dm-crypt for Linux

dm-crypt is a transparent disk encryption subsystem in the Linux 2.6 kernel that provides a generic way to create virtual layers of block devices that can do different things on top of real block devices like striping, concatenation, mirroring, snapshotting, and more.

dm-crypt for Linux

Features include:

Support advanced modes of operation, such as XTS, LRW and ESSIV (see disk encryption theory), in order to avoid watermarking attacks

Encrypt whole disks (including removable media), partitions, software RAID volumes, logical volumes, as well as files

Provides transparent encryption of block devices using the new Linux 2.6 cryptoapi, Offers similar functionality to cryptoloop but with clear code and a more flexible configuration

Highly flexible

Can be used for encrypting any disk-backed file systems supported by the operating system, as well as swap space

Encrypt RAID volumes and LVM physical volumes

Configured to provide pre-boot authentication through an initrd

Price

Free to download

License

GNU GPL v2

Developer

Christophe Saout

Website

www.saout.de

System Requirements

Kernel 2.6 and later

Support Sites:

Mailing List, dmc-crypt and LUKS

Selected Reviews:

Linux.com

How to fix Thinkpad R61i trackpoint

How to fix Thinkpad R61i trackpoint (mouse pointer) hang ups in GNU / Linux

Earlier I've blogged on How to Work Around periodically occuring TrackPoint Thinkpad R61 issues on GNU / Linux . Actually I thought the fix I suggested there is working but I was wrong as the problems with the trackpoint reappeared at twice or thrice a day.

My suggested fix was the use of one script that does periodically change the trackpoint speed and sensitivity to certain numbers.

The fix script to the trackpoint hanging issue is here

Originally I wrote the script has to be set to execute through crontab on a periods like:

0,30 * * * * /usr/sbin/restart_trackpoint.sh >/dev/null 2>&1

Actually the correct values for the crontab if you use my restart_trackpoint.sh script are:

0,5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55,58 * * * * /usr/sbin/restart_trackpoint.sh >/dev/null 2>&3

ig it has to be set the script is issued every 5 minutes to minimize the possibility for the Thinkpad trackpoint hang up issue.

One other thing that helps if trackpoint stucks is setting in /etc/rc.local is psmouse module to load with resetafter= parameter:

echo '/sbin/rmmod psmouse; /sbin/modprobe psmouse resetafter=30' >> /etc/rc.local

Kraptor is another Raptor Shadow of Death free software

Kraptor is another Raptor Shadow of Death free software, open source clone arcade game for GNU/Linux, DOS and Windows (98, XP etc.).
The game is not under active development anymore since 2004. Kraptor features a powerful engine for creating quickly 2D shooter games, so the game should be a good learning curve for people interested into creation of arcade game shooter games.
The game just like Rafkill is built upon DUMB sound engine.
The game intro is quite entertaining The intro plays one by one the text:
Near Future:
Blobalization
Imperalizm
Corporations
Megalomaniacs
Money and Power. Slaves of the New Millenium!


After years of oppression, the slaved people of the world have raised against their masters. You, has a mercenary pilot, has been
contacted by the popular rebellion to fight against the forces of oppression.

In the morning, you jump into your cockpit and start up the engines. It's time to get airborne and start the attack. Get ready to
scramble the scum hired by the masters. Murder for freedom is the only way, you're on a mission, don't defraud us...

Like Rafkill, Kraptor is one man masterpiece created by a free software Argentinean geek known under the Kronoman artistic pseudonim. The game is really incredible for a one man work … a true masterpiece.
The game is licensed under MIT License.
Even though Kraptor is older game than Rafkill, the design is more resembling the original Raptor game. The game music is high quality stereo. Besides that music and fx sound effects are quite awesome. After each level you have a Raptor like weapons "blackmarket", where you can buy new weapons, recharge ship energy, upgrade ship etc.
The blackmarket implementation part of the game is probably the worst moment in the game along with the game menus (in my view).
Talking about graphics Kraptor supports really high number of resolutions ranging from 320×240 to 1280×1024! 640×480 is the standard resolution in which the game is running.

Something I really like in the game is the number of multiple weapons your ship uses during play. Even if played in Easy mode it is taught.
There are game Saves after each level, so thanksfully you don't have to start again from zero once death.
At the end of each level there is a huge bad BOSS you have to destroy .

Installing Kraptor on Debian / Ubuntu and deb derivatives is with:
debian:~# apt-get install kraptor


On most rpm based Linux distributions, you can install the game by converting the deb package to rpm with alien or by building from source from Kraptor's sourceforge page
Its interesting the game name e.g. Kraptor is also a death / grind metal band name, (Maybe Kronoman is metalhead big fan of Kraptor and that's how he came up with the playful name. For all the old school game addicts there is the joystick support. I've tested it with my Genius analogous joystick and it works fine.
The game is lacking .desktop gnome definition and after once installed it only appears through Debian (section) GNOME menus and not in Applications -> Games :
Applications -> Debian -> Games -&act; Action -&t; Kraptor

Just like Rafkill on Debian the game exacutable binary is located in /usr/games/kraptor . Also like with the Rafkill case when launched the game has troubles with choppy sound and music caused by the stupid buggy! pulseaudio
Analogously like with Rafkill's case, the work around to the problematic music en sound is to use a little bash shell script like:
#!/bin/bash
pulseaudio -k;
/usr/games/kraptor
pulseaudio --start;

You can dowload Kraptor fix sound issues wrapper here Kraptor's
To install it on your Debian / Ubuntu and hence make the game sound play good issue with root:
debian:~# cd /usr/bin
debian:/usr/bin# wget http://www.pc-freak.net/bshscr/kraptor.wrapper.sh
...
debian:/usr/bin:# chmod +x kraptor.wrapper.sh
debian:/usr/bin:# mv kraptor.wrapper.sh kraptor 

• RafKill Raptor Free Software (Open Source) clone for GNU/Linux
• Kill everything that Moves (KETM) an arcade spaceship Tyrian GNU / Linux game
• Installing Linux on old hardware PC. Few thoughs on Puppy and Xubuntu Linux
• How to play Audio music CDs in GNU/Linux and Free/Net/Open BSDs
• Geki2 and Geki3 a Xenon 2 Megablast like games for GNU / Linux and FreeBSD

RafKill Raptor Free Software (Open Source) clone for GNU/Linux

I've earlier blogged on playing Apogee's Raptor Shadows of Death arcade on GNU / Linux with dosbox All the old school raptor addicts will be interested to hear Kazzmir (Jon Rafkind) a free software devotee developer has created a small game resembling many aspects of the original Raptor arcade game. The game is called Rafkill and is aimed to be a sort of Raptor like fork/clone. Originally the game was also named Raptor like the DOS game, however in year 2006 it was changed to current Rafkill in order to avoid legal issues with Apogee's Raptor. The game is not anymore in active development, the latest Rafkill release is from January 2007, anyhow even for the 2012 it is pretty entertaining. The sound and music are on a good level for a Linux / BSD shoot'em'up free software game . The graphics are not of a top quality and are too childish, but this is normal, since the game is just one man masterpiece. Rafkill is developed in C/C++ programming language, the game music engine it uses is called DUMB (Dynamic Universal Bibliotheque). By the way DUMB library is used for music engine in many Linux arcade games. DUMB allows the Linux game developer to develop his game and play a music files within different game levels in "tracked" formats like mod, s3m, xm etc. The game is available in compiled form for almost all existent GNU/Linux distributions, as well as one can easily port it as it is open source. To install Rafkill on Debian, Ubuntu, Xubuntu and Linux Mint en other Debian based distros root@debian:~# apt-get install rafkill Installing on Fedora and other rpm based is with yum debian:~# apt-get install rafkill ... Once rafkill is installed, in order to start it on Debian the only way is using the rafkill (/usr/bin/rafkill) command. It appears the deb package maintainer did not wrote a gnome launcher file like for example /usr/share/applications/rafkill.desktop Just to explain for all the GNOME noobs, the .desktop files are a description file GNOME reads in order to understand where exactly to place certain application in the (Gnome Applications, Places, System …) menu panel. Even though it miss the .desktop, it is launchable via Applications menu under the Debian section e.g. to open it from the GNOME menus you will have to navigate to: Applications -> Debian -> Games -> Action -> Rafkill This "shortcut" to launch the game is quite long and hard to remember thus it is handy to directly launch it via xterm: hipo@debian:~$ rafkill or by pressing ALT+F2 and typing rafkill : Starting the game I got some really ugly choppy music / sound issues. My guess was the fizzling sounds were caused by some bug with the sound portions streamed through pulseaudio sound system. To test if my presume is correct, stopped pulseaudio and launched rafkill once again: hipo@debian:~$ pulseaudio -k hipo@debian:~$ rafkill This way the game was counting on ALSA to process sound en the sound was playing perfectly fine. I solved this problem through small wrapper shell script. The script did kill pulseaudio before launching rafkill and that way solve gchoppy sound issues, once the game execution is over the script starts pulseaudio again in order to prevent all other applications working with pulseaudio. Finally, I've placed the executable script in /usr/bin/rafkill : Here is the script: #!/bin/bash pulseaudio --kill /usr/games/rafkill pulseaudio --start You can download rafkill.wrapper.sh here Or write in root terminal: debian:~# cd /usr/bin debian:/usr/bin:# wget http://www.pc-freak.net/bshscr/rafkill.wrapper.sh debian:/usr/bin:# mv http://www.pc-freak.net/bshscr/rafkill.wrapper.sh rafkill debian:/usr/bin:# chmod +x rafkill Interesting in Ubuntu Linux, rafkill music is okay and I suppose the bug is also solved in newer Linux distributions based on Ubuntu. Probably the Debian Squeeze pulseaudio (0.9.21-4) package version has a bug or smth.. After the change the game music will be playing fine and the game experience is cooler. The game is hard to play. Its really nice the game has game Saves, so once you die you don't have to start from level 1.  I've seen rafkill rolling around on freebsd.org ftps under the ubuntu packages pool, which means rafkill could probably be played easily on FreeBSD and other BSDs. Enjoy the cool game RafKill Raptor Free Software (Open Source) clone for GNU/Linux Walking in Light with Christ - Faith, Computing, Diary

by Walking in Light with Christ - Faith, Computing, Diary

How to Install Rarcrack on ubuntu

Rarcrack is an open source rar file password cracker.  Use it when you’ve forgotten the password you put on a rar or zip file.  The current version (0.2) doesn’t work flawlessly on Ubuntu, so follow these steps.

1. Download the source:

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/rarcrack/rarcrack-0.2/%5BUnnamed%20release%5D/rarcrack-0.2.tar.bz2

2. Un tar

tar -xjf rarcrack-0.2.tar.bz2

3. Change directory

cd rarcrack-0.2

4. Type make, hit enter.  You will likely receive an error about a memory.h file that can’t be found.

5. Install libxml2-dev

sudo apt-get install libxml2-dev

6. Run make again

make

7. You will now have a rarcrack file that you can use.  If you use it as such you may receive a Segmentation Fault

./rarcrack filename.rar

use the –type parameter instead

./rarcrack --type rar filename.rar

It should then run properly