OiOS Change your login wallpaper or GDM

Its the objective of many integrators or individuals to make the system personal or customised. Changing the login screen wallpaper is easy and straightforward. Find the theme you think is suitable in the correct format (a good site is http://gnome-look.org).Open the file system and locate the user file.Click on this, go to the Share file, and locate the GDM file.Open this file as administrator (right click) by using your root password.Select the wallpaper file and replace it with the new file carefully giving it the default file name.It maybe a good idea to retain the old wallpaper by renaming it and leaving it in the file just incase you wish to come back to it.Now log off the system and restart.

XStreamOS new release available soon with Libraoffice

XStreamOS set to lunch new version of illuminos based Unix distribution

XStreamOS is Sonicle effort to mantain our own distribution of the illumos kernel, featuring a LibraOffice, the ZFS fileystem, Crossbow network architecture, virtualization, zones, and a starting point to contribute and develop the illumos kernel.

Upon XStreamOS, Sonicle mantains full featured products such as XStream Server and XStream Storage. Free versions of XStream Server and XStream Storage.

It can be downloaded at their website at
http://www.sonicle.com/index.jsp?pagename=xstreamos&parent=products&language=en

OiOS is eyeing the Libraoffice project on their distribution and would be interested to hear from developers who have an interest in this project.

Updating Mozilla Firefox on OiOS

Updating Mozilla Firefox on OiOS

New users to OiOS often sight difficulty in updating packages on OiOS outside IPS repositories.The below is designed to help with a simple unauthordox technique to undate firefox.Please note that this technique carries no warranty whatsoever you do so at your own risk.To get started down load the latest stable build of Firerfox at https://unixpackages.com/packages/mozilla.

Download Firefox to the desktop and extract it to this location.Now go to Places-File system-user-share and find the installed firefox version.Once you have located this right click on this file and open it as administrator by entering your password.You will now see the contents of this file as superuser leave this displayed.

Go back to the new package and do the same to this package from the desktop.High light-copy-and drag the new files into the file system file.Now restart the system. Select Firefox and confirm that the package has been updated.Trouble shooting make sure you have downloaded the correct file,make sure the file in the system is the correct disination.If there is a delay in updating you may try executing the updater files.If every thing goes wrong go to the IPS, remove everything and start again.

This technique is to get the new user started. Personally I have used this technique to update other packages Thunderbird,Eclipse etc.Remember you do this at your own risk but it works for me.Further reading http://rich-notes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/installing-firefox-on-solaris-server.html and http://wiki.openindiana.org/oi/OpenIndiana+Wiki+Home

Installing Virtual Box 4.2.18 on OiOS 151a 8

I put together a script to install the latest release of Virtual Box 4.2.18 on OiOS.This can be done through the terminal using the follow script.Open up the terminal on the desktop and type

Su
password...... enter your system password here


Past and copy this script and it should autorun

cd /var/tmp
wget http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.2.18/VirtualBox-4.2.18-88780-SunOS.tar.gz
tar xf VirtualBox-4.2.18-88780-SunOS.tar.gz
pkgadd -d VirtualBox-4.2.18-SunOS-r88780.pkg



N.B. These scripts are not guaranteed in anyway and the version codes must be updated with each release.

System Security and Internet Snooping

There is ample coverage in the media  about government spying or snooping programs monitoring or infecting your system with malware. Operating systems vary  in their security resilience. We have not yet arrived at the point where proprietary systems are complicit in the mining of personal data for commercial or government purposes.

When it comes to optimizing security on your system it can only be prudent to adopt a multidisciplinary approach. One of the areas in your system which users can more readily take security steps is the browser. Make sure it’s up to date. Browsers such as Mozilla Firefox offer add on’s featuring enhanced security features of which are free to use. According to Ixquick using a secure search engine would enhance your data security. Free to use and set as your default search engine it claims to
‘protecting people's Privacy and civil liberties. So it won't surprise you that we are a strong opponent of overreaching, unaccountable spy programs like PRISM. In the past, even government surveillance programs that were begun with good intentions have become tools for abuse, for example tracking civil rights and anti-war protesters.’ It further boasts it does not store any user data, uses encryption (HTTPS) by default, and cannot be forced to start spying by European law. https://www.ixquick.com/

oios_151a 8 Release Announcement

Release Date: August 9th, 2013
oios_151a8 is a bug and security fix release with some big version bumps and also the first rebuild of the JDS in the prestable series. Changes notably include changes to the illumos kernel.

 Download and give us your views.A big thank you for all those developers who have taken part.

Details of changes can be found at http://wiki.openindiana.org/oi/oi_151a_prestable8+Release+Notes