Archive for the 'Linux' Category

So Bored With Computing… I Built My Own Web Server

Published on October 5, 2007 in Computers, Hacks and Linux. 0 Comments

Wow! My first post using Wordpress 2.3!

Anyway…

Besides doing the automated install of Wordpress 2.3, my computing life has been pretty boring. I have no new gadgets to keep me busy and no cool programs to toy with. All I’ve been doing with my computer is the normal web surfing, iTunes listening, and working at odd hours (thanks to Parallels running Windows XP on my Mac).

But I have this old computer and my very powerful PC that I built by myself. Well, with the help of my friend. It just sits there, though. Unpowered and unused. Until last weekend…

Or maybe it was two weekends ago…. well, anyway…

I took my desktop Ubuntu build and wiped it clean. I was still on 6.10 since I got my Mac mini in December-ish of last year. Plus, I have 7.04 on my IBM laptop so I hadn’t been using it in a long time. I installed Ubuntu 7.04 Server on it and started to set up a website. But not just a website, Wordpress!

Man, the folks who are behind Ubuntu are great. Canonical has done such a great job with Ubuntu; Linux wouldn’t be what it is today without it. All I had to do to get my webserver up and running was type the following line of code:

sudo apt-get install wordpress

That’s it!

Well, to be honest, there was more to it. I did have to figure out how to configure a few things here and there to get the install working the way I wanted but it wasn’t more than a few lines of code in a text editor. I didn’t even need to actually use the computer in the typical sense. I installed OpenSSH before I started the whole process so I used the terminal app built into OS X to do everything.

So now, if you go to my internal address of 192.168.1.106, you get to see my Wordpress 2.3 blog. Next week, I’m going to try and build a firewall/router out of the other computer using Linux, natch. I’ll create some route statements to direct web traffic to the web server and open it up to the internet.

So, like I said, I’m bored with my computers. Bored enough to build my own web LAMP server and future firewall.

Yawn…

Inspired to Backup

Published on April 11, 2007 in Apple, Computers, Hacks and Linux. 0 Comments

Over the weekend, I managed to backup my entire music directory to my hosting provider, DreamHost.  I was inspired by Michael Lee’s aptly titled article on How to Backup Your Mac to a DreamHost Server and while I didn’t do all the technical coding work, I managed back up my music files nonetheless.  If you have a Mac, using rsync might be a good way for you to go – especially if you have a 479GB of on-line storage like I do with DreamHost.

It took all weekend to upload 40GB worth of songs so if you have a large collection like I do, this is not for the faint at heart or those with a slow connection.  I have a great high-speed connection and get 30Mbits down and 5Mbits up.  So at roughly 450kb/s, well, you do the math.  Like Michael’s article suggests, I used iCal to schedule my daily backups.  But unlike Mike (if I can call him that), I use my FTP program and created Automator work flows to handle the file transfers.  I created a work flow application that iCal runs every night at 2:30am that checks for the latest version of the files in my music directory and if it finds any changes, it writes over the older version – wherever it may be.

Eventually, I’ll have separate jobs to take care of my other data but I’ll have those jobs run every other night since syncing the music can take up to 20 minutes or so.  I’ve got my photos on a dedicated photo site that I host so that takes care of my pictures.  Though, I might automatically upload new photos to the import directory of the Gallery2 site to make things easy but that’s not necessary.  I’ll also set something similar up for my wife who has no backup of her data.  In fact, neither of us had anything before this.

I thought I’d build a file server like I did when I was the CTO of the small company I used to work for.  And while I would still love to do that, its not very cost effective.  Plus, it would be noisy and big – it wouldn’t go with the new Mac based office I’ve created since I picked up the Mini.  Hiding the server (it would have to be a rack mounted array… it has to be) would be tough since we don’t have a lot of closet space in our condo.  And it would still generate a lot of heat and use a lot of electricity we don’t want to waste.

But back to the automation I did…

I was inspired to try the automated backup program that Michael Lee wrote about.  And now, finally, I feel that I can sleep at night knowing that my files are safer.  I’m also inspired to see what else I can do with Automator, iCal, and rsync.  Anyone have a good work flow they care to share?

Running in Parallels

Published on March 3, 2007 in Apple, Computers and Linux. 0 Comments

When I heard the announcement that Parallels had released another (and final) version of their OS virtualization software, I decided to give it a try.  The way I figure, the $80 or so it costs will pale in comparison to the headache I would feel if I got rid of my PC.  Now I don’t plan on getting rid of my PC but if I do, its good to know that I can do so without missing the essential apps I have used for years.  The money is also worth it for me to “play” with new or beta OSs without having to damage my XP or my Ubuntu partitions.  In fact, after I get done with creating an Ubuntu image, I’m going to install another one but this time the server LAMP version.

So far, I love it! XP installed without a problem (which I can’t say happened on my real PC) and the Ubuntu install is going smoothly.  If I get things to work well, I’ll install Parallels on my wife’s computer, too, so she can use XP.  Of course, for me to do that, I need to uninstall my XP (don’t want to get in trouble with the Windows Gestapo Association).

Re-Install Log

Published on October 26, 2006 in Computers and Linux. 0 Comments

Ok… I’m chronicling my re-install effrorts because it isn’t going as smoothly as I would want it to.

9:59: Re-install attempt number two is, so far, going well after the first attempt failed. For some reason, the partitioner couldn’t install the OS after it changed the partitions. A reboot seemed to help.

10:17: HD install complete.  Now I’m re-installing the fglrx drivers so I can run xorg.

Eft’ing Sucks!

Published on October 26, 2006 in Computers and Linux. 0 Comments

I tried to upgrade my Ubuntu computer to the latest Edgy Eft and man was that a bad idea. First, I tried to install the server so my wife could learn PHP and toy with AJAX. The install went smooth but when I was done and rebooted… Nothing. Just some error 15. With my normal partition destroyed, I tried to install Edgy with the install CD made from the ISO image I downloaded.

That sucked even more. Not only did it not work… it couldn’t even boot into the install menu; at least Dapper Drake was able to boot into the menu. Granted, I have an ATI video card which I know sucks for Linux and Ubuntu in particular but man…. don’t go backwards with an upgrade. I also know that 6.06 is an LTS build and Edgy isn’t but I don’t know if that should matter either.

So now I have to reinstall 6.06.1 LTS and either try and upgrade using apt-get or just live with 6.06 forever (or at least I get a new video card). Man… this is not what I wanted to do tonight.

Update: Apparently, lots of people are having problems with the Edgy upgrade.

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