Basic Netbook Tweaks - XP

Since my little brother got one of these puppies for his birthday I figure I better pick up the pace on my netbook blogs!

There are a couple of basic tweaks that I have found useful.  Most apply to any of my laptops and are power related, but a couple I applied specifically to my netbook.
First and foremost I am a bit of a freak about a clean desktop.  Anyone who knows the slob that I am may find this surprising, but the clutter of a thousand icons on my desktop just drives me nuts.  The madness is quelled in a few ways:

Launchy - I mentioned this outstanding little application launcher/ anything you want it to do wonder of a program before.  It eliminates the need for clicking on those dirty little icons by making the launching of programs accessible through a few keystrokes.  The mousepad can be a pain for some people, especially on a little netbook, so this program is essential.

Taking control of your toolbar - That little toolbar down there can be very useful! Begin by right clicking on any empty space.  If there is a check next to 'Lock the taskbar' then click on that to uncheck it.  Right click again to bring the menu back if it disappears then go to 'toolbars' and another drop down menu should show when you hover over it.  The only toolbar I leave checked here is the quick launch.  Anything else, such as the language bar, should be unchecked to save real estate - unless you use it of course.
The quick launch is kind of a second launchy.  I put any icons that I use a lot here where they are much more readily accessible than on the desktop.  Things like My Computer, My Documents, My Network Places, and any other folders or programs that you access a lot can go there.  If the program is not there then just drag the icon from the desktop to the quick launch bar and viola!
After setting up the quick launch with about five icons visible and the rest accessible from the drop down menu that comes up when you hover over the arrow icon, I get a hold of the notification area - that little area on the bottom right that is so important yet few people probably pay much attention to.
The notification area is so important because it is the first step in controlling your valuable resources.  A lot of programs tend to overestimate their importance and think it is ok for them to load up on startup and run in the background, taking up very valuable resources - or wasting them I should say.  Those programs generally post a little icon in this area, so the first order of business is to  look at each icon and see what it represents.  If it is a program that you are not using right now, then it should not be there.  I recommend CCleaner for the newbie - it gets rid of all the crap (CrapCleaner - get it?) and there is a section for taking control of what starts up with windows.  Go there and be very frugal about what you let start with Windows - security programs, utilities such as process hacker and any drivers should be about it.  When people experience a slow down in performance, this is the first place to look.
Once you get control of your auto-starts then you can control the real estate.  If you right click on the bar, choose 'properties' and then 'customize' under the notification area, you are presented with a list of all the icons that can show up.  Any that I don't need to see all the time, like security related icons, I click 'always hide'.  This saves a ton of space!

Finally, power related tweaks.  Go to Start then choose Control Panel and Power Options, which brings up the 'power options properties' box with a few tabs.  The initial tab - power schemes - is your choice.  I choose never for turning off the hard disks then whatever you choose for the others.  Next go to the Hibernate tab and enable Hibernation.  This may prove to be a problem for those with netbooks using SSD's because Hibernation needs at least a few gigs of HD space.  Next go to the Advanced tab, where the magic happens.
For 'when I close the lid' I chose do nothing, because I sometimes use my netbook to listen to music and I like to close the lid and keep listening.  There are some heat issues with this, I have found, so use speedfan to keep track of that and see if it is the same for you.
For 'when I press the power button' I chose to put the computer into hibernation.  More on that later, but one of the main advantages is that coming out of hibernation you have the F8 option so if something catastrophic happens you can get into safe mode.
For 'when I press the sleep button' I put standby - though my netbook doesn't have a sleep button.  For standby, I just go the old school route of Start -> Turn off computer ->Standby.
On this tab you can also choose whether you have to enter your password everytime you come out of standy or hibernation.  I chose to do this.

Standby and hibernation are very similiar in that the current state of the machine is saved and the machine is powered down.  Startup is much faster because you are not rebooting - the computer basically picks up where you left off.  The difference is that in Standby the state goes to RAM, so that there is still power going to the RAM and your battery will be depleted, though startup is theoretically faster, and you're not writing to the HD.  In hibernation the state is saved to the HDD and everything is powered down.  Standby and hibernation are very useful with netbooks because I find myself using it for very short periods of time sometimes so you can essentially power the system down and come right back to what you were doing.
Again, I recommend using your power button to go into hibernation because it is a quick way to power down the system in such a way that you can get right back to what you were doing and you have the F8 option if something goes bad, which you don't have with standby.

On a side note, I have found some freeze up issues with my netbook when going into standby with the computer plugged in.  It may be my tweaking, though.

Well, this was a hell of a lot longer than I thought it would be!  I hope you found something useful here.

Importing Contacts to Blackberry with Google

I found another method for doing this in the crackberry forums that I admittedly did not try because this method seemed easier.  Every other way seemed to rely on MS Outlook, which is not necessarily an option for us Linux/ Open Source users.  This how to is from the perspective of populating an empty address book.

First, backup your current GMail contacts.  Make sure a few of them have phone numbers associated with them so that the necessary fields are there.  In Gmail, go to contacts then Select Export and choose All and the Google CSV format.  Save As google_backup.csv.

Next make sure you have google sync installed on your blackberry, but do not sync yet, or at least not contacts.

Now you have several choices for the contacts on your current phone.  Basically you need to get them into spreadsheet format the easiest way possible.

Now open google_backup.csv (using Open Office Calc of course)and Save As google_bb.csv so that changes you make to this file won't screw up your backup.  Now cut and paste from your current contact spreadsheet into the relevant fields below your current contacts.  Finally, erase the non phone contacts above.  It's better to do it in this order so you have something to use as a reference when cutting and pasting.  Remember to delete the whole row(s) when getting rid of the contacts you don't want on your phone.  Finally, save this file.

Now go back into Gmail contacts, choose all and Delete Contacts (don't worry, you have your backup!).  Now choose Import from the upper right and import the google_bb.csv.  Now open up google sync on your blackberry and under options choose to sync contacts and then sync now.  Viola!

Now uncheck sync contacts if you want and re-import your original contact list.  I actually took the opportunity to go through the file and clean it up.  Again, leave the original backup file intact!!!!!!!   ie  DON'T CHANGE THE ORIGINAL BACKUP!  This saves you lots of time if you mess up.

The whole process takes about as much time as, or less, than reading this how-to.  Let me know how it goes!

The Usual Suspects: the Windows Collection

There are several programs which I generally use in every Windows installation then a few specific to my netbook, mostly having to do with writing in some form or another.

For security, I use Comodo Firewall. It is honestly a bit on the technical side but I like that and it is in the end worth the extra brain time to see what is trying to connect to the internet that the Windows firewall would let through. I have found free antivirus to be enough; my top picks are: avg, avast, and bitdefender. The antivirus that comes with Comodo seems to have trouble for me, though I like it more for doing so it identified quicktime as a virus; so I usually disable it. I use AVG the most though I have been trying Bitdefender lately.

Next come System Utilities. Revo Uninstaller and CCleaner come first. For defragmentation I like MyDefrag or Defraggler. I use a combination of Speedfan - which I set to show my CPU temp in the taskbar - and Process Hacker - which is essentially a suped up Task Manager. I set Process Hacker to run at startup to keep tabs on my CPU cycles. I find Launchy to be an indispensable utility. If you check out any check out this one. It seems so simple yet can be so functional - especially on a netbook where you may have trouble with the mousepad at times - it is so much easier and faster to start programs and open folders and playlists, etc, from Launchy! Also, I use Terabyte for file transfers. It seems to be much faster with a better GUI than the standard drag and drop.

SandboxIE is a great utility for opening questionable executables or if you are visiting websites that you are worried might install crap on your computer. Clonezilla is a great backup utility - essential for not losing all your hard work! I like FoxIt reader - it works well, is small, and integrates nicely with Firefox - Oh yeah - Firefox! I love it and use it exclusively. The add-ons I cannot live without, from betterGmail to ScribeFire - which I am using to write this blog. For pictures I like FastStone Image Viewer. It is a great editor as well. Picasa works well too.

As far as multimedia software goes I use VLC for movies and sometimes music, and Foobar2000 for music. I create playlists for Foobar and store them in a separate folder that I catalog with Launchy so that I can start them with a few keystrokes.

For office software I have Abiword and the open source suite Open Office. I am also using a diary program called Efficient Diary which I enjoy and I recently downloaded a program called StoryBook for when I get to writing my novels.

Please note: Every program I have mentioned is FREE for personal use. Sorry for not hyperlinking but there are just too many to mention. I am always trying new stuff, especially new utilities, so if you have any suggestions let me know!

I settled on an Acer Aspire One from Newegg. The exact model is the AOD 150-1577. The price was right and I am very happy with it and the extended battery life of the 6 cell battery. The Asus EEE-PC was a strong contender and honestly the choice came down to price. I may have gone with a Dell if the price was more competitive but I have had problems with very long waits from them.

One of the primary reasons for using an Aspire was the plethora of community documentation and support in relation to lesser known Linux distros that I like to play with, especially Puppy Linux. The more mature distros like Ubuntu seem well supported across most of the hardware, though, and I am happy to see so many netbooks shipped with Linux.

Mine came with XP and a lot of bloatware. I heartily reccomend a program called Revo Uninstaller when first buying a computer with lots of crap pre-installed. It does a good job of getting rid of installed programs more completely than the standard uninstallers. Or you can geek it up...

After confiming that everything worked correctly, the first thing I did was replace the hard drive and RAM. For the hard drive, I took apart a 320 gig Western Digital external drive and put that in place of the standard 160. I saw plenty of how tos that showed taking the case apart and putting it back together with the old netbook drive installed, but by the time I got the drive out the case was not really reusable. Thankfully I had a spare external case handy. Next I put in a 2 Gig RAM stick (20 bucks from newegg) and ended up with a faster machine with more storage.

Partitioning the hard drive is always the first step. There are plenty of how tos for that so suffice it to say I partitioned it out to hold my XP, a few Linux distros, swap, and about 200 Gigs left over for storage.
I really prefer Linux as an OS but I enjoy XP as well and find it very tweakable, so I started off with that as my primary OS. I used a version available 'around' called TinyXP. I had the good fortune of being able to use a friend's Acronis Enterprise with Universal Restore. Basically, I installed the OS into VirtualBox, added a few programs and then backed it up with Acronis, then used the recovery software off a USB drive to install it onto the netbook, using the Universal Restore feature. Initially I had trouble with the install failing until I discovered these SATA drivers, which I used at the appropriate step in the Universal Restore recovery process (These drivers would be useful in any process of intalling XP outside of the version provided). The result was a fully functional, stripped down, very efficient and pre built fully updated XP into which I installed all the additional drivers found on Acer's website. I really liked this process of preparing the OS as a virtual machine and then migrating it to the hardware.

Next I installed Xubuntu 9.04, which seems to work right out of the box - wireless and all. I have been messing with XP for now, though that will change soon, I am sure.

Next I'll go through my list of favorite programs.

Netbook Specs

I recently purchased a new netbook and I will be documenting most of my
'work' on it here. A friend recently saw it and said he was considering
getting one and asked for my help and I thought I may as well write my
suggestions down for all my readers.

First, you have to consider what you want to use it for. I started by
salivating over the Archos 5. I have been very interested in something
small that can network. When I started thinking about everything that I
would want to do, however, like VNC and word processing - writing more
like this and journaling - I realized that what I really wanted was a
netbook - something small that could do basic computing tasks: web
browsing, basic word processing, and handle media files. If that is all
you are planning to do then a netbook is a great idea.

For more complex tasks like image manipulation or low end gaming or
simply bigger screen size then a laptop would make more sense. And then
for high end gaming and video processing and virtual computing a desktop
would make more sense.

As far as minimum requirements for a netbook mine were: at least 1 gig
of RAM with the capacity to upgrade to 2 Gigs. This is important
because some motherboards did not support such an upgrade. I wanted a
minimum of 1.6GHz processing power/speed. I think this is the area where
we will see the most improvement as the newer generations come out.
Finally, I preferred a standard 2.5"HDD vs the smaller and more
expensive SSDs. However, the SSD does drastically reduce size and weight
Since I was going to playing a lot of media I prefer to be able to store
it locally but it makes sense to use a home server or small external HDD
as well.

2 considerations: Buy a cheaper model with 1 gig of RAM and upgrade to 2
yourself. Also, buy a smaller hard drive for a better price and if you
need to upgrade. Both of these imply a third important factor for those a
bit more on the geek side: ease of access to components. This feature
has evolved toward the easier access route.

Finally, battery life. Your choices are generally 3 cell with an
approximate 4 hour battery life and 6 cell with a 7 hour life. Again a
bit of research could save you some money - if you can get a 3 cell for
a good price and a battery separately then go for it.

My preferred sites are: Newegg, TigerDirect, and Amazon. I will always
check the comments on all three to get a good picture of what I am
getting as well.

Next I'll reveal which one I got and start going into the modifications and tweaks.

Testing...

I've noticed it's not so easy to post videos here on facebook (this blog is being ported to facebook) so I am wondering if videos post through this blog on the notes page - like this one made from the last thanksgiving beach blast....

And I have noticed that gifs (animated pictures) don't seem to work - but I wonder if the monkey one does....

Boot Ubuntu from Floppy/ Fix Windows MBR

If you live in a Windows only household with non-technical users and you have been held back from doing a dual install Linux/ Windows system by the fact that most Linux OS's, and Ubuntu in particular, changes the boot process thereby causing a potential uproar in the house, then this blog is for you! Faced with this situation I found by combining instructions from several different sources and simple head exploding trial and error how to create a system with Ubuntu and Windows that maintains the Windows boot process and uses a floppy to boot into Ubuntu and a frugal install of Puppy Linux 301 - 3 OS's to choose from!

This blog is part 2 of my previous blog which details how to install Ubuntu as a second OS using GParted to manually create partitions. However, it is applicable in any situation that uses GRUB as a bootloader, since essentially I am just putting the Windows MBR back and running GRUB from a floppy. In addition to having Ubuntu already installed you will also need mbrfix, a very useful little Windows utility that can be placed on a floppy and used to fix the MBR. Detailed instructions are provided with the program.

So we start from the install of Ubuntu in addition to XP which has GRUB loaded at boot. Boot into Ubuntu (or just let it do so automatically) and follow the instructions to make a GRUB boot floppy (taken from here):

To keep from having to type sudo over and over, in the terminal type:

sudo -s

and enter your password. Now format the floppy:

mke2fs /dev/fd0

Now mount the floppy and copy the necessary files:

mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy (note: there is a space between fd0 and /media)
mkdir /media/floppy/boot
mkdir /media/floppy/boot/grub
cd /boot/grub
cp stage1 stage2 menu.lst /media/floppy/boot/grub
umount /dev/fd0

Now start GRUB in interactive mode by typing

grub

and the command prompt should change to 'grub>' after which you type the following commands:

device (fd0) /dev/fd0
root (fd0) (note - I get an error message the first time I type this but it works fine if I repeat it)
setup (fd0)
quit

Now you have a bootable floppy. However, this did not work for me without a couple of extra steps.

Restart and boot from the floppy. You should see a screen exactly like you were booting from the hard drive, with a list of OS's and Windows XP at the bottom. Choose the Ubuntu and if it starts then you are good to go. However, I always got an 'error 15 file not found' message. Press any key to continue and then 'c' to go to the command line. Type

find /boot/grub/stage1

one line of output should be the disk - fd(0) - and the other is the partition that your Ubuntu is on, something like (hd0,5); make a note of this for later.

Now take out the disk and poweroff with the power button and then reboot into Ubuntu. Put the floppy back in and open up a terminal and type

sudo -s
mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy
gedit /media/floppy/boot/grub/menu.lst

This opens up the menu.lst document in the default editor as root, allowing you to make changes. Scroll down to the sections that don't start with #. You'll notice the titles are all the same as those listed on your initial screen when you use GRUB to boot. The first section is the one that you default boot from. Delete the last two lines of the first section:

quiet
single

and then Save. This should alter the menu.lst document on the floppy. To make sure close the terminal, go into the /media/floppy/boot/grub folder from the Places menu and open the menu.lst file by double clicking on it and making sure those two lines are missing.

Now reboot with the floppy in and Viola! it should boot into Ubuntu as if you were booting from the hard drive/ MBR-GRUB.

Finally, reboot into Windows. Run mbrfix.exe in the commandline to replace GRUB with Windows' standard boot code by opening the command window and typing:

cd
Mbrfix /drive 0 fixmbr /yes

This will replace GRUB with the standard Windows Boot code. Now when you boot you will go straight into Windows and the only way to access your Ubuntu/ other linux distros is with the floppy. You now have a hidden Ubuntu OS, since the linux partitions are not visible to Windows without special software.

Using Windows Partitions/Drives in a Linux OS

How to use Windows XP Filesystem in Linux (Kubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn)

This is probably the most basic thing to learn if you want to get started using Ubuntu in a dual boot system. If you are having trouble with things like storing documents on a drive that was formatted under Windows or playing music from your Windows drive this will most likely solve your problem. I should have written this down before because it always bites me in the rear when I do a new install and I pull my hair out thinking it is something more complex than it is.

A brief overview of file systems. Your computer stores and retrieves information from a medium like a hard drive or disk using a predefined system of dealing with data, ie a file system. The default system for XP and Vista is NTFS. The default for most Linux Operating Systems is Ext3, and sometimes Ext2. They are pretty much mutually exclusive - Windows does not even acknowledge the existence of an ext3 formatted drive (shows up as unformatted) without special software, and until recently Linux OS's could only read from NTFS and not write to it (ie save stuff to it).

Enter NTFS-3g, a development that has really made dual boot systems usable because it allows a Linux OS to read and write to NTFS so that you can share disk space between Windows and Linux. Therefore you can put music on an NTFS partition and play it from both a Linux and Windows OS, or movies, or pdf files, or whatever.

These instructions are specific to Kubuntu 7.04 but they can be easily tweaked to be used under any Linux OS that uses ntfs-3g.

Install the necessary utilities. In a terminal type:

sudo apt-get install ntfs-config

This will also install a gui that allows you to different choices - you can get specific instructions here(Skip down to the Configuration section).

To see exactly what partitions are available to me I use GParted Partition Manager under Start>System>GNOME Partition Editor, which I describe using in more detail in my blog about setting up a dual boot system. This shows exactly which partitions are there and what file system they are using. This is especially useful if you have two hard drives because it seems Ubuntu only automatically recognizes partitions on the one that it is installed on (hda or sda). Make a note of all the ntfs drives by the name they are associated with - ie sda1 or sda7 or hdb3 (I'll use these as examples earlier). Next you can go to /media and see if those drives are there. If they are you can see if they are mounted by clicking on them and seeing if any files show up. If they are not, ie there are no folders or icons marked hdb3, then open a terminal and type

sudo mkdir /media/hdb3

and one will magically appear!

Now to mount your ntfs drive. BTW 'mount' is linux/unix terminology for making a drive available, so although a drive will show up in GParted, usually as /dev/hdb(N), you cannot access the drive until it is mounted. Mounting a drive transfers the files on the drive to a folder that you can then access. The folder is usually in /mnt or, as in Ubuntu, /media. The command to do this is as follows:

sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/hdb3 /media/hdb3

This will now allow access to the files on /dev/hdb3 to be accessed by clicking on /media/hdb3.

To automatically mount the drives on system start up you can install the automatix package manager and use their tool for automatically mounting ntfs and fat32 drives.

Learning to use Linux is well worth the time and challenge. I recommend using a virtual machine first but moving on to a dual boot system and using Linux with the full power of your machine. I am not one of those people hell bent on taking down Microsoft but I do think it is fun and worth the time to explore different options.

UPDATE (5-12-2008) I now think it is much better to edit the /etc/fstab file, both from a functional standpoint and from a learning perspective. Here is an excellent and informative post. I used the ntfs-config tool initially and then edited the script that generated which led me to the realization that putting tabbed spaces in the script to make everything look pretty was what was causing it to not work for me initially! Gparted was very helpful as well. There seem to be some issues with Automatix being potentially dangerous as well. Here is a very informative blog outlining problems with Automatix.

DualBoot Windows XP and Ubuntu 7.04: Manual Partition

There have been a lot of how-to's written about the process of installing ubuntu onto a hard drive 'next to' XP, thus creating what is called a dual boot system. This one documents how I did it, with an emphasis on the process of partitioning, which is a beginner level thing but very important. Linux, and GParted in particular, allows a very advanced ability to partition and repartition your hard drive without destroying data. That being said, you should always back up before doing any kind of partitioning. I use acronis home, but there is a freeware program called <> which I am going to try soon. I also suggest using Mbrfix prior to making any changes in case there is some damage to the master boot record. Mbrfix will come in handy for the second part of this blog as well, wherein I will describe the process of returning the computer to a Windows boot and using a boot floppy to boot Ubuntu. This latter part is fairly unique, I think, and I had to play with the process to get it right because I could not find adequate documentation.

Having backed up your C: drive, it is time to create the partitions necessary for an Ubuntu Linux install. This blog assumes you have been playing with Ubuntu in a virtual machine. I highly suggest getting familiar with it, or another Linux distro, in this manner before making the leap to having it as your 'main' operating system. The advantages to doing this are well documented; I just like trying different things. From the boot up from the Ubuntu Live CD we will be using the Gnome Partition Editor to make the changes, located at System>Administration>GNOME Partition Editor (click on picture for full size image)

NOTE: BEFORE CONTINUING BACKUP YOUR WINDOWS OS AND ANY IMPORTANT DATA. I highly recommend familiarizing yourself and using BartPE, along with the MBRFix and DriveImage XML plugins (MBRFix is not exactly a plugin, rather it is a command line utility that must be run from a Windows environment, ie the BartPE disk). You should do this whether you are dual booting or not. Keeping your system backed up is always a top priority.

Now it is time to partition! You should be looking at something simliar to this:

In the top right corner is a pull down menu that will show all your hard drives, if you have more than one. You can choose by size, or by the fact that your Windows OS will always be on 'a'. In this case, the OS is on /dev/sda - and more specifically in the first partition /dev/sda1. You can see that the second partition is unallocated. I am going to shrink the Windows partition (sda1) and then add it to this one (sda2).

To shrink the existing partition: Highlight /dev/sda1 (or /dev/hda1 on some drives) then choose Resize/Move.

In the middle box enter the new size of the partition in MB, ie I took mine from 29GB, or 29000MB, to 24GB, or 24000 MB. Then click tab and Gparted fills in the next space for you. Click Resize, and then Apply. This operation could take awhile depending on the change in size and your processor speed.

Now, highlight to unallocated partition and Click New. Choose Extended because we are going to partition this little part up for a couple of new Linux OS's and some swap space, which Linux uses if you get low on RAM. Now click on the unallocated area again and choose New. Leave the first number as it is, type 1000 in the middle and then tab to let Ubuntu fill in the rest. Under File System choose linux swap. This sets aside 1GB of swap space for any linux distro that you run.

In the unallocated space left do the same as above, except choose enough space for the Ubuntu install and choose ext 3 for the file system; I chose 20000 (20 GB), and then leave about 10GB unallocated for another project later. You can do all this and then press apply, but I like to have the program do each step because there seem to be less errors that way, so I hit apply each time I make a change.

Now you are ready to install, as long as you have at least backed up your MBR using MBRfix, that is. The install of Ubuntu is going to insert a new "Bootloader" into your MBR, so be aware that upon startup things are going to look differently. This bootloader, called GRUB, will take care of things for you, providing you with a list of available operating systems to choose from: namely Ubuntu and Windows. So, with all that in mind, double click install and start the process. When you get to Prepare Disk Space, choose manual.

Click on the box next to the partition you set aside for Ubuntu, ext 3, and under mount point, choose the back slash.

Skip the "Migrate Docs and Settings", and choose a name and password you will remember. Finally, make sure the numbers correspond to the ones you want to install to (NONE OF THEM SHOULD BE 1; ie, you should not be installing to sda1 or hda1 because this is where your Windows OS is!!!!!)

Now you are ready to go! Install and restart. You will notice the new Boot menu, which gives you a choice of the Ubuntu OS or the Windows one. You can stop here, adding the programs I suggested in a previous blog, or go on to Part 2, where I will describe how to go back to the Windows way of booting up and then boot Ubuntu from a floppy disk.

HAVE FUN!!!!!

OS on a Stick 2: Dressing up USB Puppy 3.01

Part 1: OS on a Stick: Puppy 3.01 on a USB Drive

To really experience the power of Puppy Linux run from a USB drive you need to add some of the great variety of applications that are available. The very first thing I usually do is get Firefox. This package and many others is available here. Scroll down to mozilla firefox 2.0.0.4.pet and download it. I usually put it in /root/mydocuments/tmp. Then just click on it (remember - one click!) and install. To see it in the menu choices go to Menu>Shutdown>RestartJWM. This resets the desktop, which is much faster than completely rebooting. Then you will see an icon for firefox in the Menu>Internet.

Next go here and download the Gslapt Package Manager. As I mentioned earlier, the application availability for Puppy increased exponentially when the developer made it coincide with Slackware. This means that Puppy has all the same basic packages preinstalled as it's linux sibling Slackware, although fundamentally it is a very different OS. Follow the directions in this forum thread, and go ahead and bookmark this forum because most of your questions will be answered here.

Next you can install either the Flash9.pup or the Flash 9 plugin from the gslapt package manager (located in Menu>Setup). The Flash9.pup has been hard to find lately, so I went for the slackware package.

I like to keep track of my CPU use and Gslapt has a version of GKrellM which works nicely. Also, there a lot of themes available to give it a cool look.

Next I got MPlayer from Gslapt, which is a very nice video and music player that plays pretty much every format.

Finally to get the look you want you can download wallpapers to get your own background. Download the picture you want to /usr/share/backgrounds and then go to Menu>Desktop>Puppybackground image and choose which background you want.

Also you may want to put links with icons on your desktop. For firefox get the link from /usr/share/applications. Just drag it from the folder to your desktop then right-click the icon and choose Edit Item then change the name to just Firefox. For something like GkrellM just do a search (Menu>Filesystem>Pfind) and find the icon that when you click on it the program starts (/usr/bin/gkrellm) and drag that to the desktop. Find an icon you like and download a folder you create in /root/mydocuments called icons. If you need edit it to make it about 50px x 50px then do so. Next right-click on the desktop icon you want to change and choose Set Icon. Drag the pic from the folder to the box presented and Viola! you have your cool new icon. Here is a pic of my desktop (click on it to see full size):



There is so much more to this incredible little OS. Soon I will document what is called a 'frugal install', where puppy is installed to your computer's hard drive. The possibilities increase exponentially from there.....

OS on a Stick: Puppy 3.01 on a USB Drive

Puppy 3.01 is out and it is quite wonderful. It works better out of the box than any of the other versions and has some really great features, one of which is a compatibility with Slackware, which I will discuss more later.

I wrote previously about using Puppy in a virtual machine, mainly as an ssh server. The very first thing that attracted me to this unique and powerful Linux operating system, however, was it's ability to function off a USB drive, or Flash drive.




A Full Operating System That Fits in Your Hand!!


I would suggest using a virtual machine with a program like VirtualBox first, but once you begin to feel comfortable with it you should definitely try using it off a USB for a totally portable Operating System.

First, download the ISO from here. Virtual machines require the retro version, however the 'normal' version (look for puppy-3.01-seamonkey.iso) works just fine from a USB or LiveCD. Burn it to CD using a program like BurnCDCC, which is recommended on the Puppy download page. You can actually run the OS from this LiveCD, but I have found that it is much more portable off a USB drive. Start up the LiveCD by making sure your BIOS is set to boot from the CDRom. Choose your country's default keyboard and then go ahead and choose XVESA first and then your screen resolution. Once you are 'in' puppy, insert the USB you want to use. Then go to the Menu button in the bottom left (although this menu list can be accessed from anywhere on the desktop with a right click of the mouse) and choose Setup then puppy universal installer:



The first choice is for a Flash Drive, so click OK. Next you should see your usb device name, click ok. Now choose the top right install choice.



Make sure the info in the next box matches the size of your USB device (in MB) then click ok. At this point I usually choose mbr.bin. Like the author of the heading, it has worked consistently for me.



Next just hit OK and then Enter and the process begins!! Once everything is done the CD will usually eject and you will be running from the USB.

Now, the next stage is probably the most important. Go ahead and poweroff (Menu>Shutdown>Poweroff). You will be asked if you want to save a file. Choose yes and then the defaults until you get to the size. At this point consider this:

Puppy's 'C:' drive equivalent, just for illustration's sake because there really is no similiarity, is this pupsave file that you are creating. All the programs that you install and documents that you save within the puppy file system will exist within this directory. However, the actual size of these programs is surprisingly small, and most importantly, the size of the directory can always be expanded, but never reduced. Therefore, I always choose an option that represents about 25% of the drive, ie I use a 2 gig drive so I chose the 512mb option. You will find this to be more than enough. The number of M you see in the bottom right of your screen will represent how much of this memory you have left (until you create a pupsave file it represents the remainder of RAM).

The reason for not taking up your whole drive is the use of SFS files. These are packages that are placed in the 'home' directory - /mnt/home - out of which puppy operates and allow multiple packages to be installed, such as the openoffice.sfs file seen here. The size of the /mnt/home directory is the remainder of the usb drive from whatever you chose as the size for your pupsave file. There is a readme.txt file in the directory linked to above which explains how to use the SFS files. If you have any problems let me know.

Next blog I'm going to go through my favorite programs and tweaks for this Puppy.

Oh yeah - Puppy is very easy to back up! Just copy the pupsave file to another directory on your desktop/laptop - it contains all your settings and installed programs!!

TRY IT! YOU'LL LIKE IT!!

VNC over SSH with Ubuntu (or any other OS)

Virtual Network Computing (VNC) allows a user to access his or her desktop from a remote location. It is somewhat analogous to Remote Desktop Computing, available on Windows XP Pro, except that Remote Desktop uses Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), an encrypted form of information exchange whereas VNC is not encrypted. VNC requires a server on the host machine, ie the desktop being controlled, and client software that is used to access the server. With Ubuntu, the server exists by default. To activate it, go to System->Preferences->Remote Desktop and choose Allow others to view your desktop and Allow others to control your desktop. Since you are going to be at a different location deselect Ask for your confirmation and then select a password to use and close.



To access this VNC server I use TightVNC. Just download the windows viewer, which is a portable executable, i.e. you can take the vncviewer.exe program and put it on a USB drive and it will run from there, or anywhere else independent of your privileges.

The default port to access your desktop is 5900. For information port forwarding and networking with virtual machines, check out my previous blog. It is my understanding that you cannot change the default port used by vino - Ubuntu's default vnc server.

To use VNC: from another computer running windows double click the vncviewer.exe. You can leave the defaults as they are; however, I like to change the default little cursor to an arrow. To do this click on options, then click on the globals tab then under Local cursor shape choose Normal arrow and then OK.



Now it is time to connect to your Ubuntu desktop! NOTE: This is for testing purposes only. VNC is not a secure method of communication, meaning there is no encryption of the data passing from the remote client to the host. Therefore any information passed between the two, such as passwords, could be easily available to some outside interception. This is the reason for using the SSH tunnel to be described next. To connect to your Ubuntu desktop enter it's IP address in the blank field, followed by a colon and then the chosen port. For information about how to find your IP address check out this blog. If you are within the same network as your Ubuntu machine then use the network address, otherwise use the outside address.



You should be presented with a screen asking you for your password, after which you should see your nice shiny remote desktop presented on your screen! The quality of the experience depends heavily on the speed of the connection. With a good network connection I can hardly tell the difference when I'm on my laptop remote computing to my desktop. Now close the vncviewer.

Now to make it secure. I describe setting up Openssh server on Ubuntu here. In order to access the server you need an SSH client. I prefer PortaPutty. This along with tightvnc make a nice little portable package. Open up portaputty and type in your Ubuntu's IP address and port, as well as a name for the session under Saved sessions.



In the left column expand the Connection tab, click on Data, and in the Auto-login username field enter the username you use to login to your Ubuntu OS.



Now expand the SSH tab and click on tunnels. In source port enter the port for your vnc server. In the Destination field enter the IP Address of the server, a colon, and the port of the vnc server then click Add. Make sure the local button is filled. The result should look like this:



Now go back to the Sessions screen and click on Save to save all of these settings with the name you chose. To activate this session just double click the saved name and you will be presented with a command line looking box. Your username will be presented and then you will be asked for your password:



Finally you will be presented with a command prompt. Now you have established a secure, encrypted SSH tunnel through which to pass the VNC session. With the SSH session open, activate vncviewer.exe, but instead of your computer's IP address enter 'localhost', colon, and the port through which you are tunneling.



You should be presented with the same password request as earlier and then your remote desktop. Now you are Virtually Computing securely via an encrypted SSH tunnel!

Bummed Out Out Back

I've taken the plunge from the software to the hardware tinkering - beyond replacing disk drives and upping memory to trying out my first build! I've been buying all the parts over the last 6-8 months and the other day I finally got the motherboard - an msi P6N SLI. This weekend I took some precious hours here and there and got everything together and.... well the title says it all. Turned it on, lots of cool lights, all the fans and disks start whirring, and nothing on the screen. No beeps, no video, no easy way to tell what's going on.

So more hours spent trying to diagnose - even going so far as taking the board out and running it outside the case. The video card worked in another computer so it's looking like a DOA motherboard - I can't tell you how bad that sucks!!!! Most problems should at least generate a series of beeps, so unless it is the video card, which should cause a specific set of beeps, then I got screwed. From reading the reviews it's not totally uncommon for any board and frankly I'm not surprised I'm one of the unlucky ones - I tend to have to learn things the hard way which in the end is better. Like next time I'm hooking the board up before I even put it in the case.

In the mean time, while I wait for the next board, Puppy 3.0 is out and I'll be taking that for a spin. When I get everything working I'll list all the components I'm using.

My Favorite Ubuntu Tweaks and Programs

First, I like to enable auto-login, which makes startup faster and makes controlling the virtual machine from the command-line much easier. To do this go to System->Login Window and choose the security tab, then enable automatic logon for your username.

Next I enable remote desktop. System->Preferences->Remote Desktop and check 'Allow other users to view your desktop' and 'Allow other users to control your desktop' then uncheck 'Ask for your confirmation' and check 'Require the user to enter a password'. Make this password very strong!

The first program I install is related to remote desktop - openssh server. Now we get to use some command-line goodness. There are several ways to install programs in Ubuntu. Most places seem to emphasize the command-line method. Go to Applications->Accessories->Terminal. Now here is a little beginners trick I have found most useful - right click and choose 'Add this launcher to panel'. You should see an icon appear on the top bar. You only have to click this once to activate it and it is a handy place for the programs you use most often. Open the terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install openssh-server openssh-client

this will install openssh server just like I did with puppy and cygwin. Remember to change the port from 22 by either using port forwarding or editing sshd_config. To do this open a terminal and type:

sudo gedit /etc/ssh/sshd_config

which should bring up the document in a notepad like format. Change the line that says 'Port 22' to Port XXX, where XXX is a random number usually between 30000 and 60000. Remember to forward the port!
Next, restart openssh by typing

sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart

At which point you should see

*Starting OPENBSD Secure Shell Server

Verify that the server is running by typing

ssh localhost -p XXX -l username

where username is the name you use to sign in. You should be prompted for your password and a message about verifying the correct address and then after choosing yes you should get a command prompt! Type exit to stop the ssh session.

Next blog will describe how to VNC (remote desktop) securely over SSH.

Another program is gnome-commander. Go here and download the one titled gnome-commander 1.2.3-1 edgy1. Though there is a newer version it does not seem to work. It is very fast for file transfers and I like the interface.

I also use Deluge for my bittorrent. I successfully used the instructions in this blog. Check out #5 and just copy and paste them into a terminal and watch the magic happen!

If you are going to get serious with your torrenting I would also suggest Moblock. It is a good security measure to take. The instructions can be a little esoteric. I stopped mine from autostarting at bootup.

Last but not least is GKrellM (follow the instructions in the first post), a nice little app which monitors system functions like cpu cycling and ethernet traffic. I really like being able to keep an eye on my cpu usage, and this does a great job.

Note: when editing source.list use the same command as for sshd_config from the terminal. Ubuntu will not let you edit important files without acknowledging yourself as the root user and initially using your password.

There are a lot of packages to choose from out there, just google and go! Let me know if you have any favorites...

Unix on Windows: Cygwin and OpenSSH Server

Cygwin is a fantastic set of Unix programs/scripts that run in a windows environment. I use it almost daily now, especially when doing any kind of remote computing via the openssh server that is available through the the cygwin setup. Below are four articles from Lifehacker that got me going on this powerful little toolbox. It is a great way to get familiar with command line usage in a unix environment from inside windows. You can navigate through your file system via command line and check yourself in the familiar windows GUI.
I'll be detailing my favorite uses for the openssh server later on. Check out these articles and get cygwin for yourself. You'll be glad you did!

Intro to Cygwin part 1, part 2 and part 3.

Now you can set up an ssh server just like on Puppy. I have it set up on Ubuntu, as well, which will be listed in my favorite programs and tweaks for Ubuntu, coming up next!

For an ssh server on Windows using OpenSSH through Cygwin check out this Lifehacker article: How To Setup A Home SSH Server.

Install Ubuntu 7.04 in VirtualBox

Just do it!! Go get a copy of the iso and use it to install yourself a nice new copy of Ubuntu Linux. This will allow you to get familiar with this mature, stable linux distribution.

I am tempted to call Puppy just something to play around with, not a 'real' OS, but the truth is it is just in its beginning stages. Read the Developer News a few days and you will see just how dedicated puppy's founder and developer is. But if you have been playing with it you have inevitably found it can lead to quite a bit frustration at times, like when the browser crashes every time you try and look at your bank statement. This make Puppy a great learning tool as you are forced to search out and implement fixes, but there are plenty of times when you want something that just works.

That something is Ubuntu. It is based on a very stable linux version called Debian, which is pretty much intuitive and very easy to learn. Chances are you have heard of it. Now get to know it!! In a later blog I will roll out my favorite programs...

Some Good Tools to Have Out Back

As I move towards a dual boot with Ubuntu I have been collecting all my recovery tools together and have found some new ones.
First, check out BartPE, a live CD windows environment that runs off a bootable cd so that you can fix any problem that might pop up. I added the firefox plugin so that I could get on the internet and find help if needed. It's pretty easy to use and I built one right away, saving it to an ISO file first and then using that in a virtual machine to test it out. Very impressive and I am sure it will be very useful.
I have used Hiren's Boot alot, as well, which I got off a torrent site. I always keep a copy of that handy as well.
Burn Puppy to a cd, too. That comes in handy when things go bad.
Finally, I found a very handy little tool called MBRfix (look about halfway down the list). When working with dual boots I have found the biggest problem arises with screwing up the Master Boot Record. It is scary as hell to see that 'no OS found' message come up, but it is really a very simple fix. Hiren's Boot contains this utility, but I downloaded it put it on a floppy, then ran it from the floppy to make a copy of my current MBR. Heres how:
1. Format a floppy and see if your drive still works! If it doesn't, or you don't have one, I am sure it will work off a cd.
2. Download MBRfix and unzip it to the floppy.
3. Open up a Command Prompt and type cd A:\
4. Your floppy should come on as you change to this directory. To make sure the program is there type 'dir' and you should see mbrfix.exe. If not then cd mbrfix to get into the mbrfix directory and type dir to make sure it's there.
5. Now to back up your current MBR type:
mbrfix /drive 0 savembr mbr
where drive 0 (that is a number zero) is the drive your windows os is on and mbr is the name of the file that will be created that contains your MBR
6. Now type dir again and you should see a file titled mbr.

All this is in the directions that comes with the program but I thought I would just demonstrate how easy it is and I was testing to see if it could be run from a floppy. This also demonstrates how easy and useful command line programs can be and why it is a good thing to start to get comfortable with the commandline - which is by coincidence going to be the subject of my next blog!!

Last but certainly not least is DriveImageXML, a new freeware backup utility that I am about to try, which has a plugin for BartPE. Making a full backup proved to be the smartest thing I ever did after my last disastrous attempt at dual booting. I learned a lot from that, though, and I will record all that here.

Got any tools you prefer? Let me know!

Basic Networking for Newbies...by a newbie

I thought I would write down my understanding of computer networking since so much of this blog has been and will continue to be about using virtual machines. My basic understanding is built on what I have learned from the manuals and from messing with things and trying to get servers to work to I could communicate with virtual machines from outside. I believe networking is a good thing to get to know because it helps with a basic understanding of firewalls as well. I am not professionally trained so my terminology may be way off and I certainly welcome any comments or suggestions or clarifications.

Each computer has an IP address that is used to identify it on the inter- and intra- net. This IP address is supplied by your service provider. To find it, go to whatsmyip.org and your address will be at the top of the screen. If you want to communicate with your computer from another location then this is the address that you would you use. It's pretty easy, as long as you are using only one computer at your house...

The complication arises when you have more than one computer, or you begin using virtual machines, which present themselves to your computer, or Operating System to be more precise, as a separate entity. As I learned when trying to set up Host Interfacing and give my virtual machine it's own IP address, most people are allowed only one IP address by their provider. This is where networking comes in - network addresses are then used and all information is passed through a single entity, be it a computer or router, to all the other operating systems. Therefore, any network computer has basically two addresses - the outside the network address, which is essentially shared with all the other computers on the network, and the inside the network address, which is unique among all the computers on the network. To find an OS's inside address you just open a console/ command prompt and type ipconfig for windows and ip addr for linux. The result will usually be something like 192.168.X.X. All the computers in the network will share the first three numbers and then be identified by the last three.

Whereas your provider assigns you your outside IP address, your network address is assigned by a server inside the network, through which all internet traffic passes. This server usually resides inside a router, but in the case of virtual machines it can also be a program. It is referred to as a DHCP server, and it provides each computer with an IP address and then routes any information that is specified for a certain address, usually by port forwarding, to the specified OS. Therefore, when communicating with a networked computer from outside the network, you still use the outside IP address (whatsmyip.org) that they all share, and then the information is routed by the router to and from the OS to you.

This is where port forwarding comes in. A port is basically a numbered 'plug' in your OS that is used to communicate with other computers. If you have a server or a piece of software that needs to interact with the outside, then it is assigned a port to which to listen and communicate through. Any incoming information that has that port associated with it will be routed to that port on your OS. Many ports are pre-set, such as port 80, which is preset for browser traffic. In order for your OS, be it the host or virtual, to communicate with the outside world a port has to be opened, and then the DHCP server needs to be told to route all information to and from that port to the specified OS.

Forwarding ports through the router/DHCP server can be done in two ways: Port Range Forwarding, which all router software supports, and Port Forwarding, which more expensive routers support - or third party firmware like DD-WRT. Port Range Forwarding allows you to select either a single port or a range of ports and directly forward them to the specified network OS, ie set 9966 on the router to forward to 9966 on 192.168.x.x. Port forwarding allows you to forward a specific port on the router to a specific, and different, port on the specified OS, ie you can set port 9999 on the router to communicate with port 9966 on 192.168.x.x. The latter makes things easier when setting up ssh servers on different computers because it lets you keep the ssh port, 22, open on the network computer but easily change the outside port in the router.

I'll use the ssh server set up on Puppy Linux as an example. This example assumes a virtual machine set up on a host machine that is connected to an external router which is then connected to the internet modem, ie the external (wireless usually) router is where the DHCP server resides and it provides the network IP addresses and handles the port forwarding. In addition, I assume host interface networking is being used in the virualbox virtual machine, as I described in a previous blog, so that the virtual machine has its own network IP that begins with the same three numbers as the host OS and is uniquely identified by the last number, ie the router sees the virtual machine as a completely separate machine. To communicate with the server you would first obtain your outside ip address at whatsmyip.org. Then, find the server's network ip address by typing ip addr in a console inside Puppy. Access your router, usually at 192.168.1.1, and port forward a designated port to the network address you obtained. If you have to use Port Range Forwarding, then I suggest you change the port that the ssh server listens on from inside Puppy and then forward this from the router, such as 9999. With Port Forwarding you would forward a random port, such as 9999, to port 22 on Puppy (192.168.x.x).

To access the server from a different location, ie outside the network, using an openssh commandline interface, you would type:
ssh 12.34.56.789 -l root -p 9999
where 12.34.56.789 is your outside ip address, root is your username and 9999 is the port that you designated on the router.

Actually, it can be a little different in the case of virtual machines inside a computer connected directly to the internet, ie the cable from the modem connects directly to the computer and the virtual machine software, such as innotek's VirtualBox, acts as a DHCP server by providing IP addresses to the virtual machine and routing information. In this case the host computer to which the cable is connected is essentially the router through which ports are forwarded using the command line technique described in VBox's manual, or whatever is described in a particular machines manual for port forwarding.

Some additional considerations: some internet providers will change your ip address at regular intervals. In order to be able to consistently communicate with your machine you either have to keep checking your outside IP address, or you can use a service like Dynamic DNS, which will assign a domain name to you address and then keep track of any changes. Therefore you can always type in the same written address, like mydomain.dyndns.com, and not be concerned about the changing IP address. Dynamic DNS is an easy, useful, and best of all free service.

Also, when communicating between computers on the same network be sure to use the network address, the 192.168.x.x address, so that the traffic is routed through the router at that speed, rather than leaving the network then coming back in. This is useful when you have music on one machine and want to stream it to another. This sounds basic, but I have seen plenty of 'how to's' for music servers that say to access your 'host' computer by using the outside the network address. This ability to communicate between computers within a network is another reason to choose host interface networking when possible, ie when you have an external router handling your internet traffic.

Networking can be further complicated by firewalls, which is outside the scope of this post, so if you are having troubles turn your firewall off and see if that is the source of the problem. Just don't forget to turn it right back on!!

Happy networking!!

SSH SERVER FOR VNC AND BYPASSING FIREWALLS WITH PUPPY 215CE

Now that I have installed puppy in VirtualBox and downloaded and installed some packages it is time to put Puppy to work. This blog will describe setting up the ssh server downloaded in the previous blog and then its actual use will be the same as described in this blog, where Puppy will replace DDWRT as the source of the server.

NETWORKING STRATEGIES

Ha Ha that sounds so academic. To be honest I am a complete newb at networking and a large part of the impetus for writing this blog is documenting the results of what works for me after hours of tinkering.

If you have a computer that directly connects to the internet, ie the connection cable goes from the modem to your computer, then I suggest you get a router. If not, then stay with the NAT networking option and familiarize yourself with the NAT networking and port fowarding sections of the VBox user manual. Truthfully, VMware Workstation is much easier in this respect, but then getting used to using the command line to get things done is not a bad thing either. Working from the command line is a great thing when doing any kind of remote connections, and I am using it more and more.

If you have a router like I do then you need to enable Host Interface Networking so that Puppy will get its own network address to which you can port forward to in order to connect to the SSH server. Logout and poweroff puppy then go to the network settings tab and click on the add host interface button:



Click ok and VBox will add a virtual network card named whatever name you gave it. Go to Start->Control Panel->Network Connections and you should see it there. You will probably get an icon in your taskbar indicating an unconnected network device. This actually stayed whether puppy was running or not, and the way I got rid of it was to right click the connection, enter the Properties menu, Configure, then the Advanced tab and hilight Media Status and choose Always Connected.

Now the part that was a little scary for me but it worked out fine and was easily reversible if needed: bridging the connection between your new Host Interface and your physical LAN connection. For me, the host interface alone did not produce a working connection. Puppy detected the network as alive but was never able to get a network IP address. In order for puppy to communicate with the router the connection had to be bridged. I also tried the 1394 adapter, but only the bridge with the physical Local Area Connection worked, and indeed in the User Manual it states you must bridge the connection with the physical adapter.

So, I would suggest making two or three Host Interface Connections for bridging, since only 1 adapter can by used per machine. Next, press the Ctrl button while hilighting the Local Area Connection and the Host Interface Connections. Then go to the Advanced tab and choose bridge connections:



XP will create a bridge and the result should look something like this:



NOTE: THE HOST COMPUTER WILL NOW HAVE A NEW NETWORK IP ADDRESS! Previously it was probably 192.168.1.100, however now that it is bridged your router will assign it a new address, so change all your port fowarding settings as needed. To see what your network address is in XP open the command window and type ipconfig. All your network addresses will show, the Network Bridge is your host IP that you would forward to. In puppy, or any linux, open a console and type ip addr to find your network IP. Make a note of this because you will need it later.

INSTALL SSH SERVER IN PUPPY 215CE

Now start puppy up (remember to remount the OS iso if needed) and choose connections on the desktop. Choose connect to the internet->eth0->AutoDHCP and you should be good to go! Check for your new network IP address and write it down.

Now, mount the iso with all your programs on it and choose the sshd-sftp.pup. Follow all the prompts and choose the defaults. Next open a console (Right hand side of the desktop). Type:
passwd
and enter a password for the username, which is root by default. I always have to do this twice! The first time I get a segmentation fault and then the second time it goes through. This is the password you will need to sign into the ssh server.

Now, go to Menu->File System->Rox and from there press the up button til you get to the top level directory. Now click (only once) usr->etc and you are in the /usr/etc directory (I will use this convention from now on). Right click->Window->choose Terminal here and type
./sshd.sh
'./'(period slash) is unix for 'run this executable', like double clicking an .exe. The sshd.sh program will create several new files in this folder. You will get a window telling you you have to create a password, which you have done. When it is finished close the console and open a new one. Type
/usr/sbin/sshd
and your ssh server will be activated!!

To test it, type
ssh localhost -l root
and you should get a password prompt. Enter your password and it the resulting '#' type
logout
or
exit
Now, open your router access and port forward a random port to port 22 of the puppy machine. If you cannot do this, then let me know and I will tell you how to edit sshd_config so that your server will listen at a different port. DO NOT OPEN UP PORT 22 ON YOUR ROUTER OR HOST! This is a common place so called 'script kiddies' scan in order to find vulnerable computers. To test it open the console and type
ssh your_ip -p your_port -l root
where 'your_ip' is your OUTSIDE address, as seen with whatsmyip.org, and 'you_port' is the port # you chose earlier. You should get a message about being sure you have contacted the right address. Choose yes then you should be prompted for a password and then a '#' prompt. Again, type logout and feel good about setting up your shine new ssh server!!

Now you can use your new server to communicate with puppy from outside, or better yet as a proxy server which allows you to bypass firewalls and local servers. Just follow the directions from this previous blog and you should be rockin'!! Next I will describe how to VNC over SSH so that you can securely control Puppy from a remote computer. Now the fun really begins!!

Dressing Puppy 215CE Up

Now that Puppy linux is installed and ready to go it is time to 'customize' it by adding packages. These come in all different forms. I download all my puppy related packages to my host OS first into a puppy files directory for safekeeping, and then load them into puppy from there.

The first I add are sfs packages, which integrate several different programs into the OS at once at a root level. Go here and scroll down to the section titled ".SFS EXPANSION PACKS" and devx_215.sfs, and web_215.sfs. You can also get Ooo_215.sfs, which contains the full open office suite, and pgs_215.sfs which has a lot of great graphics programs like Gimp. The devx package is used for compiling programs, which I don't know much about but you need it to install some stuff later. The web package contains firefox and vncserver, which we will use later.

Next go here and download the sfs installer. Bookmark the forum mainpage because this is where all your questions can be answered!! Next go here for your ssh server. DOWNLOAD THE PACKAGE AT THE END OF THE THREAD-TITLED SSHD-SFTP.PUP- NOT THE FIRST ONE. We will use this later to set up an ssh server for use like I describe in a previous blog.

You may notice that you have trouble seeing video in the Flashplayer 9 format, especially with firefox. To correct this go here and download the Flash9.pup. Look through this site and the parent directories for anything else you might find interesting. Be aware there are several flash9 fixes, but the one above is the one that worked for me on Puppy 215CE.

There are several methods for getting these files into puppy. The easiest and most reliable I have found is making an .iso file from the above files and then mounting this file in puppy as a cd. A great program for making an iso is CDBURNERXP PRO. It is a great little piece of freeware. I believe AlZip will make an iso as well. With CDBurner be sure to save the project because that will make it easier to add files later if you want. Another great piece of software is PowerISO.

Once you have your iso then add it to the list in VirtualBox by choosing Manage disks. When you are in Puppy, because remember you need to use the Live iso to start the program, you can change the mounted iso file from Puppy215CE-Final.iso to your new Puppyfiles.iso. Next choose "Disks" from the desktop icon. You should see a label for hdc with a red disc icon. Click on this and the program automatically mounts the Iso as if it were in a cd player. The files you added should appear in the ROX file manager window.

Now first click on the sfsinstaller.tar.gz and choose select all, then extract to /root/my-applications. Next go to the start menu and then to file systems and ROX filesystem. The folder that opens is your root folder. Google linux or unix directory structure for some insight into how linux sets up its directories. In my applications open sfsinstaller_fullHD and click on sfsinstaller.gtk. NOTE: PUPPY REQUIRES ONE-CLICK TO OPEN APPLICATIONS AND DIRECTORIES although I'm sure you have found that out by now! Follow the directions and the .sfs packages will be installed. Check the start menu and if you installed web or pgs you will see new program entries. Devx does not show anything.

Explore the forum, dotpups and puppy start menu items as well as skip around and familiarize yourself with the directory structure and have fun. Take a snapshot of your current machine state in case you screw anything up.

Coming up.... Setting up your ssh server, vncserver, and commandline control of puppy: REMOTE CONTROL PUPPY!! I'm also working on installing Ubuntu 7.04. It is a more mature Linux distro and a serious alternative to Windows.