OwnCloud Installation : Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

1.     OwnCloud is a suite of client-server software for creating file hosting services and using them. For those who have been traditionally hooked to the pirated copies of Windows Server Softwares or used to crashing regulars of MS Server 2008 or even 2012 and later,I would rate this suite much better w.r.t simplicity of installation,less of configuration issues and the best part being open-source with lots of options for the user.I got introduced to it via a friend Nagraj and have been percolating in my circle since.

2.     OwnCloud is functionally very similar to the widely used Dropbox, with the primary functional difference being that OwnCloud is free and open-source, and thereby allowing anyone to install and operate it without charge on a private server, with no limits on storage space (except for disk capacity or account quota) or the number of connected clients.This post will give a stepped screenshot for installing the same on a Ubuntu 14.04 LTS version machine.

3.    The installation ahead has been done in a Virtual environment(I used Virtual Box) with the following setup :

First Virtual Machine : Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64 bit with 2 GB RAM.This machine will be installed with the Owncloud server part.

Second Virtual Machine : Windows 7/32 bit 2 GB .This machine will be used as the client part who will be able to access the own cloud via web interface.

Installation

Firstly , the ethernet settings that come default to a new machine in UBUNTU are seen below.We will configure this later during installation.

 As we see localhost which currently has been not configured,we see the following screen :

 So,the first step is to visit link at https://software.opensuse.org/download.html?project=isv:ownCloud:community&package=owncloud

 Look for the mention of xUbuntu 14.04 as below :

 Go to Terminal and type :

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/isv:/ownCloud:/community/xUbuntu_14.04/ /' >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/owncloud.list"

 sudo apt-get update

wget http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/isv:ownCloud:community/xUbuntu_14.04/Release.key

 sudo apt-key add - < Release.key

 sudo apt-get install owncloud

 ...as it fetches,the screen keeps showing you thousands of lines of terminal commands being executed as below :

 the screen prompts for a root user sql password as below :

 continues installation part...

 and finally the screen scroll gets over with the installation and is seen like this :

Check the local host and u get this screen showing the Apache2 Ubuntu default page.

 and then you type at the web address : localhost/owncloud and you get the screen as below :

 Click storage and database link below the login

 Enter the sql root user and password as set earlier and click Finish setup and you get the successful login interface of admin as below :

 Meanwhile lets configure the network settings as below in the Ubuntu machine :

 The windows client networking addresses are configured as below :

 The network addresses for the Ubuntu machine are configured as below :

 Now from the client web browser ,try and access the server by typing the IP address/owncloud and you will likely get the following screen.

To resolve the issue we need to add this IP address in the trusted domain in the config.php file as seen below.The location of this config.php file is at /var/www/owncloud/config

 and you refresh the windows browser and you ready to go....

For any clarifications whilst installation you are free to comment here...reply assured asap. :-)

Unsupported version 11 of data unit 'vga' : SOLVED

In one of my recent updates in UBUNTU 14.04 LTS,I faced an issue in the installed virtual box machines giving a message that goes as follows :

Unsupported version 11 of data unit 'vga' (instance #0, pass 0xffffffff) (VERR_SSM_UNSUPPORTED_DATA_UNIT_VERSION).

Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: Console
Interface: IConsole {1968b7d3-e3bf-4ceb-99e0-cb7c913317bb}

This was in-spite of the fact that I had saved my virtual machine in the manner it is supposed be and was not a power off.The machine as made to start vide the VB interface went showing the progress bar but was then followed by this above message.

How I solved this :

After working out many attempts to update and repair the Virtual Box,the simple way worked out like shown in the pic below : 

Yes...it is as simple as choosing the machine and selecting "DISCARD SAVED STATE"

Configuring and using OPENVPN in UBUNTU@14.04 LTS

1.  VPN as discussed recently in my post here is on-way becoming a routine necessity for each one of us.In this post I bring you a screen shot and command terminal step by step procedure to configure and use OPENVPN,an open source application vide which a Ubuntu user can tunnel any IP subnetwork or virtual ethernet adapter over a single UDP or TCP port and additionally configure a scalable, load-balanced VPN server farm using one or more machines which can handle thousands of dynamic connections from incoming VPN clients.OpenVPN is the best and most recommended open-source VPN software world-wide. It is the most secure VPN option. You need to download the open-source OpenVPN Client and our configuration and certificate bundle from the links on site shown below (use TCP if you cannot connect to UDP due to network restriction).

Steps involved : 

- Open a sudo terminal

- Install openvpn by typing

sudo apt-get install openvpn

Goto http://www.vpnbook.com/freevpn and Download one of the VPNBook OpenVPN certificate bundles as seen available in the screenshot below :

After downloading either of the above certificates as seen....do extract the contents in one folder and these should look like as seen below :

If there is any issue with the installation part,install the openvpn client by synaptics as shown below :

Once done ...go to the sudo terminal and type the following :

openvpn --config vpnbook-euro1-tcp443.ovpn

As you see the message INITIALIZATION SEQUENCE COMPLETED...u r on with the VPN..

Setting up Metasploit on a BackTrack5 R3 VM with SSH connectivity@Putty

1.    Setting this up is a simple thing till the time you know how to do it...here I bring you a step by step thing of how you putty to a Backtrack5 v3 machine installed in a Virtual Box from a Ubuntu host OS....

2.    First thing is configuring a additional network card on the BTR3 machine.Select the virtual machine and click on Settings,then move to Network settings and then in the Network adapter, there will be a pre-installed NAT adapter for internet usage of the host machine.Under Adapter 2 select Host only Adapter.

Adapter 1 Default Configuration

 Adapter 2 to be Configured

Before you get ready to ssh...u need to ensure that ssh service is running in Backtrack...which by default is not...run the terminal commands as seen below in the screen shots...

ifconfig as seen at terminal of the Backtrack R3 machine

 Putty to IP of the Backtrack Machine

Putty successfully asks for login as seen below :

 Login with Backtrack credentials :

Here  above we get the msfconsole...ready to accept the commands....

CLOUDUSB : Another way to secure yourself....

1.     "Cloud" has been easily the most buzzy term in past few years for the computing industry. Case in point is the CloudUSB distribution, a project that promises to provide automatic backups and data along with privacy protection. The cloud name is catchy but the security is far less than promised....it is actually a USB-based Linux distribution based on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS(though old but works for general user..now I m on 14.04 LTS though). The idea is that you can carry your own Linux distribution with you for use anywhere, thus allowing anyone to use Linux on any computer and keep their data safe in the event the USB key is lost.

2.    CloudUSB uses the Dropbox service to synchronize data, so users who don't already have a Dropbox account will need to set up an account before being able to use the synchronization service. CloudUSB sets up a data and private-data folder for keeping sensitive files in. The setup.sh script that comes with the distribution uses encfs to set up an encrypted directory. It appears the script isn't properly encrypting the directory, though. When the system is rebooted, it does use encfs to mount the Dropbox/private-data directory as Desktop/.private-data. A step by step screen shot is shown below...i run this on a Virtual Box....and this can be downloaded at http://cloudusb.net/?DOWNLOAD

and there you are ready sett...go!!!!!!!!!!!!!