VNC Based Free Remote Control Software "TightVNC"

VNC (Virtual Network Computing) is a client/server sotfware which allows you to view desktop of a remote computer (VNC server) and control it from your computer (VNC viewer) with your local mouse and keyboard. VNC can be installed on any type of operating system (Unix, GNU/Linux and Windows). VNC also has a java viewer package for viewing a remote computer's desktop within a browser without installing software. It does not matter whether two computers have the same OS or not, VNC viewer and VNC server interact regardless of OS type. Picture Source: http://www.realvnc.com/ VNC Based Free Remote Control Software "TightVNC" TightVNC is a free, GPL licensed and enhanced version of VNC sofware. For detailed information look at TightVNC information page. Currently Slackware-curent has TightVNC package in /extra section. You can also obtain TightVNC slackbuilds for Slackware 12.0, 12.1 and 12.2 versions on Slackbuilds.org. Now I am going to explain how to establish desktop connection between two Linux machines on the same LAN. TightVNC server machine: GNU/Linux Ubuntu (192.168.2.5) TightVNC client machine: GNU/Linux Slackware Install TightVNC server and TightVNC viewer on Ubuntu by: sudo apt-get install tightvncserver sudo apt-get install tightvncviewer After installing TightVNC package on both machines (server and client), execute below command from user terminal of server machine (the computer you want to view its desktop) to start VNC server. vncserver After executing above command you will be prompted to create server access password for first time. Create a secure password and start server. After starting VNC server, an X desktop will be started with a specified number. user@ubuntubox:~$ vncserver New 'X' desktop is ubuntu:1 Starting applications specified in /home/user/.vnc/xstartup Log file is /home/user/.vnc/ubuntu:1.log user@slackbox:~$ VNC server started an X desktop with number "1". Now server computer is ready for clients. To have desktop access on server machine through TightVNC, execute below command on your computer (client machine). vncviewer local_ip_of_vncserver_machine:desktop_number For my case; vncviewer 192.168.2.5:1 After executing above command you will be prompted to enter server's access password. Enter password and enjoy!

X11 forwarding over SSH in Slackware

SSH is a program for logging into a remote machine and for executing commands on a remote machine. It is possible to run X Window graphical applications over SSH also. X forwarding allows you to run remote X applications that open their windows on your local display. To establish an X Window connection over SSH: 1. Make sure that openssh package has installed and ssh service is active on both server and client machines. (OpenSSH is free version of SSH) 2. Login to server machine (remote computer) using SSH ssh remote_user_name@remote_machine and edit remote computer's /etc/ssh/sshd_config file as remote root adding following lines and save. AllowTcpForwarding yes X11Forwarding yes X11DisplayOffset 10 X11UseLocalhost yes 3. Restart ssh service on remote machine by executing following command as remote root. /etc/rc.d/rc.sshd restart 4. On client machine (your computer), edit /etc/ssh/ssh_config file as root adding following lines and save. ForwardAgent yes ForwardX11 yes 5. To establish SSH connection with configured remote machine, execute following command from an X Terminal Emulator. ssh -Y remote_user_name@remote_machine 6. After logging into remote machine, execute below command to check the value of display variable in remote host environment. echo $DISPLAY If you do not see anything when typing above command, set value by executing: export DISPLAY=localhost:10.0 Now try to launch an X application on remote machine from client machine, for example: xlogo & * /etc/ssh/sshd_config and /etc/ssh/ssh_config files have required lines for X11 forwarding in commented form as system default. Instead of adding new lines, just uncomment related lines and check parameters. * You need to open port "22" on remote network for WAN connections over SSH.

Parted Magic (A Free Partitioning Tool)

Parted Magic is a mini OS (v4.1 is about 90 MB) mainly aims to partition hard drives using GParted and Parted programs. Partition Image, TestDisk, fdisk, sfdisk, dd and ddrescue are the other programs included by Parted Magic. Parted Magic supports the following file systems: ext2, ext3, ext4, fat16, fat32, hfs, hfs+, jfs, linux-swap, ntfs, reiserfs, reiser4, and xfs. You can operate Parted Magic from CD, USB storage, HDD and PXE server. For more information, look at the documentation page on Parted Magic homepage.

Ndiswrapper in Slackware

Sometimes native Linux drivers are not available for some network cards, because some vendors do not release specifications of the hardware for their wireless network cards. Ndiswrapper is an Open Source Project Software by which unsupported wireless network devices can be used on Unix-like operating systems using Microsoft Windows drivers. I have a wireless USB network card (Airties WUS-300) which does not have Linux driver. I can find only Windows driver on vendor's support page. But, it is possible to use this USB wireless network card in Slackware with Ndiswrapper. Installing "Airties WUS-300 Wireless USB Network Stick" driver with Ndiswrapper in Slackware 12.2 1. Build and install "ndiswrapper" package from SlackBuild.org. For building instructions read HOWTO page. 2. Extract Windows driver of your wireless network card and then be sure about that you have extracted ".INF" file. (Some Windows drivers are distributed as compressed content of CD image and include "autorun.inf" file. Be carefull, this is not the file that we need!) (Some other Windows drivers are in the form of ".exe". If you are lucky, unrar or unzip will extract ".exe" files on GNU/Linux. But sometimes these tools do not extract ".exe" files, in this case you need a Windows box and Universal Extractor which is an Open Source Software to extract any type of archive including ".exe" files.) 3. Open a terminal emulator and change your directory to where ".INF" file is located. 4. Now using ".INF" file, install wireless card driver by executing below command. # ndiswrapper -i file_name.INF (Replace file_name with the name of your ".INF" file) 5. Check whether installation was done correctly or not by: # ndiswrapper -l 6. Load ndiswrapper kernel module by executing: # /sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper 7. Executing # ndiswrapper -m writes an alias for "wlan0" into module configuration file /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper so that ndiswrapper kernel module is loaded automatically when this interface is used. 8. Restart "wlan0" interface by: # /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 wlan0_restart 9. Execute below command to see whether your device has an available interface or not. # iwconfig If you do not see anything related with your wireless card, remove wireless card from computer and plug in, then execute iwconfig again. 10. To make ndiswrapper kernel module load on every boot add following red line to /etc/rc.d/rc.modules file. /sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper 11. Now you need to configure your wireless network interface "wlan0". You can configure network manually but there is a software which is called "Wicd" configures network instead of you. Wicd is available in the /extra section of Slackware 12.2. Download Wicd package and simply install it by installpkg. After installing Wicd, launch program by executing: $ wicd-client & Set default wireless interface as "wlan0" from "Preferences > General Setting > Wireless Interface" and connect to your wireless network. As a Slackware fun sometimes I get annoyed with using Wicd, because you loose direct control on system and you can not learn anything about network configuration except Wicd. This is inconsistent with the Slackware philosophy.

Revolution OS

Revolution OS Homepage REVOLUTION OS tells the inside story of the hackers who rebelled against the proprietary software model and Microsoft to create GNU/Linux and the Open Source movement. On June 1, 2001, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said "Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches." Microsoft fears GNU/Linux, and rightly so. GNU/Linux and the Open Source & Free Software movements arguably represent the greatest threat to Microsoft's way of life. Shot in cinemascope on 35mm film in Silicon Valley, REVOLUTION OS tracks down the key movers and shakers behind Linux, and finds out how and why Linux became such a potent threat. REVOLUTION OS features interviews with Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, Bruce Perens, Eric Raymond, Brian Behlendorf, Michael Tiemann, Larry Augustin, Frank Hecker, and Rob Malda. To view the trailer or the first eight minutes go to the ifilm website for REVOLUTION OS. Companies such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Oracle, Wipro, Ogilvy & Mather, OSTG, and Dreamworks Animation have rented REVOLUTON OS for private theatrical screenings. It has also screened in numerous film festivals including South By Southwest Film Festival, the Atlanta Film & Video Festival, Boston Film Festival, and Denver International Film Festival. REVOLUTION OS won Best Documentary at both the Savannah Film & Video Festival and the Kudzu Film Festival. REVOLUTION OS is available in the 35 mm motion picture format and runs 85 minutes. Source: http://www.revolution-os.com/