invert's questions

I have a media/file server running Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, connected via cable directly to a DSL router, which also acts as a network switch.

The router uses DHCP to dynamically assign IP addresses. I'd like to keep it as such, if possible. I have friends come in and it's easier for them to connect.

From my desktop (Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx) I connect via wireless to the router. I can ping the media server and ssh into it using it's IP, but it fails when I use the hostname.

When I ping and ssh wirelessly from my Netbook (Crunchbang Linux), it strangely enough works using the media server's hostname.

That said, I believe it may not be a router configuration issue, but something on my desktop I have to configure.

I tried turning off the firewall, on both sides (sudo ufw enable/disable).

What else can I check or try? Thanks :-)

When I mount the Truecrypt file on my USB drive it shows up as truecrypt1.

The volume is FAT, using mtools to rename a volume label involves e2label /dev/sdbx, however truecrypt1 does not map to a physical partition. fdisk -l does not show the volume partition (only the physical USB device), and df -h lists the volume path as /dev/mapper/truecrypt1.

Finally, using the Nautilus 'Rename' context action, gives the error: "Sorry, could not rename "truecrypt1" to "towel": Operation not supported by backend".

Apparently this can be done in Win, but how can I rename this volume in Ubuntu?

As Nicolas said, specifying the mount point names the partition the same. The truecrypt GUI does not remember the mount point I set, so I specify the mount points in a script which I placed in my main menu.

#!/bin/bash
gksudo truecrypt /media/usbdrive/encryptedfile /media/securedata/

This is a community wiki. I would really like other folk's thoughts on this. I do not want to discuss the ethics of storing plain text passwords either.

For those unfamiliar, libpurple is the library used by Pidgin, and when you choose to save your passwords, it does so as plain text under ~/.purple/accounts.xml.

The reasoning behind this is that if someone can access your user account, you have bigger problems to worry about, among other valid points.

My main worry is that I use my gmail account in Pidgin, and so my gmail password is stored in plain text. Access to someone's email means access to 90% of their other accounts, via password recovery features on most sites. Eeek.

Consider that...

• My /home is encrypted, if someone gets physical access to the drive
• I always lock my system when I walk away
• I'm sensible about installing unofficial packages
• Any application I run in userland has access to my user files

How safe is this really? Are there any other threats that could potentially access accounts.xml?

Update

Thanks for the replies! So far have:

• Manage your firewall
• Use applications that store sensitive info securely (ie via Gnome Keyring)
• Use strong passwords and keep your system updated
• Symlink sensitive files from an encrypted ~/Private directory

I'm happy that my data is safe in case of theft. I'm more worried about some process crafted to target these unsecured files. Then again the nature of open source software makes it difficult for malicious apps, as public code review will expose the malicious code.

If you you can think of any other vectors through which these account details could be accessed, I'd like to hear them :)

I want to buy a couple USB game pads to use with NES emulator FCE Ultra. What I can't find out, is if I have two game pads connected, will FCEU differentiate between them? i.e. map each game pad to each player, or will both game pads button A generate the same key code?

BTW I'm looking at the Genius MaxFire, Thanks!

With Ubuntu 9.10 I did not have any encrypted partitions set up, I have since installed a fresh Ubuntu 10.04.

I have 3 partitions: OS root (/), home and swap. How do I enable encryption on my existing /home partition?