The Linux Questions Thread: a bunch of pitfalls, but technically it's possible

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Linux Questions Thread: a bunch of pitfalls, but technically it's possible

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fletcher: Jun 27, 2003; ken park is my favorite movie; Cybernetic Crumb

Alowishus posted:

Best approach would be to upgrade to Fedora 8, which will get you to 5.2.4... and Fedora 6 isn't supported any more anyhow.

If you don't want to do that, you could try simply installing the PHP packages from Fedora 8. If those won't install due to dependencies, you could try grabbing the source RPM from Fedora 8 and rebuilding it (rpmbuild --rebuild) to see if that process generates FC6 installable packages.

If that doesn't work, check around some of the web hosting boards... there may very well be some folks maintaining PHP 5.2.x packages for older Fedora systems, as this is frequently an issue with webhosts who don't want to keep doing OS upgrades.

And last, if all else fails, take out the Fedora PHP RPMs altogether and just build your PHP of choice from source.

Unfortunately Godaddy only offers Fedora Core 7 as of now. I really only wanted it for json_encode and json_decode, which I found out can be used on my current version after a simple "pecl install json" command. Hooray!

# ? Jan 31, 2008 07:22

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 06:56

covener: Jan 10, 2004; You know, for kids!

toadee posted:

I moved on to another project, installed Squid and set up web SSH tunneling so I can browse unsnooped from work, and now I can magically start jackd in realtime mode as myself. I don't get it either, but I'm also not complaining.

these things are only sourced when you do a new login, a new "login shell" isn't enough. If you're in an X session, you need a new X session.

# ? Jan 31, 2008 13:14

other people: Jun 27, 2004; Associate Christ

I just installed ubuntu for the first time (the xfce version) on an old thinkpad. I am not used to using a distro that has control panels for system administration, I have always used gentoo.

I would like to mount some nfs shares. I know I can just edit /etc/fstab, but is there a fancier way to do it with ubuntu? Like how you "open location" with the Finder in OS X or something? I don't see any sort of volume manager anywhere.

Am I losing out on some of the fancy config options because I am using xfce instead of gnome? The last time I tried to use gnome on this laptop it was painfully slow. Xfce on here is actually quite usable and it is what I have always used anyway.

# ? Feb 1, 2008 11:04

nbv4: Aug 21, 2002; by Duchess Gummybuns

I have the following script sitting mu my /etc/cron.daily folder:

code:

#!/bin/sh

exec ncftpput -R -u nbv4 -p PASSWPRD site.com /project /var/www/project

It basically just uploads the contents of this PHP project I'm working on each day for backup purposes as well as remote testing purposes. It works wonderfully, but theres one problem. I have one file that contains a lot of local-specific data such as mysql database names, usernames/passwords and such that only correspond to my local machine. I want the upload to exclude that one single, so I can replace it with one that applies to my server's setup. How can I do this? I don't think ncftp has an exclude feature, or at least it's not obvious to me...

# ? Feb 2, 2008 01:45

There Will Be Penalty: May 18, 2002; Makes a great pet!

nbv4 posted:

I have one file that contains a lot of local-specific data such as mysql database names, usernames/passwords and such that only correspond to my local machine. I want the upload to exclude that one single, so I can replace it with one that applies to my server's setup. How can I do this? I don't think ncftp has an exclude feature, or at least it's not obvious to me...

Install lftp and write a script for it. It has a mirror command that has an exclude option.

# ? Feb 3, 2008 01:39

nbv4: Aug 21, 2002; by Duchess Gummybuns

There Will Be Penalty posted:

Install lftp and write a script for it. It has a mirror command that has an exclude option.

I forgot to mention that lftp for some strange reason is not compatible with my ftp server. When I try to get a directory listing, it gets stuck on

code:

`ls' at 0 [Making data connection...]

I tried everything, I can connect to other ftp servers without a problem, just not mine. The only solution was to use another ftp program. Are there any other ftp "cli"ents that have an exclude feature?

nbv4 fucked around with this message at 02:15 on Feb 3, 2008

# ? Feb 3, 2008 02:09

Popcorn Sutton: Oct 25, 2007; by The Finn

Question about Shells and Groups.

I have openssh server installed on my kubuntu 7.10 box, and I have a few friends whom I gave a few accounts on the box, for whatever, we all have accounts on everybody else's box.

But I was wondering about somehow controlling their rights. I don't want them to be able to leave their home folder. They obviously can't do much as a normal user anyways, but how would I restrict them to their home folder so they can't browse around elsewhere.

I've seen it done on other shells but I don't know how to do it myself, and I'm unfortunately more familiar with Windows Group Policy and such, so I really don't know where to start.

# ? Feb 3, 2008 02:17

30 TO 50 FERAL HOG: Mar 2, 2005

Ok, so my old Fedora Cora 5 install got nuked (which is good I guess, as now I have to upgrade). The problem is I had a Raid-5 array.

code:

mdadm --examine --brief --scan --config=partitions

gives

code:

ARRAY /dev/md0 level=raid5 num-devices=4 uuid=STUFF

How do I get my array working again?

Also, for some reason I can't do poo poo like

code:

mdadm

instead I have to

code:

cd /sbin
./mdadm

What the gently caress?

# ? Feb 3, 2008 02:22

Slow is Fast: Dec 25, 2006

I go to a college that uses Cisco Clean Access to log in to the schools network. Windows they force you to download CCA Agent to make sure you have no viruses and that your up to date. With linux and (OSX) they make you log in through a web page. If I have a headless rig set up that only is CLI, how would I sign into the network to verify my user credentials if I don't have a graphical web browser?

# ? Feb 3, 2008 05:51

JoeNotCharles: Mar 3, 2005; Yet beyond each tree there are only more trees.

BiohazrD posted:

Also, for some reason I can't do poo poo like
code:
mdadm
instead I have to
code:
cd /sbin
./mdadm
What the gently caress?

First of all, you can just do "/sbin/mdadm". Secondly, check your PATH environment variable ("echo $PATH") - it probably has /bin but not /sbin in it. That's because /sbin is for system tools that most users don't need to use every day, so it's not in the default PATH.

# ? Feb 3, 2008 06:01

nbv4: Aug 21, 2002; by Duchess Gummybuns

Slow is Fast posted:

I go to a college that uses Cisco Clean Access to log in to the schools network. Windows they force you to download CCA Agent to make sure you have no viruses and that your up to date. With linux and (OSX) they make you log in through a web page. If I have a headless rig set up that only is CLI, how would I sign into the network to verify my user credentials if I don't have a graphical web browser?

use a command line browser like Lynx

# ? Feb 3, 2008 06:05

waffle iron: Jan 16, 2004

Slow is Fast posted:

I go to a college that uses Cisco Clean Access to log in to the schools network. Windows they force you to download CCA Agent to make sure you have no viruses and that your up to date. With linux and (OSX) they make you log in through a web page. If I have a headless rig set up that only is CLI, how would I sign into the network to verify my user credentials if I don't have a graphical web browser?

If links doesn't work, there are two methods:
1. Use ssh -D PORTNUMBER to set that port as a socks4/5 tunnel and then set it up as a proxy on your desktops browser.
2. Install firefox on the server and ssh over with X forwarding enabled with a X server on your desktop.

# ? Feb 3, 2008 06:07

Vulture Culture: Jul 14, 2003; I was never enjoying it. I only eat it for the nutrients.

nbv4 posted:

I forgot to mention that lftp for some strange reason is not compatible with my ftp server. When I try to get a directory listing, it gets stuck on
code:
`ls' at 0 [Making data connection...]
I tried everything, I can connect to other ftp servers without a problem, just not mine. The only solution was to use another ftp program. Are there any other ftp "cli"ents that have an exclude feature?

You're trying to use ftp PORT mode, but you have a firewall (likely just a NAT router) sitting in front of your PC. Use passive mode instead.

# ? Feb 3, 2008 06:12

30 TO 50 FERAL HOG: Mar 2, 2005

JoeNotCharles posted:

First of all, you can just do "/sbin/mdadm". Secondly, check your PATH environment variable ("echo $PATH") - it probably has /bin but not /sbin in it. That's because /sbin is for system tools that most users don't need to use every day, so it's not in the default PATH.

Cool.

As for the array, I actually just

code:

mdadm --examine --brief --scan --config=partitions > /etc/mdadm.conf

took ownership, and then updated fstab. Works great

# ? Feb 3, 2008 06:28

nbv4: Aug 21, 2002; by Duchess Gummybuns

Mr. Heavy posted:

You're trying to use ftp PORT mode, but you have a firewall (likely just a NAT router) sitting in front of your PC. Use passive mode instead.

I'm 100% sure its an incompatability with lftp and my webhost's FTP. Like I said earlier, I can log in perfectly fine to any other FTP using lftp, I can even log in perfectly to my webhost with gFTP, Filezilla, ncftp, etc. Just not my FTP and lftp. Anyways, I tried messing with port and passive modes but nothing changed.

# ? Feb 3, 2008 07:11

Peanutmonger: Dec 6, 2002

JoeNotCharles posted:

First of all, you can just do "/sbin/mdadm". Secondly, check your PATH environment variable ("echo $PATH") - it probably has /bin but not /sbin in it. That's because /sbin is for system tools that most users don't need to use every day, so it's not in the default PATH.

I hope he's not doing his RAID work as a non-root user. And if he is root, it sounds like he's not su'ing properly, since I would expect any decent /etc/profile these days to set up the correct PATHs for root.

BiohazrD, are you using `su`? And if so, are you adding the dash, as in `su -`? Without the dash, the environment stays the same as your calling shell, and thus your PATH doesn't include sbin. If you have a dash, it acts as though you logged in as root, and you get the correct PATH, etc. I can't think of any instances where you wouldn't want to use the dash.

# ? Feb 3, 2008 10:10

marburg: Mar 4, 2006; We're evil men in the gardens of paradise, sent by the forces of death to spread devastation and destruction wherever we go. I'm surprised you didn't know that.

A GOOD POSTER posted:

I don't want them to be able to leave their home folder.

Depending on your version of opensshd, you can likely set it to chroot users to their home dir when they ssh in. This doc is probably what you're looking for: http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/securing-debian-howto/ap-chroot-ssh-env.en.html

If that's not helpful, googling "openssh chroot" will probably find you what you're after.

# ? Feb 4, 2008 03:02

GringoGrande: Jul 27, 2001; Nah...

I have this old laptop that I'm trying to coax into doing some tv-out for me. After some research it seems like the gfx card (ATI Radeon Mobility M6 LY) is <9500 and therefor not supported by fglrx, so I'm forced to use the open source drivers. Problem is that I can't seem to get PAL to work. NTSC works but it's only B/W. Am I poo poo out of luck or does anyone know of some patch I could use?
Using Arch, Xorg 1.4.9.90, xf86-video-ati 6.7.197.

# ? Feb 4, 2008 09:05

nullfunction: Jan 24, 2005; Nap Ghost

I just got a shiny new Dell R200, and I'm making my first REAL foray into Linux networking by trying to set it up to act as our company's gateway to the internet. It's replacing a Linksys RV042 VPN router, connected to a bonded dual T-1 line.

Our branch office has another RV042, and they are connected together using a VPN link, so that our remote office always appears to be on the same network as the local office. I want the Linux box to take over the VPN function of the router, as well as doing caching, proxying, and just generally being the gateway to the Internet.

I _think_ I have NAT correctly configured, but I won't have a chance to test it until everyone leaves for the day, so that my users don't get pissed at me for "killing their email."

Either way, I need to figure out how to accept that VPN link from the branch office. I've done some searching, and found that there's several types of VPN links, such as PPP and IPSec. The RV042 tells me it is doing an IPSec VPN, so what would I need to install and configure to let the VPN through? Is this something that can be done through some iptables magic, or do I need a separate module?

Our current configuration is:

Local office computers get an IP in the range 192.168.11.x
Remote office computers get an IP in the range 192.168.13.x

From what I can tell, the VPN link creates a virtual adapter (?) and I need to create a route that sends all packets with a destination of 192.168.13.x to this virtual adapter?

My routing table as of right now looks like:

code:

Destination      Gateway      Genmask          Flags   Iface
255.255.255.255  *            255.255.255.255  UH      eth1
192.168.11.0     *            255.255.255.0    U       eth1
69.53.65.0       *            255.255.255.0    U       eth0
127.0.0.1        *            255.0.0.0        U       lo
default          69.53.65.89 0.0.0.0          UG      eth0

Where eth0 will be connected to the T-1 and eth1 goes to our local switch.

Someone help me! I'm still trying to learn this stuff as I go, and it's not easy.

# ? Feb 4, 2008 21:12

iamstinky: Feb 4, 2004; This is not as easy as it looks.

Does anyone know of a linux app that will allow me to convert saved .msg files (Outlook emails) to HTML or PDF? It doesn't have to be free either.

# ? Feb 4, 2008 21:52

chizad: Jul 9, 2001; 'Cus we find ourselves in the same old mess
Singin' drunken lullabies

iamstinky posted:

Does anyone know of a linux app that will allow me to convert saved .msg files (Outlook emails) to HTML or PDF? It doesn't have to be free either.

If you don't mind the command line, google turned up this perl script.

# ? Feb 4, 2008 22:29

fatcat: Jun 18, 2004; albert's lookin at you

I have lost the ability to right click on my desktop. Right clicking works as normal everywhere else, but does nothing on the desktop. I'm not really a newbie, but I don't have any idea where to begin attempting to fix this.

Ubuntu 7.10 X86-64
NVIDIA proprietary driver
Pretty much stock other than that

edit: nevermind, figured it out. nautilus wasn't started.

fatcat fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Feb 5, 2008

# ? Feb 5, 2008 03:23

Twlight: Feb 18, 2005; I brag about getting free drinks from my boss to make myself feel superior; Fun Shoe

hey everyone,

I'm having a hell of a time trying to figure out Parameter expansion. What I'm trying to do is check filename patterns with substitution parameter expansion. However, I cant quite figure out how to take the array of file names I have and the parameter i want to check and make sense of it

It's quite vexing. thanks!

# ? Feb 5, 2008 06:03

DirtyDiaperMask: Aug 11, 2003; by Ozmaugh

I found out about XBMC for Linux and I'm trying to get it to replace my MythTV frontend, since it's slow, ugly and I can't record anything anymore anyway (TWC scrambles everything...assholes). I use Mythbuntu, and it runs mythfrontend with an X server (no Gnome/KDE) and I'm hoping someone here has had some experience running XBMC Linux with a pvr-150 remote control. Lirc is already running, but all my keypresses go to mythtv, which I can't figure out how to kill completely since killing it restarts gdm, and loads MythTV again. Also, getting it to work with a Wiimote is a bigger pain in the rear end than it sounds.

# ? Feb 5, 2008 17:00

Popcorn Sutton: Oct 25, 2007; by The Finn

marburg posted:

Depending on your version of opensshd, you can likely set it to chroot users to their home dir when they ssh in. This doc is probably what you're looking for: http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/securing-debian-howto/ap-chroot-ssh-env.en.html

If that's not helpful, googling "openssh chroot" will probably find you what you're after.

Thanks!
Wow this looks like I'm in a bit more over my head than I thought. I'll take a look at it later.

# ? Feb 5, 2008 18:49

Alowishus: Jan 8, 2002; My name is Mud

DirtyDiaperMask posted:

...which I can't figure out how to kill completely since killing it restarts gdm, and loads MythTV again.

code:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

# ? Feb 5, 2008 19:34

Harokey: Jun 12, 2003; Memory is RAM! Oh dear!

I have an Nvidia Card that is hooked up to a TV. Right now I have the TV hooked up as a second monitor with twinview. However, I would prefer it to just display any video on the monitor, and not be able to put anything else on it. (Right now I can drag windows over to the TV, which I don't really want to do.) To watch videos I use VLC that creates a second video in a window, which i just maximize on the TV monitor.

Is there any way to just have the video mirror onto my TV without having the TV set up as a second monitor that takes up desktop space? This is the way my Laptop works in Windows.

# ? Feb 6, 2008 07:25

hey mom its 420: May 12, 2007

Yes I have a question. I'm currently developing an application and I've noticed that when I want to start working on it, I usually set up my environment by doing the following:

Open up gvim, cd to /home/username/some/dir/subdir and place it on my left monitor
Open up two eterms and place one on the left side of my right monitor and then I place one on the right side of my right monitor
I cd to /home/username/some/dir/ on both of them
I run screen on both of them and then do Ctrl+A S, Ctrl+A c on both of them which splits each of the two terminals into two parts, effectively giving me four terminals.
I run a command to pull changes from a remote hg repository and update my working directory

Now I'm wondering how I could automate this process as much as possible? I probably won't be able to do all this with one click but it's kind of tedious to do everytime I boot up the computer and want to start writing some code.

I'm running Ubuntu 7.04 with gnome.

# ? Feb 7, 2008 02:55

DirtyDiaperMask: Aug 11, 2003; by Ozmaugh

Alowishus posted:

code:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

Well that's the easy part. I don't know how to start XBMC Linux without Gnome/KDE/Openbox/whatever

I Have some free time later today so I'll try to sort it out then.

# ? Feb 7, 2008 12:45

tripwire: Nov 19, 2004; _{ghost flow}

I'm currently using notepad++ (which I am addicted to) through wine as my primary text editor in Ubuntu. I have a problem with the way compiz manages its window though; If I specify that wine should run the program unattached to the window manager I don't get the nice smooth animations and resizing/taskbar functionality. However, when I do run it through the window manager, it makes the size of the window HUGE (like maybe 2000x1400 px) and I have to resize it. Worse, it forgets the size of the window each time I close it so whenever I want to read a text file I have a gigantic window pop up and I have to slowly resize it.

Can anyone give me any ideas how I could fix that?

# ? Feb 7, 2008 22:35

fletcher: Jun 27, 2003; ken park is my favorite movie; Cybernetic Crumb

Can you rsync multiple directories with one call?

# ? Feb 8, 2008 19:42

crab avatar: Mar 15, 2006; iÅ§ KÃ«3Å, cÄ§ gÃ¸Ã i- <Ecl8

fletcher posted:

Can you rsync multiple directories with one call?

Just list them as arguments one after the other. (Needless to say, the last path will be the destination.)

# ? Feb 8, 2008 22:01

ian: Aug 12, 2003

My notebook running Ubuntu keeps shutting down due to overheating.

Anyone have a recommendation for a docking station that will work in Linux to fan the laptop? thank you.

# ? Feb 8, 2008 22:47

LifeForce: Jan 5, 2006

I am completely new to Linux and I am considering trying it out for the first time. As a gamer I know that, I am probably SOL for most things, but as a workstation for papers, web browsing, chatting, music, what should I expect?

I am kind of getting sick of Windows XP and I can't really stand Vista much either at the moment, and I kind of want something I can log into that doesn't immediately suck up my resources and be able to just chill.

I mean I see a lot of things scattered along the net and especially in threads here, but really for the home desktop users, what benefits would using Linux/Ubuntu bring, and what would its downsides be?

EDIT: Well I have begun to try out Ubuntu on my system. I am dual booting. Things seem ok so far, but two things are irritating me. 1) How do I get sound? Creative only has 64 bit linux drivers for my X-Fi card. 2) The whole thing feels really sluggish, much more than it probably should considering how much I hear about it being lite and speedy. I installed the nvidia drivers through system, but my windows tear, scrolling is sluggish. Its just blah.

LifeForce fucked around with this message at 08:45 on Feb 9, 2008

# ? Feb 9, 2008 04:04

Combat Pretzel: Jun 23, 2004; No, seriously... what kurds?!

--edit: ^^^ Open Sound System has some limited playback functionality on their latest build. Creative however seems to fold finally and is releasing the technical documents to the X-Fi. That's how OSS even got as far as implementing this.

Anyone with experience in running BIND9?

I've set it up as caching nameserver on my system, it even works. What's annoying me though is that it loses the contents of its cache on service restart (that obviously includes reboot and shutdown). Is there a way to have a persistent cache, i.e. storing known results on disk?

The main issue is that Firefox seems to require quite some time resolving things, though I've disabled IPv6 in about:config and also stripped the IPv6 addresses from named.root. nslookup seems to resolve way faster. But once the common addresses are resolved and cached, Firefox works rather zippy, even if I restart it.

Combat Pretzel fucked around with this message at 13:48 on Feb 9, 2008

# ? Feb 9, 2008 13:40

do it: Jan 3, 2006; don't tell me words don't matter!

For some reason, when I ssh into my server, I can't use backspace in apps like nano, pico, or even vim. Backspace does work at the command line though. Any ideas?

# ? Feb 9, 2008 20:47

Harokey: Jun 12, 2003; Memory is RAM! Oh dear!

do it posted:

For some reason, when I ssh into my server, I can't use backspace in apps like nano, pico, or even vim. Backspace does work at the command line though. Any ideas?

Look through this:

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-244168.html

# ? Feb 10, 2008 02:05

Harokey: Jun 12, 2003; Memory is RAM! Oh dear!

Harokey posted:

I have an Nvidia Card that is hooked up to a TV. Right now I have the TV hooked up as a second monitor with twinview. However, I would prefer it to just display any video on the monitor, and not be able to put anything else on it. (Right now I can drag windows over to the TV, which I don't really want to do.) To watch videos I use VLC that creates a second video in a window, which i just maximize on the TV monitor.

Is there any way to just have the video mirror onto my TV without having the TV set up as a second monitor that takes up desktop space? This is the way my Laptop works in Windows.

anyone have any ideas here?

# ? Feb 10, 2008 02:06

Police Academy 6: Jul 12, 2006

really short + stupid question:

in gnome (specifically ubuntu), how do i get rid of the icons next to the text in buttons? i would rather have it be like windows or os x, where it's just the text, but i don't know how to do that.

# ? Feb 11, 2008 03:38

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 06:56

tehk: Mar 10, 2006; [-4] Flaw: Heart Broken - Tehk is extremely lonely. The Gay Empire's ultimate weapon finds it hard to have time for love.

Police Academy 6 posted:

really short + stupid question:

in gnome (specifically ubuntu), how do i get rid of the icons next to the text in buttons? i would rather have it be like windows or os x, where it's just the text, but i don't know how to do that.

Use your favorite editor to open '~/.gtkrc-2.0' and add 'gtk-button-images=0' to the file. Now I think this only works with stock buttons/icons but they make up 90%+ of the buttons. There is a GUI way also but it requires one of the user friendly gconf front ends like [gnome/ubuntu]tweak.

edit:If you want root applications to honor this you will have to modify the root gtkrc-2.0

tehk fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Feb 11, 2008

# ? Feb 11, 2008 04:57

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Linux Questions Thread: a bunch of pitfalls, but technically it's possible

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