All new UBUNTU 9.04 ....

Well , its not so new ... it has been about two months since the release of Ubuntu 9.04 aka Jaunty Jackalope ... being perhaps the easiest version of so called OS of Geeks , its even very easy for noob like me ... so i have been using this from past couple of years ... and i must say that i learned lot from it ...

Origianlly i involved in learning Ubuntu was because I found that , linux / unix is home of devil ... the dark forces are very strong in this side of computing ... ( :D starwars ?? ) ... and being easy to use , ubuntu still holds power of mighty linux ...

actually i wanted to install this at time when i had downloaded (which happens to be about 2 months before) , but due to volatile experiments with my HDD ... i wasn't able to use it for long time at that time ...

Here are couple of things that i liked in new version ...

New Themes ... now Ubuntu looks even more sexy then its previous versions without any makeup :D ..

Newer Kernel ... Under the surface, Jaunty sports the 2.6.28 Linux kernel, the latest stable release (2.6.29.1 is the latest stable kernel as of 7 April). While most of the new features in the kernel are of little consequence to most desktop users, changes most likely to affect the desktop include a more feature-rich wireless stack with support for a broader range of devices, which will be a welcome improvement among users who previously had to install wireless drivers manually.

New Gnome ... Ubuntu 9.04 comes with Gnome 2.26 desktop environment , which, unsurprisingly, is responsible for the lion’s share of new features useful to desktop users.

One thing that i liked the most is , now i don't need to install / patch my atheros wifi drivers with madwifi ... because they are available as built-in !!! just look at the screenshot ...




and another useful tool is , no more use of command line to remove unused packages from system !!!

Well , I'm not an expert to review anything ... these are just couple of features i like of reincarnation of my beloved OS ...

Njoy ...

Antivirus that lives in the Cloud …

 

Now a days , everything seem to be adopting itself for cloud computing … the latest edition is an antivirus by PANDA ANTIVIRUS … they call its Cloud Antivirus … which according to panda , lives in the cloud and , consumes least memory … yet provides the best protection against everything threat that internet posses to average joe !!! … But still its in BETA … and so only time can say who much successful it will be in reality … but good thing is , panda thinks to keep it free even after releasing its final version … at present its available only for XP and Vista ( too bad for me , as user of 7 and Jaunty Jackalope ) … but they are planning to release version for windows 7 too

till then , read this article from my favorite site about cloud antivirus …

With threats like Conficker fresh in the public's mind, security remains a top concern for Windows users. Panda Security, publishers of Panda Internet Security and Panda Antivirus, is set to take antivirus where it hasn't been yet: into the clouds. Panda Cloud Antivirus beta bets that nearly three years of development can pay off into a better protection system for users. To that end, Panda's willing to make the client free for personal use--even after it leaves beta testing.

 

the program uses Panda's proprietary cloud computing technology, which they call Collective Intelligence, to detect viruses, malware, rootkits, and heuristics. It takes advantage of "millions of users," according to Panda, to identify new malware almost in real time. Panda says that Collective Intelligence can classify new malware in under six minutes, and that it handles more than 50,000 new samples per day. The Cloud Antivirus works by classifying threats into executables that must be scanned immediately, and non-executables that are checked at a lower priority--usually when the computer is idle.

In exchange for using consumer data to build the Collective Intelligence database, Panda decided to offer the Panda Cloud Antivirus for free, said Pedro Bustamante, senior research adviser at Panda Security.

The new program reportedly takes up around 50 MB on the hard drive and eats around 17 MB of RAM when in use. That compares well against the industry average that Panda provided of 60 MB, and Bustamante said that they're aiming for 12 MB of RAM when in use.

Cloud computing may make sense from a system resources point of view, but what happens to system security when the computer isn't connected to the Internet? "The model we've implemented is to break down the traditional antivirus to client and server, so when the user is not connected they keep a local cache copy of Collective Intelligence, including detections for what Collective Intelligence sees is spreading through the community," he said.

Panda Cloud Antivirus is for Windows XP and Windows Vista, with planned support for Windows 7 when it's released. Bustamante added that it will stay in beta as it's being accepted by users, although they hope it will leave beta by the end of this summer.

from CNET …

Njoy …

MEWU - Scene 8 ... Change your Identity !!!

When we do "experiments" sometimes are need to hide ... or say more softly , change our MAC address. And for this , Ubuntu has very hand tool, called MAC Changer.

But first some words about MAC address... Media Access Control a.k.a. MAC is a unique identifier used to identify network adapters weather it is a Ethernet or WiFi or any Bluetooth , all networking hardware has unique ID , and with who's help those devices --- and so --- "USER" of that device can be identified. This method is used in very basic security schemes that includes mobile networks too !!!

Well, i don't wanna ask why would you ever think to change your MAC address but i know there are always "reasons" to change it for sometime. There are number of ways to change it ,

one method is ...

go to your termainal and write ,

sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

it will open interface file of network , it should look like ,

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

then simply add a line after these two lines , and it will look like this ,

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
hwaddress ether 01:02:03:04:05:06

where 01:02:03:04:05:06 is a FAKE MAC address...

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

and you will see your "all new" identity.

MEWU - Scene 7 ... IDS for my Network ....

Well , its been an age old question from the days when people started using computers on network ... is my network secure ?? ... ah , i don't think that in this world there is any system that can't be penetrated !! unless there is no way to communicate with system other then mouse and keyboard ,without internet or any network ... hell even without FDD or CDD !!! ... because in many cases when system get jeopardized , by the inside man ( and believe me ,there is no way to protect the system from that mole until information gets stolen ) !!! ... anyways .... as a preventive measure , network admins install grid of network activity sensors , with help of Intrusion Detection System a.k.a. IDS .... basic function of IDS is to detect unauthorized attempt to enter network or other kind of activity that is illegal according to what so ever network policy ... Snort is the most famous personal IDS ,system that is used for network monitoring purpose .... it is also IPS , intrusion prevention system , and it works with other softwares such as BASE, OSSIM to provide visual output with good interface ...

For my trial , i have used SNORT with BASE (for front end )and My-SQL (for storing data in to database for analysis) and APACHE2 server ....





Getting Prepared ......

The first thing I like to do is grab all the dependent packages that I can from Synaptic. From the Desktop go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. Enter your password and select Search.

Search for the following packages and install them:

* Libpcap0.8-dev
* libmysqlclient15-dev
* mysql-client-5.0
* mysql-server-5.0
* bison
* flex
* apache2
* libapache2-mod-php5
* php5-gd
* php5-mysql
* libphp-adodb
* php-pear


Gain Root Privileges ...

From the Desktop go to Applications > Accessories > Terminal and type:

$ sudo -i
$ Then your password.

We need to get one more package here,

# apt-get install libc6-dev g++ gcc


Gathering Resources ...

We want to create a temp directory to download and untar files. I'm going to use edge's structure here. In the terminal window type the following:

# cd /root
# mkdir snorttmp
# cd /root/snorttmp

Let's get snort. The latest version of snort at the time of writing is 2.8.3.

Open a web browser and navigate to http://www.snort.org/dl; right click on the most recent release and copy link location.

In the terminal type:

# wget http://www.snort.org/dl/current/snort-2.8.3.tar.gz

It's time to untar the Snort package and remove the tar file.

# tar -xzvf /root/snorttmp/snort-2.8.3.tar.gz
# rm /root/snorttmp/snort-2.8.3.tar.gz


Get Snort Rules ...


Change directories into the new snort-2.8.3 folder.

# cd /root/snorttmp/snort-2.8.3

Open a web browser and navigate to http://www.snort.org/pub-bin/downloads.cgi.

Scroll down to the "Sourcefire VRT Certified Rules - The Official Snort Rule set (unregistered user release)" section. Right click on the most recent release and copy link location.

If you are a forum member you can get newer rules which are under the "registered user release".

In the terminal type:

# wget http://www.snort.org/pub-bin/downloads.cgi/Download/vrt_pr/snortrules-pr-2.4.tar.gz

Untar the Snort Rules and remove the tar file.

# tar -xzvf /root/snorttmp/snort-2.8.3/snortrules-pr-2.4.tar.gz
# rm /root/snorttmp/snort-2.8.3/snortrules-pr-2.4.tar.gz


Getting PCRE ... Perl Compatible Regular Epressions ...


Change directory back into the snorttmp folder.

# cd /root/snorttmp

Open a web browser and go to http://www.pcre.org.

Click on the link for the newest release, right click on the newest tar.gz package and select copy link (at the time of writing this is pcre-7.8).

In the terminal type:

# wget ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/pcre-7.8.tar.gz

Untar PCRE and remove the tar file.

# tar -xzvf /root/snorttmp/pcre-7.8.tar.gz
# rm /root/snorttmp/pcre-7.8.tar.gz


Getting BASE ... Basic Analysis and Security Engine ...

Change directory back into the snorttmp folder.

# cd /root/snorttmp

Open a web browser and go to http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=103348.

Click on download then right click on the newest tar.gz package and select copy link (at the time of writing this is base-1.4.1).

In the terminal type:

# wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/secureideas/base-1.4.1.tar.gz?modtime=1217804205&big_mirror=0

Untar BASE and remove the tar file.

# tar -xzvf /root/snorttmp/base-1.4.1.tar.gz
# rm /root/snorttmp/base-1.4.1.tar.gz


Getting ADOdb ... a database abstraction library for PHP ...


Change directory back into the snorttmp folder.

# cd /root/snorttmp

Open a web browser and go to http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=42718.

Click on the download link for adodb-php5-only then right click on the adodb505.tgz package and select copy link (adodb505 is the most recent package at the time of writing).

In the terminal type:

# wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/adodb/adodb505.tgz?modtime=1215766049&big_mirror=0

Untar ADOdb and remove the tar file.

# tar -xzvf /root/snorttmp/adodb505.tgz
# rm /root/snorttmp/adodb505.tgz

Do an ls to be sure you have all the packages.

# ls /root/snorttmp

Lets have Some Fun !!

a. PCRE install.

# cd /root/snorttmp/pcre-7.8
Here we will do a make/install

# ./configure
# make
# make install

b. Snort install.

# cd /root/snorttmp/snort-2.8.3
Here we will do a make/install

# ./configure -enable-dynamicplugin --with-mysql
# make
# make install

We need to create some folders in /etc for snort to function correctly and copy some files over to them.


# mkdir /etc/snort /etc/snort/rules /var/log/snort

Let's move some files.

# cd /root/snorttmp/snort-2.8.3/rules
# cp * /etc/snort/rules/

Let's get the /etc snort files also.

# cd /root/snorttmp/snort-2.8.3/etc
# cp * /etc/snort/

One more file.

# cp /usr/local/lib/libpcre.so.0 /usr/lib


Configuring Snort ...

We need to modify the snort.conf file to suite our needs.

Open /etc/snort/snort.conf with your favorite text editor (nano, vi, vim, gedit etc.).

# gedit /etc/snort/snort.conf

Change "var HOME_NET any" to "var HOME_NET 192.168.1.0/24" (your home network may differ from 192.168.1.0)
Change "var EXTERNAL_NET any" to "var EXTERNAL_NET !$HOME_NET" (this is stating everything except HOME_NET is external)
Change "var RULE_PATE ../rules" to "var RULE_PATH /etc/snort/rules"

Scroll down the list to the section with "# output database: log, mysql, user=", remove the "#" from in front of this line.
Leave the "user=root", change the "password=password" to "password=YOUR_PASSWORD", "dbname=snort"
Make note of the username, password, and dbname. You will need this information when we set up the Mysql db.

Save and quit.

Setting UP My-SQL Database ...

Log into the mysql server.

# mysql -u root -p

Sometimes there is no password set so just hit enter.

If you get a failed logon, try the above command again and enter YOUR_PASSWORD.

If there is no password you need to create a password for the root account.

Note: Once you are in mysql the # is now a mysql>

mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR root@localhost=PASSWORD('YOUR_PASSWORD');


Create the snort database.

mysql> create database snort;
mysql> exit

We will use the snort schema for the layout of the database.

# mysql -D snort -u root -p < /root/snorttmp/snort-2.8.3/schemas/create_mysql We need to comment out a few lines in the web rules before we can test snort, I am unsure if this has been fixed in the subscriber version. Open up /etc/snort/rules/web-misc.rules with your favorite text editor. # gedit /etc/snort/rules/web-misc.rules Comment out line's 97, 98, and 452 with a "#" (no quotes).

Testing Snort ...

we need to be sure that our installation works fine ,so we do a test drive of snort ...

In the terminal type:

# snort -c /etc/snort/snort.conf

If everything went well you should see an ascii pig.

To end the test hit ctrl + c.

Setting up BASE and APACHE2 ...

We have already installed both Apache2 and BASE, all we have to do now is move some files and modify a config file.
Create a file called test.php in /var/www/ with your favorite text editor.

# gedit /var/www/test.php

write in it:

Save and close this file

We need to edit /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini file.

# gedit /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

You need to add the following under "Dynamic Extensions".

extension=mysql.so
extension=gd.so

Restart Apache2.

# /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Get the ip address of the machine you are working on.

# ifconfig -a

Open a web browser and go to http://YOUR.IP.ADDRESS/test.php.

If everything went well, you will have PHP information displayed. Moving more files...

We need to move ADOdb into the /var/www directory.

# mv /root/snorttmp/adodb505 /var/www/

Let's make a directory in www and move BASE.

# mkdir /var/www/web
# mv /root/snorttmp/base-1.4.1 /var/www/web/

We need to temporarily enable writing to the base-1.4.1 folder for setup.

# chmod 757 /var/www/web/base-1.4.1

We also need to modify a PHP setup file using your favorite text editor.

# vim /var/www/web/base-1.4.1/setup/setup1.php

Find the line that says "base_header" and change it to "header".

Save and exit.


We want the graphs in base to work so we need to install a few pear extensions.

# pear install Image_Color
# pear install Image_Canvas-alpha
# pear install Image_Graph-alpha



BASE Setup via the web....

Open a web browser and navigate to http://YOUR.IP.ADDRESS/web/base-1.4.1/setup.

Click continue on the first page.


Step 1 of 5: Enter the path to ADODB.
This is /var/www/adodb505.


Step 2 of 5:
Database type = MySQL, Database name = snort, Database Host = localhost, Database username = root, Database Password = YOUR_PASSWORD


Step 3 of 5: If you want to use authentication enter a username and password here.


Step 4 of 5: Click on Create BASE AG.


Step 5 of 5: one step 4 is done at the bottom click on Now continue to step 5.


Bookmark this page.

Change the permissions back on the /var/www/web/base-1.4.1 folder.

# chmod 775 /var/www/web/base-1.4.1


We are DONE !!!

To start Snort in the terminal type:

# snort -c /etc/snort/snort.conf -i eth0 -D

This starts snort using eth0 interface in a daemon mode.

To make sure it is running you can check with the following command:

# ps aux | grep snort

If it's running you will see an entry similar to snort -c /etc/snort/snort.conf -i eth0 -D.



Finally , to see the snort in action , we can run BASE engine , by going that page we are using to run via apache server ...

phewww ... after following brain twisting procedures i was finally able to setup my personal IDS using SNORT ,which took me almost more then one and half hour ... i hope this walkthrough will work for you guys too ...

njoy ....

MD5 ..... cross check the integrity ...

trust but verify ...
~ronald reagan

When ever we download any file ( setup file for an example ) , we never be sure that its the "original" file from original author . And hence it can be some malicious thing too !!! so guys of internet had been using an integrity checker that is Message Digest Algorithm 5 .. a.k.a. MD5 ... As an Internet standard RFC 1321, MD5 has been employed in a wide variety of security applications, and is also commonly used to check the integrity of files. An MD5 hash is typically expressed as a 32 digit hexadecimal number.

MD5 is basically cryptographic hash function with 128 bit hash value... MD5 digests have been widely used in the software world to provide some assurance that a transferred file has arrived intact. For example, file servers often provide a pre-computed MD5 checksum for the files, so that a user can compare the checksum of the downloaded file to it. Unix-based operating systems include MD5 sum utilities in their distribution packages, whereas Windows users use third-party applications.

However, now that it is easy to generate MD5 collisions, it is possible for the person who created the file to create a second file with the same checksum, so this technique cannot protect against some forms of malicious tampering. Also, in some cases the checksum cannot be trusted (for example, if it was obtained over the same channel as the downloaded file), in which case MD5 can only provide error-checking functionality: it will recognize a corrupt or incomplete download, which becomes more likely when downloading larger files.

To check integrity of downloaded file in Unix/Linux based OS, simply type

md5sum file.name

it will return with some hash values which is then needed to be compared with values provided on site of that software ... but remember that this command has to be run in the folder where that file has been downloaded , no where else ...

for windows .. its a little easy , here hash values are compared with help of a software ... its winMD5sum , an open source and free software .... to check integrity ...

simply right click on the downloaded file and go to "send to" , in it winMD5Sum , it will calculate hash values automatically , now enter values provided by site and click on compare ... if values matches then it will say .. checksum are same ...





so from next time when you download something , better try to be sure that you have not downloaded rouge ...... best luck ...

njoy ....

MEWU - Scene 5 ... Playing With Shark !?!?

Owww, its not that always hungry long saw toothed terrifying wild creature from that movie JAWS .... its just a network analysis tool, Wire Shark , but its just same powerful as jaws of shark !!!... it is widely used to understand how internet itself that is , hidden behind web browsers and messengers and lots of other web based applications ... it shows us the way how protocols are stacked up or what protcol messages are interexchanged between client and server , when we do any kind of network transactions ...

Wireshark has a rich feature set which includes the following:

• Deep Inspection of hundered of protocols, with more being added all the time
• Live capture and offline analysis
• Standard three-pane packet browser
• Multi-platform: Runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and many others
• Captured network data can be browsed via a GUI, or via the TTY-mode TShark utility
• The most powerful display filters in the industry
• Rich VoIP analysis
• Read/write many different capture file formats: tcpdump (libpcap), Catapult DCT2000, Cisco Secure IDS iplog, Microsoft Network Monitor, Network General Sniffer® (compressed and uncompressed), Sniffer® Pro, and NetXray®, Network Instruments Observer, Novell LANalyzer, RADCOM WAN/LAN Analyzer, Shomiti/Finisar Surveyor, Tektronix K12xx, Visual Networks Visual UpTime, WildPackets EtherPeek/TokenPeek/AiroPeek, and many others
• Capture files compressed with gzip can be decompressed on the fly
• Live data can be read from Ethernet, IEEE 802.11, PPP/HDLC, ATM, Bluetooth, USB, Token Ring, Frame Relay, FDDI, and others (depending on your platfrom)
• Decryption support for many protocols, including IPsec, ISAKMP, Kerberos, SNMPv3, SSL/TLS, WEP, and WPA/WPA2
• Coloring rules can be applied to the packet list for quick, intuitive analysis
• Output can be exported to XML, PostScript®, CSV, or plain text

To , install it in Ubuntu , search synaptic manager for "wireshark" , and select to install it ...
Or, type ,

sudp apt-get install wireshark

it will work fine too ... but to run wireshark you must be needed to have administrator privillages .. because without administrator privillage you will not be able to get any interface to capture packets .... so , to run it , you have to type at terminal ...

sudo wireshark

and it will work just fine ....



that is it , have a good play with shark ...

njoy ...

MEWU - Scene 4 ... GUI Firewall ..

Hmm, like all you know , Linux is comparatively safer then other dumb OSes ... ( do i need to name 'em ?? ) ... so linux is not required to have an AV products ... also , It has built-in Firewall , which is Ip-Tables ...which are basically rules written manually !!! , but its little difficult for "common guy" like me to write syntexes and codes .. ah it just makes me nervous ... so i prefer more GUI ... well you can say its "side-effect" on me due to overdoze of "window" medicine !! ... so this front-end software is very handy for me ... they call it .."fire starter" ... sort of ..

Well, Firestarter is basically just a front end ... it still uses Ip-tables as back end .. means , since Ip-tables are little geeky to use, Firestarter makes life eazy by providing Graphical interface of Ip-tables !!!




we can install in via , synaptic manger ... just search for "firestarter" and you get it !!!

or in terminal type ..

sudo apt-get install firestarter

it will work fine too ... at first time you will be needed to provide the name of interface for which you want this firewall to work ... i use wifi mainly so i had chosen, ATH0 ( i think, ath0 is for atheros cards only !!! ) ... and you are all set ... but again , this GUI doesn't load on startups ... ( don't mix gui with original firewalls ... because the Ip-tables itself gets loaded once n/w gets established but in deamon/background ) , so to start firestarter at startup you can do any way you like , but the way i preferred is through , system -> preferances -> sessions , in startups , ADD , choose name and description as you like , and for command , write ,

gksudo firestarter

so , next time when you will boot , it will ask for password when it will be loaded i think its more safer option then just setting such a way that it doesn't ask for password ( still you need to save your password somewhere to make firestarter start automatically !!! , because thist s/w itself needed to have root privillage ) ...

njoy ....

MEWU - Scene 3 ... Playing with DOCK

Well , people who use MACs , must be loving its famous "dock" thing ... and i am sure that windows lovers must be feeling jealous for that dock in Macs , though they can enjoy same dock feature for windows too but still its not native application ... they need 3rd party softwares like "rocket dock" or "object dock" right ??

It's true for linux / Ubuntu too ... here they use software ... "Cairo Dock" which is perhaps the most common and most famous dock around ubuntiens !!! ... but it is not available by default in synaptic manager , we have to add 3rd party software string ...

deb http://repository.cairo-dock.org/ubuntu gutsy cairo-dock

and then , click on reload in synaptic manager ....and then seach "cairo" in it .. it will show cairo dock now ... but don't forget to choose both "cairo-dock" and "cairo-dock plugins" .... and apply .. and dinggggg , you are done .... if you prefer a bit harder way , then take a look at this official ubuntu help ...

launch it via , applications -> system tools -> cairo dock ...



But here comes one problem ... it will not launched automatically again when system is rebooted !!! ... to do it ... go to system -> preferances -> sessions , in it "startup programs" and just click on "add" , and write what ever you like for name and comment , but in command type "cairo-dock" ( ofcourse without quotes.. ) ... and it will be launched automatically with every reboot !!!


enjoy ....

MEWU - Scene 2 ... Need some Wine !!!

Well , like many other tools of Ubuntu ... Wine is one very useful application ... basically Wine is an emulator which simulates Windows environment ... In common man .. err .. and woman's language , with help of Wine you can run windows application in Ubuntu ... but i don't think its more advanced then VMware ... but still oki to work around with it for basic applications ...

to Install WINE ....

open synaptic manager and find for WINE ... and make for installation ...

or if you are lazy to find out .. then simply open terminal and ...type ..

sudo apt-get install wine


and it will install it ... then just like installing in windows environment ... double click on exe file that you want to install program .. and its installed ... you can access that installed program via Wine menu that is created in Applications menu ... for example here , i have installed Winamp in UBUNTU ..




njoy ....

MEWU - Scene 1 ... Listen Radio just like Winamp

Ok , this is the first scene of MEWU .. My Experiments With Ubuntu ...

people who use Winamp , must be familiar with this Shoutcast feature of it ... with its help we can listen 100s of internet radio of various categories ... but its very upsetting that those winamp guys yet haven't taken out their super famous software for Linux !!! , it really makes me upset ... but smart guys have alredy found ways to overcome it ... and the most common way is to install an internet radio tuner software and then combine it with player which can play that file !!!

Here, I use , Streamtuner , which i use to tune internet radio ... and another software VLC , the most popular player which can play almost any file !! , with their combination i can hear radio ... and perhaps more stations then winamp offers ... like shoutcast ( that we listen on winamp ) , Live365 and PunkCast and many others .....

How To Set the Things UP ....

to install stream tuner ... open terminal .. ( its same like command prompt ) ..

type ,

sudo apt-get install streamtuner



it will install stream tuner ...

and then .. to install VLC ...

sudo apt-get install vlc


after done with installation, open streamtuner ... in it go to .. edit -> preferences ...



and in preferences make changes as i have shown in image above , just put "vlc" in place of xmms , in ... listen to a .m3u file and listen to a stream .... and you are all set ...

now when you want to listen radio , just find station in stream tuner .. and say , tune it ... and it will automatically open it vlc !! ... i bet it will be fine more good experience then listening radio on winamp ... with some more settings you can even record that live stream !!!!! but keep it for some other day ..

till then ...

njoy .. ubuntu ....

My Experiments With UbuntU ... The Beginning ... Make Dual Boot with Vista !!

Well, from today , i am gonna write about my "experiments" with my linux OS Ubuntu .... And as a beginning i will show how to install ubuntu with vista as a dual boot system , obviously vista is already running of my lappy ...



So, story starts from here ... you need to gather your crew ... err.. actually its only member required ... the Ubuntu ... the latest version is 8.04 LTS .. AKA ... "Hardy Heron" ... so first download it from here ... and burn a CD .. of if you have already ordered it like me , then you are all set... and also don't forget to make some free space from windows , with help of "disk management" located in computer management of administrative tools ... just right click on drive that you want shrink .. and make some free space that you want for linux ( i have kept 20Gigs ) , but do not format it .. it must be left as unformatted and unpartitioned space .. and also it must be continuous space ... this is it ..

Next , restart computer and boot with CD .. ( ow ... ya, they call it LIVE CD , because incase if you don't want to install it and want to work on it .. you can do it with just help of this CD !!! being windows users , it is little "shocking" right ??? ) anyways ... as you will boot ... it will tell you to choose your language ( or english will be selected by default after some time period ) .. and select to install ubuntu ... now when it ask for place to install, select GUIDED - USE LARGEST FREE CONTINUOUS SPACE ... and so it will install itself to place that we kept free and unformated .. ( remember that ??? ) ... well like any Unix/Linux OS , it need to have "SWAP" partition too , which is basically same like "page Files" / "virtual memory" in windows ... a virtual RAM ... but it will be done automatically , so don't need to worry for it ... also , if you like you can import your documents and settings of your other OS ( win Vista ) into ubuntu too .. during installation it will prompt for that , just select user that you want to import and it will import it !!! ... after gathering all information , i think it finishesh installation in about 30 mins .. when it prompt to reboot and so reboot it and when you reboot , you will see a boot loader "grub" , just select the OS that you want to run .. ubuntu or vista ..

this is it ...

err... i thought i could put some screenshots here , but how can we take screeshots while OS itself being installed ?? for that we need another computer right ?? so i wasn't able to take screenshots .. but i think, its very easy to install ubuntu with another OS , if you have experience with installation of any OS ... only part hard to understand is how to make continuous free unformated space from existing OS .. rest is just clicking "next" at which "windows" users are expert ... right ???

hope it works for you all ...

best luck ...

LINUX .... better then Windows ???

Well ... this is for all people who use windows , just a comparison , because guys who use LINUX already know these all things ... :D

But first a little history !!! ....

During early 90's a guy from finland, named "Linus Torvalds" (also famous for his ultra popular old age pc game "PAC-MAN", if not heard about this game then U must be an alien from mars !!!), wrote a whole new code of a Operating System which is based on age old famous OS .. UNIX , during his M.Sc. study.... and designed very new system ... LINUX , and which X is adopted from uniX , and rest of his name !!! At that time I am sure that he never imagined that his OS will be so widely popular ... [:D] ... anyways ... the story goes on like this ... Later on GNU project was founded and this OS is registerd as GPL, in simple words , it was "open" for anyone, so anyone can get its "source-code", (FYI ...source-code is the main codeing of OS just like any programme that we code in any language).
Since its years have been passed and its open source , the LINUX that we see today contains only about 2% of his original code !!!! Well its because mainly due to make advancement with time. Linux is based on DEBIAN , an OS which is known for its strict adherence to "free software" philosophies.


The moral of story ....




As you people can see , its the screenshot of my OS, its linux , from UBUNTU (there are many linux "distributions" are availabe for free ,well some do chage for it like "red hat" !! UBUNTU is one of the most popular debian based distributor). Actually Ubuntu is an African word , which means "humanity towards others". And I guess, its basic idea about "free for all".
for My OS ,I have used here , cairo dock, a linux "avatar" of rocket dock for windows. Also you can see .. my borders are also got transparent same like windows vista its because of compiz fusio icon's emerald / beryl theme. Also it have almost same looking ICONs like windows.
well , this OS comes with plenty of softwares which supports GPL and hence all are "Free" to use without paying any properitory fees !!!! ( not in case for windows os, right ??? ), for example, open-office , microsoft office replacement for linux. Or, Pidgin messenger, a multi protocol supporting messenger ... errr in simple word your all-in-one messenger for yahoo!,AOL,MSN you name it and this messenger have it ... ( may be you guys know that ,all messengers use their OWN protocols). I edited this image is a software known as "GIMP", which is just same as photoshop.
There are plenty of other very usefull softwares and tools that , sometimes normal windows uses even can't imaging existance of that things. Like, during my studies of one subjected ,"Computer Networks" ,in which at one point i had to use the "trace route" to understand some sort of n/w behaviour , it took me lot time to find that feature in windows (but finally it was there !!) but in case of linux , its already here with other basic n/w analysis tools !!! I don't know,but personally I feel ,errr .... that internet is "little" faster then windows ...
With Linux, you never need to have an "anti-virus" !!!! Don't belive me ?? , but its a true fact .... also it has been said "hacker-safe" OS !!! .... i think its because in linux nothing is done automatically ??, means user must execute some command sequence to do "anything".
This OS works very well even on low end computers.
For people who don't know , it is the OS that is used to run on SERVERS, of all giant IT cos. like , IBM ,NOVELL ,ORACLE corporation ,HP ,DELL ,SUN systems. And its because , this OS is the most stable OS (means , very very very less happens to crash in operation unlike windows servers) and its ability to perform parallel processing. Even PS2 and PS3 uses it and now a days mobile cos. have started using it because of its portablity and efficiency.
Moreover, If you are interested in this OS, then these guys can send you free CD of their OS ,"Anywhere" in the world. Or, you can download it too ...


But here are the CONS ....

to use this system ,i think user must be having computer knowledge a little above average !!! , well its mainly because this OS is very different from windows. And hence its not "that" user friendly. Almost all the time you have to play with command lines so it makes things little complicated to newbies. To get look and feel of windows you need bunch of softwares need to be installed and "configured" properly ( hmm.. in windows all these s/w are installed automatically so we never need to worry about it. ). Hey, just like all OS , its "just" a bunch of codes, they will do exactly same as you will tell them to do , so here you have to do many things by "yourself" .... hmm... i mean , you have to guide it all the time ...



Well, this is it .... its just what i feel about Windows and Linux ....

Linux is my new love , i still use Windows Vista . But this new girl have taken my mind (errr.. heart !!!) ..... :d ... so i am sure gonna look after her more ...

i hope you all have liked this "little" piece of my evaluation about my new OS ...

njoy .....