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Guide to faster Ubuntu
Ubuntu is already pretty speedy compared to some bloated OSes out there, but here’s a way to make it a bit faster.
Installing & Using TimeVault in Ubuntu/Debian
TimeVault is a simple front-end for making snapshots of a set of directories. Snapshots are a copy of a directory structure or file at a certain point in time. Restore functionality is integrated into Nautilus - previous versions of a file or directory that has a snapshot can be accessed by examining the properties and selecting the ‘Previous Versions’ tab.
Snapshots are protected from accidental deletion or modification since they are read-only by default. The super-user can delete intermediate snapshots to save space, but files and directories that existed before or after the deletion will still be accessible.
A snapshot is a copy of a directory at a certain point in time. Snapshots don’t use space for the files that haven’t changed but instead simply increment the link count for them. On Linux, when a file is deleted, the link count is decremented, but it isn’t actually removed until the link count hits zero.
Only files are hard-linked this way. Directories have to be recreated for technical reasons (since a hard-link is actually the file it points to, you would find yourself in a completely different path if directories were hard-linked).
Installing TrueCrypt in Fedora 9
TrueCrypt (http://www.truecrypt.org/) is a popular free on-the-fly disk encryption software that can encrypt files, partitions, whole disks and even a windows installation. It is an extremely useful and important tool if you wish to keep personal and confidential data from being accessed by unauthorized people. TrueCrypt even supports plausible deniability, allowing you to hide an encrypted volume inside another volume. TrueCrypt volumes are indistinguishable from random data, so an adversary cannot prove that you have a TrueCrypt volume hidden inside a dummy encrypted volume.
Unfortunately, the TrueCrypt website only provides binaries for Ubuntu and OpenSuSE, so for those of us running other distros, the only option is to compile from source. The steps below outline the installation procedure on a Fedora 9 machine.
Making Sense of Gentoo’s USE Flags
One of the best features of the Gentoo Linux Distribution is the fact that you can customize it to suit whatever needs your Operating System should provide. This stems from the fact that, because it is a “source-based” distribution, you can enable or disable different features in certain programs before the source code gets built into “binaries”.
For example, say you need to use Samba to connect to a Windows based computer, you probably do not need to have LDAP support built into Samba (which would be used as a database backend to hold user accounts, passwords, etc. if you want to use Samba as a Primary Domain Controller). So when you build Samba on a Gentoo Linux System, you “tell” it to build it without LDAP support to make the resultant binaries both smaller in size and possibly a little more robust.
Unfortunately, most Gentoo users don’t take the time to tackle various USE flags, which results in a very unorganized /etc/make.conf file, as well as a system that either has too much “bloat” or doesn’t provide all the features that are possibly available to the user.
Ghost your Suse installation with dd
While in the process of creating SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop or Server systems for customers I often have a need to create an image of a system so that when I mess up, I can at least get back to a working state. Listed below are the steps to creating an image and then deploying that same image using dd.
How to use the Uncomplicated Firewall in Ubuntu
Don’t want to mess with iptables? (1, 2, 3) Well in Ubuntu there’s an easier way with the Uncomplicated Firewall. Originally posted at Ubuntu Unleashed and further covered at the Ubuntu Wiki.
Here is an overview on howto use ufw the Uncomplicated Firewall. Enjoy.
Encrypt Your Ubuntu During Install
Data encryption is one of the best methods to protect your sensitive files, especially if you own a laptop. Unfortunately, on the Ubuntu operating system, it’s only available in the text mode installer. But that’s why this guide is here, to help you install a fully encrypted Ubuntu OS on your computer. whole process is completely safe and it is recommended to be used by anyone out there who wants to protect his/her sensitive data. To break it down to you: No more living in fear! Your data will NOT be stolen anymore!
Also See: Encrypted Root File System during install in OpenSuse 10.3
A step-by-step guide to building a new SELinux policy module
Who’s afraid of SELinux? Well, if you are, you shouldn’t be! Thanks to the introduction of new GUI tools, customizing your system’s protection by creating new policy modules is easier than ever. In this article, Dan Walsh gently walks you through the policy module creation process.
A lot of people think that building a new SELinux policy is magic, but magic tricks never seem quite as difficult once you know how they’re done. This article explains how I build a policy module and gives you the step-by-step process for using the tools to build your own.
Preventing Debian Package Upgrades
The simple mechanism Debian has for performing package upgrades, apt-get, is often touted as a good thing and indeed it is. But sometimes you will have a package installed that you absolutely do not want to be upgraded.
There are two ways that you can achieve this, depending on what it is that you’re trying to achieve.
If you have a locally modified package which you don’t want to upgrade then you can put this on “hold”. This means that even if a newer version of that package is available it will not be upgraded. Ever.
This does mean that you run the risk of being behind the curve, and missing out on a security fix, but that’s something that you will have to deal with yourself.