[SGVLUG] linux-friendly netbooks

[Emerson, Tom (*IC)]

OK you two - I don't want to issue a "time out" but I will if I have to...

> -----Original Message----- Of Sean

> > I have the EPC1000HD, which came stocked with Windows XP.
> > I soon replaced the Windows XP OS after discovering 1
> > week later that it had
> > included a Sino rootkit/keylogger, which either came
> > out of the box [...]

Ok, flaming, mildly or inherently "heated" discussion, or anything else of the sort aside, there does exist one or more potential sources of the presumed rootkit, and as to whether or not it was maliciously included or unintentional remains to be seen  [anecdotally, I've heard of cases where major (game) software companies inadvertantly released a virus when said virus managed to get into either their build or replication environment(s) without them noticing, and thus "sealed copies" in the box were already tainted]

But, back to my point: did you get this shipped "from the factory", or via a third-party retailer such as newegg or Fry's?  I recently purchased a lenovo netbook via newegg, and while the box appeared to be "factory sealed", the system came with a 60-day trial version of MS Office software on it.  During the /initial/ setup of the device, I had skipped an option (related to wireless networking since I wasn't near a network) and later couldn't back get to that particular setup item.  "no problem", I thought - I hadn't even used it for a full day yet, I'll just "re-image" it from the included recovery partition and start over - low and behold, the "recovery" partition did NOT include the MS Office "trial"!  (nor a couple of other insignificant items)

So, "factory sealed" or not, somebody somewhere along the lines added stuff to the system before it arrived at my door.  I suspect the same may have been true for you as well.

Sean continued:
> > In any event, I installed Debian etch via TFTP.

To which Charles queried:
> TFTP? Or FTP?

While I'm fairly certain Charles is a capable and well informed individual, there do exist "newbies" on this list who would benefit from knowing the difference between these two methods.  Specifically, "T"-ftp would not be a method that "new" users would be likely to try, and used to depend on hardware support in the first place (i.e., the pxe-boot rom on the NIC card)  [At least, that was the case way back when I was taking the Novell CNA/CNE classes - I presume now this is more or less universally included in modern NICs?]

(I also see Charles has responded while I was composing this, so skipping ahead a bit, many, if not all, of the distro's include a method whereby you create a special "bootdisk", either floppy or CD, that effectively does what PXE does.  Netbooks, in particular, are a special case as they generally don't HAVE a floppy or CD-rom, so you have to rely on other techniques and/or hope the BIOS has boot-from-USB support, which in turn allows you to connect a USB floppy, CD/DVD, or even memory stick)

[and while I wrote that, Sean responded - looks like things have cooled down a bit - thanks guys, we do like it when folks are civil on our list ;) ]

Tom