how-to category archive

Converting PDFs into Image Files (Citimortgage PDF Reprise)

I didn’t receive a response from Citimortgage about their ghastly PDF files, but on my next visit I was again able to view my statements in Evince, the GNOME PDF viewer. (Although they were still obnoxiously large files for the amount of data represented.)

But then on my next visit after that, the following month’s statement was again not viewable. Come on, Citimortgage, this shouldn’t be that difficult.

However, I had already invested some time in learning a couple of things about free software programs for working with PDF files in GNU/Linux, hoping to either shrink the files down or convert them into another format with less storage overhead. I’m a small man with small ambitions, and it had become a mission to not waste so much space on these records.

(You’d think …

HOWTO: Installing and Running WordPress on Ubuntu GNU/Linux

Step right this way for instructions on setting up your own instance of WordPress using Apache 2 (with mod_rewrite), PHP5, and MySQL. I’m using Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft), but I suspect this will apply to 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) also.

You may already know that WordPress is free blogging software, Apache is a free web server, PHP is a free server-side scripting language, and MySQL is a free database, but maybe like me you haven’t used the supporting “AMP” pieces that much and would like to get WordPress running with a minimum of fuss and bother.

NOTE: This guide is for running WordPress locally for development purposes. It may help you in setting up a WordPress instance to be served on the Internet, but you’ll …

bash shell script: copy only files modifed after specified date

Updated, 27 September 2007: See notes below…

I’ve mentioned a few times lately that I’m working on my backup plan for GNU/Linux. I started by looking at great free software tools like Samba’s rsync and GNU Tar, and I don’t think I need to look much further than them. There is also GNU Cpio, which I haven’t really investigated yet.

I may have more to say later about my rsync and tar adventures, but for today here’s something I came up with to emulate a feature of a tool I had in Windows that I couldn’t find how to do with existing tools in GNU. The xcopy DOS command lets you recursively copy files modified after a certain date by using the …

HOWTO: EncFS Encrypted Filesystem in Ubuntu and Fedora GNU/Linux

(Go straight to the HOWTOs. Do not pass GO.)

2 June 2007: Updated with comments for 7.04 / Feisty Fawn.

I mentioned recently that I planned to keep using TrueCrypt in GNU/Linux since I had used it profitably in Windows, and that I also intended to keep using the container approach where you create a single file of a certain size and then mount it to get your virtual file system.

I’m reevaluating my plan. I still like TrueCrypt and will likely keep using it, maybe by alternating DVD backups between it and my new intended: the EncFS Encrypted Filesystem. (And of course GPG is always good for many crypto jobs, and will also be part of my security framework.)

The drawback with my …

HOWTO: Remote Desktop with VNC in Ubuntu Edgy/Feisty

Updated, 4 May 2007: Warren helpfully pointed out in the comments a possible fix for the problem with the latest vnc4server. It worked for me in Edgy, and I hope it works with these instructions for Feisty Fawn also.

See below for info about the -extension XFIXES option, and for another necessary setting in 7.04/Feisty if you want to use multiple logins for a single user. Also see the related entry for this bug at Launchpad.net.

Last year I set up VNC Server in Fedora Core 5 (see below), and the instructions I followed had the added bonus of giving me resumable sessions, so that the remote session continues between client sessions. There is a long thread …

HOWTO: TrueCrypt in Ubuntu and Fedora GNU/Linux

Update, 1 June 2007: Version 4.3a, released May 2007, removes support for SUID.

I’ve been using TrueCrypt to encrypt financial and personal documents in Windows for a while now and it has worked just fine for the way I want to use it. I’m doing file-based encryption where you mount a single file as a virtual volume that appears as a normal drive in Windows. I knew there was a GNU/Linux version, so it seemed like a logical choice to use for the same purposes in the free world.

TrueCrypt is free-as-in-freedom (according to my hearsay understanding of the license), but the TrueCrypt Foundation behind it is apparently kind of secretive and closed with its development processes. I’m not …