Development

Recovering data from a laptop drive using Linux

A friend recently came to me with a data recovery problem. He had a ten year old Compaq Presario 1090ES laptop with numerous hardware problems. The laptop's hard drive contained some non-backed up text documents as well as a number of home-made audio recordings. The laptop's operating system was Windows 95. After a number of attempts to get the laptop to boot, I decided that a better approach to recovering the data would be to remove the hard drive and connect it to a Linux box. Even if the system could be revived, transferring the data to another machine would be difficult since the machine had no Ethernet connection.

The first problem involved connecting the laptop drive to a regular desktop system's IDE bus. The drive, an IBM DMCA-21440 with a capacity of 1.4GB, had a miniature 44 pin IDE/power connector and the desktop system had a regular 40 pin IDE (PATA) connector. The appropriate adapter was found on eBay for a mere $5 plus $5 more for shipping/handling (from Hong Kong). The adapter was purchased and it arrived in the mail a week later. Problem number one solved.

The laptop drive was connected to several machines before it was recognized by a system BIOS. Despite selecting the device as an IDE slave, it would only operate when there were no other devices on the bus. The secondary IDE bus (IDE1) was used and the machine's CDROM was removed for the duration of the data recovery session. From the root account, the command: fdisk /dev/hdc was used (carefully) to verify that the drive was visible to the system. The fdisk print command showed the drive's partition information, the main partition was /dev/hdc1.

The drive was initially mounted on the temporary mount point /mnt using the command: mount -t vfat /dev/hdc1 /mnt. This resulted in a filesystem with a lot of unreadable filenames. A little digging on the net revealed the sys_immutable argument to mount. The mount man page was somewhat discouraging: "sys_immutable, showexec, dots, nodots, dotsOK=[yes|no] Various misguided attempts to force Unix or DOS conventions onto a FAT file system." Misguided or not, the drive was mounted with the command: mount -t vfat -O sys_immutable /dev/hdc1 /mnt. The sys_immutable option seemed to work and the drive's contents became viewable with the standard Unix commands.

A number of Microsoft Word (.doc) files were copied over to the host system, these were for the most part readable by OpenOffice.org 2.2 with the exception that a small percentage of words showed up with misspelled characters. Fortunately, for the small number of documents, a bit of manual editing fixed the problem. The wav files were also copied over to the host system with no problems. Once on the Linux system, it became easy to improve the wav file recordings. Audacity is useful for chopping off noisy sections at the beginning and endings of the recordings and sox can be used for resampling the 22050 hz files into standard 44100 hz files. With a bit of effort, it will be possible to turn the collection of wav files into a reasonably professional sounding audio CD.

The operation was completely successful, all of the desired data was recovered from the damaged laptop and my friend's work has been saved.

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PostgreSQL 8.3 beta 1 released

The first PostgreSQL 8.3 beta release is out. 8.3 looks like it will be one of the most interesting PostgreSQL releases in some time; it includes a full text search mechanism, a number of performance improvements, SQL:XML support, and much more. "How soon this beta turns into a release depends on testing by our community of users. As soon as possible, please help us with community testing".

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Postgres Weekly News

The October 7, 2007 edition of the Postgres Weekly News is online with the latest PostgreSQL DBMS articles and resources.

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SQLite 3.5.1 released

Version 3.5.1 of SQLite, a light weight DBMS, has been announced, it features the following changes: "Fix a long-standing bug that might cause database corruption if a disk-full error occurs in the middle of a transaction and that transaction is not rolled back. The new VFS layer is stable. However, we still reserve the right to make tweaks to the interface definition of the VFS if necessary."

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SDTConnector 1.4.2 released (SourceForge)

Version 1.4.2 of SDTConnector has been announced. "SDTConnector provides a simplified way to tunnel various TCP and UDP based network services (such as RDP, VNC, HTTP and Telnet) through SSH. SDTConnector is a graphical tool to simplify the task of providing the privacy and security of SSH for common 'insecure' services, such as VNC, RDP (Windows Terminal Services), HTTP, Telnet and others. Uniquely, SDTConnector has the ability to SSH tunnel UDP based services (such as DNS or Serial over LAN), and facilitate out-of-band access to remote hosts when they can't be reached via the primary link. This release fixes several bugs, please see the change log for details."

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Django Roundup

The October 7, 2007 edition of the Django Roundup is out with the latest news from the Django web development platform project. "We're getting the roundups going again: news about last month's sprint, a new screencast, Django Gigs launches, Django on Jython work continues to proceed, a Django-powered BitTorrent tracker, and more inside."

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synfig 0.61.07 released

Version 0.61.07 of synfig has been announced, it adds some new functionality and bug fixes. "Synfig is a powerful, industrial-strength vector-based 2D animation software package, designed from the ground-up for producing feature-film quality animation. It was initially a proprietary application produced by Voria Studios for internal use and when the company closed down, Synfig was released to the free software community for development under the GNU General Public Licence."

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JasperReports 2.0.2 released (SourceForge)

Version 2.0.2 of JasperReports, a business intelligence and reporting engine, has been announced. Changes include: "support for element origin information in generated documents; support for exporter element filtering based on element origin; minor bug fixes and improvements".

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Lcal 2.1.0 released

Version 2.1.0 of Lcal, a lunar calendar application that generates PostScript is out. "Changes include enhanced colorization control options, which allow for some stunning color lunar calendars, both for previewing and for printing." (Thanks to Bill Marr).

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PyX 0.10 released

Version 0.10 of PyX, a Python package for the creation of PostScript and PDF files, has been announced. "This release adds 3d plotting facilities to PyX using parallel or central projection. Two new graph styles grids and surfaces can be used in 3d graphs as well as some existing generic graph styles (symbols, lines, errorbars etc.). Several new examples, various other improvements requested by PyX users and some bugfixes complete this release."

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Fluxbox 1.0.0 released (SourceForge)

Version 1.0.0 of Fluxbox has been announced. "Fluxbox is a X11 windowmanager build for speed and flexibility. Finally a new stable release! After almost four and a half years with 0.9.x releases we finally got to 1.0.0! This release includes a lot of bugfixes, new styles, updated language support, better shaped corners and much more."

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GNOME Software Announcements

The following new GNOME software has been announced this week:

• Camorama 0.19 (code cleanup and translation work)
• Devhelp 0.16.1 (translation work)
• gcalctool 5.21.0 (bug fixes)
• GENIUS 1.0.0 (new features, bug fixes documentation and translation work)
• Orca 2.20.0.1 (bug fixes and translation work)

You can find more new GNOME software releases at gnomefiles.org.

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KDE Commit-Digest (KDE.News)

The October 7, 2007 edition of the KDE Commit-Digest has been announced. The content summary says: "Image support in Parley, and support for formulas in the note feature of the Step physics simulation package. blinKen changes capitalisation to Blinken for the KDE 4.0 release. Theme work across kdegames, with better collision detection in Kolf. More XMP integration work in Digikam. Work on KConfig merged back into trunk/. Colour conversion system becomes fully operational in Krita..."

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KDE Software Announcements

The following new KDE software has been announced this week:

• amaroK Web Collection 1.0.0 (unspecified)
• Data Klony 0.1-Alpha (unspecified)
• digiKam 0.9.3 (new features and bug fixes)
• gambas 2 1.9.90 (development version)
• KDE Priority handler 1.0 RC1 (bug fixes)
• Kirocker Music Display 3.4.1 (new features)
• KMediaPlayer 0.1 (unspecified)
• KSquirrel 0.7.2 (new features)
• ljKlient 0.2.0-pre1 (unspecified)
• nmapsi4 0.1beta1 (unspecified)
• PeaZip 1.9.2 (new features and documentation work)
• 'Q' DVD-Author RC 2 (new features and bug fixes)
• Qosmic 1.0 (unspecified)
• Qtractor 0.0.6.728 (new features and performance improvements)
• ReMoot 0.9 (new features)
• rkward 0.4.8 (new features and bug fixes)
• Transforme-me 0.4 (new feature and bug fixes)
• WineRar 0.5a (unspecified)
• Zhu3D 3.0.6 (new feature and bug fixes)

You can find more new KDE software releases at kde-apps.org.

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LyX 1.5.2 is released

Version 1.5.2 of LyX, a GUI interface to the TeX typesetter, is out. "This is a maintenance release that focuses on improving the stability. We have fixed numerous crashes, performance problems, and other bugs. Furthermore, the documentation has been revised. It covers all new features of the 1.5.x series now."

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Initial release of gsch2pcb

The initial release of gsch2pcb has been announced. "When designing a printed circuit board (PCB) it's often desirable to create a 'schematic' which shows the components to be used and their connectivity in an abstract fashion. The connectivity information is then used to help when designing the actual circuit board. ``gsch2pcb`` is a command-line tool, part of the gEDA suite, which is used to generate and update a PCB layout. It works with schematics created by ``gschem``, part of the gEDA suite, and layouts created by ``pcb``, a PCB layout system commonly used with gEDA. ``xgsch2pcb`` provides an intuitive, user-friendly graphical interface to ``gsch2pcb``."

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Security issues with SQL-Ledger

SQL-Ledger, a web-based financial accounting system, has some unresolved SQL injection security issues. "Unfortunately the maintainer of SQL-Ledger has declined to fix any of the SQL injection issues we have sent his way. Even correcting these, there are many SQL injection issues in that application. Our official recommendation for SQL-Ledger users is to restrict access to database relations to the least privelege necessary. While this does not entirely solve the issues, it does limit the damage considerably."

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OpenSceneGraph 2.2 released

Version 2.2 of OpenSceneGraph has been announced. "OpenSceneGraph Professional Services announces the release of OpenSceneGraph 2.2, the industry's leading open-source scene graph technology, designed to accelerate application development and improve 3D graphics performance. OpenSceneGraph 2.2 written entirely in Standard C++ and built upon OpenGL, offers developers working in the visual simulation, game development, virtual reality, scientific visualization and modeling markets - a real-time visualization tool which eclipses commercial scene graph toolkits in functionality, stability and performance. OpenSceneGraph 2.2 runs on all Microsoft Windows platforms, Apple OS/X, GNU/Linux, IRIX, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and !FreeBSD operating systems."

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PatientOS v0.14 HL7 Interfaces released (LinuxMedNews)

LinuxMedNews covers the newest capabilities included with version 0.14 of PatientOS, the 1.0 release is scheduled for the end of October. "PatientOS is an open source healthcare information system for physicians, nursing, pharmacy, laboratory and ultimately all departments in a hospital, physician or practice, or any other healthcare facility. Version 0.14 of PatientOS integrates the Open Source Mirth HL7 Engine with PatientOS. Registering or updating patient information in the demo demonstrates the creation of an outbound HL7 ADT message."

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Mozilla Links Newsletter

The October 4, 2007 edition of the Mozilla Links Newsletter is online, take a look for the latest news about the Mozilla browser and related projects.

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Task Coach 0.65.2 available (SourceForge)

Version 0.65.2 of Task Coach has been announced. "Task Coach is a simple open source todo manager to manage personal tasks and todo lists. Often, tasks and other things todo consist of several activities. Task Coach is designed to deal with composite tasks. This release is aimed at better performance."

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GCC 4.2.2 released

Version 4.2.2 of GCC, the Gnu Compiler Collection, has been announced. See the change notes for more information.

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Caml Weekly News

The October 9, 2007 edition of the Caml Weekly News is out with new Caml language articles.

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New PHP documentation build system is ready for testing

A new documentation build system for PHP has been announced. "The PHP documentation team is pleased to announce the initial release of the new build system that generates the PHP Manual. Written in PHP, PhD ([PH]P based [D]ocBook renderer) builds are now available for viewing at docs.php.net. Everyone is encouraged to test and use this system so that bugs will be found and squashed. Once the new build system is stable, expect additional changes to the PHP manual that will include an improved navigation system and styling for OOP documentation."

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Tcl-URL! - weekly Tcl news and links

The October 4, 2007 edition of the Tcl-URL! is online with new Tcl/Tk articles and resources.

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Tcl-URL! - weekly Tcl news and links

The October 10, 2007 edition of the Tcl-URL! is online with new Tcl/Tk articles and resources.

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GIT 1.5.3.4 announced

Version 1.5.3.4 of GIT, a distributed version control system, has been announced, it features bug fixes, performance improvements and documentation work.

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An overview of linking

Ian Lance Taylor has a series of 20 articles on linkers, providing a technical introduction and lots of details on ELF. Due to the weblog format, it is a bit hard to follow, read from the bottom and use the 'Next Entries' link to get to more. Here is a permalink to the first article in case things move around in his archives. "In the old days, when dinosaurs roamed the data centers, many programs were complete in themselves. In those days there was generally no compiler – people wrote directly in assembly code – and the assembler actually generated an executable file which the machine could execute directly. As languages liked Fortran and Cobol started to appear, people began to think in terms of libraries of subroutines, which meant that there had to be some way to run the assembler at two different times, and combine the output into a single executable file. This required the assembler to generate a different type of output, which became known as an object file (I have no idea where this name came from). And a new program was required to combine different object files together into a single executable. This new program became known as the linker (the source of this name should be obvious)." (Thanks to Daniel Qarras)

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