Archives par mot-clé : Security

Drupal 5.x and 6.x LoCo Suite Released

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David Giard, a founding member of the Ubuntu Quebec LoCo Team, relayed these news to me this morning (via The Fridge):

NOT A FORK – as soon as I posted this I got a comment about this being a fork, well, it’s not! It’s a collection of modules and a theme, which are managed via a project in Launchpad. This is not a separate fork of Drupal! 🙂

Drupal 5.x and 6.x LoCo Suite Released

That long needed suite of tools has finally been completed.

This suite is designed for any Ubuntu Local Communities wanting to host a website. It is designed to allow any LoCo team to quickly create a website using Drupal for their team.

What this suite offers:

  • An approved theme for any LoCo
  • A highly customizable theme
  • Launchpad OpenID integration
  • -> Users don’t need to create an account on your site
  • Launchpad Teams integration
  • -> Can control access levels in site based on LP team memberships
  • Fast and friendly support

Official project: launchpad.net/loco-drupal/

Release Downloads:

Drupal 5.x: launchpad.net/loco-drupal/5.x/0.5.0

Drupal 6.x: launchpad.net/loco-drupal/6.x/1.1.0

Drupal 7.x: in development

A Special Thanks:

This project would not be possible without all the collaboration involved.

The Ubuntu South Dakota Local Community – Michael Lustfield

The Ubuntu Quebec Local Community – David Giard

Joey Stanford

Stuart Metcalfe

 

Easy, free removable storage encryption that works with Ubuntu Hardy and Intrepid

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I’ve been playing with encryption for some time now and I am always curious about removable storage encryption.

There are tons of guides to do this but it always seems to require either too many steps or some non-free software. I’ve been using this method succesfully adapted from this post for some time now so I wanted to share it here, if anyone has better ideas I’d love to hear it. Removable storage encrypted using this method can also be read directly from Intrepid Live CD sessions as Intrepid now includes cryptsetup by default.

You will need to install the cryptsetup package in Hardy, and also gparted as a helper graphical application to setup partitions and format your media. Gparted is already available on LiveCD sessions. Yes I know this can be done in command line, but I try to limit that as I show this to other CLI-agnostic friends.

Notice I’ve added a step (formatting with a regular partition first), and I used partitions instead of device names.

Find out which device your stick is by issuing from command line:
sudo lshw -C disk -short

This may also help detect other types of storage:
Find out which device your stick is by issuing from command line:
sudo lshw -C storage -short

Example output:
H/W path Device Class Description
=======================================================
/0/100/1f.1/0 /dev/sda disk 251GB Maxtor 6L250R0
/0/100/1f.1/1 /dev/sdb disk 251GB Maxtor 6L250R0
/0/100/1f.1/2 /dev/cdrom disk DVD-RW DVR-110D
/0/100/1f.1/3 /dev/cdrom1 disk RW/DVD GCC-4521B
/0/100/1f.1/3/0 /dev/cdrom1 disk
/0/1/0.0.0 /dev/sdc disk 256MB Cruzer Micro
/0/1/0.0.0/0 /dev/sdc disk 256MB

In this case the device is /dev/sdc.

Next make sure the device is unmounted:
sudo umount /dev/sdc1

Format your removable storage device using gparted, create one single ext3 partition on it. This will end up being partition /dev/sdc1 (assuming your device is /dev/sdc like in my example).

If you do not want to encrypt the whole removable storage, repartition it using gparted.

Overwrite the created partition with an encrypted partition on the target media:
sudo luksformat /dev/sdc1

This will ask you for a passphrase. The default file system is “vfat”, but you can specify a different one with the “-t” option. An example of the same, using an ext3 partition:
sudo luksformat -t ext3 /dev/sdc1

Make sure you type YES in all capitals when prompted, read the prompts carefully.

After this procedure, remove the stick and plug it in again. This should trigger a dialog which asks you for the passphrase and mounts the encrypted partition (along with any unencrypted one, of course).

I was able to read a stick encrypted this way in other computers, just by installing cryptsetup on them. You will need to install cryptsetup and reboot every computer where you want to access this.

Intrepid already comes with cryptsetup installed BTW.

I hear this kind of encrypted removable media can also be read from Windows using FreeOTFE but I haven’t tried it. If anyone can share how to do that, I’d also like to hear about it.

Just a little warning at the end: Please be aware that if you lose the passphrase, I CAN’T HELP RECOVERING THE DATA! This may sound obvious but in a previous posting about this I got private requests about such problems. No comments!

 

The single most important thing you should know about Ubuntu…

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… if you’re new around or if you’re introducing someone else to Ubuntu for the first time, I think a critical read is the following link:

Painfully obvious ? Rightfully so.

Many new (and old) « converts » ask questions about how to compile applications, manually install .deb packages… those should be the last one needs to do when installing applications in Ubuntu (or any Linux for that matter), at least when you want to keep the system as close as possible to regular, supported security/feature updates and upgrades as possible.

I am still a bit surprised when I get a comment like « I’ve been trying to compile/install XYZ for a few days/hours » and there almost always is a solution using packages part of the regular repositories! For those special cases when there isn’t I have a million suggestions, but compiling is far from the top of my list.

Another friendly advice, also consider asking on the Launchpad « Answers » system or showing your new converts how to do that, many times you may find things in Ubuntu are done in a slightly different way – not always obvious, most of the time easier. Don’t take my word for it 😉 Asking where or how to get help is OK too.

Last but not least, http://www.ubuntu.com/support provides links to official docs, free community support and even commercial options. Chances are there is a Local Community Team in your area, know it, promote it, join it, use it!

There’s only one better thing than discovering Ubuntu, and that is knowing where its community is and how to tackle into it and even participate in it. I’ve found when new users are empowered to do this, they don’t have to depend on me at all for future support! Well, unless they want 24/7 immediate phone support, that is 😉

 

Become a router port forwarding guru in 5 minutes

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If you’ve ever helped someone over the phone change any router configuration, you know it’s a bit of a challenge to guide anyone through the mazes of menus and options each different router has just to enable port forwarding for any given application.

Fear not, you can now become your local neighborhood router guru, just bookmarkhttp://www.portforward.com and have it handy when someone requests you mighty knowledge. If you feel like letting anyone else in to this carefully guarded secret, do so at your own risk 🙂

Thanks for the tip, David!

 

Canonical hiring

Canonical is hiring and the positions list is growing by the day. If you’d like to join a place where IRC is a requirement, colleagues are in almost every timezone, and hacking your home electronics is rather common, check the list and also how to apply.

Contact me if you have any questions.

July 2008 postings

  • GNOME Developer, Online Services

    • Job Location: At home with broadband, in an American/European time zone. This job involves international travel three to four times a year, usually for one week.

  • QA Engineer, Online Services

    • Job Location: Home based with broadband. This job involves international travel several times a year, usually for one week.

  • Engineering Manager, Linux Desktop Experience Team

    • Job Location: Millbank Tower, London; UK preferably

  • Web Developer, Business Information Systems

    • Job Location: At home with broadband. This job involves international travel several times a year, usually for periods of one or two weeks.

  • Web Developer, Online Services

    • Job Location: Home based with broadband. This job involves international travel several times a year, usually for one week

  • ISV Relationship Manager

    • Job Location: The role will involve significant travel, most of which will be in the US and Europe. Boston, London or San Francisco are the preferred locations

  • Security Engineer

    • Job Location: Your home, as long as you have broadband. Some international travel will be required.

  • Engineering Manager

    • Job Location: Your home (given appropriate facilities including broadband Internet) in an American or European time zone.

June 2008 postings

May 2008 postings

April 2008 postings

March 2008 postings

February 2008 postings