HOWTO Encrypt CD/DVDs in Ubuntu

This guide can be adapted to any distro, its not Ubuntu specific.

Installing necessary tools

sudo apt-get install aespipe mkisofs loop-aes-utils

Chose a password

You need to chose a 20+ character password and DO NOT FORGET IT, you will NEVER get your data back if you forget the password.

Creating the CD/DVD image

Make a directory called backup then copy the files you want to burn into the backup directory.
We are using AES encryption, you can chose from 128 or 256 bit key lengths, I recommend 256.

mkisofs -r backup | aespipe -e aes256 > backup.iso

or for 128 bit key length

mkisofs -r backup | aespipe -e aes128 > backup.iso

Mounting the image

First we need to load some modules

sudo modprobe aes
sudo modprobe cryptoloop

For 128 bit key lengths:

sudo mount -t iso9660 backup.iso /mnt/iso -o loop=/dev/loop0,encryption=aes128

For 256 bit key lengths:

sudo mount -t iso9660 backup.iso /mnt/iso -o loop=/dev/loop0,encryption=aes256

This will mount the image in /mnt/iso (make sure you have the directory before you try to mount)

Burning

You can burn the image with your favorite program (gnomebaker, k3b), you might get some warnings about the image but you can ignore them.

Mounting the new CD/DVD

First make sure you loaded the aes and cryptoloop modules (see above)
sudo mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/iso -o loop=/dev/loop0,encryption=aes256

How to Export your Mails from Evolution to Thunderbird

Preparing Your Thunderbird

Create a new mail account in Thunderbird (this is so that if everything goes pear shaped nothing else will be affected).

In Thunderbird choose Edit -> Account Settings -> Add Account

Select Email Account and click Next

Leave identity settings as they are and click next

Set the Incoming Server to “localhost” and REMOVE the tick from “Use Global Inbox” Click next

Leave the Incoming user name as it is. Click Next

Change the Account Name to something relevant such as “Evolution Mail”

Once the settings are created return to Edit -> Account Settings and select the “Server Settings” option under the “Evolution Mail” account. Take note of the “Local Directory” Setting. It will be a string like “/home/yourloginname/.mozilla-thunderbird/a2ti6rsz.default/Mail/localhost”. This is where all mail is stored for this account.

Now that the account is created and you know where to find it you can transfer the emails from Evolution.

Transferring mail from Evolution to Thunderbird

Open up two windows to your Home Directory. Navigate in one of the windows to the path that Thunderbird has assigned for your email storage above. HINT: CTRL+h in your home folder will show all hidden files and folders so you will be able to see the “.mozilla-thunderbird” folder. Once you are in this folder you will see some files in there with names such as Inbox, Inbox.msf, Junk.msf and so on.

In the other window from your home folder navigate to “.evolution/mail/local” This is where any locally stored mail from Evolution is placed. There are a similar set of files to what you see in the Thunderbird folder, Inbox, Drafts and so on.

Copy the files named Inbox, Sent, Outbox and Drafts from the evolution folder to the mozilla-thunderbird folder (dragging and dropping while holding down your ctrl key will copy rather than move the files). When it asks if its ok to overwrite them just say yes. Its ok, nothing bad will happen. Its just a copy. You can trust me. Honest.

If you have your mail folders organised in evolution under your Inbox there will be a sub directory called “Inbox.sbd” under the .evolution/mail/local/ directory. In that directory you will find files named the same as your folders such as Humour, Humour.cmeta, Humour.ev-summary, Humour.ibex.index and so on. Of course, this depends on what you’ve called your folders.

For any of the folders you want to move to Thunderbird chose the file WITHOUT any extension and copy it to the localhost folder where you previously placed the Inbox and other files.

Thats all there is to it! Open Thunderbird and you should see all your mail and the relevant folders under the “Evolution Mail” account. You can keep the mail there or move it around in Thunderbird. The choices are yours.

source: www.ubuntugeek.com

How To Import your mails from Evolution to Thunderbird

If you want to Import your mails from Evolution to Thunderbird there is very nice utility called MboxImport .

Thunderbird, like many other email clients, uses the mbox format to archive the emails.It’s curious that Thundebird has not a function that let you import or export files in this format and this lack is sometimes a problem when you want to move the accounts from a pc to another one or when you want to migrate (for example) from Mozilla to Thunderbird.Anyway this kind of import can be made very easily copying the mbox file into the directory “Local Folders” (it is inside the profile directory) with Thunderbird close; restarting the program, the mbox file will be visibile as subfolder of Local Folders.To export, you must just copy the email files that are inside the account’s folder.This method can give some troubles, above all for people not very expert with Thunderbird, because the profile’s files are into a hidden directory, whose path changes with the operative systems or also with personal needs.

First you need to download MboxImport from here

Install MboxImport in Thunderbird

In Thunderbird, go in “Tools” –> “Extensions” and click on “Install”;

pick the xpi file you downloaded and follow the instructions;

restart Thunderbird.

To export, it’s sufficient a right-click on the folder or on the account and to choose the voice you want from the menu “Import/export”.

Once you have saved all the folders/files into the Mbox format, just go into Evolution and select “Import” and follow the wizard using “a single file import” and select your xxxx.mbox file and then select which folder in Evolution you want to import into.

For importing the address book from Thunderbird to Evolution, use T-birds address book export function and save the address book as a .csv file.After finishing address book check everything is fine or not.

source:www.ubuntugeek.com

How to Make Make a VCD from an AVI Using Avidemux and K3b

Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports many file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs. Tasks can be automated using projects, job queue and powerful scripting capabilities.

K3b is a GUI frontend to the cd recording programs cdrdao and cdrecord. Its aim is to provide a very user friendly interface to all the tasks that come with cd recording.

from mp3, ogg vorbis, and wav files (on-the-fly or with images)
* cd-text support
* ID3-tag support
* little gimmick: hide the first track (so that you have to search back
from the beginning of the cd to find it)
* volume level normalization (only when writing with an image)

Install Avidemux and K3b in Ubuntu

First you need to check you have installed Avidemux and K3b packages if not use the following command to install

sudo avidemux K3b

This will complete the installation.

Make a VCD from an AVI Using Avidemux and K3b

In Avidemux, from the menu select Auto->VCD, then select a filename. It will create an mpg, saving to your Home directory by default.

In K3b, from the menu select File->New Project->New Video CD Project. Drag and drop the mpg you created in step 1. Click Burn.

How to Clear Free Hard Drive Space with Disk Scrub Utility

Scrub iteratively writes patterns on files or disk devices to make retrieving the data more difficult. Scrub operates in one of three modes:

The special file corresponding to an entire disk is scrubbed and all data on it is destroyed. This mode is selected if file is a character or block special file. This is the most effective method.

A regular file is scrubbed and only the data in the file (and optionally its name in the directory entry) is destroyed. The file size is rounded up to fill out the last file system block. This mode is selected if file is a regular file.

A file is created, expanded until the file system is full, then scrubbed as in item 2. This mode is selected with the -X option.
Scrub implements user-selectable pattern algorithms that are compliant with DoD 5520.22-M or NNSA NAP-14.x.

Install Scrub in Ubuntu

First you need to install Alien

sudo apt-get install alien

This will help us to convert .rpm files in to .deb packages

Now you need to download the Scrub latest version from here

wget http://heanet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/diskscrub/scrub-1.8-1.i386.rpm

You have scrub-1.8-1.i386.rpm file now.Convert this file in to .deb using the following command

sudo alien -k scrub-1.8-1.i386.rpm

Now you have the scrub-1.8-1.i386.deb package.You need to install this package using the following command

sudo dpkg -i scrub-1.8-1.i386.deb

This will complete the installation

Create a scratch directory for scrub.

sudo mkdir /scratch

Using Scrub

Scrub Syntax

scrub [-f] [-p nnsa|dod|bsi] [-X] [-D newname] [-s size] file

Example

sudo scrub -X /scratch/junk

Delete junk file once scrub is finished.

sudo rm -f /scratch/junk

Source: www.ubuntugeek.com

How to Send and Receive Hotmail E-mail thru Evolution?

If you want to use you Evolution mail client to send and receive your hotmail messages use the following procedure.

How to install Gimmie: A new GNOME panel in Ubuntu?

Gimmie is an elegant way to think about how you use your desktop computer.Gimmie is a new concept of the panel designed to shift the direction of the desktop beyond the standard WIMP model (Windows, Icons, Menu, Pointer) towards one directly representing the concepts that modern desktop users use every day. It is being considered for inclusion in Project Topaz (a.k.a. Gnome 3.0)

Gimmie Features

• A new way to think about your desktop
• Easy to learn
• Relates objects to topics– Colors aide recognition
• Quickly see what's open
• Bookmarks are running representation
• Simple & Obvious
• It's a Prototype

Current Stable Version :- 0.2.4

Project Home Page :- http://beatnik.infogami.com/Gimmie