Some cool footage and images of old operating systems.

Installing BeOS on a modern computer. This is a very cool alternative operating system. The screenshot below, shows an Apple II machine connecting to a Debian server over a network connection. This allows the more powerful machine to be administered easily over a remote connection. I wonder if you could use an Apple II as … Read more

Image manipulation with the Linux shell.

Emulate a Polaroid photo with the imagemagik package on Linux. convert lifeinCanberra_bg.jpg -polaroid 0 house.jpgconvert lifeinCanberra_bg.jpg -polaroid 0 house.jpg This is the original image. https://www.asis.gov.au/media/Images/Rebrand/lifeinCanberra_bg.jpg. And this is the image after manipulation. Double the size of an image, while retaining relatively good image quality. convert missile.jpg -magnify missilebig.jpgconvert missile.jpg -magnify missilebig.jpg Take a screenshot of … Read more

How to have a custom message appear each time sudo is used.

This is how to have a custom lecture appear each time a user executes the sudo command to remind them to be careful with it. Run the visudo command as root and add these lines to the /etc/sudoers file. Defaults lecture="always" Defaults lecture_file="/home/jason/lecture"Defaults lecture="always" Defaults lecture_file="/home/jason/lecture" Then create the /home/jason/lecture file and put this in … Read more

How to create a loopback filesystem easily in your home folder. Good for storing files or creating a swapfile.

It is very easy to create a loopback filesystem in your home directory. This can be used to store files, or can be enabled as a swap partition. Firstly, run this command to create a blank file-system image. This will be 524 megabytes. jason@Yog-Sothoth:~/Documents$ dd if=/dev/zero of=myimage.img bs=1024 count=524288jason@Yog-Sothoth:~/Documents$ dd if=/dev/zero of=myimage.img bs=1024 count=524288 Now … Read more

Search your Linux machine for information about a certain package.

To find information about a certain package on a Linux machine, the man command is very useful, but it does not show all man pages that could contain valuable information. The apropos command is what is required to find all pertinent information. This example below shows how to use this command to find all manual … Read more

New themes for your Linux desktop in 2018.

Nice Linux themes and wallpapers Some more lovely GTK themes and wallpapers for your new Linux desktop in 2018. Gnome Shell themes Human Next: https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1188270/. Maxim: https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1182550/. Copernico: https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1013056/. Wallpapers for Gnome and MATE Railway line through the mountains: https://alpha.wallhaven.cc/wallpaper/22805. Looking down on a swimming pool beside the ocean: https://alpha.wallhaven.cc/wallpaper/575741. Lake in the Rocky Mountains: … Read more

How to create a temporary ram drive on a Linux box. This is very useful.

Creating a ram drive on a Linux box is very useful for storing files in a temporary fashion, and having some very fast scratch space for an application. The ramfs filesystem type may be used, but it will continue to grow until your RAM is used up. The tmpfs filesystem type, does not have this … Read more

Another way to gain root permissions on a Debian Linux installation.

This is another way to gain root permissions on a Debian system; this is a script that will elevate the user to root for a specific command; like using the sudo command. su-to-root -X -c "cat /etc/shadow"su-to-root -X -c "cat /etc/shadow" This is what you get if you try this without root permissions. [flynn@flynn-grid-runner ~]$ … Read more

Get a CPU-Z styled application for Linux to keep track of CPU status.

The CPU-Z app for Windows is very good for keeping track of the status of your CPU, but this is also available on Linux with the I-Nex app. This will show comprehensive CPU information that is very detailed indeed. Get the Debian packages here: https://launchpad.net/i-nex/+download. The Ubuntu 16.10 packages installed perfectly on Ubuntu 17.04. Then … Read more

How to change the Virtual Terminal font in Debian and Ubuntu easily.

To change the font in the Virtual Terminal in Debian or Ubuntu/Linux Mint, run this command. sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setupsudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup This lets you select the various character sets and fonts to customize your virtual terminal. jason@jason-desktop:~$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup [sudo] password for jason: Your console font configuration will be updated the next time your … Read more

Some very useful Ubuntu tips.

To find out what repository a package came from, use the dpkg -s command. jason@jason-desktop:~$ dpkg -s zdoom Package: zdoom Status: install ok installed Priority: optional Section: web Installed-Size: 9330 Maintainer: DRD Team <[email protected]> Architecture: amd64 Version: 2.8.1 Depends: libc6, libstdc++6, zlib1g, bzip2, libgtk2.0-0 Recommends: timidity, libfluidsynth1 Description: Advanced Doom source port.jason@jason-desktop:~$ dpkg -s zdoom … Read more

How to crack an Ubuntu user password easily with John The Ripper.

Cracking an Ubuntu password with John the Ripper is very easy. All that is needed is a good wordlist and the John The Ripper utility. Install the John the Ripper password cracking utility. jason@jason-desktop:~/Documents/Windows$ sudo apt install johnjason@jason-desktop:~/Documents/Windows$ sudo apt install john Dump the Linux user account information to a file from the shadow and … Read more

The ss command. A very useful way to find open and listening ports on a Linux system.

The ss command for Linux allows a user to list all listening ports on a Linux system. This command lists all listening TCP ports. homer@deusexmachina ~ $ ss -l -t State Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address:Port Peer Address:Port LISTEN 0 1 127.0.0.1:4101 *:* LISTEN 0 50 *:netbios-ssn *:* LISTEN 0 128 *:sunrpc *:* LISTEN 0 128 … Read more

How to prevent a file from being overwritten using the tcsh shell on Linux.

How to use noclobber with the tcsh shell on UNIX and Linux This example using the set noclobber command prevents existing files from being overwritten. 2:04am ubuntu /home/ubuntu ~> set noclobber2:04am ubuntu /home/ubuntu ~> set noclobber Now if I try to redirect to the file, this happens. 2:04am ubuntu /home/ubuntu ~> echo "" > chan.c … Read more

How to customize your GRUB configuration in a graphical window on Fedora.

The GRUB configuration on Fedora is editable with the VIM text editor, but what if the user wishes to edit it with a graphical program? Well you can. The grub-customizer utility allows a superuser to edit the GRUB file with a GUI window. Install it like this. [root@localhost Documents]# dnf install grub-customizer-5.0.6-1.fc25.x86_64[root@localhost Documents]# dnf install … Read more

Hr Giger wallpapers for your Debian or Linux Mint desktop. These are amazing.

https://slowsoulburn.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/hr-giger_003406131.jpg This looks like a bunch of strange beetles crawling around. http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2011/10/space-jockey—enclosure.jpg The alien Space Jockey in his seat. As seen in the movie Prometheus. http://wallpaperbackgrounds.com/Content/wallpapers/dark/occult/205915-22087.jpg This wallpaper is very dark and strange indeed. With Baphomet at the top of the image and a woman with a Xenomorph head, this is one strange picture. http://www.meh.ro/original/2010_04/meh.ro3828.jpg Strange creatures loaded as … Read more

New Linux distribution Sparky Linux. Based on Debian.

Easiest way to get the UNIX CDE desktop installed on a Linux Debian distribution

CDE UNIX desktop environment.
CDE UNIX desktop environment.

There is a new Linux distribution available. Sparky Linux. This is based on Debian and has quite a lot of software available. Debian is a very stable Linux system and basing a new distribution on it with the apt packaging system makes a whole lot of sense. Download this distribution from the following link: https://sparkylinux.org/download/. Choose the rolling option.

Install this and then boot up into the Lxde desktop.

Sparky Linux desktop updating package repos.
Sparky Linux desktop updating package repos.

Run sudo apt update to update the package repositories for the first time.

Then run this command to install the CDE UNIX desktop on Debian.

sudo apt install cde-desktop

Now logout and choose CDE from the drop down at the top of the screen and login to a new fresh CDE desktop.

Sparky Linux CDE desktop.
Sparky Linux CDE desktop. Nice UNIX goodness on Debian.

This is incredible, now the awesome CDE desktop from Solaris UNIX is now available on a Debian based Linux distribution. This makes the desktop accessible to everyone now.

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Some useful Linux configuration files. How the system is setup.

Some system configuration files on Linux and what they do /etc/profile This configuration file controls the system-wide environment variables. This contains the PATH variable that controls where binaries may be run from system-wide. /etc/motd This file contains a message that will be visible above the login prompt on the virtual console. Usually this is auto-generated … Read more

Setting up the normal user account on Debian GNU/Linux to use sudo.

Setting up the normal user account on Debian GNU/Linux to use sudo Setting up your normal user account on Debian to use the sudo command instead of the su command is very simple. This is the contents of my /etc/sudoers file. This line: neo ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALLneo ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL Is the one that defines our normal … Read more

Connect to a Debian 8.0 machine over RDP with xrdp.

Using xrdp on Debian to allow remote desktop connections from a Windows machine is very easy. I wanted to connect to a Debian 8.0 instance running in VMware from a Windows 7 installation. Firstly, I installed xrdp on Debian. root@debian:/home/jason# apt install xrdproot@debian:/home/jason# apt install xrdp Then I had to run this command to setup … Read more