LinuxChix Los Angeles » Sharing What Have I Learned

Hacking Debian Linux on a Zipit Z2 Wireless Messenger!

jillix — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:23:37 +0000

For $50.00 or under you can purchase a Zipit Z2 Wireless Messenger at amazon.com or ebay.com and make yourself an inexpensive mini Linux laptop/hacktop!

There are several different Linux distributions for the Zipit Z2:

http://www.notanon.com/zipit/different-linux-distributions-for-the-zipit-z2/2010/05/30/

My favorite flavor of Linux for the Zipit is the Root Nexus image http://zipit.rootnexus.org/ which has the most updated version of Debian, Debian SID. The Ubuntu image is wonderful also, but is a work in progress, and some of the hardware drivers are not quite working yet. The Ubuntu distro shows great promise though and I am sure all the bugs will be worked out soon.

The most popular distribution for the Z2 is the Aliosa27 image, which uses an older stable version of Debian and the Fluxbox window manager. Hunterdavis.com has a wonderful instructional video and article on how to flash the Zipit Z2 and install the Aliosa27 image: http://hunterdavis.com/archives/201

Also http://designate72.info/?p=139 and http://quantumlime.com/zipit have great articles on flashing and installing Aliosa27′s image. And, one of my favorite shows online, Hak5 of the Revision3 network has one of the most thorough and highest quality demos of flashing and installing a Zipit Z2 with the Aliosa27 Userland image and the Root Nexus image: http://revision3.com/search/search?q=zipit

And, youtube.com, of course, has many of the before mentioned videos and other how-to videos for the Zipit Z2: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=zipit+z2&aq=2

Now, on to hacking your Zipit Z2!

Hardware requirements:

A computer running Linux of course
A Zipit Z2 Wireless Messenger
A Micro SD card (Preferably 2Gigs or higher)
A Micro SD to Mini SD Adapter for your Zipit
A Micro SD USB Reader or a Micro SD to Standard SD Adapter for your computer

Files you need to download to your computer:

AutoFlasher-r2.zip http://sourceforge.net/projects/openzipit/
The Linux kernel you need to flash http://aliosa27.net/projects/zipit2/zipit2-audio+x+mouse.gz

First we will flash the Linux kernel onto the Zipit:

Extract the contents of the AutoFlasher-r2.zip file you downloaded on your computer to the root of your Micro SD card
Extract the zipit2-audio+x+mouse.gz file to an easy to find location on your computer
Find the file zimage-2.6.29, and copy it to the root of the Micro SD card along with AutoFlasher files you extracted earlier
Rename the file zimage-2.6.29 to kernel.bin
Make sure your Zipit has a full battery or is plugged in
Take the Micro SD card you just prepared on your computer and put it in the Micro SD to Mini SD Adapter. And then put it into the Zipit Mini SD slot
Turn the Zipit on and the Linux kernel flashing will begin
Once the flashing completes, remove the SD card from your Zipit
Then boot up the Zipit and you should see a screen that says OpenZipit with a Tasmanian Devil Linux Penguin and a solid cursor in the top left of the screen!
You have just successfully flashed your Zipit and completed the hardest part of hacking Linux on your Zipit Z2

Now for the fun part , Imaging Debian Linux onto your Zipit Z2!

1. For this tutorial we will use Aliosa27′s popular Zipit Z2 distro at http://aliosa27.net/projects/zipit2/Debian-Z2.tgz

Download it to your computer

2. Extract the image file to an easy to find location on your computer

3. Plug the Micro SD card back into your computer. Don’t worry about the files on the card. The imaging process will delete them.

4. Open a terminal and as root find the location of your SD card. I like to use the command fdisk -l to list all hard drive partitions/external devices and their locations

5. Use dd to copy the extracted image from the computer to your SD card. Change name_of _image.img to the name of your image and change sdx to the device location of your SD card:

dd if=name_of_image.img of=/dev/sdx

This command will write the image to your SD card, and set up proper partitions. You will not receive any feedback from the terminal, but you should not get any errors either. This could take a while to complete, 20 or 30 minutes, so be patient!

6. Once the command finishes, remove the SD card and put it in the Zipit. You should boot into Debian and be prompted to login. User is root, and password is debian. If you can login successfully you now have a working version of Debian installed on your Zipit! Yeeaaahhhh!!!!!

Although, the name of the image might be different and your login may differ, this technique works exactly the same for any Linux distribution you download for your Zipit Z2. Have fun experimenting!

When in Terminal:

Make sure to change your root password with the command passwd in a terminal.
Run apt-get update to update the repository lists.
Then apt-get install any applications of your choice!
Use startx at the command line to start the Fluxbox etc. window manager.

I love the Window Maker window manager so I have been having fun

customizing it for my Zipit

When in a Window Manager:

Pushing the [Options] button on the Zipit will enable mouse mode via the arrow keys on the top right of the keypad. The middle button in the center of the arrow keys is the right click and the stop/play buttons to the left of the arrow keys function as the left click. Clicking [Options] again will enable keyboard mode once again. The “…” key is the Ctrl key for the Zipit keyboard. And I have discovered that when it is in mouse mode the number keys become F1, F2 respectively.

Special thanks to

http://designate72.info/?p=139

http://www.mozzwald.com/node/50

http://zipit.rootnexus.org/

for the contents of this article

Jill Bryant

/jillix

jillix@linuxchixla.org

LinuxChix LA:

www.linuxchixla.org

Created in Debian Linux for

SCALE 9x LinuxChix LA

Booth #8!

LinuxChix LA Booth at SCALE 9x!

jillix — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 06:10:40 +0000

Hello SCALE 9x!

The LinuxChix LA will be demonstrating Hacking Debian Linux on the Zipit Z2 Wireless Messenger

For a small $2 dollar donation we will be raffling off a Zipit Z2 Sunday afternoon!

And for a $1 dollar donation we will also be raffling off two Hasbro I-CY Penguins, one Saturday and one Sunday.

Please visit LinuxChix LA at Booth #8!

Yours in Tux,

Jill Bryant (jillix), Betty Chung, Sharon Lake and the rest of the
LinuxChix LA team!

SCALE 8x Talks, Google I/O & Gina Trapani!

jillix — Thu, 27 May 2010 03:40:31 +0000

Hello all Linux Chix!

First of all, just wanted to remind everyone that the SCALE 8x talks are available to listen to via mp3 downloads from the SCALE 8x Conference Schedule page:

http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale8x/conference-schedule-feb-19-2010

Make sure to listen to the WIOS talks with Amber Graner; Rikki Kite; Malakai Wade, Mirano Cafiero, & Saskia Wade Etc. Etc. and many of the other talks at SCALE 8x that you may have missed! I have been enjoying listening to the talks that I went to a second time as well as those I missed

Second, last week was the Google I/O Developers Conference in San Francisco! Some very important and exciting announcements about Android Frojo and Google TV where made. Google gave out two Android smart phones, a Verizon Droid and the Sprint HTC Evo, to whoever attended the keynote speeches! Make sure to watch Day 2 coverage of Google I/O 2010 on TWIT with Leo Laporte:

http://twit.tv/specials20

Third, I just discovered a wonderful new blog:

http://www.womenwithdroids.com/

In the Women With Droids WWD Profiles section Gina Trapani, Google developer and tech-guru, is highlighted! Here is a wonderful interview with Gina that is linked from the Women With Droids site:

http://androidandme.com/2010/01/news/interviews/celebrity-android-user-gina-trapani/

I listen to the wonderfully talented and geeky Gina Trapani every week with Leo Leporte on the This Week in Google netcast. A must listen for every Linux Chix:

http://twit.tv/twig

And, of course, last week TWIG also covered Google I/O:

http://twit.tv/twig43

Either by Tux or by Droid, Linux Rules The World!

/jillix

Oh, spam, spam, spam, and malware

Sharon — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 04:49:04 +0000

This recent inbox deposit got my attention.

Subject: UPS Delivery Problem NR.6256171
(Visible) Sender: Manager Rosella Edwards
(Visible) Return email: manager@ups.com

There was also a not implausible message body considering that is right around the time that lots of Xmas presents get shipped off to various locations.

Hello! We were not able to deliver the package you have sent on the 1st of December in time because the recipient’s address is inexact. Please print out the invoice copy attached and collect the package at our department. /S/ United Parcel Service of America.

Of course it was sent to a public ‘info’ address which is not generally used. First Flag. It contained a .zip which I was instructed to open. Second Flag. And the IP where the email was originally sent (obtained from the view headers option in my email client) pointed to a location in Silesia. And Delete.

No. I didn’t open the attachment, which likely contained some variant of a Windows executable malware that wouldn’t have affected my lovely Ubuntu system. I wasn’t that curious, but I was impressed with social engineering involved in this particular bit of malware delivery.

Lesson? Don’t open zips from UPS reporting delivery problems. You’d be p0nwed!

WordPress, Akismet, fsockopen, and cURL … Oh My!

Sharon — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:35:53 +0000

UPDATE 9/15: Issue is gone (I hope!). Everything I wrote about fsockopen, cURL, etc. forget it. It was a server firewall issue. The reason for the ad hoc creation of dynamic rules which intermittently blocked outbound http requests is still under investigation, but the installation of a firewall that had better integration with the backend web administration interface looks to have helped.
UPDATE 9/13: Issue is back. All outside connections, including rss feeds, are out. Damn.

Akismet provides wonderful comment spam protection. Except when it doesn’t work. For some reason, still undiagnosed, outgoing communication to the Akismet servers were being intermittently blocked for the LinuxChixLA blog, and then a few days later completely blocked, rendering comment spam protection through Akismet non-existent. Even more disturbing, at the same time communication from within WordPress to wordpress.org was also disrupted.

WordPress versions between 2.7 to 2.8.4 switched the http communication defaults between cURL and fsockopen and consolidated the WordPress http code into a single (more or less) location. So I downgraded (*) to the older 2.7 installation. Some progress. Communication was restored to wordpress.org, however Akismet remained blocked.

Ummmmmmmmmmmmm.

Found this post at techdebug.com which, while dealing with an Akismet solution in a chrooted apache environment on a bsd server, did give me a .php script that I could use to test fsockopen from outside of WordPress. When run I got a time-out. Damn. A server problem?

Wordpress Core Control HTTP Transport module in action

OK, on to IRC.freenode #wordpress channel. Was pointed in the direction of a WordPress module called Core Control that allows for the testing and, if necessary, switching between cURL and fsockopen as the transport module in WordPress. I then upgraded (again) to WordPress 2.8.4, and upgraded (again) to Akismet 2.2.6, and installed Core Control. Using the HTTP Module of Core Control, I tested each of the given transport modes … and they all tested as working just fine and dandy with no problems reported with cURL OR fsockopen. Now I’m completely confuzzled.

So went back to the WordPress Akismet configuration, and it’s now fine. No problems. Communicating its little bits out. WTF?! Re-ran the fsockopen test .php script, and it’s fine, no problems reported, happy as a working script can be with nary a hint of a time-out.

I did NOTHING other than test the given protocols. And now everything works. What happened? Don’t know for sure, but I suspect that the stream setting was incorrectly set to block and running the HTTP module explicitly unset the block … tho how that apparently affected server wide communication is a mystery.

But I am happy that Akismet is working again.

* OK, downgrading was an accident. I originally had just wanted to look at the differences in the code between the 2.8.4 and 2.7 version, but didn’t specify a separate directory when I untarred the backup. I actually untarred the file over the currently installation. Oops!

Linux USB Flash Drive Recovery!!!

jillix — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:11:08 +0000

Hi Betty!, and to all those LinuxChix and LinuxGuys who need to recover files
or partitions off dead flash drives, usually fried by Windows, or any hard drive
or removable media

Here is the website for the TestDisk and PhotoRec software that
was used to recover your flash drive in Linux at our last LinuxChixLa meeting at
Philippes:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Main_Page

It is also available for Windows and Mac OSX.

To install and run TestDisk and PhotoRec In Ubuntu Linux:

“sudo apt-get install testdisk” from a terminal and then run
“sudo testdisk” or “sudo photorec”
Both the photo recovery program and test disk are included in the
debian package.
The PhotoRec software is what was used to recover the files off your
dead flash drive. It will recover many types of files, not just multimedia

The detailed instructions for running PhotoRec are demonstrated on the
PhotoRec main site:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step

TestDIsk/PhotoRec is usually faster at data recovery than Ddrescue, but
Ddrescue is more thorough and efficient:
http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html
Ddrescue and fdisk is what I always used to use until Chad gave us the heads-up
on TestDisk

Knoppix Linux Live CD has TestDisk/PhotoRec and Ddrescue already installed!
Here are the instructions for using these utilities in Knoppix:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Damaged_Hard_Disk#Booting_from_Knoppix.2C_a_Linux_LiveCD

The Ubuntu Rescue Remix Live CD (http://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org/) is also a great option. It includes TestDisk and Ddrescue as well.

And the Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/), one of my favorite
boot cds, includes TestDisk as well.

Have fun recovering files

/JilliX

How NOT to archive files

Sharon — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 05:52:17 +0000

I ‘fess. I’m a packrat. I save everything. And since I’m ‘fessing things, I admit to not having a good system, well, ANY system, to archive digital files.

When I either change or upgrade my hardware I’ve copied my old home directories and saved them in their entirety as a archive folder in my new fresh clean home directory, and then move individual files up to work on them as needed. The plan was always to go back and systematically organize and consolidate the contents. Which never happened.

The folly of my packrat ways was highlighted when I made a backup of the files on my penultimate computer to an external usb harddrive in preparation to wipe and install a home server. Well, 5 hours and 25 GBs later the archived home directories from my last five computers finished the transfer.

So my external drive now contains the nested archived home directories from:
-> hardy.laptop
—> gutsy.laptop
—–> dapper.desktop
——-> redhat73.desktop
———> windows98.desktop

So I’ve learned that I have to Organize, Consolidate, and Delete: a.k.a. OCD

Short and Sweet *nix tips from nixCraft

Sharon — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:06:35 +0000

Wandering out on the web in search of apache python information and found a sweet site with some quick tips for all things *nix from nixCraft. I found what I needed on configuring Apache2 with mod_python (and you’ll be hearing all about it at our April 19th meeting), plus so much more. If the sampling below doesn’t inspire you to add the nixCraft FAQ to your RSS reader of choice, me and my minions are coming to your house and taking all your penguins away.

Image from that fabulous time-waster 'i Can Haz Cheezburger'

Ada Lovelace, Tasmanian Devils, and SysAdmining

Sharon — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:53:11 +0000

Tuz!

What’s the connection? On behalf of Ada Lovelace Day LinuxChix Los Angeles is highlighting Terri Haber’s in-the-trenches-sysadmin presentation at linux.conf.au in Hobert, Tasmania. And Terri brought back a Tuz from linux.conf.au! And what’s a Tuz? In addition to being the mascot for linux.conf.au, Linus Torvald is replacing Tux with Tuz for the Linux kernel release 2.6.29 to highlight the plight of the endangered Tasmanian Devils whose population is plummeting in the wild due to a contagious facial tumor disease.

Terri, Tuz, Linus, and Bdale at Linux.conf.au

And yes, that is Terri watching Linus ~~save~~ shave the 27 year-old-beard of Bdale Garbee to benefit Save the Tasmanian Devil foundation. (Complete slide show of the shave.)

Now back to LinuxChix Los Angeles and our contribution to Ada Lovelace Day. Ada Lovelace Day is all about highlighting the contributions of women in technology. So why Terri? Because Terri did a most difficult thing, she contributed. Contributing is hard, being visible is hard, and Terri was visibly contributing when she shared what she knew at linux.conf.au. And in her contribution, Terri advanced women’s visibility in technology. So thanks Terri, thanks for visibly contributing.

Info For LinuxChix LA Booth at SCALE 7x :-)

jillix — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 01:04:59 +0000

Hello linuxChix and linuxDudes too! I can’t wait for SCALE! Yeeeaaaahhhhh!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and has a happy new year!

Since our last LinuxChix LA meeting I have been writing some info and tips on how to install linux on a flash drive and what portable apps can be installed on USB drives. I wanted to be as prepared as possible for this topic because we decided this is what we are going to demonstrate at our booth and I wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t forget any of my findings on this wonderful subject. Running linux and apps from flash drives is one of my favorite geeky things to do, and one I have been excited about since the introduction of USB technology. Anyways, here are the notes that I have written on this subject. If anyone finds them useful I would be happy to print out lots of copies for our LinuxChix SCALE booth for us to use or to hand out as flyers. Just thought I would run this past everyone and see what you thought

SCALE 7x LinuxChix LA /JilliX Notes For Installing Linux On A Flash Drive and
Portable Flash Drive Applications Information

This is one of the best websites for tutorials on installing
Linux on a flash drive–
www.pendrivelinux.com
It includes tutorials for installing:
-Ubuntu & Xubuntu–Persistant Install Using Linux & Windows
-Pendrivelinux 2008
-PCLinuxOS MiniME 2008
-Fedora 8 or 9
-Knoppix Linux
-Portabel SUSE
-gOS
-BackTrack Linux
-Gentoo
-Damn Small Linux
-SLAX
-MCNLive
-NimbleX
-Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD)
-CentOS
-CrunchBang Linux
-Linux Mint
Etc. Etc. Etc.
It also lists portable software applications that run from a USB device:
* New Infra Recorder – Portable CD and DVD Burning Utility
* New WebVideoCap Download Flash Videos from a Web Page
* New Windows Vista Serial Key Finder
* New Totally Free Burner – Portable CD/DVD Burning
* Daniel AI – Portable Artificial Intelligence
* KiTTY – Portable SSH Client
* SiteShoter – Portable Webpage Capture tool
* USBDeview – USB Device information tool
* EjectUSB – Portable Safe USB ejection tool
* 12VOIP – Portable Voice over IP Software
* Portable Opera – Internet Web browser
* Portable MSN Instant Messenger
* eMule – Filesharing utility
* Money Manager Ex – Personal finance tool
* Recuva – File recovery tool
* Torpark – Internet Web browser
* KampoZer – Webpage editor
* Avast Portable – Antivirus utility
* RockXP – Password recovery
* uTorrent Portable – Bittorrent client
* WhoIsThisDomain – Domain information tool
* SIW – System information tool
* PC Wizard – Info and benchmarking tool
* Savage – Portable Strategy Game
* Sumatra PDF – Portable PDF Reader
Etc. Etc. Etc.

And here are some of my favorite portable USB flash drive apps:
* QEMU Manager for windows is also a portable USB app:

http://www.davereyn.co.uk/about.htm

* Deep Burner windows portable CD and DVD burning app:

http://www.deepburner.com/?r=download

This is one of the best applications for installing Linux/BSD on a flash drive:
UNetbootin from http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
It installs in almost every Linux Distro and Windows and has
a very easy to use GUI!
Here is a list of some of the default Linux/BSD Distributions you
can automatically download and install:
-Arch Linux
-BackTrack
-Damn Small Linux
-Debian
-Elive
-Fedora
-FreeBSD
-FreeDOS
-Gentoo
-0penSUSE
-Puppy Linux
-Slax
-SliTaz
-Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu
Etc. Etc. Etc.
And it doesn’t stop there! Using UNetbootin you can also install any Linux ISO
of your choice to a flash drive !!! That also includes floppy disk images
as well as your own custum kernel and initrd !!!
UNetbootin can also be used to install any distro to your hard drive as well
!

Qemu, Qemu Launcher GUI For Linux, Qemu Manager GUI For Windows, VirtualBox Virtual machine emulators are a great way to test that your flash drive linux Etc. distribution has been installed correctly!
Here is a sample of testing your flash drive in a linux console:
qemu -m 512 -hda /dev/sda [Or sdb Etc. Do not include the partition number of the drive, just the name! -m is for the amount of memory you would like to emulate. It could be -m 64 or -m256 Etc.]

Of course most modern Linux Live CD distros have there own applications for creating a bootable flash drive. Ubuntu, Puppy Linux, Damn Small Linux, Gentoo, PCLinuxOS are just to name a few.

Mk-boot-usb: a Script to Create Multiple-Bootable USB Keys
can be downloaded from:

http://people.ofset.org/~ckhung/p/mk-boot-usb/index.php

BootFlashDOS For Windows
Small utility that will format and make DOS bootable your USB Flash Stick.

http://wareseeker.com/System/bootflashdos-1.0.zip/403111

PeToUSB 3.0.0.7 For Windows
Application for formatting and making bootable, USB Flash Memory Drives and USB HardDisks.

http://wareseeker.com/System/petousb-3.0.0.7.zip/403112

HP bootable flash utility for Windows

http://www.thepcspy.com/read/bootable_usb_flash_drive

Go to http://distrowatch.com/ for all the latest linux distro ISOs !

QTParted for Linux is the best app for repartitioning and reformating
your USB device!:

http://qtparted.sourceforge.net/index.en.html

Keep all USB drives formated in FAT32 or FAT16. Many computers, including
the ASUS EeePCs, will only boot a USB Drive formatted in FAT. There are
exceptions to this rule though.

Bootable Flash Drive Linux Distros For The ASUS EeePC :

ubuntu eee–An Ubuntu Linux Distro of course!:

http://www.ubuntu-eee.com/index.php

You have to have at least a 4gig drive to install on the Eee.
Boots to a window manager enhanced with an EeePC
Desktop. Sweet !

Breeezy for the eee–A Puppy Linux Distro:

http://minipc.org/safepup/index.php?file=Breeezy%20for%20the%20eee.htm

This is one of my favorites! And it works great on the 2gig Surf !

#! CRUNCHBANG LINUX–A Lightweight Ubuntu Linux Distro that comes in
Standard Desktop Edition, Lite Edition and now CrunchEee Eee PC Edition:

http://crunchbanglinux.org/

This is also one of my favorites and it also works great on the 2gig
Surf . I am running an older Lite Edition on my Eee, but the new
CrunchEee already has the enhanced Eee PC Linux Kernel included so no
compiling and updating is needed and everything works out of the box !

Enjoy using open source apps and operating systems with yuor USB flash drives

Jill Bryant
/JilliX

Written in Nedit in Debian Linux
November 2008-January 2009