Eko Wahyudiharto :: It's All About Works

"... Teknologi membutuhkan uang, dan teknologi juga menghasilkan uang. Jika banyak orang Indonesia menggunakan teknologi, artinya kita berhasil secara teknologi..."

Drs.H. Muhammad Jusuf Kalla
Wakil Presiden RI

As my previous plan to review the using of Windows XP guest in Linux host over VirtualBox, I decided to choose my existing Fedora 7 as the 2nd OS boot from my laptop as the host OS. Actually, my priority subjected to this than the previous. The main purpose is to make simply my coding time when I have a web based project & also the debugging sessions. It’s important for me to keep a maximum compatibility cross browser looks & functionality between Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera compared to the native Linux internet browser such as Konqueror. Now, I don’t have to wasting time to test & re-code the source between browser on separated systems. Switching the OS are more faster than have a dual boot systems. It’s also more easy when you need to carry 2 systems on a single PC or laptop. Again, think about it!

To did this, I used the older VirtualBox 1.3.8 downloaded from the website. Even that the latest 1.4.0 version are equipped with pre built-in networking bridging tools, but I was too curious about what happened inside the bridging process over Linux using User Model Linux (UML) utilities. That’s the reason why I choose the older version. Okay, let assumed that you have already a Windows XP system fresh installed as the guest OS or simply using the VDI image file created from the VirtualBox Windows based likes I described before. FYI, my laptop is dual booted with Windows XP & Fedora 7. Each of it are installed with VirtualBox (1.4.0 in Windows XP & 1.3.8 in Fedora 7) which using the same Windows XP VDI image file. It’s saving the space enough! So, logically now I have 4 systems in a single laptop.



The critical point to create a network emulated adapter device in Linux is that you have to provide the bridging tools. The good news is that the brctl tool to makes it are already provided with Fedora 7. The bad is, the tunctl utility doesn’t seems exist since it’s not available as the Fedora repositories. Not to worry, because I have already found an universal architecture UML (tunctl) RPM packaged by crosewarne from a trusted source over the internet. You can downloaded it from here (40 Kb) & install it manually. First of all, make sure that the Linux host OS IP address are 192.168.1.1 & default subnet mask to 255.255.255.0. It’s important way to keep the VDI plug & play if you decided to using my scenario (4 systems in a single laptop).

[root@tuxbook ~]# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1B:24:37:AA:DC
inet addr:192.168.1.1 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:17

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:560 (560.0 b) TX bytes:560 (560.0 b)

[root@tuxbook ~]# service network status
Configured devices:
lo eth0 wlan0
Currently active devices:
lo eth0

Next, to simplify the TUN/TAP process, create an executable bash script & stored it in /bin folder. Named it with tuntap. Below is the value of the file.

#!/bin/bash
tunctl -t tap1 -u root
brctl addbr br0
ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0 promisc
brctl addif br0 eth0
ifconfig br0 192.168.1.10
brctl addif br0 tap1
ifconfig tap1 up
exit

Note:
Replace the line “ifconfig br0 192.168.1.10” with “dhclient br0” (w/o apostrophe) if you are in a DHCP environment or you can read here for more detail.

Run the script by typing tuntap on terminal. If everything is good, now you already have a networking bridged from the primary network adapter.

[root@tuxbook ~]# ifconfig
br0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1B:24:37:AA:DC
inet addr:192.168.1.10 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::21b:24ff:fe37:aadc/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:40 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:9391 (9.1 KiB)

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1B:24:37:AA:DC
inet addr:192.168.1.1 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST PROMISC MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:17

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:560 (560.0 b) TX bytes:560 (560.0 b)

tap1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 1E:A4:7A:4C:E8:49
inet6 addr: fe80::1ca4:7aff:fe4c:e849/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1 errors:0 dropped:3 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:500
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:70 (70.0 b)

[root@tuxbook ~]# service network status
Configured devices:
lo eth0 wlan0
Currently active devices:
lo eth0 tap1 br0

Next, open the VirtualBox VM settings, click on a Network session. On the Host Interface Settings group box, fill the Interface Name with tap1. Press OK to confirm.



Then, let’s start the guest OS.



Skip below configuration if you are using the VDI file from Windows host like I described earlier. Set the guest OS IP address with 192.168.1.11 & default subnet mask to 255.255.255.0. Note that this configuration becomes the guest OS IP address. Now, back to host OS, from Linux terminal, ping to the guest OS. It should now responding.



Make sure that the guest OS also brings the same reply with pinging to the host OS.



That’s the sign that your both host & guest systems are being operating well. Now, it’s up to you, whether you like to create a map network drive or something else to support your own jobs.



It’s done. Now you have both Windows XP & Linux system runs simultaneously with active networking right on a single computer.

Labels: VirtualBox

What if you in a travel & hardly needs to get work in a networking situation? A virtual machine (VM) installed in your system can do that. This situation also affected when you only have 1 PC but you must have at least 2 PC to get work, just like me as I have a laptop but need 2nd PC in order to support my jobs. Rather than spending money to buying extra PC/laptop, I considered to using a VM over my laptop. It’s more valuable, practice & easy to carry as you will have 2 working PC in a single system. Think about it!

The needs of 2 PC’s using Windows XP – for example – can help a programmer to debug their windows client/server based application which using a networking utilization. Why I choose VirtualBox? It’s as simply as that it’s free, lightweight & robust. This article is my continued part of my first experience about VirtualBox behavior in DHCP server & comparison between VirtualBox & QEMU. As seen on the title, I used both of Windows XP as the host & guest OS in an interoperability of networking (a static address LAN, indeed). I’m planning in the next session using Linux as the host OS. May this document brings more benefit.

First of all, download the latest VirtualBox application from the website. I used VirtualBox 1.4.0 to did this experience. Okay, let assumed that you have already a Windows XP system fresh installed as the guest OS. A good start on how to installing it you may find on my previous article. Now is the time to configure the networking in both systems. Open the VM settings, click on a Network session. On the Host Interface group box, click the green plus folder to create the virtual host interface network.



As automatically, the VM will create the default network adapter named by VirtualBox Host Interface 1 on the host OS.



Assigned the IP address with a static one. For example, you may configured it with 192.168.1.1 & default subnet mask to 255.255.255.0. Note that this configuration becomes the host OS IP address. Next, press OK button to activating the changes.



Then, start the guest OS. For more resources, install the VBoxAddition library comes within VirtualBox setup. It would bring additional device driver e.g: configurable display adapter resolution & mouse integrating between hosts & guest OS.



Set the guest OS IP address with 192.168.1.11 & default subnet mask to 255.255.255.0. Note that this configuration becomes the guest OS IP address. Now, back to host OS, run DOS command from Start Menu :: Run & ping to the guest OS. It should now responding.



Make sure that the guest OS also brings the same reply with pinging to the host OS.



That’s the sign that your both host & guest systems are being operating well. Now, it’s up to you, whether you like to create a map network drive or something else to support your own jobs.



It’s done. Now you have fully 2 Windows systems runs with active networking right on a single computer.

Labels: VirtualBox

KDE is my most favorite desktop manager on Linux. Since I ever used it up for the first time with Unix families several years ago, this desktop manager wouldn’t leaves behind over me. It’s strong characteristic GUI still easy to use. For me, this is the window manager mores closest similarity to Windows & much easiest to control all of the applications installed on the system. One of the several features I likes a lot is the existence of theme manager option included in KDE Control Center. With it, the users are feel free to change the interface such as desktop window graphical, the background picture, icons, kicker, panel behavior, login manager & lots of thing.

On a chance, I tried to keep on focused about re-changed the interface into a Windows XP style. For this purpose, I used my laptop installed with Fedora 7 (KDE 3.5.9). Thanks to kde-look.org for providing all the stuffs I needed to make it happen. Just for reference, the picture below is final result of my own modification.



First of all, download the XP likes window manager & set of XP icons from kde-look.org. Make them both installed from Appearance & Looks :: Window Manager & Appearance & Looks :: Icons in KDE Control Center. Also, applied the XP bliss background into desktop got from real Windows XP system. Here below is the result:



See that? The window interface are now similar to Windows XP likes, also the set of icons replaced the standard ones bringing the strong personality of XP style. Next, create your own imagination to re-make the taskbar panel into an intuitive XP taskbar likes with basic gradation blue color. Watch the picture below:



#1. Pager desktop no. 1
#2. Pager desktop no. 2
#3. KPowersave laptop battery monitor
#4. Bluetooth icon
#5. Sound meter controlling the embedded front laptop speaker & headset volume
#6. Task & system meter manager
#7. Wireless monitor
#8. Digital clock

Next to the login window interface. On a time, I got a XP likes GDM graphical from gnome-looks.org. Applied it from Start menu :: System :: Login Window. This will replace the default Fedora 7 login session interface:



The radical changes is about to replace the K panel with KBFX. KBFX Configurator Application is a kind of applet integrated to the kicker panel. It purposed to change the K menu button with any rectangular start menu image & themes set. Samples themes also available at kde-looks.org.



Remove the K panel from kicker after applied the KBFX themes & start menu picture. Here below is the changed result:



From this, now you have already a Linux with similar desktop in Windows XP style interface. The last step to replace the bootsplash animation picture is still pending since I couldn’t find the XP likes bootsplash yet. The bootsplash within Fedora is handled by rhgb (Red Hat Graphical Bootsplash) application. Some of external configurator are exist by now such as bootsplash or splashy. Even I had the Vista bootsplash package, but I seem not to like it. Do you have any reference?

Web operating system establishing an exciting new look of futures OS. In latest year, several web based OS was introduced from each developer over the earth. It purposed was clearly simple, flatten the world I guess. Some of it’s known as eyeOS, DesktopTwo & CorneliOS. On a time, I got a chance to tried eyeOS. The installation source downloaded from it official website was very small with 862Kb zipped package. eyeOS required a web server with PHP support & of course a browser to run. Seems funny with the basic name “Operating System” while it needs a browser which executed from the real OS.



The login page is simplest as any web mail ever. The new user link can disabled from the setup install process. The user desktop shows an intuitive interface. Very lightweight, again. As you may seen, there are 2 folder shortcut links on the left side, some widgets on top, main green panel on near bottom & virtual taskbar on the bottom side (equipped with a static place of clock on the right).



Now, take a look inside of the main green panel. It’s a group of application launcher or something.



System Preferences linked to a (un-finished) control panel called eyeControl. It’s purposed to edit users password, create users, change wallpapers & add remove programs (eyeSoft). The Applications link pointed to a program manager called eyeApps.



The main green panel also equipped with a Run dialog box. It functions as application launcher. Simply type the application name & it will opened to the desktop.



From it’s default installation, eyeOS are providing a very basic applications such as file explorer (eyeFiles), notepad (eyeNotes), calculator (eyeCalc), calendar (eyeCalendar), contact manager (eyeContacts), internet browser (eyeNav), RSS feeder (eyeRSS) & task manager (eyeProcess). eyeFiles act as a similar file explorer in Windows. From it’s interface, I thought that it main purposed to internet file upload & download transaction.



The calculator program also exists to handle a non-scientific calculation.



Task manager displays active applications. For now, it’s only equipped with a killer application button.



The taskbar in left bottom side will shows applications running. It’s a common others OS taskbar which can shows & minimizing applications window. The window on each program also acts as others OS window. There are filled with usual button such as minimize, maximized (also work with double click on window title area) & cross sign to close application.



Let’s see the widgets on top of desktop area. Each links provide a shortcut to available applications specific to each program groups. There are 6 groups came with it’s default installation likes Office, Network, Accessories, Games, System & Places.



Outside of basic programs explained above, eyeOS also provide some extra powerful applications which can increase it value as an OS. It’s such as:

Document Writer (eyeDocs)


Chatting Application (eyeBoard)


MP3 player (eyeMp3)


Resume:
Web OS can deliver an exciting new look OS in internet era. The plan platform is well designed to accommodate the needs of high internet mobility users. The file transfer transaction is easier to use & it is so flexible web based OS.