Neil's Open Source & Linux Blog

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.

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 instal l 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 Inst

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.