Category Archives: linux

fight corona with folding@home on a headless ubuntu linux box

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I wrote about using Grid computing to fight cancer a while back using leftover Azure credits.
So now with Corona having the world in its grip, it’s time to shift our attention to that nasty virus and throw some CPU cycles at it instead.

If you have an Ubuntu machine running somewhere and you want to install the Folding@Home client on it, you can do so by following the simple steps listed below.

First download the FAH client application:

wget https://download.foldingathome.org/releases/public/release/fahclient/debian-testing-64bit/v7.4/fahclient_7.4.4_amd64.deb

Then, run the installer. It will guide you through the setup process.

sudo dpkg -i --force-depends fahclient_7.4.4_amd64.deb

Just choose a name and an optional team. You best let it start automatically as well.

That’s basically it. Since you’re running it all headless, there’s no need for any of the other packages listed on the site.

You can check if things are running by checking the log file stored in /var/lib/fahclient/log.txt

If you want to change the configuration after installing the client in /etc/fahclient/config.xml you have to start and stop the client like this:

sudo /etc/init.d/FAHClient stop
sudo /etc/init.d/FAHClient start

If you had the World Grid Computing client installed already, you can stop that by using:

sudo /etc/init.d/boinc-client stop

If you want to full install instructions for the FAHclient or installation instructions for other flavors of Linux, check out the official installation guide.
Once it’s running and processed a few work units, you can check your stats at this URL: https://stats.foldingathome.org/donor/yourname

Have fun kicking Corona ass!

why an open sourced .NET framework is huge

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free

I was already excited about the recent ASP.NET vNext developments. Things like the fact that you can get the ASP.NET source code on Github, that it’s completely FOSS and that it’s disconnected from the rest of the .NET stack are just plain awesome.

A huge step for ASP.NET vNext is that you don’t need Visual Studio to write software with it. You can use your favourite text editor like Vim, Sublime, Emacs or whatever you like, together with a number of open source command line tools.

A second huge thing is that ASP.NET 5 can now run cross-platform using Mono on Linux and Mac. Not only can you use your development tools of choice to write and build your C# code, you can also do it on the OS of your choice. .NET everywhere. Think about it. *mind blown*

Yesterday however, things got even sweeter as Microsoft is now releasing more of the v5 .NET Framework as open source. This means more and easier cross-platform development and Mono compatibility (as the source can be easily integrated in Mono) for .NET code.

On top of that there is now a new Visual Studio Community edition of Visual Studio available for free. This is equal to the Pro version, so you can ditch those crippled free “Express” versions and write code in the tools you’re used to professionally. I love this one. I’ve messed around with SharpDevelop and the Express version, but if you’re used to the “real thing” it feels like having to work with your hands tied behind your back.

As if this wasn’t enough there’s a bunch of other cool improvements too, like getting only the .NET framework components you need for your project and pull them in using NuGet. Scott Hanselman sums them up nicely.

So if you’ve always wanted to check out .NET or C# but didn’t want to because you had to run it on Windows and in Visual Studio, there’s nothing holding you back any more. For .NET developers this is great. It gives us more freedom than ever without having to learn a new language and framework. For people hacking away on OS X and Ubuntu with Ruby, Python etc. because they want to use FOSS, this is an opportunity to dip into the wealth of .NET resources out there and try something new.

The strategy is clear. They want everyone to use the .NET framework, they want everybody to run that code on Azure (even if you’re not using .NET) and they see that making it open is the only way to get there. Great times are ahead.

windows rescue kit on a usb stick

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Attempt Repair Install

While cleaning up an old machine I was first using CCleaner from Windows to wipe some partitions because DBAN crashed for some reason on it. To clean some of the Linux partitions on the drive which Windows can’t access, I dropped them so I could re-add them as NTFS partitions for further wiping. Problem was I forgot those partitions where also hosting my master boot record, so when I rebooted to confirm my partition changes… I ended up with a unbootable system.

Oops.

Now I had to find a way to wipe those disks from Linux, but first I still wanted to get access to my WinXP setup. I could have just nuked it from orbit (read: boot from a Linux Live CD and shred it) but I was just wondering if I would manage to get it to boot again, just in case I do this on a system that really matters some day. So I started browsing to the ISO’s available on the Universal USB Boot installer and ran into the awesome Trinity Rescue Kit.

I installed it on a very small USB drive (265MB) I had lying around and managed to rewrite me a Windows boot record with the tools supplied from the text-based menu. Nice! I also noticed that it has a bunch of disk rescue tools on board like a backup tool, full NTFS support, the Midnight Commander explorer for file recovery and a Windows password reset tool (hackedy-hack). On top of that it also has a virus scanner on board, ways to set up network file shares and good, detailed documentation.

This distro is certainly one that is getting a nice spot on my PC CPR tool belt. Without exploring all the goodness Trinity has to offer I’m sure it’s a huge time saver if you need to help out with a unbootable system or one seriously infected with trojans or virii. You can even use this to set up a headless file share server in no time if you want.

Good stuff.

Photo by lilbambi01, cc-licensed.

securely wiping your hard drive without dban

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Technologic

Well if DBAN doesn’t cut it for some reason there’s always a more native Linux way to do this.

Step one is getting a Linux live CD, DVD or USB stick and boot from that. I used the Debian Live CD myself, which boots into character mode so you don’t end up with XServer not getting your video settings right.

Once you’re in a shell, you can use the shred command to wipe your HD’s data by overwriting it a number of times with random data. I found that out by reading a post by a lad named Jason on the topic which was a nice help. I only had to add the “sudo” call in front of the command to actually allow it to get write access to the disk on Debian.

First figure out what partition/drive you want to wipe by running:

cat /proc/partitions

Then, in my case, I had to run this to wipe sda:

sudo shred -fvz -n 6 /dev/sda

The -fvz basically means, [f]orce write permissions, [v]erbose output so you can see the wiping progress and write [z]ero’s on the last run to hide the wiping. -n 6 tells it to do 6 runs of random data writing.

Using DBAN is still the easier way to get this done, but if that’s causing you trouble you can use this as a backup wiping measure.

Photo by Hugo Chinaglia, cc-licensed.

getting a wordpress linux box up in 5 minutes (*)

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diving

If you’ve ever went to the trouble of setting up WordPress on a Windows machine yourself, going through a PHP, MySQL and phpMyAdmin installation, then sort through all the IIS crap you run into you’ll love TurnKey Linux virtual appliances (aka pre-installed virtual machine boxes).

You can for example download a WordPress appliance which has all the stuff mentioned above pre-installed, launch it in VMWare Player, go through a 5 minute config et voilà! You have your very own virtual Ubuntu box up and running with a fully functioning fresh WordPress install on it. You can even flex your 1337 Linux command line skillz through “Shell in a box” which simulates a shell window in your browser. Or you can use SFTP/SSH. Wickedness indeed.

There’s more fun to be had though. Lot’s of other cool appliance are available containing tons of Open Source Software to be messed with. There’s a LAMP stack, one for Drupal, Ruby (how hip!) etc. Not quite geeky enough for ya? Well alright, go ahead then, get one of those appliances and upload it to Amazon EC2 and be all “in the cloud”. Cause they can do that you know. Oh yeah.

Don’t know if it’s a good idea though. Security wise and all.

(*) If you have VMWare Player installed and already downloaded the zip file of course. :)

Photo by MissMaze, cc-licensed.

finding out where software is installed on ubuntu

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The Infamy of a Story Never Told by Felipe Morin
Pic by Felipe Morin, cc-licensed

For someone not accustomed to the Unix file system hierarchy you might have a hard time figuring out where the heck that package manager installed software you just selected. That is when it doesn’t occur automatically in your Ubuntu Application menu in the first place. Well there is a simply way to figure that out without having to look through all those mysterious usr, var and etc folders.

  1. Open up your Synaptic Package manager.
  2. Search and select the package you want to know the installation folder of.
  3. Right click it, and select Properties.
  4. Go to the Installed files tab of the property window.
  5. There you have it, all installed files and there location on your disk.

Now you can manually browse to it and run it by double clicking the binary.
If you want to add a shortcut or launcher to your Applications menu for the newly installed app, you can do this by right clicking the Applications menu, and selecting “Edit menus”.
Step by step details on how to add a new entry can be found on ubuntugeek.com.