Shinning Star

Non geek post

2008-02-19T22:24:00.001+08:00

Today I take a break from a geek entry and post a link to a cool site. This site lets you print and fold your own TIE fighter or even a Macross VF-1S. Have fun at http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~sf-papercraft/Gallery/Gallery.html.

Git-ty up (Part 2)

2008-02-04T13:36:00.001+08:00

Setting up your own Git server. I learned how to setup using this guide. I am duplicating the guide here for a quick reference.

Installing GIT

If it doesn't exist on ubuntu. For some reason, GIT needs it.

touch /etc/inittab

sudo apt-get install git-arch git-cvs git-svn git-email git-daemon-run git-core curl python-setuptools
sudo adduser --system --shell /bin/sh --gecos 'GIT Version Control' --group --disabled-password --home /path/to/git_home_directory git_user_name (set up a user to handle all Git request)

Installing gitosis-admin (for user management)

In any directory

git clone git://eagain.net/gitosis.git

cd gitosis
sudo python setup.py install

Setting up initial user

On local machine generate a public/private ssh key it it doesn't already exist

ssh-keygen -t rsa

Copy the public key to the Git server and put it in a publicly readable folder

scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub user@git_server:/tmp/id_rsa.pub

Back on Git server (as a user with sudo privileges)

sudo -H -u git gitosis-init < /tmp/id_rsa.pub

Git uses SSH as the default transport to communicate with the server, so make sure user_git is allowed in the sshd AllowUsers directive.

Adding users

On local machine with the private key
Some of us will run SSH on a non standard port so it may be wise to create a .ssh/config file and add a directive to establish connection to the Git server.

vi ~/.ssh/config
Host git_server
User git
Hostname <ip of git server>
Port <port ssh is listening on>
Quit and save.

Clone the gitosis-admin file for user management.

gitosis-clone git_server:gitosis-admin.git
cd gitosis-admin
Copy the new users SSH public keyfile to the keydir folder with the format user@server.pub. The .pub is absolutely necessary otherwise the user will not be added. The user@server is the name which appears after the == IN the public keyfile.
vi gitosis.conf
Add new users you would like to administer gitosis or keep them for other repositories.
Quit and save.
git commit -a -m "Whatever commit message you like to add"
git push origin master:refs/heads/master

Adding repositories

Go back to the gitosis-admin folder on your local machine.
vi gitosis.conf
On a new line, add

[group repo_name]
writable = repo_name
members = user1@server user2@server

Quit and save.
git commit -a -m "Whatever commit message you like to add"
git push origin master:refs/heads/master

In the final part, I'll list a few basic commands to get started.

Git-ty up (Part 1)

2008-01-30T12:27:00.001+08:00

2 days ago I was introduced to git, a distributed version control system (DVCS). A DVCS basically creates a copy of the repository on your local PC allowing you to work without access to the main server. You can do everything you need i.e. create new branches, tags, etc all locally. Especially useful to those working via laptops on the go. There have been opinions on VCS and DVCS even by Linus torvalds himself. In fact, in there was a guy in Drupal groups who did an evaluation on git. A few days prior to discovering git, i was reading up on Bazaar, another DVCS system sponsored by Canonical, the creators of Ubuntu. After trying out git and comparing it with SVN, here are my personal opinions on it :-

+ Git is extremely fast. Syncing with the server was significantly faster than via SVN.
+ Git uses SSH by default so no extra tunneling to secure your connection is required. This also means that user authentication is simplified whereby only uses who have their public key can even attempt to connect.
+ Branching is supported natively.
+ There is only 1 place where details of your files are stored, in .git, which, unlike SVN stores it in each folder. This also has the benefit of less space being used.
- Learning curve is slightly higher than SVN (took me longer to get a working copy with Git than SVN).

Don't get me wrong, but once you get your head wrapped around how and what Git does, it's actually pretty easy and fast to get things done. In my next post, I'll outline the steps I used to get Git working.

Look out Outlook

2008-01-15T13:52:00.001+08:00

2 posts in a day. That's new. Heh. I've just finished setting up IMAP + Google calendar on my Thunderbird. I've kinda given up on managing everything purely using the web as I've got a few different mail accounts (not only from Gmail) and it gets pretty tiring to logout and login to different accounts. Also, my friend has been asking me if there is an alternative to Outlook for some time now so I decided to look around. Since I've never used Outlook before its hard for me to comment exclusively on its limitations or strengths.

So for my setup, I used Thunderbird + Lightning + IMAP for syncing my mail and calendars. And this method works for both Linux and Windows (should work on OSX as well but i haven't tried it out yet). Google has a good guide on setting up IMAP with your mail account in Thunderbird and this site gives a tutorial (with screenshots) on syncing Google calendar with Thunderbird. I'll post the guide on setting up an IMAP server with a local calendar setup for companies once my friend passes me the guide. Till then, happy syncing.

Secure GRUB

2008-01-15T11:39:00.001+08:00

No its not about food. Its about making sure no one fiddles with your boot menu which can allow them to boot into single user more or change any other setting. Here's how you do it :-

To create a password, type "grub-md5-crypt". Enter your desired password TWICE and if it matches, the application will give you the MD5 password. Example

grub-md5-crypt
Password : <Enter your password>
Retype password : <Enter your password again>
$1$D3V8K$EnFFr14dK5PCgmz2GCsDS.

Copy the output given i.e. "$1$D3V8K$EnFFr14dK5PCgmz2GCsDS." either by using your mouse or you can write it down somewhere.
Edit your GRUB config file in "/boot/grub/menu.1st".
Add the line "password --md5 <MD5 password>". It can look like this

default 0
timeout 3
password --md5 $1$D3V8K$EnFFr14dK5PCgmz2GCsDS.
hiddenmenu

Optionally, if you dual boot, you can also make sure Windows does not boot unless the password you specified is given. For it just add the word 'lock' after the 'title' section for Windows

title 'Windows XP Professional Edition'
lock
root (hd0, 1)
chainloader +1

Quit and save your changes

And you're done. Happy grub-ing...

Workrave

2008-01-14T14:48:00.001+08:00

Heh. A title that matches the software. That's new. Anyway, while I was going through the software collection in Open Source programs for Windows I stumbled onto WorkRave. From the site, "Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). The program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts you to your daily limit." Useful for those people who are constantly working in front of their PC non-stop.

Happy raving ;)

IE coming to a Linux near you

2008-01-05T18:36:00.001+08:00

Well first up HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone. Goodbye 2007, helooo 2008 :D. Ok now back to blogging...

If you're into web development AND you're on a Linux machine, testing your site to make sure it looks and plays well with IE is a definite must. Well thanks to the folks at IEs 4 Linux, we can now get it working on Linux without having to boot up windows. This script can install IE5, IE5.5 or IE6. Below are the steps to get it working :-

You must install wine and cabextract first.

sudo apt-get install wine cabextract

Download ies4linux here.
Untar it in a folder of your choice and switch to that directory.
Install it using "./ies4linux --no-gui" (if you're installing on a remote machine).
Watch it download and install the necessary stuff from Microsoft's website and Flash from Adobe.
After you're done, you can execute it by typing "ie6" from the command line or on the link from your desktop.
Test your site on IE to see how it looks ;)

It is also possible to install IE7 using the method described here. Google has been kind enough create a stand alone installer which can be obtained from this link for those who just wish to obtain IE7. I'm listing the quick steps to get IE7 working here. For a more comprehensive explanation, check out the link above.

Switch to your local ies4linux directory.

cd ~/.ies4linux

Copy your existing IE6 folder to IE7

cp -r ie6 ie7

Replace all references of ie7 to ie7

sed ~/.ies4linux/bin/ie6 -e 's/ie6/ie7/g' > ~/.ies4linux/bin/ie7

Make the new ie7 script executable

chmod +x ~/.ies4linux/bin/ie7

switch to the directory your downloaded IE7 to.
use cabextract to extract the files needed

cabextract IE7Setup_G.exe

now use cabextract on the IE7 setup actual

cabextract IE7-Setup.exe

now run this command

for i in wininet iertutil shlwapi urlmon jscript vbscript \
   ieframe mshtml mshtmled mshtmler advpack
      do
         chmod +x $i.dll
         cp $i.dll ~/.ies4linux/ie7/drive_c/windows/system/$i.dll
   done

```
chmod +x inetcpl.cpl
```

cp inetcpl.cpl ~/.ies4linux/ie7/drive_c/windows/system/

These 2 files are needed for IE7 to work

normaliz.dll = http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?normaliz
inetcplc.dll = http://www.dlldump.com/download-dll-files_new.php/dllfiles/I/inetcplc.dll/6.00.2800.11068/download.html

Copy the 2 files to your IE7 folder

cp normaliz.dll ~/.ies4linux/ie7/drive_c/windows/system

cp inetcplc.dll ~/.ies4linux/ie7/drive_c/windows/system

Make sure WINE is using Windows XP as its container otherwise the there will be view pane corruption

```
WINEPREFIX=~/.ies4linux/ie7 winecfg
```

Lastly create a shortcut to IE7

```
ln -s ~/.ies4linux/bin/ie7 ~/bin/ie7
```

Happy browsing :D

Foxy tips

2007-10-30T20:09:00.001+08:00

Here are some tips for Firefox which will make your browsing a little more snappier. For this you have to launch Firefox and type "about:config" in the addressbar which brings you to your personalized configuration list.

Restore your session when you repoen your browser (not when crashed)

browser.startup.page = 3

Address bar auto completion

browser.urlbar.autoFill = true

Disabling IPv6

network.dns.disableIPv6 = true

Download only what your specifically click (by default Firefox downloads links which it thinks you want)

network.prefetch-next = false

Stop that RAM hogging

RAM size 128MB - 512MB : browser.cache.memory.capacity = 5000
RAM size 512MB - 1GB : browser.cache.memory.capacity = 15000

Those are some of the more interesting tips from "about:config".

Here's another extremely cool feature to have. It basically lets you create keywords for sites your frequently visit i.e. g for searching through google or wiki for searching through wikipedia and you can create as many as you wish. I've been using this feature for some time and I hope this benefits someone else out there. So here's how you do it (using google as an example).

Right click on the search box.
Click 'Add a keyword for this search'.
Enter a Name, your desired keyword and a location for your bookmark.
Click OK

And now you're done. Go to your address bar, type in the keyword with your search query and watch as the magic unfolds. Experiment with other sites and see how can make this wonderful feature suit your needs.

Stay foxy ;)...

DVD not mounting?

2007-10-23T08:20:00.001+08:00

Ever had this scenario happen to you? Place a DVD in your DVD-ROM only for the OS to spew out "mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sr0,
missing codepage or other error ...
". Well it happened to me and after going through the logs and forums, I finally found a solution. Apparently my /etc/fstab left out the filesystem for the CD so I had to add it in and everything started working again. Sheesh...

Original
/dev/dvd1 /mnt/dvd1 udf ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0

Modified
/dev/dvd1 /mnt/dvd1 udf,iso9660 ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0

Hope this helps someone out there ;)

Slow X applications over SSH

2007-10-20T23:08:00.001+08:00

Just a quick tip for those tunneling X applications over SSH and you experience slow responsiveness (not because of slow lines) or get the an error similar to the following
"Gdk-WARNING **: Connection to display localhost:10.0 appears to be untrusted. Pointer and keyboard grabs and inter-client communication may not work as expected."

try this "ssh -2 -4 -C -Y user@host". This enables trusted X forwarding which removes the message above and speeds things up

From the SSH man page
"
-X Enables X11 forwarding. This can also be specified on a per-host basis in a configuration file.

X11 forwarding should be enabled with caution. Users with the ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host (for the
user's X authorization database) can access the local X11 display through the forwarded connection. An attacker may then be
able to perform activities such as keystroke monitoring.

For this reason, X11 forwarding is subjected to X11 SECURITY extension restrictions by default. Please refer to the ssh -Y
option and the ForwardX11Trusted directive in ssh_config(5) for more information.

-x Disables X11 forwarding.

-Y Enables trusted X11 forwarding. Trusted X11 forwardings are not subjected to the X11 SECURITY extension controls.

ssh may additionally obtain configuration data from a per-user configuration file and a system-wide configuration file. The
file format and configuration options are described in ssh_config(5).

"

FTP me

2007-10-15T11:18:00.001+08:00

If you're looking for a good FTP client but don't want to install more programs, check out FireFTP, a Firefox plugin. It's great, small and efficient. After installing it, you can access it using Tools->FireFTP. Alternatively, you can add it to your toolbar by right-clicking on the toolbar, choose 'Customize' and drag the FireFTP button onto the toolbar. That's it :D. FTP away.

Wiki on the go

2007-10-14T12:27:00.001+08:00

Plenty of people are looking for a program that lets them keep notes on the go. And there are plenty of applications out there which can do this already i.e Tomboy. As for me, I was looking for something which had the following criterias:-

It had to be small.
It had to be accessible from any platform.
It has to fit on a usbdrive.

This led me to MoinMoin Desktop Edition (MMDE). Its basically a wiki but one that sits on your desktop (or thumbdrive once you get Portable Python). However, its overkill (a full wiki for personal use???) and it does have a slight learning curve. Scouted around some more and found this little darling, TiddlyWiki.

Its a personal wiki writting 100% using Javascript and HTML thus all you need to use it is a modern browser i.e. Firefox or Opera. Installation is as simple as right clicking on the download link and choosing "Save link as" to your preferred location. And that IS all there is to it Now launch your browser, open the file you just saved and you're ready to start keeping notes. You can now copy the file to your usbdrive and carry it with you wherever you go. Heck, there are some people who are using this to even create a personal websites (don't worry. Once hosted, the editing feature is disabled). Neat huh :D

Blogs of fire

2007-10-13T23:10:00.001+08:00

I was recently looking for a tool to help with my blogging. It gets tedious at times when you HAVE to login to the blog before jotting down the ideas and then publishing them. Tried a few of them but nothing worked out well for me until i stumbled onto a Firefox extension called ScribeFire. It supports blogger, WordPress, LiveJournal and even Windows Live Spaces. After installing it, i tried adding a single blog and everything simply worked fine. You can create and save your blog as a local copy making it easier to edit it later.

All posts done via ScribeFire adds a "Powered by ScribeFire" at the end. Some people don't mind the promotion, others do. I have nothing against free software wishing to promote itself but I also believe that people should be allowed to make the decision for themselves. For those wishing to remove the link (or change it to something else) here's the tip.

Go to your firefox extensions folder.
Open up "editor.js" using your favorite editor.
Look for "performancingUI.insertPoweredByPFF" (or similar). This is where you can edit and add your own stuff or remove the entire line completely.
Save and quit.
Restart your browser for the changes to take effect.

Now that it's done, you can blog away from your browser wherever you are. Blog away my pretty...;)

Read em CHM files

2007-10-13T22:56:00.001+08:00

Sometimes we "acquire" some e-books in CHM format and have some trouble opening them up in Linux boxes. This is not a problem in Windows (CHM is a MS format) as it comes with the tools to open it but us Linux (and BSD) users can't open it up by default. So, what do we use to view it? Well there are 2 options.

Using GnoCHM

A decent viewer (for GNOME) to open .chm files directly. You can install it using

sudo apt-get install gnochm

Using archmage

It basically decompiles the .chm file and stores the contents in a folder of your designation

To install it

sudo apt-get install archmage

To use it

archmage file.chm output_name

Happy reading :D

Pretty GUI apps over SSH

2007-10-06T20:50:00.000+08:00

I've been running some of my X applications i.e. scite, kdevelop, etc over SSH on my work pc for a long time now. Recently a friend of mine asked me how it was done so I decided to post it here for those looking for a similar solution.

First, make sure your SSH server has this option enabled "X11Forwarding yes" in your /etc/ssh/sshd_config file and then restart the SSH server.

On your client machine, establish a connection using "ssh -2 -4 -C -X user@server". This effectively tells your SSH client to connect to the SSH server using protocol version 2 running on IPv4 with compression enabled and to allow X forwarding.

Alternatively, you can create a .ssh/config file on the client and add the following options to it which gives the same result as above
Protocol 2
Compression yes
AddressFamily inet
ForwardX11 yes

And you're done. You can now run remote X programs on Linux or Windows (using cygwin).

NOTE: 1 possible error that you might encounter is "Gtk-WARNING **:cannot open display:". If this happens, execute your ssh command with the following "ssh -2 -4 -C -X -v user@server" and look at the debug output. If you see something similar to "debug1: Remote: No xauth program; cannot forward with spoofing." make sure you have xauth installed. If you do, delete your existing .Xauthority file, logout and login again. This will cause a new .Xauthority file to be created and hopefully it will solve the annoying error message above. Enjoy ;)

SVN tips

2007-09-20T14:24:00.000+08:00

Ok here are some more tips in addition to the earlier ones. Sometimes, you want to create a copy of an existing directory to another one before making significant changes. I know that's why we have SVN in the first place, to revert to last known working copy, but at times (especially when it involves looks) it can be quite tiresome. However, SVN will not add the copied directory as it considers it already under version control. Hmm..a tough one. Actually, its pretty easy. Here's how I did it :-

cd /path/to/project/copied directory
find ./ -name ".svn" | xargs rm -fr

Now the directory is no longer under version control. You can run "cd /path/to/project/;svn add * --force" to add the copied folder to the version control. Thats all folks :D

Safeguard your streams

2007-09-12T23:16:00.000+08:00

Question:
If you wish to secure a connection from 1 service to another, what would you use?
a.) Why would I want to do that?
b.) Set up VPN.
c.) SSH tunneling.
d.) Stunnel.

Answer
a.) There is no such thing as being too paranoid.
b.) Ever heard the phrase "using a nuke to kill an ant"?
c.) Same as above by replace nuke with high explosive.
d.) BINGO!!

Stunnel is an application which wraps your normal connection over SSL/TLS to make sure no one can eavesdrop on your connection. This is particularly useful when you wish to secure your mail (SMTP, POP3) or securing your SVN server (heh, its what I am using it for:P). Its main benefits is that its extremely easy to set up (within 5 minutes) and it
only establishes a connection when needed, and not
maintain its secure tunnel perpetually, which eats up
your bandwidth unnecessarily.

This is my instruction on setting it up (for Ubuntu) on the server (svn as an example). Feel free to change the location and/or configuration to suit your needs.

sudo apt-get install stunnel
mkdir -p /home/shinning/secure_services/pid
mkdir -p /home/shinning/secure_services/service
cd /home/shinning/secure_services/
[create server cert] - openssl req -new -days 365 -nodes -out newreq.pem -keyout stunnel.pem
vi /home/shinning/secure_services/service/svn.sh
stunnel -P /home/shinning/secure -p /home/shinning/secure_services/stunnel.pem -d 4000 -r localhost:3690

And that it. Your SVN server is now running securely on top of SSL/TLS making it hard for anyone to sniff your traffic. You can also make your client authenticate itself against your server if you want to by following this guide. There are also tonnes of other examples here. Happy securing ;)

Fortune, meet planning

2007-09-10T20:31:00.000+08:00

"Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning - Thomas Alva Edison"

The above saying is SOO true. How many times have we had the oppurtunity to do big things, but we failed because we didn't have a proper plan. And NO, I'm not talking about a bid to take over the world. Unless that's your plan of course, then I ain't gonna stop you. Perhaps the following tool can help you list out the things you have to do and set a timeline for it :P

The tool I'm talking about is called Planner which exists for both Linux and Windows. Think MS Project, but cross platform. Having never used MS Project before, its hard for me to say what are its limitations. However, its been really useful to me so far and far easier to use than some other project management software i.e. TaskJuggler.

For those using Linux, you can probably find it in your repository. In Ubuntu "sudo apt-get install planner" is sufficient to download and install this nifty software. Happy planning :D

Some screenshots are below for your viewing pleasure
Task allocation

Resource allocation and usage

GANTT chart

My first version control

2007-09-08T23:37:00.001+08:00

Ok, now we've got our versioning control server up and running. Now what? Now we start using it. I'll list the more basic command/uses here using the CLI. If you like, you can check out some other documentation on SVN.

Creating a repository

Log in to svn_srv
svnadmin create --fs-type fsfs /path/to/svn/repository_name
chgrp -R svn /path/to/svn/repository_name
cdmod -R 770 /path/to/svn/repository_name
cd /path/to/svn/repository_name/conf
Edit the svnserve.conf, authz and passwd file appropriately if you wish to disallow anonymous access and only allow authorized users to access your repository (recommended).

Importing an existing project to the above created repository

svn import /path/of/existing/project/folder svn://svn_srv/repository_name --username user_in_authz_file -m "Log message"

Downloading a fresh copy of the repository

svn checkout svn://svn_srv/repository_name /destination --username user_in_authz_file

Sync-ing a local copy with the changes in the repository

svn update --username user_in_authz_file [-r revision_we_want_to_sync_with]

Show exact changes in files which have changed from repository and your local copy

svn diff --username user_in_authz_file [-r revision_we_want_to_compare_with]

Show things which have changed on your local copy and the repository

svn status -u

Adding new files to be added to the version control (recursively adds files and folders)

svn add * --force

Merging changes from two sources to the current copy

svn merge --username user_in_authz_file --no-auth-cache -r revision_to_merge_to:revision_to_merge_from /path/to/changed/copy
svn merge --username user_in_authz_file --no-auth-cache URL@revision_1 URL@revision_2 /working/copy/path

Deleting a file from the local copy or in the repository

svn delete svn://svn_srv/repository_name/file
svn delete path/to/file

Undo all local changes (does not work with removed directories)

svn revert --recursive
svn revert path/to/file

Commit your changes to the repository

svn commit

By no means is the above a complete list of options or things you can do with SVN. Read the documentation and try it out for yourself to see the power of this tool.Or, if all this looks too complicated, we could use a GUI for it. Some of the are listed below :-

KDESvn (Linux)
eSvn (Linux, Windows)
TortoiseSVN (Windows)

So many versions, so much confusion

2007-09-08T14:30:00.000+08:00

How many times have you worked on a project or document only to
accidentally delete a critical file, made a modification and wished you
had the original copy, or simply keep track of all the changes to your
project. The most common way is to create an exact copy before doing any changes. It works, but it takes up unnecessary space and unless you keep a good listing of your changes, you'll be scratching your head wondering where to begin.

Obviously there is a solution for this, otherwise it'd be pointless to
write this entry now wouldn't it:P The solution is pretty simple
actually. Install a version control software :D And yes it IS easy to
set up as it sounds. It's the using it that's slightly confusing, but
I'll address it in a later post. For those who don't know what version
control is, check out this Wikipedia article.

This HOW-TO is based on thw howto from this site. I DO NOT take credit for this work and I'd like to express my appreciation to all the people who made ubuntuguide.org possible. I'll be using the client/server version for this guide. It is also possible to set one up to be accessible via web but I'm not going to touch it here. The HOW-TO for that is already available.

On Ubuntu (regardless of version), follow the following step-by-step to
get your version control software up and running :-

Install the necessary software needed.

sudo apt-get install subversion subversion-tools xinetd

Create a user and group that will be have read/write access to the repository directory.

sudo adduser --system --no-create-home --home /var/svn --group --disabled-login svn

Create the directory where the repositories will reside (your projects/documents)

mkdir /opt/svn
chown -R svn:svn /opt/svn

Lets make the software listen on its own connection port.

vi /etc/xinetd.conf/svnserve

add the following to the above file

service svn

{

port = 3690
socket_type = stream
protocol = tcp
wait = no
user = svn
server = /usr/bin/svnserve
server_args = -i -r /var/svn

quit and save the contents. This makes our svn server listen to TCP connections on port 3690.

vi /etc/services

Check if there is an entry similar to "svn 3690/tcp subversion # Subversion protocol". If you changed the port to something else, make the changes appropriately.
If it doesn't exist, add it in, otherwise just quit.
Note : If the above entry doesn't exist in /etc/services, the svn will not start.

/etc/init.d/xinetd restart

Check if our svn server is now listening on our
designated port.

netstat -tuanp | grep 3690

And that's all there is to it. Now you have your very own version
control software ready to use. My next post will cover creating and
managing your repository.

I'm also thinking on how to make this also useful for incremental backups. Until then, stay sharp and lets support Open/Free software :D.

Rise of the Star

2007-09-08T14:28:00.000+08:00

Gosh. It's been more than a YEAR since I last blogged. Damn where DOES the time go. Been caught up in some projects and getting distracted here and there ;) Well lets see how long I can keep this blogging thing again before I get lazy :P

P/S : I will also try to answer any questions or comments posted from now on. I apologize for the comments which have not been answered earlier.

Multipost

2006-07-31T14:53:00.000+08:00

This is a multipost. Kinda tired to write up invididual posts, hehehehe.

Anyway just came back from FOSSCAR. It was a really intersting event where I got to meet the rest of the #myoss guys. The presentations were really intersting especially the "10 worst sysadmin mistakes" and "Using open source for enterprise networks". You can get the presentation slide for "Using open source for enterprise networks" from here. Got a few photos which I'll upload once I extract it out.

Also, after looking at some of the guys using Expose-like features from OS X, I decided topost the app for others who want a similar feature. I tried it a few months back for sheer eye candy but disabled it cause didn't quite enjoy it especially without a proper graphics card. You can actually see the lagginess. Anyway the app is called skippy. For ubuntu, just "sudo apt-get install skippy" and its done;)

Well seems like a multi post just turned out to be 2 post:P. Off now, cheerioz;)

Mon It

2006-07-23T10:52:00.000+08:00

Recently I tried an application that aids in ensuring your system is running smoothly called monit. From the website of monit "monit is a utility for managing and monitoring, processes, files, directories and devices on a UNIX system. Monit conducts automatic maintenance and repair and can execute meaningful causal actions in error situations." There are packages available for FreeBSD and Ubuntu.

Installing and setting up monit on ubuntu is fairly easy, just do "sudo apt-get install monit" and its installed. Configuring monit is extremely easy. In fact the "/etc/monit/monitrc" file explains in depth the options available and how to use the variables.

The installation step for FreeBSD is "pkg_add -rvv monit". The monitrc file is in "/usr/local/etc/monitrc".

I'm posting a sample of my monitrc here as a simple guide.
#start sample monitrc
set daemon 120 #monitor the system every 2 minutes
set mailserver localhost #use localhost as the mailserver
set mail-format {from: monit@system} #set the from field of the mail
set alert user@localhost #who will receive the mail
#set the http port in which monit will report its status, the address it listens on, who can connect to it as well as the username and password required to login to monit
set httpd port 10123 and
use address localhost
allow localhost
allow admin:monit
include /etc/monit/services/* #Include files containing services, filesystem to monitor
#end sample monitrc

sample /etc/services/ssh #sample file that monitors the ssh service
#start /etc/services/ssh
check process SSH with pidfile /var/run/sshd.pid
start program = "/etc/init.d/ssh start"
stop program = "/etc/init.d/ssh stop"
if cpu is greater than 60% for 2 cycles then alert
if cpu > 80% for 5 cycles then restart
if totalmem > 200.0 MB for 5 cycles then restart
if children > 250 then restart
if loadavg(5min) greater than 10 for 8 cycles then stop
if 3 restarts within 5 cycles then timeout
group Server
#end /etc/services/ssh

As you can notice, the file is pretty self explanatory. Some other things that you can do are monitor if other machines are alive, alert you if the filesystem usage exceeds a certain percentage, ensure that filesystem permissions are set correctly, ensure that the checksum for specific system files are not changed, etc. Feel free to try out the various combination and options available.

Happy MonIt-oring;)

Emu v2

2006-06-09T12:10:00.000+08:00

I've managed to get qemu installed and working using the guide posted here. However I'll post a short HOW-TO here as well:) I do not take credit for getting this to work;)

Download the QEMU + KQEMU package from here.
Install the following packages which includes your linux kernel headers "sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) libsdl1.2-dev zlib1g-dev checkinstall qemu".
Create a symlink to your linux kernel for simplifying things at a later stage (which includes updates) using 'sudo ln -s /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r) /usr/src/linux-headers'
Extract the qemu package to a folder of your choice (i.e. /home/user/qemu) and also extract the kqemu package into the same directory. Remain in this directory.
edit the qemu 'configure' file and change the kernel_path="" to
'kernel_path="/usr/src/linux-headers"', quit and save the file.
type './configure' and look for the line that says "kqemu support yes".
type 'make'. This process might take some time.
Now we're ready to create the debian package. Type 'sudo checkinstall -D' and you will be prompted to answer a few questions. "
1st question: Answer = default y
2nd question: Answer = Any description you like about qemu"
In my case after the creation of the package I had to install the .deb file manually. This is accomplished using 'sudo dpkg -i '.
Now we have to make sure that the modules required for functionality are loaded. Edit '/etc/modules' and add kqemu and tun to the file. To load it manually type 'sudo modprobe kqemu' and 'sudo modprobe tun'.
Edit your '/etc/rc.local' and add the following

mknod /dev/kqemu c 250 0 # Create the KQEMU device
chmod 666 /dev/kqemu # Make it accessible to all users
chmod 666 /dev/net/tun # Make tun accessible by all
mount -o remount,size=544m /dev/shm
echo 1024 > /proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq

Now your system can emulate any OS of your choice;) Enjoy

Dragon Reborn

2006-06-03T20:50:00.000+08:00

YESS!!! Dapper Drake has been officially released on the 1st of June. This time we only require a single CD for both the live CD and the installer which makes things easier to manage. I've successfully installed it using the GUI without any hitch and I'm 1 happy dragon rider:D

Pics from Thailand Trip

2006-05-19T22:45:00.000+08:00

A beautiful sight to behold indeed

People on the beach during the day

People on the beach during the night

I see colors

2006-05-07T17:22:00.000+08:00

On OpenBSD using 'vi' or 'ls' doesn't yield color by default. Also as I'm too used to having bash I usually install that as well

To start off you first have to install the fileutils, vim and bash package to get the 'gls', 'vim' and 'bash' command respectively. Copy the /usr/local/share/vim/vim64/vimrc_example.vim to ~/.vimrc which will automatically enable syntax highlighting for you. If it still isn't, check to make sure that 'syntax on' is in the ~/.vimrc file.

To make bash your default shell, type 'chpass' and edit the line that says 'shell' to point to /usr/local/bin/bash (I always set the absolute path). Quit and save (ESC,:wq) to store your new information.

Once that is done edit your ~/.profile and add these lines
export TERM=xterm-color
alias ls='gls --color'
alias vi='vim'

Quit and save the file. Now logout and login again and voiila, you will now be able to see colors when you type ls and edit files using vi;) Ciaoz

Mod to Devil Worshipper's treats

2006-05-04T12:26:00.000+08:00

Ok seems like I left out a small step in my procedure for getting various keycodes to work. Not that it doesn't work using that method just that you'll see various messages when you try to scp things over/from. Oopsy. Sorry bout that.

Here is the correct fix for it

instead of putting the keycodes into .bashrc, create a .inputrc and put all the keycodes into that. In the .bashrc put the following 'export INPUTRC=".inputrc"
'. This will fix those darned messages.

Ciaoz

It's alive

2006-05-04T12:07:00.000+08:00

I finally managed to burn an OpenBSD cd successfully without any hitches. kekeke. Used this article as a reference to get it working. Basically its easy if you have a linux machine because tools such as mkhybrid are already available by default.

Steps
1. create a folder to store all the OpenBSD files i.e $HOME/openbsd. cd into that newly created folder.

2. download the OpenBSD files from any of the OpenBSD ftp mirrors. I used ftp://openbsd.cc.ntu.edu.tw/pub/OpenBSD/3.9/i386 because it turned out much faster. i used the command 'wget -rc ftp://openbsd.cc.ntu.edu.tw/pub/OpenBSD/3.9/i386/*'. this will recursively download all the files from the remote folder into your current folder.

3. depending on your internet connection the download might take up to 1 hour or more. The layout of the folder will be 'openbsd.cc.ntu.edu.tw/pub/OpenBSD/3.9/i386/' (substituting the host with whichever host you may have chosen. Now comes the interesting part, the creation of the ISO.

from the $HOME/openbsd folder, type 'mkhybrid -b openbsd.cc.ntu.edu.tw/pub/OpenBSD/3.9/i386/cdrom39.fs -c boot.catalog -l -J -L -r -o obsd39.iso ./'

Take note the last ./ as this will be the BASE working path that will be used to navigate to openbsd.cc.ntu.edu.tw/pub/OpenBSD/3.9/i386/cdrom39.fs

It will now begin creating the iso and after its done from the folder you're in you will find a obsd39.iso. Feel free to use any CD burning software to burn the image onto your CD. I used k3b to do burn my image. You could always use 'cdrecord' if you want everything executed from the console. After you've burned it do try to boot the cd to make sure all is working well. If all works then you can delete the files downloaded including the iso or you can share it with your friends.

Thats all folks :D

I am watching you

2006-05-03T12:14:00.000+08:00

For some time I've been using a tool called ntop to monitor the traffic that goes through my machine. Just thought I'd share the tool with everyone else who is looking to see what goes on behind closed interfaces. The name of the tool is called ntop and listed below are the instructions to install it (on Breezy of course). Since its a web based tool all you need is a web browser to check the statistics.

apt-get intsall ntop.
first time run ntop -u ntop [-u indicates which user to run as]
it will ask for admin password (min 5 char)

to access the page type this in your browser "http://localhost:3000"

the only snag to this is that it only monitors up to the last 12 hours but its more than enough for normal users who just want to know what kind of traffic passes through their machine ;)

Emuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

2006-05-03T09:01:00.000+08:00

We've all at one point or another wanted to run multiple OSes in a single machine simultaneously. One of the best ways to do it was to use VMware. However there is that small issue of licensing fee. There is however a FREE VMWare player for various platforms that can run images of various OSes but it didn't work for me. Earlier on one my friends mentioned bout QEMU which allows you to do exactly what VMWare allows.

My previous incarnation of Breezy had QEMU + KQEMU set up all well but after the resurrection I seem to have forgotten to install it. Till now that is. The basic guide I used for Breezy was based on this link.

Devil Worshippers treats

2006-03-12T10:55:00.000+08:00

Here's a little trick i would like to share with my Devil Worshipper buddies (even if I don't use it. Argh! Gotta stop using shortforms. Damn IMs).
This trick is to enable all those keys such as HOME, DELETE which don't work as well out of the box in *BSD. Since I'm really used to having them, I searched a solution and I hope this helps someone else.

Create a '~/.bashrc' and add the following lines

set meta-flag on
set output-meta on
set convert-meta off
"\e[1~": beginning-of-line
"\e[2~": yank
"\e[3~": delete-char
"\e[4~": end-of-line
"\e[C": forward-char
"\e[D": backward-char
"\e[A": previous-history
"\e[B": next-history
"\C-?": delete-char
"\C-H": backward-delete-char
"\e[1~": beginning-of-line
"\e[4~": end-of-line

Quit out your existing session and re-log back in and now all those keys that were unavailable earlier are now at your disposable. Enjoy;)

Quickies

2006-03-12T10:09:00.000+08:00

Here are some quick tips to help using Linux easier.

We tend to use 'grep' to search through our files but finding the occourence of the word can be tricky especially if there are alot of output. grep comes with color option to highlight the word using the --color=auto option. I add an alias in my .bash_profile so I don't have to keep typing it all the time.

alias grep='grep --color=auto'

vi can be your best friend as it's a very powerful editor and it's always available in every Linux distribution. However, it can get tedious looking at merely looking at black and white fonts. The newer distribution of vi is called vim (vi improved) which offers color options. To enable it (if it isn't) just fire up vi and press the ESC key, and type ':syntax on' exactly. NOTE: The following instruction is for Ubuntu. To make sure every file you open has syntax highlighting, copy '/etc/vim/vimrc' to '~/.vimrc'. Open '~/.vimrc' and look for the line that says 'syntax on' which is disabled by default. Quit and save and every file you open from now on will have syntax highlighting. The syntax highlighting information is stored in '/usr/share/vim/vim63/syntax'.

GTK fonts too small? When using Fluxbox, most of the GTK application fonts tend to be really tiny. This doesn't appear in GNOME because it will load 'gnome-settings-daemon' to make the apps streamlined. This however is not a good approach for minimalistic WMs (isn't that why we CHOSE the minimalistic WMs in the 1st place:P). Here is a trick that will make your fonts in the GTK apps, appear exactly as you want them. Edit (or create) a '~/.gtkrc-2.0' and add 'gtk-font-name="<font name> <font size>"', save the file, reload your GTK applications and voila all your fonts are now as you defined them.

Well that's all for now folks;) Gotta go configure my development tools now. Ciaoz.

Return of the Badger

2006-03-08T19:58:00.000+08:00

Geez. Looks like an agreement with the devil didn't go so well. The installation went just fine however the update didn't go as expected (as usual). Yeah i see 1 guy starting to curse me now. You know who you are Tough luck man. Told you i never could get it to work properly for me. Now i've reinstalled my ol failthful Badger and surprise surprise. Lost my tutorials again. Gotta redo it but now that I've got it I can ACTUALLY paste it up now. WHEE!!!

Rise of the Devil

2006-03-02T21:07:00.000+08:00

Finally running FreeBSD the way its meant to be;). When you initially start up Fluxbox you will notice that all your GTK applications will be utilizing REALLY small fonts. Previously I used to run gnome-settings-daemon to get the fonts in the right size but now I've found another way to get the fonts just right.

I execute Fluxbox using the "Use system default" option in GDM. This will look for a .xprofile (as opposed to .xsession in UIbuntu) in your home directory. However in my case I symlink .xprofile to .xinitrc (just used to the normal standards I guess). I find this a better way to start up new WMs as I can logout and login to change different settings without disrupting the other users WM settings. Also, I can start up any custom apps I would like loaded using this method. Couldn't get fluxbox to read the startup file in the ~/.fluxbox folder though. Have to check that out later.

My .xprofile file contains the following lines

fbpager -rc ~/.fluxbox/fbpager&
exec /usr/X11R6/bin/fluxbox

I guess I'm just used to having a pager in my previous WMs that I just had to have it in fluxbox itself. A pager application is the one you use to switch to multiple desktops in XFCE4, GNOME or KDE.

Will add more on the status of the devil after I find more things to do >:)

Birth of the Devil

2006-03-02T18:15:00.000+08:00

I've successfully reinstalled my OS to FreeBSD. This is my...errr... 12th try at this. Every single installation teaches me something new like what I SHOULDN'T do and what I SHOULD do. So far so good. I just might end up keeping this OS. But I aint keeping my hopes up TOO high though. The entire installation (including X) took about 45 minutes to complete (no surprise there). After that it was a matter of installing Fluxbox and GDM. I've also learned a new trick to get my GTK applications to have decent sized fonts too. Will post the HOW-TO in a while, once ALL my upgrades are done and it's working as well as it should. I'm currently upgrading my RELEASE-6 to STABLE-6. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Dragon's Death

2006-03-02T17:10:00.000+08:00

Today is a sad day indeed. My new dragon hatchling has just died. I did an update today morning and it somehow caused all my apps to segfault. Sigh. I would like to take a moment of silence in honor of my valiant OS.
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Moment of silence over. Looks like I'll never be able to see what are the changes in Dapper Drake after all. Oh well, time to go see the devil now.

Walls ablaze part 2

2006-02-28T13:09:00.000+08:00

Ok earlier I have set up Firestarter as my firewall GUI tool. Now I would like to make it work just the way I like it.

In the preferences ("Edit -> Preferences") the first thing i ensure is that "Enable tray icon" and "Minimize to tray on window close" is enabled. Another thing to change would be to "Apply policy changes immediately" in the "Policy" section. For the more paranoid cases, enabling "ICMP Filtering" would be the way to go but be careful what you enable as some network tools might not work as expected if you do enable it.

"ToS Filtering" would require an entire posting of its own but for a quck run through, I enabled ToS filtering, chose "Workstation" and optimized the traffic for "Throughput".

Finally in the "Advanced Options", maintaining "Preferred packet rejection method" to "Drop silently" is good. I personally prefer this option because sometimes its harder for another person to know if there is even a machine if they scanned you. Not that they cant find out using, its just that it makes it slightly harder. Anything that gives you even the slightest edge helps right;). Blocking broadcast traffic is a good idea to prevent you from getting DoS-ed. It also helps in reducing excessive traffic and prevents the degredation of network performance.

As a final note I also enable "Block traffic from reserved addresses on public interfaces". If you're connected directly to the internet using a public IP, it would be ridiculous to get a connection from a LAN IP right. You obviously don't want these spoofed addresses eating up your bandwidth. However this is not just restricted to LAN IP connecting to public IP, it also works for multicast traffic or any range which is deemed restricted. Save your preferences and you're back to where you started earlier.

Now that you have a pretty safe machine, you will want to allow certain connections to come INTO you system such as SSH, Torrent, NetBIOS. Click the "Policy" tab and in the "Inbound traffic policy" you have to add any ports and/or IPs that can connect to you in the "Allow service" section. Once you've added it the rule will immediately become active and you can connect to the service. For a workstation this will be more than sufficient. For controlling outbound traffic, change the "Inbound traffic policy" to "Outbound traffic policy" and you will notice whether to allow all traffic by default or restrictive by default. For those who intend to run it as a server or are just plain paranoid, change the default "Permissive" to "Restrictive" and restrict what kind of connections you wish to allow from your system. But do be careful with this as you may deny connections from other system apps that need to connect out.

You can monitor all blocked connections in the "Events" tab. This is a good place to check in case you set your rules too strict or just want to know what kind of traffic you are being hit with.

Well I finally have my first tutorial on something up. Hope to put something else up soon;)

Walls ablaze part 1

2006-02-28T09:56:00.000+08:00

For those of you looking to setup a Linux firewall for your workstation, allow me to introduce you to Firestarter. Its a GUI application to manage iptables, which is the kernel level ip filter. Installing it is a piece of cake.

apt-get install firestarter -y

and you're done. Hahaha. Now comes the configuration part. For those running GNOME, clicking on "Application -> System Tools -> Firestarter" will execute the application. Since it's a front-end for iptables which requires root privileges, you'll be prompted for the root password (or the sudo password). Just type it in and you're all set. For those wishing to execute it from the terminal (for whatever reason it may be), typing "gksudo firestarter" will execute the program as well.

There is already a good tutorial available from the Firestarer homepage which is accessible through this link but I will run through the 3 step process here as well.

Click "Forward" on the first page. This is merely stating that you're ready to begin the setup.
In "Network Device Setup", select the interface that you want the filtering to take place. For Linux, the first interface is usually called eth0, the second interface eth1 and so forth. For those using your Linux machine to dial out for DialUp or ADSL, select the "Start firewall on dial-out option". For those who obtain their IP automatically from a DHCP server, do remember to check the "IP address assigned via DHCP" option box. Click "Forward" when you're done.
In "Network Device Setup", this is the section that allows your computer to act as a gateway for multiple PC's in your network. Enable it if you wish to share your connection with others. This is also a good tool to be used on gateway servers as it simplifies configuration but I wouldn't recommend running a full fledged GUI on a server. You would need a minimum of two interfaces for thise to work. One for the internal network (where all your clients are) and another which is connected to the internet. In the interface selection, select the interface connected to the internal network. If you wish to assign address to the clients in your personalized LAN, click the "Enable DHCP for local network" and enter the settings as you require it.
And your now set to run your newly configured firewall. Just click "save" and your're good to go.

This is the default configuration and setup for Firestarter. From now on everytime you reboot your machine, your firewall rules will automatically be loaded on system startup. If you would like to load Firestarter when you log into your account you will have to make it load using whichever method your desktop uses to start programs on startup. In the next part I'll run through some other configuration options. Till then ciaoz;)

trAPT

2006-02-27T22:39:00.000+08:00

Ubuntu comes with a great command line tool for installing/updating/removing packages called apt* and dpkg*. The * denotes the various applications you can use i.e. apt-get, apt-cache, dpkg, dpkg-reconfigure, etc. The use of each tool is pretty much self explanatory. apt-get downloads and installs/updates packages/distro and apt-cache queries for a package you're looking for. The best part is that it will automatically connect to the server to download it without you having to have it prior to installation. Also since ubuntu is based on debian, all package format is in .deb therefore chances are you can use existing debian packages on ubuntu.

/etc/apt/sources.list is the file that stores the location of repositories to download the .deb files from.

Here are some command line options that I regularly use

apt-get install [package_name]

downloads and installs [package_name]

apt-get remove [package_name]

removes [package_name]. I usually use dpkg --purge to completely delete everything, including its configuration files as well.

apt-get update

downloads the new package information from the repositories

apt-get upgrade -y

ran after the above command, it will download and update any packages that are outdated. the -y option answers 'yes' to all questions regarding upgrades. It's es.pecially useful when running it from a crontab

apt-get dist-upgrade -y

this is the best way to upgrade your existing version to the latest version. Just run this command after a few hours, with a mere reboot, you will have your new distro ready for use. Usually most of your previous applications will work just fine but at times you will need to remove and reinstall the application for it to function but its very rare.

apt-cache search [package_name]

the best way to search for packages instead of searching via packages.ubuntu.com. Useful if you don't know the entire name of the package.

dpkg -L

list all the files installed by .

These are some of the main commands I use regularly. If i come across any new tips I'll be sure to add it here later;) Till then ciaoz;)

Dragon's Breath

2006-02-27T12:33:00.000+08:00

Yesterday i decided to upgrade by Breezy Badger to Dapper Drake (which is still in the testing stage). I just couldn't help myself. I absolutely HAD to see what it's all about. Patience was never one of my strong points anyway. The last time i tried to upgrade my system (from Hoary to Badger) it caused a massive problems i.e. not booting properly, not being able to mount my remote drives, etc. But did those problems and spending days to reconfigure back my machine back to the way i like stop me from trying. HELL NO!!. Especially after what I read about Dapper and its new features. These are the steps i used to upgrade it

edited my /etc/apt/sources.list
changed all references of "breezy" to "dapper"
"apt-get update"
"apt-get dist-upgrade -y"

and voila, after 3 hours plus all the new packages were installed and updated and after a reboot, which i find to be faster than Breezy (at least thats how it seems to me), I was presented with my NEW GDM login screen.

The first thing I did was to login to GNOME just to see what changes have been made. Granted that I already had a previous configuration setting for GNOME anyway so i might be missing out on some default settings/layout. Graphically its the same as the previous version but what caught my eye immediately was that the GNOME panel is now slightly smaller (I've been trying to figure out how to change the size but never managed it. Probably have to edit it using gconf but I was too lazy after switching to XFCE4) and they have applets that warn you about your impending hard disk capacity exhaustion. Also it now comes with gnome-screensaver which offers a whole slew of REALLY cool looking screensavers and a OS-X like password prompt.

After that I decided to switch back to fluxbox which somehow seems much faster. However all my fonts are like super humongous at the moment but i'll let it stick for now. It's kinda nice not to have to squint your eyes trying to read all the config file. I've had it running for more than 18 hours now and it seems just fine and dandy. i just hope it stays that way though.

Some of the other changes include Firefox 1.5 and Thunderbird 1.5 that comes default with Dapper. Previously I had to download Firefox manually and do some reconfiguring (which aint hard anyway) but now that i have it default it makes me even happier. Also i get to retain my extensions that I have already been using ;).

Will post more as I come across newer features/changes ;) Time for lunch:D

Change is in the air

2006-02-27T12:05:00.000+08:00

Ok I've finally changed my template to something new. Got a lot of complaints regarding the pinky-ness. I've been trying to change the look to something more pleasant but didn't succeed so I changed the entire theme. Will get back to having blood red (or is it maroon) theme once i get to it

I am what I am because of who we all are

2006-02-26T22:33:00.000+08:00

What DOES the title mean anyway? No its not about some human rights discussion or a cool catch phrase (actually it just might. Hmm). Actually its the definition of the Linux distro I've been using as of last year. Ubuntu.

Linux. Ahhh...my favorite OS. Aside from OS-X that is. Not that I haven't tried out any *bsd systems its just that Linux just works better for me (And easier too. Though i know of 1 or 2 people would disagree with me). Anyways I've tried out quite a few distro's i.e. RedHat, Slackware (my FAVORITE distro EVER), Fedora Core, CentOS and of course, Ubuntu. Now Ubuntu is TRULY a distro suited for the masses IMHO. It has such a simplistic and intuitive installer. If memory serves me right you just need to answer 6 questions to get a fully functional system.

I've been using Ubuntu 5.0.4 or more commonly known as Hoary Hedgehog (they seem to like to name their releases using animal names). The default desktop is GNOME (there are versions for other desktops or window managers i.e. Kubuntu using the KDE desktop). Ubuntu uses Debian as a base so for all of you who have used Debian before this would be a breeze. Regardles of the system you choose, you can opt to install any of the desktops using apt-get. Ubuntu itself can be obtained from ubuntu.com

In Breezy Badger (5.1.10) they also offered another desktop option, which incidentally does not have its own release cd, called xubuntu which uses XFCE4 as the desktop environment. I've had a liking for this as it was small and simple so the moment i knew it was available i decided to download it. Obtaining it was rather simple. ALl i had to do was type "apt-get install xubuntu-desktop" and watch apt-get perform its miracle by downloading, installing and setting up the new desktop for me and i've been using it ever since. Quite recently i stumbled upon another ubuntu version called nubuntu.org which uses the fluxbox window manager for those looking for a more simplestic and HIGHLY configurable wm. I decided to give fluxbox a try since I've been hearing so many good things about it. I'll post my guide to configuring fluxbox later. Once I can find where i stuffed that tutorial of mine in the 1st place :P.

Why oh why did I write this blog

2006-02-26T22:09:00.000+08:00

The real reason i created this blog was to put up any tutorial I did whilst doing configuration for my machine. Since i have a nasty habit of writing up some minimalistic guide so that i can remember it for future use AND losing it, thus putting up online seems to be the sanest thing to do. I got this idea from a friend of mine who puts up lots of food tutorials and guides for *BSD (or *NIX) in general. Thx geek;)

What's in a name (and looks)

2006-02-26T17:53:00.000+08:00

Why oh WHY did i pick THIS color scheme :S. Gosh it's PINK. Or is it dark red. Its, its, its, HORRIBLE. ARGH!!. Never blindly pick a template without looking at it properly. Sigh. No matter i'll change it when i come around to it.

The name "afriel" was stumbled upon when i was busy searching for some RPG stuff. Turns out the name i chose is an angels name and it supposedly means
"
Afriel is known as the Angel of Youth and encourages exploration of all things new and inspires us with Hope.

"

Either way the name sounds cool so i decided to use this as the name for this blog. And besides, an angel that encourages us to do new things is my kinda guy. Or gal, whichever suits it. :D

My First Post

2006-02-26T17:20:00.000+08:00

Gosh I finally have my own blog. Weird considering i swore i'd never create one of my own. Goes to show how true the old adage "Never say never" is. Now if i can just remember to post frequently ;)

Anyway peace ya'll

-End-