Miscellaneous

Compression:

To unzip the downloaded file run the command in the Linux terminal

unzip challenge.zip

This gives us an error

We need to use gzip to unzip the file 1st we need to rename the file

mv challenge.zip challenge.zip.gz

Now let’s run the command

gzip -d challenge.zip.gz

This provides us with the new zip file challenge.zip again and again

unzip challenge.zip

Doing ls we get the challenge.tar.gz so use tar to unzip the file using again this three methods we can cat out the flag

tar -xf challenge.tar.zip
gzip -d challenge.zip.gz
unzip challenge.zip

Listing the directory we see flag.txt which we simply cat out it.

Flag: i-CES{ZiP_Un2ip_fr0m_D1ff3r3n7_7yp35}

Envelope:

Unzip the file using the unzip command

unzip Gogogogo.zip

Use the command

tree -a

To list all the files and folders in the challenge directory

By this, we can view every folder and file. While looking at these there is .flag.png which is suspicious and is the first target to view so view it by

open Gogogogo/are_you_sure/home/Think_again/drop-in/nearly/choose/.ices/greatchoice/us/taketheflag/.flag.png

This opens a file viewer

Scan the QR we can get the flag:

i-CES{CoN9r475_Y0u_foUNd_m3}

PDF it is:

Unzip the zip file using

unzip challenge.zip

This gives us a file file.pdf

Let’s view the file type first

file file.pdf

if we open the file we get

So let’s check it using the ExifTool

exiftool file.pdf

The suspicious here is the user comment which seems to be inhex encoded using cyberchef.io

There is another encoded text which looks like base64 but it failed to generate useful output so try other base values where base32 provided a useful value

so the flag is:i-CES{HidD3N_1n_XMp}

Keep it safe:

unzip the file

unzip challenge.zip

while attempting to open the file it provides us with an error

warning: Invalid UTF-8 byte sequences have been replaced.
error: source: error sourcing file '....../private'

So let’s check the header using hexedit tool and search for the file header signatures On the web, find the number 25 as it is at the first. On hit and trail, it was found to be PDF, with 25 and 46 the same in hexedit. check here: https://www.garykessler.net/library/file_sigs.html

hexedit private

Correct the header file to 25 50 44 46 now save using ctrl+x and y now use mv private private.pdf as it was found to be a PDF file. While attempting to open it ask for the password so brute-force it using rockyou.txt

Convert to hash

pdf2john private.pdf > pdf.hash
john pdf.hash --wordlist=/usr/share/wordlist/rockyou.txt

After this use john —show command to view the password

john --show pdf.hash

use the supersecret as password to unlock the pdf which gives us a flag: i-CES{S01v3_7H3_9Uz2l3}

Web

Source Non-Error:

Visit the URL which provides us 404 error.

Now, Right-click and visit View the source code where you get a hint

Using cyber chef:https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/ decode the base64 which provides you with a flag i-CES{404_Fa1lED_t0_TRIck_y0U}

Elon Musk

Read the description properly which said the Tesla bot which leads to think about the robots.txt file for the website. A robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers which URLs the crawler can access on your site. You can also find this using the command

gobuster dir -u 20.244.121.137:7855 -w /usr/share/wordlists/dirb/common.txt

So now visit the nothere.html endpoint which asks us for a password if we look back to the robots.txt then there is another endpoint mentioned which is nothing but the password for nothere.html.

Entering the password we get our flag: i-CES{R0B075_FL4G_H3R3}

Tick Tick Boom

Visit the URL and first view the source code if you can find something useful. Inspect the challenge and visit the console to see anything when running the start challenge

While we START the challenge then there is a hint printed in the console that says call function which capture flag in the console to capture the flag before time runs out! we try every word combined and uncombined to obtain the flag in function format. Or the hint is indirectly saying capture flag function so try it.

captureflag() provide us with the flag: i-CES{t1m3_1s_0f_th3_3ss3nc3}

Logged in

This challenge belongs to seeking the network tab where the number is seen in file section on viewing we can see requests from /github/main/3 so visiting the /github/main/3 endpoint there is a flip game type which shows nothing useful to us.

gain on inspect the network tab there is another endpoint with id 8.

Since there is an ID in the endpoint. So, check for every id from 1 to .. until the flag is obtained. In doing so we can retrieve the flag at the id 15 that is /github/main/15

Which has a flag in JSON format and is encoded with base64.

Decoding the base64 we get our flag: i-CES{yoU8_$3CRE7_F1@6_15_H3r3}

OSINT

Byte:

0xzerobyte is no-one but me. If you visit my LinkedIn linkedin/in/giriamrit or search in Google then you can see my blog post. Visit any of the blogs and go to the home page. There you can find the Techparva 3.0 blog.

Check TechParva3.0. and find the flag

So there you can see: i-CES{0P3N_50urC3_In73ll1g3nCe} which is the real flag.

Penguin

At the top right of the image there is a human leg so guess is made for the zoo as the flag format has reg_no in it. So search for the live webcam zoo. Check each link and check the penguin cam.

Bravo, got the place dublinzoo now find the registration number which can be found while scrolling down the page, 207824

Let’s keep this in flag format we get: i-CES{dublinzoo_reg_207824}

Cryptography

Brother

The provided image is alien code which can be decoded from https://www.dcode.fr/alien-language visit and enter each term you see in the image.

flag: i-CES{ALIENSARESOON_COMINGTOTAKEYOU}

Rescue me:

unzip the file unzip challenge.zip

use cat to view the file.

 cat flag    

aS1DRVM=

粄簿类籪籟籸籨籢簹

0x555f317535375f

01000100 01100101 01100011 00110000

25ApIrerTJ

Use cyberchef to cook this encoded text.

1st one is base64

2nd one is ROT8000 which is found by brute force ROT

3rd text is hex as we can see starting from 0x

4th is binary

5th is base62 on brute force

flag: i-CES{6raVo_Y0U_1u57_Dec0d3d_m3}

Mereko pata nahi:

unzip and cat out the challenge.zip we get

lllr%25w%2Bv%25r%7Dv%26%2A%7Czsz%23vtr%23tvz%22xudtwzqxvt%7Du%7Bsz%27xubxuur%23z%26%2B%2Av%27q%23%24%25%27txs%24%7C%7Cur%27z%21%24%7Dr%26wuw%26%24%7Bxt%24%2Az%0D%0A

This is URL-encoded text so let’s decode from the URL decoder we get

lllr%w+v%r}v&*|zsz#vtr#tvz"xudtwzqxvt}u{sz'xubxuur#z&+*v'q#$%'txs$||ur'z!$}r&wuw&${xt$*z

Now here is just a guess as of now the most famous encoding technique is rot47 so let’s decode using rot47 and reverse the output

This looks more like base encoded so let’s try and use the base decoding technique and receive the flag

flag: i-CES{muLt1Pl3_eNC0diN6_dOe5N0T_mean_54fE}

Impure:

Unzip the file unzip challenge.zip

cat out both the files we see flag has hashes and words has some of the possible passwords. On using hascat our john it is unable to crack the hash so we have to munge the given words for that let’s search for the code that helps to munge the words. On search we can find the https://github.com/Th3S3cr3tAg3nt/Munge which has Python code to make given words a list so let munge the given words file.

Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/Th3S3cr3tAg3nt/Munge
python3 Munge/munge.py -l 9 -i words -o munged.txt

now use John to crash the hash

john flag --wordlist=munged.txt 
john --show flag

so the flag: i-CES{techparva3:P@$ch!m@nch@18}

Forensics

Hijack:

use https://morsecodemagic.com/morse-code-audio-decoder/

flag: i-CES{M0RSE_COD3_F0R_H1J4CK1N9_UN1V3R517Y_9U35T1ONS}

Developers Madness:

unzip the challenge.zip file unzip challenge.zip then ls -la to see all the hidden files as this is the .git challenge

Let’s check the branch

git branch

there is a secret-branch move to that branch before using git

git checkout secret-branch
git log --oneline

Moving from the bottom let’s decode this

git show 26d90e1
commit 26d90e1ff9f20a93b8db87b368eb7b601b0f8f78
Author: amritgiri <amritgiri5813@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 4 12:30:18 2025 +0545

    0x74 0x68 0x69 0x73 0x20 0x69 0x73 0x20 0x73 0x75 0x73 0x70 0x65 0x63 0x69 0x6f 0x75 0x73

diff --git a/solve.py b/solve.py
index f97f7ea..7a03f67 100644
--- a/solve.py
+++ b/solve.py
@@ -7,9 +7,9 @@ def generate_random_flag():
     # Encode the random bytes in Base64 format
     base64_flag = base64.b64encode(random_bytes).decode('utf-8')
     # Format the flag
-    flag = f"FLAG{{{base64_flag}}}"
+    flag = f"i-CES{{{base64_flag}}}"
     return flag

 if __name__ == "__main__":
     random_flag = generate_random_flag()
-    print(f"Flag: i-CES{random_flag}")
+    print(f"Flag: {random_flag}")

let’s see the second one

└─$ git show 0180277                                 
commit 0180277dceedd1020340a9e7217152ec8d7dbcc7
Author: amritgiri <amritgiri5813@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 4 12:43:28 2025 +0545

    ZmluZCBtZSBoZXJl=

diff --git a/.0xzerobyte b/.0xzerobyte
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..46b0bf0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.0xzerobyte
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+FDDVM8-OAD3D1WEEB6E2C669.2C-96IN802C04E32C007B6A-1ADA6Z2

The text FDDVM8-OAD3D1WEEB6E2C669.2C-96IN802C04E32C007B6A-1ADA6Z2 looks normal but it is not so let’s find out what is this starting from the base models. Seems to be base45

There is the flag: i-CES{git_1s_THE_p14Ce_For_I7_P3Op1E}

Binary

Sigma:

Unzip the file unzip challenge.zip

use ghidra import the Sigma and analyze it

In the window tab there is Define strings option click on that

You can see the highlight on a visit there by clicking and closing the right tab and use CTRL+c to view the decompiled C program

Here we can see the hex number now let’s decode this

we get 5362 which is the key to unlocking the flag

i-CES{Y0u_h4vE_6reat_516m4_CON6R4T5}

Notagain:

Unzip and run the notagain. If it is not running then change the mode to make it executable.

chmod 777 notagain 
./notagain

If you look at this carefully there is given what you have to input i.e.5MnOpQr6 on calculation this consists of 8 characters and its ASCII sum is 600 so paste to the input field we get the answer.

flag: i-CES{k3Y_Ma7CHED_SuccE5sFu11Y}

Titanic:

This challenge is similar to the Sigma challenge

let us make it executable

chmod 777 boatrescue

Don’t get confused as the string boatrescue provided flag is not correct

Use ghdira to retrieve the real flag

use these to decode the hex we get 33700 which provides us flag: i-CES{9UE5S3d_C0Ns74Nt_H4SH3d_NUm63R}

Steganography

Fire:

We can use steghide command to extract the metadata in the file

Enter passphrase is empty you can directly press enter to get the metadata.

on cat it provides random text so we need to string out the output text

strings steganopayload29731.txt

This still gives us many values so let’s filter them

strings stegnopatload29731.txt | grep {*}

we get our flag where grep {*} Search for { and } pattern.

Add i-CES in front and the flag is complete.

i-CES{f1NA11y_IM_free3e_THaNK5}

Monkey:

Check the file type of monkey.jpg. Use steghide command to extract first without a password.

unzip the heheboi.zip file which provides us with folder files in which one of them is a flag so instead of decoding we will write a simple script

Create a script named sol.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Function to check if a string is valid Base64
is_base64() {
    echo "$1" | base64 --decode 2>/dev/null | grep -q -P '^\S+$'
}

# Loop through all files in the "files" directory
for file in files/*; do
    # Check if it's a regular file
    if [ -f "$file" ]; then
        echo "==== Decoding: $file ===="
        content=$(cat "$file")

        # Check if the content is valid Base64
        if is_base64 "$content"; then
            echo "$content" | base64 -d
        else
            echo "Skipping: $file (Invalid Base64 data)"
        fi

        echo -e "\n==========\n"
    else
        echo "Skipping: $file (Not a regular file)"
    fi
done

Save the file and change the mode to executable for now let’s use 777

chmod 777 sol.sh
./sol.sh

This will give all the output without filtering so let’s use grep to get the desired output

./sol.sh | grep -a 'i-CES' --color=none

flag: i-CES{D1D_Y0U_11kE_y0UR_1m49E}

CID:

The file type is shown jpeg and when steghide is used it does not open without a passphrase so check if the exiftool has the pass to treasure

Here exiftool has exciting file License which is seen to be a hex let’s try to decode it which yields the output FoRY0U7h@T5h3X

paste the password to the passphrase we get out metadata in zip file lets extract

└─$ unzip daya_pata_laga.zip 
Archive:  daya_pata_laga.zip
 extracting: badeharamiho.zip        
  inflating: waitaminute

So now we have two files waitaminute has a binary file which on decoding we get

Paste the output in the mousepad and find for the term pass

We get Thisisfakeoneword let's save this data if we need this

using theunzip command asked for the password so provide Thisisfakeoneword as the password that will unzip the file

Viewing this each flag has a different type of encoded text so there must be a hint to find it which was the passphrase FoRY0U7h@T5h3X This said For You Thats hex so let’s search for the hex.

For this, we will write a script

#!/bin/bash

for i in {0..18}; do
    file="flag$i.txt"

    # Check if the file exists
    if [ ! -f "$file" ]; then
        echo "File $file does not exist!"
        continue
    fi

    # Check if the content of the file is valid hexadecimal
    if grep -q '^[0-9a-fA-F]*$' "$file"; then
        echo "$file is encoded in hexadecimal."
    else
        echo "$file is not hexadecimal."
    fi
done

On executing this hex.sh file after chmod 777 hex.sh we can find which has hex and which does not

decode each hexadecimal file.

 mv flag0.txt flag2.txt flag7.txt flag8.txt flag13.txt flag15.txt flag18.txt ./hexfiles

using this command to separate the hex files

Decoding each we found base32 encoded in flag18

While baking we found that this was encoded multiple times after hex base32 base64 morse code base32 hex

Which yields the flag: i-CES{StE9ANo9R4Phy_3NC0d3_anD_dEc0dE}

Conclusion

Hope you enjoy reading the above writeups. Feel free to provide feedback.

Let us look into the GRUB configuration first.

GRUB configuration

To fix your GRUB configuration by booting into a live USB environment, follow these steps:

1. Create a Bootable USB:

   First, you’ll need a bootable USB drive with a Linux distribution. You can use tools like Rufus (on Windows) or dd (on Linux) to create this.

   Rufus is simply a GUI which can be used to make USB bootable.

   dd is used in a shell in a Linux system with the command line of

   sudo dd if=path/to/file.iso of=/dev/<device-name> bs=1M status=progress

2. Boot from USB

   Insert the USB drive into your computer and boot from it entering the BIOS setup or using the boot menu. The menu is often accessed by pressing keys like F2, F10, F12, ESC during boot which is dependent upon the vendor.

3. Open a Terminal

   Once you’ve booted into the live environment as a guest, then fire up the terminal to perform the remaining steps.

4. Identify Partitions

   Identify the partitions of your installed Linux system. You can use the GUI gparted which can be installed using the command sudo apt install gparted or can be used lsblk or fdisk -l command to list the partitions. Look for your root partition and your EFI or boot partition (if applicable).

5. Mount the Partitions

   Mount the necessary partitions. You’ll need to mount the root partition and the EFI/boot partition(if applicable).

   Let us assume /dev/sda2 is your root partition and /dev/sda1 is your EFI/boot partition then we can use the following command to mount:

   sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi #only if you have EFI file

   sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

6. Bind Mount System Directories

   Bind mount the necessary system directories. The bind option of the mount command allows you to remount part of a file hierarchy at a different location while it is still available at the original location.

   sudo mount —bind /dev /mnt/dev

   sudo mount —bind /proc /mnt/proc

   sudo mount —bind /sys /mnt/sys

   sudo mount —bind /run /mnt/run

7. Chroot into Mounted System

   Change root into the mounted system:

   sudo chroot /mnt

8. Edit GRUB Configuration

   Now, you can edit the GRUB configuration file. Open the GRUB configuration file located /etc/default/grub using any text editor, such as nvim, vim, nano or any other editor.

   using nano: nano /etc/default/grub

   using vim: vim /etc/default/grub

   Find the line that sets the GRUB timeout and change it. For example, change

   GRUB_TIMEOUT=0 to GRUB_TIMEOUT=10.

   Save the file and exit the editor (in nano, you can save by pressing CTRL+O, to exit CTRL+X; in vim or nvim press esc and then type :wq which will save and exit.

9. Update GRUB

   To apply the changes you made just runt the command

   update-grub

10. Exit Chroot and Umount Partitions

    Exit the Chroot environment and unmount the partitions

    exit

    sudo umount /mnt/boot/efi

    sudo umount /mnt/dev

    sudo umount /mnt/proc

    sudo umount /mnt/sys

    sudo umount /mnt/run

    sudo umount /mnt

11. Reboot

    Finally, reboot your system

    sudo reboot

Remove the USB drive and let your system boot normally. The GRUB menu should now appear with the updated timeout value. By these steps, you should be able to edit your GRUB configuration and fix the issue with the boot menu not showing.

Update error system not rebooting

For this case, Follow the above steps up to 7 then run

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

using the above command you can be able to recover your system.

If the system still through the error then follow the steps:

1. Connect to internet

   Make sure your PC is connected to the internet either by ethernet or wireless.

2. Manually Download the deb files

   When running the command sudo apt update or sudo apt upgrade when there is any error like suppose libglibd-2.0-0. If so, then visit the link https://packages.debian.org/stable/libs/libglibd-2.0-0 from where depending upon your system you have to download manually and install using dpkg.

   Repeat the process until update or upgrade stops throwing errors. After the success of update and upgrade move to next step.

3. Reboot

   After the success in update and upgrade of the system reboot the system and remove USB and let your system boot normally.

Whether it's editing the GRUB timeout, addressing boot menu visibility, or recovering from update errors, these methods provide a reliable way to troubleshoot common issues. If you continue to encounter problems, make sure to check for specific error messages, consult the community for guidance and do proper research before you apply. By applying the above methods, the problem within my system was solved.

PUB-SUB: It is known as the publish-subscribe pattern, which is a messaging pattern where publishers categorize messages into classes that are received by subscribers.

NTFY is a powerful open-source notification tool that can be self-hosted. Suppose a scenario where you are downloading a large file using wget and have to do other work leaving your desktop, but you want to get notified when the task is complete then NTFY comes in handy to use.

Steps to install NTFY

Let's start with the Desktop setup

• Let us set it without using docker

$ wget https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/releases/download/v2.11.0/ntfy_2.11.0_linux_amd64.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i ntfy_*.deb
$ sudo systemctl start ntfy

• If you want to enable ntfy on the start of OS then use the following command.

$ sudo systemctl enable ntfy

• If you are using another OS then visit the link: https://docs.ntfy.sh/install/

Using docker

• The ntfy image is available for amd64, armv6, armv7 and arm64.

• with persistent cache

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install docker.io -y

• After you install docker to host from a VPN or home network and get notified about the task you need to configure a file. Copy the code from the link: https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/blob/main/server/server.yml then paste it on server.yml

$ sudo nano /etc/ntfy/server.yml

• Now search and change the following code

# Go to the top of the code and uncomment base-url and set the url
# for example
base-url : http/https://your ip address to the internet
# For ISO search for `upstream` in code and uncomment
# In nano press ctrl+w to search
upstream-base-url: "https://ntfy.sh"
# If you use twilio for phone call then find the twilio in the code and give the credential

• Save the changes and run the docker container

$ sudo docker run -v /var/cache/ntfy:/var/cache/ntfy -v /etc/ntfy:/etc/ntfy -p 80:80 -itd binwiederhier/ntfy serve --cache-file /var/cache/ntfy/cache.db

In Mobile

• Download the NTFY app from the Play Store, F-droid or App Store.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.heckel.ntfy

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/io.heckel.ntfy/

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ntfy/id1625396347

• Go to the settings section of the app and Change the default server to the IP address of the base-url that you set early in server.yml

• Then go to the notification section click on the plus icon and subscribe to a channel named by yourself that should be unique.

Test to push notification

• Open the terminal and test by using the following command

$ curl -d "Test" (ip-address that you specify in base-url)/channel that you named

For example:

ip-address = 10.23.103.2 and

subscribed channel = ntfytestnotification, then the command will be

$ curl -d "Test" 10.23.103.2/ntfytestnotification

This should work on iOS and Android devices.

using this you can leave your task and at the end, you can write the above command followed by && as shown in the following example

E.g.

$ ping 192.168.1.1 -c 3 && curl -d "Host is up" 10.23.103.2/ntfytestnotification || curl -d "Host is down" 10.23.103.2/ntfytestnotification

In this above example, 192.168.1.1 is pinged 3 times and

if it gets the response then it will push a notification with the Host is up message

else it will push a notification with the Host is down message.

Check the documentation of NTFY by following this link https://docs.ntfy.sh/ where you can do a bunch of things. Here in this blog, I have mentioned only the installation process.

Recently, I got into a problem when I blocked an upgrade in the middle and went on to solve other problems shutting down the laptop. The next morning, when I tried to browse the internet was not working even though I was connected to my home wifi. I searched on my phone for the solution and found this one which worked for me.

So, This blog is about how I solved the internet problem in my Linux system.

Resolv.conf file

The resolv.conf file is located in the '/etc' folder in the Linux system, which configures hostname resolution. It is commonly used to manage the DNS requests on Linux systems.

Solution

Let us dive into the solution that made my system network work.

Let us first run the command to ping the web services

$ ping google.com

This means that it is unable to locate the IP address of google.com so let us try by pinging google through its IP

$ ping 8.8.8.8

This means your device's internet is working when IP is provided. To solve the issue let us run the following command

$ sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf

Add the following line and save the file.

nameserver 8.8.8.8

To exit from nano type ctrl+x , y , enter

Now, Let us again ping google.com

$ ping google.com

now it can get a response

Now you have to run the command for update and upgrade. Finally, restart your system.

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt full-upgrade -y
$ sudo reboot

By following every step, the problem is solved. The above-mentioned steps are the exact steps that I followed to solve my problem. Hope this is helpful for you.

Introduction

If you are using a Linux operating system and want to install WordPress in your system, then you are in the right place. You have to follow the following mentioned steps without skipping any of them.

Here the steps that I mentioned have been run by myself in my operating system which is Kali Linux.

Installation of Xampp

You can download the Xampp from https://www.apachefriends.org/download.html where you will download Xampp for Linux. Ensure you download the one which is at the top i.e. 8.0.30 in this case.

After the download process ends open your terminal and navigate to the Downloads section

$ cd Downloads

Check the file permission using command

$ ls -l

If there is rwxr--r-- then run the following command to make the file executable.

$ chmod -x xampp-linux-x64-8.0.30-0-installer.run

now you can execute the file by running the command

$ sudo ./xampp-linux-x64-8.0.30-0-installer.run

Click on next and install the Xampp which will be installed in /opt folder

After the completion of Xampp, you can run Xampp either by navigating to /opt/lampp folder and executing

(/opt/lampp)$ sudo ./manager-linux-x64.run

or

$ sudo /opt/lampp/manager-linux-x64.run

Then a window will open

Here go to Manage Servers and click on Start All

Installation of WordPress

visit the website https://wordpress.org/ where you will find the Get WordPress button when click leads you to this page.

Click on the Download WordPress button.

Now again open your terminal and go to the Downloads folder.

$ cd Downloads

Now unzip the WordPress downloaded file using the command

$ unzip  wordpress-6.4.2.zip

An unzipped folder named wordpress will be created in your Downloads folder which you can check by running the ls command

$ ls -l | grep "wordpress"

the d in the very front represent folder.

The most important task after installation of WordPress

Move the folder 'wordpress' to /opt/lampp/htdocs by using the following command

$ sudo mv ~/Downloads/wordpress /opt/lampp/htdocs

Running localhost

After you follow the above process fire up the browser and type

localhost/dashboard/

this will open the Xampp dashboard

localhost/phpmyadmin/

This will take you to manage the database where you set the database

For example, if I have given the database name wordpress and click on the create button, the database named wordpress will be created. It is similar to creating the database in MySQL with command

$ sudo mysql -u root
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 31
Server version: 10.11.6-MariaDB-1 Debian n/a

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE wordpress;

now in the new tab open localhost/wordpress/

this will take you to the congifure page

Here give the database name you just created

username as root

leave the password blank if you haven't created a password to access the database

then press the submit button which leads you to another page.

If you haven't set wp-config.php then you have to create a wp-config.php file in /opt/lampp/htdocs/wordpress

run command

()-[/opt/lampp/htdocs/wordpress]$ sudo vim wp-config.php

Then paste the code provided on that page

<?php
/**
 * The base configuration for WordPress
 *
 * The wp-config.php creation script uses this file during the installation.
 * You don't have to use the web site, you can copy this file to "wp-config.php"
 * and fill in the values.
 *
 * This file contains the following configurations:
 *
 * * Database settings
 * * Secret keys
 * * Database table prefix
 * * ABSPATH
 *
 * @link https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/editing-wp-config-php/
 *
 * @package WordPress
 */

// ** Database settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define( 'DB_NAME', 'wordpress' );

/** Database username */
define( 'DB_USER', 'root' );

/** Database password */
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', '' );

/** Database hostname */
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );

/** Database charset to use in creating database tables. */
define( 'DB_CHARSET', 'utf8mb4' );

/** The database collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */
define( 'DB_COLLATE', '' );

/**#@+
 * Authentication unique keys and salts.
 *
 * Change these to different unique phrases! You can generate these using
 * the {@link https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ WordPress.org secret-key service}.
 *
 * You can change these at any point in time to invalidate all existing cookies.
 * This will force all users to have to log in again.
 *
 * @since 2.6.0
 */
define( 'AUTH_KEY',         'PX[EStJu6(l{yW%]JMydXOIn|*.Ur^~(-e){aUz~MV9=ja&F8FPN`b-GlvghuzgG' );
define( 'SECURE_AUTH_KEY',  '#nO>CX+`,Iqn-Zw=]&G5[_S>H+ al+Ue]dlcA-AC[f!*|14(T| eL&#CE!ajDh5G' );
define( 'LOGGED_IN_KEY',    'CjFl8hEMP0C>;YTqGEs[i05A/D&o)2}N30Kv_<|_Y]rai<s8,XE@)NZXYx@B!TV.' );
define( 'NONCE_KEY',        ':MLiUY/y7htyM5,*~=EKj8U+FMwT}(-<XF5RwsW.PO(u[VrBhETMb/UTSL+V.`=C' );
define( 'AUTH_SALT',        'Z$n-O(~h7^sROApp1V4k.m4Y$Z<GPF,p5t!jcA0C&wbdMyf}]1v%7)|j/2CJG:z~' );
define( 'SECURE_AUTH_SALT', 'bCex<` 2_KL`3uYZ[ ,6}dGC!hgRIQ`:=e;z[ZrqJstU,X~v[53_~!pUKt~zl/Wb' );
define( 'LOGGED_IN_SALT',   'dY9Z_v%+I0)NZW!Xe%-~n`,S+)WMCPTgNX]Rahcjirj2~XLv[pf?F~=_w*xSaM8.' );
define( 'NONCE_SALT',       'K:<s.:rL3T/SKg53UL_}T)6G.8(V9h2MW,A33AVi_e)(1:sQr;d[$`EUPBQhSO>/' );

/**#@-*/

/**
 * WordPress database table prefix.
 *
 * You can have multiple installations in one database if you give each
 * a unique prefix. Only numbers, letters, and underscores please!
 */
$table_prefix = 'wp_';

/**
 * For developers: WordPress debugging mode.
 *
 * Change this to true to enable the display of notices during development.
 * It is strongly recommended that plugin and theme developers use WP_DEBUG
 * in their development environments.
 *
 * For information on other constants that can be used for debugging,
 * visit the documentation.
 *
 * @link https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/debugging-in-wordpress/
 */
define( 'WP_DEBUG', false );

/* Add any custom values between this line and the "stop editing" line. */



/* That's all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */

/** Absolute path to the WordPress directory. */
if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) {
    define( 'ABSPATH', __DIR__ . '/' );
}

/** Sets up WordPress vars and included files. */
require_once ABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php';

To exit from vim type ':wq'

Now on next page give your site title, username, password, and email for backup and then press on run installation and you will see the login page

Enter your username and password created after login you will see a WordPress dashboard and now you can start building websites.

INSTALLED_APP is a list of strings that appoint/choose all the applications enabled in Django installation used to configure applications.

When we create an application using the command line

$ django-admin startapp nameofapp

Then the name of that app must be included in INSTALLED_APPS to include that application in our project else the application where we write our code will not run.

NOTE

• The application name must be unique. There is no way of including the same application twice.

• The application label - by default the final part of the name -- must be unique. "The label allows relabeling an application when two applications have conflicting labels. It should be a valid Python identifier."

I was a Windows user right from the start until I switched to Linux. I hadn't used any other OS before. I was using Windows until a few years back. I first used Linux in VMware, and it was not GUI-friendly. Getting that out of my mind I used Kali for a couple of months then I used Kali as my main OS removing windows completely. After that I found a difference in battery life support, speed and efficiency of the OS.

Here is a short background of Linux OS.

Linux

Linux stands for Lovable Intellect Not Using XP which was built by and named after Linus Torvalds in 1991. Linux is a Unix-like, Open source and community-developed operating system(OS) for computers, servers, mainframes, mobile devices and embedded devices.

Distribution of Linux

Popular Linux distributions include Debian, Fedora Linux, Arch Linux and Ubuntu. Commercial distributions include Red Hat and SUSE Linux Enterprise. Linux was originally developed for personal computers based on the Intel x86 architecture but has since been ported to more platforms than any other operating system.[1]

User Interface

The user interface is either a command-line interface(CLI), a graphical user interface(GUI), or controls attached to the associated hardware (Embedded Systems). CLI shells are text-based user interfaces, which use text for both input and output. GUI shells, packaged together with extensive desktop environments, such as KDE, Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, MATE, Cinnamon, LXDE and Pantheon, though a variety of additional user interfaces exist.

I used GNOME to customize my desktop and I am still using it.

Advantages of Linux

1. Open-source Software

   Linux is available for everyone to contribute, modify and enhance the source code. With no restrictions on how you use the software.

2. Security

   Linux is not completely safe but is less vulnerable and more secure. Each application needs to be authorised by the admin user. It is also highly customizable, which means that users can modify the source code to meet their specific security needs.

3. Free

   The biggest advantage of the Linux system is that it is free to use. We can easily download it, and there is no need to buy the license for it.

4. Lightweight

   The requirements for running Linux are much less than other operating systems. In Linux, the memory footprint and disk space are also lower.

5. Software Updates

   Software Updates in Linux are in the User's control. The system cannot force the user to update and automatically update. The user needs to run a command in the terminal to update their software.

6. Community Support

   If you ever get stuck anytime when working with Linux you can find support from various sources. There are many forums available on the web to assist users.

7. Networking

   Linux facilitates powerful support for networking. The client-server systems can be easily set to a Linux system. It provides various command-line tools such as ssh, ip, mail, telnet, ssl, netstat and more for connectivity with the other systems and servers. Tasks such as network backup are much faster than others.

Many other advantages can be found on web search.

Looking at these advantages and my own experience I preferred Linux OS. It has an open-source nature, robust security features and vast customizable options, strong community support and constant updates. Every operating system has its merits, for me, Linux stands out as the optimal choice.

References

[1] Barry Levine(August 26, 2013)."Linux' 22nd [sic]Birthday Is Commemorated - Subtly - by Creator". Simpler Media Group, Inc. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved May 10, 2015. "Originally developed for Intel x86-based PCs, Torvalds' "hobby" has now been released for more hardware platforms than any other OS in history."