Some distros have sexy boot screens, some have basic, boring ones. Here's what I get from a default installation of Kubuntu...


What a yawn! But there's an easy way to spice them up. Add either or both of the grub-splashimages...




and kubuntu-grub-splashimages packages...



To add a new splash image, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and add the line

splashimage /boot/grub/splashimages/FILENAME.xpm.gz

DIY Splashing

If you find the above selection a bit dull, its a doddle to create your own.

The images used by the grub bootloader must be in X PixMap (.xpm) format and may or may not be compressed with gzip (.gz). What's more, they have to be sized 640x480 pixels and have no more than 14 colours(!?). Fortunately, if you have ImageMagick installed, this command will do the whole conversion for you...

convert infile.jpg -resize 640x480 -colors 14 -depth 8 outfile.xpm.gz

 (Note that you can use pretty much any graphic with convert. You're not restricted to JPGs.)

Not every image converts nicely. That 14-colour format can turn great images grainy -- or worse -- so here's a quick batch file to convert a bunch of randomly named JPGs into .xpm.gz format. To use it, create a new folder, copy in the files you want to try, save the following as xpm_convert.sh, and make it executable by typing chmod +x xpm_convert.sh in a console window.

#!/bin/bash
FILE_NO="1"
for i in *.jpg
  do
    echo Converting $i
    convert $i -resize 640x480 -colors 14 -depth 8 $FILE_NO.xpm.gz
    FILE_NO=`expr $FILE_NO + 1`
  done

Running the program with ./xpm_convert.sh will create a bunch of consecutively numbered .xpm.gz files, which should be copied to /boot/grub. Why use numbers instead of names? Because it makes it easier to test the new files.

When you reboot, hit "c" when the boot menu appears. This will take you to the a grub command line. Now type splashimage /boot/grub/1.xpm.gz to try out the first of your new images. Then try splashimage /boot/grub/2.xpm.gz to test the second one, and so forth. There's no need to do a full reboot and change menu.lst every time!

A couple of other notes:
*  The above doesn't seem to work unless your menu.lst already contains a working splashimage.
*  You can use auto-complete on the grub command line, so instead of typing the whole command you can type sp <tab> /bo <tab> g <tab> etc.



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Posted by Geoff Palmer at 7:54 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 3 )

My pick for next year's first big issue: the end of net neutrality.

Last week Ars Technica reported on a Canadian ISP that's begun injecting its own content into other people's web pages. Their initial efforts have been benign -- serving only to warn users on fixed-rate plans when they reach 75% of their monthly cap -- but it's a disturbing "proof of concept" nonetheless.



The trick involves a network filtering technique called Deep Packet Inspection that tracks and modifies the contents of web pages on-the-fly.

Add to that this BBC report (and this more detailed InfoWorld one) that Adobe and Yahoo! are about to start inserting dynamically generated ads into PDF files, and the stage is set for both web page and download content corruption.

Jeez, whatever next? Self-censoring hardware? Yup, that's here too. The latest Western Digital My Book drives will -- if used with the company's 'sharing' software -- restrict access to 37 audio and video file formats "Due to unverifiable media license authentication".

Since when did an ISP have the right to meddle with my webpages, or inject content into my files? And who the hell gave hardware manufacturers the responsibility of determining what media I should be sharing?

The irony is that Western Digital's software's called "Anywhere Access"!

Posted by Geoff Palmer at 9:20 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 6 )

If Envy's the answer to Ubuntu users' proprietary graphics drivers installation dreams, then Automatix2 is the answer to everything else.

In essence Automatix2's a GUI that automates the installation of some of the most popular applications in the latest versions of K/X/Ubuntu and Debian -- including a few of the naughty ones. Which is why it opens with a warning about what not to install if you live in the US. (Funny, I always thought America was supposed to be the land of the free...)

After updating your source list, Automatix2 gives you a choice of what to install from a nice GUI-fied menu...


Each selection brings up a choice of applications to install (look away American readers!)...



...and you just click the checkbox beside the ones you want to add. Uninstallation works the same way so it couldn't be simpler.

Here's a sample of some of the useful apps Automatix2 installs...
Of course virtually all of these can be downloaded and installed outside of Automatix2, but a lot Linux newcomers either aren't aware of their availability or are still coming to grips with their new environment to be bothered with arcane installation instructions. And old hands like yours truly appreciate the one-click availability of all this stuff.



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Posted by Geoff Palmer at 6:47 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 )

The latest SANS Top-20 2007 Security Risks report is out, and whether you're a home user or a corporate systems administrator you should take a look because it continues to be one of the most valuable security documents on the web.

In this year's list you'll find links to the following areas of concern (and frankly there are some surprises!)...

Client-side Vulnerabilities in:

• Web Browsers
• Office Software
• Email Clients
• Media Players

Server-side Vulnerabilities in:

• Web Applications
• Windows Services
• Unix and Mac OS Services
• Backup Software
• Anti-virus Software
• Management Servers
• Database Software

Security Policy and Personnel:

• Excessive User Rights and Unauthorized Devices
• Phishing/Spear Phishing
• Unencrypted Laptops and Removable Media

Application Abuse:

• Instant Messaging
• Peer-to-Peer Programs

Network Devices:

• VoIP Servers and Phones

Zero Day Attacks:

• Zero Day Attacks

Not only does the report provide a clear analysis of the threat landscape for each of the categories listed, but sub-sections detail how to determine if you are at risk and how to protect against the listed vulnerabilities.

Oh and keep it bookmarked. It's a living document and will be updated as more critical threats and more current or convenient methods of protection are identified,

Posted by Geoff Palmer at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Installing proprietary graphics drivers on Linux has always been a bit of a pain, and not something to inflict on nervous newcomers. Still, it's the only way to get the very best out of your graphics hardware, and both NVida and ATI have active Linux driver support programmes.

Simplifying what till now has been a command-line driven process is what lies behind Envy, a series of Python scripts specifically designed to automate graphics driver installations for Ubuntu and Debian users. Its simple GUI says it all...



Choose your task, click Apply, and it's away.

Behind the scenes it identifies your hardware, downloads the appropriate driver, sorts out dependencies, sets up xorg.conf (the Xserver's configuration file), and optionally reboots your system or restarts the graphics server, depending on whether you start it in GUI or command-line mode.

I've used Envy on more than a dozen installations now -- involving both NVidia and ATI graphics cards -- and it's always performed faultlessly. It's one of my installation essentials.



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Posted by Geoff Palmer at 8:08 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 9 )