How to enable and use Wake on LAN

In this article I will describe how to enable Wake-on-LAN (WOL) and how to use it to start-up a system remotely. In order to use Wake-on-LAN your systems hardware and network driver needs to actually support this technology. You will also need to know the MAC address of the systems ethernet card.

How to compile Truecrypt from source

A few days ago my new USB hard drive arrived. My idea was to connect the hard drive to my Raspberry Pi so that everyone in the network can read the data on that drive. But all the data stored on that drive should be encrypted. The problem was that I also wanted to use the hard drive to copy files from a computer of a friend. Not everyone uses Linux, so I could not encrypt the hard drive with LUKS.
But I had an idea to encrypt the hard drive with Truecrypt, which is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. I created a little partition (about 100MB) which is not encrypted and download the Truecrypt installer for each OS to that partition. The advantage is that you don’t need an internet connection to download the installer. The rest of the hard drive is encrypted with Truecrypt.

The main problem was the installation of Truecrypt on my Pi because there is no ARM binary. I’ve no X-Server on my Pi so I had to install Truecrypt as console-only version. Here are the steps I’ve done to install Truecrypt on my Pi.

How to install ClockworkMod Recovery and CyanogenMod on Samsung Galaxy S (GT-I9000)

In this article I will describe how to install ClockworkMod Recovery and CyanogenMod on the Samsung Galaxy S. By installing CyanogenMod your device will also be rooted. I have written this post while I was installing ClockworkMod Recovery and CyanogenMod on my friends Samsung Galaxy S GT-i9000 (International). I provided the specific software download locations for the GT-i9000 and also the general download links in case you have an other model of the SI. Make sure to have enough battery life throughout the whole installation procedure and to read the disclaimer before starting to follow this guide!

How to install Privoxy and combine it with Tor

In this post I’ll show you how you can improve your privacy and anonymity while you are browsing on some websites. For this purpose I’ll use Privoxy and Tor. Privoxy is a non-caching web-proxy with filtering capabilities for enhancing privacy. Tor uses an overlay network of volunteers and relays your traffic through the Tor network to it’s destination. It also encrypts your data, so no Tor node (except the exit node) can read your data.

This is not a high-security setup, but it should improve your privacy and anonymity.

1. Privoxy
2. Tor
3. Combine Privoxy and Tor
4. Appendix

How to install a CalDav and CardDav server using Radicale

During my time at the university I had lots of meetings, events and I couldn’t remember all these events, so I had to write them down. But we’re living in a digital world, so I wanted to keep all my appointments digitally. I tried Thunderbird Lightning and it is a great Add On. But I also wanted to synchronize all these events with my smartphone without using an external cloud, e.g. Google Calendar.

I wanted a small program with minimal dependencies to act as a server which is able to run on a Raspberry Pi. It doesn’t have to provide a web interface, because I can use Thunderbird or my smartphone to add, change or delete events. I found Radicale which is written in Python and has no dependencies. It supports the CalDav and CardDav protocol. That’s all I wanted so I gave it a try. My first impression was very good and it works great. Here are all steps I did to set up my own CalDav server with Radicale.

1. Installation of Radicale
2. Adding bcrypt support to Radicale (optional step)
3. Configure Radicale
4. Configure Thunderbird Lightning
5. Configure Android Calendar

How to install ClockworkMod Recovery and CyanogenMod on Samsung Galaxy S3

In this article I will describe how to install ClockworkMod Recovery and CyanogenMod on the Samsung Galaxy S3. By installing CyanogenMod your device will also be rooted. I have written this post while I was installing ClockworkMod Recovery and CyanogenMod on my own Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-i9300 (International). I provided the specific software download locations for the GT-i9300 and also the general download links in case you have an other model of the S3. You may also consider taking a look at the tutorial from the CyanogenMod website for your specific device. Also make sure that you have enough battery life throughout the whole installation procedure and to read the disclaimer before starting to follow this guide!

How to install Bumblebee on Arch Linux

In this article I will describe how to install Bumblebee on Arch Linux. The Bumblebee-Wiki provides the following description for the software: “Bumblebee is an effort to make Nvidia Optimus enabled laptops work in GNU/Linux systems. Such feature involves two graphics cards with two different power consumption profiles plugged in a layered way sharing a single framebuffer”. Please be extremely cautious throughout the whole installation procedure, depending on your system you may end up with a messed up driver or system configuration! This “How To” is based on my system, here are the most relevant specs:

• Lenovo ThinkPad T420s
• CPU: Intel Core i7 – 2620M with integrated GPU
• Graphics: NVIDIA 4200M Optimus Graphics (NVIDIA GF119M)

0. Preparations
1. Installation
2. Important and useful commands
3. Troubleshooting

How to install Slackware ARM on a Raspberry Pi

A few days ago I got my Raspberry Pi and I had to decide which OS I install. I like Slackware and decided to give Slackware ARM (formerly ArmedSlack) a try. It was surprisingly easy to install it.
The first step was to download the Slackware ARM installer and copy it to the SD card.
Download installer:

$ wget http://www.daves-collective.co.uk/raspi/images/raspi-slack-installer_01Aug12.img.xz

Write the installer to SD card:

$ xz -dc raspi-slack-installer_01Aug12.img.xz | dd of=[device] bs=65536


How to migrate from initscripts to systemd on Archlinux

In this how to I will describe how to migrate from initscripts to the “new” systemd init system on Archlinux. Initscripts will still work, but it is recommended to switch completely to systemd.

1. Update and installation
2. Migration and configuration
3. Optional improvements
4. Useful commands
5. Troubleshooting

How to set up TOR from source

In this post I’ll show you how to set up TOR (The Onion Router). You can use TOR to surf anonymously but I recommend NOT to use services with logins which can be connected to your real identity, e.g. email, instant-messanger, etc. You don’t know how the TOR-exit node is configured.