Fighting Entropy

Shito Ryu Itosu Kai

2011-04-13T17:36:00.001-04:00

A funny thing happened on the way to the dojo....

As a stereotypical sysadmin (middle aged and overweight) I always hated the thought of exercise for exercise's sake. I did enjoy playing some sports like baseball but I have almost zero athletic talent, so as I got older I was really slowing down - especially since none of it came naturally.

A friend called our family in the fall of 2010 asking if any of our sons would be interested in learning karate. The price was more than reasonable, and the dojo less than 10 minutes from our door. So my wife and I took the older two (6 and 8 at the time) out to watch a class. Not only did our older son think it looked like fun, I was hooked too. We decided we'd both try it together for moral support.

It's not a sport - there's no keeping score. It's not religious, and you might miss the philosophical nature of it entirely if you aren't paying attention, although you'll get it by osmosis if no other way. To me it's about self improvement - both physically and to my surprise mentally too.

I've been at it for about six months now. I haven't lost any weight to speak of, but my balance, flexibility and endurance are all way way way better. I always thought those people that complained about feeling lousy because they missed a workout were either full of it or showing off - now I'm starting to see what they mean. At the end of the night I'm usually physically exhausted, and happy, and the happy part carries through the next day, while the exhausted part doesn't (minus a few achy bits :-)

Completely ignore the movies about martial arts. OK, scratch that. Enjoy the martial arts movies if you're into that stuff - just remember they're as true to life as Middle Earth or WoW is to your neighbourhood. If there are two physical activities that should suit a sysadmin - karate and curling have got to be it. It's not just dumb muscle memory, or fast twitch reflexes. You have to use your head and control your muscles. Technique is king, and brute force a distant pawn at best.

Any karate class worth attending welcomes newbies, expects you to be terrible, and just wants you to respect tradition and try hard. Talent or physical fitness is not required. You owe it to yourself to find one and ask if you can watch one night.

This was a long winded way of introducing the next bunch of posts on kata, which probably still won't make any sense, but hey, it's my blog right? :-)

And Now For Something Completely Different

2011-04-12T21:25:00.002-04:00

As you can plainly see, tech content here has been pretty few and far between lately.

It's somewhat amusing (or tragic, or both) that I've somehow ended up the admin of a completely MS based domain - PCs, servers, applications and all.

I could bitch and whine and moan and complain (and sometimes I still do, but quietly :-), but I decided I'd be healthier and happier if I took it as a challenge to best rather than a cross to bear. And hey, I got a raise to go along with it, so it's not all bad.

Also on the bright side, what system admin doesn't love playing with new and shiny stuff, and the chance to replace literally everything but the monitors and printers? So hey, I'm trying to be positive, and I do have to admit, not all this MS stuff is terrible. Group policy is kinda cool even - just don't get me started on DFSR :-(

No, I'm not killing the blog - I'm just, um, refocusing :-) I still intend on having tech stuff here, I'm just very busy at the moment. In the mean time I'm throwing up some posts that are more personal memos than information for the world at large about my new found passion - karate. Feel free to blow right by the next couple of posts if that doesn't interest you - or drop me an email to whine if you prefer - I just don't promise to listen :-)

Migrating Email From Apple Mail to Windows Live Mail

2010-11-15T16:28:00.003-05:00

Yes, some people really do leave Apple for Microsoft...

This applies only to Apple Mail found in Leopard and Snow Leopard - earlier versions store and handle mail differently.

create mbox2eml.pl, and put it on your $PATH
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

# Copyright (C) 2009 Josh A. Beam
#
# Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any
# purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
# copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
# WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
# MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
# ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
# WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
# ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
# OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

# mbox2eml.pl (last modified July 14, 2009)
# This Perl script creates separate .eml files for each email message in
# a given mbox file. The .eml files are created in the directory that the
# script is run from and each file is named according to the position of
# the message in the mbox file (for example, "1.eml" for the first message).

use strict;

# make sure an mbox filename was given
if($#ARGV != 0) {
print STDERR "Usage: $0 \n";
exit(1);
}

# open mbox file
open MBOX, $ARGV[0] or die "Unable to open mbox file\n";

# loop through each line from mbox file
my $fileCount = 0;
my $blankLineCount = 2;
while(my $line = )
{
chomp($line);
$line =~ s/\r//g;

# check for the start of a new message
if($blankLineCount >= 1 && $line =~ /^From /) {
# open new eml file
close EML;
open EML, ">" . ++$fileCount . ".eml";

print "Saving " . $fileCount . ".eml\r";
} else {
# write line to file
print EML $line . "\n";
}

# check for blank lines
if($line eq "") {
++$blankLineCount;
} else {
$blankLineCount = 0;
}
}

# close files
close EML;
close MBOX;

print "Saved " . $fileCount . " files\n";
mkdir ~/someFolder
cd ~/Library/Mail
find . -type d -iname '*.mbox' -exec cp -R "{}" ~/someFolder/ \;
cd ~/someFolder
for directory in *.mbox ; do mkdir "${directory}-email" ; done
for directory in *.mbox ; do mbox2eml.pl "${directory}/mbox" ; mv -v *.eml "${directory}-email" ; done
rm -rf *.mbox
Copy someFolder to the Windows computer
Run File -> Import from Windows Live Mail - choose Live Mail format when asked

Sync Google Contacts to OSX Address Book Without An iPhone

2010-03-25T11:09:00.005-04:00

Lifehacker had a quick note pointing out when Apple added their 'sync to Google Contacts' option to OSX 10.5 and 10.6. You had to have an iPhone or iPod touch to use it though.

Shortly after that someone pointed out to them how to hack the ipod plist file to make it think you have one, thus turning the option on.

They didn't point out that if you have had multiple iPods attached to your machine, you'll have multiple entries to choose from when altering the 'Family ID' tag.

I had an entry for my iPod mini, which has long since died and gone to the recyclers. I figured that was the perfect one to change. So I altered the plist with vim, started Address Book and there's the option just like promised. I enabled it, and nothing happened.....

It turns out that syncing to Google in 10.5 is done only when your iPod syncs. (10.6 will do it hourly as well) Then I had a thought. I pulled out my Motorola cell phone which I enabled syncing on previously, and launched iSync.
Tada! When it synced the phone, it synced with Google too.

Quick How To - Fix HP 5610 Phantom Paper Jam and Cartridge Jam Errors

2010-03-23T16:02:00.004-04:00

Thanks jfasher whoever you are...

http://www.fixya.com/support/t246039-hp_5610_paper_jam_error_clear

The HP 5610 has a clear plastic 'ribbon' above the bar supporing the print heads.
The sensor on the back of the cartridge carriage reads the marks on that ribbon to know when it's moving. It was filthy.

There's a similar clear plastic disc on the end of the paper feed rollers.
You've got to disassemble the printer from the top down, carefully disconnecting the data ribbons as you go to get down there. Cleaned it and blew out the sensor it rotates thru and voila! Phantom paper jam gone to the containment unit :-)

Quick How-To: Login without a password, Debian/Ubuntu using GDM

2010-02-07T19:13:00.000-05:00

Why? (Yes, I know you wanted to ask)
He's three - he can pick his picture from a list, but asking him to remember his password is pushing it a bit I think...

This isn't as easy as you'd think. For the whole dirty story, see this Launchpad entry.

For the quick how to

Make it possible to log in on a console without a password by starting up a terminal and typing:
sudo passwd -d usernameGoesHere

Change the login screen to use a list of users you can click on by going to System -> Administration -> Login Window and after putting in your password select the Local tab. Under Style, pick one of the options that mention a face browser.

Still won't work yet though :-) Last, add 128 (yes, 128) lines to /etc/securetty
It should look like this


# Local X displays
:0
:0.0
:1
:1.0
:2
:2.0
:3
:3.0

and keep going until you hit 63

Hope this helps...

Filling in PDF forms using Open Office - Mail Merge Style

2009-12-16T11:56:00.003-05:00

We recently changed an HR related supplier at work. As a result, every employee (100+) had to fill in a three page form. The new supplier provided us a non-editable PDF.

As anyone working in a mid-sized company knows, getting 100 people to do the same thing correctly is pretty much an exercise in futility :-)

Now 98% of that form HR knew the answers too - name, address, date of first employment etc. etc. Open Office can do a 'mail merge' from the spreadsheet with that data in it to a document in Writer, but can't import PDF natively.

My first thought was to use the pdf import extension for Open Office. It works ok, but imports the PDF as a Draw document, rather than a Writer document. Draw documents don't do mail merges as far as I can see.

My second thought was to create a Writer document, and use the form as the page background. Turns out setting a page background with an image works ok, but the same image is repeated on every page. Won't work for our multipage document unless we created three documents and somebody played manual collator for a while. Sure as heck something would get scrambled.

What I did in the end was time consuming but worked well.

Convert each page of the pdf form into a tiff or similar high quality image file
Register your spreadsheet or database as a data source.
Start with a new Write document. Hit return enough times to create number of pages you need.
Choose Insert -> Frame.
1. Make sure it's anchored to the page
2. Positioned for the entire page
3. Name it on the Options Tab (optional, but handy)
4. Set borders to none on the Borders tab
5. On the Background tab change it to Graphic instead of Color, and browse for your first page image.
6. Move the image around until it covers the entire page properly
7. Right click and choose Alignment -> Back
8. Hit OK
9. Repeat for each page
Choose View -> Data Sources and highlight your data source so the fields you want are displayed at the top of your window.
Choose Insert -> Frame.
1. Make sure it's anchored to the page
2. Make sure auto size is off
3. Name it on the Options Tab (optional, but handy)
4. Set borders to none on the Borders tab
5. Hit OK
Now drag the Heading from the first column of data into that frame
Move the frame to the right spot on the background to fill in the blank
Lather, rinse repeat for each piece of data on each page

When you choose 'Print' it will ask you if you want the blanks filled in, and away you go!

I haven't posted any screenshots - Let me know if you think you need them and I can create some.

Hope this helps somebody!

Installing a Samsung SCX-4521F in Linux - Ubuntu Hardy Heron actually

2009-12-01T15:34:00.005-05:00

I've seen a lot of comments across the web about this particular printer and getting it and the scanning working in Ubuntu.

It was easy for me - here's my simple checklist
Note I'm using a USB interface.

Get the Samsung Unified Driver version 3
Install it via tar xvzf SamsungXXX.tar.gz && cd cdroot/Linux && sudo ./install.sh. I did it without using X at all, I gather there's a little GUI that doesn't ask anything text install doesn't.
Curse Samsung for putting the freaking icon on your desktop and the root of your applications menu without asking
Clean up the crap you just cursed about.UPDATE forgot to mention the specifics - /bin/Desktop /bin/.gnome-desktop /usr/sbin/Desktop /usr/sbin/.gnome-desktop Yes, that install script has some bugs in it!
Try a test page. Samsung 'helpfully' decided to make the new printer the default, so lpr favourite.pdf should work fine.
Try scanimage -L and see if you can see the printer. If not (bet you can't) try sudo scanimage -L. If that works, it's a permissions problem.
Add all the appropriate users to the lp group. e.g. sudo addgroup joeUser lp. The installer says it's doing something like this, but whatever it does doesn't work. Ubuntu has the handy scanner group as well, but the lp group ends up owning /dev/usb/0. Rather than muck about with updated udev rules, I just added the users to both the scanner and lp groups and it works fine.
Log out of that terminal session and start a new one. A terminal doesn't pick up updated group membership until it logs in the next time. Dunno whether that applies to the 'GUI' users and group tool or not. Let me know....
Use scanimage -L to see if sane can see the scanner.

Large Drives and USB Enclosures

2009-11-25T09:51:00.002-05:00

OK, this is definitely a talk to the rubber ducky kind of post.

I have an old Mandrake box that various clients send their backups to overnight. I hook up an external USB drive and run a script that basically rsyncs the various backups to the external drive to be taken off-site. Been doing it this way for a while now.

I've upgraded the size of the drive in the external enclosure a couple of times, 160G to 320G to 1TB recently. When I first got the 1TB enclosure, I partitioned it with an iMac, then remembered I couldn't format ext3 with the Mac, so I connected it to a linux box and formatted it, but left the partitioning alone. Turns out the iMac partitioned it GPT. I only realized this after I'd been using it for a couple of days. This is in the logs.

kernel:  /dev/scsi/host39/bus0/target0/lun0:<4>  Warning: Disk has a valid GPT signature but invalid PMBR.
kernel:   Assuming this disk is *not* a GPT disk anymore.

It was working, I didn't have a handy spot to move the large amount of data on the disk to, and fixing it seemed like it would probably destroy data, so I left it for a bit. I tested restoring data from the drive to be sure, and everything was working fine.

A couple of weeks later, during a really busy spell, I noticed the daily rsync jobs turned deadly slow. Instead of 6MB/s I'm getting 300k or less. Almost like it was swapping to USB1.1 instead of 2.

I twiddled with it for a bit, and since it was somewhat intermittent I tried replacing the USB controller (it's an add on card) in the server. Over the next couple of days I tried another USB enclosure, another USB cable, and copying files from different server. The problem kind of came and went, so no one change seemed to be the fix.

Since this is the off-site backup, I had started using another (smaller) drive to copy the recent information to - this setup was working fine. I bought another 1TB drive and enclosure, both different brands than the existing units, partitioned and formatted it correctly from a linux box, and started using it. It was running fine at full speed. When I had time I started copying the older archive info that was only on the first TB drive over as well.

Now this morning that new drive started running slow....

The only thing that makes any sense at all to be at this point is some problem with USB enclosures and large drives - e.g. once it gets past 650meg or so they start having problems? But the two enclosures are completely different chipsets - one has IDE + SATA, the other is SATA only. It can't be that widespread an issue can it?

OK, so now I've typed all this out, the ducky still hasn't said anything...

Anybody else want to comment?

Finding OSX Aliases in a SMB/CIFS Share

2009-11-18T17:54:00.004-05:00

Just a quick follow up to my previous post.

In case it wasn't obvious - if you want to find all those OSX alias files it's just a simple

grep -r XSym /path/to/smbshare/on/server

Updated:

~~If I had more of them I'd hack up a script to pull the path info out of them and create the symlinks automatically....~~

This is really hacky, but you can make symlinks out of alias files with it.
If a dragon appears and demands a dumptruck for a four-wheeler, don't blame it on me!


read NAME && LINK=$(tail -n 2 $NAME | head -n 1) && rm -v $NAME && ln -sv "$LINK" "$NAME"

Samba Unix Extensions and Following Symlinks with OSX Leopard and Ubuntu Hardy

2009-11-18T17:19:00.003-05:00

Sorry for that title - just trying to help the Google bot help the future.

So here's the problem. When we upgraded the bulk of the Macs at work to Leopard, symlinks on the Samba share quit working. They still worked in Windows, and on Hardy clients, but not Leopard.

If you created an 'alias' in Leopard, then the Macs could follow it, but the Linux boxes not.

Lots of people have the same or similar issues -
A B C D E F

Turns out Leopard is the first OSX client to support Unix extensions in CIFS.
So the client ends up trying to follow symlinks *locally* rather than on the server. 'Dumber' clients like Windows or Gnome Nautilus smb:// don't do Unix extensions, so the server resolves the symlinks for you.

The 'fix' is to set 'unix extensions = no' globally in the smb.conf file.
Now the OSX clients won't get the unix info either, and the server will go back to resolving symlinks for them.

The drawback to this fix as I understand it is that SMB with unix extensions on is a complete replacement for NFS in that the full range of unix permissions can be provided to unix clients - it's not limited anymore. You would need some external system to keep UID/GIDs syncronized, but NFS has that issue too.

What I still don't understand is how to get symlinks to resolve to the correct spot on the server when unix extensions *is* on. E.G. if I was using a 'smart' linux client (like mount.cifs and the /etc/fstab file?) how do I get symlinks to work? Comments appreciated, as I've spent too much time on this issue at the moment anyway.

Brian

PS - I also found out that when you create an 'alias' in OSX on a SMB share, the file it creates is actually in Minchell and French format - see this page that talks about creating symlinks on Windows servers. That's what OSX does on a linux server as well. Weird the linux client doesn't follow it!

Adding Java apps to the Motorola K1m For Free

2009-09-14T17:18:00.002-04:00

I've got a Motorola K1m running on the President's Choice Financial pay as you go program. (It's resold Bell Mobility services) Cheap and reliable!

It has a built in browser that works ok for some things, but won't cooperate with the identi.ca microblog I post to.

I tripped over an interesting pair of applications that looked like they might work from the Substance Of Code blog. Mobidentica and Twim. Now how the heck can I install those on my phone? It's a somewhat locked down system. :-)

Turns out the latest version of Bitpim (1.06) for Leopard will actually talk to my phone. I'd tried with earlier versions and had no luck, but this time I was able to get a working connection.

Since Bitpim won't automatically discover the phone, what I found to work was this - use a USB cable, plug it in, and under preferences you'll have to manually specify the K1m and pick a COM port. Go for the one marked 'modem' - in my case it was /dev/cu.usbmodem5d11

Now, under the 'View' menu turn on the 'View File System' option. Pick the new 'File System' entry on the left side of the main window pane and start twisting the little triangles next to the '/' entry. Confusingly only files show in the next column, sub directories only appear under the '/' entry AFTER you twist the triangle. Harder to explain than do - just try it.

Navigate to /brew/mod/jbed/preinstall Don't worry about the hacky looking path, that's really what's already there. Right click in the last column and 'add files' to add the .jad and .jar files you download from the Substance Of Code site. You'll see the progress on the bottom right as it uploads the files to your phone. Quit Bitpim, and start Java on your phone. It will discover and compile the programs, quit Java and then restart on it's own. Now your application is available along with the sample games etc.

See this post for most of the info I've just provided here.

I'm sure this will apply to other Java phone applications too. I'll be keeping an eye out for more possibilities! Hope that helps someone.

Brian

Opening up an Intel iMac 17"

2009-09-04T14:57:00.004-04:00

I just replaced the hard drive on a 17" Intel iMac. (Last one before the grey and black models). It's amazing how unfriendly it is to disassemble compared to the iMac G5. If this is your first time disassembling stuff, don't start with this model iMac. :-) If doing stuff like this is normal for you then don't be scared of it, just be careful.

What isn't clear from the pictures and movies I saw on the internet is how to release the casing around the iSight camera. One video I saw said "shake it and it'll come loose". Ummm... NO.

Here's the picture you need to see.

The two top clips are actually spring loaded hooks. Lift the thick part of the metal and they unhook.

FYI
Brian

Apple PowerBook G4 400MHz xorg.conf Debian Lenny

2009-08-28T20:58:00.003-04:00

More of a self note so I can find it again someday...

If you aren't getting X with a default Debian Lenny install on a 400MHz Apple PowerBook G4 Titanium ATI Rage Mobility 128 M6 (got all that Google?)

Try this xorg.conf - the 'Modes' section and the UseModes line are the additions I think - I kept tweaking it until it stopped being broken so other things might not quite be standard...

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "macintosh"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "radeon"
BusID "PCI:0:16:0"
EndSection
Section "Modes"
Identifier "Modes0"
Modeline "1152x768" 64.994 1152 1178 1314 1472 768 771 777 806 +HSync +VSync
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
UseModes "Modes0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Configured Video Device"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

A (long) day in the life of a sysadmin....

2009-03-19T18:55:00.009-04:00

Now sit right back and you'll hear a tale...

[digression]
Isn't it criminal that Baywatch is the first link in Google on that phrase?
Goes to demonstrate that they just aren't that great at search, just better
than the alternatives!
[end digression]

I was looking at my daily logs. You do that too right? It's very helpful to keep you ahead of the game and knowing what's going on rather than playing catch up all the time. On the other hand it can be pretty darned tedious. I use logwatch of course to make it bearable.

Lately I've been rolling out Ubuntu Hardy desktop boxes. I remarked to myself that since I'm monitoring the drive space using Nagios, the disk space report on every log file was filler I really didn't need to be looking at. And hey, I like fortune as much as the next guy, but once you've seen a dozen or so you really don't need anymore for the day. Why not turn that stuff off?

Now I knew that logwatch configuration seems to be a bit, well, baroque,

but hey, I can handle it right?
[that's called foreshadowing]

Heck - I'd even seen an article about managing your log files that mentioned logwatch on my RSS reader. Let's do this!

[The road to hell...]
==> man logwatch ==> view /usr/share/doc/logwatch/README ==> view /usr/share/doc/logwatch/HOWTO-Customize-LogWatch
OK, the default files are in /usr/share/logwatch, and the system local ones go in /etc/logwatch.
Let's go look.
==> cd /etc/logwatch
poke around
It's empty. Five folders, no conf files. Folders with .conf in their name though! Weird, but true. Lets go check out /usr/share/logwatch
[poke around]
Ok, the stuff is all here - and reading the docs at /usr/share/doc/logwatch tells me that these are the defaults, and stuff put in /etc overrides them. Since logwatch is used on more than just Linux, it seems a bit different, but obviously flexible. Let's peruse the logwatch.conf file - it's well commented.
# You can also disable certain services (when specifying all) Service = "-zz-network" # Prevents execution of zz-network service, which # prints useful network configuration info. Service = "-zz-sys" # Prevents execution of zz-sys service, which # prints useful system configuration info.
Look - they've disabled two services 'zz-network' and 'zz-sys' by default. I wonder what they do?
[Cue the music - the abyss opens]

Well, it says they are useful - lets use them!
A nifty feature of logwatch is you can just keep running it over and over again from the commandline with different options and see what the output will look like. Once you get it tuned up, you adjust the conf file to match and cron takes it from there.
==> sudo logwatch --print #### Logwatch 7.3.6 (05/19/07) ## Processing Initiated: Thu Mar 19 14:52:42 2009
[snip 172 lines of detail I see waay too often as it is....]

==> sudo logwatch --print --service 'zz-network'
[snip interesting network info]

OK, so that one's interesting. What about zz-sys?
==> sudo logwatch --print --service 'zz-sys' ---- System Configuration Begin --- No Sys::CPU module installed. To install, execute the command: perl -MCPAN -e 'install Sys::CPU' No Sys::MemInfo module installed. To install, execute the command: perl -MCPAN -e 'install Sys::MemInfo'
Huh, missing modules. Perhaps that's why it's disabled. Let's just make sure
==> cd /usr/share/logwatch/scripts/services ==> ./zz-sys No Sys::CPU module installed. No Sys::MemInfo module installed.
OK. Let's install those missing modules. Now, I don't have anything against CPAN, but since these are a bunch of pretty much identical machines that need to be kept that way, keeping to the repositories, or at least .deb files is definately the right way to go.
==> sudo aptitude search meminfo p python-meminfo-total
Close, but no cigar. Try again.
==> sudo aptitude search perl
[snip snip snip]

No! - don't do that! 1500 lines of stuff...
==> sudo aptitude search perl | grep mem
[snip 8 lines - nothing we want]

OK. So we need to make our own debs. This Debian Admin article is perfect.

Step one - Head over to CPAN and download the source. Their seach box makes it easy to find the links.
==> wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/B/BU/BURAK/Sys-Info-0.69_07.tar.gz ==> wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/S/SC/SCRESTO/Sys-MemInfo-0.91.tar.gz
Step two - install dh-make-perl
==> sudo aptitude install dh-make-perl Need to get 5813kB of archives. After unpacking 21.3MB will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] y
Wow - 32 packages of dependencies! Well, that's what apt is for right? Go!
[hundreds of lines scroll by while I go grab coffee. That's a mistake...]

Building tag database... Done
OK - next step
==> tar xvzf Sys-Info-0.69_07.tar.gz ==> tar xvzf Sys-MemInfo-0.91.tar.gz ==> dh-make-perl Sys-Info-0.69_07 Searching for Sys::Info::Driver::OSID package using apt-file. E: The cache directory is empty. You need to run 'apt-file update' first. Searching for Sys::Info::Base package using apt-file. E: The cache directory is empty. You need to run 'apt-file update' first. Needs the following modules for which there are no debian packages available - Sys::Info::Driver::OSID - Sys::Info::Base
Now I was just plain dumb. I missed the point of the apt-file update message altogether by reading it as apt-get update.

OK, so I need a couple of dependencies too. Man, would be nice if these were in the repositories.
[Have you hugged a packager today? If not, did you buy one beer? or at least say thanks? Just wondering.....]

==> wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/B/BU/BURAK/Sys-Info-Base-0.69_06.tar.gz ==> tar xvzf Sys-Info-Base-0.69_06.tar.gz ==> dh-make-perl Sys-Info-Base-0.69_06 Done
OK, now we're cooking.
==> wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/B/BU/BURAK/Sys-Info-Driver-Linux-0.69_06.tar.gz ==> tar xvzf Sys-Info-Driver-Linux-0.69_06.tar.gz ==> dh-make-perl Sys-Info-Driver-Linux-0.69_06
[snip - still ignoring the message]

Needs the following modules for which there are no debian packages available - Unix::Processors - Sys::Info::Base - Linux::Distribution
Grrr..... Sigh.
==> wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/W/WS/WSNYDER/Unix-Processors-2.040.tgz ==> tar xvzf Unix-Processors-2.040.tgz ==> dh-make-perl Unix-Processors-2.040
[snip including copyright warning. Glad I'm not a packager that has to worry about these things for everybody else]

Done ==> wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/K/KE/KERBERUS/Linux-Distribution-0.14.tar.gz ==> tar xvzf Linux-Distribution-0.14.tar.gz ==> dh-make-perl Linux-Distribution-0.14 Done
OK, now to make a deb!
==> cd Linux-Distribution-0.14 ==> debuild The program 'debuild' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing: sudo apt-get install devscripts -bash: debuild: command not found ==> sudo aptitude install debuild
[Yep - stupid again. Dunno what the heck I was thinking....]

Couldn't find package "debuild". However, the following packages contain "debuild" in their name: pdebuild ==> sudo aptitude install pdebuild Need to get 150MB of archives. After unpacking 312MB will be used.
Yikes - hundreds of depencies and many megabytes of Java looking stuff! Wha?
==> debuild The program 'debuild' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing: sudo apt-get install devscripts -bash: debuild: command not found
[face-palm]

==> sudo aptitude install devscripts Building tag database... Done ==> debuild This package has a Debian revision number but there does not seem to be an appropriate original tar file or .orig directory in the parent directory; (expected liblinux-distribution-perl_0.14.orig.tar.gz or Linux-Distribution-0.14.orig) continue anyway? (y/n) y
[snippage]
gpg: [stdin]: clearsign failed: secret key not available debsign: gpg error occurred! Aborting.... debuild: fatal error at line 1174: running debsign failed
I don't need it signed. How do I disable that?
==> man debuild
Hey - right here in the examples it talks about binary only. Bet it needs the key to sign the code right?
==> debuild -i -us -uc -b dpkg-deb: building package `liblinux-distribution-perl' in `../liblinux-distribution-perl_0.14-1_all.deb'.
Yea! A deb! Finally. Now to do the rest of 'em!
==> cd Unix-Processors-2.040/ ==> debuild -i -us -uc -b dpkg-deb: building package `libunix-processors-perl' in `../libunix-processors-perl_2.040-1_i386.deb'. ==> cd Sys-Info-Driver-Linux-0.69_06/ ==> debuild - ERROR: Test::Sys::Info is not installed - ERROR: Unix::Processors is not installed - ERROR: Linux::Distribution is not installed - ERROR: Sys::Info::Base is not installed
OK, gotta install these in the right order too!
==> sudo dpkg --install lib*deb Setting up liblinux-distribution-perl (0.14-1) ... Setting up libunix-processors-perl (2.040-1) ... ==> dh-make-perl Sys-Info-Driver-Linux-0.69_06 E: The cache directory is empty. You need to run 'apt-file update' first. The directory Sys-Info-Driver-Linux-0.69_06/debian is already present and I won't overwrite it: remove it yourself.
Now I read the darned message....
==> rm -rf Sys-Info-Driver-Linux-0.69_06/debian/ ==> sudo apt-file update Can't get ftp://ftp.mondorescue.org/ubuntu/dists/8.04/Contents-i386.gz
Huh? Oh, ya, that's an extra repository, won't matter for this.
==> dh-make-perl Sys-Info-Driver-Linux-0.69_06 Needs the following modules for which there are no debian packages available - Unix::Processors - Sys::Info::Base - Linux::Distribution ==> cd Sys-Info-Driver-Linux-0.69_06/ ==> debuild -i -us -uc -b - ERROR: Test::Sys::Info is not installed ==> wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/B/BU/BURAK/Test-Sys-Info-0.13.tar.gz ==> tar xvzf Test-Sys-Info-0.13.tar.gz ==> dh-make-perl Test-Sys-Info-0.13 Done ==> cd Test-Sys-Info-0.13/ ==> debuild gpg: [stdin]: clearsign failed: secret key not available
Bah - idiot!
==> debuild -i -us -uc -b dpkg-deb: building package `libtest-sys-info-perl' in `../libtest-sys-info-perl_0.13-1_all.deb'. ==> sudo dpkg --install libtest-sys-info-perl_0.13-1_all.deb ==> cd Sys-Info-Driver-Linux-0.69_06/ ==> debuild -i -us -uc -b pkg-deb: building package `libsys-info-driver-linux-perl' in `../libsys-info-driver-linux-perl_0.69-06-1_all.deb'. ==> sudo dpkg --install libsys-info-driver-linux-perl_0.69-06-1_all.deb ==> dh-make-perl Sys-MemInfo Cannot find a description for the package: use the --desc switch
Hey, new errors. What fun! At least it's a helpful errror. Let's try...
==> dh-make-perl --desc Sys-MemInfo Sys-MemInfo Done ==> cd Sys-MemInfo/ ==> debuild -i -us -uc -b dpkg-deb: building package `libsys-meminfo-perl' in `../libsys-meminfo-perl_0.91-1_i386.deb'. ==> sudo dpkg --install libsys-meminfo-perl_0.91-1_i386.deb Setting up libsys-meminfo-perl (0.91-1) ...
OK - this is IT. The moment of truth! Drumroll please!
==> ./zz-sys No Sys::CPU module installed. To install, execute the command: perl -MCPAN -e 'install Sys::CPU' Memory: 495 MB Machine: i686 Release: Linux 2.6.24-22-generic
Long pause. Quiet wimpering....
==> sudo aptitude search perl | grep cpu p libsys-cpu-perl - Sys::CPU Perl module for getting CPU infor
Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

==> sudo aptitude install libsys-cpu-perl Building tag database... Done
==> ./zz-sys CPU: 1 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz at 2392MHz Memory: 495 MB Machine: i686 Release: Linux 2.6.24-22-generic
Four lines of output.
[And I still haven't gotten it into the logwatch.conf]

Somedays you're the windshield............

2009-02-25T15:00:00.000-05:00

Thanks to datainadequate's comment on an earlier post, I've got another book to take a look at - Dive Into Python. I did see mention of it before, but the tag line saying it was 'for experienced programmers' scared me off without looking at it further. What the heck, I'm game this time around.

Also of note, I'm hoping to have current versions of both O'Reilly books Learning Python and Programming Python in my posses ion soon, so once my eyes quit glazing over from the information overload I'll try and post some further reviews of how I think they all stack up.

Maybe I should have been a librarian :-) I wonder if librarians that like too read too much end up like cooks that like to eat too much....

Stop Vim From Creating Backup Files of bzr_log entries during commit

2009-02-22T04:36:00.000-05:00

Here's a handy tip from Paul Brannan. I pulled this from a Launchpad bug report.

I use Vim as my default $EDITOR. When I commit a change using bzr, it opens Vim up and lets me type my comments in.

Unfortunately after I save and edit, it leaves behind a bzr_log backup file with a ~ in that directory too. I want Vim to make those backup files normally, but not when doing bzr commits.

Paul to the rescue:

I solved this with:

~/.vimrc:
filetype on
filetype plugin on

~/.vim/ftplugin/bzr.vim:
set nobackup

(See - it pays to read bug reports! Now go check out all the other ones and let me know the good parts ok?)

Python - The Never Ending Journey Of A Thousand Miles

2009-02-19T12:40:00.003-05:00

Inch by Inch, Row by.... wait a minute, this is Python not Inchworm. Well, whatever.

Note, if you aren't a Monty Python fan it's hard to do the community suggested Python jokes, so you're stuck with my lame stuff instead. Joke writers cost money you know (and I'm free, err.. you know what I mean).

As I mentioned previously, I began learning Python by starting with 'A Byte of Python'. I'm enjoying it, and learning. Eventually I hit some example code showing how objects inherit class local variables, but objects don't share variables among themselves (downwards, not sideways).

The example made sense, and proved his point, but when I ran it on my machine it kicked out a Warning I didn't understand. So, I took my code and the warning message over to the Python IRC channel and they kicked it around a little bit - end result was they didn't like the example that much. They explained the problem to me, and I understood why the warning was there, but I didn't come up with a good way to refactor it so it didn't happen again.

During the conversation, someone suggested looking at Think Python. Turns out that one's available online under a free license as well. Off I went to take a gander.

It's quite good too. I like the way it talks about how to program, as well as how to program in Python. It assumes you have a decent knowledge of geometry and some trig which doesn't suit me all that well (I'd love to go back and enroll in those high school advanced math courses I never took). As I'm going along it has started using a 'turtle' program written in tk. It's kinda interesting to play with, but not my particular cup of tea. All in all it's enough of a contrast to the Byte of Python book I'm going to use both going forward.

I was also given a copy of the 1999 version of Learning Python from O'Reilly. Now I normally like and use O'Reilly books all the time, but this one seems a bit dangerous for a newbie to to use. It covers Python up to version v1.5, and while I don't know how much has changed since then, even a quick flip through shows me the style is different than I've been exposed to so far, and I don't want to start out learning depreciated ideas and syntax styles. Unless somebody tells me different, I'll just keep it around as reference material.

There was another interesting tidbit came out of that IRC channel discussion. At one point I indicated I was starting to get a feel for the syntax, but not the terminology Python users. A poster (sorry! didn't record who you were!) emphasised that getting the terminology right is important! His point was that you have to be able to think about your problems accurately and concisely, and to do that, you have to grok the terminology properly. Fuzzy logic leads to fuzzy programs. I wish I could quote him/her verbatim - it was much more compelling there than I can make it sound now.

Object orientated programming is starting to make more sense as a concept, but I still don't know how to design programs that use the concept properly. Breaking a problem down as a series of steps, then writing code that completes the steps is a logical way to program that that comes naturally to me (and most others I bet). OO doesn't seem to apply to that style properly, but I'm just not sure what to replace it with yet. Pointers welcome.

Completing the exercises (not slavishly, but doing them a little bit my way) has been helpful - picking up common syntax errors etc and getting my head back in programming space. Committing to bzr and pushing to launchpad working very well - just need to improve quality of my comments and get more consistent timing on my commits.

I have to say that the quantity and quality of information combined with the friendly to the newbie atmosphere I'm finding all over the 'Net is really encouraging me that Python truely is a great language to learn and use all the time! Let's keep it rollin'

A Space In The Right Place Saves Nine

2009-02-04T14:07:00.000-05:00

Experienced programmers please set down any hot liquids before proceeding. The following comments are from a beginning programmer, and as such, will likely promote laughter among those who know better. That's why I'm writing this - you guys just can't regress all the way back to this level of ignorance easily :-)

The one thing everybody knows about Python is that whitespace is significant, and it's really a pain. OK, so now that I can do 'Hello World' in three - count 'em three! - different scripting languages, what do I think about Python syntax?

I just don't see why everybody thinks it's hard. To me, it's a breath of fresh air! So far, the only time I've seen that white space matters is leading whitespace to set off a block of statements.
There's no 'end' to that block except the ending of the indentation. OK, so it's something to keep in mind. On the other hand, bash's use the $ when you assign the value and not when you use it is a lot more confusing. And don't get me started on Perl. When to use a ( vs a { vs a [ is a lot harder to figure out, and $ or % or @ for variables ain't exactly simple either. Yes, Perl logically hangs together, and I get the fact that you should know which symbol to use when based on what you are trying to do, and what kind of data you are storing. I even appreciate the fact that it's a form of error checking - because if you use the wrong symbol because of a logical error it'll catch it for you.

On the other hand, in Python a variable is a variable regardless of the contents. The programmer has to keep it straight in his head rather than the syntax enforcing it. It might make things more error prone, but it sure makes it easier to read. The lack of end of line characters in particular is refreshing, unlike bash's 'you might want to use a semi-colon here - or not...

So, if you were thinking that counting spaces was a necessary evil in Python, forget it, and just try it out and see what you think!

How's It Going?

2009-02-01T11:06:00.005-05:00

When we last saw our brave hero, he'd just emerged victorious from his struggle over the dog pack of FLOSS project hosting choices, but the looming battle against the three headed dog of Python, Bazaar and Object Orientated Programming was yet to begin.... Will he survive to see another day?

Sorry - Rocket Robin Hood flashback. Thanks Teletoon Retro....

Just a quick update on where I'm at. I've set up a project on Launchpad. That was a straightforward click n' drool kinda thing. Just fill in the blanks where required. I spent some very constructive time reading the documentation. It's got lots of information on all the various Launchpad features (and there are quite a few) but I was most struck by the amount of 'why' as well as 'how' in the information. Since I've not been exposed to project management per se before, it was good for me to see how the website was designed around a project flow, rather than the other way around, and expose me to the common steps most projects go through.

I had already registered my GPG key when I signed the code of conduct earlier, so I just had to create and upload an ssh key for use with bazaar. It took me a bit of twiddling to get that working, mainly because I wanted a separate launchpad key from my regular ssh key. My regular key is already used in too darned many places. The twiddling was purely self inflicted - launchpad was working perfectly all along :-)

Next up, I went looking for some docs to get me started on learning Python. A quick inquiry in the (newly created) Python group on identi.ca pointed me at 'A Byte of Python'. Turns out it's licensed CC and available for download.

As I work my way through the examples, I've been creating the them in GVim. Another bit of Googling followed with an identi.ca query found me some pointers for using Python in Vim. As I've created each example and tested them, I've committed them to a +junk repository and pushed it up to Launchpad. This post by Paul Hummer made getting that all set up painless and simple.

Are you seeing a trend here? I'm using Linux, SSH, GPG, GVim, Identi.ca, Python, A Bite of Python, and a blog posting by a Launchpad dev. All of it FLOSS. All of it no charge. All of it quality information and tools - downloaded off the internet by nothing more than the sweat of my little pinkies. It's just amazing when you sit back and think about it. It's downright flippin' awesome in fact.

Thank you one and all that made this happen, and continue to make it happen. Hopefully I can do my little part too, and keep the steamroller rolling.

Choosing a FLOSS Project Host

2009-01-21T14:46:00.001-05:00

Tune in next week to hear Mrs Piggy say - oh wait a minute, this is next week, kinda.

So, the next step in building the GREATEST APPLICATION EVER (or at least another misc software thingy) is picking a place to host the code. (Those of you not paying attention can find out why we need a that already here.)

What are my choices?

Let's take those in order. (Good thing they are in the right order already, huh?)

Self hosting is out. As I said before, I want to work on the project, not the website, as much as possible. Mediawiki and bugtracker would likely be all I need, but I'd rather someone else do the plumbing on this.

Google Code is easy to say no to as well. Two big knocks here are unreliable downloads (I mirror a Google Code project on a cheap webhosting plan, because the Google Code repository barfs on people regularly...) and typical Google lack of support. I know I'll need hand-holding, and with Google I'm not going to get it.

Sourceforge is the biggest one of the bunch obviously. Fairly full featured from the public exposure side, and it obviously works for many people. From using sourceforge casually (i.e. as a user not a programmer) the experience has been ok, but annoying. I don't like their default web page setup, it seems quite unintuitive to me and that's likely why everyone puts their own web pages up in front of it. Their bug reporting and built in FAQ stuff is clumsy looking too - it often seems to be poorly handled by smaller projects. And again as an enduser, their registration process for many things I've had issues with in the past. I've also heard reliability issues, although not so much lately.

To sum up, lots of little niggly negatives that I might be exaggerating. It works for so many it must be a real alternative. If there wasn't a better alternative I'm sure I could make it work.

Savannah is the GNU project host. My comments here can be summed up pretty easily. GNU projects on average don't seem to be very attractively presented - and Savannah is no exception. I dunno how well it works, but it looks pretty GNUish :-) Knowing the GNU guys, it's likely reliable and has some cool features once you grok it. Savannah seems to have some sort of approval process where they make sure you are the kind of project they want to host. Since both the projects I've been thinking about may have some dependencies that aren't 100% GNU (I'm thinking out loud here, I could be wrong) that might be an issue, and I'm not sure my plans are firmed up enough to waste some body's time reviewing them at this point. Without worrying too much about what they provide, I don't think this is a good fit.

Github is a cool looking newer alternative. Git seems to be one of the current stylish new tools right now, and github jumps right in there with both feet. Free software projects host free, and proprietary pays, which is a logical enough way of approaching things. They've got some stuff you don't see elsewhere, leveraging (I assume) the power of git, like graphing code changes and other geeky good stuff. They've got training video, which shows you have new wavish they are, and a good vibe about the place. When I threw out a twitter query last week about potential project hosts, Github got two thumbs up from the responders. On the other hand, it's all very developer centric, rather than end user centric. As a regular ole 'how do I use this thing user, it's not very friendly. There are related hubs Campfire and Lighthouse that round out their offerings, but they seem to be a little more profit looking than Github itself. I doubt my project would ever hit the point of requiring one of their for pay services, but hey I can dream can't I ? The last thing I noticed, and probably the biggest negative is how Ruby centric the whole thing appears, at least on the surface. Ruby on Rails is the biggest project they have, and I bet it's presence there is why so many other related projects ended up there. I've nothing against Ruby, it's just another language I don't know (yet?) but it shows the emphasis of the place.

Again, like Sourceforge I think I could make this work, but I don't think it's the best choice.

Trac is pretty easy for me to rule out too. First up, it's subversion, which would be yet another CVS to learn. Second up is the web interface. I don't think I've ever used a Trac based site (again as an end user) that's made a lot of sense to me. These sights seem a confused mix of wiki, faq and bug tracker, with a real blurred line between end-user and developer, and no clear indication of what you can change and what you can't. A good admin could likely herd it into line, but I don't want to get into that.

Tux Family actually looked good for a couple of minutes. There are some neat projects there, and the atmosphere seems great too. It's a moderated sign up process like Savannah. The multilingual FAQ was nice touch I thought, and the European heritage seems to shine through in places, in a good way. What took them out of contention were these little tidbits - "Tux Family is not a test platform", We will not accept "student projects that will die in a month or two" due to lack of resources. Fair enough, but that might just describe these efforts pretty well, so let's go our own ways before we even start :-)

Which brings us to Launchpad. Those of you paying attention already knew my choice since they were on the bottom of the list, so there you have it.... Oh, ok I'll explain why too.

Launchpad looks too complicated, frankly, ala Trac. On the other hand, the emphasis seems to be in all the right places. They want to promote cross project communication and support, and my projects are going to lean heavily on other the efforts of already established software. Their philosophy seem to fit into my objectives pretty well. I'm especially intrigued by the mention of translation services. Multilanguage support was high on my list of things I wanted, and I'm hopelessly unilingual, so maybe I can get some real wins there. Just wandering through the tour made me feel like it's got the right approach. I'm already an Ubuntero, and Launchpad has always performed well for me. As I've started to work my way through the Launchpad documentation, I'm finding it helpful, because it talks alot about 'why' you do things rather than 'how'. That's valuable to me, since I've got zero exposure to software project management prior to this. Launchpad itself seems to have a lot of Python bits to it, so a Python project isn't going to be out of place. Sign up was simple and straightforward, with no moderation steps.

It's not perfect - they use bazaar rather than git, and don't provide any wiki services, or even a home page past the generic one, but I think I can deal with that when I get there.

Posts like this help make Launchpad seem to be the best choice, let's try 'er out!

(Note to self - enough with the brackets already!)

The New Blog Title

2009-01-19T04:11:00.001-05:00

For those of you that are curious - it revolves around my New Year's Resolutions for 2009:

Be

constructive
instructive
inclusive
communicative
responsive
empathetic
conciliatory
receptive

Entropy is the enemy !!!

Of course, after I thought it up and implemented it, I found out it was hardly original... Ah well, not much on the internet is. Doesn't look like we're doing the same material :-) Hopefully this blog is more to your taste than that one.

Of course talk is cheap, and it's already a couple of weeks into the new year - have I actually done anything? Well, I started keeping up this blog again, and I signed the Ubuntu Code of Conduct. Let's see if I can keep this going!

Choosing a Project Repository

2009-01-17T10:25:00.001-05:00

From that mythical reader out there who is actually following all my posts up to now I can hear the question - 'Are you nuts? You claim you are going to write a program in Python, and before you learn any you're worrying about where to host the project? Delusions of grandeur or what!'

Before you completely go over to my wife's side (who is quite sure I am nuts) let me explain.

The last time I tried anything like this at all, it had two problems. Since it was a sideline hobby, it was done in fits and starts, when I had the time. As a result I was always trying to figure out where I left off, what to do next, what was already done, etc etc etc. It wasted a lot of time I didn't have just trying to keep it all straight. Once it was finally completed (well, once I quit adding features anyway) it ran fine for years, but when I wanted out from under maintaining it, there was no one around who could pick up the pieces from my scattered pile of stuff and keep it running. The new maintainer ended up re-writing it all his way and throwing out all my work. I don't begrudge that - I wasn't doing it anymore and he can't support something he doesn't grok, but it hurt none the less to have all that effort pitched.

Since those who can't understand the past are condemned to repeat it, what can I learn from this?

One - you don't write software, you build solutions. Yeah, I know, sounds like an Apple ad or something, but here's the theory. Start with a clear vision, create a solid list of what the thing is supposed to do, then write the code to do it. Document, then execute, not the other way around. I can think of lots of projects I wish did things this way.... I used to have a friend in high school that was fond of saying 'Plan the work, then work the plan' Maybe I've finally started to listen :-)

Two - This project has zero resources (see rule one) and like the last one is going to be done piecemeal at whatever computer I happen to be sitting in front of when I get 10 minutes to think about it. An internet based, distributed setup is the easiest way to keep this on track and organized. I don't have time to worry about infrastructure any more than required, I want to work on the product. There's no privacy concerns here - quite the opposite, so keeping it local doesn't make any sense.

All right, now that I've blathered on this much, it's getting to be too long a post to discuss who I actually picked. I'll do that as a separate entry.

Running In All Directions At Once

2009-01-15T07:10:00.000-05:00

So, since I claimed I was interested in other things lately, what the heck am I going to put on this blog? Other stuff of course :-)

Here's one topic I'll be returning to again and again. I might finally stop saying "I'm not a programmer". I can't go back to school (unless somebody's willing to foot the bill) but I can try and figure this out on my own. Lots of people do it every day. I don't expect to get really good at it, but hey - who knows?

I'm starting for that old open-source traditional reason - I've got an itch to scratch.

I do know a smidgen of bash scripting and Perl. I even did a complete website from scratch using Perl and MySQL with a bit of help from a friend. The problem I find with Perl is the same thing pointed out in one of the Perl books I read. If you don't do Perl every day and really work at, it doesn't seem to 'stick' with you that well. When I go back and look at old work, I have to really stop and look at it to figure out what's going on. To boot, the whole 'object orientated programming' paradym didn't make all that much sense to me in Perl either.

My itch is actually to contribute some code to an existing project. It does a lot of what I want, but not all of it. I've even posted my ideas to their bug tracker, but it doesn't seem like anybody else is going to do the work for me, so maybe it's time I tried to do it myself. That project is written in Python, and Python should be a good thing to learn for lots of reasons.

Python has the reputation as being easy to learn, and very versatile. Lots of modules and add ons are already out there, and it runs on Linux, Mac and Windows. I've seen lots of interesting end user programs that are written in Python, and I might be able to get something that looks good as well as working well.

So, I need to learn Python. And revision control. And project management. And lots of other things too :-)

I'll post tidbits as I go along here, and I'll start tagging these blog entries better so my mythical audience can skip the parts they don't care about.

Creative Commons and the General Public

2009-01-13T15:41:00.002-05:00

I was struck at our users group meeting the other day just how 'foreign' the concept of creative commons is to many many people.

I was demonstrating some social networking stuff, facebook and this 'flickr feed'

Some of the audience members just couldn't get over the fact that people let their pictures show up in public like that. What if someone wants to steal them, or sell them for money or....

To me it's kind of obvious - it's a picture of my kids, or a piece of landscape. I don't own the rights to that piece of landscape, and if somebody else can profit on it, why not? I couldn't...

I was discussing real estate with an older cousin of mine once, and something he said has stuck with me for a long time now.

You can't own a piece of property, you just look after it for a while. It'll be here one way or another long after you and I are gone.

That's what CC is all about now isn't it....

Installing Twirl on Linux

2009-01-12T09:22:00.001-05:00

I'd read somewhere installing Adobe Air and Twirl on linux was a real pain. I looked into it about a month ago, but the instructions at Adobe were not trivial. It was still marked as 'Beta' at that point, so it seemed reasonable, but I didn't want to spend the time at it then.

I tried gtwitter and gwibber since, but gtwitter is only twitter, and gwibber has an (upstream) webkit bug currently on Hardy that makes it unusable. gwibber does seem like the way to go on linux going forward, but I'll wait for an update there before I mess with that again.

Which brings us back to Twirl. Installing it now is pretty painless. Unfortunately it's not via a .deb, so it takes it outside the apt updates system, but it does have it's own updating system, so at least it's not completely orphaned. Personally I think any internet facing application has to have an active update system before I'm interested. The biggest security threats all seem to come from this quarter currently.

Just visit the twirl site. The big 'install now' button doesn't work, but just below it is the 'manual install' link. Download the Air installer, chmod +x it, and run it. It prompts for admin rights properly, and installs painlessly. Then visit the Twirl site again, and at the top of the page click on 'linux users use this installer.' It installs like a regular Adobe Air program, except it prompts to place the program in /opt which I thought was nice touch.

Incidentally, if you install the regular Twirl app instead of the linux version, it still works, but it doesn't dock in the panel correctly. (Ask me how I know :-)

So, all in all, it's pretty cool. It's not the click-n-drool operation it is in XP or OSX, but it's not kernel hacking either, and the program itself runs and looks exactly the same as it does elsewhere. I bet the final little niggles will get worked out eventually too. A big thumbs up to Adobe for supporting linux users as first class citizens these days - It's their support that makes it easy for me to feel comfortable recommending Air programs and avoiding things like Silverlight like the plague.

Home Server - the recap to date

2009-01-10T21:22:00.000-05:00

So where am I at right now?

It turns out the Xbox Media Centre is a hit. I like it, it works simply, and has been pretty reliable.

All I need for it is a file share. That same file share works well as a backup drop spot. Right now I've got an old Celeron box running Ubuntu desktop with a couple of bigger drives and LVM to join them together. Simple and effective.

I've never been happy with using a file share on the same box as a firewall, and the sucky firewall built into my modem makes we want to keep a linux box doing that job along with DHCP and DNS for the local network. I'm using SME server for that, although I might revert to IPCop or something else. I'm missing a WEP network for the kids Nintendo DS's, and someone gave me a PCI wireless card that might just do the job without me adding more equipment to the house.

Central authentication is still on the wishlist I suppose, but doesn't seem to be too important right now.

Running my own mailserver just doesn't seem worth the effort. As long as Gmail's privacy issues aren't pushing my buttons too badly, it seems like the right solution.

So, all and all, it's working ok right now.

What's caught my attention lately is python. I'd like to try and learn at least a little bit... So, expect a couple posts on that topic and others (like CVS) in future.

Unending

2009-01-08T21:08:00.002-05:00

Yep - another gratuitous Stargate reference.

And a change of direction.

If you haven't noticed - it's been pretty quiet around here lately. Truth is, I've been very busy, and when I'm not busy, I've been interested in other things.

Oddly enough, I've started using identi.ca, and twitter, and that's what got me interested in writing blog entries again. And while I've been kicking out some entries for a user group blog I write on, I've been wanting to express things that just don't belong there, or on my family website, and too long for twitter.

It's amusing, but my nickname 'furicle' actually is a pretty unique Google search, with identi.ca and twitter entries one and two, and this blog somewhere down the list a bit. The rest of the hits are all me too. So I'm not going to abandon this blog, just change it around a bit.

I know all the advise says if I want a successful blog to pick a narrow topic and beat it to death, but audience share isn't my definition of success anyway. This is more therapeutic than serving some desire for fame - an audience isn't really necessary. If I provide useful info from time to time that a google search picks up for future readers, that's great too.

The four rules still apply, just expect a lot more wandering around various FLOSS topics, not just home server stuff. And you still can't expect a schedule :-)

Up in a day or two is a recap of where I ended up with my home server to date.

XBox Media Centre Is Really Nice When It Doesn't Drop Network Connection

2008-10-02T10:11:00.001-04:00

I did go ahead and set up the XBox Media Centre on my old XBox. The instructions aren't the greatest, but they got me there.

The media centre is much better than I expected. It's pretty, and useable, and looks like the perfect solution for our household. I've already moved my Freevo box into the basement (it's still the media server, even if it's not connected to the TV anymore.)

One thing that was confusing. There's some kind of script on that XBox that tells it if the network is up or not - and it was forever deciding my network was down, even when it was fine. Weird, since it would correctly show the cable as being connected, and the connection being a negotiated half-duplex 100 meg. (Yep - it's an old switch - remember Rule One?) It still read 'Network Down' below.

What fixed it (and don't ask me why) was to set the XBox to Fixed Manual IP instead of DHCP. It's been 'up' ever since. It must be something in the way the various 'dashboards' interact with each other and/or the eth card - but my weirdo solution works.

More Adventures with SME server and Friends

2008-09-30T21:51:00.002-04:00

Yep - I'm still alive :-)

The spouse called me from home trying to send an email - and Thunderbird was telling her the mail server was temporarily unavailable, and she was on a deadline :-/

My first thought was to ssh in and try to send mail from my linux box on the LAN. Problem was, the DynDNS updater built into the SME server doesn't handle the possibility of being behind a NAT of it's own.

Instead I got her to turn on the LogMeIn service which is on that machine but always disabled, and I got in and started poking around. It was weird. I set up gmail as an smtp server and sent the message that way - which put the gmail account as the reply to on the message. Not a big problem since her gmail account (which she never uses) auto forwards to her 'real' POP account anyway, but an indication it was only a temporary fix.

Called the ISP, talked to first level support (much better than you'd expect - polite, friendly and helpful - gotta love my ISP!) who didn't have any insight into the issue and promised to get second level support to call me. They did - within about a half an hour, and we poked at it for a couple of minutes. Oddly, he couldn't see my attempts at sending an email show up at his end at all (he's watching the mail server logs as he's talking to me). He suggests swapping to port 587 and lo and behold it works fine. He's pretty convinced the problem is mine. I let him go and after a bit it comes to me - the SME server is blocking port 25 outbound I bet. Later on I prove it out

==> telnet smtp.myisp.com 25
Trying the.ip.of.that.server...
Connected to smtp.myisp.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
elo
220 mySMEserver.notTheISP.com ESMTP

So, while it was nice that LogMeIn got me in, I wanted to get remote ssh up and going again.

A quick google didn't reveal a fix for the built in DynDNS software (I didn't look very hard) so I grabbed ddclient from dyndns.org and followed the Red Hat installation instructions. Worked perfect first try. (If you know of an 'official' package to do this, by all means let me know)

It really points out both edges of the SME sword. If you use DynDNS the way most people do, then their prebuilt config is perfect - easy, helpful and exactly what you want. If you don't want that, you have to start working 'around' the software instead of with it. It's still RedHat, so it's not a big deal in this case, but it's a good example.

Next up I went to forward port 22 thru the modem, thru the SME to my personal linux box. Thru the SME server was easy. Thru that modem was not. I don't find that firewall config easy or intuitive, and I don't like a firewall I'm not comfortable with. I'm really reconsidering the setup.

SME Server install

2008-09-07T10:53:00.004-04:00

Just so you don't think I'm dead or something :-)

I installed SME server on that same box that eBox choked.

Even though SME suggests a minumum of 256 meg, it installed and so far is running fine on just 128. Now, I'm not using it for much more than DNS and a firewall at the moment, so I won't be suprised if it keels over when I add a few services, so far so good!

Here's some notes I made during the install. Kind of stream of consciousness stuff - hope it's at least somewhat understandable.

It has no config questions at all, not even partitioning, without passing options to kernel! Come to think of it - no questions about hostname or primary eth or anything!

I found out later (yeah I know RTFM!) that it does automatic software RAID. If you have two drives it does RAID 1, three drives RAID 5 and four or more drives RAID 6 - all on it's own. That seems to be kind of indicative of the way SME is done. It has a number of nice touches like that which are really neat if it's what you want, but a bit disconcerting if you want to do it all yourself.

Turns out that all the configuration happens *after* the install is complete and it runs a config stage.

First question on reboot was do you wish to restore from backup? Cool idea - hope it only happens on unconfigured box :-P

Second question is admin password. It didn't like my choice (which surprised me - it's over 8 characters and contains a mix of letters numbers and punctuation!) I tried a bunch of variations, and it didn't like any of them, including a really ugly sucker. There's got to be a bug there! Made a note to check on later. Oddly, it doesn't ask for an administrators username, just the password.

Again, after the fact I found out why. If you log in as 'admin' it puts you straight into an 'admin' console with predefined choices for reconfiguring, viewing system info etc etc. You have to log in as 'root' to get a real shell. Both users are set up with the same password.

Third question was server and gateway, private server and gateway or server only. Private means no WAN side services.

Dedicated network or dialup - cool option for those of us rural types that understand high speed networks aren't universal!

The next question was which eth card is which. In my case it correctly indicated that both cards (although different models) use the same driver. Good info, but then it gives you nothing to determine which card it thinks is which. It doesn't identify by model or MAC which is eth0. The options were labelled 'Normal' or 'Reversed' with eth0 marked as the local interface, I took a guess eth0 was the on board NIC and got lucky.

Next question is dchp or pppoe or static - has account name as identifier option for dhcp, or MAC address.

Next question is dyndns provider if desired - cool! Prompted for details including password. In my case it's not working :-( It's probably because it's 'WAN' interface is behind the modem we reconfigured as a NAT router. As a result the WAN IP is still a private network IP, and DynDNS probably rejects those. I didn't see anyway to tell it to use an alternate script or whatever to determine the proper IP address using the provided web interface or admin console. It's probably easy enough to change directly in the /etc config info - I'll just have to go looking.

Next question is dhcp on lan yes or no and range of numbers to provide.

Next question is specified DNS server or not, with the note that you shouldn't use your ISP's DNS server as it's not required. It made me wonder if SME server has the updates for the DNS issues that were big news last month. Another note to go look for stuff....

Save config and it 'activates changes' which looks like changing run-levels.

Noticed 'activating Smolt weekly checkin' - Google shows

Smolt is developed to collect hardware profiles from end users in a opt-in method.

Now I know how SME server has such good user stats. I bet if I read the install manual I'd get the 'opt in' option somehow too :-)

On the whole, it's really a predetermined design, the admin just fills in the blanks.

I had to finally read the manual to get to the web interface. Turns out the default apache page is just an 'under construction' banner, while the management page is at hostname/server-manager/

Not sure if that's an attempt at security thru obscurity...

I also noted the hardware requirements mentioned there are minimum 400Mhz and 256 meg of ram, recommended 1.5Ghz and 512Meg. It's running OK with just 128 so far though!

As it stands, I've configured static IP address thru DHCP (fixed leases) and set host names for all the devices on my LAN. It's a straight forward operation using the web interface, but a little clunky since there's no easy way to get the MAC address from the interface to plug back into the interface. IPCop has a nice option to turn a regular DHCP lease into a fixed lease which means you don't have to resort to cut and paste between an ssh session and the web interface.

I've had a couple of small issues, most of them self inflicted. One of my ethernet cables has a broken lock tab, so it was on the edge of connecting or not connecting depending on how it felt - even though it looked fine.

I also found out that running downloading a couple files via bittorrent seems to completely saturate my (fairly anemic) upstream. It got so bad that DNS wasn't resolving before the PCs gave up trying, so it looked like everything was down, when in fact it was just really really slow. I had some really simple traffic shaping set up on the IPCop box - looks like I'll have to see about adding that to SME as well. I see there's a plugin for it available in the contrib section which is promising.

One other frustration has been the modem as gateway. It works, but that interface is clunky and confusing. I haven't quite decided what to do about that yet.

SME server is certainly a solid solution for a small LAN - especially if you want to leave it in the hands of say a 'Windows Power User'. It's been designed to be easy to use, while retaining some powerful features.

All in all, this blog really hasn't worked out as intended - I figured I'd have the time to get this setup way way down the road from where it's at now. With a busy fall looming, don't expect me to get back to daily entries soon, but I am carrying on, even if it doesn't seem like it.

Before I go on to hardware that eBox and Ubuntu will run well on, I'm going to at least fix DynDNS, install Dan's Guardian or similar and some traffic shaping on the SME server and see how that plays out.

128meg Just Won't Cut It

2008-09-07T10:18:00.003-04:00

I installed eBox on the guinea pig a couple of days ago, but didn't proceed to configuration or anything, just left it sitting at the log in prompt.

Here's what I noticed from the installation process.

First off, the eBox CD gives no indication it isn't an Ubuntu CD. I think it's worth a couple of minutes of somebody's time to stick the eBox logo on it, and add a couple of words of text somewhere indicating it's not just a vanilla Ubuntu install CD. I'll have to investigate the eBox bug tracking system at one point and make that suggestion.

In what's likely a related issue, the media check process on the CD fails when you try it. I'm *guessing* that when the eBox project added the eBox installation scripts, they didn't update the media checking function, so it's failing because of the extras. I didn't confirm this, but the installation did proceed ok - so either the media issue is subtle or in an area I didn't use, or my guess is on the mark. Kinda disappointing in a 'fit and finish' kind of way - but not a big problem. (note to self - did I even check the md5sum on the iso?)

I didn't preplan the partitioning, so when I reached that section I was flailing around a bit. I did have a couple of 'huh?' moments, but from past experience with the Ubuntu alternate CD I know that you can get the partitioner twisted up a bit if you flip back and forth between LVM and RAID etc etc and don't approach it in a logical fashion.

The game plan was a 256meg /boot with the rest on LVM. On the LVM I had a swap partition of 768meg (overkill, I know, but I knew this machine would need swap) and the rest in /. I figured the file share for clients would be on it's own partition I'd set up later. Looking back afterwards, I was kicking myself for not at least putting /var/log on a separate partition, but I could 'fix that in the mix'
as they say.

There were no options to the rest of the install really, just pick which ethernet card was primary, time zone, keyboard etc. I kept waiting for questions but they never came.

On reboot I was struck with just how long the reboot was taking. It seemed to take forever (no, I didn't time it...) Some of it was one time only stuff like generating RSA keys, but I was thinking to myself it wasn't looking very spouse friendly. She'd expect it to be working by the time her client PC booted back up - or at least close to it - not sitting around waiting for a server that she only vaguely remembers is there to complete doing something she can't even see. I was reconsidering my limited RAM machine at this point.

There were two errors during that initial boot. One was Dan's Guardian failing to start up, with a comment about editing the config file. Made sense, since I hadn't configured anything to do with

saslauthd is a daemon process that handles plaintext authentication requests on behalf of the SASL library.

None the wiser, I made a note to look into that further too. :-)

I also see from my scribbed notes I saw mention of Quagga, but I didn't make a note as to why I made a note about Quagga!

Googling quickly about again, it looks like Quagga is related to routing, probably BGP stuff or similar.

The installation didn't take that long, but I was out of time, so I left it sitting at the log in screen with my notes.

When I came back to it this morning, I was met with a screen full of error messages about killing apache processes due to lack of ram :-( I guess that's that.

So, I've reached a couple of conclusions.

1 - Hardy + eBox = more than 128 meg of ram required

2 - I was disappointed with the lack of choice during the install. Maybe it was a good way to get the flavour of an eBox set up, but it went against the grain of an old knob twister like me. Next time I think I'll do the eBox install the Ubuntu way - install from a vanilla server CD, and add the eBox packages afterwards.

I hate 'meta' posts - but here's one anyway...

2008-08-29T11:41:00.002-04:00

I really don't like talking about blogging in a blog - especially when it's supposed to be an 'on topic' blog like this one. None the less, here I am.

Life's been 'interesting' lately, and I'm just not having the time to create my home server - forget blog about it too. Apologies. The entries are still coming, and I hope to get back to at least every couple of days until the initial setup is complete, but I'm not going to be there in the next little while anyway.

To keep this from being a totally wasted entry I can mention this - I applied a fresh coat of heat transfer paste to the cpu and heat sink, then ran a memory check over night with no reoccurance of heat issues or memory problems. Looks like that machine is back in business.

Just as a backup, I also tested a very similar Dell GX110, which has roughly the same CPU and 256 meg of old fashioned SDRAM. So, if things fall apart with machine A I can just keep right on going.

If you're tired of waiting for entries whenever I happen to get to them, I'm giving you an out.

Here's the Cole's Notes version of installing and using eBox from howtoforge.com.

This blog - endless regular entries - condensed to three pages....

Well, kind of anyway.

Let me know what you think of the entries so far!

Snafu Number One

2008-08-25T14:50:00.000-04:00

OK, so to test the hardware I grab my hot off the cd burner copy of the eBox installer and walk over to the system. That's weird - I could have sworn I left it on sitting at the BIOS settings screen.

Turn it on, see Warning - the previous system shutdown due to a thermal event!

Doesn't sound good. A thermal event? I guess you're saying it overheated? I don't image they come with ice monitors.... Maybe it's just another example of poor translation, but sometimes I really wonder why engineers try so hard to sound like English professors being paid by the word.

I turned it back on and booted up from the cd. It looks exactly like the Ubuntu server cd - eBox isn't mentioned anywhere. I started checking the cd for defects. After a couple of minutes it turns off :-(

Same warning when I power it back on.

I don't get it though! There's only two fans and they are both turning, and all the dust bunnies where kicked outside.

I pull out the air deflector around the CPU (where it vents out the back) and I note that the heat sink is clean and fastened down ok - but moves on the cpu.

On old machines like this normally the heat sink grease has welded the two together, but on this one the bond has been broken. I don't know when that happened, but it seems like the culprit. I'll have to dig up my heat sink grease and try again tomorrow.

Choosing The Victim

2008-08-24T13:59:00.003-04:00

This is actually pretty straight forward. Meet the sacrifice.

As I've mentioned previously, I've got a bunch of old PCs lying around, and this one is typical.

A Dell Optiplex 200 desktop style case. It will fit nicely on top of my HVAC unit on the basement, and not look too out of place. It's not hard to work on, and it's even reasonably quiet. It does have one of those Dell proprietary power supplies (grrr.... see rule 4) but I have a spare.

It's a 733 MHz Pentium III, slow by today's standards, but it will run a modern linux ok, with one problem - it's 128meg of RAM. Since it uses the defunct RAMBUS style ram, buying some or finding some used stuff to add in it isn't easy or cheap.

On the other hand, that makes it perfect for this project. I can find RAM for the other boxes and make them able to run a modern Gnome or KDE ok, but not this one. What else could I do with it? Heck, it's got ISA slots - that's got to be good for some geek cred.

Luckily not requiring X reduces the need for RAM substantially. It's quite possible that I'll find it lacking once I start using it, but I'm going to start and see how it goes. It'll be a nice comparison, since this is the same box I tried to run Aastaro on earlier.

I'm sure ACPI issues probably mean suspend to disk or ram doesn't work on a mainboard this old, but as a server it shouldn't be necessary. With only a cpu and power supply fan, and being a PIII hydro usage isn't that bad. I'll try and measure it later.

I have a number of old Fujitsu drives of about 8 gig. I'll use one of them as the system drive. Since it looks like we're going to try eBox, SME server and perhaps vanilla Ubuntu server, the plan is to swap hard drives after each installation. That makes it easy to change back and forth between them, while keeping the hardware identical for comparisons.

I'll put another much larger drive (or two) in later to handle media files. If I use LVM I should be able to transfer forward to the new drives easily once I've picked a winner.

Flipping through the BIOS shows a couple of settings to pay attention to, and a bunch of options we can disable.

First off, the date and time is correct, so at least the battery on the mainboard isn't shot. It'd be a pain to find that out after the fact. I'm disabling the floppy in the BIOS and disconnecting the power to it - I can't see using it for anything.

Since there's no option to pick a boot device via the keyboard, the startup order will have to be CDROM then hard drive. Going into the integrated devices menu I turned off the sound, the mouse port, the serial ports and the parallel ports, leaving on the internal speaker and the built in network card. I added a standard PCI 3com 905B nic earlier for the Aastaro test, since it wouldn't recognize any of the old ISA cards I have kicking around. I turned off reporting keyboard errors since I won't keep one attached and set it to auto power on whenever it's got AC.

Next up are some quick tests to make sure are hardware is ok.

Another Competitor - This is getting pretty busy!

2008-08-21T16:31:00.000-04:00

Just tripped over Amahi.

From a quick perusal of their website, it's a home-server type setup currently in beta- with a twist.

Currently based on Fedora 8, with plans to support Fedora 9, CentOS and Ubuntu.
They want you to 'sign up' before you install, and they have a Terms of Service section that mentions 'premium services' It looks like remote management is their 'secret ingredient', and they want to monetize things at one point or another. Nothing wrong with that, but not the direction I'm interested in heading at this point.

They do have some cool bullet point features, like compatibility with Vista's built in calendars (which I know nothing about) and Apple iCals.

Also interesting was they have a backup service called 'PPA' that seems to be a combination of partimage a and network booting, ala clonezilla. So, you just reboot, hit F12 to boot from the network and pick either backup or restore. Pretty slick.

But, (getting on my soapbox), you have to manually reboot and trigger the backup. In my experience if you leave backups to the end users, they don't get done. My wife, for instance, is not interested in a process like this, and wouldn't be likely to get it done regularly. I'd rather have something I can schedule so nobody has to worry about it.

At any rate, Amahi looks like interesting competition, and a good source for ideas if nothing else.

Hacking the Gnet BB2060

2008-08-20T17:03:00.001-04:00

I began to write a fair treatise on this, then realized it probably wasn't necessary. What I did likely won't apply to your set up directly. If you want more details, drop a comment below and I'll try and oblige.

Of note - don't go messing with your modem at random unless you

are familiar with this stuff
are patient and careful
don't mind spending lots of time without a working internet connection

There are some settings in here that relate to how the modem interacts with the DSLAM, and I have no idea what they should be. If you change the wrong setting, you'll get to keep both halves of what's left :-) I did note the manual claims the default reset puts it back to bridged mode, and other settings that pretty much resemble my starting point, but I didn't try it.

The modem's default LAN interface is at 192.168.1.1 and uses the username DSL with the password DSL. Something that didn't occur to me until I starting changing settings is that this modem/router has a plain http interface, so whatever you do is sniffable on the LAN. It doesn't mean much in most home settings, but do make sure your LAN is secure before you start changing things, or you might not be the last one to be making changes! Another weird fact is that the http interface didn't render properly in Epiphany. Firefox worked fine though.

Start by downloading the documents from Gentek's ftp site under ADSL modems. The biggest part of what I did was plainly laid out in the quick start 'ethernet port configuration' guide. There's a complete manual there as well if you want all the details. I've got more reading to do myself.

Of note, the ftp site also shows a Firmware section, but several forums I visited seemed to indicate reflashing this particular modem is very prone to bricking it, and that it's just not worth chancing it.

It's a bit amusing that the most repeated line in the quick start guide is

DO NOT MAKE ANY OTHER CHANGES

I did of course. :-) Here's the highlights.

First up look at the Admin tab and find the Backup/Restore option. Make a backup of your settings before you start so you have a fall-back position. Then make another backup when you are done so you can upload it again later when the modem dies and you get a new one from your provider. (Murphy says he'll send you a different model, unless you fail to make your backup now of course.)

Note on this tab there is a Commit and Reboot section. The save buttons all through the web interface make the settings active, but don't make them permanent. You have to 'Commit' them so they take effect the next time. The Reboot option is quicker and easier than unplugging it all the time.

Also on this tab is the user section. You probably want to change the default password from it's very original setting.....

On the Services tab, under uPnP - disable it. (Unless you like things changing your firewall rules without telling you about it)

Also on the Services tab, under SNTP, add pool.ntp.org as a server so the logfiles the router keeps actually mean something. :-)

There's lots of other stuff here you can explore like some simple parental controls, SNMP etc.

I could have left the LAN side as manually assigned IP since in the final setup all that will be hooked up to it is our home server (see the last post for a pretty diagram), but I decided to turn DHCP on. That way I can use it without the home server in the interim, and it shouldn't cause us any issues down the road. I did pick an oddball IP subnet rather than the ever popular 192.168.1.0/24 range - when you start connecting subnets via VPN's or what have you, it's so much easier if all the pieces involved don't overlap at all.

I did get one nasty surprise as I was doing this. I used the Admin Management Control section to turn off all the various management interfaces of the modem on the WAN side. I left only http and telnet on the LAN side active.

The telnet thing is pretty interesting actually. It looks like it has an extensive CLI interface that operates quite differently than the http style one. I left it active so I can explore that further when the mood strikes.

Now here's the nasty part. No matter what I did, or what settings I put in that management panel, http, telnet and ftp were all available on the WAN side!
That's such a nasty bug I wonder if it's deliberate to all ISP's into their modems regardless of what the user specifies? Just goes to show - always test to make sure you accomplished what you think you did.

To make sure the router can't be altered from the WAN side, I ended up using the firewall section under Services - IP Filter. Simply changing the security level to 'low' activated the rules that blocked the telnet, http and ftp ports. As we go along with our home server project I'm sure we'll end up revisiting this page for more fine-tuning, but those simple rules in combination with the natural firewalling NAT provides will get us going here anyway.

I tried running downloading a sizable torrent over the last couple days (yes, my high speed is a bit of an oxymoron, but the torrent is multiple gigabytes...) and it's been rock solid. So far I feel like I'm on the right track.

Now, if I can resist the urge to dig out my old XBox and keep going with this project instead we can make some real progress.....

Never choose the obvious if there's a better choice....

2008-08-19T17:02:00.000-04:00

Today I'm looking at network topography.

Looking at our list of services we want our server to provide, it's pretty obvious we need all the traffic to flow through our server. You can't do web filtering etc. without it.

My home network is pretty typical. I've got four desktop computers, a laptop and a Nintendo Wii. For network gear there's a typical cheap wireless router, a switch and a DSL modem provided by my ISP.

The wireless was bridged with the wired side. That way the wireless network and the desktops etc were all on the same subnet.

I'm comfortable that the combination of WPA encryption and below ground placement of the wireless router makes it unnecessary to segregate the wireless further.

So, why can't I just put our new home server right there where the IPCop box was? Well, we want it to serve files and maybe handle email as well. The common wisdom is your server shouldn't be your firewall. There's two reasons for that. One, the firewall is the first line of defense. It's most likely to be attacked first, and losing control of it shouldn't mean you've lost control of all your documents etc too. Secondly, the more stuff there is on your firewall, the more stuff the bad guys have to try and find a weakness in.

Note this is really one of the bigger flaws of the MS Small Business Server that our previous commenter pointed out - all your eggs are in one basket, and that basket is exposed to the internet.

OK, so if we can't put our server on the front lines, then why don't I put the wireless router after the modem in front of the server? Two strikes against that idea too.

One, the laptop is often used as a remote control for one or another of the desktops. If the wireless is a separate subnet, then I'm going to have to poke holes in firewalls etc. to make that possible, limiting our flexibility.

Second, that makes the whole network depend on that $30 router - and I have seen too many times where a cheap router is the source of intermittent issues and frequent lockups.

What else could I do? Well, we could put yet another box in front of our server after the modem. It would have to be a linux box or a quality router to avoid issues. But yet another computer is likely to fall afoul of rule zero :-) and it's hard on hydro too. Buying a quality router breaks rule one.

I must admit I was considering lowering my security standards. I thought I'd painted myself into a corner with this one. Then I started looking at that modem my DSL provider gave me....

It's a Gnet BB2060 - a pretty common aDSL box they hand out to everybody that's a customer. My ISP sets them up 'bridged' so that you run your PPPoE software on a router or PC and the box acts just as a modem. On the other hand, their competition has started handing out 'routers' that act as both the modem and router. They provide DHCP services etc on the LAN side, and do the authentication internally, so clients just run standard DHCP.

I dug up a manual for my modem on line (thanks Google!) and it turns out, as I suspected, it can function either as a bridged modem or a router/modem combo.

I'm not sure what my ISP would think about me doing this - and I'm not going to ask - but I have a very solid relationship with them and a spare modem I can borrow from work if I run into something really weird.

If your ISP is one of those multinationals you might want to think about what happens when you call with a service complaint and the modem doesn't work like it's supposed to on their phone support flowchart.

Now I know that modem is just a $30 box just like my own wireless router, but I have to depend on it anyway, so I'm hoping having it act as router isn't going to make it any less reliable. On the positive side, rebooting the modem is a standard troubleshooting step my wife is comfortable with and it's easily accessible (unlike that wireless router).

The next post will detail what I had to change (and what I was careful to leave alone)
I might even snag some screenshots.

Out of sequence - XBMC How To That Looks Interesting

2008-08-19T13:30:00.003-04:00

It's not in the regular flow of things, but it is at least apropos.

I've got an XBox with a dying DVD drive in the basement (who doesn't?)

This is the first How-To I've seen that doesn't involve either the Replay device or a hardware mod chip. It falls nicely into Rule 1 :-) I've looked at using the XBox for a media centre device before, but was hesitant to spend more money on a dead box, especially since all Xbox mod stuff seems to have that grey-market feel to them. I'm sure some (most? all?) of the hardware mod vendors have a good product, but I had no current word-of-mouth that I trusted to pick one.

Now, I should note this How To has two BIG caveats.

I haven't tried this yet. It might be complete baloney.
You have to disconnect IDE cabling on both your PC and XBox at least once - while it's in use! I wouldn't be doing this with an XBox or a PC you love - the results could be tragic. I've accidentally hot swapped IDE devices before, but I cringe every time it happens, and I'm sure sooner or later the smoke is going to come out.

Caveat Emptor

eBox Making All The Right Moves

2008-08-14T13:41:00.000-04:00

I sent a quick email to Soren asking about how eBox was integrating into Hardy.

Looking back at it I probably should have emailed the ubuntu-server list rather than Soren directly, but he was quite gracious.

While he professed to not be familiar with the eBox installer, he did say that eBox provided the packages in Hardy, and it's possible they will become the maintainers in Intrepid directly. In addition he commented on how they have responded in one form or another to all of the concerns raised.

All in all, it looks like the eBox guys are trying hard to be model citizens and should be congratulated.

So, eBox is definitely in with SME server. Next up we pick a network topography. (that's a big word for figuring out which wire to plug in where :-)

Ebox - the default web based GUI for Ubuntu Server

2008-08-13T10:00:00.000-04:00

The obvious starting point for an Ubuntu home server has got to be eBox.

Both the Hardy server guide and the community pages have (essentially identical) entries on eBox, and it's packages are in the universe repositories for easy installation.

Furthermore, since Webmin has been pretty much depreciated for bad behaviour eBox is really the only game in town at the moment.

One thing I'm unclear on is just how separate eBox and Ubuntu server are. The suggested spec for Hardy seems to say that eBox does go it's own way, and once you start using it you're stuck with it.

As a result, I'm left wondering if the download from the eBox website gives me subtly different results than using the eBox packages in Universe.

Luckily, this is all about open source development - so I can just go ask the guys doing the job where they are at! I'm off to post a note to Soren (his name is on the blueprint) on the ubuntu-server list and we'll find out for sure.

The schedule's shot to heck - but we're forging ahead...

2008-08-12T13:51:00.002-04:00

Just a quick note to let you all know that I'm sure glad I had a backlog of material lined up to get you to this point. It's not going to be quite a regular for the next little while.

I've had two hardware failures on the main server at work combined with a family vacation and lots of 'real life' stuff that's made finding time to do this difficult.

Don't worry - it's going forward - it's just going to be at a slower pace for the next little bit.

Feel free to post your comments in the meantime!

At Last - A Real Contender

2008-08-10T15:49:00.001-04:00

While looking at Clark Connect info, I saw mention of SME server.

A quick pop over there and a perusal of the forums left me impressed.

Like Clark Connect, with a long history and busy forums.
Unlike Clark Connect, this seems to be a community project first and foremost.
For example, elections and discussions were right out front in the forums.

They keep up to date useage stats, showing a pretty reasonable number of units in service.

The feature list is quite complete including an LDAP server and mention of plug ins like Jinzora, Dan's Guardian and Asterisk.

It is based on CentOS 4, and specifically mentions they try upstream packages unpatched to allow them to quickly flow through.

OK, I think it's time to pay attention to Rule 4. Before I started, I was pretty sure I was going to end up using Ubuntu Server 8.04, and just had to decide if I wanted to try (tomorrow's entry) Ebox on top or not. SME Server is making me reconsider. It looks like it should do everything I want it to - except teach me more about Ubuntu.

So here's a thought - old PCs I have in abundance. Why not install 'em both and see how we make out? All it costs is my time :-)

Astaro - Are Two Half Loaves Better Than One?

2008-08-09T13:30:00.000-04:00

Astaro is a commercial distribution that presents itself as a 'Security Gateway'.
They bundle up their software with a hardware solution and sell it as a complete package or just the software.

Their target market is really SonicWall and similar products. They claim to use the best of both open source and closed source products. Their software is available without fees for home users.

Astaro promotional material shows a very slick professional looking GUI. Their list of firewall and security related options is really extensive. IPSec to IDS and all stops between are covered.

Astaro doesn't really qualify to be my home server for a couple of reasons. Like any true security/firewall solution it doesn't serve files. Most security professionals would tell you a server has no place on a firewall. On the other hand, with the number of bells and whistles they are all packing into their boxes these days, I can't see where adding Samba makes much of a change in their overall target footprint. And of course it's a proprietary product.

Nonetheless, I was curious. It was considered as a possible solution for work, so I thought I'd take it for a spin.

The installer would get roasted on your average Linux distro review site. It's littered with oddities. For instance, the first screen tells you to use the arrows to navigate the installer screens, hit Tab to change the option and hit Enter to accept the changes and move on. Then the next screen says it's going to wipe your hard drive, and tells you to hit F8 to continue :-/ Nowhere does the tab key seem to do anything, and there's never a 'back' option. You can hit escape though - and it'll quit right out of the whole installation proceedure....

The first couple of times I tried it I thought I had a bad CD because it kept saying 'Installation Failed - Restart' Turns out that was incompatible hardware, because when I changed boxes it got a little farther. That time it recognized half my ethernet cards and posted a message saying it couldn't be a good firewall on just one ethernet card.

Now it is linux, and if you do things like using control-alt-Fx to look for other consoles you can see a whole lot better what's going on, but the default install screen is pretty terse, and the options are few.

Once I had it installed it tells you to reboot and log in via the web gui to complete the installation. I did so, and imediately started seeing the polish that shows up in their marketing materials. It's a nice boot screen, and looks quite professional. The web gui is pretty too - at least what I saw of it.

I set the passwords, and ran thru the wizard, but once I turned a few options on it turned my target box into a complete waste of time. The GUI became so unresponsive that it was unusable. I actually rebooted sure that it must be hung or acting up, but no - it was DDOSing itself. I'm not sure why the hardware passed their check during the installer, because it was completely unable to run their product.

It's probably a good product for what it's designed for, and I'm guessing a gig of ram would have made it perform usefully, but I'm not wasting time here when it won't due what I need it to anyway. Onwards!

P.S. If this is really what you want, rather than a home server - take a look at IPCop, Smoothwall, Vyatta, and Untangle among others. Gotta be one there you like.

A Fallback Position

2008-08-08T15:25:00.002-04:00

Started looking at Clark Connect.

I've got to say - it looks feature complete.

It's been around since 2000 so I doubt it's going away anytime soon.

The forums are very active, so it's obviously well used.

I'll probably give it a try if I can't find anything else - before I start from scratch.

Why the reluctance then? Well, I can't put my finger on it, but it just seems so darned commercial. I mean the 'Community' page is 50% a request to put up banner ads for Clark Connect.com. It's like the 'find the free version' game that Grisoft plays with AVG on their website. (With Grisoft that's free like no cost incidentally - I won't promote them further with a link).

Maybe I'm too sensitive, but I found the Wikipedia article more straightford and informational than the company site. Do you know I can't find the fact it's based on Red Hat anywhere on the Clark Connect site? They talk about the 30 day trial but not about the 'free forever' version anywhere. It's Wikipedia that confirmed for me the community version is no charge.

So, other than it's based on Red Hat rather than Debian/Ubuntu it certainly seems to fit most of my needs, but it's not making me excited about it. Not logical maybe, but not my choice for right now.

Satega - Ubuntu Home Server Redux ?

2008-08-07T13:36:00.000-04:00

Checked out Satega

I wonder why they picked the name Satega? To me it's the name of the Ronin's homeworld.
And yes, I know they are spelled different. It's just the only thing that comes to mind.

They've got a cool logo. And they seem to have at least a couple of real devs with a Launchpad site and some code written. But it still seems like it's in the discussion stage. Unfortunately I don't grok git well enough to poke around and see the amount of code they are writing. Maybe they're farther along than I think they are. At any rate, I'm not waiting. Looking at their comments they're still thinking bigger scale than I need, and they're inventing new stuff I'd rather let somebody else get the bugs out of.

A simple interface to the server stuff isn't what I want. It could use tinkertoy controls with video help for every step and my significant other still wouldn't use it or care. That's my job - she just wants the results.

The Competion - Part One

2008-08-06T13:57:00.000-04:00

Windows Home Server - no need to rewrite that - looks comprehensive enough.

What to steal?

The ideas I've already mentioned.

Network monitoring ala Nagios seems like overkill - I only care if my PC is on when I'm in front of it - and then I can look at the pretty lights :-)

Printer Sharing - yep - I've got a couple of inkjets I could share out that way

A bunch of server items that I planned on using that aren't really end user features - like RAID, headless operation etc - all come free with Linux and don't deserve a bullet point here.

Aha - media sharing via Windows Media Connect. Might be useful if we ever get an Xbox. Won't work on the Wii though. See Media Tomb

From earlier research the only solution for the Wii seems to be Jinzora

Nothing else grabs me as 'gotta have it'

Step One - Survey The Field - Do We Need To Do Anything?

2008-08-05T14:13:00.003-04:00

I think it's the Python tradition to 'shamelessly steal what ever is useful'

(Yes, I feel like throwing around unattributed quotes lately. Ya want proof they're real? Go find it :-P )

So why not buy something? Oh - that's rule one, and rule four. That throws out a lot of stuff like Windows Home Server, that probably don't do what I want anyway. Worth a look to see what it does to steal ideas from though.

We said we liked Ubuntu, so is there an Ubuntu home server already?

Well, sort of. Ubuntu Home Server has a website, and a wiki, and forums, and lots of ideas, but at first glance to me it looks a bunch of unorganized stuff that was started twice and still hasn't put out anything I can actually use. Ooops - looks like it's dead again...

Note to self - keep it small and easy. It's obviously easy to fire around blog entries and hard to deliver when you've got big ideas and no programmers. Hmmm, sounds like me....

Off to find other possibilities and report what I think about them as I go.

Think I'll time these short blog posts to come out daily or something to make it look good for the aggregators or whatever rather than posting seven things today and nothing for a couple of weeks.

Step Zero - Define The Problem

2008-08-04T08:00:00.001-04:00

Einstein was once asked if he had an hour to save the world from total destruction, what would he do? His comment was he'd spend 58 minutes defining the problem, and 2 minutes looking for the solution.

On the other side of the fence in a recent interview somebody asked Linus about 'innovation' and he replied

I have never had trouble finding people with crazy ideas. I have trouble finding people who can execute.

All right, now I've got enough quotes to start an argument, what about Rule Number Four?

Guess Linus wins this round. Lets figure out what we need roughly and get on with it.

0 - as close to zero maintenance as possible. I might be on vacation, the hydro might go out for a day, or real life just might be more interesting that day. Has to be 'no worries'

1 - Backup Drop Spot - Computer problems are a lot easier to solve with a working backup :-) And on a home network backups can be a real bitch. Lots of big files, no organization, and the most demanding users you'll ever find anywhere - your significant other and family members who just know that you're the computer geek who's supposed to know how all this stuff works right?

2 - DNS - Because my family aren't into remembering IP numbers

3 - aDSL PPPoE connection maintaining. Because it has to work whenever they want the internet, no muss, no fuss

4 - DHCP - more of the it should just work for friends and family stuff

5 - Central file share - because maintaining multiple copies of all your movies and music is silly, and makes Rule 1 even harder to follow

6 - Firewall

7 - Web filtering. My kids are old enough to try typing things, and young enough not to know why that's a bad idea. And yes, I supervise them, but I don't pretend to believe I'm perfect, and they aren't just a bit sneaky from time to time :-)

8 - Cross platform (see Rule 3)

9 - Central sign on and mobile profiles for the kids - because they don't care which computer they use, and they shouldn't have to really.

10 - Safe remote access to all machines.

11 - Guest wireless and wired access that doesn't give away the keys to kingdom for visitors

12 - Mail server that downloads mail regularly, virus scans it and stores it before the end pcs see it

13 - lots of flexibility to do other stuff I haven't thought of at the moment.

What The Heck Is This?

2008-08-03T11:30:00.004-04:00

This is an experiment.

My IPCop firewall died yesterday (hardware I think - it's been flawless for years but bad the last couple of days).

Of course using a white box as a firewall is a bit of a waste of hydro, and overkill for the job in a lot of ways. It's kinda noisy too, although I just installed mine next to the furnace so one more fan is no big deal :-)

I moved my wireless NAT router so it's the main firewall for our home network, but it's missing so many features I'd like that I immediately started thinking about putting a PC back in there.

Yes, I could by a better wireless box that does everything I want, or buy one and put DD-WRT or something similar on top, but hears the rub (and RULE NUMBER ONE FOR THIS BLOG)

My budget is $0.

Ooops, time for RULE NUMBER TWO.

My time is free.

OK, with those rules out of the way, and a bunch of old whitebox PCs floating around not doing anything, that resolves the 'why not use something designed to do that job' argument. Oh, and I plan on going beyond what a box with 8 meg of ram and a USB port can do anyway.

So, what am I going to use?
Well, let's start with RULE NUMBER THREE

Propriatery sucks. If you qualify or identify with rules 0, 1 and 2 - then by golly you should be able to do exactly the same things I do and get the same results. Anything that gets in the way of that is the enemy. So, Windows is out - so is Mac OSX. I don't know much about the BSDs, so I'm going linux. Ubuntu specifically because I want to learn more about that flavour.

Last but not least is RULE NUMBER FOUR

I'm making this up as I go along. Or, stated differently - what you see is what you get.

I really don't intend this blog to be readable, or pretty, or grammatical.

If you find something here, cool, but I don't intend (at least at this point) to try and make this make sense. It'll likely be a combination of a bunch or URLs for further info, stream of consciousness thoughts and specs, and records of what I did when.

If we end up with something useful, then we pretty up the documentation and give it to the world - after all, PROPRIETARY SUCKS!