How to fix boot sectors with a flash boot from ubuntu.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/linux/create-a-bootable-ubuntu-usb-flash-drive-the-easy-way/
Steps I took

Plug in your usb device.
Open the terminal
umount all the usb device stuff (umount /dev/sdc1 /dev/sr1)
cfdisk the usb device (cfdisk /dev/sdc)
delete all partitions. (d)
create a partition, (n) [use the whole device.]
set the type to fat 32 (T 0B)
make sure it is flagged bootable (B)
write and quit fdisk (W)
you will need a File system on the partition (mkfs.vfat /dev/sdc1)
mount the partition to somewhere. (mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb)
open the unetboot program
set the iso image, to a ubunutu install disk image
double check that the setting at the bottom is set to usb device and sdc1 is selected
click next or ok, let it run..
when it gets to the reboot, just quit..
pull the device, and put it in the machine you are attempting to fix

Once the device boots,
choose default or help, then drop into a shell
You should be good.
Go and fix your drives…

Playing with your prompt

Ok, so I’ve made this, because I got tired of ssh’ing into a machine and copy it back over for everytime I got access to a new machine. So here it is my prompt on just about every single nix based machine I use….My prompt.. You may take and use any of this information if you find it useful. I find that the prompt needs some color and other visualization, my Terminal background-color is always black…

Please note that all BLUE text are comments.

fully.qualified.domain_name
Machine Type + Version
username @ hostname (IFace[#] = IP)
[ working dir ]

Preview of my laptop, [iBook G4 w/ 1.5 gig ram. Terminal]

ppcg4.local
Darwin 9.8.0
dscott@ppcg4 ( en0 = 192.168.2.1 en1 = 192.168.2.102 )
[~] $ |

The file that makes the above prompt is located at either ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile; the ~ or tilde is a inbedded shortcut to the $LOGNAME home directory, or /home/username (Unix / Linux) or /Users/username (Darwin).

ppcg4.local
Darwin 9.8.0
dscott@ppcg4 ( en0 = 192.168.2.1 en1 = 192.168.2.102 )
[~] $ cat ~/.profile|

# Set my aliases [ command line shortcuts ]
alias ls=’ls -G’
alias ce=’mcedit –colors editnormal=lightgray,black’
alias grep=’grep –color’
alias mv=’mv -v’
alias cp=’cp -v’
alias rm=’rm -v’

# Add the root/bin directory to my path and add some more stuff
# notice the colon as the separator
export PATH=$PATH:/root/bin:/${HOME}/bin:/opt/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

#
# Use this to mac a Mac terminal look like the colors in a Linux terminal
#export PATH=/sw/bin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/local/pgsql/bin:$HOME/bin:$PATH
export CLICOLOR=1
export LSCOLORS=ExFxCxDxBxegedabagacad

# Taken from the man page.
# LSCOLORS The value of this variable describes what color to use for which attribute when colors are
# enabled with CLICOLOR. This string is a concatenation of pairs of the format fb, where f is the
# foreground color and b is the background color.
#
# The color designators are as follows:
#
# a black
# b red
# c green
# d brown
# e blue
# f magenta
# g cyan
# h light grey
# A bold black, usually shows up as dark grey
# B bold red
# C bold green
# D bold brown, usually shows up as yellow
# E bold blue
# F bold magenta
# G bold cyan
# H bold light grey; looks like bright white
# x default foreground or background

# Have a list of the escape colors to change the color in the prompt.
# all color codes below are preluded with \[\00[
# and postluded with \]
#
# EG. export TEST=’\[\033[1;33m\]TESTING\[\033[0;m\]‘
# yields TESTING
#
#Black 0;30
#Blue 0;34
#Green 0;32
#Cyan 0;36
#Red 0;31
#Purple 0;35
#Brown 0;33
#Light Gray 0;37
#Light Gray 1;30
#Light Blue 1;34
#Light Green 1;32
#Light Cyan 1;36
#Light Red 1;31
#Light Purple 1;35
#Yellow 1;33
#White 1;37

## Default prompt
# export PS1=’\u@\h \w #’

# I added some interface stuff for IP…(got tired of typing ifconfig)

EN[0]=`ifconfig en0 | grep inet | grep -v inet6 | awk ‘{print $2}’ | tr -d “\n”`
EN[1]=`ifconfig en1 | grep inet | grep -v inet6 | awk ‘{print $2}’ | tr -d “\n”`

# the checks to see if we can use them
if [ ! -z "${EN[0]}” ]; then
INET[0]=”en0 = ${EN[0]}”
else
INET[0]=”"
fi

if [ ! -z "${EN[1]}” ]; then
INET[1]=”en1 = ${EN[1]}”
else
INET[1]=”"
fi

# And now put it to work for me… the FQDN will change when connecting to another network.
# the IP doesn’t though….
export PS1=’\n\[\033[1;32m\]$(hostname)\n $(uname -s) $(uname -r)\n\[\033[1;36m\]\u@\h \[\033[1;37m\]( ${INET[0]} ${INET[1]} )\n[\w] \[\033[1;33m\]$ \[\033[0;37m\]‘

# auto complete our ssh command ( tab completion for ssh command.. ssh hos )
complete -W “$(echo `cat ~/.ssh/known_hosts | cut -f 1 -d ‘ ‘ | sed -e s/,.*//g | uniq | grep -v “\[“`;)” ssh
# complete -W “$(echo `cat ~/.ssh/known_hosts | cut -f 1 -d ‘ ‘ | sed -e s/,.*//g | uniq | grep -v “\[“`;)” scp