When Linux Locks Up

The following are some key combinations to get around a locked up Linux system:

• Shutdown X11: Ctrl-Alt-Backspace
• Switch from X11 to text login: Ctrl-Alt-F1, F2, F3 (don't do with a dual monitor setup in XP, you will lose one of your monitors :-()

If the above don't work try the following steps to shutdown:

1. Ctrl-Alt-Del and wait 30 seconds for init to shutdown your computer
   
2. If this fails use SAK(?). While holding down Alt-PrintScreen (SysRq key Combo) press the following keys
1. 'S' to sync drives
2. 'U' to unmount drives
3. 'B' to reboot
3. If all this fail, then take your life in yours hands and hit the power switch :-(

Note: You may see some activity when you press the 'S' key and 'U' key, but you may not. Don't give up. Continue to step 3 and hit the reboot key 'B' and wait. Even when I have saw nothing for the sync and unmount commands the boot command has worked.

This was gleaned from the following link: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=221174

Keywords: linux, hangs, hung, reboot, freezes, frozen

RPM Package Manager (Red Hat Package Manager) (RPM)

A Linux package manager developed by Red Hat.  Is a circular acronym.

(see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPM_Package_Manager)

Yellowdog Updater, Modifier (YUM)

An open source command line package management utility for RPM compatible Linux operating systems.

(see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowdog_Updater,_Modified)

Using find and tar to save selected files

Getting the ICO files.

1.    Use find to create a list of ICO files for the tar to use.
2.    Use the list with the tar command and create the archive.

$ find . -name "*.ico"  -print > ICOFiles.txt
$ tar -c -v -T ICOFiles.txt -f ICONs.tar

When Linux Locks Up

The following are some key combinations to get around a locked up Linux system:

• Shutdown X11: Ctrl-Alt-Backspace
• Switch from X11 to text login: Ctrl-Alt-F1, F2, F3 (don't do with a dual monitor setup in XP, you will lose one of your monitors :-()

If the above don't work try the following steps to shutdown:

1. Ctrl-Alt-Del and wait 30 seconds for init to shutdown your computer
   
2. If this fails use SAK(?). While holding down Alt-PrintScreen (SysRq key Combo) press the following keys
1. 'S' to sync drives
2. 'U' to unmount drives
3. 'B' to reboot
3. If all this fail, then take your life in yours hands and hit the power switch :-(

Note: You may see some activity when you press the 'S' key and 'U' key, but you may not. Don't give up. Continue to step 3 and hit the reboot key 'B' and wait. Even when I have saw nothing for the sync and unmount commands the boot command has worked.

This was gleaned from the following link: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=221174

Pulling PNGs from ICO files.

I created the following two Borne scripts for doing this.  This first only pulls the images with a palette of 24 or 32 bits.  The second pulls them all.

#!/bin/sh
# Run this in to top level of the directory set of the ICOs
# you want to extract.echo Creating folders to hold the PNGs pulled from the ICO files.
# Only PNGs with a color pallete of 24 or greater will be extracted.
echo Creating folders to hold the PNGs pulled from the ICO files.
find . -depth -name "*.ico" -exec mkdir {}.dir \;
echo Pulling the PNGs from the ICO files.
find . -depth -name "*.ico" -exec icotool -p 0 -o {}.dir  -x '{}' \;

#!/bin/sh
# Run this in to top level of the directory set of the ICOs
# you want to extract.
echo Creating folders to hold the PNGs pulled from the ICO files.
find . -depth -name "*.ico" -exec mkdir {}.dir \;
echo Pulling the PNGs from the ICO files.
find . -depth -name "*.ico" -exec icotool -o {}.dir  -x '{}' \;

The site for the icotool is here:  http://www.nongnu.org/icoutils/

There is no longer a doc folder for icotool.  Everything has been moved to the man page.  I learned this reading through the release notes here:  http://www.nongnu.org/icoutils/NEWS

The site for creating the shell is here:  http://steve-parker.org/sh/variables1.shtml

This is a discussion on using the icotool:  http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=322702

This is a discussion of the ICO file format:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICO_%28file_format%29

This is also a discussion of the MAC icon files:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Icon_Image

This is a list of packages used with or on icons:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_icon_software

This is a nice discussion of the find command:  http://linux.about.com/od/commands/l/blcmdl1_find.htm

Bastille Linux

Bastille Linux

Site Page:  http://bastille-linux.sourceforge.net/

An open source program used to make informed discussions to harden a linux, Mac or unix system.  Covers most basic Linux distributions like Debian (Ubuntu), Redhat, Gentoo, SuSE, Mendriva, and TuboLinux.  Implemented as a interactive hardening script

Wikipedia page:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastille_Unix

Ubuntu page:  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BastilleLinux