Progress, or more adventures with linux

So. Today I came a few inches closer to understanding the linux verb “to mount”. Somewhat obscene but apparently I’ve been working with mount points the past 17 years without even knowing it. It seems somewhat along the lines of the ethereal “pointer” which is so natural to c programmers, but having had to teach myself c with no help from the outside it has been really slow going.

Things I learned today:

2 ways to hack through the firewall at work (probably incorrect usage, since I haven’t a clue what a firewall could be). In any case I discovered that at work there is one computer (unix) and one only that can be connected to with the ssh command, after which I can ssh over to the actual workstation sitting on my desk. Apparently ssh is a verb too. It is a means to connect securely from one computer to the other without the possibility of some nefarious individual picking off your password on the way through. So ssh’ing to the magic computer gets me in and that is method number one, which I sort of knew, but got confused because I can ssh if I’m on the wireless network outside the firewall, but not if I’m on a hardwired connection inside the firewall. In that case I just get a blank stare. I learned that last week and that’s likely what had me so confused since I “knew” it was impossible to ssh to this particular computer from my office when in fact it was just wireless vs. wired.

Method number 2. Another new verb, “to vpn”. Where vpn stands for virtual private network. It was pretty funny because yesterday I stumbled upon the right combinations of commands to get vpn going, but then remained clueless as to what to do next, or what it meant “to have vpn’ed”. Apparently there is another machine, this time a windows machine, through which one can “start vpn” running on say my laptop. But then what? What does it _mean_?? The magical thing I guess is that then I can ssh to anything I want inside the firewall without going through the magical unix gateway.

So, six of one half dozen of the other you might think. An xterm is an xterm and if I can use ls, cd, cp, more, cat, emacs etc. big whoop. But the rather interesting thing I discovered was that after successfully jumping throught the vpn hoops, there is a little program called sshfs, which gives the illusion of having mounted a remote file system locally, on my laptop. In windows vernacular, I can have a folder on my desktop that when double clicked shows the contents of my stuff at work, even if I’m sitting in timbuktu. I’ve had the it group set this up on my windows laptops for some time, but if I wanted it on linux, it’s a do it yourself type deal. So as far as I know I’m the first one of all those linux gurus at work to have pulled this off. With some critical help along the way of course. It helps to know what vpn is for, which I’ve never known – only what the acronym stands for, which is of no practical help whatsoever.

So I’m rather pleased with myself, having done something almost useful. I still have to get this vpn business running on my little xubuntu desktop here at home. Yes I’m easily amused…. GD

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Linux build number 2

Well this isn’t on my list of interests from the first post, but I am somewhat proud having managed to successfully wipe the hard drive from my windows pig laptop at work and install something I hope will actually be useful. In comparison to build number one using an old desktop (hp pavillion 7845 with 128 MB ram), this time it required only two complete installs with straight ubuntu linux. Build 1 was xubuntu, a lightweight ubuntu. This laptop is a dell inspiron 8200 1.7 GHz with 256 MB of ram and a plugin cisco wireless card. Considering that I know nothing about wireless, I’m amazed that I got hooked into my home network (set up by my daughter) with very little hassle.

So I’m most proud about being able to find the package containing the graphics card driver for this laptop. Google earth set me looking for the right thing and only after about an hour I was able to get that set up.. This makes me wonder if most of my grief using windows had to do with having a bad display driver. The perennial hourglass really was the last straw, that plus lugging the thing to italy only to find that it was patently impossible to get wireless going, turning the laptop into a boat anchor that I had the privilege of lugging through airports hither and yon.

So I typed the two earlier posts on linux xubuntu build number 1 and am now typing this with my new little laptop. Actually it’s about as big as a laptop can be. I’ve got two batteries loaded which is nice except that they weight a ton. My boss quit last friday so I inherited his genuinely little laptop, 12 inch vs. 15 inch screen. It’s fast enough to slog through the nightmare that is windows xp. I wouldn’t use windows at all except that when I travel and want to exchange files and what not, everybody else has windows machines.

GD

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(I need to figure out how to make this blog software enter time stamps – I’m using alphabetizeable format such that the unix ls command will time order things properly)