commands

How to rip an audio CD from the command line using cdparanoia

How to rip an audio CD from the command line using cdparanoia

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Nowadays we are surrounded by devices able to read digital audio, and there are many services such as Spotify which allow to stream content legally. However if you like to buy music on physical support (compact disc), you may want to extract the audio tracks so they can be used on your smartphone or favorite device, or just for backup purposes. There are man tools on Linux which can be used to accomplish such task, but in the vast majority of cases they are just frontend to cdparanoia. In this tutorial we will learn how to use this tool.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to install cdparanoia on the most used Linux distributions
  • How to retrieve drive information
  • How to rip all the audio tracks from a compact disc
  • How to rip specific tracks and/or a specific segment of a track
  • How to pipe the output of cdparanoia to tools like flac or lame to compress the audio tracks
How to rip an audio CD from the command line using cdparanoia

How to rip an audio CD from the command line using cdparanoia

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Changing MariaDB user password

How to change MariaDB user password

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Have you or one of your MariaDB users forgotten the password to a MariaDB account? It’s very easy to reset a MariaDB user password on Linux, and we’ll show you the commands and step by step instructions below.

Resetting the MariaDB root password requires a different set of instructions, which we also cover below. Depending on which account you need to change the password for (a normal user or root), follow the appropriate section below.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to change MariaDB user password
  • How to change MariaDB root password
Changing MariaDB user password

Changing MariaDB user password

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Introduction to database normalization: the first three normal forms

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The goal of a relational database normalization is to achieve and improve data integrity and avoid data redundancy so to avoid possible insertion, updation or deletion anomalies. A relational database is normalized by applying a series of rules called normal forms. In this article we will discuss the first three normal forms.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • What is the first normal form
  • What is the second normal form
  • What is the third normal form
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Penetration testing and hacking tools on Kali Linux

List of best Kali Linux tools for penetration testing and hacking

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Kali Linux is a Linux distribution geared towards cyber security professionals, penetration testers, and ethical hackers. It comes decked out with a large assortment of hacking tools, and many more can be installed.

Perhaps you’re thinking about installing Kali Linux, or have recently installed it but aren’t sure of where to start. In this guide, we’re going to go over some of our favorite penetration testing and hacking tools on the distro. This will give you a good impression of what’s available, as well as some idea of how to use the various tools.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • Best Kali Linux tools for penetration testing and hacking

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lsb_release command that shows what version of Kali is installed

How to check Kali Linux version

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The objective of this guide is to show how to check what version of Kali Linux a system is running. This includes information such as the version number and what CPU architecture the system uses (i.e. 32 or 64 bit).

Kali is a rolling release, meaning that there are no full system upgrades. Rather, users just need to update all the packages on their system in order to upgrade to the latest version of Kali. With this in mind, it’s not as much of a concern to know if your system has fallen out of date or not, as updating it can be done entirely with apt package manager. We’ll show you how below.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to check Kali Linux version

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telnet command on Kali Linux

How to install and use telnet on Kali Linux

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The telnet utility, a once common protocol that graced the terminal of every system administrator and power user, was a precursor for SSH. These days, it’s a forgotten relic that isn’t installed by default on most Linux distros.

Despite the other protocols that have come to replace it, telnet remains an ideal utility to test the connection to a certain port of a device. In this guide, we’ll see how to install telnet on Kali Linux, along with some usage examples.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to install telnet
  • Command usage examples for telnet

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KDE Plasma desktop environment on Kali Linux

How to install KDE dekstop on Kali Linux

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Most Linux distributions have a “main” desktop environment they use – the one that comes installed by default in the distro’s most popular download. For Kali Linux, it’s Xfce.

If you prefer KDE Plasma over Xfce or are just looking for a change of scenery, it’s quite simple to switch desktop environments on Kali. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to install the KDE desktop environment on Kali Linux.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to install KDE Plasma dekstop on Kali Linux

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traceroute on Kali Linux

How to use traceroute on Kali Linux

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When performing digital reconnaissance or penetrating testing, it’s important to fingerprint a network by understanding what servers or devices sit between your system and a target. For example, security professionals can’t go straight to attacking a web server without first taking the time to see if there’s a firewall in front of it.

This is where the traceroute utility comes in. It can send a packet from your system to the target machine, and list out its entire route for the journey there. This will reveal how many devices your network data is passing through, as well as the IP address of each device.

Kali Linux has another similar reconnaissance utility called mtr, which mostly functions the same as traceroute. In this guide, we’ll see how to use traceroute and mtr, along with their various command options, on Kali.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to use traceroute
  • How to use mtr

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Cracking a password protected zip file on Kali Linux

How to crack zip password on Kali Linux

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The objective of this guide is to show how to crack a password for a zip file on Kali Linux.

By default, Kali includes the tools to crack passwords for these compressed archives, namely the fcrackzip utility, John the Ripper and a word list. Follow along with us in the step by step instructions below as we show two different methods for cracking the password of a zip file.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • What tools are used to crack password protected zip files?
  • How to crack zip password with John the Ripper
  • How to crack zip password with fcrackzip
Cracking a password protected zip file on Kali Linux

Cracking a password protected zip file on Kali Linux

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How to rollback pacman updates in Arch Linux

How to rollback pacman updates in Arch Linux

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Arch Linux is often praised for it’s bleeding edge software and rolling release model. We discuss these features more in depth in our article comparing Arch Linux and Manjaro. In addition to this praise, Arch Linux also has a reputation for being unstable. This reputation stems from the sometimes unpredictable nature of bleeding edge software. The latest software from upstream developers may contain bugs that were not apparent during initial testing. As a result, the risk is always present that updating with the package manager, pacman, may bring about unexpected results. These may include a specific piece of software no longer working properly (or at all) or even multiple applications or Desktop Environments no longer working as expected.

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Introduction to named pipes on Bash shell

Introduction to named pipes on Bash shell

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On Linux and Unix-based operating systems, pipes are very useful since they are a simple way to achieve IPC (inter-process communication). When we connect two processes in a pipeline, the output of the first one is used as the input of the second one. To build a so called “anonymous” pipe, all we have to do is to use the | operator. Anonymous, or unnamed pipes last just as long as the processes they connect. There is, however, another type of pipe we can use: a FIFO, or named pipe. In this article we will see how named pipes work and in what they are different from the standard pipes.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • What is a named pipe
  • How to create a named pipe
  • How to recognize a named pipe
  • How named pipes work
  • How to delete a named pipe

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