Category Archives: Linux/Ubuntu

This year I have again started to learn linux with Ubuntu Lucid Lynx and Karmic Kola.

GPT partition, no bootable disk, Grub error

Posted on by
Reply

Grub bootloader not recognised by old Bios.

Installation of grub 2:

Grub 2 was installed on a 500 GB hard disk with separate home and swap partitions. In the beginning a small partition was left with grub_boot flag to be used by grub for booting. The installation was LinuxMint 15 Olivia. The hard disk was partitioned with GPT and had hybrid MBR table as well. The system return the message ‘No bootable disk’ and refused to boot.

An old machine:

This machine was an old 1.4 gz, core 2 duo Intel, of last decade but in surprisingly immaculate condition.

There was no problem in booting from live CD/USB. Continue reading →

Iphone 5: A dangerous security risk.

Posted on by
6
Iphone 5 black.

Iphone 5.

Gross data insecurity in iPhone.

And you thought your expensive iPhone is secured?

You were entirely wrong. What is secured is the operating system but not the data or at least not the entire data.

Here it was. A sleek black iPhone 5 with OS 6.1.3 gifted to me by a friend who had fallen in love with her iPhone due to its simplicity and ease in use. With usual scepticism for all expensive gadgets I started using it and the smoothness of operations even with all apps running, was most impressive. There was no lag in the camera shutter. Pictures had far more depth and details than expected. Most apps similar to Android were available and certainly far more than Blackberry. Fonts are sharp, even if smaller. No usual ruggedness of Android. But that was end of it.

iPhone data especially camera pictures vulnerable:

Continue reading →

Installing Sigil Epub editor on Ubuntu Raring

Posted on by
Reply

Sigil the open source ebook editor.

Sigil: ePub editor.

Sigil is a very good e-book editor. In fact it has no known parallel. There are two ways to install it in Ubuntu/LinuxMint:

First method to install Sigil in Ubuntu Raring Ringtail 13.04 /LinuxMint Petra:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sunab/sigil-git Continue reading →

Installing Linux Mint on 32 GB USB drive with separate home folder.

Posted on by
2

Linux Mint/Ubuntu on 32 GB USB drive with persistent home folder.

Regular install attempt with Ubiquity:

With large capacity USB drives becoming cheap, it is axiomatic that an installation of Ubuntu/Linux should be desired thereon. That would be so nice to carry a pendrive in pocket instead of laptop. But it is not easy. On every try Regular installer of Mint 15, Olivia (13, Maya is a stable LTS version) ubiquity, the installer would crash and hang without a clue. A little research revealed an interesting paradoxical result. The USB in question was 3.0 and class 10 which is fastest, yet it was slower than the hard drive. As per specification the read speed was about 70 mb per second but write speed was 20 mb per second. Another problem is the way data is written on USB. To simplify suffice it to say, USB is not made for regular, long-term simultaneous r/w by OS. Speed becomes irrelevant. So what was the option?

A hybrid persistent ‘Live’ install with separate ‘home’: Continue reading →

Recovering from encrypted /home in Linux.

Posted on by
Reply

Encrypted home folder in Linux/Ubuntu/Mint

Recovery of Files:

To recover files from an encrypted /home folder in Ubuntu/Mint we need to remember the login password of the Ubuntu/Mint installed on that disk. Boot from the live cd or USB. Let’s hope that encrypted disk is readable. Enter following command at the terminal:

sudo ecryptfs-recover-private

It will result in following output: Continue reading →