April 29, 2008
Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 came out last week, and I thought I’d take a moment to do a new post about connecting to a workplace VPN that uses Windows Server’s built in PPTP ability. Not a lot has changed, so you can also refer to the older article here.
The process is simple, but oftentimes discovering the necessary steps is the hard part.
Install PPTP plugin for Network Manager
- Open Add/Remove from the Applications menu
- Select All available applications from the show dropdown menu
- Enter pptp in the search box
- Select VPN Connection Manager
- Apply Changes to install.
Reboot or Restart the dbus Service
Next, you can either reboot your machine or restart the dbus service and log out and back in. If you’d rather not reboot, follow these instructions:
- Open a terminal and restart the dbus service with: sudo /etc/init.d/dbus restart
- Log out of GNOME, or hit control-alt-backspace
- Log back in
VPN Setup
Entering the details of your VPN is relatively straightforward, with one caveat and a few advanced options.
- Click on the Network Manager applet in your system tray, and select VPN Connections > Configure VPN…
- Click Add and follow the wizard to begin configuration. Enter a name for the connection, and the address of the VPN server.
- IMPORTANT - Switch to the Authentication tab and select Refuse CHAP. This is necessary to connect to a server using the default configuration of the Microsoft PPTP VPN service.
If you have special requirements, or prefer not to tunnel all your traffic through the company VPN while connected, you can specify some advanced options that allow you to customize the connection
- DNS - Deselect Use Peer DNS under the PPP Options tab and Peer DNS through tunnel under the Routing tab if you’d prefer to use your local DNS server for queries.
- Routing - Select Only use VPN connection for these addresses if you know the address or subnet of the machine you’d like to connect to. This is specified using slash (or CIDR) notation. For example, if your workplace network uses addresses on the 10.10.1.0 network, you would specifiy 10.10.1.0/24 to only route those addresses over the VPN.
Connect!
All that’s left now is to connect. Click the Network Manager applet once more, and select the profile you defined in the last step from VPN Connections. Enter your credentials in the authentication screen that pops up, and wait for it to connect. Once connected, Network Manager will display a lock on your connection, signifying that your secure tunnel is in place.
Kubuntu PPTP VPN
Unfortunately, there is a standing bug in KNetworkManager (network-manager-kde) that prevents configuration of the PPTP client with the error message:
There is no configuration interface for the VPN service ppp installed. Please check your installation.
However, if it has been configured via the Gnome NetworkManager plugin, you are still able to connect.
- Right click the KNetworkManager icon in the tray
- Select VPN Connections > Connect to Your Network and go.
After connecting with KNetworkManager, you are able to browse shares with Konqueror and access any other services on the remote network normally.
Posted in backtrack, blog entries 
24 Comments »
March 24, 2008
I was getting a little bored with the layout of Tip o’ the Day, so I clicked around a bit on del.icio.us for articles tagged with ‘wordpress’. I came across this pretty useful Wordpress Theme Generator. Check it out!
Posted in blog entries 3 Comments »
March 13, 2008
Spotted this tip on the programming subreddit, and I thought it was too clever not to post.
Creating a file named -i will prevent an errant rm -rf * from wiping out the directory containing it. How? The * expands -i to your command line, and your rm -rf * becomes rm -rf -i *!
See it in action:
[mshade@slicebot ~]$ cd test/
[mshade@slicebot test]$ touch — -i
[mshade@slicebot test]$ touch 1 2 3 a b c
[mshade@slicebot test]$ ls
-i 1 2 3 a b c
[mshade@slicebot test]$ rm -rf *
rm: remove regular empty file `1′?
So how do you actually delete this odd file?
rm -- -i
The ‘–’ option tells it to stop looking for flags and treat the rest of the command line as operands.
Note that this trick won’t work if you specify an absolute path (as in rm -rf ~/test/) — only when you are within the directory. I’d recommend dropping this in your home and / directories.
Enjoy!
With credit to probablycorey.
Posted in blog entries 1 Comment »
February 29, 2008
After a long wait, the latest edition of the fast-paced free and open source FPS, Nexuiz, has been released! Major updates include a new menu system, additional maps, more efficient use of memory, updated textures and graphics, and lots more.
For screenshots, video, and download see:
How do I install Nexuiz?
Nexuiz runs on Mac, Linux, and Windows alike, so no one is left out. The community is large and growing quickly. Here’s how to run the latest Nexuiz on your platform of choice.
Linux
Some distributions, like Ubuntu, include Nexuiz in their software repositories. Generally, this isn’t the latest version. You are better off downloading the latest .zip and running from there.
Nexuiz is self contained, so there’s really no installation — simply unzip and run the appropriate version.
$ unzip nexuiz-24.zip
$ cd Nexuiz
# Now, run either nexuiz-linux-sdl.sh or nexuiz-linux-glx.sh
$ ./nexuiz-linux-glx.sh
Nexuiz should now present you with its main menu where you can set up your player, join a multiplayer game, or begin a single player compaign. If you like, you can set up a Gnome or KDE desktop shortcut to launch Nexuiz in the future.
Enjoy!
Windows
Start by downloading and unzipping Nexuiz. In the Nexuiz directory, you’ll see both Nexuiz.exe and Nexuiz-SDL.exe. Run either one of these, or drag to your desktop while holding the ALT key to create a shortcut.
Mac OSX
Download and unpack Nexuiz. In the created Nexuiz directory, double click either Nexuiz.app or Nexuiz-SDL.app to launch the game.
Posted in blog entries No Comments »
February 15, 2008
Just ran a whois on Google.com and I notice a bit of hackerspam:
Whois Server Version 2.0
Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.
GOOGLE.COM.ZZZZZ.GET.LAID.AT.WWW.SWINGINGCOMMUNITY.COM
GOOGLE.COM.ZOMBIED.AND.HACKED.BY.WWW.WEB-HACK.COM
GOOGLE.COM.YAHOO.COM.MYSPACE.COM.YOUTUBE.COM.FACEBOOK.COM.THEYSUCK.DNSABOUT.COM
GOOGLE.COM.WORDT.DOOR.VEEL.WHTERS.GEBRUIKT.SERVERTJE.NET
GOOGLE.COM.VN
GOOGLE.COM.UA
GOOGLE.COM.TW
GOOGLE.COM.TR
GOOGLE.COM.SUCKS.FIND.CRACKZ.WITH.SEARCH.GULLI.COM
GOOGLE.COM.SPROSIUYANDEKSA.RU
GOOGLE.COM.SERVES.PR0N.FOR.ALLIYAH.NET
GOOGLE.COM.SA
GOOGLE.COM.PLZ.GIVE.A.PR8.TO.AUDIOTRACKER.NET
GOOGLE.COM.MX
GOOGLE.COM.IS.NOT.HOSTED.BY.ACTIVEDOMAINDNS.NET
GOOGLE.COM.IS.HOSTED.ON.PROFITHOSTING.NET
GOOGLE.COM.IS.APPROVED.BY.NUMEA.COM
GOOGLE.COM.HAS.LESS.FREE.PORN.IN.ITS.SEARCH.ENGINE.THAN.SECZY.COM
GOOGLE.COM.DO
GOOGLE.COM.CO
GOOGLE.COM.BR
GOOGLE.COM.BEYONDWHOIS.COM
GOOGLE.COM.AU
GOOGLE.COM.ACQUIRED.BY.CALITEC.NET
GOOGLE.COM
Seems you get similar results for queries on youtube.com, yahoo.com, etc. What’s going on here?
Posted in blog entries 1 Comment »
January 25, 2008
I have a couple of VPS servers at Slicehost. I highly recommend them — simple admin interface, good prices, and good performance. We’ve only seen a tiny amount of downtime in over a year, due to a DDoS attack at their datacenter. But I digress…
Many VPS hosts are in the practice of rolling out their own slimline custom images for installs. Just how barebones are they? Well…
[root@amped ~]# which mtop
-bash: which: command not found
A little ridiculous!
Other missing staples are wget, whois, and a few others. These are a quick yum install away, but we *nix geeks get used to taking these utilities for granted. Perhaps they could fatten the image just a bit!
Posted in blog entries No Comments »
January 23, 2008
Windows users can use RDP or VNC for tech support, troubleshooting, or presentations — as well as the myriad services available commercially over the web. For graphical purposes, Linux folk also have the option of remote X11 or VNC. But what about command line screen sharing on a machine with no X server installed? What if the only immediate access you and your partner share is ssh?
The extremely useful GNU screen program comes to the rescue. Along with its many other uses, screen allows you to share a session with another user logged in via the shell. This can be useful for troubleshooting or demonstrating commands and techniques to one another.
If you are both able to login or become the same user, things are simple. Simply start a screen session, and have the other user attach:
$ screen
-- Second user executes:
$ screen -x
If you are separate users, you’ll need to turn on multiuser mode, and then explicitly allow the users to connect. Unfortunately, if the connecting user is not root, screen will need to run suid:
-- Set UID root on screen - must be done as root
# chmod u+s /usr/bin/screen
-- As user, begin screen session and turn on multiuser
$ screen
$ [control-a] :multiuser on
$ [control-a] :acladd username-to-allow
-- Second user executes:
$ screen -x yourusername/
Control-A is the escape sequence for screen; it precedes all commands. Control-A and then D is used to detach a screen process, for example. Control-A on its own brings you to screen’s command line where you are able to enter the multiuser and acladd commands.
Once the user has attached with screen -x you are sharing the same shell.
There you have it, screen sharing — command line style.
Posted in blog entries 6 Comments »
January 23, 2008
A friend of mine just launched Devclicks.com. It’s intended to be a simple social bookmark repo for developers. From tools and tips to guides on languages and new programming techniques, devclicks already has quite a bit of content. Swing by and check it out, create an account, and add your own links to the wealth of knowledge out there!
Posted in blog entries No Comments »
January 22, 2008
Serpentine just doesn’t cut it for me when it comes to creating audio CDs, so I installed my favorite CD burning app, K3b and fired away.
To install:
# sudo apt-get install k3b
One of the features I like in K3b is the ability to preview audio tracks within the playlist editor, but if you haven’t installed and started artsd, you’ll get the following error:
“Could not initialize Audio Output plugin k3b Arts Audio Output Plugin (can’t connect to aRts soundserver)”
To solve this, you’ll need to install and start the aRts soundserver:
# sudo apt-get install arts
# artsd &
Now, audio preview will work correctly in K3b.
Another hurdle you might run into is K3b’s lack of built-in mp3 decoding software. To solve that, install the K3b mp3 plugin:
# sudo apt-get install libk3b2-mp3
Otherwise, you’ll receive this error when trying to add an mp3 to the playlist:
Problems while adding files to the project.
Unable to handle the following files due to an unsupported format:
You may manually convert these audio files to wave using another application supporting the audio format and then add the wave files to the K3b project.
Posted in blog entries 3 Comments »
January 21, 2008
Flipping through the channels in my area, I came across this and paused for a moment trying to figure out what possible rule would mandate its removal from the air.
(forgive the crappy image)
I was unfamiliar with channel 74 in my area — It’s Cox Sports, or MASN2, referring to George Mason University. After a little digging, I found this post on another cable carriers page that seems like it may relate. Here’s a relevant snippet:
FCC regulations state that when there is a local full power broadcast station within a market … then that broadcaster has the right to enforce two FCCs rules: 1) network non-duplication and 2) syndicated exclusivity rules…
These FCC rules require that cable operators can not carry duplicate stations and that the cable operator must blackout any and all duplicated programming if it exists, on other stations.
On the other MASN channel, a game is in progress. Does this blackout rule cover the cable company’s own duplicate programming as well? What other types of broadcasting, aside from sports, are affected by these rules?
Posted in blog entries 2 Comments »
content rss
Recent Comments