Ruckman.net

When I saw Yakuake for Linux I began the long journey to find a similar product for Windows. I normally like to use CentOS Linux for all my needs but for gaming and at work I am forced to use Windows. I may be the system administrator but a lot of our products are written in .NET which is Windows Dependant making a switch to Linux at work currently impossible.

Screenshot note: This may look like a Linux XFCE Desktop but it is actually a Windows XP Desktop. See my other article: Give XP (Linux/Mac) looks and shame Vista

This will require some minor tweaks using a text editor depending on your screen size and positioning you want for you console. I will walk you through most of the steps and even give you a download of my setup to make it as simple as possible.

Step 1:

Acquire my download of the software and unzip it to your “C:\” drive. This should give you a default copy of Cygwin, a tweaked copy of Console2 for windows, and my generated binary for binding the “WIN-~” key combo to the console.

Download: Quake style console default install

Step 2:

Test the default install. Run the “Quake.exe” binary in the “C:\Console2″ folder. You will now see a green “H” in your system tray. This is the key binder. It listens for the key combination “WIN-~” and then executes the Console2 program which is skinned using a custom XML file and then executes Cygwin within the console giving you the Linux prompt and feel.

At this point you will discover that to console may be too big if your resolution is less than (1024×768) or may be too small if your resolution is larger than (1024×768). You may also not be pleased with the placement or any one of the other features. These can all be altered.

Step 3:

Customize! The file you will want to edit with any text editor will be located at “C:\Console2\console.xml”. This will allow you to edit all of the features of the console (Look and feel). Basically allowing you to create your own skin and positioning for the console.

The current console.xml file contains:

<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<settings>
<console change_refresh=”10″ refresh=”100″ rows=”25″ columns=”122″ buffer_rows=”500″ buffer_columns=”0″ shell=”" init_dir=”" save_size=”0″>
<colors>
<color id=”0″ r=”0″ g=”0″ b=”0″/>
<color id=”1″ r=”0″ g=”0″ b=”128″/>
<color id=”2″ r=”0″ g=”150″ b=”0″/>
<color id=”3″ r=”0″ g=”150″ b=”150″/>
<color id=”4″ r=”170″ g=”25″ b=”25″/>
<color id=”5″ r=”128″ g=”0″ b=”128″/>
<color id=”6″ r=”128″ g=”128″ b=”0″/>
<color id=”7″ r=”192″ g=”192″ b=”192″/>
<color id=”8″ r=”128″ g=”128″ b=”128″/>
<color id=”9″ r=”0″ g=”100″ b=”255″/>
<color id=”10″ r=”0″ g=”255″ b=”0″/>
<color id=”11″ r=”0″ g=”255″ b=”255″/>
<color id=”12″ r=”255″ g=”50″ b=”50″/>
<color id=”13″ r=”255″ g=”0″ b=”255″/>
<color id=”14″ r=”255″ g=”255″ b=”0″/>
<color id=”15″ r=”255″ g=”255″ b=”255″/>
</colors>
</console>
<appearance>
<font name=”Courier New” size=”10″ bold=”0″ italic=”0″ smoothing=”0″>
<color use=”0″ r=”0″ g=”0″ b=”0″/>
</font>
<window title=”" icon=”" use_tab_icon=”0″ use_console_title=”0″ show_cmd=”1″ show_cmd_tabs=”1″ use_tab_title=”1″ trim_tab_titles=”20″/>
<controls show_menu=”0″ show_toolbar=”0″ show_statusbar=”0″ show_tabs=”1″ hide_single_tab=”1″/>
<styles caption=”1″ resizable=”0″ taskbar_button=”1″ border=”0″ inside_border=”2″ tray_icon=”0″/>
<position x=”20″ y=”0″ dock=”-1″ snap=”0″ z_order=”0″ save_position=”0″/>
<transparency type=”1″ active_alpha=”200″ inactive_alpha=”100″ r=”0″ g=”0″ b=”0″/>
</appearance>
<behavior>
<copy_paste copy_on_select=”0″ clear_on_copy=”1″ no_wrap=”1″ trim_spaces=”1″ copy_newline_char=”0″/>
<scroll page_scroll_rows=”0″/>
</behavior>
<hotkeys use_scroll_lock=”1″>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”83″ command=”settings”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”0″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”112″ command=”help”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”0″ shift=”0″ alt=”1″ extended=”0″ code=”115″ command=”exit”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”112″ command=”newtab1″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”113″ command=”newtab2″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”114″ command=”newtab3″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”115″ command=”newtab4″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”116″ command=”newtab5″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”117″ command=”newtab6″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”118″ command=”newtab7″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”119″ command=”newtab8″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”120″ command=”newtab9″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”121″ command=”newtab10″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”49″ command=”switchtab1″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”50″ command=”switchtab2″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”51″ command=”switchtab3″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”52″ command=”switchtab4″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”53″ command=”switchtab5″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”54″ command=”switchtab6″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”55″ command=”switchtab7″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”56″ command=”switchtab8″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”57″ command=”switchtab9″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”48″ command=”switchtab10″/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”9″ command=”nexttab”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”1″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”9″ command=”prevtab”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”87″ command=”closetab”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”82″ command=”renametab”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”1″ code=”45″ command=”copy”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”1″ code=”46″ command=”clear_selection”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”0″ shift=”1″ alt=”0″ extended=”1″ code=”45″ command=”paste”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”0″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”0″ command=”scrollrowup”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”0″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”0″ command=”scrollrowdown”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”0″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”0″ command=”scrollpageup”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”0″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”0″ command=”scrollpagedown”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”0″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”0″ command=”scrollcolleft”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”0″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”0″ command=”scrollcolright”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”0″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”0″ command=”scrollpageleft”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”0″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”0″ command=”scrollpageright”/>
<hotkey ctrl=”1″ shift=”1″ alt=”0″ extended=”0″ code=”112″ command=”dumpbuffer”/>
</hotkeys>
<mouse>
<actions>
<action ctrl=”0″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ button=”1″ name=”copy”/>
<action ctrl=”0″ shift=”1″ alt=”0″ button=”1″ name=”select”/>
<action ctrl=”0″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ button=”3″ name=”paste”/>
<action ctrl=”1″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ button=”1″ name=”drag”/>
<action ctrl=”0″ shift=”0″ alt=”0″ button=”2″ name=”menu”/>
</actions>
</mouse>
<tabs>
<tab title=”">
<console shell=”" init_dir=”"/>
<cursor style=”0″ r=”255″ g=”255″ b=”255″/>
<background type=”0″ r=”0″ g=”0″ b=”0″>
<image file=”" relative=”0″ extend=”0″ position=”0″>
<tint opacity=”0″ r=”0″ g=”0″ b=”0″/>
</image>
</background>
</tab>
</tabs>
</settings>

For editing the size of the console you will want to edit the rows=”25″ columns=”122″ to whatever fits your screen. You may need to experiment until it is right.

If you would like to create your own keybinding you will have to download Autohotkey from “http://www.autohotkey.com/“. You will have to edit the “C:\Console2\quake.ahk” file and recreate the “quake.exe” binary.

Here is a copy of my current “quake.ahk” file:

; Launch console if necessary; hide/show on Win+`
#`::
DetectHiddenWindows, on
IfWinExist ahk_class ATL:00456188
{
IfWinActive ahk_class ATL:00456188
{
WinHide ahk_class ATL:00456188
; need to move the focus somewhere else.
WinActivate ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd
}
else
{
WinShow ahk_class ATL:00456188
WinActivate ahk_class ATL:00456188
}
}
else
Run, C:\Console2\Console.exe -d C:\cygwin\ -r “cmd /C Cygwin.bat”
; the above assumes a shortcut in the c:\windows folder to console.exe.
; also assumes console is using the default console.xml file, or
; that the desired config file is set in the shortcut.

DetectHiddenWindows, off
return

; hide console on “esc”.
#IfWinActive ahk_class ATL:00456188
esc::
{
WinHide ahk_class ATL:00456188
WinActivate ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd
}
return

In the above script you will notice,

“C:\Console2\Console.exe -d C:\cygwin\ -r “cmd /C Cygwin.bat”

That is the command that runs when the “WIN-~” key is pressed. It runs console and then console automatically runs Cygwin. Pretty nice and dirty hack.

Console was obtained from “http://sourceforge.net/projects/console/“. This basically gives you the XML customizable extended windows console that we edited above.

Cygwin was obtained from “http://www.cygwin.com/“. This is what gives you the Linux bash prompt inside the Console program. It can be run independently, but it wouldn’t look as cool.

Final Step:

Create a startup shortcut for “C:\Console2\quake.exe” in “C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\” folder so that it runs the keybinding software automatically when the system starts.

I would recommend reading up on all three of these wonderful products listed above. Enjoy!

I like CentOS Linux so much I decided to create my own custom version called RuckOS. It is still a work in progress but it is a major improvement over a standard CentOS version. It may still have some minor bugs but I plan to improve and refine it more in the future when I have time.

It has as many codecs as I could find installed. Which means it has native ability to play almost any media. I also included a bunch of useful programs that any user would normally want in a portable OS. I have installed Vuze, Firefox, Pidgin, Thunderbird, Wireshark, VLC, Xine, Amarok and Teamspeak to list just a fraction of the programs. This is the only public distro which includes Teamspeak.

If you are a Linux beginner and you wish to give another OS a try this is the Distro for you. Just put it in your CD tray and reboot. No hard drive required! It won’t bother your current setup at all.

Need a instant secure environment? Are you using a public computer and are deathly afraid of viruses and spyware stealing your information? Throw a copy of RuckOS in there and find a user friendly, and threat free environment.

Download: RuckOS LiveCD V1

Read the rest of this entry »

Add the following lines to your /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://xnv4.xandros.com/xs2.0/upkg-srv2 etch main contrib non-free
deb http://dccamirror.xandros.com/dccri/ dccri-3.0 main
deb http://www.geekconnection.org xandros4 main

To protect your default install, you must activate pinning so that your main distribution packages don’t get overwritten. Which could possibly cause stability issues.

Add following lines to /etc/apt/preferences (if it does not exist, create it).

Package: *
Pin: origin update.eeepc.asus.com
Pin-Priority: 950

Package: *
Pin: origin xnv4.xandros.com
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: *
Pin: origin dccamirror.xandros.com
Pin-Priority: 850

Package: *
Pin: origin www.geekconnection.org
Pin-Priority: 800

You can then use apt-get to install additional software.

ADDITIONAL REPOSITORIES:

Debian multimedia repository:
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ sarge main

Another debian multimedia repository:
deb http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/os/Linux/distributions/debian-multimedia sarge main

Matty’s & Andrew’s Archives (xorid):
deb http://www.xandros.or.id/archive/ xxxx matty andrew

Debian Stable (sarge) repository:
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ sarge main contrib non-free

Debian Stable (sarge) repository (For downloading source):
deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ sarge main contrib non-free

Video Lan (VLC) testing repository:
deb http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian/ sid main

Video Lan (VLC) testing source repository (For downloading source):
deb-src http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian/ sid main

Tor Debian Repository:
deb http://mirror.noreply.org/pub/tor/ sarge main

Tor Debian Repository (For downloading source):
deb-src http://mirror.noreply.org/pub/tor/ sarge main

More Debian Multimedia mirrors can be located here:

http://www.debian-multimedia.org/mirrors.html

I recently ran into a interesting issue where a Windows Vista machine would wait for 2 minutes to login after the password was typed in. But it would only occur when the laptop was connected to a network with internet access that was not its normal domain network.

After hooking the laptop to a hub with another PC, i started Wireshark to log all packets. After sifting through the data I found that it was attempting to connect to the primary domain controller by domain name, and consecutively trying to connect to all 5 secondary domain controllers by domain name.

What I found was that the domain names were not pointing to the domain servers across the internet, which would be dumb, but were trying to resolve the domain using yahoo name servers which didn’t know the internal sub domains. It was connecting to Yahoo’s name servers because that is who they have hosting their external DNS for them. Yahoo’s name servers redirected the connections to their main website instead because it was a catch-all address.

The problem is in three different places here.

1. Split DNS is being used - They are using a internal DNS server to resolve their subdomains internally, but these subdomains are not known externally so when they are remote they do not resolve properly.
2. A catch-all address is being used on yahoo’s name servers - This is causing any unknown subdomains to be redirected to the main domain name. Which in this case, is the main website which doesn’t house the domain server.
3. The requests are hitting yahoo’s firewall and it is dropping the packets instead of sending a ICMP error message - This is causing the TCP connections to hang for the default amount of time causing windows to wait before logging in.

This problem is obviously caused by DNS issues. In order to remedy the problem, I had to fix the broken split DNS issues.

To do this you have two options:

1. Remove the wildcard from DNS.
2. Redirect the problem subdomains to 127.0.0.1

Removing the wildcard from DNS is the preferred solution. This will cause the DNS server to report “no such name” which will terminate the connection before it is established.

If you cannot remove the wildcard from DNS then you will want to manually make DNS records that point to 127.0.0.1

Such as:

• subdomain1.example.com > 127.0.0.1
• subdomain2.example.com > 127.0.0.1

This will cause the connection to redirect to your localhost when offsite using global DNS. Your localhost will then report that connection unusable which will terminate the connection right away.

The boot up times decreased by 75%!

From 2 minutes to 30 seconds. That is an improvement! The lesson here is to make sure your DNS is correct.

Although, it would be nice if Microsoft would release a patch that would do this in the background after it loads your desktop instead of waiting for the connections to terminate!

I would also like to thank the genius who set up the DNS incorrectly and created all this wonderful work for me. Much appreciated!

Have you ever been using your command line and found that you would like to see the man page in front of you and also be able to craft your command without the wasted resources of a X-Server on your Linux server?

This may seem pretty elementary to some of you 1337 haxtorizors, but I think this tip is important to post in order to help Linux beginners accelerate their learning experience and ease of use.

The secret is to use the “screen” command. And I will tell you all the commands you need in order to make it work wonders for you. But first a little copy and paste from the screen website: (LINK)

“Screen is a full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical terminal between several processes, typically interactive shells. Each virtual terminal provides the functions of the DEC VT100 terminal and, in addition, several control functions from the ANSI X3.64 (ISO 6429) and ISO 2022 standards (e.g., insert/delete line and support for multiple character sets). There is a scroll back history buffer for each virtual terminal and a copy-and-paste mechanism that allows the user to move text regions between windows. When screen is called, it creates a single window with a shell in it (or the specified command) and then gets out of your way so that you can use the program as you normally would. Then, at any time, you can create new (full-screen) windows with other programs in them (including more shells), kill the current window, view a list of the active windows, turn output logging on and off, copy text between windows, view the scroll back history, switch between windows, etc. All windows run their programs completely independent of each other. Programs continue to run when their window is currently not visible and even when the whole screen session is detached from the users terminal.”

From the description above you will notice that there are some other advantages to using screen besides the ability to split screen your console. For instance, if you are using putty on a somewhat unstable internet connection and your connection is lost you will lose your console session and any program instance that is running. But if you are using screen your terminal instance will continue to run even if you lose your connection and all you have to do is reconnect and reattach to your screen session.

If you do not have screen, you can obtain it at the link listed above or from your Linux distros update command such as yum or apt-get.

I will now give you the commands you require to use screen efficiently. Any command when you are inside screen begins with “CNTL-A”.

To start you will have to call the first instance of screen. You can combine a lot of these commands into one command line argument but I prefer to show you one command at a time. Run the following command:

screen

You will now see the shell prompt again. To split screen hit the following key combinations:

CNTL-A

SHIFT-S

You will now need a second screen instance to run in the bottom window. Run the screen command again:

screen

Run a command such as “man”, “htop”, or top. You will notice that it fills the top half of the screen.

You will now have to toggle to the bottom screen by hitting the following key combinations:

CNTL-A

TAB

You will now be in the bottom window, although you will not see your command prompt yet. You will have to toggle through the instances of screen in the bottom window to get to it. Use the following key combinations to do this:

CNTL-A

N

or:

CNTL-A

P

The “N” stands for next and the “P” stands for previous. It just allows you to step forward and backward through as many instances of screen that you have running. If you see the same output in both windows just do the same key combo again to get to the next version of screen.

Once you get the shell prompt in the bottom screen you can run your second command and view the output from both running instances. You can now view a man page in the top window and craft your command below or view htop and iftop in the same window at the same time. You can also split the screen more times but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have some decent resolution set for your text console which can be controlled in your boot options in grub or lilo but that is another lesson.

You may find a few more commands useful during your stay with screen. You may with to leave the current session running in the background and jump back to you regular console. You can do that by detaching which is done with the following key combo:

CNTL-A

D

Now that you are detached, which is what also happens during loss of connectivity, you may want to reattach to one of your screen instances. You will first need to list the instances of screen by typing the following command:

screen -list

You will the get a list similar to:

There is a screen on:
3880.pts-0.localhost (Detached)

To reattach to the instance listed above, type:

screen -r 3880.pts-0.localhost

The part after “-r” will change depending on your linux box.

You will notice that you are now back into your detached session of screen.

Now that you know the basics of screen, I am sure you will become accelerated at learning other Linux commands. Take care, and enjoy the ease of use!

I was playing with my Clarkconnect box this morning and noticed that some of my favorite Linux command line tools were not installed.

What is Clarkconnect? According to their website: (LINK)
“ClarkConnect is a powerful and affordable Internet server and gateway solution. The software solution will give your organization enterprise-level server features at an affordable price.”

If you have ever installed anything on Linux you know that you can easily fall into the dependency trap at any time when installing new software.

To avoid the need to install 30 different dependencies so that you can install one program on Clarkconnect you problebly want to use a program like apt-get or yum. I prefer yum, but Clarkconnect comes with apt-get which is a little strange considering that it is based off Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

I am using Clarkconnect 4.1 Community Edition. For the software repository I choose DAG since they have one of the largest collections of software for RHEL. In this case we want to match the version that Clarkconnect was coded from as closely as possible to make sure our software will work properly. We are going to use the RHEL 4 repo. (LINK)

If you follow the install directions on the DAG website you will notice that it will not work. And after fiddling with error messages I found that I had to craft my own source list file which I will give to you so you don’t have to deal with the same tortures I did.

NOTE: Watch for line wrap!

Log in as root using putty or any other ssh client.

Change directory to: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/

cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d/

Run:

rpm -Uhv http://apt.sw.be/packages/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.3.6-1.el4.rf.i386.rpm

Create or edit the file rpmforge.list in that directory.

vi rpmforge.list

In that file place the following information (Download this file):

# Name: RPMforge RPM Repository for Red Hat Enterprise 4 - dag
# URL: http://rpmforge.net/
rpm http://apt.sw.be redhat/el4/en/i386 dag

If you have never used vi before you may need to know a few basic commands.

a = append mode (Used to edit text)

ESC = command mode (Used to give vi commands)

:w (Save file command)

:q (Exit vi command)

Make sure you write your changes before exiting vi or you will lose your changes.

Run the following command to update your apt-get info:

apt-get update

You are now ready to install your software. In this case we are going to install yum because I like it, but if your happy with apt-get just install whatever other packages you like. The sky is the limit!

apt-get install yum

Since Clarkconnect uses apt-get for its updating process I prefer to use yum for installing third party packages so there is no chance for conflict due to the repos. With yum installed, it is now safe to remove the source list created for apt-get unless you plan to keep using it.

BONUS:

Some packages such as Bind cannot be found in the DAG repo because they are usually included with the base system. But not with Clarkconnect since it uses DNSMasq. If you rather have your own DNS server instead of relying on your ISP you can add the CentOS 4 repositories to your YUM configuration.

Change to the “/etc/yum.repos.d/” directory.

cd /etc/yum.repos.d/

Then create the file “CentOS-Base.repo” using vi or joe.

Add the following information to that file (This file has been modified):

NOTE: Watch for word wrap! (Download this file)

# CentOS-Base.repo
#
# This file uses a new mirrorlist system developed by Lance Davis for CentOS.
# The mirror system uses the connecting IP address of the client and the
# update status of each mirror to pick mirrors that are updated to and
# geographically close to the client. You should use this for CentOS updates
# unless you are manually picking other mirrors.
#
# If the mirrorlist= does not work for you, as a fall back you can try the
# remarked out baseurl= line instead.
#
#

[base]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Base
#mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=os
baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/os/i386/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos4

#released updates
[update]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Updates
#mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=updates
baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/updates/i386/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos4

#packages used/produced in the build but not released
[addons]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Addons
#mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=addons
baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/addons/i386/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos4

#additional packages that may be useful
[extras]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Extras
#mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=extras
baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/extras/i386/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos4

#additional packages that extend functionality of existing packages
[centosplus]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Plus
#mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=centosplus
baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/centosplus/i386/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos4

#contrib - packages by Centos Users
[contrib]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Contrib
#mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=contrib
baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/contrib/i386/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos4

Remember, Bind and dnsmasq will fight for port 53 UDP. I went into the file “/etc/dnsmasq.conf” and added the statement:

port=40

This will assign dnsmasq to port 40 freeing up port 53 for bind. 40 is a unassigned port so it is ok to use it. The reason you reassign the port instead of disabling dnsmasq is because it controls the DHCP functionality. And if you wish to continue to use the web interface for DHCP configuration then you will need to keep this package installed and operating. DNS will operate wonderfully this way.

Enjoy!

Have you tried Windows Vista only to find that your productivity software isn’t fully compatible, your old software doesn’t work, your old hardware doesn’t work usually due to lack of drivers, and that your games actually run slower and more buggy than before? Are all of these problems worth having just for the “Areo effect”? I doubt it.

Have you tried MacOS, Linux, Unix, or BSD only to find that it is hard to administer for less than the tech savvy, most games don’t work, and wireless is virtually useless?If your looking for the ease of use of a Mac, the stability and speed of Linux, the looks of Vista, and the wide manufacturer support of Windows XP then I have the solution for you. Using all Freeware products, I will show you how to achieve the ultimate PC operating system.

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This article will walk you through setting up a securing your linux teamspeak server, and how to set it up to run as a service that can also run at boot time. Just downloading and running the software is a really bad idea as it is not set up for security. If a vulnerability ever developed in the Teamspeak software and you were attacked, a attacker could get permissions equal to what user you have it running as. I will show you how to set up teamspeak with rock solid security. I will also show you how to set it up so that it runs securely from boot.

NOTE: The software could change over time. This is a general walkthrough as of 5-17-2007 for Teamspeak RC2 Linux Server.

For offline viewing: Download this article

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Somehow I am reminded of a quote from the movie hackers which has a lot of George Orwell’s concepts from his book 1984.

“1984. Yeah right, Man, That’s a Typo. Orwell’s here now, he’s livin’ large.”

A recent white paper on Nokia Cellular phones not actually deleting your SMS messages after you delete them set off a few alarms in my head and some concerns for our privacy. You can read the paper HERE.

In short, if you connect to the phone and then pull a few .dat files off of it and then open them in a hex editor or use some Linux/Unix command line search tools you can recover all of your old deleted SMS messages. They are invisible to you and the phone, but they are there. This may even work on other phones. Makes me worry about my PPC6700 which has Windows Mobile 5 on it.

Why are they there? I’ll let you decide on that but I suggest you wait until you read a few more of my reminders below. You may have forgot some things in the past.

One thing you may have forgot is the index.dat files in windows. Unless you are a advanced user, like the advanced Nokia hacker, you cannot easily delete these files. These files are used by explorer as a database which runs as long as windows is active. It stores all of your search queries, web URLs, autocomplete, internet explorer history, cache, cookies, and recently opened files. These files remain even after a restart, and also after you clear any of your histories. They can be use to recover what you opened, what you looked up, and what you typed into forms even if you think it is erased. Why are these files there? Well, some people might say convenience and speed. But why does windows lock these files, and why is it so hard to delete them? Why are they hidden from the system? Everything is passed off as a feature to better help you live, but its true nature may be to invade your privacy.

What about the hidden code placed in Xerox printers not more than a couple years ago? You can find a article on it HERE. They found that color printers were adding a secret hidden code applied by adding yellow pixels around the page. They are so small the human eye can’t detect the anomaly. But computers or a special flashlight and magnifying glass can detect it and use it to track where the printout came from. It is a secret hidden barcode. The code was suppose to be a secret but they had no choice but to fess up after the code was discovered by the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation). It was discovered on printers from more than 10 years ago. That is a decade of use before it was discovered. What are they using now that we will find in another 10 years?

Not long ago, it was also discovered that Microsoft Windows had hidden special access codes built in to it for the NSA (National Security Agency). It was built into a Windows driver called ADVAPI.DLL which enables and controls a variety of security functions. There is a article on that HERE. Here is a small quote from that article:

“ADVAPI.DLL works closely with Microsoft Internet Explorer, but will only run cryptographic functions that the US governments allows Microsoft to export. That information is bad enough news, from a European point of view. Now, it turns out that ADVAPI will run special programmes inserted and controlled by NSA. As yet, no-one knows what these programmes are, or what they do.”

“Within the Microsoft organisation, access to Windows source code is said to be highly compartmentalized, making it easy for modifications to be inserted without the knowledge of even the respective product managers.”

This most likely means that the NSA can get access to your computer extremely easy invading your privacy and it also most likely means that your information although encrypted can be decrypted remotely before reaching its destination. Do you want your encrypted data read by anyone but who you want it read by? Another invasion of privacy? I think so!

I have also noticed a ton of traffic cameras appearing. Almost on every corner in our city there are traffic cameras pointing in all directions. I live in a slightly poor city (Toledo, OH) that should be doing things more important with its money. But the funds for these cameras came from somewhere.

You would think that these cameras are there to monitor traffic conditions, but I guarantee that they are not. I have seen them on intersections that get little to no traffic at all. So, traffic is not a problem at these intersections. Why are they there? They are there for surveillance on you and I. To watch us.

Does any of this ring a bell? Does the rantings of George Orwell come to mind? A book written and publish back in 1949 says it all. The date was just a typo.