Friday, December 10, 2010

Samba and guest shares with "security = user"

How to have a guest share on Samba without resorting to the deprecated "security = share" configuration.

This is a regular query on the Samba mailing list. When it comes to "security = share" just say no!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Practice safe and secure SSH !

Some tips to consider when using SSH.

Probably the most ubiquitous piece of software in use is OpenSSH. It is from the developers that also bring us that most secure OS, OpenBSD. We all use it, we all love it, we all depend on it. Please donate to these great projects if you can! And read on for the tips...

Monday, September 13, 2010

Add bootable DOS support to your USB stick

Building on the previous post where we added SystemRescueCD capabilities to our USB stick (please see that post for details and conventions that pertain to this one as well) while still being able to use it for transferring files between various OS, we will now add bootable DOS support so that we can use it for BIOS updates as well as other DOS based tools such as Intel's SSD firmware updater.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Add SystemRescueCD capability to your USB stick

For Linux users: Creating a bootable SystemRescueCD USB stick. The SystemRescueCD is an invaluable resource and should be in every techs toolkit. Kudos and much thanks to the developers!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Ubuntu install hangs on partitioning @43%

Many sites are recommending setting up the partition table on an SSD using:
  • fdisk -H 32 -S 32 /dev/sdx
Unfortunately for a complex partitioning scheme this causes Ubuntu partman to hang during installation (at 43% in my case).

I discovered that:
  • fdisk -H 224 -S 56 /dev/sdx
Works just fine.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Overview for installing Ubuntu via network

Simple overview for installing Ubuntu via network.
  • Ubuntu Server is the OS we will install in this guide.
  • Note: this is just the big picture, other guides can instruct on setting up the various DHCP, DNS, TFTP, and HTTP servers.
  • The main idea is to focus on the fact that once the detail work is done (and most local networks have these setup) there's basically only 3 major steps to net install nirvana.