Rare Tricks

Tips to Improve Linux Backtrack 5 Performance

2012-02-09T08:28:00.000-08:00

If you are using backtrack 5 and having some problems like sound problem, social media software problem, software manager problem and so many more. Some of the blog readers has send a request about these things, if you have used Ubuntu than you must have an idea about tweaks and software manager in Ubuntu. How easy and user friendly Ubuntu is, for backtrack5 you can also do all these stuffs because it is based on Ubuntu.

For this tutorial I am using backtrack5 GNOME based, so below are the some tips to make your bt5 as a desktop operating system that contain all the necessary tools and software's.

Movie/Video player for Gnome

There are different programs are available for GNOME based distribution among them totem media player for Linux is the best open terminal and type.

sudo apt-get install totem-gstreamer

Beside totem media player you can install VLC player for Linux, or you can install VLC for windows on bt5 by using wine.

Team viewer

Team viewer is the best software for desktop sharing and its available for windows and Linux, go to the official website and download a copy than open the terminal and locate the directory than type.

sudo dpkg -i teamviewer_linux.deb

Zip & Unzip for Linux

If you want to run zip files and having some problem with it than you must install zip and unzip for Linux, open the terminal and type

sudo apt-get install zip

Empathy Chat Client for Linux

You are a social kind of person and want to connect with people via chat than you must install empathy because it provides best chat platform on the single place, open terminal and type

sudo apt-get install empathy

PDF Reader for Linux

You can install adobe reader in Linux but there is another software available to read the pdf file and its Foxit reader, download it from official website and on the terminal locate the directory than type

sudo dpkg -i FoxitReader_1.1.0_i386.deb

Office for Linux

Openoffice is the best solution for office users on open source platform get it by using the command

sudo apt-get install openoffice.org

Software Manager for Linux

Software manager is the right place to search and get the right open source software if your Linux does not have software manager than you must install kate for it on the terminal.

apt-get install kate

Firewall for Linux

Have you ever checked your ports by using nmap? if no than you are in dark, open ports are the weakest point of the system security you must close your ports for closing the ports in Linux use Firewall, Firestarter firewall is the best get it via

sudo apt-get install firestarter

Gwibber Social Media Client

Social media including twitter, facebook and more are now become more power full and successful so if you want use all these social networking website in a single place than get gwibber.

sudo apt-get install gwibber

FTP Client for Linux

FTP (File transfer protocol) is an important protocol for transferring the large files, if you want to connect to any server via FTP than you must have gFTP like client get it.

sudo apt-get install gftp

If you are experiencing sound and voice problem is backtrack 5 (ubuntu) Linux than you must care about codec and other restrictions of Ubuntu.

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

sudo apt-get install w32codecs
sudo apt-get install w32codecs libdvdcss2

How to Update & Upgrade Linux

It is a better policy to update all the software's and packages on frequently to avoid any kind of exploitation, well for complete Linux up-gradation use

sudo apt-get upgrade

While for updating all the software's and packages use

sudo apt-get update

Turn Ubuntu Linux Into MAC- Macbuntu

2012-02-09T08:24:00.000-08:00

Ubuntu is the most famous, user friendly and the best Linux distribution that can easily install and update. Even you can use Ubuntu for personal, business and server purposes, however backtrack the finest Linux distribution for penetration testing is also based on Ubuntu so the importance of Ubuntu is not a hidden truth, beside Linux platform Apple MAC is one of the famous and widely used operating system many people prefer MAC over Linux and many prefer Linux over MAC.

So its up to you what operating system do you like most, turn Ubuntu Linux into MAC OS X is now a easy process even a new user can do it. This transformation is not a new thing but a open source software has made this transformation very single even you can do this by a single click.

There is also a manual technique available but for this technique you need to download themes, time setting, network setting and others. Now open source tool MACBUNTU has made this process easier.

What Is Macbuntu

Mac OS X Transformation Pack. Macbuntu is an open-source program, designed to transform Linux’s appearance and layout into a Mac OS X environment. Although Macbuntu is dedicated to Ubuntu Linux OS, it could be used in other OS based on Debian/GTK .

So we can say that Macbuntu is a software that is used to transform any Linux that is based on Debian into MAC OS X.

Download

Linux to MAC Tutorial

The tutorial is not very difficult because the tool is very easy to use, it can change all the setting automatically just run the tool follow these steps.

After downloading the tool on the termincal locate the directory where it has downloaded
Run this command on the terminal

tar xzvf Macbuntu-10.10.tar.gz
cd Macbuntu-10.10
./install.sh
Now you are done

Lock/Unlock Computer With Pendrive

2012-01-18T03:59:00.000-08:00

First, what is “syskey”?
SYSKEY is a utility that encrypts the hashed password information in a SAM database in a Windows system using a 128-bit encryption key.
SYSKEY was an optional feature added in Windows NT 4.0 SP3. It was meant to protect against offline password cracking attacks so that the SAM database would still be secure even if someone had a copy of it. However, in December 1999, a security team from Bind View found a security hole in SYSKEY which indicates that a certain form of cryptanalytic attack is possible offline. A brute force attack then appeared to be possible.
Microsoft later collaborated with Bind View to issue a fix for the problem (dubbed the ‘Syskey Bug’) which appears to have been settled and SYSKEY has been pronounced secure enough to resist brute force attack.
According to Todd Sabin of the Bind View team RAZOR, the pre-RC3 versions of Windows 2000 were also affected.
So this is pretty cool, right? Well, I really like the idea of keeping this on Floppy so that it requires a floppy disk (a sort of 2 factor (hardware/software) authentication?).
Naturally I wanted to go a bit further and use this on a USB drive instead of storing to a Floppy. I can’t see myself carrying a floppy and a USB floppy drive around with me. After all, this provides another layer of security.
NOTE: I haven’t tested copying data from 1 USB to another USB to see if it works as a backup. This way you could lock up a USB drive as a spare if needed.
Here’s how to get this to work using a USB drive.
1. Insert your USB drive into your system and wait for it to be recognized and install any necessary drivers.
2. Fire up disk management and re-assign the drive letter it was given to “A”.

Start up disk management by clicking Start and typing diskmgmt.msc

Right-click the USB drive and choose to assign driver letter or path.

Assign it to letter “A”

Accept the warning message

Now your USB drive is “A”

3. Run Syskey and save encryption to USB Drive “A”

Click Start and type syskey followed by hitting Enter

Syskey launched; Click “Update”

Choose “Store Startup key on floppy disk” and click “OK”

You’ll be prompted to enter your diskette. Make sure your USB drive is inserted and writable.
4. Reboot and have fun. Don’t lose your USB disk! Also, to revert this, you can run syskey again and choose to store it locally instead of “on a floppy disk”.

How to see hidden files in Windows

2012-01-09T09:13:00.000-08:00

Introduction

By default Windows hides certain files from being seen with Windows Explorer or My Computer. This is done to protect these files, which are usually system files, from accidentally being modified or deleted by the user. Unfortunately viruses, spyware, and hijackers often hide there files in this way making it hard to find them and then delete them.

By following the steps below for each version of Windows you will be able to change the operating systems behavior so that you can see hidden and protected files. In this way you will be able to delete or replaces files for troubleshooting purposes.

Windows 95