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How to Build Your Own Custom Linux Distro

Will Kraft — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0600

Although most Linux users rely on pre-built Linux distros and customize their software configuration after installation, there is nothing quite like having a Linux distro that was custom-designed to your specifications. This allows you to get whatever you want out of the box, but in the past it was difficult to create such a distro since it involved compiling the entire operating system from source. (something firmly in the realm of advanced-to-expert-level users)

In more recent years, it has become possible to create your own Linux distro through various easy-to-use online interfaces. The most well-known distro customization tool is Slax (which we recently discussed) but Novell has a tool called SuSE Studio in closed beta which allows you to assemble your own custom SuSE-based distro from pre-compiled packages. Right now, SuSE Studio is still invite-only since Novell gives you storage space on their servers and bandwidth to both store and download your creations.

Read on to learn how we built our own Maximum PC-themed Linux distro!

Planning the System

Before you can create a distro, you must first plan what you are going to use it for. Our intention was to create a customized yet well-rounded desktop distro based on openSuSE 11. However, you also have the option of creating a desktop or server variant of OpenSuSE or SuSE Enterprise Linux for 32 or 64-bit x86 architecture. If you plan to redistribute your creation, you will need to use OpenSuSE as a base since SuSE Enterprise Linux is not free for download whereas OpenSuSE is. Redistribution also requires the removal of all SuSE-related artwork and branding as per the Novell requirements.

Many distros are meant to be one-size-fits-all and can be a little bit bloated since they must appeal to a wide audience. Since you know what you need better than anyone else, building your own distro gives you unparalleled opportunities to maximize efficiency. Ideally, Linux distros should be as small and compact as possible while still being feature-complete, so try to plan ahead and come up with an inventory of the exact software you are going to need. It often helps to get out some paper or a spreadsheet to make a list: break down the required software ecosystem for your distro into categories like development, Internet, multimedia, graphics, office, etc. and then populate each category with the programs you think you will need.

When you go hiking, it pays to travel light since it is seldom worth it to carry a bunch of equipment you don't need over long distances. The same rule applies to distro planning. You should avoid including software that introduces redundant functionality; you don't need more than one desktop environment, raster editor, or office suite on your system. For instance, don't install both Openoffice.org and Koffice or both GNOME and KDE in the same distro.

The only exception to the rule is with GUI vs. CLI utilities; you should make sure you have a CLI alternative for important utilities if applicable. For instance, you might choose a robust tool like Kate or Gedit as your primary text editor, but you should also include a CLI-friendly tool like Vim or Nano to fall back on during the times you may not have GUI functionality. Alternatively, you could also get away with just using Vim as your all-purpose text editor in both a GUI and CLI setting if you are so inclined. While it is possible to mix and match programs from both GNOME and KDE in SuSe Studio, this will inevitably create bloat because of the extra dependencies that will also have to be installed to make everything work.

Building the Distro

Now that planning is out of the way, we can get to the really fun part. The first step to building a custom distro with SuSE Studio is creating the base configuration. This includes choosing the core operating system, (various OpenSuSE or SuSE Enterprise Linux templates are available in preset desktop, server, and minimalistic configurations) the primary desktop environment, the primary system architecture, (x86 or x86-64) and the name of the distro. The core operating system doesn't include very much, just a kernel, desktop environment, and a few basic utilities. For our demonstration, we chose to create a 64-bit variant of OpenSuSE 11 that utilizes the GNOME desktop environment. We chose to call our creation “Maximum PC Linux.”

Once the distro's base configuration has been created, you will be taken to the start page, which is the gateway to the rest of the tools you will need to create your distro. The next step is to configure your distro's software ecosystem. Although choosing a base configuration will already have added a bunch of software to your distro, you are still able to add any other individual programs you may want to use. This is where the list you should have made before starting this part of the process will come in handy.

SuSE Studio automatically ties in the default repositories for your distro, so you will have full access to the same packages you would normally be able to work with through the package manager in conventional SuSe Enterprise Linux or OpenSuSE. You can also add additional repositories if the default ones do not have what you are looking for; SuSE studio will integrate them and make their packages available to you if the repository is valid. You also have the option of loading individual RPM files, useful for those rare times when you have no choice but to spoon-feed packages into the operating system.

The package list in SuSE Studio is divided into several categories that will probably correspond to the categories on your preparation list: multimedia, graphics, office, etc. By browsing each category, you will be able to add additional programs to the project. Remember that while most software dependencies are handled automatically, this is not the case for system services; if you want sound to work you will need to add a sound engine like ALSA or PulseAudio. Likewise, you will also need to add any necessary codec packages for the various media frameworks (like Gstreamer or Xine) that most media players rely on.

Of course, you (or your other users) could always install these packages after installation, but a primary incentive of using a custom distro is to have most services work out of the box. Unfortunately, US patent law and the DMCA prohibited us from including MP3 codecs or a DVD decrypter with Maximum PC Linux, even though we really wanted to. To get these types of media working, you will need to add the necessary plugins yourself. (you will need the Fluendo MP3 decoder for Gstreamer and the libdvdcss2 plugin; Fluendo can be acquired as an RPM here.

Depending on the size of the installation media you are planning to use, be sure to keep an eye on the package count to prevent the distro footprint from getting too big. SuSE Studio estimates the current size of the distro for your convenience but keep in mind that the final image is slightly larger than the value provided during the software selection process because dependencies are not factored into the estimate. Therefore, if you want your distro to fit on a 700 MB CD, you should generally not exceed more than 610 MB of additional software packages although the actual safety margin will vary depending on what you install.

After all the additional software you wanted has been added to the mix, you can customize the appearance and behavior of your distro by switching to the Configuration tab:

General Settings

General Settings allow you to set the default configuration of your location, time zone, firewall, and network settings. For Maximum PC Linux, we chose to have NetworkManager handle the network configuration since it allows far greater flexibility (such as the ability to choose between wired and wireless connections) than standard DHCP. If you go this route, be sure to include the NetworkManager package and the appropriate frontend for NetworkManager that would allow it to interface with your desktop environment. We also configured the firewall to allow inbound SSH through port 22. If you do not need or want remote access functionality, be sure to disable it when you build your custom distro.

Personalization

The Personalize tab allows you to choose a logo and wallpaper for your distro. The wallpaper image is especially prominent, since it is also shown during the boot process and is a great way to brand your custom distro to make it truly yours. The default settings are rather limited and are identical to what can be found in generic OpenSuSE. We took this opportunity to customize Maximum PC Linux with one of the official Maximum PC wallpaper images. The logo functionality allows you to use the SuSE iguana symbol, a generic Tux image, a custom image, or no logo at all.

Startup

The Startup tab allows you to choose the default runlevel of your distro. The default level is set to graphical login; you should leave this alone unless you know what you are doing and don't want the GUI to start automatically at boot. You should know that the runlevel settings in this section correspond with the general Linux runlevels, some of which do not feature a GUI and/or disallow networking. The Startup section also allows you to define a EULA for your distro. Since the LiveCD installation utility built into the distro will complain (but will still work) if there is no EULA, it is advisable to use something generic if you do not have your own special licensing terms.

Server

The Server tab allows you to configure specific services (like MySQL) that would normally run in a server-type environment. If you choose to build a desktop distro, you will typically not need to enable any services.

Desktop

The Desktop tab allows you to further configure runtime options like automated login and automated startup programs. Since a typical SuSe Studio desktop distro is automatically set up to be a LiveCD, it helps to enable automated login since security is not as important in that situation. If you choose to install the distro, you will be able to set up a more secure environment at that time.

Storage and Memory

The Storage and Memory tab allows you to declare virtual memory allocation if your distro is going to be a VMware or Xen image. If you plan to create a conventional ISO image, you do not need to make any changes in this section.

Scripts

The scripts section allows you to create and run a shell script at the end of the SuSE Studio build process or at the distro's boot time. Most SuSE Studio projects will work properly without additional scripting, so you should generally leave this feature alone unless you know what you are doing.

Putting Everything Together

Once you have configured your distro to be the way you want it, SuSE studio must assemble everything before it will work. This is not a compile process (like Gentoo and similar distros would be) but is instead a very elegant assembly and configuration process where all individual packages you have chosen are brought together and configured to work with each other. You have the option of creating an ISO image for an installation CD, Vmware/Virtualbox hard disk image, (which you can then plug into a new virtual machine) Xen image, or a generic disk image you can clone onto a USB stick or hard drive.

To start this process, switch to the build tab, choose the format you want your distro to be created in, set the version, and then click the Build button. After that, all you have to do is relax and wait as SuSE Studio does all the hard work behind the scenes and creates your custom distro for you based on your specifications. Depending on the size and complexity of your distro, the build process can take awhile; creating a 700 MB build of Maximum PC Linux took about 24 minutes on average.

The versioning feature is very important since it can take several adjustments (each requiring a separate build) to get everything working properly. To facilitate easy debugging, SuSE Studio has an incredibly useful tool called TestDrive, which is essentially an Adobe Flash-based virtualization tool. Using TestDrive, you can run your distro in an hour-long test session without having to download it. However, truly comprehensive testing and debugging often requires you to download and run the distro on a virtual machine or a real test system.

Once the build is finished, you can download your distro. SuSE Studio will save your builds for about a week, after which they may be deleted to free up space for other users. (however, you can always re-build them later if you have to)

SuSE Studio generally worked well for us, (all programs we chose worked properly) but there were some minor problems. On the first build, we did not expect to have to manually add packages like ALSA to get sound support, so it took more debugging than we initally anticipated to get everything working. Although using SuSE Studio is far easier than manually configuring a distro from scratch, it is still not something you are able to breeze through in five minutes without careful planning and a fairly good knowledge of Linux systems.

Also, the builds that SuSE Studio produces have problems with auto-mounting media; after plugging in a USB flash drive, nothing would happen so we had to mount those devices manually through the console. (after which they worked perfectly) We tried installing udev and any other package we could find that dealt with USB devices, but no solution presented itself. Since we concluded that this problem is caused by the HAL (hardware abstraction layer) not properly recognizing new media, we feel that this (and other essential stuff like sound support) is something that should be automatically set up in the base configuration instead of being something that users should be expected to figure out for themselves.

How to Build Your Own Hackintosh

Roberto Baldwin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:30:00 -0500

OS X is out there. You’ve seen it in coffee shops, on TV, in the laps of hipsters at the local taqueria. There‘s no shame in wondering what all the fuss is about. Hell, it’s healthy to mix it up a little bit. If only the idea of sending Steve Jobs and the rest of Apple, Inc. thousands of your hard-earned dollars didn’t send you into a cold sweat that only a game of Left4Dead can cure. Still, OS X is the subject of many glowing reviews. Even hardcore PC users are singing its praises. If you have the itch to try out OS X, but you’re not down with shelling out the cash for a new Mac, we have one word for you: Hackintosh.

When Apple announced the move to Intel processors for its computer lineup, the search was on for a practical way to install OS X on non-Apple hardware. Over the years, the best way to achieve this feat was to patch a retail version of the OS X install from Apple. Users would scour the Internet for the patches—always hoping that what they downloaded was indeed the correct patch, and not some virus or trojan horse ready to wreck havoc on their PCs.

But these days the quest for OS X needn’t be so perilous. Read on to see how an inventive little USB device can let you easily dual boot OS X on non-Apple hardware, using a legitimate copy of OS X.

The Heart of the Hackintosh

The EFI-X USB dongle ultimately makes our Hackintosh possible, but your other PC components matter as well

EFI-X USB Dongle

The EFI-X dongle ($235, http://efixna.com) is the Hackintosh builder’s dream. The device, which plugs into a motherboard’s USB port, works by creating a full EFI environment inside a tiny USB microcomputer. EFI, or Extensible Firmware Interface, was created by Intel to replace the aging BIOS on PCs. Apple’s Unix-based Macs use EFI instead of BIOS. The EFI-X gives users the ability to run EFI-based and BIOS-based operating systems on one machine.

The module contains the hardware drivers of all the equipment on its hardware list. The EFI-X bootloader screen gives you the option to pick which operating system you would like to load at startup. Once you have OS X installed on your machine, the EFI-X must be connected to your machine at all times. If you want to build two Hackintosh systems, you need to purchase two EFI-X dongles.

The EFI-X isn’t without its drawbacks. You can’t just throw any hardware in a tower and start playing with iChat and Final Cut Pro. You need to be sure you use only hardware that has pre-installed drivers on the EFI-X. EFI-X has a complete list of compatible hardware on its site; below we tell you the parts we chose.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo

Like the current Macs on the market, the EFI-X works with Intel Core 2 processors. AMD fanboys can complain about Intel’s market share, its lack of innovation, and aggressive plots to remove all its competitors until the cows come home—it’s not going to change the fact that you can’t build a Hackintosh with an AMD CPU. In our machine we used a 2.67GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

Motherboard: DFI P45

Because the EFI-X comes with pre-installed drivers for hardware, the list of compatible motherboards is necessarily limited. EFI-X supports Gigabyte P35, P45, and X48 chipset boards, with support for Gigabyte X58 boards reportedly coming soon. Or you can choose from one of two DFI P45 chipset motherboards. We went with DFI’s LanParty DK P45-T2RS Plus ($160 street, www.dfi.com.tw).

Videocard: GeForce 9800 GTX

To help you see all your beautiful OS X goodness on screen, ATI and Nvidia cards are supported by the EFI-X. While EFI-X supports the ATI Radeon HD 3870 and Radeon HD 2600 XT cards, ATI knows that Apple is best buds with Nvidia and cautions that ongoing support of these cards is uncertain. Compatible Nvidia cards include the 7000, 8800, and 9800 series graphic cards. We went with a two-year-old PNY XLR8 GeForce 9800 GTX ($140 street, www.nvidia.com) because it’s cheap and readily available.

Storage: Seagate 1.5TB

We initially started our project with a SATA hard drive and an IDE optical drive. The EFI-X kept hanging on the OS X install disc, so we switched over to a SATA optical drive and that solved the problem. In order to build a multi-OS machine you’ll need a SATA HDD for each OS. We installed OS X Leopard on a 1.5TB drive and Windows Vista on a 1.5TB drive. If we plan on adding another OS, we’ll have to throw another SATA drive in our rig. Partitions and Apple’s Boot Camp don’t work with the EFI-X device.

It Takes Two to Tango

Your Hackintosh will be a dual-boot machine, meaning it will run both Windows and OS X. We recommend installing whatever flavor of Windows you prefer before beginning your journey into the world of Mac. We attempted several OS install scenarios and found the path of “regular Windows install, followed by Hackintosh” yielded the best results. We installed Windows Vista in our machine, against the warning of Justin Long.

Now, even if you hate Apple, Inc. with all your heart and soul, you need to purchase a retail copy of OS X ($130, www.apple.com) for every machine you install it on. If you plan on making Macs and/or Hackintoshes a family affair, you can purchase a family pack for $200 for use on five machines. Apple doesn’t require validation codes or a call in to their HQ for verification. Please don’t abuse Apple’s trusting nature.

Building the Hackintosh

Follow these steps to get OS X up and running on your PC

Before we begin, we need to chat about the law and EULAs. Installing OS X on non-Apple hardware, while probably not technically illegal, does violate Apple’s End User License Agreement (EULA). Will Apple hunt you down and kidnap your pets until you remove OS X from your Hackintosh? It’s unlikely.

Apple isn’t too concerned with the little guy tinkering with his computer, and will have a pretty challenging time tracking you down if you go out and purchase a legal copy of OS X for your project. On the other hand, if you want to base a business around building Hackintoshes, expect a visit from Apple’s crack team of lawyers.

With that out of the way, let’s start building. We’ll give you specific instructions for the DFI board we used; if you’re using a different (but compatible) motherboard, you’ll need to adapt our instructions for your hardware.

1. Install the EFI-X Dongle

The EFI-X dongle is the secret sauce that makes OS X think your awesome PC is a craptacular, but Apple-approved Mac. Think of the EFI-X module as Clark Kent’s glasses—when they’re on, no one has a clue that he’s Superman. Installation is simple, you just need to plug the EFI-X into a vacant USB header on your motherboard. The dongle comes with an extension cable if you have trouble squeezing the device in between the other components on your rig. Make sure to avoid plugging the dongle into the FireWire header—that would torch your $250 device.

2. Configure the BIOS

Next up, we need to adjust BIOS settings to work with the EFI-X device and the OS X installer. Rather than list a series of options and the correct settings, we’re going to just show the appropriate BIOS screens, with everything set to the correct settings, and we’ll note anything you need to tweak on sub-screens. But, before you can do that, you’ll need to enter the BIOS by mashing the Del key as your PC boots.

Standard CMOS Features

Enter the Standard CMOS Features screen. Navigate to Halt On, press Enter, and select All, But Keyboard. Press Enter to accept your bold new setting and then Esc to return to the Main BIOS screen.

Integrated Peripherals

Navigate to the Integrated Peripherals option, and then to the OnChip IDE Device screen. For SATA Mode, choose IDE. The EFI-X doesn’t support RAID. AHCI should be turned off during the install process. You can turn it back on after you’ve finished the install. Press Enter to save your settings.

Next, navigate to LEGACY Mode Support, select Enabled and press Enter to save your setting. For the Onboard JMB363 option, select Native IDE and press Enter.

Press Esc to return to the Integrated Peripherals main screen.

USB Devices

While still in the Integrated Peripherals screen, navigate to the USB Device Setting page and hit Enter. Make sure the controllers and functions are all enabled. Navigate to USB Mass Storage Device Boot Settings.

You should see the EFiX Booting Device 1.0 option. Select it and press Enter. Select the HDD Mode option and press Enter to save your setting.

Advanced BIOS Settings

From the main BIOS screen navigate to the Advanced BIOS Settings option and press Enter. Select Hard Disk Boot Priority. Move the USB-HDD0 : EFiX Booting Device to the top of the list by selecting it and pressing the plus (+) button until it’s on the top of the heap. Smack Esc to return to the Advanced BIOS Settings main screen.

Navigate to the First Boot Device. Select CDROM from the list of boot devices. Press Enter to save your setting. Change the Second Boot Device to Hard Disk using the same method. Press Esc to return to the glory of the main BIOS screen.

Power Management

Navigate to the Power Management Setup screen. Go to ACPI Function, select Enabled and press Enter to save your choice.
Navigate to ACPI Suspend Type, Select S3(STR), and press Enter. Press Esc to return to the main BIOS screen.

Navigate to Save & Exit Setup and press Enter. The machine will now reboot with all your new BIOS settings. It’s almost go-time with your Hackintosh.

3. The EFI-X Bootloader

When your machine reboots, you should see “EFIX V1 Loading Please Wait” on the screen. If you don’t see this text on your screen, you’ve totally screwed up. Don’t go blaming us—just reboot, begin mashing the Del key to enter the BIOS, and double-check your settings.

If you do see the “EFIX V1 Loading…” text, way to go. The EFI-X Bootloader screen will appear. You will be presented with what looks like trash cans from the future. Don’t be alarmed if the trash cans have an X or Window icon on them. Even if you haven’t installed an OS on your drives yet, the EFI-X recognizes the format of the SATA drives attached to the rig. You may see two Windows choices; don’t worry. Once you reformat one of the drives to Mac OS Extended (Journaled), it’ll have X on it. For now, just ignore those glowing trash cans with company logos and choose the trash can with DVD on it to access your OS X install disc. Press Enter.

4. Installing and Configuring OS X

If all goes to plan, you should see a startup screen. It’s different from the usual OS X startup screen. Don’t worry, that’s the EFI-X startup screen. As long as it doesn’t hang, you’re doing fine. While installing, if your SATA drive is formatted FAT, you’re going to have to reformat it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Don’t worry, the OS X installer is pretty much idiot-proof; it will warn you if the drive is formatted incorrectly. If it is formatted FAT, select Options, and a drop-down menu will appear with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) already selected. Click Erase. Be careful not to nuke your Windows.

You’ll get a green arrow on your hard drive signifying it’s ready for OS X. You will also be warned that your data will be erased on that drive. Make sure you don’t have anything on that drive you’ll need later, like your vast database of Caprica Six images or your banking information. Click Continue.

Now take a deep breath. You’re about to do something that’s a little crazy. Click Install on the next screen, and away we go. You have about 30 to 45 minutes while the installer does its magic, so go grab a bite to eat or wash your hands to get all that icky OS X install pixie dust off of them.

After you’ve installed OS X, you have to fill out the Apple setup/registration form. Whatever name you choose at this point will be the name of your user account on your Mac. Entering “Amanda Huginkis” will definitely come back to haunt you here. You’ll also be prompted for a password and information regarding your network. OS X takes all the information you enter to configure your computer’s settings. Even the registration page information will be used to identify you in the OS X Address Book app. Just do what Mac users have been doing forever: once the setup asks for you to actually register, choose the Register Later option. Steve already knows too much about us.

Your desktop will now shine brightly with the glimmer of the Leopard desktop image. Take it in. It’s OK, no one is going to hurt you. Leopard is your friend.

5. Updating OS X

Now, the moment of truth—updating OS X on your Hackintosh. Remember, Hackintoshes with patched kernels are unable to be updated. It’s their Kryptonite. But the EFI-X allows you to update your Hackintosh because it’s fooling OS X into believing it’s a legit Mac. We recommend applying all the updates available, as there are some significant fixes between 10.5 and 10.5.6. You can apply updates by choosing the Apple Menu in the upper-left corner of the menu bar. Choose Software Update. A window will pop up with the available updates Apple thinks you need. Click Install.

OS X Leopard downloads updates and then asks to be restarted so it can install updates without interruption from applications and processes. When you click Restart, the computer will display a light-blue screen and will begin the installation process. Don’t worry, this is normal. The machine will restart once it’s finished installing. You may have to do this a few times to get all the updates available.

Now that your Hackintosh is updated to the most recent Apple goodness, it’s time to check out the specs of your new machine. Go to the Apple in the top-left of the menu bar and select About This Mac in the drop-down. You’ll see the processor and the amount of RAM in your rig. For even more information, click More Info.... The System Profiler will give you all the information you need about your machine. If your machine is giving you any problems, this is a good place to see which startup items are causing issues or to make sure your USB Device Tree is recognizing a device. Most peripherals are plug-and-play with OS X, but not all. A quick Internet search will usually find the drivers you need. Just like with a PC, but with an added touch of smugness.

The Care and Feeding of Your Hackintosh

Now that you’ve entered the strange and exciting new world of OS X, here are a few tips to a happy OS X experience

Disk Utility

If your machine is acting wonky, check out the Disk Utility, found in Applications > Utilities. From there you can repair disk
permissions and repair disks that have are having issues. If you’re curious about how you defrag within OS X, not to worry—OS X defrags drives overnight.

Installing Apps

Many applications are just drag-and-drop. Yes, it sounds crazy, but all you have to do is drop the app into the Applications folder and, bam, it’s installed.

Right Click

There’s a rumor out there that OS X doesn’t have right-click capability. But actually, OS X has had the ability to use a two-button mouse since its inception. Just plug in your favorite two-button mouse and carry on.

Terminal

OS X is a Unix-based system. If you feel like messing around with the innards of OS X, go to Applications > Utilities, where you’ll find the Terminal app. Brush up on your Unix commands and start tinkering.

Keyboard Shortcuts

If you’re using a Windows keyboard with OS X, you’ll use the Windows key (the one with the Windows logo) instead of the Ctrl key as the basis for your keyboard shortcuts. For example, Windows+S to save. All the most common functions such as copy, cut, paste, new, print, etc., use the same letter as in Windows (C, X, V, N, P, respectively). If you have a Mac keyboard lying around, you’ll be using the Cmd key for keyboard shortcuts.

System Preferences

It’s the OS X version of the Control Panel in Windows. In System Preferences you’ll find Networking, Security, Accounts, and other preferences for OS X. When in doubt, you can use the search field in the upper-left corner to find what you’re looking for.

How To: Stream Your Music Library to Any Computer

Norman Chan — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:30:00 -0500

Sometimes you just want to browse and listen to your album collection at the office without having to load it all into a portable music player. Pandora and Last.fm are great web services that can help you discover new music, but they won’t let you specify your own music playlist. Streaming music from within a home network is easy with iTunes and Windows Media Player; what’s trickier is getting access to your 100GB music library while away from home. We’ll teach you how to turn your library into an Internet radio station with Apache server software and a little-known program called netjukebox. You’ll be able to browse your collection via a gallery of album cover art, stream custom playlists, and even download entire albums as zip files.

Step 1: Set up an Apache Server

The first thing you need to do is turn your desktop into an Apache web server. This will let you run the netjukebox software and serve web content. Installing an Apache server can be a complicated process, so we recommend using XAMPP (www.apachefriends.org), a web server package, to streamline the setup. This package includes Apache HTTP, MySQL, PHP, and even FTP server support. Download the latest version of XAMPP for Windows (1.7 as of this writing) and run the installer.

Choose the default install location (C:\xampp is recommended, especially for Vista) and choose your desired shortcut icons on the Install screen. You’re also given an option to install Apache as a service, as opposed to an application, which allows it to start even before you’re logged in to Windows.

After XAMPP finishes installing, launch its Control Panel. Click the Start button next to Apache and MySQL to enable the web server. The other options let you run a FileZilla FTP server and a Mercury email server, which we won’t be using here. If Apache and MySQL are activated properly, you’ll see their status as “Running,” highlighted by a green bar. Minimize this Control Panel to the system tray.

You might face a Windows Security Alertfor both Apache and Mysql notifying you that Windows Firewall has blocked these programs. Click "Unblock" for both.

Step 2: Install netjukebox

Head to the official netjukebox website (www.netjukebox.nl/) and find you way to the downloads section. Download the netjukebox for PHP zip package —the current version is 5.10b—as well as the codec pack linked below it. Navigate to the “htdocs” subfolder of your XAMPP install direcotry and extract the contents of the netjukebox zip file into a folder called “netjukebox.”

Open a web browser and type “http://localhost/netjukebox/” into the address bar. If you extracted the files correctly, you should see a light-blue login page.netjukebox will indicate to you that your default administrator login and password are admin and admin, respectively.

Create a new folder called “codecs” within the netjukebox folder, then unzip the 14 files in the previously downloaded codec zip file into this new folder (C:\xampp\htdocs\netjukebox\codecs).

Step 3: Configure Your Security

Access the XAMPP settings page by directing your web browser to http://localhost/xampp/. Choose your language (we're assuming English) to go through to the main XAMPP page. Click the Security link in the menu on the left side of the page.

If you are using Vista, you may encounter an error page that reads: "Access forbidden! You don't have permission to access the requested object. It it either read-protected or not readable by the server." To get around this,go to your "C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra" folder and open httpd-xampp.conf in Notepad. Find the two lines that read "Allow from localhost" and replace them with "Allow from 127.0.0.1". Next, go to your XAMPP control panel and STOP Apache before restarting it again. Flush your browser's cache and try accessing the security page again (http://localhost/security/index.php).

Right now, the status of your XAMPP pages and MySQL admin user root should be unsecure. Click the link in the middle of the page (http://localhost/security/xamppsecurity.php) to set up your server passwords.

Choose a strong password in the required field under the MySQL section, confirm it, and select “cookie” as the PhpMyAdmin authentification setting. Leave the “Safe plain password in text filed” box unchecked. Click the "Password Changing" button to submit the new password.

Enter and confirm a username and password for the XAMPP Directory Protection (.htaccess) section as well. Click Submit to save your changes. You should receive a confirmation that your XAMPP directory is now secure, and the security page will reflect the new security status. From now on, you'll have to enter your new XAMPP login and password if you want to access the XAMPP browser page.

Step 4: Configure netjukebox

Navigate to the “include” subfolder under netjukebox (C:\xampp\htdocs\netjukebox\include) and open the config.inc.php file with Notepad (drag the file into the Notepad app). You’ll have to edit a few lines in this configuration file to direct netjukebox to your music library and set up an administrator password.

Search for the line that begins with $cfg[‘media_dir’]. You’ll see that the default location where netjukebox searches for your music collection is D:\Media. Replace that with the location of your music files. We directed netjukebox to C:/Music/. Note that you must use forward slashes AND a trailing slash in this field.

Next, search for the line in this config file that begins with $cfg[‘codec_dir’]. This is where netjukebox looks for the audio codecs to play or transcode your MP3s. Replace the default address with C:\xampp\htdocs\netjukebox\codecs\\. It’s important to note that we use backslashes in this field, plus we end the line with an extra backslash (double backslash).

Finally, find the section that starts with the MySQLi Configuration header in this same file. Under the line $cfg[‘mysqli_password’], replace the blank password field with the MySQL password you entered in the previous security step. Note that this is the MySQL password and not the XAMPP Directory protection password, though you may have entered the same code for both. Save and close the configuration file.

Step 5: Import Your Music

Using your web browser, go to your netjukebox administrator page (http://localhost/netjukebox/users.php). Enter “admin” as both the default username and password. Click the admin username on the left and change the password. The admin account lets you create new user accounts, as well as restrict what users can do on your netjukebox. You'll have to relog back in after you do this.

Go to the main netjukebox configuration panel by clicking the config tab at the top of the page. If this is your first time using netjukebox, click the Update link under the Configuration window. Netjukebox will scour your music library and index all your albums. This may take a while, depending on how many songs you have in your collection and the speed of your system.

Netjukebox also has a really cool feature that automatically searches for album art for all of your CDs. In the Configuration menu, click the Update Image link, and the system will cycle through all of your albums, searching online databases for album covers based on folder names, and let you approve each piece of cover art. Alternatively, you can just click the "Update images from the Internet" link that shows up after your album collection is updated (see below).

This is the most tedious step in this tutorial, but the effort is worth it. If the auto search can't find the right album cover, you can edit the artist and album search strings or even manually upload your own album cover.

Step 6: Broadcast Your Jukebox

To remotely stream or download your music, find your IP with a service like www.whatismyip.com. From any web browser, type in your IP and add the /netjukebox/ extension. If you’re not behind any firewalls, you’ll get access to the netjukebox login page and be able to browse through all of your music files!

You can also set up a dynamic DNS to access your music server without memorizing your IP. To do so, go to www.dyndns.com and create an account. Authenticate the account via email and log into the dyndns website. Click the "Services" tab and go to "Dynamic DNS" option. Follow through the "Get Started" link to continue.

Enter a custom subdomain (we used our name) and select from one of the 88 available domains. Enter your IP address that you found with whatismyip.com under the "IP Address" field or click the auto-detect option if you're on your localhost machine. Leave all the other settings as their default and click "Create Host".

From now on, if you want to access your netjukebox from anywhere, just type your dynamic DNS address and add "/netjukebox" into the browser address field. For example, our address would be "http://norman.dnydnsdomain.net/netjukebox"

If you're set up behind a home router, you will need to use port forwarding to access your netjukebox server. Go into your router settings (run ipconfig in the command prompt to find your router/gateway address) and find the Port forwarding section.

Add a new port forwarding rule set with both TCP and UDP, using 8088 as the external port and 80 as the internal port. Enter your system's network IP address (also found with the ipconfig command) and insert it in the appropriate field. Refer to our screenshot below for an example.

With port forwarding in place, you have to add the external port (we chose 8088) to your dynamic dns address to be routed to netjukebox. Using our previous sample domain, our new netjukebox address would be "http://norman.dnydnsdomain.net:8088/netjukebox"

And that's it! Be sure to mess around with your netjukebox settings to discover its awesome features. Remember that all of your streams will be limited by your home internet connection (upload speeds), so don't give out your private netjukebox account to anyone!

How To: Create the Ultimate Boot Disk

Josh Kampschmidt — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:00:00 -0600

Looks like your system is on the fritz again -- it refuses to boot your operating system. What do you do now? You can take it a tech shop and have "experts" investigate the problem, but that a costly option. Even if your computer can’t load Windows, there is still a way to fix boot problems without reformatting. With the right boot CD, you can perform your own troubleshooting dianosis the cure whatever ails your PC. Our guide will show you how to make a powerful boot disk that'll let you do more than just access a DOS prompt. You'll be able to run processor stress tests, memory scans, edit partitions, and even extract hard drive data.

Time = 1 hour

What you need:

Windows XP Install CD
Ultimate Boot CD
Free, http://www.ultimatebootcd.com
Ultimate Boot CD for Windows
Free, http://www.ubcd4win.com
2 blank CD’s

Downloading and Booting the Ultimate Boot CD

The Ultimate Boot CD features software that can do everything from run a CPU stress test to scanning your hard drive for bad sectors. All of the included utilities are easy to use and should be in every computer technician’s toolkit. You can individually download all the software that is on the UBCD, but this package saves time by including all the software on one convenient CD.

Go here to download the Ultimate Boot CD image. You can download from any of the mirrors listed, but if possible, we recommend you grab the compressed zip image so the download is smaller. They all produce the same ISO file, so it doesn’t matter what type you download.

After the download is complete, extract the archive and then burn the ISO to a blank CD. You need to burn it as an ISO so your computer can boot from it. Both CDBurnerXP and IMGBurn can do this and are free.

Once the disk is burned, start up the faulty computer and boot from this disk. You may have to change the boot order in order to boot from your optical drive. Press F8 (sometimes F10, depending on the motherboard) to get to your system’s boot menu.

When you are prompted, press Enter to boot off of the disk.

You will be given a main menu that serves as an interface to all the tools. You will only use the first six options. Here is a quick run-down of all the sections on the Ultimate Boot CD.

Mainboard Tools: In this section, you will see tests for almost everything that physically connects to a motherboard. If you wanted to test your RAM for example, you would launch one of the Memory test programs and then press Enter.

Hard Disk Tools: In this section, you will find all the tools that have to do with hard drives. You will see formatting tools, disk cloning tools, installation tools, diagnostic tools and many others.

Filesystem Tools: The utilities here are primarily useful if you want to edit partitions or do something with boot managers.

Other Tools: This section is a catchall for the various tools that did not fit into any other section. You will find malware removal programs and network tools. We recommend you avoid this section since the malware removal tools tend to be dated.
User-defined Tools: These are apps you create yourself and will not be covered in this guide.
DOS/Linux Boot Disks: This section has a collection of various boot disks that run in DOS or Linux. These can be very useful if you are trying to retrieve data off your hard drive.

Why Use the Ultimate Boot CD

The Ultimate Boot CD is primarily designed for people that are having serious non-OS-related problems with their computer, including faulty hardware. Excluding the operating system makes it easier on you to troubleshoot an error.

Memtest86+ for example, found under Mainboard tools and then Memory Tests, is useful if you are having problems that you don’t think is software related. The program gives you a general idea of whether your RAM is operating as it should.

The hard drive diagnostic utilities found under Hard Disk Tools, are useful when you are having disk corruption issues or if you are just having strange problems and already got the all-clear from Memtest86+. Every major hard drive manufacturer has diagnostic software included on the Ultimate Boot CD. These programs will scan for errors and let you know if it is time to RMA or throw away that hard drive.

The Ultimate Boot CD contains many other utilities to diagnose computer problems, including stress testing applications, partition editors, boot managers and many other software diagnostic programs.

Downloading and Booting the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows

As the name implies, the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows is specifically designed to work with Windows. This means most of the utilities on this CD are native to Windows and can only be used on a Windows-based system.

The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows uses Windows XP files and Bart PE to boot. Since it uses Windows XP files, this boot CD is not distributed as an ISO since it would break Microsoft’s EULA. Instead, you must manually build the project files.

Click here to download the project file. It is a large file so make sure you download this file with a broadband Internet connection.

Put your Windows XP CD into your optical drive. Create a new folder on the desktop and name it XPCD. Explore the CD, but do not run the disk, and drag all the files on the CD into this new folder. This will create a copy of all the XP files that are on the CD. If you do not do this, your CD will not be able to boot and the build process will fail.

Double-click on the UBCD4Win file. An installation wizard will display that lets you change the extraction location. Keep all the default settings to minimize the chance of problems. The program will extract the files to the C:\UBCD4Win directory.

After the program is done extracting, it will want you to do a MD5 Hash verification to make sure the file is not corrupt, click Yes to verify the file.

If you receive any errors on the hash check, re-download the file because a corrupted file may cause serious problems when trying to build the CD.

After the verification, UBCD4Win will start enumerating the files and folders to make sure there are no missing files. If it detects that there are files missing, you will have to re-download the file, otherwise certain tools will be missing.

Once UBCD4Win completes the individual file integrity check, you can start building the CD, but first UBCD4Win will ask if you want to check for patch releases and minor updates. You aren’t required to do this, but we recommend that you click Yes.

The updater is mostly useful if you plan to download the patch releases after a new version comes out.

The UBCD4Win builder is now ready to start, click Finish.

When the UBCD4Win PE Builder starts, you will have to accept the EULA -- make sure you read it.

Do not search for Windows installation files, since it will take forever. The reason for creating a folder with all the XP installation files earlier was so we could skip this step.

You should now get the main PE Builder window. You will see a Source, Custom, Output, and Media Output section. We will be using the Source, Output and Media Output section.

Click the “…” button to the right of the Source text box. Direct it to the XPCD folder you created earlier and click Ok. In the Output section, leave the word Bart PE alone.

We recommend that you create an ISO image first, but you can also burn directly to a CD. We are going to assume that you are creating an ISO image.

PE Builder will store the ISO in C:\UBCD4Win and name it UBCD4WinBuilder.iso. Don’t change the name or location.

Click on the Build button and PE Builder will start building the ISO .

It may take a while to build the ISO. When it is done building, click the Close button and then click Exit on the PE Builder window.

Navigate to the UBCD4Win directory, C:\UBCD4Win. Inside of that folder, you will find UBCD4WinBuilder.iso. Burn this file, as an ISO, to a blank CD. If you do not have burning software, CDBurnerXP and IMGBurn can burn it and both are free.

Burning the image is the last step in the build process. To use this CD, just restart your computer and boot from the disk. You may have to change your boot order in the BIOS to do this.

Why use the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows?

Unlike the Ultimate Boot CD, this boot disk features applications that specifically run on Windows. The interface uses the traditional XP-style start menu. The reason it resembles Windows XP is that we used the Windows XP setup files.

The malware removal tools, for example, can be used to remove malware outside of Windows. These tools can update as long as you are connected to the Internet. This means the malware will not be able to “call home” but you will still be able to get your updates.

The CD features other programs besides anti-malware programs; it also features many other programs. Here is a short list of things you can do with the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows.

•   Stress Test your computer
•   Browse the Internet with Firefox or Internet Explorer
•   Create PDF’s
•   Edit User account passwords and other passwords
•   Edit the registry
•   Backup your hard drive, clone partitions, and diagnose your hard drive
•   Burn CD’s

How To: Recover Your Lost Windows User Account Password

Josh Kampschmidt — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:00:00 -0600

More likely than not, you’ve been asked in the past to help fix one of your friend’s or relative’s computers. Most of the time, the problems you’ve been brought in to remedy are basic malware or virus infections that you can address by grabbing the appropriate diagnostic and software removal tools stored in your trusty USB toolkit. But once in a while, you’ll be faced with a novice struck with the most basic and frustrating of problems: forgetting their Windows administrator login password. With no way to get into the system, you can’t even perform basic maintenance, let alone a thorough tune-up. Formatting is always an option, but we consider that a last resort. (Plus, guess who’s going to have to help reinstall all the programs lost after a wipe?) But all hope is not lost. There are a few ways to actually retrieve a lost Windows account password. Read on, and we’ll show you the light.

This guide is split into two sections. If you want to get rid of the old user account password, use Offline NT Password and Registry Editor. If you want to find out what the password is without changing it, then you need to use Ophcrack. There are a lot of Windows password revealers and crackers available, but we’ve found that these two programs are the most effective.

Time = 1 hour, 15 minutes

What You Need:

Offline NT Password and Registry Editor
Free, http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/
Ophcrack
Free, http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/
A ISO burning utility, IsoBurn
Free, http://isoburn.sourceforge.net/

Use Offline NT Password and Registry Editor

Offline NT Password and Registry Editor is one of the easiest password recovery tools to use. It allows you to reset a user account password, including the Administrator password. It is also a relatively small download.

To download Offline NT Password and Registry Editor, click here. Save the zip archive to your Desktop.

Extract the archive and you will get an ISO file. Burn the ISO to a CD using any CD Burning software, such as, CDBurnerXP or ISOBurn.

After you get the ISO successfully mounted, put the disk in the drive and restart your computer. Make sure you set your BIOS to boot from the CD drive. You can change your boot order by accessing the boot menu with F10 before the OS loads.

The program will begin loading off the disk. You will get a line that states “boot:” press Enter and the process will continue

When the loading process stops again, press the “1” key. This will allow the program to search for all probable NTFS partitions.

When the program asks what the registry directory pathway is, press Enter. This will keep the default \Windows\System32\config directory.

You will now see a list of registry entries. For our purpose, you do not need to worry about anything, just press Enter. This tells the program we want to reset the password and loads the appropriate registry hive.

Now that the hive is loaded, press Enter on your keyboard to edit user data and passwords.

You will now see a list of all the user accounts present on the system. Find the user account you want to change and type the appropriate name. Make sure you enter the username EXACTLY as it appears and hit Enter.

Be careful when the program asks you what task you want to perform. You do not want to set a new password right now. This could cause serious problems when trying to boot a Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating system. Instead, press “1” to clear the password.

The program will give you a Password cleared message, indicating that the password removal was successful.

Now type an exclamation mark to return to the main menu. Press “q” to quit the program. On Step 4, make sure you save the changes; otherwise, the password will be left unchanged. To save the changes, type “y”.

When the program asks if you want to do a new run, press “n” since the password is already removed at this point.

To close the program and return to Windows, press Ctrl-Alt-Del. The computer will restart and the password should have been removed from the account.

Ophcrack the password

Ophcrack is a simple GUI-based utility that runs from a CD. The main reason we are using this utility is that it does not automatically remove the password, but instead shows you the password. Ophcrack uses a highly optimized version of rainbow tables, making it very efficient at discovering passwords. In fact, it can recover over 99% of alphanumeric passwords within minutes.

There are three different versions of Ophcrack. We are going to use the Live CD version of Ophcrack, because we are assuming that you do not have another user account to run the program. It has two different versions of the Live CD, one for Vista/Windows 7 and one for Windows XP.

Click here to download the Windows XP Live CD or click here to download the Windows Vista/Window 7 Live CD. Save the appropriate file to your Desktop and burn it to disc.

Once you get the CD burned, put the disk in your drive and boot from the disk. You may have to change the boot order so you can boot from the CD.

Ophcrack will begin loading and eventually present you with three options, graphic mode, VESA mode and text mode. We are going to use graphic mode since it is the simplest option, so highlight Ophcrack graphic mode and press Enter.

Ophcrack will start displaying a lot of text; don’t worry about what it says.

When Ophcrack starts, it will load the files it needs to run into RAM.

Once it is fully loaded into RAM, it will automatically start looking for passwords.

You will find the password under the LM Pwd 1 or NT Pwd sections on the progress tab. Once the program finds the password, feel free to click Stop. Make sure you write down the password since the program will not change the password. When you are finished, click on the Exit button.

To restart the computer, press any key. When it asks if you want to shutdown, press “y” and the computer will restart and eject the CD. Take out the CD and boot Windows

You should now have the user account password. Sure, reformatting would have fixed the problem, but it is just as simple to recover the user account password. Now you know how to recover that user account password for your friend or significant other in case they have data on their computer they cannot afford to lose. You might want to write down their password for them on a post-it note, so you don’t have to perform this task again!