Gregg's Nearly Interminable Adventures in Linux Land - Page 26

Gregg Bell · 04-17-2015, 01:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Well, it probably isn't necessary anyway, unless you are keeping state secrets on there...

Bleachbit and several other programs come with tools to "shred" files and folders (similar to a paper shredder, which shreds a different kind of files and folders), and/or "overwrite free disk space to hide deleted files" -- that should be all you need, just select your home folder and delete everything.

I would probably do them both AND drop the hard drive off a high-rise. (And then maybe drop the shards off a boat in Lake Michigan.)

eschwartz · 04-17-2015, 10:43 AM

Yes, bleachbit is free. It should be in the USC.

No, there aren't wildly scary warnings. It will ask you if you are sure you want to delete stuff, which is a precaution against slippery fingers.

Feel free to indulge in secret agent fantasies while you get rid of old computers, I certainly won't stop you.

Gregg Bell · 04-18-2015, 12:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Yes, bleachbit is free. It should be in the USC.

No, there aren't wildly scary warnings. It will ask you if you are sure you want to delete stuff, which is a precaution against slippery fingers.

Feel free to indulge in secret agent fantasies while you get rid of old computers, I certainly won't stop you.

Ha ha. Like "The Man from Uncle." You may not have heard of it but I grew up watching it. "The Linux Affair."

Gregg Bell · 04-18-2015, 12:55 AM

Okay, Linux mavens. The Sony forum has no feedback on this. My PRS 300 is stuck on "loading." (The little circle going round and round like Nietzsche's eternal recurrence.). Soft re-sets don't work. Hard re-sets can't be done.

You guys are so smart somebody's got to have something I can try.

And oh, the computer also no longer recognizes the ereader when I plug it in with a usb cord.

arjaybe · 04-19-2015, 01:08 PM

Here are some links about resetting your reader. I'm putting them inside a spoiler tag in case too many links triggers something bad.-)

Spoiler:

I hope something here gets you past your roadblock.

Gregg Bell · 04-19-2015, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Yes, bleachbit is free. It should be in the USC.

No, there aren't wildly scary warnings. It will ask you if you are sure you want to delete stuff, which is a precaution against slippery fingers.

Feel free to indulge in secret agent fantasies while you get rid of old computers, I certainly won't stop you.

Ha ha, eschwartz! Bleachbit is a trip! I got rid of the Home folder and it freed up 16 GB. (Which is like half of my hard drive.) And now the computer is fast again! Which is perfect--I'll keep it as a backup as it has all my programs and favorites. (I had been planning on pitching it.) Thanks.

P.S. I chose the "shredding" option. And that means that 16 GB is available for use now, right?

PSS. What would have happened had I chose the "overwrite" option?

Thanks!

Gregg Bell · 04-19-2015, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arjaybe

Here are some links about resetting your reader. I'm putting them inside a spoiler tag in case too many links triggers something bad.-)

Spoiler:

I hope something here gets you past your roadblock.

Thanks rjb. Appreciate that. Have already tried all those suggestions. I've got an A/C adapter and the battery is strong.

It's been a real tease. I can do the hard re-set but when the screen comes up and tells me to choose 5 (and I do so) to complete the re-set it does nothing.

I got a good laugh out of that first link though with the guy saying:

I just got a sony pocket reader today and it hates me already.

That PRS 300 is a quirky thing. Even in the Sony advice they say the same. Oh well. I'll keep searching. (It's a nice unit. Small. Good print. It just doesn't want to play ball.)

arjaybe · 04-19-2015, 07:23 PM

I was hoping for the best because a similar solution worked when my 650 had a similar problem. Oh well.-)

eschwartz · 04-19-2015, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Ha ha, eschwartz! Bleachbit is a trip! I got rid of the Home folder and it freed up 16 GB. (Which is like half of my hard drive.) And now the computer is fast again! Which is perfect--I'll keep it as a backup as it has all my programs and favorites. (I had been planning on pitching it.) Thanks.

P.S. I chose the "shredding" option. And that means that 16 GB is available for use now, right?

PSS. What would have happened had I chose the "overwrite" option?

Thanks!

http://bleachbit.sourceforge.net/doc...iles-wipe-disk

Also, funny coincidence -- my HDD is ~37 GB too.

Gregg Bell · 04-19-2015, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

http://bleachbit.sourceforge.net/doc...iles-wipe-disk

Also, funny coincidence -- my HDD is ~37 GB too.

Well, isn't it great having all that room!

And thanks for the link. (I'll now be an expert in bleachbit.)

eschwartz · 04-19-2015, 08:59 PM

6.2 GB free on my end -- I just cleaned out some unnecessary programs. Well, one program that dragged in the full KDE environment as dependencies.

Gregg Bell · 04-21-2015, 01:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

6.2 GB free on my end -- I just cleaned out some unnecessary programs. Well, one program that dragged in the full KDE environment as dependencies.

I read that whole bleachbit page and still couldn’t figure out if after shredding it that space that was freed up is still available for use. I mean, I'm assuming it is but they just didn't say.

eschwartz · 04-21-2015, 10:48 AM

shred = secure delete.

Yes, you get the space back.

DMcCunney · 04-21-2015, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

I read that whole bleachbit page and still couldn’t figure out if after shredding it that space that was freed up is still available for use. I mean, I'm assuming it is but they just didn't say.

What I don't understand is why you think it might not be.

There are a variety of secure delete programs available, and all work in the same basic manner.

When you delete files from a drive using the OS, what you are removing is the pointers to the files and the space they occupy. That space is marked as free, and can be reused by the OS the next time it needs it. The potential issue is that the underlying data those files contain is still on the drive in that freed space, and can potentially be recovered. Secure delete programs not only delete the pointers to the files - they overwrite the data on the the areas those files occupied with random garbage, to make it impossible to recover.

Whether you use the standard OS file delete routines or a secure delete, you get the freed space back. You go with a secure delete solution because you think the data in the deleted files is sensitive enough that you want no chance for it to be recovered. (Extreme caution is needed, because you won't be able to recover it either if you delete the wrong thing.)

I have a couple of programs like that and have yet to use them. Very little data here is that sensitive, and stuff like that isn't kept on my HD. It's on a USB thumbdrive that is removed when the data isn't required, and stored elsewhere. If I replaced the HD in my machine, I might reformat it before tossing it, but wouldn't bother to securely wipe it - there's nothing on it that would give me heartburn if an unknown third party did recover it.
______
Dennis

twowheels · 04-21-2015, 08:13 PM

DMcCunney is correct, though I'd caution that just because you didn't save it on the hard drive, doesn't mean that it wasn't on your hard drive (as a temporary file saved by the program working with the data or RAM that was swapped to disk). You might want to secure delete your temp folder and secure overwrite all empty space now and then. Also, SSDs change the game a lot because they logically remap the physical space to do wear balancing and overwriting a file in place to do a secure wipe doesn't guarantee that it's actually overwritten. For this reason many SSDs provide a secure wipe mechanism, but they usually (AFAIK) only wipe the entire drive, not just the free space. A periodic wipe of free space by creating a HUGE file that fills all empty space can help with that, **BUT** most hard drives (both SSD and mechanical) also reserve an area to use as the drive starts detecting errors, remapping bad sectors into the reserve space. Any data that was in the areas marked as bad is potentially still laying around. Again, the reason why drive manufacturers provide a secure wipe functionality for the drive because the internal details of that remapping and bad space are hidden from the operating system -- only the drive knows about it.

If you care that much about your data security you MUST use an encrypted filesystem from day one and destroy it when you're done with it.

04-19-2015, 01:08 PM	#380
arjaybe Wizard Posts: 1,073 Karma: 12500000 Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: Okanagan Device: Sony PRS-650, Kobo Clara	Here are some links about resetting your reader. I'm putting them inside a spoiler tag in case too many links triggers something bad.-) Spoiler: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66722 http://factory-reset.com/wiki/PRS-300 https://us.en.kb.sony.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/31628 https://us.en.kb.sony.com/app/answer...8,73904,73905/ I hope something here gets you past your roadblock.

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04-17-2015, 10:43 AM	#377
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	Yes, bleachbit is free. It should be in the USC. No, there aren't wildly scary warnings. It will ask you if you are sure you want to delete stuff, which is a precaution against slippery fingers. Feel free to indulge in secret agent fantasies while you get rid of old computers, I certainly won't stop you.

04-18-2015, 12:55 AM	#379
Gregg Bell Gregg Bell Posts: 2,266 Karma: 3917598 Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Itasca, Illinois Device: Kindle Touch 7, Sony PRS300, Fire HD8 Tablet	Okay, Linux mavens. The Sony forum has no feedback on this. My PRS 300 is stuck on "loading." (The little circle going round and round like Nietzsche's eternal recurrence.). Soft re-sets don't work. Hard re-sets can't be done. You guys are so smart somebody's got to have something I can try. And oh, the computer also no longer recognizes the ereader when I plug it in with a usb cord.

04-19-2015, 07:23 PM	#383
arjaybe Wizard Posts: 1,073 Karma: 12500000 Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: Okanagan Device: Sony PRS-650, Kobo Clara	I was hoping for the best because a similar solution worked when my 650 had a similar problem. Oh well.-)

04-19-2015, 08:59 PM	#386
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	6.2 GB free on my end -- I just cleaned out some unnecessary programs. Well, one program that dragged in the full KDE environment as dependencies.

04-21-2015, 10:48 AM	#388
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	shred = secure delete. Yes, you get the space back.

04-21-2015, 08:13 PM	#390
twowheels Wizard Posts: 1,854 Karma: 13432974 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Kobo Clara HD, iPad Pro 10", iPhone 15 Pro, Boox Note Max	DMcCunney is correct, though I'd caution that just because you didn't save it on the hard drive, doesn't mean that it wasn't on your hard drive (as a temporary file saved by the program working with the data or RAM that was swapped to disk). You might want to secure delete your temp folder and secure overwrite all empty space now and then. Also, SSDs change the game a lot because they logically remap the physical space to do wear balancing and overwriting a file in place to do a secure wipe doesn't guarantee that it's actually overwritten. For this reason many SSDs provide a secure wipe mechanism, but they usually (AFAIK) only wipe the entire drive, not just the free space. A periodic wipe of free space by creating a HUGE file that fills all empty space can help with that, BUT most hard drives (both SSD and mechanical) also reserve an area to use as the drive starts detecting errors, remapping bad sectors into the reserve space. Any data that was in the areas marked as bad is potentially still laying around. Again, the reason why drive manufacturers provide a secure wipe functionality for the drive because the internal details of that remapping and bad space are hidden from the operating system -- only the drive knows about it. If you care that much about your data security you MUST use an encrypted filesystem from day one and destroy it when you're done with it.