November 20, 2009
The worst thing about commercial Linux is RPM. I can never remember the command line incantations required for even fairly simple tasks. While yum eventually takes away the pain of applying software updates–so long as you’re not in a hurry–there are all kinds of other tasks it doesn’t handle. I therefore rely on an RPM [...]
Filed under: Linux, System administration | Comments (0)
November 5, 2009
How to get agnclient working with the latest Ubuntu.
Filed under: Linux | Comments (5)
September 25, 2009
I often have to shunt around Lotus Domino databases, as well as all kinds of log files and bundles of XML data. I’ve got a cable modem connection to my home office, but still, uploads can take a while. So data compression is still important to me, and the newer LZMA algorithm can make a [...]
Filed under: Design, Linux, Programming | Comments (0)
July 20, 2009
Default inode allocations for ext3 can be excessive, and result in a lot of wasted disk space.
Filed under: Linux, System administration | Comments (0)
May 21, 2009
A flaw in the SSH protocol is starting to get more widespread attention. It appears that a workaround is available: disabling CBC ciphers in favor of CTR. To do so, edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and add the following: Ciphers arcfour128,arcfour256,arcfour,aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr That’s the default list of SSH ciphers, minus the CBC ones.
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May 8, 2009
apt-get install openjdk-6-openjdk icedtea6-plugin update-java-alternatives -s java-6-openjdk For some inexplicable reason, Eclipse for Java Developers doesn’t include JDBC. Eclipse J2EE edition doesn’t work with OpenJDK. Oh well.
Filed under: Java, Linux, System administration | Comments (0)
February 20, 2009
Linus Torvalds’ version control hack, git, has become flavor of the month in the open source world. Not everyone is happy. Take the common case of “I have a bunch of stuff I’ve been working on, and want to publish it now”. Trying to achieve this with git led one developer to post a series [...]
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February 7, 2009
A small but incredibly annoying VMware design issue.
Filed under: Linux | Comments (0)
January 25, 2009
I’ve been upgrading my home media server to Ubuntu 8.10. I’ve taken the opportunity to reformat in ext3. So, farewell then ReiserFS. You gave me solid service for years, but what with vendor lock-in and lack of ongoing development, it’s time to move on. I’ve had issues with JFS support in Ubuntu, and XFS has [...]
Filed under: Linux | Comments (0)
January 6, 2009
I’ve decided that 2009 is the year I go IPv6, so I’ve been getting all my machines ready. The Macs were no problem, of course: they work with IPv6 without doing anything. Linux is more problematic. Ubuntu 8.10 and up support IPv6, but come with it turned off in places. The first place is /etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf [...]
Filed under: Linux, Macintosh, System administration | Comments (0)