today's howtos

• LFCA: Learn Binary and Decimal Numbers in Network – Part 10

  In Part 9 of the LFCA series, we covered the basics of IP addressing. To better understand IP addressing, we need to pay more attention to these two types of IP address representation – binary and decimal-dotted quad notation. As mentioned earlier, an IP address is a 32-bit binary number that is usually represented in decimal format for ease of readability. The binary format uses only the digits 1 and 0. This is the format that your computer comprehends and through which data is sent across the network. However, to make the address human-readable. It is conveyed in a dotted-decimal format which the computer later converts into binary format. As we stated earlier, an IP address is made up of 4 octets. Let’s dissect the IP address 192.168.1.5.

• 6 advanced tcpdump formatting options

  The final article in this three-part tcpdump series covers six more tcpdump packet capturing trick options.

• 5 Funny Commands to use in Linux and Terminal

  Not everything in Linux is serious, fortunately we can find fun programs created for the sole purpose of entertaining us. You may be wondering why? Well, because we are human and at the end of the day we need a little variety, laughter and maybe a drink on the train. And yes, speaking of the train, let’s introduce you to the first fun command-type application in Linux.

• Ubuntu Blog: Should you ever reinstall your Linux box? If so, how?

  Broadly speaking, the Linux community can be divided into two camps – those who upgrade their operating systems in-vivo, whenever there is an option to do so in their distro of choice, and those who install from scratch. As it happens, the former group also tends to rarely reinstall their system when problems occur, while the latter more gladly jump at the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. So if asked, who should you listen to? The question of system management in Linux is a complex one, with as wide a range of answers as there are distributions. In this blog post, we discuss the concept of reinstall, and whether it’s necessary. Then, we address several other closely related ideas like system imaging, full disk encryption, and data backups. [...] System problems are an unfortunate side effect of software usage. With some luck and operational discipline, you can avoid most of them. When they do happen, you want to know what to do. Reinstalling your Linux system is always an option, but it’s usually not necessary, even for various difficult, complex problems. Even if you do decide to reinstall, you should consider using a live session to inspect the system or perform any last-minute backups, have a solid backup procedure in place regardless, and weigh the benefits of encryption against your day-to-day needs and risks. System images can also help you reduce the hassle of getting back to speed when you do decide to “reset” your distro. That’s all we have on Linux reinstallations. If you have any comments or suggestions, please join our forum, and let us know your thoughts.

Star Labs Launches Coreboot Configurator for Its Linux Laptops

After many months of hard work, last month, Star Labs finally added support for installing the Coreboot open-source firmware in its Star LabTop Mk IV and Star LabTop Mk III Linux laptops, giving users faster boot times and a more secure boot experience where they have full control over their hardware. Today, Star Labs announced a new version of Coreboot that fixes various bugs, along with Coreboot Configurator, a new app that lets owners of its Linux-powered laptops to change various settings of the Coreboot open-source firmware via the nvramtool command-line utility.

Proxmox Backup Server 1.1

We are happy to announce version 1.1 of Proxmox Backup Server! The enterprise backup solution for backing up and restoring VMs, containers, and physical hosts seamlessly integrates into the virtualization management platform Proxmox Virtual Environment, allowing users to simply add a server as a new storage target. Also Debian based: Rocket.Chat Desktop

LXQt 0.17.0 Desktop Environment Released, Here’s What’s New

Arriving more than five months after LXQt 0.16.0, the LXQt 0.17.0 release is here to add an option to the Panel to make it act as a dock by automatically hiding itself when it overlaps a window, add full support for file creation times in the file manager, as well as to add support for non-LXQt apps to save their last settings when the session is terminated. Moreover, LXQt 0.17.0 add separate idle watchers for AC and battery to the Power Manager, lets users create launchers from Tools menu of the file manager, improves support for SVG icon sets, improves opening of a mixed selection of files with different mime types, and adds natural keyboard navigation on the desktop.