Posts Tagged ‘Debian’
Thursday, September 6th, 2012 
I’m about to chage the good old computeres until this very moment this blog and few other website were running on. Right now, I’m installing the brand new machine Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge great and hopefully powerful enough machine to take care for the periodic occuring high traffic loads which break up webserver or SQL server. Well anyways, I just installed latest Debian GNU / Linux on this brand new piece of iron. During install I couldn’t connect the PC to network so Debian install was unable to determine, the nearest Debian package repository, hence after completing install and anually configuring Debian network . Because during install the system had no connection with the Internet, no proper package repository definitions were present in /etc/apt/sources.list, hence I had to find the nearest package software repository. Normally one can check in Debian official WorldWide Mirror sites full address list and determine by some rationalization with ping or / and a manual package download which repo is quickest. There is thanksfully a better automated way one can determine the closest deb Debian / Ubuntu located repository with netselect-apt.
Here is apt-cache description:
debian:~# apt-cache search netselect-apt
netselect-apt - speed tester for choosing a fast Debian mirror
Using the tool is trivial, just install, run it and it does all 4 u 🙂
1. Install netselect-apt
debian:~# apt-get install --yes netselect-apt
2. Run it
debian:~# netselect-apt
....
130/debian/); keeping only under first name.
netselect: 2 (2 active) nameserver request(s)...
Duplicate address 200.236.31.3 (http://debian.c3sl.ufpr.br/debian/, http://ftp.br.debian.org/debian/); keeping only under first name.
netselect: 1 (1 active) nameserver request(s)...
Running netselect to choose 1 out of 383 addresses.
.............................................
The fastest server seems to be:
http://debian.telecoms.bg/debian/
Writing sources.list.
sources.list exists, moving to sources.list.1346964774
Done.
As you can see from output, the tool finds the quickest download deb repository and generate /etc/apt/sources.list file in current directory, where it is run in, in this exact case it creates it in root user home dir – e.g. in /root/ directory. Once the repo address is found you can copy paste it with some text editor to /etc/apt/sources.list or move it over /etc/apt/sources.list;
debian:~# cp -rpf /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.$(date +%d_%m_%Y|sed -e 's/^ *//')
debian:~# mv /root/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list
Just in case as I always make first copy of original sources.list, this is not necessery but IMHO a generally good sysadmin habit 🙂
Besides netselect-apt, which automatically choose between all available list of software repo servers, there is also netselect tool. netselect does basically the same the only difference is one has to manually pass by as arguments deb package repositories and the tool then does tests and returns which is the overall quickest deb download source.
netselect is definitely useful if you have started few own mirror of repositories and want to determine which is the best among them.
Here is how netselect is used:
# netselect -vv ftp.fceia.unr.edu.ar ftp.kulnet.kuleuven.ac.be \
ftp.cdrom.com ftp.debian.org ftp.de.debian.org
ftp.fceia.unr.edu.ar 2792 ms 23 hops 100% ok ( 1/ 1) [ 9213]
ftp.kulnet.kuleuven.ac.be 9999 ms 30 hops 0% ok
ftp.cdrom.com 94 ms 8 hops 100% ok (10/10) [ 169]
ftp.debian.org 46 ms 15 hops 100% ok (10/10) [ 115]
ftp.de.debian.org 9999 ms 30 hops 0% ok
According to above output, the “best reachable” (quickest) repository is the one to which are the least miliseconds – ftp.debian.org
Thanks to- https://www.wzdftpd.net/blog/index.php? -for the nice Debian package box picture – all copyrights belong to respective authors and licensing.
Cheers ! 🙂
Tags: Debian, finding, nearest, package, repository, software
Posted in Linux, System Administration | No Comments »
Friday, August 17th, 2012 
The distribution on which almost all main stream GNU / Linux distributions turned 19 years old.
20 years in active development and still up and running 🙂 Thumbs up for the Debian guys 🙂
Debian first release came out on 16 August 1993. The Debian philosophy and goals were outlined by the Debian distro “creator” Ian Murdock in Debian Manifesto. The original Debian manifesto is available for reading as part of Debian documentation in /usr/share/doc/debian/debian-manifesto
I’ve used almost all of available major Linux distributions but I haven’t found better than Debian or Debian based derivatives for both server and desktop installs.
I’ve red there is a sort of tradition that Debian users celebrate each Debian anniversary with a huge cake eating parties. Unfortunately yesterday I was sick so I couldn’t enjoy deb’s birthday.
Happy Birthday Debian ! 🙂
Tags: birthday, Debian, Happy, Linux, turns, years
Posted in Everyday Life, Linux, Various | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 17th, 2012 
I use Debian Linux for my desktop for quite some time; Even though there are plenty of MP3 / CD players around in Debian, I’m used to the good old XMMS, hence I often prefer to use XMMS to play my music instead of newer players like RhythmBox or audacious.
Actually audacious is not bad substitute for XMMS and is by default part of Debian but to me it seems more buggy and tends to crash during playing some music formats more than xmms ….
As most people might know, XMMS is no longer supported in almost all modern Linux distributions, so anyone using Debian, Ubuntu or other deb derivative Linux would have to normally compile it from source.
Compiling from source is time consuming and I think often it doesn’t pay back the effort. Thanksfully, though not officially supported by Debian crew XMMS still can be installed using a deb xmms prebuilt package repository kindly provided by a hacker fellow knuta.
Using the pre-build deb packages, installing xmms on new Debian installs comes to:
debian:~# echo 'deb http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~knuta/xmms/squeeze ./' >> /etc/apt/sources.list
debian:~# echo 'deb-src http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~knuta/xmms/squeeze ./' >> /etc/apt/sources.list
debian:~# apt-get update && apt-get -y install xmms
There are also deb xmms built for Ubuntu, so Ubuntu users could install xmms using repositories:
deb http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~knuta/xmms/karmic ./
deb-src http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~knuta/xmms/karmic ./
That’s all now xmms is ready to use. Enjoy 🙂
Tags: amp, Auto, buggy, Compiling, consuming, Crew, deb, deb packages, Debian, Desktop, Draft, fellow, hacker, Installing, Linux, linux distributions, mp3 cd players, music, music formats, package, pvv, quite some time, repositories, repository, RhythmBox, squeeze, substitute, Thanksfully, time, time consuming, Ubuntu, update, way, XMMS, xmmsThere
Posted in System Administration | No Comments »
Monday, March 26th, 2012 
I had to install two PHPBB based internet forums, some long time ago. Since long time passed and I haven't checked what's happening with them I just noticed. They start filling up spam threads. The phpbb installations are done using the standard shipped deb packages in Debian Linux Lenny.
After checking online, I found one smart solution to . The idea is very simple most spam bots are written in a way that they don't have a properly set timezone. Therefore the quickest way to get rid of spam bots which try to auto register and put spam content inside the a forum category or post is to add a simple if condition in php to check the browser set timezone:
The file to add the php if condition is ucp_register.phpThe phpbb package install places default phpbb path on Debian is /usr/share/phpbb3/ and hence the file I had to modify is located in:
/usr/share/phpbb3/www/includes/ucp/ucp_register.php
To make the TZ check one needs to modify ../www/includes/ucp/ucp_register.php and look for php array definition:
$data = array(
'username' => utf8_normalize_nfc(request_var('username', '', true)),
'new_password' => request_var('new_password', '', true),
'password_confirm' => request_var('password_confirm', '', true),
'email' => strtolower(request_var('email', '')),
'email_confirm' => strtolower(request_var('email_confirm', '')),
'confirm_code' => request_var('confirm_code', ''),
'lang' => basename(request_var('lang', $user->lang_name)),
'tz' => request_var('tz', (float) $timezone),
);
Right after this chunk of code add the if condition code which is like so:
if ($data['tz'] == '-12.00')
{
die('Die, bot! Die.');
}
From now onwards, any attempt for new user registration with an incorrect timezone of -12.00 will be immediately stopped while the forum spammer bot will be offered an empty page 🙂
Another good practice is to disable Birthday Listing from phpbb Admin Control panel (ACP). Go to menus:
ACP -> General -> Board Settings -> Enable Birthday listing: (No)
I like disabling birthday listing, as when it is enabled and you have some spammer registrations, which even though didn't succeeded to contaminate your forum content has specified a birthday and therefore there profiles gets popping up each different day on the main page of the forum.
This will not eradicate all spammer bots, but at least will significantly decrease spammer bot registrations.
Tags: array definition, Auto, checking, chunk, code 39, deb, deb packages, Debian, debian gnu, debian linux, Draft, email, forum, forum category, GNU, Internet, internet forum, internet forums, Linux, long time, online, PHPBB, smart solution, solution, spam, spam bots, threads, time
Posted in System Administration, Web and CMS | No Comments »
Sunday, October 31st, 2010 I’ve recently realized that the CTRL + ALT + BACKSPACE keyboard combination is no longer working in Debian unstable.
This good old well known keyboard combination to restart X is not working with my xorg 7.5+8 under my Gnome 2.30 desktop
However thanksfully there is another combination to kill the X server if for instance if your Gnome desktop hangs.
If that happens simply press ALT + PRINTSCREEN + K this will kill your X and then reload the (Gnome Display manager) gdm.
Another suggestion I’ve red in the forums of a way to enable back CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE is to put in either .bashrc or .xinitrc the following command
setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp
BTW It’s better that the above command is placed in ~/.xinitrc.
I’ve also red on some forums that in newer releases of Ubuntu. The CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE can be enabled using a specific command, e.g. with:
dontzap -disable
Tags: Alt, Alternative way to kill X in Linux with CTRL+PRTSCR+K, backspace, bashrc, command, Ctrl, Debian, Desktop, dontzap, GDM, Gnome, gnome desktop, instance, keyboard, keyboard combination, Linux, manager, nbsp, option, Press, printscreen, setxkbmap, suggestion, Ubuntu, way, x server, Xorg
Posted in Linux | 1 Comment »
Friday, January 27th, 2012 By default latest Debian GDM does not provide an automatic way to login using user AVATARS (like Windows does).
This is pretty strange, especially if you compare to Ubuntu and many other Linux distributions which already has support for AVATAR login via GDM
The reason for this is that currently Debian is shipped with old version of gdm2 and this gdm version does not have support for clickable login avatars.
Debian looks by default like this:
Thanksfully this non-user friendly GNOME login screen behaviour can be changed by simply installing gdm3
root@debian:~# apt-get --yes install gdm3
...
This will remove the old gdm installed package as well as fast-user-switch-applet and install the gdm3.
Having installed the gdm3 with configured a background will look like so:
I was quite stunned that gdm3 does not have included support for themes . As far as I've spoken with some ppl in irc.freenode #gnome the reason for this oddity is it crashed a lot when a theme is configred.
By default the gdm2 themes are provided by a package called gdm-themes, since gdm3 does not support themes (yet), the package gdm3-themes is missing.
Tags: avatar, avatars, behaviour, Debian, debian gnu, freenode, GDM, Gnome, gnu linux, Linux, linux distributions, login, nbsp, non-user, oddity, old version, package, ppl, reason, root, screen, squeeze, support, support themes, Thanksfully, theme, Ubuntu, version, way
Posted in Gnome, Linux, Linux and FreeBSD Desktop, Various | No Comments »
Saturday, June 18th, 2011 After installing the Tweet Old Post wordpress plugin and giving it, I’ve been returned an error of my PHP code interpreter:
Call to undefined function: curl_init()
As I’ve consulted with uncle Google’s indexed forums 😉 discussing the issues, I’ve found out the whole issues are caused by a missing php curl module
My current PHP installation is installed from the port tree on FreeBSD 7.2. Thus in order to include support for php curl it was necessery to install the port /usr/ports/ftp/php5-curl :
freebsd# cd /usr/ports/ftp/php5-curl
freebsd# make install clean
(note that I’m using the php5 port and it’s surrounding modules).
Fixing the Call to undefined function: curl_init() on Linux hosts I suppose should follow the same logic, e.g. one will have to install php5-curl to resolve the issue.
Fixing the missing curl_init() function support on Debian for example will be as easy as using apt to install the php5-curl package, like so:
debian:~# apt-get install php5-curl
...
Now my tweet-old-post curl requirement is matched and the error is gone, hooray 😉
Tags: call to undefined function, Debian, ERROR, fatal error, freebsd, function, google, hooray, init function, installation, interpreter, issue, Linux, linux hosts, logic, Module, necessery, note, Old, order, package, php code, php installation, plugin, port, ports, post, requirement, support, tree, usr
Posted in FreeBSD, Linux, Wordpress | No Comments »
Thursday, September 10th, 2009 While playing with my installed programs on my recently updated Debian I stepped into a problem with /usr/lib32/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_pulse.so. It seems the library was linked to two non-existing libraries: /emul/ia32-linux/lib/libwrap.so.0 as well as /emul/ia32-linux/usr/lib/libgdbm.so.3. A temporary solution to the issue is pointed out in Debian of the Debian Bug reports . As the report reads to solve that it’s required to:
1. Download libwrap0_7.6.q-18_i386.deb and libgdbm3_1.8.3-6+b1_i386.deb.
2. Extract the packages:dpkg -X libwrap0_7.6.q-18_i386.deb /emul/ia32-linux/dpkg -X libgdbm3_1.8.3-6+b1_i386.deb /emul/ia32-linux/
3. echo /emul/ia32-linux/lib >> /etc/ld.so.conf.d/ia32.conf
4. Execute /sbin/ldconfig
5. Check if all is properly linkedExecute ldd /usr/lib32/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_pulse.so|grep -i “not found”Hopefully all should be fixed now.
Tags: b1, bug reports, conf, deb, Debian, debian bug, download, dpkg, emul, grep, issue, ld, ldquo, lib, libasound, libgdbm, libraries, linkedExecute, Linux, Module, pulse, report, rsquo, sbin, sid, solution, squeeze, temporary solution, Unstable, usr
Posted in Linux and FreeBSD Desktop, Linux Audio & Video, Skype on Linux, System Administration | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 Once again, I experienced Skype microphone issues!!! Its getting really annoying, since almost randomly I get issues. Skype is a terrible program and depending on a proprietary thing like Skype is a real pain in the ass.
This time it was totally strange as there was no way to record any voice inside Skype Call while testing with (Echo / Sound Test Service)
After a lot of puzzling and getting a bit angry I found this time the issues are caused by some settings which somehow changed in GNOME Sound Preferences microphone to mute:
You see on above screeshot that somehow the stupid thing get mutted 😐
After unmuting and restarting Skype, the microphone started working in Skype again …
Tags: Auto, bit, Call, Debian, Draft, echo sound, Gnome, Linux, lot, microphone, pain, pain in the ass, Problems, program, screeshot, Service, Skype, Sound, sound test, stupid thing, test, test service, testing, thinkpad, time, voice, way
Posted in Linux and FreeBSD Desktop, Linux Audio & Video, Skype on Linux | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011 In order to debug some PHP session problems on Debian, I needed to check the count of existing session files.
When PHP is compiled from source usually, by default sessions are stored in /tmp directory, however this is not the case on Debian.
Debian’s PHP session directory is different, there the sessions are stored in the directory:
/var/lib/php5
I’ve discovered the session directory location by reading Debian’s cron shell script, which delete session files on every 30 minutes.
Here is the file content:
debian~# cat /etc/cron.d/php5
# /etc/cron.d/php5: crontab fragment for php5
# This purges session files older than X, where X is defined in seconds
# as the largest value of session.gc_maxlifetime from all your php.ini
# files, or 24 minutes if not defined. See /usr/lib/php5/maxlifetime
# Look for and purge old sessions every 30 minutes
09,39 * * * * root [ -x /usr/lib/php5/maxlifetime ] &&
[ -d /var/lib/php5 ] && find /var/lib/php5/ -type f -cmin +$(/usr/lib/php5/maxlifetime) -delete
To check the amount of existing PHP opened session files:
debian:~# ls -1 /var/lib/php5|wc -l
14049
Tags: amount, amp, apache, cat, check, count, cron, crontab, Debian, debian gnu, DEBUG, directory location, file, fragment, gnu linux, ini files, lib, Linux, linux apache, location, maxlifetime, order, php session, purges, root, session directory, session files, sessions, Shell, shell script, tmp, type, usr, value, var
Posted in Linux, System Administration, Various | No Comments »
