Sunday, November 30, 2014

Create a application starter in your tint2 panel

First install xdotool:
#pacman -S xdotool
Add this line in the keyboard section of your ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml

   root-menu
 
We do
$openbox --reconfigure
to update openbox menu
 Check if this works with
 $ xdotool key ctrl+alt+space
You should see the OB menu pop up near your mouse.

Now we install tint2-svn from AUR with yaourt or packer
$yaourt tint2-svn

After installing we edit the tint2rc by hand in /home/username/.configure/tint2
Under panel we add:
# Panel panel_items = LTSBC

 And we add a new section:
# Launchers
launcher_icon_theme =Adwaita
launcher_padding = 5 0 10
launcher_background_id = 9
launcher_icon_size = 85
launcher_item_app = /usr/share/applications/tint2.desktop

Now we are going to create the  tint2.desktop file in the folder  /usr/share/applications
Create a file nameit tint2.desktop and with leafpad add the text and save:

[Desktop Entry]
Categories=Panel
Comment=A menu launcher
Exec=xdotool key ctrl+alt+space
GenericName=tint2
Icon=tint2
MimeType=
Name=tint
Type=Application
X-KDE-StartupNotify=false


 Now we kill tint2 with
 $pkill tint2
 And activate it again with dmenu, alt-f3,type tint2 and enter.

If all is good you should see this:

Monday, November 24, 2014

Easiest way to change default boot order Grub2

Count on which line the desired default Os in your Grub boot menu.
Say it is on line 7.
Go to /etc/default/grub en open it with leafpad
#leafpad  /etc/default/grub
Change line GRUB_DEFAULT="0" to
GRUB_DEFAULT="6"

Why 6? Because counting starts with zero, 0.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Installing Sandfox in Void Linux

Update Sandfox is a  Void package now
Install with:
#xbps-install sandfox
 The second part Configuration and use of this post still is relevant.

I feel it is essential for your safety to run your browser in a sandbox.
I use sandfox for that.
Here is how I installed  Sandfox in Void Linux
First check if you have  what you need:
#xbps-install lsof inotify-tools wget
If this is OK, we can download it
$ wget https://github.com/IgnorantGuru/sandfox/raw/master/sandfox
This gave me a file called sandfox
Install with
$sudo install sandfox /usr/bin/sandfox
It should be executable ; if you encounter problems check this.

Configuration and use

Make a folder for your browser downloads, for example /home/user/sf_download
Enable this in your sandfox configuration by editing /etc/sandfox/firefox.profile; in the section home folders add a line with
bind=/home/$user/sf_download
Now you can create and start using the sandbox by doing:
$sudo  sandfox firefox
Avoid having to give your root password each time you start sandfox:
Add a line (change user name of course) in your sudoers file:
 paul ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/sandfox

by doing
#EDITOR=nano visudo
and editing (nano commands: ctrl+o and enter to write and ctrl+x and enter to exit).

You can also add to your /home/paul/.bashrc the line:
alias firefox='sudo sandfox firefox'

For more options and scenarios see this link .

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Installing VoidLinux with Openbox

My aim is to create a setting like I am used to in Archbang.
I always prepare partitions before with Gparted. Use a liveCD that has it as application on ti to accomplish this.
Boot with the Voidlinux iso (downloadlink). The one I tried, 0.4 64bits, was only 180 MB.
Start installation  with the command
sudo void-installer
Set system keyboard (us is below at the botton). Set up Network: it will show that it works. Hostname, I choose: paulvoid. Set your locale: I always choose en_Gb although I am Dutch. Choose Timezone: in my case Europe/Amsterdam. Give your root password twice.

Set your bootloader to your hard drive;probably sda. I saw no possibility to install it in a specific partition of a hard drive. If you prefer to mount by default into a different partition, install grub again with "grub-install /dev/sda" (for instance) when you running  in that favourite partition after you have finished this all.

I have already set up my partitions so I can skip that. Now I configure  my flie systems to ext4 and swap, set my swap and root partition '"/" (Be careful: no space) and after all this configuration we can let the installation have its course. When done we reboot.

Post Installation Set up.
This is when we can decide how to fill in the basic Void installation.
We log in as root and with the root password given during installation.
First of all we do a system update with:
#xbps-install -Syu
We install nano for easy shell editing for those of us who don't  like/know vi:
#xbps-install nano
(Nano basic commands: Ctr+o write and type enter;Ctr+x to exit an do enter)
We check keyboard and location and hostname:
#nano /etc/rc.conf
#nano /etc/hostname
It shows Juan, Voids main dev is from Spain (Madrid). I had to correct that again. Create timezone link:
#ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Amsterdam /etc/localtime
We now add some basic programs:
#xbps-install xorg zip unzip p7zip alsa-utils gvfs udisks2 polkit-gnome
Time to create  a user, my user name will be paul:
#useradd -m -g wheel -s /bin/bash paul
Give our user password:
#passwd paul
and give our new user password twice.
We already have us made part of the wheel group; now we can add new groups if necessary and ourselves to it. For example:
#groupadd networkmanager
I added myself to the groups audio,video, storage, optical. Adding me as user to a group like this:
#gpasswd -a paul audio
To check to which groups you as user belong do:
$ groups paul

Now it is time to tell runit to run some services:
#ln -s /etc/sc/dhcpcd /var/service/ 
And
#ln -s /etc/sv/NetworkManager /var/service/
Check active services:#cd /var/service     and   #ls


Now we are going to install our window manager and basic applications:
#xbps-install openbox dmenu xterm leafpad geany firefox volumeicon tint2 lxdm network-manager-applet nitrogen obconf lxappearance pcmanfm spacefm udevil
Set up lxdm:
#nano /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf
For instance "autologin=paul" and "session=/usr/bin/openbox-session"
Now we are gonna work as user and reboot and login as user or open another terminal with ctrl+alt+f3.
We are going to copy the skeleton files for openbox:
$cp /etc/skel/.xinitrc ~
Note that we are now acting as user and not as root.
And change # exec gnome-session to exec openbox-session with
$nano ~/.xinitrc
Copy more skel files:
$ mkdir -p ~/.config/openbox
$ cp -R /etc/xdg/openbox/* ~/.config/openbox
Put in /.config/openbox/autostart
tint2 &
nitrogen --restore &
volumeicon -b &
devmon &

If you get an error with dbus:
dbus-uuidgen > /var/lib/dbus/machine-id
If udevil is causing problems you might have to do:
#chmod -s /usr/bin/udevil

Another problem might be a missing polkit rule; see for more info
https://github.com/voidlinux/documentation/wiki/Mounting-filesystem-as-a-user
At last some additional applications:
#xbps-install smplayer vlc  viewnior chromium
Use lxapperance and obconf to configure your Openbox set up.
Use geany to edit rc.xml and  put the close down program in the menu.xml, both are in ./config/openbox/ (see previous post)
You will have to set up Nitrogen after you downloaded some nice wallpaper. You might like to install a new icon set for instance oxygen-icons. And so on.

Add more repositories for xbps packet manager:
# xbps-install void-repo-nonfree void-repo-multilib void-repo-multilib-nonfree
After that you can  Install flashplugin:
xbps-install adobe-flash-plugin

If you want to see how xfce with Void is installed see this youtube video of Francois. I hope it works out well for you when you try. Success!
 


Wednesday, September 24, 2014

VoidLinux with runit instead of systemd

Voidlinux is even lighter than Archbang, my disto of choice for the last years.
Because it uses runit I was tempted to try it out. Till now I'am very positive about it. The most serious drawback that the choice of packages is more limited than Arch.

Why I find this an interesting distro: http://www.voidlinux.eu/

Apparently is an hybryd between Archlinux and gentoo, rolling release, packages are compiled from source (or binaries can be downloaded), pkgsrc (void linux's ebuild) resemble strongly archlinux PKGBUILDs but have some features inspired by gentoo ebuild without the bloat.
Wiki: https://github.com/voidlinux/documentation/wiki

On Google+ https://plus.google.com/communities/113949500587973059533
Search void packages: http://www.voidlinux.eu/#findpkg
XBPS source packages Manual:
https://github.com/voidlinux/void-packages/blob/master/Manual.md


Build your own iso: https://github.com/voidlinux/void-mklive
Nice video of Francois installing Voidlinux 0.34 wih XFCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00u7vV_4Mfg#t=348

Here on the void Wiki I found a nice python shutdown script that isn't pasted well and gives errors. This one did work for me.
I also needed this post to get my polkit well set up.
In a next post I will describe my installation process of Void plus Openbox.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

create an epub from a group of webpages

Put the webpages in a folder. Be sure to have named them in the desired order so 02.htm follows the content of 01.htm for instance
Open terminal in or move to folder and type in terminal:
cat *.htm > combined.htm
Open the the combined htm in Calibre and convert it to epub or use this webservice

Read articles saved with Wallabag on your ereader:
First install wallabag add on for firefox or chrome and add it to your toolbar.
Create a Framabag account if you don't run your own webserver.
Log into that account and create in tab Config  a rss feed and copy its address; you will need it for Calibre.
How can I read my saved articles on my e-reader?
First, you must install Calibre, which is an e-book library management application, compatible with many e-book reader devices. Then, you must generate a token to enable RSS feeds. This can be done on your wallabag config page. You now need to open Calibre, click on the menu besides « Fetch News », then on « Add custom news source », copy the adress of your feed (unread, favorites or archive, as you wish) and paste it to the feed URL field. Enter a name and save with the « Add/Update Recipe » button, then close. Finally, back to the previous menu, click on Schedule news download. You can schedule it if you want, but all you need right now is to click the « Download now » button. The download might take some time and get stuck to 1% for a while, but it should finally work. When that’s done, you can refer to Calibre’s documentation to know how to send the generated ebook to your devices.

Howto set up Pocket with Calibre:


  1. Click the dropdown arrow under ‘Fetch News’
  2. Select ‘Add a custom source’
  3. Click ‘Customize builtin recipe’
  4. Select ‘Pocket’ from the list
  5. Close the window
  6. Click ‘Fetch News’
  7. Under Custom, Click ‘Pocket’
  8. Add your username/password and set a schedule if preferred
  9. Click ‘Download Now’

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Send your email as a closed letter instead of an open postcard

Emails are readable textfiles that are very vulnerable for hacking, spying etc. You should be very careful about what you write when you mail.
Still it might be necessary to use email for confidential messages.
Then you will need encryption.

To use email encryption you will need a local email program like Thunderbird (it still isn't possible when working from out of your browser).
You will also need an add on called Enigmail and you of course need a email partner that also has these programs installed. 


And you both need a key pair, consisting of a private and public key.
You keep the private key private and exchange public keys, for example
by email, or by using a key server.  You then need to verify you have
the correct public key (and not an impostor's) by checking the
fingerprint of the key you received against the fingerprint you exchange
via a secure channel, for example by each putting your fingerprint on a
piece of paper and exchanging those pieces of paper when meeting in real
life.

So lets start from a situation you and your friend agree that you both want to use and install encrypted email.
Where do you start? In Linux it is easy to install the needed software and  you will do something like in Debian
#apt-get install thunderbird gnupg
or in Arch
#pacman -S thunderbird gnupg

In windows you'll need: gpg4win en thunderbird

In Os X:  GPGTools and thunderbird

To set up gmail for you will have to enable imap under Preferences.

Starting up Thunderbird you will have to set up an email account,
select imap, check if ssl is enabled.
Now go the the add on manager; search for enigmail and install it and restart Thunderbird and start the OpenPGP Setup wizard.
Sign all your outgoing emails (good for people getting curious and asking what this is all about and thus spreading the goods) 
Next; No create Per-recipient rules (you don't want to irritate people that are not using encrypted mail with useless, not readable textfiles); 
Next: Yes, change some email settings etc.
Now you can create a key pair (a public and a private key).
Give a strong password to protect your keys. Confirm your settings.
Next, move your mouse to create some entropy when the keys are created.
After that is done you will have to create a revocation certificate that you will need when your key has gotten compromised or if you want to revoke it for some other reason. Now use the password you gave before.
And save your revocation certificate and store it in a safe place.

You are now ready to use enigmail. In thunderbird you will click on both the sign and encrypt icon (right below) when you want to send an encrypted email. When you send an attachment you can encrypt that too.
Remember that both the email title and the attachment title will be readable and are not encrypted.

If you want to help your friend setting up Enigmail you could use a Teamviewer session.

To manage your keys and check other ones (see above) you can use the OpenPgp Key management tool with which you can export public keys and send them to a key server.

Check display all keys, right click on your own key and choose properties.
Now you can see your key ID and key fingerprint. Right click and Upload Public key to Key server to share your public key.
For this article the following source was used Keep-it-private
You will find a lot of back ground info and screen shots there.

See also: https://securityinabox.org/en/thunderbird_main

 A great site on internet privacy is https://securityinabox.org/en For instance the guide on password management is very useful

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