Reader Interest Score (out of 20): 15
Buzz Score (out of 10): 7
Total: 22

It wasn’t a surprise when Microsoft announced its architect certification earlier this year; rumors that the title was coming had been swirling for a while. What did surprise many was the format: Instead of a hands-on lab exam, Redmond went with a peer-review format modeled after professional board certifications, along with an estimated $10,000 price tag.

As you can probably tell from the cost, one of Microsoft’s stated goals with the MCA is to keep it relatively exclusive. Even so, enough of you say that you’re up to this challenge (and presumably, have an employer willing to pick up the cost) that the credential scored well enough to debut at No. 3 on our list while still in beta format. (Look for public registration to open in January.)

Neilson is particularly bullish on the title, putting it at No. 1 on his top 10 list. “Those with a long-term Microsoft architectural background…will seriously be considering the new MCA program,” he commented.

#2: Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist: SQL & .NET
Vendor: Microsoft
Reader Interest Score (out of 20): 18
Buzz Score (out of 10): 5
Total: 23

While the MCA represents a new top-level addition to the Microsoft program, the MCTS will be the first step, requiring between one and three exams to earn a variety of specialties.

So far, only the SQL and .NET tracks have been officially announced (they’re currently in beta), so those are the only specialties we asked you about. Even with this limitation, the title scored extremely well on our survey, earning it a No. 2 debut. Interest in this title (along with the higher level Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional, which just missed the cut this year) should only continue to rise as the expected Windows server tracks are released during the next few years.

But back to the SQL and .NET focus of the MCTS right now. As Greg Neilson points out, the acronym doesn’t yet roll off the tongue, but the timing is right: “With the launch of the new SQL Server 2005, there will be a great deal of people wanting to upgrade their database skills.”

Neilson put the title at No. 3 on his personal top 10 hot list for 2006, while Barkl placed it at No. 9. “The pool of Microsoft SQL and .NET developers is gaining interest,” he remarked. “Microsoft wants to make sure their programs remain ‘fresh.’”

About the only problem this certification currently faces is a lack of name recognition in the industry -- one that, for a company like Microsoft, won’t be a problem for much longer.

And our prediction for the No. 1 hottest certification for 2006 is…

#1: Red Hat Certified Engineer
Vendor: Red Hat
Reader Interest Score (out of 20): 17
Buzz Score (out of 10): 8
Total: 25

If you’re looking for yet another sign that Linux is becoming a real player, then you’ve got it. While Linux certifications have regularly made our Hot Cert list over the past few years -- in fact, the RCHE has appeared on this list since we started it for 2002 -- this is the first time one has ever taken the top spot. Quite a feat, especially when you consider that the vast majority of CertCities.com’s readers are Windows professionals.

So how did this Linux title break through to No. 1? Having a stellar reputation never hurts, and Red Hat is well known for the quality of its RHCE lab exam, which tests candidates’ hands-on skills with Red Hat Enterprise. “It’s a truly challenging certification,” commented Dulaney. “It carries a lot more respect than others in the market.”

But the title wouldn’t go anywhere unless its skills were seen as marketable. And according to Morris, high-level Linux skills may be more marketable than some might think. “These days…it seems that demand for a great Linux person outstrips the demand for general Microsoft administration skills,” commented Morris. “Not that Microsoft is going anyplace, but serious Linux networking is more [rare]. While [this is] not my personal area of interest, I highly recommend that others look at it with keen interest.”