Optimizing CrunchBang Linux for VirtualBox

CrunchBang is an excellent version of Linux to run in VirtualBox due to the fact that it’s a nimble Openbox Linux distribution. That being said, the OS still requires tweaking after install in a VM to get the most performance and satisfaction out of it. I’ve put together a guide to walk one through the installation and optimization … Read more

Safe(r) Windows Browsing

Unfortunately with the magnet Microsoft Windows is to malware, and the reluctance people have to migrating to an alternate operating system (ie Linux, OSX), there needs to be a way to protect yourself from the majority of vectors out in the wilds of the internets. The sad fact today is that it is not enough … Read more

CentOS Vagrant Base Box

I will show how to create a headless CentOS minimal installation “box” using Vagrant and VirtualBox. Similar results can be accomplished without Vagrant, but I find that with a little extra work, Vagrant adds enough value to make the effort worth it. According to their website: Vagrant is a tool for building complete development environments. … Read more

CentOS Development Workstation in VirtualBox

Have you ever wanted to learn how to program or just need a clean & efficient environment to do same? I will demonstrate how to set up a very nice development environment to start off with. This tutorial is Windows-centric and will get you set up to program in Linux under an existing Windows installation. … Read more

LFS Slackware VirtualBox Appliance

I’ve created an optimized Linux From Scratch build environment using Slackware 14.0 and exported it as an Oracle VirtualBox Appliance to ease installation. The size was kept to minimum (less than 200 MB) and the packages included are as follows. You can get the appliance here. You can get the tagfiles to modify your Slackware … Read more

Linux From Scratch Build Environment

Would you like to build Linux From Scratch but are unsure of the optimum environment in which to do so? If so, then this how-to is for you. I’ll be showing you how to install a customized Slackware Linux virtual machine that you can utilize to build Linux From Scratch. The advantage of doing this in … Read more

Set Java Path in Windows

I’ve created a small executable that takes the work out of setting the java environment variable that some people struggle with. It was created using bat2exe and makes life simple if you just want Java to work from the command line. Get it here.

Installing Optimized XP in VirtualBox

Last week I demonstrated how to create a custom Microsoft Windows XP setup ISO optimized for installation in a virtual machine environment using nLite (The how-to can be found here.). We started with an approximate 500 MB ISO and removed components/services using the nLite utility and pared that down to less than 80 MB. This week I’ll … Read more