New to Linux? Newbies & Gurus-Not So Newbies - All Distros Tips & Lore

Wiz, I seen that last night, the link to it was actually in your opening post. 

Unlike the rest of the Ubuntu family though, it has only three years of support. Maybe it's a project still in the works. Could end up being good, as Ubuntu done themselves no favor with the Unity environment. The Ubuntu before Unity was more popular than that of today & that was the reason why many defected to other OS's, including Linux Mint. 

Cat

Also, I am going to try and use a Nvidia display driver (http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/77525/en-us)

I am not happy with the quality of the display that the current Nvidia driver, 331.38,  is providing. I am experiencing choppy playback (similar to the broken/choppy playback you may experience when you have  auto scrolling enabled in Firefox -  that type of rippling/chop).

So, I thought I woul download and install version 340.32 and see how I go.....if you do not see me here for a while you will know that things did not go well...lol.

Mate I tried that very same driver from that very same source and it sent my display haywire - mind you I have a series 400, you a series 600 if I am not mistaken, you may fare better.

Did you know that a number of Linux sources recommend NOT downloading our drivers directly from nVidia itself? I can dig up some for you if you wish.

Have you tried v331.89? I am running it currently and experience next to no probs.

...and Hi to AustrAlien, currently viewing, hope you will contribute?

Wiz

Whoops, it posted twice, sorry

Edited by wizardfromoz, 19 September 2014 - 01:41 AM.

Hi guys,

 

Did you know that a number of Linux sources recommend NOT downloading our drivers directly from nVidia itself? I can dig up some for you if you wish.

Yes, but I want to try it and see what the end result is.

If it breaks everything - okay.......if it does not break everything but does not work well - okay.......if it does not break everything and works better than the Novuea or the 331.38 driver  - great!

If it was not supposed to be used then I have to ask - why the hell did  Nvidia go ahead and create it?

 

Port Spoof is not a boom its more of a slap on the wrist.

Yes, I like the idea of it though.

 

I need to look more into AppArmor myself & what it does.

Far to archaic and convoluted for my liking, so I am not going to bother tinkering with it - I will just run with the default profiles that come shipped with Ubuntu.
 

It would probably take me as long, if not longer,  to read and learn how to use AppArmor than it would take me to perform a wipe & reload of my HDD and OS (a wipe and reload using a 7 pass algorithm = 15 hours).

Edited by Agent_Orange, 19 September 2014 - 02:22 AM.

Yes, but I want to try it and see what the end result is.

If it breaks everything - okay.......if it does not break everything but does not work well - okay.......if it does not break everything and works better than the Novuea or the 331.38 driver  - great!

If it was not supposed to be used then I have to ask - why the hell did  Nvidia go ahead and create it? 

 

I LIKE that philosophy - I faced that when I blew away Windows

Wiz

Tip for today - if you are not crazy on the Unity feature as it ships, you can install the Unity Tweak Tool.

Either go to Synaptic and type in Unity Tweak, or else use:

sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool

For ex-Windows users, if you would prefer to reposition the window controls (minimise, maximise, close) from left to right, visit the Appearance-Window Controls feature.

Later

Wiz

Hi Wiz,

 

I LIKE that philosophy - I faced that when I blew away Windows

It just strikes me as odd that Nvidia would go to the trouble of creating a graphics driver for us, only to go on to say that they do not reccomend that we use it.

In any case , I have given up on attemtping to install the Nvidia Display Driver for Linux (version 343.22) that I downloaded from their site. When I clicked on "additonal information" and then the "read me" for detailed instructions I found this : http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/343.22/README/installdriver.html

Now, I don't know if all the steps listed in that document need to be followed in order to successfully install the driver, but if they do, good luck to anyone attempting to install it...lol

Anyway, I too have successfully installed Nvidia Display Driver version 331.89 by following the instructions that I found here (might be useful to other people new to Linux ) : http://www.binarytides.com/install-nvidia-drivers-ubuntu-14-04/

 

Edited by Agent_Orange, 19 September 2014 - 09:20 PM.

Heads up Gang - I've found some privacy intrusions/flaws using Photobucket for an image hoster, and I am giving them the flick in favour of Imgur. I'll detail more later, but just FYI. NickAu1, is it u whom uses tinypic - how do you find them?

All input from all Members welcome, of course.

BTW - privacy probs PB were not Linux-related, but global, IMHO.

Agent_Orange I thought it was 340.32 you were going to try?

Yep, made the acquaintance of Binary Tides, they seem OK

And A_O, I'll be back with those security tips 2morrow

Cheers 4 now

Wiz

 

NickAu1, is it u whom uses tinypic - how do you find them?

By typing.

www.tinypic.com 

In the address bar of my browser. Or you can book mark it .

What privacy I post screenshots on this site for all to see therefore I have no expectation of privacy.

Edited by NickAu1, 20 September 2014 - 05:46 AM.

What privacy I post screenshots on this site for all to see therefore I have no expectation of privacy.

Fair comment. Read a post from Beaker77 at topic 542537 - Following reading his post, I did some research of my own.  I had used Photobucket for my first half a dozen images posted here. I did find Photobucket very difficult to find where to logout, as have others (had to Google up "logout of Photobucket"). I found, in addition to Beaker77's comments, that checking (ticking for Aussies) "Remember Me" not only did that, but in fact kept me signed in, which I had not counted on.

I guess if you like Photobucket, you could set up separate libraries or albums, and people would only be able to see the album from which your forum post screenshots come, ... or would they? In any event, I think I'll stay with Imgur for now.

Wizard

 

 

 I've found some privacy intrusions/flaws using Photobucket for an image hoster,                              All input from all Members welcome, of course.

I had been wondering about that myself, Wiz. There were pictures that I had posted, from the Photobucket site. Now there *may* had been a couple of times I forgot to log out, but not everyone of them. And yet from the image I had posted, I could see all 16-20 that I had posted on the site. 

 

 

What privacy I post screenshots on this site for all to see therefore I have no expectation of privacy.

You have a point there NIck, but what if there were a picture (or a few) on the site that you didn't want to share with the world? Sure, you could avoid the service, but if one does it, most all does. There are moments that we don't want to share with the rest of the world. Basically what I do have on the site, are items for forum uploading, so that part doesn't matter & I'll double check to make sure. 

However, if the hosting site expects one to pay for a yearly subscription to keep things private, then they should say so, not in fine print, but in bold terms that we can see. For example, some of us are married. If we were to go out with another, got drunk, loads of pictures can be taken & be posted on these sites. The rest, I would like to hope to believe, doesn't need to be explained further. 

I have no problem with paying $15 yearly for my content to remain mine. The way it's currently setup, most anyone can go & post any pictures they want, under my (or anyone's) account. Yes, I know there were times I signed out the previous night, yet had no problems with adding pictures, or viewing these within my forum posts the very next day. That, I have a problem with. It's an open door to be setup that shouldn't be there. Especially if the account owner has logged out. Being on the same computer is no excuse, many are shared between married couples or partners, if they're using the UUID if the computer (hardware signature) as a basis for "it's me", then we should be able to sue for damages. Because there's no guarantee of who is going to boot into the computer, Photobucket cannot make that determination. 

My only point being, if Free accounts are public, they need to say so, like in bold print, at the first of the agreement, not buried in the middle of Page 2 or 3 in print where a magnifying glass is needed to read it on a 24" monitor. That's playing dirty & asking for trouble. 

 

Either go to Synaptic and type in Unity Tweak, or else use:

sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool

For ex-Windows users, if you would prefer to reposition the window controls (minimise, maximise, close) from left to right, visit the Appearance-Window Controls feature.

Thanks, Wiz!

Anything to get rid of that Windows 8 look. No, they don't in colors look the same, but both DE's shares some features. Having to type to see less used apps & functions. Being they were released close to the same time, I would have thought the same group had written it. 

Yes, it needs tweaking, badly. It's nothing like the Ubuntu of just five years ago. The Unity interface cost Ubuntu usershare also. The group of OS's were built one one major point, simplicity. Maybe there was a change at the guard, the folks that runs the parent company now are totally different from 5 years back. Just look at the place, it's been gutted, not to mention they were chasing MS to see who could have the crown for having the most funky looking OS. 

Point is, when one has something clicking on all cylinders, don't toy with it. Users don't like drastic change. Yes, a minor one, then another with the next LTS, but all in a couple of years? Plenty of reason for anyone to tell Ubuntu to stuff it. There were many who depended on Canonical's non-Ubuntu services. Trust is something that's hard, if ever, to regain, once lost & cannot be taken with a grain of salt. With their actions, Canonical basically told the ones who depended on these services "screw you". They suckered all of these folks into using these services, many who were already with a provider, and did next to nothing to assist those needing to find another provider. I'm not speaking of the everyday person who can figure out techy things, I'm speaking about those who are physically and/or mentally incapable of how to go about setting up another account. Things will catch up to such a huge corporation who preaches "humanity", then doesn't live up to the name. Ubuntu pushed that term in their early years, "humanity", as in an OS for all. So did their founders, in providing services to all for the same reason. 

I guess all of these folks got kicked to the curb in the name of "humanity". Canonical's arrogant side has surfaced. 

 

 

It just strikes me as odd that Nvidia would go to the trouble of creating a graphics driver for us, only to go on to say that they do not reccomend that we use it.

Agent_Orange, very true, but come another 4-5 years you'll see the reasoning why, all first hand. This is the way it's always been with NVIDIA as far as LInux support goes. The NVIDIA executives & Linus Torvalds has had their rounds in court over drivers & it hasn't always been a pretty sight. If you want the latest GPU with support for a Linux system, go with AMD. On Windows, I do prefer NVIDIA first, as they release drivers usually every two months or so. AMD, maybe once a year. That's just the way it is. 

Though I do have to admit, Linus (the main founder of Linux) has never backed down to NVIDIA, giving them the middle finger in a packed courtroom just 2-3 years back. And in more recent years, like the last 1-2, has does everything except ordered all who uses the LInux base to create their OS's to not include Microsoft's digital signature to run the OS's on UEFI based computers. I cannot repeat what he told all of the distro leaders in exact wording, but he more or less told them that this wasn't a hot dog eating contest. That paying for & including the signoff keys (the $99 key spoken of in the Privacy & Security Topic, MS & the NSA) was a treason to the Linux name & he was adamant about it. 

Linus could care less about any MS backporting, especially any that had to do with Secure Boot, a platform that he & Richard Stallman had fought against for years. They introduced the Core Boot BIOS replacement instead, which would have truly sped up all computers boot time. One has to keep in mind here that the only reason many Windows 8 computers "fires up" so fast, is that they never shut down to begin with. One reason why some components feels hot just after a few seconds of running. The LInux OS's has never resorted nor considered such technology to be incorporated in their OS's on an involuntary basis. 

With Core Boot, this hybrid shutdown would never had been needed, nor wanted, once implemented. Way too many MS customers with Windows 8 are totally blind to the true facts of their OS, how it turns on so fast. It's because it was never shut down in the first place. Time will also show that this is hard on certain hardware components, plus only a full reboot can remove malware from RAM. Consumer grade computers aren't designed to be ran 24/7. Especially these $300-500 ones. No wonder the rate of failure is so high, this drops with a Linux OS on the machine & full shutdowns are done. 

Many excellent point brought up in the last several posts, my responses were to just a few. Great Topic! 

Cat

Edited by cat1092, 20 September 2014 - 11:09 PM.

Thanks guys for all the input so far, much kudos to you all. The caring and sharing within this Community, so far has not failed to impress me. I wish I had found it years ago.

But gotta run soon, & I had promised one of our brethren to deliver on some security tips this weekend, which is nearly over, in Oz. It starts below, and I hope it will not be bigger than Ben Hur, but rather help some.

Here it comes

Wiz

This post may be quite lengthy so if you know all the answers, skip it.

PREAMBLE

DISCLAIMER - This is definitely an embryonic part to this topic. Some of it I have tried or encountered, some of it I have simply sought out reputable references, some of it is speculation or conjecture. My experience so far, with Linux is confined to the Ubuntu environment, starting with 11.04 Natty Narwhal, iso from a PC mag DVD, then 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin, iso from similar source, and now 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr, iso from SourceForge and since updated to 14.04.1. The first two were WUBI installs, one under Windows XP, then under Windows 7 on a different PC. Trusty Tahr currently is the only OS on my Acer Aspire Z5761 All-In-One desktop, since I blew away Windows 7 mid-August 2014.

I expect that what I reference in the following, logically, would apply with other Distros, but I will not say "assume". I welcome input and corrections, but be kind, lol.

Let's start with a clean install of Ubuntu Linux v14.04 LTS codenamed "Trusty Tahr":

Note - this applies to both a WUBI install (ie the Linux software has been stored in a directory created on your Windows C drive, named Ubuntu (mine I sized as 18 GB), or else as a full-blown install where Linux is the only OS (as I now have).

Note - where I explain (as above, WUBI) what many of us know already, it is for the benefit of those whom, like myself and others, may be relatively new from a Windows (or even Mac) environment. Bear with me.

SUBJECT - SECURITY UNDER LINUX

My thoughts on this began over at Topic 41001 Which Distro Is Right For Me, which was my entry point to this wonderful site. A few days ago I chanced upon this site's Glossary, which can be found here http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/glossary/). I looked under R to see if repository, aka (also known as) "repo" was listed. No. I knew what it was, by then (sounds like something you insert where the sun don't shine) but was disappointed. Not to be deterred, I googled it up and went to the Wikipedia definition, as you do. Link here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_repository).

In that article, I was particularly interested in their saying:

"As software repositories are designed to include useful packages, major repositories are designed to be malware free. If a computer is configured to use a digitally signed repository from a reputable vendor, and is coupled with an appropriate permissions system, this significantly reduces the threat of malware to these systems. As a side effect, many systems that have these capabilities do not require anti-malware software such as anti-virus software.[1]"

I like Wikipedia, and so already I felt safer. You may too.

Next, I read from our own site Topic 407147 (link), under Security-Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware Software (love the Dick Tracy avatar), posted by Global Moderator quietman7. I also looked into his link under Good Security Habits.

IMHO (In MY Humble Opinion), both quietman7's comments, and those of the US Government's Computer Emergency Readiness Team - are sensible and logical. BUT - many of the fears that are engendered in people are borne out of a Windows environment. Not Mac, not Linux.

DOWNLOADING ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE

If you are using Ubuntu as your "Flavour" of Linux, like me, and you are ex-Windows/still running Windows, dual-boot, then your first download/install should be Synaptic Package Manager, which ships with Ubuntu, but is not installed by Default. Go to the Launcher at the left of the screen, and after a clean install, 7th down should be an orange briefcase, Ububtu Software Center. Click it, search (at the magnifying glass) for Synaptic Package Manager, and follow the instructions to install. Once it is installed, go to the Dash (top left-hand corner) click and type in Synaptic Package Manager, then click the icon.

While you are in Synaptic, it will appear at the bottom of your Launcher. Right click the icon and choose Lock to Launcher, and from then on, it will always be there - you will use it often.

I am going to have to break from this, as it will take more time than I have now.

Be sure to come back for subsequent Parts (Part 2 next, surprise) and we will learn shortly about:

- Firewall configuration
- Anti-virus/anti-malware software
- Internet banking security

Wizard

I feel that the content provided by quiteman7 also applies to Linux users, smart computing is good practice on any OS, not just Windows. No OS is 100% immune or bulletproof to attacks, if there were one, many of us would be running it, from word of mouth advertising alone. Chances are, it wouldn't be free of charge (there are subscription based or Pro Linux versions that's not free).

Who wouldn't pounce on such an OS? At a minimum, for making transactions & checking email, the latter of which is the root cause of many nasty infections. Head over to the Security section & see the massive number of Topics. Too, just refresh "View New Content", most every time I do, at least half has to do with infections. That is not only to show how many such Topics there are on the site, it's also a reflection of the BleepingComputer.com site's excellent reputation. Word has it, if one's infected, come here. Or other forum members from other sites will direct those folks here. Our Malware Response Team is the most dedicated group of any forum I've participated on & quite knowledgeable. The MRT members goes through extensive training before actively assisting others & there's like a 48 hour to a week wait time, there's no posting & getting an answer in 10 minutes. 

As Linux users, we want to keep up the outstanding reputation of the site by offering sound advise. The section has had more activity as of late, most of the content has been good. 

While Linux based OS's are far less prone to malware attacks, because of the way it's designed, it's not impossible. Especially for a newbie who may not know that the latest Firefox & Google Chrome (if installed) is included in system updates. All it would take is for such a user to agree with an upgrade popup, provide the root password & whatever is behind that popup has been given permission in full to perform it's task. 

The good thing is, the chance of the above happening is very slim. Not impossible is the point I'm making. It's still best to be aware of surroundings. Malware distributors are out to target everyone possible. We're no exception to that rule. 

So if one happens to see a popup box about updating anything in the middle of the screen, close it. There are tools to scan for infections on Linux OS's, most all 100% free of charge. 

Cat