creating an iso from a mounted cd/dvd

dd if=/dev/cdrom of=cd.iso

The location of the CDROM device may vary from computer to computer. If your distribution mounts your CD automatically, execute this to find your device :

mount | grep -i cd

some tips on getting an internet connection in backtrack linux

If you have a wired internet connection, and want to USE it, here’s what you can do :

• for pppoe, run pppoeconf as root, and make the necessary settings ( basically, you just need to fill in your username & password, and go with the default for the rest of the settings ). Choose to start the connection then. For some reason, I have to configure it every time the distro starts. Can’t imagine why.
• for regular cable connection, enable the network interface ( in my case it was eth0 ), by typing the following command:

  ifconfig eth0 up

  and then do:

  dhclient eth0

  This should do the trick ( I tested both these on my computer, and they worked ). For static ip address, you can do this:

  ifconfig eth0 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

  and replace the X’s with the actual address. You may need to configure the routes also. See the route command for that.

how i fixed the sound on backtrack 4

I wanted to try backtrack 4 for a long time. Tonight I finally did. I’m running a Lenovo laptop, with a Intel soundcard.
When logged on as a regular user I noticed I didn’t have sound. Being an avid music fan, this was unacceptable so I started to look for a solution. After googling for a while, and trying all sort of things, I finally found what worked for me: adding the user to the audio group.
To do this, open the /etc/group and look for the audio line. On my system, this was like this :

audio:x:29

To add your user to the group, simply change the line to this:

audio:x:29:user

where user is the name of the user you’re logged in with. Reboot, and you’re done!

Enjoy the sound!

copy a file with a progressbar

If you ever wanted a copy command with a progress bar, you can have this alternative :

pv file > destination

and this will show you a progress bar.

fedora 11

I may be speaking too soon, but I think I like Fedora 11. Seems stable.

I don’t really like Linux anymore

I’m trying to find a good, stable Linux distribution that offers :
– pppoe networking support out-of-the-box ( a.k.a I want the pppoeconf binary to exist )
– NO COMPIZ! NO 3D NOTHING! Those things made Linux the unstable operating system it is today.
– X server that doesn’t take 40% of the CPU.

About 5 years ago, EVERY distribution was VERY stable. They all let you go on with your work. You didn’t have to wait 4-5 seconds so that the desktop gets repainted.

To go back to those times, I’m downloading Fedora 9. If it won’t provide the stability I need, I’ll try Fedora 8. If that still doesn’t provide it, I’ll try 7 and so on.

Stable Linux, we want you back.

flash for linux sucks

I really hate the Linux Flash Player. Something’s gone very wrong with it … people have been complaining about it all those years, but to no result. It’s 2009, and this is still an issue. Hard to believe, right? I don’t find it normal for my web browser to be taking up 100% of my CPU. Sorry, this just isn’t right. This “implementation” makes a whole system unstable. Why haven’t we achieved something all these years?

From this point on, I’m disabling Flash on my browser. I recommend the following firefox addon for doing this : Flashblock. I’ll only allow necessary content to run.

changing the keyboard layout under linux

I recently had to write a text with romanian characters. I wasn’t able to find some GUI tool that enables me to do that.
However,I found a command line tool that did the trick :

setxkbmap ro

After someone issues that command, the romanian characters can be typed by pressing the right Alt key and the desired key.

I found this information here : http://www.gentoo.ro/forum_viewtopic.php?14.9561