Monthly Archives: February 2011

System Recovery Tools: a possible cross-platform approach through open source and proprietary solutions

The following system recovery tools will be useful to you if you are facing problem of data loss or if your system is simply crashing. It is advisable to burn copies of these tools much before any disaster strikes.

Open Source and Free approach:

G4L aka Ghost for Linux is one of the system recovery tools that is mainly a cloning and hard disk and partition imaging tool. This tool is similar to “Norton Ghost”. The images created are compressed optionally and transferred to a FTP server instead of opting for cloning locally. Ideally, of the several tools described above it is advisable to use the most suitable tool for your needs. The tool that will be most useful during a crisis like a crash or server failure will be a better tool.

The Ultimate Boot CD is one of the system recovery tools which will be very helpful when you want to run CDRom-based diagnostic tools thereby consolidating as many diagnostic tools into one bootable CD as possible. Since you can now boot from USB memory devices a script you can run “Ultimate Boot CD” from USB memory stick and a script on the script on the CD will enable you to boot newer systems from your USB sticks. This is many steps ahead than many of the other recovery tools. Moreover it gives you the flexibility of booting your system with a USB memory stick.

Knoppix is one of the system recovery tools which is essentially a bootable CD with GNU/Linux software. It ensures automatic detection of hardware and supports a wide range of devices like sound cards, most of the graphic cards, USB and SCSI devices and other peripherals. It can be used as an educational CD, a Linux demo or for system recovery purposes. Alternatively it can be used as a commercial platform for software demos. There is no need to install anything on the hard-disk as the CD is capable of storing 2GB of software installed in it. Thus this tool is a truly multi-purpose recovery tool.

Proprietary solutions:

O&O Disk recovery: This software tool scans every portion of your hard-disk, digital camera or memory card for lost files. It is so effective and reliable that it is possible to reconstruct data even when files systems have been destroyed or formatted. More than 350 types of files like music formats, word documents, movie, graphics, Excel workbooks, photo and access databases can be recognized, reconstructed and restored.

SuperDuper is one of the system recovery tools makes recovery effortless as it creates a completely bootable backup effortlessly. The strengths of this software are that it is user-friendly, easy to use with a built-in scheduler that it makes backup automatically. Moreover it performs well independent of the processor that is both on Power PC Macs as well as Intel PCs. It is particularly useful when your software application with the latest update is not working or when your hard drive begins to make noise. It is also very handy when you want to restore a stable copy of your system though you do not want t lose your existing system files or cases like this.

Create ‘alias’ (shortcuts to commands) using Linux Sophisticated Commands

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Long sophisticated instructions are usually not solely tough to recollect but in addition take a lot of time to be typed. When it’s a must to use them on day by day foundation, you turn into annoyed when typing them repeatedly and again… So, ‘alias’ are extra appropriate for lengthy and complex commands.

Let’s think about an example.

To find the top 10 largest files in your system, you can set the next ‘alias’:

alias top10files=”find . -type f -exec ls -sh {} \; | sort -n -r | head -10”

You can even combine different instructions with ‘alias’. As an illustration, if you happen to often use ‘tail’ and direct its output to file to later view that file, you may set a very simple ‘alias’ to do this cumbersome operation in 1 word:

alias Tail=”tail /var/log/messages > hello.txt;cat hello.txt”

Now just enter ‘Tail’ and voila! All is done at once.

You need to use any file with tail and direct its output and you’ll even use ‘nano’ or ‘vi’ to view/edit its output.

Here’s one other example… ‘alias’ to connect to a remote server:

alias any_name=”ssh -l -p ”

You possibly can even create ‘alias’ on your bash scripts, like:

alias clc=”sh /home/user/myscripts/calc.sh”

Now that you have set a number of totally different ‘alias’ you may want to test that which ‘alias’ are set in your system. To do that, simply difficulty the next command:

alias

and it will list all the set ‘alias’ you have.

To remove an ‘alias’, just issue the ‘unalias’ command, like:

unalias Google

and now typing Google in Terminal will do nothing (as it was set with lynx).

To remove all the ‘alias’, issue the following command and all the ‘alias’ are gone:

unalias -a

We have mentioned the way in which of setting the ‘alias’ for different sorts of commands. However setting ‘alias’ in this approach be temporary. While you reboot you PC, all the ‘alias’ which you will have set will probably be gone. This does not mean that it’s a must to set all of the ‘alias’ each time you boot your PC. You probably have set an ‘alias’ and you favored it a lot that you really want it to completely reside in you PC, simply add this alias in ‘.bashrc’ file in you dwelling directory. For example, if you would like ‘alias’:

Set up <software_name>

to permanently reside in your PC then user your favorite text editor and add the following line in your ‘~/.bashrc’ file:

alias Install=”sudo apt-get install”

Now this ‘alias’ will not vanish into thin air when you reboot your PC. Only those ‘alias’ which are listed in ‘~/.bashrc’ file will be permanent.

This information is just a preview about ‘alias’. It’s just about primary ways of using ‘alias’ to make your life simpler. ‘GNU alias’ is a instrument which can simplify your life immensely. But sadly this device isn’t given the attention it deserves. Briefly, it is such a strong tool that when you give it proper time, it could possibly make you overlook typing.

Ubuntu to Windows XP folder sharing

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Computer networks are sometimes comprised of various OS and while operating a network made up fully of Ubuntu desktop and server computer systems would definitely be enjoyable, some community environments can consist of both Ubuntu and Microsoft Windows systems working together.
If you want to make an Ubuntu shared folder be accessible to Windows XP, run the NTFS configuration tool on the drive.
Don’t forget that it is advisable to have admin rights to do that modification.
Select application->Accessories->Terminal
then type the following:

sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf

and in the [global] section add the following line:

usershare proprietor only = false

Enabling remote desktop on a VirtualBox Machine

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To enable remote desktop on a VirtualBox machine, you have to follow these steps:
VBoxManage modifyvm MachineName -vrdp
This command enables rdp on the virtual machine
VBoxManage startvm MachineName -type vrdp

It starts virtual machine, listening for rdp request on port 3389 (default port)
rdesktop-vrdp localhost

Connects virtual machine with rdp (You can use rdesktop too).
If you want to change rdp port, use this command:
VBoxManage modifyvm MachineName -vrdpport

Also, enabling authentication for rdp is possible:
VBoxManage modifyvm MachineName -vrdpauthtype null | external | guest

VBoxManage is the command line interface of the VirtualBox.
You can make these settings with GUI: Settings -> Remote Display -> Enable VRDP Server
If you want to use your virtual machine with vrdp only, you can use this command simply:
VBoxHeadless -startvm MachineName

Note: RDP server is not included in Open Source Edition of the VirtualBox. If you want to use this feature, you have to use closed-source edition.

Using iPhone internet sharing over bluetooth under Linux

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To use your iPhone’s internet connection through a Linux notebook over bluetooth, you have to open Tethering option on your iPhone device, under the Settings->General->Network section.

After that you can install Blueman (a simple and intuitive bluetooth manager) for easily configuring bluetooth PAN network:

apt-get install blueman

Start blueman-manager and find your mobile device and connect to it. When connection completed successfully, select Device->Add->Network Access Point in blueman-manager.
And the last step, configure the network interface:

dhclient bnep

Logwatch on Ubuntu Desktop/Server

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Logwatch is an Ubuntu modular log analyzer that runs every night and mails you the results. It can also be run from command line. The output is by service and you can limit the output to one particular service. The subscripts which are responsible for the output, mostly convert the raw log lines in structured format.
Logwatch generally ignores the time component in the output, that means, you will know that the reported event was logged in the requested range of time, but you will have to go to the raw log files to get the exact details.
Install logwatch using the following command: