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Welcome to my blog. This is mainly about IT, information management and Cyber Security with occasional forays into general technology, science and maybe even politics and beliefs.
I welcome feedback on this site and its content. Please use the contact form if you spot anything amiss with the site and use Disqus to talk about any of the articles.
There are 301 pages currently on this site. 235 blog posts, 60 knowledgebase pages, 6 about pages and 0 project pages.
Latest posts and knowledgebase articles
What goes here?
I’ve already got a few things to blog about so expect some articles shortly covering the following: Tablet PC’s I’ve just brought an IBM X61 (on eBay) after much deliberation (we’re talking several years here!). I’ve wanted a Slate (e.g. no keyboard) for ages but they go for silly prices generally. So now I have an X61 to go with the monster 17″ Dell M1710. Microsoft InfoPath An XML-based form designer and filler with rich interface options (including Tablet ink support).
Welcome
Hi, here is my new blog. I’ve been meaning to set up a general IT blog for some time and this is it. This will be a collection of thoughts, ideas I’ve had and research I’ve done. You can also look at my [blog about Linux][1] and my [personal homepage][2]. [1]: http://linux.knightnet.org.uk/ [2]: http://www.knightnet.org.uk/
VirtualBox Host Interface Networking Update
Great news! The latest versions of VirtualBox have sorted out the issues of host networking. So all of the [messing around that you used to have to do][1], especially under Linux, is now over. So ignore the previous post, it is no longer required. [1]: http://linux.knightnet.org.uk/2008/07/bridged-networking-in-opensuse-103-for.html
Update
Hi, thought I’d better put an update on here as to why I haven’t done any posts here recently. Well, I’ve not done much with Linux recently. My OpenSUSE 11.0 desktop machine works and does pretty much everything I ask of it. At the moment, that is largely managing my photographs and not much else. This is because I’m out and about on a big project and so I’m using my monster laptop (Dell M1710) and that is running Vista as I have to be able to run Outlook, OneNote and other MS Office applications at full speed.
Bridged networking in OpenSUSE 10.3 & 11.0 (For VirtualBox)
I prefer to use VirtualBox rather than VMware as it seems to be rather faster and less resource hungry than VMware Server (the only free version of VMware with a GUI). Also VirtualBox seems to have better Linux host support (sound, etc.). However, there is one thing that VMware is better at – setting up the guest network on the same network as the host. Under VirtualBox this is called “Host Interface Networking” and, with a Linux host anyway, is a right royal pain to set up.
Shell script to Back up critical files (using RSYNC)
Following up from my article on backing up USB drives, this recipe backs up the critical files on my desktop to remote storage (a NAS device on my network). Note that PC2 is the desktop to be backed up, SLUG1 (192.168.1.2) is the NAS device and USER1 is the user id doing the backup. I have a similar script that runs on the NAS device which backs key files on that to a remote hosting service on a different continent!
Automatically Backing up a USB Drive with RSYNC (KDE)
USB Drives of all kinds need to be backed up and the best backup is an automatic one (it’s the only way to make sure that it gets done!). So here is one recipe for doing just that using RSYNC and some BASH scripting magic. I’ve split this into two files. You don’t have to do this of course and one may well be better for you. I used two because I can run the second one manually as well.
Windows Mobile applications I use
To round off my mini-series about software I use, I thought I’d do one on Windows Mobile (AKA Pocket PC or PPC). Pocket Informant Keepass PPC Microsoft Reader MobiPocket Reader PIM Backup Pocket Navigator (Memory Map) Laridian Pocket Bible WeatherWatcher Google Maps Tombo Tom Tom Navigator SuperDoku Bejeweled2 There are one or two other small utilities I also use and I have a bespoke WM6 installation that includes some tools. (NB: I’ll add some links and explanations in when I get time).
Windows applications I use
Following on from my post about [what stops me from dropping Windows altogether][1], I thought that I would put together a more complete post about the Windows applications I find myself using. [Memory Map][2] – If ActiveSync is installed, the standard license allows you to push a copy of the Windows Mobile version to a handheld along with extracts of (or whole) maps, POI, routes, etc. It is also best to plan routes and add new POI on the desktop as its easier than the small interface on the handheld.
Enabling VirtualBox access to USB ports (OpenSUSE 11.0)
By default, OpenSUSE 10 & 11 come preconfigured WITHOUT usbfs active. Unlike Ubuntu, everything is ready to go but the fstab setting is “noauto” so it doesn’t seem to get loaded even when VirtualBox wants it. The fix for this is simple and is listed in the [VirtualBox User FAQ][1]. In “/etc/fstab” change the line for usbfs to: usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs auto,busgid=XXX,busmode=0775,devgid=XXX,devmode=0664 0 0 Where XXX is the group id of the vboxusers group which can be discovered in YAST or from the command line: grep vboxusers /etc/group That’s it, no other changes should be needed.
Font sizes and DPI
This seems to be a problem that won’t go away. It seems inordinately hard to get a good looking set of fonts of the correct size. It is not that there aren’t some nice fonts available; there are, at last, some fonts under Linux that often look superior to the Microsoft ones. It’s just that it is difficult to get the whole look and feel correct. This is especially true when mixing Gnome based applications (Firefox and Thunderbird for example) and KDE.
Thoughts on OpenSUSE 11.0
Here are my experiences installing OpenSUSE 11.0 on my desktop PC (I had already successfully installed it on a VM). I opted for a KDE 3 desktop – I don’t like Gnome especially and KDE 4 is not ready for day-to-day use as far as I am concerned. <span style="font-weight: bold;">UPDATE 2008-07-17</span>: This may, in the end, have been a hardware issue – I reseated the cables and everything is stable at the moment However, it is easy if you follow the instructions in my previous blog entry.
Linux Applications I use
Finaly got round to installing OpenSUSE 11.0 on my desktop so I thought this would be a good opportunity to keep track of the software I actually use. I’ll edit and update this entry over time. System VirtualBox (virtual machine, cross platform) Wine TurboPrint (paid for printer driver) Makes having a Canon inkjet printer worth-while again! Rather expensive for what it does but it brings the features you would expect from a good, proprietary printer driver.
Flashing the BIOS from Linux (Phoenix BIOS)
I haven’t looked at the BIOS on my ageing ASUS A8N-SLI motherboard for ages – in fact not since I switched it fully to Linux – so how do you update the Phoenix BIOS without DOS or Windows? I don’t bother with a floppy disk any more and creating a DOS boot CD just for this once every x years job is a faff! Well there is an [article here][1] that might help.
VirtualBox, sharing a Linux hosts file system in a Linux guest
When you want to access the hosts file system from a guest OS in VirtualBox, you need to mount the virtual share. However, the default mount: sudo mount -t vboxsf <VBox-share-name> <mount-location> Will mean that only root can write to the shared folders. You need to tweak things to get a system that an ordinary user can write to. Here is the script I use:
#!/bin/bash echo " " echo "Script to mount the host disk under VirtualBox" echo " " USR=whoami SHARE=‘Host-Root’ MNT="/home/$USR/VBoxHostRoot" echo " Mounting $SHARE to $MNT .
