Posts
2010
2009
Parse kernel.org changelogs with wget and grep
··108 words·1 min
I try to keep up with the latest kernel update from kernel.
Upgrading Fedora 11 to 12 using yum
··149 words·1 min
As with the Fedora 10 to 11 upgrade, you can upgrade Fedora 11 to Fedora 12 using yum.
Disable acceleration for Appleâs Magic Mouse
··168 words·1 min
Edit: After further research, I found that this fix only adjusts the speed at which your mouse moves.
Automatically loading iptables rules on Debian/Ubuntu
··127 words·1 min
If you want your iptables rules automatically loaded every time your networking comes up on your Debian or Ubuntu server, you can follow these easy steps.
Changing the time zone in irssi
··94 words·1 min
I usually set the time zone on my servers to UTC, but that makes it a bit confusing for me when I use irssi.
Fedora 11 httpd: alloc_listener: failed to get a socket for (null)
··129 words·1 min
If you use Fedora 11 in a virtualized environment, you may have seen this error recently if you’ve updated to apr-1.
Installing the mysql gem in Fedora 11 64-bit
··90 words·1 min
On some systems, getting the mysql gem to build can be a little tricky.
Graphical representation of Ciscoâs BGP issues this morning
··9 words·1 min
If you haven’t checked out bgplay, it’s pretty handy.
Get the public-facing IP for any server with icanhazip.com
··71 words·1 min
There are a ton of places on the internet where you can check the public-facing IP for the device you are using.
Rotating rails logs when using Phusion Passenger
··80 words·1 min
I found a great post on Overstimulate about handling the rotation of rails logs when you use Phusion Passenger.
Deleting all e-mail messages in your inbox with mutt
··180 words·1 min
Occasionally, I’ll end up with a mailbox full of random data, alerts, or other useless things.
Two great signals: SIGSTOP and SIGCONT
··278 words·2 mins
The best uses I’ve found for the SIGSTOP and SIGCONT signals are times when a process goes haywire, or when a script spawns too many processes at once.
Upgrading from Fedora 10 (Cambridge) to Fedora 11 (Leonidas)
··235 words·2 mins
There are two main ways to upgrade Fedora 10 (Cambridge) to Fedora 11 (Leonidas):
Simple SOCKS proxy using SSH
··148 words·1 min
Sometimes we find ourselves in places where we don’t trust the network that we’re using.
Comparing MySQL result sets quickly
··71 words·1 min
I found a really helpful tip on Xaprb for comparing result sets in MySQL:
Re-scan the SCSI bus in Linux after hot-swapping a drive
··246 words·2 mins
Servers with hot swappable drive bays are always handy.
Piping log files to a syslog server
··117 words·1 min
If you have a centralized syslog server, or you use Splunk for log tracking, you may find the need to get older log files into a syslog port on that server.
Enabling VNC as a pseudo-KVM with VMWare Server
··198 words·1 min
Mac users feel a little left out when it comes to VMWare Server clients.
Compare the RPM packages installed on two different servers
··97 words·1 min
Setting up new servers can be a pain if you’re not able to clone them from a server that is known to be working.
Prevent gnome-keyring from asking for a password when NetworkManager starts
··285 words·2 mins
I recently tossed Ubuntu 8.
Upgrade Debian etch to lenny
··40 words·1 min
I’ve tested this Debian etch to lenny upgrade process a few times so far, and it seems to be working well.
Linux: emergency reboot or shutdown with magic commands
··416 words·2 mins
Most linux distributions use some type of mechanism to gracefully stop daemons and unmount storage volumes during a reboot or shutdown.
Linux: Adjust storage kernel module load order
··528 words·3 mins
I set up a system at home that has two SATA controllers: one is on the motherboard (nvidia chipset), while the other is on a Silicon Image SATA card that has three eSATA ports.
Writing a Ruby on Rails application without using a database
··166 words·1 min
Some of you may be wondering âwhy would you want to use Rails without a database?
CPAN: Automatically install dependencies without confirmation
··242 words·2 mins
I enjoy using CPAN because it installs Perl modules with a simple interface, fetches dependencies, and warns you when things are about to end badly.
2008
Reducing inode and dentry caches to keep OOM killer at bay
··613 words·3 mins
When it comes to frustrating parts of the Linux kernel, OOM killer takes the cake.
Simple server monitoring with xinetd
··262 words·2 mins
You can use the simple but powerful xinetd on your Linux server to monitor almost anything on the server.
Importing Excel files into MySQL with PHP
··235 words·2 mins
If you have Excel files that need to be imported into MySQL, you can import them easily with PHP.
Plesk: Upgrade to 8.4 causes âno such userâ error in maillog
··83 words·1 min
If you have a Plesk server where short mail names are enabled, upgrading to Plesk 8.
Viewing documentation for your ruby gems
··46 words·1 min
I stumbled into this four line ruby script that will serve up all of the rdoc documentation for your server’s currently installed gems:
What is âsteal timeâ in my sysstat output?
··249 words·2 mins
After running sar on my new slice from SliceHost*, I noticed a new column called steal.
Syncing an iPhone with a new Mac without hassles
··199 words·1 min
I know I usually talk about Linux server related topics on this blog, but I’m pretty proud of what I’ve figured out this morning on my Mac.
Installing Microsoftâs TrueType fonts on Linux servers
··129 words·1 min
Although the idea of putting something from Microsoft on a Linux box might sound awful at first, you may find a reason to use Microsoft TrueType fonts on a Linux server.
ext3_dx_add_entry: Directory index full!
··207 words·1 min
I found a server last week that was having severe issues with disk I/O to the point where most operations were taking many minutes to complete.
Apache 2.2: internal dummy connection
··459 words·3 mins
After working with some RHEL 5 servers fairly regularly, I noticed a reduction in Apache 2.
Compress your web content for better performance
··133 words·1 min
Most web developers expend a lot of energy optimizing queries, reducing the overhead of functions, and streamlining their application’s overall flow.
Listing of VMWare configuration parameters
··79 words·1 min
For a recent project, I needed to automatically provision VM’s for testing.
CentOS/RHEL x86_64 + VMWare: Use of uninitialized value in string
··101 words·1 min
I was working with a CentOS 5 x86_64 installation running VMWare server last week when I stumbled upon this error:
Encrypted filesystems and partitions on RHEL 5
··261 words·2 mins
I spoke with a customer last week who was curious about enabling encrypted partitions on a DAS connected to their server.
Basic procmail configuration with spamassassin filtering
··62 words·1 min
I’ve used this extremely basic procmail configuration a million times, and it’s a great start for any server configuration.
Reduce disk I/O for small reads using memory
··353 words·2 mins
Many applications that are used on a standard server perform quite a few of small writes to the disk (like MySQL or Apache).
Automatically starting synergy in GDM in Ubuntu/Fedora
··236 words·2 mins
Before you follow this guide, be sure to read about the issue I had in Fedora 12 with this strategy.
Plesk 8.4.0: Unable to use short names for POP3/IMAP
··89 words·1 min
If you recently upgraded to Plesk 8.
MySQL: ERROR 1040: Too many connections
··651 words·4 mins
If you run a fairly busy and/or badly configured MySQL server, you may receive something like this when attempting to connect:
Rebuilding statistics from previous months on Plesk 8.3
··94 words·1 min
There was a bug in versions of Plesk prior to 8.