Using Windows partitions from Debian GNU/Linux

My friend Arun recently blogged about Automounting filesystems in Linux from a Fedora perspective. For those of you who want an alternative method (especially Debian users), here goes...

I'll explain how I did it - it's much easier to understand from an example.

First of all, I used fdisk so I could know which were all the partitions in my system and what they were called.

debian-indraprastha:/home/anirudh# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40060403712 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4870 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1912 15358108+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 1913 3960 16450560 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3 3961 4870 7309575 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 1913 3187 10241406 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda6 3917 3960 353398+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 3188 3916 5855661 83 Linux

Now take the first entry. That partition is called /dev/sda1 and is the C: drive on Windows. Now I use the mount command to mount the partition. Mounting means that I attach a physical device to a directory, so that the directory itself becomes the device. It's a concept that you get used to once you are familiar with all this. To mount the partition, I need a mount point. This is any directory that I create.

debian-indraprastha:/home/anirudh# mkdir /disks/c

Now I mount /dev/sda1 to /disks/c

debian-indraprastha:/home/anirudh# mount /dev/sda1 /disks/c

You can check if it has been mounted using the df command.

debian-indraprastha:/home/anirudh# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 6.9G 4.7G 1.9G 71% /
tmpfs 253M 0 253M 0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda5 9.8G 7.9G 1.9G 81% /disks/d
/dev/sda7 5.5G 4.6G 702M 87% /disks/s7
tmpfs 10M 716K 9.4M 7% /dev
/dev/sda1 15G 13G 2.4G 84% /disks/c

See the last entry? That shows that /dev/sda1 (the C: drive) has been mounted on /disks/c. Its total size is 15 GB of which 84%(13GB) has been used and 2.4GB is available.

Now there's a file called /etc/fstab that comes in very handy. This mounting business is temporary. It gets "unmounted" after I shutdown. I would like to automatically mount it each time. I do that by modifying the /etc/fstab file. The /etc/fstab file keeps static information about the filesystems(refer $man fstab). Another file that comes in handy is /etc/mtab. This file keeps info about all the devices that have been mounted. After I mount /dev/sda1, an entry is made in /etc/mtab automatically.

/dev/sda1 /disks/c vfat rw 0 0

Now I copy this line into my /etc/fstab, with some modifications.

/dev/sda1 /disks/c vfat auto,exec,rw 0 0

Now each time the system boots, that drive will be mounted automatically.

Now, suppose I don't want it to be mounted now? I use unmount.

debian-indraprastha:/home/anirudh# umount /dev/sda1

To disable the mounting of the paritition automatically, just remove that particular entry from /etc/fstab or uncomment it.

Have fun :-)

See no Evil, Hear no Evil

The Hindu is a respected newspaper in India. It carried a rather interesting report on its front page on December 1,2006. "A controversial judicial appointment", it said. The report notes :

New Delhi: The appointment of Justice Vijender Jain as Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court took place under contentious circumstances. According to an appointment file noting by President A.P. J. Abdul Kalam, these included "divided opinion at the level of the [recommending Supreme Court] collegium"; a collegium that was expanded, in the first instance, from three to four members "in departure from" para 5.1 of the relevant Memorandum of Procedure; "dissenting" and "deprecatory" written remarks against the appointment by three Supreme Court judges; and reservations expressed by the President, who returned the file to the political Government for reconsideration.

However, these hurdles were fairly quickly overcome and the notification for Mr. Justice Jain's appointment came on November 27. He was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on November 28.

The report also comes with excerpts from the President's file on the appointment. This kind of stuff should've made it to the headlines of every newschannel and caught the attention of the media. The Parliament is in session and the opposition should've raised the issue. The only channel I get is Doordarshan and Doordarshan news. Nothing was mentioned in DD News. I do not know if other newspapers or newschannels have reported this. How come there is no noise on this issue?

Is it just me or is something happening behind the scenes that we're not aware of? Is there something wrong with the report or is someone preventing the media from reporting this? Can somebody please tell me???

Google alert for Debian Etch

Well... :-)

I created a Google alert for "Debian Etch" some time back. Which is how I saw the blog alert that led to my earlier post on Etch. Today morning I checked mail and saw this with the alerts...

I'm waitin.........
By Anirudh(Anirudh)
The latest version of the GNU/Linux distro Debian, Debian Etch (currently in testing), is likely to come out this December. yayy!!! Test rides say the all new Debian is, well... all new :-) ...
Hello World - http://gingerjoos.blogspot.com/index.html

Interesting :-)

I'm waitin.........

The latest version of the GNU/Linux distro Debian, Debian Etch (currently in testing), is likely to come out this December. yayy!!! Test rides say the all new Debian is, well... all new :-)

Here's one report : http://distroshack.livejournal.com/4832.html .Steve says the new Debian Installer is very user friendly as is the overall experience of using Debian. That's good news :-) I just can't wait to get my hands on it.

New Blogger Beta

Blogger has now introduced a beta of its Blogspot service. I switched to the beta service today. :-)

All you need to publish a blog now is a google id. Now there's a closer integration between blogger and rest of Google.

You will have noticed that the template has changed. Blogger now comes with newer templates. The servers are also new too. The older blogger servers kept having problems, so they've switched to new servers which follow Google prescriptions. I had been having trouble accessing the blogger site, now I can access the beta site without trouble. Cool! And once the exams get over, I hope to be back blogging really strongly. :-)

Have fun :-)
~~~~Me

Damn the loudspeaker!

Loudspeakers are a wonderful invention. We couldn't have big meetings, speeches, concerts and things like that if not for loudspeakers. However, they are misused to a great extent. (Just like mobile phones are?)

Right now I'm having great trouble doing anything. Why?

Tomorrow is when the harvest festival of Kerala, Onam , begins(sort of, explanations for another day). Tomorrow is onnaam onam or uthraadam. It's holiday time all over Kerala. Schools and colleges have closed for a week or so. Offices close for a few days at a stretch. Uthraadam is the day before the main day of Thiruvonam. Celebrations all around....

Some take this as an excuse to do anything. They get 'fit' ( i.e. drunk) and go about causing a nuisance. Some others play the horriblest songs imaginable on loudspeakers...

They're playing some pathetic remixes of old songs now. Annoying is a thorough understatement. Headache is killing me. I'm sure they're dancing in an alcohol induced carefree attitude. Not a tiny thought to the rest of the population who must bear it with grit teeth. I was hoping to study something for the exams that are approaching. It's difficult to study about the 8085 when you have a headache induced by blaring music, don't you think?

Like I said, loudspeakers are misused too much...No wonder there is a ban on loudspeaker use between 10 pm and 6 am. I only wish they had not relaxed the ban.

Happy Onam to all........... :-)

Yipppeeeeee!!!

yayyyy!!!! Here I am in college checking out if my email post worked. Apparently it has. And now I should be able to blog much more regularly, I guess. Good! I've been waiting to blog for so loooooooooonnnnnnngggggggggg..... :-)

Watch this space for more....

testing.......

Hmm...long time no post....

I got a VSNL/TATA Indicom 64kbps connection recently. Ever since I am not able to access blogger or my blog or any blogstpot blog. Anyone got an idea why?

Then I remembered I could post using email...decided to try it out. So if anyone can see this, please tell me so. :-)

Thanks....

Some movies...

Saw some movies recently...Some bits on them...

"The Evil Dead" is a 1981 film. One of those classic horror movies. Lots of blood and gore. When you see the movie, you know at once that a lot of the later day horror flicks were heavily influenced by it. The classical elements are all there. A group of guys and gals staying in some desolate place. Ancient evil magic invoked accidently by them. The magic then hunting them down one by one. Evil trees and evil laughs. Cellars and axes. Evil books and burning them. Name it and you have it.

"V for Vendetta" is the latest offering from the Wachowski brothers. It is based on a graphic novel of the same name created by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. Personally I liked it, but all the reviews haven't been that superb. The film is very dark in its outlook. Hugo Weaving as the protoganist V is simply superb. He meets the challenge of doing a role behind the mask with amazing success. His voice is superb as ever. This role of his will be remembered for long along with that of Agent Smith in the Matrix Trilogy. Natalie Portman stars as Evey Hammond. The movie is beautifully made and is sure to be counted as one of the best ever.

I managed to get DVDs of the original Star Wars Trilogy (Episodes IV,V and VI). I had seen the newer trilogy already. Pretty good...Nice story, nice effects (for that time). Harrison Ford as Capt. Hans Solo is brilliant. Too bad, they didn't have those excellent sabre duels as in the newer ones. I rather liked the last sabre duel in Episode I. :-)

Nothing more of significance...

>>>Anirudh

PS : The church bells are ringing now. Guess it's Easter already. Happy Easter...

SSA Gobal recruitment drive

Today SSA Global visited the campus for a recruitment drive. The particpating colleges in the placement drive were Model Engineering College, Govt. Engineering College Thrissur, TKM College, School of Engineering Thrikkakara and CUCEK Pulinkunnu. The tests were conducted online. It featured a lot of tough questions on Java and C/C++. The interviews have begun and are scheduled to continue tommorow.

SSA Global is the third largest ERP company in the world. The recruitment is towards its Hyderabad centre, which is one of the largest centres of SSA all over the globe. This office was formerly a part of BAAN and many of the employeers were part of it too. SSA uses a lot of the BAAN tools and believes in acquisitions that make it expand. Its most recent acquisition is that of Epiphany.

One of those who arrived as part of the team from SSA was Vyas Thottathil. A really nice guy, Vyas is what I would call a 100% pure MECian. Even after so much experience in the industry, Vyas still keeps the MEC spirit burning within him. Vyas...we are all proud of you. Thanks for being what you are. :-)

So long then...watch this space for more news.

April Fool!

The day is here once again. The day I had been hoping for.

I was chatting away with a friend on my Instant Messenger at 12 o'clock at night of March 31/April 1 when I got this message : Happy Birthday. The celebrations had begun. It was All Fool's Day.

I log off some time later and I log on back some time ago. I get this offliner from the same person. http://www.google.com/romance . I had been pretty much hoping to see Google's April Fool joke and here it was. It made me go ROTFL. Way to go GOOG. :-) And here is the press release about it.. http://www.google.com/romance/press.html . :-)

I looked at the "News" section of my GDS sidebar. I see this "Microsoft buys Office.Org" - Slashdot. Wow! Superb. Slashdot pitches in too...

Happy All Fool's Day!

Wipro Technologies Campus Placement Process 2006

Wipro Technologies ( info from Google Finance ) became the first company to recruit students from the current Semester 6 batch of Model Engineering College. Wipro selected 75 students ( 13 to VLSI and the rest to the software division ) in all. The selection process started off with a test in the morning of the 20th. This was followed by technical interviews. Those who cleared the technical interviews were asked to attend the HR interviews. A few ( 18, I believe ) of the HR interviews were conducted on the 21st. The number of selected students are more than last years intake of about 60 from MEC. Clearly the software industry is still riding on a boom and MEC students are as good as ever.

>>>Anirudh

Excel2k6

Back after a long time!

My college (Model Engineering College) is conducting a technical festival on February 2,3 and 4. It is called Excel2k6 and it sure looks like it is going to be fun. This edition of Excel is much bigger than last years. Lots of intersting stuff.

The organisers have decided to go in for some really big sponsors. The main sponsor ( Platinum sponsor) is HP. The first news channel in Malaylam, Indiavision, is the media sponsor. Other sponsors include Larsen and Toubro , Linux For You and Electronics For You.

The speakers this time are big too. Mr. Anand Parthasarathy, well known IT journalist of The Hindu, will speak on Technology trends in the information age. Dr. Ravi Kothari of IBM Research Labs will speak on Data Mining. The Indian Navy is holding a lecture too. I am told they do not do usually hold lectures or go visting colleges. This was a special case, it seems. There is a lecture on Avionics by Mr. P Radhakrishnan, a retired ISRO scientist.

I am looking forward to the ethical hacking workshop. Mr. Kalyan Varma, renowned security expert and Linux Guru, has agreed to conduct the workshop. Toonz Animation, one of the leading animation companies in India will conduct a workshop on Animation. S.P.A.C.E, a society that promotes Free Software under the IT Department Government of Kerala, will do a workshop on doing projects the Open Source way. Besides, Trident Tech Labs will hold a workshop on VLSI and VHDL.

School students can also join in the fun. They have contests too.

The contests for Engineering students are going to be very competitive. The papers selected for the paper presentation have already been put up. Partcipants come from Kerala and outside.

Boy, I am really gonna enjoy this. Hope I get some prizes too!

Wish me luck!
GJ

Google Pack

Google Pack

HappY New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Let the blast begin....

Wish you all a very Happy New Year.

>>> 12:00 am January 1,2006 Indian Standard Time

New Year's Eve Post : Eminem and the music of conscience

Hello Everyone,

I decided to celebrate the transition of 2005 to 2006 blogging. I'll make a post on December 31 and a post on January 1. So here goes...

What has Eminem got to do with conscience, you ask... Well, I believe him to be one of the greatest singers of this age and someone who composes music with his conscience as an inspiration.

These days MTV plays an Eminem song all the time. It is called "When I'm gone" and it's from his new album "Curtain Call - The Hits" . If you get an oppurtunity to listen to it, do it. And listen closely to the lyrics.

This song is about his daughter Hailie Jade Scott. It tells of how his daughter doesn't want him to sing and instead spend time with her. He refuses her attempts to draw attention , but he realises his mistake. He decides to spend more time with his family .

It sounds pretty stupid and dull when I say it, but this is one of the most heart-warming songs there is. Listen to it and you will be moved.

This is not the first time that Eminem has sung a song that has meaning in it. In fact most of his songs are a commentary on social life today.

Keep up the good work Eminem... We all love you.

#Wikipedia article on Eminem :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminem

>>>I finished this post on December 31, 2005 11:45 pm

Sonia Gandhi and the Propoganda Machine

December 9 is the birthday of Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the United Progressive alliance(UPA) - the ruling coalition of India. The chairperson of the ruling coalition is usually the Prime Minister of the country, but in her case it is not so. There is a story behind this.

Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India . Chacha(Uncle) Nehru, as he was fondly called by children, was handpicked by the father of the Nation - Mahatma Gandhi, to be the Prime Minister . Some years after Jawaharlal Nehru's death, Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi was considered by many to be ruthless in her rule and in her handling of political opponents. She established the Nehru-Gandhi parivaar(family), a political dynasty, as the most powerful force in politics and overlords of the Indian National Congress Party. Her son Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated and her widow was , over time, made the President of the Congress Party. Now there is a slight problem here. You see, Sonia Gandhi was born (if memory serves me right)Shania Maino - an Italian. This led to protests after the Congress party won the elections in 2004. Because this would mean that Sonia Gandhi would now become the Prime Minister. A lot of people were not very happy to see a foreign-born person heading the country. In a very shrewd move , Mrs. Gandhi relinquished the office of the Prime Minister and instead, installed the economist Dr.Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister.

If you had any doubts on who the real Prime Minister is, a peek at Doordarshan News- news channel of the state broadcaster- would provide enough evidence. I switched on the Hindi news at 8pm and was shocked. There was a small photo/logo of Sonia Gandhi in the corner of the screen. The normally dry and uninteresting reports were replaced by a slick promo of Mrs. Gandhi. It made my eyes pop out. Was Doordarshan actually capable of producing this stuff? The report went on to sing great glories of Mrs.Gandhi. It sang praises about her "great sacrifice" and her huge heart . It also showed her children - Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi/Vadera - in a , to put it mildly, favourable light. The propoganda was sickening.

There is a possibility that she is not behind this propoganda . Doordarshan has a history of licking the feet of its political masters. The Government of the day is the overlord of the supposedly autonomous broadcaster. Everyone from the executives to the reporters know that portraying the Government in a favourable light is the only way to earn their bread and butter and ensure their promotion. This is reflected in the massive propoganda unleashed by the channel.

Mrs. Gandhi would be well advised to keep Doordarshan in restraint. Overdoing propoganda could backfire very badly, as the NDA government found to its dismay in the 2004 elections.

"Open Source" and "Free Software" - 2

Hi,

I am back after a long leave. Exams are finally over(almost). What a relief!

Last time we looked at the difference between Proprietary software
and Free software + Open Source software. We will now try to see what the philosophical differences between the terms Free Software and Open Source software are.

Open source generally means just that. The source code is openly available. Anyone can see what it is and modify it if he/she wants. The reason people support Open Source software is that they believe it to be better than propreitary software. This is, they believe, because "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" or the famous Linus Law as given by Eric S Raymond. Consider this situation - there is a particular piece of software, say a browser. You have 25 people working on the browser. The source code is only available to these 25 people. This is something like the propreitary model. ( Actually, I suppose it is very unusual to have everyone on the project being able to see the whole code in the propreitary model) . Now consider the Open Source model. Here you have more than the 25 people, in fact thousands, being able to see the code. So if there is a bug, it is more likely to be found in this model of development. You might think otherwise, but that's what the supporters of OSS claim.

The key difference between the term "Free Software" and "Open Source Software" is the question of ethics. The supporters of the term "Free Software" link it to ethics. To them the decision to allow people to view the source code is not a question of making better software. It is a question of ethics. They link software and society. They belive that it is the right of society to use a piece of software for its good. For this to happen the users of software should have the following rights:

• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
• The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
• The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

This is a qoute from http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html .Basically, it is all "help your neighbour" stuff. The stress is on the ethics.

A point to note is that more often than not, "Free Software" and "Open Source Software" are terms. What I mean is that different people call the same thing different names. Linux is both Free Software as well as Open Source. So is Mozilla Firefox.

For more information check these links

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source


• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software


• http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html


• Website of the Free Software Foundation


• Website of Open Source Initiative


• Wikipedia on Open source vs free software

Disclaimer : Note that I am not an expert on these stuff. Also, these stuff are pretty controversial. It all depends on how you look at it. So please don't blame me for any inaccuracies or differences in opinion

What is "Open Source" and "Free Software"?

What is "Free Software"? What is "Open Source"? I will try to explain this in as simple a manner as possible.

Software is what does things for you when you use the computer. Otherwise it's just any other machine. To create software, we need to write codes. These codes are somewhat like English. For example :

if(age=25)
     salary=10000
else
     salary=25000

This is meant to be an instruction to the computer to do this and do that. This is not real code, just a hypothetical example. Now this code cannot be understood by the computer. We need to convert this code to something that a computer can understand. This is what we call a program or software. If you have a piece of program, it is almost impossible to convert it back to its original code. However, code can be converted easily to software. Usually, when you buy/download a piece of software, you get only the part that the computer understands. You don't get the code that went into making of the software. Such kinds of software are called "propreitary" software.

Open source means that this code, or Source code, is available to anyone who wants it. Free Software means nearly the same thing, but is different. Note that "Free Software" and "Freeware" are completely different things.

The difference is in why they want the source code to be available. Those who believe in Open Source argue that making the source code available makes the software better. Their focus is on the developement of the software. Supporters of free software are more interested in the ethics of software. They believe that software should be free - free as in freedom, not free as in beer. Often , the terms are used interchangeably.

Watch this space for the rest of the explanation...

>>>GingerJoos

THE RED DEVILS AND GOING TO COLLEGE

THE RED DEVILS AND GOING TO COLLEGE

Going to college is a major headache. I mean the travelling part.
Going to college means travelling in a bus at the worst time you can –
rush hour. The newspapers have a name for the red coloured buses of
the city - "the red devils". The number of accidents involving them is
responsible for their nickname. However I have a different reason to
call them that.
I usually wake up everyday at about 5:30 everyday. I leave my house at
about 8:15. Going to the bus stop I wait for the bus to arrive. Some
buses do not stop in the bus stop and when they do stop, they are damn
overcrowded. Once I manage to somehow get inside the devil it's pure
hell. The conductor gives you a dirty look when you give them the 75
paise (1 Indian rupee= 100 paise; 1 us$ = 45 rupees approx). Though
most stop there, some start grumbling about students, the student's
concession (student's concession/ticket is about 25% of original fare.
A normal ticket would have cost me Rs. 3.50) and generally make you
feel like you are a worm or something. Then the guy starts scolding
you far carrying a bag and asks you to keep it down. All in a very
impolite tone of course. Then the guy asks you to move forward and
stand in a gap which isn't there. Meanwhile you get crushed, stamped
and flattened. Yeah, even a fat guy like me.
So you get crushed, stamped etc. and finally reach kacheripady. That's
the bus stop where I catch the next bus. I wait even longer for the
bus which goes to pookkattupady. I have to board this bus and get down
at "thrikkakara temple" bus stop. Long wait over I finally catch the
bus and basically go through the same process again. Sorry, I forgot.
I pay Re.1 this time (normal fare Rs. 4.50).
Getting back home is easier. Easier, not easy. My dearest friend
complicates things for me. You see, he doesn't have the identification
card (more popularly called "concession card") which you have to
produce so you can get your concession. He was too lazy to get it when
everybody in class was applying for the card. So every time we go
together, which is often, he gives me the reduced fare and asks me to
take the ticket for him. He reasons that the bus conductors usually do
not ask for the concession card if you go in their bus regularly
because they recognise you. He says that even if they were to ask for
the card I could show my card and claim the concession. Sounds clever
except that it doesn't work. That part about the conductors not asking
for the card usually is true, but some nasty fellows are bent upon
making life difficult for me. They ask for the card. I produce mine
and they ask for my friend's card. Net result, the fellow ends up
paying the full fare.
I had different problems in the past getting the concession. In the
beginning, in the days when I was yet to get my concession card the
fellows wouldn't give me the concession and would ask me to pay the
full fare. Getting the concession card isn't very easy either. Getting
the card means getting an application from the Private Bus Operators
Association (PBOA) for which you have to produce a letter from the
Principal requesting them to give the poor kids the application form.
Then you have to fill it up, get it signed by the Principal and give
it in. Then starts the long wait. It is even more difficult than it
sounds, actually. Remember, the PBOA is least interested in giving you
the card and losing the profit that they would have otherwise have
got. So they make the issuing of the cards as bureaucratic as possible
(which means as slow as possible too).This means that you can apply
only on specific days of the week and at specific times on those days.
And guess what? Those days happen to be Monday and Friday when we have
to be in college. Thankfully, we have a 2-hour lunch break on Fridays
so the Muslim students can attend the Friday prayers. That's when we
go to get the application form and stuff. My head starts to spin when
I think about renewing the concession card next year. My God!
You have to be careful in using the concession cards too. The
"pipeline" bus stop, which is the next bus stop, is at about the same
distance from our college as the thrikkakara temple bus stop. We board
the bus sometimes from this bus stop rather than the thrikkakara
temple bus stop. But the concession card shows our boarding bus stop
as thrikkakara temple. Usually the bus conductors do not object. But
once there was this particular fellow who refused to give us the
concession because the card showed thrikkakara temple and we had
boarded from pipeline. Not all of the species are really damn mean,
but guys like this gives the fellows, who already have a very bad
reputation (deservingly), an even worse reputation.
Commuting to college is sure difficult, but hey, that's life!

GINGERJOOS