Category: software

Whonix in VirtualBox

~ cafebedouin

I found these articles on Choosing Your Desktop Linux Distribution and Desktop Linux Hardening to both be interesting. At the bottom, you’ll see that they recommend using Whonix. Pretty clear Whonix is designed to be used within VirtualBox.

When I tried installing straight to Virtualbox using the Virtualbox instructions, it took about five minutes on my (admittedly old) machine. Then, I got a driver was not set-up correctly error. It tells you what to do:

$ sudo modprobe vboxdrv

After doing this command, the virtual machines booted normally. Unfortunately, I could not get them to work, probably because I use a very old notebook.

Anyway, adding a comment here as a note to revisit once I have a box that can handle the virtualization requirements.

NixOS for the Impatient

~ cafebedouin

“NixOS is a Linux distribution configured using Nix. It is declarative, meaning that the entire system state can be defined in a single .nix file; and reproducible, meaning you can have multiple computers set up identically.

If this sounds like a bullshit timesink like Arch or Gentoo: it’s not. There was a time when the idea of spending an afternoon typing cryptsetup incantations into a terminal would have been appealing. That time is past. I don’t use distros that lack a graphical installer (running fdisk is frankly beneath my dignity) or that require extensive maintenance. I’m not building my own kernel with some bespoke set of paranoid CFLAGS. I just want something that works.

NixOS works. It actually works great.”

—Fernando Borretti, “NixOS for the Impatient.” borretti.me. May 6, 2023.

I have been meaning to try NixOS for awhile, but I didn’t want to have to figure out how to do the configuration file to get near what I use: mutt, Firefox, ssh, my VPN, etc. I am saving this one for when I finally decide to do it.

Messengers

~ cafebedouin

It seems to me that some messaging app that has the functionality of WeChat is where a lot of this web3 and cryptocurrency is going. The functionality of WeChat is described by Wikipedia as: messaging, public accounts (for famous people or people with an audience), channels for friend groups, digital payments, video, etc.

Right now, messaging is dominated by Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram and Discord. I suppose Apple’s Messages is another, but I don’t know the Apple ecosystem.

The main piece will be the incorporation of digital payments. The above aren’t really positioned to deliver on digital payments, and they also have privacy problems.

  1. Signal: good option, people object that it requires ID verification through phone number registration. But, it already has digital payments incorporated through a build-it MobileCoin wallet in the app.
  2. Keybase: It has an Stellar cryptocurrency wallet. It’s more like groupware designed to verify users social media accounts, but it is in this space.
  3. Element: open source with paid tier option, no ID required. Less commonly used than Signal. No digital payments
  4. Threema: one-time payment for a license to use. Bills itself as maximum security. New to me. I don’t think payments are available.

Get Blogging!

~ cafebedouin ~ 2 Comments

“Your easy guide to starting a new blog.

A blog is an easy way to get started writing on the web. Your voice is important: it deserves its own site. The more people add their unique perspectives to the web, the more valuable it becomes.”

–https://getblogging.org/

I’ve been blogging since January 2017. In those five years, I’ve found it to be a useful exercise of thinking out loud, taking technical notes, saving websites/stories, etc. I, personally, find it useful in my own life, and I’d recommend it as a practice for others. This can provide some help getting started to non-technical users. The easiest thing you can do is pay for a site on WordPress.com. I believe they still have free versions, and the personal version is something like $4 a month. Well worth it, in my opinion.

Installing GrapheneOS on a Pixel Device

~ cafebedouin

As you may know, I like trying out alternative operating systems. I bought a Pixel 6 device and installed GrapheneOS on it. The web installer instructions are pretty easy to follow, and I was able to do it in less than an hour. It took longer to do the Android updates it recommends doing before installing GrapheneOS.

The initial screen is bare. If you just needed to do messaging and calls, it would get the job done. It is possible to install a sandboxed version of Google Play. It works pretty much the same, although I found that some apps that rely on the wifi network or cross-app verification do not work. For example, Nextcloud Notes can not be used with the Nextcloud app authentication because of the sandboxing. The same is also true of apps like Orbi, Sonos, et al that cannot access what they need outside the sandbox. So, I’m either not using these apps or using alternatives.

It also flashes when booting that the operating system has changed, but it doesn’t present a problem. You just have to wait a few more seconds for the phone to boot.

Overall, if you need a flawless experience. I’d stick with the stock OS. If you can deal with a few things not working for better security, or at least worth trying it out, you might want to consider trying it. It is possible to go back to the stock OS later, and it could provide a useful learning experience.

Guest WiFi using a QR code

~ cafebedouin

On my home network I have guest WiFi configured and when guests come round they need to know the password. Happily there’s a way to make this trivial: WiFi QR codes.”

-John Graham-Cumming, “Guest WiFi using a QR Code.” jgc.org. July 12, 2022.

Easy enough. I used SecScanQR on F-Droid.

  1. Click Generate.
  2. Select Text.
  3. Type in the following replacing <SSID> and <Password>: WIFI:S:<SSID>;T:WPA2;P:<PASSWORD>;H:false;;
  4. Click Generate.
  5. Click Save, or Share to your printer.
  6. Put the QR code in a frame and hang it.

Blog Diet: A Starter List For Your RSS Reader (Updated Spring 2022) by Warren Ellis

~ cafebedouin

“People keep asking me where I find stuff, or where to start with an RSS reader.

I exported my subscriptions, and damn, there are a LOT of dead blogs out there. I’m actually shocked at how much of my list is now gone. (And how many sites have shut off their RSS!) Here is a selection of blogs from the list of ones I think are still active. Like I say, it’s just a bit of my active subscriptions list, but maybe you’ll find something you want to follow.”

-Warren Ellis, “Blog Diet: A Starter List For Your RSS Reader (Updated Spring 2022).” warrenellis.ltd. April 22, 2022.

Here’s a list of “best” free RSS Readers for 2022. I’ve talked about RSS Readers a bit here in the past and suggested some places to start. I’m used Nextcloud News, newsboat, and flym. I like newsboat quite a bit, but I find I don’t check it as much as if it is in a mobile app. YMMV.