What you will learn

In this article, you will learn how you can use your Ubuntu Linux machine to open a serial console on a cisco device.

Requirements

• Privileged access to your Ubuntu machine
• A serial cable

Conventions

# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

How to proceed

Install screen

In this step you need to install screen, a program that will allow you to open the serial console fo your cisco device.

$ sudo apt install screen

Read more

Introduction

Etherpad is an Open Source, web-based and real-time collaborative editor. It allows multiple persons, using their web browsers to edit a document at the same time. It also offers some cool features like rich text formatting and instant messaging.

The objective is to install Etherpad on Ubuntu 16.04 Linux.

Conventions

# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Requirements

Privileged access to your Ubuntu machine.

Steps to follow

Install the prerequisites

In this first stage, let’s install git, curl, libssl-dev, python and build-essential.

$ sudo apt install git curl python libssl-dev pkg-config build-essential

Install node.js

Etherpad relies on node.js. We will install its latest stable version by using the following linux commands:

$ wget https://nodejs.org/dist/v6.9.2/node-v6.9.2-linux-x64.tar.xz
$ tar xJf node-v6.9.2-linux-x64.tar.xz
$ sudo mkdir /opt/nodejs/ && mv node-v6.9.2-linux-x64/* /opt/nodejs
$ echo "PATH=$PATH:/opt/nodejs/bin" >> ~/.profile

Read more

Intro

Many people rely on proprietary chat solutions like Skype, but those solutions pose serious concerns for both privacy and security. Additionally, development of the Skype Linux client has been unpredictable at best, even stalling for a number of years, only to resume just recently.

Read more

Why LXD?

It’s no secret that containers are hot right now in the Linux world. They are quickly becoming the backbone of the Cloud and are making DevOps dreams come true. Even so, at first glance, it seems a bit redundant for Canonical to develop a new container system for Ubuntu in a world easily dominated by Docker. So why, then, did they do it? To fill a middle ground between traditional virtual machines and Docker. Canonical said it themselves, “By combining the speed and density of containers with the security of traditional virtual machines, Canonical’s LXD is the next‐generation of container hypervisor for Linux.” Not only that, but Docker containers can be run within LXD containers, adding another dimension to potential container configurations.

LXD is an enhancement of the existing LXC Linux container hypervisor with it’s own toolset, sharing a similar relationship to the original project as Ubuntu does with Debian with the goal of taking existing great software and streamlining it for easier use. On Canonical’s latest Ubuntu LTS release, 16.04, LXD is well integrated and easy to use with clear and concise CLI tools that make container creation and management seamless.

Initial Setup

Getting started with LXD on Ubuntu 16.04 is as close to effortless as could be expected. Canonical condensed the install to a single package, making this a one command install. A simple sudo apt-get install lxd will get everything needed to get started.

Read more

Introduction

Whether you want to be able to connect remotely to your corporate network or to construct a virtual network between two remote points, through an unsecure network (eg: Internet), you will somehow need a VPN (Virtual Private Network). A VPN allows you to securely connect to a remote LAN (Local Area Network) through Internet or untrusted networks.

SoftEther is an Open Source VPN Server, an alternative to OpenVPN. It’s thought to be the world’s most powerful and easy-to-user multi-protocol VPN software.
Our article concerns how to setup SoftEther on Ubuntu Xenial Xerus Linux.

What you will need

• Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus Linux
• A 30 GB available disk space is recommended
• A root privilege

Note that binaries used for this article are x64 architectures. If your machine is not x64, you need to choose the suitable binaries.

Conventions

# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user
> – given command to be executed from vpncmd command line interface

Preparing the server

Upgrade the system:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade

Install (if not installed yet) build-essential for compilation purpose:

$ sudo apt install build-essential

Read more

This short config will show you how to install Spotify client on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Linux. Let’s start by adding a spotify repository:

echo 'deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free' >> /etc/apt/sources.list
apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 13B00F1FD2C19886
apt-get update

Read more

Introduction

If you ever wanted to have a personal robot then you are reading a correct article. This tutorial is a brief demonstration on how easily you can configure your personal or company robot, then soon after, connect it with one of available adapters like: shell, campfire, hipchat, irc, gtalk or skype. In this tutorial I’m going to teach you how to set up Hubot with its default adapter Shell. Although it’s the simplest option, it’s the solid foundation for your future modifications.
Correctly configured and connected Hubot can dramatically improve and reduce employee efficiency as well as give your company lots of fun. Additionally, It can provide your team with the newest rss feeds or send crucial notifications. Keep in mind, that Hubot is developed by Github team, so it’s next pros for spending a while on investigations.

So what is Hubot ?

Hubot is open source, written in CoffeeScript on Node.js. It can be easily deployed on PaaS platforms like Heroku. Hubot comes preinstalled with several core scripts like math, ping, help, translate or youtube.
Additionally you can visit community repository which provides tons of other interesting scripts (i.a: ascii, coin, deploy, dice or jenkins). If this list still doesn’t meet your expectations, feel free to write your own script using CoffeScript.
As a starter I wanted to present few examples which I hope will bring some light to this topic.

Hubot> hubot convert me 56MB KB
Hubot> 57 344 kilobytes
Hubot> hubot mustache me linuxconfig.org
Hubot> http://mustachify.me/2?src=http://img1.tuicool.com/aqi6r52.jpg#.png
Hubot> hubot translate me praktyczne
Hubot> "praktyczne" is Polish for " Practical "
Hubot> hubot image me niagara falls
Hubot> http://www.niagarafallslive.com/images/HorseshoefromSkylon.jpg#.png
Hubot> hubot convert me 5 years days
Hubot> 1 826.21099 days
Hubot> hubot math me 2(3+7)/4
Hubot> 5
Hubot> hubot die
Hubot> Goodbye, cruel world.

Read more