ikkerus.net – Feel liberated to ingest OpenSource!

So now, let us see, what we have to do, to set up Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) with key authorization only (no pam auth).

First, we have to download the Ubuntu 9.10 Server image from ubuntu.com (x86 or x64 based on your hardware or virtual machine). I will not explain everything here, something included in this QnD are internet basics.

I used VirtualBox 3.1.2 on a Windows Vista (piece of garbage) to install it. I just created a new machine with Ubuntu x64 and a 10 GB fixed size (for performence) virtual harddisk file (.vdi). This will take some time…

When VirtualBox is creating the harddisk i was forced to create my ssh key using ssh keygen on another physikal Ubuntu 9.10 desktop machine.

ssh-keygen -t rsa

You will be asked were to store the key and if you want to use a passhrase (password) for this key (enter twice). I just left the directory for storing the key default and entered my own passphare.

Now its time to boot from the downloaded ISO-File and start installing Ubuntu on the virtual machine, but I will not explain every step here, just basics.

The language is some kind of what “you like to use to”. I like to use the english language because its default in the ICT and I have no problems using it. It’s important that you choose the right timezone (for several programs like postfix) so the installer will show you just the American English timezones, if you chose American English in the language setup. Just choose “other” to get the other timezones.

Partitions:

root@zeus:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 10.7 GB, 10737418240 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1305 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000e0191

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1         729     5855661   83  Linux
/dev/sda2             730         851      979965    5  Extended
/dev/sda3             852        1305     3646755   83  Linux
/dev/sda5             730         851      979933+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Later you have to create the system user. Please note that the password should have at least 8 caracters, otherwise Ubuntu will mark it as too weak, but you can continue with a weak password.

When you are at the point chosing packages (e.g. samba, mail etc.) you choose nothing. I think it is imperative to self-install everything you need.
If the installation of grub fails, just try it again. Maybe the device wasn’t found the first time in the device map.

Then boot wihout the mounted cd image and get the ip adress via “ifconfig” as root or “/sbin/ifconfig” as user. Please note, that if you want to be root by default installation of Ubntu, you have to get root access by using “sudo -s” and your own user password.

As root, just do the following first:

apt-get update

and

apt-get upgrade

SSH-Notice: You can use the local terminal or a ssh session by another system.

After that I imported my generated ssh key by using scp.

scp /home/USER/.ssh/id_rsa.pub USER@IPorDomainOFServer:.ssh/id_rsa.pub.client

Then you’ll be asked for the server’s user password.
Attention: Be aware of the “point” and the “double point” !

Now edit the id_rsa.pub.client to authorized_keys using the program “mv”.

At least edit the /etc/ssh/sshd_config, I will just output the edited lines here:

Port from 22 to another (no requred but recommended)
UsePAM from no to yes
PermitRootLogin from yes to no

Cheers,
ikkerus

Yesterday I considered to get my UMTS running on Asus Eee-PC 1005HA-H. I googled a little bit and now I want to announce you what I have done to dial in with the Vodafone K3565 (Huawei K3565).

This tutorial is quite simple and will help you get your UMTS running on Ubuntu. I don’t think you will need degress from online universities to master it. Just follow each of the following steps and you should be fine.

• First, plug the USB-Device in. Then start your Laptop/Netbook and boot up your own Ubuntu.
• Your device will be automatically discovered
• unmount the device to switch from datastore to UMTS/GSD mode

umount /dev/$usbdevice /media/$mountpoint

• Turn to the Ubuntu network manager which is the generally used program in the most distributions.

System -> Preferences -> Network Connection -> Mobile Boradband -> Add

• Then select your device which should be showed at the bottom of the wizard.
• Select your mobile service provider
• Select your pay method: Use “defaul” if you have a flatrate or volume contingent and “WebSessions” when you are using the Vodafone WebSessions
• Use Audomatic PPP for PPP Connection and select “Connect automatically”
• You will be asked to grant the device access.

Hope that helps you for accessing Vodafone UMTS via Ubuntu 9.10.

Mirco Bauer has announced the new version of his GPL IRC Client called Smuxi. The version with the Codename ‘Bianca’ has four new major features included.

Mirco described the features by the following:

Initial support for Twitter has been implemented. This will allow you to send and receive tweets to the Twitter microblogging service. It supports the friends timeline, replies view, and direct messages. The character counter, Reply-To feature, and avatar support will follow in later releases.Smuxi is now able to flawlessly handle network connections with high latency which are common with UMTS, WLAN, and busy DSL and cable lines. All communication between the Smuxi frontend and the Smuxi server is now done as a background task using threads. This gives Smuxi a very responsive feel – just like a normal, locally running application – even with difficult network conditions

The IRC experience has been significantly improved.  Smuxi will now send all unrecognized commands transparently to the IRC server and will show the reply directly to the user. In addition, the userlist and query menu have been extended to include common CTCP actions.

Smuxi now ensures that the text colors used in the tabs are easily readable, regardless of your GTK theme.  It does this by using the proven-reliable color-contrast algorithm used by Smuxi 0.6.4.1 to generate nick colors.

Click on “more” to see the full feature list…
Source of this blog post: smuxi.org

Read more…

Today I was a little bit tired as I came home but I just wanted to install the new Smuxi 0.7 release on my Debian/Lenny Desktop PC. Now I will write just a small tutorial.

First, get the public key of Mirco Bauer (Key-ID: EEF946C8):

apt-key adv –keyserver  pgp.surfnet.nl –recv-keys <keyid>

After that, add the key to apt:

apt-key export <keyid> | apt-key add -

Then you have to edit /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://debian.meebey.net/lenny-backports/smuxi      /

At least you just have to install smuxi with apt-get install -t / “package”
I don’t have any idea why the packages cannot be authenticated. I just wanted to tell you how to import and add a gpg key, actually.

Cheers,
ikkerus

My collegue Mirco ‘meebey’ Bauer has announced that Smuxi has a cool new feature. He has integrated Twitter.

With the next Smuxi release you will be able to receive and send tweets from/to Twitter. For those who don’t know yet what Twitter is, it’s a micro-blogging tool which I integrated in this blog a few days ago. You can use Twitter from several applications.  Smuxi supports the friends timeline, replies view and direct messages. Check out this screenshot which shows this feature in action.

Meebey is planning to add avatar and reply-mode support at some point later.

I’m looking forward to see what’s new in Smuxi. I’ll keep you posted.

You also can follow me at twitter: http://twitter.com/ikkerus

Take a look at meebey’s original post here

A few days ago, I chose Tweetable as my most favourable Twitter plugin for wordpress. The installation was easy using the plugin install in the backend. Then you just have to create a twitter account, create a new twitter-connecting application to get your unique API-Keys. The plugin helps you to get through the integration process.

Tweetable is a WordPress Plugin intended to help integrate Twitter into your blog. It can tweet your blog posts as they are published, shortening the URLs with either Tr.im, Is.gd (or other URL shorters) and optionally including Google Analytics campaign tags. You can display your latest tweet(s) in your blog sidebar with a customizable widget, which can even display your follower count.

Tweetable adds functions that turn the WordPress admin into a twitter client. The Tweet screen lets you update your status and browse your friends’. The Track page let’s you save keywords to be searched so you can keep an eye on what Twitter as a whole is saying about a given topic. You can set the minimum user level required to access the menus if you would like to allow other authors access.

Today the Mozilla Foundation released their new version of the popular browser named Firefox. Firefox 3.6 is approaching the completion of development work. The new final 3.6 version will be available soon. The RC1 was released for public testing.

The new browser will change the handling of software add-ons from other manufacturers by using the Components director is blocked.  There is a lot of Firefox’s own code and then try to recognize some of the enhancements in order to provide the browser with new features.  However, this has no benefits, so the developers.  There are drawbacks to the more: users can not manage these extensions on the add-on manager and there is no version control.  The consequences include crashes because it can be incompatible with an update of the Firefox code these extensions. Dieses Eingangstor ist mit dem RC1 nun geschlossen worden. This gate has been closed with the RC1 now.  Typical add-ons are not affected.

Firefox 3.6 with add-ons also know if they are expired.  Thus, the browser will include the user from unsafe flash to warn players directly and ask for an update. That should eliminate vulnerabilities, but also stability problems more quickly, compared with the update mechanism from Adobe.

For now, only a few interesting is the possibility of Theora videos that have been involved with the Videotag to put directly from the browser via the context menu in full screen mode.  The Videotag is one of the improvements in HTML 5, CSS and DOM.  For further details about this can be found in the document Firefox 3.6 for Developers, which is still at the level of beta 5th

For further customizing the look of the browser user needs, there are now Personas directly in the browser. Zuvor brauchte es dafür ein Add-on. Previously it took for an add-on. The Tab-Preview-function for Windows-7-user has the development team of Firefox for the time being removed again.  In the first beta versions it was still available.

If you want to download the RC1 of Firefox 3.6, go ahead here: Firefox 3.6 Download (there are several translations available)

Lenovo has introduced a $1,000 hybrid notebook tablet with a detachable screen.

The IdeaPad U1 offers users two PCs in a single device – each with its own processor and operating system – that work together and independently as either a clamshell laptop or a multitouch slate tablet.

“The IdeaPad U1 hybrid notebook is a game-changing technology in the PC industry that lets user switch their PC experience within a single device to match their dynamic lifestyle,” explained Lenovo spokesperson Liu Jun.

“By fusing the functionality of a notebook with the slate tablet’s rich multitouch entertainment and mobile Internet experience, U1 provides consumers the freedom to choose the device they prefer for any activity.”

The IdeaPad U1 weighs 3.8 pounds and features an 11.6 inch HD LED screen along with Windows 7. However, when the 1.6 pound multitouch screen is removed, the U1 becomes an independent slate tablet with a powerful ARM processor, running Lenovo’s customized Skylight operating system.

“Leveraging the benefits of both CPU, the two devices can synchronize to work as one with the ability to share battery power, 3G wireless, data and documents,” said Jun.

“In this way, the base laptop system can serve as a hub and docking station and the slate tablet as a mobile device. The two PCs have been engineered to work together and independently through Lenovo’s Hybrid Switch technology that enables seamless toggling between the two processors.”

It should be noted that the hybrid notebook also features a customized “Me” centric tablet interface for easy landscape and portrait viewing.

Indeed, users can switch between a four and six section display, with the latter designed to enhance the mobile internet experience with easy multitouch access to multiple Webc-based applications.

LED-backlight LCD monitors are expected to become the mainstream models in the global monitor market in 2010, the schedule is push back from previous expectations of in 2009, according to market sources.

Strong LED demand for backlighting from notebooks and LCD TVs are taking up most of the current LED supply, and the remainder is not enough to fulfill demand from monitor panel backlighting.

Price is another obstacle for LED models to become mainstream, the sources said. The price gap between a 18.5-inch LED-backlit and CCFL-backlit monitor panel is about US$5, while the retail price of a 18.5-inch LED-backlit monitor is about US$30-50 more than a CCFL-backlit model.

LED-backlight notebooks currently account for 60-70% of total notebooks, while LED TVs are expected to account for 15-20% of total LCD TVs shipped in 2010.

Asustek Computer is reportedly considering closing down the departments that handle the development of its Eee Stick, LCD TV and monitor product lines due to unsatisfactory shipments and profits, according to industry sources.

Asustek has converted its optical drive department into a unit for developing opto-mechatronics products such as the Eee Stick after the company ended its partnership with Pioneer, but the opto-mechatronics department has not seen significant results, with the number of team members dropping to only 20 from the original size of about 100, the sources said.

Meanwhile, although Asustek has recently cleared its LCD display inventories and landed some new orders for LCD monitors to be bundled with its desktops in the procurement market, the fierce competition from other players is still inflicting losses on Asustek’s displays department, the sources noted.

The sources also noted that Asustek originally planned to reduce its investment in Eee PC development, but it has changed its mind, ready to increase its investment in Pine Trail-based netbooks to compete against Samsung Electronics and Acer and maintain its share in the notebook market.

Asustek has denied that it is considering closing down the departments.