Linux
Checking user access to files in Linux
How can I know if a user has access to a file or a folder in Linux? Also, what groups is a user a member of? A few things I can never remember how to do.
📖 Posts | 📎 Enterprise, Linux, Microsoft, Operating Systems, Software, Windows | 🔖 Configuration, Cross-Platform, Enterprise Systems, Group Policy, Microsoft, Microsoft InTune, Microsoft Windows administrators, Mobile Device Management, Operations, software delivery, System Center Configuration Manager, Windows desktops
DSC vs. GPO vs. SCCM vs. MDM (Intune)
Microsoft Windows administrators now have a number of ways for managing their estates. Group Policy (GPO) Allows very fine-grained control over every aspect of Windows. Primarily aimed at Windows desktops. Requires Active Directory (AD) and very careful configuration. Requires well trained specialist staff to get it right. System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) Allows central control over software delivery. Also requires AD. Configuration of delivery packages can be complex and very careful change control is required.
SSH Error: "ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host"
Fixing up an SSH login error after moving to a new ISP. “ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host” is caused by the lack of a reverse DNS entry.
Flashing the BIOS from Linux (OpenSUSE 11.0)
I’ve been a bit quiet here recently because I’ve mainly been working with my business laptop currently running Windows 7. You can see more about this on my other blog – [Much Ado about IT][1]. However, the power supply on that died recently so I’m back to my trusty desktop which runs OpenSUSE 11.0 24×7. I managed to get hold of an upgraded CPU for this a while back but I’ve not really had an incentive to upgrade till now.
Sun’s VirtualBox gets on with it!
Yep, I keep being amazed by the quality of VirtualBox which is now owned by Sun. I need to set up a virtual machine to test and demo Sun’s Identity Management (IdM) suite and it needs to be usable with VMware too. So I headed over to the VMware Appliances web site and downloaded a pre-canned Debian 5 server. This is recognised fine by VirtualBox! I gave the VM a Host Networked connection to the network and with no further configuration, fired up the VM.
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.
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 .
Keeping information secure but accessible across platforms
One of the issues with Linux is that I can’t use it under all circumstances. In particular I usually have to work with Windows at work. So I need cross-platform tools, especially now that I also make extensive use of a smartphone/PDA. So here is a timely post – with the number of people in UK government departments carelessly loosing private or secret information, how do we keep this stuff secure while still being accessible from different platforms?
