Recover deleted files on an ext3 file system

It happens to everyone sooner or later: a split second after you hit Enter you realize your mistake, but it's too late; you just deleted a valuable file or directory for which no backup exists. Or maybe you have a backup, but it's a month old... and in shock you see the past month flash before your eyes as you realize in pain what you'll have to do all over again...

Fortunately, you remember that files are never really deleted, at most overwritten by new content. So, you remount the disk read-only as fast as possible. But now?

The most frequently quoted passage comes from the ext3 FAQ itself:

Q: How can I recover (undelete) deleted files from my ext3 partition?

Actually, you can't! This is what one of the developers, Andreas Dilger, said about it:

In order to ensure that ext3 can safely resume an unlink after a crash, it actually zeros out the block pointers in the inode, whereas ext2 just marks these blocks as unused in the block bitmaps and marks the inode as "deleted" and leaves the block pointers alone.

Your only hope is to "grep" for parts of your files that have been deleted and hope for the best.

All information is still there, also the block pointers. It is just slightly less likely that those are still there (than on ext2), since they have to be recovered from the journal. On top of that, the meta data is less coherently related to the real data so that heuristic algorithms are needed to find things back.

Read full article to get deleted data from ext3 @ xs4all.nl

Reviews: Kexi Project - Open source data management

Kexi is a Free/Libre and Open-Source integrated data management application, a long awaited Open Source competitor for products like Microsoft Access. Kexi can be used for creating database schemas, inserting data, performing queries, and processing data. Forms can be created to provide a custom interface to your data. All database objects - tables, queries and forms - are stored in the relational database, making it easy to share data and design.

• Full visual designers for tables, queries and forms. Queries can be also designed in dedicated SQL view.
• Running queries, support for parametrized queries.
• Data entry and sorting.
• Support for "Object" data allowing to store images of many types.
• Designing and displaying relational data using combo boxes (lookup columns).
• Simple printounts for table and query data with robust print preview.
• Advanced CSV data import and export from files. Copying to clipboard and pasting from clipboard is also available, thus the data can be easily transferred to applications like spreadsheets or word processors.
• User Mode, allowing to switch off all commands related to editing project's design (since 1.1.2)
• "Find" window for searching thought table and form's contents with rich set of options (since 1.1.3)
• Support for simple database templates (since 1.1.3)

Supported Database Engines

• SQLite - file based (version 2.8 and 3.2) - the default built-in databse format allowing to store al lthe data and design in a single file that can be easily e-mailed or published in the Internet; requires no maintenance and installation.
• MySQL servers.
• PostgreSQL servers.

Data/Project Migration Tools

• MySQL, PostgreSQL migration assistant allowing to reuse existing databases.
• Microsoft Access migration assistant for database tables, being a unique solution.
• An assistant allowing to export Kexi file-based database to a MySQL or PostgreSQL server.

Scripting and Macros

• Python and Ruby programming languages are supported (beta stage, JavaScript support is in development; scripting is not yet available on Windows)
• Macros similar to these in MS Access (usable, currently in further development, not yet available on Windows)

Used Technologies

• Kexi uses the KDE and KOffice features for better user's experience. You can run it on most other destops (e.g. GNOME or XFCE) as well - Kexi will just use KDE's facilities in the background.
• While the application is available on many operating systems, it does not contain Java or .NET code (only C++) and it is optimized for speed and ease of use.

Extensions

• APIs for developing custom widgets, data providers and data importing/exporting. C++ language can be used as well as Python and Ruby scripting.

Kexi-Project.org

year 2038 problem: Y2K38 Bug has started...!

On January 19, 2038, UNIX-based programs and UNIX-like operating systems will run out of time. To be more precise, at 3:14:07 GMT, UNIX will be exactly 1 billion seconds old. Many see this as a milestone, but from a technical point of view, this can mean disaster for computer programs and systems around the world.

UNIX keeps track of time in a 4-byte integer that represents the number of seconds after January 1, 1970 12:00:00.

For example, a time of 60 represents the date January 1, 1970 12:01:00. A 4-byte integer has a maximum value of 2,146,483,547. This time (known as maximum time) corresponds exactly to January 19, 2038 3:14:07. This explains why UNIX programs in large, were pretty much unaffected by the Y2K bug - since it kept track of time in units of seconds. However, its own version of Y2K will occur a second past the maximum time.

At exactly January 19, 2038 3:14:08 (one second past the maximum UNIX time), one of two things can happen to programs that keep track of time with this format. It will either crash and stop functioning altogether, or it will rollback time to the beginning of UNIX time: the first minute of 1970.

What this means for computer programs and systems that haven't been fixed depends on the program itself. The consequences can be similar those predicted with the Y2K bug.

Many pieces of software that involve future dates (i.e. Calendars, Investment calculators etc.) are already experiencing problems with the 2038 bug, being unable to involve any dates past 2038.

Also, some calculations that involve averaging dates have begun to fail as well. For example, if an algorithm adds two dates together and then divides by 2 to find the middle date, it would fail.

y2k38.info

Seamless Terminal Server (Windows & Linux users)

Christmas gift to fellow niners with Windows and Linux boxes, who are looking for an easy way to access all their Windows applications and remote files when Wine-type solutions fall flat. I've packaged together a set of software components. It provides a seamless terminal solution for Fedora Linux users with capable Windows machines. I've made RPMs for a patched CVS-built rdesktop, included Microsoft's Elevate Power Toy for Vista, Fontis IT's enhanced SeamlessRDP server, and a small tray application and five page Readme wrote by me. Be sure to check the Readme file.

System Requirements:

• A computer with a version of Windows that encompasses the server component of Terminal Services--Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise. Note: Windows Server 2008 terminal servers are not yet supported.
• At least one computer with Fedora Linux installed. Although this software is capable of working on other distributions or Unix-like operating systems with a simple re-compile procedure, this particular package is designed to work with 32-bit versions of Fedora and Windows. Re-compiling the SRPM and SeamlessRDP components are necessary for 64-bit machines with 64-bit operating systems.
• Any sort of network or Internet connection for both the server and client. A simple 56K modem connection would be sufficient. That said, dial-up modem support under Linux is a joke at best; therefore, for most users the only options are wired Ethernet or wireless connectivity. The Terminal Server system may be accessed from a local or wide area network or via the Internet.

Seamless Terminal Server

Pidgin 2.3.0 - Best Im client - all in one!

Pidgin (formerly Gaim) is a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows. It is compatible with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Lotus Sametime, and Zephyr networks. Gaim users can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time. Pidgin supports many features of the various networks, such as file transfer, away messages, and typing notification. It also goes beyond that and provides many unique features. A few popular features are Buddy Pounces, which give the ability to notify you, send a message, play a sound, or run a program when a specific buddy goes away, signs online, or returns from idle; and plugins, consisting of text replacement, a buddy ticker, extended message notification, iconify on away, spell checking, tabbed conversations, and more. Pidgin runs on a number of platforms, including Windows, Linux, and Qtopia (Sharp Zaurus and iPaq).

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Open Source Alternative to Commercial Software

• 1 Graphic Applications

Imgv is a unique and feature rich Image Viewer.
Cornice is a cross-platform image viewer
Jahshaka is an editing and effects system.
KWord is a frame-based word-processing and desktop publishing application.
Scribus is an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops.
Xara Xtreme for Linuxis a powerful, general purpose graphics program for Unix
platforms including Linux, FreeBSD and (in development) OS-X.
Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file
format.
Skencil is an interactive vector drawing appliction.
Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows.
Unidentified Flying Raw (UFRaw) is a utility to read and manipulate raw images from
digital cameras.
Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks.

• 2 Internet & Networking
• 3 Multimedia & Audio
• 4 Security & Privacy
• 5 System Utilities
• 6 Business Applications

And there is a big list... i can't write it all as it is someone's very good effort for the people who want to use freewares and open source softwares. Be Free and use open source softwares. Grow help it.

Full List @ DownloadPedia.org

How to install 145 operating systems on one PC

So you think you're pretty hot because you figured out how to load Windows XP and Ubuntu on your PC, huh? Or maybe you've even gone so far as creating a triple boot machine with XP, Vista, and a Linux distribution. Well, one JustLinux forum member has you beat. And by beat, we mean he finished a marathon in the amount of time it took you to cross the street.

JustLinux member saikee has posted details of his system that boots 145 operating systems. That includes 3 versions of DOS, 5 versions of Windows, and 137 flavors of Linux. He created 152 partitions on 4 hard drives to get his system up and running. And he probably has the longest GRUB menu you've ever seen. We're guessing the slowest part of the boot process on this system is the amount of time it takes to find the operating system you want to use.

There are obviously very few practical reasons anyone would want to load 145 operating systems onto a PC, but we have to say, we're pretty impressed anyway. It's kind of like climbing Mount Everest because it's there. If you had licenses for 8 MS operating systems, the ability to download as many Linux distributions as you'd like and way too much free time on your hands, wouldn't you do the same thing? No?

Via:JustLinux

ext3cow File System

Ext3cow is an open-source, versioning file system based on ext3. It provides a time-shifting interface that allows a real-time and continuous view of the past. This allows users to access their file system as it appeared at any point in time.

Ext3cow was designed as a platform for regulatory compliance, and has been used to implement secure deletion, authenticated encryption, and incremental authentication. See the publications page for more details.

Some advantages of ext3cow:

• It does not pollute the name space with named versions
• It has low storage and performance overhead
• It is totally modular, requiring no changes to kernel or VFS interfaces

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Top 100 Network Security Tools

Anyone in the security field would be well advised to go over the list and investigate tools they are unfamiliar with. I discovered several powerful new tools this way. I also point newbies to this site whenever they write me saying “I don't know where to start”.

Respondents were allowed to list open source or commercial tools on any platform. Commercial tools are noted as such in the list below. No votes for the Nmap Security Scanner were counted because the survey was taken on a Nmap mailing list. This audience also biases the list slightly toward “attack” hacking tools rather than defensive ones.

Each tool is described by one ore more attributes:

	Did not appear on the 2003 list
/	Popularity ranking rose / fell the given number since the 2003 survey
	Generally costs money. A free limited/demo/trial version may be available.
	Works natively on Linux
	Works natively on OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Solaris, and/or other UNIX variants
	Works natively on Apple Mac OS X
	Works natively on Microsoft Windows
	Features a command-line interface
	Offers a GUI (point and click) interface
	Source code available for inspection.

Full List...

WinPenPack 2.9

WinPenPack is a collection of free and open source portable programs optimized for use with a USB pen drive and also directly from a folder of your Hard Disk. You can choose between some standardized configurations, all small enough to fit on your USB Pen Drive.

Standard configurations include:

- WinPenPack FLASH 128
- WinPenPack FLASH 256
- WinPenPack FLASH 512

containing the best open source and freeware software found on the Internet, made portable and divided by categories:

- Graphics
- Internet
- Multimedia
- Security
- System

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DRBL - Diskless Remote Boot in Linux

Diskless Remote Boot in Linux (DRBL) provides a diskless or systemless environment for client machines. It works on Debian, Ubuntu, Mandriva, Red Hat, Fedora, CentOS and SuSE. Unlike LTSP, DRBL uses distributed hardware resources and makes it possible for clients to fully access local hardware. It also includes Clonezilla, a partitioning and disk cloning utility similar to Symantec Ghost.

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FreeOsZoo - Free Operating Systems

With FreeOsZoo, the dream of running several Operating Systems on a single computer comes true.

FreeOsZoo provides ready-to-run images of QEMU virtual computers, pre-installed with a Free Operating System and a set of popular free software. To get started, you only need to install QEMU and download a single file from the FreeOsZoo project.

FreeOsZoo is targeted at end-users, who run proprietary Operating Systems because they are not aware of the existence of Free Operating Systems like GNU/Linux, FreeBSD and other free alternatives. For this audience, FreeOSZoo is the perfect tool for testing an Operating System without modifying their computer.

HomePage Of FreeOsZoo