Fonts Galore

Download Windows Vista K with SP2 integrated

2013-06-28T12:02:00.004-10:00

Windows Vista service pack 2 provides many security fixes and brings performance improvements to the good, old Windows Vista operating system. Download the ISO file using the magnet links below:

Windows 7 Boot Floppy For OEM Activation

2013-04-10T20:26:00.000-10:00

Although floppy diskettes are now obsolete and has become a thing of the past, they can be quite useful when Windows 7 or Windows Vista need to be activated. Floppy diskettes can only hold 1.44 MB of data, but that's enough for holding tools necessary for Windows activation. The floppy will contain MS-DOS system files, GRUB4DOS and tools to soft-mod the BIOS. Unfortunately, new and recent computers don't have floppy drives. Still, we can work around without a floppy if we use a USB flash drive or a bootloader, such as syslinux. Get the floppy image here.

win7boot.flp

The bootable floppy runs a small program that artificially inserts OEM SLIC signature into BIOS for the purpose of Windows activation before booting into Windows. There are 3 utilities included in the floppy.

loadslic.exe
softmod.exe
grub.exe

Loadslic and softmod do the same job of loading SLIC into BIOS. Softmod loads a file named SLIC.BIN into BIOS, but loadslic contains a SLIC code in itself. If you want to change the OEM SLIC loaded by loadslic, you have to hack the loadslic binary with a hex editor. The AUTOEXEC.BAT file by default runs softmod, but you can edit AUTOEXEC.BAT to have it run loadslic. The following is AUTOEXEC.BAT contents:

@ECHO OFF
SOFTMOD
GRUB

Get the SLIC file for your computer and save it as SLIC.BIN. Then, create an empty file named WIN7 in C:\BOOT folder. This file is used to tell GRUB which partition you want to boot. The following is MENU.LST contents that Grub uses to find and boot Windows.

timeout 0
default 0
fallback 0
hiddenmenu

title Windows 7
find --set-root /boot/win7
chainloader /bootmgr

Finally, write the floppy image to a floppy with Winimage and restart the computer. If you don't have a floppy, use another bootloader, such as syslinux, to boot from the floppy image. Once you get into Windows, use slmgr to activate Windows.

slmgr -ilc oemcert.xrm-ms
slmgr -ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

Install GRUB4DOS and Use loadslic command to Activate Windows 7/Vista and Server 2008/2011

2013-04-10T13:55:00.001-10:00

One of the activation methods available for activating Windows is by using the mechanism called “System Locked Pre-installation” (also known as SLP).

This method is widely used on computers and hardware sold by OEM manufacturers. Microsoft has come up with this scheme to allow hardware vendors to mass-produce and sell computers with Windows pre-installed. Computers that are activated using SLP method each have a vendor-specific signature embedded in the BIOS, called SLIC (software licensing description table).

To use the SLP method, the computer must have a special BIOS that has OEM SLIC signature. The SLIC signature is unique for each OEM computer-manufacturer. You may be tempted to flash the BIOS with a SLP-enabled BIOS, but it is not safe and may break the computer system or make it unbootable. There are safer alternatives, and the most widely used artificial SLP activation method is by using a special version of GRUB4DOS patched with loadslic command. The patched GRUB4DOS is able to allow SLP activation for Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2011 and Windows Server 2008 (available here).

OpenLoader.rar

First, use bootlace.com under DOS to install GRLDR bootstrap code to MBR. Alternatively, you can use install-mbr command under Linux to install generic MBR code to MBR. The reason for doing this is because the MBR code installed by Windows doesn't allow booting from non-Microsoft bootloader.

Then, with 7-zip (or WinRar or Winzip), copy the SCRIPTS folder from inside the OpenLoader.rar package to C:\Windows\Setup. Right-click on GRUB.CMD, and run it as Administrator. Upon reboot, a standard Grub4Dos menu is displayed with boot options. In the menu, you can choose one of several SLIC codes from major computer vendors. After choosing one and booting Windows with software-modified OEM SLIC BIOS, you should be able to activate Windows by using the slmgr commands like this.

slmgr -ilc oemcert.xrm-ms
slmgr -ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

Using the slmgr script requires the Administrator privilege. Open the Command Prompt (cmd.exe) as Administrator and type the above commands. Replace oemcert.xrm-ms with the actual digital certificate for the hardware vendor listed in your BIOS. And type the actual 25-digit OEM key in place of XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX.

Activate Windows 7, Windows 8, Office 2010 and Office 2013 with KMS Nano

2013-04-06T10:45:00.000-10:00

KMS Nano or KMSnano is a little KMS activation tool that works inside a Qemu virtual machine. It can be used to activate the following Microsoft products.

Windows Vista Professional and Windows Vista Enterprise
Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise
Windows 8 Pro and Windows 8 Enterprise
Microsoft Office 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010
Microsoft Office 2013, Visio 2013 and Project 2013

KMS Nano can be found in a few places on the Internet. Try the following locations.

heldigard latest KMS releases 17-12-2012
LaDrunkv6.zip
This package also includes Qemu.
LaDrunkv6.zip
LaSmartv5.2.zip
This package does not include Qemu, therefore it is very small in size.

윈도 7 서비스 팩 1 한국어 통합판

2013-04-05T09:08:00.000-10:00

최근 업데이트된 윈도 7 서비스 팩 1 한국어 버전을 모두 모아 하나의 DVD 디스크로 만든 겁니다. 설치 디스크 하나로 모든 버전 설치가 가능한 윈도 7 서비스 팩 1 한국어 통합판 ISO 토렌트입니다. 많이 공유하시고 시드 유지 바랍니다.

torrent 받기: windows_7_sp1_11in1_korean.torrent
magnet 링크: magnet:?xt=urn:btih:540925E417DC52E9E3838BCD7B5AA7C3C4779AA9

포함된 버전:

윈도 7 STARTER K (32 비트)
윈도 7 HOME BASIC K (32 비트)
윈도 7 HOME PREMIUM K (32 비트)
윈도 7 PROFESSIONAL K (32 비트)
윈도 7 ULTIMATE K (32 비트)
윈도 7 ENTERPRISE K (32 비트)
윈도 7 HOME BASIC K (64 비트)
윈도 7 HOME PREMIUM K (64 비트)
윈도 7 PROFESSIONAL K (64 비트)
윈도 7 ULTIMATE K (64 비트)
윈도 7 ENTERPRISE K (64 비트)

All Editions of Korean Windows 7 SP1 including Enterprise and Professional

2013-04-04T16:03:00.000-10:00

Korean editions of Windows 7 are noted for having K attached to their names. For example, there are Windows 7 Professional K and Windows 7 Ultimate K for advanced Korean users. If you are a Korean speaker or do business in Korean, you may want to install and use Korean Windows. You can use aria2, transmission-cli and sancho to download Korean Windows 7. For example, the aria2 command to download Windows 7 K editions would be:

aria2c "magnet:?xt=urn:btih:H3K37RU7JM42WZZZBAPDMCPTQE3VHUXA"

The magnet link (inside the quote) will let you download both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 7 Korean editions, including Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise.

March Sales going on at FocalPrice.com

2013-03-31T02:20:00.000-10:00

The online global electronics retailer, FocalPrice is having March sales promotion with 5 new coupons! These coupons are valid from March 1 through March 31.

7% off Over $50 Site Wide coupon: AFF7OFF
Valid: Mar.01 to Mar.31, 2013, Free Shipping at Focalprice.com

Save $15 Over $120 Tablet PC coupon: AFFCE15
Valid: Mar.01 to Mar.31, 2013, Free Shipping at Focalprice.com

10% off Home Office coupon: AFFHO10
Valid: Mar.01 to Mar.31, 2013, Free Shipping at Focalprice.com

10% off Apple Accessoriess coupon: AFFA10
Valid: Mar.01 to Mar.31, 2013, Free Shipping at Focalprice.com

15% off Computers Networking coupon: AFFCN15
Valid: Mar.01 to Mar.31, 2013, Free Shipping at Focalprice.com

Up to 26% off Patricks Day
Ends on Mar.20, 2013, Free Shipping at Focalprice.com

There are lots of things on FocalPrice that you can buy with these coupons. Just take your time and browse the products there.

Download Microsoft Office 2013

2013-03-01T20:58:00.000-10:00

Microsoft Office 2013 is out with new looks and features. This latest release of Microsoft Office features a flat and square design and integrates the free SkyDrive cloud storage service from Microsoft. Office 2013 is a trialware, meaning that you can try it for 30 days until you purchase a license key from Microsoft. Please be aware that Microsoft Office 2013 only supports Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 2008 R2 and any later versions of Windows, so it won't run on Windows XP or Windows Vista.

If you want to download, install and try Microsoft Office 2013, there are downloadable ISO copies of Corporate Volume License editions of Microsoft Office 2013 available on bittorrent peer-to-peer file-sharing network. You can use any bittorrent application, but aria2 or transmission is recommended. In the following examples, transmission-cli can be used instead of aria2c.

To download English Volume License edition of Office Professional Plus 2013, type the following command on Command Prompt. This torrent contains both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Microsoft Office 2013.

aria2c "magnet:?xt=urn:btih:N4CRYICBV3R2JO5CKFNWCVJ76FXKJLFB"

To download X86 Volume English edition of Microsoft Visio Professional 2013, type the following command on Command Prompt. A torrent is also available here.

aria2c "magnet:?xt=urn:btih:BVEARE7CO2PTBJXLBWVOHWAPVWQBENQ2"

To download X64 Volume English edition of Microsoft Visio Professional 2013, type the following command on Command Prompt. A torrent is also available here.

aria2c "magnet:?xt=urn:btih:Q37EIBGSJOBBNJG2E2AHOZQHWCC4D5IK"

To download X86 Volume English edition of Microsoft Project Professional 2013, type the following command on Command Prompt. A torrent is also available here.

aria2c "magnet:?xt=urn:btih:LKWVAEFXJNGNYA37ZV6YBAKC3AXNM45U"

To download X64 Volume English edition of Microsoft Project Professional 2013, type the following command on Command Prompt. A torrent is also available here.

aria2c "magnet:?xt=urn:btih:LRYKC5N22ILNC6Y6U7DTLECDGC3VOTMU"

When you use aria2 or transmission, please be patient with the program as it takes time to find the peers. Once you download the ISO, burn the ISO using a free ISO-burning tool, such as CDBurnerXP or ImgBurn. No product key or serial number is necessary when you install any of the above Volume License editions of Microsoft Office, Visio or Project Professional 2013. However, you may use the product for 30 days without restriction. After that, you need to activate the product to continue using it. Read this post to find out how to activate Microsoft Office 2013.

To Activate Office 2013

2013-03-01T00:43:00.001-10:00

Office 2013, also known as Office 15, is the latest release of the flagship office productivity suite from Microsoft. If you installed Office 2013 using a corporate volume license edition DVD and want to activate your copy of the product, you have to use an activation method that may include setting up a KMS server and connecting to the KMS server. However, if installing a KMS server on a separate Windows machine is not a feasible option, there are PC virtualization methods in which you run a KMS server inside a virtual machine (perhaps using QEMU.) There are many packages available on the Internet that help you automate this process.

One such package is KMS nano, and can be downloaded using a bittorrent application, such as aria2 or transmission-cli. The latest version of KMS nano comes in the .zip file called LaNano11.2.zip. Its torrent is available here.

Once you downloaded LaNano11.2.zip, extract and run KMSnano.exe. Remember to disable any antivirus program first. The program will silently start up a QEMU virtual machine with the IP address 127.0.0.3 and run a KMS server inside the virtual machine. It will also try to activate Windows 7, Windows 8, Office 2010 or Office 2012 if any of them is installed on the host computer. In most cases, the program will successfully activate your copy of Windows or Office and quit silently. If you want to monitor KMSnano or check whether it finished or not, press Ctl+Alt+Del at the same time and then open the Task Manager. You'll see a process called qemu-system-i386 running on a huge memory if KMSnano is still running. On a system with a limited amount of memory (less than 1.5 GB), KMSnano may take a long time or even fail.

If KMSnano fails for some reason, you need to take extra steps and do some manual hacking. Use 7-zip to extract the contents of KMSnano into an empty folder, for example, KMSNANO. Then, open a Command Prompt with the Administrator privilege, go to the KMSNANO folder, and type Manual.cmd. KMSELDI will pop up showing the IP address to use (127.0.0.3) and show you a black window in which you see Windows starting. While the virtual machine is running, open another Command Prompt with the administrator privilege. Type the following commands to activate your product.

cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:127.0.0.3
cscript ospp.vbs /act

The ospp.vbs script for Office 2013 can be typically located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15. The keys to type with the inpkey option can be found on this page. Once activation succeeds, the QEMU virtual machine will quit by itself. To check whether your copy of Windows or Office has been activated, you can run the Check_Activation.cmd script inside the KMSNANO folder.

Basala

2013-02-12T21:41:00.000-10:00

Basala is a bold and square font designed by Hajime Kawakami, suitable for technology presentations. It's a well-made font.

filename: basala.ttf
file size: 44,191
version: 03/03/2003
glyph count: 184
foundry: P22 / IHOF

It is included in P22 font pack and can be downloaded with aria2. Type the following command on the Command Prompt to download the Basala font.

aria2c "magnet:?xt=urn:btih:62f249af4e07f536a048870866c34b5b661ec2b1"

System Mechanic 11.5 Professional Video Reviews

2012-12-14T11:54:00.000-10:00

System Mechanic 11.5 Professional has been released and now supports Windows 8. System Mechanic Pro is a total PC performance optimization package with patented technology for maximum speed, power and stability. It fixes frustrating errors, crashes and freezes and also provides triple-certified virus protection and data security. Even better, System Mechanic Pro comes with the Whole Home License that allows you to install on all your home PCs at no extra cost. Here's a nice video review of System Mechanic Pro.

The key take-away points from the review:

“This system repair software scans your computer, diagnoses the problems, and then repairs and restores the components that are causing the problems. Additionally, it optimizes your operating system so that it can work the way it did when it was brand new”
“The large feature set will help you deal with a wide range of problems”
“System Mechanic does all the heavy lifting for you”
“It has a simple interface”
“It has a small foot-print, and it won't drag down your system”
“It works alongside other internet applications such as Internet security suites”
“The license allows you to install it on multiple computers at the same time”
“Most of the features focus on system clutter”
“System Mechanic Professional can detect and repair bad Internet connections, and easily update your PC drivers”
“It can even optimize your solid-state drives which makes them last longer”
“System Mechanic Professional also includes many automatic monitoring tools that will alert you when your system needs attention”
“iolo continually works on improving it, and they send updates all the time”
“Overall we think System Mechanic Professional is one of the best system repair programs out there”
“It's easy to use, and it won't slow your computer down”
“While no system software is perfect, System Mechanic Professional comes awfully close”

You can use the following coupon code that saves you $30 off its retail price.

Coupon Deal: Get System Mechanic 11.5 Pro for $39.95. Save $30! [Coupon code: UPG].
Coupon Code: UPG
Valid From: Now
Valid To: January 31, 2013

Here's another video review of System Mechanic which was aired on CBS Los Angeles.

The promotional video of System Mechanic presents a nice overview of the product:

Customer Testominals for System Mechanic 11

Use the following coupon to save $20 off System Mechanic 11!

Coupon Deal: Get the new System Mechanic 11 for only $29.95 [normally $49.95]. Save $20! Coupon code: ELEVEN
Coupon Code: ELEVEN
Valid From: Now
Valid To: January 31, 2013

what customers are really saying...

"My computer crashed..."

“Recently, my computer crashed…I lost all my data and files…through System Mechanic, I was able to thoroughly repair all of the issues related to the crash and restore my computer to a ’new condition.’ I want to thank the iolo technical team for creating such valuable software to help the non-technical public to manage the delicacies and nuances of computer health and function. I salute you and recommend you to anyone trying to manage their computer health on their own at home.”
Anthony M., Brenham, TX — Customer Since 2011

"I was about to retire my PC..."

“I am absolutely astounded at the comprehensiveness and depth you put into investigating my PC problems. I was about to retire my PC…but on my first use of System Mechanic, I recovered storage space and resolved hundreds of registry issues. My PC is humming again.”
Glen M., Kingston, Jamaica — Customer Since 2009

"I am not very tech savvy..."

“This is the best service because it takes care of all my system issues. iolo’s System Mechanic Pro checks every part of your computer to make sure it is running the most efficiently with simple updates. I am not very tech savvy and I don’t have to be with System Mechanic Pro.”
Bonnie C., Houston, TX — Customer Since 2012

"I installed System Mechanic..."

“I installed System Mechanic right before I was deployed overseas to make sure my laptop…had a reliable system running to communicate back home. My laptop still runs like new, and it hasn’t been necessary to reformat it. Definitely recommend.”
Felix C., Ponce, Puerto Rico — Customer Since 2002

"I have teenage kids..."

“I have teenage kids who constantly go to a lot of the websites for gaming, downloading and sharing. My wife has a photography business and has tons of different photo editing software and video editing software…thanks to System Mechanic, I’m able to keep their computers operating quickly and efficiently with little to no effort. I tried other products and System Mechanic is by far the best. I would and do highly recommend this product to anyone that wants to keep ‘problem’ computers up and running.”
Brian M., New Braunfels, TX — Customer Since 2010

"We had been using Norton..."

“We had been using Norton and it was causing my computer to run extremely slow…So after looking, we went with System Mechanic. WOW!…Now our computer runs fast all the time, which is a must since I work from home. Peace of mind is knowing I am going to be able to sign in on Monday morning without problems.”
Sierra O., Savannah, GA — Customer Since 2012

"Each of my children have it..."

“System Mechanic is a robust suite of utilities and tools that automate the housekeeping necessary to keep Windows up and running smoothly. I have used this product for many years and insist that each of my children have it on their computers whenever they get a new one. Thanks iolo for an excellent software product that is truly a ‘mechanic’—it gets the job done!”
Robert B, Harrisonburg, VA — Customer Since 2003

Alternative to Times New Roman

2012-12-12T01:01:00.000-10:00

Times New Roman is the de-facto standard serif typeface for serious types of documents, including newspaper, business communication, reports and essays. Its popularity may be due to the fact that Times New Roman is included in every release of the Windows operating system, which is the dominant OS for PC's. Times New Roman is so widely used that it has become somewhat boring. So you may want to use a different typeface to give your document a refreshing look and feel. Below are some typefaces that you can try and use in your document instead of Times New Roman.

Times LT

Times LT is Linotype's version of Times family fonts. Personally, I believe that Linotype's Times Roman is aesthetically superior to Monotype's Times New Roman.
- Times LT Roman (lte51254.ttf)
- Times LT Italic (lte51255.ttf)
- Times LT Semibold (lte50867.ttf)
- Times LT Semibold Italic (lte50868.ttf)
- Times LT Bold (lte51256.ttf)
- Times LT Bold Italic (lte51257.ttf)
- Times LT Extra Bold
Dutch 801 BT

Dutch 801 is a fine serif font family from Bitstream. Along with other Dutch releases, such as Dutch 766, Dutch 809, Dutch 811 and Dutch 823, it is a good substitute for Times New Roman.

It's easy to download Dutch 801 fonts if you know how to google using the font filenames (tt0011m_.ttf, tt0012m_.ttf, tt0013m_.ttf, tt0014m_.ttf, tt0549m_.ttf, tt0834m_.ttf, tt0835m_.ttf, tt0971m_.ttf, tt1035m_.ttf, tt1036m_.ttf).
URW++ Nimbus Roman

Nimbus Roman No. 9L is a serif font released by URW++ for free personal and commercial use. It is metrically compatible with Times New Roman. The TrueType edition of Nimbus Roman is available in this package (urwfonts-1.41.tar.bz2).
TeX Gyre Termes

Termes is based on URW++ Nimbus Roman No. 9L and contains international scripts. It is completely free and available here.
Liberation Serif

Liberation fonts are metrically compatible with Monotype's Times New Roman, but have little similarity to Times New Roman. However, it's free.

Installing Free Korean Fonts in Windows

2012-10-17T02:37:00.000-10:00

Are you looking for free, good Korean fonts? You've come to the right place. Here I show you how to install Un fonts designed by a free Korean fonts project.

First, download the fonts from one of the links here. You may optionally choose to download additional fonts here.

Extract the fonts from the Debian package(s) with PeaZip or TugZip or any other tool.

Take the necessary steps to install the Un Korean truetype fonts in Windows.

Share your Linux desktop with x11vnc

2012-10-16T16:05:00.000-10:00

x11vnc is a pretty useful program that you can use to share your Linux desktop with someone far away. To start x11vnc while using X11 windows, issue the following command:

x11vnc -display :0

This command will work in most cases, assuming there is only one instance of X11 Windows server running. However, the display number could be different. To be sure, type the following command:

xdpyinfo | head

x11vnc will output a lot of information, including the port number it runs on:

The VNC desktop is:      bootcd:2
PORT=5902

Subtracting 5900 from the port number (5902), you'll get the display number (2). Use this number to connect to your desktop remotely. I use gvncviewer.

gvncviewer 192.168.200.83:2

Administrator To Monitor Someone's Desktop with X11VNC

Let's assume that you are a system administrator with root privilege and want to monitor a user's X11 Windows desktop. You can't just run “x11vnc -display :0” because you are not the user currently using display :0. In that case, you need access to the X11 Windows' xauth file which is located at one of the following locations:

/var/lib/gdm
/var/lib/kdm
/var/lib/xdm/authdir/authfiles
/home/USER/.Xauthority

Once you locate the xauth file associated with the user's X11 desktop, you can use x11vnc to monitor his desktop activity.

x11vnc -display :0 -auth /var/lib/gdm/\:0.Xauth

Then, on your desktop as administrator, connect to the user's desktop with a vnc client.

gvncviewer 192.168.200.83:2

x11vnc with SSL

x11vnc supports various connection schemes, including SSL. On Debian and Ubuntu, type the following command to create a SSL certificate for use with x11vnc.

cat /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem > /tmp/x11vnc.pem

Then, start x11vnc with -ssl option to run x11vnc in secure mode.

x11vnc -display :0 -auth /var/lib/gdm/\:0.Xauth -ssl /tmp/x11vnc.pem

ssvnc and gvncviewer can be used to connect to x11vnc via SSL connection. The following example command starts x11vnc in anonymous SSL mode that doesn't require X509 exchange.

x11vnc -display :0 -xauth /var/lib/xdm/authdir/authfiles/A\:0-R2x5Db -xkb -nopw -nc_cr -ssl /tmp/x11vnc.pem -vencrypt newdh:nox509:support

Setting Up XDM on Debian/Ubuntu Linux

2012-10-16T11:09:00.000-10:00

XDM, short for X Display Manager, is my favorite login manager for its simplicity. Sure, gdm and kdm are visually pleasant, but why do I have to install all the dependencies if xdm provides the same functionality as them? After all, xdm can launch GNOME and KDE for you — you just need to fix your ~/.xsession file. This post will serve as my notes on installation, configuration and customization of xdm.

All configuration of xdm, except for distribution-specific settings, is done by modifying the files in the /etc/X11/xdm directory. For now, I'll just go over what I have in my xdm files.

/etc/X11/xdm/Xaccess

This file is used to tell xdm who can use xdm. Therefore, if you are happy to let anyone access the X-Windows desktop locally or remotely, then you would just put an asterisk (*) in Xaccess as I did.

If you are very keen on security, you would put only the following in Xaccess. This only allows local users to have access to xdm.

localhost
127.0.0.1

However, even if Xaccess is set up as above, remote xdm login may still be possible with SSH X11 forwarding.

/etc/X11/xdm/Xresources

Xresources file is used to fine-tune the behavior and appearance of XDM. Here is what I put in my Xresources file:

Xcursor.theme: redglass

xlogin*login.translations: #override \
 Ctrl<Key>R: abort-display()\n\
 <Key>F1: set-session-argument(failsafe) finish-field()\n\
 <Key>Delete: delete-character()\n\
 <Key>Left: move-backward-character()\n\
 <Key>Right: move-forward-character()\n\
 <Key>Home: move-to-begining()\n\
 <Key>End: move-to-end()\n\
 Ctrl<Key>KP_Enter: set-session-argument(failsafe) finish-field()\n\
 <Key>KP_Enter: set-session-argument() finish-field()\n\
 Ctrl<Key>Return: set-session-argument(failsafe) finish-field()\n\
 <Key>Return: set-session-argument() finish-field()

xlogin*greeting: Welcome to CLIENTHOST
xlogin*namePrompt: Login:\040
xlogin*passwdPrompt: Password:\040
xlogin*fail: Login incorrect

xlogin*greetFace: Serif-21:bold:italic
xlogin*face: Sans-15
xlogin*promptFace: Sans-15:bold
xlogin*failFace: Sans-16:bold

xlogin*geometry: 600x400
xlogin*borderWidth: 1
xlogin*frameWidth: 5
xlogin*innerFramesWidth: 2
xlogin*shdColor: grey30
xlogin*hiColor: grey90
xlogin*background: grey
xlogin*greetColor: Blue3
xlogin*failColor: red
*Foreground: black
*Background: #fffff0

xlogin*logoFileName: /usr/share/X11/xdm/pixmaps/penguin_doll_200x300.xpm
xlogin*useShape: true
xlogin*logoPadding: 10

I think the settings are self-explanatory. This is how xdm would look with the above settings. The penguin image was taken from here.

/etc/X11/xdm/Xresources

The Xresources file allows you to specify how many X servers to run and their command arguments. In my case, I run Xorg and Xvfb. Xorg is the standard X server, and Xvfb is a server that runs totally in memory without depending on the video hardware. To see what's going on with Xvfb, I use x11vnc and gvncviewer.

# Default X.org server
:0 local /usr/bin/Xorg :0 vt7 -br -dpi 96 -nolisten TCP

:1 local /usr/local/bin/Xvfb :1 -dpi 96 -screen 0 1024x768x16

/etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup

Xsetup allows you to write any command to run when xdm displays the login screen. In my case, I run gm to set up the background image and run x11vnc to remotely access Xvfb via VNC.

#!/bin/sh
#
# This script is run as root before showing login widget.

gm display -window root /usr/share/wallpapers/Board_Tile_Gray.jpg
xkbcomp -dflts -I/usr/share/X11/xkb /etc/X11/xkb/server-0.xkm $DISPLAY

PID_XVFB=$(pidof Xvfb)
PID_X11VNC=$(pidof x11vnc)
if [ -n "$PID_XVFB" -a -z "$PID_X11VNC" ]; then
  x11vnc -display :1 -bg -xkb -nopw -nc_cr -forever -listen localhost -auth $(find /var/lib/xdm/authdir/authfiles -name \*:1\*) > /var/log/x11vnc.log 2>&1
fi

/etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config

In xdm-config, there is only one line that I bother to change. This line enables remote xdm logins.

! SECURITY: do not listen for XDMCP or Chooser requests
! Comment out this line if you want to manage X terminals with xdm
DisplayManager.requestPort:     177

/etc/X11/xdm/xdm-options

I think xdm-options is Debian specific. I don't think I made any change in this file.

# configuration options for xdm
# See xdm.options(5) for an explanation of the available options.

no-ignore-nologin
no-restart-on-upgrade
no-start-on-install
use-sessreg

Resetting XDM

There are other files in /etc/X11/xdm directory that you can safely leave as is. After you make any change with the files, have xdm reread the config files.

kill -1 $(pidof xdm)

If you want to force xdm to kill all running sessions and restart, enter the following command.

/etc/init.d/xdm restart

That's all I have to write about xdm for now. In summary, xdm is a simple, yet functional login manager that is easy to set up.

Linux: Transmitting a Bunch of Files using socat

2012-10-15T02:26:00.000-10:00

socat is a nifty, versatile tool for establishing a secure data channel between two computers. To install socat on Debian, use apt-get:

apt-get install socat

I was trying to use socat and tar to duplicate the contents of an entire filesystem securely between two computers. In this case, I copied all files in partition /dev/sda5 on box A to partition /dev/sdb6 on box B (IP 192.168.200.83).

Using the SCTP protocol

This method does not involve encryption, so it is relatively simple to follow.

First, I opened a terminal at box B (192.168.200.83) and changed the current directory to /mnt/sdb6 where I will unpack the incoming stream of files.
```
cd /mnt/sdb6
```
Then, I typed the following command to have socat establish a SCTP connection listening on port 7749. tar would be expecting to receive incoming files.
```
socat EXEC:"tar xzf -" SCTP4-LISTEN:7749
```
Then, I opened a terminal at box A. Here I would transmit a bunch of files to box B (192.168.200.83). I changed directory to /mnt/sda5 containing files to send.
```
cd /mnt/sda5
```
Then, I typed the following command to transmit all the files in the current directory.
```
socat EXEC:"tar czf - ." SCTP4-CONNECT:192.168.200.83:7749
```

Using the SSL connection

This method involves encrypted connection and requires SSL certicates on both sides of the link. Read this post to learn how to create self-signed SSL certificates if you don't already have one.

Debian and Ubuntu automatically create a local SSL certificate at /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem. Both parties of an SSL connection — box A and box B — should exchange each other's ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem in order to have SSL connections between them.

On box B, I typed the following command to run socat in SSL listening mode at port 7749.

cd /mnt/sdb6
socat EXEC:"tar xzf -" OPENSSL-LISTEN:7749,reuseaddr,cert=/etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem,key=/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key,cafile=box-A.pem

On box A, I typed the following command to run socat in SSL mode while running tar to pack all the files and send them through the pipeline.

cd /mnt/sda5
socat EXEC:"tar czf - ." OPENSSL:192.168.200.83:7749,cert=/etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem,key=/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key,cafile=box-B.pem

Thus I have duplicated the whole directory tree from Box A to Box B. Using socat and tar, I was able to mirror a filesystem over the network. As shown above, socat alone can be a good substitute in situations where ssh, scp and/or netcat are needed. socat has many other features I have yet to explore.

How to Extract Boot Images from Acronis Bootable CD

2012-10-11T21:45:00.000-10:00

Acronis Backup and Restore is a great software to purchase for any business that wants to protect and preserve their digital assets from natural or accidental loss. After you purchase Acronis software and deploy it on your computers, you have a chance to create a bootable CD for emergency purpose. The Acronis boot CD will prove useful when you need to restore backups on a compromised or corrupted system.

However, you may want to incorporate Acronis software into your own custom boot CD. The custom CD can be a live Linux CD or live Windows CD. In that case, your ideal CD will have a menu of choices to run Acronis in addition to booting Linux or Windows. To create such a disc, you need to extract boot images from Acronis Boot CD. This post illustrates the steps needed to creat a custom CD containing Acronis software.

Bring your Acronis emergency CD and use the following command to create an ISO file. This assumes that you are using Linux. On Windows, you can use the readom program from my cdrkit build.
```
readom dev=/dev/sr0 f=ABR11.5AWUR_en-US.iso speed=8 retries=16 -nocorr -noerror
```
Acronis uses a special bootloader called BootWiz. To extract the boot image, you need to find the location of area that begins with BOOTWIZ0 string inside the ISO file. This is a hit-or-miss process. hexedit can be used here.
```
hexedit ABR11.5AWUR_en-US.iso
```
In hexedit, press Ctrl+S, then enter 424F4F5457495A30, which translates to BOOTWIZ0. Hit Enter.
Hexedit will find the given string (BOOTWIZ0). Note the address of the line
(0x1A000). The address (0x1A000) is equivalent to 106496 in decimal, and 208 sectors. After you write down the address, quit Hexedit by pressing Ctrl+C.

Use dd to extract the FAT filesystem image.

dd if=ABR11.5AWUR_en-US.iso of=abr11.bin skip=208

Use WinImage to convert the image file (abr11.bin) — actually a FAT filesystem image — to a hard disk image format with MBR.

Normally, you can just put the hard disk image on the CD and boot it using isolinux & memdisk.
```
LABEL abr11
MENU LABEL Acronis Backup & Restore 11
KERNEL memdisk
INITRD abr11.bin
```
Alternatively, you can mount the image file (abr11.bin) and extract only the kernel and initramfs.
```
mount -t msdos -o loop,ro abr11.bin /mnt
cd /mnt
cp dat*.dat /boot
```
The following is an example boot entry for isolinux that starts 64-bit Acronis Backup & Restore.
```
LABEL abr11x
MENU LABEL Acronis Backup & Restore 11 (64-bit)
KERNEL dat5.dat
INITRD dat4.dat
APPEND video=vesa:mtrr vga=0x317 product=bootagent media_for_windows quiet
```
The kernel parameters to put as APPEND string can be taken from the efi/boot/bootx64.xml.

Aria2 shell script and batch file

2012-10-11T00:17:00.000-10:00

I wrote a BASH shell script and a DOS batch file that can be used to download files using aria2 — Aria2 is a command-line tool for downloading files. The script and the batch file take 2 arguments; the first one is for the bittorrent hash in 40-digit hexadecimal number and the second one is for arbitrary one-word description.

aria2.bat can be used on Windows, and aria2.sh can be used on Linux and *BSD. Make sure that aria2c is in PATH. For example, if you want to download an ISO file for the OpenSUSE DVD, you would type something like:

aria2.bat 198472f5217d843cceb1a4c82233f009ed6608af opensuse-dvd-586

To find the value of a bittorrent hash (that long hex number), you can cut it from a magnet link you find on a Web site — Magnet links allow you to download actual files without first having to download bittorrent files (*.torrent). When you see a magnet sign, right-click on it to display the shortcut menu and select Copy Link Location.

Then, paste it somewhere, for example, inside the URL address bar. The hash value comes after the btih: string.

After you find the bittorrent hash, use it as the first argument to the script and make up anything for the second argument, as shown in the example above.

isolinux.cfg for a live CD

2012-10-09T16:34:00.000-10:00

isolinux is a bootloader included in the syslinux package and is used to boot a CD or DVD. isolinux is one of several popular bootloaders used to create a bootable CD for open-source operating systems, including Linux and FreeDOS. Another bootloader is GRUB, which I rarely use except for booting Windows 7 with BIOS emulation.

To create a bootable CD with isolinux, just copy the file isolinux.bin to a folder that will hold CD contents for ISO mastering. On Debian or Ubuntu, the file is located at the /usr/lib/syslinux folder.

A file named isolinux.cfg needs to be created in order to provide a menu or boot entries. A sample isolinux.cfg is shown below. It makes use of vesamenu.c32 which helps display a nice graphical menu with a background picture. Vesamenu.c32 is also located in /usr/lib/syslinux and needs to be copied too.

# isolinux.cfg
# Configuration for ISOLINUX

# Wait for 60 seconds before booting up the default entry.
TIMEOUT 600
F1 help.txt #ff702640

UI vesamenu.c32
MENU RESOLUTION 640 480
MENU BACKGROUND back642.jpg
MENU COLOR border 30;44 #40dfdfdf #00000000 std
MENU COLOR title 1;36;43 #e0fdff49 #804206ef none
MENU COLOR sel 7;37;40 #e0000000 #40ffffff all
MENU COLOR hotsel 1;7;37;40 #e0af0000 #40ffffff all
MENU COLOR disabled 1;30;44 #ffe4de6f #00000000 std
MENU COLOR scrollbar 30;44 #40000000 #e0af0000 std
MENU TITLE Boot Menu
MENU CLEAR

MENU ROWS 14
MENU TABMSGROW 20
MENU CMDLINEROW 20
MENU TIMEOUTROW 22
MENU HELPMSGROW 24
MENU VSHIFT 1

# The default is to boot the first hard drive.
DEFAULT hd0
ONERROR hd1

MENU BEGIN livecd_menu

  MENU TITLE Linux Live CD Menu

  LABEL livecd_heading
  MENU LABEL Boot Linux live CD
  MENU DISABLE

  LABEL livecd_640x480
  MENU LABEL 640x480 screen
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm 
  APPEND root=/dev/sr0 edd=off vmode=640x480

  LABEL livecd_800x600
  MENU LABEL 800x600 screen
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm
  APPEND root=/dev/sr0 edd=off vmode=800x600

  LABEL livecd_1024x768
  MENU LABEL 1024x768 screen
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm
  APPEND root=/dev/sr0 edd=off vmode=1024x768

  MENU SEPARATOR

  LABEL livecd_console_heading
  MENU LABEL Boot Linux live CD into text console
  MENU DISABLE

  LABEL livecd_console
  MENU LABEL text-mode console
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm
  APPEND root=/dev/sr0 nox

  LABEL livecd_console_old
  MENU LABEL text-mode console for an old computer
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm
  APPEND root=/dev/sr0 acpi=off irqpoll nox

  MENU SEPARATOR

  LABEL exit0
  MENU LABEL Return to the main menu.
  MENU EXIT

MENU END

MENU BEGIN cdram_menu

  MENU TITLE Linux on RAMdisk Menu

  LABEL cdram_heading
  MENU LABEL Boot Linux on RAMdisk
  MENU DISABLE

  LABEL cdram_640x480
  MENU LABEL 640x480 screen
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm 
  APPEND boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 edd=off vmode=640x480

  LABEL cdram_800x600
  MENU LABEL 800x600 screen
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm
  APPEND boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 edd=off vmode=800x600

  LABEL cdram_1024x768
  MENU LABEL 1024x768 screen
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm
  APPEND boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 edd=off vmode=1024x768

  MENU SEPARATOR

  LABEL cdram_console_heading
  MENU LABEL Boot Linux RAMdisk into text console
  MENU DISABLE

  LABEL cdram_console
  MENU LABEL text-mode console
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm
  APPEND boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 nox

  LABEL cdram_console_old
  MENU LABEL text-mode console for an old computer
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm
  APPEND boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 acpi=off irqpoll nox

  MENU SEPARATOR

  LABEL exit1
  MENU LABEL Return to the main menu.
  MENU EXIT

MENU END

LABEL hd0
  MENU LABEL First Hard Drive
  LOCALBOOT 0x80

LABEL hd1
  MENU LABEL Second Hard Drive
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd1 swap

MENU BEGIN hd0_menu

  MENU TITLE Partition in First Hard Drive

  LABEL hd0_part1
  MENU LABEL 1st partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 1

  LABEL hd0_part2
  MENU LABEL 2nd partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 2

  LABEL hd0_part3
  MENU LABEL 3rd partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 3

  LABEL hd0_part4
  MENU LABEL 4th partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 4

  LABEL hd0_part5
  MENU LABEL 5th partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 5

  LABEL hd0_part6
  MENU LABEL 6th partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 6

  LABEL hd0_part7
  MENU LABEL 7th partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 7

  LABEL hd0_part8
  MENU LABEL 8th partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 8

  LABEL hd0_part9
  MENU LABEL 9th partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 9

  LABEL hd0_part10
  MENU LABEL 10th partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 10

  MENU SEPARATOR

  LABEL exit3
  MENU LABEL Return to the main menu
  MENU EXIT

MENU END

LABEL fd0
  MENU LABEL Floppy Drive
  LOCALBOOT 0x00

LABEL next
  MENU LABEL Next in boot sequence
  LOCALBOOT -1

LABEL memtest
  MENU LABEL Test your computer memory
  LINUX memtest.bin
  TEXT HELP
  Run Memtest86 to test your computer memory
  ENDTEXT

LABEL help
  MENU LABEL Help
  MENU HELP help.txt #ff702640

The example above is one that I use for my live CD, so some settings are specific to my situation. Thus, KERNEL and APPEND settings may have to be adapted for other users. However, all the keywords shown above is standard and acceptable.

Linux: Building X.org Kdrive Server Xfbdev on Debian Wheezy

2012-10-08T11:11:00.000-10:00

Kdrive is a minimal X11 server that runs as a single executable with little dependencies. I use Kdrive for my Web-only/Rescue Linux systems. Before compiling Kdrive, I installed the following packages on my box running Debian Sid — which will be eventually rolled into Wheezy release:

bison

g++-4.7

libexpat1-dev

libpciaccess-dev

libpixman-1-dev

libssl-dev

libudev-dev
libxdamage-dev

libxfont-dev

libxi-dev

libxkbfile-dev

libxmu-dev

libxxf86vm-dev

make

pkg-config

x11proto-bigreqs-dev

x11proto-composite-dev

x11proto-randr-dev

x11proto-render-dev

x11proto-resource-dev

x11proto-scrnsaver-dev

x11proto-video-dev

x11proto-xcmisc-dev

x11proto-xf86dga-dev

x11proto-xinerama-dev

xkb-data

Installing X Protocol Headers

The current RandR protocol headers from Debian didn't meet the required version, so I had to download the latest one from freedesktop.org. I installed randrproto like this.

tar xjvf randrproto-1.4.0.tar.bz2
cd randrproto-1.4.0
./configure --prefix=/usr
make install

Compiling Xfbdev

I got the latest X.org release from freedesktop.org. The following commands will build Xfbdev:

tar xjf xorg-server_1.13.0.tar.bz2

cd xorg-server-1.13.0/

./configure --prefix=/usr --disable-xorg --enable-kdrive --enable-kdrive-evdev --enable-config-udev --disable-aiglx --disable-glx --disable-dri --disable-dri2 --disable-drm --disable-record --with-xkb-path=/usr/share/X11/xkb --with-xkb-output=/var/lib/xkb --with-xkb-bin-directory=/usr/bin --with-default-xkb-rules=xorg --with-default-xkb-model=pc105 --with-default-xkb-layout=us

make

make install

Installed Files

The following files are installed after successfully building a Kdrive server.

/usr/bin/Xfbdev

/usr/bin/Xnest

/usr/bin/Xvfb

/usr/lib/xorg/protocol.txt

/usr/share/man/man1/Xnest.1

/usr/share/man/man1/Xserver.1

/usr/share/man/man1/Xvfb.1

/var/lib/xkb/README.compiled

To Use Xfbdev

An executable file Xfbdev will be created in /usr/bin. To be able to use the Xfbdev server, framebuffer video must be enabled either in the kernel or as a module. If CONFIG_FB_VESA option was enabled in the kernel, you can use the syslinux bootloader in the following way to boot Linux into a framebuffer video mode:

LABEL minimal
KERNEL vmlinuz-2.6.31.5
INITRD initramfs.lzma
APPEND vga=0x314 video=vesafb:mtrr

Once the framebuffer video has been activated, Xfbdev can be started in the following way:

Xfbdev :0 vt7 dpms -ac -br +bs -dpi 96 -mouse evdev,5,device=/dev/input/event2 -2button -keybd evdev,,device=/dev/input/event3 -fp /usr/local/share/fonts,/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu -nolisten TCP

Download my X.org build 1.13.0

Here you can obtain my compiled binaries Xfbdev, Xnest and Xvfb:

Xfbdev

Xnest
Xvfb

My Live CD based on Debian Linux Sid

2012-10-06T17:54:00.000-10:00

I created a Live CD from my Debian Linux installation. It is based on the unstable version (Sid). However, the live CD still lacks the capability to automatically configure X-Windows and the network, and uses IceWM for minimalist desktop. It can be downloaded from Google Drive. This Live CD has many uses, such as:

To troubleshoot and fix computer problems
To create backups and restore them
To partition a hard drive before installing Windows or Linux
To set up GRUB bootloader or enter boot commands
To install Debian, Ubuntu or Fedora
To access a Windows partition when it is unbootable
To survey and diagnose wireless and wired networks
To enjoy the Internet with the Web, IM, IRC and VoIP
To run a simple FTP or HTTP server
To participate in peer-to-peer networks
To do basic word processing and spreadsheet
To listen to music or watch movies
To rip CD's and DVD's

The snapshot above shows idesk icons on the desktop. Idesk is a neat application that displays icons on the desktop for you to quickly launch. Currently, I use IceWM instead of GNOME or KDE desktop to save space on the CD. So idesk is used to provide desktop icons for IceWM.

The snapshot above shows mlterm running. mlterm is my favorite terminal application. It allows me to use many languages.

Gparted is a cool application to have on a live CD. It lets you divide the hard drive into many partitions so you can run multiple operating systems.

IceWeasel is rebranded Firefox from Debian. Sorry, Chrome is not included.

LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice.org suite. I use it to create documents or read Microsoft Office documents.

Specifying the locale at boot time

To see your own language with the live CD, select an entry from the menu, click Tab and append LANG= option to the command line. For example, if you speak French, append LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8.

Using GraphicsMagick to Set the Background

2012-10-05T23:44:00.000-10:00

GraphicsMagick is a powerful graphics tool that can be used to set the background on Linux. I've been using xsetbg from the xloadimage package to set X-Windows background. However, I realized that GraphicsMagick can replace xloadimage and netpbm that I've used for setting background and converting images.

So far I just learned a few tricks for setting background with GraphicsMagick. To tile an image on the background, type a command like this:

gm display -window root background.jpg

To fill the background with an image smaller than the screen size, use the -geometry option:

gm display -window root -geometry 1440x960 Background.jpg

You can also use the percentage (%) sign to zoom in or out the image and place it on the background.

gm display -window root -geometry 300x200% background.jpg

You can add the -gamma option to darken or brighten the image. If gamma is less than 1, the output image will be darker. If gamma is greater than 1, the image will be brighter.

gm display -window root -gamma 0.5 BG_pix.jpg

There are many more options that you can use with GraphicsMagick, for example, -crop, -dither, -trim etc. Read the manual page of GraphicsMagick and documentation for further information.

Disk Cloning / Imaging over Network with SSH, Netcat, DD and XZ

2012-10-04T15:27:00.000-10:00

Today we have affordable, ample storage and faster bandwidth to facilitate partition imaging and disk cloning over network. Nowadays, it's common and feasible to take the image of a whole partition for various reasons. Compared to file-based backups using tar, disk imaging provides the following advantages.

The boot sector is preserved so that it's easy to make it bootable after the restore.
Information such as UUID and LABEL is presered, which helps identify the partition in booting and mounting.
Information such as ACL and XATTR is preserved, which helps restrict file access and secure the system.
Every bit in the unused sectors is preserved, which may assist in digital forensics to uncover deleted or hidden information.

There are commercial programs for disk imaging and backup (Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image). However, Linux users can use readily available tools to get things done. For disk cloning/imaging, we can use ssh, netcat, dd and xz. Note that dd will fail on physically damaged disks. For such disks, use ddrescue instead.

For security and compression, we are going to use ssh and xz in this tutorial. If you don't like xz, feel free to substitute xz with gzip, bzip2 or lzop. Also, netcat is used to stream the dd output over the network. On Debian and Ubuntu derivatives, you need the following packages.

bzip2, gzip, lzop, lzma OR xz-utils
dd
netcat
ssh

We are making these assumptions in the following scenarios.

Sending computer S

This computer has IP address 192.168.1.1 and needs to back up partition /dev/sda1.
Sending Port

We'll send using port 5525.
Receiving computer T

This computer has IP address 192.168.1.2 and needs to restore partition /dev/sda2.
Receiving Port

We'll receive at port 7749.

Disk Cloning using dd, xz, netcat and ssh

In this scenario, we will clone a disk partition, simultaneously sending an image of the source partition /dev/sda1 from computer S (192.168.1.1) and restoring it at /dev/sda2 on computer T (192.168.1.2). Make sure that the source partition is not mounted or is mounted read-only. Also, make sure that the target partition size is greater than or equal to the source partition size.

At the sending computer, compress the source partition /dev/sda1 with xz and set up netcat to send it at port 5525:
```
dd if=/dev/sda1 bs=16M | xz | nc -l 5525
```
At the receiving computer, set up a SSH tunnel to the sending computer (192.168.1.1):
```
ssh -f -N -L 7749:127.0.0.1:5525 username@192.168.1.1
```
At the receiving computer, type the following command to receive the partition image and restore it at /dev/sda2:
```
nc 127.0.0.1 7749 | xz -d | dd of=/dev/sda2 bs=16M
```

Alternatively, we could take the following steps to achieve the same thing. However, we start at the receiving computer.

At the receiving computer with the target partition /dev/sda2, type the following command to receive the partition image:
```
nc -l 7749 | xz -d | dd of=/dev/sda2 bs=16M
```
At the sending computer with the source partition /dev/sda1, set up a SSH tunnel to the receiving computer (192.168.1.2):
```
ssh -f -N -L 5525:127.0.0.1:7749 username@192.168.1.2
```
At the sending computer, type the following command to compress the source partition /dev/sda1 and transmit it over the SSH tunnel:
```
dd if=/dev/sda1 bs=16M | xz | nc 127.0.0.1 5525
```
Note that the transfer may take many hours for a large partition.

Disk Imaging using dd, xz, netcat and ssh

In this scenario, we will just send an image of the source partition /dev/sda1 to the receiving computer T (192.168.1.2) without restoring it. Make sure that the source partition is not mounted or is mounted read-only. A question remains whether to compress the image at the sending or receiving computer. The answer depends on which computer is more powerful. For this example, we'll compress at the sending computer (for network bandwidth reason).

At the sending computer, compress the source partition /dev/sda1 with xz and stream it using netcat:
```
dd if=/dev/sda1 bs=16M | xz | nc -l 5525
```
At the receiving computer, set up a SSH tunnel to the sending computer (192.168.1.1):
```
ssh -f -N -L 7749:127.0.0.1:5525 username@192.168.1.1
```
At the receiving computer, type the following command to receive the file:
```
nc 127.0.0.1 7749 > partimg.xz
```

Alternatively, we could take the following steps to achieve the same thing.

At the receiving computer, set up netcat to listen at port 7749 and save the incoming data to a file partimg.xz.
```
nc -l 7749 | dd of=partimg.xz bs=16M
```
At the sending computer, establish a SSH tunnel to the receiving computer (192.168.1.2) first:
```
ssh -f -N -L 5525:192.168.1.2:7749 username@192.168.1.2
```
At the sending computer, type the following command to compress the source partition /dev/sda1 and transmit it over the SSH tunnel:
```
dd if=/dev/sda1 bs=16M | xz | nc 127.0.0.1 5525
```
Note that the transfer may take many hours for a large partiiton.

Alternative Simple Commands for Disk Cloning / Imaging

I don't like these methods for some reason, but here I show the simpler methods where netcat is not needed. For disk cloning, type something like this:

dd if=/dev/sda1 bs=16M | xz | ssh username@192.168.1.2 "xz -d | dd of=/dev/sda2 bs=16M"

Just to send an image file, run a command as follows:

dd if=/dev/sda1 bs=16M | xz | ssh username@192.168.1.2 "dd of=partimg.xz bs=16M"

Bittorrent Info Hash Values for Windows 8 ISO

2012-10-01T00:33:00.000-10:00

Windows 8 ISO files have the following BTIH hash values. Use them with my aria2 script to download Windows 8.

en_windows_8_x86_dvd_915417.iso

C5D92B32277685436DEDE9957B80083D26062C03
en_windows_8_x64_dvd_915440.iso

144C7E2B46103FF84F83A1E6A12D66B740F00CF6

Download Linux Kernel 3.5.4 / 3.6.0

2012-09-30T22:37:00.000-10:00

I am sharing my kernel builds for Linux 3.5.4 and 3.6.0. Hope it works for everyone.

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Bittorrent Info Hash Values for Windows 8 ISO

Download Linux Kernel 3.5.4 / 3.6.0