Neil's Open Source & Linux Blog

Minecraft on Ubuntu; Finding and fixing errors

2011-12-27T13:20:00.000-08:00

Now that Minecraft is outta beta, at version 1.0.0, it's time to get it running on Ubuntu with all the mods. The standard 1.0 version runs fine in Ubuntu 11.10, but I'm having some trouble with ModLoader, and therefore all the mods that in turn depend on ModLoader.

My first task is to run Minecraft without any errors. To start I installed and ran Minecraft on Ubuntu using Alloc's Easy Minecraft Installer. This creates a handy desktop icon on the account I used to run the install script. Of course, using this icon precludes seeing any error output from the program. Once you've installed Minecraft using the script, you can copy the icon file to any other desktop directory, and then update the command line with the name of the new home directory. Then, set the properties of the shortcut file to "executable"

To review the error output, I open Terminal and paste in the command:

java -jar /home/[myhomedir]/.minecraft/minecraft.jar

where [myhomedir] is the name of my home directory.

Or, you can use the tilde ("~"):

java -jar ~/.minecraft/minecraft.jar

This works in Terminal, but not in the destop icon command field.

My first error is:

GL ERROR Pre render 1281: Invalid value

To resolve this error, in ~/.minecraft/options.txt, I set advancedOpengl:true (this was originally false)

Now I get:

Loading: net.java.games.input.LinuxEnvironmentPlugin
Failed to open device (/dev/input/event3): Failed to open device /dev/input/event3 (13)

...

down to

/dev/input/event0

The fix for this, from the World of Minecraft support forum, is the following Terminal command:

sudo chmod go=u /dev/input/event*

This worked; I now see:

Loading: net.java.games.input.LinuxEnvironmentPlugin
Linux plugin claims to have found 4 controllers

So, no errors!

Area51 is ill, won't boot Windows or Ubuntu

2011-05-25T12:51:00.001-07:00

Area51 won't boot up correctly, and the behavior is quite odd. I was able to boot off of my handy Ubuntu 10.10 disk, however, which rules out most problems with the motherboard, RAM, video, networking -- it looks like there's some problem reading the hard drive. I want to do some troubleshooting on the hard disk partitions, since that seems to be the most likely source of the problems. This is right after I ran that disk utility, but the computer booted since then. Fortunately, since I can get onto the Internet, I can log my work right here on this blog. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Connect to a Mac OS X Screen Sharing Client with Ubuntu's Remote Desktop Viewer

2010-05-20T07:23:00.000-07:00

On my Apple blog I describe how to connect to Mac OS X computers with Ubuntu's Remote Desktop Viewer. Ubuntu's

Remote Desktop Viewer (Applications : Internet : Remote Desktop Viewer) is really Vinagre, A VNC Client for the GNOME Desktop. This VNC client supports connections to Mac OS X using the Mac's Screen Sharing service, Apple's built-in implementation of the VNC server protocol.

The post includes step-by-step instructions on how to configure the Mac Screen Sharing server, and how to establish a connection with Ubuntu's Remote Desktop Viewer.

Webmin on CentOS

2010-03-27T10:33:00.001-07:00

We use CentOS for our web servers, and favor Webmin as a way to administer our servers. To install Webmin via yum on CentOS, follow these steps as root or sudo, from the command line (via SSH or at the console). These steps will also work for RedHat servers.

Configure the Webmin repository and install

Webmin is not available via yum in the default CentOS repository. Follow these steps to add the Webmin repository (repo) from Webmin.com.

Create and edit the repository file # nano /etc/yum.repos.d/webmin.repo
Add the [Webmin] section (listed below) to the new repository file
Save the new file
Import the public key: # rpm --import http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc
Install webmin: # yum install webmin

Open the Firewall

If your server is protected by a firewall, you won't be able to access Webmin until you open port 10000. Use these steps on CentOS

Backup the current firewall settings: # cp /etc/sysconfig/iptables /etc/sysconfig/iptables.bak
Install the Red Hat firewall configuration tool # yum install system-config-securitylevel
Run the firewall tool: system-config-securitylevel
Select _Security Level:_ *Enabled*
Click [Customize]
Check incoming ports to allow (probably SSH, WWW, Secure WWW, and FTP)
_Other Ports_ 10000:tcp
Click [OK]

This will save your new settings and reload the firewall. You won't have to use this command line firewall tool again, as now you can use Webmin to configure the firewall.

Test Webmin

Now that you've installed Webmin and opened the Webmin port, test it out. Open your favorite brower and type your server's IP address followed by :10000, like this:

168.192.1.1:10000

The Webmin login screen should appear. Log in with your root credentials. It's a good idea to set up another Webmin user so you don't have to use your root credentials

Webmin repo section

[Webmin]
name=Webmin Distribution Neutral
baseurl=http://download.webmin.com/download/yum
enabled=1

Damn Small Linux (DSL)

2010-02-20T21:20:00.001-08:00

I'm trying to help my friend fix his Dell OptiPlex GX400, which is running Windows XP Home, and is probably owned. It only has 128 MB of RAM, and it turns out this particular model uses expensive 128MB PC-800 Rambus RIMM for Dell RAM Memory. So, it doesn't make sense to buy a chip, really, and none of my spares will probably fit.

Instead of throwing hardware at the problem, I looked at Damn Small Linux (DSL information) To burn a CD of Damn Small Linux, Download the ISO and then burin it to a CD, in Windows, with InfraRecorder (GPL).

DSL is based on Knoppix, but is stripped down to a bare bones set of Debian packages. As promised, booting DS from the CD transformed the slow, almost unusable computer into a speed demon. Plus, DSL shows system resource use right on the desktop, and we could see that it was hardly using any RAM -- less than 20% of 128 MB.

Now all we have to do is figure out a way to save the configuration, and configure networking.

Perl & PHP Shell Scripts

2009-10-15T13:25:00.000-07:00

Writing scripts in bash is lame. I'm not the only one who thinks so: Shell Script Language – Use Perl, Not Bash | LinDesk

From the post:

Advantages of using a Shell Language

Its supported in even the tinest linux distros – even in embedded systems.
Its the method preferred by the majority – I hope this will change soon.
Command calls look more natural in a shell language.

Advantages of using a High Level Language

Better Code
Easy to maintain
Faster development
Libraries provide a lot of functionality
Easier to port to different platforms.

PHP Shell Scripting

Want to get busy slinging code? Start here:

Linux Virtualization

2009-10-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

It's time to move our servers to a virtualized platform. Info here:

Linux Virtualization Wiki - TechComparison

Xen

Welcome to xen.org, home of the Xen® hypervisor, the powerful open source industry standard for virtualization.

Citrix Systems » Products » -- XenServer » XenServer

Citrix Systems » XenServer Requirements and Specifications

CentOS 5 Virtualization Guide - Virtualization Guide

Xen virtualization platform providers | Top 10 Dedicated Server Hosting Reviews, News and Articles

Essential Firefox Add-Ons For the Cloud

2009-02-21T12:27:00.001-08:00

If you don't want to be tied down to a desktop, you need direct access to your computer in the cloud. Since Firefox runs just about everywhere, it's a good place to start to set up a reliable way to access your accounts.

Blog & Social

Delicious Bookmarks is the recommended and official Firefox add-on for Delicious, the world's leading social bookmarking service (formerly del.icio.us). It integrates your bookmarks and tags with Firefox and keeps them in sync for easy, convenient access. Syncing slows down startup, though. ScribeFire Blog Editor is a blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog. They've also integrated their affiliate Quick Ads advertising program, which I haven't tried.

Ubuntu on the Asus EEE NetBook

2009-01-11T06:42:00.000-08:00

MaximumPC published a very detailed article that describes how to install Ubuntu on your favorite NetBook: How To: Become a Linux Netbook Power User. Also useful: Ars Technica's How to: Installing and running Ubuntu on the Eee PC.

Freemind Update

2008-09-16T22:53:00.000-07:00

I wrote last year about a great open source brainstorming and mind mapping tool, Freemind 0.8.0 - Java Mind Map software, but I was concerned that the program hadn’t seen a significant update in several years. Well, it’s just been updated this year to 0.8.1, and you can download it from SourceForge.net: FreeMind. Version 0.9.0 is still an unstable beta.

Acer bets big on Linux

2008-06-05T08:33:00.000-07:00

As the cost of Windows becomes a larger and larger portion of the cost of computer hardware, more vendors are going to look at Linux as a viable alternative. Acer is already selling Linux on its low cost ultra-portables, but will expand Linux options to notebooks this year.

Another interesting advantage of Linux for hardware manufacturers: because it's open, they can customize it for their specific hardware models and the differing requirements of laptops or Media PCs. According to the article, using Linux helps them "extend battery life from five to seven hours."

This means that hardware manufacturers could build special hardware features into their boxes and then not only write the drivers to support the hardware, but also modify any aspect of the operating system to better support the new features. That's an appealing option to companies that are currently competing primarily on price.

Hardy 8.04 & OSS4 (Alternative to ALSA)

2008-06-04T17:25:00.000-07:00

It looks like the best way to get my Creative X-Fi card to work in Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 is to install OSS4.

Bash with Style

2008-04-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

When you decide it’s time to start writing bash scripts with some style, start at the Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide by Mendel Cooper. It’s available as a PDF, or a tarball download, too.

Joomla 1.5 Directory Status: Writeable

2008-03-17T23:47:00.000-07:00

[UPDATED] Joomla 1.5 is acting flaky on one of our installations because the directories are set to ‘unwriteable’. To see the their current state, log in as Super Administrator and go to Help > System Info > Directory Permissions. Elsewhere, it's been suggested that the specified directories must be set to “world-writeable” (777). This works, but it is a very bad idea, since it means anyone can change your files! Not cool. Fixing Security with User and Group Settings To perform these changes, you need shell (command line) access to your server. If you don't have it, you can beg your host to make these changes for you, or switch to a Joomla-friendly host. I'm going to assume that you are using a LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) server because if you're not, then ... well, these instructions should work in principle, but the specifics for your server may be quite different.

Here's the issue: you, the FTP user, need full access to your files. So does Joomla, which accesses your files through the web server. Now, most web server configurations don't assign the web server to the group that's automatically assigned to your FTP files. If the web server isn't in the group that has write access to your files, then you have to give everyone write access to your files -- that's not good.

So, we are going to add the web server to the group that is automatically assigned to files that you, as an FTP user, create or modify. These instructions refer to a web server running Plesk, because that's what we use, so the specifics of your LAMP server may be different -- mostly the path names will be different, although this is true between different versions of Plesk, too. So, check your paths and make sure you understand what you are doing.

Here's how to do it:

Set up the FTP server so the default file permissions are 640, using the umask setting
Add the web server, apache, to the default group assigned to your files
Change the permissions of the existing files.

On our servers, we change the umask in ‘/etc/proftpd.conf’ to ‘137′ in order to set the default file permissions for files created in FTP to 640. For details, you can Google umask.

Logged in as root, enter this command to edit the FTP server configuration file:

nano /etc/proftpd.conf Make the required change and then save the file. Hint: make a backup first!

Add the Web Server to the Default FTP Group

This is really the critcial step, which allows Joomla access to your files via the permissions that are granted to the web server (in this case, Apache). To proceed, you need to know:

Which user account is assigned to the web server?
Which group account does Plesk use to manage your site?

To determine the user account for the web server, enter this command at the bash prompt:

ps aux | grep httpd

To determine the default group Plesk assigns to files, log in via ssh or FTP to view your Joomla files and check the group name (I use "ls -lha" at the command line). On our Plesk servers, the web server is "apache" and the default group for web directories is "psacln". So, we need to add the apache user to the psacln group. Once again, logged in as root, back up /etc/group and then enter this command:

usermod -G psacln apache

You should also use the same command to add the psaftp and psaadm users to the psacln group. You can also edit the /etc/group file directly to the same effect. Change the permissions of the existing files Now, we just need to ensure that all of the existing files are set up correctly. Here's how we do it:

cd /var/www/vhosts/[domain.com] chown -R [username]:psacln httpdocs chmod 770 httpdocs find httpdocs -type d -exec chmod 770 {} \; find httpdocs -type d -exec chmod g+s {} \; find httpdocs -type f -exec chmod 640 {} \;

The find command is extra sweet: it finds all the directories or files in the "httpdocs" directory, and then runs the required "chmod" command on each one. The chmod command "g+s" sets the "set groupid" for all the directories so that, for FTP uploads,:

all new files will be owned by the group of the parent directory instead of the current shell.

-- Group Sharing A Directory

When you are done updating the permissions, you should probably restart Apache to ensure it re-reads the updated file permissions. From the command line:

apachectl -k graceful

Testing You can see if your permissions are set correctly using several tests:

On the UNIX command line, via ssh: cd to the directory that contains your Joomla installation, and then enter: ls -lha to check the current permissions for all of the files. If you've followed the steps above, the file permissions should appear like this: -rwxrwx---
Use your favorite FTP program to log onto the site, and then check file permissions. Both the user and the group should have full permissions, and everyone should have no permissions.
Log into the Joomla 1.5 administrator interface, and select Help > System Info > Directory Permissions -- everything should appear as "writeable."

Joomla Component Installations and File Uploads Sadly, all of the work above still does not lead to a fully workable Joomla installation! In addition, I had to install the PHP mod_suphp module on the server. As root:

yum install mod_suphp

I then configured this module according to the suggestions in HOW-TO Setup a PLESK Dedicated Server.

Note that turning Safe Mode on or off does not have any effect on Joomla 1.5 security, unlike version 1.0, where the file permission issue was fixed by turning Safe Mode off. Now, in Joomla 1.5, file access is controlled entirely by FTP and file permission settings on the web server.

Configuring Joomla Safe Mode on a Plesk box

2008-03-11T09:51:00.000-07:00

At Cadent, we use Parallels Plesk Control Panel Software for Hosting on our servers (we’ve also used the open source Webmin and the commercial CPanel). Plesk has a great user interface, which our clients appreciate. It also imposes its own way of doing things, which can be a bit of a pain when tracking down subtle issues with server configuration. Because Plesk rewrites many configuration files automatically, it’s really critical to ensure that I make any manual changes to the server configuration in the right place, or Plesk will overwrite my efforts without remorse. The issue we needed to address was this: we installed Joomla! 1.0 on our development server, and Joomla reported the following configuration problems: • Safe mode was on, needs to be off. • The session directory was unwriteable. PHP: Safe Mode is a global setting allows only a file's owner or group to execute the script or read a file. Clearly, this is a good thing for security reasons, but it is now officially deprecated in PHP 6, since it is not "architecturally" correct. Nevertheless, Joomla 1.0 wants it off. Since the server hosts multiple domains, we don’t want to turn off safe mode for the entire server, by changing the settings in /etc/php.ini. Instead, we want to implement it “locally,” as Joomla terms it. In Joomla 1.0, you can compare the local and master settings for PHP on the PHP Info tab, available from the administrator interface via System > System Info. The session directory issue was also thornier than expected. After logging in as root and changing the permissions for the specified directory, and restarting Apache, Joomla still refused to recognize the changed status of the session directory -- even though I could see Joomla writing session files to the specified directory! I logged in to the bash shell via ssh to check the directory permissions. A simple bash command lists permissions by file: # ls -lh /var/www/vhosts/domain.com/httpdocs/ ... drwxr-xr-x 9 ftplogin psacln 4.0K Mar 11 10:42 administrator drwxrwxrwx 2 ftplogin psacln 4.0K Mar 11 10:42 cache -rw-r--r-- 1 ftplogin psacln 103K Mar 11 10:42 CHANGELOG.php drwxrwxrwx 18 ftplogin psacln 4.0K Mar 18 02:52 components ... The user name “ftplogin” is the account that uploads & maintains the file via FTP, and “psacln” is the Plesk group for ... something. Anyway, neither of these are “apache” and that’s the account that needs to execute the PHP scripts for Joomla to run. At first, I thought there might be some conflict with PHP’s openbasedir (see the PHP: Safe Mode - Manual for details) but after checking to ensure that the session directory was in the openbasedir path, we determined the problem was elsewhere. Since openbasedir is associated with Safe Mode in PHP, it made sense to try to fix the Safe Mode issue first. At first glance, this seems the perfect opportunity to use .htaccess files, but for some reason, this didn’t work. I turned to the Apache configuration files. The master configuration file, in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf, is certainly not the place to make local settings changes. Plesk stores domain-level Apache configuration settings in /var/www/vhosts/<domainname>/conf/httpd.include but this isn’t the place to make changes either, as noted in the file header: [root@domain.com ~]# cat /var/www/vhosts/domain.com/conf/httpd.include | head -8 # ATTENTION! # DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE OR ANY PART OF IT. THIS CAN RESULT IN IMPROPER PLESK # FUNCTIONING OR FAILURE, CAUSE DAMAGE AND LOSS OF DATA. IF YOU REQUIRE CUSTOM # MODIFICATIONS TO BE APPLIED TO THE CONFIGURATION, PLEASE, PERFORM THEM IN THE # FOLLOWING FILE(S): # /var/www/vhosts/domain.com/conf/vhost.conf # /var/www/vhosts/domain.com/conf/vhost_ssl.conf # /var/www/vhosts/domain.com/subdomains/<subdomain-name>/conf/vhost.conf Note that I’ve substituted the generic “domain.com” for our actual domain name. Since we are staging the site in a subdomain, I looked into the last option. After some difficulty, like the malformed config file that I wrote that prevented Apache from restarting, I succeeded with these steps: 1. Create a vhost.conf file with the correct directive in the specified directory. 2. Tell Plesk about the new vhost.conf file. 3. Restart Apache. Those steps, executed correctly, fixed both the Safe Mode and the session directory issues. Here’s what I did at the command line, logged in as root (using ssh, obviously!) Create vhost.conf file Create the new file. [root@server ~]# nano /var/www/vhosts/domain.com/subdomains/<subdomain-name>/conf/vhost.conf Enter: <Directory /var/www/vhosts/domain.com/subdomains/<subdomain-name>/httpdocs> php_admin_flag safe_mode off </Directory> Save & exit. Tell Plesk about the new vhost.conf file [root@server ~]# /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/websrvmng --reconfigure-vhost --vhost-name=domain.com Restart Apache [root@server ~]# /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd restart Stopping httpd: [ OK ] Starting httpd: [ OK ] Finally, check the settings in Joomla (System > System Info) -- all set!

Deskbar Search in Ubuntu Gnome

2008-03-04T07:21:00.000-08:00

If you use a Mac at all, you know the value of a handy search interface like Spotlight or Quicksilver. The Gnome Deskbar delivers similar features to the Ubuntu desktop, or any other Gnome desktop, for that matter. See also:

Archiving and Compression

2008-02-15T04:18:00.000-08:00

A page of many sample uses of the tar command to illustrate the most useful options with real-world examples.

TrueCrypt ships version 5.0 today

2008-02-06T18:03:00.001-08:00

Version 5.0 of the free, open-source and cross-platform encryption program TrueCrypt is now available for download and installation for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. TrueCrypt:

Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
Encrypts an entire hard disk partition or a storage device such as USB flash drive.
Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.

Further information regarding features of the software may be found in the documentation.

Virus scan Windows using a Linux live CD

2008-01-18T11:04:00.000-08:00

[There's been quite a bit of interest in this post and I've expanded on it quite a bit. Please post any comments or questions to help me improve this guide. - Neil] Keith and I have both run into situations where we want to recover a Windows computer by cleaning it up with a Linux Live (bootable) CD distro. This offers several advantages to cleaning up an infected or compromised computer by booting into Windows:

It prevents the malware, if it exists, from jumping from the infected computer or partition we are trying to fix to the repair partition or boot medium.
If we boot from a CD, there's actually no way to alter the boot medium, since it's read-only.

Naturally, we started with Knoppix -- download it here. Installing and scanning with F-Prot is covered in this Knoppix.net discussion thread, Virus Scan from LiveCD, which describes how to install F-Prot from the command line using apt-get. Also, In Knoppix 5.1, you can boot from the Knoppix CD and install F-Prot with the Synaptic Package Manager:

Run Synaptic Package Manager: K > KNOPPIX >Manage Software in KNOPPIX (kpackage)
Click Search.
Type f-prot in the Search: field and click [Search]
Check f-prot-installer
Click [Apply Changes]
Open Details on the Applying Changes dialog box by click on the little triangle.
the F-Prot installer prompts you in the Details box. Select Download and install and select [OK] (use the Tab key and Return to make selections)

I had trouble with both of these methods because some repositories were not available, particularly the one that provided f-prot! I went straight to the source, from F-Prot: Download F-PROT Antivirus for Linux Workstations. I downloaded the Perl-based installer, which also happens to have the largest version number (6.01, today), to my Knoppix Home directory. To install F-prot:

Right-click on the downloaded tgz file and select Extract Here. This should create a directory in your home directory called f-prot.
cd f-prot/
sudo ./install-f-prot.pl
Just accept the default choices during the installation, unless you have a reason not to. The installer will download the latest definition files.

Then, mount the volumes you want to scan by opening the icons on the Knoppix desktop. Go back to your command prompt and type fpscan /media/hda1 replacing "/media/hda1" with the path to the drive you want to scan. Enter fpscan by itself at the command prompt to see a list of options. The f-prot directory also contains documentation (f-prot/doc/html if you want to use a browser). Remember, everything disappears when you reboot, so if you don't want to have to download the F-Prot installer, copy the compressed (tgz) file to a USB drive. Then, when it's time to install it again, just boot from Knoppix, copy the tgz file to the Knoppix home directory, and then follow the steps above. Note you still need a live Internet connection to get the latest definition files. We explored using ClamAV, which is included in Knoppix 5.1 but is not up-to-date with the latest definitions. To update ClamAV (sudo freshclam) it turns out you need to update the libc6 libraries first, which is such a pain and so time-consuming that I ended up just using F-Prot, following the steps above (although Keith and I were able to scan a laptop with ClamAV after running through an incredibly complex update procedure). Thanks to Paul for the comment on the ClamAV issue, below. If you have any more comments or questions about this procedure, let me know.

Squeak, Seaside, Pier, and Smalltalk

2007-12-16T16:52:00.000-08:00

Here is one interesting software development environment, especially for web applications. Squeak is an open source implementation of Smalltalk. Seaside is a Web Framework for developing web applications in Squeak. Pier is a CMS built on Seaside. DabbleDB is also built on Seaside -- an incredibly impressive web app. So far, I've installed it on my Mac iFive (OS X 10.4.10).

The Perfect Desktop - Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon"

2007-10-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

Great tips on how to install and customize Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon), although a little slow to load with all the screen shots. It's a great way to get a sense of how to set up one of the best Linux desktops around these days. Some of my favorite tips include:

Detecting your version of Ubuntu Linux

2007-10-20T10:23:00.000-07:00

You can see the current version of Ubuntu by selecting System > About Ubuntu. It's in the second paragraph.

The other method to find your version is a command line method. There are two commands you can use:

cat /etc/issue

or you can use

cat /etc/lsb-release

…and finally to find your kernel version and a few more details about your machine use the uname command which, per the man pages, shows system information. Examples:

uname -a : print all information

uname -r : print the kernel release

uname -v : print the kernel version

uname -o : print the operating system

AMD 64-bit Linux on Area 51 - Finally

2007-10-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

I performed a clean install on a dedicated hard disk. No problems there. I really like the clean desktop: no icons! Although the boot up time seems unusually long, Sound card drivers: Creative X-fi XtremeGamer 64-bit driver for Linux Error:

neil@area-51u:~/Desktop/XFiDrv_Linux_US-1.04$ sudo ./installer [sudo] password for neil: This product only support 64-bit Operating Systems Setup will now exit neil@area-51u:~/Desktop/XFiDrv_Linux_US-1.04$

Here's why:

Requirements:

Linux x86_64 OS
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi audio devices listed above.

Still, this should work! neil@area-51u:~/Desktop/XFiDrv_Linux_US-1.04$ uname -a Linux area-51u 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Sun Oct 14 21:45:15 GMT 2007 x86_64 GNU/Linux It's always something, on the bleeding edge...

Linux Complete Backup and Recovery HOWTO

2007-10-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

Before I do a clean install of Ubuntu on my ShuttleX, I want to make a complete backup. This From The Linux Documentation Project, Linux Complete Backup and Recovery HOWTO:

Total restore, sometimes called bare metal recovery, is the process of rebuilding a computer after a catastrophic failure. In order to make a total restoration, you must have complete backups, not only of your file system, but of partition information and other data. This HOWTO is a step-by-step tutorial on how to back up a Linux computer so as to be able to make a bare metal recovery, and how to make that bare metal recovery. It includes some related scripts.

Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Download

2007-10-19T17:37:00.000-07:00

Although I successfully upgraded my Feisty Fawn 7.04 installation to Gutsy Gibbon (7.10), I'm having some problems with desktop effects. Basically, none of the window manager elements appear. I've decided to do a clean install, so I'm downloading the CD image, but it's taking forever... The torrent files are listed at the bottom of the Gutsy Gibbon download page, but it turns out the that the torrent files take some time to download, too. In fact, the HTTP download from Columbia's servers is coming through at 140 KB/sec, or higher, whereas Bittorrent has topped out at, well, just about 130 KB/sec. Hardly much of a difference, but then I get spikes on the HTTP download up to 320 KB/sec. It looks like the issue is the torrent file in question. When I downloaded the AMD 64 bit torrent, I'm getting speeds of over 1000 KB/sec.

Download Kompozer: My New Favorite Open Source HTML Editor

2007-10-18T11:25:00.000-07:00

Kompozer picks up where Nvu seems to have left off. Nvu was my favorite Open Source WYSIWIG editor, but has been stuck at version 1.0 for some time now I am pleased to say that I find Kompozer very useful on Windows & Linux, and even run it off my U3 USB drive. Since I haven't figured out how to trigger the "accelerator keys" (like Alt-F for "File," Alt-O for "Open," instead of Ctrl-O) on the Mac, it's not very keyboard friendly on OS X. Post a comment if you know how to pilot these programs with the keyboard on the Mac, or let me know if you like a different Open Source HTML editor.

Custom Bash Prompt How-To

2007-07-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

I want to put a current time stamp on my prompt, so I can see when I run a job. From Custom Bash Prompt How-To

This How-To is to change the display of your bash prompt permanently. It will give you a list of different strings you can include into your bash prompt such as, the time of day, the date, and many other options.

My prompt is already customized in ~/.bash_prompt

Using Handbrake on the command line to convert video for the iPod

2007-06-22T08:35:00.000-07:00

I downloaded HandBrake to my Ubuntu box, Shubuntu, and converted VOB files to MP4:

~/bin/HandBrakeCLI -i /media/MyBook500-ext3_/neil/media/DVDs/ -o /media/MyBook500-ext3_/neil/media/ipod/movie.mp4 -B 160 -R 48 -E AAC -e x264b30 -f MP4 -m -b 1500 -x frameref=1:bframes=0:nofast_pskip:subq=6:partitions=p8x8,p8x4,p4x8,i4x4:qcomp=0:me=umh:nodct_decimate

Unfortunately, iTunes refused to transfer the result to my iPod: wrong format.

Strip bash comments with grep

2007-06-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you just want to see the code ... Let's say you want to look at a bash script, but strip out all the comments. Here's a sample command using grep that will display a bash script, without comments, to stout:

grep -v "^#" commented-script.sh

Notes:

"-v" means invert the selection; i.e., only display the lines in the file that don't match.
"^#" is the regular expression that matches "lines that start with #".
"^" means only match the beginning of the line.
Replace "commented-script.sh" with the file name of the file you want to strip.

Tips:

This command strips single line comments from any programming language. Just change the comment line character (";" instead of "#" for example).
If you just want to read the comments, drop the "-v" switch.

Bash Shell Keyboard Shortcuts For Linux Users

2007-06-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

Since the keyboard commands for bash are the same no matter what platform you run your bsh shell on (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc.) it pays to learn a few choice command. Here's a great reference:

The default shell on most Linux operating systems is called Bash. There are a couple of important hotkeys that you should get familiar with if you plan to spend a lot of time at the command line. These shortcuts will save you a ton of time if you learn them.
Here is the List of Bash Shell Keyboard Shortcuts For Linux Users
Ctrl + A - Go to the beginning of the line you are currently typing on
Ctrl + E - Go to the end of the line you are currently typing on
Ctrl + L - Clears the Screen, similar to the clear command
Ctrl + U - Clears the line before the cursor position. If you are at the end of the line, clears the entire line.
Ctrl + H - Same as backspace
Ctrl + R - Let’s you search through previously used commands
more, including Alt keys ...

Read the rest of the listing at Bash Shell Keyboard Shortcuts For Linux Users.

Freemind 0.8.0 - Java Mind Map software

2007-06-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

FreeMind is mind-mapping software written in Java. I use it to plan web sites, promotions, business plans. It’s great for brainstorming, capturing your ideas and organizing them. Since it’s a cross platform Java application, it will run on Windows, Macs and Linux computers, among others. All you need is the current Java Runtime Environment, which is probably already installed if your computer is up-to-date. I use it on the Mac, and I’ve created a SmartFolder to find my FreeMind (*.mm) files quickly. I’ve tested sharing files with Linux, and it works like a champ, although some of the keyboard shortcuts are a little different across platforms. You can (and will) use your mouse, though -- drag-and-drop, collapse and expand (with a double click) let you zip around your mind maps and focus on the details you want, or zoom out to see the big picture. Import/Export & Sharing FreeMind uses an XML file format, meaning that you can read it with a text editor (Text Edit, Notepad, etc.) and translate the data into other formats. Built in formats include a nifty HTML export that includes working “expand and collapse” buttons. Open Source Update Tuesday, July 17, 2007 FreeMind has not been upgraded for some time: it’s been at Version 0.8.0 since New Release: FreeMind 0.8.0 (Date: 2005-09-10 09:38). That’s a couple years now. Yet, there is a ton of traffic on the project at SourceForge, and it’s increasing steadily. I think that if this project continues to grow in popularity, we might see a new version soon, since active projects attract developers, testers, etc. A recommended addition to the web slinger's tool box.

Installing a private certificate server

2007-06-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

Installing a private certificate server, Linux version: Edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and change "<VirtualHost _default_:443>" to "<VirtualHost 192.168.10.200:443>" [root@dts conf]# cd /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key [root@dts ssl.key]# openssl genrsa -out server.key 1024 [root@dts ssl.key]# cd ../ssl.crt [root@dts ssl.crt]# openssl req -new -key ../ssl.key/server.key -x509 -out server.crt Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:US State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:New York Locality Name (eg, city) []:New York Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:Grb-internal Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:. Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:192.168.10.200 Email Address []:larnd@grb.xxxxx.org [root@dts ssl.crt]# service httpd restart From What Keeps You Off of Windows?

Ubuntu Desktop Effects problems

2007-06-13T09:18:00.000-07:00

I had to turn off the cool Desktop Effects in Ubutunu 7.04 today, because the computer stopped responding to the mouse again. When this happens, I can still move my cursor around, but clicks don't do anything. I end up killing X (Ctrl-Shift-Backspace) and rebooting, since logging back in results in another error: Nautilus can't load.

System76.com - Pre-installed Ubuntu notebooks

2007-05-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

System76 ships their own computers with: open source and easy to use Ubuntu Linux operating system including a cool Darter Ultra portable ($995 with a spiffy Intel Core 2 Duo). It's hard to find a good ultra portable.

Ubuntu 7.04 Files: Find, use USB

2007-05-19T21:42:00.000-07:00

I want to move my Halo files from my NTFS volume to a USB drive (2 GB Attache). Where are they? I figured it out, but I have to set up Desktop Search to index all the volumes -- right now it's just /usr. No wonder it doesn't find anything. So, I found the folder the old fashioned way and copied it to the USB drive, which mounted no problem, and also ejected without a hitch. That's cool.

SmbK4 can't connect

2006-08-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

I installed Smb4K and ran it. When I attempted to attach to my Mac (Samba) server, I get this error: smbmnt must be installed suid root for direct user mounts (1000,1000) smbmnt failed: 1 Here's the command I entered to fix it: sudo chmod a+s /usr/bin/smbmnt a+s means "set the suid for all users." That did it.

Notable tar Usages

2005-11-18T13:21:00.000-08:00

From the gnu.org site:

For example, here is how you might copy a directory's contents from one disk to another, while preserving the dates, modes, owners and link-structure of all the files therein. In this case, the transfer medium is a pipe, which is one a Unix redirection mechanism:
$ cd sourcedir; tar -cf - . | (cd targetdir; tar -xf -)

Here's a sample: sudo tar cvzf /media/MyBook500-ext3/Volume/home-2007-10-20.tgz /home/

Copying Directory Trees with (tar | tar)

2005-11-18T13:19:00.000-08:00

The tar command isn't just for tape archives. It can copy files from disk to disk, too. And even if your computer has cp -r there are advantages to using tar.

Copy a Directory using tar

2005-11-18T13:16:00.000-08:00

Another way to copy directory hierarchies is to use the tar utility, described in section 6.3.7. The following sequence of commands copies a structure from the source directory to the destination directory:

% cd source_dir; tar cf - . | (cd destination_dir; tar xfBp -)

The "-" is used for the name of the tar file (argument to the f option) so that tar writes to the standard output or reads from the standard input, as appropriate.

Apache and the SUexecUserGroup directive

2005-08-05T17:39:00.000-07:00

This is why the server was giving a 500 Internal Server Error when we'd run a script via a browser. From the file /home/httpd/vhosts//conf/httpd.conf: There was a directive: SUexecUserGroup user group (The user was a local username and group . The command takes these 2 arguments. It's a cgi wrapper for security and tells spawned scripts to be run as that user and group. It is not used by default. Read more about the whole thing here: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/suexec.html

Spam Assassin URLs

2005-06-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

http://qmail-scanner.sourceforge.net/ - site-wide spam scanning http://www.gbnet.net/~jrg/qmail/ifspamh/ - per-user spam scanning

Spam Assassin Upgrade Log

2005-06-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

son of babbage June 21, 2005 Goal: Use yum to upgrade spamassassin to the most current version (3.03) Issue: Spamassassin 2.61 is already installed and yum won't upgrade it. Solution: Remove existing version and reinstall from the DAG repository. 1. Remove existing version This step will remove spamassassin, the Plesk spamassassin interface, psa-spamassassin, plus the spamassassin section in each user's .qmail file.

[admin@localhost admin]$ sudo yum remove spamassassin ... I will do the following: [erase: spamassassin 2.61-3.i586] I will erase these to satisfy the dependencies: [deps: psa-spamassassin 7.0.3-fc1.build040611.14.i586] Is this ok [y/N]: y Running test transaction: Test transaction complete, Success! ===> Reading /etc/psa/psa.conf ... Delete spamassassin preferences from .qmail files for mailnames ... Erased: spamassassin 2.61-3.i586 psa-spamassassin 7.0.3-fc1.build040611.14.i586 Transaction(s) Complete

2. Install required Perl module: Time::HiRes [admin@localhost admin]$ sudo yum install perl-Time-HiRes 3. Create separate DAG repository configuration file for yum Use vi to create a new configuration file that references only the dag repository. Note: this step assumes that you have already set up and tested the DAG repository (in /etc/yum.conf). [admin@localhost admin]$ sudo vi /etc/dag.yum.conf Add the following text: [main] cachedir=/var/cache/yum debuglevel=2 logfile=/var/log/yum.log pkgpolicy=newest distroverpkg=fedora-release tolerant=1 exactarch=1 retries=20 [dag] name=Dag RPM Repository for Fedora Core baseurl=http://apt.sw.be/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/dag gpgcheck=1 enabled=1 Save the file: [Esc]:wq 4. Install spamassassin from the DAG repository. Note how we use the -c switch to point to the new configuration file. [admin@localhost admin]$ sudo yum -c /etc/dag.yum.conf install spamassassin ... I will do the following: [install: spamassassin 3.0.3-1.1.fc1.rf.i386] I will install/upgrade these to satisfy the dependencies: [deps: spamassassin-tools 3.0.3-1.1.fc1.rf.i386] [deps: perl-Digest-HMAC 1.01-1.rhfc1.dag.noarch] [deps: perl-Net-DNS 0.48-1.1.fc1.rf.i386] Is this ok [y/N]: y ... Installed: spamassassin 3.0.3-1.1.fc1.rf.i386 Dep Installed: spamassassin-tools 3.0.3-1.1.fc1.rf.i386 perl-Digest-HMAC 1.01-1.rhfc1.dag.noarch perl-Net-DNS 0.48-1.1.fc1.rf.i386 Transaction(s) Complete

Making PCMCIA detection work in Babbage server

2005-05-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

Server was preconfigured to have PCMCIA disabled. 1.) Found startup scripts were disabled. They had renamed the startup scripts in these runlevels (2-5) to kill scripts. # mv /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/K96pcmcia /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/S09pcmcia (repeat this for rc3.d, rc4.d, rc5.d directories). 2.) Still gettting "no pcmcia driver in /proc/devices" in /var/log/messages. Also get when you do 'cardctl -v -o' (-o means run once in foreground, -v means verbose) Check file /etc/sysconfig/pcmcia. It looked like: PCMCIA=no PCIC= PCIC_OPTS= CORE_OPTS= It should look like: [kws@localhost sysconfig]$ more pcmcia PCMCIA=yes PCIC=yenta_socket PCIC_OPTS= CORE_OPTS= This is a Dell laptop, all laptops seem to have the same config.

Installing Webmin on Fedora FC1

2005-05-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

http://dag.wieers.com/ http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=45920 http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_core_3_installation_notes.html#Yum Note that for FC3 or later, instead of added to /etc/yum.conf, you add a new file /etc/fum/repos.d/dag.repo (see above links). FC1: instructions: http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/apt/FAQ.php#B 1.) Add this section to /etc/yum.conf, or create the file /etc/yum.repos.d/dag.repo with these contents:) [dag] name=Dag RPM Repository for Fedora Core baseurl=http://apt.sw.be/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/dag gpgcheck=1 enabled=1 2.) Add key for dag to rpm: [root@localhost etc]# rpm --import http://dag.wieers.com/packages/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt 3.) Install webmin: (with the other dependencies): [root@localhost etc]# yum install webmin Gathering header information file(s) from server(s) Server: Fedora Core 1 - i386 - Base Server: Dag RPM Repository for Fedora Core Server: Fedora Core 1 - i386 - Released Updates Finding updated packages Downloading needed headers Resolving dependencies ..Dependencies resolved I will do the following: [install: webmin 1.200-1.1.fc1.rf.noarch] I will install/upgrade these to satisfy the dependencies: [deps: perl-Mon 0.11-2.1.fc1.rf.noarch] [deps: perl-Authen-PAM 0.15-1.1.fc1.rf.i386] [deps: perl-Net-SSLeay 1.25-2.1.fc1.rf.i386] [deps: perl-Convert-BER 1.31.01-1.rhfc1.dag.noarch] Is this ok [y/N]: y Getting webmin-1.200-1.1.fc1.rf.noarch.rpm webmin-1.200-1.1.fc1.rf.n 100% |=========================| 8.4 MB 00:20 Getting perl-Authen-PAM-0.15-1.1.fc1.rf.i386.rpm perl-Authen-PAM-0.15-1.1. 100% |=========================| 36 kB 00:00 Getting perl-Net-SSLeay-1.25-2.1.fc1.rf.i386.rpm perl-Net-SSLeay-1.25-2.1. 100% |=========================| 199 kB 00:00 Getting perl-Convert-BER-1.31.01-1.rhfc1.dag.noarch.rpm perl-Convert-BER-1.31.01- 100% |=========================| 34 kB 00:00 Running test transaction: Test transaction complete, Success! perl-Convert-BER 100 % done 1/5 perl-Mon 100 % done 2/5 perl-Net-SSLeay 100 % done 3/5 perl-Authen-PAM 100 % done 4/5 webmin 100 % done 5/5 Installed: webmin 1.200-1.1.fc1.rf.noarch Dep Installed: perl-Mon 0.11-2.1.fc1.rf.noarch perl-Authen-PAM 0.15-1.1.fc1.rf.i386 perl-Net-SSLeay 1.25-2.1.fc1.rf.i386 perl-Convert-BER 1.31.01-1.rhfc1.dag.noarch Transaction(s) Complete [root@localhost etc]# exit - log in to webmin. SpamAssassin control panel is located under "Servers". - add users so you don't have to log in as root in the future. - Restrict the webmin port (10000/tcp) to only certain ip addresses. On Babbage, when you log into the SA module in Webmin, and you get: SpamAssassin does not appear to be set up in the system's Procmail configuration file /etc/procmailrc, so any configuration done using this module will have no effect unless users have it set up individually.

Using Rsync and SSH for network backups

2005-05-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

Using Rsync and SSH: "covers using cron, ssh, and rsync to backup files over a local network or the Internet"

rsync web pages

2005-05-18T22:11:00.000-07:00

rsync is an open source utility that provides fast incremental file transfer, available under the GNU General Public License version 2. rsync is hosted at http://samba.org/.

rsync man page

2005-05-18T21:57:00.000-07:00

View the current rsync man page in HTML.

Easy Automated Snapshot-Style Backups with Rsync

2005-05-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

Easy Automated Snapshot-Style Backups with Rsync explains how to create rotating backup using rsync -- includes bash scripts!

HOWTO Backup Your Mac With rsync

2005-05-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

HOWTO Backup Your Mac With rsync includes instructions on how to use the GUI front end to RsyncX, plus command line and script options.

aaltonen.us » Blog Archive » Yum in Fedora Core 3

2005-05-10T13:45:00.000-07:00

aaltonen.us » Blog Archive » Yum in Fedora Core 3 is the best explanation of how to use yum on RedHat Fedora 3. Although I found the RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora file in /usr/share/doc/fedora-release-3/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora, not /usr/share/rhn/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora.

Samba Documentation By O'Reilly

2005-05-08T18:16:00.000-07:00

Go to http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/samba2/book/toc.html for the complete text of O'Reilly's definitive book, Using Samba, 2nd Edition By Jay Ts, Robert Eckstein, and David Collier-Brown (2nd Edition, February 2003)

IRM - The Information Resource Manager

2005-05-03T14:50:00.000-07:00

IRM is a PHP, Pear & MySQL based computer inventory system:

IRM, the Information Resource Manager, is a powerful web-based asset tracking and trouble ticket system built for IT departments and HelpDesks. It keeps detailed information about each computer, as well as providing a trouble ticket system, an FAQ system, and a Knowledgebase

Plone: A user-friendly and powerful open source Content Management System — plone.org

2005-04-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

Article: Greylisting email with Postfix

2005-04-13T02:37:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Yarden's recent article, Can greylisting help stem the tide of junk e-mail?, describes how greylisting works, and also suggests Postgrey, at http://isg.ee.ethz.ch/tools/postgrey/

Qmail Help

2005-04-08T16:58:00.000-07:00

Help for Qmail is on the way at:

The Qmail home page: http://www.qmail.org/ - select a mirror.

The qmail HOWTO v2: http://www.flounder.net/qmail/qmail-howto.html

SpamAssassin Help

2005-04-08T16:47:00.000-07:00

We are configuring SpamAssassin. Here's what we found to help out.

The Apache SpamAssassin Project http://spamassassin.apache.org/

The SpamAssassin Wiki: http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/FrontPage

The SpamAssassin Configuration Generator (2.5.x) http://www.yrex.com/spam/spamconfig.php

Knoppix 3.2 XF86Config-4

2005-03-17T05:38:00.000-08:00

This file was generated by Knoppix 3.2 on my ShuttleX, with the ATI Radeon 9000 video card & Viewsonic VA-800 monitor.

Section "ServerLayout"
 Identifier     "XFree86 Configured"
 Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
 InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
# PS/2 Mouse not detected
# Serial Mouse not detected
        InputDevice    "USB Mouse" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
 Option "AllowMouseOpenFail"  "true"
 
EndSection

Section "Files"
 RgbPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
 ModulePath   "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
 FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled"
 FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
 FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
 FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
 FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
 FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
 FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
 FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/PEX"
# Additional fonts: Locale, Gimp, TTF...
 FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
# FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/75dpi"
# FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/100dpi"
# True type and type1 fonts are also handled via xftlib, see /etc/X11/XftConfig!
 FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
 FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/ttf/western"
 FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/ttf/decoratives"
 FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/truetype"
 FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/openoffice"
 FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera"
 FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latex-ttf-fonts"
 FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/defoma/CID"
 FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/defoma/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
        Load  "ddc"  # ddc probing of monitor
 Load  "GLcore"
 Load  "dbe"
 Load  "dri"
 Load  "extmod"
 Load  "glx"
        Load  "bitmap" # bitmap-fonts
 Load  "speedo"
 Load  "type1"
 Load  "freetype"
 Load  "record"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier  "Keyboard0"
 Driver      "keyboard"
        Option      "CoreKeyboard"
 Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
 Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
 Option "XkbLayout" "us"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier  "Serial Mouse"
 Driver      "mouse"
 Option      "Protocol" "Microsoft"
 Option      "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
 Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
 Option      "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
 Option     "SendCoreEvents"  "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier  "PS/2 Mouse"
 Driver      "mouse"
 Option      "Protocol" "auto"
Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
 Option      "Device" "/dev/psaux"
 Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
 Option      "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
 Option     "SendCoreEvents"  "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "USB Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
 Option  "SendCoreEvents" "true"
        Option          "Protocol"              "IMPS/2"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
        Option          "Buttons"               "5"
EndSection

# Auto-generated by KNOPPIX mkxf86config

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Monitor0"
 Option "DPMS" "true"
 VendorName "VSC"
 ModelName "VSCde00"
 HorizSync 30 - 82 # DDC-probed
 VertRefresh 50 - 75 # DDC-probed
 # These are the DDC-probed settings reported by your monitor.
 # 1280x1024, 75.0Hz; hfreq=79.98, vfreq=75.03
 ModeLine "1280x1024" 135.00 1280 1296 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
 # 1024x768, 75.0Hz; hfreq=60.02, vfreq=75.03
 ModeLine "1024x768"  78.75 1024 1040 1136 1312  768  769  772  800 +hsync +vsync
 # 1024x768, 70.0Hz; hfreq=56.48, vfreq=70.07
 ModeLine "1024x768"  75.00 1024 1048 1184 1328  768  771  777  806 -hsync -vsync
 # 800x600, 75.0Hz; hfreq=46.88, vfreq=75.00
 ModeLine "800x600"  49.50  800  816  896 1056  600  601  604  625 +hsync +vsync
 # 800x600, 72.0Hz; hfreq=48.08, vfreq=72.19
 ModeLine "800x600"  50.00  800  856  976 1040  600  637  643  666 +hsync +vsync
 # 800x600, 60.0Hz; hfreq=37.88, vfreq=60.32
 ModeLine "800x600"  40.00  800  840  968 1056  600  601  605  628 +hsync +vsync
 # 640x480, 75.0Hz; hfreq=37.50, vfreq=75.00
 ModeLine "640x480"  31.50  640  656  720  840  480  481  484  500 -hsync -vsync
 # 640x480, 72.0Hz; hfreq=37.86, vfreq=72.81
 ModeLine "640x480"  31.50  640  656  696  816  480  481  484  504 -hsync -vsync
 # 640x480, 60.0Hz; hfreq=31.47, vfreq=59.94
 ModeLine "640x480"  25.17  640  648  744  784  480  482  484  509 -hsync -vsync
 Modeline "512x384"     26.70  512  528  584  656   384  385  388  407 -HSync +Vsync
 Modeline "640x480"     43.16  640  680  744  848   480  481  484  509 -HSync +Vsync
 Modeline "768x576"     62.57  768  816  896 1024   576  577  580  611 -HSync +Vsync
 Modeline "800x600"     68.18  800  848  936 1072   600  601  604  636 -HSync +Vsync
 Modeline "1024x768"   113.31 1024 1096 1208 1392   768  769  772  814 -HSync +Vsync
 Modeline "1152x864"   143.47 1152 1232 1360 1568   864  865  868  915 -HSync +Vsync
 Modeline "1280x960"   149.43 1280 1376 1512 1744   960  961  964 1008 -HSync +Vsync
 Modeline "1280x1024"  159.36 1280 1376 1512 1744  1024 1025 1028 1075 -HSync +Vsync
 Modeline "1400x1050"  179.26 1400 1504 1656 1912  1050 1051 1054 1103 -HSync +Vsync
EndSection

Section "Device"
 ### Available Driver options are:-
# sw_cursor is needed for some ati and radeon cards
Option "sw_cursor"
        #Option     "hw_cursor"
        #Option     "NoAccel"
        #Option     "ShowCache"
        #Option     "ShadowFB"
        #Option     "UseFBDev"
        #Option     "Rotate"
 Identifier  "Card0"
# The following line is auto-generated by KNOPPIX mkxf86config
 Driver      "radeon"
 VendorName  "All"
 BoardName   "All"
# BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Screen0"
 Device     "Card0"
 Monitor    "Monitor0"
 DefaultColorDepth 16
 SubSection "Display"
  Depth     1
  Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Depth     4
  Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Depth     8
  Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Depth     15
  Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Depth     16
  Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Depth     24
  Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Depth     32
  Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
 Mode 0666
EndSection

Configuring sudo

2005-02-17T13:03:00.000-08:00

For administrators. The sudo command is preferable to su but often your shell account is not configured to use this command. Typical error message: [name] is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported You need to:

Configure sudo to allow the wheel group to use sudo.
Add the desired accounts to the wheel group.

Here's how:

Log in as the super user: su -
visudo
Type: i
Uncomment the specified line (see below)
Save and quit: [Esc] :wq

Uncomment the wheel group line as follows (or paste this in, if it's not in /etc/sudoers)

# Uncomment to allow people in group wheel to run all commands %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Then, add the accounts to the group wheel to give them sudo access. gpasswd -a [name] wheel Adding user [name] to group wheel Then, after you've added your account name,

exit
Try sudo. You must enter your password (not root!) once per session.

You're done!

Configuring YUM for DAG

2005-01-08T06:01:00.000-08:00

Don't know what DAG is yet, but this is good for adding more packages: (libnet is needed by nessus) Add this to bottom of /etc/yum.conf: [dag] name=Dag RPM Repository for Fedora Core baseurl=http://apt.sw.be/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/dag (This on the page http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/apt/FAQ.php#B) Then do the following to find the pkg. note that when i do yum install later down, it picks the latest one. :) [root@localhost etc]# yum search libnet Searching Packages: Setting up Repo: dag repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00 Setting up Repo: base repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00 Setting up Repo: updates-released repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00 Reading repository metadata in from local files primary.xml.gz 100% |=========================| 566 kB 00:01 MD Read : ################################################## 1605/1605 dag : ################################################## 1605/1605 base : ################################################## 2622/2622 updates-re: ################################################## 463/463 libnet.i386 1.1.2.1-1.1.fc3.rf dag Matched from: libnet Libnet is a high-level API (toolkit) allowing the application programmer to construct and inject network packets. It provides a portable and simplified interface for low-level network packet shaping, handling and injection. Libnet hides much of the tedium of packet creation from the application programmer such as multiplexing, buffer management, arcane packet header information, byte-ordering, OS-dependent issues, and much more. Libnet features portable packet creation interfaces at the IP layer and link layer, as well as a host of supplementary and complementary functionality. Using libnet, quick and simple packet assembly applications can be whipped up with little effort. With a bit more time, more complex programs can be written (Traceroute and ping were easily rewritten using libnet and libpcap). http://www.packetfactory.net/projects/libnet/ echoart.i386 0.1-1.1.fc3.rf dag Matched from: Echoart responds to or drops ICMP echo request packets based on a pre-defined sequence, and could be used to return crude ASCII art in response to pings from a Cisco router. It works by intercepting ICMP echo request packets and consulting a pattern template to determine whether or not to respond to a specific echo request. It then uses libnet to inject responses back into the network as necessary. libnet.i386 1.0.2-2.1.fc3.rf dag Matched from: libnet Libnet is a high-level API (toolkit) allowing the application programmer to construct and inject network packets. It provides a portable and simplified interface for low-level network packet shaping, handling and injection. Libnet hides much of the tedium of packet creation from the application programmer such as multiplexing, buffer management, arcane packet header information, byte-ordering, OS-dependent issues, and much more. Libnet features portable packet creation interfaces at the IP layer and link layer, as well as a host of supplementary and complementary functionality. Using libnet, quick and simple packet assembly applications can be whipped up with little effort. With a bit more time, more complex programs can be written (Traceroute and ping were easily rewritten using libnet and libpcap). http://www.packetfactory.net/projects/libnet/ snort-bloat.i386 2.2.0-1.1.fc3.rf dag Matched from: Snort compiled with MySQL, PostgreSQL and ODBC support. Requires snort libnet rpm. [root@localhost etc]# [root@localhost etc]# yum install libnet Setting up Install Process Setting up Repo: dag repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00 Setting up Repo: base repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00 Setting up Repo: updates-released repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00 Reading repository metadata in from local files dag : ################################################## 1605/1605 base : ################################################## 2622/2622 updates-re: ################################################## 463/463 Resolving Dependencies --> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait. ---> Downloading header for libnet to pack into transaction set. libnet-1.1.2.1-1.1.fc3.rf 100% |=========================| 9.5 kB 00:00 ---> Package libnet.i386 0:1.1.2.1-1.1.fc3.rf set to be installed --> Running transaction check Dependencies Resolved Transaction Listing: Install: libnet.i386 0:1.1.2.1-1.1.fc3.rf Is this ok [y/N]: y Downloading Packages: libnet-1.1.2.1-1.1.fc3.rf 100% |=========================| 223 kB 00:00 warning: rpmts_HdrFromFdno: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 6b8d79e6 public key not available for //var/cache/yum/dag/packages/libnet-1.1.2.1-1.1.fc3.rf.i386.rpm [root@localhost etc]# [root@localhost etc]#

Red Hat Fedora Core 3 YUM

2005-01-08T05:24:00.000-08:00

YUM is great. Here's the first time I used it to install a package needed by nessus: YUM solves dependencies and everything (see gtk install lower half). [root@localhost ~]# sh nessus-installer.sh The script needs uudecode(1) to run properly Install the package 'sharutils-*.rpm' [root@localhost ~]# yum install sharutils Setting up Install Process Setting up Repo: base repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00 Setting up Repo: updates-released repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00 Reading repository metadata in from local files primary.xml.gz 100% |=========================| 797 kB 00:03 MD Read : ################################################## 2623/2623 base : ################################################## 2622/2622 primary.xml.gz 100% |=========================| 207 kB 00:10 MD Read : ################################################## 463/463 updates-re: ################################################## 463/463 Resolving Dependencies --> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait. ---> Downloading header for sharutils to pack into transaction set. sharutils-4.2.1-22.i386.r 100% |=========================| 7.3 kB 00:00 ---> Package sharutils.i386 0:4.2.1-22 set to be installed --> Running transaction check Dependencies Resolved Transaction Listing: Install: sharutils.i386 0:4.2.1-22 Is this ok [y/N]: y Downloading Packages: sharutils-4.2.1-22.i386.r 100% |=========================| 93 kB 00:00 Running Transaction Test Finished Transaction Test Transaction Test Succeeded Running Transaction Installing: sharutils 100 % done 1/1 Installed: sharutils.i386 0:4.2.1-22 Complete! [root@localhost ~]# [root@localhost ~]# yum install gtk+-devel Setting up Install Process Setting up Repo: base http://ftp.uni-koeln.de/fedora/3/i386/os/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno 4] IOError: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden Trying other mirror. repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00 Setting up Repo: updates-released repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00 Reading repository metadata in from local files base : ################################################## 2622/2622 updates-re: ################################################## 463/463 Resolving Dependencies --> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait. ---> Downloading header for gtk+-devel to pack into transaction set. gtk+-devel-1.2.10-33.i386 100% |=========================| 40 kB 00:00 ---> Package gtk+-devel.i386 1:1.2.10-33 set to be installed --> Running transaction check --> Processing Dependency: glib-devel for package: gtk+-devel --> Restarting Dependency Resolution with new changes. --> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait. ---> Downloading header for glib-devel to pack into transaction set. glib-devel-1.2.10-15.i386 100% |=========================| 6.9 kB 00:00 ---> Package glib-devel.i386 1:1.2.10-15 set to be installed --> Running transaction check Dependencies Resolved Transaction Listing: Install: gtk+-devel.i386 1:1.2.10-33 Performing the following to resolve dependencies: Install: glib-devel.i386 1:1.2.10-15 Is this ok [y/N]: y Downloading Packages: gtk+-devel-1.2.10-33.i386 100% |=========================| 1.1 MB 00:03 glib-devel-1.2.10-15.i386 100% |=========================| 114 kB 00:00 Running Transaction Test Finished Transaction Test Transaction Test Succeeded Running Transaction Installing: glib-devel 100 % done 1/2 Installing: gtk+-devel 100 % done 2/2 Installed: gtk+-devel.i386 1:1.2.10-33 Dependency Installed: glib-devel.i386 1:1.2.10-15 Complete! [root@localhost ~]#

Using RedHat Fedora FC3

2005-01-08T05:16:00.000-08:00

Been using this for a few weeks did several installs. there was some wierdness on 3 machines... 1. Installing on a Dell Inspiron 8600, the install hung several times. I powered off and tried again and it was fine again. The system has been perfect ever since and works great. 2.) During install on a Dell Inspiron 7500, the install hung during CD1. I started over and it went fine until CD3, where there was a read error and I had to clean some stuff off the disk. Since then it was fine and the system now works great, although there is no sound. Maybe these lockups are all related to media issues. I am using a copy I burned. 3.) One machine my CD3 was bad (burner error, the whole disk was actually blank) and I left the machine sitting there for 3 days until I got a new copy. When I finally continued, the install finished but after the reboot there is some video wierdness like when I go to Applications/System Tools, the menu there is empty (I am root). I was going to reintsall, but now I dont' remember how I booted on the CDROM in the first place. I can't get into BIOS. These are gateway issues. Also thiis whole issue is related to the shared video ram on dizzy.

Install DNS Server

2004-09-13T13:42:00.000-07:00

I chose to install djbdns because it's small, simple, and secure. All instructions are located at: http://cr.yp.to/djbdns/install.html On our installation, I had to install gcc. I used rpmdrake. When I run rpmdrake on this machine (Gateway pc, 'dizzy', it comes up and flashes forever. finally I close the small window in front, and the packages come up and things seem to work fine. Anyway, I picked gcc and it found the dependencies and installed them. But at the command 'make', I am getting the error shown below, which I got around with the instructions below: ...stuff deleted ./compile uint32_pack.c ./compile uint32_unpack.c ./makelib byte.a byte_chr.o byte_copy.o byte_cr.o byte_diff.o byte_zero.o case_diffb.o case_diffs.o case_lowerb.o fmt_ulong.o ip4_fmt.o ip4_scan.o scan_ulong.o str_chr.o str_diff.o str_len.o str_rchr.o str_start.o uint16_pack.o uint16_unpack.o uint32_pack.o uint32_unpack.o ./load auto-str buffer.a unix.a byte.a buffer.a(buffer_put.o)(.text+0x43): In function `allwrite': : undefined reference to `errno' collect2: ld returned 1 exit status make: *** [auto-str] Error 1 Workaround here: http://kerneltrap.org/node/view/1014 they mention a patch to properly define 'errno'. The patch is here: http://moni.csi.hu/pub/glibc-2.3.1/djbdns-1.05.errno.patch (Following the instructions on the former of those 2 links is probably a better idea for next time, since they listed other config steps before install!) In summary, here's what I did: - install gcc and dependencies - verify daemontools and ucspi-tcp are installed (they are in our default install) - download djbdns - unzip and untar djbdns - download that patch - run that patch command:

patch -p1 < ../djbdns-1.05.errno.patch  Then run make, etc as defined before you run make. The rest of the instructions are fine.


[root@dizzy djbdns-1.05]# make setup check

no directories got created.... i'm totally stuck...
maybe i should have used urpmi...

Installing Firefox

2004-09-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

No browser inststalled byu default. ftp ftp.mozilla.org log in as anonymous at ftp>, type: bin hash passive then cd into /pub/mozilla.org/firefox, get the latest with the word "installer" in it. download, unzip, and untar it. cd /home/keith/firefox-installer [root@dizzy firefox-installer]# ./firefox-installer [root@dizzy firefox-installer]# *** eeeeeeee = [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520006 (NS_ERROR_FILE_TARGET_DOES_NOT_EXIST) [nsIFile.remove]" nsresult: "0x80520006 (NS_ERROR_FILE_TARGET_DOES_NOT_EXIST)" location: "JS frame :: file:///home/keith/firefox-installer/components/nsExtensionManager.js :: ensureExtensionsFiles :: line 245" data: no] *** loading the extensions datasource *** loading the extensions datasource [root@dizzy firefox-installer]# it worked.

What's up with adding packages?

2004-07-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

[root@dizzy root]# urpmi webmin unable to take medium "Commercial Applications CD 6 (x86) (cdrom8)" into account as no list file [/var/lib/urpmi/list.Commercial Applications CD 6 (x86) (cdrom8 )] exists unable to take medium "Commercial Applications CD 6 (x86) (cdrom9)" into account as no list file [/var/lib/urpmi/list.Commercial Applications CD 6 (x86) (cdrom9 )] exists unable to take medium "Installation CD 3 (x86) (cdrom4)" into account as no list file [/var/lib/urpmi/list.Installation CD 3 (x86) (cdrom4)] exists unable to take medium "Supplementary Applications CD 4 (x86) (cdrom5)" into acco unt as no list file [/var/lib/urpmi/list.Supplementary Applications CD 4 (x86) ( cdrom5)] exists unable to take medium "Supplementary Applications CD 5 (x86) (cdrom6)" into acco unt as no list file [/var/lib/urpmi/list.Supplementary Applications CD 5 (x86) ( cdrom6)] exists unable to take medium "Supplementary Applications CD 5 (x86) (cdrom7)" into acco unt as no list file [/var/lib/urpmi/list.Supplementary Applications CD 5 (x86) ( cdrom7)] exists To satisfy dependencies, the following packages are going to be installed (24 MB ): lsof-4.68-1mdk.i586 perl-Authen-PAM-0.14-3mdk.i586 perl-CGI-3.00-2mdk.noarch perl-Net_SSLeay-1.25-2mdk.i586 webmin-1.121-4mdk.noarch Is this OK? (Y/n) Y eject: unable to open `/dev/hdc' Please insert the medium named "Installation CD 3 (x86) " on device [/dev/hdc] Press Enter when ready... eject: unable to open `/dev/hdc' Please insert the medium named "Installation CD 3 (x86) " on device [/dev/hdc] Press Enter when ready... eject: unable to open `/dev/hdc' Please insert the medium named "Installation CD 3 (x86) " on device [/dev/hdc] Press Enter when ready... eject: unable to open `/dev/hdc' Please insert the medium named "Installation CD 3 (x86) " on device [/dev/hdc] Press Enter when ready... eject: unable to open `/dev/hdc' Please insert the medium named "Installation CD 3 (x86) " on device [/dev/hdc] Press Enter when ready... (I hit ctrl-c to get out... I had the CD in but it kept giving me the same msg) [root@dizzy tmp]#

Webmin & Postfix Install

2004-07-15T23:39:00.000-07:00

Email & Webmin Install

Computer: Shuttlex

OS: Mandrake Linux 10.0 Official Power Pack

Friday 16 July 2004

Installation Log

Open terminal, su to root
Install postfix: urpmi postfix
Install webmin: urpmi webmin
Install apache: urpmi apache
Update packages: urpmi --update --auto-select
Start webmin, postfix daemons
Test webmin in browser: https://localhost:10000/

Postfix Install

[root@shuttlex root]# urpmi postfix

To satisfy dependencies, the following packages are going to be installed (3 MB):

libpostfix1-2.1.0-0.20040209.18mdk.i586

postfix-2.1.0-0.20040209.18mdk.i586

Is this OK? (Y/n) Y

Please insert the medium named "Installation CD 1 (x86) " on device [/dev/hdb]

Press Enter when ready...


installing /mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS/postfix-2.1.0-0.20040209.18mdk.i586.rpm /mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS/libpostfix1-2.1.0-0.20040209.18mdk.i586.rpm

Preparing...                ##################################################

   1:libpostfix1            ##################################################

   2:postfix                ##################################################

Shutting down kernel logger: [  OK  ]

Shutting down system logger: [  OK  ]

Starting system logger: [  OK  ]

Starting kernel logger: [  OK  ]

Webmin Install

[root@shuttlex root]# urpmi webmin

To satisfy dependencies, the following packages are going to be installed (24 MB):

lsof-4.68-1mdk.i586

perl-Authen-PAM-0.14-3mdk.i586

perl-CGI-3.00-2mdk.noarch

perl-Net_SSLeay-1.25-2mdk.i586

webmin-1.121-4mdk.noarch

Is this OK? (Y/n) Y

Please insert the medium named "Installation CD 2 (x86) " on device [/dev/hdb]

Press Enter when ready...


The following packages have bad signatures:

/mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS2/webmin-1.121-4mdk.noarch.rpm: Invalid Key ID ((sha1) dsa sha1 md5 gpg GPG#70771ff3 OK)

Do you want to continue installation ? (y/N) y

installing /mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS2/webmin-1.121-4mdk.noarch.rpm /var/cache/urpmi/rpms/perl-CGI-3.00-2mdk.noarch.rpm /var/cache/urpmi/rpms/perl-Net_SSLeay-1.25-2mdk.i586.rpm /var/cache/urpmi/rpms/perl-Authen-PAM-0.14-3mdk.i586.rpm /var/cache/urpmi/rpms/lsof-4.68-1mdk.i586.rpm

Preparing...                ##################################################

   1:lsof                   ##################################################

   2:perl-Authen-PAM        ##################################################

   3:perl-Net_SSLeay        ##################################################

   4:perl-CGI               ##################################################

   5:webmin                 ##################################################

[root@shuttlex root]#

Apache Install

[root@shuttlex root]# urpmi apache

To satisfy dependencies, the following packages are going to be installed (2 MB):

apache-1.3.29-1mdk.i586

apache-conf-2.0.48-2mdk.i586

apache-modules-1.3.29-1mdk.i586

apache2-common-2.0.48-6mdk.i586

libapr0-2.0.48-6mdk.i586

libdb3.3-3.3.11-17mdk.i586

libmm1-1.3.0-3mdk.i586

Is this OK? (Y/n) Y

Please insert the medium named "Installation CD 1 (x86) " on device [/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/cd]

Press Enter when ready...


installing /mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS/libapr0-2.0.48-6mdk.i586.rpm /mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS/apache-conf-2.0.48-2mdk.i586.rpm /mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS/libmm1-1.3.0-3mdk.i586.rpm /mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS/apache2-common-2.0.48-6mdk.i586.rpm /mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS/libdb3.3-3.3.11-17mdk.i586.rpm /mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS/apache-modules-1.3.29-1mdk.i586.rpm /mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS/apache-1.3.29-1mdk.i586.rpm

Preparing...                ##################################################

   1:libdb3.3               ##################################################

   2:libmm1                 ##################################################

   3:apache-conf            ##################################################

   4:libapr0                ##################################################

   5:apache2-common         ##################################################

   6:apache-modules         ##################################################

Recreating httpd-perl.conf from compat file

Recreating httpd.conf from compat file

   7:apache                 ##################################################

Re-creating /etc/httpd/modules

Re-creating /etc/httpd/extramodules

Test Webmin

Mandrake Security Advisories - 10.0

2004-07-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

Listed by date with an ID and description.

RPMDrake commands

2004-07-13T21:59:00.000-07:00

Execute these commands to use the graphical front end for urpmi management, rpmdrake. Browse Available Software: /usr/sbin/rpmdrake Install Software: /usr/sbin/rpmdrake --root Mandrake Update: /usr/sbin/MandrakeUpdate Remove Software: /usr/sbin/rpmdrake-remove --root Software Media Manager: /usr/sbin/edit-urpm-media

URPMI Links

2004-07-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

URPMI and RPM Tutorial Urpmi Mini-mini-howto

2004-07-12T15:20:00.000-07:00

KWS notes qmail discussion thread: http://archives.mandrakelinux.com/qmail/2004-05/ Read the thread "[qmail] New qmail mailing list" Some believe qmail is secure but hasn't been updated with new features. What new features it has are done by contributors, not by the author and not certified by him. Some are going to Exim since it has the latest features, although it has had some minor security issues in the recent past. I installed qmail. Last supported package is for Mandrake 9.2 but they say it works in 10.0. I still need to install a patch but haven't figured out how just yet. (Do I need to install qmail-local? qmailctl command is not found...) Configured files under /var/qmail/alias and /var/qmail/control as per byrd, mostly. Copied /etc/aliases file from byrd. After changing config files you have to type: qmailctl cdb - reread config files qmailctl reload - sends HUP signal to program newaliases - read new aliases file This is the Mandrake page I followed that mentions the patch. http://www.short4.co.uk/~mwatts/qmail-howto.html This is a list of all packages that come with Mandrake 10: http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/10.0/features/15.php3 Remember to allow senders (relayers) here: /etc/tcp.smtp (I think this has now changed to /etc/tcprules.d/qmail-smtp.

2004-07-12T11:03:00.000-07:00

Linux Server Configuration

Computer: Dizzy

July 12, 2004

Keith and I spoke on the phone and review the server configuration

Email

Qmail - (MTA) keith installed from package via the command line.

Keith will install cyrus to complete the email server basic.

Other Installations

SquirrelMail
SpamAssassin
DNS - Keith has worked with BIND, but suggests DJBDNS

Next Steps

Draft schedule - Neil
Research Cyrus - Neil
Research DJBDNS -Keith
Install & Configure DNS - Keith
Send /etc/ archive to Neil - Keith

Hardening Checklist

Finish package installation
Configure ssh
Configure & test firewall
Install tripwire & configure
Update all software
Install & configure bastille

Hardware

We discussed an error message related to on of the volumes (hda1?) not mounting as ext3, but ext2. I recalled the installation errors I encountered, but I think the evidence points to problems with the CD install media.

We could try to swap in another HD to see if the problem goes away.

2004-06-28T22:58:00.000-07:00

Dizzy

Install Log 
10:01 PM 6/28/2004
===========

Boot from CD 1.

Accept defaults ... loads X installer.

Language: English (American)

License: Accept

Install

Security Level: Higher

Security Administrator: root

Paritions: Use existing

hda:  12  GB
hda1: 5.8 GB ext3 /
hda5: 494 MB swap
hda6: 6.3 GB ext3 /var
hdb:  37  GB
hdb1: 37  GB ext3 /home

Format hda1 only
(But other partitions are checked)

Package Group Selection

Workstation
-----------
Internet Station
Network Computer (client)
Configuration
Console Tools

Server
------
Web/FTP
Mail
Database
Firewall/Router
Network Computer server

Graphical Environment
---------------------
Other Graphical Desktops

Total Size: 735/5279 MB

Really install servers? Yes

Install commences. 
Requests discs 2 & 3 (2 times for disk 3!). 
Installation is successful.

set root password:

Creat new users:

For admin users, I enabled:
ctools, rpm, xgrp, ntools, adm, wheel

access to compilation tools
access to rpm tools
access to X programs
access to network tools
access to administrative files
allow "su"

Bootloader: First sector of drive (MBR)

Summary

Hardware
   Graphical interface: Configure; Options; 
No X on boot. 800 X 600 65K colors

Network & Internet
   Network - lan: Configure; 
LAN Connection; Net Device eth0: Accton|SMC2-1211TX; 
Modify: Yes; Manual Configuration; 
IP Address: 192.168.1.60, 
check x-Start at boot; 
Host name: dizzy.cadent.com, 
DNS server 1: 207.172.3.8, 
DNS server 2: 207.172.3.9 (RCN settings), 
Gateway: 192.168.1.1; 
Zeroconf: (none); Finish

Firewall:
Select:
SSH server
Echo request (ping)

Interface: eth0

Services at boot
Key:
o - off
x - on

Select:
System
o - alsa
x - atd
x - crond
o - harddrake
x - keytable
x - kheader
x - network
x - numlock
o - portmap
x - random
x - rawdevices
o - sound
x - syslog
o - xfs (Note- set this for runlevel 5!)
x - xinetd
Other
o - devfsd
o - dm
o - fam
o - hotplug
o - lads
o - mailman
o - netplugd
x - partmon
o - postfix
o - routed
o - rsync
x - shorewall
o - sshd-xinetd
Internet
o - httpd
x - iptables
o - proftpd
o - proftpd-xinetd
File sharing
o - netfs
o - nfs
o - nfslock
o - smb
Database Server
o - postgresql
Remote Administration
x - sshd

15 activated for 38 registered;

Download updates: No

Congratulations: Advanced, [Generate auto install floppy]; 
Automated, insert floppy (formatted in Linux w/ mformat -f 1440 a:)

Save package selection

To use: boot w/ "linux defcfg=floppy"

Reboot. Success! 
Log in as neil
startx - no luck

using drakconf, started xfs at boot. 
Reboot, login, startx. 
Select desktop: IceWM. 
Entered mandrake club membership.
Loaded desktop.
Done.

2004-06-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

Dizzy Install Log 
Mandrake 10.0 Download
9:58 PM 6/28/2004
===========

Because Dizzy uses shared video RAM, 
specifically 1 MB of 256, 
do I need to tell the bootloader? 

Like this:

Boot from CD 1.

F1

boot: linux mem=255M

Kernel Panic: VFS: unable to mount root fs on ram3

Cancel & reboot. 

That didn't work...let's just try the defaults, next.

2004-06-28T22:05:00.000-07:00

Dizzy Install log

9:52 PM 6/28/2004

I need to be sure I use the right ISO CD sets! 
The set I'm using is now the 
Mandrake 10.0 Official Download (4 discs).

Memory Test
-----------

Prior to starting the installation, 
I ran a memory test to ensure the 
hardware was still behaving properly.

I ran MemTest86. Results:
Pentium III 730 Mhz
L1 Cache 32K
L2 Cache 256K
Memory: 255 MB
Chipset i810e

Note 1 MB of 256 is reserved for video RAM

All tests passed after I ran the tests for approximately 5 hrs.

Reboot w/ Mandrake 10.0 Official Download 1 of 4

Differences between the free Download version and the PowerPack

Video drivers (e.g. ATI)
Modem drivers

2003-12-05T04:02:00.000-08:00

Command Line Email in Linux

http://tldp.org/LDP/linuxcookbook/html/cookbook_38.html

2003-07-31T21:25:00.000-07:00

Summer Fun

The big news is Parker (as in Charlie), the new RH9 web server. Right after that, I moved to a new apartment. I had to shut down the home network and I haven't restored it yet. I've really moved over the hp ze4145 laptop, Zephyr, with Win XP Home. I'm running Cygwin on that to talk to the remote boxes using ssh from the command line. I found Jon Udell's blog, Jon's Radio. I lost trck of him after Byte wemt pay-per-view. He's a mad blogger, with UserLand's Radio. I think that let's him post pics to his blog. That's a key feature. I don't think Blogger supports that. Turns out Jon is a Christopher Lydon fan, too.

2003-05-30T18:25:00.000-07:00

Installation News

It turns out that the Gateway had a bad RAM chip, and when I swapped it out, the install went fine. I ended up installing Red Hat 9 on that box, with the intention to use it as a server of some sort. I have the exact same model at home, with, I think, a ATI Rage 128 video card. I also installed RH9 on that box and set it up as an NFS/Samba file server.

That's working quite well; I really like the RH9 administration tools. Setting up Samba in particular was a breeze using the new RH9 tool, compared to editing the config files or even using the SWAT tools.

I've updated all of the Linux boxes at work to RH9, and upgraded the old Compaq Presario 1200 laptop to RH9 as well. That disabled the Linksys wireless network card, but I was able to restore it easily with the new Linux Red Hat 9 RPMs for the wlan pcmcia card, from the linux-wlan-ng 0.2.0 RPMS site.

2003-05-30T18:15:00.000-07:00

About this Blog

I've been using Linux for a few years now, and administering both Linux and Windows servers. My company, Cadent Technologies Corp., hosts some of our client's sites on Window 2000 using IIS 5.0 and SQL Server 7.0. I've been working with IIS since it came out, and Cadent has also specialized in ASP development.

I've wanted to switch the company from Windows to Linux for some time. We are now using Linux as our file server, and I've started to migrate our clients and current projects to PHP. Once we move our web sites to PHP (on Windows), we can then move the sites to PHP on Linux, and then move the databases from SQL Server 7.0 to MySQL or Postgres. I realized it would take some time, so I started by using open source software on Windows, so I could run the same apps on Linux.

I'm using the Mozilla Composer to create this blog. Composer tip: use Format > Paragraph > Paragraph to insert <p> tags, not <br>. To check, use View > HTML Tags.

Software

Internet: Web browsing, HTML composition, IMAP email: Mozilla.

Today's Installations

Mozilla 1.3 - current release, just out of beta. I downloaded the x86 Talkback enabled Net Installer and extracted the installer files, then installed to the default location, /usr/local/mozilla. I renamed the directory and can now run Mozilla with this script: /usr/local/mozilla-1.3/mozilla

Now, I'm trying to install the RPMS for Red Hat Linux 8.x with Xft support, but I see the following dependency error:

[root@localhost downloads]# rpm -i mozilla-1.3-0_rh8_xft.i386.rpm error: Failed dependencies: mozilla-nspr = 1.3-0_rh8_xft is needed by mozilla-1.3-0_rh8_xft
[root@localhost downloads]# rpm -i mozilla-1.3-0_rh8_xft.i386.rpm error: Failed dependencies: mozilla-nspr = 1.3-0_rh8_xft is needed by mozilla-1.3-0_rh8_xft [root@localhost downloads]# rpm -i mozilla-nspr-1.3-0_rh8_xft.i386.rpm file /usr/lib/libnspr4.so from install of mozilla-nspr-1.3-0_rh8_xft con flicts with file from package mozilla-nspr-1.0.1-26 file /usr/lib/libplc4.so from install of mozilla-nspr-1.3-0_rh8_xft conf licts with file from package mozilla-nspr-1.0.1-26 file /usr/lib/libplds4.so from install of mozilla-nspr-1.3-0_rh8_xft con flicts with file from package mozilla-nspr-1.0.1-26

I need to remove the mozilla-1.0.1 RPMs. I ran the Red Carpet and selected Mozilla to remove. Evolution has to go, too. Also, quit Red Carpet before using command line rpm. The installation was successful. I can now run Mozilla 1.3 with xft support, and boy does it look fine.

Mozilla 1.3 Plug-ins

Mozilla installs rather stripped down. Some essential additions:

Spellchecker for Mozilla, including the installation for Mozilla 1.3.
Themes for Mozilla.

2003-04-07T12:27:00.000-07:00

Gateway Stats

From the BIOS (ver. WL81020A.15A0005.P04): Intel Pentium III 800 Mhz, 133 MHz front-side bus. 512 MB RAM - 2 X 256 MB. I think the problem is that this box uses shared video RAM. For more information, see the Red Hat Knowledge Base Article on the i810 chipset.

2003-04-07T11:41:00.000-07:00

Restored!

The OEM (Gateway) system restoration worked, at least to the point where the computer boots from the HD. I'm going to let it chug away and then I can get all of the driver and hardware info from Windows 98. Yet, strangely, the Restore seems to have hung on the third CD, where many of the drivers are installed.

2003-04-07T11:40:00.000-07:00

No Luck at All

I booted off of the Partition Magic 8.0 CD and wiped out all of the partitions. Then I tried to use the Red Hat 8.0 CD to install. That dies with a kernel panic. Same with the generic Debian boot. With Debian, the "vanilla" option doesn't work, nor does the default option. When I tried again, with the "bf24" option. I'm not getting anywhere with this. I'm going to restore the original system from the System Restoration Kit (Disc 2) provided by Gateway.

2003-04-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

If at First You Don't Succeed...

The formatting of the swap partition seems to have hung. (4 hours later) I rebooted. This time, I tried the generic boot: and got this:

"Kernel panic. No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel"

Reboot. I tried the "compact" option and that doesn't work either - some kind of endless loop. I'm not going to torture myself when I can just go with Red Hat 8.0

2003-04-07T09:22:00.000-07:00

Debian 3.0 Install

I'm trying to install Debian 3.0 Linux to one of the Gateway Professional computers. From disk 1, I entered "bf24" at the boot: prompt to boot to install using Linux 2.4. I selected English (US) install, En (qwerty) keyboard. Repartitioned the drive: 20 GB Hard disk. Partitioned as follows: 100 MB bootable, 1024 Swap (logical), remainder Linux logical. Initialized the swap partition with a bad-blocks check. This step is either taking an incredibly long time, or the computer has hung.