Kernel 2.6.20.3 has been released today.

Kernel 2.6.20.2 has been released today.

Only Ubuntu Linux has a article on using a little backup tool called sbackup. I have been a fan of using rsync for most all my backup needs, but this might be a great option for desktop users who don’t want to dig into the command line work and scripting to automate rsync.

Read the Article Here

You can also check out the rsync page here.

The basic set of GNOME panel apps ranges from the practical, such as clocks and system monitors, to the mildly amusing, but apparently too traditional to dispense with, such as Fish. However, in the last few years, an increasing number of GNOME applications are being designed to fit into the panel. Since many of these recent apps are interesting but too minor to rate a full-length review, here’s a roundup of some that have caught my attention. Although all of them are in early release, each hints at new functionality and levels of customization that might soon be available on the desktop.

Read the Fully Story at Linux Journal

One of the good things about OpenOffice.org is its ability to use different database engines. Just give it the right driver, and OpenOffice.org can connect to virtually any database system, including MySQL. However, deciding what database driver to use and configuring a connection between MySQL and OpenOffice.org can be a bit tricky. Let’s walk through the process.

Read the Full Story at Linux.com

Andrew Beacock’s Blog has a great little article on how he uses apt to install other versions of applications. Just a handy little trick for anyone out there using apt.

Read Story Here

For the uninitiated, creating Debian packages is a mysterious process that looks much harder than it really is. To make it a little less mysterious, let’s take a look at two methods of building Debian packages: using standard Debian packaging tools and the CheckInstall utility.

Read Full Story at Linux.com

All about linux is running a little article on how to create your own package cd of updates. Handy if you have a computer on dialup or if you have a system that does not even have net access.

It would be interesting to make a script to do this with apt-cacher or something along those lines.

Check out the article here.

encfs - encrypted virtual filesystem

This package provides a user level encrypted filesystem. There are lots of guides and information on how to set this up, so I’ll just give a quick overview for use in debian.

• First install the encfs package.
• Next load the fuse kernel module. If your running a stock debian kernel it should be available. Also add the fuse model to the /etc/modules file if you want it to load on startup.
• Add your user to the fuse group, adduser username fuse This will provide the user access to mount/umount the user level filesystem used by encfs. You will probably need to logout and back in for this change to take effect.
• Encfs works by having a directory where it stores the encrypted files and a mount point where you can access the files. encfs can create these directory for you when you first setup the encrypted filesystem. To start run encfs ~/.crypt ~/crypt This will prompt you to create the two directories and then ask you to choose your encryption method. For the default standard mode simply hit enter.
• You will now need to supply your password to access the encrypted files. This should be secure and also make sure you never forget or loose it as there will be no way to access your encrypted files without it.
• After supplying your password you will now have access to the encrypted filesystem in ~/crypt As you copy files there they will be encrypted on the fly and stored in ~/.crypt If you look in that directory you will only see the encrypted files and will be unable to make out the contents of the files, or the filenames. You will however be able to see the directory structure as well as file sizes. If this is a problem you should use a different type of encrypted filesystem.

Now that you have your encrypted filesystem setup you can mount and umount it as need be by using the command: fusermount -u ~/crypt to umount the filesystem and encfs ~/.crypt ~/crypt to mount the filesystem. Another useful thing about encfs is that you can backup the ~/.crypt directory without having to have it mounted for backups and you can easily restore it to another machine and mount it as long as you have your password.

For more information:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/TIP_EncFS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EncFS
http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/204

Kernel 2.6.20 has been released today.