Location and usage of Log files in Ubuntu Linux

In Linux the log files could be the only source of information available to trace a problem or security issues. Almost all of the logfiles are located under /var/log directory.

Common Linux log files name and its use

• /var/log/message: General message and system related messages
• /var/log/kern.log: Kernel logs
• /var/log/cron.log: Crond logs
• /var/log/auth.log: Authenication logs
• /var/log/maillog: Mail server logs
• /var/log/httpd/: Apache access and error logs directory
• /var/log/apache2/*: Apache2 access and error logs directory
• /var/log/boot.log : System boot log
• /var/log/mysqld.log: MySQL database server log file
• /var/log/secure: Authentication log
• /var/log/utmp or /var/log/wtmp : Login records file
• /var/log/dpkg.log : All binary package log includes package installation and other information
• /var/log/faillog : User failed login log file
• /var/log/lpr.log : Printer log file
  
• /var/log/user.log : All userlevel logs
• /var/log/xorg.0.log : X.org log file
• /var/log/daemon.log : Running services such as squid, dhcpd and others log message to this file
  
• /var/log/fsck/* : fsck command log

How to increase disk space in case of Low Disk space?

Do you feel that the free space on your hard-disk is too little ? Does it seem that something fishy is going on which is eating your hard-disk space? If your answer is yes, read on till end to uncover the secrets of this type of behavior.



Reasons for consumption of free space

• Temp files on C drive
• Temporary Internet files
• Backup files created during installation
• Windows system restore data
• Duplicate copies of large files like movies, songs etc.
• Deleting Uninstall files for windows updates.

There are some more reasons as well, but these are most common reasons which can be observed. Now the important question, how to fix it ?ok read on for the solution.

Fix:
a. Deleting Temp files:

Temp files are the files which are created for some temporary purpose by many softwares. Go to Start > Run type “%temp%” (without quotes) and press enter. This will open a Temp folder, at this folder,select and delete all files at this location. After this empty your windows recycle bin.

Note: You may not be able to delete certain files as they might be in use, but delete as many as you can.

b. Deleting Temporary Internet files and backup files:

There are several ways to do it, but we will tell you the most convenient way. Open My computer, right click on the disk drive , go to properties and click on Disk Cleanup.



Select the temporary Internet files,recycle bin,setup log files, temporary files, office setup files, and any other option which is not very important for you and Click OK. This will start the cleanup process and will delete the un-necessary files thus increasing the disk space.

Note:
Above two methods deals with removal of junk and temporary internet files which can also be removed automatically using a software called CCleaner which can be downloaded from here.

What is CCleaner?

CCleaner removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing it to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more HDD space.

c. Deleting old restoration data:

As a part of system restore utility, windows creates some check-points and saves corresponding data on each disk having restore feature. These files also consume significant space. You can delete all of them except the most recent restore point data if you feel that your computer is running stable for a long time and you may not need very old restore points. To delete it, open disk cleanup window as mentioned in previous step and click on More Options tab



Click on System restore clean up button as i have Placed my Cursor on the above Screenshot. This will give a warning message, click yes to it. This will delete all old restoration points except the most recent one.

d .Delete duplicate copies of large files:

Sometimes we have several copies of same documents, songs and even videos which consume lots of space un-necessarily. Finding them manually and deleting them is a real pain. But this work has been made very easy by double-killer. Its an intelligent utility which scans your drives for duplicate copies of files and gives you and option to delete them. You can download it from here for free.

e. Deleting Uninstall files for windows updates:

You can also delete some folders whose name starts with “$NtUninstall.” in the windows directory (for example C:\Windows ) if C drive is the primary partition.

However, They are referring to prior hot fixes, so they should be safe to delete if your system is stable with the fixes applied after windows update, and you have no intention of uninstalling them.

NTLDR missing or NTDETECT.COM not found in windows XP

You have probem with “NTLDR is missing, Press any key to restart” during boot up?

What is NTLDR? NTLDR (NT Loader) is the boot loader for all releases of Microsoft’s Windows NT operating system up to and including Windows XP.
This message NTLDR is missing indicates that the boot loader is either corrupted or missing due to some reason.

There are two approaches to fix the missing boot loader in windows XP.

If your Windows is installed on FAT32 Partitions:
1. Boot your computer with a Win98 startup floppy.
2. Now, copy the NTLDR or NTDETECT.COM files from the i386 directory on your floppy to your windows installation drive (e.g in “c:\” in case the windows is installed on c:).

If your Windows is installed on NTFS Partitions:
1. Arrange for the bootable Windows XP setup CD.
2. Boot from CD select R=Repair option, by pressing R key during the setup.
3. Select the windows installation.
4. You need to enter in the administrator password when requested, if you had not set any password for the administrator account just press enter without typing.
5. Type the following commands to repair the bootloader, where X is the drive letter for your CD / DVD drive.
COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C\:
COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:\
6. Eject CD-ROM and type exit to restart.

GDM Root Login in Fedora 10

In Fedora 10 root login is disabled in the gdm welcome screen. In many situations we want to login as root.

So change this.
1. Login as an ordinary User into fedora 10
open terminal
su -
(password for root user)
For Security reasons First Create a backup of the file
cp -a /etc/pam.d/gdm /etc/pam.d/gdm.orig
then open the file
vim /etc/pam.d/gdm
find the line
auth required pam_succeed_if.so user != root quiet
then change the line to
auth required pam_succeed_if.so user quiet
:wq!
Now you can login as root in gdm

Cheers!

USB 3.0 Arrives!

10 times faster than USB 2.0
THE USB Implementers Forum will formally announce the technical specifications of the next generation of Universal Serial Bus connectivity at a conference in San Jose, California, next week.

Despite a difficult birth – hampered by infighting and political shenanigans between the big players, including Intel Nvidia and AMD – the new standard is expected to be something in the order of ten times faster than the current USB 2.0 specification.

Everything USB is reporting that a 25GB file can be transferred in just 70 seconds using the new system, compared to nearly 14 minutes for USB 2.0 and a pitifully slow (how did we ever cope?) 9.3 hours for 1.0.

That's 4.8Gb a second. Other improvements will include better power management and the use of optical cabling. Wowie!

The technology is similar to PCI Express 2.0 (5-Gbit/s). It uses 8B10B encoding, linear feedback shift register (LFSR) scrambling for data, spread spectrum. It forces receivers to use lowfrequency periodic signaling (LFPS), dynamic equalization, and training sequences to ensure fast signal locking.

The connector will be divided into two parts. The first part is the USB 2.0 four-wire version with UTP data pair and power with ground. The second part will have five connections: two UTP lane (one is uplink and one is downlink) and a ground. An optical connector and cable will be available in the future.

Check out Intel's two new 45nm Processors - E7500 and Q8300

AMD's Phenom II (also named Deneb) CPUs are on their way and big boys Intel have prepped up to eliminate them with ease - Intel is all set to launch two new processors, dual core E7500 and quad core Q8300.

E7500 should be out on January 18th 2009 and it be positioned above the E7400 dual-core clocked at 2.8GHz. Both E7500 and E7400 are based on a 45nm dual-core Wolfdale core and they should fit into the 65W TDP envelope. The Core 2 Duo E7500 will work at 2.93GHz, supports FSB 1066 and 3MB cache memory. It will sell for $133, while Core 2 Duo E7400 with the same specs and 2.8GHz clock will drop to $113.

Also making an entry is quad core Q8300, which is a 2.5GHz CPU with FSB 1333, but this time it has 4MB of L2 cache. It will be priced at $224, and it looks very similar to Core 2 Quad Q9300 as it works at the same clock and has the same FSB but the Q9300 has 6MB L2 cache and costs $266.

This CPU sits on top of Q8200 clocked at 2.33GHz with FSB 1333 and 4MB cache that is currently selling for $193 and the most famous 65nm quad-core Q6600 at its 2.4GHz clock, FSB 1066 and 7MB cache that is selling for $183 and represents Intel’s cheapest quad-core to date.

Meanwhile Core 2 Duo E8600 with 3.33GHz core clock, FSB 1333 and 6MB L2 cache will remain the fastest Core 2 to launch to this date but it will also cost $266 if you buy a thousand of them which is literally twice the price of E7400.

So many options - good luck with your Christmas shopping! :)

AMD's new CPU: Phenom II

While Intel churns out more of the delicious 45nm Core i7 CPUs, rival AMD looks to catch up - the company is all set to offer its first ever 45nm offering, named Phenom II.

The new core doesn’t have overclocking problem, doesn’t have TLB or any other cache related bug and it looks quite healthy and therefore deserves Phenom II brand.

The new CPU has 4x512KB L2 cache, 6MB of shared L3 cache and it should be available early next year just as we suggested in our earlier reports.

We also found out that AM3 version of the same CPU will be branded as Phenom II but the number after the brand will be different. AM3 Phenom II comes a bit later and the first Phenom II to launch are AM2+ only.

5nm K10.5 can reach 4GHz on air and that if you use liquid cooling you should see even better scores. This is definitely a good sign, and we know that at least the top Deneb will come with an unlocked multiplier and ready to overclock.

The Phenom based on the Agena core was limited with its overclocking capabilities and it looks that this new 45nm Deneb K10.5 has resolved this issue. The CPU won't be available in stores at least until early January, but it's good to know that there is a hope and it will be fun to compare 4GHz Deneb with 4GHz overclocked core i7 aka Nehalem and Core 2 Quad Yorkfield, on an identical clock.

It definitely looks like AMD is coming back with its quad and tri-core 45nm products, followed with Deneb without L3 cache codenamed Propus. The only thing that AMD will miss is a dual-core based on the K10 architecture.

Microsoft Windows 7 beta out in January 2009

Its been just 18 hours since we heard that the Windows Vista/Server SP2 beta would be breaking loose for select individuals tomorrow and here's another peach on a tabloid snogger.
Word has it that the beta of Microsoft's next Operating System, Windows 7 could be out and about as early as next month.
Granted, this conjecture is far less written in stone, but on the official MSDN Developer Conference website we're told that "all attendees will receive a Windows 7 Beta 1 DVD."
The events are scheduled to run from December to January, and given the whole "attendees at events scheduled for December will have DVDs mailed to them when they become available" coupled with the line we quoted before, it's a pretty safe bet that next month is it.
Hang tight, Windows lovers -- your first real peek into the wide world of WinVII could be just around the bend.

What's new in Fedora 10 ?

The tenth version of the Fedora project's Linux distribution promises both a faster and more visually pleasing start-up procedure, thanks to kernel-based mode-setting and the Plymouth program. With GNOME 2.24.1, KDE 4.1.2, OpenOffice 3.0, Firefox 3.0.4, RPM 4.6, the "glitch free" version of PulseAudio and numerous other improvements, Fedora 10 – version name "Cambridge" – includes state-of-the-art components and offers many new features that are likely to be incorporated into other distributions in the near future.

Just over six months after the completion of Fedora 9 (Sulphur), the Fedora project has now released the distribution's successor – Fedora 10 (Cambridge). Although there has been four weeks' delay due to the server infrastructure break-in, unlike many of the previous versions of Fedora, there have been no further last minute delays in the release.

As is customary for Fedora, Cambridge contains a comprehensive and very state-of-the-art software range – even the recently introduced OpenOffice 3.0 and Firefox 3.0.4 have made it into the new version of the Linux distribution. Apart from the improvements to the new version of the kernel and GNOME & co. often developed in co-operation with Fedora and Red Hat programmers, the Fedora developers have also incorporated numerous new features specific to Fedora 10. In the following article, we will take a look especially at these new features and at some of the other events in the Fedora environment that are relevant to Fedora users.

Faster and smoother startup

Although Fedora's main sponsor, Red Hat, generates a large part of its revenue with corporate server software, some of the Red Hat developers were entrusted with working on technologies that primarily benefit end users and desktop systems in Fedora 10. These include various improvements which make booting smoother and faster.

Fedora 10 supports kernel-based mode-setting (KMS) for the majority of Radeon graphics hardware from the Radeon 9500 model. This technology allows the kernel to set the suitable graphics mode for the respective screen immediately after initialising the most important hardware components. The kernel now also handles the screen resolution during operation, relieving the X Server of a large part of this task. As a result, the switching between the X Server and a VGA text or framebuffer console becomes much faster and smoother, as the switch-over no longer requires any resetting of the screen resolution.

KMS also gives the kernel more control over the graphics hardware – until now, framebuffer and VGA drivers, the kernel's Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI) and the X Server have frequently stepped on each other's toes. The kernel developers plan to incorporate the KMS code with Linux 2.6.29, which makes KMS a likely component for other distributions in the near future. Fedora 9 already supported KMS on an experimental basis with Intel graphics hardware. However, the developers of the Intel graphics drivers have thoroughly restructured the Intel KMS code several times in the past six months. The Fedora developers found this coming and going that was partially caused by GEM too precarious, so they disabled the KMS support for Intel hardware in Cambridge; an update may activate KMS in systems with Intel-based graphics chipsets at a later stage. Radeon's support for KMS also, still has its glitches and had already appeared on the distribution's wiki page of known problems when Fedora 10 was released.

To further spice up the boot process, the Red Hat/Fedora developers created the Plymouth program (see also: Interview with the developers of Plymouth). In systems with VGA text consoles, the program displays a simple ASCII progress bar at the bottom while the kernel and services initialise the hardware and start their jobs in the background – the whole procedure is slightly reminiscent of the white progress bar presented to users at the beginning of the start-up of Windows 2000.

To those who activate a framebuffer console or have Radeon hardware with KMS support, Plymouth displays a pretty animated image to match Fedora 10's solar design instead of ASCII art during start-up. This makes Fedora's start-up entirely graphical with graphics hardware that supports KMS; there is no screen flickering even when the X Server starts up. This event is now only marked by the appearance of a mouse pointer immediately followed by the GDM's log-in screen – a video preview of this process has been provided by the Fedora project.

The Fedora developers claim to have made the start-up not only prettier but also faster. On an "ideal PC", however, Cambridge took 28 seconds to start and was only one second faster than a Fedora 9 installation. On a test system with an Asus P5N7A-VM (GeForce 9300 chipset/mGPU), Fedora 10 took even longer: The code in the initrd idled for a full ten seconds waiting for all volumes to be detected before it slotted in the root partition and continued the boot process.

Internals

Compared with other distributions, Cambridge uses a rather sparingly extended Linux version 2.6.27.5 kernel. The largest of the patches used in the Fedora kernel's source RPM provide support for KMS, squashfs and utrace as well as the Atl2, At76, Lirc and Nouveau drivers. In addition, the Fedora developers have updated the Ext4 support to largely match that of the main development branch of Linux which is currently due to produce the 2.6.28 kernel; with this kernel version, the kernel hackers will complete the file system's main development phase. Ext4 file systems created in Fedora 10 are, therefore, also expected to co-operate with future kernels and distributions. However, Fedora's installation program only allows storage media to be formatted in Ext4 if the "ext4" option is submitted in the boot loader when starting the installation procedure.

Some of the drivers not included in the main development branch of Linux, but often supplied with other distributions like em8300, kqemu, madwifi, ndiswrapper, rt2860, rt2870 or zaptel are not provided by the Fedora project. The distribution's hardware support is, therefore, not quite as comprehensive as that of Ubuntu 8.10, which is also based on Linux 2.6.27, unless the missing drivers are added via one of the external package repositories that contain RPM packages for Fedora.

The relatively small number of patches in the kernel's source RPM will make it easy for the maintainers of the Fedora kernel to provide new kernel versions as regular updates at a later stage. This is likely to happen frequently with Fedora 10, as it is almost general practice in Fedora. Fedora 9, for example, was released with the then current Linux kernel 2.6.25 in May, but received some of the versions 2.6.25, 2.6.26 and 2.6.27 released in the past six months as regular updates. This is why the updated Fedora 9 kernel that was current when Fedora 10 was released is also a version 2.6.27.5 kernel and only differs slightly from the Fedora 10 kernel.

Therefore, Fedora's range of features and hardware support improve with the vast number of changes incorporated into the Linux kernels of the main development line. Most of the other distributors are not as courageous and only supply kernel updates to plug security holes without switching to new versions – therefore, it frequently takes several months before new drivers and other improvements incorporated into the main development branch of Linux actually reach their users.

Cambridge uses the X Server 1.5.3 for controlling the graphics hardware. As a series 1.5 X Server was already included in Fedora 9, features like the convenient configuration of monitors via RandR 1.2-based programs aren't really new for Fedora users. However, users are quite likely to be confused because the X Server now runs on the first console accessible via CTRL + ALT + F1 instead of the seventh. In the X Server of Fedora 10, the evdev driver now handles the events from input devices like mice and keyboards.

Up-to-date

As is customary with Fedora, the distribution's software range is largely up-to-date – while Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex), which was released a few weeks ago, still relies on OpenOffice 2.4.1, Cambridge already includes version 3.0. Eclipse 3.4, Gimp 2.6.2 and Firefox 3.0.4 are also current versions, but Thunderbird isn't. However, version 2.0.0.18 of the mail client which was released simultaneously with Cambridge at the end of last week has been available as an update since the release of Fedora 10.

GNOME 2.24.1 is included in the standard installation, offering various improvements introduced with version 2.24 – for example tabs in the Nautilus file manager. The Fedora project originally intended to use Empathy, which comes with GNOME 2.24, instead of Pidgin as the standard IM client for Cambridge – however, this plan was abandoned after developers experienced problems during testing. KDE 4.1.2 can be selected with a few mouse clicks during installation – its version 4.1.3 is already part of the updates-testing package repository and should, therefore, soon arrive as a regular update on the virtual doorsteps of Fedora 10 users. XFCE is not included on the standard installation media and can only be selected during installation once the online repositories have been activated as an additional installation source.

Apart from the usual installation media (one DVD, six CDs), the Fedora project also provides numerous "spins" – ISO images of live media which can not only be transferred to CDs but also to USB sticks. Each of the spins offers a range of software selected for a specific purpose – next to the desktop spin with GNOME and a spin with KDE, there is also one that includes XFCE. As the spins can be used for installation, the XFCE spin may be the preferred Fedora installation medium for many XFCE users.

In addition to the three spins mentioned there are several others, for example Fedora Education Math and Fedora Electronic Labs (FEL). The tools included in Fedora have also for quite some time allowed custom spins to be created with relatively little effort. As long as users observe the recently introduced guidelines, they can now share these custom spins as "Fedora remixes" without violating the project's trademarks.
More optimisations

Apart from the new features we have already mentioned, the developers also included numerous other improvements in Fedora 10. The printer configuration program – which is maintained by a Red Hat developer, was originally developed for Fedora and is now also used by Ubuntu – received a new user interface and returns better status information about current processes, amongst other things. While the software components of Fedora are usually quite current, this doesn't apply to its printer drivers: The HPLIP drivers for HP printers and multifunction devices are provided in their version 2.8.7 – meanwhile, the HPLIP project has introduced three new versions to support a large number of recent HP devices. The Gutenprint driver collection is also included in a rather dusty version 5.0.2 while Gutenprint 5.2.1, which was introduced a month ago, would offer numerous advantages – for example, it supports 655 printers that the collection's series 5.0 drivers don't know anything about.

New in Cambridge is also the "glitch free" version of the PulseAudio audio server. This server has received major work by its author, who is a Red Hat employee. Like in MacOS X or Vista, the audio output is now time-based rather than driven by interrupts – this approach is not only designed to help avoid interruptions, but also to unburden the CPU during audio playback, which reduces power consumption and prolongs the battery life of notebooks. Further improvements were included for netbooks and notebooks – however, the project does not offer a dedicated netbook spin.

The NetworkManager for establishing LAN, WLAN, VPN, GPRS or UMTS connections now also supports the connection sharing feature, which makes it suitable for setting up ad-hoc networks. For webcams, Fedora 10 includes drivers like uvcvideo and the gspca driver collection, suitable for a large number of webcams by various manufacturers. In addition to several other improvements for webcams, the Fedora community have also developed the libv4l software library. Instead of handling everything themselves, applications can now access this library for webcam control. The Fedora developers also claim to have optimised the use and configuration of infrared remote controls.

A likely virtualisation contender in Fedora 10 is KVM, which relies on the CPU's virtualisation technology. The support for Xen host operation (Host/Xen Dom0) was already ditched in Fedora 9. In Fedora 10, this functionality remains unsupported because the official Xen Dom0 patches are still only available for obsolete kernel versions that don't offer much support for new hardware. The Fedora developers are, however, considering providing users with the option of running privileged Xen domains as soon as the kernel hackers have incorporated the necessary code into the main development branch of Linux – this could already be the case in Linux 2.6.29. Cambridge is still capable of operating as a Xen guest and accesses the Xen support integrated into the kernel since 2.6.23 to do so. Several changes to libvirt and the virt-manager (1, 2) tool based on this library improve network installation and the management of (virtual) volumes for virtual machines.

The RPM package system now included is version 4.6, which was recently released by rpm.org. The Yum package management tool, known for its sluggish operation, is noticeably faster in Cambridge. However, users don't necessarily need the command line program for installing and updating applications, as Fedora offers PackageKit frontends for GNOME and KDE and is installed by default.

Further additions to Fedora included with Cambridge are the Sectool security audit and intrusion detection system and the Netbeans development environment. While Fedora didn't used to include the /sbin and /usr/sbin directories that hold system administration programs in the path of normal users, this strategy has now been abandoned. The Sugar desktop familiar from OLPC laptops is now also available in Fedora, as is the not quite as hardware-hungry LXDE desktop environment. FirstAidKit now helps with the troubleshooting if there are any problems. Fedora now also offers tools for implementing appliances and comes with the AMQP (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol) infrastructure (AMQPI) – the latter is essentially the messaging component of Red Hat Enterprise MRG.

Self-imposed limitations and how to bypass them

With the exception of a few firmware files, Fedora 10, like its predecessors, consists exclusively of open source software released under a licence approved by the Fedora project; Licences that, for example, prohibit the software's use in a commercial environment or its sharing with third parties don't make it onto the list. The Fedora project also excludes software that is known to use patented technologies, as well as proprietary software and drivers. These measures are designed to protect commercial Fedora users and third party vendors who distribute Fedora separately, or together with hardware, from potential claims by copyright or patent holders.

As a result, Fedora's package repositories, which contain about 11,400 packages for the i386 architecture, don't include any of the popular commercial applications, the proprietary drivers by AMD or NVidia, or the software for playing back many popular audio and video formats. This even includes the support for MP3 playback, as the patent holders Sisvel are known to enforce MP3 copyright claims.

A Fedora 10 installation is, therefore, only truly operational once the package repositories that provide the software excluded by the Fedora project, as well as the necessary unsupported audio and video codecs have been activated. To avoid the problems that occasionally occur when mixing and matching different repositories, three of the most popular Fedora repositories – Dribble, Freshrpms and Livna – have recently merged to form the RPM Fusion project. After a prolonged development and test phase, this project officially announced the availability of its repositories last month and now also offers packages for Cambridge.

In Fedora 10, users don't even need to know which RPM package they have to retrieve from add-on repositories like RPM Fusion or alternative repositories like ATrpms for playing the popular audio and video formats. A suitable dialogue of a PackageKit plug-in appears automatically as soon as multimedia applications like Totem that are based on the Gstreamer framework encounter a file which requires an unsupported audio or video codec. The plug-in then searches the activated package repositories for RPM packages that contain the necessary Gstreamer plug-in, and the user can install them with only a few mouse clicks. Fedora 10 no longer installs the Codeina program (sometimes also called a codec buddy) for installing the proprietary Gstreamer plug-ins offered by Fluendo free of charge, or on a commercial basis. Introduced with Fedora 8, the program caused controversy from the start due to the Fedora project's focus on open source solutions.

In Fedora 10, the RPM Fusion package repositories can not only be activated after installing Fedora, but also already during installation; unlike previous versions of Fedora, Cambridge automatically includes some of the packages required for components like GNOME or KDE depending on which of the two desktops has been chosen. Because the RPM Fusion repositories are divided into a free and a nonfree section, open source-aware users can easily exclude software not released under a Fedora approved licence. In Fedora 10, open source purists can also simply uninstall the majority of the firmware supplied with the Linux kernel, which is now provided in a separate RPM package, to create a very lean and mean version 2.6.27 of the Linux kernel.

RPM Fusion contains many, but by no means all, of the popular applications and drivers excluded by Fedora. Adobe Reader and the Adobe Flash plug-in, for example, are best obtained from the repository maintained by Adobe; Google also maintains its own repository, which contains components like Picasa and Google Earth. Other software components not included in Fedora and RPM Fusion can be found in third party repositories for Fedora, although mixing and matching these repositories frequently causes problems.

Like other Linux distributions with a six monthly development cycle, the new version of Fedora offers noticeably more current software and a large number of evolutionary improvements. With due consideration, however, upgrading from Fedora 9 to 10 is only worthwhile if there is an intention to actually use one of the new features. Users who wish to install Fedora from scratch, on the other hand, should definitely choose version ten, as it saves them the hassle of downloading the numerous updates for Fedora 9. A broadband internet connection is nevertheless advisable because the Fedora project is bound to release another host of updates for Cambridge; hundreds of new and updated packages were already available in the update repositories when the distribution was released.

Conclusion

Although Fedora 10 once again offers some improvements to make life easier for users and developers, Cambridge – like its predecessors – is not as suitable for first-time Linux users as, for example, the current versions of OpenSUSE or Ubuntu. This is mainly due to the self-imposed open source software limitations and a very cautious approach to software that may use patented or licensed technologies. On the other hand, the consistent stream of Fedora updates offers current programs and also considerably improves the distribution's hardware support – with other large distributions, new software and drivers are usually only included in new versions of the distribution. In addition, Fedora already offers a taste of new features like kernel-based mode-setting, glitch free audio with PulseAudio or connection sharing in the NetworkManager, which are also very likely to become part of other distributions in the near future.

How To Disable Credentials Prompt of Remote Desktop 6.0 [RDP]

Remote Desktop Connection client 6.0 introduces new authentication features to improve security for Windows Vista and Windows Longhorn Server, which makes it mandatory for the user to enter logon credentials before RDP client can establish connection to the remote server (" Enter your credentials for . These credentials will be used when you connect to the remote computer" ), but if the remote machine is configured to show logon warning message or if the remote system happens to be Windows 2000 or XP, you’ll need to enter the credentials again at remote machine’s logon screen.



There is however a workaround to skip the credentials screen that RDP 6.0 client shows by choosing “Do not attempt authentication” under Authentication options on the Advanced tab, but this option is not set permanently.

To permanently skip the additional credential screen of RDP 6.0 client, edit the Default.RDP file in notepad to include enablecredsspsupport:i:0 .
The Default.rdp is located in each user’s My Documents folder. Including enablecredsspsupport:i:0 disables the Credentials Security Service Provider for the connection.
If you use separate .RDP file for different servers, modify each of those .RDP files.
Below is the content section of the default.rdp file with enablecredsspsupport:i:0 option included.

redirectposdevices:i:0
authentication level:i:0
enablecredsspsupport:i:0
prompt for credentials:i:0
negotiate security layer:i:1

Note that this workaround is suggested only if you connect Windows 2000/2003/XP systems because according to Terminal Services Team blog post – “This option does disable the new credential prompting behavior, but it also disables support for Network Level Authentication for Vista (and Longhorn Server) RDP connections; Network Level Authentication requires credentials to be provided by the client before a session is created on the server side.”

So if you do connect to Vista/Longhorn over RDP, you’ll not be able to use this tweak.

Solution: "The pre-release version of remote desktop connection has expired" issue

Brand new annoyance from our beloved Microsoft (MSFT): apparently people, like me, who rushed to install XP3 RC got burned yet again.
A new time bomb was found in Remote Desktop. Why the hell they'd put it there?!! I have no clue!! Anyway's our internets already spawned several solution to this problems. I haven't tried them yet, so it's fully on your responsibility and conscience (Try to remember to Make a backup or restore point before continue)...

http://www.castlecops.com/p1075912-windows_xp_remote_desktop_pre_release_version_expired.html
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3132696&SiteID=17
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3149944&SiteID=17

More Windowx XP SP3 Quirks - Daylight Saving Patch Missing!

At present we don't have a choice but manually implement this "patch" as described here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914387
And yea, before I forget: KB931836 will not run under SP3 !

Windows XP SP3 and Microsoft HD Audio UAA Problems

I had this issue with Slipstreamed XP SP3 (rc1) into windows xp cd, and quickly found out none of HD audio devices where recognized after installation of proper drivers.
Tried different solutions, until I found this entry in some Chinese forums (thanks Google for translations)

Here are the steps:
Download this software : kb888111xp2.exe / kb888111xp2.exe
Open Regedit and go to :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows find CSDVersion
key 100 (hex) means its sp1
200 (hex) means its sp2
300 (hex) means its sp3

Change it from 300 to 200 and restart
Install kb888111xp2.exe (Microsoft UAA Patch)
Install drivers
Change CSDVersion back to 300.
Restart
Enjoy :)

Tested and Worked for : Realtek HD, Audio Devices HD, Onboard AMD(ATI) x1250 video and modem

Update 1: Apparently Microsoft forgot in include UAA support in SP3 RC1 driver database. Besides solution above you might want to try this: user modified kb888111 software patch especially for Service Pack 3 RC .
Links: Fix for KB888111 for Windows XP SP3 RC v3264 (Original) Fix for KB888111 for Windows XP SP3 RC v3264 (Mirror hosted here) or Here

Update2: There are also issue with Day Light Savings patch - NOT INTEGRATED IN patches database AS WELL ... more info here: http://boredsysadm.blogspot.com/2008/03/more-windowx-xp-sp3-quirks.html

Update3: Microsoft decided to delay release of SP3 to wide public, but there is a way to get it today ! Read more here: http://boredsysadm.blogspot.com/2008/04/windowx-xp-sp3-is-delayed-but-not-all.html

Microsoft DreamSpark Student Program: Free Developer and Designer Software

Need a free copy of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008? Microsoft has launched the Microsoft DreamSpark Student Program, a software giveaway program that will provide college and high school students worldwide with access to the latest Microsoft developer and designer tools for free!

Microsoft DreamSpark is available to all students whose studies touch on technology, design, math, science and engineering. It basically involves giving students Microsoft professional-level developer and design software at no charge.

Check out the free software available - Microsoft developer tools include Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition, Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition, XNA Game Studio 2.0 and a 12-month free Academic membership in the XNA Creators Club. Microsoft designer tools include Expression Studio, including Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Design, Expression Media. Microsoft platform resources include SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition and Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition.

To download free microsoft software, simply Sign In with your Windows Live ID, after which you will need to get verified as a student (by their system linked to schools and organizations around the world), accept the Microsoft DreamSpark software license terms, and get ready to download these huge software… limited only by your broadband bandwidth.

Microsoft DreamSpark enables students to download Microsoft developer and design tools at no charge. Visit the Microsoft program partners like NIIT, Aptech and Hughes Net Fusion Centers - Simply show your college identity card and collect your free DVD containing the Microsoft software. Thats it!

If you prefer the online way - Visit http://www.dreamspark.com sign in with your Windows Live ID and get verified as a student (The system is linked to schools and organizations around the world that can confirm student status).

Add to that the 12-month free Academic membership in the XNA Creators Club. If you are an Indian student, what are you waiting for - take advantage of this offer and download free Microsoft software on your computer.

Nvidia Driver Issue with Windows Home Server

If you built your own Windows Home Server and are using either integrated graphics or a video card that has Nvidia chips on it then you could run into problems if you upgrade the video driver.

A graphic driver update released in October is causing havoc on many Home Server installs by not allowing users to log in via the Console or Remote Desktop and even a driver roll back does not work forcing many to do a server reinstall.

The driver version at the cause of the problem is GeForce Release 178.24 which was released October 15, 2008 to add support for motherboards with integrated GeForce 9-series GPUs, mainly the GeForce 9400 and the GeForce 9300.

Version 178.24 has now been superseded by release 180.48 released November 19, 2008 which presently has NOT been tested alongside Windows Home Server, so use this updated version with caution!

Neither release has no mention of a compatibility issue in their release notes, although fellow enthusiast have experienced this issue.

Defrag Windows Home Server on the Cheap

PerfectDisk 2008 is a defrag tool, and if you don’t know already, Raxco the people behind it have a version especially designed for Windows Home Server.

Now, if you fancy giving a copy a new home on your Home Server, just type the code PDTEN4FREE (do not cut & paste) during checkout and you’ll receive a 25% discount and a FREE upgrade to PerfectDisk Version 10 when it is released.

The offer expires before midnight on December 19, 2008.

Microsoft Fixes 6 Issues with Windows Home Server

An update for Windows Home Server became available. Known plainly as "Windows Home Server Update, November 2008" or KB957824 the minor software update fixes 6 problems that users have experienced over the following months with Windows Home Server:

1. Improves the interaction between home computers that are running Windows Vista and a Windows Home Server computer when copying files or folders to a shared folder on WHS..
2. Sometimes, WHS generated lots of notification messages about the files stored in shared folders, causing high CPU utilization and slow performance on the server. After this update is installed, applications such as the Microsoft Zune software, that may be running at the same time, no longer consume excessive processor resources.
3. Under certain conditions, WHS disabled duplication on shared folders after a new user account was created. After this update is installed, the creation of user accounts no longer affects the status of shared folder duplication.
4. When restoring files and folders from WHS the process may stop when it is 79% complete. New functionality to help prevent this issue is provided within this update.
5. When restoring files and folders from a Home Server Backup from an external hard disk drive to the software shared folder on WHS some issues could occur. This update adds functionality to prevent the unintended restoration of older versions of the WHS Connector software from overwriting newer versions of the files.
6. This update improves the search functionality when using remote access by allowing you to use accented characters with the Remote Access search.

The update will be downloaded automatically to your Windows Home Server via Windows/Microsoft Update, as long as Automatic Updates is enabled on the server. If not from within the Windows Home Server Console, click Update Now on the General page of the home server Settings page to receive the update.

More information is available in Knowledge Base article 957824 from Microsoft.

Windows Home Server Toolkit Version 1.1 Available

Microsoft’s diagnostic and troubleshooting tool for WHS has had an update.

The Windows Home Server Toolkit now works on Windows Vista (x64) systems as well as Windows XP and Windows Vista (32-bit) and the toolkit add in part of the package has also been simplified to make it easier for users to access relevant information when troubleshooting any issues that they may encounter with their home servers.

Search for:
Windows Home Server Toolkit User Manual v 1.1
Windows Home Server Toolkit v1.1 (32-Bit)
Windows Home Server Toolkit v1.1 (64-Bit)

Windows Server 2008 Refreshing computer policies

Changes to policies can take some time for modifications to propagate across domain controllers within a domain and finally to the objects for which they're destined. Policies are refreshed on a client when the computer is turned on, a user logs on, an application requests a policy refresh, a user requests a policy refresh, or the interval between refreshes has elapsed. The latter part of that sentence is key: there's a GPO you can enable that will allow you to customize the interval at which computer and domain controller policies refresh. It's best to make this change at either a domain or OU level for consistency.

To enable the policy refresh interval, follow these steps (I'll assume you're changing this on a domain-wide basis):

1. Within the Group Policy Management Console, find the Default Domain Policy in the left pane.

2. Right-click on Default Domain Policy, and choose Edit.

3. The Group Policy Object Editor window appears. In the Computer Configuration tree, navigate through Policies, Administrative Templates, and System.

4. Click Group Policy.

5. In the right pane, double-click the setting Group Policy refresh interval for computers, or Group Policy refresh interval for domain controllers, whichever is applicable.

6. Select Enabled, and then enter an interval for the refresh. Be sure to make this a healthy interval; otherwise, you will degrade your network's performance with constant traffic updating policies across the domain. For smaller networks, 15 minutes should be an acceptable timeframe. Allow 30 to 45 minutes for larger networks.

7. Click OK.

You also can also manually force a policy refresh from the command line on client computers with the gpupdate command. To refresh all parts of a policy, issue this command:

gpupdate /force

To refresh just the Computer Configuration node of the policy:

gpupdate /target:computer /force

To refresh just the User Configuration node of the policy:

gpupdate /target:user /force

To manually refresh GPOs on Windows 2000, the syntax is a little different. To refresh only the computer policy:

secedit /refreshpolicy machine_policy

To refresh only the user policy:

secedit /refreshpolicy user_policy

You can force updates of objects, even if they haven't been modified since the last update, by adding the /enforce switch at the end of the command. Then Windows will enforce all policies, regardless of whether the actual policy objects have changed. This is useful if you are having network difficulties and want to ensure that every computer has a fresh application of policy, or if you have a large contingent of mobile users that connect to the network briefly and unpredictably.

For either clients or domain controllers, exercise extreme caution when modifying the default refresh interval. On large networks, altering the refresh interval can cause hellish amounts of traffic to be unleashed over your network—a costly move that's unnecessary for 95% of sites with domains installed. Although clients will pull down new policies only if those policies have changed, the increased traffic results from clients just contacting a domain controller every x minutes to get new policies and updates. There's very little reason to alter this value. Here's a good rule of thumb: if you don't know of a good justification to increase the refresh interval, it isn't necessary for your site.

If you want, you can also elect to disable background policy refreshing completely. You might do this if you're having trouble tracking down an intermittent GPO problem, or if you don't want to have a GP applied during the middle of a client session because it might disrupt an application. Again, it's best to do this on a domain-wide or OU-wide basis for consistency and best performance.

To disable background processing, follow these steps:

1. Within the Group Policy Management Console, find the Default Domain Policy in the left pane.

2. Right-click on Default Domain Policy, and choose Edit.

3. The Group Policy Object Editor screen appears. In the Computer Configuration tree, navigate through Policies, Administrative Templates, and System.

4. Click Group Policy.

5. In the right pane, double-click the setting "Turn off background refresh of Group Policy."

6. Select Enabled.

7. Click OK.

In some situations, you might want a policy setting to be applied, even if no setting has changed. This goes against default GPO behavior because usually, only changes trigger a policy refresh and reapplication. For example, a user might change some Internet Explorer settings within his session. You might want that change to be reversed, but Windows won't trigger a refresh because the policy itself hasn't changed. To prevent this, you can use the configuration option called "Process even if the Group Policy Object has not changed." (This is like the /enforce switch described a bit earlier.) You've probably caught on by now that it's best to do this on a domain-wide or OU-wide basis for consistency and best performance.

To do so, follow these steps:

1. Within the Group Policy Management Console, find the Default Domain Policy in the left pane.

2. Right-click on the Default Domain Policy GPO and choose Edit.

3. In the Computer Configuration tree, navigate through Policies, Administrative Templates, System, and Group Policy.

4. You'll see a list of options ending in "policy processing," such as "Scripts policy processing" and "Wireless policy processing." These GPOs exist to allow you to tweak the functionality of these types of policies. Open the appropriate policy up (which one is best for you depends on the type of policy that you're trying to trigger to change) to view its Properties.

5. Click the Enabled button.

6. Finally, check the "Process even if the Group Policy Object has not changed" checkbox.

Policy settings related to computer security follow a refresh policy that is a bit different from normal GPOs. The client computer still refreshes security policy settings even if the GPO has not been changed or modified. There are Registry settings whose values indicate the maximum acceptable time a user or client computer can wait before reapplying GPOs, regardless of whether they are changed. They are as follows:

To change the refresh interval for computers, set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\GroupPolicyRefreshTime. The type is REG_DWORD and the valid range for data (in minutes) is 0 to 64,800.

To change the offset interval for computers, set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\GroupPolicyRefreshTimeOffset. The type is REG_DWORD and the valid range for data (in minutes) is 0 to 1,440.

To change the domain controller refresh interval, set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\GroupPolicyRefreshTimeDC. The type is REG_DWORD and the valid range for data (in minutes) is 0 to 64,800.

To change the domain controller offset interval, set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\GroupPolicyRefreshTimeOffsetDC. The type is REG_DWORD and the valid range for data (in minutes) is 0 to 1,440.

To change the refresh interval for users, set HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\GroupPolicyRefreshTime. The type is REG_DWORD and the valid range for data (in minutes) is 0 to 64,800.

To change the offset interval for users, set HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\GroupPolicyRefreshTime. The type is REG_DWORD and the valid range for data (in minutes) is 0 to 1,440.

If necessary, you can trigger a policy refresh manually from a local computer without waiting for the automatic background refresh. To do this, you can type gpupdate at the command line to refresh the user or computer policy settings. You cannot trigger a policy refresh by using GPMC.
 
The gpupdate command triggers a background policy refresh on the local computer from which the command is run. The gpupdate command is used in Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP environments. In Windows 2000, use the secedit /refreshpolicy command.

How to hide specified Control Panel Applets?

1. Click Start, click Run, type mmc, and then click OK.
2. Click Action, and then click Add/Remove Snap-ins.
3. Click Add, click Group Policy, click Add, click Group Policy or Local Policy, and then click Finish.
4. Click Close, and then click OK.
5. Expand User Configuration, and then expand Administrative Template.
6. Click Control Panel.
7. On the right pane of the Policy menu, double-click Hide specified control panel applets policy.
8. Click Enable, click Show, click Add, type the corresponding tool name to deny access, click OK, and then click OK.
9. Repeat step 8 for every tool you want to hide.
10. Click Apply, and then click OK.

What are the computer brands which support ubuntu/debian/gnu/linux ?

You can use any brand desktop/laptop while using ubuntu 8.04 hardy edition. but you will be having some problems with the wifi driver installations. this can be solved by installing a software named ndisgtk with which you can install the windows WiFi driver in Linux.

Binary package hint: dolphin

As soon as I select a file to preview or open its context menu, I get the following error message twice:
The desktop entry file
/usr/share/apps/d3lphin/servicemenus/amarok_addaspodcast.desktop
has an invalid menu entry
addAsPodcast.
There is a similar service menu file in the amarok package, maybe that one can be used or copied.
dolphin:
  Installed: 0.9.2-0ubuntu5
TESTCASE:
Open Dolphin, open a directory with XML files (example: /usr/share/mime/multipart/);
move mouse over XML file.
- If dolphin doesn't throw up a popup complaining about an invalid menu entry, it's fixed.

To fix this problem temporary, just copy the service menu:
sudo cp /usr/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus/amarok_addaspodcast.desktop /usr/share/apps/d3lphin/servicemenus/amarok_addaspodcast.desktop

Easy way to Set LARGE DISK DRIVES above 127 GB

What if I have a hard drive which is greater than 137 GB?
And you have either Win2k or WinXP and it won't show the full Amount of Diskspace?
48-bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA) support is needet.!
The new ATA standard, ATA/ATAPI-6, resolves the 137 GB limit by increasing the maximum number of address bits from 28 to 48 hence the name 48-bit Logical Block Addressing.
48-bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA) extends the capacity of IDE ATA/ATAPI devices beyond the limit of 137 GB imposed by the old ATA protocol. With 48-bit addressing the new limit is now a huge 144 petabytes (i.e. 144,000,000 GB).
Thus 48-bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA) support for ATA Packet Interface (ATAPI) disk drives can enable the capacity of your hard disk to exceed the current 137 GB limit.
You must meet the following requirements to use 48-bit LBA ATAPI support:
You must have a 48-bit LBA compatible BIOS.
This can be either a 48-bit LBA capable motherboard OR 48-bit LBA capable add-on IDE controller.
One such add-on IDE card is the Promise Ultra 100 TX2.
You must have a hard disk that has a capacity that is greater than 137 GB.
You must have Windows XP SP1 installed. WinXP pre SP1 will NOT work. Another alternative to WinXP SP1 is Win2k SP3.
Cautionary note:
If you do decide to re-install WinXP SP1 by installing XP and then updating to SP1, you may have a temporary situation where access to the hard drive may become an issue especially if your first partition exceeds 137 GB in size. It would be better to slipstream your XP CD to SP1. That way if you re-install XP it goes straight to XP SP1.
If you meet the above three conditions, then to properly use your hard drive:
You must enable the support in the Windows registry by adding or changing the EnableBigLba registry value to 1 in the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Parameters

To enable 48-bit LBA large-disk support in the registry:

Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
Locate and then click the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters
On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:
Value name: EnableBigLba
Data type: REG_DWORD
Value data: 0x1

Quit Registry Editor.

This is a 1:1 copy of Microsoft online help - takes 5 minutes to achieve. Reinstalling Windows will take longer especially if the new hard drive is a secondary drive..
The important thing is that if you install the HARD DRIVE = out of the BOX = then prior to that make sure to have the Registry edited like above.
If the hard drive already is installed and formatted to 127 GB then it will create the REST of the UNSHOWN space on that particular hard drive.
I think everybody knows already that prior to any REGISTRY EDITING a FULL SYSTEM BACKUP should be made and also a BACKUP of the Hard Drive which is already installed and has a larger size than 127Gb.

How do I install fonts on Linux machines?

Manually download the FONT.ttf font by clicking on the below link. Copy the font to your Fonts directory (usually /usr/share/fonts). You need to login as the root user to perform this operation.
Reboot the system.
If you do not have the root permission, please do the following steps.
Copy the FONT.ttf font to a directory.
Change to that direcroty and run the following commands.
Run ttmkfdir > fonts.dir
Run ttmkfdir > fonts.scale
/usr/X11R6/bin/xset fp+font directory
/usr/X11R6/bin/xset fp rehash
Open the browser and change the character encoding to “User Defined”