Since we have become aware of the security concerns surrounding the Truecrypt project, veracrypt has taken its place as one of the most trusted encrypting solutions. Here is a brief guide on how to get it intalled and running under Ubuntu Linux.
Installation
Go to the official VeraCrypt website at https://veracrypt.codeplex.com/ and click on the "Downloads" tab.
There you will find the appropriate Linux download option
VeraCrypt Linux Setup 1.0f-2 (version will change in the future)
Once downloaded unpack it and you should see 4 different files to chose from. If you are running a 32-bit install you will want to use the x86 option while the x64 file will be the one to use if you are on a 64-bit ubuntu installation. If you are new to Veracrypt I would recommend installing the GUI option (I believe this option even installs the commandline option as well)
$ /home/your_user_name/Desktop/veracrypt-1.0f-2-setup-gui-x86
This can be done by dragging and dropping the file from nautilus directly into a terminal screen which will cause it to show the path to the installation file with quotes around it. Simply remove the quotes and run the file.
The install should be fairly quick and you will be prompted for your admin password. Once that's done you should be able to find Veracrypt on your system.
Encrypting your files
In order to actually encrypt your files, Click "Create Volume" and follow the wizard.
I recommend creating an encrypted file container using "standard veracrypt volume". In terms of Encryption algorithm I usually go with "Twofish" and the hash algorithm "Whirlpool". Chose what size your volume will have and then format it.
Once you have a volume created, find your file location (Select File...) and mount the drive in the selected slot from the list shown. This should prompt you for your password. Once that's done you should see the mounted drive for your use.
Showing posts with label Trusty Tahr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trusty Tahr. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Mutt - email from the command line
Since I started using linux on my work machine I have been looking for good CLi alternatives to things I need on a daily basis. I was given a work laptop and I run my Xubuntu install off of a VM on my Windows 7 machine. What that translates to is that I'm constantly running low on RAM and CPU, therefore anything I can do from the CLi makes my computer happier. For this reason I decided to try to add my email to something I can check off of the command line. It would save me a solid 200-250 Mb of memory that I don't need to be spending on an email client that mostly just pops up incoming msgs all day. So after looking around, it seems like Mutt is the popular choice for people checking their email on the CLi.
To be perfectly honest, I really only need my client to check my mail on occasion, and if I need to respond to an email, I don't even mind opening Thunderbird then, but I just don't like keeping it open all day. But here is what you do to get Mutt running on your debian based distro:
$ sudo apt-get install mutt
this will install mutt on your distro... from there I got a Postfix Configuration screen. There you should find some details about the different types of configurations available (Internet site, Internet with SMTP, etc). For my purposes I just skipped this part and left with no changes to configuration, I will deal with that post install.
To access the configuration file for mutt use your favorite text editor (such as vim, nano, etc) and open ~/.muttrc so for me I will run
$ sudo nano ~/.muttrc
there you can add the following information for your particular email
set imap_user = “usernam@gmail.com”
set imap_pass = “passwrd”
set smtp_url = “smtp://usernam@smtp.gmail.com:587/”
set smtp_pass = “passwrd”
set from = “usernam@gmail.com”
set realname = “My name”
set folder = “imaps://imap.gmail.com:993”
set spoolfile = “+INBOX”
set postponed=”+[Gmail]/Drafts”
set header_cache=~/.mutt/cache/headers
set message_cachedir=~/.mutt/cache/bodies
set certificate_file=~/.mutt/certificates
set move = no
I probably don't need to tsay it, but change it to the information relevant to your email account of course. Leave the password fields blank if you prefer, and that will cause mutt to prompt you for it which may be a bit of a safer option.
From here you will need to run the program by typing
$ mutt
From your inbox use your
up/down arrow keys - move through your inbox
PgUp/PgDwn - move quickly through your inbox
Enter - opens the msg
Once you open a msg use
space - scroll down the msg
'-' (minus) - scroll up the msg (unfortunately you don't use up/down for this)
i - returns to inbox (seems like q works as well, which seems more natural to me)
For more information on how to use Mutt, this post was very useful to me:
http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/tutorials/get-started-with-mutt/1
To be perfectly honest, I really only need my client to check my mail on occasion, and if I need to respond to an email, I don't even mind opening Thunderbird then, but I just don't like keeping it open all day. But here is what you do to get Mutt running on your debian based distro:
$ sudo apt-get install mutt
this will install mutt on your distro... from there I got a Postfix Configuration screen. There you should find some details about the different types of configurations available (Internet site, Internet with SMTP, etc). For my purposes I just skipped this part and left with no changes to configuration, I will deal with that post install.
To access the configuration file for mutt use your favorite text editor (such as vim, nano, etc) and open ~/.muttrc so for me I will run
$ sudo nano ~/.muttrc
there you can add the following information for your particular email
set imap_user = “usernam@gmail.com”
set imap_pass = “passwrd”
set smtp_url = “smtp://usernam@smtp.gmail.com:587/”
set smtp_pass = “passwrd”
set from = “usernam@gmail.com”
set realname = “My name”
set folder = “imaps://imap.gmail.com:993”
set spoolfile = “+INBOX”
set postponed=”+[Gmail]/Drafts”
set header_cache=~/.mutt/cache/headers
set message_cachedir=~/.mutt/cache/bodies
set certificate_file=~/.mutt/certificates
set move = no
I probably don't need to tsay it, but change it to the information relevant to your email account of course. Leave the password fields blank if you prefer, and that will cause mutt to prompt you for it which may be a bit of a safer option.
From here you will need to run the program by typing
$ mutt
From your inbox use your
up/down arrow keys - move through your inbox
PgUp/PgDwn - move quickly through your inbox
Enter - opens the msg
Once you open a msg use
space - scroll down the msg
'-' (minus) - scroll up the msg (unfortunately you don't use up/down for this)
i - returns to inbox (seems like q works as well, which seems more natural to me)
For more information on how to use Mutt, this post was very useful to me:
http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/tutorials/get-started-with-mutt/1
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Command line RSS reader - newsbeuter
Since I started to play around with RSS feeds I've been looking for various ways to access these types of feeds. As I have been putting an effort in trying to use the CLi more often, I decided to try a command line RSS reader on my Ubuntu 14.04 install. Newsbeuter seemed to be a popular choice for people so I decided to try.
On Ubuntu the install can be done via the repository
$ sudo apt-get install newsbeuter
Once installed I imported the data from my feedly account by downloading the OPML file under the section "organize" (for some reason)
After placing the file in the newsbeuter folder, I ran the command
$ newsbeuter -i /home/username/.newsbeuter/feedly.opml
...to load my URLs from Feedly. Now run the program
$ newsbeuter
On Ubuntu the install can be done via the repository
$ sudo apt-get install newsbeuter
Once installed I imported the data from my feedly account by downloading the OPML file under the section "organize" (for some reason)
After placing the file in the newsbeuter folder, I ran the command
$ newsbeuter -i /home/username/.newsbeuter/feedly.opml
...to load my URLs from Feedly. Now run the program
$ newsbeuter
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Review of Ubuntu 14.04: The Trusty Tahr is out
I must admit, this was the most anticipated release of Ubuntu so far for me. I had been using 12.04 for a while on my main machine and I was eager to get my hands on this shiny new version of my favorite Linux distro.
After downloading the iso via torrent I installed it and here are my initial comments:
I very much like the aesthetic changes done, including the login screen, the colours and particularly the window resizing overhaul. I thought these would be barely noticeable for me but coming from 12.04 I definitely feel that the overall package looks shinier and more pleasant to look at.
I find it unfortunate that Ubuntu One is closing down but I do believe this doesn't really reflect on the health of canonical in general. One aspect of Ubuntu I think needs an overhaul is the software centre. It has pretty much looked the same for a while and if anything I think it may have looked better a few years ago than it looks now. I personally feel that while the rest of the OS has been evolving into a beautiful piece of software, the software centre still looks the same and it is already looking pretty dated.
*Before I continue, let me say that I have already adopted 14.04 to be my desktop OS for the next while. That's because I really really do like it. However I do have some criticism as well, so I wish that anyone reading this does not get discouraged from trying this distro based on the rest of my post.*
While I was very excited to use the latest HUD from Unity, I felt slightly disappointed so far because while the HUD idea is brilliant to the point of being almost revolutionary to me, it is still not doing what I believe it should be doing. I love the idea of having the HUD where I can not only use to open files and applications in my own computer, I would love to be able to easily pick filters and search engines that can be integrated to Unity that way. From my limited experience so far, it looks interesting but it is far from being what it should be. Part of the problem is that I did not find the HUD to be very user friendly and perhaps having a tutorial would be useful or some other way to really make the HUD intuitive and customizable. Once Ubuntu can do that effectively I would not be surprised if other OSs copied the idea because it is simply brilliant.
Some of the issues I had in the past with Ubuntu such as difficulty installing supported software like "Steam" are still there. I don't know why but when I try to install steam from the Ubuntu Software Centre it doesn't offer me an option to just "install", instead it says "Buy" which eventually leads me to errors. I really hope little glitches like that are taken care of soon because I strongly believe having an OS that works as it is intended all the time is vital if Ubuntu is ever to be a true competitor of Apple and Microsoft.
I've also encountered some problems with my sounds settings. For some reason my earphones only produce sounds from the left side. I know it's not a harware issue since Windows plays sounds fine on my machine. After doing some research I haven't been able to find an easy solution yet and it is a bit frustrating. So often Linux advocates bash new users because they say Linux is too hard to use consistently and this exemplifies what I mean exactly. I know that it is often a result of hardware manufacturers not paying as much attention to Linux, however, in order for Linux to really become popular accross the board, it needs to have issues like this addressed.
While Ubuntu still offers all the customization that it has offered in the past, I don't like that Canonical has disabled a lot of the options that use to be out of the box such as multiple workspaces and things like that. I also think they have made some of the settings a bit harder to access now which is likely an attempt to "dumb down" the OS to make it more user friendly. Unfortunately I do not like having to spend so much time tweaking my distro just so it could run like my Ubuntu 11.10 use to run. But if doing things like this helps to get more users I can forgive Canonical for it, but maybe offer an option during install for "new user" vs "seasoned user".
Overall though, I am extremely excited to be finally running Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr. I have been waiting for this version for a while and I am very impressed with what I have seen so far. After attempting to use quite a few other distros like Xubuntu, Mint 16, Kali, Debian and Ubuntu Gnome, I still feel that Ubuntu continues to deliver the best experience of all of these. Mint has climbed significantly in popularity, but to be perfectly frank I don't think it offers any more user friendliness than Ubuntu does. I strongly recommend Ubuntu to anyone wanting to try Linux for the first time as it is a great system, and I would love to see some of the more persistent problems with the distro disappear so that Ubuntu can really make an impact on the desktop market. Unity may be a source of a lot of differences of opinion, but in my opinion Unity is the most inovative, the most attractive and the desktop environment with the most potential to become the new standard in the future. Keep up the good work Canonical.
After downloading the iso via torrent I installed it and here are my initial comments:
I very much like the aesthetic changes done, including the login screen, the colours and particularly the window resizing overhaul. I thought these would be barely noticeable for me but coming from 12.04 I definitely feel that the overall package looks shinier and more pleasant to look at.
I find it unfortunate that Ubuntu One is closing down but I do believe this doesn't really reflect on the health of canonical in general. One aspect of Ubuntu I think needs an overhaul is the software centre. It has pretty much looked the same for a while and if anything I think it may have looked better a few years ago than it looks now. I personally feel that while the rest of the OS has been evolving into a beautiful piece of software, the software centre still looks the same and it is already looking pretty dated.
*Before I continue, let me say that I have already adopted 14.04 to be my desktop OS for the next while. That's because I really really do like it. However I do have some criticism as well, so I wish that anyone reading this does not get discouraged from trying this distro based on the rest of my post.*
While I was very excited to use the latest HUD from Unity, I felt slightly disappointed so far because while the HUD idea is brilliant to the point of being almost revolutionary to me, it is still not doing what I believe it should be doing. I love the idea of having the HUD where I can not only use to open files and applications in my own computer, I would love to be able to easily pick filters and search engines that can be integrated to Unity that way. From my limited experience so far, it looks interesting but it is far from being what it should be. Part of the problem is that I did not find the HUD to be very user friendly and perhaps having a tutorial would be useful or some other way to really make the HUD intuitive and customizable. Once Ubuntu can do that effectively I would not be surprised if other OSs copied the idea because it is simply brilliant.
Some of the issues I had in the past with Ubuntu such as difficulty installing supported software like "Steam" are still there. I don't know why but when I try to install steam from the Ubuntu Software Centre it doesn't offer me an option to just "install", instead it says "Buy" which eventually leads me to errors. I really hope little glitches like that are taken care of soon because I strongly believe having an OS that works as it is intended all the time is vital if Ubuntu is ever to be a true competitor of Apple and Microsoft.I've also encountered some problems with my sounds settings. For some reason my earphones only produce sounds from the left side. I know it's not a harware issue since Windows plays sounds fine on my machine. After doing some research I haven't been able to find an easy solution yet and it is a bit frustrating. So often Linux advocates bash new users because they say Linux is too hard to use consistently and this exemplifies what I mean exactly. I know that it is often a result of hardware manufacturers not paying as much attention to Linux, however, in order for Linux to really become popular accross the board, it needs to have issues like this addressed.
Overall though, I am extremely excited to be finally running Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr. I have been waiting for this version for a while and I am very impressed with what I have seen so far. After attempting to use quite a few other distros like Xubuntu, Mint 16, Kali, Debian and Ubuntu Gnome, I still feel that Ubuntu continues to deliver the best experience of all of these. Mint has climbed significantly in popularity, but to be perfectly frank I don't think it offers any more user friendliness than Ubuntu does. I strongly recommend Ubuntu to anyone wanting to try Linux for the first time as it is a great system, and I would love to see some of the more persistent problems with the distro disappear so that Ubuntu can really make an impact on the desktop market. Unity may be a source of a lot of differences of opinion, but in my opinion Unity is the most inovative, the most attractive and the desktop environment with the most potential to become the new standard in the future. Keep up the good work Canonical.
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