tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83808692024-03-23T12:43:54.524-05:00mr-pottermr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.comBlogger85125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-10784535565970226452009-09-12T01:43:00.000-05:002009-09-12T01:44:52.166-05:00This blog is dead.......long live <a href="http://robertjhart.wordpress.com/">the blog</a>.mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-83623929371376596062009-01-19T17:53:00.003-06:002009-01-19T18:25:50.074-06:00The long weekend has given me the chance to do some stuff on my computer at home. Here are some of the things I have learned.<br /><br />I spent some time looking for color profiles to use with the likes of GIMP. I went looking to see if I could find any for my <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_d30">digital camera</a>. Turns out that my camera is so old that it is a museum piece. I spent a couple of hours with Google and could not find an icc or icm file anywhere.<br /><br />I managed to find some profiles for my monitor by looking in the cab files that contain the software on the driver disc. I have them extracted now.<br /><br />My monitor also has a non-standard aspect ratio. I tried to set up a new screen resolution but gave up. I did find that I actually have a clearer picture if I set the resolution to the optimum resolution and set the font size larger so I can read everything. I still end up using the compiz zoom feature a lot.<br /><br />I spent so Christmas money on a new keyboard. The actual keyboard is really nice to use. The extra multimedia keys around the keyboard do not. Actually some of them do, but the one I would like to work does not. That is the zoom toggle on the left hand side. I cannot seem to get anything to register the key press. Even xev does not register it. I suspect there is a low-level something that is missing. Hopefully it will start working as new versions of kernels and other software are available. I am also hoping I can make it scroll, or compiz zoom. The original intention of the keyboard is to increase font sizes.<br /><br />This keyboard also has an "F-lock" button. Took me ages to work out why the function keys did not work. I have no idea what useful purpose the "f-lock" key serves. If anyone knows, then pass it on.<br /><br />The keyboard also has a wireless mouse with it too. I must say that I am not very impressed with it. The biggest annoyance has to be the flakiness of the middle button. The middle mouse button gets used a lot, and it is fast becoming annoying. I may end up ditching the mouse in favor of another.mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-63477958545038538042009-01-15T22:04:00.003-06:002009-01-15T22:27:39.163-06:00cold and colderToday was a record breaker here in Bismarck. It was the coldest January 15th on record. This is from the <a href="http://www.crh.noaa.gov/bis/">NWS website</a>. I'm going to quote it because I am not sure if the site has a permalink.<br /><br /><quote><pre>RECORD EVENT REPORT<br />NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND<br />737 AM CST THU JAN 15 2009<br /><br />...RECORD DAILY MINIMUM TEMPERATURE BROKEN AT BISMARCK ND...<br /><br />AT 734 AM CST THIS THURSDAY MORNING THE TEMPERATURE AT THE BISMARCK<br />AIRPORT DROPPED TO -44 DEGREES. THIS BREAKS THE RECORD LOW FOR JAN<br />15TH OF -36 PREVIOUSLY SET IN 1971.</pre></quote><br /><br />At work we were discussing whether it was cold enough to spit and the saliva to freeze before it hit the ground. Unfortunately none of us thought to do it at that time. However, one of my colleagues did show me <a href="http://basinelectric.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/minus-44-degrees-in-bismarck-nd/">this</a>.<br /><br />Throwing hot coffee looks like more fun than spitting.mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-56744847645336728932009-01-13T22:44:00.003-06:002009-01-13T23:09:02.291-06:00CentOS SecurityOver at <a href="http://planet.centos.org/">Planet CentOS</a> there has been a rash of posts about security, <a href="http://www.bofh-hunter.com/2009/01/09/supportable-linux-security/">here</a>, <a href="http://www.arrfab.net/blog/?p=106">here</a> and <a href="http://www.bofh-hunter.com/2009/01/02/evils-of-source/">here</a>. Wise words, check them out.<br /><br />Reading this got me thinking about using the non-standard packages and compiling from source. I think one of the reasons why sys-admins do this is because they are more comfortable with the package they want to use. This may be personal preference, and the preference may be because it is what they know. As a sys-admin, you rarely get to run the software you want. You have to make do with what you have or what others want. The business wnats you to load this software, and thhis software needs this specific app server which is not your favorite, or one you know well.<br /><br />Like it or not, that is part of the job. On the plus side, learning new softaer gives more knowledge and experience which is only a good thing.mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-39868935471810508292008-12-23T20:07:00.002-06:002008-12-23T20:29:51.859-06:00New look for SuzukiOne of the things I do on the side is support the Bismarck Suzuki School of Music by doing stuff on their <a href="http://www.suzukischoolofmusic.com">web site</a>.<br /><br />When I inherited it, it was a static website. It meant that updating content was time consuming and, quite honestly, I would have made it look a lot worse.<br /><br />So I installed Wordpress. It made adding content a lot simpler. Last summer Cheryl, the president of the school, spent hours putting up lots of content. It means that she does not need to know any HTML to add all this content.<br /><br />When I originally set it up, I used roughly the same style as the previous site. Now I have a new theme up there. It was designed by my <a href="http://www.alphadeltadesigns.com/">brother</a>, and then <a href="http://douglast.com/">Douglas Tschetter</a> was kind enough to turn it in to a theme for me.<br /><br />I think it looks pretty good. So thanks Ade and Doug.mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-83042601491843811622008-12-18T16:17:00.004-06:002008-12-18T17:43:57.807-06:00Not again!Not content with serving us more snow this last month than we had the whole of last winter, the weather may have more in store for us....<pre><blockquote>URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE...CORRECTED<br />NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND<br />421 PM CST THU DEC 18 2008<br />...SIGNIFICANT WINTER STORM POSSIBLE THIS WEEKEND...<br />.A SIGNIFICANT WINTER STORM MAY IMPACT WEST AND CENTRAL NORTH<br />DAKOTA BEGINNING LATE FRIDAY AFTERNOON AND CONTINUING THROUGH LATE<br />SATURDAY NIGHT. SNOW WILL DEVELOP ACROSS WESTERN NORTH DAKOTA<br />FRIDAY AND FRIDAY NIGHT...AND MAY BECOME HEAVY BY SATURDAY. SNOW<br />AMOUNTS OF 6 TO 10 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE FROM THE TURTLE MOUNTAINS<br />IN THE NORTH CENTRAL...THROUGH JAMESTOWN AND SOUTH TO THE SOUTH<br />DAKOTA BORDER BY SUNDAY MORNING. FOUR TO SEVEN INCHES OF SNOW IS<br />POSSIBLE FROM MINOT TO BISMARCK...WITH 2 TO 4 INCHES OF SNOW<br />POSSIBLE ACROSS THE WEST. ALTHOUGH THE WEST WILL SEE LESS OF THE<br />SNOW...WIND CHILLS TO 50 BELOW AND STRONG WINDS WILL CAUSE VERY<br />HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS BY LATE SATURDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT. NEAR<br />BLIZZARD CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE ACROSS PORTIONS OF CENTRAL NORTH<br />DAKOTA SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND SATURDAY NIGHT WHERE THE HEAVIER<br />SNOW AMOUNTS ARE EXPECTED</blockquote></pre>Past experience has shown that such messages are not always wholly accurate. Suffice to say somewhere in the state somebody is going to get snow this weekend. <br /><blockquote></blockquote>mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-46370461458777947432008-12-15T11:37:00.003-06:002008-12-15T12:01:11.726-06:00yet more snowIt looks like we will be measuring snow accumulations in feet and not inches this winter. I do not know what the running total is so far, but I now have a bank of snow beside my driveway that is as tall as I am. I do not think my boulevards can take much more snow. In fact the section of driveway between the side walk and the road is getting narrower because there is nowhere else to put the snow.<br /><br />And it is cold! I wore so many clothes walking (more like wading) to work that my cube is full of outerwear.<br /><br />And then to make matters worse, <a href="http://kimberlyjoo.blogspot.com/">Kim</a> has posted some <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimbosphotos/3107952577/">photos </a>of her modeling her latest shawls. While they are nice garments, I was more struck by the fact that they were taken outside in December and she is not wearing a coat. I wish I could stand outside like that without pulling on hats scarves, coats, etc.mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-86316992265003773292008-11-30T19:13:00.001-06:002008-11-30T19:14:47.446-06:00not the light fantasticNow that Thanksgiving has been and gone, everyting turns to Christmas.<p><br />While we will not put the tree up for another week or two, we are starting to put up some decorations. In that vain, I decided to hang out the lights outside.</p><p><br />Sure it was about 28 degrees out there, but chances are it will not be any warmer in the next few weeks.</p><p><br />So I get out the string of lights, I test them and they all work. Next I hang them out. After what felt like a good long time perching on a ladder and messing with hooks and cables with gloves hampering dexterity, I fanally get the lights hung out. Now its time to turn them on.</p><p><br />So after all that, fifty of the one hundred work and fifty do not. Why does that always happen? You test them and they work, then when they are hung out they don't.</p><p><br />Next I go and reseat all the dark bulbs. I get to the very last bulb on the chain (the last possible bulb to test) and the bulb comes apart in my (very cold) hand. So I have the glass bit but the bulb casing is still in the socket. To make matters worse it ill nt come out. No amount of pulling at it with needle nosed pliers while cursing, perched on top of a ladder in the freezing cold helped.</p><p><br />This morning one of my freinds recounted a similar story. I smiled and said it was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphys_law">murphy</a>. Whenshe hears this story I'm sure she will return the compliment.</p><p><br /></p>mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-77823235343985280452008-11-22T01:45:00.002-06:002008-11-22T01:57:52.669-06:00electoral parrallelsI am a fan of the now finished telly program "The West Wing". In the final season, the presidential election campaign was, in my mind, spookily similar to the one we have just experienced in real life. Let me point out some similarities:<br /><ol><li>In the West Wing, the Democratic candidate was a Latino, in real life, he is African american. So, both are non-white.</li><li>In both cases the Democratic candidates are young.<br /></li><li>Both Republican Candidates were old men with centrist tendencies and who were dragged to the right by their parties.</li><li>Current events hampered the campaigns of both republican candidates (the nuclear power plant in the West Wing, and the financial crisis in real life).</li></ol>I'm sure there are more.<br /><br />In the West Wing, the Republican candidate becomes a member of the new Democratic cabinet. If I remember right, he became the secretary of state. So, if the parallels hold true, should we expect McCain getting a job in Obama's administration?mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-35704584534497081172008-11-07T22:31:00.004-06:002008-11-07T23:37:31.732-06:00first snow of winter<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-potter/3012282352/" title="snowy house panorama by mr-potter, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3278/3012282352_611b78f133_m.jpg" alt="snowy house panorama" width="240" height="89" /></a><br /><br />Winter came to North Dakota with a thud - well more of a whoosh and then a flump!<br /><br />Snow came yesterday afternoon with high winds. Blizzard conditions ensued for pretty much the rest of the night. During the evening the wind started to gust up to 40-50 mph.<br /><br />While we were eating our evening meal, the power started to blip off and back on again every so often. As the evening wore on the blips would start to be a couple of seconds then at 8:30 we lost power for about an hour.<br /><br />Woke up in the morning to find that school was cancelled, and we had a waist high snow drift going all the way down the drive. I dug a trench through the snow to the roadside and then went back in and worked from home for the morning.<br /><br />By lunchtime, the risk of more snow showers was pretty much gone and I started to shovel snow. After an hour and a half, all I had managed was to clear away the shallow drifts. I still had the big waist high drift to do. Time to call my father in law. He brought over his snow blower and an hour later he had the big drift cleared away too. It would not have been so hard if the bank of discarded snow at the side of the driveway was not taller than the outlet for his snow blower.<br /><br />After all that I then tramped t work.mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-2467622616149427122008-11-02T21:41:00.002-06:002008-11-02T21:47:31.343-06:00Liferea 1.5 has this cool feature where you can read blogs you have subscribed to on Google Reader. Now that is a feature worth compiling source for.<br /><br />So I did!<br /><br />Not all that bad of an install - was expecting worse.<br /><br />Feature kind of works right now but seg faults every 10 minutes. So it is back to version 1.4 for now and I will eagerly await the stabilising of 1.5mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-31514677099096106072008-11-02T21:26:00.003-06:002008-11-02T21:40:58.892-06:00Open SolarisSo I tried Open Solaris this week. I tried both the current release (2008.05) and the latest beta for 2008.11. I must say that they have done quite a nice job of it. It installed nicely and was quite simple to get a running system going.<br /><br />What made me remove it after a couple of days was the lack of packages for it, and laziness on my part. In order to get Open Solaris up and running with all the extra stuff that I get from the Ubuntu community, I would have to spend a long time researching alternative package locations and probably compiling a bunch of stuff. Right now I am not willing to put in that much effort.<br /><br />I have always had a soft spot for Solaris. I do want to use it and give it a decent shot. Its niche nature, underdog status and all those toys I want to play with make it a compelling thing. It flirts with me and every so often I install it. The thing is I am usually far too lazy and the draw of the seemingly effortless Ubuntu pulls me back.mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-89029356719578721472008-10-22T23:14:00.002-05:002008-10-22T23:25:46.768-05:00So I have been thinking I should maybe try and resurrect this whole blogging thing. I have been feeling the urge to write something quite a bit recently, so that is a good sign to start again.<br /><br />I thought about starting a new blog. In fact I shopped around the free blog services with that intention. I eventually decided to resurrect this one. The other free services did not seem to offer much more than what I have here, and I thought maybe if I started posting here again, then the three people who read it before may come back.mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-32205656858257999422008-10-22T23:10:00.001-05:002008-10-22T23:12:09.537-05:00I took a look at <a href="http://zim-wiki.org/index.html">Zim</a>; a desktop wiki. In fact it is pretty much the same as <a href="http://www.gnome.org/projects/tomboy/">Tomboy</a>, only the one compelling difference was that Zim had in built subversion support.<br /><br />The Subversion support should make it easy to do version control on your notes and potentially have a backup off-site. It would be really nice for things like sharing notes and documentation between people or computers.<br /><br />The first big issue with this feature is that there is no documentation on how to get this to work. I went through the Zim website and found nothing that was helpful. I ended up having to do some digging around myself. Here is how I got SVN support to work with Zim:<br /><br />1. First you need to create your subversion repository. Use <pre>svnadmin create</pre> to create your repository.<br /><br />2. Create your notebook in Zim. Note where you told the files to be saved. Close down Zim completely (not even hanging around in your notification are)<br /><br />3. In a terminal window, cd to the directory and then run <pre>svn import</pre> to get the initial files in to the repository.<br /><br />4. Move the original directory out of the way, or delete it if you are feeling brave.<br /><br />5. Check out the svn repository in to the location where Zim is expecting the files to be.<br /><br />6. Start up Zim again and open the notebook.<br /><br />You can now start working away in Zim, writing stuff and saving the changes. IF you create a new page, then it automatically does the svn add stuff for you. You should then pull down the Tools menu periodically and choose the "SVN Commit" option.<br /><br />If you are nervous that it is not behaving as you expect, you can always check out another working copy and see what it looks like.<br /><br />Another thing to note is that Zim logs stuff to you .xsession_errors file. tail that file to getmr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-74492417040779424362007-09-03T22:11:00.000-05:002007-09-03T22:19:21.318-05:00Reading about a road trip while on a raod tripSo, I am sitting in a dark hotel room in Wisconsin Dells. The wife and kids are asleep, and I am catching up on some reading.<br /><br />It has been a long time since posted anything here. There is only one real reason for that - laziness!<br /><br />So I am reading about <a href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/">Doc Searl's</a> road trip, and I am thinking that maybe I should do a travel blog of our trip from Bismarck to chicago and back again. It'll be a few days in the making because this laptop is barely powerfull enough to run a browser, and i have a bunc o f digital photo raws to process first. Expect more on Thursday when I am back home again.mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-15241519676753980222007-04-15T20:53:00.001-05:002007-04-15T20:53:34.460-05:00The height of annoyance.<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-potter/460846102/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/205/460846102_daa88f3614.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-potter/460846102/">IMG_2787</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/mr-potter/">mr-potter</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> This is a pet peeve of mine.<br /><br />Don't you just hate it when they put the power adapter as part of the bit you plug in to the wall. It is especially so when you will be plugging it in to a power strip. The chances are you will end up covering at least one more poser socket one the strip. The strip is now heavy and cumbersome, and is generally a downright nuisance.<br /><br />There! I feel much better now.</p>mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-58839546761545934162007-03-16T23:24:00.000-05:002007-03-16T23:39:35.453-05:00Spring is on its wayThe snow all melted this last week, leaving muddy brown grass everywhere. The first half of the week was a lot warmer than of late. A sure sign that spring is on the way. Here are some others:<br /><ul><li>Flocks of honking geese flying North over our heads in big V's.</li><li>Birds singing, woodpeckers pecking.</li><li>A huge increase in people out walking, and dogs taking their owners for a walk.</li><li>Dry sandy roads, and torrents of water running down the gutters.</li><li>An increase in the number of motorcycles, and noisy, old pickup trucks that, quite frankly, should not be on the road whatever time of the year it is.</li></ul>There was a noticeable lifting of moods with the rising of the temperature. That was tempered by the time change (I may rant about that later). All in all, sure signs that the cold winter is nearly over, and spring in on the way.<br /><br />Atchooo!mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-90579644584064226232007-02-20T20:14:00.000-06:002007-02-20T20:17:10.213-06:00Aerial Angels<a href="http://www.bismarcktribune.com/blog/entry.php?w=expatriateact&e_id=1838">Pictures of the snow angel event from the air</a>.mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-81739225523838603382007-02-17T21:14:00.000-06:002007-02-23T21:59:06.357-06:00Snow AngelsToday, Bismarck took back the world record for the most people making a snow angel at the same time. We were one of the 9,000 odd people there.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/02/17/news/update/doc45d76465ab8eb884449693.txt">Here's the Bismarck Tribune's coverage - including a rather poor video.</a><br /><br />I took a couple of pictures too - but not of us making snow angels. Thats because I was busy waving my arms and legs in the snow at the time.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-potter/393598871/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/125/393598871_d00db966b8.jpg" alt="IMG_2977" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-potter/393598874/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/125/393598874_ffc9baf99f.jpg" alt="IMG_2978" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br />I also took a movie with my point and shoot of one of the many snow-waves (kind of like a Mexican wave but with snow) that kept us amused during the half hour wait for the twenty second event.<br /><br /><object height="350" width="425"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dD_ZGXToVyY"> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dD_ZGXToVyY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425"> </object>mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-25969869771829989402007-02-02T15:17:00.000-06:002007-02-02T15:29:59.730-06:00Installing Oracle on 64bit LinuxI have just installed Oracle DBMS server on RHEL (x86_64) for the first time. I have installed Oracle on Solaris and Windows tens of times, but this is my first real Linux install. I must say that I am not impressed. Installing on Solaris is a whole lot simpler. The two big issues were packages dependencies and poor documentation.<br /><br />The installation would consistently fail during the linking process. Each time it failed required me to find out whay, install the required package, blow away the $ORACLE_HOME and oraInventory, and then start over. The list of required packages was well short. I also had to install both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions of all the libraries it needed. So my dependancy list is this:<br /><blockquote>rpm -q --qf '%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE} (%{ARCH})\n' binutils compat-db control-center gcc gcc-c++ glibc glibc-common glibc-devel gnome-libs libstdc++ libstdc++-devel make pdksh sysstat xscreensaver libaio libaio-devel<br />binutils-2.15.92.0.2-21 (x86_64)<br />compat-db-4.1.25-9 (x86_64)<br />compat-db-4.1.25-9 (i386)<br />control-center-2.8.0-12.rhel4.5 (x86_64)<br />gcc-3.4.6-3 (x86_64)<br />gcc-c++-3.4.6-3 (x86_64)<br />glibc-2.3.4-2.25 (x86_64)<br />glibc-2.3.4-2.25 (i686)<br />glibc-common-2.3.4-2.25 (x86_64)<br />glibc-devel-2.3.4-2.25 (x86_64)<br />glibc-devel-2.3.4-2.25 (i386)<br />gnome-libs-1.4.1.2.90-44.1 (x86_64)<br />libstdc++-3.4.6-3 (x86_64)<br />libstdc++-3.4.6-3 (i386)<br />libstdc++-devel-3.4.6-3 (i386)<br />make-3.80-6.EL4 (x86_64)<br />pdksh-5.2.14-30.3 (x86_64)<br />sysstat-5.0.5-11.rhel4 (x86_64)<br />xscreensaver-4.18-5.rhel4.11 (x86_64)<br />libaio-0.3.105-2 (i386)<br />libaio-0.3.105-2 (x86_64)<br />libaio-devel-0.3.105-2 (x86_64)</blockquote>I even made a sym link to shut it up too. It's probably naughty, but it worked!<br /><br /><blockquote>ln -s /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6.0.3 /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.5</blockquote><br />And that's what I had to do.<br /><br />So, Oracle went down another notch in my estimation today. It shouldn't be that hard. The whole "Linux is a constantly moving target" line doesn't wash for me. Oracle will only install on certain, certified distro's. They have made themselves a manageable environment, yet they still make it hard.mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-50718654109329174672007-01-31T13:01:00.000-06:002007-01-31T13:07:32.643-06:00US Daylight Saving Time 2007In North America, Daylight Saving Time is coming a few weeks early. You may need to update your computer to deal with it.<br /><br />If your Linux is up to date then it's probably ready. Best way of testing that I have found is:<br /><br /> <blockquote>zdump -v /etc/localtime | grep 2007</blockquote><br /><br />and the output should look like this:<br /><br /><blockquote>/etc/localtime Sun Mar 11 07:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Mar 11 01:59:59 2007 CST isdst=0 gmtoff=-21600<br />/etc/localtime Sun Mar 11 08:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Mar 11 03:00:00 2007 CDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-18000<br />/etc/localtime Sun Nov 4 06:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Nov 4 01:59:59 2007 CDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-18000<br />/etc/localtime Sun Nov 4 07:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Nov 4 01:00:00 2007 CST isdst=0 gmtoff=-21600</blockquote><br />If not, then I suggest that you go read <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=518752">this thread.</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><blockquote></blockquote><br /><blockquote></blockquote>mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-77528880330697424922007-01-23T16:30:00.000-06:002007-01-23T21:02:02.688-06:00Setting up Sun Rays on Solaris 10I am committing a bunch of notes to blog. Somebody, somewhere may find this useful, and they won't find it if it's locked away in my $HOME.<br /><br /> <ol><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Install Solaris 10</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Apply latest cluster patch</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Install latest PC/SC SRCOM Bypass package (available to download from the Sun download Center <a href="http://www.sun.com/download/products.xml?id=42c5d3d9">http://www.sun.com/download/products.xml?id=42c5d3d9</a> ). This was not obvious in the supplied installation documentation. This must be installed for smartcards and hot-desking to work. This is only required for Solaris 10.</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">download and unzip the latest Sun Ray Server Software from <a href="http://www.sun.com/software/sunray/getit.jsp">http://www.sun.com/software/sunray/getit.jsp</a></p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">run srss3.1/utinstall – this will install the software</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">reboot</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">connect up Sun Ray DTU's</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">It seems that if you only have one NIC on your server box then you can only do a shared network configuration. So run: /opt/SUNWut/sbin/utadm -A <ip></ip></p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The defaults values looked incomplete to me, so I suggest not accepting them. Instead, go through all the questions and answer them with the correct information.</p> </li></ol><pre><blockquote>bash-3.00# ./utadm -A bge0 Error: unable to resolve network name: "bge0"<br />bash-3.00# ./utadm -A 192.168.1.0<br />### Configuring /etc/nsswitch.conf<br />### Configuring Service information for Sun Ray<br />### Disabling Routing <br />Selected values for subnetwork "192.168.1.0"<br />net mask: 255.255.255.0<br />no IP addresses offered<br />auth server list: 192.168.1.10<br />firmware server: 192.168.1.10<br />Accept as is? ([Y]/N): n<br />netmask: 255.255.255.0 (cannot be changed - system defined netmask)<br />Do you want to offer IP addresses for this subnet? (Y/[N]): y<br />new first Sun Ray address: [192.168.1.245] 192.168.1.100<br />number of Sun Ray addresses to allocate: [155] 10<br />auth server list: 192.168.1.10<br />To read auth server list from file, enter file name:<br />Auth server IP address (enter <cr> to end list): 192.168.1.10<br />Auth server IP address (enter <cr> to end list):<br />If no server in the auth server list responds,<br />should an auth server be located by broadcasting on the network? ([Y]/N):<br />new firmware server: [192.168.1.10]<br />new router: [192.168.1.1]<br />Selected values for subnetwork "192.168.1.0"<br />net mask: 255.255.255.0<br />first unit address: 192.168.1.100<br />last unit address: 192.168.1.109<br />auth server list: 192.168.1.10<br />firmware server: 192.168.1.10<br />router: 192.168.1.1<br />Accept as is? ([Y]/N): y<br />### Configuring firmware version for Sun Ray<br />### Successfully enabled tftp for firmware downloads<br />All the units served by "demo" on the 192.168.1.0<br />network interface, running firmware other than version<br />"3.1_32,REV=2005.08.24.08.55" will be upgraded at their next power-on.<br />### Configuring Sun Ray Logging Functions<br />### Turning on Sun Ray LAN connection NOTE:<br />utrestart must be run before LAN connections will be allowed<br />DHCP is not currently running, should I start it? ([Y]/N): y</cr></cr></blockquote><cr><cr> </cr></cr></pre> <ol start="10"><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">run /opt/SUNWut/sbin/utconfig</p> </li></ol> <pre><blockquote>bash-3.00# ./utconfig Configuration of Sun Ray server Software<br />This script automates the configuration of the Sun Ray server software<br />and related software products.<br />Before proceeding, you should have read the Sun Ray server 3.1 Installation<br />Guide and filled out the Configuration Worksheet.<br />This script will prompt you for the values you filled out on the Worksheet.<br />For your convenience, default values (where applicable) are shown in brackets.<br />Continue ([y]/n)?<br />Enter Sun Ray admin password:<br />Re-enter Sun Ray admin password: </blockquote></pre> <ol start="11"><li><pre>This script will automatically set up apache as the admikn console for you.<br />If you are already using apache for something else, then answer no here.</pre></li></ol> <pre><blockquote>Configure Sun Ray Web Administration? ([y]/n)? y<br />An installation of Apache Web Server version 1.3 has been detected at /etc/apache.<br />This script can configure the Apache server on this server for you.<br />Warning: if you choose to configure Apache, the existing Apache configuration<br />file will be over-written.<br />If this server is presently configured as a Webserver and you want to preserve your<br />current configuration, you must answer "NO" and merge the configuration file manually<br />by following the instructions in the Administration Guide on how to configure the<br />Apache server.<br />Would you like to configure this server to host the Sun Ray Web Administration? ([y]/n)? y<br />Enter port number [1660]:<br />Enter CGI username [utwww]:<br />Enable remote server administration? (y/[n])? </blockquote></pre> <ol start="11"><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Controlled Access Mode is the Sun Ray term for kiosk mode. If you wish to use it, you must say yes here. If you say no and change your mind, then you need to come back and rerun utconfig. Same goes for failover groups.</p> </li></ol> <pre><blockquote>Configure Controlled Access Mode? (y/[n])? n<br />Configure this server for a failover group? (y/[n])? n<br />About to configure the following software products:<br />Sun Ray Data Store 2.1<br />Hostname: demo<br />Sun Ray root entry: o=utdata<br />Sun Ray root name: utdata<br />Sun Ray utdata admin password: (not shown)<br />SRDS 'rootdn': cn=admin,o=utdata<br />Apache Web Server 1.3<br />Apache Web Server port number: 1660<br />Remote server administration: no<br />CGI username: utwww Sun Ray server 3.1<br />Failover group: no<br />Controlled Access Mode: no<br />Continue ([y]/n)? y<br />Updating Sun Ray Data Store schema ...<br />Updating Sun Ray Data Store ACL's ...<br />Creating Sun Ray Data Store Datastore ...<br />Restarting Sun Ray Data Store ...<br />Starting Sun Ray Data Store daemon .<br />Mon Oct 16 15:23 : utdsd starting<br />Loading Sun Ray Data Store ...<br />Executing '/usr/bin/ldapadd -p 7012 -D cn=admin,o=utdata' ...<br />adding new entry o=utdata adding new entry o=v1,o=utdata<br />adding new entry utname=demo,o=v1,o=utdata<br />adding new entry utname=desktops,utname=demo,o=v1,o=utdata<br />adding new entry utname=users,utname=demo,o=v1,o=utdata<br />adding new entry utname=logicalTokens,utname=demo,o=v1,o=utdata<br />adding new entry utname=rawTokens,utname=demo,o=v1,o=utdata<br />adding new entry utname=multihead,utname=demo,o=v1,o=utdata<br />adding new entry utname=container,utname=demo,o=v1,o=utdata<br />adding new entry utname=properties,utname=demo,o=v1,o=utdata<br />adding new entry cn=utadmin,utname=demo,o=v1,o=utdata<br />adding new entry utname=smartCards,utname=demo,o=v1,o=utdata<br />adding new entry utordername=probeorder,utname=smartCards,utname=demo,o=v1,o=utdata<br />adding new entry utname=policy,utname=demo,o=v1,o=utdata<br />adding new entry utname=resDefs,utname=demo,o=v1,o=utdata<br />adding new entry utname=prefs,utname=demo,o=v1,o=utdata<br />adding new entry utPrefType=resolution,utname=prefs,utname=demo,o=v1,o=utdata<br />adding new entry utPrefClass=advisory,utPrefType=resolution,utname=prefs,utname=demo,o=v1,o=utdata<br />Added 18 new LDAP entries.<br />Creating Sun Ray server Configuration ...<br />Adding user account for 'utwww' (ut admin web server cgi user) ...<br />/usr/apache/bin/apachectl restart: httpd not running,<br />trying to start /usr/apache/bin/apachectl restart: httpd started<br />Unique "/etc/opt/SUNWut/gmSignature" has been generated.<br />Restarting Sun Ray Data Store ...<br />Stopping Sun Ray Data Store daemon .Sun Ray Data Store daemon stopped<br />Starting Sun Ray Data Store daemon .<br />Mon Oct 16 15:23 : utdsd starting<br />Adding user admin ...<br />User(s) added successfully!<br />***********************************************************<br />The current policy has been modified.<br />You must restart the authentication manager to activate the changes.<br />***********************************************************<br />Configuration of Sun Ray server has completed.<br />Please check the log file, /var/adm/log/utconfig.2006_10_16_15:16:55.log,<br />for errors.<br />bash-3.00# </blockquote></pre> <ol start="12"><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Synchronise the firmwares on the DTU's.</p> </li></ol> <pre><blockquote>bash-3.00# ./utfwsync<br />Stopping Authentication Managers on demo ...<br />Will restart Authentication Managers in 5 seconds<br />Restarting Authentication Managers ...<br />bash-3.00# </blockquote></pre> <ol start="13"><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Reboot the server</p> </li></ol> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><b>Other points of Note</b></u></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;"> If you need to change anything in utconfig, then you get a cleaner change by unconfiguring and then reconfiguring from scratch:</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;"></p><blockquote><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;"><br /></p> <pre>/opt/SUNWut/sbin/utconfig -u /opt/SUNWut/sbin/utconfig </pre></blockquote><pre> </pre>mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-63831733046328963272007-01-23T13:05:00.000-06:002007-01-23T15:10:28.328-06:00Setting up postfix with midco as a smarthostThis is specifically for Midcontinent's ISP, but it should work for any place where the smarthost requires authentication, and is picky about your mail headers.<br /><br />1. Install Postfix<br /><br />Installed by default on Ubuntu. On centos, I di the yum install postfix before I did the yum remove sendmail as it meant yum wouldnt try to remove a whole bunch of stuff where an MTA is a dependancy.<br /><br />2. Configure mail relaying<br /><br />add the following to /etc/postfix/main.cf<br /><br /><blockquote>relayhost = smtp.midco.net</blockquote><br /><br />Midco also require you to authenticate before it will receive mail. So you need to add the following. You also need to tell postfix a username and password - we'll see that later.<br /><br /><blockquote>smtp_sasl_auth_enable=yes<br />smtp_sasl_password_maps=hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd<br />smtp_sasl_security_options=<br /></blockquote><br />Next, midco rejects mail with a bad from address. So, you need to masqquerade all outgoing mail. Add this to /etc/postfix/main.cf:<br /><br /><blockquote>smtp_generic_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/generic</blockquote><br /><br />3. Edit /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd<br /><br />Put your midco mail username and password in here. Use the following format:<br /><blockquote>relayhost username:password</blockquote>so it should look something like this:<br /><br /><blockquote>smtp.midco.net your.mailbox@bis.midco.net:yourmailboxpassword</blockquote><br /><br />4. Edit /etc/postfix/generic<br /><br />Here you make a list of what you want to masquerade from and to. So, we want everything going out to look like it is part of the midco happy family. I solved this problem for a trixbox installation, so my file looked like this:<br /><br /><blockquote>@asterisk1.local my.mailbox@bis.midco.net</blockquote><br /><br />This tells postfix to replace anthing from the host asterisk1.local (which is the trixbox) with my midco email address. It may look confusing to the recipient, which is unfortunate. You may be able to mess with the bit before the @ sign, but the stuff after has to be a proper domain name.<br /><br />5. Make these files readable by postfix.<br /><br />You need to encode the files you have just created.<br /><br /><blockquote>postmap /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd<br />postmap /etc/postfix/generic<br /></blockquote>You should now see /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd.db and /etc/postfix/generic.db<br /><br />6. Secure your files.<br /><br />There are passwords in plaintext, so lets secure them.<br /><br /><blockquote>chown root:root /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd<br />chmod 600 /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd</blockquote><br /><br />7. Restart Postfix and test.<br /><br /><blockquote>/etc/init.d/postfix restart<br /></blockquote><br />Now send an email somewhere. Watch the logs in /var/log/maillog. All being well, the mail should sail on through the mail system.mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-47316507902605058852007-01-20T21:29:00.001-06:002007-01-20T21:29:13.064-06:00Winter Sun<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-potter/364092213/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/152/364092213_50a263aa0f.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-potter/364092213/">IMG_2974</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/mr-potter/">mr-potter</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> It was quite warm today. The temperature reached the high 30's F (about 4C), which compared to -15F (-26C) at the beginning of the week, it felt pretty warm.<br /><br />So, while the weather was balmy, we went barmy, and played outside. We had doors and windows open and aired the house out. <br /><br />So here we are, sitting on deck chairs in the sunshine, with a snow drift behind us. Talk about crazy. Although, do bear in mind that if we were real North Dakotans, we would be sitting out there in short sleeves.</p>mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380869.post-1167367007582063312006-12-28T22:21:00.000-06:002006-12-28T22:36:47.593-06:00IT would be fun to be a train driver in BismarckOne of the curious things about Bismarck is that there is a train track that goes right through the centre of it. That in itself is not unusual. This track however crosses some of the main thoroughfares of Bismarck. Some are bridges, but there are many level crossings too.<br /><br />The trains come through in a sporadic, yet steady stream all day and night. Every time they cross a bridge, or a road they hoot their horn. I bet the drivers derive great satisfaction at driving a train through town in the middle of the night hooting their horn for all they are worth.<br /><br />It seems like the biggest impediment to the smooth flow of traffic in Bismarck is not cars, but trains. These trains are pretty long. I think 100 trucks is not unusual. So, when they come through town during a busy time, then they can stop traffic downtown for a good 5 minutes.<br /><br />There was once, on my way home from work when a train crossed one of the main roads and then stopped with the train still blocking the road. They then fooled around for a few minutes doing I don't know what, then they very slowly reversed the train bac the way it came.<br /><br />Holding up traffic while you shunt - that has to make the job a whole lot more fun.mr-potterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16592675414839381349noreply@blogger.com0