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January 17, 2008

Configuring the Cisco VPN Client in Ubuntu Linux 7.10 (Gutsy)

Filed under: Linux — Matt @ 1:15 am

I do some work for an organization which requires me to authenticate to a Cisco VPN. Getting the VPN client setup under Mac OS X is a simple matter, but doing the same under Linux required some research. Here’s what worked for me. I’m using the 64-bit x86 version of Ubuntu, which didn’t seem to cause any hiccups:

Step 1 – Install the Cisco VPN Client:

  1. Check what kernel you’re running by issuing the uname -a command. You should get something like:

    2. Linux matt-media 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Tue Dec 18 05:28:27 UTC 2007 x86_64 GNU/Linux

  2. Download a copy of Cisco’s VPN client for Linux. If you’re using a 2.6.x kernel, it’s important to use a 4.8.x client.
  3. Confirm that you have kernel sources installed for your kernel version. Check the /lib/modules/ directory.
  4. Download a patch matching your kernel version from http://tuxx-home.at/. I’m running 2.6.22, so I ran:

    5. wget http://tuxx-home.at/projects/cisco-vpnclient/vpnclient-linux-2.6.22.diff

  5. Extract Cisco’s VPN client tarball:

    6. tar -xzf vpnclient-linux-x86_64-4.8.00.0490-k9.tar.gz

  6. Apply the patch:

    7. cd vpnclient
    patch -i ../vpnclient-linux-2.6.22.diff

  7. Install the VPN client:

    8. sudo ./vpn_install

Step 2 – Configure the VPN Client:

  1. Take a backup of a working Cisco VPN client’s configuration. The location below is where these files were located on my Mac OS X system. They’re no doubt located somewhere other than the /private folder in other OSes.

    2. tar -czf cisco-vpnclient.tgz /private/etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient

  2. Copy the cisco-vpnclient.tgz tarball that you just created into the /etc/opt/ directory of your Linux system, and unpack it.

    3. sudo tar -xzf cisco-vpnclient.tgz

  3. Start the vpnclient service.

    4. sudo /etc/init.d/vpnclient_init start

  4. Check the name of your VPN’s profile by listing the contents of the Profiles directory. Your profile’s name will be the name of the the .pcf file, minus the .pcf extension.

    5. ls /etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient/Profiles/

  5. Connect to the VPN, using the profile name found above as the last argument.

    6. sudo vpnclient connect "University of South Florida"

That’s it! You should now be prompted to enter your password, and find yourself connected!

January 11, 2008

VNC in Mac OS X 10.3.9

Filed under: Mac OS X — Matt @ 10:07 pm

The latest version of Vine Server (3.0) only officially works with Mac OS X 10.4 or later, but there’s a way to make it work with Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther). After installing Vine normally, just delete the following directory. It contains the offending OS X 10.5 (Leopard) specific files:

/Applications/Vine Server.app/Content/Resources/TigerBundle.bundle

That’s it! You should now be able to launch Vine’s VNC Server from the Applications Folder, configure it, and remotely control to your Mac OS X 10.3 system over the network.

January 10, 2008

Kismac r62 download for Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther)

Filed under: Mac OS X,Wireless — Matt @ 11:58 pm

I was able to download a copy of the elusive Kismac r62 – the last version of Kismac to run on Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther). Kismac r62 is now running happily on my G4 iBook with OS X 10.3.9. I’ve mirrored Kismac r62 here in case anyone wants to download it:

Prevening an iBook G4 from going to sleep when closed

Filed under: Mac OS X — Matt @ 5:34 pm

Here’s how I prevented my iBook G4 notebook from going to sleep when the lid is closed. This worked with Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Panther). YMMV. If you’re running a OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or newer, you might want to check out InsomniaX instead. InsomniaX should work with Mac OS X 10.4 and later.

  1. Download and decompress Insomnia.kext.tbz. I wasn’t able to retrieve a copy of from the Insomnia project’s home page, but I did grab a working copy off of the Internet Archive, which I mirrored here. I also mirrored a copy of the source code in the Insomnia.src.tbz file.
  2. Open a command prompt, switch to the directory that you decompressed Insomnia.kext.tbz to, and execute the following commands:
    1. sudo chown root:wheel Insomnia.kext # set the module to be owned by root
    2. mv Insomnia.kext /System/Library/Extensions # move the module to the kernel extensions directory
    3. cd /System/Library/Extensions # change to the kernel extensions directory
    4. sudo kextload Insomnia.kext # load the module
  3. Test the module by closing your notebook’s lid. If your Mac doesn’t go to sleep, you’re in business.

You can unload the Insomnia.kext module at any time by executing the following commands:

  1. cd /System/Library/Extensions # change to the kernel extensions directory
  2. sudo kextunload Insomnia.kext # unload the module

January 9, 2008

Make Thunderbird show the time and date of replied to messages

Filed under: Systems Administration — Matt @ 2:04 pm

Once thing that I’ve missed since switching from Apple’s Mail to Mozilla’s Thunderbird, is the way that Mail includes the time and date that the message being replied to was received. Thunderbird does not do this by default, but it’s to make it.

  1. Go to the Preferences window.
    • In Linux: Edit -> Preferences
    • In Windows: Tools -> Options
    • In Mac OS X: Thunderbird -> Preferences
  2. Click on the Advanced button.

    3. Thunderbird Advanced Preferences

  3. Click on the Config Editor… button.

    4. Thunderbird Config Editor

  4. Type mailnews.reply_header_type into the Filter: box.
  5. Double-click on mailnews.reply_header_type, enter the number 3 as the new value, and click OK.

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