For rather long time I’ve been using gtkpod, amarok, banshee, exaile or rhythmbox to sync my ipod under Linux/Ubuntu and load my music collection there. As we all know The Elder Brother Apple fights with interoperability and makes ipod/iphone users to use iTunes only. Any other applications that can read/write to ipod data format are prohibited by Apple. This also concerns Rockbox and ipod4linux alternative firmwares — once Apple encrypted ipod firmware it became impossible to use them. It definitely sucks. At least due to the fact there are millions of Linux users who are real or potential customers of Apple products. Anyways these facts have been discussed in various forums, blogs like this and similar but this post about how to install Windows as the second operating system along with Ubuntu or any other Linux.

The first that we need to do is to create new partition for Windows and format it to NTFS. Exact steps to accomplish this depend on your HDD partition table e.g. there is one large ext3/ext4 partition for Ubuntu or there are several partitions for various distributions or mount points. Anyway you should use partition manager to create and/or format NTFS partition. I use gparted. It is graphical and it just works (use ‘sudo apt-get install gparted‘ if you run Ubuntu/Debian).

Second you should backup your MBR record and restore it after Windows installation that silently erases existing bootloader and installs windows one, use “dd if=/dev/sda of=/mbr.bin bs=446 count=1” to save MRB into mbr.bin file and “dd if=/media/sda/mbr.bin of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1” to restore it from file to HDD.

To sum everything up here is the algorithm:

0. BACKUP ALL YOUR DATA!
1. Create NTFS partition using gparted.
2. Backup MBR using dd command e.g. “dd if=/dev/sda of=/mbr.bin bs=446 count=1″ (/dev/sda means your HDD).
3. Boot Windows installation CD and install it onto newly created NTFS partition.
4. Boot into Linux live CD  e.g. Ubuntu Live CD.
5. Restore MBR using dd e.g. “dd if=/media/sda/mbr.bin of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1″.
6. Reboot.
7. Select Ubuntu in grub menu and boot it.
8. Setup grup for Windows booting.

In order to accomplish the last 8th item you should add the following text block to the end of grub config (read this article for detailed information):

title Microsoft Windows XP
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

Good luck!

P.S. If something goes wrong or you need more details you can take a look at the following article at ubuntu.com: Recovering Ubuntu After Installing Windows. It’s written in rather tangled manner but still informative.

Today it came to my mind that it is time to make sensitive information stored on my usb flash drive encrypted but still transportable and easy to use. But I don’t want to have whole my 32 GB usb drive fully encrypted using truecrypt or something similar. It is just toooo slow. I also don’t want to use GPG for uncompressing files and directories every time I would like to read them and then create new GPG compressed file every time I save changes. This eats too much of my time and system resources. At the same time it is necessary to be able to use that usb drive under windows, mac, linux whatever (read/write files) but still have my directory structure with sensitive files encrypted. Here is the solution: create encrypted filesystem within a file named, say, 16GB.candy.bin that could be stored on regular windows formatted usb flash drive and then mounted under Linux using the password.

When it becomes necessary I can mount that 16GB.candy.bin as the regular ext3 filesystem with all those stuff like permissions, ownership etc. that is available on ext3 but not in FAT or NTFS. On my windows formatted flash drive candy takes only 16 GB so I can use the rest of space to store not so sensitive information like mp3, movies or photos. Moreover I on windows or linux to read it.

Let’s create that 16GB.candy.bin file with encrypted ext3 filesystem (read below explanations below carefully before just to copy/paste commands into CLI):

[root@artemn root]# cd /path/to/candy/

[root@artemn root]# tune2fs -i 0 -c 0 /dev/loop0

Here are some points: using above commands we create encrypted file of 16 GB so if you need to have more or less just change “count=16000″ in dd line. “count=16000″ means 16GB so “count=20″ means 20MB. Path ‘/path/to/candy/’ is for example only so you should change it to real directory that is able to host encrypted file (16 GB in above example). Command losetup is present in most Linux distributions (btw I recommend Ubuntu especially newly released Lucid Lynx) but if it is not use your disro’s packet manager to install it or compile from sources (for super geeks only, Mr. Stallman if you read this article — Hello). Reader, you can replace “/dev/urandom” in dd line with “/dev/zero” that will make that command to finish faster but will lower security level of resulting file (read about AES for better understanding). You will need to enter the password when running losetup command so make sure it safe and long enough like ‘6U2sAsR37Hn8122dGsaPrew1twt’ but not ‘abc123′ or ‘iloveyou’.

Once commands are done you will get 16GB.candy.bin containing encrypted ext3 filesystem. You can store this file where ever you want, say, on a flash drive. If you loose it nobody won’t be able to open it until he (or she!) cracked AES encryption (use long passwords to prevent this). As the next step it is required to mount filesystem and store some files/directories in it:

[root@artemn root]# mkdir -p /mnt/candy

[root@artemn root]# umount /mnt/candy

When you unmount 16GB.candy.bin the changes are already saved there so it’s not required to compress and encrypt anything unlike with GPG.

P.S. This post is inspired by Loopback tricks article. Thanks to the author. Good luck!

Unison is a file-synchronization tool for Unix and Windows. It allows two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to date by propagating the changes in each replica to the other.

Unison that is available for Linux, Unix and Windows, shares a number of features with tools such as CVS, PRCS, Subversion, BitKeeper, distributed filesystems (e.g. Coda), uni-directional mirroring utilities (such as rsync), and other synchronizers (Intellisync, Reconcile, etc).

This article tells how to sync data between Desktop PC and laptop with Unison.

First of all register new account at ZYB or login to existing one at www.zyb.com. After first successful login you’ll be suggested to register your mobile phone model with the online system. Just choose your model in a wide phone models list. In my case I choose Motorola Razr V3.

In order to upload your phone contacts to your contacts and calendar/datebok data to ZYB perform the following operations with your Motorola Razr v3:

When sync is done you’ll see your contacts at your personal ZYB page. It’s very comfortable to edit them online and then sync with your Razr V3 by performing 13 step of above operations list.

ZYB provides a feature that allows to sync data between many mobile phones you own. Many phone models are supported, so it would be useful to check if it is supported by ZYB before buying it

You may also be interested in:
EV-DO Internet access with Ubuntu Linux
Download and convert YouTube video online and offline
Inimitable wallpapers, icons and themes for Linux

First of all, we need to find where all our virtual machines are in our system. After small search I’ve found vmware files in /var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines. There are some set of directories each corresponds to some of your already created virtual machines. In my case I was interested in cloning virtual machine with name db1 to new machine db2 and then to db3.

Continue reading about virtual machines cloning with Vmware Server…

Probably you’re interested also in:
Vmware Server at Ubuntu Feisty 7.04

First of all it’s necessary to partition new hard drive in the same way as it’s done with old drive (Linux is running at). I usually use ‘fdisk’ utility. Let’s assume that old drive is /dev/hda and new one is /dev/hdb. To view hda’s partition table please run ‘fdisk -l /dev/hda’ which should show something like this:

Disk /dev/hda: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 15 120456 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 16 276 2096482+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda3 277 7297 56396182+ 83 Linux

After this run ‘fdisk /dev/hdb’ and make the same partitions at it. Interactive mode of fdisk utility is well documented and is very intuitive, so I don’t think it would be difficult to perform partitioning.

After this is done, we should make new filesystems at partitions we’ve created:

mkfs -t ext3 /dev/hdb1
mkfs -t ext3 /dev/hdb3
mkswap /dev/hdb2

When it’s done it’s NECESSARY to mark newly created filesystems as it’s done with old ones. To check filesystem volume name run command ‘tune2fs -l /dev/hda1 | grep volume’ and etc. You’ll see something like this:

Filesystem volume name: /boot

It means that we should mark new hdb1 with label /boot. It can be done by command:

tune2fs -L “/boot” /dev/hdb1

The same should be performed for all partitions except swap one. In my case I should label hdb3 by command:

tune2fs -L “/” /dev/hdb3

At this point new hard drive preparation is finished and we can proceed with moving Linux to it. Mount new filesystem and change directory to it:

mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt/hdb1
cd /mnt/hdb1

When it’s done we can perform moving by command:

dump -0uan -f – /boot | restore -r -f -

And the same with / partition:

mount /dev/hdb3 /mnt/hdb3
cd /mnt/hdb3
dump -0uan -f – / | restore -r -f -

When dump/restore procedures are done we should install boot loader to new HDD. Run ‘grub’ utility and execute in it’s console:

root (hd1, 0)
setup (hd1)
quit

In case everything is done carefully and right (I’ve tested this method by myself) you can boot from new hard drive and have ‘old’ Linux running at new hard drive running.

Good luck!

As it usually seems annoying for me to get phone connected to PC via usb cable, bluetooth or etc. I’m using FREE online backup service ZYB.

By means of this service I regularly synchronize my phone data with online storage and in case if phone is lost or broken I restore contacts and etc. to new phone easily.

To get your cell phone data backed up it’s only needed to register at www.zyb.com, choose phone model, get synchronization settings via sms and synchronize data with online backup storage. It took less than 3 minutes to finish when I used it for the first time!

Very nice service and absolutely free (as beer)!

First of all it’s necessary to get all servers to be accessible to each other via ssh. Read your distribution’s manual to find out how to achieve it.

There are several possible ways to move Linux to another server by means of using dump/restore utilities over ssh. I’ve chosen this one: I’ve saved source server’s filesystem backup to third server over ssh and then restored this backup to target server (again over ssh).

To do this I’ve installed dump 0.4b41 onto source server and performed the following commands to save it’s /boot and / filesystems backups to third server (both in one line):

dump -0uan -f – /boot | ssh -c aes256-cbc @ dd of=/home/artemn/backup/dump/dump-boot-l0.bak

and

dump -0uan -f – / | ssh -c aes256-cbc @ dd of=/home/artemn/backup/dump/dump-root-l0.bak

It took several hours to transmit 20Gb over Internet in my case. If you’re performing these operations remotely I recommend to use utility screen to be sure that transmitting won’t be stopped when ssh session to source server is closed. To use it just login to source server over ssh and type screen and then dump command with necessary agruments (see below). In case you’ve been disconnected just ssh again and restore screen session by command screen -r.

You can control above mentioned dump command activity by watching file size of dump-root-l0.bak and dump-boot-l0.bak files at third server.

After dump is finished you can check backup at third server by performing restore -i -f dump-root-l0.bak and walking through directories in backup file (use ls command). For further information read restore manual (interactive restore section): man restore.

Then login to target server and partake hard disk in the same way as it’s done at source server. In my case I’ve created three partitions /dev/sda1 for /boot, /dev/sda2 for / and /dev/sda3 for swap. Target server can be running Live CD like Knoppix and have only one hardware drive.

When partitioning is done create filesystems at every partition:

mkfs -t ext2 /dev/sda1

mkfs -t ext2 /dev/sda2

mkswap /dev/sda3

Then set volume labels to just created filesystems by commands:

tune2fs -L “/boot” /dev/sda1

and

tune2fs -L “/” /dev/sda2

Labels should be the same as at source server (you can see them by executing tune2fs -l /dev/sda1 and tune2fs -l /dev/sda2 at source server). Sometimes it’s also necessary to set up volume label for swap filesystem.

When it’s done mount created filesystems by commands:

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1

and

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/sda2

(be sure that /mnt/sda1 and /mnt/sda2 are created).

To restore filesystem from backed up copy, ‘cd‘ to destination directory and restore data by commands:

cd /mnt/sda1

and

ssh @ “cat /home/artemn/backup/dump/dump-boot-l0.bak” | restore -r -f -

then

cd /mnt/sda2

and

ssh @ “cat /home/artemn/backup/dump/dump-root-l0.bak” | restore -r -f -

In case of success /mnt/sda1 and /mnt/sda2 will contain the same files at /boot and / directories at source server.

When filesystems restoration is done we should install boot loader onto hard drive of target sever: start grub console by typing grub and then type root (hd0, 0), then setup (hd0). After this boot loader will be installed and target server can be booted from hard disk.

Note: be sure that dump and restore commands run at source and target servers are of same versions as it causes problems sometimes. I’ve used 0.4b41 at Fedora Core 1 (source) and Knoppix (target server).

Another note: I’ve spent a day to solve the problem with kernel panic when booting into target server’s hard disk. The problem was in volume labels. So don’t forget to set them.

Hope it helps somebody! Good luck, mates!