USB MODEM in Damn Small linux

1.Plug in the modem
2. in dmesg you will see a storage device added
3. do lsusb
4. Do modprobe usbserial vendor=xx product=xx (enter the numbers you found in lsusb, for mine it was 0x12d1 with 0x1300)
5. in dmesg you will see 2 serial ports were added (if not, or you only see one.. it might you you dont have usb 2 or your pc is to slow)
6. Put the wvdial.conf script below and make sure you have downloaded the wvdial.dsl file.
7. Start with wvdial hsdpa and you are online.

This information is for a telfort subscription! It took me a while to get the right wvdial.conf, but this should do it.

# wvdial for Vodacom Data. Created by Tazz_tux
# Version 1.0

# Change Log:
#
# Added support for HSDPA.
# Added Headers and version control.

[Dialer Defaults]
Phone = *99***1#
Username = internet
Password = internet
Stupid Mode = 1
Dial Command = ATDT

[Dialer hsdpa]
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Baud = 460800
Init2 = ATZ
Init3 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Init5 = AT +CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet"
ISDN = 0
Modem Type = Analog Modem

Instalasi OpenVPN Client in Linux

Install aplikasi GUI utuk client

# apt-get install kvpnc
# apt-get install network-manager-openvpn openvpn

Copy setting OpenVPN

# cp -Rf /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/easy-rsa/* /etc/openvpn/

Pada Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 tampaknya ada beberapa versi konfigurasi, kita dapat menggunakan salah satu dengan cara

# cp -Rf /etc/openvpn/2.0/* /etc/openvpn/

Selanjutnya lakukan langkah berikut, yang sama dengan versi lainnya

# cd /etc/openvpn
# mkdir /etc/openvpn/keys

Lakukan langkah berikut

# vi vars
# , ./vars
# ./clean-all

Atau copy file /etc/openvpn/vars dari Server. Copy key client dari Server

# scp -r root@192.168.0.3:/etc/openvpn/keys/ca.crt /etc/openvpn/keys
# scp -r root@192.168.0.3:/etc/openvpn/keys/user1.crt /etc/openvpn/keys
# scp -r root@192.168.0.3:/etc/openvpn/keys/user1.key /etc/openvpn/keys

Menjalankan VPN Client (client.conf from www.openvpn.org)

# openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/client.conf

Contoh Client.conf adalah sebagai berikut,

# vi /etc/openvpn/client.conf

isinya kurang lebih

# Specify that we are a client and that we
# will be pulling certain config file directives
# from the server.
client

# Use the same setting as you are using on
# the server.
# On most systems, the VPN will not function
# unless you partially or fully disable
# the firewall for the TUN/TAP interface.
; dev tap
dev tun

# Windows needs the TAP-Win32 adapter name
# from the Network Connections panel
# if you have more than one.  On XP SP2,
# you may need to disable the firewall
# for the TAP adapter.
; dev-node MyTap 

# Are we connecting to a TCP or
# UDP server?  Use the same setting as
# on the server.
;proto tcp
proto udp 

# The hostname/IP and port of the server.
# You can have multiple remote entries
# to load balance between the servers.
;remote my-server-1 1194
;remote my-server-2 1194
remote 192.168.0.3 1194

# Choose a random host from the remote
# list for load-balancing.  Otherwise
# try hosts in the order specified.
;remote-random

# Keep trying indefinitely to resolve the
# host name of the OpenVPN server.  Very useful
# on machines which are not permanently connected
# to the internet such as laptops.
resolv-retry infinite

# Most clients don't need to bind to
# a specific local port number.
nobind

# Try to preserve some state across restarts.
persist-key
persist-tun

# If you are connecting through an
# HTTP proxy to reach the actual OpenVPN
# server, put the proxy server/IP and
# port number here.  See the man page
# if your proxy server requires
# authentication.
;http-proxy-retry # retry on connection failures
;http-proxy [proxy server] [proxy port #]

# Wireless networks often produce a lot
# of duplicate packets.  Set this flag
# to silence duplicate packet warnings.
;mute-replay-warnings

# SSL/TLS parms.
# See the server config file for more
# description.  It's best to use
# a separate .crt/.key file pair
# for each client.  A single ca
# file can be used for all clients.
ca keys/ca.crt
cert keys/client.crt
key keys/client.key

# Verify server certificate by checking
# that the certicate has the nsCertType
# field set to "server".  This is an
# important precaution to protect against
# a potential attack discussed here:
#  http://openvpn.net/howto.html#mitm
#
# To use this feature, you will need to generate
# your server certificates with the nsCertType
# field set to "server".  The build-key-server
# script in the easy-rsa folder will do this.
;ns-cert-type server

# If a tls-auth key is used on the server
# then every client must also have the key.
;tls-auth ta.key 1

# Select a cryptographic cipher.
# If the cipher option is used on the server
# then you must also specify it here.
;cipher x
;cipher AES-128-CBC

# Enable compression on the VPN link.
# Don't enable this unless it is also
# enabled in the server config file.
; comp-lzo

# Set log file verbosity.
verb 3

# Silence repeating messages
;mute 20

 

Cara menjalankan VPN client dengan client.conf (from www.openvpn.org)

# openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/client.conf

Using network manager (nm-applet) in KDE4

As of now knetworkmanager is not available for KDE4, and those of us using NetworkManager are going to have to settle with gnome's version of the network manager applet: nm-applet

First of you need to install networkmanager, read more on that here.

Once it's installed you need to set it up to run as a daemon, i.e. add it to /etc/rc.conf, and remove network:

DAEMONS=(syslog-ng networkmanager netfs crond alsa hal fam kdm)

Furthermore you have to exclude the interfaces you intend to use with networkmanager (also in /etc/rc.conf e.g.:

INTERFACES=(!eth0 !wlan0)

When that's done you need to install gnome-network-manager

# pacman -S gnome-network-manager

Then add yourself to the network group:

# usermod -g network your_username

And that should do it, you can now run nm-applet as a normal user, and switch between wireless and wired network without modifying rc.conf every time.

How to fix MBR in Vista And Windows XP

What is the MBR? MBR stands for Master Boot Record and it’s the first sector of your hard drive that basically tells the BIOS where to look for the operating system on your computer.

If, for any reason, the MBR becomes damaged or corrupt, then the operating system will be unable to load. You will normally see error messages like:

Error loading operating system

 

Missing operating system

Invalid partition table

These messages are definitely not fun, especially if you are not familiar with computers. Most people would automatically assume their computers are dead! However, that’s not true. Being in IT myself, these errors are actually preferably to other types of Windows errors. Why?

Well, it’s actually fairly easy to fix the Master Boot Record in XP and Vista. All you have to do is load up the Recovery Console and run a simple command. All of your data, applications, settings, etc are still intact on the drive and once the MBR is fixed, the computer will load normally.

So how can you repair your damaged MBR? Here are the steps to follow:

1. First, restart your computer with the Windows XP setup disk in the CD drive. If you don’t have your original disk, borrow one or download a ISO image from a torrent site.

2. When prompted, boot from the CD drive by pressing any key. If Windows loads automatically, you will first have to enter the BIOS setup and change the order of the boot devices to start with the CD drive.

3. Once the setup loads, you will see the option to press R to repair a Windows installation.

4. Once the Recovery Console loads up, you will have to type in a number that corresponds to your Windows installation. This is normally just 1. Press Enter and then type in the Administrator password.

5. Now at the prompt, type in fixmbr. Your damaged MBR will now be replaced with a new master boot record and your computer should now be able to boot properly. Note that you may also want to run the fixboot command to repair the boot sector with a new one.

Also, make sure you only use these commands on a system with one operating system installed. If you have more than one operating system installed, fixmbr and fixboot could mess up everything.

Fix MBR in Vista

In Vista, the procedure to fix the master boot record is a bit different. You have to start up Vista in the Recovery Environment and then run the bootrec command. Here’s how.

1. First, load up the Windows Vista disc in your drive and press any key to boot from the disc.

2. Choose the language, time, currency, etc and click Next. Now click on Repair Your Computer.

3. Choose the operating system to repair and click Next. When the System Recovery Options dialog comes up, choose the Command Prompt.

4. Now type bootrec.exe and press Enter. This will rebuild the boot configuration data and hopefully fix your problem. You can also run the command with switches to fix just the master boot record (/fixmbr), the boot sector (/fixboot), or rebuild the entire BCD (/rebuildbcd).

If you are still having trouble with loading Windows, post a comment and I’ll see if I can help! Enjoy!

How To Repair MBR And Boot Into Linux

There are times when you inadvertently overwrite your Master Boot Record. The end result being that you are unable to boot into Linux. This is especially true when you are dual booting between windows and Linux OSes. Once when I was working in Windows XP, I accidentally clicked the hibernate button instead of shutdown. And windows somehow overwrote my MBR which housed the GRUB boot loader. At such times, it pays to have this cool tip at hand.

This is what you do to restore the GRUB boot loader when faced with the above problem. First you need a Linux distribution CD. If you are using Fedora (RedHat) then the first CD is sufficient. But you may also use any of the live CDs like Knoppix, Ubuntu Live CD and so on.

With Fedora CD

Boot your computer with the first CD of Fedora in your CD drive (You have to enable your PC to boot from the cdrom, which you can set in the BIOS settings). At the installation boot prompt that you get, enter the following command:

boot: linux rescue

... and press Enter. The installer will ask you a few questions like the language you would like to use, the type of keyboard etc. Then, if you have linux previously installed on your machine, the Fedora installer will automatically detect it and mount it in the /mnt/sysimage directory. Once the linux partition is mounted, you are dropped into the command shell prompt. The next step is to make your newly mounted directory the root (or parent) directory. This you do by running the chroot command as follows:

# chroot /mnt/sysimage
# _

Now you are in the shell with respect to the parent directory which is the linux partition on your harddisk.

From here, the steps needed depends on which bootloader you are using. You have to have a fair idea what is the device node of your harddisk partition housing your MBR. In most cases, it is /dev/hda if you have an IDE harddisk. But if you have a SCSI harddisk, it will be /dev/sda.

Restoring GRUB
Execute the following command :

# grub-install /dev/hda

... to install GRUB boot loader on to your MBR. And then type exit to reboot the machine. Now your GRUB boot loader is fixed.

Restoring LILO

LILO stands for LInux LOader which was the boot loader used before GRUB was developed. It is fairly cryptic and is the default bootloader prior to and in RedHat 7.0 .

Here you just type the command :

# /sbin/lilo

... to install the bootloader on to the MBR.

If you don't have a Fedora CD, then you need not despair. You can also repair the boot loader using one of the numerous live CDs available.

Using Knoppix CD to repair the boot loader

Here you have to boot into knoppix (either GUI mode or text mode). Once you are logged in, fire up a terminal (in GUI mode) and type the following commands:

$ su -
# fdisk -l

This will list your hard disk partition information. From the listing, you can know in which partition you have linux installed. Now you have to mount the partition which contains the linux filesystem. For the sake of this discussion, let us assume it is /dev/hda3 .

# mount -t ext3 -o rw /dev/hda3 /mnt
#_

Now your linux partition is mounted at /mnt . Next you have to use the chroot command as follows:

# chroot /mnt
#_

The rest of the steps are the same as listed above for Restoring GRUB and LILO boot loaders.

Update (August 01 2007) : Many have said when they run the grub-install command after following the above steps, they get an error saying that /dev/hda is missing. The most probable reason is that when you chroot to the mount location, it does not have a copy of the device nodes on your machine. Here is a solution for that. If you have installed Linux with /boot, /usr and / in different partitions then the above method may not get the desired results and running the grub-install /dev/hda command after running chroot might give the error that there is no /dev/hda. This is because you have mounted only one of the partitions which houses '/' . And the error tells you that it cannot find the device nodes. In this scenario you can do the following :

Lets say I have Linux installed with / in /dev/hda2, /boot in /dev/hda1 with an ext3 filesystem. I boot using a Live CD as described above and then mount the partitions as follows :

# mount  -t ext3  /dev/hda2  /mnt

# mount  -t ext3  /dev/hda1  /mnt/boot

Remember that you are mounting the boot partition into the boot directory inside /mnt. Now mount the proc filesystem of your liveCD as follows (This is really an optional step):

# mount -t proc  none  /mnt/proc

Finally bind the device nodes build by your liveCD to the /mnt/dev location as follows :

# mount  -o bind /dev  /mnt/dev

Now you can chroot to the /mnt location and run the grub-install command as described above.

# chroot /mnt
# grub-install /dev/hda

Please note: This updated method is applicable only if you have a Linux installation spread across multiple partitions. If you have installed Linux in a single partition, the first and second step works flawlessly. At least it works for me.

Reverse Proxy with ModProxy

I have added a new two months poll on this blog. It's about a normal questions about what actions will you do when the next Slackware release is available. I don't know when will that time be, but based on past experience, it should be coming soon enough, which makes me confident that it will be released before this poll ended in April.

So, see the Changelog if you are curious about what will be included in the next Slackware and if you can't wait for the final release, you can also upgrade to -Current or download the latest ISO which contains Slackware-Current updates (ask Google for it, as Slackware only provides you with the official release, not a snapshot or even RC release).