Installing Cisco Packet Tracer on Linux

Packet Tracer is a cross-platform visual simulation tool designed by Cisco Systems that allows users to create network topologies and imitate modern computer networks. (1)

Packet Tracer was previously not available to everyone, but since version seven, has been available to anyone who creates a Network Academy account. (2)  The software allows you to create virtual networks without the need of physical hardware.  Some of the hardware included are routers, switches, and PC's.

After creating an Network Academy account, you are able to download the software for either 32-bit or 64-bit Linux platforms (Figure 1).  Though the site indicates support for Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit, I was able to install on Linux Mint 18.1 64-bit with no issues.

Figure 1: Linux downloads.

Capturing a Whole Web Page

I always wondered what tools were used to create the full page of a web site without page breaks.  I ran across the tool known as CutyCapt.  From the web site:

CutyCapt is a small cross-platform command-line utility to capture WebKit's rendering of a web page into a variety of vector and bitmap formats, including SVG, PDF, PS, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, and BMP.

This simple command line tool will allow you to capture a full web page.  On my Ubuntu Mate Linux machine I used the apt-get tool to install CutyCapt.

Installing CutyCapt on a apt based distribution.

Installing Fonts on Linux

Using fonts in Linux is similar to other operating systems and can be used in various applications, such as LibreOffice Writer.  The following examples were done on Linux Mint 17.2 'Rafaela'.

Installed fonts can be viewed and installed with a font viewer application similar to the one displayed in Figure 1.

Figure 1 - Font Viewer

There is a package in Debian GNU/Linux based systems, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc., named "ttf-mscorefonts-installer", that will install the Microsoft True Type Core Fonts for the Web.  The package can be installed via the command line, or the distributions GUI package manager (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - MS True Type Core Font Installer

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.