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In this instance we are using Parrot Security OS as the main OS for installing and updating grub bootloader. The main reference of this article is based on ' Grub2/Passwords '. First we run grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2 by encrypting password for grub Next we add "superusers" and "password-pbkdf2" to /etc/grub.d/00_header. Finally, we run update-grub. Follow my blog with Bloglovin

GNU/Linux Distro In Reference: Solus 3.99 Solus is a unique GNU/Linux OS. It seems to be independent of any popular distributions. Today, i will share what i have observed in my first month of using Solus 3.99.  Please note my reference is on a non-UEFI Samsung RF410 machine. 1st) Responsiveness My comment on Solus : It is fast relative to Fedora or Debian distro on a same device. I am using Cinnamon DE on Fedora and Mate DE on Parrot Security. For Solus, i also set it as Mate DE which i have used it previously on LMDE 2. 2nd) Unique package system It is using eopkg package system. The term 'eopkg' is derived from its historical beginning as "Evolve OS", hence we can surmise that 'eopkg' is an acronym for 'Evolve OS Package' system. Below is a few commands for handling eopkg system and it is pretty catchy as you need not key in the full command for certain keywords. 'Install': sudo eopkg install <packagename> or sudo eo

My purpose for this snippet is to review the FWTS for diagnosing the ACPI error log during systemd bootup. ACPI is a complex system, what i had given here is really entry level to explore the firmware test suite on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on my Lenovo T400 laptop. Hopefully you can venture even further than i do. Ahoy! less /sys/module/acpi/parameters/aml_debug_output if '0' then debug output is off. We can write '1' as a parameter to enable debug output less /sys/module/acpi/parameters/acpica_version The output shows the acpica version in use by the OS. sudo fwts oops acpiinfo fadt madt rsdp -f -r apic.log -D | dialog --gauge "FWTS" 10 90 This runs the ' acpiinfo ' ' fadt ' ' madt ' ' rsdp ' test of the fwts suite. The " dialog " command allows you to visually see the processing of the " fwts " command The acpidump command allows you to get the dump the debug output of acpi for analysis using "

In my Parrot Security workstation, the Intel Chip overheats quite easily, so i prefer to set a lower Max Frequency and turning Turbo Boost. However, if you have tried and tested on your laptop and you want to set the highest frequency your workstation or server Intel chip is capable off, you may glean some insight from the udev rules created here. Udevadm Info , Udevadm Control or Restart the Laptop Sometimes we may be clueless as to how to implement udev rules accordingly to type of sysfs devices. In this blog, we will be aiming specifically at the cpu devices. Running the below command gives you the key parameter you may insert into your udev rules for turning on or off Intel turbo boost techonology: udevadm info -a -p /sys/devices/system/cpu   The following is an example of what you may see in the terminal: Udevadm info starts with the device specified by the devpath and then walks up the chain of parent devices. It prints for every device found, all possible attribu

Updated 06 June 2018 One of the objective review of vpn services around the world i found belongs to the online user called miri mir who is active on Wilders Security Forum and is active contributor to IVPN, a reasonably good vpn service provider. The link to his 2016 review is: https://vpntesting.info/ Another objective review is attributed to the privacy guy who actively runs a blog "That One Privacy Site". The link to his review is: https://thatoneprivacysite.net/ A third objective review belongs to "Restore Privacy" blog. The link to his review is: https://restoreprivacy.com/ One more good read  is available at a blog called "VPN Analysis: Privacy Redefined". The link is: https://www.vpnanalysis.com/ A fifth objective review is available at a blog titled "VPN Reviewer". The link is: https://vpnreviewer.com/ Another review of vpn providers that provide peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing is available here at the article titl

Once in a while we stumbled into one unknown warning message on our laptop or desktop machine and wish to know how it affects our machine (in terms of security or performance or powersave. Today i going to dig into one bug which seems to happen to some of us running GNU/Linux operating system on legacy Bios machine : ACPI BIOS Warning (bug): 32/64X length mismatch in FADT/Pm1aControlBlock: 16/32 Going to the documentation section for ACPI Component Architecture commissioned by Intel Corporation, we can see a list of documents (pdf and doc format). Intuitively, i select the pdf file under ACPICA user guide and programmer reference and search for the word 'acpi bios'. This leads me to the page titled ' AcpiBiosWarning and ACPI_BIOS_WARNING '. There is a subtiltle stating "Print a formatted warning string for BIOS/firmware issues." It is a short page with the following functional description : This function prints a formatted error message using the A

If you are using Intel {Nehalem} processor running Samsung motherboard, you may face overheating problem and 'catastrophic shutdown': a term which is scary and in reality, it can be. Loss of data and corrupted filesystems or (hopefully you have backed up last week) corrupted hard drive. There maybe a easy solution such as disabling turbo boost in the Bios. (Unfortunately, Samsung RF410 doesn't have such easy solution.) *Digression* If you are booting Windows 10, you can change the 'power options' setting to 'power saver' or 'balanced' mode. Further tweaks include going to 'change advanced power settings' > 'Processor power management': 1) set 'Maximum processor frequency' to a value such as 2000 Mhz (or any value that is lower than your maximum frequency) and, NB: Do ensure your 'Minimum processor state' is set at 50% or higher if you are running heavy duty program. 2) under 'System cooling policy'

Sometimes we feel there is a need to change our username on the GNU/Linux for many different reason. It may be easy or difficult depending on your approach. The easy way out is to boot into recovery as a 'admin priviledged' user and use 'usermod' and 'groupmod' command: 1) usermod -l newusername oldusername 2) groupmod -n newusername oldusername 3) usermod -d /home/newusername  -m newusername The difficult way (or rather more tedious approach) is to use 'vipw' command: 1) vipw -p (replace "oldusername" with "newusername" and "/home/oldusername" with "/home/newusername") 2) vipw -s (replace "oldusername" with "newusername") 3) vigr -g (replace all entries "oldusername" with "newusername") 4) vigr -s (replace all entries "oldusername" with "newusername")

If you have a system that boot using different GNU/Linux init systems such as sysvinit (aka System 5) and systemd (aka System 500) in addition to proprietary Windows system, you may face incorrect time display on one of the aforementioned system. The difference in time display is dependent on the time difference of your location and the UTC time. Further complication may result from concept like Daylight Saving Time (DST). If the Bios is set to localtime, you may fix it in systemd boot system using 'timedatectl' command like: sudo timedatectl set-local-rtc 1 However, if you are using sysvinit and Bios is using localtime, you can set inform the system that local time is being used using 'hwclock' command like: sudo hwclock --localtime or to synchronize the hardware clock with system time and inform the system using: sudo hwclock --systohc --localtime If Bios is using UTC time, you may revert the change with 'timedatectl' like: sudo timedatectl set-lo

Chances are if you run the following setup to harden the Ubiquiti Unifi setup after following instructions at Ubiquiti forum, you are likely to run into problem after each update. The forum article to harden Unifi setup is here "Linux  Unifi Controller default Debian setup is grossly insecure: https://community.ubnt.com/t5/UniFi-Feature-Requests/Linux-Unifi-Controller-default-Debian-setup-is-grossly-insecure/idi-p/1752863  The steps include the following: 1) systemctl stop unifi 2) groupadd unifi 3) useradd -g unifi -s /bin/false -d /dev/null unifi 4) chown -R unifi:unifi /var/log/unifi /var/lib/unifi 5) rm -rf /var/run/unifi 6) cat > /etc/systemd/system/unifi.service.d/security.conf <<EOF [Service] RuntimeDirectory=unifi User=unifi Group=unifi PrivateTmp=true PrivateDevices=true ProtectSystem=full ProtectHome=true NoNewPrivileges=true EOF 7) systemctl daemon-reload 8) systemctl start unifi If you run Fail2ban, it probably shows an error and yo

First, Prepare the Fedora Workstation Live CD using Fedora Media Writer. Next, run the Workstation Live CD and run the console. Then, enter the following commands if you are running the separate boot and root partition: 1) sudo mount /dev/sdaX /mnt Note: sdaX is the root partition 2) sudo mount /dev/sdaW /mnt/boot Note: sdaW is the boot partition The following files are essential for running the essential processes for repairing grub and shall be mounted: 3) sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev 4) sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc 5) sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys 6) sudo mount --bind /var/run /mnt/var/run Now, you are ready to go into the Fedora partitions to repair the grub files. The path should be changed to root user from liveuser> to root>: 7) sudo chroot /mnt If you are running dual boot Windows and Fedora system, the following command will replace the Metro Interface: 8) grub2-install /dev/sda With a dual-boot or multi-boot systems, the follow