Tips for Linux Explorers

[Bruno]

ULTIMATE BOOT CDThe absolute tool Looking for the Active Killdisk version for Linux I came upon this tool . . . does not only have the tool I was looking for but a whole bundle more:

Hard Disk Installation MaxBlast 3 (Maxtor) DiscWizard 2003 (Seagate)Hard Disk Diagnosis Drive Fitness Test (IBM/Hitachi) PowerMax (Maxtor/Quantum) DLG Diagnostic (Western Digital) SeaTools Desktop (Seagate) Diagnostic Tool (Fujitsu) SHDIAG (Samsung) HUTIL (Samsung) Data Lifeguard (Western Digital) Hard Disk Device Management IBM/Hitachi Feature Tool AMSET (Maxtor) UATA100 (Seagate) Ultra ATA Manager (Western Digital) SMARTUDM ATA Password Tool Hard Disk Wiping AutoClave Active@ KillDisk Free Edition Darik's Boot and Nuke Hard Disk Cloning HDClone (Free Edition) g4u Partition Tools Ranish Partition Manager XFDISK (Extended FDISK) SPFDISK (Special FDISK) TestDisk Partition Resizer SavePart Free FDISK MBRtool MBRWork Boot Managers Smart BootManager Gujin File Managers DOS NavigatorFile Maven NTFS Tools Offline NT Password & Registry EditorActive NTFS Reader for DOS EditBINI  Memory Diagnosis Memtest86 Memtest86+Windows Memory Diagnostic DocMem RAM Diagnostic DOS Boot Disks Bart's Network Boot Disk Bart's CDROM Boot Disk FreeDOS Boot Disk Linux-based Rescue Disks Tom's Boot Disk Recovery Is Possible (RIP) BasicLinux Trinux System Information AIDA16 NSSI PC-Config PCI Benchmarks System Speed Test 32 Antivirus Tools F-Prot Antivirus for DOS (Personal use only)McAfee Antivirus Scanner BIOS Tools CMOS Password Recovery Network Tools Freesco

Homepage: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/IMPORTANT: Make sure you get the "normal" version of the UltimateBootCD and not the WindowsUBCD ( with Bart's PE ). Downloading from one of the sites listed on http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ ( in ISO format ) will asure you that you have the correct version. Bruno

[Bruno]

SWARET ( For Slackware )Swaret is magical and an easy script designed to help keep your Slackware System up-to-date.It downloads, upgrades and installs packages, patches, sources and much more! Swaret includes dependency support, as well as it tracks and fixes missing libraries.There is no better tool to keep your Slackware up to date and sane.Get the latest Swaret: http://swaret.sourceforge.net/index.php OR The 1.6.2-noarch-1.tgz is here By mistake the file on the mirror is named swaret-1.6.2-noarch-1.tgz.tar so we have to rename the file in order to remove the last part ( .tar ):

# mv swaret-1.6.2-noarch-1.tgz.tar swaret-1.6.2-noarch-1.tgz

Next you can install it:

# installpkg swaret-1.6.1-noarch-3.tgz

( Adapt version number with the one you downloaded ) Configure it:

# cp /etc/swaret.conf.new /etc/swaret.conf

Edit the /etc/swaret.conf file, first set the version:

# NOTE: If you want to use Slackware Linux Current,# set VERSION to 'current' (VERSION=current).#VERSION=??.? <---------------------------------------------- Put the version you use here !

NOTE: Switching to current is experimental and is not advised for new users.( Attention dial-up users, upgrading to “current” will download more then 800 MB packages. So my advice is keep the version you downloaded/installed. )And next: "EXCLUDE=alsa"

# Basic Exclude # EXCLUDE=kernel EXCLUDE=lilo swaret EXCLUDE=MANIFEST.bz2$ EXCLUDE=-*dl$ -*PACKAGER$ -*MYBUILD$ EXCLUDE=alsa <----------------------------------------------- add this one !!

And for resolving dependencies, replace these lines:

DEP_ROOT=http://www.swaret.org/swaretDEP_ROOT=ftp://ftp.swaret.org/swaret

With:

DEP_ROOT=http://swaret.sourceforge.net/libraries-$VERSION

Finally, here is how to update/upgrade:

# swaret --update # swaret --upgrade -a

( -a is for automatic . . . dial-up users prefer not to use this )A few basic commands:swaret --update ( updates list of packages ) swaret --list ( shows packages list ) swaret --upgrade -a ( upgrades system -a automatically ) swaret --remove xxxxx ( removes packages xxxxx ) swaret --install xxxxx ( installs package xxxxx ) BrunoNOTE for dial-up up users: Dial-up users have to change another line in the /etc/swaret.conf as well: Change NIC=eth0 to NIC=ppp0

# Network Settings # # Network Interface # Use this if you have a Network Interface. # NIC=ppp0 <--------------------------------------------------------------------- Here## Local Interface # Use this if you do not have a Network Interface. #

PS: The Swaret FAQ and the Swaret forum are here:FAQ: http://swaret.sourceforge.net/index.php?name=FAQForum: http://swaret.sourceforge.net/index.php?na...&file=indexOld Swaret HowTo: Old HowToOld Swaret FAQ: Old FAQOld Swaret Man: Old Man Pages

[Bruno]

FILE SYSTEM COMMANDS:Here is a list of all the filesystem management tools. It is only an overview. If you want to know more about a specific command and the parameters that can be used with it, see the man pages or help files of the commands.( Example: "man badblocks" or "badblocks --help" )badblocks . . . . . . Searches a device for bad blocks cfdisk. . . . . . . . . . Creates or deletes partitions from the partition tabledosfsck . . . . . . . . Checks msdos filesystems dumpe2fs. . . . . . . Lists superblock information for the specified device e2fsck . . . . . . . . . Check and/or repair Linux filesystems Ext2/3fdformat. . . . . . . . Performs s lowlevel format on a floppy fdisk. . . . . . . . . . . Adds or removes partitions. Can also be used to view partition table information. fsck. . . . . . . . . . . Check and/or repair Linux filesystems hdparm . . . . . . . . Reads or sets hard disk parameters mkdosfs. . . . . . . . Creates an msdos filesystem mke2fs. . . . . . . . . Creates a native Linux filesystem mkfs. . . . . . . . . . . Also creates native Linux filesystems mkswap. . . . . . . . Creates a Linux swap partition mount . . . . . . . . . Mounts a filesystem stat . . . . . . . . . . . Prints inode information swapoff . . . . . . . . Releases a swap partition swapon . . . . . . . . Activates a swap partition tune2fs . . . . . . . . Adjusts ext2 filesystem parameters umount . . . . . . . . Unmounts a filesystemWith all the multibooters on the forum, all dividing their harddisks to a high amount of small partitions, a little tip on file system commands was not a luxury. ( Apparently on an IDE drive, 64 logical partitions is the max on an extended one . . . so: Have fun penguins and penguinettes ! ) Bruno

[Bruno]

FILESYSTEMCHECK 2 ( fsck )Here is one command of the previous Tip I would like to elaborate: fsckIf you have a corrupt file system ( Ext2/3 ) and you have to do a manual check and repair on it in "single user mode", here are 4 ways how to do it:1). If you are booting from Mandrake's Lilo the story is simple: choose option "failsafe" from the menu, this will boot you automatically, without any hassle, in "single user mode" ( you get an odd looking prompt like "sh-2.05b#" ) and you can do:

# fsck /dev/hdb1

( replace hdb1 with the partition you want to run the check on )2). Other graphical Lilos allow you to do Ctrl+X to get a prompt where you type:

linux single

it will than also boot in "single user mode"3). Another option is to flip in any Linux CD ( Live or install ) and at the prompt type

linux single

( For knoppix it is "knoppix single" )4). Now, in case you did already boot, but the boot failed half way before getting to X, and you are thrown back at the text screen with a prompt. Here is how to do it if you are in runlevel 3:Put it in "single user mode", ( back to runlevel 1 ):

# init 1

Then remount / in read only mode:

# mount -o remount,ro /# fsck /dev/hdb1

( replace hdb1 with the partition you want to run the check on ) Most of the times the -a, -A and -P options are not recommended, see "man fsck"Then remount / in readwrite mode:

# mount -o remount,rw /

Last step, back to where you came from:

# init 3

The chances are that your file system will be fixed, but there is no guarantee.The chance that you will have to do this are much slimmer on an Ext3 file system then on Ext2. So there is one more reason you always choose an Ext3 format :'( BrunoPS: Here is how to do it with Grub

[Bruno]

FDISK ( Partition table manipulator for Linux )Here is another command from the list "File System Commands". With fdisk we can get info on partitions and make new ones or delete them.I took the info from a post made by Owyn.Info about partitions:

# fdisk -l /dev/hda

Deleting partitions:

$ su# fdisk /dev/hda

1)List the partitions and make sure you are on hdaPress "p"2)Delete all the existing partitions on hda starting with partition 4 and working back to partition 1Press "d"Enter partition number when requested.3)List the partitions again to make sure the problem is fixed.Press "p"4)Write table to disk and exitPress "w"And then run "fdisk -l /dev/hda" again to see the results.Here is a full list of the commands you can use in fdisk:

Command action  a toggle a bootable flag  b edit bsd disklabel  c toggle the dos compatibility flag  d delete a partition  l list known partition types  m print this menu  n add a new partition  o create a new empty DOS partition table  p print the partition table  q quit without saving changes  s create a new empty Sun disklabel  t change a partition's system id  u change display/entry units  v verify the partition table  w write table to disk and exit  x extra functionality (experts only)

Erase the complete harddrive:

$ su# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=1024 count=10

CAUTION: MAKE SURE YOU ARE WORKING ON THE CORRECT HD !!!!More on fdisk: http://www.justlinux.com/nhf/Installation/...sing_fdisk.html Bruno

[Bruno]

APT-GET & SWARET ON DIAL-UPApt-Get:These were the questions: Can these downloads be broken up into smaller chunks and downloaded in groups?What can one do to avoid a total reinstall, etc. in the event of a crash? That would be a tremendous task for someone on dialup?

Pclos synaptic saves the packages to /var/cache/apt/archives when you choose to execute in synaptic there is a small checkbox at the bottom check download package files only  this d/ls package but doesn't automatically install them. If this option is not checked once the install is performed the package is deleted from that directory. You can then copy the packages from that directory and save them wherever you choose.To reinstall the packages you can just copy the packages to /var/cache/apt/archives and run synaptic just as you normally would but because the files are available locally in the designated directory it will not need to redownload the files but it will install them. At least in theory I have tested this with one or two packages but not with a whole upgrade but I think it should work the same.

A few handy commands if you use apt-get on the commandline:"apt-get -d kde" would only download the KDE packages and not yet install them so you can burn them to CD first "apt-get check" verifies that there are no broken dependencies . . ."apt-get upgrade" will only get the regular updates . . ( you get to say Y or N )"apt-get dist-upgrade" will totally upgrade your distro to the latest version"apt-get --help" for more info on apt-getSwaret:For Swaret the packages get stored in /var/swaret/sources The command "swaret --get KDE" will only download the packages and save them to /var/swaret/sources. Interrupted downloads will be checked and downloaded again, swaret performs a checksum on the packages. So if you burn the packages in /var/swaret/sources to CD you can always recover them."swaret --get kde" will only download the kde pakages"swaret --dep" will check dependencies"swaret --resume" will resume broken downloads See also the dial-up remarks in the Swaret TipB) BrunoOriginal thread: http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/index.ph...f=14&t=6057

[Bruno]

PCLOS TWEAKS ( Preview 5 and 7 )Here is a quick few tips for fixing a couple of things after the HD install, and further down for after upgrading: After HD install 1). The fancy icons in Open Office will be gone if you create a user account, do:

# cp -r /root/.openoffice/user/config/soffice.cfg  /home/bruno/.openoffice/user/config

( Replace "bruno" :'( ) 2). The nice mouse pointerwill be gone after the creating of a user account, do:

# cp -r /root/.icons/ /home/bruno/

After upgrade 1). The KDE startup sound will be changed to the default KDE tune . . . to get Texstars tune back ( what is the name of that track ? ) do boot from the CD and:

# cp /initrd/loopfs/usr/share/sounds/KDE_Startup.wav  /mnt/hda6/usr/share/sounds/TEX_Startup.wav

( Change the hda6 to the partition the PCLos HD install is on. Also this changes the name of the .wav to TEX_Startup.wav because KDE_Startup.wav already exists, so when you go in the "notify" section of KDE Control Center, that is the file to look for. ) 2). The "/etc/apt/sources.list" will be replaced and set the default to the ibiblio mirrors . . . change it back to "nluug" for quick downloads. 3). Upgrading to Mozilla 1.6 will make that the plugins in the Konqueror browser not work anymore because it points to the Mozilla 1.5 directory. Go to preferences of konqueror and in the plugins section add:

/usr/lib/mozilla-1.6/plugins/

4). After the upgrade the entries in the KDE Control Center will be empty . . . . do this:

1. update to the latest menudrake and menu rpms from apt-get2. delete everything in the /etc/menu directory3. delete the applnk-mdk and applnk-mdk-simplified directory in .kde/share4. delete the .menu directory in home5. update-menus -v when it stops press return to get to the konsole prompt6. run menudrake and save7. check your kcontrol to make sure everything is still there.Now you should be able to edit your menus as needed and not lose kcontrol settings.

5). There is a very cool cursor theme chooser program for PCLos and Mandrake 9.2, including a bundle of different cursor themes. You can get the program here: ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/Man...1mdk.noarch.rpmOnce downloaded install it ( as root ) with:

# rpm -ihv cursor_themes-0.0.4-1mdk.noarch.rpm

Then run the program as normal user with:

$ choose_cursor

and you will get a small GUI window where you can choose from 45 different themes Other language in PCLosFor KDE you need these packages: ( Example is Dutch=nl ) locales-nl-2.3.2-5mdk.i586.rpm ( From Mandrake 9.2 CD ) kde-i18n-nl-3.2.0-2mdk.noarch.rpm ( From Mandrake 10.0 CD, because it is KDE 3.2 ) For OpenOffice: myspell-nl_NL-1.0.2-0.20030824.1mdk.i586.rpm ( From Mandrake 9.2 CD ) myspell-hyph-nl-1.0.2-0.20030824.1mdk.i586.rpm ( From Mandrake 9.2 CD ) OpenOffice.org-l10n-nl-1.1-2.92mdk.i586.rpm ( From Mandrake 9.2 CD )PS: You can download them from ftp.nluug too ;)For 9.2: ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/Man...6/Mandrake/RPMSFor 10.0: ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/Man.../Mandrake/RPMS/ Have FUN with PCLos ! Bruno

[Bruno]

CPU INFO ( and other information on your system )We can get a lot of info from the /proc directory ( The /proc is a direct reflection of the system kept in memory )An example of the info we can get from /proc is "CPU info":

$ cat /proc/cpuinfoprocessor       : 0vendor_id       : AuthenticAMDcpu family      : 6model           : 6model name      : AMD Athlon(tm) Processorstepping        : 2cpu MHz         : 1595.353cache size      : 256 KBfdiv_bug        : nohlt_bug         : nof00f_bug        : nocoma_bug        : nofpu             : yesfpu_exception   : yescpuid level     : 1wp              : yesflags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse syscall mp mmxext 3dnowext 3dnowbogomips        : 2182.34

That is pretty good info isn't it ? . . But that is not all, there is a lot of other real-time information on your system in /proc, try:

$ cat /proc/devices ( System block and character devices )$ ls /proc/driver ( Shows The drivers you can "cat", example: "cat /proc/driver/rtc" )$ cat /proc/filesystems ( Lists supported filesystems )# cat /proc/kmsg ( As root !  kernel messages . . close with Ctrl+C )$ cat /proc/modules ( A list of loaded drivers )$ ls /proc/net ( A directory with networking subdirectories )$ cat /proc/partitions ( All partitions your kernel recognizes )$ cat /proc/pci ( Devices in the pci slots )$ ls /proc/sys ( Directory with system information you can "cat" )$ cat /proc/version ( Kernel version, the gcc it was commpiled with, etc . . . )

So you see there is a wealth of info you can retrieve from /proc . . . go off and explore, even if you do not understand all the info, it is good to know where you can get it ;) BrunoPS: Brian wrote us that with "lshw" ( if installed on your distro ) you can query all that /proc info and print it to your screen.Try "lshw -html >lshw.html" and you will get a nice html file in your home directory for easy viewing.

[Bruno]

IMAGEMAGICKImageMagick is an ultra versatile tool that can manipulate images on the commandline. You will find it installed by default in most distros. Just to give you an idea what it can do, here is a few examples:import - Take a screenshot of the full desktop:

$ import -window root screenshot.png

( When the command is typed in a 'run-box' and you click on the desktop it will take the full desktop too and you won't see the open terminal where you typed the command )Takes screenshot of an open window:

$ import screenshot.png

Then click on a window.Take a screenshot of any ( detail ) part of the desktop:

$ import screenshot.png

Then make a selection with your right mouse button.A simple way to display the screenshot: ( or any other image )

$ display sceenshot.png

Now comes the real 'magic':mogrify - To transform a .png image to .jepg:

$ mogrify -format jpeg screenshot.png

To transform a whole series of .png images to .jpeg:

$ mogrify -format jpeg *.png

NOTE: Imagemagic can handle and transform all possible image formats ! ( See below )And to make a series of thumbnails:

$ mogrify -geometry 120x120 *.jpg

( Don't worry about disfiguring the image, it will take the first number and adapt the second one to it to make sure the proportions stay the same )WARNING: "mogrify" overwrites the original image, so make a backup before you start ! What else can it do? - Resize, rotate, sharpen, color reduce, or add special effects to an image - Create a montage of image thumbnails - Create a transparent image suitable for use on the Web - Turn a group of images into a GIF animation sequence - Create a composite image by combining several separate images - Draw shapes or text on an image - Decorate an image with a border or frame - Describe the format and characteristics of an imageHere are the commands you can use in Imagemagic:

display is a machine architecture independent image processing and display facility. It can display an image on any workstation display running an X server.import reads an image from any visible window on an X server and outputs it as an image file. You can capture a single window, the entire screen, or any rectangular portion of the screen.montage creates a composite by combining several separate images. The images are tiled on the composite image with the name of the image optionally appearing just below the individual tile.convert converts an input file using one image format to an output file with the same or differing image format while applying an arbitrary number of image transformations.mogrify transforms an image or a sequence of images. These transforms include image scaling, image rotation, color reduction, and others. The transmogrified image overwrites the original image.identify describes the format and characteristics of one or more image files. It will also report if an image is incomplete or corrupt.composite composites images (blends or merges images together) to create new images.compare compares an image to a reconstructed image.conjure interprets and executes scripts in the Magick Scripting Language (MSL).

The formats ImageMagick can handle:8BIM - Photoshop resource formatAFM - TrueType fontAPP1 - Photoshop resource formatART - PF1: 1st PublisherAVI - Audio/Visual InterleavedAVS - AVS X imageBIE - Joint Bi-level Image experts Group interchange formatBMP - Microsoft Windows bitmap imageCAPTION - Caption (requires separate size info)CMYK - Raw cyan, magenta, yellow, and black samplesCMYKA - Raw cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and matte samplesCUT - Dr HaloDCM - Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine imageDCX - ZSoft IBM PC multi-page PaintbrushDIB - Microsoft Windows bitmap imageDPS - Display PostScriptDPX - Digital Moving Picture ExchangeEPDF - Encapsulated Portable Document FormatEPI - Adobe Encapsulated PostScript Interchange formatEPS - Adobe Encapsulated PostScriptEPS2 - Adobe Level II Encapsulated PostScriptEPS3 - Adobe Level III Encapsulated PostScriptEPSF - Adobe Encapsulated PostScriptEPSI - Adobe Encapsulated PostScript Interchange formatEPT - Adobe Encapsulated PostScript with TIFF previewFAX - Group 3 FAXFILE - Uniform Resource LocatorFITS - Flexible Image Transport SystemFPX - FlashPix FormatFTP - Uniform Resource LocatorG3 - Group 3 FAXGIF - CompuServe graphics interchange formatGIF87 - CompuServe graphics interchange format (version 87a)GRADIENT - Gradual passing from one shade to anotherGRANITE - Granite textureGRAY - Raw gray samples H - Internal formatHDF - Hierarchical Data FormatHISTOGRAM - Histogram of the imageHTM - Hypertext Markup Language and a client-side image mapHTML - Hypertext Markup Language and a client-side image mapHTTP - Uniform Resource LocatorICB - Truevision Targa imageICM - ICC Color ProfileICO - Microsoft iconICON - Microsoft iconIPTC - IPTC NewsphotoJBG - Joint Bi-level Image experts Group interchange formatJBIG - Joint Bi-level Image experts Group interchange formatJP2 - JPEG-2000 JP2 File Format SyntaxJPC - JPEG-2000 Code Stream SyntaxJPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group JFIF formatJPG - Joint Photographic Experts Group JFIF formatLABEL - Text image formatLOGO - ImageMagick LogoM2V - MPEG-2 Video StreamMAP - Colormap intensities MAT - MATLAB image formatMATTE - MATTE formatMIFF - Magick image formatMNG - Multiple-image Network GraphicsMONO - Bi-level bitmap in least-significant-byte-first orderMPC - Magick Persistent Cache image formatMPEG - MPEG-1 Video StreamMPG - MPEG-1 Video StreamMPR - Magick Persistent RegistryMSL - Magick Scripting LanguageMTV - MTV Raytracing image formatMVG - Magick Vector GraphicsNETSCAPE - Netscape 216 color cubeNULL - Constant image of uniform colorOTB - On-the-air bitmapP7 - Xv thumbnail formatPAL - 16bit/pixel interleaved YUVPALM - Palm Pixmap formatPBM - Portable bitmap format (black and white)PCD - Photo CDPCDS - Photo CDPCL - Page Control LanguagePCT - Apple Macintosh QuickDraw/PICTPCX - ZSoft IBM PC PaintbrushPDB - Pilot Image FormatPDF - Portable Document FormatPFA - TrueType fontPFB - TrueType fontPFM - TrueType fontPGM - Portable graymap format (gray scale)PICON - Personal IconPICT - Apple Macintosh QuickDraw/PICTPIX - Alias/Wavefront RLE image formatPLASMA - Plasma fractal imagePM - X Windows system pixmap (color)PNG - Portable Network GraphicsPNM - Portable anymapPPM - Portable pixmap format (color)PREVIEW - Show a preview an image enhancement, effect, or f/xPS - Adobe PostScriptPS2 - Adobe Level II PostScriptPS3 - Adobe Level III PostScriptPSD - Adobe Photoshop bitmapPTIF - Pyramid encoded TIFFPWP - Seattle Film WorksRAS - SUN RasterfileRGB - Raw red, green, and blue samples RGBA - Raw red, green, blue, and matte samplesRLA - Alias/Wavefront imageRLE - Utah Run length encoded imageROSE - 70x46 Truecolor test imageSCT - Scitex HandShakeSFW - Seattle Film WorksSGI - Irix RGB imageSHTML - Hypertext Markup Language and a client-side image mapSTEGANO - Steganographic imageSUN - SUN RasterfileSVG - Scalable Vector GaphicsTEXT - Raw textTGA - Truevision Targa imageTIF - Tagged Image File FormatTIFF - Tagged Image File FormatTILE - Tile image with a textureTIM - PSX TIMTTF - TrueType fontTXT - Raw textUIL - X-Motif UIL tableUYVY - 16bit/pixel interleaved YUVVDA - Truevision Targa imageVICAR - VICAR rasterfile formatVID - Visual Image DirectoryVIFF - Khoros Visualization imageVST - Truevision Targa imageWBMP - Wireless Bitmap (level 0) imageWMF - Windows MetafileWPG - Word Perfect GraphicsX - X ImageXBM - X Windows system bitmap (black and white)XC - Constant image uniform colorXCF - GIMP imageXML - Scalable Vector GaphicsXPM - X Windows system pixmap (color)XV - Khoros Visualization imageXWD - X Windows system window dump (color)YUV - CCIR 601 4:1:1Now you know why it is called "ImageMagick" :DB) BrunoMore info: http://www.imagemagick.orgMore commandline tricks: ImageMagick: A graphics wizard for the command lineAlso: Advanced image editing from the command line with ImageMagick And Command-line animations using ImageMagickAnd for the GUI version: Display

[Bruno]

SECURITY: SERVICES STARTED AT BOOT Surely you are aware that at boot a good number of services are started, most of them you will see in the bootmessages. The story is that you do not need all those that are being started, you do need most of them but you can do some weeding out of the ones you do not need and are possibly a security risk. ( It can even reduce the time it takes to boot . . however, do not expect too much here, this will only be a few seconds ) Let me first list a few services you DO need and therefore should NOT deactivate:

apmd : Advanced Power Management Daemon atd : daemon for the at command. Runs "one-off" scheduled operations outside the cron daemon, as set by the command line. crond : provides a daemon to perform scheduled operations without user interaction daytime : provides the system's notion of the time of day echo : displays a line of text fam : the File Alteration Monitor. This server tracks changes to the filestystem, passing the information along to the appropriate application. keytable : provides the appropriate keyboard mapping partmon : monitors the contents of a partition, preventing writing : 0 byte files when the partition is full random : random number generator syslog : a system-wide logging utility xinetd : the Extended Internet Services Daemon

Now, I will take as an example, Mandrake and PCLos, because they are very similar. Most other distros have equivalent tools to shut services down and stop them from starting at boot. In Slackware it is a bit more complicated but real Slackers will find a way to get the job done anyway. So, in Drake & PCLos . . . . in the menu under "Configuration" you will find "Configure your Computer" this brings up the Master Control Center ( same as MCC in Drake ) and there under "System" you have "DrakXServices" . . this brings up a GUI with all the services running ( or not ) and there is an info button at every item . . also there is a stop-button for every service where you can temporary stop the service and see if it affects the smooth running of your system ( on a reboot it will start again if you leave the checkmark . . the trick is: Note down every change you make ! Only if you are 100% sure you take away the checkmark ! -- A few services that are running by default in PCLos and that you can safely disable are: hpoj ( If you do NOT have a HP printer ) nfs ( to comunicate with other Linux computers on a network ) nfslock ( idem ) portmap ( server stuff ) postfix smb ( if you do not run samba to comunicate with a Windows computer on the network ) swat ( also samba related, admin tool for samba ) wlan ( wireless lan config/activate etc. ) -- You DO need: alsa anacron atd crond cups devfsd dm fam gmp internet iptables ( for the firewall to work ) keytable kheader pcscd random rawdevices services slpd sound tmdns xfs xinetd That is all for today ! . . Next time we will look at Servers/services. Okay, to give a little hint to you Slackware users: to disable a service from starting at boot look in the /etc/rc.d/ directory . . they will be there, as an example, to safely prevent sendmail from starting at boot ( you do not need sendmail to send mail ) and be sure that you can put it back on if you find that you made a mistake disabling it, do:

# mv /etc/rc.d/rc.sendmail /etc/rc.d/rc.sendmail.OLD

To restore to the previous situation you simply do

# mv /etc/rc.d/rc.sendmail.OLD  /etc/rc.d/rc.sendmail

Have FUN securing your system ! Bruno

[Bruno]

SECURITY: SERVERS & SERVICESYou may not be aware of it but there are often running servers or sevices that listen to ports on your system that are unsafe.The SANS top 20 http://www.sans.org/top20/

Top Vulnerabilities to UNIX Systems U1 BIND Domain Name System U2 Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) U3 Apache Web Server U4 General UNIX Authentication Accounts with No Passwords or Weak Passwords U5 Clear Text Services U6 Sendmail U7 Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) U8 Secure Shell (SSH) U9 Misconfiguration of Enterprise Services NIS/NFS U10 Open Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

So let us do some real work now to secure our system:There is this command ( as root )

netstat -tap | grep LISTEN

That will show you the active servers on your system and what port they listen to . . . . but this needs far more information . . . . let us say that in general only the services you allowed running above should be seen in there . . . Example:

tcp  0  0 *:ipp   *:*   LISTEN  1758/cupsd

( This one is okay, the cups printer deamon, and needs to be running ! )Another command is:

nmap -sS 127.0.0.1

It shows you the same servers, but now with the port numbers they listen to.So, like I said, the cupsserver is okay, but if any of the following servers are active and in LISTEN mode, it would be safer to shut them down: fingerftpd kdesshlockd mountd named or BINDnfsdrpcrloginrsh sendmail ( Only needed if you run a mailserver )snmpsslsshstatd rusertelnetd X ( the part that listens to tcp )And, if you're not running a web server, you should also shut down any running httpd process.You can shut down the processes for the current session with "kill PID" ( where PID is the number you see just before the name of the service . . in our example it would be: 1662 )To prevent those services from starting up at boot permanently ( and they are not in the MCC "services" tool ) you will have to edit the /etc/inetd.conf file.A radical way to do this is back up the old /etc/inetd.conf file:

# mv /etc/inetd.conf /etc/inetd.conf.OLD

and replace it by an empty file:

# touch /etc/inetd.conf

. . This will eliminate most of the ones listed above that can not be found in the MCC. Then to stop X from listening to a certain port:In Mandrake and PCLos: add the bold part to the last line in the "/etc/X11/xdm/Xservers" file:

:0 local /bin/nice -n -10 /usr/X11R6/bin/X -deferglyphs 16 -nolisten tcp

In Slackware: add the bold part to the last line in the "/etc/X11/xdm/Xservers" file:

:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X -nolisten tcp

After this exercise the two commands I gave you above ( netstat and nmap ) should return no entries then only "cupsd". And maybe the samba, mail or webserver you absolutely want running.Have FUN securing your system . . . next time we look at rootkits ;)A last one for our Slackware users . . to disable sshd:

# mv /etc/rc.d/rc.sshd /etc/rc.d/rc.sshd.OLD

Bruno

[Bruno]

SECURITY: ROOTKIT CHECKERSA far bigger danger to your Linux system then viruses are rootkits. Most of them will be stopped entering your system by a decent firewall, but still a regular check is strongly recommended. Rootkits are self-hiding toolkits used by blackhats/crackers/scriptkiddies to avoid the eye of the sysadmin.A rootkit scanner is scanning tool to ensure you are about 99.9% clean of nasty tools. This tool scans for rootkits, backdoors and local exploits.There are two tools I recommend:chkrootkit ( http://www.chkrootkit.org ) is an easy to use tool, included in many distro's either installed by default or on the install CDs.Simply, as root, running

# chkrootkit

will do the job.rkhunter ( http://www.rootkit.nl ) is a tool that just does a bit more than only looking for rootkits, it performs a system-wide check for vunerable files and dependencies on your system:- MD5 hash compare- Look for default files used by rootkits- Wrong file permissions for binaries- Look for suspected strings in LKM and KLD modules- Look for hidden files- Optional scan within plaintext and binary filesThe install file is available as tarball and rpm and will be installed in /usr/local/bin . . . . on some distro's you additionally need "Perl-Digest-SHA1" for a succesful install.Running the program:

# rkhunter -c --createlogfile

Making rkhunter a cron job to run daily and report by mail to root is ultra simple, all you have to do is:

# rkhunter --cronjob

More info ? See the thread on the forum: http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/index.ph...=ST&f=14&t=6506Have FUN securing your systemB) Bruno

ATTENTION !!! DO NOT install chkrootkit on your system and simply run it periodically.An attacker may simply find the installation and change it so that it doesn't detect his presence.Compile it and put it on removable or read-only media.

[Bruno]

SECURITY: AV SOFTWARE ( And why we don't need it )Because on several occasions Nathan ( nlinecomputers ) has written some very good and clear posts about viruses in Linux on the forum, I have asked him to make a compilation out of several threads he contributed.Well, he did not let us down ! . . . . . Here it is:

Users who are new to Linux and have a background battling viruses in Windows are often shocked when long time Linux users advise them not to worry about viruses in Linux. "Linux has no viruses" is often said and many new Linux users have a difficult time believing it."Why does Linux have no viruses?"The nature of the setup of a Linux, UNIX, BSD, or even a Mac makes having and running viruses on your system difficult to impossible. *nix operating systems are much more securely designed then Windows. Many functions in Windows can be accessed by services very easily and without a password prompt. Most Linux users can't even change the time of day on the computer without a password prompt. While at times annoying, this level of security is what keeps what few viruses that do exist in Linux under control.There are some Linux viruses, but not many. Last time I checked there are only about 20 viruses that can infect a Linux box versus the several hundred thousand viruses that can infect a Windows box. All of the Linux viruses exploit various known holes in Linux. All the holes I know of have been patched. So if you run a recent version of Linux, and you keep it patched, you can't be infected by any of them. The structure of Linux makes writing a virus very difficult as it requires root access to do anything of significance. For a virus to run it would have to be granted root access with a password request. If you fail to give it root access then the most a virus could do, if anything, is damage your home directory. It is unlikely it could even run again so it would die there in your home directory. Most smart Linux users grasp the power of root access and would question why an unknown program is suddenly requesting root access. (You don't enter your password for just ANY prompt do you? Only for programs YOU have called up, right?)Plus each Linux distro is different, so it is difficult to write a virus that would run on say Red Hat and also be able to run on a Debian platform (or SuSE, or Slackware, or Mandrake?...). This further limits the chances of an outbreak. This variety is one of levels of protection that Linux users have that Windows does not. All Windows boxes are very much alike and that common ground makes for a very ripe breeding ground for viruses."Ok so I'm safe from any so called Linux virus, but all those Windows viruses can hurt me because I can read my FAT32 partition, right?"Not really. A virus isn't magic. It's just a computer program. It is an evil program, but still just a program. Programs can't run on systems they aren't designed for. You can't run a Windows program on a Mac or in Linux or on an IBM Mainframe. If the virus is a Windows virus then in can only infect a Windows system and only when Windows is booted up and running. Why, because Windows is the only thing that can run the code. Can you put an infected file on a Linux system? Sure, but it can't do anything. To Linux it is gibberish. Just like you can't run KDE on Windows or run Microsoft Word on a Linux box. Linux can't be hurt by Windows viruses however it can host them. For example if you use Linux as a mail server then it can pass the virus around just like any other mail server. Note that passing a virus in an email is not the same as infecting the server. A virus is just a program and it can not infect a system unless it is run on it. But if you have an office full of Windows clients and you use your Linux box as an in house mail server or as a file server and one of the Windows clients gets infected then all the other Windows computers are at risk of infection via the Linux box and the email. So if you're running a mail server you might need to consider AV for the server. Otherwise it really isn't an issue. Even with a mail server the Linux server ITSELF can't be infected just all the Windows boxes that connect to it. (Which is bad enough?)"So what do I need to do? I need to do something, just in case. Don't I?"The best way to keep your system secure against viruses is by keeping your software updated and patched, by making sure that your system doesn't run unneeded services and a by running a firewall.--------------------Nathan Williams, N-Line Computers

Great ! Thanks Nathan for this excellent explanation !If after these statements you still think you need AV software: A free AV for Linux is F-Prot. You can get it here: http://www.f-prot.com/products/home_use/linux/ BrunoLinks on security:Basic Slackware Security: http://www.oldskoolphreak.com/tfiles/hack/...k/slack_sec.txtMore on Nmap: http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/...l?tid=78&tid=82Nessus: http://www.nessus.org/demo/first.html For the more advanced, here is a series of articles on Linux security.These articles were written by Mike Peters and posted on Linux.com: Part 1: http://docs.linux.com/article.pl?sid=04/04...5/1913248&tid=2 Part 2: http://docs.linux.com/article.pl?sid=04/04...5/1918219&tid=2 Part 3: http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=04/04/15/1923224

[Bruno]

USER RELATED CRON JOBS If you want to set up some tasks yourself ( as user ) to run every so many hours/days, here is how to do that: Make a text file and let's say we call it "test-cron". In the file we will put the following lines:

0 * * * * play /home/bruno/Sound/Hour.wav 30 * * * * play /home/bruno/Sound/HalfHour.wav

( Sure you need those sound files in the places indicated above ) See this link for the time settings: Cron Jobs Then give the command:

$ crontab test-cron

And from then on, every hour the "Hour.wav" will play and every half hour the "HalfHour.wav" will . . just like grandma's clock ( Your personal cron-settings are then saved in /var/spool/cron/bruno ) Sure you can do this as root as well so it will run independently from whichever user is logged in at that moment Bruno

[Bruno]

BACKING UP THE MBRHere is a clever trick that John Locke sent us for backing up and restoring the MBR . . . :

Just another note about restoring the boot loader for dual boot systems,after Windows messes it up. In Linux, the "dd" command can read andwrite to/from raw disks and files. If you have a floppy drive, creatinga boot disk is as simple as putting a floppy in the drive and typingthis:$ su<type password># dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1This makes an exact copy of the MBR of the first hard drive, copying itto a floppy disk. You can boot directly from this floppy, and see yourold boot menu. You can restore it by switching the "if=" and "of="(input file, output file) parameters.If you don't have a floppy drive, you can back it up to a file withthis:# dd if=/dev/hda of=/home/john/boot.mbr bs=512 count=1Then you can boot into a CD-ROM distribution such as Knoppix, or oftenuse your Linux distribution's installation CD to boot into rescue mode,and restore it with:$ su# dd if=/mnt/hda5/john/boot.mbr of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1(you'll need to find and mount the partition containing the directorywhere you backed up the MBR for the "if" parameter--this is an example).Cheers,-- John Locke

Thanks John, nice one ! BrunoPS: Also, Striker shows us a way to write lilo to floppy:

For that open up a konsole, log in as ROOT and follow the below :

/sbin/lilo -b /dev/fd0

[Bruno]

CDRECORD and KERNEL 2.6( If you want you can skip the intro and go to the "nutshell" at the bottom )

Mandrakelinux 10.0: to Burn or not to BurnThe linux kernel 2.6, the default one in Mandrakelinux 10.0, has introduced some changes in the way burning is done. A release note was published to explain the new behavior, but it seems not explicit enough to explain what changed and what is now the best way to burn under Mandrakelinux 10.0.First, let have some technical facts. Basically all the burners have the same interface, which is a SCSI one, because the IDE commands are just too basic to do anything with a burner. However SCSI interface is not as widely available as IDE one, and is more expensive because you need an extra adapter ; so nowadays most of the burner sold have an IDE interface. To be able to send complex SCSI command over the IDE bus, the ATAPI standard has been developed. This ATAPI standard just described how to send SCSI commands via an IDE bus, however under the linux kernel 2.4 the ATAPI support was not present into the default IDE driver, but into the ide-scsi one, specifically developed for that matter. As far as burning programs are concerned, under Mandrakelinux the burning tools are either cdrecord or dvd+rw-tools. All the graphical burning interfaces, k3b, xcdroast, or others are using either cdrecord or dvd+rw-tools in background. Until recently, the more versatile and used has been cdrecord, but the free version only allow to burn CD-R and CD-RW, however I have been able to maintain an extra patch to be able to burn any kind of DVD media, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and DVD+RW. To burn with cdrecord you need to specify the interface and the device you want to use on the command line, for example dev=sg:1,0,1 (or just dev=1,0,1) to burn on the SCSI bus 1, target 0, lun 1 (each SCSI device is defined with these 3 numbers). This SCSI emulation under linux 2.4 was the reason of this 'hdc=ide-scsi' thing you must have met into your bootloader command line if you once wanted to burn under a GNU/Linux system with an ATAPI burner. cdrecord also supported to burn without this SCSI emulation with the 'dev=ATAPI:1,0,0', but unfortunately this method does not allow to use Direct Memory Access (DMA), which impacts the performances and basically does not allow to burn at anything faster than 16x speed. So we were stuck and had to use this ide-scsi emulation to be able to correctly burn under GNU/Linux. This is now past! With the linux kernel 2.6 a new ATAPI interface has been developed and directly available with the IDE driver. This interface is shortly known as the ATA interface, which is also supported by cdrecord. So forget about this SCSI emulation, ATAPI interface or whatever, just now use the more logical way you would have first imagine, which is to just specify the device name of your burner, for example dev=/dev/hdc, if your burner is the first device on the second IDE bus of your computer. You can scan your buses with "cdrecord -scanbus" to know which devices are detected, note that the Mandrakelinux cdrecord automatically default to the new ATA interface if the SCSI interface does not find anything, you can check that with the "scsidev: 'ATA'" line in the scanbus command output. If you want to be sure to scan only the ATA bus, just use "cdrecord dev=ATA -scanbus". To specify the device, you can use 'dev=/dev/hdc' or something like 'dev=ATA:1,0,0' from the scanbus output. These both syntax are internally the same thing, and the new ATA interface will be used (and allow DMA burning and the maximum speed of your burner). To conclude, with the new Mandrakelinux 10.0, just forget about anything you know about burning with this SCSI emulation, and just remember that you only need to know one thing, the name of the device representing your burner (you can easily find this out with a "cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info" or "dmesg | grep CD" commands). So be careful not to use this ATAPI interface under your favorite burning tool, and do not take care about their messages regarding SCSI emulation, they are outdated (xcdroast has been patched to be able to use the ATA interface, I am not sure about k3b).

So in a nutshell:In Mandrake 10, and probably soon in other distro's with the 2.6 kernel, first do

# dmesg | grep CD

to see what /dev/hd?? your burner is located . . and then:

# cdrecord dev=/dev/hdc filename.iso

That is all . . . . ( So no more "--scanbus" !! )K3b and other GUI burning tools will already be adapted to the new kernel and cdrecord software. Bruno

[Bruno]

ALTERNATIVE MANDRIVA 2006 INSTALL( NOTE: For Mandriva 2005 there are instructions Here )There are two alternative ways to download and install Mandrake 2006 ( As long as there are no ISOs available yet )First get this file and burn it to CD: boot.iso( For other versions: you need the "boot.iso" located in the "images" directory )FTP installBurn the boot.iso to CD and boot from it . . then:- Press Enter- At the screen: "Please choose your install method" choose FTP server- DHCP- "Please fill entries" I filled in: "uranus" on first line ( name of my system ) and "lan" on second line.- Wait until the connection is made and dialog shows up ( takes a while !!! )- Question about proxy: leave blank- When choosing the sources, tell it that you will select the source yourself "Specify the mirror manually"- On the first line: "ftp.nluug.nl" and on the second line: "/pub/os/Linux/distr/Mandrakelinux/official/2006.0/i586" and press OKThen the program will load into memory and proceed to go on as a normal install.HD install- Copy all the files from

ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/Mandrakelinux/official/2006.0/i586

to a directory ( /home/bruno/i586 ) on a partition on your HD Use Kget's integration in Konqueror and use the filemanager, ORThe next command

rsync -P -v -r ftp.nluug.nl::Mandrakelinux/official/2006.0/i586 .

You DO need the dot at the end of that command !!! - Boot from the boot-CD we made above- It will give you a dialog where you want to install from: choose "hard disk"- The next dialog will ask you from which HD ( if you have 2 )- After that a dialog will ask you on what partition the files are located- And the next dialog asks "Directory or ISO image _________" type "/home/bruno/i586" and press OKThen the program will load into memory and proceed to go on as a normal install. :DB) Bruno

[Bruno]

URPMI SOURCES MANDRAKE 10.0 OfficialThere are a few sources you can add to the package manager of Mandrake to get extra software. Some of them everybody can add, but a few ( the last two ) are only for Club Members. See, here how it's done:

Go to a console, log in as 'su' and paste the line after the prompt and hit enter. Now it should work and get the list . . . be patient, it takes a while. Then as you get the prompt back, close the console ( Ctrl+d , 2x ). Now that we have added the source to your software manager, we can have a look at all the packages: Go to the MCC --> Software Management --> 'RpmDrake helps you install software packages' ( the icon with the + ). Now you will see the text : 'All packages' under the search-box., 'All packages' 'by group' change the by group in: 'by medium repository' and you will get a list with the sources you can choose from: CD1, CD2, CD3 and also the Update source and the just added source. Click in the little triangle in front of the new source, and a list will fold out with all the packages you can choose from . . . . FUN, MAGIC, BLISS !

Here they are: ( Don't click on the links but paste them in a root-console ) YOU HAVE TO BE ON LINE ! Source PLF

urpmi.addmedia plfplf ftp://mandrake-forum.org/pub/PLF/mandrake/10.0 with hdlist.cz

Source Thacs:

urpmi.addmedia thacs.rpms http://rpm.nyvalls.se/10.0/RPMS with hdlist.cz

Source Contrib

urpmi.addmedia contrib ftp://ftp.nluug.nl//pub/os/Linux/distr/Mandrake/official/10.0/contrib/i586 with ../../i586/Mandrake/base/hdlist2.cz

Source Club contributions ( open to all )

urpmi.addmedia club.contrib_ftp.nl.uu.net_i586_10.0Official ftp://ftp.nl.uu.net/pub/linux/Mandrakelinux/devel/testing/Mandrakeclub/10.0/i586 with hdlist.cz

Source Eslrahc ( Link )

urpmi.addmedia eslrahc http://www.eslrahc.com/10.0/ with hdlist.cz

Source Norlug ( Link )

urpmi.addmedia NORLUG-10.0 http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/mirrors/norlug/mandrake-10.0/RPMS/ with hdlist.cz

More small ones: http://www.thebrix.org.uk/ Only for Club members:Source Club Commercial

urpmi.addmedia club.comm_i586_10.0Official http://NICKNAME:PASSWORD@www.mandrakeclub.com/downloads2/comm/10.0/ with ./hdlist.cz

( replace "NICKNAME" and "PASSWORD" ) Source Club Testing ( Be Careful With These !! )

urpmi.addmedia testing_i586_10.0Official http://NICKNAME:PASSWORD@www.mandrakeclub.com/downloads2/test/10.0 with hdlist.cz

( replace "NICKNAME" and "PASSWORD" ) BrunoNOTE 1: If you add the sources today . . and you want to use them, let us say next week, you first have to update them because new packages might have been added, and old packages might have been removed . . . so each time before using them do "urpmi.update -a" as root in a console !!NOTE 2: So again the warning: Mainly I only have the CD and Contrib source active all the time . . and only make all others active if I can not find the package I look for in those two ( CD and Contrib ) . . . . also you will get just too many different versions of the same package if you use all the sources at the same time, and sticking to the native Mandrake ones is recommended !

[Bruno]

RESTORING THE XP MBRHere is a Tip that I hope you will never use . . but still it has to be posted in this thread . . how do you restore the MBR to the state it was with only Windows XP.The info comes from Jodef ( Johann )

Boot from Win XP Cd ( you will get setup inspecting hardware configuration)Will come to screen to setup or repair existing install press R to enter recovery console You will be asked to choose install to repair enter number and you will get prompt for admin password followed by C:WINDOWS> at this point type FIXMBR or HELP will give you list of options.

Thanks Johann !! BrunoPS: Depending on what drive you have XP installed you might have to give an additional command: "fixboot x:" where "x:" represents the drive XP is installed.See: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documen...r.mspx?mfr=trueAnd: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documen...t.mspx?mfr=trueOther usefull links:http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/s...xp/install.mspxhttp://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_home_install_-_graphic.htmhttp://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_pro_install_-_graphic.htm

[Bruno]

PRINTING MAN PAGESThere are four ways to print out a man page, just see which one suits you best.As an example we take the "mount" man pages1). In a terminal/console, type

$ man mount

After that, from the menu bar: "Session" --> "Print Screen"OR: 2).In a terminal/console type

$ man mount | col -b > mount.txt

As a result, you will find the mount.txt file in home. Open it and send the text file to your printer.OR: ( also for easy reading )3).In Konqueror: type "#mount" in the address bar and press the "print" button from the menu bar.AND: 4). The super man pages: ( for the ones you can not find on your system ) http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/linuxcommand.org/su...erman_pages.phpSearch for "mount" and print it from your browser.Sure, you do know that there is a man page for every command . . . reading about them can sometimes show you surprising extra options for each command. :DB) Bruno

[Bruno]

TWEAK THE COMMAND "ls -l"Sure, we all know the command "ls -l" . . . but that we can adapt the command to change the date & time output is something Doryforos will try to explain to us:

Normally, ls outputs the modification date & time of files & foldersin the following (locale-dependent) format:$ ls -l /etc/profile.dtotal 84-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 790 Jun 1 10:26 colorls.csh-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 785 Jun 1 10:24 colorls.sh...i.e., ls outputs the date & time in the format:"Month Day Modification_Time", when the modification time is recent, and in the format:"Month Day Year", when the time is further in the past.By issuing "ls -l --time-style=long-iso" at the command line, thedate & time output changes to a ISO standard format (in any case, users are given the choice...):$ ls -l --time-style=long-iso /etc/profile.dtotal 84-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 790 2004-06-01 10:26 colorls.csh-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 785 2004-06-01 10:24 colorls.sh...To have ls use this format permanently, in Fedora Core 2, edit thefiles shown in the example output, adding "--time-style=long-iso"at the lines beginning with "alias ll=" (and -- optionally -- atthe lines beginning with "alias ls="), as follows:

[colorls.sh, for bash]if ! egrep -qi "^COLOR.*none" $COLORS >/dev/null 2>/dev/null; then alias ll='ls -l --color=tty --time-style=long-iso' 2>/dev/null alias l.='ls -d .* --color=tty' 2>/dev/null alias ls='ls --color=tty --time-style=long-iso' 2>/dev/nullelse alias ll='ls -l --time-style=long-iso' 2>/dev/null alias l.='ls -d .*' 2>/dev/nullfi

Thanks to DoryforosB) Bruno

[Bruno]

RSYNCWe all know how to download from FTP, but there is an other way: rsync ! When ftp servers are really busy you might have a better/faster download with rsync.To use rsync you need to know a few tricks:To get a full list of what is available with rsync on nluug:

$ rsync ftp.nluug.nl::

( full list of modules )Or directly the distributions directory:

$ rsync ftp.nluug.nl::pub/os/Linux/distr/

Or Ibiblio:

$ rsync ibiblio.org::distros/

Then if you want to know what is in Mandrakelinux:

$ rsync ftp.nluug.nl::Mandrakelinux

The listing of i586:

$ rsync ftp.nluug.nl::Mandrakelinux/official/2006.0/i586/

Download the full "images" directory:

$ rsync -P -v -r ftp.nluug.nl::Mandrakelinux/official/2006.0/i586/install/images/ .

!! Do not forget the dot at the end !!! ( It puts the file in your /home or replace the dot with the path to the directory you use to save the download. The file will be a hidden till the download is 100% )The -P argument is to resume a download of a partially downloaded file.Only the boot.iso:

$ rsync -P -v ftp.nluug.nl::Mandrakelinux/official/2006.0/i586/install/images/boot.iso .

!! Do not forget the dot at the end !!!The ISO of the first CD of Mandrake 10 Official:

$ rsync -P -v ftp.nluug.nl::Mandrakelinux/official/iso/2006.0/i586/Mandriva-Linux-Free-2006-CD1.i586.iso .

( One line ) !! Do not forget the dot at the end !!!I know it does not seem easy at first sight, but once you are familiar with it you will learn to appreciate rsync :DB) Bruno

[Bruno]

TRANSPARENT CONSOLEHere is a nice tweak to suit any desktop theme you have: a fully transparent, borderless, scrollbarless terminal/console !! :DOkay this is what you need: "Eterm" . . . for you Mandrakers install it with:

# urpmi Eterm

( other distros use your software installer )After the install press Alt+F2 . . . . . you will get the "run-command" dialog . . paste the following command in the box:

Eterm --trans -x --shade=15 --scrollbar=0 --buttonbar=0 --geometry=80x52+30+30

or if you want it 100% transparent:

Eterm --trans -x --shade=0 --scrollbar=0 --buttonbar=0 --geometry=80x52+30+30 --foreground-color=green

You can tweak the size with the --geometry= numbers . . or add more shade by making shade=30 . . . ( the -x is for borderless, the foreground-color is the color of the text )To close the console press Alt+F4 or Ctrl+D or just type "exit" ;)The second part of the tweak: Here is how to incorporate the new command into your menu:Make a script:

# vi /usr/bin/eterm-tweak

#!/bin/bashEterm --trans -x --shade=15 --scrollbar=0 --buttonbar=0 --geometry=80x52+30+30#End Script

( In scripts you do need the # signs !! )Then make it executable:

# chmod 775 /usr/bin/eterm-tweak

Test the script:

$ eterm-tweak

If it all works like you expected: change the command for eterm in your menu-editor to "eterm-tweak" BrunoPS: For Slackware ( 10/Current ) you need these packages:eterm-0.9.2-i486-1jim.tgzlibast-0.5-i486-1jim.tgzimlib2-1.1.0-i486-1jim.tgz You can get them at: http://www.linuxpackages.net/ . . and install them with installpkg . . after that it works like a dream !

[Bruno]

MYDSLHere is an interesting thing for D Small Linux users: myDSL !!

The latest addition to D*** Small Linux is the so called "DSL extensions". These are extra applications not present on the 50MB CD, but available for installation with a simple command that fetches and installs the desired application from a central repository:"During our last release we incorporated a system which makes it easy to add extensions to DSL. Over the last couple of weeks our user base has made several interesting live CD packages which can be boot from the CD, or any other place which the distro is able to read (hard drive, pen drive, etc). The users have done some good work getting these applications packaged so that they are a drop-in and there are some nice files already available."Some of the "nice files" include Quake 2, GIMP, MPlayer, OpenOffice.org, Ruby, Samba and many others.

Now, how to do this . . and what are the extensions available . . Here are the extensions: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distribut...amnsmall/mydsl/What you do is make a directory in your /home and call it "optional" :

$  mkdir /home/dsl/optional

Then you download the extensions to that directory. ( let us say for the example we take Gimp )After that you start emelfm:

$ emelfm

And navigate to /home/dsl/optional . . . . you select the package ( Gimp ) you just downloaded and then: in the middle of emelfm there are buttons, the top botton is called "myDSL" . . press that button ! . . . . . Now close emelfm and you will see that at the top of your fluxbox-desktop-menu an item is added: "myDSL" and it unfolds to see "Gimp" !!You can add as many items as you want the same way to that myDSL sub-menu !!!Have FUN !!! BrunoNOTE: Recent versions of D*** Small Linux ( 2.0 ) have a GUI frontend for MyDSL downloads. You still need Emelfm to install the extentions, but it then even creates a desktop icon for the installed applications

[Bruno]

INSTALLING MANDRAKE 10.0 OFFICIAL( General instructions ) - Preparation: If this is your first Linux install, check out Basic Rules for Install If you are replacing a previous Mandrake Install back up: - Your browser plugins located in /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins and /usr/lib/mozilla-1.4/plugins ( or 1.6 ) - The ~/evolution directory ( When I restore it, I chown it back to "chown -R bruno:bruno evolution" )- The ~/.galeon/bookmarks.xbel ( or other bookmarks ) - Personal things in your /home directory - Your /etc/lilo.conf ( if you are booting mutiple distro's ) - Your /etc/hosts, /etc/modules.conf, /etc/aliases, /etc/rc.d/rc.local, ~/.bashrc, ~/.exrc if you made any modification to these files. - Set your BIOS to boot from CD and disable PNP aware OS. - There are no errata available yet. - - Put the first CD in the CD-ROM drive and boot your computer. 1st screen: The welcome screen. Press Enter Before the GUI comes back the installer is loading into memory and devices are configured 2nd screen: Language selection, default is US English, Press Next 3rd screen: License agreement, select "yes" and Press Next 4th screen: Is this an install or an upgrade ? ( Click to enlarge )Tick the box of "install" and Press Next ( Advice: NEVER use Upgrade !!! ) 5th screen: Security level, fill in "root" or your email address and Press Next 6th screen: The DrakX Partitioning wizard found etc. etc. - If you have your partitions already made: tick the box "use existing partitions" and Press Next - If you still have to make partitions, or want to change the size of the existing ones: tick te box "Custom Disk Partitioning" and Press Next You will be taken to the very intuitive and easy partitioning tool.Make a 4G partition for / and a 2G for /home. 7th screen: Choose file Mount points Chose the partitons where you want / and /home and Press Next ( Everybody using partitions for /tmp and /usr too . . you know what to do ) 8th screen: Choose the partitions you want to format . . .all boxes have to be ticked and Press Next 9th screen: Packages Do like in screenshot, tick all the boxes on the left, and only the last 3 on the right and Press Next NOTE: Including Gnome will also give you all the gnome programs you can also use in KDE . . so even if you intent to never use Gnome it is better to install it anyway.NOTE: in some cases, additionally checking the box "individual packages" and adding: kdegraphics-kdvi, koffice, xpdf, gimp data-extras, mplayer-ui, xine-ui, xmms, xmms-alsa, kdeadons, kget, xterm, bash-completion, kedit, usbview, kdeedu and nmap-frontend somehow corrects some little bug in the installer Now the install really starts it takes about 16 minutes and you have to change CDs twice 10th screen: Root password, Fill in your rootpassword twice and Press Next 11th screen: Adding User, fill in name twice and password twice and Press Accept 12th screen: Adding another user, Press Next 13th screen: Auto login, . . de-select the box, you do not want this, and Press Next NOTE: It is safer to not use this feature, and it makes that you can choose at boot what windowmanager to start. Also if you ever get a corrupted /home directory the non-autologin makes fixing a lot easier. 14th screen: Boot loader, Select "First sector of drive ( MBR )" and Press Next NOTE: It will automatically include your Windows partition for dual boot 15th screen: Summary, . . . . This is very important . . check all the settings, look at the difference I have in the two screenshots: Before configuring After configuring 16th screen:Updates . . . say yes and Press Next NOTE: This feature rarely works, but still it is worth trying . . you will still have to do the updates in the MCC after the first reboot 18th screen:Complete . . remove your CD and Press Reboot After reboot install Anacron and get the updates see this thread and subscribe to it and get notified as there are new updates posted. BrunoPS: There are more Tips for after the install in This Thread

[Bruno]

LM-SENSORSThis is one of the more difficult/critical tweaks: LM-Sensors are for monitoring the temperatures, voltages, and fans of Linux systems with hardware monitoring devices. Now, before we start you have to know that on some systems it is a piece of cake . . . and on other systems with badly supported motherboards, it is a real pain.In most distros you can install LM-Sensors with the package management and they will be on the install CDs . . . if not get them here: http://www2.lm-sensors.nu/~lm78/ ( Do read there if your sensor chips and I2C are supported )After installing the package, first do

# modprobe i2c-dev

Then you have to configure it by running "sensors-detect" as root . . . here is an example, with additional notes of how "sensors-detect" ran on my system:

$ suPassword:[root@jupiter bruno]# sensors-detectThis program will help you determine which I2C/SMBus modules you need toload to use lm_sensors most effectively. You need to have i2c andlm_sensors installed before running this program.Also, you need to be `root', or at least have access to the /dev/i2c/*files, for most things.If you have patched your kernel and have some drivers built in, you cansafely answer NO if asked to load some modules. In this case, things mayseem a bit confusing, but they will still work. We can start with probing for (PCI) I2C or SMBus adapters. You do not need any special privileges for this. Do you want to probe now? (YES/no): YES <---------------------------------------- !! Probing for PCI bus adapters...Use driver `i2c-viapro' for device 00:11.0: VIA Technologies VT8233A/8235 South BridgeProbe succesfully concluded. We will now try to load each adapter module in turn.Load `i2c-viapro' (say NO if built into your kernel)? (YES/no): NO <---------------------------------------- !! Do you now want to be prompted for non-detectable adapters? (yes/NO): NO <---------------------------------------- !! To continue, we need module `i2c-dev' to be loaded. If it is built-in into your kernel, you can safely skip this.i2c-dev is already loaded. We are now going to do the adapter probings. Some adapters may hang halfway through; we can't really help that. Also, some chips will be double detected; we choose the one with the highest confidence value in that case. If you found that the adapter hung after probing a certain address, you can specify that address to remain unprobed. That often includes address 0x69 (clock chip). Some chips are also accessible through the ISA bus. ISA probes are typically a bit more dangerous, as we have to write to I/O ports to do this. Do you want to scan the ISA bus? (YES/no): YES <---------------------------------------- !! Probing for `National Semiconductor LM78' Trying address 0x0290... Failed!Probing for `National Semiconductor LM78-J' Trying address 0x0290... Failed!Probing for `National Semiconductor LM79' Trying address 0x0290... Failed!Probing for `Winbond W83781D' Trying address 0x0290... Failed!Probing for `Winbond W83782D' Trying address 0x0290... Failed!Probing for `Winbond W83627HF' Trying address 0x0290... Failed!Probing for `Winbond W83697HF' Trying address 0x0290... Failed!Probing for `Silicon Integrated Systems SIS5595' Trying general detect... Failed!Probing for `VIA Technologies VT82C686 Integrated Sensors' Trying general detect... Failed!Probing for `VIA Technologies VT8231 Integrated Sensors' Trying general detect... Failed!Probing for `ITE IT8705F / IT8712F / SiS 950' Trying address 0x0290... Success! (confidence 8, driver `it87')Probing for `IPMI BMC KCS' Trying address 0x0ca0... Failed!Probing for `IPMI BMC SMIC' Trying address 0x0ca8... Failed! Some Super I/O chips may also contain sensors. Super I/O probes are typically a bit more dangerous, as we have to write to I/O ports to do this. Do you want to scan for Super I/O sensors? (YES/no): YES <---------------------------------------- !! Probing for `ITE 8712F Super IO Sensors' Failed! (0x8705)Probing for `SMSC 47M10x Super IO Fan Sensors' Failed!Probing for `SMSC 47M14x Super IO Fan Sensors' Failed!Probing for `VT1211 Super IO Sensors' Failed!Probing for `Winbond W83627HF Super IO Sensors' Failed!Probing for `Winbond W83627THF Super IO Sensors' Failed!Probing for `Winbond W83637HF Super IO Sensors' Failed!Probing for `Winbond W83697HF Super IO Sensors' Failed!Probing for `Winbond W83697UF Super IO PWM' Failed! Now follows a summary of the probes I have just done. Just press ENTER to continue:Driver `it87' (should be inserted): <-------------Important info !! Detects correctly: <-------------Important info !! * ISA bus address 0x0290 (Busdriver `i2c-isa') <-------------Important info !! Chip `ITE IT8705F / IT8712F / SiS 950' (confidence: 8) <-------------Important info !! I will now generate the commands needed to load the I2C modules. Sometimes, a chip is available both through the ISA bus and an I2C bus. ISA bus access is faster, but you need to load an additional driver module for it. If you have the choice, do you want to use the ISA bus or the I2C/SMBus (ISA/smbus)? ISA <---------------------------------------- !! To make the sensors modules behave correctly, add these lines to/etc/modules.conf: <----------------------------------------See below !! NOTE: I made the important sections we need later BLUE#----cut here----# I2C module options alias char-major-89 i2c-dev#----cut here----To load everything that is needed, add this to some /etc/rc* file: <-----------------------------------See below, in /etc/rc.d/rc.local !! #----cut here----# I2C adapter driversmodprobe i2c-isa# I2C chip driversmodprobe it87# sleep 2 # optional/usr/local/bin/sensors -s # recommended#----cut here----WARNING! If you have some things built into your kernel, the list abovewill contain too many modules. Skip the appropriate ones! You really shouldtry these commands right now to make sure everything is working properly.Monitoring programs won't work until it's done.Do you want to generate /etc/sysconfig/lm_sensors? (YES/no): YES <---------------------------------------- !! Copy prog/init/lm_sensors.init to /etc/rc.d/init.d/lm_sensorsfor initialization at boot time.[root@jupiter bruno]#

Next step is running the test of the modules ( see warning above in RED. . we take info from the BLUE section above:

[root@jupiter bruno]# modprobe i2c-isa <------------------------------------Loading the module !! [root@jupiter bruno]# modprobe it87 <---------------------------------Loading the module !! [root@jupiter bruno]# sensors <---------------------------------------The test-run!! it87-isa-0290Adapter: ISA adapterVCore 1: +1.63 V (min = +1.53 V, max = +1.87 V)VCore 2: +2.49 V (min = +2.25 V, max = +2.75 V)+3.3V: +6.58 V (min = +2.96 V, max = +3.60 V) ALARM+5V: +4.94 V (min = +4.50 V, max = +5.48 V)+12V: +12.08 V (min = +11.36 V, max = +13.80 V)-12V: -19.31 V (min = -15.86 V, max = -13.40 V) ALARM-5V: +0.56 V (min = -10.13 V, max = -9.44 V) ALARMStdby: +4.91 V (min = +4.50 V, max = +5.48 V)VBat: +3.21 Vfan1: 4821 RPM (min = 3000 RPM, div = 2)fan2: 0 RPM (min = 3000 RPM, div = 2) ALARMfan3: 0 RPM (min = 3000 RPM, div = 2) ALARMM/B Temp: +31°C (low = +20°C, high = +60°C) sensor = thermistorCPU Temp: +49°C (low = +20°C, high = +60°C) sensor = thermistorTemp3: +18°C (low = +20°C, high = +60°C) sensor = invalid

As you can see from the last command the sensors do work !! So now we can make the edits in the "modules.conf" and the "rc.local" files according to the BLUE sections in the output above:

[root@jupiter bruno]# vi /etc/modules.conf <---------------------------------------The edits: add the part in BLUE !! [root@jupiter bruno]# vi /etc/rc.d/rc.local <---------------------------------------The edits: add the part in BLUE !!

After this you will have to reboot your system to see if the sensors load okay . . and then you can tweak Gkrellm to show the temperatures in the system-monitors on your desktop.( Have a look here: http://web.wt.net/~billw/gkrellm/gkrellm.png ) BrunoPS: Next time we will show you how to set up the temps in Gkrellm :">

[Bruno]

SENSORS in GKRELLMIn the previous issue we told you how to set up LM-Sensors, this time we will show you how to let them show in Gkrellm ( our favorite system monitor http://www.gkrellm.net )Right click the top of the Gkrellm GUI and you will get the Configuration GUI. Under the heading "Builtins" you will see the "Sensors" . . . before you configured LM-Sensors the little triangles in front of "Temperatures", "Fans" and "Voltages" were not there . . . but now they are, and unfolding them shows you the sensor-chip that was loaded at boot. Ticking the boxes of the ones you want to show in Gkrellm is the first step.Then click on the "label" . . that makes it possible to change the text of the label shown in the Gkrellm GUI.You can change the order of appearance by dragging the lines up or down. Also you can fine tune the temperature ( if the chip is slightly off ) with the "factor" and "Offset" ( The mobo of my test system needs this badly because it is really wacky )Then there is the option to choose the location, if you want the CPU temps directly under the CPU usage monitor.After that, press the "Alert" button and set at which max temperatures you desire warnings. ( or minimum Fan speed, voltage etc. )Now press "OK" and the job is done ! Congrats !! Bruno

[Bruno]

PRIMARY, EXTENDED and LOGICAL PARTITIONSThere is always a lot of confusion about partitions and partition numbers. So let us try to shed some light:On an IDE drive, the first drive is called hda, and the partitions are shown as hda1, hda2 . . . . etc. etc. Your second drive is called hdb.On a SCSI drive, the first drive is called sda, the partitions are sda1, sda2 . . The second drive is called sdb. ;)Now that was relatively simple, but now comes the more complicated part, I took parts of this from a post of Jason Wallwork ( Linuxdude32 ) because he was able to explain it better then I can:

An extended partition is the only kind of partition that can have multiple partitions inside. Think of it like a box that contains other boxes, the logical partitions. The extended partition can't store anything, it's just a holder for logical partitions. The extended partitions is a way to get around the fact you can only have four primary partitions on a drive. You can put lots of logical partitions inside it. hda is the whole drivehda1 is a primary partitionhda2 is a primary partitionhda4 is an extended partitionhda5 is an logical partitionhda6 is an logical partitionYou will never see hda4 mounted, just hda5 and hda6, in this case. Note that Linux numbers primary partitions 1-4, logical partitions start at 5 and up, even if there are less than 4 primary partitions.

NOTE: On an IDE drive you can have up to 63 partitions, 3 primary and 60 logical ( contained in one extended partition ) :DOn a SCSI drive the maximum number of partitions is 15 :(So, in a nutshell: if you start out with one HD that has windows C: and D: You will see them in Linux as hda1 and hda2 . . . then as you add a distro and let it automatically use the free space on that drive ( if that distro has that option like Mandrake ) it will make an extended partition and set up a partition for / and a partition for /swap plus a /home partition and call them hda5, hda6 and hda7 ( in that order ). You will see that if you make the partitions yourself, using preferably a Linux tool to make the partitions, the result will be more or less the same, only in that case you will be able to make even more partitions . . . for extra storage, backups, or additional distros. You will only need one swap partition as that can be shared by the various distros. Bruno

[Bruno]

TWEAKING the BOOTSPLASHYou will have noticed that modern distros use a bootsplash with a progress bar when you go past Lilo or Grub . . . . Then you can press F2 or Esc to switch to "verbose" mode and see the messages.Now there are a few settings you can change to influence the bootsplash. If you have one with a progress bar ( SUSE, Mandrake, PCLos ) you will see in the /etc/lilo.conf in the append-line there is "splash=silent" . . . I do not like the progress bar and want to see the boot messages all the time, but still have the fancy background: "splash=verbose" is the setting I did put in there. ;)If you want the old-fashion boot screen, black with text, "splash=0" or "splash=native" or just "splash= " will work . . . So:splash=silent ( for the progress bar )splash=verbose ( for the boot messages on colored background )splash=0 ( for the boot messages on a black background like the old days )splash=native ( the same )splash= ( also the same )Have fun ! :DB) Bruno

[Bruno]

F-PROT VIRUS SCANNER for LINUXAs an intro I would like to quote a post from a few weeks ago:

LINUX VIRUS and CHEESEBecause there are a lot of posts lately about Anti Virus Software for Linux . . . I would like to make a few points before I describe how to use the F-Prot Virus scanner in the second post in this thread.1). If you only run Linux you do NOT need AV software2). If you dual boot Linux / Windows and get a virus infected mail in Linux it can NOT jump to your Windows partition ( nor can it spread over the local network to other systems ) . You can even store the attachment in your /home and open the zip ( or whatever the file is ) and it will be dead in the water, it gets no oxygen ( This is also why Linux AV progs do not have a "live guard" module in them: the virus does not execute or move ) . . you can leave it there as long as you want, nothing will happen, your Windows will not get infected as long as you do not deliberately copy it over there of course. 3). If you dual boot you better get a good AV program for Windows4). Only if you are running a mail server you can use a Linux AV program, not because the server will be infected but only because you do not want to pass on a virus to Windows systems. ( good social behavior ) I mean: be reasonable: If you have 2 warehouses, and you use the first one to store cheese . . . are you going to place mouse-traps in the second one where you only store stainless steel ??Don't let the mouse-trap vendors drive you crazy: Mice do not eat stainless steel !!!So I hope I was clear . . . Slow down, Keep Cool, Relax, Life is too short: don't let unfounded fear spoil your FUN in Linux . . ;)See also This real good article by Nathan ! Bruno

If after reading the above you still think you need AV software I recommend F-Prot.I prefer F-Prot because of the ones I tested, it has the fastest scan engine and it has proven its reliabillity since the DOS days.You can download it free from:http://www.f-prot.com/download/home_user/d...ad_fplinux.htmlNOTE: When writing this, the latest version is 6.0.2, if you are upgrading from a 4.6.* version please make sure you completely remove the old version before installing the new one ! I will give removal instructions for the 4.6.* version at the bottom of this page.Once you downloaded the fp-Linux-i686-ws.tar.gz to your /home directory you do ( as root ):

# tar  -xvzf   fp-Linux-i686-ws.tar.gz# rm  fp-Linux-i686-ws.tar.gz# mv  /home/bruno/f-prot   /usr/local/bin/# cd  /usr/local/bin/f-prot/# ./install-f-prot.pl

After the last command the installer will start running. Accept the defaults . . . myself I did not do the last one that adds the cronjob because I want to add that later manually.( It will automatically get the latest updated virus definitions as part of the install process )To get the new virus definitions, next time all you have to do is:

#  /usr/local/bin/f-prot/fpupdate

Now let's check if it works:

# fpscan  --version

And you should see output like:

F-PROT Antivirus version 6.2.1.4252 (built: 2008-04-28T16-44-10)FRISK Software International © Copyright 1989-2007Engine version: 4.4.4.56Virus signatures: 2009012417050d8623145b0e9b4e6504018ced311e43 (/usr/local/bin/f-prot/antivir.def)

Now to scan your Windows partition: ( provided that it is mounted at /mnt/win_c )

# fpscan   /mnt/win_c

Or your /home:

# fpscan  /home

Your Evolution directory:

# fpscan  /home/bruno/.evolution

Or the full "/" partition:

# fpscan  /

The above commands will show you the following output:

F-PROT Antivirus version 6.2.1.4252 (built: 2008-04-28T16-44-10)FRISK Software International © Copyright 1989-2007Engine version: 4.4.4.56Virus signatures: 2009012417050d8623145b0e9b4e6504018ced311e43 (/usr/local/bin/f-prot/antivir.def)Scanning: \Results:Files: 148439Skipped files: 0MBR/boot sectors checked: 0Objects scanned: 253494Infected objects: 0Files with errors: 0Disinfected: 0Running time: 08:12

As you can see the command does not need an extra agrument, the default is "fpscan <directory_to_scan>"A quick way to get the updates and do the scan on the evolution directory in one go is:

# /usr/local/bin/f-prot/fpupdate && fpscan /home/bruno/.evolution/

BrunoIMPORTANT:In case you are upgrading from a 4.6.* version please make sure you remove the old version before installing the new one. Here is how to remove the files:( These commands assume you followed the instructions that used to be on this page before Jan 25 2009 )

# rm -rf   /usr/local/f-prot# rm -f   /usr/local/bin/f-prot# rm -f   /usr/local/bin/f-prot-updates# rm -f   /etc/f-prot.conf# rm -f   /usr/share/man/man1/f-prot.1# rm -f   /usr/share/man/man5/f-prot.conf.5