Update on Other Side Projects

Ubuntu on a stick will be tested again on Monday when I can get access to other computers that might be able to boot it if it were to be a hardware conflict however until then I will not be able to report any progress on that project unfortunately.

I am also hoping to run live a distribution of Linux called back track 2. This distribution as I mentioned in an earlier post is a security related distribution. I do not, unlike the immediate assumptions some people may come to, want to hack into other peoples computers and make ad ware, viruses or any other malicious code, script or software. In fact I think people, and to some extent now companies, who write ad ware and viruses should be strung up but their privates and left for the vultures to pick at. I am simply interested in security related programs and system. I became interested some years back when I had to encrypt some text in Visual Basic 6 so it could be stored. I designed an algorithm to encrypt the code which I have only just found out closely models the one time pad. It went though many versions being re-written in C#, and J# to deal with files and not just text.

A couple of years back I spent some time uncovering security problems "hacks" if you will in the network at my school.

Mono and Fedora 7

Being a bit of a programmer means and having assignments that require me to submit code in C# mean that I have to have a viable and easy way to develop these applications. My software design teacher had once spoken to me about Mono which he referred to as .NET for Linux. On Windows I use either Visual Studio Codename Orcas or Visual C# Express Edition to develop applications for my own use and for projects for my online software design classes. The logical move for me was to download Mono, which I did. That in itself was a bit of a task but after using yum to download and install all the packages I could (I used the x86 Fedora 5 packages as they were the ones that were closest in match to my system) I went to load it. I found it placed nicely in the programming menu of the applications menu and loaded it up. It loaded ok and I tried my first "Hello World" program in Console C#. For a moment I was a little unsure as to weather it had actually worked or not but I found unlike on Windows where a console window is opened when a console application runs the output of the console app was down the bottem of the screen in the "output" panel. I though this was all very nice until I tried to read from the console.

Console.WriteLine(Console.ReadLine());

It did seem to let me enter in any response on the screen. If anyone knows how this is done or a way around it please leave a comment as it would be most appreciated.

My next problem arose from the Gtk 2.0 framework. While installing many of my Fedora 7 packages were more up to date than the ones in listed to be installed via yum and yum made it clear that there were conflicts between these packages so I just left it at that expecting things just to work with the newer packages I have. When I went and designed a Gtk 2.0 application and ran it, it would display two errors saying:

"The type or namespace name `Gtk' could not be found. Are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?(CS0246)"

One error is for the using statement in the form events code and the other is for the using statement on the form designer code.

I went poking around in the references but couldn't see Gtk. I am at a little bit of a loss as to what to do here too. I suspect, knowing me, that I will find a fix for it soon, which I will post but it is a little bit annoying.

I have also installed and looked over Eclipse which will be useful when I do C++ coding which I might be taking up some more of sooner or latter. I seem to remember that packaged with Fedora Core 4 was Eclipse but with C# support (could have a faulty memory though). This version I have my hands on at the moment doesn't seem to support C# code.

Sorting out the nitty gritty with Fedora 7.

I have spent some time getting Fedora 7 working with all the bits and bobs that I need working. So far so good. After configuring yum with

"rpm -Uvh http://www.fedorafaq.org/yum"

(yum if you don't know is a package installer that runs from various repositories like "apt" and "apt-get" from Debian based systems such as Ubuntu - see http://linux.duke.edu/projects/yum/ ) I have been able to download and install mp3 decoders which work for Totem as per http://www.fedorafaq.org/#mp3.

I can read my NTFS filesystem now and access my Windows files but I haven't been able figure out how to mount it so it appears in "Computer". I think it has something to do with "/media/". If anyone knows please leave a comment as I would like to get that working.

I also need to figure out how to get mono installed so I can get on with programming. It would be nice to submit my next programming assignments knowing that the source has been completely written and compiled on Fedora.

Fedora 7 is Installed

I have finished installing Fedora (well actually I did quite some time ago but I have been playing around and havn't posted yet).

I like it. Everything is very responsive and everything is loaded almost instantly when I login which is good.

I can access my NTFS partition and I intend to do my assignments this weekend on Fedora. I have to say thing don't "just work" quite as much with Fedora but all the same I suppose it is making me understand Linux a bit better. I have to say I am picking it up pretty quickly though which is good from perspective.

I like it how it also show live thumbnails just like Vista (I suspect (know) Microsoft got the idea from Linux distros though).

My only real problem at the moment is getting mp3s to play everything else works fine which is good. I am however making good use of http://www.fedorafaq.org/ though. I have got each folder stayin in the same window when I open it now instead of spawning new windows.

Its done by going to the browse then edit -> preferences -> behavior and then checking always open in browser windows. This wasn't really where I would have expected it. I went looking is System -> Preferences but now I think about it its very logical and easy to access to preferences.

I have yet to get dual monitor which goes by the name "dual head" under System -> Administration -> Display but it says when I logout and log back in again it should work.

USB Ubuntu

Unfortunately I have not been able to access a computer today that can boot from a USB stick (except fro my own but as I have said it has an invalid compressed format error) so I have not been able to do further testing on other machines.

I did however notice that the rescue disk that I am using to install Fedora didn't using initrd.gz instead it used initrd.img on its own. initrd.gz is just a compressed version of initrd.gz that I am gathering is used to help it fit a a CD. I was thinking though that if I reconfigured the syslinux boot loader config file (syslinux.cfg) to load initrd.img and then extracted the image from the gz archive it might actually circumvent then need to decompress initrd.gz.

If you have any good ideas here please leave a comment as I would love to get it working on my computer.

Fedora 7 Install

I am currently installing Fedora 7 which was released on the 31st of May. I hope to have it completely installed by the end of this evening. I have opted to download the rescue disk and then install from HTTP which is much better I thin because to my understanding each package is checked as it is downloaded and if one package is corrupted then it will be re-downloaded where as if I get a corrupted ISO image then its a whole 700M I have to download again.

I would be downloading from my ISP's mirror but at the moment the server isn't responding so I have opted to download from redhat.download.fedoraproject.org.


I have also set up another test box in my room which is not connected to my network (at the moment) just to test out those micro distributions of Linux such as DSL.

I would also be interested in security related distributions of Linux such as PHLAK but unfortunately that project is no longer alive.
A link on the PHLAK site did however catch my eye and I would be interested in using a Live distribution of Linux called "Back Track 2". This is not so much because I want to hack other peoples computers but because I have had quite an interest in security related systems and would like to better understand how such systems work.

As it runs live it would also be another interesting distro of Linux to put on a flash drive.

Ubuntu

A few things have changed since I last posted. I have moved up in the world. I downloaded Ubuntu 7.04 and tried to install it to the USB drive. It worked but this time I get Err=2 instead of Err=1. I suspect now that this is hardware related. This would be extremely coincidental if it were to occur despite media checks, multiple ISO burns to CD and DVD and various install methods. My hardware testing on other computers wasn't that rigorous and I will re-install it and have one more go at running it at school of the USB. (Would be really really nice if it worked.)

While trying to get it to work I did try just using the Ubuntu installer and installing to the flash drive but just without a swap partition so as to improve the life of the usb. However that seems to decompress the packages that are otherwise compressed on the live version. It says that it needs at least 2gb to work. With 4Gb and 8Gb USB sticks on the market this is not beyond the realms of possibility and would alleviate the need for casper to make the live usb persistent (which is the technique used by the main tutorail I have been using at http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/02/12/usb-ubuntu-tutorial-for-linux-users/ )

With that all said and done I am waiting to find a good mirror to get my hands on Fedora 7 (released today). I have in the meantime installed Ubuntu and all is going well. I have to say that everything just works or is easily installed by "follow the prompts" installers. In fact I was pleasantly surprised to see how easy it was to get the Totem player to run mp3 files and open other public domain formats.

I was able to access my main hard drive which has Vista on it (NTFS) and get my music off it and start playing it. That was great. I was however unable to actually save or modify anything on the Vista partition though but I don't really care just as long as I can get my important files off with minimal effort. In fact it is quite good that it doesn't let me modify the NTFS partition because knowing me I would probably stuff it up.

Grrrr. Pen Drive

I've tried every possibly configuration of my hardware and tried it on different machines and it still get the same error. I have even tried installing from Windows and I have tried getting different initrd.gz files and using them (probably not a very good idea). So its not a hardware issue!

I just want to see this screen (well actually I would like to see other working ones but this screen would be progress)!!!

I have finally given up on my disk and I'll download Ubuntu 7.04 which apparently has the persistence problem fixed. (according to: http://galigio.wordpress.com/2007/05/13/ubuntu-704-a-complete-linux-on-a-usb-pendrive/) I'll then burn to disk and then put it on my usb drive and then hopefully not only will I have a working Ubuntu persistent drive but I will also have the latest and greatest in Ubuntu!

Speed fixed! Still crashes.....

I have been fiddling around with Ubuntu today and talking to my software design teacher about it as he has had a good deal more experience with Linux than I have. (He tells me he's been working since the days of Red Hat 3 but I'm not quite sure how far back that is).

He didn't shed that much light on my problem with the invalid compressed format (err=1) but suggested working with FAT 32 instead of FAT 16.

I did some more searching today and came across http://www.debuntu.org/how-to-install-ubuntu-linux-on-usb-bar.

It solved one of my problems. By following the instructions on that site I was able to get the kernel and to load much faster. In fact what took several minutes now takes about 15 seconds. Thats great but I have still had no progress on the invalid compressed format error.

I have however noticed that when Ubuntu loads from the CD the bit up the top of the screen where it says loading initrd.gz places more dots on the screen than when booting from USB whereas the vmlinuz doesn't. The error happen immediately after the initrd.gz file finishes loading.

Maybe it isn't fully loading initrd.gz fully anyway.

My searching on the net suggests that it may be hardware related so I might have a bit of a fiddle with BIOS settings and see what happens.

USB Progress

Ok. I have installed as per the instructions at http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/02/12/usb-ubuntu-tutorial-for-linux-users/

It gets to the boot choices menu very quickly. Thats all nice until I choose a boot option.

Any of them I select require the Kernel to be decompressed and then loaded which is all fair but to do so it takes about 2 whole minutes. This shouldn't be the case it should be doing it in a matter of seconds. Its not because my computer is slow. I have a 2.5GHz Core 2 Quad processor with 2 Gigs of 800MHz CL4 RAM so it should tear though. Its probably because the USB is slower then the CD drive (which is what I'm used to loading from) and is just making a bottleneck on the system. I suspect the USB is running in 1.1 mode though.

That would be ok though if the system actually loaded though. However after loading initrd it stops and gives the message:

invalid compressed format (err=1)

-- System halted


I have run media checks on the CD I'm using and I have repeatedly installed Linux on the USB drive as per the instructions at the above site. I am at a bit of a loss for what do do next. I have tried another machine but it doesn't like booting from USB sticks.

Linux on a Stick

This is my first post from within Linux and although my "Month on Linux" has not officially started I have gone about and purchased for $65 a Dick Smith 2Gb USB drive. I am currently trying to install it using: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/02/12/usb-ubuntu-tutorial-for-linux-users/

I did run but, without getting past the boot loader stage, today DSL at school but I hope by tomorrow that I can run Ubuntu and carry it around as if it were a mini laptop.

I am having to learn what many BASH codes do and things like that at the moment to get this USB drive Linux working.

I'm still hanging out for the 31st when I can get my hands of Fedora 7 and install that on my home system.

So far my experiences with Linux have been great.

Playing around with Ubuntu Live.

Well, as you can see from the left I have been fiddling around with Linux today, Ubuntu to be exact. Its Ubuntu 6.10 as 7.04 has the persistence features that I need on a USB stick. This is just running from a live CD at the moment.

While I regret to say that I'm not posting this from within Linux because the Live CD doesn't seem to like my network card and/or my network I am pleased to report that I have successfully installed DSL on my 256 MB USB for a bit of a play around. I got it working using the instructions found here: http://pendrivelinux.com/. I hope to use the instructions from this site to get Ubuntu working when I get a 2gb USB stick.

I have my eye on a 2gb Sandisk Cruzer Micro for $40 from Bing Lee. My only concern is that it is "U3 Enabled" which I'm not sure will prevent it from being boot-able. I'll ask in store about it.

Distribution. Distribution. Distribution.

I plan to start my Month On Linux on the 1st of June (or on the evening of the 31st) but have to decide on a distribution.

I've read all kinds of articles that promote one distro or another or are quite balanced. http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT3269115798.html

Some recommend Ubuntu and according to this Ubuntu is the most loved. http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/09/23/the-best-linux-distro-ever-the-results/

But coming in their 3rd is is Fedora and I have been doing quite a bit of research in Fedora.

I recently installed and then promptly stuffed up Fedora Core 6. I actual successfully dual booted Windows Vista and Fedora Core 6 with Grub. It was nice and it had features that I and work well for me in places that are logical but I suppose I owe a lot of this layout to the GNOME project and not Fedora directly. The login screen (the default one anyway) is quite nice.

A recent bit of reading I did suggests that Fedora 7 to be released on the 31st of May (part of the reason my "Month on Linux" project is starting on the 1st of June) is going to be even more Windows like in its menu structure and its layout. That's good it'll help be take the step onto Linux more easily and its setting me up for life as (http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT3269115798.html ) says its the distribution to use if you want to make money. So it makes since that I learn Linux on the most useful system and the system that can be basically configured to do anything from being a server to a workstation.

So that's the distribution I hope to install on my 2nd (18Gb) hard drive .

One of the things I love about linux is its ability to be setup to run Live - (Windows certainly can't to that). Live just basically means that it is run from a disk or a USB flash drive and not installed on the hard drive. DSL is a great example of a tiny operating system that can be made to run Live. But what I want from a live operating system is something more. I want a fully fledged system that has all the office tools that I need like OpenOffice. I want to be able to store my files on it and I want to be able save settings and I want them to be there again when I boot up on another system. So obviously I have to use a USB stick but I am still left with the question as to which distro to run.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

This is the site that I went to to get some more information. There are plenty of distros that can run off a USB stick but the one that caught my eye was Ubuntu.

Ubuntu as I mentioned earlier has been hailed by many as the "best distro ever" and my Software Design Teacher seems to like Ubuntu. Having tried it before I was not blown away but since then I have seen newer versions of it and I am blown away. It is pretty damn good so I think I might go out and purchase a 2gb USB stick and whack it on that.

This means that I can pretty much carry around a usb stick, plug it into almost any computer and have my own system. Almost as good as a laptop and smaller.

Month On Linux

Hi,
I'm Adam Gray a software design and development student from SCIL. I have traditionally used Windows for everything, however the first computers I used were Macs I have come to dislike the Mac style and love the Windows style.

I started programming with a copy of Mediator from the cover of an old computer magazine in 2004. (If you call the programming)

Not so long after a friend introduced me Visual Basic 6 Pro. I learned to program on that and became quite proficient in it but in 2005 I started looking for something bigger and better. I had heard of things like C++ and Java and it was becoming apparent to me that Microsoft Word or other "big" programs were not designed in Visual Basic.

So I started looking around for alternatives. I stumbled upon the .NET 2 Visual Studio 2005 Express editions and started playing around with them. I tried learning C++ but none of the tutorials seemed to match the CLR C++ so I tried J# and became utterly confused. (Probably shouldn't have started learning off Visual Basic.) I did have look at Visual Basic 2005 but avoided it as I was looking for something "bigger and better" so I came across C# and that's were I am now. A moderately proficient C# coder for the .NET frameworks. Now I can code however in C++ but generally try and avoid it.

I've tried Linux before but I just haven't had the guts to stick with it. I've tried Mepis, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, DSL, PHLAK and Fedora Core 4. The one I stuck with the longest was Fedora as it just worked and I could easily dual boot it. (Very idiot friendly - or at least for me)

But..... I've always come back to Windows XP (and now Vista). I once said when I stuffed up my MBR when installing Mepis as a second operating system and trying to get windows to work again (I did get it working) "I've never been so happy to see the boot screen of a useless operating system". While that might have been harsh it did hold some truth though. I had started to "outgrow" Windows (just like Visual Basic) and looked around for other operating systems but most of them were smarter than me so I went back to the devil I knew: Windows.

I never have nor probably will consider Macs. I have had bad experiences with them and if you want to know how I feel then just watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrlW_fgWMR8 (bit of swearing a couple of times but it illustrates my point)

But now I come round again. I need to learn Linux. I have fully outgrown Windows for some things. So here's my project "Linux for a Month".

I'm going to try and survive and even possibly thrive on Linux. If I do I'll buy a new bigger hard drive for it, if I don't I'll just.... well lets deal with that if I get there.

There's one catch though. I'm going to dual boot with Windows Vista..... just in case I need Windows. (I'll probably always need Windows for something or other so I'll probably always dual boot with Windows.)