Linux + GNU = Humans Enabled

While I really like the FOSS KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine), KVM can be just a bit daunting for the more GUI-oriented types. So, for the newly experienced, I usually recommend they try Oracle's Virtualbox virtual machine software from virtualbox.org. The Ubuntu repositories have Virtualbox available, but it is the older version. This post provides instructions for installing the newer Virtualbox 4.3 in your Ubuntu 13.10 GNU/Linux box. Also, I've outlined the steps needed to install the packages inside the guest Ubuntu 13.10 virtual machine and make the video resolution re-sizable with the window. These steps also enable the Ubuntu guest to have larger screen resolution or even fullscreen resolution. For the purpose of this writeup, I use Ubuntu 13.10 GNU/Linux as both the HOST operating system, and the Virtualbox GUEST operating system. This posting assumes that you know how to install and configure Ubuntu GNU/Linux as the guest OS. These first set of steps are us...

Having loaded up Ubuntu GNU/Linux 13.10 on my computer which previously ran the 13.04 version, I have to say that I am quite impressed with the speed improvements and polish this new version brings to this already awesome operating system!! Way to go Canonical and Ubuntu developers!! One of the things I really love about GNU/Linux is the power I have to customize things in the system to my liking. Rather than force changes down your throat like the other operating systems out there, GNU/Linux gives you the power to choose!! You have the power!! Usually, after installing the base system, I come back and tweak things a bit to my liking. After all, per the license - I already own this copy of Ubuntu GNU/Linux that's installed on my computer, so I might as well customize it to my liking as much or as little as I like!! This is what Freedom in computing is all about!! Of course, the developers behind Ubuntu, have made it so I don't need to customize anything at all if I don...

I absolutely love a system that can stay connected! With Ubuntu GNU/Linux, there are many ways to get connected remotely to your computer and get your Linux on! For instance, here is a list of several ways you can stay connected: Desktop Sharing (built-in VNC, see  help ) SSH ( requires install ) FreeNX ( requires install ) NX Free ( requires install ) ssh -X (requires install and local xserver) The default "Desktop Sharing" functionality in Ubuntu 12.04 is good for some things, but since it's based on VNC , and doesn't have any additional layer for security, it's not a necessarily secure method for connecting to remote machines. Also, people trying to connect from their windows systems will have to obtain/install a vnc client to use for connection. This can be a problem in some environments. This is where xrdp comes in. xrdp.org is free open source software that can be easily installed in Ubuntu 12.04 GNU/Linux machine via the package management...

In case you should ever be finding yourself having to configure your CentOS 5.8 GNU/Linux machines to allow active directoy windows users to login to them, this post will help. While there are a few ways to set this up, i.e., likewise-open (see beyondtrust.com), centrify (centrify.com), the built-in System, Authentication graphical controls in CentOS, etc., the method in this post focuses on touching just a few config files to enable active directory  authentication. K.I.S.S. is the way I like to roll. Using the authentication methods below assume that you have already enabled services for Unix on your active directory server and that the users that would be logging in to CentOS have their Unix tab (on ad user and computers) populated with values. The Authentication methods outlined here use LDAP and Kerberos. LDAP brings the UID/GID information (from the Unix tab in ad) for the user, and Kerberos provides for username/password authentication piece. With the default insta...

First of all, if you're going to have to use source control, get something FOSS - like git, or subversion, or mercurial, etc. Here's a great list on wikipedia.org Otherwise, if you're one those poor bastards that are tasked(like me) with installing the less-than-FOSS IBM Rational Clearcase (c) (version 7.1.1) on the CentOS 5.8 GNU/Linux machine, you've come to the right place for some notes on a real installation. Basically, IBM Clearcase does not include support for CentOS. To make things worse - the IBM installer will actually fail the install for "unsupported operating system" when installing on the non-supported operating system. As to why the IBM installer doesn't have the option to "try anyway" is beyond me, but since it doesn't, we will have to resort to other means. Luckily, it is rather easy to workaround the "unsupported operating system" problem. To install Clearcase 7.1.1.1 on CentOS 5.8, we simply have to trick...

After some quick searching and not finding the answer, I decided to write this up for my own reference. My original inquiry was how do I form a double-bracketed if branch statement, using "=~" to check a variable against a regular expression for upper OR lower case of a specific search string in bash. After some working it out, I think I got it. See below. For instance, in the example script below, the user is asked to answer yes or no, the value entered is then checked to "loosely" match a predefined value. In this case, yes/y (with any combination of case) will match the Regular Expression. This example points out how to formulate your bracketed regular expression to match any variations in case (or even a single character answer, e.g., y OR n). There are differences with the bracketed use of regular expressions compared to how grep uses them, I'm finding. Like, notice in the experimental script below, how single quotes are not used in the bracketed ...

Here's my geeky tip for updating your /etc/apt/sources.list on Ubuntu GNU/Linux. This tip is especially useful around April/October when the new Ubuntu releases are freed into the wild and the main servers are very busy. I know what you're saying: This can easily be done from the  Ubuntu Software Center via the edit > sources menu. Yes, this is true, but now that's not a very geeky (or terminal-fast) thing to do, now is it? Besides, I like it better when I can initiate the sources update myself with sudo apt-get update, vs. having the software centre do it on exit. To change your sources.list package server setting from the command line. 1.) Open the Terminal. Simply hit CTRL+ALT+T. 2.) Run this command to update your sources.list file: sudo sed -i.backup 's/us.archive.ubuntu.com/mirror.anl.gov/g' /etc/apt/sources.list 3.) Run this command to see if your change took effect (you should see mirror.pnl.gov instead of us.archive.ubuntu.com on upda...