[the] Code Girl

Wow, did that ever come in handy recently. I thought I was being all smart by importing my entire /etc dir into CVS. THAT part was smart at least. The STUPID part was then using the cvs-checked-out version as /etc. I did at least have the foresight to simply rename my original etc dir rather than deleting it.

I never read the docs on cvs import too closely. HUGE mistake. Turns out that all symbolic links are ignored. Guess what all your rc.d startup scripts are? Yeah. links.

Typically you would not notice a blunder such as this until you rebooted your server. I happened to have just asked for more ram/drive space on my VPS and the server then had to be rebooted for those changes. Then it didn’t come back up. I guess it was a good thing that it was rebooted so soon after my change, so the cause could be traced much more easily.

Console access to your VPS: just one of many reasons to go with RimuHosting for your ‘virtual private server’ needs. Helps to save you from yourself :)

I recently started using Ubuntu Linux, despite being a hardcore Gentoo user. [Finally I got tired of waiting for things to compile every time I wanted to install something. ]

I tried out Ubuntu by getting a cheap $20/mo Virtual Private Server (VPS) from Rimuhosting.com. I already have 2 other VPS’ with them, but those servers run Redhat Fedora Core 5 (blah).

I liked Ubuntu so much that I installed it on my laptop at home and desktop at work, and I haven’t looked back since.

RimuHosting is one of the only places I have ever known that
1) is more clueful than an entire Linux User Group combined
2) actually MEANS “root access” when they say “root access”
3) has very reasonable prices

Rimu gives you total control of your VPS, including the ability to reboot it or even power cycle it. Rimu has lots of helpful FAQs, from setting up a CVS project to getting IPTables working. The turnaround time on support tickets is fantastic. A great Knowledge Base is available as well.
Did I mention the awesome freebies that come with a VPS?
+ web-based DNS Manager
+ backup MX server
+ backup FTP space
+ console access via SSH - great for those times when youve hosed your box by doing something stupid with IPTables, as I have done a few times

I just finished moving everything off a FC5 server over to my new Ubuntu server (aptly named ‘linuxwins.org’) and set up an Apache virtual host for unrulygrrl.org. I even revamped my website making it look a little more interesting.

Rimu folks are willing to help you with darn near anything that you are having problems with. When I was getting the Ubuntu server set up, I just couldn’t get Apache Server SIde Includes (SSI) working using the XBit hack (it did work on the old FC5 server, but that used Apache 1.x while this is Apache 2.x). I sent them email late one night asking for help, explaining what I had already tried, and the problem was fixed by the next morning. They have helped me many times in the past with various issues. I could not be happier with the service from Rimuhosting.

Please mention that you saw info on “unrulygrrl.org” if you decide to get a VPS from RimuHosting, they like to keep track of how people found them.
Thanks!

I was thinking I’d like to see the incoming subject lines of my email, not just how many new messages I had. So I wrote a procmail recipe that uses OSD:

:0c
| show_new_mail

and a one liner shell script called ’show_new_mail’ [really just to clean up the procmail recipe]

grep Subject|sed -e's/Subject: /New mail: /g'|DISPLAY=:0  osd_cat -f 9x15 -

Without the “DISPLAY=:0″ part, this fails with the error “Error initializing osd: No display” but only when it’s used as a procmail recipe. It worked fine from the command line.

This requires osd_cat, which is installed with xosd
———————————————————
7/8/2006 EDIT:
Good news for M$ Windows users: there is an xosd package available for Cygwin, so you can do cool OnScreenDisplay things just like linux/XWindows.

Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. It consists of two parts:

• A DLL (cygwin1.dll) which acts as a Linux API emulation layer providing substantial Linux API functionality.
• A collection of tools, which provide Linux look and feel.

using the mplayer plugin for netscape/mozilla you can view streaming Micro$oft media that is embedded in a webpage

Also works from the command line, but you will need to know the path to the stream. This not too hard to find:

1. View the source of the page with the embedded stream and look for something like this:

   <param name="FileName" value="webcam3.asx">

2. Pull up the .asx file in your web browser; it will be in XML.
3. Look for an ything starting with “mms://”, and you’ve found your feed url
4. run

   mplayer <feed url>

For Mac OSX users, there is a port of mplayer available, just for you!

One more thing I can cross of the list of stuff I thought I could only do with M$ WIndoze

Gentoo linux has just released a new version, “2005.0″. Check it out

Well that was WAY easier than I thought. Coming to you live from my laptop, over 802.11g with WPA-PSK for the encryption scheme. Now I get a new encryption key every time, auto-negotiated with the AP. It’s all seamless to me.

To get it working:

1. Emerged ‘wpa_supplicant‘ (already in Gentoo portage tree)
2. Added a passphrase to my AP
3. Configured

   /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

   like so:

   network={
        ssid=<my ESSID goes here>
        psk=<my passphrase goes here>
        priority=1
   }
   

   All other settings were left at the default

   To make sure the system would use it when I insert my DWLG650, I created

   /etc/init.d/net.ath0

   with the following contents:

   #!/bin/bash
   wpa_supplicant -B -K -t -Dmadwifi -iath0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
   sleep 3
   dhcpcd -d ath0
   

I give the system 3-4 seconds to associate with the AP and negotiate the encryption keys before I attempt to request an IP address (hence the ’sleep 3′).

This isn’t the best solution, WPA with a RADIUS server would be, but it will do for now. At least I feel a little better about keeping out my nosy neighbors. At last count, I could see 8 other access points from my laptop. So far I’m the only one who is using a form of WPA.

Edit:

Ok, scratch this. I just noticed that my speed is stuck at 5MBps. I want my 54MBps back. :-/ I don’t feel like troubleshooting. Going back to WEP. Hopefully the problem is just the version of the madwifi I’m using

After having my laptop for a week or two, I decided I really should be taking advantage of the 54Mbps potential of the internal wireless. I got a Linksys WRT54G off eBay because I also thought I could use it for this.

I had one heck of a time getting it to work with my integrated wireless in my laptop. Primarily I had issues with the signal level dropping continually. My laptop just refused to associate with the AP most of the time. I made the mistake of choosing the Linksys based solely on its use of Linux. Once I started reading reviews of it, they were almost all negative, mentioning mostly the terrible signal level. Further research turned up the DLink DI624

I’ve had only good luck with DLink products, so I felt good about buying that one. Picked up one from the local Best Buy. It was ridiculously easy to configure, and it was featureful enough that I used it to totally replace my firewall. 5 hours i messed with trying to get the damn Intel 2200 to connect to it, but it just wouldnt. A few days later I popped into Best Buy again and got the DLink DWLG650, so I could see if the problem with the laptop really was the internal wireless.

I chose the DWLG650 because it uses the Atheros chipset, which I found to be one of the best supported 802.11g chipsets under linux. Oddly enough the driver is called “madwifi”. I ‘emerged’ it with Gentoo, and I haven’t looked back since. I loaded the driver, it associated with my AP, got an IP via DHCP and off I went. The speed seems to fluctuate from 54 to 24 to 36 and back. Mostly it stays at 54 though. I really, really, really wish Dell had chosen an Atheros chipset. Since they didn’t, I have given up my 1 and only pcmcia slot. Oh well, I have wireless that works, and that is all
that really matters.

This is the best error message I’ve seen in a long time:

You don't exist, go away!

It took me a few minutes to figure out what the heck that actually meant. Basically, this is what happens if your login account gets deleted while you are still logged in as that user, and you try to ssh to another host. I have a careless sysadmin to thank for that genius move