Krawetz - Ubuntu: powerful hacks and customizations

Ubuntu Powerful Hacks and Customizations

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Copyright 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-58988-5

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To my parents, for systematically crushing my dreams of becoming a cartoonist while encouraging my interest in computers.

About The Author

Neal Krawetz earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Texas A&M University and Bachelors degree in Computer and Information Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 2002, he founded Hacker Factor (www.hackerfactor.com), where he specializes in non-classical computer forensics, online profiling, and computer security. He is the author of three books (including this one) and numerous articles. He is a popular speaker at local and national conferences. Neal has been active in the security community for more than 20 years and has worked with the open source community for more than 25 years.

While most people have sane hobbies like bird watching or drinking beer at football games, Neal collects operating systems. He currently runs Fedora, Ubuntu, Mac OS X, OpenBSD, Solaris, HP-UX, and Microsoft Windows (with dozens of other operating systems ready to go). He has been a Linux user since 1993 and has enjoyed Ubuntu since 2005 (Hoary Hedgehog). Neal has configured Ubuntu on everything from personal workstations and netbooks to archival database systems and mission-critical servers.

Credits

Executive Editor

Carol Long

Project Editor

Kenyon Brown

Technical Editor

Timothy Boronczyk

Production Editor

Eric Charbonneau

Copy Editor

Foxxe Editorial Services

Editorial Director

Robyn B. Siesky

Editorial Manager

Mary Beth Wakefield

Production Manager

Tim Tate

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Associate Publisher

Jim Minatel

Project Coordinator, Cover

Lynsey Stanford

Proofreader

Jen Larsen, Word One

Indexer

Johnna VanHoose Dinse

Cover Designer

Ryan Sneed

Acknowledgments

I have never thought of myself as a writer; I am a programmer. Yet, when Jenny Watson at Wiley contacted me and asked if I wanted to update the first edition of Hacking Ubuntu , I jumped at the opportunity. The first edition was a wild ridea full book in less than five months with a focus on Ubuntu's Dapper Drake 6.06 (June 2006). But that was three years ago, and the operating system has evolved. I was eager to rewrite the book.

Writing a book takes time and commitment. I sincerely thank my friends and family for standing by me and giving me words of encouragement (between playful insults).

This book is intended for power users. However, I am only one type of power user: I usually turn off all the glitz and flash in lieu of speed and robustness. Fortunately, my friends are different types of power users: they love graphics, flash, bang, wow, and cutting edge. They provided a wealth of information that really helped cover all types of advanced Linux and Ubuntu needs. Many enlightening discussions were incorporated into parts of this text. To all of these people, I offer my sincerest thanks: Bill Tucker, Kyle Teague, Mark Litscher, Mark Rasch, Valdis Kletnieks, Paul Ferguson, Joe Battin, Erik Lillestolen, Paul Hummer, Jamie Leben, and the Northern Colorado Linux Users Group, as well as the people who helped with the first edition: Bill Hayes, Ragavan Srinivasan, LaMont Jones, Jer/ Eberhard, Paul Whyman, April Lorenzen, Marc Sachs and his band of Internet Storm Center handlers, the Department of Defense's Cyber Crime Center, and all of the folks who put together the Blackhat Briefings security conference. I must also thank my father, Howard, for all of the hardware he sent my way, including the various graphic cards and network interfaces. And my mother, Sharon, for her words of encouragement.

Although I have done my best to make this book as complete, accurate, and understandable as possible, I must offer my gratitude to the people who have reviewed, tested, and helped enhance this manuscript: Timothy Boronczyk for his thoroughness and ideas, and Michelle Mach for, well, everything . Their patience, feedback, and helpful comments have been an invaluable asset. Any errors in this book are strictly my own, but without them, there would be many more errors. I thank Carol Long, Kenyon Brown, Jenny Watson, Foxxe Editorial Services, and the staff at Wiley Publishing for this opportunity. And most importantly, I thank Neil Salkind and StudioB for the advice, assistance, and support.

Finally, nobody can use Linux without using software created by literally thousands of developers. I offer my deepest respect and gratitude to the entire open source community, and to Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical Ltd. for packaging up the best of the best into one distribution: Ubuntu.