091 Labs

Unfortunately, this workshop has had to be postponed as Mark isn’t feeling well and isn’t up to the trip down to Galway for the class. We’ll announce here when we know more about when it’s being rescheduled, sorry.

Why yes, a Linux workshop!

Friday January 20, from about 7pm onward. You want to learn Linux? Great! What you need is:

1. A laptop computer with enough hard disk space to install Linux.
2. A sense of self-worth and a desire to learn.
3. The fortitude to repartition your machine in order to install Linux.

We will be working with Ubuntu Linux 11.10¹.

Order of operations:

1. Get everyone settled and liability releases signed².
2. Introduce myself and introduce Linux. I have a swish presentation.
3. Hand out installation media to anyone who hasn’t been frightened away³.
4. Branch out into Q&A and get everyone working on a goal. I don’t have an overall plan in mind, save that I do better in this kind of format.

Scary footnotes aside, it should be a great evening for anyone who wants to come in and try Linux out and enjoy our friendly user-friendly hackerspace.

Admission is €10 per person, with proceeds going to the hackerspace.

—
¹The hackerspace has Ubuntu 11.10 installation media, I have Ubuntu 11.10 installation media and it is honestly the only distro I have used for any great length of time in the past decade.
²I want you to understand that complete data loss on your hard disk is a tangible risk if you mess up with partitioning. You will be supervised and the risk of data loss will be explicitly spelled out on the night.
³Depending on both the size of the crowd and my own infamously mercurial temperament, I may not be able to micromanage partitioning and installation. I will certainly supervise, but the burden of responsibility is on you, O Participant!

Want to try Linux? There’s a class for that!

Back by popular demand, 091 Labs’ Introduction to Linux class will be covering the installation and setup of Ubuntu 10.10, including configuring it to work seamlessly with your Windows files. We’ll even show you how to setup all the cool goodies!

The class will cost just €5, which will go towards rent and equipment for 091 Labs. The class will be about 2 hours long and printed notes will be provided afterwards. No prior knowledge of Linux is necessary as this is starting from the very basics!

What to bring:

• A laptop

By installing Linux you can KEEP Windows installed, you’ll just have the option of booting either Windows or Ubuntu when you switch your computer on. As a precaution, please backup all your important files anyway.

If you do not have a laptop, we will be able to offer a limited amount of old laptops which you can install Ubuntu on, just to get a feel for the installation. Please request these in advance. We have a Tuck Shop in 091 Labs selling drinks and snacks for low prices, which also goes towards our rent :)

This post started off in my head as a guide to firewalling your home server, but it gradually evolved, mentally, into a workshop for securing the information on your Linux laptop with GRUB, KeePass and Truecrypt. Click the (awesome Hackers) image below to RSVP your place for this once-off workshop!

…and secure it too.

When Aaron, Matthew and I incepted our Linux classes, we did so with a nebulous aim of offering a course of comprehensive beginner material, with our ultimate, nebulous goal being to offer “more advanced stuff”. Well, here we are. I dove into the basics of manipulating the Bash shell, simple scripting, SSH, and confidently administering a headless system as root. In the midst of my preparations for these classes, I had a theatric lightbulb-over-head moment: How hard would it be, really, to turn a desktop into a basic home server? Set aside performance and security concerns for a moment and just consider accessibility and turnaround time to live access on the Internet.

As it turns out, this takes about one hour. Maybe two if you are installing Linux from scratch. All you need to begin is a method to connect your dynamic home IP to a static domain and then a method to remotely access your home server:


apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get install openssh-server openssh-client


Sign up for a free DynDNS account and domain (remember to complete checkout!).


apt-get install ddclient


Populate three lines in /etc/ddclient/ddclient.conf with:

1. Your DynDNS user name.
2. Your DynDNS password.
3. Your DynDNS domain.


/etc/init.d/ddclient restart
/etc/init.d/ssh start


Now give DynDNS and ddclient about five minutes (on the safe side) to update. Congratulations, you have a live Internet server for your file-access, media streaming, jerking-around-while-at-work, and general geek needs.

Now, we have a server. Locking down its Internet connection? Mmm, ten minutes. It was actually over an hour for me because I was engrossed in crash-learning netfilter/iptables syntax from scratch.


#/bin/sh

# Permit TCP connections to and from this machine on port 22 (SSH).
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -dport 22 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp -sport 22 -j ACCEPT


You’ll eventually need to open up ports for NTP, mail, DNS and others, but really: This is all there is to it. And because I am awesome, I wrote all of this up on Google Docs and made it freely available for download. Any notes suggesting alterations, additions or deletions can be made directly on the document, or by email to me directly.

Your Home Server and You

As part of 091 Labs’ series of workshops for Irish Hackerspace Week, one event for which we received a great deal of positive feedback was our “Introduction to Linux” class, tutored by Matthew Kolder, Barry Coughlan and Aaron Hastings. The class, which we are looking to hold more of in the future, covered the very basics of Linux and Ubuntu (our Operating System of choice) – installation, initial setup, cool applications and benefits of running Linux over Windows and Mac.

By putting an 091 Labs laptop and an Ubuntu disc in front of each attendee, we guaranteed that everyone could get hands-on with the system, while having comfort in the fact they weren’t messing up their own computer.

A summary of the topics covered can be found on our Wiki, at the following link:

Introduction to Linux – Summary

If you would be interested in attending a future “Introduction to Linux” event or have any suggestions for Linux or Ubuntu-themed workshops, we’d love to hear from you at aaron@091labs.com