Restoring passwords

Hi All,

Though there are many help(s) given to restoring passwords, I have these days seen in many IRCs, about how to restore a lost password in Linux. This is only for Linux and not for Windows.

Say for example you installed Sabayon(or any other Linux) in your /dev/hda3 partition and finally one day lost your root and user passwords for it: the workaround is as follows:

1. Use a Live CD like Ubuntu or Knoppix.
2. Login to the respective root shells.
3. Create a new folder by giving "mkdir new_folder"(Without the quotes)
4. Next give this command: mount /dev/hda3 new_folder
5. After mount, cd into the same.
6. chroot new_folder

Finally for changing the root password, give the command "passwd" and enter the new password twice.

Thats it.

Enjoy.

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

Virtual Private Network and Nortel "vpnc"

Hi All,

Sabre - my company has a Nortel Server for maintaining all its VPN connections. They had purchased license in Windows for a client called Contivity [Cant remember the full name.(Its been more than 3 months now after completely migrating to Linux.) I think it is Nortel Contivity Client].

As usual there is no such client in Linux platform. My company is rich enough and it bought Linux Licenses too. This time for a client called Apani Networks.

I did not want to use a licensed version in my Debian Lenny. So I decided to go with a free VPN packaged [Software] called vpnc.

Note that if you are reading this post and you want to configure your vpnc for a nortel server, there is a particular SVN branch that has Nortel server supported vpnc. You need to google that out and download the same. You will find the link as well as the file for download in one of the Ubuntu forums.

So the ending parts:

1. Extract the zip file into a folder.
2. Check there are no previous vpnc instances in your system. If present, uninstall them. Use your package manager for more un-installing. In Lenny, you can give "dpkg -e vpnc"
3. Give the command "make install"[without the quotes].
4. Type vpnc from your console to check if vpnc is installed or not after step 3.
5. Or issue the command 'whereis vpnc'
6. Copy the 'vpnc-script' script to /etc/vpnc/ or to your installed folder
7. cd to /etc/vpnc
8. Create a file called vpn_connect.conf
9. Enter the following details:-
1. IPSec Gateway your_gateway_ip
2. IPSec ID your_group_id
3. IPSec secret your_group_password
4. Xauth username your_username
5. Xauth password your_password
6. Vendor nortel
10. Enter the following above lines without the numbers and replacing your* with your details.

Note that during step 3 above, there are some dependencies issues which you need to sort out by installing the suitable packages.

Finally to connect ---> issue the command
"vpnc --dpd-idle 0 /etc/vpnc/vpn_connect.conf"

Or simply "vpnc-connect"

This will prompt you to enter your passcode. Use the digits from your SecureID and enter them.

If it throws some XAuth type packed missing errors, try to give your "password+SecureID_numbers"

In the connect command, dpd idle option is to keep vpnc connected for ever without timing out.

You can as well write a shell script that will fetch the conf file and run the vpnc.

Hope you got some help by this post.

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

Pride and the Prejudice

Hi All,

Sorry for not posting for the past few days.

Finally after my AppDB application that was rejected saying as a duplicate entry, today I have been re-given the same by the Wine folks.

Its so happy to keep this thing going. Hope I become the sole maintainer for this App too.

I m keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

simple linux

...well I am dreaming of those days when linux becomes simple.

By and far linux is amazing ...well you have so many flavors so many tools , softwares, applications, developing tools..

I did install linux in my system after some trial and errors and when I had to run a simple mp3 player it took almost 2 days initially.

Then I even tried shell scripting. I enjoyed programming. More then all it gives a pride that I am using linux. I feel I am part of global community with open thinking. The meaning of the sentence has grown beyond open thinking.

After having grown so big... things have become rigid. Just like the big elephant , linux has grown big . Big complex and mammoth. At the end of the day what really matters is how simple are things to simple people. I am a simple kind. What you work should aim to make things simple.
Be it operating system usage , installation of linux , installing softwares or application on linux...everything has grown complex. If I say this to any Linux geek he will hit me back ...and would say what stupid are you talking about.

Just imagine if you want to take linux to common people ...very common people ...or why not to the doors of common people.
I have tried to understand how other x windows OS operation or how they market. After few years they release new framework and make existing obsolete, making people to buy new one.
Open source is open ...its grows to common human understanding ...not into profitability of greedy mind.

I have always thought of Linux and open source into larger applications..
..like what I work on Grid of electrical power system. All systems working on open source ... like the open mind...simulating the power system what could happen to the power system next moment. Predicting blackouts...like the black minds in the proprietary softwares. All companies exist for business.

When you have business company run . If the company runs you have the revenue. If you have the revenue , you have the tax. If you have the tax you have the country.

Open source means no business , which means no country ?... well its a weird question isn't it?

...well no !
How about E-governance in open source. I have dreams of my country with open source E-governance. Imagine country working on open source at grass roots level.

I am not talking about open source development. I am talking about open source usage at the grass root level of the society.
Imagine people using Linux instead of pirated Windows
Imagine people using openoffice instead of pirated windows office.
Imagine people using gimp instead of pirated mspaint.
....things goes on ...
Linux is growing like the mindset of open mind. Open mind bring open application
and open applications gives birth to linux.
But how are they all user friendly ....?

Answer is simple ...they are not.

Why not make applications simple. One flavour of application simple for simple people like me. The other flavour of application complex for complex people.

Why not work on applications that are simple to simple people ...then they would appreciate the complexity of it...

Why not make things simple , for simple people ...to make life simple....


simple linux for simple people ....

fsck

Hi All,

I felt that I need to post this, as I felt that the File System Check, a.k.a(fsck) is so well maintained in Linux.

I have Lenny with fsck 1.4.1.3 of 12th Oct,08.

I had some issues with my laptop. So I took it to my EDS block. The Engg removed my hard-disk and put it to another laptop to verify my problem.

He then started that laptop. As soon as the kernel loaded, the fsck appeared to check the file system. I did not figure out anything then.

Then yet again, he changed the hard-disk and put it back to my laptop. I came back to my cubicle and then I once again saw fsck running.

This time I was curious to know the problem.

Hope some could figure out the beauty of fsck by now.

It gave me the following 3 lines before starting system check:
1. Superblock last mount time is in the future.
2. Superblock last write time is in the future.
3. fsck checked time in future. Check forced.

Wow...!!!!!!!!!!! what a beauty!!!!

fsck could figure out the different times in the 2 laptops and hence reforced a check on the file system.

Do you folks think if the proprietary world famous OS has this feature???

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

License / Maintainer / Patent

Hi All,

I am extremely happy to post this mail. Actually I aimnt. But my people are. My company when it started in Bangalore, it used to provide hardware / regular phones to its employees.

These days, the policy changed stating that a regular phone must be provided only to a VP / Manager / Project Manager and not for other employees. Then they started providing software Cisco IP / VOIP Phones to all its other employees.

The problem:

This Cisco VOIP phone was installable only on Windows. But since I am not a Manager (I dont want to be one. It sucks to be one. I am born a developer...and I will die a developer.) and also since I dont use Mr.Bill Gates' OS, I had to get a regular phone or to get a Linux Installable Cisco VOIP Phone.

I searched the net, I searched my office folks for a licensed version but all for vain.

Finally I decided that I create one working for myself.

I used the following softwares -> Wine and Alsa-OSS.

I took 2.5 days and finally could get all the things working fine.

And after that I never ever dreamt in my wildest dreams that I would be told by the Wine IRC that no one has ever tried this for the recent versions of Wine(I got it working for 1.1.20).

So now it is the time for me to register my App and become a sole maintainer for it.

Happy????

Thanks & Take care all,
Ananth Gouri

Google Site Listing

Hi All,

Finally after 1.5 months+ after starting my blog and also after the site now having more than 500+ hits, I have got my site listed under the Google search a.k.a www.google.com.

Yep its of course a geek feeling when you have got your site listed under Google!!!

Hope to continue the rock and roll.

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

Fedora Ambassador!!!!

Hi All,

Some of my dreams came true today. I have now become the FedoraProject Ambassador officially. I am just waiting to get a sponsor for me. Hopefully I may get in a day or two.

I always wanted to support for OpenSource. I think this is the time for me to prove my worth.

As of now I am thinking to support the Fedora Project for its Linux Installation, Free Media programs.

I need to think more and also have to decide upon my time to contribute more.

I am going on a party tonight..... Any body wants to join :-) ????

Take care,
Ananth Gouri

Finally a YouTube Downloader for my Lenny

Hi All,

I was struggling like hell to download some of the favorite videos from youtube.com. Though I had found some Konsole based tools in Linux, I was never happy with their performance and always wanted for a GUI one.

I even downloaded IMToo's Youtube downloader and configured it in wine - but for vain.

Slowly started forgetting about this requirement when I found out this site - convertube.com.

That interest still persisted and finally thanks to this article
From Linux.com written by Razvan T. Coloja -- I found out a GUI tool called UTubeRipper.

Configuration of UTubeRipper in Lenny:

1. Go to this link to download UTubeRipper UTube Ripper Download
2. After download - you need to check if you have Gambas installed.
3. The site says that it requires Gambas 2.5. But the tool worked with Gambas 2.0 too.
4. Follow the steps given the ReadMe file in the downloaded zip file for more info.
5. Run ./UTube.sh in a konsole.
6. If everything is fine you should get the GUI and then finally download the given Youtube link.
7. The tool worked for me even in my office with proxy enabled. There are no settings for proxy.
8. Since the tool uses wget - if you have given your proxy settings in your konsole using export
command or using the settings in your .bashrc - it should work.

Hope this was useful for you folks.

Let me know.

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri