Linux on

Surface Book, Windows 10, and WSL: A year in review from a UNIX Geek

Sun, 05 Nov 2017 04:15:57 +0000

TL;DR Unix geek tries Windows 10 for a year. For the most part it works, but lots of growing pains. Going back to the land of GNU.

Introduction

A year ago, I started an attempt to give Windows another try. I jump around different platforms to stay current and cognisant of the industry shifts professionally. The need to get back to Windows happen to coincide with need for a new laptop.

You are dev to me

Sun, 11 Oct 2015 04:26:50 +0000

Introduction

The idea of keeping a production and development network always wears on me. Unless the change management is in place to offer some assurances that both threads are kept exactly in sync, they inevitably turn into a game of not good enough to buy down risk.

That was the rationale behind creating a system that allowed rapid captures of running machines, transitioning to a closed network, and with no changes to the network/systems have them be as they were just minutes earlier. Thanks to technology from EMC, Cisco, VMware, and VyOS this is all very possible.

Traffic Control on Linux with FireQOS

Sat, 01 Nov 2014 15:28:44 +0000

In order to make full use of my half-duplex WiMAX link, I started looking for anything and everything I could use to optimize it. Linux has some pretty decent utilities with iproute2 and netem to handle these type of configurations. They don’t compare to OpenBSD’s PF, but they work once you get the setup in place.

Due in part to how ugly TC is out of the box, I really like FireQOS for defining the basic configuration. The developer also makes a great iptables wrapper called FireHOL, but iptables rules are easy enough to write in my opinion.

The machine is self aware…

Sun, 19 Oct 2014 16:57:09 +0000

I live in the boonies now, but thankfully we have some semblance of broadband with SpeedConnect. It is a WiMax setup with a modem that needs to be reset once a day (sometimes more if I am downloading ISO’s) and only connects at 10Mb Half-Duplex. Better than nothing I suppose.

Originally I just succom to needing to wake-up, hit the head, and then hit the server room to pull the power. The geek in me couldn’t take it. Enter an extra Wemo Insight I had lying around. Initially I attempted to set up a rule that reset the switch (and thereby the modem) and coincide that with a cron script to bring down and back up the connection.

ADS-B Receiver and Plotter with Arch Linux

Wed, 27 Aug 2014 10:47:13 +0000

I love aviation and love software defined radios so building an ADS-B receiver and plotter was high on the lists of to-do. In Standish Michigan there are not a lot of fly overs so I wanted to be sure to capture those that happened. Haven seen now a few A-10’s on low pass it only fueled that desire :)

I use yaourt for my AUR package management, but whatever tool you use should be capable.

Serial Port on the Pogoplug v2

Tue, 17 Dec 2013 00:32:09 +0000

I have run the hotel/apartment room server off a BeagleBoard-XM for a few months now. I had no case for it, so I was a little worried to have an exposed computing platform hanging out there while the cleaning team and visitors were around. This put me on a search for a ARM-based platform that was small, silent, and could run Arch Linux. Up till this point I had used the Beagleboard with Ubuntu due to the ease of install. Yes it is capable of running Arch, but it isn’t a seamless process. Additionally, being ARM v7 it was not able to run Plex which is my media streaming platform of choice for the ouya

Simulating WAN Links with Linux and TC

Sun, 22 Sep 2013 04:10:11 +0000

Simulating WAN links used to be a difficult process. I would load FreeBSD with a dummynet driver and play with the settings to tweak where I needed it for the activity. OpenBSD with ALTQ made this a step simpler with the ease of bridging adapters. On a recent project for Spec Ops Technology, I needed to simulate a WAN with latency, loss, and randomness.

I decided I needed to dig more into the netem work included in most recent linux distributions. Netem has matured to the point of being a very potent utility for setting up quick testbeds. Additionally with most any modern Linux distro you are online in minutes. I will post a very quick script to get you online:

Microsoft Lync on Linux

Sat, 18 May 2013 04:02:43 +0000

Microsoft Lync is prevalent through the corporate world. Honestly its a pretty decent product on a Windows machine. On Linux and Mac though it is really a half-baked product of varying working status. On Mac the official client burns through your battery due to requiring the Nvidia graphics card on my Retina Pro??

I am a big fan on Pidgin (or Adium on the Mac) and have been struggling to get Lync support working on Mac/Linux using this client. Today I was finally able to connect.

Why is my /dev/sda missing?!?!

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 17:09:41 +0000

I am in the midst of testing some of the latest Linux kernels and realized that my old kernel config was wiped. In my desire to finish the build I forgot to select a VERY important option if you are using dm-crypt and LUKS. If you cannot access your /boot then there is no way to upgrade your kernel. Chicken and egg issue. Another issue maybe that you lost your /dev/sda1 or other nodes due to udev overtaking. Here is the fix in the situation:

Virtualization Tool Support Matrix

Sat, 05 Feb 2011 12:40:18 +0000

I would argue it is pretty sad that the tools needed to abstract the OS from hardware are tied to specific platforms. Companies that pride themselves on delivering “cloud services” without the constraints of operating system force us admin types to have machines we wouldn’t otherwise. Take for example my ESXi cluster in the basement. I have a single XP Virtual Machine who’s sole purpose is to admin vSphere. A company with such a rich history of Linux and OSS support drives me crazy at times. (see also PCoIP support from VMware with their Linux/Mac Client)

An iron fist in an iron glove – Mac/Linux Keymapping

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 08:28:20 +0000

This post will serve to upset both sides of the coin.

Apple users wondering why I would load an inferior OS
Linux users wondering why I spent all that extra money on Apple Hardware

I am going to skip the religious battles over OS and platform and say that if you happen to have loaded Linux on a piece of Apple hardware this post is for you. One of the first problems you will find is that your Alt+Tab doesn’t work as expected. If you follow the instructions your Command and Alt keys will work as you had hoped with the Apple Keyboard:

Your new CAC, Linux, Mac, and You

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:04:05 +0000

Earlier posts outlined howto utilize OpenSC to ensure your CAC worked in Linux or Mac. The problem is that there are new 144k CAC being passed out that do not work with the current coolkey or OpenSC toolsets. What is a happy Federal employee to do?! First you need to find a Windows computer that can access the https://software.forge.mil In a strange turn of events you will be unable to download the software necessary for your true platform of choice to access the software. Its a chicken and egg problem…

BitlBee and OTR … then add some TOR!

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 15:00:12 +0000

With the release of 3.0.1 of BitlBee you can now chat from your favorite IRC client with the peace of mind that your protected. Since the OTR portion is still very new I wanted to put together a quick howto. I am going to assume you are running Debian Lenny (sid has 3.0.1 in the packages already) and that you really are a security nut:

Download source from http://get.bitlbee.org/src/bitlbee-3.0.1.tar.gz
sudo apt-get install libotr2-dev libotr2-bin
./configure –prefix=/usr –otr=1
make
make install
make install-etc

Done! Now once you start bitlbee (/etc/init.d/bitlbee start) for the first time it will generate your OTR keys. I am going to assume that you are going to use the Question and Answer verification for OTR keys. With our other secure buddy we do the following:

-fno -fno -fno stack protection

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 11:46:54 +0000

2 days straight now on IRC (##security on irc.freenode.net if you want to say hi) I have had to help someone compiling a program deal with it failing mid-stream. This is especially prevalent on security packages like fuzzers and such. First, what is stack protection?

Buffer Overflow Protection

In software, a stack buffer overflow occurs when a program writes to a memory address on the program’s call stack outside of the intended data structure; usually a fixed length buffer.^[1]^[2] Stack buffer overflow bugs are caused when a program writes more data to a buffer located on the stack than there was actually allocated for that buffer. This almost always results in corruption of adjacent data on the stack, and in cases where the overflow was triggered by mistake, will often cause the program to crash or operate incorrectly. This type of overflow is part of the more general class of programming bugs known as buffer overflows.^[1]

Yubikey and my desire to beat the Feds to HSPD12 Compliance

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 20:13:28 +0000

During my Air Force days I was involved with the roll-out of the “CAC” for Air Mobility Command at MacDill. No one could understand why the military would put so much time and money into giving all personnel new ID Cards and equipping machines with readers that did nothing at that point. The main feature back then was that when you removed your CAC your machine would automatically lock. Well, that or you would just leave your CAC at work and need to call a coworker to come retrieve you from the gate. What I failed to understand back then was that Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) was something fundamentally needed for our nations and armed forces security. This should have been apparent and clear to me as I scattered around some of the bases most secure locations to find mission essential passwords affixed to stickies on the monitor.

Google ChromeOS Cr-48 Review

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 22:09:13 +0000

It seems everyone is posting their review after a few days of working with the laptop. I decided to take a different perspective with the initial review. When I first started playing with ChromeOS betas a few months ago I came to the realization that this was not for me. Two things were apparent:

This machine is to provide a cloud-based Thin Client. I live off servers around the world, not necessarily in the cloud.
As a geek, the Walled Garden drives me crazy. “What do you mean I can’t install a SSH server?!?!?”

My girlfriend on the other hand could care less about a SSH server. She finds the Mac Mini a little overwhelming at times and really just wants the internet. “Show me where the Safari icon is.” For that reason alone I found ChromeOS to be built for her. Instant On and just a web browser.

Have you been using my CAC?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 11:41:22 +0000

For there record if you say "CAC Card" in my presence you will be "SOL Luck" talking again soon.

If you are running Linux or Mac there is a good chance you haven’t been touching my CAC, otherwise known as Common Access Card. George Bush signed HSPD-12 way back in 2004 to mandate the usage of CAC and multifactor authentication on federal networks. The DoD giggled as it was already deploying limited installs at choice commands and was way ahead of the curve. The rest of the government and corporate entities are starting to roll-out the installs and a common theme I see is lack of heterogenous OS support. In this day and age your CIO/CTO/CISO must think beyond what the Microsoft sales lead tells them and think of the user base. Here is a big hint to save you from looking silly – You can’t say iOS/Android development is important to your divisions and then mandate they use Windows computers to comply with your SmartCard policy. I only mention that having sat in the room when the mobile development PM had to make his leadership aware they were basically shutting his group down.

Multi-core Security

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:04:47 +0000

A question from a distinguished colleague of mine:

Q: Some security group is claiming that locking apps down to a single cpu is more secure that multi-threaded apps. Is there any basis in fact that I don’t know of or is this as ridiculous as I think it is? – Distinguished Dude

A: It is called Side Channel Attacks…thus far its only a theory that has no known in the wild exploit

Log File Size

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 04:51:59 +0000

I struggle with ROM for log file storage. It is one of those things that no one EVER looks at, but everyone covers their asses. As an example DHS requires 90 days online, 7 years offline. Anton Chuvakin from Security Warrior posted this today and I thought it was pretty good:

100,000 log messages / second x 300 bytes / log message ~ 28.6 MB

x 3600 seconds ~ 100.6 GB / hour

Happy 17th Birthday Debian!

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:37:57 +0000

I love Debian (looks over lovingly @ the fileserver) and look forward to many more years of stable releases. Debian was my first distro when I ran 1.3 at the ripe old age of 12. I built a VM a few years ago just to see how far we’ve come: http://geekyschmidt.com/2008/03/29/login-looking-back-on-debian-13

A link to some interesting history: http://digitizor.com/2010/08/16/happy-17th-birthday-debian-and-some-interesting-history/

Switching to Android

Mon, 31 May 2010 14:27:44 +0000

A few months ago I started compiling the iPhone libraries for Linux to allow syncing without WIFI. I thought I was king of the world as I bypassed all of the Apple controls to sync with Rhythmbox. With each upgrade of the iPhone OS I would diligently “git clone” and start the process over again. The last few times though I have felt like less of a King and more like a Prisoner. Why do I have to hack my way around a device I own? Am I but leasing the thing from Apple/AT&T or did I actually purchase it?

Ubuntu 10.04 on Sony Vaio P

Tue, 25 May 2010 06:24:32 +0000

With the latest poulsbo hack for 10.04:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupp…sPoulsbo#lucid

It is now possible to upgrade to 10.04 Lucid with no issues. In fact the previous gobi WWAN, sleep, and qcserial hacks are no longer needed. On first boot everything worked other than the videocard. Go Linux!

Intel GMA500 Support Matrix

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 10:39:43 +0000

First a few things:

Intel you suck…suck hard…your own Moblin distro can’t suspend because you feel that “embedded platforms shutdown and restart” Guess what sparky, they don’t always. Fix your damn IEGD driver
Dell and Ubuntu screw you both for creating some custom driver to send out on Dell 12 laptops. The driver I install now was extracted from your blob. Hate Theo from OpenBSD as much as you want, but no blobs
Windows drivers for this card suck pretty bad too. There is a video demo of the GMA500 Poulsbo playing Quake 3 off a MID. The driver in Windows XP-7 cannot play flash without massive frame drops. Totally unacceptable with the 10.1 Flash Beta to still have such trouble

The distro I landed with was Ubuntu 9.10. It pains me because it will never recieve the GNOME 2.30 install, but with PPA I am good with most everything else. I will use this as my hold over until Intel gets off their butts and produces quality code. I used to tell people that the Intel series of cards were the best in UNIX world for out of the box drivers. Yes+but=NO Don’t sour your good name Intel

Sony Vaio P 788k Review

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:25:20 +0000

I hate long reviews, but the good gist below:

Intel Atom Z supports VT instructions. Really neat to boot KVM up on a little netbook
NetBooks are usually cheesy, this machine feels solid and well built. Sony does some nice engineering, but there in front of your face is a SD card and HG Duo…
Battery life is OK, I am considering the extended the battery, but really don’t feel the need based on the 3 hours I get now
Verizon built in is awesome! Riding the metro into work today I was on IRC (irc.freenode.net) loving life. On the way home I fired up a skype session with no issue

No good:

Fix for GNOME Keyring prompt on Autologin

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:39:40 +0000

Autologin in Ubuntu 9.10 would not default unlock your keyring for security I assume. If I am using autologin, chances are security isn’t high on the list and speed is…

sudo vi /etc/pam.d/gdm-autologin and add the italic lines below

#%PAM-1.0

auth requisite pam_nologin.so

auth required pam_env.so readenv=1

auth required pam_env.so readenv=1 envfile=/etc/default/locale

auth required pam_permit.so

auth optional pam_gnome_keyring.so

@include common-account

session [success=ok ignore=ignore module_unknown=ignore default=bad] pam_selinux.so close

session required pam_limits.so

OpenVPN Install Ubuntu 9.10

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:13:18 +0000

A good buddy of mine, Trevor, had mentioned wanting to bridge his Brother‘s and his networks. Having done an OpenVPN install many moons ago it had resonated with the “I need to do that again” list in my head. When the N900 arrived it seemed like the perfect opportunity to have the n900 use a VPN tunnel to secure traffic while on open AP. Here is my config:

N900 Banshee Fix

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:00:23 +0000

You can compile the latest builds from Banshee if you’d like, but for those of you on older non-bleeding edge machines here is the .is_audio_player needed for HAL. Save on the root of your N900 device. This will place the files in the correct locations:

playback_mime_types=video/mp4-generic, video/quicktime, video/mp4, video/mpeg4, video/3gp, video/3gpp2, application/sdp, audio/3gpp, audio/3ga, audio/3gpp2, audio/amr, audio/x-amr, audio/mpa, audio/mp3, audio/x-mp3, audio/x-mpg, audio/mpeg, audio/mpeg3, audio/mpg3, audio/mpg, audio/mp4, audio/m4a, audio/aac, audio/x-aac, audio/mp4a-latm, audio/wav

Test from n900

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:35:48 +0000

MaStory is a nice little blogging app. Testing xmlrpc with it

Nokia N900 Demo Unit

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:47:26 +0000

I think in part to my tweets of N900 lust and desire, Nokia contacted me to see if I was interested in a demo unit. After validating the email was NOT from Nigeria I quickly responded with a “YES PLZ SEND MEZ FONE!”

Why the gadget lust when I have a top-of-the-line iPhone? Easy, I am a geek. While I enjoy the hell out of having nice and easy to use devices, deep down I want to tinker. My original move to Mac was because I didn’t trust myself to have a Linux or BSD machine with me on the road. Every waking moment would be spent tweaking the kernel or compiler options for just a little bit more speed. Bleeding Edge, you betcha.

The quest for a Media Center Machine

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:11:00 +0000

With the synergy (ugh manager talk, sorry) of media and television I often find myself wanting to consume laying down or on the couch. Currently I slap a laptop on the HDMI or something similar and stream hulu for a few minutes. It works, but so does driving with your eyes closed. The geek in me wants to run Linux on my media center so I began looking for a low powered Nvidia Ion based platform. Bestbuy had one:

What Linux/UNIX do you use?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:59:07 +0000

At work I often get asked what UNIX/Linux I use. Truth of the matter is I am an OS harlot :) I run NeXTStep and Rhapsody for fun. When I buy systems I force myself to use them for at least 3 days online to learn them better. Anyways, below is the questionnaire on how I pick a distro/OS

Do you want to use learn Linux for work?
- CentOS or RHEL
Do you want to actually learn the innards of Linux?
- Gentoo or Arch
Do you want to use Linux for day-to-day usage?
- Ubuntu, Debian, or OpenSuSE
- Do you want to use UNIX for day-to-day usage?
- Buy a Mac and install macports
Do you want to use linux for development of bleeding edge packages?
- Fedora or Foresight
Do you want to learn UNIX, but hear a lot about Linux?
- FreeBSD is a better SysV learning platform
Are you a paranoid security type?
- OpenBSD
Did you buy a lot of old equipment on eBay or Craigslist and can’t stand the vendor OS?
- NetBSD
Are the type of person that has flashing lights and fans on your computer? Do you want matching bling in software?
- Linux Mint RC
Are you building a server for home?
- Debian Stable
Are you building a file server to run NetApp out of town?
- OpenSolaris ZFS builds
Are you building that same file server but Solaris packages make you want to poke your eyes out?
- Nexenta
Are you doing embedded systems for a special project?
- NetBSD
Building a wireless mesh network with captive portals?
- OpenBSD
Or in the end you are as geeky as Nick and change OS like you change clothes
- Build a Vmware/Xen server and run them all

Show Desktop

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:08:29 +0000

One of my favorite features with GNOME/KDE is the show desktop button. Expose is great, but I am always clicking around on the dock. This morning the RSS feeds answered my greivance and provided this tip from MacOSX Hints:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20091109075034143

I wrapped the script and put an icon to the file. Here is the file if you’d like to download it for 10.5:

Show Desktop.app

Mandriva Linux 2010 is a hot mess

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:28:01 +0000

Real quick review of the desktop in pro’s and con’s

Pro’s
- Installer is pretty and well laid out
- Theme extends across all 3 supported desktops (lxde, KDE, and GNOME)
- Administration utilities use native toolkits for each platform unlike YaST from SuSE
Con’s
- Why wouldn’t you use network-manager rather than your cheesy control center tool I first used in Mandrake 6.1 or 7?
- The default KDM theme reminds me of the old Solaris days, doesn’t match the feel of the desktop
- GTK theme seems like a cut-n-paste from QT side and it isn’t pretty
- Beagle search rather than Tracker? Not starting a mono war here, but beagle is NO where near feature filled

Seems to me that they took the bits and pieces from around the world and bundled it together. Problem is the bits they took were from the crappy bucket. Mandriva, I loved you back during the Red Hat vs. Mandrake days were you pushed the technology and ease of use for Linux. Now you just seem washed up.

9.10 UNR mini-review

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 04:40:12 +0000

Just wanted to post some thoughts on UNR 9.10 –

Most of the netbooks utilize the Intel i915 based video cards and have HORRID performance under the latest xorg drivers. 9.10 fixes this and allows for UXA acceleration and was my main reason for skipping over 9.04 UNR. The image installs quickly and provides for the basic web based programs. The EXT4 (I use it on all my desktop/laptop now) allows for quick boots and shutdowns on the MSI Wind I have. A few points on 9.10 UNR:

Open Source Security Professionals

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:21:52 +0000

In economic times such as these it is imperative that architects and leads alike look beyond the glossy software catalog and instead to the web. In the past we often discounted open source as unsupported and hacker-like in the development efforts. One would hope that in this day of enterprise open source powering the majority of web applications that we could back away from the mantra of yesteryear.

The argument often heard in corporate America is without a company backing it, how can you trust the source of the code? In the same bated breath they will speak to Microsoft and Oracle as pristine trophy holders of American Ideals. In this global economy and 24×7 development cycle there is very little code still developed stateside only. The pond and time zone allow for rapid development cycles and releases. It is ignorant to think that Microsoft’s code is not spattered with code developed in foreign countries. The bazaar development paradigm has extended well upon the weird GNU hackers in their basements, even Microsoft and other commercial entities have opened the doors to this development process.

Lexmark Drivers for Ubuntu/Debian

Tue, 05 May 2009 02:18:17 +0000

Lexmark provides subpar Linux drivers for any distro, but Ubuntu/Debian is horrible. At work we moved from HP Printers to Lexmark. The situation reminds me of ATI hardware in the late-90’s, great hardware and crappy drivers. I converted the Red Hat RPM for Debian based systems. Attached below:

To install sudo dpkg -i drivers-lexprtdrv_552-2_i386.deb

Error in Service Module

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:34:59 +0000

If you are on a OpenSuSE or SuSE SLES/SLED machine and have recently mounted /var to a new parition, you might get the following error:

“Error in service module”

If it keeps you from logging in, boot single user and touch /var/log/lastlog as root

Fix for Songbird showing songs still on iPod

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:24:28 +0000

I formatted my iPod recently and noticed that Songbird still thought the Library had media on it. Loading up a factory restore didn’t help. To clear the iPod cache here is the location:

In the profiles directory you will see a db folder. Remove all iPod* folders and restart Songbird. Now the Library will show the blankness that is your iPod.

Securing MySQL

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:39:47 +0000

Here is my quick secure guide for MySQL:

Rename root user account
- mysql -u root -p
- use mysql;
- update user set user=”mydbadmin” where user=”root”;
- flush privileges;
Set the root password for database
- mysqladmin -u mydbadmin password ‘the-new-password’
Drop default test database
- mysql -u mydbadmin -p
- drop database test;
- quit;
Edit the MySQL server config
- vi /etc/my.cnf and under [mysqld]
- skip-networking <– Disables network access
- set-variable=local-infile=0 <– prevent against unauthorized reading from local files
- bind-address=127.0.0.1
- restart mysql /etc/init.d/mysqld restart

Keeping on my Toes – Mac to Linux and back

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 13:33:13 +0000

I love my MacBook Pro more than I love my motorcycle. There I said it. When I don’t get a chance to ride my motorcycle I get cranky and irritable, but when I don’t know where my computer is…death to all. The only thing that exceeds my love of Mac is my love of Linux. The reason I began using Apple products was from the consulting days of my life. I needed a machine that when I opened the lid, turned on, and began doing what I told it to do. Linux does this just spiffy, but the problem is I am fiddgity. My work machine was in a constant state of subversion dumps and compiles. A new kernel patch set? Sure why not. GIT Release of GNOME looking spiffy, download away. The problem is that when you live on the edge it is sharp. Bleeding edge releases in Linux made my laptops constant compiling machines. I tinker and therefore I Mac.

Loki Games Fix

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:27:21 +0000

export _POSIX2_VERSION=199209

To install some old Loki Linux games you will need to set the POSIX version. Here you go Intertubes for all to search and find.

Multipath and Redhat Linux 5

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:30:51 +0000

As many of you know, multipath was finally integrated into Redhat Linux with the 5 series. This is great when you have multipath enabled during an install as you will see /dev/mapper/mpath0, but what happens post install when you attach new LUN? Here is the howto for what happens behind the scenes during a RHEL install:

After the filer has attached and presented the new LUN reboot the machine allowing for the HBA card to recognize them
Post-reboot login and verify with the drivers are present with the correct capacity: dmesg | grep sd
Next we need the WWID for the new path. For this example assume that sdh is one of our newly presented multipath drives: scsi_id -gus /block/sdh
Copy this output down and have it ready to input into a config file. I recommend pipping or copying down the results withing GNOME/vim
Edit the /etc/multipath.conf with your editor of choice and look for the blacklist exception list. You will see a WWID “923847089123908u2389” already listed. Copy that line and replace the “218934708912374” with the output of command #3
Reboot the box
After the reboot login and cd /dev/mapper and verify that there is a newly listed mpath1. If this is not the case stop what you are doing and wash-rinse-repeat steps 1-6
If there is a mpath1 we need to create a new partition. Since Linux sees the device as a new block, use fdisk as you would with any other drive: fdisk /dev/mapper/mpath1
Since the drive is freshly paritioned you will need to reboot to allow the kernel to recognize the new parition table.
Post reboot we can create a filesystem. I am going to assume you created one parition and are going to use ext3: mkfs.ext3 /dev/mapper/mpath1p1
Next edit your /etc/fstab and point the new drive to a path you want the new mapping mounted to: /dev/mapper/mpath1p1 /storage ext3 defaults 1 1
For the next portion I will operate under the assumption you are attaching more storage to your /opt directory for a new commercial install. As root drop to run level 2: init 2 This is the lowest run level where the / filesystem is mounted r/w and multipathd is running
We will move /opt as it is current substatianted to /opt2: mv /opt /opt2
Create the mount for the SAN LUN: mkdir /opt
Mount the LUN: mount /opt <–read from the /etc/fstab entry
Now we sync the directories with rsync: rsync -avh /opt2/* /opt I recommend holding onto the /opt2 until everything is tested after a reboot
Done!

PPC Loki Games

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:18:46 +0000

Here is a blast from the past…way back past…

I loaded OpenSuSE 11 on my G4 Cube and remembered I had a few of the old Loki Games. Here are the games with ports to Alpha/PPC/SPARC:

[Civilization: Call to Power

](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization:_Call_to_Power)

It is mind boggling that at this point in Linux history (2000-2002) that someone decided to port these! The great thing about GCC and SDL is cross compiling is pretty simple. With that said supporting these must have been a nightmare for Loki.

SheepShaver on Ubuntu

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 08:34:56 +0000

I wanted to run MacOS 9 in my Ubuntu Intrepid dev box so I went ahead and grabbed CVS. Problem was the autogen script never dumped a config.sub. Instead I took the easy route and downloaded an RPM version and used alien to convert. The one extra step to get it running is to as root ln -s /var/lib/libreadline.so.5 /var/lib/libreadline.so.4

Have fun!

sheepshaver_23-13_i386.deb

Coolest Hacker Logo

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:22:10 +0000

I am a GNU Hacker, hear me ROAR! Do Wildebeest roar?

Just say “NO” to OS Level Virtualization

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 13:45:12 +0000

Microsoft Patch 955020

This patch will ensure that Friendster and Obama are added to your dictionary on Vista and 2008 Server. No big deal right? This brings up a few questions for me:

Why does my server have a GUI?
Why does this patch require a reboot?
Who is typing the words Friendster or Obama on their 2008 Server?

At the root of the issue is that I will never deploy Hyper-V for enviroments I admin. I understand patching for core issues and security but this is stupid. If this server was in fact running my virtual server farm I would now be rebooting for Friendster and Obama. Yikes!

PPC Linux

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:09:50 +0000

Why Linux and which one? Let me take a second to review:

Debian Stable 4.0 – Too old! You can’t expect me to be spoiled on my x86 architecture with the latest GNOME and Firefox and then jump back to Debian stable

Debian Testing “Lenny” – Too new! The kernel is a step ahead of the Mac-On-Linux folks and therefore negates my ability to still run MacOS in Linux. Also had a heck of a time with my 6200 Nvidia Card in framebuffer.

login: Looking Back on Debian 1.3

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:30:17 +0000

Back at the tender age of 12 I picked up a magazine at the Base Exchange. This magazine contained a CD. This CD contained Debian 1.3. All was well in the world…

I remember reading with such excitement about this amazing new Linux (yes I pronouced it wrong, I was a geek living in Germany) and how it was free. Free you say!? I had just spent the past year lusting for Windows NT for no other reason that it was enterprise ready. I had no clue what that meant but I knew it was something I couldn’t learn. Much in the same way as I would look with much glee on the SGI pictures in magazines with no hope of ever affording the 12,000 dollar machine. Such was life for a youngster.

That is what made Linux so exciting for me. It looked kind of like those funny Sun boxes and it was what HACKERS used so it had to be cool. With no understanding of what installing Linux met I dropped that CD in and used rawrite for the first time to create the boot floppy.

Then it died. My perfectly working Windows 95b edition machine died. Well I thought it had died when really all I did was blank the partition table attempting to do an install. All of this came back vividly today as I retraced that install on my MacBook Pro in vmware.

—————————————-

VMware Server Beta 2 Review

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 05:44:03 +0000

The Good:

Bringing it up to level of workstation/fusion virtual machine compatibility? Vix if you are into the innards of virtualization.

The Bad:

Wow I mean where do you start? Let me walk you through my install process. I upgraded from the original vmware server to beta on an Ubuntu Gutsy box. The install process was smooth as butter and worked like a champ. I expect the smoothness because VMware is the benchmark for easy installs on Linux (only behind Google for using the Loki Installer) and has always shown that. What I never expected was the actual usage of the software. Gone is your GUI console. Hold on to that for a minute. It is gone, totally non-existstent. The GUI was replaced by a Web interface using AJAX. It all feels very Web 2.0 which is great for when I log into Digg or Facebook (Ooohh Shinny!) but this is enterprise software. What makes the web interface unbearable is the speed. Has anyone used Yahoo! Mail beta AJAX interface? It has brought this quad-processor 4GiB RAM machine to its knees. That is how the VMware Web console feels. VMware! WAKE UP! Web interfaces are great and when you make it optional like you always have with WebUI packages. Optional, it only adds to the flexibility your company has given admins and architects everywhere. I understand the reasoning, web runs everywhere and gives you a lot of options for using thin clients and PDA’s.

Linux and Skype – NOW WITH VIDEO!

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 05:55:23 +0000

Skype (or ebay) have been killing me for years now. I am a huge Skype user and always loved the video chat option. I have gone back and installed webcams for most of my family in order to keep track of everyone on my crazy travel days. The one issue I had was the conflict of skype and my desire to convert my family to Linux. Skype on Linux was always a second-class citizen. I resorted to using aMSN which worked, albeit on a very poor performance level. Yesterday though I awoke to an excitment I hadn’t seen in months. My RSS feed showed one topic new in the Skype folder. I preemptively booted my Ubuntu laptop and sure enough I was right, video support. After a quick download and install I had video chat on my Linux box. This of course initiated a victory dance. The great thing was the victory dance was captured from 2 different angles thus solidifying my lack of dancing skills for all to see :)

Xgrid and Multiplatform Clients

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 08:34:04 +0000

This allows you to setup a Xgrid controller without mac server edition. What is nifty is that the clients can run on other platforms such as Linux and Windows. So with the simplicity of mac you can run a cluster at the house. Here is the link for windows/linux clients:

http://unu.novajo.ca/simple/archives/000026.html

NNTP will forever rock my sock…

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:02:27 +0000

NNTP will forever rock my socks

OpenSuSE 10.3 < Ubuntu Gutsy

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 11:47:25 +0000

I am done dealing with OpenSuSE 10.3. Before anyone starts I realize that it is a beta release candidate “blah blah blah.” I expect simple things to work without a hassle such as touchpads and wifi. Now laptops have always been the bane of Linux, but as of recently Ubuntu ran better than XP on this Sony TXN17p I have. In fact out of the box the hotkeys for sound Linus called Solaris a “buggy piece and backlight worked with no configuration. On OpenSuSE it shipped with none of that. While I expected this on 10.1 and MAYBE 10.2, to do this in 2007 is insane. Most people in this world now own laptops, not desktops. ACPI and Eject buttons should work out of the box. Not to mention this is a sony laptop and not jims computer shop or something. Sonypi and sony-laptop has been a staple of the Linux module kernels for at least 3 revs. SuSE I love(d) you! You were my first true Linux distro. I remember the 4.8 days of 12 CD’s and a manual that if thrown could break walls. Now you are a Novell puppet and not living up to the standards of your peers. Goodbye my love, I am off to the Cape of Good Hope!

Nokia N800 Review

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 16:28:47 +0000

Sony TXN-17P Linux Review

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 22:18:34 +0000

VMWare Server + Gutsy Gibbon = Houston its a-go

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 04:57:44 +0000

Just make sure to download the latest vmware-any-any patches to deal with the new 2.6.22 and all should be well:

http://platan.vc.cvut.cz/ftp/pub/vmware/

filter = [ “a/sda[1-9]$/” “a/e…

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 05:59:47 +0000

filter = [ “a/sda[1-9]$/” “a/emcpower.*/” “r/.*/” ] This fixes problems with EMC PowerPath and LVM

Verizon evdo card + linux = ss…

Wed, 09 May 2007 07:22:11 +0000

Verizon evdo card + linux = ssh hotness

Posted from my n800

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 13:16:33 +0000

A program came out called Maemo Blog…and I am using it. Hooked up to my bluetooth keyboard I am able to type a post that would have taken ages with the other input methods. To top it off I type this very quickly due to the touch typing feel of this keyboard. What the n800 has become for me is a mini laptop. I use it in airports while I travel and in hotel rooms when I need a quick email. The n800 is far from perfect though, with its lack of software (compared to the n770) and I am still waiting on my Skype client. But such is life of the Linux bleeding edge guy. My blood is your gain :)

Evolution tip

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 23:12:39 +0000

~/.evolution/mail/exchange/$mailbox/favorites

Remove this folder if evolution only shows the Favorites exchange folders rather than your personal folders.

Rocks Cluster

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 22:52:35 +0000

Rocks Cluster rocks my socks. After battling with their FTP to grab the latest ISO, I was finally able to do a VMWare Install of version 4.2. The key for doing a VMWare install in workstation 5.5 was the following points:

Create a VMWare Team
- Hard Drive sizes must be larger than 20 GiB
  - Memory must be more than 640 MiB
    - Remove the sound card and floppy
      - In the vmware team assign all the machines to VLAN1
        
        The Frontend must have 2 NIC, assign them both to VLAN1 till the install is done at which point you can then bridge the public interface or host-only
        
        Boot PXE when the frontend is up for the clients and all will install
        Let me state, Rocks is simply the best cluster software I have had the pleasure of using. Super High Five to the developers!

Asus M5n ACPI Fan

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 14:30:26 +0000

I am posting this so I can later go search and find it. Stupid fan was driving me nuts!

Thing came on at 40 degree celcius. This meant that it ran ALL THE TIME. I could have the darn thing closed and it doing nothing…fan is on…grrr…anyways here is the fix action:

`
sudo vi /etc/modules
add in i2c-i810 and lm85

sudo vi /etc/rc.local
echo 50000 > /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/i2c-0/0-002e/temp1_auto_temp_off

Sansa e260 and Linux

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 11:14:36 +0000

I broke down and purchased a new MP3 player after the trusty iPod Mini bit the dust. Thank you Apple for including a wonderful 6GiB CF Drive though :) Moving right along I wanted to share my thoughts from a Linux users perspective on the Sansa e240, e260, or e270. Same hardware just more storage.

Pros:

Once the device has been set to UMS mode you can drag and drop files onto the device

Using Gmail as GNOME’s default mailer

Wed, 17 May 2006 18:38:40 +0000

As a security expert I have to say that this is total hogwash with all the uproar over his script. I sure hope these same people practice AWESOME security everywhere else. And the world wonders why security professionals are referred to as “chicken littles”

I started using Gmail as my primary mail application a little over a year ago. For the most part, it has been a pleasurable experience. However, to my knowledge thereis no simple way to make Gmail the default mailer in GNOME. Until now!