linux and microcontroller

Some recent posts showing that your linux box is not secure unless you installed a grub Password.
If you are an administrator of a highly sensitive server, you must do it.
To add a password for grub, first you must generate an md5 password hash using the grub-md5-crypt utility: grub-md5-crypt

The command will ask you to enter a password and offer a resulting hash value as shown below:

Password: (enter new password)
Retype password: (repeat password)
$1$s3YiK$M3lxAbqA6JLm2FbDWnClQ0

Add the resulting hash value to the file /boot/grub/menu.lst in the following format:

password --md5 $1$s3YiK$M3lxAbqA6JLm2FbDWnClQ0

To require use of the password for entering single user mode, change the value of the lockalternative variable in the file /boot/grub/menu.lst to true, as shown in the following example.

# lockalternative=true

AS per the request from my readers I am re-publishing this article

Ubuntu 9.04 Required the foll0wing steps to Run Multimedia files like MP3, AVI, Mpeg, Flash file etc...

In Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty jackalop", the universe, multiverse and restricted repositories are activated by default.

For installing Multimedia files you need to add medibuntu repositories.

Run the follwing in command mode it will add medibuntu repositories in your sources list

$ sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/jaunty.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

then Add the GPG Key:

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

Run

$ sudo apt-get update

Now you can Install non-free-codecs

$ sudo apt-get install non-free-codecs

It will enables your system to support for MP3 and various other audio formats, unrar. Java runtime environment, Flash plugin, Microsoft fonts, w32codecs etc!

You can install more codecs and DVD Support by using

$ sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 libxine1-ffmpeg gxine mencoder

It will help you to run DVDs, AVI files and other mpeg codecs.

Now Install Famous VLC player and Mplayer

$ sudo apt-get install vlc mplayer

You can Install following interesting and useful utilities

Audio Editing Software Audacity

$ sudo apt-get install audacity

Adobe Acrobat Reader

$sudo apt-get install acroread acroread-plugins

Here I am trying to collect the Origin of famous Linux Distributions.
Linux is Now World Wide, Most of the Countries are Trying to make their Own Distribution. In India BOSS Linux is trying to attach 18 regional language support.

Debian --> World(No official Owner)
Ubuntu --> Isle of Man( UK) (Canonical ltd.)
Mandriva --> France (Mandrake Soft.) + Brazil(Conectiva Linux)
Fedora --> USA (RedHat Corp.)
OpenSUSE --> Germany (SUSE) + US (Novell)
FreeBSD --> USA
PCLinuxOS --> USA
Gentoo Linux --> USA
CentOS --> Global
Slackware --> USA
MEPIS --> USA
Puppy Linux --> Australia
Linux Mint --> Ireland
Pardus Linux --> Turkey
Sabayon Linux --> Italy
Turbo Linux --> Japan
Miracle Linux - Japan
YOPER Linux -- New Zeland
Knoppix --> Germany
Red Flag Linux -- China
BOSS LINUX --> India

Ubuntu uses nautilus as the default file manager. You can effectively use nautilus to increase your productivity. Here I am telling about a useful hack for power users for opening folders in terminal . See the screen shot below
It allows user to open a selected folder in a terminal window by right clicking on the folder.
For installing "open in terminal" feature you need to install package "nautilus-open-terminal" .
open a terminal

$sudo apt-get install nautilus-open-terminal

or you can use synaptic package manager.

After installing the package you have to logout and login back , Now you can right click on a folder you will get "open in Terminal option.

If you are a Network Administrator some time you need to assign more than ONE ip address (second ipaddress) to your network card of Ubuntu machine. For this you need to edit the /etc/network/interfaces file by adding the following lines . See the example below and make change according to your ip address settings

#vi /etc/network/interfaces

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.5
netmask 255.255.255.0
network x.x.x.x
broadcast x.x.x.x
gateway x.x.x.x

auto eth0:1
iface eth0:1 inet static
address 192.168.0.50
netmask 255.255.255.0
network x.x.x.x
broadcast x.x.x.x
gateway x.x.x.x

after entering the values save this file and you need to restart networking services in ubuntu using the following command to take effect of our new ipaddress.

After entering all the details you need to restart networking services using the following command

#/etc/init.d/networking restart

GCompris is a excellent educational software suite for children aged 2 to 10. Most of the activities are game orientated educational. GCompris offers more than 100 activities in differentclassifications like classified into mathematics, puzzles, computer discovery, amusement activities,strategy games, experimental activities and reading activities. Gcompris is available in more than 40 Languages.

Children can learn Basic Mouse movement, Colour Identification, Basic Asthmatic, Picture drawing and lot more.

More than 20 activities in Mathematics like calculations, geometry , numeration and Money Usage etc.

Install gcmpris in Ubuntu / Debian
Install from Synaptic or

$ sudo apt-get install gcompris

More Screen Shots

Gnomesword is a bible study tool for Linux. Latest version known as Xiphos will available now, But I have tested gnomesword and found it is good and stable. By default it is in arabic bible with english commentary. It is open-source software, and available free-of-charge to all.

To install in ubuntu
System->Administration->Synaptic package manager and search for gnomesword

also add sword-language-pack-en for English bible , lot of athor language support also available

or

open a terminal and type

$ sudo apt-get install gnomesword sword-language-pack-en