However being a sysad is not all doom and gloom.  Occasionally some ray of fun and power shines through the lonely boring Text based computer terminal (where we get to spend most of our working – and non working- hours). THAT day was one of the such days.

I had to do some work in the computer lab the day before. But when I closed for the day I left behind my most priced Scandisk 4GB usb thumb drive. I left it attached to a workstation I was setting up. I realized this very late and even then was too tired to bother going back to get it. Next day when I got to work I discovered that my thumb drive was missing. I asked some students who use the lab if there have seen my drive but no one seem to have any information about it. I was going to give up when a colleague suggested I check the syslog to see when the drive was removed from the pc it was attached to.  Syslog showed it was disconnected around 22:05 5  hours after I closed from work.

Jul 22 22:05:19 aust-desktop kernel: [25109.783629] usb 1-6: USB disconnect, address 4


Every computer where I work has been configured to authenticate with our central ldap server. The particular PC I was working on however has not been set up to use this authentication so chances are that the individual who took my usb drive must have gone to the PC with the intention of use it for work before noticing the drive. He most have tried logging in and  because the PC was not connected to ldap must have been told his login was not successful. Either way I decided to check the auth. Log of the PC which keeps a record of all logging attempts. From there I noticed a failed logging in from a certain username at around 22:03 (about the same time the usb was disconnected).

Jul 22 22:03:49 aust-desktop gdm-session-worker[2653]: pam_succeed_if(gdm:auth): error retrieving information about user nameofuser

I went through the record of our users and was able to link the username to the particular user. Thankfully his phone number was also part of the records. I simply gave him a call and politely asked him to give back what belong to me. He stuttered and said he had taken it for safe keeping. I said I completely understood thanked him and told him I would appreciate if he could drop the drive at my desk. I am happy to say that I got my drive back Thanks to a little bit of luck mixed with some sysadmin Ninja moves.

Guess we can say the moral of the story is NEVER steal a usb drive belonging to your system admin especially when it is connected to a system that runs *Unix. Or better still don’t steal period

There’s a PPA for that
PPA is means Personal Package Archive. It provides a way to easily install application which can not be found in the Ubuntu official repository on Ubuntu ( since the Ubuntu official repo takes a conservative approach to updates and number of applications it includes in its official repository with focus on stability over latest and greatest packages.) PPA is one of the coolest thing about Ubuntu. It creates an avenue for developers, packagers and even users to create their own personal repositories and include their packages which can easily be added and installed on Ubuntu.

The down-side of all these is that most of the applications contained in a PPA can be quite too bleeding edge and not as well tested as  what comes with the Ubuntu repos, so the users would sometimes want to revert back to the official Ubuntu packages. This is where PPA-Purge comes in handy

PPA-PURGE:    ppa-purge will reset all packages from a PPA to the standard versions released for your distribution.  So basically its like a way to restore your system back to the way it was before you installed packages from a PPA.

Installation: ppa-purge is very easy to install. You can grab a deb executable file directly from the web page of the xorg-edgers repository

Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)

Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)

Usage

ppa-purge is very easy to use.How this works is e.g If I wanted to remove say the blueman PPA I just go to terminal and paste the following

sudo ppa-purge ppa:blueman/ppa/

A break down of how this work is

sudo ppa-purge ppa:repository-name/subdirectory

e.g ‘deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/blueman/ppa/ubuntu karmic main’ the part in bold is the part you need to add to

sudo ppa-purge ppa:

to make it

sudo ppa-purge ppa:blueman/ppa

I actually tried the tool after I installed the xorg-edger repository to see if it would solve my graphic display issues, unfortunately it only made things worse, thankfully I was able to use ppa-purge to remove the PPA and reset (downgrade) my packages back to the default version on karmic.

So there you have it. You can go on installing all the latest and greatest packages using the Ubuntu PPA. knowing full well you have something to fall back on. I hope someone finds this useful.

Now if you are like me and always find it hard to create a strong enough password.  My situation is also made worse by the fact that I work as a System Administrator which means I get to maintain lots of  administrative passwords for many mission critical systems at work.  throw in my blog, 4 emails address. over 20 forum account, 2 Micro- blogging accounts and 5 IM accounts, and  it wont take a genius to know that I would be needing a password manager which would among other things allow me to create strong passwords, and store my passwords in a safe and encrypted format.  I did a little research and settled for KeepassX

KeePassX is an application for people with extremly high demands on secure personal data management. It has a light interface, is cross platform and published under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

source

Some of the features of KeepassX includes:

I have made a screen-cast on how you can easily use Keepass X to create a password. (don’t laugh at me.. its my first screencast ever )  (although I blabbed about this in my screencast. You would need to create a database for the first time you try to use KeePassX. )

Basic Intro to KeepassX from Bobby Adesuyan on Vimeo.

Installation

Fog is a Linux-based, free and open source computer imaging solution for Windows XP and Vista that ties together a few open-source tools with a php-based web interface. Fog doesn’t use any boot disks, or CDs; everything is done via TFTP and PXE. Also with fog many drivers are built into the kernel, so you don’t really need to worry about drivers (unless there isn’t a linux kernel module for it). Fog also supports putting an image that came from a computer with a 80GB partition onto a machine with a 40GB hard drive as long as the data is less than 40GB.
Fog also includes a graphical Windows service that is used to change the hostname of the PC, restart the computer if a task is created for it, and auto import hosts into the FOG database. The service also installs printers, and does simple snap-ins.

source

I first heard about FOG on FLOSS Weekly. At that time the school where i work as a system admin and which runs ubuntu on all our computers decided to setup our only windows lab. So it was a great coincident and I decided to give it a try since it would just be what i need in setting up the windows lab. Downloading and installing FOG was quite easy and straight forward, however using it was quite another story.

The first time i had problems uploading an image. I uploaded the image i wanted to clone using the web interface i reboot and told the computer to boot from PXE. Everything worked till an error cames up about not been able to move image due to some php error ( something like that) i couldn’t take down the error code because it was very long and on a computer terminal, guess there was a problem some were with the config file.

Anyway i decided to do a fresh install (reinstalling both the machine and fog) and this time around NFS wont start .. i checked everything that could be wrong but couldn’t trouble shoot the problem, So i did another fresh install (reinstalling machine and fog) i went for ubuntu 8.10 server this time around. and lucky for me everything worked. i loaded the web interface and setup the images (following the guide) but when its time to upload an image i got an error

“Warning: ftp_login() [function.ftp-login]: This FTP server is anonymous only. in /var/www/fog/commons/functions.include.php on line 2266″

I followed followed what was posed here but the problem still remained.. so i decided to do another machine install like in previous times formating the machine and install fog again… still the same problem .. so i said ok let me go back to hardy .. i formated the server and installed ubuntu 8.04 .. same problem .. googling the problem showed this post in the fog user forums which is the exact problem am having.. but that didnt help much than to give me the feeling of “ok its not a problem with me and am not alone”

I am not good with php or infact any web programing so its hard getting the problem solved .. getting support in the forum from previous experience as yielded very little help. but i have posted my problem there just in case a good hearted person lend me a hand

In conclusion .. FOG is a great project with lots of advantages over many cloning solution out there free or proprietary. and the fact that its works for majority of users shows how much of a quality product it is. well it didn’t work for me but that doesn’t remove the fact that its a great product .. unfortunately i wont be able to use it.. and would either have to install every computer for the windows lab by hand or have to buy Norton ghost to do the job .. because days spent trouble shooting FOG as kept me behind schedule. I will definitely give it another try maybe when a newer version is released.

I just want to thank the developers of this project for putting out such an awesome software … it has a lot of potential and am sure once the little bugs are fixed will become a standard for cloning windows. i really wish the community would come out and help these guys so that they don’t get to do everything by them selves. FOG needs a better community Infrastructure (a better forum maybe) and an IRC presence so that people with problems can easily go there and the community and help each other.

Also would be nice if FOG could re-master Ubuntu or Fedora to create a single install image which contains the base OS plus a pre-configured version of FOG all in one cd. something like we have in freeNAS .. now that would be great and make it more dead easy to install. like a install and forget experience.

I would like to donate to this project in my next payday .. maybe pay for a better forum host .. if they are interested

Just want you guys to keep up the great work you are doing for the community.

Advantages of FreeNX
One advantage of FreeNX is that it is based on the SSH Protocol so your packets are transferred over an encrypted channel which in human language means nasty people can’t see what you are doing and potentially compromise your computer

Installation

Installation FreeNX is in Two Phrase the server and the client

Server Installation

The server version is installed on the remote system you want to login to. To install the server version you need to add the following repository to your sources.list

Hardy Heron
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/freenx-team/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/freenx-team/ubuntu hardy main

Intrepid Ibex
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/freenx-team/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/freenx-team/ubuntu intrepid main

Jaunty Jackalope
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/freenx-team/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/freenx-team/ubuntu jaunty main

Now we add the public Key for the FreeNX PPA with:
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 2a8e3034d018a4ce

and we install with:
sudo apt-get update ; sudo apt-get install freenx

That is all that is needed for the installation of freenx server on our remote machine.

Client Installation

The client is installed on the machine you want to login from.

There are Two type of FreeNX clients available the non free and open source version (and freedom hating version ) and the free and open source version

The Non-free version
This is the official NX version and can not be installed from the Ubuntu repository but can be deb version for ubuntu can be downloaded from here
Double click to install.
Once installed you find it at Application-Internet-NX Client for Linux

The Free and Open Source version can be downloaded from the Ubuntu repository by running:
sudo apt-get install qtnx
Once installed you find it at Application-Internet-QTNX

Usage
What i really love about FreeNX is its usage, its very easy to use and all your do is launch the client which once installed can be found under /Application/Internet/Nx Client for LInux

Once you start the Program it displays a wizard which would guide you through the configuration process

=Session: First Thing you do is create a session which is like a profile of the remote machine you want to connect to. You can have many sessions of different remote machines which allows you to easily choose a session and login to the machine configure to the session.
Host: The IP address of the remote machine you want to login to
Select you Internet Type: Here is were you also get to indicate what type of internet connection you are running, NX compresses your data over the network so the slower your internet connection the higher the compression rate of your data (or so it seems) then you also put in the . Leave the port as 22 since that is the default that ssh uses (unless you have ssh using another port on the remote machine)

General Config

Desktop: Here you get you choose the platform the remote machine is running windows? *nix ? and also what graphical enviroment? kde, gnome ?

Display You are allowed to set how big you want the resolution of the remote machine to be on your current machine once you arte logged in.

Advanced Configuration

Here you have the ability to use a network proxy if you are behind a firewall, There are also option that allows you to disable encryption ( why would you ever want to do that) which is not advisable for security reasons.

Here you can enable services like samba share or cups printing between the remote machine and your current machine, in case you want to share files or print something from the remote machine. pretty neat hey

Once all the settings are configured to your taste. Its time to run your connection to the remote machine.

The end result is something similar to this

The remote machine will be running within a windows which can be minimized or resized, or moved to another work space while you continue work on your local machine.

Overall I find Freenx to be very useful and comes in very handy in my day to day work as a system administrator. Its cross platform which means you can even login to a windows machine from your linux box and vice versa.

Hope someone finds this useful

Pastebin is a web application which allows its users to upload snippets of text, usually samples of source code, for public viewing. It is very popular in IRC channels where pasting large amounts of text is considered bad etiquette. A vast number of pastebins exist on the Internet, suiting a number of different needs and provided features tailored towards the crowd they focus on most.

source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastebin

I use Pastebin a lot especially when am in a support irc or IM Chat and i need to paste the debug output / log file of an application that crashed on me or when i need to share a config file.

Recently i found  an easy way to pastebin my text files by using pastebinit a small python script that reads text and sends it to a “pastebin” on the internet, returning the URL to the user. Pastebinit can be installed from the ubuntu repository

sudo apt-get install pastebinit

for those using the Nokia Internet Tablet you can install Pastebinit from here

Usage

Its a terminal based utility but is very easy to use.   cd to the directory of the text file you want to upload, and

pastebinit name-of-file

the man page for pastebinit is quite self explanatory and easy to follow.
Here are some extract from its man page on optional arguments that can be used with pastebinit

Optional arguments
-b [pastebin url] (default: http://pastebin.com)

-a [author] (default: $USER)

-f [format of paste] (used for syntax-highlighting, default: text)

-t [title of paste] (ONLY FOR 1t2.us)

-m [permatag] (ONLY FOR 1t2.us, default: blank)

-u [username] (ONLY FOR 1t2.us)

-p [password] (ONLY FOR 1t2.us)

Pastinit also support the following pastebins

. http://pastebin.com

· http://pastebin.mozilla.org

· http://rafb.net

· http://yourpaste.net

· http://paste.ubuntu.com

· http://paste.stgraber.org

. http://paste.debian.net

The cool thing about pastebinit is that it is very flexible and it can allow the text to be passed through a pipe example

echo "LInux rocks" | pastebinit -a "bigbrovar" -b http://paste.ubuntu.com
would send the words Linux rock to www.paste.ubuntu.com under the username bigbrovar (please don’t send Linux rock to pastebin its meant for serious stuff )

You can also use it with the grep.  Example

grep -r intrepid /etc/apt/sources.list | pastebinit -a "bigbrovar" -b http://paste.ubuntu.com b

and it would pipe the out of grep to paste.ubuntu.com

Hope someone finds this useful