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…
Read MoreEmulate 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…
Read MoreThis 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…
Read MoreIt 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…
Read MoreTo 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…
Read MoreNice 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….
Read MoreCreating 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…
Read MoreThis 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…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read MoreTo 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…
Read MoreTo 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…
Read MoreCracking 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…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read MoreHow 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…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read Morehttps://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…
Read MoreEasiest way to get the UNIX CDE desktop installed on a Linux Debian distribution 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…
Read MoreSome 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…
Read MoreSetting 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…
Read MoreUsing 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…
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