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Found the screw driver set after a lot of hard reflection.

However, another issue developed. Edited /etc/rc.local to add the word Screen at the end, to start the Screen program soon after boot. However, this seemed to hang the boot process. Need to press Esc, Enter to start the boot process, figured this out much later. Soon after boot worked, rc.local was redited to remove Screen and saved.

Before this the P4 will not boot from its original HD that is still inside it.
So I tried to boot it via an older Puppy USB and luckily that still works, takes 5 minutes to boot but is still fine.

I have had my share of issues so far, hope I don't have any more for a while, need to regain energy, confidence.

Basically, trying to use really old kit is just a hobby, & a bit of fun, for me - but I don't see any need to buy anything new whilst I've still got 4 or 5 machines that will do what I need from them. :)

I was looking a bit into BASIC, came across basic256 and this lead me to read the article: Why Johnny Can't Code
The basic256 book/manual is available as a PDF online (Free
edition). It is interesting how retro computing is taking me along these roads that were travelled in the past that were vital, these roads are getting less traffic these days.

Careful, you'll be checking out pascal next. ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatmac (Post 5813469)

Careful, you'll be checking out pascal next. ;)

I always had my eyes on Pascal for over 25 years now on and off, but never really got around to learning it fully well. Stopped after the first few pages of a pascal book. :)

Command Line Heroes Podcast:
https://opensource.com/article/18/2/...iginal-podcast

These seem to be good for old computers, even 486:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightw...x_distribution

I felt like trying Nano Linux again today, when added to grub manually,
it booted but was unable to load the Nano-X server, crashed to
command line. It has booted from USB before for me.

Some nice general ebooks on Software Developer here:
https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/free-e...re-developers/

The Puppy Package Manager broke for Slacko 5.3.3

Puppy Xenial Xwindows crashed and when I got it back all desktop icons are missing.
I setup Tunapie and Streamtuner radio to play with DeadBeef, but now many of
the stations are not working with deadbeef. It is strange.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rvijay (Post 5813523)

I always had my eyes on Pascal for over 25 years now on and off, but never really got around to learning it fully well. Stopped after the first few pages of a pascal book. :)

Pascal is an easy language to learn because it has such a beautifully logical structure. Unlike C, Pascal allows you to define functions inside other functions, so that functions which are on a higher logical level can have lower-level internal ones to do their housekeeping for them. In C, all your functions (even the main program) are on the same level, creating a spaghetti of cross-calling.

Pascal also uses the concepts of "global" and "local" variables in a hierarchical way, so that variables that are local to a function are global to the "child" functions defined within it.

But admittedly Pascal is less powerful. It doesn't include low-level bit manipulation or typecasting. It does have pointers but uses them rather sparingly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel (Post 5815674)

Excellent summary, but I must pick at one small nit. Pascal implementations differ and VERY few of them adhere to the standard closely. This is good, because the standard is quite sparse. I have programmed in Pascal and used pointers extensively when it was appropriate to the problem: my implementation/compiler supported that usage.

C allows great power, but does not restrict you at all from shooting yourself in the foot. Repeatedly. Pascal at least helps you aim away from your toes.

If your Pascal compiler allows for ASM extensions, you can embed assembler in functions to access native CPU hardware power. Embedded ASM code is not, of course, as portable.

Thanks for that info. on Pascal, much appreciated.

Someone shared this site with me:
http://awesomeretro.org/

Glad folks have fun with retro devices.

My parrots get uneasy when it is too quiet locally. They love to listen to Echo Moscow
- a Russian Radio station on my old computer. This quietens them, they seem to love the
Russian accents.

Tinycore and Nanolinux are booting but their X is crashing on my old P4
server. Yesterday I tried another old P4 that I have that is a regular desktop
and the same happened also. Since X is crashing with tinycore but not with
Puppy Linux I have a feel now that the on board video driver is the issue
and even tho an OS claims to be retro, it might not support all the old hardware,
this is more an issue at the OS end and something very vital to remember.

Yesterday, I backed up all files on my old P4 desktop that was long due and reformatted all partitions
except the Win XP partition and installed Puppy Xenial on it. This was a very good move. From now on,
at least once a year or so, I must do this with each old PC. The DVD drive on this PC doesn't open many times
and had to use paper clip to open it yesterday. This is a concern and indicates that the
drive mechanism needs cleaning, belt change etc., Either I do that or be prepared with time for
total DVD drive failure as if problems are not taken care off, it will only get worse with time. So need to
be prepared for the worst as I don't feel like cleaning this DVD drive.

Finally, Core2Duo desktops, with 4G Ram, DVD burner etc., on sale locally for 23 bucks, no HD.
Still his is an amazing deal just for the parts. So, it helps to be on the lookout for good used PC
deals locally once a month or so at least. No wonder due to such prices folks are not even bothering
with a P4 anymore. Helps to keep up with current trends also a bit in this regard. It is very icey
outdoors and City has warned folks to be careful as there are folks slipping more than usual.
The last thing I wish to do in these conditions is to carry 3 of these old PCs home on that slipper ice.
So decided to pass on this for now.

i got honeypot configuration done on my old box, i now run cowrie on it.
https://github.com/micheloosterhof/cowrie

Code:

2018-02-06T09:20:38+0200 [cowrie.telnet.transport.HoneyPotTelnetFactory] New connection: 179.225.158.54:53358 (192.168.10.33:2223) [session: TT13]

2018-02-06T09:20:40+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] login attempt [root/xc3511] succeeded

2018-02-06T09:20:40+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Opening TTY Log: log/tty/20180206-092040-None-13i.log

2018-02-06T09:20:40+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Warning: state changed and new state returned

2018-02-06T09:20:41+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] CMD: cat /proc/mounts; (/bin/busybox AETNL || :)

2018-02-06T09:20:41+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command found: cat /proc/mounts

2018-02-06T09:20:41+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command found: /bin/busybox AETNL

2018-02-06T09:20:41+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command not found: :

2018-02-06T09:20:41+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] CMD: cd /dev/shm; cat .s || cp /bin/echo .s; (/bin/busybox AETNL || :)

2018-02-06T09:20:41+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command found: cd /dev/shm

2018-02-06T09:20:41+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command found: cat .s

2018-02-06T09:20:41+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command found: cp /bin/echo .s

2018-02-06T09:20:41+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command found: /bin/busybox AETNL

2018-02-06T09:20:41+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command not found: :

2018-02-06T09:20:41+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] CMD: tftp; wget; (/bin/busybox AETNL || :)

2018-02-06T09:20:41+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command found: tftp

2018-02-06T09:20:41+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command found: wget

2018-02-06T09:20:41+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command found: /bin/busybox AETNL

2018-02-06T09:20:41+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command not found: :

2018-02-06T09:20:42+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] CMD: dd bs=52 count=1 if=.s || cat .s || while read i; do echo $i; done < .s

2018-02-06T09:20:42+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command found: dd bs=52 count=1 if=.s

2018-02-06T09:20:42+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command found: cat /dev/shm/.s

2018-02-06T09:20:42+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command not found: while read i

2018-02-06T09:20:42+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command not found: do echo

2018-02-06T09:20:42+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command not found: done < .s

2018-02-06T09:20:42+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] CMD: (/bin/busybox AETNL || :)

2018-02-06T09:20:42+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command found: /bin/busybox AETNL

2018-02-06T09:20:42+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Command not found: :

2018-02-06T09:22:23+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Closing TTY Log: log/tty/20180206-092040-None-13i.log after 102 seconds

2018-02-06T09:22:23+0200 [CowrieTelnetTransport,13,179.225.158.54] Connection lost after 104 seconds

Quote:

Originally Posted by ////// (Post 5816295)

i got honeypot configuration done on my old box, i now run cowrie on it.
https://github.com/micheloosterhof/cowrie

Thanks for sharing, very good to know about cowrie. Will be helpful in the future if the code is pasted on pastebin and a link shared to that paste.

I probably have the worst security on my PC, just cause there is nothing of value on it. Just some of my notes, the linux info. I have anyone can get it easily of the net from a few sites even.

What is a real concern for me is hardware failure since I am mostly using quite old hardware. So, I try to backup often like once every week or so.

This was my plan and focus for the future:
1. Learn coding
2. Learn CLI Linux
3. Learn and experiment with different distros including LFS etc.,

However, when I make such a plan, usually life leads me in the opposite way, so it might me learning different
distros and experimentation first.

The thing with an old computer problem is that it is either a hardware or a software issue, if it is hardware
then it can't be resolved, if it is software, specially a driver etc., then it can be resolved.
In this regards, learning the basics of how linux itself works, becoming excellent at configuration
etc., become critical. Once one gets this perspective, then things like slackaware, LFS, Mininal Linux, gentoo,
arch etc., start to make sense.

Initially when I moved to linux I just wishes to get away from windows, as long as it worked I was happy, went from
vector linux to knoppix to puppy Linux. I let the OSes do their thing and focused on being a user more. I updated my OS only when it became super critical. However, being just a user is no longer that vital for me. Now I wish to solve any issues that arise pro actively. In this regards, I need to learn to configure more. This seems to be along the same lines of what Richard Stallman faced with the printer altho with far much minor outcomes.

As an aside, I didn't go to linuxlinks.com for a long time and recently felt like visiting it. Pleasantly surprised to see several Linux books for beginners. Sometimes it helps to read one of them with a fresh mindset, this gives a new perspective:
https://www.linuxlinks.com/excellent...n-about-linux/