Busy hands | Disquiet mind

I bought a touchatag ages ago, but couldn't get it installed properly under linux (and when I got it working under Windows the supplied software required that I create an account, which I really dislike). It's no longer available to purchase (except perhaps through resellers with old stock), but it is a RFID-tag reader (that came with a few RFID-tags) and was part of the 'Internet-of-Things' effort. Although anyone I know who has one didn't get it for that reason. It lay gathering dust in the back of my mind until I suddenly had a project idea. But first, I had to get the darned thing to work!

Here's how I went about it under Fedora 18.

Pre-requisites (you probably don't need all these, but I have ambitions);
yum install pcsc-*
yum install libusb libusb-devel
yum install libnfc*

Install the driver;
wget http://www.acs.com.hk/drivers/eng/ACR122_Driver_Lnx_Mac10.5_10.6_10.7_104_P.zip
unzip ACR122_Driver_Lnx_Mac10.5_10.6_10.7_104_P.zip
cd ACR122_Driver_Lnx_Mac10.5_10.6_10.7_104_P/
tar -jxvf acsccid-1.0.4.tar.bz2
cd acsccid-1.0.4/
./configure
make

Check it's working;
lsusb
Lists it as Advanced Card Systems, Ltd.

nfc-list
It should list your reader, if not, try pcsc_scan, if still no luck run pcscd -f.
If at this point it's complaining that your firmware is bogus you need to edit the config file to skip the version checking, for me the file path is;
vim /usr/lib64/pcsc/drivers/ifd-ccid.bundle/Contents/Info.plist

Locate "ifdDriverOptions" and turn the "0x0000" value into 0x0005 (0x0004 might work too). Save and exit, then restart the daemon. I had trouble getting it back up again, so I rebooted.

Run the checks again to see that it is now picking up the device properly.

Use it;
This varies greatly depending on what you want to do. One of the alternatives recommended on the touchatag site is iotope. I downloaded it (to run in standalone node mode), unzipped, and ran the bash script provided (it's Java based). Then you open a browser and go to http://localhost:4242/ui/. Then simply put a RFID-tag in the reader and (if compatible) see the details show up.


I pieced together this information from two sources;
1. An archlinux wiki page which suggests another application, and
2. A backtrack linux page that suggests an entirely different application and use.

This is probably old-hat to those of you it interests, but I've finally gotten it to work, so I'm putting it here against my forgetting in future.

I've dual-booted my laptop (netbook strictly) with Ubuntu 11.04 and Fedora 15 (in the end I just erased the new F15 installation mentioned previously and installed 11.04 first, then gparted before F15). And having used them both for a little while feel the need to vent.


( My issues )

Conclusion;
Both are good, neither are great. I want to keep parts of both, and to abandon parts of both. I would be interested in hearing other peoples experiences of these distros, as well on hints on how to fix/improve my experience. (*Note* Replies like 'use debian' will not meet with a warm reception.)

You know nmap? It's a really helpful tool for auditing your networks, and probing your machines to check for vulnerabilities.

Aside: you should only ever use this on your own network, or one on which you have the permission of the administrator. Not everyone minds a little exploration, but you don't want to annoy the wrong people. In case you don't happen to have a network handy, nmap provides scanme.nmap.org so you can try out all but the most aggressive techniques.

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here, so if you're interested there is info in the man pages, on the nmap website, and there is even an nmap book. Here are some very basic commands;

Host Discovery;
( details )

Port Scanning;
( details )

Service Version and OS Detection;
( details )

NSE;
( juicy details )

On a related note; are you running BackTrack in VirtualBox, have enabled the network connections and everything, but still no internet? Try;
/etc/init.d/networking restart
When complete check ifconfig. I found my wireless connection hiding in eth1!

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Let's prove them wrong.

We have many different kinds of Operating Systems, each with its own pluses and minuses. I think this is a very good, and important, thing. It means you have the scope to find the one that suits you just right, to enable a kind of symbiosis between you and your machine. I remember the days when you had to use Windows. I, everyday, encounter people who tell me I have to use Mac. Multiple times a day I come across people who tell me why their *nix flavour is the best. It drives me nuts. In my personal sphere the worst offenders are the Debian and Ubuntu users. I've no problem with people talking about their OS, engaging in open discussion is healthy and enlightening. It's when that conversation happens to the exclusion of all other OSs that I get annoyed. And not simply because I'm a Fedora user.

Increasingly in college we're having Ubuntu forced upon us. It makes sense, there are people in my course unfamiliar with linux, and it is widely believed to be the easiest to get into. But, they say X works with linux, when they mean Ubuntu. They give instructions only for Ubuntu. Documentation is only written for Ubuntu. There is a massive dependency on "do this and it just works". Only, when you're on another flavour, and trying to figure out why it doesn't, there are no pointers, and the instructors can offer no help. It kinda defeats the purpose don't you think? To replace one ubiquitous system with another, with equally limited knowledge of how it actually works.

Okay, my little rant is over. Here's some things you might find helpful, if you're a Fedora user.

When you yum install python you mightn't get everything you need. I was told to get python-usb, what I needed was yum install pyusb.

If you're doing a forensics course and you're being told to grab things like vinetto and reglookup you'll notice they aren't in your repos. You need the CERT repo. Save the PGP key, and add it: rpm --import forensics.asc. Download the repo rpm for your version of Fedora, and install it: rpm -ivh cert-forensics-tools-release-13.rpm. (I realise I do this in a kooky way, and there are probably better ways, but I'm set in mine :) Now, updatedb to sync before you use yum. You can install everything: yum install CERT-Forensics-Tools, or just what you're looking for, e.g. yum install reglookup.

gvimdiff. I had vim installed, I'm pretty sure I had diff installed. But I couldn't get gvimdiff (or vimdiff) to work. It magically sorted itself out when I realised the g => yum install vim-X11.

There, now we can all get back to enjoying the diversity.

Problem: Linux uses up your 'extra' RAM for cache. But often refuses to free it when it's needed.

Solution: sync; echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

Props: http://www.scottklarr.com/topic/134/linux-how-to-clear-the-cache-from-memory/

*edit*
http://www.linuxatemyram.com/
http://www.linuxatemyram.com/play.html
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq (to set swappiness)