Changing the Layout...

Hi All,

I today removed ShoutBox and also removed the Fedora Constantine count down flag...

Its 6.30 AM in India and I am working something.... :)

GM All,
Ananth Gouri

96th Post.. Nearing a Century... :)

Hi All,

I never expected that I will cross 100 - now is it fast or this slow??? U have the answers....

Ok let me make this special enough... Lets talk about some security issues....

Topic: Pidgin - with Purple

1. Never ever save your password for any a/c / protocol while you are using Pidgin - before you log in.

2. Please type your password each time - so that you may not have to be hacked..

The Reason:

1. Have you all ever checked - this file - under your home directory - enable to view hidden files and then go to this path - /.purple/
[So if your username is "kitty" - then go to /home/kitty/.purple/ ]

2. Issue this command - from your terminal - "gedit accounts.xml"

3. Read it properly - and you will find your password - for each and every a/c you are now logged into.

A security breach...!!!

Pidgin version I am referring to is - 2.4 and later.

Beware...

Do mail me in - about this blog... What you like and what you dont...I will try to improve with time... :)

Take care all,
Ananth Gouri

Mtools

Hi All,

This post explains how to rename a FAT32 label of your mp3 player or a USB/Flash drive.

Note that: You are doing this at your own risk and this blog is not related in any terms to a improbable damage.

Open Synaptic and install mtools.

1. Say your flash drive is at /dev/sdb1
2. You have given it a label as Ananth
3. You now want to change it to Lenny-Ananth

You can do these in 2 ways. One in using the UI based Gparted tool.

Second is this console method:

1. Before proceeding further from this step - please close all the drives, folders and apps and music and et al that is being accessed by the disk and finally umount[un-mount] the drive.

2. Open a terminal and type this command. You may have to change the device according to your device mounted. Command : sudo mlabel -i /dev/sdb1 -s ::

3. The command in step 2 should reply you back with this output : Volume label is Ananth

4. This command now changes your label: sudo mlabel -i /dev/sdb1 ::Lenny-Ananth

5. Here above step 3 and 4 commands are of the form: sudo mlabel -i device_drive -s :: and sudo mlabel -i device_drive :: new_label

Finally visit this below link for much more info and also in detail... Mine was only a high level explanation....

Change Fat32 Label

PS: In my lenny, I had to remove my usb cable of my hard disk and re-insert to make it work completely. I did not get the changed label name in the terminal when I checked it.

Hope you all like this,
Ananth Gouri

Added a 'Subscribe Via Email' Option

Hi All,

Also added a subscribe via email option to my blog..

So now - you would have 2 options.

1. To read all the RSS feeds in the Google Reader.
2. To get the post details to your email - id directly.

Let me know once you use them and do comment / criticize.

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

Added a RSS feed...

Hey All,

I just now added a RSS feed to my blog...

So now you can keep track of my blog in your mails and you need not visit my blog regularly for my irregular blog posts these days....

Happy subscribing....

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

Grub Commands for restoring Grub

Hi All,

This post tells you how to install Grub, a.k.a Grand Unified Boot Loader, using the basic so called Grub commands[common man terminologies :)]

Points to Ponder:

1. Grub gets installed on usually by default on the MBR [master boot record] , or on any other partition as a matter of fact.
2. hda - This is called the MBR of a hdd [hard disk drive/device]
3. "h"da - the older hard disks with the IDE cables
4. "s"da - the newer serial ata hard disk.

Say you had installed - Karmic Koala [code name of Ubuntu 9.10 released on Oct 29th, 09]
On Oct 30th you installed the unsupported Windows XP. XP would erase your MBR.

Note that only your MBR is destroyed and your Ubuntu 9.10 setup is perfectly intact.

To restore GRUB of a single / partition Ubuntu 9.10 - installed on /dev/hda2.

1. Put any Live Linux CD. I would prefer simpler ones like Knoppix, DSL, System Rescue CD, Puppy Linux or any live cd including Ubuntu 9.10.
2. Open a terminal as root or being sudo to konsole.
3. cd to /boot/grub folder
4. Enter "grub"
5. This step 4 will open a prompt with "*grub>"
6. root (hd0,1) --- It is zero and not Oh [character O]
7. setup (hd0) --- It is zero and not Oh [character O]

Things to re-ponder:

1. Since it is hda - yours is an IDE based harddisk. Be careful - this plays differently in different distros. Best is to check your /dev/ folder.

2. Above step 6: It is "hd0,1" --- here since you have installed the GRUB to your MBR - in the maths terms of GRUB - a "hd'a'" is equivalent to "hd'0'"
[If it is hdb then it is hd1 ---> a=0,b=1...]

3. Above step 6: Since I had told earlier that the Ubuntu is installed as a single / partition in /dev/hda2 --- here since it is 2 - Grub terms it to a "1"
[If it is /dev/hda4 then it is 4-1=3, here 1=0,2=1 and etc]

4. In step 7 above - the same 2nd point of re-ponder works for the setup command. :)

Hope this is in detail. There is one more method of restoring the GRUB without using these commands which I will post it some time later.

Take care,
Ananth Gouri

Long time post....

Hi All,

[PS: Includes lot of Regular Expres?ion?...????]

I literally know that its been a very long time since I am blogging [actually I have stopped blogging.... Kidding....] Sorry many things under my belt....

But still lets keep this going when I am going... :)

This posts tells about all[not all :(] the stuff about chgrp, chown and chmod commands of *nix. These are some of the most basic ones... and of course the most common commands too...

chgrp - change the group permissions of a file/folder.
chown - change the ownership for a file/folder and of course to/for a group.
chmod - change file mode bits. [This is long to teach for a newbie to *nix. I will[try to] post one more some other day]

Better is to give 'man' command for all these 3. ??Man learns a lot of things from 'man' :) Finally if you know no man then try giving 'man man'

Ok jokes apart...

So the main reason for me to write this post is -

What if you have saved your bank a/c details in a txt file and saved it in a folder and want to save it from creapers...

Case 1: In Doors OS :D

U have a thousand lot of softwares that encrypt / secure a folder with a password.
U also have a trillion lot of people who crack these crap softwares :)

Case 2: Enter the Linux UI world

Right click on the folder where you have saved your so called stupid document [do u do it ever???]
Go to Properties->Permissions
Do this: Change the "Folder Access:" to "List files only" under your group "Owner"
[I know it bounced over your heads... If you are a user with 'xyzabc' as your username - and you have created the folder and file under your permission mode...mail me please @ ananth.gouri@gmail.com]

Thats it and you are done... :)

Now - why did I use the other 3 commands above - If I could do the same on a GUI....??

So its simple - if you do anything in UI - then itz common-sense that it would have worked in command line before that... :D

Case 3: Enter the konsole...

For changing group - use this - chgrp -R ananth:killer mydata

Here above - U are the user - ananth and the owner, killer is the new group already created and existing, 'mydata' is your personal folder name. -R option is for doing it recursively to all the folders under 'mydata' folder...

For changing file mode bits [man it or google it]

U use this - chmod u+r mydata - and you are doing it as 'killer'

[Flaw: ananth can still get all your bank details but cant do anything more to it. He cant change[write] your a/c number. But I know that killer is not so dumb to put his ATM 4 digit password in the txt file. :D]

I would not use chown anyways...

Problem with Case 2:[Implementing this problem in Linux... Not 'Gates' of OF-COURSE]

So you are very intelligent and you save this folder of yours in a flash drive of 128Mb[Do we still get them in the market???]
Next - you are wholly[Not a typo...] shit Linux User... And you want to do the case 2 of above.

Please - dont imagine doing it - its not at all possible for ever. [For people who have got this running - add a comment please...]

Conclusion - U cant encrypt a folder like in case 2. It is not possible - as my 128Mb drive is a Fat32 formatted one. Guys - Its mounted as rw only...

Other solutions to this problem are always welcome and I would be happy to post it... I would not want stupid answers like - format the whole flash drive into ext3 or to any other Linux FS... I would not stop laughing then.... :D Lolzzzzzzzzz

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri