Father of Social Networking worms (Koobface) comes to Linux and Mac OS X via Java

The Bad

On social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, if someone says to you ”Is it you in this video?,” be warned, because in reality, it leads to a fake YouTube page with a thumbnail which when clicked checks you OS version, downloads a Java applet called jnana.tsa on Linux and exploits a Remote Code Execution vulnerability in outdated versions of Java. Once installed on a computer, the worm hijacks the social networking accounts of its owner and uses them to propagate.

The Good

The applet is dropped inside the user’s home directory and stops running at computer reboot. This means that on Linux, unlike on Windows, the Koobface infections are temporary. Which means if you happen to get that infection,  reboot immediately.

The Ugly

This shows that Linux and Mac OS X users aren’t vulnerable to malware, as their market share increases they will become an attractive target for social networking worms like Koobface.

via Softpedia

How To | Droid VNC Server

If you’re anything me, you’ve Rooted your Android phone and you’re looking for all of the coolest apps available to you. For a long time I’ve been looking for a great app that would allow me to remotely access my HTC DROID Incredible using VNC. Why would I want to remotely access my phone you ask? I’m lazy. No, just kidding. 😉

Benefits of remote access:

• Access to your phone if it’s not immediately with you.
• Ability to create a screencast.
• Faster screen shots.
• Ability to help & support other Android users.
• Access your phone if you’re at work or school and don’t want to look like you’re on your phone. 😉
• etc…

Well, now I have discovered Droid VNC Server. Created by onaips at the XDA forums.

Droid VNC Server is a great little app. It’s not without it’s bugs, but the bugs that I have do not even come close to outweighing it’s positives. While I have not officially seen any confirmations of Droid VNC Server working on the Incredible, it does work quite nicely for me. In regards to other Android phones, your mileage may vary, but you can check out onaips blog to see a small listing of confirmed functional devices.

Ok, enough talking. How do I use this thing?

Step 1: Preparing your computer

You will have to be sure that you have a VNC Viewer installed on your computer first. Here’s a quick list of programs that can be used:

• Linux – Remote Desktop Viewer (However, I use the command line). Remote Desktop Viewer is pre-installed in Ubuntu.
• Mac – Chicken of the VNC.
• Windows – RealVNC.

Step 2: Preparing your Android device

• Scan the QR Code at the top of the page to be directed to the Droid VNC Server page in the Android Market.
• Open Droid VNC Server and tap Start Server.
• Suggestion – Connect to a wireless signal that your computer is also using or use USB. (I have not yet tested USB & Verizon does not support VNC through 3G)
• Feel free to modify any of the options in Menu > Settings. (I’d recommend a password)

Step 3: Connect to your Device

• Open your VNC Viewer of choice and type in the IP:Port that you see listed on the Droid VNC Server home screen.
• Type in your password if needed.
• You should now see your Android Device!

Some helpful things to know:

Some possible incorrect keybindings: (I have a feeling this is an Android thing…)

• = sends +
• ! sends ~
• ~ sends 0
• < sends *
• > sends #
• / sends :

These are important to know: 😉

• home = home
• right-click = home, also
• pg up = menu
• pg down = call
• pg down long press = redial most recent
• esc = back
• del = back, also
• end = phone sleep
• type = from the home screen random typing will initiate google search

Here are some instructions for using VNC through USB:

I have heard that USB will provide a faster VNC connection. With adb installed and the device plugged in via USB:
adb forward tcp:5901 tcp:5901
adb forward tcp:5801 tcp:5801

Using your preferred VNC Viewer, connect to:

localhost:5901

YouTube How To (Not created by me)

How To | Install Docky Stacks

Install Stacks in Docky with one command

The script automatically fetches and installs the files needed to both install and successfully run Docky with Stacks.

Open a terminal and enter the following line carefully:

wget href="http://www.panticz.de/sites/default/files/Docky/compile.docky.stacks.sh.txt -O - | bash -

 

 

---

Click here to see the original article and the source code of the bash script.

How To | Root HTC DROID Incredible Using Ubuntu

Superuser Access

UPDATE: If you have installed the newest OTA update (Nov. 2010) this tutorial will no longer work. It seems that the latest OTA update included a patch that closed the hole used for rooting the Incredible. Read more here.

 

UPDATE: This just in from the unrEVOked twitter account.

unrevoked unrevoked dev team

Incredible people stuck w/ new OTA: we have a fix in the pipe for you; expect a release in a day or two. EVO folks: temporary fix on XDA.

 

I searched on many different websites that teach people how to Root their Incredible, but I was never able to really locate a tutorial that focused solely on Rooting in an Ubuntu (or Linux at all) environment. Many of them would mention Linux, but would be very general. I would see statements like: “The steps will work relatively the same in Linux.” Well, that was not good enough for me and with any luck this tutorial will come in handy for all of you Ubuntu/Incredible users. 🙂

This guide is an adaptation of Bob Denny’s tutorial that can be found here. For this tutorial, I will be using unrEVOked3 since it’s easily the most simple Rooting process.

Step 1: Preparation – Ubuntu

Before you will be able to do anything, you will need to ensure that you have the Android SDK installed on your system. If you have already done thins, skip to Step 2: Preparing The Phone.

• Android SDK | Android Developers
• Extract tar.gz file; you can rename extracted folder to whatever you like (e.g., “android”)
• Move “android” folder to the root of your drive using this command in your terminal:

sudo mv /path/to/android /

• Run “Android SDK and AVD Manager” using this command: (I added mine to the Applications menu for simplicity)

/android/tools/android update sdk

• Now ensure that the ADB Server is running as root:

sudo ./adb start-server

• Ensure that your Incredible is recognized by ADB

adb devices

Note: that you do not need to download any drivers for Linux. The phone is already supported.

Step 2: Preparing The Phone

• Verify that you have an SD Card installed with at least 2Gb free space. If the SD is smaller than 4Gb, make sure it is FAT32 formatted. Look at it on gParted to be sure.
• Boot the phone normally.
• Enable USB Debugging (Settings > Applications > Development).
• Enable Unknown Sources (Settings > Applications at the top).
• Enable USB “Ask Me” mode (Settings > Connect to PC).
• Plug in the USB cable and choose Charge Only on the phone.

Step 3: Rooting The Phone

• Get the Reflash program for Android 2.2 Incredible.
• Extract the contents of the ZIP file to your desktop.
• Open a terminal and run reflash (sudo is a must or it will just sit there doing nothing).
  

sudo ~/Desktop/reflash

(if this does not work and unrEVOked sits there not doing anything, open Nautilus with root and double-click the file)

If you did everything right, and if your phone is a stock 2.2 Incredible, Reflash will come up and start the rooting process.

Be patient! The process involves several (4) reboots and some long periods of apparent inactivity. Let it go. Wait for at least 5 minutes before deciding it has become stuck.

How to know it worked:
Once the Reflash process completes (5 or so minutes), unplug the USB and reboot the phone. It will look normal. Open the App tray and look for the Superuser app. If you open Superuser it will be blank, that’s normal. For final confirmation, reboot the phone into HBOOT (volume down + power) and see if it says S-OFF at the top. If so, you’re rooted!

Step 4: Backing up the phone
Now that you’re rooted and in HBOOT, it’s time to do a complete backup of the phone (a.k.a. Nandroid backup). DO THIS NOW!

• In HBOOT, using the volume buttons move to RECOVERY and press the Power button. The phone will appear to reboot but it will end up in the ClockWorkMod recovery screen. From now on use the trackball on the Incredible (click to select).
• Move to Backup and Recovery, then select. This will show the Backup and Recovery menu.
• Move to Backup
• Select to start the backup.
• When the backup completes (several minutes), press the power button to return to the main ClockWorkMod menu
  Select Reboot System, go.

When the phone boots to its normal mode, you’re done! Now you can enjoy the benefits of root. 🙂

How To | New fix for Ubuntu Plymouth

I’ve talked about this in the past, but with this release of Ubuntu 10.10 I thought it would be a good idea to bring this up again. Thanks to Webupd8 for putting together a post for an even simpler fix for this.

Fix The Ubuntu Plymouth with proprietary Nvidia or ATI graphics drivers

Warning: use it at your own risk! Only use this script if you know your way on the command line and can revert everything manually in case something goes wrong. I’ve used it to fix the Plymouth on Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat (with proprietary Nvidia graphics drivers) but I cannot guarantee it will also work for you (and that it won’t break stuff). The script should work with both Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx and Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat.

To fix Plymouth, run the following commands (will download and run the script):

cd
wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/57638460/fixplymouth
chmod +x fixplymouth
./fixplymouth

Or you can manually download the script from HERE.

Warning: only run the script once!

After running it, the script will display a list of screen resolutions supported by Plymouth (specific for your computer). Enter the best resolution from the list displayed by the script under the following format: 1024×768-24 (this is just an example)! This is the only difference between this script and Kyleabaker’s script (in which you had edit the script with your Plymouth screen resolution and most people never knew what’s the maximum resolution supported by Plymouth for their computers).

If hwinfo (which is automatically ran by the script) doesn’t display the supported resolutions for your monitor, see the second solution from HERE.

Revert the changes made by this script

All the changes made by this script can be reverted using kyleabaker’s revert script. There is a download link at the end of THIS post.

Credits for the script in this post: d0rkye and kyleabaker.

Day of Ubuntu Wall Paper for Android

Day Of Ubuntu (originally called Dawn of Ubuntu) is a dynamic wallpaper which changes depending on the time of day:  dawn, noon, dusk and midnight. To see what it looks like on my desktop look at my June Screenshot.

I originally did a post about Day of Ubuntu for your Linux desktop. However an Android user that goes by the name of KllrSoft ported the highly popular Dynamic Wallpaper to Android phones. It’s easily my favorite Live Wallpaper now. Typically a Live Wallpaper will just destroy your battery life, however Day of Ubuntu will not. Day of Ubuntu is synced with the clock on your phone and simply changes the wallpaper based on the time of the day. So the wallpaper will sit dormant as long as it’s not time to change itself.

AppBrain users can click here to install.

Market Download

 

We > 1%

A new ‘Linux counter’ initiative that aims to disprove press claims than Linux is used by less than 1% of the world’s desktop computer users has been launched.

Current estimates of worldwide Linux usage by StatCounter pin it a 0.77% share over the last 12 months, and a slightly lower figure of 0.75% since they began taking records.

Oddly, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer has often contested this view stating that he suspects Linux market share is in fact greater than that of Mac OS X.

Whatever the truth you can willingly add your voice to the noble-project  over at http://www.dudalibre.com/gnulinuxcounter?lang=en

A new ‘Linux counter’ initiative that aims to disprove press claims than Linux is used by less than 1% of the worlds desktop computer users has been launched.

Current estimates of worldwide Linux usage by StatCounter pin it a 0.77% share over the last 12 months, and a slightly lower figure of 0.75% since they began taking records.

Oddly, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer has often contested this view stating that he suspects Linux market share is in fact greater than that of Mac OS X.

Whatever the truth you can willingly add your voice to the noble-project  over @ dudalibre.com/gnulinuxcounter