The Small Box Admin

Carey Holzman of Tech-Vets reviews the StarTech UniDupDoc hard drive duplicator.

On a recent podcast episode a listener wanted to know if there is "junk" in .rar and .tar files. I don't deal with .rar files very often, and usually .tar files are the normal way to distribute programs in source format for compiling and installing.

What are .rar and .tar files? RAR [1] is a proprietary archive and compression format. I don't believe much software for Linux is distributed in RAR format. If RAR is used to distribute files, there probably are not many non-essential files. TAR [2] is a program that archives files and Linux software is often distributed in this format. TAR is also used for backing up systems and other backup programs often use tar [3]. One note, TAR does not compress archives by default, but can compress and uncompress archives with options to the TAR command.

SME Server (http://www.contribs.org/) is a Linux distribution designed for the office environment, similar to Microsoft Small Business Server or the now defunct Linux based NetMax Server. SME Server is managed through a web interface and provides file and print sharing, E-mail server and web client, Firewall, Directory Services, Web hosting and other services. It is also extensible via Contribs. Contribs are software packages that are designed to add extra functionality to SME Server.

This document will explain how to setup a test network environment on Vista using Virtual Box with SME Server and Windows XP Professional guests. I chose Windows XP Professional, because that is the environment I have found that most business or educational intitutions are using. This document already assumes that VirtualBox is installed and working and that the Windows XP Professioanl guest is installed in VirtualBox.

The default installation of Ubuntu Server is non-graphical, the server is managed from the command line. Reasons for this type of installation are security and elimination of resource heavy GUI's (Graphical User Interface's). On some installations, the system management ease of a GUI makes life a little easier for the system administrator. It is possible to install the web based system management tool without the GUI. This method will allow you to use those tools locally on the server without using a separate computer on the network.

Tools to be installed are a lightweight window manager, a method of locking the screen, web based system management software, web browser and a light weight file manager.

In this final installment of running Ubuntu Linux in Windows Vista with Virtual Box, I'll look at using shared folders and seamless windows. A directory in the Vista filesystem can be used to share files between the Vista host and Ubuntu guest operating systems. Seamless windows allows Ubuntu application windows to be used side-by-side with Vista application windows.

Shared Folders

First the folder to be shared must be created on the Vista host. Open a command prompt by clicking on Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt. A directory can be created in the resulting location or at the top level of the C:\ drive with the following commands:

C:\users\kleyba> md \virtshare
C:\users\kleyba> exit

Once Ubuntu is installed in a virtual machine, the Virtual Box Additions can be installed. From the Virtual Box User Manual:

They (the Virtual Box additions) consist of device drivers and system applications for the guest operating system that optimize the guest for better performance and usability.

Installing Additions

To install the additions, Ubuntu must be started and logged in. From the Virtual Box menu, select Devices -> Guest Additions... The virtual CD-ROM for the guest additions will be mounted.

I have a user that needed to navigate through Nautilus and open a terminal in the current directory. This behavior is not enabled by default. It turns out that Nautilus is scriptable, i.e. custom behaviors can be scripted. The G-script web page has several scripts that you can download to modify Nautilus. The specific script for the behavior we wanted was on the G-script web site, below is the code.


#!/bin/sh
# From Chris Picton
# Replaces a Script by Martin Enlund
# Modified to work with spaces in path by Christophe Combelles

# This script either opens in the current directory,
# or in the selected directory

base="`echo $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_CURRENT_URI | cut -d'/' -f3- | sed 's/%20/ /g'`"
if [ -z "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS" ]; then
dir="$base"
else
while [ ! -z "$1" -a ! -d "$base/$1" ]; do shift; done
dir="$base/$1"
fi

gnome-terminal --working-directory="$dir"

 
Using the gedit text editor, copy and save this shell script in a text file to your Nautilus script directory under ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts. Name the file something like openhere.sh.