8:45AM ::
System Upgrade. Looks like a new kernel version is out 2.6.35.4-1, and a new release of udev. Downloading them now, see how it goes.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Daily Activities
10:45 PM ::
I just installed VMplayer. I was never able to get VMware-Server working on my laptop and all I really need is something that can create and run virtual machines, which VMplayer can do. It's also free. I followed the instructions here. Under step 9, replace the /sbin/lsmod with /bin/lsmod in /etc/rc.d/vmware. Also in step 9, the script that it suggests downloading for kernel26-2.6.35 "and" VMware7.1.1, it's really "and/or", so it is necesary if you're installing VMplayer with kernel 2.6.35. Then run modconfig script. Also, note that VMware depends on the HAL daemon to be running. This caused me some frustration because I don't use HAL anymore now that it's been deprecated.
That's all for now.
I just installed VMplayer. I was never able to get VMware-Server working on my laptop and all I really need is something that can create and run virtual machines, which VMplayer can do. It's also free. I followed the instructions here. Under step 9, replace the /sbin/lsmod with /bin/lsmod in /etc/rc.d/vmware. Also in step 9, the script that it suggests downloading for kernel26-2.6.35 "and" VMware7.1.1, it's really "and/or", so it is necesary if you're installing VMplayer with kernel 2.6.35. Then run modconfig script. Also, note that VMware depends on the HAL daemon to be running. This caused me some frustration because I don't use HAL anymore now that it's been deprecated.
That's all for now.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Daily Activities
System update
- got a new mirrorlist, hopefully it will help out. rankmirrors still isn't working, I guess it's not too high on the priority list. Maybe I'll take a look at the code or write my own script to handle mirror ranking.
Installed VLC, along with its million dependencies
Looks like Archlinux will be rolling out a multilib repo shortly. It will house all the things that depend on 32 bit libraries for 64 bit packages, like flash. Which means those things will no longer be in AUR, very exciting.
I've also been thinking about trying my hand in writing/maintaining some AUR packages. I need to do some reading on package builds and look for an orphaned package that might interest me/that I use.
- got a new mirrorlist, hopefully it will help out. rankmirrors still isn't working, I guess it's not too high on the priority list. Maybe I'll take a look at the code or write my own script to handle mirror ranking.
Installed VLC, along with its million dependencies
Looks like Archlinux will be rolling out a multilib repo shortly. It will house all the things that depend on 32 bit libraries for 64 bit packages, like flash. Which means those things will no longer be in AUR, very exciting.
I've also been thinking about trying my hand in writing/maintaining some AUR packages. I need to do some reading on package builds and look for an orphaned package that might interest me/that I use.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Daily Activities
Haven't done much today. Finally got my old zsh configuration copied over to the fresh install. So, I'm using zsh now. I thus used it to set append ~/.bin to my $PATH. This was somewhat tricky, because the only files this can be set it are *zshrc and *zshenv, both of which are called everytime a new instance of zsh is called. Thus when appending to $PATH in the method of `PATH=$PATH:~/.bin`, '~/.bin' will be appended with every new zsh. To fix this zsh can look for the appending of an array to be unique with `typeset -U $var`. It also breaks $PATH into its own zsh-style array $path. So, in zsh you can also append to $PATH by doing the following: `path=( ~/.bin $path) which will append ~/.bin to the beginning of $PATH. Put it all together and:
typeset -U path
path=( ~/.bin $path)
path=( ~/.bin $path)
Friday, August 20, 2010
Conky Configuration
# alignment top_left
background no
# border_width 1
border_inner_margin 0
border_outer_margin 0
# cpu_avg_samples 2
# default_color white
# default_outline_color white
# default_shade_color white
# draw_borders no
# draw_graph_borders yes
# draw_outline no
# draw_shades no
double_buffer yes
use_xft yes
xftfont Terminux:size=9
# gap_x 5
# gap_y 60
if_up_strictness address
# minimum_size 5 5
# net_avg_samples 2
# no_buffers yes
# out_to_console no
# out_to_stderr no
# extra_newline no
own_window yes
own_window_type dock
own_window_transparent yes
stippled_borders 0
update_interval 1.0
uppercase no
use_spacer left
# show_graph_scale no
# show_graph_range no
total_run_times 0
TEXT
${color #3955D3}${time %a %D %r} $color \
|| ${color #3955A3}Kernel:${color grey} $kernel $color \
|| ${color #3955A3}cpu:${color grey} ${freq_g}Ghz ${cpubar 4,50} ($cpu) | hog:$color ${top name 1}${offset -20}${top cpu 1}${color} \
|| ${color #3955A3}ram:${color grey} ${membar 4,50} | hog:$color ${top_mem name 1}${offset -20}${top_mem mem 1}${color} \
|| ${color #3955A3}swap usage:${color grey} $swapperc% $color \
|| ${color #3955A3}network:${color grey} ${upspeed wlan0} up, ${downspeed wlan0} down, ${totaldown wlan0} downloaded $color
${color #3955A3}cpu temp: ${color grey} ${execi 10 /home/jason/bin/conky-temp.sh}C $color \
|| ${color #3955A3}battery:$color ${color #1E36BD}${battery_bar 4,50 BAT1}$color \
|| ${color #3955A3}w/r:${color grey}$diskio_write $diskio_read $color \
|| ${color #3955A3}Gmail-L: ${color grey}${execi 30 python ~/bin/conky-gmaillinux.py} $color \
|| ${color #3955A3}Gmail-H: ${color grey}${execi 30 python ~/bin/conky-gmailhome.py} $color \
|| ${color #3955A3}boot: ${color grey}${fs_free /boot}/${fs_size /boot} $color \
${color #3955A3}root: ${color grey}${fs_free /}/${fs_size /} $color \
${color #3955A3}tmp: ${color grey}${fs_free /tmp}/${fs_size /tmp} $color \
${color #3955A3}usr: ${color grey}${fs_free /usr}/${fs_size /usr} $color \
${color #3955A3}var: ${color grey}${fs_free /var}/${fs_size /var} $color \
${color #3955A3}home: ${color grey}${fs_free /home}/${fs_size /home} $color \
background no
# border_width 1
border_inner_margin 0
border_outer_margin 0
# cpu_avg_samples 2
# default_color white
# default_outline_color white
# default_shade_color white
# draw_borders no
# draw_graph_borders yes
# draw_outline no
# draw_shades no
double_buffer yes
use_xft yes
xftfont Terminux:size=9
# gap_x 5
# gap_y 60
if_up_strictness address
# minimum_size 5 5
# net_avg_samples 2
# no_buffers yes
# out_to_console no
# out_to_stderr no
# extra_newline no
own_window yes
own_window_type dock
own_window_transparent yes
stippled_borders 0
update_interval 1.0
uppercase no
use_spacer left
# show_graph_scale no
# show_graph_range no
total_run_times 0
TEXT
${color #3955D3}${time %a %D %r} $color \
|| ${color #3955A3}Kernel:${color grey} $kernel $color \
|| ${color #3955A3}cpu:${color grey} ${freq_g}Ghz ${cpubar 4,50} ($cpu) | hog:$color ${top name 1}${offset -20}${top cpu 1}${color} \
|| ${color #3955A3}ram:${color grey} ${membar 4,50} | hog:$color ${top_mem name 1}${offset -20}${top_mem mem 1}${color} \
|| ${color #3955A3}swap usage:${color grey} $swapperc% $color \
|| ${color #3955A3}network:${color grey} ${upspeed wlan0} up, ${downspeed wlan0} down, ${totaldown wlan0} downloaded $color
${color #3955A3}cpu temp: ${color grey} ${execi 10 /home/jason/bin/conky-temp.sh}C $color \
|| ${color #3955A3}battery:$color ${color #1E36BD}${battery_bar 4,50 BAT1}$color \
|| ${color #3955A3}w/r:${color grey}$diskio_write $diskio_read $color \
|| ${color #3955A3}Gmail-L: ${color grey}${execi 30 python ~/bin/conky-gmaillinux.py} $color \
|| ${color #3955A3}Gmail-H: ${color grey}${execi 30 python ~/bin/conky-gmailhome.py} $color \
|| ${color #3955A3}boot: ${color grey}${fs_free /boot}/${fs_size /boot} $color \
${color #3955A3}root: ${color grey}${fs_free /}/${fs_size /} $color \
${color #3955A3}tmp: ${color grey}${fs_free /tmp}/${fs_size /tmp} $color \
${color #3955A3}usr: ${color grey}${fs_free /usr}/${fs_size /usr} $color \
${color #3955A3}var: ${color grey}${fs_free /var}/${fs_size /var} $color \
${color #3955A3}home: ${color grey}${fs_free /home}/${fs_size /home} $color \
Recent Activities
I have moved and now have a job, so things are slowing down in the Linux world. I'm leeching off of someone's wifi right now; until I get internet of my own, the server reformat will have to be put on hold.
I finished the majority of my i3 configuration. I have conky working amazingly with all of my system data. I'll post the rc files shortly.
I finished the majority of my i3 configuration. I have conky working amazingly with all of my system data. I'll post the rc files shortly.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Bah
Turns out I was mislead... in a way. I don't have the proprietary ATI driver, my "old" chipset is not longer supported by ATI. Thus, my S-video does not work.
Fresh Install
I did a fresh install of Archlinux64 on my laptop last night. Got rid of all the bloat that is KDE (if you can call it that). I'm now simply running i3. I'm still working on getting it all setup and configured the way I like, reading through the documentation and such. Reformatting achieved a couple other things for me: a new partitioning scheme, I got rid of HAL, and now I'm using Xorg sans xorg.conf in /etc/X11. My laptop also has an S-video output, so I've installed the proprietary ATI drivers, which I'll need to configure further.
Here's the new partion scheme:
I also screwed up on my CentOS partitioning. I only gave the /usr partition 3GB and it's already full. I still need to find if my machine is ESXi compatable, if it is, I'm just going to install that. Otherwise, I guess it's another CentOS install. I think this time I'll get rid of Gnome and try i3 on it, since I much prefer a WM.
Here's the new partion scheme:
File System Size Mount
sda1 ext3 23MB /boot
sda2 ext4 1GB /
sda3 Extended Partition
sda5 ext4 2GB /tmp
sda6 ext4 3GB /var
sda7 ext4 6GB /usr
sda8 swap 512MB swap
sda4 ext4 80GB /home
sda1 ext3 23MB /boot
sda2 ext4 1GB /
sda3 Extended Partition
sda5 ext4 2GB /tmp
sda6 ext4 3GB /var
sda7 ext4 6GB /usr
sda8 swap 512MB swap
sda4 ext4 80GB /home
I also screwed up on my CentOS partitioning. I only gave the /usr partition 3GB and it's already full. I still need to find if my machine is ESXi compatable, if it is, I'm just going to install that. Otherwise, I guess it's another CentOS install. I think this time I'll get rid of Gnome and try i3 on it, since I much prefer a WM.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
i3 configuration... thus far
this is my .Xdefaults, it's where all the terminal configuration goes
This goes into the .xinitrc file
! urxvt
urxvt.title: Terminal
urxvt.background: #1A1A1A
urxvt.foreground: #999999
urxvt.cursorColor: #5E468C
urxvt.borderColor: #1A1A1A
urxvt.borderless: false
urxvt.internalBorder: 3
urxvt.externalBorder: 3
urxvt.scrollBar: false
!urxvt.font -misc-fixed-medium-r-*--12-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-1
!urxvt.boldFont: -misc-fixed-medium-r-*--12-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-1
urxvt.font: xft:terminus:pixelsize=10
urxct.boldFont: xft:terminus:bold:pixelsize=10
! transparency
*inheritPixmap: true
*tintColor: white
*shading: 40
! colors
!black
*color0: #333333
*color8: #3D3D3D
!red
*color1: #8C4665
*color9: #BF4D80
!green
*color2: #287373
*color10: #53A6A6
!yellow
*color3: #7C7C99
*color11: #9E9ECB
!blue
*color4: #395573
*color12: #477AB3
!magenta
*color5: #5E468C
*color13: #7E62B3
!cyan
*color6: #31548C
*color14: #6096BF
!white
*color7: #899CA1
*color15: #C0C0C0
urxvt.title: Terminal
urxvt.background: #1A1A1A
urxvt.foreground: #999999
urxvt.cursorColor: #5E468C
urxvt.borderColor: #1A1A1A
urxvt.borderless: false
urxvt.internalBorder: 3
urxvt.externalBorder: 3
urxvt.scrollBar: false
!urxvt.font -misc-fixed-medium-r-*--12-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-1
!urxvt.boldFont: -misc-fixed-medium-r-*--12-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-1
urxvt.font: xft:terminus:pixelsize=10
urxct.boldFont: xft:terminus:bold:pixelsize=10
! transparency
*inheritPixmap: true
*tintColor: white
*shading: 40
! colors
!black
*color0: #333333
*color8: #3D3D3D
!red
*color1: #8C4665
*color9: #BF4D80
!green
*color2: #287373
*color10: #53A6A6
!yellow
*color3: #7C7C99
*color11: #9E9ECB
!blue
*color4: #395573
*color12: #477AB3
!magenta
*color5: #5E468C
*color13: #7E62B3
!cyan
*color6: #31548C
*color14: #6096BF
!white
*color7: #899CA1
*color15: #C0C0C0
This goes into the .xinitrc file
# set background and wallpaper
xsetroot -solid "#1A1A1A"
feh --bg-scale /path/to/image/.jpg
xsetroot -solid "#1A1A1A"
feh --bg-scale /path/to/image/.jpg
Daily Activities
Did some reading up on Python today. Downloaded the latest version of the Dive in Python book.
Also, decided to look into i3. Seems pretty cool, but there's not much documentation on how to configure anything outside of the basics. Still looking...
Update: Figured some things out. Will be posting my config files.
Also, decided to look into i3. Seems pretty cool, but there's not much documentation on how to configure anything outside of the basics. Still looking...
Update: Figured some things out. Will be posting my config files.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Daily Activities
8:12PM ::
I installed VMware server last night, it didn't work. I tried many things to get it to work including reconfiguring and reinstalling it. This isn't the first time it hasn't worked for me. So, I've installed VMware Workstation 7.0, the only catch is that it's only free for 30 days. Eh. As stated in the previous post, I think I'll look into ESXi.
I've also taken down a couple of the short term ToDo's. I'm going to scrap the http virtual server for now, since I'll be messing with ESXi sometime soon. I also wont be doing too much tweaking/configuring on the CentOS server, because it's going to get scrapped in favor of ESXi.
I installed VMware server last night, it didn't work. I tried many things to get it to work including reconfiguring and reinstalling it. This isn't the first time it hasn't worked for me. So, I've installed VMware Workstation 7.0, the only catch is that it's only free for 30 days. Eh. As stated in the previous post, I think I'll look into ESXi.
I've also taken down a couple of the short term ToDo's. I'm going to scrap the http virtual server for now, since I'll be messing with ESXi sometime soon. I also wont be doing too much tweaking/configuring on the CentOS server, because it's going to get scrapped in favor of ESXi.
Update
Heard about this thing called VMware ESXi. It's its own OS for running virtual machines, seems pretty cool. I think I might give it a try on my server. I just need to do some more research to check compatability.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Daily Activities
11:00PM ::
Per the last post, I've tackled the wireless problem. Now, I'm going to start working on a program to maintain the wireless connection.
I've also added some formatting to the blog. The bold seqments signify shell interaction, I've also coded up some code tags in the CSS to make it more legible.
Per the last post, I've tackled the wireless problem. Now, I'm going to start working on a program to maintain the wireless connection.
I've also added some formatting to the blog. The bold seqments signify shell interaction, I've also coded up some code tags in the CSS to make it more legible.
Wireless Problem
5:06PM ::
I wrote a script to run at startup to connect to the wireless. However, the dhcpcd program outputs a no interfaces have a carrier message. Even when I don't run the script on startup, dhcpcd has to fail in this way before it can actually connect. There's also a kernel message eth0: link down. I'm not sure what's going on, but until I have this worked out, there's no use in writing a script if I'm always going to have to connect manually anyway. I've also tried this on kernel26-2.6.34.2-2 and 6.35.1-1. Now the plan is to see if there are any driver or dhcpcd updates.
10:24PM ::
Turns out there was a bug in dhcpcd-5.2.6 and 5.2.7 was just moved out of testing. So, I'm pretty sure that is what the main problem was. However, after upgrading, my script still didn't work, so I did some investigating. This was my previous sequence of events:
With this I would get the following output from dhcpcd:
Then in my kernel log after the previous three statements would be:
I found that after this point if I manually re-entered the line iwconfig wlan0 channel auto I would get a wlan0 carrier aquired and the ip would be set.
So I edited my script, put the iwconfig wlan0 channel auto after the dhcpcd, and all is well in the world again.
I wrote a script to run at startup to connect to the wireless. However, the dhcpcd program outputs a no interfaces have a carrier message. Even when I don't run the script on startup, dhcpcd has to fail in this way before it can actually connect. There's also a kernel message eth0: link down. I'm not sure what's going on, but until I have this worked out, there's no use in writing a script if I'm always going to have to connect manually anyway. I've also tried this on kernel26-2.6.34.2-2 and 6.35.1-1. Now the plan is to see if there are any driver or dhcpcd updates.
10:24PM ::
Turns out there was a bug in dhcpcd-5.2.6 and 5.2.7 was just moved out of testing. So, I'm pretty sure that is what the main problem was. However, after upgrading, my script still didn't work, so I did some investigating. This was my previous sequence of events:
ifconfig wlan0 up # loads the firmware
iwconfig wlan0 essid $ESSID key $KEY
iwconfig wlan0 channel auto
sleep 2 (dhcpcd needed time for the other settings to take hold before being able to connect)
dhcpcd
iwconfig wlan0 essid $ESSID key $KEY
iwconfig wlan0 channel auto
sleep 2 (dhcpcd needed time for the other settings to take hold before being able to connect)
dhcpcd
With this I would get the following output from dhcpcd:
version 5.2.x starting
no interfaces have a carrier
forked to background...
no interfaces have a carrier
forked to background...
Then in my kernel log after the previous three statements would be:
eth0 waiting for carrier
wlan0 wating for carrier
wlan0 wating for carrier
I found that after this point if I manually re-entered the line iwconfig wlan0 channel auto I would get a wlan0 carrier aquired and the ip would be set.
So I edited my script, put the iwconfig wlan0 channel auto after the dhcpcd, and all is well in the world again.
Friday, August 6, 2010
nVidia Driver Installation on CentOS 5.5
This was, to put it bluntly, a royal pain in the ass. As mentioned before, I have an older nVidia GeForceFX 5900 GPU. For some reason this card has never worked well with the open-source nVidia drivers. So, even though I know it's shameful, I opt for the proprietary drivers. While when I was running Archlinux on this machine I was never able to get the nouveau drivers to work at all, at least in CentOS, their vesa driver worked for a single monitor. The problem is that I have an S-video out on my card that I like to use to make an old 27" in. CRT-TV a second monitor, so I can watch Netflix. Well, the only driver that ever works with the S-video has been still been the nVidia.
Now, there are a couple different extra repos out there that carry nVidia packages. I tried the one from rpmforge and it didn't work. After much frustration, finally getting the nvidia-settings to at least open, but still not getting X to load the nvidia module, I gave up. I decided that I would forgo the distro-taylored rpm and try installing the driver straight from the nVidia.com download page.
After some research I found out that this was fairly simple, all you have to do is run [CODE] # sh NVIDIA...{the rest of the install pkg name}[/CODE] as root and follow the prompts. That's it. However, there's a catch. You need to have the make, gcc, and kernel-devel packages also installed. So, I installed them, ran the install again. Now it's telling me that my kernel-devel stuff doesn't match my kernel... wtf? I promptly run a [CODE] # uname -r [/CODE] and find out that I'm using a "xen" kernel. Whatever that is. So I do some searching, find that there is in fact a kernel-xen-devel package, and install it. Alright, let's go again. This time the nVidia installation kindly informs me that it does not support the xen kernel. Son-of-bitch. I do some more research, install this "plain" kernel, edit my /etc/sysconfig/kernel file, change my DEFAULTKERNEL=kernel (rather than kernel-xen), edit my grub.conf to default to kernel 0 ("plain"), reboot, run the install script again, and OMFG it worked! Ran the nvidia-xconfig script, started up the nvidia-settings program (have to start it from a shell as root), configured my nvidia stuff, rebooted, and YES! YES! IT... W.O.R.K.E.D! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT WORKED!
After hours of toiling, I've finally gotten the graphics driver working. This has always proved to be the most difficult part of an installation and now that I've figured it out, I'm ecstatic. Time to celebrate and come back tomorrow for some VMware fun.
Now, there are a couple different extra repos out there that carry nVidia packages. I tried the one from rpmforge and it didn't work. After much frustration, finally getting the nvidia-settings to at least open, but still not getting X to load the nvidia module, I gave up. I decided that I would forgo the distro-taylored rpm and try installing the driver straight from the nVidia.com download page.
After some research I found out that this was fairly simple, all you have to do is run [CODE] # sh NVIDIA...{the rest of the install pkg name}[/CODE] as root and follow the prompts. That's it. However, there's a catch. You need to have the make, gcc, and kernel-devel packages also installed. So, I installed them, ran the install again. Now it's telling me that my kernel-devel stuff doesn't match my kernel... wtf? I promptly run a [CODE] # uname -r [/CODE] and find out that I'm using a "xen" kernel. Whatever that is. So I do some searching, find that there is in fact a kernel-xen-devel package, and install it. Alright, let's go again. This time the nVidia installation kindly informs me that it does not support the xen kernel. Son-of-bitch. I do some more research, install this "plain" kernel, edit my /etc/sysconfig/kernel file, change my DEFAULTKERNEL=kernel (rather than kernel-xen), edit my grub.conf to default to kernel 0 ("plain"), reboot, run the install script again, and OMFG it worked! Ran the nvidia-xconfig script, started up the nvidia-settings program (have to start it from a shell as root), configured my nvidia stuff, rebooted, and YES! YES! IT... W.O.R.K.E.D! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT WORKED!
After hours of toiling, I've finally gotten the graphics driver working. This has always proved to be the most difficult part of an installation and now that I've figured it out, I'm ecstatic. Time to celebrate and come back tomorrow for some VMware fun.
CentOS 5.5 Installation
3:50PM ::
I already installed once. Started by formatting with G-Parted LiveCD with the boot partition as ext2 and the rest a ext4. I didn't install a desktop environment the first time around. Couldn't get X working on my own, so I'm reinstalling. Reformatted the partitions with the CentOS installation, apparently CentOS won't do ext4, so now all but the boot partition are ext3, boot is still ext2.
There's on confusing part of the installation, where you choose the package(s) you want to install [Desktop-Gnome; Desktop-KDE; Server; etc.]. To figure out what exactly the packages are, you need to select the package you want to check out, then select "Packages from CentOS Extras", then the "customize now" radio button, then next. You can see all the default programs to be installed and can choose from others, if you want to try or add a different layout you can go back.
Edit: After customizing my packages with the install, it errored out before really doing anything. This could have been because I changed the partitions to ext3 or because the custome package thing doesn't really work. So, I went back and reformatted with the GParted LiveCD to use ext4 filesystems again. Chose the Server - GUI and Virtualization packages, didn't customize them, figured I'd just do it later, and everything went off witout a hitch.
4:15 ::
It's kind of pain to find installation documentation. When doing a netinstall, the mirror and directory can be mirror.centos.org and centos/x.x/os/i386 respectively; where x.x is the version, in my case 5.5.
I already installed once. Started by formatting with G-Parted LiveCD with the boot partition as ext2 and the rest a ext4. I didn't install a desktop environment the first time around. Couldn't get X working on my own, so I'm reinstalling. Reformatted the partitions with the CentOS installation, apparently CentOS won't do ext4, so now all but the boot partition are ext3, boot is still ext2.
There's on confusing part of the installation, where you choose the package(s) you want to install [Desktop-Gnome; Desktop-KDE; Server; etc.]. To figure out what exactly the packages are, you need to select the package you want to check out, then select "Packages from CentOS Extras", then the "customize now" radio button, then next. You can see all the default programs to be installed and can choose from others, if you want to try or add a different layout you can go back.
Edit: After customizing my packages with the install, it errored out before really doing anything. This could have been because I changed the partitions to ext3 or because the custome package thing doesn't really work. So, I went back and reformatted with the GParted LiveCD to use ext4 filesystems again. Chose the Server - GUI and Virtualization packages, didn't customize them, figured I'd just do it later, and everything went off witout a hitch.
4:15 ::
It's kind of pain to find installation documentation. When doing a netinstall, the mirror and directory can be mirror.centos.org and centos/x.x/os/i386 respectively; where x.x is the version, in my case 5.5.
Daily Activities
12:19PM ::
Decided that the CheckGmail program wasn't worth it. I'll figure something else out.
Currently installing CentOS on my server. I plan on creating a couple VM's, the first will be the actual LAMP server. In the future I'll probably add VM's for an FTP server and mail server. I also like to install a minimal WinXP VM so that I can watch Netflix.
11:38PM ::
CentOS Installation and Configuration thus far:
Decided that the CheckGmail program wasn't worth it. I'll figure something else out.
Currently installing CentOS on my server. I plan on creating a couple VM's, the first will be the actual LAMP server. In the future I'll probably add VM's for an FTP server and mail server. I also like to install a minimal WinXP VM so that I can watch Netflix.
11:38PM ::
CentOS Installation and Configuration thus far:
- Installed OS
- Installed Z-Shell and configured zshrc files
- Installed ntfs-3g (from rpmforge repo)
- Installed and configured nVidia graphics driver (took a long time)
- Installed Firefox
- More to come...
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Daily Activities
2:27PM ::
Slow day. Heard about Z shell the other day, looked into some of the documentation. Claims it combines the best of bash, ksh, and tcsh and improves on some things. So, I've decided to give it a try. In the process of configuring it now. Here's the zsh Arch Wiki.
12:46AM ::
Update (technically it's next day). While zsh is nice, new, and shiny, I've determined that bash cannot be ruled out completely. While zsh might have some improved features, bash is still a more commonly used scripting language. However, I do like zsh as an interactive shell, and once I have it configured to my liking, it will no doubt outpace bash.
1:20AM ::
Came accross this script, after the user dumps the output of pacman -Ss to a file, the script parses the file and outputs a better formatted version of the data. Minor error toware the end, line 193 should read "if which zenity &> /dev/null..." so as to redirect error output as well as the which function's normal output.
Slow day. Heard about Z shell the other day, looked into some of the documentation. Claims it combines the best of bash, ksh, and tcsh and improves on some things. So, I've decided to give it a try. In the process of configuring it now. Here's the zsh Arch Wiki.
12:46AM ::
Update (technically it's next day). While zsh is nice, new, and shiny, I've determined that bash cannot be ruled out completely. While zsh might have some improved features, bash is still a more commonly used scripting language. However, I do like zsh as an interactive shell, and once I have it configured to my liking, it will no doubt outpace bash.
1:20AM ::
Came accross this script, after the user dumps the output of pacman -Ss to a file, the script parses the file and outputs a better formatted version of the data. Minor error toware the end, line 193 should read "if which zenity &> /dev/null..." so as to redirect error output as well as the which function's normal output.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Daily Activities
While upgrading to kernel26-2.6.35 is a solution to the b43 driver breakage. I tested a kernel26-2.6.34.2-2 release this morning which fixes the b43 breakage. Should hit the repos soon.
Installed CheckGmail - must be run with -no_cookies flag to properly authenticate
Update: Errors out when mail is recieved. Adding to list of things to do.
Installed nmap and iptables
Nmap scan shows all but ssh port closed, go Arch for default security.
Installed CheckGmail - must be run with -no_cookies flag to properly authenticate
Update: Errors out when mail is recieved. Adding to list of things to do.
Installed nmap and iptables
Nmap scan shows all but ssh port closed, go Arch for default security.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Kernel Fix for Broadcom WLan Devices
Forgo the 6.34.2 kernel, go straight for 6.35 and the problem is fixed.
Kernel26-2.6.34.2-1 Upgrade Fails
This kernel upgrade has commonly failed with the following message:
The fix is simple:
pacman -Sf kernel26 kernel26-headers
pacman -Su
error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)
kernel26: /lib/modules/2.6.34-ARCH/modules.devname exists in filesystem
kernel26: /lib/modules/2.6.34-ARCH/modules.softdep exists in filesystemThe fix is simple:
pacman -Sf kernel26 kernel26-headers
pacman -Su
Kernel26-2.6.34.2-1 Upgrade Breaks Broadcom b43 Driver
Turns out it's a kernel problem. Solution: downgrade kernel until a fix is released.
Updates gone awry
Today I ran a pacman -Syu, there was an update to kernel26-2.6.34.2-1 as well as the corresponding kernel headers. Upon reboot, connection to dhcpcd failed. I don't remember the exact error and it wasn't recorded. I reverted back to kernel26-2.6.34.1-1 and the corresponding headers and all was well again.
I didn't try a wired connection before reverting, I probably should have. I use wireless and that's what wouldn't connect. Here are the specs on my wireless card:
BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller
Vendor: Broadcom Corporation
I had to install my wireless drivers from the AUR, I'm guessing they're incompatable with the newest kernel release, so I'll wait until there's a new release to the AUR.
I didn't try a wired connection before reverting, I probably should have. I use wireless and that's what wouldn't connect. Here are the specs on my wireless card:
BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller
Vendor: Broadcom Corporation
I had to install my wireless drivers from the AUR, I'm guessing they're incompatable with the newest kernel release, so I'll wait until there's a new release to the AUR.
The Linux Journal
This blog is going to be a (hopefully) daily journal of my Linux activities. Currently I have two systems running Archlinux: an old P4 3.0GHz PC that I orriginally put together as a DVR, and an HP Pavillion dv8000 series laptop with an AMD Turion64 proc. The laptop will continue to contain Archlinux, while the PC will most likely turn into a CentOS server.
The main goal of this journal is to keep record of everything that I do that is Linux related. It will serve as a personal reference, however, anyone who might stumle upon it may find it useful.
The main goal of this journal is to keep record of everything that I do that is Linux related. It will serve as a personal reference, however, anyone who might stumle upon it may find it useful.
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