LVM GUI Tools

LVM is not simple to deal with. And although I do believe that I must know how to deal with it by using CLI environment, it's always a good thing to know how to use some LVM GUI tools. This article presents some good ones. Just remember: first and foremost, you must understand how it works under the hoods, and then dare to test some of these good tools.

Read the article at https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/review-gui-lvm-tools

SD Card on Ubuntu 16.04

I have tried to access my pictures on my Ubuntu desktop 16.04, the Xenial Xerus. Did not work! The solution was install some packages that were lacking:

sudo apt-get install exfat-fuse exfat-utils

After that, it still did not work! I should have to do something else manually. Simply restarted and it worked!

Thanks to Ubuntu Geek for this tip!

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Apple devices massive attack

Recently I wrote here about security for end users, comparing Apple and Linux softwares with Microsoft Windo

Unfortunately, I have just learned that a massive attack is ongoing on several Apps for Apple's mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, etc).

I have read many technical news with their "weird" jargon. And here is, in simple words, what happened:

Software developers need XCode, a software tool provided by Apple itself. Many of them downloaded a Chinese version of the tool, instead of Apple's original version. So, the softwares built with these forfeit version of XCode are all compromised. Roughly, there may be something around 400-500 softwares compromised.

What damage can they cause?
According to BBC, "[...]the perpetrators would also be able to send fake alerts to infected devices to trick their owners into revealing information. It added they could also read and alter information in compromised devices' clipboards, which would potentially allow them to see logins copied to and from password management tools"

What can be done?
You should remove the App if it is one of the compromised. You can read here is a list of some of them, but this list is not complete. Good news: Apple is taking car of it for you! According to CNBC, "Apple said it was cleaning up its iOS App Store to remove malicious iPhone and iPad programs identified in the first large-scale attack on the popular mobile software outlet". Bad news: Apple has not finished it's cleaning job.

Conclusion:
Please, just do not go on installing any Apps just because the daughter of the distant cousin of the neighbor of your friend's dentist told you "it rocks"!!! It does not matter which device you have, you might be in for it.

Desktop Market Share - 2015

I have just found out this interesting statistics about desktop computers. And it tells me some more interesting possibilities:

- Apple Operating System is by far better than Windows in everything, everybody know this. But according to these statistics, it is the 5th most popular OS. Well, it is not that easy to work a "hackintosh", and Apple OS is originally installed on Apple computers ONLY, wich are MUCH more expensive than PCs, like this old I5 of mine.

- Windows XP is still under that heavy use? SERIOUSLY? Unless you pay MS for it, you will not have the security updates that you really need. And most people will definitively not pay for this. But, they are still using XP for activities like ... their bank account. This is insane, almost a financial suicide. But, I think that the word "security" is still not clear enough to people in general. Until something bad really happens.

- Okay, Linux definitively is not ready for desktops, although I've been using it for almost 10 years, and I DO CONSIDER it as the most affordable and safe option. But anyway, Linux market share has overcame the old Apple OS versions. No, it is not superior to these recently old Apple OS versions (not yet, and it will take a long time to happen). Apple users update their OS more frequently than Linux and Windows users, and older versions become less used very quickly. That's why Linux has "beaten" them.

This universe of desktops, will always be so difficult to be understood...

The full statistic link can be read here.

Best tools for Ubuntu 12.10

After installing Ubuntu (starting on 12.10), there are some CLI and GUI tools that must be installed. Here I want to enlist some of them. I will keep this post in constant modification.

Here how to install the CLI tools:

$ sudo apt-get install nmap vim traceroute iptraf iftop ipcalc aptitude rar zip unzip arj htop whois ssh tree smem

There are also some GUI tools really cool:

$ sudo aptitude install k3b vlc audacity easytag wireshark 
kazam guvcview ubuntu-restricted-extras

And here is a brief description about each one:

• nmap - Remote Host Scanner
• vim - Text editor
• traceroute - Network tracer
• iptraf - Network monitor
• iftop - Display bandwidth usage on an interface by host
• ipcalc - Network Calculations
• aptitude - Better than apt-get
• rar, zip, unzip, arj - File compression tools
• htop - Show process activities
• whois - Show data about Internet domains
• ssh - Allows remote connection
• tree - Shows directory structure with ASCII characters
• smem - Powerful memory utilzation tool
• k3b - Excellent CD/DVD burner
• vlc - Excellent media player
• easytag - Excellent media tag editor
• wireshark - Excellent and very complete sniffer, 100% compatible with tcpdump
• kazam - Make videos from whatever is working on your desktop 
• guvcview - Webcam software

Some PPAs that I like and recommend:

Ubuntu Tweaks

According to the project in Launchpad, "Ubuntu Tweak is an application which makes configuring Ubuntu easier for everyone. It allows tweaking of many useful desktop and system configuration options which are unavailable via native system tools".

According to Ubuntu Tweaks site, "Ubuntu Tweak is an application designed to config Ubuntu easier for everyone. It provides many useful desktop and system options that the default desktop environment doesn't provide. At present, it's only designed for the Ubuntu GNOME Desktop, and always follows the newest Ubuntu distribution".

To install it, type this in a command line:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install ubuntu-tweak

For more info, read Web UPD8 site on this subject.

Unity Tweaks

According to it's site, "Ubuntu Tweak is an application designed to config Ubuntu easier for everyone. It provides many useful desktop and system options that the default desktop environment doesn't provide. At present, it's only designed for the Ubuntu GNOME Desktop, and always follows the newest Ubuntu distribution".

To install, type this in a command line:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install ubuntu-tweak