Category: Tech

Debian 8 Jessie Linux and Enlightenment E17 on an Old Desktop

My search continues for possible Linux operating systems for an old desktop. I have successfully installed Puppy Linux Tahrpup 6.0.5 and it runs very well. I wondered if a fresh Debian 8 Jessie server install coupled with a lightweight desktop such as Enlightenment E17 would work. I was pleasantly surprised. It does.

My old desktop is circa 2003, so about 14 years old. I say circa because it originally came with Windows ME, of year 2000 vintage. The desktop is a Pentium 3 800 mhz, 500mb ram and some disk, partitioned for multiple Linux test distributions. It can boot up from a CD but not a USB. I want these Linux installs to be as small as possible, preferably below the 2G disk mark. I allocated 4G for the root partition.

Puppy Linux Tahr 5.0.6: Install FCITX Chinese

Puppy Linux Tahr 5.0.6 fits into 1G of disk space and runs well on only 500mb of RAM on an old XP box.

Puppy Linux Tahr 5.0.6 fits into 1G of disk space and runs well on only 500mb of RAM on an old XP box.

Previously I installed Puppy Linux Slako 5.7.1 with SCIM Chinese. Since I regularly use Ubuntu I thought it best to install Puppy Linux Tahr 5.0.6, commonly called “tahrpup” instead. I tried to install SCIM Chinese teh same way as on the Slacko version, and it failed. Eventually I did get the FCITX Chinese to install. It works very well, but was somewhat difficult to find out what works.

Installing SCIM Chinese to Tahrpup

Dual Boot Puppy Linux Tahr 6.0.5 : Install to Disk

Puppy Linux Tahr 5.0.6 fits into 1G of disk space and runs well on only 500mb of RAM on an old XP box.

Puppy Linux Tahr 5.0.6 fits into 1G of disk space and runs well on only 500mb of RAM on an old XP box.

After playing with Puppy Linux, both the Slacko and Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr version, on CD, I decided to install Puppy Linux Tahr 6.0.5 as a dual boot alongside Win XP. The instructions online are not crystal clear to me, and left me somewhat puzzled, stomach ill at ease. Let me explain the process.

Puppy Linux can be used quite readily from your CD or USB stick. You need to boot up and then configure. I decided to dual boot install it on an old Win XP box, one with only 500mb ram.

No Arch Bang 32 Bit Support, Forum Registration is Terrible

Sometimes you just have to give up, and I have for Arch Bang. I have an old desktop that was looking for a new OS, so I researched and found Arch Bang, a Linux variant. After downloading the iso and trying to install it says that I need a 64 bit machine. In fact, they dropped 32 bit support this year. Nothing on their download page says this. As I search on Google I also try to register to their forum. They require a registration code, located on their forum. I cannot find this anywhere, therefore I cannot register. Sometimes you have to just admit that they do not want you in their club.

Installing WPSeku on Ubuntu 16.04

This program WPSeku, is similar to WPScan but has different tests, so I thought that since I already have Python I would install it. The installation was much easier than WPScan.

# git clone https://github.com/m4ll0k/WPSeku.git
# cd WPSeku
# pip install -r requirements.txt
# python wpseku.py

I did have to install pip with “~/WPSeku$ sudo apt install python-pip”. It did install and upgrade my python packages.

Initially I kept getting a “permission denied” but then did a chmod:

sudo chmod 755 wpseku.py

Run WPSeku using “~/WPSeku$ ./wpseku.py -t http://yoursite.com”

Installing WPScan on Ubuntu 16.04

Wanted, I do, WPScan in order to do WordPress pen testing. It looks like a good product, and I do WordPress webmaster admin work, so this is an appropriate tool.

The install instructions from WPScan.org are a bit daunting, and it turns out, not correct for Ubuntu 16.04. WPScan uses Ruby, which uses the Ruby Version manager RVM. I took their advice and installed with RVM, but you still need to install RVM. I needed to modify their instructions for a proper install. The general steps are:

Henan Police Academy 河南公安学院, China, CERN spams me

Henan police Academy 河南公安学院, Zhengzhou, China, left me some comment spam today.

Henan police Academy 河南公安学院, Zhengzhou, China, left me some comment spam today.

Today the Henan Police Academy 河南公安学院 from Zhengzhou, Henan, visited my site and left comment spam. I thought it very odd, because Chinese government organizations, including Chinese police, are usually quite discreet and don’t present themselves in such an open way.

183.169.128.30 Henan Police Academy Henan Gongan Xueyuan 河南公安学院 HNGAZK-CN at http://hnp.edu.cn/. Their IP range is 183.169.128.0 – 183.169.159.255. There are a couple of abuse postings from them such as 1, 2

Android Sex Robots: How will Humans React?

Randomly reading the CBC, the subject again came up. This is a subject that has been in the news in the past, but talked about in hushed tones, sort of like the dark web. Androids, robots in human form, built for sex and possibly companionship, have been physically available for quite a number of years, and have been part of science fiction lore for much longer. If these are of benefit or detriment to humans, has yet to be discovered. I continue my interest in the social implications of technology on our daily lives.

Content Security Policy on WordPress

Reading, I was, about a web site security tool from Mozilla, so I had to try it. My site, the one you are on now, rated “D-“. It was no consolation that most sites rate “F”. Within the rating there was this criteria called “Content Security Policy” (CSP) that tweaked my interest.

Content Security Policy: Purpose
A CSP is a policy that you put into the head section of your page that whitelists all the sites that contribute to your page. If someone tries to add something to your page’s content but is not on you CSP, your browser will not load it. This stops a nasty infection of something called “cross site scripting” or XSS.

Metasploit, Armitage and NMap Install on Ubuntu 16.04

Yep, very popular hacking tools! Metasploit
Took the install from Rapid7’s site. It all went very well.

To start they had the command “./msfconsole”, which did not work for me. It started with “msfconsole”. The initial run created the initial database. The “db_status” command also worked.

I did not seem to need to do the “service postgresql start” command. I did a search and received a message: Module database cache not built yet, using slow search. To build the cache do “db_rebuild_cache”. This worked, link. Now my searches work.

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