15 Tips to Improve your Linux Experience

The beauty of Linux is in users ability to do large amount of customization to have a unique user expereince. So today we will look in to some tips for a “better” Linux experience. The term “better” here is relative, because what works for me might seem a distraction for some or plain annoying to others; some of this “tips” might appeal to beginners, while advanced users might find it too easy. Hopefully some of these tips will be helpful to some of you.

1) Turn on your computer remotely by sending “magic network packets” to WakeOnLan supported network cards. This can be very helpful if you run a server at home but only access it occasionally. There is no need for you to have the server running all the time.

2) If you dual boot with windows, accessing Linux file system from your windows installation might be important for you. There are three windows applications that can help you do this: Explore2fs, Ext2 Installable File System, DiskInternals Linux Reader.
3) Similarly to have read/write access for Windows NTFS file system, you can use NTFS-3G. Most recent popular Linux distribution has NTFS-3G installed out of the box.

4) Share a single mouse and keyboard with multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, with support for copy and paste. Thanks to Synergy, the most popular free KVM software switch out there.

Synergy in action.

5) Recovering data from damaged media can be handled by several Linux tools including some LiveCD, specifically built to help recover data. Parted Magic, Ubuntu Rescue Remix, SystemRescueCd, Foremost (data recovery), Ddrescue.

6) If you are a blogger like me and enjoy using desktop client over web editors, you will find these clients useful: Gnome Blog, Drivel Journal Editor, BloGTK, Thingamablog, Bleezer, QTM.

7) If you are a webdeveloper/designer, you will often find yourself testing a website across many platforms and browsers. IEs4Linux is a great painless way to check how IE browser will render your website. You could use services like browsershots, but I had mixed results with them.

Does your iPod miss iTunes? Here are three itunes alternative which will do most of what your iTunes would do, not an exact replacement; but does the job: Amarok, Banshee, Rhythmbox.

9) Follow multiple files by creating multiple windows in your console with the help of MultiTail, also known as tail on steroids.

10) Use Terminator to split your screen space with many terminal windows, both horizontally and vertically.

11) For even better control over your terminal display and customization and complex functions, GNU Screen is a much better choice over terminator; however terminator serves only one purpose.

12) Use RSIBreak to help prevent Repetitive Strain Injury. RSIBreak will force you to take short break, depending on your configuration, so that you don’t over-work yourself.

RSIBreak

13) If you find yourself working on a dumb terminal (hello sysadmins) or prefer working on terminals, you will find newsbeuter to be an excellent RSS reader for the console.

14) I know some will disagree with me on this, but conky is an excellent compliment to your desktop experience. If properly configured, it can add a lot of value to your desktop environment. Check out this very creative conky setup and read about it here.

15) Do you do podcasts? rootprompt has a great article with huge resources for both Linux podcasters and listeners.

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10 ways to Tweak your Linux Boot Process

Linux rarely needs to be rebooted. But when it does, it’s often slow to boot. Fortunately, there are ways to speed things up. Some of these methods are not terribly difficult. (although some, unfortunately, are). Let’s take a look.

#1: Disable unnecessary services

Depending upon the use of the machine, plenty of services won’t be needed. Using Linux just for a desktop? Then you won’t need sendmail, httpd, and many other services. If your server is only a Web server, you can shut off many services as well. To do this, you can go to the Administration menu and take a look at the Services entry. Just deselect all of the services you don’t want to start.

#2: Disable unnecessary kernel modules

If your desktop is wired to the Ethernet, you don’t need to have a wireless kernel module loaded. This task is a bit more difficult and will require a kernel recompilation, which is not the easiest task to undertake. To do this, you will need the kernel sources. Then, follow the standard steps for compiling a kernel. The difference is that you’re going to go through your system and disable all of the modules you don’t need.

The best way to find out what kernel modules currently install and run on your system is to install Bootchart. Not only will this give you a good list of modules, it will illustrate for you what is happening during your system boot. You can also issue the command chkconfig –list | grep 3:on to find out what services are running. Once you know what loading modules you don’t need, you can remove them during a kernel recompilation. While you’re at it, compile the kernel to exactly match your architecture.

#3: Use a lightweight window manager instead of GNOME or KDE

I plug smaller footprint window managers for a reason — they drastically reduce graphical boot time. Instead of having to wait that extra 30 to 60 seconds for GNOME or KDE to boot up, why not wait two to 10 seconds for Enlightenment or XFCE to boot up? Not only will they save you boot time, they will save your memory and the headache of dealing with bloatware.

#4: Use a text-based login instead of a graphical login

Most of my Linux machines boot to run level 3 instead of run level 5. This will halt at the text-based login, where I only have to log in and issue startx to start my desktop of choice. The graphical logins do two things: increase load times and create headaches trying to recover from an X windows fubar.

#5: Use a lighter-weight distribution

Instead of loading the heavyweight Fedora, why not try a Gentoo, Arch, or Puppy Linux? The boot times for these smaller distributions are far faster than the more bloated Fedora (and even Ubuntu). Of the larger distributions, OpenSuSE claims to boot the fastest, but I have not personally tested this. Between the latest Fedora and Ubuntu, Ubuntu blows Fedora’s boot times away (and that is out of the box).

#6: Use an OpenBIOS

If you’re savvy enough to upgrade your PC’s firmware, you might consider migrating to an open source BIOS. One caveat to using open firmware is that it allows Linux to actually initialize the hardware as it boots (instead of relying on the BIOS). On top of that, many open BIOSes can be configured to meet your machine’s specific needs. If you don’t go the open BIOS route, you can at least configure your BIOS to not search for a floppy drive that’s not there or to boot directly to the first hard drive (instead of the CD drive first).

#7: Avoid dhcp

If you are working on a home network (or a small business network) where address lease isn’t a problem, go with static IP addresses. This will keep your machine from having to call out to a dhcp server to get an IP address. If you take this approach, make sure you configure your /etc/resolve.conf to reflect your DNS server addresses as well.

#8: If you can spare it, get rid of hotplug

Hotplug is the system that allows you to plug in new devices and use them immediately. If you know your server won’t need this system, delete it. This will cut down on boot time. On many systems, hotplugging consumes much of the boot time. Removing hotplug will vary depending upon the distribution you use. NOTE: udev has, for the most part, replaced hotplug. But if you’re running an older distribution, this does apply.

#9: If you are REALLY daring, you could give initng a try

The initng system serves as a replacement for the sysvinit system and promises to drastically decrease boot times in UNIX-like operating systems. If you would like to see the initng system in action, you can give the Pingwinek livecd a try.

#10: Use a hack with Debian

If you’re using Debian, there is a simple hack you can use to switch your startup scripts to run in parallel. If you look at the /etc/init.d/rc script, you will see: CONCURRENCY=none around line 24. Change this line to CONCURRENCY=shell and you should see a reduction in boot times.

That’s about it. Of course there are always more and better hacks out there. But the above should mostly cover everything. The good news is that you’re most likely already running Linux, so the burden of boot times is generally eased by the infrequency of reboots.

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Reboot Linux using simple fork()

We all know that the simplest function in Linux is fork(). The fork is used create a child process which is an exact copy of the calling process (parent process). You might be thinking how can such a simple function reboot a linux machine. Well I must tell you that the program I am going to discuss today uses only this fork function and can force a Linux Server which can serve as many as 100 computers to get rebooted. I have tried this on my College’s Linux Server which Serves more than 200 computers at a time and I was lucky to get out of this situation.

Warning: I am not responsible to whatever happens to your computer after exceuting the following program on your computer.

I have found a simple C Program whose source is as follows:

#include

int main()
{
int i;
for(i=1;i<=300;i++)
{
printf(”%d”,fork());
}
return(1);
}

- Open the Linux Shell.
- Write the above program in your vi Editor and save it as reboot.c
- Now compile the program using following command:
gcc -o reboot reboot.c
- Now to execute the program type the following
./reboot
and press Enter.

Explanation: In the above program, I have used a loop of 300 iterations. In the first iteration it will execute the fork command which will create a child process which is the exact copy of the parent process i.e. the child process will have the same code as the parent process and it will execute simultaneously with the parent process. So in the next iteration both parent process and the child process will execute fork command which will in turn create child processes with the exact copy of their parent processes and this process of creation of child processes will be in the power of 2 i.e. after the first iteration the total number of processes will be 1 parent and 1 child = 2 process. After 2nd iteration the number of process will be 1 parent and 3 child = 4 process. And this will continue to double and at the end the total number of processes will be 2³⁰⁰ which is quite a big number. If you try to calculate this value in your calc it will take atleast 1 hour. So when you will execute the above program your linux machine will get overloaded and will be forced to reboot.

I executed this program in college’s Computer Lab and all the computer got hanged and after 1 or 2 mins a Global message was displayed that “Linux server is going to Reboot”. Since nobody knew what had happened I could get away from that situation. Hope that my lab faculty don’t read this Article.

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Keyboard Shortcuts for Ubuntu

For those who are not familiar with Linux, Ubuntu is one of the most popular and most widely used Linux distributions.

Over the years that I have used Ubuntu, other than the usual Ctrl + C (copy) and Ctrl + V (paste) shortcuts, I have discovered quite a number of keyboard shortcuts that are very useful, but seldom used by many. If you are looking for more keyboard shortcuts to add to your collection, I am sure you will be able to find some new tricks here.

1. Switch to the next/previous workspace

If you make use of the workspace very frequently, you can easily switch between different workspaces by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Left/Right Arrow. The Left key brings you to the previous workspace while the Right key brings you to the next adjacent. If you have enabled Compiz, you can even get it to show all the workspace by pressing Super + E on the keyboard.

2. Move the current window to another workspace

By pressing Shift+ Ctrl + Alt + Left/Right Arrow, you can easily move your current window to another workspace in the specified direction. This keyboard shortcut works very well with the one mentioned above. If you have the habit of opening many applications/windows when doing your work, but don’t like to see your desktop and menubar cluttered with all the application windows, you can use this shortcut key to move your applications to another workspace and get your desktop organized.

3. Show the desktop

Ctrl + Alt + D enables you to quickly minimize all windows and give focus to the desktop. When all windows are minimized, this shortcut can also maximize all the windows to their previous state.

4. Keyboard shortcut for the mouse right-click

In most applications, you can always right-click on the mouse to access the options menu. On the keyboard, you can simply press Shift + F10 to achieve this ‘right-click‘ effect

5. Restart session and recover from crashes

There are very few instances where Ubuntu will crash totally. But if it does, you can press Ctrl + Alt + Backspace to restart the session, and 90% of the time, it will recover from the crashes.

6. Lock the screen quickly

If you need to leave your workstation for a while, you can quickly lock up your screen by pressing Ctrl + Alt + L and prevent unauthorized access by others.

7. Switch between windows in the reverse direction

Alt + Tab is a common shortcut key that allow you to switch between open windows. But do you know that by including the ‘Shift‘ button, you can reverse the windows switching direction? This is useful when you press Alt + Tab too fast and passed the window that you want to switch to. Simply press down the ‘Shift‘ button to go back to the previous window in the switch cycle.

8. Move windows with arrow keys

Press Alt+F7 to activate the Move window function and use any arrows key (up, down, left, right) to move the window around the screen.

9. Show hidden files

Most of the time, you won’t need to view the hidden files in your home folder, but in the event that you need to, you can press Ctrl + H inside the Nautilus (the file manager for Ubuntu) to show all hidden files.

10. Show file properties without right-clicking the mouse

The conventional way to view a file/folder properties is to right-click the mouse and select ‘Properties‘. Now you can just press Alt + Enter to get the Properties window to appear.

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5 Myths about Internet Safety

“Internet Safety” the term has been getting vague with the increasing virus outbreaks nowdays. PC Magazine once conducted a survey in which they asked the participants to rate their broadband ISP services and the results were astonishing. Most of users didn’t completelty understand the seriousness of potential threats or how to protect their PCs. Here are the top 5 Myths about safe surfing over internet.

Myth 1 - I don’t keep important things on my PC, so I don’t have to worry about security. Your PC can be infected over internet

Long time ago,this was partially true… but the hybrid worms and viruses of today like Blaster, hidrag and others blindly spread across internet to thousands or millions of PCs in a matter of hours, without regard for who owns them, what is stored there, or the value of the information they hold for the sole purpose of wreaking havoc. Even if your computer is not attacked directly, it can be used as a zombie to launch a denial-of-service or other attack on a network or to send spam or pornography to other PCs without being traced. Therefore, your civic responsibility is to protect your PC so that others are protected.

Myth 2 - I can protect my PC if I disconnect from the Internet or turn it off when I’m not using it.

Wrong. You are a target,If you connect to the Internet at all. You could download a virus when you connect to internet and it may not be activated immediately, not until you read your email offline days after. Viruses nowadays spread wildly through USB/Pen drives, pirated cd’s or torrents or file from networks.

Myth 3 - I can protect myself from viruses by not opening suspicious e-mail attachments. Some viruses simply get activated by reading or previewing an e-mail

Wrong again. The next virus you get may come from your best friend’s or boss’ computer if his e-mail address book was compromised for simulating an attack. Hybrid worms can enter through the Web browser through loopholes and it is possible to activate some viruses simply by reading or previewing an e-mail. You simply must have a PC-based antivirus package or a firewall.

Myth 4 - I have a Macintosh (or a Linux-based system), not a Windows system, so I don’t have to worry about being attacked.

It is true that most attacks target Microsoft Windows–based PCs, but there have been attacks against Mac OS and Linux systems as well. Some experts have predicted that the Mac virus problem will get worse, because Mac OS X uses a version of Unix. And although these systems have some useful securityfeatures, they can still be attacked.

Myth 5 - My system came with an Anti-virus package, so I’m protected.

Not quite. Firstly, if you haven’t activated your antivirus to scan incoming web traffic automatically, you don’t have a good Anti-virus and malware protection software. Secondly, new threats appear daily, so an antivirus package is only as good as its last update so its a must to activate the auto-update features to keep your guard up against the latest threats. Thirdly, an antivirus package can’t protect you from every threat. Malwares, spywares are running in the wild out there and every now and then malicious code penetrate weak systems. You need a combination of solutions, including, at minimum, antivirus, a personal firewall ,an anti spyware/malware package and a plan for keeping your operating system and software up to date with security patches.

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Remove RavMon.exe virus without any anti-virus(Do it your self)

Removing Ravmon Virus without Anti-Virus is easy, btw I haven’t met any Anti Virus which can remove this virus. They can stop your pc from being infected but once you are infected they wont be able to remove it.
I don’t know the Actual Name of this virus nor its effects

Anyways its very easy to remove it.

You will have to follow just few simple steps.

• check if your Infected.
• Stop currently running virus.
• Delete virus files.
• Remove virus to run from startup.

So here are the following steps explained:

Remember until you delete the virus files please open drives using address bar by typing C:\ D:\ X:\ as the virus is activated if you double click the drive
1. Right click any drive on your computer and see if right click menu shows some invalild characters
like this

If yes then you are infected.

2. Press Alt+Ctrl+Del to bring up the task manager (or right click taskbar to run it) there will be a program in processes named “SVCHOST.EXE” there will be few svchost in small case but check one in capital letters, if you see more than one “SVCHOST.EXE” (all caps one) end the one with your username infront of it instead of LOCAL SERVICE, NETWORK SERVICE or SYSTEM(by pressing end process).
3. To delete the virus files you need to show system protected files.
For this goto
My Computer->(Menu) Tools-> Folder Options -> (Tab) View -> uncheck “Hide System protected files” -> press OK
If you are unable to unhide the system files you can use 3rd party software to browse drive and delete files, try ACDsee or WinRAR
Now open drive (by typing drive letter in address bar)
Delete these 2 files

• Autorun.inf
• Ravmon.exe

Also delete those in all drives (not CD(WR) or DVD(WR) drives) (and remember don’t double click else you will have to start over from top) Open Windows folder and delete SVCHOST.EXE, SVCHOST.dll and MDM.EXE
Now restart the explorer.exe process by killing it in taskmanager and runing it again [(winkey + R), type “explorer” and hit enter]

Now right click the drive letter and ull see a clean menu congrats virus is removed 4. Now remove it from startup (Optional as files are deleted)
Winkey + R type “msconfig” hit enter




Goto startup tab-> (uncheck) MDM -> OK -> Exit without Restart
How to prevent from this virus in feature
just right click any USB drive (that includes iPod) you have plugged into your PC
if they have currpoted menu the drive is Infected.
Access drive by typing Drive letter and Delete files from that drive
Remember you double click the curropted drive you get infected else you are safe.
The End

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3 Reasons Everyone Should Clean Their Windows Registry

Windows Vista Registry

Just like older Windows operating systems, the registry is an important component of the Windows Vista operating system. It is the central database in which your Vista operating system stores configuration information related to installed hardware and software. The registry also stores preferences of various users configured on your PC and the system setup information. Because the registry controls almost all functions that occur on your PC, the chances of registry errors are quite high.

Furthermore, because your operating system, hardware, and applications are dependent on the registry to carry out various activities, registry errors have a direct affect on the performance of your system and the way applications work on it. The top three problems caused by an unhealthy registry are discussed here.

Frequent System Errors

Overtime, a large number of unwanted data accumulates in the registry causing it to grow uncontrollably, making it cluttered and fragmented. A corrupted registry is unstable and generates frequent system errors, application errors, and causes system freezes and crashes.

To prevent these errors and system crashes, you need to regularly scan the registry for errors and get rid of all unwanted information stored in it. Doing this will help you maintain a compact and healthy registry and also prevent system errors.

Deteriorated System Performance

If you monitor the activity of your Windows Vista registry, you will see hundreds of entries being accessed, removed, and added to it within a short amount of time. Due to this constant addition and removal of information, registry files tend to get fragmented. Many times, when a key is removed, it leaves behind a place holder in the registry, which is actually an empty registry key and is of no use. These registry holes also unnecessarily contribute toward increasing registry size and making it unstable.

A fragmented and unstable registry deteriorates the performance of your Vista computer. Therefore, to speed up your PC, you need to regularly clean and defrag the Windows registry to maintain its contiguity and prevent it from growing too large.

Accumulation of Malicious Registry Keys

You know that all programs on your Vista PC have to access the registry to perform various operations. Well, the same goes with malware programs such as viruses, Trojans, spyware and adware too. If your PC is infected by any kind of malware, your registry is likely to be filled up with many malicious registry keys added by these programs. Although you may get rid of malware using antivirus and antispyware tools, a few registry keys may get left behind.

You can easily get rid of these left-behind malicious registry keys when you perform registry cleanup.

How Registry Cleaners Can Help

A large number of registry cleaner tools are available in the market today that you can use to perform registry fix and cleanup. Using a reliable registry cleaner tool you can:

* Scan and remove all unwanted information from the registry and ensure yourself an error-free PC.
* Defrag the registry to make the registry files contiguous and the registry compact, thereby reducing the data access time and boosting the performance of your PC.
* Perform a deep scan of the registry and weed out hidden malware registry keys.
* Make registry backups that you can use to restore the registry in case it fails.

To ensure that your PC is free from system errors and malware and is at its best performance, you should regularly clean your registry. The simplest and the most efficient method to do this is by using a registry cleaner utility.

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Set Default Search Options

This tweak will modify the standard search parameters so they do not have to be reset for each individual search.



[Start] [Run] [Regedit]



Registry Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\ Explorer


[Any or all of the five Value Names below may be modified to customize search options]


Modify/Create the Value Name [CaseSensitive] according to the Value Data listed below.
Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value] // Value Name: CaseSensitive
Value Data: [0 - Unselected / 1 - Selected as Default]

Modify/Create the Value Name [IncludeSubFolders] according to the Value Data listed below.
Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value] // Value Name: IncludeSubFolders
Value Data: [0 - Unselected / 1 - Selected as Default]

Modify/Create the Value Name [SearchHidden] according to the Value Data listed below.
Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value] // Value Name: SearchHidden
Value Data: [0 - Unselected / 1 - Selected as Default]

Modify/Create the Value Name [SearchSlowFiles] according to the Value Data listed below.
Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value] // Value Name: SearchSlowFiles
Value Data: [0 - Unselected / 1 - Selected as Default]

Modify/Create the Value Name [SearchSystemDirs] according to the Value Data listed below.
Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value] // Value Name: SearchSystemDirs
Value Data: [0 - Unselected / 1 - Selected as Default]


Exit Registry and Reboot

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Enable/Disable Logon Screen Saver

Note: This applies only to the default Login [login.scr] screensaver and is not the same as screensaver selections made in the [Display Properties] property sheet accessed by right clicking on the desktop and selecting [Properties] from the context menu.

[Start] [Run] [Regedit]


Registry Key: HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop
Data Type: REG_SZ [String Value] // Value Name: ScreenSaveActive


Modify/Create the Value Name [ScreenSaveActive] according to the Value Data listed below.


Value Data: [0 = ScreenSaveActive Disabled / 1 = ScreenSaveActive Enabled]


Exit Registry and Reboot

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Disable Run Commands

This tweak controls the use of the Run command on the local machine।



[Start] [Run] [Regedit]



Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\ Policies\Explorer
Create a DWORD value for each Run function that will be disabled.

Modify/Create the Value Name [DisableLocalMachineRun] according to the Value Data listed below.
Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value] // Value Name: DisableLocalMachineRun


Modify/Create the Value Name [DisableLocalMachineRunOnce] according to the Value Data listed below.
Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value] // Value Name: DisableLocalMachineRunOnce


Modify/Create the Value Name [DisableCurrentUserRun] according to the Value Data listed below.
Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value] // Value Name: DisableCurrentUserRun


Modify/Create the Value Name [DisableCurrentUserRunOnce] according to the Value Data listed below.
Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value] // Value Name: DisableCurrentUserRunOnce


Setting for Value Data: [0 = Disabled / 1 = Enabled]



Exit Registry and Reboot

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