Linux Blog

Ubuntu Naming Convention

Each Ubuntu release is named in two ways. The official name is the year and month combined, separated by a period. The release made in April 2010 was named 10.04, for example.

Releases also have nicknames, decided upon by Mark Shuttleworth, and humorously derived from types of animals. 8.04 has the nickname Hardy Heron. 8.10 is called Intrepid Ibex. Sometimes the animal component is dropped in formal conversation 8.04 is referred to simply as “Ubuntu Hardy”, or just “Hardy”.

Version    number Nickname Updated until
4.10          Warty Warthog        April 2006
5.04          Hoary Hedgehog    October 2006
5.10          Breezy Badger           April 2007
6.06          LTS 1 Dapper Drake June 2009
6.10          Edgy Eft                     April 2008
7.04          Feisty Fawn               October 2008
7.10          Gutsy Gibbon            April 2009
8.04          LTS Hardy Heron     April 2011
8.10          Intrepid Ibex             April 2010
9.04         Jaunty Jackalope       October 2010

Graphical network connections viewer for Linux - Netactview

Netactview is a graphical network connections viewer for Linux, similar in functionality with Netstat. It includes features like process information, host name retrieval, automatic refresh and sorting. It has a fully featured GTK 2 graphical interface.

Features:
* Shows all udp, tcp, udp6 and tcp6 network connections in an automatically refreshed list.
* The presented information includes protocol names, addresses, ports and connection states along with host names and process information.
* The connections list can be sorted by any of its columns.
* Refresh rates ranging from 1/16 to 4 seconds, or no automatic refresh can be selected.
* Connections can be seen for 3 seconds after they are closed giving you the chance to spot connections that last very little time.
* The unestablished connections can be filtered out.
* Multiple connections list snapshots can be saved in a formatted text file.

Installation:
Ubuntu packages (Ubuntu 6.06 or newer)
Standard PC (x86): netactview_0.5.1-1_i386.deb
64bit PC (amd64): netactview_0.5.1-1_amd64.deb

In the standard Ubuntu distribution and other distributions based on Gnome opening the .deb package should start the Gdebi package installer. Gdebi will install the package and all its dependencies.
In KDE based distributions, like Kubuntu, you will have to install Gdebi and open the package with it.

Linux kernel error levels (Value, Name and Meanings)

Error level value	Error level name	Meaning
0	KERN_EMERG	system is unusable
1	KERN_ALERT	action must be taken immediately
2	KERN_CRIT	critical conditions
3	KERN_ERR	error conditions
4	KERN_WARNING	warning conditions
5	KERN_NOTICE	normal but significant condition
6	KERN_INFO	informational
7	KERN_DEBUG	debug-level messages

Check your Ubuntu for Non-free packages - vrms (Virtual Richard M Stallman)

In the early 1980's Richard M. Stallman created the GNU project, whose goal was to provide the world with a Free Operating System (with the word "Free" with the same meaning as in "Freedom").

Since then, a lot of Free Software was developed and entire operating systems based only on Free Software were created. Unfortunately, some data is still stored in a format that is proprietary, secret and non-standard, made by corporations that want to retain control over the users of the software that generates such data.

The vrms program provides the facility for users of Debian-based Operating Systems (like Ubuntu Linux) to detect if their systems have any non-free software installed, so that the users can keep their computer "pure", without non-free software.

vrms can be installed using Synaptic Package Manager:

To execute it, just type "vrms" in the terminal and you will get the list of 'non-free' software installed on your system. For each program from 'non-free' installed, vrms displays an explanation of why it is non-free, if one is available. This explanation is usually from a list included in the vrms package itself, but other packages can provide additional lists of explanations, too.

So if you want a completely free (as in freedom!) operating system, you can use Use/ Install gNewsense instead of Ubuntu or others.

How to Securely Wipe a Hard Drive - Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN")

Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction.

DBAN is a means of ensuring due diligence in computer recycling, a way of preventing identity theft if you want to sell a computer, and a good way to totally clean a Microsoft Windows installation of viruses and spyware. DBAN prevents or thoroughly hinders all known techniques of hard disk forensic analysis.

DBAN is a free software product that can be used at home or in a business at zero cost.

DBAN has all available drivers for SCSI disks and drivers for IDE, PATA, and SATA disks.
DBAN supports all Microsoft platforms and securely destroys FAT, VFAT, and NTFS filesytems and all unix platforms and securely destroys ReiserFS, EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, and UFS filesystems.

Installation:
DBAN 2.2.6 Beta for CD-R and DVD-R media.
(Burn this file to a blank disc and boot the computer with it. Do not unzip this file.)
Burn this downloaded ISO file to a CD and boot off that CD (you need to configure your BISO settings to boot from the CD first). Follow the prompts and select your appropriate configuration options.

DBAN is easy to use and very secure, using multiple methods including the Gutmann method and the Mersenne twister.

The autonuke option from the first screen will automatically run through all detected disks, securely wiping them, so be careful with it.