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In a previous article I discussed several ways to reset/recover/circumvent root password. While the article was written to assist people who have lost or forgotten a root password it was also a statement about security. As I was reading up on the subject I noticed there are some things I didn't know about, as my knowledge of the subject has aged a bit.

This document explains how to set up a fully encrypted para-virtualized XEN instance. In this howto, the host system is running Debian Etch, while the guest system to be installed will be using Debian Lenny. If you are concerned about your privacy, you might want to consider using hard disk encryption to protect your valuable private data from spying eyes. Usually, the easiest way would be to use your distribution's installer to set up a fully encrypted system; I think most recent Linux distributions support this. However, when you are using XEN to provide virtualization, there are situations where you might not want to encrypt your whole computer with all guest instances, but instead only encrypt one OS instance. This howto will deal with exactly this situation. It assumes that the XEN host system is already up and running.

For Linux users who don't need absolute top-notch 3D performance, Intel is considered the preferred graphics solution, not least because the company develops its drivers as open source within the framework of the X.org project. However Intel’s drivers are currently in a state of some disarray.

It has been a while since last talking about OpenSolaris 2009.06 at Phoronix, but this weekend we decided to fire up Sun's latest build based upon the SXCE 111a build available from Genunix. Enclosed are a few screenshots and other information about this Sun community operating system that should be officially released within a month.

Google and the members of the Open Handset Alliance have been sued for $94 million for trademark violation. The case is being brought by Erich Specht and Android Data Corp, who were granted a trademark on "Android Data" in 2002. Android Data Corp is a small private company based in Palantine, Illinois. In 2007, Google applied for the Android trademark, just before launching its mobile phone operating systems. In February 2008, the PTO rejected that application citing the Android Data trademark. Google appealed, saying Android Data had lost it's claim due to inactivity, but the PTO rejected that and other appeals and suspended Google's application in November 2008.

Here's a review of top 10 applications for KDE4.

One might think that the ext3 filesystem, by virtue of being standard on almost all installed Linux systems for some years now, would be reasonably well tuned for performance. Recent events have shown, though, that some performance problems remain in ext3, especially in places where the fsync() system call is used. It's impressive what can happen when attention is drawn to a problem; the 2.6.30 kernel will contain fixes which seemingly eliminate many of the latencies experienced by ext3 users. This article will look at the changes that were made, including a surprising change to the default journaling mode made just before the 2.6.30-rc1 release.

The next Portland State Aerospace Society rocket, scheduled for first launch this summer, will have new hardware, including a switch from CAN to USB.

The VAR Guy is hanging out today at SMB Nation, a conference for small business VARs — most of whom work with Microsoft. Still, open source companies like Untangle and xTuple have quietly found a home at the conference.

War is Hell. Unless you're not all there ;)

Fedora 11 Xen hypervisor package contains pv_ops dom0 kernel support, ie. it is able to boot bzImage format dom0 kernels, and pv_ops sysfs memory ballooning support is included as well. These features/patches are backported from Xen 3.4 development/unstable version to Fedora’s Xen 3.3.1. Xen-3.3.1-11.fc11.src.rpm may be rebuilt on F10 with the most recent updates installed. Obtained set of RPMS allow to install Xen 3.3.1 Hypervisor on F10,having same features as on F11, what was, actually, already done by Michael Young and Pasi Kärkkäinen.

The Open Invention Network, an industry organization that protects Linux by acquiring and licensing open-source patents, is taking Microsoft to task over three patents related to its now-settled lawsuit against in car GPS device maker TomTom. Microsoft sued TomTom in February for allegedly infringing on eight of its patents, three of which pertained to TomTom's implementation of the Linux kernel. At the time, Microsoft officials said the suit wasn't the start of a patent enforcement campaign against Linux, but didn't rule out further lawsuits.

Herrie is a small music player for console, based upon the ncurses interface. It features a simple interface with two panels, a playlist and a file browser. Herrie can play Ogg Vorbis and MP3 and also has AudioScrobbler (Last.fm) support.

Before building anything you have to have a design, a plan, because if you don't know where you're going you won't get there. What drives the plan? The needs of the user. Oh I know, this is anathema to the "scratch your own itch" philosophy. But that particular philosphy has been misrepresented and distorted into something self-centered, a "If you don't like it then don't use it" attitude, when in fact it isn't:

"7. Release early. Release often. And listen to your customers."

Looks like Google could be deep water, along with the Open Handset Alliance and some 40 or so companies, over an apparent trademark infringement.

Once I filled up a few screens complaining about how LogMeIn failed me in OpenBSD, I was too far along to report how I feel about Ubuntu 8.04 after not booting into it for almost a month, during which time I used a nearly identical Toshiba laptop running OpenBSD 4.4, lately using the Xfce desktop environment.

Plenty of people jumped on the bandwagon when Ubuntu 9.04 debuted on April 23. But independent software vendors (ISVs) were mostly absent from the launch party. Fast forward to Ubuntu 9.10’s anticipated launch in October 2009, and Canonical hopes to deliver a far more impressive ISV story. Here’s the scoop.

Hitslink.com just releasted their april market share stats and linux passed 1% for the first time ever. Shown is a plot of the linux market share for the past several years based on hitslinks’ stats.

Financial troubles are an ever more common reality as the economic climate continues to venture through the monsoon season, and not-for-profit organizations are no exception. Such appears to be the case for the GNOME Foundation, the forces behind the venerable GNOME desktop, as the organization's 2009 budget is finalized and thoughts — and worries — turn to 2010.

I booted the Toshiba 1100-S101 with Ubuntu 8.04 for the first time in 25 days, according to the Update Manager. Or at least it was 25 days since I updated the install. Either way, I've been running a nearly carbon copy of this laptop with OpenBSD 4.4, lately with the Xfce 4.4 desktop environment, and I'd gotten quite used to it. But last night, here I am, 10 p.m., working at home, and I discover that LogMeIn — the service that makes it easy to control an XP box from (allegedly) any other box in any other OS with a Web browser — just doesn't like OpenBSD.