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Showing posts from December 11, 2009

Killing a Windows Virus From Linux Using F-Prot

While I enjoy using Linux every day, most of my family continues to use Windows (mostly WinXP) and relies on me for tech support. I have done the usual things such as installing Firefox and MalwareBytes , but they still get some infections. That usually involves running a scanner over and over and some virii evade detection. F-Prot makes commercial virus scanners and has a free home version available for Linux . Download the tar.bz2 file and extract it to /usr/local/share . Then, from the /usr/local/share/f-prot directory, run: # ./install-f-prot.pl and accept the defaults. The /usr/bin/fpscan link to the program will be created and teh virus database will be updated. To scan a Windows drive, remove it and attach it to your Linux computer using a USB adapter, then mount the drive rw (read,write) at, for our example, /media/windows . The run the scanner with: # fpscan --disinfect /media/windows As it progresses, any corrupted or infected files are listed. Any that

Plymouth

Plymouth is a new bootsplash application that replaces splashy for many distros like Fedora and Mandriva. There's not a lot of documentation on how to use it. The themes reside in /usr/share/plymouth/themes/ . You set the default theme with: # plymouth-set-default-plugin themename or # plymouth-set-default-theme themename Then execute: # /usr/libexec/plymouth/ plymouth-update-initrd to make it occur at boot. Plymouth works by using a series of still images to create animation for the display during the init process, so it loads along with the kernel. The scripting uses its own language which is said by one of the developers to be "not hard" to figure out, meaning that we mere mortals may likely have only a difficult time creating our own Plymouth themes. REFERENCES Plymouth - ArchWIKI Plymouth - Ubuntu Plymouth themes: Fix, install, edit and create- Mint PlymouthTheming Guide

Mandriva 2010.0 on the HP Mini 1120NR

I finally got tired of the frustration of trying to learn Ubuntu on the Mini and also annoyed that HP failed to update their version of it so that I could use my EVDO modem (which quit working after their most recent update). It's not that Ubuntu is bad, I'm just used to doing things on Mandriva/Fedora/RedHat systems. What prompted me to make the change was the realization that I was not using the Mini because I disliked the default OS. And it was slow, slow, slow. The Mini I have is the 1120NR with the following hardware: $ lspci 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02