Installing VirtualBox 5 on Linux Mint

I decided to attempt a simple challenge for myself, install VirtualBox 5.0 on Linux Mint using only the GUI interface.  I started with a fresh install of Linux Mint 17.2 MATE.  To begin start the Software Manager (Figure 1) and from the menu select Edit -> Software Sources.

Figure 1 - Software Manager

Installing CentOS 7 with MATE Desktop

I recently upgraded one of my labs from CentOS 6.x to CentOS 7.  These are my notes installing CentOS 7 with the MATE desktop.  Although I installed CentOS on physical hardware, this example installs the OS in a VirtualBox virtual machine.

There are a few configuration choices I made that I prefer and fit my environment.  I installed the MATE Desktop over the default Gnome, created standard partitions instead of LVM, and created a single ext4 file system with a separate swap partition instead of the new xfs default file system.

The first steps, of course, are to download the ISO and create the virtual machine.  Then begin the installation.

Figure 1: Initial install screen.

VMWare Workstation Notes

I was able to get VMWare software for testing purposes and decided to give VMWare Workstation a try.  I normally use and am a big fan of Virtualbox.  My initial reaction is that I like VMWare Workstation a lot.  I downloaded and installed VMWare Workstation 9 for Linux on my Ubuntu 12.04 system running on a Macbook Pro.  The installation went without a hitch, though after the first update, post installation, I was required to enter my license code again.  This was a minor annoyance.

I wanted to simulate a configuration consisting of a firewall with two network interfaces and a single client operating system.  I chose pfSense for the firewall and Windows 7 Professional for the client.

Virtual Network

ClamAV - Linux Antivirus Software

Antivirus for Linux sounds unnecessary due to the low probability of Linux being infected by a virus. However because Linux can communicate and share files with Windows, antivirus is another piece of software that will prevent the spread of malware between Windows clients where Linux could be the conduit.

ClamAV is included in most Linux distribution repositories. ClamAV is, “...designed especially for e-mail scanning on mail gateways. It provides a number of utilities including a flexible and scalable multi-threaded daemon, a command line scanner and advanced tool for automatic database updates.” Even though ClamAV is designed for mail gateways, to scan incoming e-mail, there are tools to manually scan media for viruses. Normally a systems home folder, which contains the users home directories, or shared folders like SAMBA shares with Windows clients are scanned on a schedule. ClamAV is not normally used to scan the complete filesystem of a Linux machine. This in conjunction with Windows antivirus software will helpfully prevent any malware outbreaks in your home or organization.

When to Replace Servers with Network Attached Storage

SOHO’s (Small Office/Home Offices) traditionally either had client-server or peer-to-peer networking in place to serve office needs.  Client server, the more expensive option, have the benefit of centrally managed network resources.  While peer-to-peer, though less costly and easy to setup, become difficult to manage as the network grows.

With low cost NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices, many SOHO’s can bypass using a centrally managed server and use a simpler configuration for storing data.  Deciding when to use a NAS or when to use a server depends on the office needs.

When to use NAS

NAS devices are a cost effective and simple way to manage user storage.  There are several different NAS manufacturers and models to choose from.  Each model will also have different features, like the number of USB ports, upgradability and printer support.  Network services provided by the NAS, like FTP (File Transfer Protocol), Windows Shares, Workgroups and NFS (Network File Sharing) protocol also vary.

Running Fedora 17 in Ubuntu with VirtualBox

VirtualBox is a great tool for testing operating systems, whether for testing a different distributions or simulating a network configuration. What follows is my experience installing and configuring Fedora 17 on my notebook running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.
First off, this pseudo tutorial assumes a few things are in place. The Ubuntu Desktop is installed and running with VirtualBox installed, and the Fedora 17 ISO has been downloaded. Though my notebook has a 64-bit processor, it does not have the virtualization extensions; something I didn't verify before purchasing back in 2008. So, even though I'm running the 64-bit version of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, I'm running the 32-bit version of Fedora 17 in a virtual machine.

Junkless Software Installs From Source

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.