Dalla prima email agli occhiali intelligenti, Uni Pavia

Difficile pensare che sia tutto partito da un semplice messaggio trasmesso nella primitiva ragnatela del web. Eppure oggi abbiamo i social netwok, gli OpenData, e persino macchine in grado di guidarsi da sole. Un viaggio tra le più importanti rivoluzioni che l’informatica ha introdotto nella nostra vita quotidiana, senza tralasciare temi come privacy, community, cybercrime, e computer così piccoli da stare in un paio di occhiali.

(6 Giugno 2013, Universita’ di Pavia)

Howto install Debian GNU/Linux on HTC Universal

htc_universallinux_1_tn.jpg

What follows is my personal experince in installing GNU/Linux on a HTC Universal pocketpc. I used Titchy Linux, a Debian Lenny based distribution with special drivers/config for HTC Universal. But the heart is Debian, and full support to Debian repois is grated.

Actually the only not working hardware is:
-camera.
-wifi sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t, the driver is unstable.

First of all, I splitted a 1Gb SD memory stick into two partitions: the first with 32Mb of size and FAT32 filesystem, the second an ext2 filesystem in all the remaining space. In this way, I can port all my config in another HTC (launcher and Linux installation) and show the magic of Linux to all of my Universal-friends. If you need some shared data on memory card, between Windows Mobile and Linux, simply make the FAT32 partition bigger and use it for storing these data.

I followed the steps in Titchy wiki for Universal installation and I copied haret.exe, zImage and startup.txt in the FAT32 memory stick partition. After 30 minutes, thanks to Titchy image, my HTC Universal booted with Linux. Included in the image a very nice sms /calling graphical interface, access to it pressing the green phone key. That’s all, have fun!

For alternative install (no xfce file manager, encripted home partition and lot of tricks) there is another great resource, with lot of useful post-configurations. Be sure to read the Titchy wiki for UMTS and Bluetooth access to the Internet.


RAM CONSIDERATION
: The HTC Universal has only 64 Mb of ram, and the base system, with
textual console, uses 12 Mb of it. XFCE installed by Titchy is nice, but the ram
consumption arrive to 40 Mb and the system responsivity is very bad.
With IceVM, instead, the totat used ram is 24 Mb and the system
responsivity is still good.

And now, general tip’s tricks.

Continue reading “Howto install Debian GNU/Linux on HTC Universal”

Stampare un’immagine su piu’ pagine

blockposter.gif Se avete l’esigenza di stampare un’unica immagine su piu’ pagine, ecco qualche link utile:

Block Posters: questo sito permette di caricare un’immagine JPG grande fino ad 1 Mb, scegliere il formato della carta ed orientamento (A4 o US Letter, verticale o orizzontale) ed indicare il numero di fogli su cui suddividere la stampa. Dopo l’elaborazione, si otterra’ un PDF con l’immagine divisa, fetta dopo fetta, nelle pagine richieste.

The Rasterbator: meccanismo di funzionamento molto simile al primo, con la differenza che l’immagine generata e’ una rasterizzazione dell’immagine di partenza. In pratica l’immagine originale viene trasformata in tanti piccoli punti, che visti da vicino non hanno senso, ma quando si osservano da lontano in una visione d’insieme, ritrovano il loro significato originario. Ideale quindi per stampare grandi poster (anche qualche metro di lato) da appendere su grandi muri.

PRTLGPCT.EXE: Print a Large Bitmap on Multiple Pages: se siete dei programmatori, questo articolo dalla KB della Microsoft mostra come realizzare con poche righe di codice un programma in Visual Basic 6 (ma facilmente riadattabile anche al .NET) per stampare un’immagine suddivisa in piu’ pagine.

Continue reading “Stampare un’immagine su piu’ pagine”

AS/400 tn5250 terminal on Linux

as400term-xt5250_tn
There are lot of ways for accessing to the AS400 functionalities (today know as iSeries, a wide-used “mainframe” produced by IBM) and one of the most important is, surely, the tn5250 terminal emulation.

Under Gnu/Linux, we can do this with different software, and each one has is pros and cons.

Personally i used the tn5250 software for simply terminal emulation, but also the IBM iSeries Access for Linux can be used for most advanced functions.

tn5250 – Linux tn5250 emulator

Under Debian and Debial-like distros (like Kubuntu, that i use), first step is install the tn5250 software

sudo apt-get install tn5250

or use your preferred package manager (synaptic, kpackage, others)

After this, you are virtually ready to connect to your AS400. Just run the following command (172.16.1.1 is the IP address of my AS400):

xt5250 172.16.1.1

The software, like the tn5250 protocol itself, has lot of options, but for my needs the most important are:

  • map: set the translation table between ASCII and EBCDIC. In my case, i use an italian translation map, corresponding to the code 280. For a list of all translation maps, run this command: man tn5250rc and search for the Translation Maps section
  • env.DEVNAME: set the device name for the AS/400 to assign to the 5250 session. In my case, this name is DSP002A
  • env.TERM: Set the terminal model name for the emulation session to use. In my case is IBM-3477-FC (80×132 color mode). For a list of all terminal models, run the same command of above, man tn5250rc, and search for Display Types section
  • font_80: the font used when terminal is in 80 column mode
  • font_132: the font used when terminal is in 132 column mode

Ok, with this parameters, my launch string became:

/usr/bin/xt5250 map=280 env.DEVNAME=DSP002A env.TERM=IBM-3477-FC font_80=10×20 font_132=10×20 172.16.1.1

I put this string in a new menu entries, using the icon from the file /usr/share/pixmaps/tn5250-48×48.png

Kde menu with tn5250 shortcut

Joke is done :)

Little trick: with Ctrl + Right click over the tn5250 window, you can access to the “VT Fonts” menu, and with Ctrl + Left click you can access to the “Main Options” menu.

You can also create a config file with all the options and then launch xt5250 <filename>. Search under the tn5250rc manual page for more information and take a look to this and this useful topic

{mxc}

Mount Windows share (protected by domain username and password) on Linux

What i wanna do

Within a Windows 2000 domain (with Active Directory), i want connect a Linux box to a Windows box share,  and the share have access restrictions on domain users basics, and reconnect each time the linux box restart 

Environment:

  • Windows domain: WINDOMAIN
  • Windows domain user: WINDOMAIN\Rainbow
  • Server name: DMNSRV
  • Server share: \\DMNSRV\rainbow: only domain admins and domain user Rainbow can access to this share
  • Linux user: legolas

Continue reading “Mount Windows share (protected by domain username and password) on Linux”

Wireless network 802.11b (in)security

linuxbeach05

LinuxBeach 2005 and LinuxDay 2005 in Ancona: probably my first two activities as public speaker, to a broader audience that a bunch of CMLug members. And the talks were about insecurity of 802.11b wireless networks, together with tmp.

Topics discussed:

  • Anatomy of a cyber attach (footprinting, scanning, enumeration, gaining access, escalating privilege, pilfering, covering tracks, creating backdoors, denial of service, sniffing, session hijacking)
  • What Wi-Fi is
  • Wardriving e warchalking
  • WEP e WPA Cracking
  • How to protect a Wi-Fi network

ODP format: seminario_wireless_linuxday05 (825 Kb)
PDF format: seminario_wireless_linuxday05 (830 Kb)