How to Install GRUB Customizer 4 in Ubuntu / Debian linux

GRUB Customizer is a graphical front end  for managing famous boot loader GRUB 2, 




Howto Install Grub Customizer


$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install grub-customizer



Shutdown your ubuntu / Debian system with a USB Pendrive

Shutdown your ubuntu / Debian system with a USB Pendrive

It is for fun !!! and a utility!!!

First  find out the vendorId and productId of your USB stick:

$ lsusb

 

my output

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 13fe:3600 Kingston Technology Company Inc.  

 

here

13fe - vendor Id

3600 - Product Id

Now create a file in: /etc/udev/rules.d/

 

I was created file :  100-usb-device-action.rules 

Then add the following line.

ACTION=="add", ATTRS{idVendor}=="13fe", ATTRS{idProduct}=="3600", RUN+="/sbin/shutdown -h now"

 

Substitute your vendorid and ProductID

After saving the file . Just plug your USB Pendrive in any USB Port . Your System will Shutdown!!!!

Nikto : Open Source Web Server Scanner for Ubuntu / Debian Linux

Nikto is an Open Source (GPL) web server scanner which scans your webserver against more than 6500 potentially dangerous files/CGIs, checks for outdated versions of over 1250 servers, and version specific problems on over 270 servers. It has a very good plugin support

What Nikto can do.

    SSL Support (Unix with OpenSSL or maybe Windows with ActiveState's
    Perl/NetSSL)
    Full HTTP proxy support
    Checks for outdated server components
    Save reports in plain text, XML, HTML, NBE or CSV
    Template engine to easily customize reports
    Scan multiple ports on a server, or multiple servers via input file (including nmap output)
    LibWhisker's IDS encoding techniques
    Easily updated via command line
    Identifies installed software via headers, favicons and files
    Host authentication with Basic and NTLM
    Subdomain guessing
    Apache and cgiwrap username enumeration
    Mutation techniques to "fish" for content on web servers
    Scan tuning to include or exclude entire classes of vulnerability
    checks
    Guess credentials for authorization realms (including many default id/pw combos)
    Authorization guessing handles any directory, not just the root
    directory
    Enhanced false positive reduction via multiple methods: headers,
    page content, and content hashing
    Reports "unusual" headers seen
    Interactive status, pause and changes to verbosity settings
    Save full request/response for positive tests
    Replay saved positive requests
    Maximum execution time per target
    Auto-pause at a specified time
    Checks for common "parking" sites
    Logging to Metasploit
    Thorough documentation

Official site
To install in ubuntu / debian
$ sudo apt-get install nikto

Full installation of nikto will offer lot of options
$ nikto will give the list of options

For simple test

$ sudo nikto -h www.yoursite.com

output will we like this
abc@abc-desktop:~$ sudo nikto -h www.xxxx.com
- Nikto v2.1.4
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Target IP:          202.18.233.233
+ Target Hostname:    www.abcx.com
+ Target Port:        80
+ Start Time:         2013-10-32 08:29:09
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Server: Apache/2.2.22 (Debian)
+ Retrieved x-powered-by header: PHP/5.4.4-14+deb7u5

+ Server: Apache/2.2.9 (Debian) PHP/5.2.6-1+lenny3 with Suhosin-Patch mod_perl/2.0.4 Perl/v5.10.0
- Allowed HTTP Methods: GET, HEAD, POST, OPTIONS, TRACE
+ OSVDB-877: HTTP method ('Allow' Header): 'TRACE' is typically only used for debugging and should be disabled. This message does not mean it is vulnerable to XST.
+ OSVDB-0: ETag header found on server, inode: 3965147, size: 2857, mtime: 0x433a88acc26c0
+ PHP/5.2.6-1+lenny3 appears to be outdated (current is at least 5.2.6RC4)
+ mod_perl/2.0.4 appears to be outdated (current is at least 5.8)

Linux Troubleshooting with dmesg command

During  bootup process, kernel gets loaded into the system memory and it controls the entire system.

During the bootup process , kernel displays number of messages and hardware divice information.

These messages will keep in a ring buffer. You can use these messages for sytem Troubleshooting. You can see these messages by using dmesg command.

1. open a terminal and type

  $ dmesg |more

2. To see the status of Network

  $ dmesg | grep eth

3. To see the memory status

  $ dmesg | grep Memory

4. for clearing dmesg buffer

  $ dmesg -c

How to Check motherboard manufacturer, product name, version and serial number in Ubuntu Linux

 If you are a Hardware enthusiast , some times you need to check motherboard details of a system.

Open a terminal and Use the following command


$ sudo dmidecode | grep -i 'Base Board Information' -A4 -B1

How to Install FreeBasic For Beaglebone Black in Ubuntu and Debian Linux

FreeBASIC is a free/open source (GPL), 32-bit BASIC compiler for Microsoft Windows, DOS and Linux.

Now it is available for Beaglebone Black Arm7

How to install FreeBASIC in Debian

BBB: debian wheezy
download: fbc-bbb-debian.tar.gz

cd fbc-bbb-debian & sudo ./install.sh -i
fbc -arch arm7 -gen gcc xxx.bas

uninstall:
sudo ./install.sh -u

How to install FreeBASIC in UBUNTU 


download: fbc-bbb-ubuntu.tar.gz
cd fbc-bbb-ubuntu & sudo ./install.sh -i
fbc -arch arm7 -gen gcc xxx.bas

uninstall:
sudo ./install.sh -u

FreeBasic Documentation : http://www.freebasic.net/

https://www.facebook.com/BeagleboneBlack

How to Install rtl8192cu based Wifi on the Beaglebone Black (BBB)

How to Install  rtl8192cu based Wifi on the Beaglebone Black (BBB)

 

$opkg update
$opkg install kernel-dev
$opkg install kernel-headers

Now reboot Your System

Run the Following Commands

$ ln -s /usr/src/kernel /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build
$ cd ~
$ git clone git://github.com/cmicali/rtl8192cu_beaglebone.git
$ cd rtl8192cu_beaglebone
$ make CROSS_COMPILE=""


Now Install the rtl8192cu  driver

$mv 8192cu.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)
$depmod -a
$cd /etc/modules-load.d
$echo "8192cu" > rtl8192cu-vendor.conf

Blacklist the old RealTek wifi drivers

$cd /etc/modprobe.d
$echo "install rtl8192cu /bin/false" >wifi_blacklist.conf
$echo "install rtl8192c_common /bin/false" >>wifi_blacklist.conf
$echo "install rtlwifi /bin/false" >>wifi_blacklist.conf

Edit /var/lib/connman/settings and enable WIFI

[global]
OfflineMode=false

[Wired]
Enable=true
Tethering=false

[WiFi]
Enable=true
Tethering=false
Encrypt your passphrase

$ wpa_passphrase YourSSID YourPassphrase

Edit /var/lib/connman/wifi.config and set it to the following

[service_home]
Type=wifi
Name=YourSSID
Passphrase=YourEncryptedPassphrase

Plug in your WIFI adaptor and reboot

$shutdown -r 0

Sources :  bonenotes.tumblr.com/
nomel.org/post/30357133735/beaglebone-tutorial-how-to-compile-kernel-modules-and

How to Convert Document Formats in Ubuntu / Debian Linux : unoconv

unoconv converts between any document format that OpenOffice understands.

It supports  document formats like Open Document Format (.odt), MS Word (.doc), MS Office Open/MS OOXML (.xml),LaTeX 2e (.ltx), pdf, HTML, XHTML, RTF, Docbook (.xml), and more.

 It also supports image files JPG, BMP,  GIF, PNG and more
 unoconv supports Spreadsheet file formats also

Requirements
unoconv is written in python. It needs a recent LibreOffice or OpenOffice with UNO bindings.

It Supports OpenOffice on Linux, Windows and MacOSX

How to install unoconv in ubuntu / debian Linux

$ sudo apt-get install unoconv

Usage

it is a command line utility. read man page for more details

    unoconv -f pdf your-document.odt
    unoconv -f doc your-document.odt
    unoconv -f xsl your-spreadsheet.csv
    unoconv -f jpg your-image.png
   

How to instal Python 2.6 in ubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu 13.04

 According to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/ReleaseNotes/UbuntuDesktop "Python 2.6 is no longer available for install". Some legacy software that runs only on Python 2.6.

 You can use the following

 PPA: https://launchpad.net/~fkrull/+archive/deadsnakes

How to install PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fkrull/deadsnakes

Run Update:
sudo apt-get update

Install your flavor:
sudo apt-get install python2.6 python2.6-dev

How to Install and Test Beaglebone black in Ubuntu / Debian Linux

The Use and working of Beaglebone Black is very simple. You need only BBB and a USB cable (Supplied with BBB). In Ubuntu / Debian Linux you just download this file Download here and install it.

How to install downloaded file.

Open a terminal and type the following

$ chmod 755 mkudevrule.sh
$ ./mkudevrule.sh

This script will create a new file called 73-beaglebone.rules in /etc/udev/rules.d/

 Now  Plug your BBB to Ubuntu System through the USB Cable

Now BBB establish an adhoc Network Connection through USB

After a short time check the connectivity


The BBB will have an IP address, so using Chrome or Firefox (not Internet Explorer) connect to the URL http://192.168.7.2 (Chrome or chromium Browser)

Now You can see a web page served by BBB.

Top of the web page you can see the serial number of your board

Now Open a terminal and type

$ ssh root@192.168.7.2

Now it will prompt a security warning  type 'yes' or click on 'yes'

Now it will ask for PASSWORD.  There is no password so press Enter

Tools / Commands for monitoring Memory Usage in ubuntu / Debian

Tools / Commands for monitoring  Memory Usage in ubuntu / Debian

 free - Display amount of free and used memory in the system.

 watch -n 5 free -m   -  Real time memory usge
 vmstat - Report virtual memory statistics
 top - Show top processes and memory usage
 htop - interactive process/memory usage viewer
 cat /proc/meminfo Show memory size and usage.

 gnome-system-monitor — Graphical tool for viewing process/memory/network usage

New PDF Book for Beaglebone Black : Bad to the Bone

The new BeagleBone Black is out and this good  book telling you how to use it. Bad to the Bone: Crafting Electronic Systems with BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black.  400+ pages of tutorials for both novice and experienced programmers by was written by  Beagleboard.org community leader Jason Kridner, in partnership with Steven Barrett, a professor of engineering and computer science at the University of Wyoming. 

Bad to the Bone is available in paperback from Amazon for about $45 USD, or as a PDF download from the publisher for around $20 USD.



http://www.facebook.com/BeagleboneBlack

Important Points about Beaglebone Black (BBB)

Important Points about Beaglebone Black

Minimum System Startup required only the USB cable shipped with BBB.

Use Google chrome or Chromium Browser

If you can't communicate to your BBB from Browser, Use Google Chrome Browser. There is Some Problem with Firefox. Never use  Internet Explorer.

BBB Standalone requirements

1.Beaglebone Black

2. HDMA or DVI Monitor

3. HDMI to HDMI Micro cable
     ( HDMI to HDMI Mini cable also available it is not suitable for BBB).

4. USB Hub ( for connecting Mouse and Keyboard)
    Options :  You can use a wireless keyboard and mouse or
                        Connect mouse to USB port and use the virtual Keybaord Preloaded
   
5. Power Supply  5V, 1A  ( You can start without Power supply (Use USB ), If you are a Power User , Some time BBB shows some abnormalities with USB Power . If you use USB try to use rear panel USB of your computer , Power capability of Front USB is slightly low.


Don't Try opkg upgrade in you BBB Board, this will kill you BBB. BBB will work only after reflashing the eMMC.

Very careful when you are using ADC, apply only voltage between 0 and 1.8V

 Current capacity of Begalebone black GPIO Ports  is 6ma. 


http://www.facebook.com/BeagleboneBlack

How to test Beaglebone Black (BBB) System Versions

Checking The Image Version

# cat /etc/dogtag                             
Cloud9 GNOME Image 2013.05.08
#

Check The angstrom Version

# cat /etc/angstrom-version  
Angstrom v2012.12 (Core edition)
Built from branch: danny
Revision: abdca5ed77a803e9eb8fdacd4977956755276c3b
Target system: arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi
# 

For More 

# cat /etc/angstrom-build-info

 

Electronics and Robotics Developers Choice: Beaglebone Black

Developers, makers, and hobbyists looking for a better alternative to Raspberry Pi. Now BeagleBoard.org has taken the wraps off a 1 GHz ARM-based board named the BeagleBone Black (BBB).  You can use it as a Computer, Media Center, or the controller of your Robotic Project.  One of the features that I am crazy about is the presents of ADC, PWM and lot of GPIO. As a Electronics and  robotic developer, I like Beaglebone Black and is a wonderful choice!!!!

The 3.4 x 2.1 in (8.6 x 5.3 cm) BeagleBone Black open-source Linux computer comes pre-loaded with the Ångström distro (which will  boot in under 10 seconds) and Cloud9 IDE, freeing up the microSD slot for additional storage. It's based on the Sitara 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor from Texas Instruments, including a 3D graphics accelerator. There's 2 GB of integrated eMMC flash storage and 512 MB of DDR3 RAM.  HDMI monitor, Keyboard and mouse is not must for a developer, Straight away you can connect BBB to your PC and start Development ( Now it will act like an Arduino). If you connect a Monitor, keyboard and mouse you can use it as a standalone PC.

http://www.facebook.com/BeagleboneBlack

Cost : $45 (Indian Price Approx. Rs.3200 + Shiping)

Processor: AM335x 1GHz ARM® Cortex-A8

• 3D graphics accelerator
• NEON floating-point accelerator
• 2x PRU 32-bit microcontrollers

Connectivity

• USB client for power & debug
• USB host
• Ethernet
• HDMI
• 2x 46 pin headers

Software Compatibility

• Ångström Linux
• Android
• Ubuntu
• Cloud9 IDE on Node.js w/ BoneScript library
• plus much more

Useful Gimp Keyboard Shortcuts for Ubuntu/Debian Linux

Use Keyboard Shortcuts to Speed up your GIMP Work flow

 Zoom Tool
   
    Press the + key to zoom in in increments.
    Press the - key to zoom out in increments
    Press the 1 key to zoom in to 100%, ie one pixel in your image matches one 
     pixel on your monitor
    Press Shift+Ctrl+E to fit the image to the window

  Deselect


  Once you've finished working with a selection, you'll want to deselect it.
    Menu  Select--> None

     Keyboard Short Cut   -  Shift+Ctrl+A

Fill
 
    Press Ctrl+, to fill with the foreground color
    Press Ctrl+. to fill with the background color
    Press Ctrl+: to Fill with Pattern

Reset Foreground and Background colour to Default

Press  D 

Others

Undo    Ctrl+Z
Redo    Ctrl+Y

Crop and Resize    Shift+C

Bucket Fill    Shift+B

Eraser    Shift+E
Toggle rulers    Shift+Ctrl+R
Toggle guides    Shift+Ctrl+T

Merge visible layers    Ctrl+M
Anchar layer    Ctrl+H 

Record your Desktop and Make Teaching Materials with KAZAM in Ubuntu/Debian linux

A simple tool Kazam  will capture the content of your screen and record a video file that can be played by any popular  video players.. It also records audio from any sound input device. Kazam provides a simple and clean user interface, I have tested more screen recorders, but kazam is the best.

  This will help you to make video tutorials. This will support FOUR modes, Fullscreen, All Screens, Window and Area.   you can change frame rate by default it is 15.

Now How to install kazam in ubuntu 12.04
Open a terminal and run the following commands.

sudo apt-get install kazam

If any problem do the following

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kazam-team/stable-series
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install kazam

Speed up Ubuntu Linux with Swap Fine Tuning

Swapping is designed for Low memory systems. Now a days plenty of RAM space available. RAM is much faster than HDD. Swap uses Hard disk space as virtual RAM. If you reduce the usage of HDD and increase the usage of RAM will boot the performance of your system.

The parameter named  swappiness  controls the tendency of the kernel to move processes out of physical memory and onto the swap disk.

• swappiness can have a value of between 0 and 100
• swappiness=0 tells the kernel to avoid swapping processes out of physical memory for as long as possible
• swappiness=100 tells the kernel to aggressively swap processes out of physical memory and move them to swap cache 

The default value of swappiness  in Ubuntu is swappiness=60.
 Reducing the default value of swappiness will probably improve overall performance for a typical Ubuntu desktop installation.
For Desktop users A value of swappiness=10 is recommended.
For Server , it is better to use swappiness=60

How to Check swappiness value
Open a terminal and type the following command
$ cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

How to temporarily change the swappiness value
$  sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10

 How to permanently change the swappiness value

$ gksudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf

change the  value of
vm.swappiness = 10

No rebooting required

How to Test the reliability and Speed of your DNS in Ubuntu / Debian Linux

This post will help you to find the reliability and speed of DNS servers .
You need a simple utility traceroute.

how to install traceroute

$ sudo apt-get install traceroute

Now Run the following Command for testing google dns 8.8.8.8

$  sudo traceroute -n -w 2 -q 2 -m 30 8.8.8.8

output

shibu@keralalinux:~$ sudo traceroute -n -w 2 -q 2 -m 30 8.8.8.8
traceroute to 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  192.168.1.1  1.656 ms  2.233 ms
 2  137.199.0.1  25.909 ms  28.264 ms
 3  228.248.170.102  30.771 ms  33.141 ms
 4  115.114.130.85  79.373 ms  81.546 ms
 5  121.240.1.46  78.806 ms  81.854 ms
 6  209.85.241.21  89.617 ms  92.429 ms
 7  8.8.8.8  88.498 ms  91.208 ms 


If the last line of the output does not list 8.8.8.8 as the final hop, or if there are significant timeouts, there may be a network problem preventing you from contacting DNS servers.

The following command can also use for testing the DNS

$ dig @8.8.8.8 www.google.com.

output

shibu@keralalinux:~$ dig @8.8.8.8 www.depika.com

; <<>> DiG 9.8.1-P1 <<>> @8.8.8.8 www.depika.com
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- 31859="" br="" id:="" noerror="" opcode:="" query="" status:="">;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.depika.com.        IN    A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.deepika.com.    812    IN    CNAME    depika.com.
depika.com.        3352    IN    A    72.167.142.113

;; Query time: 63 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Thu Feb 21 00:20:51 2013
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 63
 

How to setup Fast and Reliable Public DNS for Ubuntu Linux

Fast and Free Public DNS Servers are available. It will increase the browsing speed.

The Google Public DNS IP addresses (IPv4) are as follows:

• 8.8.8.8
• 8.8.4.4

Open DNS Ip Addresses(IPV4) are as follows

   208.67.222.222

   208.67.220.220

1. Edit /etc/resolv.conf:

   $ sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf

2. Replace the nameserver lines with, or add, the following lines: For IPv4:
   

   nameserver 8.8.8.8
   nameserver 8.8.4.4

3. Save and exit.

How to unzip a .bz2 file with tar command in Ubuntu Linux

How to unzip a .bz2 file with tar command in Ubuntu Linux


You can easily unzip .tar.bz2 files using command line



    tar -xvjpf filename.tar.bz2

Or

 You can use bunzip2 for unziping and usr normal tar command

This command will only work if you have already bunzip2 installed.

    bunzip2 filename.bz2