Recycle Your Computer

Resurrect your old pc

2008-03-22T02:19:00.000-07:00

Recycle your Computer

(internet)

Don't dispose of your old computer

Throwing away a PC really is a waste, re-use or recycling are always preferable options. Usually an old PC still work well but many think that is obsolete and a computer outdated is annoyng and it must be replaced.

We can recycle our computer !!
We can donate our computer !!
We can get new life our PC !!

How can I recycle it ?
What software have i to use ? Operating System ?
Well , Linux breathes new life into old hardware !!!!!

Ok, Ready , GO !!!

Kubuntu export DISPLAY from AIX to KDE

2007-05-03T04:29:00.000-07:00

To execute the X programs from a telnet console of AIX , you have to configure the service kdm on Kubuntu.
The "X" request of AIX to the kde, have need to connect at the ports TCP 6000 and UDP 177, manged from XDMCP.
To enable the incoming request of XDMCP , modify /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc file , sample :

1)
[Xdmcp]
# Whether KDM should listen to incoming XDMCP requests.
# Default is true
Enable=true
# The UDP port on which KDM should listen for XDMCP requests. Do not change.
# Default is 177
#Port=177
......................................

2)# Core config for local displays
[X-:*-Core]
.............................
# Additional arguments for the X-servers for local sessions.
# This string is subject to word splitting.
# Default is ""
#ServerArgsLocal=-nolisten tcp
..................................

Restart the KDE Session with CTRL-ATL-BACK/SPACE and check the listening ports with command netstat -na , sample :

tcp6 0 0 :::6000 :::* LISTEN
udp6 0 0 :::177 :::*

Check the environment variable $DISPLAY , default is DISPLAY=":0.0"
Grant the access of AIX to your Xserver with the command xhost , sample
#[KUB]>xhost +[hostname]
[hostname] being added to access control list

Connect to server AIX :
#[KUB]> telnet [IP_SERVER_AIX]

Configure a environment variable $DISPLAY , sample :
#[AIX]> export DISPLAY=[IP_ADDRESS_KUBUNTU]:0.0

launch the "xterm" program to check the X request to your KDM X Server

#[AIX]>xterm

Install slackware linux in 500 Mega Byte disk space

2007-03-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

Slackware for old pc
We can install the Slackware Linux with only 500 Mb of disk space for several purpose, example for a "Print Server", "Router Services", "File Serer" and other solutions.
The follows steps describe the installation of Slackware 10.0

Download the Slackware 10.0 iso image, only the first CD : link
Burning the iso image and insert the cd in your CDRom
The section of " Installation Help" from the site http://www.slackware.com/install/ describe the steps to intall Slackware Operating System.

Installation Slackware Operating System

Partition your Hard Disk

After the boot computer from the CD, you have to partition your hd with the "cfdisk" utility, type the command "cfdisk" on shell and select yes.

Select "New" to create partiton

Select "Primary" to continue

Press Enter to confirm the size of disk

Select "Bootable" to set your partition

Select "Write" to create the partition

Setup Installation

After partitioning the HD, type the "setup" command on shell to start installation.
On the menu setup select the "TARGET" option to set the root partition :

Select Packages to install

Attention !!! check only A, AP and N series

Network configuration

Type the "netconfig" command on the shell to configure network interface.

Start the service "rc.inet1" to enable network interface and configuration : root@linux#/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 start
With the command "ifconfig -a" check the network configuration.

Install Ubuntu Server in 500 MB disk space

2007-03-04T11:57:00.000-08:00

Your Ubuntu old pc
The follows steps describe the installation of Ubuntu Server 6.06

Download the Ubuntu iso image, from : link
Burning the iso image and insert the cd in your CDRom

Installation Ubuntu Operating System

Press "Esc" key to access text-mode installation mode

Partition your hard disk

Select "Manually edit partiton table"

Select the free space to partiton

Select "Create a new partiton"

Insert in percent the size, 10% for swap partiton

Select "Primary"

Select "End"

Select "Use a:"

Select "Swap Area"

Select "Done setting ........ "
Now you have to create a root partiton, select the free space and follows the last step : "Create a new Partiton", confirm the size, "Primary", "Beginning", "Done Setting up ........ "

Confirm the size and select "Conntinue"

Select "Done setting ......... "

Select "Finish partitioning ........ "

Select "Yes"

Set a user account

Start the installation

Now Ubuntu server is installed

The first Idea - The CUPS Printing System -

2007-02-26T06:19:00.000-08:00

What have you need ?

What Computer models ?

Intel 486 family SX, DX, DX2 .....
Intel Pentium family , MMX, II, III ....
Intel Celeron family

Hardware components:

Base : Hard Disk Drive, CPU, RAM, Video Card, Floppy Disk & CDRom
RJ45 Network Cards ,
Print interface,
Printer,

Operating System:

Linux !!!!!!!!!!!

Example --->

We have a PC like this one :
Pentium MMX 133Mhz, 64 Mb Ram, HD 512Mb, A Network Card 10 Mbps, CDRom 12x, SVGA max 800x600, floppy disk, Monitor 14'', Keyboard and mouse.

Installation Slackware Operating System following the post link

Configure Cupsd Print Service :

Connect with ssh client to the print server machine, example using putty.
Edit the file /etc/cups/cupsd.conf to configure the cupsd print service :

in the ... add the " Allow From [network] " to grant access to the cups web interface, example :
"Allow From 192.168.66.*"

in the ... add the " Allow From [network] " to grant access administration cupsd server, example :
"Allow From 192.168.66.*"

Start the cupsd service : /etc/rc.d/rc.cupsd start
Access the web addministration interface to manage cupsd service :

url : http://hostname:631 example "http://192.168.66.99:631"

To access the adminisration section, click "Administration" on top menù and insert the user and password of the root account.

In the section "Printers" click "Add Printer", enter the "Name" and click "Continue", select the "Device: Parallel Port #1" and click "Continue", select the printer model and click "Continue", select the driver and click "Continue". Click on the printer name to finish installation.

Configure Linux Client

With the "Kde printing management" you can install your printer, follows these steps :

Your Printer now is ready !!!

Configure Windows Client

You can install your printer, follows these steps :

Your Printer now is ready !!!

The second idea -- Linux Router --

2007-02-20T12:49:00.000-08:00

What have you need ?

What Computer models ?

Intel 486 family SX, DX, DX2 .....
Intel Pentium family , MMX, II, III ....
Intel Celeron family

Hardware components:

Base : Hard Disk Drive, CPU, RAM, Video Card, Floppy Disk & CDRom
Two RJ45 Network Cards , or more

Operating System:

Linux !!!!!!!!!!!

Example --->

We have a PC like this one :
Pentium MMX 133Mhz, 64 Mb Ram, HD 512Mb, Two Network Cards 10 Mbps, CDRom 12x, SVGA max 800x600, floppy disk, Monitor 14'', Keyboard and mouse.

Installation Slackware Operating System Following the post link

Attetion !! in section "Select Packages to install" you well have to choose A,D,L & N
Attetion !! during setup installation, for "Packages Seriers L (Libraries)", check only glib, glib2, glibc

Router Configuration

There is a routing software suite that providing implementations of OSPFv2, OSPFv3, RIP v1 and v2, RIPng and BGP-4 for Unix platforms, particularly FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris and NetBSD.
"Quagga" http://www.quagga.net/ is a fork of GNU Zebra acts as an abstraction layer to the underlying Unix kernel.

Installation Quagga ver. 0.98.6 on Slackware 10.0

Download the software from http://www.quagga.net/download/quagga-0.98.6.tar.gz and follows these steps to install :

untar the package "routerlx# tar xvfz quagga-0.98.6.tar.gz "
build the software

routerlx:# cd quagga-0.98.6
routerlx:# ./confiugre
routerlx:# ./make
routerlx:# ./make install

Attention, after the build the space left on disk, delete the quagga-0.98.6.tar.gz and the quagga-0.98.6 folder.
Edit the file "/etc/profile" and insert the variable "export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib"
Reload the profile : "routerlx:#. /etc/profile"
Copy the file "/usr/local/etc/zebra.conf.sample" in "/usr/local/etc/zebra.conf"
Edit the file "/usr/local/etc/zebra.conf" and set these parameters :

!
! Zebra configuration saved from vty
! 2007/03/14 08:18:03
!
hostname Routerlx
password zebra
enable password zebra
!

Start the zebra services "routerlx:#/usr/local/sbin/zebra -d -u root -g root"
Edit the file "/etc/rc.d/rc.local" and add the command "/usr/local/sbin/zebra -d -u root -g root"
Connect to routerlx with "telnet [ip address] 2601" example : telnet 192.168.66.99 2601

Trying 192.168.66.99...
Connected to 192.168.66.99.
Escape character is '^]'.

Hello, this is Quagga (version 0.98.6).
Copyright 1996-2005 Kunihiro Ishiguro, et al.

User Access Verification

Password:
Routerlx> enable
Password:
Routerlx#
configure Configuration from vty interface
copy Copy configuration
debug Debugging functions (see also 'undebug')
disable Turn off privileged mode command
echo Echo a message back to the vty
end End current mode and change to enable mode.
exit Exit current mode and down to previous mode
help Description of the interactive help system
list Print command list
logmsg Send a message to enabled logging destinations
no Negate a command or set its defaults
quit Exit current mode and down to previous mode
show Show running system information
terminal Set terminal line parameters
who Display who is on vty
write Write running configuration to memory, network, or terminal
Routerlx#

Your Router Now is Ready !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The third idea -- Linux Firewall --

2007-02-19T02:49:00.000-08:00

This system currently takes up less than 6MB on the CD Rom or Compact Flash and is based on a bare-bones version of FreeBSD, along with a web server, PHP and a few other utilities. The entire system configuration is stored in one single XML text file to keep things transparent.
We will use the the m0n0wall embedded firewall software package http://m0n0.ch/wall/

What have you need ?

What Computer models ?

Intel 486 family SX, DX, DX2 .....
Intel Pentium family , MMX, II, III ....
Intel Celeron family

Hardware components:

Base : CPU, RAM, Hrad Disk,Video Card, Floppy Disk & CDRom
Two RJ45 Network Cards , or more

Operating System:

m0n0wall !!!!!!!!!!!

Example --->

We have a PC like this one :
Pentium MMX 133Mhz, 64 Mb Ram,Hard Disk 512 MB, Two Network Cards 10/100 Mbps, CDRom 12x, SVGA max 800x600, floppy disk, Monitor 14'', Keyboard and mouse.

Installation m0n0wall ver. 1.23

Download the image from http://m0n0.ch/wall/download.php?file=generic-pc-1.23.img
Install your hard drive to another pc , for example connect the HD to the secondary ide interface.
On Linux system execute this command to write the image on your HD:

gunzip -c net45xx-xxx.img | dd of=/dev/hdX bs=16k
where /dev/hdx is the second ide interface, example "/dev/hdb/" or "/dev/sdb"
Now you have to install the hd on your computer ready for firewall services
Boot the computer :



Configure the lan network interface:

Select 1 to assign the network ports



Select 2 to assign the lan ip address




Connect to Web Admin interface , example http://192.168.66.99/




Now the system is ready to cofiguring firwall, followig this guide http://doc.m0n0.ch/quickstartpc/
for details

The fourth idea -- Linux Reverse Proxy Apache --

2007-02-18T02:41:00.000-08:00

What have you need ?

What Computer models ?

Intel 486 family SX, DX, DX2 .....
Intel Pentium family , MMX, II, III ....
Intel Celeron family

Hardware components:

Base : Hard Disk Drive, CPU, RAM, Video Card, Floppy Disk & CDRom
RJ45 Network Cards ,

Operating System:

Linux !!!!!!!!!!!

Example --->

We have a PC like this one :
Pentium MMX 133Mhz, 64 Mb Ram, HD 512Mb, A Network Card 10 Mbps, CDRom 12x, SVGA max 800x600, floppy disk, Monitor 14'', Keyboard and mouse.

Installation Ubuntu Operating System following the post link

"......A reverse proxy is a gateway for servers, and enables one web server to provide content from another transparently. As with a standard proxy, a reverse proxy may serve to improve performance of the web by caching; this is a simple way to mirror a website. But the most common reason to run a reverse proxy is to enable controlled access from the Web at large to servers behind a firewall........." [referrer]

Installation Apache on Ubuntu

If your ubuntu system is connect to internet, follow these steps :

type the command # sudo apt-get install apache2 ;insert the root password to continue
insert the media Ubuntu cdrom
test your web server with a browser ;insert url http://192.168.66.156

The example scenario :

Configuring Apache Web Server

type these commands to enable proxy and rewrite modules:
# sudo a2enmod proxy ;insert the root password
# sudo a2enmod rewrite
# sudo a2enmod proxy_http
# sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
create the file test.conf in directory /etc/apache2/conf.d
# sudo vi test.conf
insert in the file :
NameVirtualHost 192.168.66.156:80
''
ServerName test.apache.local

Order deny,allow
Allow from all

RewriteEngine on
ProxyPass / http://www.cisco.com/
ProxyPassReverse / http://www.cisco.com/*
''
test your reverse proxy with a browser ; insert the url http://test.apache.local/

Note: for this test insert in Operating System file hosts the directive:
[Ip Address ] test.apache.local
for windows "c:\[windir]\system32\drivers\etc" and for linux "/etc/hosts" .

Ubuntu Smtp Server

2007-02-17T02:40:00.000-08:00

To configure a Smtp Server with Ubuntu System follow these steps:

Install postfix package :
root@testob:~# apt-get install postfix

follow the wizard configuration , sample :

For more configuration you have to use the dpkg-reconfigure utility :
root@testob:~# dpkg-reconfigure postfix

follow this wizard :

Now test your smtp server with telnet utility , sample :

user@hostname:~$ telnet 192.168.66.137 25
Trying 192.168.66.137...
Connected to 192.168.66.137.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 testob.domain.com ESMTP Postfix (Ubuntu)
helo pccicla.blogspot.com
250 testob.domain.com
helo pccicla.blogspot.com
250 testob.domain.com
mail from: pier[at]pccicla.it
250 Ok
rcpt to: piergiovanni[at]gmail.com
250 Ok
data
354 End data with .
Test
.
250 Ok: queued as 4010719220
quit
221 Bye
Connection closed by foreign host.

Ubuntu Tips'n'Tricks

2007-02-16T06:04:00.000-08:00

Enable root user

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo passwd root

insert the password for root user

Configure OpenSSH server (the system is connection to internet)

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install ssh openssh-server

the service installed is the "ssh", to restart use the command:
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart

Configure Network Services

enable dhcp service

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces
insert these lines in file "interfaces" :
# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
to activate the network interface :
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

configure static ip address

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces
insert these lines in file "interfaces" :
# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.66.60
gateway 192.168.66.254
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.66.0
broadcast 192.168.66.255
to activate the network interface :
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Using public keys for SSH authentication

2007-02-15T07:42:00.000-08:00

With the ssh freeware utilities we can login on a Ubuntu server without type a password.
Example :

follow these steps:

user@hostname:~$ ssh-keygen -t rsa
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): (type nothing)
Enter same passphrase again: (type nothing)
Your identification has been saved in /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
2e:24:d1:d9:f2:43:fc:6c:89:91:be:7e:db:a5:99:bf user@hostname
user@hostname:~$
user@hostname:~$
user@hostname:~$ scp /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub root@server_hostname:/root/authorized_keys
root@server_hostname's password: (type password of root )
id_rsa.pub 100% 408 0.4KB/s 00:00
user@hostname:~$
user@hostname:~$ ssh -l root server_hostname
root@server_hostname's password: (type password of root )
user@server_hostname:~$ mkdir .ssh
user@server_hostname:~$ mv authorized_keys .ssh/
user@server_hostname:~$ exit
logout
Connection to server_hostname closed.
user@hostname:~$
user@hostname:~$ ssh root@server_hostname
user@server_hostname:~$ You enter in the server without type a password !!!!!!!!!!!!!!