Gregory A. Lussier

Install Asterisk 1.6.2.4 with Asterisk Addons 1.6.2 and MySQL on CentOS 5.4 i386

Gregory A. Lussier — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:28:03 +0000

This is a complete tutorial on how to install CentOS 5.4 and then Asterisk and MySQL on any computer. I will soon be posting a template virtual machine in the form of a torrent file

Note: you can install Putty and SSH into your CentOS box once it’s installed. You will then be able to copy and paste lines easily from the code boxes below.

Download CentOS 5.4 i386 from http://isoredirect.centos.org/centos/5/isos/i386/
Install CentOS 5.4
1. Boot from the CD or DVD.
2. Type
```
linux text
```
3. Press Enter.
4. Move to skip using TAB key and press Enter. This step will prevent your computer to test the media. You can test it if you want but it’s quite long.
5. Press Enter on the OK button.
6. Choose the language and keyboard and press OK.
7. Choose Yes and press OK.
8. Choose “Remove all Linux partitions on this drive and create default layout” and press “OK”.
9. Confirm by clicking on Yes.
10. Don’t review the partitioning layout.
11. Press Yes to configure your ethernet adapter.
12. Enable IPv4 by going down to IPv4 using the arrow key and press spacebar to select it.
13. Click OK.
14. Click OK for both DHCP and DNS.
15. Choose your time zone.
16. Type a password you’ll remember.
17. Press OK.
18. Unselect GNOME (don’t select anything).
19. Press OK.
20. Press OK for the log.
21. Wait for the package installation.
22. Eject the media and press Reboot.
Post-installation steps
1. Select “Firewall Configuration” and then press “Run tool”.
2. Disable the security level and select Disabled for SELinux. (Note that it’s only suitable for a hobby system)
3. Press OK.
4. Press Exit.
5. Login using user “root” and the password you chose during the installation

Install Webmin

cd /root
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/webadmin/webmin/1.500/webmin-1.500-1.noarch.rpm?use_mirror=iweb
rpm -i webmin-1.500-1.noarch.rpm

Update and upgrade the install
1. ```
yum -y upgrade
```
2. Reboot the computer.
3. ```
yum -y update
```
4. Reboot the computer.
5. ```
yum -y update
```
6. Make sure to repeat the update step until no more updates appear.

Download and install Asterisk

yum -y install kernel-devel kernel-xen-devel gcc gcc-c++ libtermcap-devel ncurses-devel doxygen curl-devel newt-devel
yum -y install unixODBC unixODBC-devel libtool-ltdl libtool-ltdl-devel mysql-connector-odbc
yum -y install mysql mysql-devel mysql-server
chkconfig mysqld on
service mysqld start
yum -y install php-mysql php-mbstring php-mcrypt
chkconfig httpd on
service httpd start
vim /etc/odbcinst.ini # replace 'Driver=/usr/lib/libmyodbc.so' with 'Drive=/usr/lib/libmyodbc3.so' and uncomment the whole MySQL part.
cd /var/www/html
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/phpmyadmin/phpMyAdmin/2.11.10/phpMyAdmin-2.11.10-all-languages.tar.gz?use_mirror=iweb
tar -zxvf phpMyAdmin-2.11.10-all-languages.tar.gz
rm phpMyAdmin-2.11.10-all-languages.tar.gz # press Y and Enter
mv phpMyAdmin-2.11.10-all-languages phpmyadmin
cd /usr/src
mkdir asterisk
cd asterisk
wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/asterisk-1.6.2.4.tar.gz
wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/asterisk-addons-1.6.2-current.tar.gz
tar -zxvf asterisk-1.6.2.4.tar.gz
tar -zxvf asterisk-addons-1.6.2-current.tar.gz
mv asterisk-1.6.2.4 asterisk
mv asterisk-addons-1.6.2.0 asterisk-addons
rm asterisk-1.6.2.4.tar.gz
rm asterisk-addons-1.6.2-current.tar.gz
cd asterisk
make clean
./configure --disable-xmldoc
make menuselect
make
make install
make samples
make config
chkconfig asterisk on
service asterisk start
asterisk -vvvvvvvvc
cd ..
cd asterisk-addons
make clean
./configure
make menuselect
make
make install
make samples
vim /etc/asterisk/cdr_mysql.conf
# Modify this file according to your
# MySql configuration. Use PhpMyAdmin
# for the most straight forward
# installation.
#
[global]
hostname=localhost
dbname=asterisk
table=cdr
password=MYPASS
user=astrealtime
port=3306
sock=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
userfield=1
#
vim /etc/asterisk/res_mysql.conf
#
[general]
dbhost = localhost
dbname = asterisk
dbuser = astrealtime
dbpass = MYPASS
dbport = 3306
dbsock = /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
#
vim /etc/asterisk/extconfig.conf
# uncomment and modify the following:
queues =&gt; mysql,general,queues
queue_members =&gt; mysql,general,queue_members
sippeers =&gt; mysql,general,sip
sipusers =&gt; mysql,general,sip
voicemail =&gt; mysql,general,voicemail_users
#
vim /etc/odbc.ini
[astrealtime]
Description     = Asterisk realtime and other FUNC_ODBC access
Driver          = MySQL
Socket          = /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
Server          = localhost
User            = astrealtime
Pass            = MYPASS
Database        = asterisk
Option          = 3
#
vim /etc/asterisk/res_odbc.conf
#
; Environment variables
[ENV] 
 
; Connections
[astrealtime]
enabled =&gt; yes
dsn =&gt; astrealtime
username =&gt; astrealtime
password =&gt; MYPASS
pre-connect =&gt; yes
idlecheck =&gt; 3600
#

MySQL: Import the following file into PhpMyAdmin using the SQL or Import function.

How to install Windows 7 from a USB drive?

Gregory A. Lussier — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:23:23 +0000

Plug the USB drive.
Open a command prompt (Start Menu, All Programs, Accessories, right click on Command Prompt and select Run as Adminstrator).
Type in the following commands:
1. Insert the Windows 7 installation disk in the DVD reader or mount it using whatever software you like (Daemon Tools Lite, Alcohol 120%, etc.)
2. Supposing D: is the letter of the drive where Windows 7 is mounted, and H: is the letter of your USB drive:
```
D: CD BOOT
CD BOOT
BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
```
3. Drag and drop the content of the Windows 7 Installation DVD in the USB drive.
4. You are ready to install Windows 7 using the bootable USB drive you just created.

Open Source PDF Reader

Gregory A. Lussier — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:44:40 +0000

Adobe Reader’s the most common and known PDF reader but it’s 335 MB and the new versions tend to eat RAM to support intensive overloaded graphic interface. I recently discovered a small open source PDF reader for Windows. It’s amazingly small (1.4 MB) and does nothing more than reading PDFs. I personally use it as my main PDF previewer, and use Adobe Acrobat for editing and other manipulations. You can get it on its official site Sumatra PDF viewer.

Install Windows XP from a USB drive

Gregory A. Lussier — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:39:44 +0000

I had a laptop with no optical media drive and needed to install Windows XP. Windows Vista and 7 are built in with handy features to create bootable USB drive installations, but not Windows XP. I found this great tool Win Setup from USB (4.4 mb direct download .exe) to do so.

Copy the content of your Windows XP installation CD to a local directory (C:\XP)
Run the WinSetupFromUSB tool.
Click RMPrepUSB button.
Choose the drive in the top listbox.
Choose “XP Bootable [NTLDR]” under “BOOT OPTIONS”.
Select “Boot as HDD (2PTNS)” under “FILESYSTEM and OVERRIDES”
Select “NTFS” under the same title.
Click “Prepare Drive”.
Click “OK” a couple times.
Get back to the first WinSetupFromUSB screen.
Select “Removable” under “Force Target disk type”.
Click the “Browse” button and select C:\XP
Click on “GO” button at the bottom and wait a few minutes for the files to copy.

* Make sure the BIOS of the machine can handle booting on USB devices.

** After the first reboot of Windows XP’s installation, you must use the integrated bootloader on the USB device to choose “Windows XP Pro Second Part of the Installation”. (You’ll see what I mean when booting on it).

Free protection against viruses, malware, spyware

Gregory A. Lussier — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:20:36 +0000

I have seen more infected computers during the holidays than all year long. People are on the Internet clicking everywhere and downloading malware. The most popular kind of malware seems to be the fake antiviruses: Windows Defender Suite, Antivirus Live, etc. Fortunatly, a lot of people face the same problem and post solutions on how to get rid of them. Let me give you a hint on what to download and run if it happens to you.

First of all, any computer should be protected with a good real-time protection such as Norton, McAfee, Panda, Avast, Kaspersky, BitDefender, F-Secure, etc. I highly recommend the new Norton Internet Security 2010 (works amazingly smoothly and efficiently on my Windows 7 64 bits desktop, paid 19,99$ for a 3PC activation 1 year license at boxing day sale). The malware I was talking about -fake antiviruses- seem to get past major antiviruses including the big Symantec EndPoint 11.0 for enterprises. In fact, I realized that free software such as Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware was more effective against malware than any retail antivirus on the market. Most of the time, a complete scan of a PC with MBAM will do the trick. Sometime the malware will prohibit a new installation of MBAM or running the process. You have to rename the setup and the executable.

Some people on the MBAM forum suggested giving it the name of winlogon.exe, since no malware will kill that particular process. It worked for me in most cases. If you have more serious cases, you can install Avast to get a boot-time scan, use the free bootable Avira Antivir Rescue System, install Norton Security Scan, run scans and try to figure out what’s the matter.

Cisco Packet Tracer

Gregory A. Lussier — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:35:24 +0000

Finally, these are the Packet Tracer files I have done for the third CCNA Cisco Network Academy Class.
Packet Tracers
I will soon be publishing my own CCNA overview guide. Stay tuned to get a link to a free PDF of its BETA version.

How to install Virtualbox Guest Additions for CentOS 5.4 Guest?

Gregory A. Lussier — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:17:09 +0000

Versions

Sun VirtualBox Graphical User Interface
Version 3.0.12 r54655
CentOS 5.4 i386

VirtualBox is an x86 virtualization software developed by Sun Microsystems as part of its Sun xVM virtualization package. This is a complete tutorial on how to install VirtualBox Guest Additions on a Linux CentOS 5.4 i386 host operating system.

Login as root on the guest operating system (CentOS 5.4)
Click on Devices, and then on Install Guest Additions.
Open a Terminal window by clicking on Applications, Accessories and Terminal.

# yum install gcc kernel kernel-devel -y
# reboot

After the reboot, open up a new terminal window.

Enter the following commands:

# cd /media
# dir
VBOXADDITIONS_3.0.12_54655
# cd VBOXADDITIONS_3.0.12_54655
# sh VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run

Click on System, Shut Down
At next boot, the guest additions’ installation will be completed

Facebook Dislike Button Firefox Add-On

Gregory A. Lussier — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:48:38 +0000

Later this week, some websites announced a Firefox plugin to give Facebook users the ability to dislike posts. As Facebook users know, the “Like” button is working since about a year and has really been useful in case a user wants to “Like” a post, but without commenting it. I gave the Firefox plugin a chance, knowing there were great chances it was crap, poorly secured, and sending confidential data to a third-party server, like most of the Facebook apps, but unlike most of the plugins from Mozilla.

Download the add-on
Or copy and paste the following URL to your browser:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/47023

Like 8 000 users did at the time. You can see that more than 75K people have downloaded it since then. The version of the add-on has also changed from the time I downloaded it. I was really cautious about security and started analysing security of this software.

This add-on doesn’t seem to send any data, except the “Dislike” parameter, which means this isn’t malicious software (at first sight). But in fact, it sends in clear text all the requests, which requires to authentication at all. This is totally hackable by anyone who finds out the same code as I did. I could then “dislike” a post in someone else’s name. This add-on is highly insecure and I don’t recommend you install it until the final release.

Nelson Dumais from La Presse published the letter I sent him yesterday

Nelson Dumain, Technaute, La Presse (French version only)

References

Techified: New Firefox plugin will let you dislike stories on Facebook
LifeHacker: Dislike adds a disapproving dislike button to Facebook
Mashable: Facebook Dislike Firefox Plugin
All Facebook: New Firefox plugin lets users dislike Facebook feed stories
CNET: New Facebook Firefox plugin

Quebec Students Banking Review

Gregory A. Lussier — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:01:55 +0000

If you are a full-time post-secondary student and pay a montly fee for your bank account, you should read this carefully. Let’s review the major banks free accounts for students in Canada.

I have made a simple Excel table to compare the different student plans. You can get it here.

RBC Royal Bank, Scotia Bank, National Bank of Canada, Desjardins, Bank of Montreal, TD Canada Trust and the Laurentian Bank have been compared and reviewed to see which one of them provides the best services for their postsecondary student clients.

The best bank account for students is at RBC Royal Bank if you can afford to keep a minimum amount of 500,00 $ in a separate account. It gives the opportunity to have unlimited transactions on RBC ATMs and Interac point-of-sales, to pay no fees for a Visa Rewards card, and the ability to use as many checks as needed.

RSS Bandit

Gregory A. Lussier — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:41:26 +0000

RSS Bandit gives you the opportunity to read your favourite RSS feeds in an Outlook-like software. You can read the latest news as if they were emails. The best part of it is that you can synchronize RSS Bandit with your online RSS aggregator (NewsGator or Google Reader). These online applications are quite useful if you want to read your news from one computer to another.RSS, Really Simple Syndication, is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works – such as blog entries, news headlines, audio and video, in a standardized format. You can think of RSS feeds as the outline of the news. You see the first 2 or 3 sentences of an article with a picture and the title. If you want to read it, you click on it, otherwise you just jump to the next news. It’s as if you were managing your emails, you can delete, move, tag, store, or print them.

Many websites have their own feeds. The feeds I follow include CBC, BBC, New York Times, CNN, La Presse, The Globe and Mail, Times, GregoryALussier.com/Feed… To find an RSS feed, just open up Google and type the newspaper’s name followed by the keyword RSS.