The WRT54G is a wireless router made by linksys. A few years ago linksys released its WRT54G firmware source code giving the open source community the ability to make its own versions.
Installing Linux on your wireless router has many benefits and in my opinion few risks. The one risk you do face is turning your router into a “Brick”. Now, this does seem like a big chance to take but there are many options if upgrade fails. Also, if you follow the installation instructions for each wrt54g firmware distribution you won’t have a problem.
Typical ways to “Brick” your wrt54g router are: trying to install your firmware upgrade over a wireless connection, interrupting the upgrade, and finally powering cycling during or five minutes after the upgrade.
General rules to follow are:
1. Always perform an upgrade from the original wrt54g linksys firmware not other firmware distributions.
2. Set your firmware back to factory defaults.
3. Don’t upgrade from a wireless connection.
4. Don’t turn off your router for about five minutes after the upgrade.
5. Insure your firmware is meant for your router, some firmware versions are meant for the WRT54GS (WRT54G with speed booster), and the regular wrt54g.
6. Follow the given instructions for each given firmware distribution.
7. Enable the Boot_wait function on your router. This option will give you the ability recover from a failed upgrade by using tftp to upload new firmware.
Linksys does have tools to that will let you recover from failed distributions. There are many different wrt54g firmware distrobutions to pick from. Some have specific purposes: like being used for a wireless hotspot or a radius server. Do your research before installing and always follow the exact installation instructions.
By: Eric Meyer
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Filed under Computers And Technology by on Sep 7th, 2010. 
When working at a Linux desktop as a “regular” Linux user, many times you will need to go to the command line prompt and run System Administration commands.
And to run many of the these commands, you need to work as the user named root (a.k.a. Superuser).
Linux Commands Training Tips: The Superuser name is abbreviated as su (and you will see how to use the command of the same name below).
You use the Linux su command (with the – option) at the prompt to change from working as a “regular” user to working as the root user.
A “regular” user is also referred to as a “non-root” user.
For security reasons, you should never log in to a Linux desktop with the user name of root. So, you must log in as a “regular” user and then you’re at the desktop and you do the steps to “open” a Linux “terminal emulation window” to go to the command line prompt.
At the prompt as a “regular” user, you need to run the Linux su command to “log in” and change from working as a “non-root” user to working as the root user so you can run the powerful Linux System Administration commands.
Using the Linux su Command to Work as root Superuser
When using Red Hat, Fedora, SUSE, Debian and many other distributions, after logging in to a Linux desktop as a “regular” and “non-root” user, and opening a terminal emulation window, the command line prompt appears as a $ (a dollar sign symbol).
At this point, you are not working as the root user.
Here’s how to run the Linux su command:
Try all of the examples below to get real, practical commands training experience.
$ su –
Be sure to use the – (dash) as shown at the right of the command above. This provides the “root user environment”.
After running the command above, the prompt changes from $ (a dollar sign) to # (a number sign) to indicate that you are working “as the root user” and not “as a regular user”.
Now you can run Linux System Administration commands.
To “go back” to working as a “regular” user, run the Linux exit command:
$ exit
Linux Commands Training Tips: When you run commands, you are running them “in the bash shell” (environment) and when you run the su command (with the dash option) to work as the root user, you’re actually opening a “subshell” inside of the “bash shell”.
When you run the exit command, you’re “exiting” out of the subshell (as the root user) to the “regular” shell!
Debian Linux is a “major” Linux distribution and the following distributions are “based on” or “derived from” this version – and so the examples above will work on the following distributions as well:
Ubuntu, Damn Small Linux, Dreamlinux, Kanotix, Knoppix, LinEx, Linspire, Mepis, Sidux, Xandros – and many more!
By: Clyde E. Boom
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Filed under Computers And Technology by on Sep 7th, 2010.
Are there any other issues I might have to face, and if so what is the best way to deal with them???
Thanks in advance.
By: mark r
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Filed under Programming & Design by on Sep 7th, 2010.
i just wanna confirm, if my doubts are correct that the drivers that i have right now will no longer work if ever i install MAC or Linux.
i also wanna ask your advice with what versions of MAC/Linux should i use? and why?
By: Pioneer
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Filed under Software by on Sep 7th, 2010.
By: Jeff Tolbert
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Filed under Software by on Sep 7th, 2010.
By: Mat S
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Filed under Software by on Sep 7th, 2010.
The Full Linux Path to a Directory or File
The full path to a Linux directory or file is the series of directories, starting at the root, that are required to access a directory or file. It is also referred to as the “absolute” path and ends in a directory name, and the full path to a file ends in a file name.
For example, the full path to the log directory below the var directory, below the root is: /var/log.
The full path to the boot.log file in the path of /var/log is: /var/log/boot.log.
In some Linux documentation, and when using some programs, a / is shown at the end (far right) of a directory path to indicate that the last item is a directory name and not a file name.
When reading Linux documentation, there are instances when it is obvious that a name at the end of a full path is the name of a directory, and other times when it is not obvious. So some documentation shows a / (slash) at the end (far right) of a path to signify that this is the end of the path. This depends on the context of the directory in the discussion.
For example, the / at the end of the following path: /etc/ppp/ indicates that ppp is a directory and not a file.
Linux ls Command Examples Showing the Full to a Directory or File
The ls command below lists the directories and files in the / (root) directory.
$ ls -l /
The command below shows the contents of the /var directory. The var directory is “below” or “off of” the root in the full path of /var (root var).
$ ls -l /var
The ls command below lists the contents of the log directory, below the path of /var. The full path below is /var/log (root var log). The slash at the left represents the root directory and the slash between var and log is just a separator between these directory names.
$ ls -l /var/log
The following ls command shows the full path to the file named boot.log, below the directory path of /var/log.
$ ls -l /var/log/boot.log
The Linux concepts, tasks and commands here apply to ALL Linux distributions, including Red Hat, Debian, Slackware, Ubuntu, Fedora, SUSE and openSUSE Linux.
By: Clyde E. Boom
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Filed under Computers And Technology by on Sep 7th, 2010.
By: tousif
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Filed under Software by on Sep 7th, 2010.
Being part of this e-age, we must have witnessed data loss every now and then. Though LINUX is not new to us, for its command mode and less user friendlier user interface, users are less comfortable at using it. Furthermore, if there happens any problem leading to data loss, the panic is beyond explanation. LINUX has some inbuilt commands for customizing the recovery of deleted files, still recovery from complex issues of data loss need more sophisticated utility like LINUX data recovery software.
Brief about ext3 file system:
LINUX has many different file systems such as JFS, ReiserFS, XFS, ext2, ext3 etc. Here we are talking about ext3 file system and the recovery options once any file is deleted under this. ext3 or the third extended file system is an extended version of ext2 and is a journaled file system.
What happens when we delete a file in LINUX and recovery options:
When we delete any file, the block pointers corresponding to the file are marked unused in the block bitmap and marks the inode as “deleted”, leaving the block pointers alone. In case of ext3 file systems, the block pointer is filled with ZERO and it seems impossible to recover. However, the information can be recovered from the journal file. That is, every time a file is accessed, the access time is changed and its inode is written to the disk along with some odd 31 other inodes in the same block. In this situation, a copy of that particular block is written into a journal and the block pointer carrying information about the deleted files can be recovered from that journal. Hence, by using any LINUX recovery software, we can recover the deleted file, following recovering the information from the journal.
The most important thing to remember in case of LINUX data recovery is that any write action should be avoided in the particular partition/volume, where a delete action has been performed. Furthermore, you should not install operations like ‘fdisk’, as it can overwrite the deleted data from the partition.
These LINUX data recovery utilities are very scientific and are designed keeping the storage pattern of the file system in mind. Moreover, these LINUX data recovery software are very flexible in their operation, which leave no ground for procrastination and hence, quite usable for professionals as well as common non-technical users.
By: Kuldeep Kulmi
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Filed under Computers And Technology by on Sep 6th, 2010.
Linux terminals share alot in common with their primitive ancestors such as vt100 like consoles. These early devices is capable of sending sequences that signaled events outside of the normal flow of typed characters, such as escape, tab, linefeed…etc. Linux uses CTRL key to send out these out of band signals. This article summarises many of the commonly used control sequences that are used in all Linux terminals.
CTRL-C
This is the most commonly used sequence. In the bash shell, CTRL-C will terminate any currently running process and return you to the bash prompt. For example, if you accidentally run a command that does not stop, use CTRL-C to cancel the command.
CTRL-D
Many Unix commands read their input directly from the keyboard. An example is the WC command. WC counts the number of lines, words and characters that a user types in from the keyboard. So if you tpye WC at the command prompt, the command will wait for your input till you use CTRL-D to signal the end of transmission.
CTRL-Z
CTRL-Z means to suspend a program. For example, you are working with a command and you want to stop it temporary as it is taking too long. To do that, you can use CTRL-Z. You can later restore back the command using the fg command.
CTRL-U
If you have messed up a certain command and you want to start all over, instead of using backspace, you can use CTRL-U. CTRL-U resets the current line.
CTRL-H
Instead of using the backspace key, you can use CTRL-H to function the same way. Unless the backspace key is malfunctioned or mapped wrongly, this sequence serves very little purpose.
CTRL-L
If your screen is too cluttered with unwanted information, you can clear the screen using CTRL-L.
CTRL-S
Freeze your screen. This is a good command to use if you decide to go for a coffee break and do not want any process to run till you are back.
CTRL-Q
This sequence is exactly the opposite to CTRL-S. If you have freezed the screen before, you use this command to unfreeze it.
CTRL-J
Functions the same way as the RETURN key.
CTRL-G
Makes a terminal beep sound for fun and entertainment.
Control Sequences are important to all Linux / Unix users. Some sequences are important while some are useless today. It is worth memorising the first few sequences as described in this article.
By: Bernard Peh
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Filed under Computers And Technology by on Sep 6th, 2010.