So that it’s documented… I’m using port 8080 as the default port as the likelyhood of your upstream proxy being on 8080 is high – else, typical proxy ports are, of course, 80, 800 (transpartent), 8000, 3128 (squid)
To force your server to force web traffic via a proxy, just two quick things to set – in /etc/environment, export one (or two) variables: (more…)
You knew it already – but I keep forgetting – the power of zgrep and zcat both of which behave as their z-less counterparts.
So, to search a gzip’d file, you can simply zgrep <term> <filename.gz>, or to cat/view it, zcat <filename.gz>
Good to come back to in case of impending forgetfulness…
For self-reference, mainly:
For the Intel Corporation 82574L Gigabit Network Connection on an old kernel that doesn’t have the drivers compiled into it – get the driver and
make install
it on the platform you’re on, and to be sure (if it doesn’t get done for you) to copy to /lib/modules/2.4.36/kernel/drivers/net/ (your kernel may vary, this is an example only) (more…)
In the story relating to release upgrades for Ubuntu, below the end-of-life table for the Ubutu Releases from the Ubuntu Wiki – just to have it all in one place; I’m only including the LTS (long-term support) editions, as these should be the only ones deployed on live production systems. In the meantime, Maverick Meerkat is due in October 2010, supported for 2 years. (more…)
Windows Vista and 7, if not before, allow symbolic links — mklink is your command-line friend!
Creates a symbolic link. (more...)
It’s a simple one-liner that one tends to forget (that is, one that I forget as I untar more than I manually tar). So creating a tar file from directory and all subdirectories is as simple as
tar -cvf file.tar directory (more…)
Assuming you have a Windows machine and you interact with Linux boxen at any stage, chances are high that you have used and interacted with PuTTY at one stage or another. That beautiful, less than 2 sec, 444K download of a tool (currently at version 0.60 beta) allows you to SSH, COM-direct, RSH, Telnet etc from the desktop. Both examples below relate to MySQL port tunneling.
Running on a proper machine (or even a Windows with Cygwin or a Mac Terminal) allows you to quickly tunnel a session to a remote server: (more…)
Just a quick note – remember to upgrade now! But you knew that already! 
218 people helped fixing the 1217 bugs, with a new default theme called Twenty Ten and a whole lot more.
(more…)
Samba. Whopping goodness. Here are a few notes that help in the setup – from user creation, to directory settings etc
This blog post contains a few lessons learnt and thus by extension a migration plan from a Windows file server to a Samba-based one running on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. I look at users, system vs smbpasswd user creation and linking (set that up in Webmin before you start, as well as for groups), share setups, general permissions and some very basic troubleshooting (as there weren’t many troubles, just headaches.) (more…)
Just a quick note (as I keep forgetting, and a cut-and-paste solution is a quicker time to market) – but you knew that already. Installing Webmin is quite simple (download directly, or from the mirrors). Currently, 1.510-2 is the latest version – check on www.webmin.com for further details. As an aside, the book Webmin Kompakt – by Holger Reibold – is available for download!
So here’s a simple step-by-step: (more…)
So the Security Summit 2010 has come to an end. Featuring speakers such as Moxie Marlinspike, Joe Grand and Jeremiah Grossman (again), it’s a pity to say that there wasn’t much new that was presented. With repeated concerns about input- and output-validation, as the OWASP Top 10 for 2010 highlight and were used as a repeated example, and a call for a holistic approach to a company’s security posture, the idea of making the thought (and practice) of security part of the organisation’s culture came through over and over again. (more…)
They’ve passed their RC status and have moved into full Long-Term Release for Ubuntu Lucid Lynx — local mirrors are still showing the RC version, but it’s out!
What’s new?
I’ve only played with the 10.04 Server edition so far, and the faster boot time is definately a big win (though some regressive network driver support still needed to be ironed out – hopefully sorted for the final release…)
Yay!!! Well done, guys!! Thanks for a new, even more sparkly LTS!
It’s quite simple, really: POP3 (Exchange, dovecot etc) you know, IMAP (Exchange, dovecot, courier etc) you know — so this is just a recap, right? You know how to telnet into the machine — in Vista or Windows 7, you may need to install it separately using “Add/Remove Programs”, or just use Putty in Telnet mode… otherwise, apt-get install telnet if it’s not on your machine (or yum install telnet)
POP3:
telnet SERVER 110 (more...)
They’ve been working hard! Well done!!
| Function | Status | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| CAPTCHA whois | Not affected | http://captcha.coza.net.za |
| Port 43 whois | Not affected | whois://whois.coza.net.za |
| Primary Database | Not affected | |
| Name Servers | Not affected | CO.ZA zone integrity unaffected |
| Incoming and Outgoing email | Not affected | Applications queuing on incoming mail server |
| RT Ticket system | Not affected | |
| Network | Partially affected – Fixed | Redundant link restored |
| Main web site | Affected – Fixed | http://www.coza.net.za |
| Web whois | Affected – Fixed | http://www.coza.net.za/whois.shtml |
| Registration Engine (Updates, New, Deletions) | Proceeeding Normally | Backlog processed – transactions being processed in real time Currently processing queued applications Final data sync, Final testing ETA afternoon of 8th New machine commissioned, OS Installed Restoring historic data |
| Payment Processing | processing backlog | Commencing on the 9th – ETA of backlog completion 11th Processing of Suspension/Deletions suspended until complete |
| Online VISA/Mastercard payments | In progress | ETA 9th Processing of Suspension/Deletions suspended until complete |
You’re stuck on a Windows box. But you don’t want to install MinGW32? Can’t dual-boot to run Ubuntu or Debian on your Windows machine for some for that GNU happiness that sed, groff, wget, whois and all those happy apps bring with it? (more…)
OpenOffice.org startup failures, indexing issues and other niggles forced me to re-install KnowledgeTree 3.7.0.2 Commercial Edition (the same holds true for the Community Edition) more than once during setup. I was met with this delicious error notification which killed all further activity on the site (and prevented the startup of /setup/wizard/, control.php, browse.php, login.php — well, everything, really):
Warning: include_once(DB/.php) [function.include-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/share/knowledgetree/thirdparty/pear/DB.php on line 371
Warning: include_once() [function.include]: Failed opening ‘DB/.php’ for inclusion (include_path=’/usr/share/knowledgetree/search2:/usr/share/knowledgetree/ktapi:/usr/share/knowledgetree/thirdparty/xmlrpc-2.2/lib:/usr/share/knowledgetree/thirdparty/simpletest:/usr/share/knowledgetree/thirdparty/Smarty:/usr/share/knowledgetree/thirdparty/pear:/usr/share/knowledgetree/thirdparty/ZendFramework/library:.:/usr/local/zend/share/ZendFramework/library:/usr/local/zend/share/pear:/usr/share/knowledgetree/thirdparty/pear’) in /usr/share/knowledgetree/thirdparty/pear/DB.php on line 371
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /usr/share/knowledgetree/thirdparty/pear/DB.php:371) in /usr/share/knowledgetree/config/dmsDefaults.php on line 299 (more…)
Having repeatedly received the error that OpenOffice.org is not running on the standard installation of KnowledgeTree 3.7.0.2 Commercial Edition (the same holds true for the Community Edition), further investigation was necessary. The key area of investigation must focus on the dmsctl.sh file, particularly from line 47 onwards, but more of that further down below. This is on Ubuntu (9.10 Server).
First, do a few quick checks:
netstat -pant| grep 8100 — as the default installation is running with a headless OpenOffice.org on port 8100. You should see something like:
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:8100 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 9655/soffice.binFor the fix in question, it wasn’t giving any results on this check (sudo the commands where required, but you knew that already), which means that it’s not running properly. Also,
ps -aux | grep soffice
gave no results, indicating non-functioning backend software.
(more…)
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (beta) now out...
Ubuntu 10.04 went beta yesterday afternoon, with downloads at http://releases.ubuntu.com/10.04/, otherwise from the download mirrors. Lucid Lynx, as it’s called, enjoys LTS support (ie 5 years out the box).
This version promises as a better (and faster) boot experience, new themes, version 2.6.32 as the Linux kernel, Firefox as default browser — with default browser page changed to Yahoo! (that’s new!) nVidia hardware support using open source drivers has improved, and a whack of new features for the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud have been included. (more…)