Posts Tagged ‘completion’

Howto Upgrade IBM Spectrum Protect Backup Client TSM 7.X to 8.1.8, Update Tivoli 8.1.8 to 8.1.11 on CentOS and Redhat Linux

Thursday, December 3rd, 2020

 

IBM-spectrum-protect-backup-logo-tivoli-tsm-logo

Having another day of a system administrator boredom, we had a task to upgrade some Tivoli TSM Backup clients running on a 20+ machines powered by CentOS and RHEL Linux to prepare the systems to be on the latest patched IBM Spectrum Backup client version available from IBM. For the task of patching I've used a central server where, I've initially downloaded the provided TSM client binaries archives. From this machine, we have copied TivSM*.tar to each and every system that needs to be patched and then patched. The task is not too complex as the running TSM in the machines are all at the same version and all running a recent patched version of Linux. Hence to make sure all works as expected we have tested TSM is upgraded from 7.X.X to 8.X.X on one machine and then test 8.1.8 to 8.1.11 upgrade on another one. Once having confirmed that Backups works as expected after upgrade. We have proceeded to do it massively on each of the rest 20+ hosts.
Below article's goal is to help some lazy sysadmin with the task to prepare an TSM Backup upgrade procedure to standartize TSM Upgrade, which as many of the IBM's softwares is very specific and its upgrade requires, a bit of manual work and extra cautious as there seems to be no easy way (or at least I don't know it), to do the upgrade by simply adding an RPM repository and doing, something like yum install tivsm*.


0. Check if there is at least 2G free of space

According to documentation the minimum space you need to a functional install without having it half installed or filling up your filesystem is 2 Gigabytes of Free Memory on a filesystem where the .tar and rpms will be living.

Thus check what is the situation with your filesystem where you wills store the .tar archice and extract .RPM files / install the RPM files.

# df -h

1. Download the correct tarball with 8.1 Client

On one central machine you would need to download the Tivoli you can do that via wget / curl / lynx whatever is at hand on the Linux server.

As of time of writting this article TSM's 8.1.11 location is at
URL:

http://public.dhe.ibm.com/storage/tivoli-storage-management/maintenance/client/v8r1/Linux/LinuxX86/BA/v8111/

I've made a local download mirror of Tivoli TSM 8.1.11 here.
In case you need to install IBM Spectrum Backup Client to a PCI secured environment to a DMZ-ed LAN network from a work PC you can Download it first from your local PC and via Citrix client upload program or WinSCP upload it to a central replication host from where you will later copy to each of the other server nodes that needs to be upgraded.

Lets Copy archive to all Server hosts where you want it later installed, using a small hack

Assuming you already have an Excel document or a Plain text document with all the IPs of the affected hosts where you will need to get TSM upgraded. Extract this data and from it create a plain text file /home/user/hosts.txt containing all the machine IPs lined up separated with carriage return separations (\n), so you can loop over each one and use scp to send the files.

– Replicate Tivoli tar to all machine hosts where you want to get IBM Spectrum installed or upgraded.
Do it with a loop like this:

# for i in $(cat hosts.txt); do scp 8.1.11.0-TIV-TSMBAC-LinuxX86.tar user@$i:/home/user/; done

 Copy to a Copy buffer temporary your server password assuming all your passwords to each machine are identical and paste your login user pass for each host to initiate transfer
 

2. SSH to each of the Machine hosts IPs

Once you login to the host you want to upgrade
Go to your user $HOME /home/user and create files where we'll temporary store Tivoli archive files and extract RPMs

[root@linux-server user]# mkdir -p ~/tsm/TSM_BCK/
[root@linux-server user]# mv 8.1.11.0-TIV-TSMBAC-LinuxX86.tar ~/tsm
[root@linux-server user]# cd tsm
[root@linux-server user]# tar -xvvf 8.1.11.0-TIV-TSMBAC-LinuxX86.tar
gskcrypt64-8.0.55.17.linux.x86_64.rpm
GSKit.pub.pgp
gskssl64-8.0.55.17.linux.x86_64.rpm
README_api.htm
README.htm
RPM-GPG-KEY-ibmpkg
TIVsm-API64.x86_64.rpm
TIVsm-APIcit.x86_64.rpm
TIVsm-BAcit.x86_64.rpm
TIVsm-BAhdw.x86_64.rpm
TIVsm-BA.x86_64.rpm
TIVsm-filepath-source.tar.gz
TIVsm-JBB.x86_64.rpm
TIVsm-WEBGUI.x86_64.rpm
update.txt

3. Create backup of old backup files

It is always a good idea to keep old backup files

[root@linux-server tsm]# cp -av /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/dsm.opt ~/tsm/TSM_BCK/dsm.opt_bak_$(date +'%Y_%M_%H')
[root@linux-server tsm]# cp -av /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/dsm.sys ~/tsm/TSM_BCK/dsm.sys_bak_$(date +'%Y_%M_%H')

[root@linux-server tsm]# [[ -f /etc/adsm/TSM.PWD ]] && cp -av /etc/adsm/TSM.PWD ~/TSM_BCK/ || echo 'file doesnt exist'

/etc/adsm/TSM.PWD this file is only there as legacy for TSM it contained encrypted passwords inver 7 for updates. In TSM v.8 encryption file is not there as new mechanism for sensitive data was introduced.
Be aware that from Tivoli 8.X it will return error
exist'

!! Note – if dsm.opt , dsm.sys files are on different locations – please use correct full path locations !!

4. Stop  dsmcad – TSM Service daemon

[root@linux-server tsm]# systemctl stop dsmcad

5. Locate and deinstall all old Clients

Depending on the version to upgrade if you're upgrading from TSM version 7 to 8, you will get output like.

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -qa | grep 'TIVsm-'
TIVsm-BA-7.1.6-2.x86_64
TIVsm-API64-7.1.6-2.x86_64

If you're one of this paranoid admins you can remove TIVsm packs  one by one.

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -e TIVsm-BA-7.1.6-2.x86_64
[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -e TIVsm-API64-7.1.6-2.x86_64

Instead if upgrading from version 8.1.8 to 8.1.11 due to the Security CVE advisory recently published by IBM e.g. (IBM Runtime Vulnerability affects IBM Spectrum Backup archive Client) and  vulnerability in Apache Commons Log4J affecting IBM Spectrum Protect Backup Archive Client.

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -qa | grep 'TIVsm-'
TIVsm-API64-8.1.8-0.x86_64
TIVsm-BA-8.1.8-0.x86_64

Assuming you're not scared of a bit automation you can straight do it with below one liner too 🙂

# rpm -e $(rpm -qa | grep TIVsm)

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -qa | grep gsk
[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -e gskcrypt64 gskssl64

6. Check uninstallation success:

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -qa | grep TIVsm
[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -qa | grep gsk

Here you should an Empty output, if packages are not on the system, e.g. Empty output is good output ! 🙂

7. Install new client IBM Spectrum Client (Tivoli Storage Manager) and lib dependencies

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -ivh gskcrypt64-8.0.55.4.linux.x86_64.rpm
[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -ivh gskssl64-8.0.55.4.linux.x86_64.rpm

 If you're lazy to type you can do as well

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -Uvh gsk*

Next step is to install main Tivoli SM components the the API files and BA (The Backup Archive Client)

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -ivh TIVsm-API64.x86_64.rpm
[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -ivh TIVsm-BA.x86_64.rpm

If you have to do it on multiple servers and you do it manually following a guide like this, you might instead want to install them with one liner.

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -ivh TIVsm-API64.x86_64.rpm TIVsm-BA.x86_64.rpm

There are some Not mandatory "Common Inventory Technology" components (at some cases if you're using the API install it we did not need that), just for the sake if you need them on your servers due to backup architecture, install also below commented rpm files.

## rpm -ivh TIVsm-APIcit.x86_64.rpm

## rpm -ivh TIVsm-BAcit.x86_64.rpm

These packages not needed only for operation WebGUI TSM GUI management, (JBB) Journal Based Backup, BAhdw (the ONTAP library)


— TIVsm-WEBGUI.x86_64.rpm
— TIVsm-JBB.x86_64.rpm
— TIVsm-BAhdw.x86_64.rpm

8. Start and enable dsmcad service

[root@linux-server tsm]# systemctl stop dsmcad

You will get

##Warning: dsmcad.service changed on disk. Run 'systemctl daemon-reload' to reload units.

[root@linux-server tsm]# systemctl daemon-reload

[root@linux-server tsm]# systemctl start dsmcad


## enable dsmcad – it is disabled by default after install

[root@linux-server ~]# systemctl enable dsmcad

[root@linux-server tsm]# systemctl status dsmcad

9. Check dmscad service is really running

Once enabled IBM TSM will spawn a process in the bacground dmscad if it started properly you should have the process backgrounded.

[root@linux-server tsm]# ps -ef|grep -i dsm|grep -v grep
root      2881     1  0 18:05 ?        00:00:01 /usr/bin/dsmcad

If process is not there there might be some library or something not at place preventing the process to start …

10. Check DSMCAD /var/tsm logs for errors

After having dsmcad process enabled and running in background

[root@linux-server tsm]# grep -i Version /var/tsm/sched.log|tail -1
12/03/2020 18:06:29   Server Version 8, Release 1, Level 10.000

 

[root@linux-server tsm]# cat /var/tsm/dsmerror.log

To see the current TSM configuration files we can  grep out comments *

[root@linux-server tsm]# grep -v '*' /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/dsm.sys

Example Configuration of the agent:
—————————————————-
   *TSM SERVER NODE Location
   Servername           tsm_server
   COMMmethod           TCPip
   TCPPort              1400
   TCPServeraddress     tsmserver2.backuphost.com
   NodeName             NODE.SERVER-TO-BACKUP-HOSTNAME.COM
   Passwordaccess       generate
   SCHEDLOGNAME         /var/tsm/sched.log
   SCHEDLOGRETENTION    21 D
   SCHEDMODE            POLLING
   MANAGEDServices      schedule
   ERRORLOGNAME         /var/tsm/dsmerror.log
   ERRORLOGRETENTION    30 D
   INCLEXCL             /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/inclexcl.tsm

11. Remove tsm install directory tar ball and rpms to save space on system

The current version of Tivoli service manager is 586 Megabytes.

[root@linux-server tsm]# du -hsc 8.1.11.0-TIV-TSMBAC-LinuxX86.tar
586M    8.1.11.0-TIV-TSMBAC-LinuxX86.tar

Some systems are on purpose configured to have less space under their /home directory,
hence it is a good idea to clear up unnecessery files after completion.

Lets get rid of all the IBM Spectrum archive source files and the rest of RPMs used for installation.

[root@linux-server tsm]# rm -rf ~/tsm/{*.tar,*.rpm,*.gpg,*.htm,*.txt}

12. Check backups are really created on the configured remote Central backup server

To make sure after the upgrade the backups are continuously created and properly stored on the IBM Tivoly remote central backup server, either manually initiate a backup or wait for lets say a day and run dsmc client to show all created backups from previous day. To make sure you'll not get empty output you can on purpose modify some file by simply opening it and writting over without chaning anything e.g. modify your ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile

## List all backups for '/' root directory from -fromdate='DD/MM/YY'

[root@linux-server tsm]# dsmc
Protect>
IBM Spectrum Protect
Command Line Backup-Archive Client Interface
  Client Version 8, Release 1, Level 11.0
  Client date/time: 12/03/2020 18:14:03
(c) Copyright by IBM Corporation and other(s) 1990, 2020. All Rights Reserved.

Node Name: NODE.SERVER-TO-BACKUP-HOSTNAME.COM
Session established with server TSM2_SERVER: AIX
  Server Version 8, Release 1, Level 10.000
  Server date/time: 12/03/2020 18:14:04  Last access: 12/03/2020 18:06:29
 
Protect> query backup -subdir=yes "/" -fromdate=12/3/2020
           Size        Backup Date                Mgmt Class           A/I File
           —-        ———–                ———-           — —-
         6,776  B  12/03/2020 01:26:53             DEFAULT              A  /etc/freshclam.conf
         6,685  B  12/03/2020 01:26:53             DEFAULT              A  /etc/freshclam.conf-2020-12-02
         5,602  B  12/03/2020 01:26:53             DEFAULT              A  /etc/hosts
         5,506  B  12/03/2020 01:26:53             DEFAULT              A  /etc/hosts-2020-12-02
           398  B  12/03/2020 01:26:53             DEFAULT              A  /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/tsmstats.ini
       114,328  B  12/03/2020 01:26:53             DEFAULT              A  /root/.bash_history
           403  B  12/03/2020 01:26:53             DEFAULT              A  /root/.lesshst

Drawing GANTT Charts and Project Management on Linux, (Microsoft Project substitute for Unix)

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010

I'm studying Project Management, right now. In that spirit of thoughts I and a couple of other guys are building a Project Plan.
As it Project Plan it's necessary to put a GANTT Chart in it to show visually the project timeline (the phases), the duration and the inter-relation between the different tasks which leads the project to an actual completion.

After a bit of thorough research online on available software to deal with project management and particularly, ones that are capable to build a GANTT charts on Linux / BSD.

I've come with the following list of software capable to be a substitute for the Microsoft Project software.
Redmine GANTT Chart

GANTT chart Redmine

1. Gantt Project
GANTTProject chart GANTTProject Chart

2. Gnome Planner
Planner GANTT Gnome Chart Planner GANTT Chone Chart

3. Task Juggler Project Manager with GANTT Capability for (KDE)
Task Juggler

4. JxProject – This software is not free, though it can be considered almost free
Take a look also at:
5. Trac , though it doesn't really support GANTT charts it's a lovely software to be used for PM.
Trac Project Management

Another option you have is to try out:
6. PHProjekt

Update 20.09.2016 – PHPProject Old download link is no longer active

It is this link http://www.phprojekt.com/, but the page doesn’t seem to be active any more. I thought you might want to update.

If you are looking for an alternative please check out http://wiht.link/PHProjekt-PM, it may make a suitable replacement.

Kind Regards,
Tom Wilcox


That piece of softwre really looks promising, especially if we consider that it's web based and how much essential is today to have an anline tools for doing the ordinary desktop jobs.

You can even check an online demo of the PHPProjekt software here

If you're a type of KDE user you definitely has to try out Kplato

As I've tested the software the software is easy to be used, however it still is missing some essential parts that Microsoft Project includes so it's not 100% substitute.
Also it's not able to open Microsoft Project (MPP) files, neither able to save the charts in the .mpp format.

Moving ahead I've came across DotProject DotProject Gantt Chart
DottProject Gantt Chart

I haven't took the time to test it myself but however, as I go through the software website the project looked quite good.
Lastly you can take a look at: 7. PStricks as a mean of project management, however I think it doesn't support GANTT chart building.
>

Install TorrentFlux Bit Torrent Web management interface on Debian / Ubuntu Linux

Tuesday, July 15th, 2014

torrent flux logo
Torrentflux
is web based, feature-rich BitTorrent download manager.
Torrentflux is a must have installed server software for anyone who does regular torrent downloads and want to access the downloads from anywhere on the internet.

TorrentFlux is a PHP based BitTorrent controller that runs on a web
 server. It can manage all of your BitTorrent downloads from anywhere
 through a convenient and easy-to-use web interface.
 .
 TorrentFlux uses a MySQL database to manage the downloads.

 TorrentFlux enables you to run BitTorrent downloads unattended on a monitor-less or remote server 24 hours a day, while still maintaining complete control from any web browser. Now you can control your  downloading on your firewall, or keep up with downloads while on  vacation. It uses the BitTornado client to download files, and also  requires a web server with PHP.
 
 Some of the Torrentflux features:

   * Upload Torrents via URL or File Upload
   * Start, Stop, and Delete Torrents with ease
   * Advanced Torrent start options (ports, speeds, etc.)
   * Multi-user interface
   * RSS Feeds, download Torrents files with a click
   * Run several torrents at once
   * View Download Progress of all torrents at a glance
   * View drive space at a glance
   * View Torrent file meta information
   * Built-in User management and Security
   * Private Messaging
   * Themes (selectable per user)
   * Upload History

 

Before installing Bittorrent you will need to have a running version of Debian, Ubuntu or any other debian derivative (though it can easily be run on any Linux distro). To install AMP (Apache MySQL Server, PHP) you can follow first part of my previous article Installing Usual PHP Apache MySQL for new Debian GNU / Linux installs.

So what for is TorrentFlux Useful?
Torrenflux is precious and must have if you have to access filtered torrent from outside of your homecountry and you have a running server already in your home country in that I was using TorrentFlux to access Bulgarian Zamunda.Net Torrent Tracker from Holland and was downloading first movies from the Bulgarian Torrent Tracker to my Fluxbox installed on my Dobrich home router and then used FTP to transfer movies to the Netherlands. Talking about many people choose to also install VSFTP and use it together with Torrentflux …

1. Install TorrentFlux and its dependencies (BitTornado, Bittorrent, Zip, Unzip, Bzip etc.) the "Debian Way"


On my Debian 7 Wheezy home machine  I run

apt-get install –yes bzip2 php5-gd php5-cli unrar-free grep python net-tools mawk wget unzip cksfv vlc-nox uudeview python-crypto libxml-simple-perl libxml-dom-perl libdbd-mysql-perl bittorrent bittornado


a) Install TorrentFlux the Debian Way

apt-get install –yes torrentflux


You will be prompted with a coule of screens, to set a new MySQL database user and password and SQL database, as well as offered to restart Apache to make Torrentflux accessible like as on below screenshots.

configuring-torrentflux-debian-linux-screenshot-2


configuring-torrentflux-debian-linux-screenshot 3

configuring-torrentflux-debian-linux-screenshot-4

To make new installed torrentflux accessible from web you will either have to configure it via some new Apache VirtualHost or make a symbolic link to /usr/share/torrentflux/www :
 

cd /var/www/
ln -sf /usr/share/torrentflux/www/ torrentflux


That's all you're all done to access torrentflux either access it via your default configured webserver domain name or via localhost if you're logged in to same pc where installing.

http://www.your-domain.com/torrentflux

or

http://127.0.0.1/torrentflux

configuring-torrentflux-after-first-login-in-web-debian-linux

2. Install latest Torrentflux version from source

Alternatively if you want to have the latest version (because the Debian version is part of the stable distribution is a little bit outdated you will have to fetch Torrentflux-b4rt and unarchive it:

cd /tmp/
wget http://download.berlios.de/tf-b4rt/torrentflux-b4rt_1.0-beta2.tar.bz2

tar -xjf torrentflux-b4rt_1.0-beta2.tar.bz2

mv torrentflux-b4rt_1.0-beta2 /opt/torrentflux

Then to make torrentflux visible from web server I had to create a symbolic link to installation directory:
 

ln -sf /opt/torrentflux/html /var/www/torrentflux

For further initial configuration its necessery to make Torrentflux config writtable by www-data (the user with which Apache is running on Debian).

 

chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/torrentflux/inc/config/


Next it its required to create somewhere download folder where TorrentFlux will keep downloaded Torrents

mkdir /var/lib/torrentflux


Apache HTTP server will have to have write ther:

chown -R www-data:www-data /var/lib/torrentflux


If you already haven't restarted Apache earlier in installing TorrentFlux pre-requirements, you will have to do it now:

 

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart


As TorrentFlux depends on its MySQL backend, we need to also create manually TorrentFlux database username and a password
 

export SQL_DB='torrentflux';
TFLUXSQL_USERNAME='torrentflux';
TFLUX_SQL_PWD='any-secret-password';

echo "CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS $SQL_DB DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 DEFAULT COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci"
| mysql –user=root –password

echo "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON $SQL_DB.*
TO $TFLUXSQL_USERNAME@localhost
IDENTIFIED BY $TFLUX_SQL_PWD;" | mysql –user=root –password

 

Substitute with your Database, Username and Password above shell variables – $SQL_DB, $TFLUX_USERNAME, $TFLUX_SQL_PWD

To configure TorrentFlux access it in browser:

http://your-domain.com/torrentflux
 

By accessing it for a first time, you will redirected to setup.php, in case something goes wrong and yuo're not redirected (probably some mod_rewrite issues add setup.php to url – e.g., acess –

http://your-domain.com/torrentflux/setup.php

I will not enter details, about Web config, because everything there is pretty clear.

Just in short – you will have to now choose:

Choose Database
Choose Database Information of database (put in the exact name of TorrentFlux databse previously created)
Uncheck the box for "Create new database"
Choose as a download location upper created directory – /var/lib/torrentflux

If you get an error on software dependencies screen for missing unrar – just install it
VLC may show an error as well, that's not a problem because VLC is probably not to be used.
Finally after completion of all, you will get an error that setup.php cannot be deleted.
 

To prevent, someone to re-configure it through http://your-domain/torrentflux/setup.php URL remove setup.php


rm /var/www/torrentflux/setup.php

To prevent someone rewrite anything in config file from web we have to revert back config/ folder not to be writable by Apache


chown -R root:root /var/www/torrentflux/inc/config/

Now in browser to access torrentflux type:


http://ipofyourbox/torrentflux

/torrentflux should redirect you to login.php if for some reason it doesn't type it manually in URL.

First account you will login is the super user account, you can allow multiple users to use it by adding multiple accounts.

torrentflux-install-on-debian-ubuntu-gnu-linux-web-management-torrent-interface

As you will see there is plety of configuration options to play with.

You will definitely want to look in Server Page, some very important page to look is the Transfer Page – from there you can adjust the bandwidth of your connection on 100Mbit network this would be 12500 – to use the maximum possible connection provided by your ISP set the max bandwidth to 0. You have the option to also set a default bittorrent client, by default this will be bittornado.


If you have troubles downloading from TorrentTrackers make sure your router is configured to forward port 49160 to 49300

Now if you have a lot of storage create accounts also for your friends and enjoy torrentflux 🙂
 

 

The Driving Polygon – My adventures of learning to drive a car

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

Today the day was pretty normal for which of course I have to thank to Our Awesome God :)I didn’t have much work, I stand up somewhere around 11 o’clock. I did my usual morning exercises.By the way since I started practising everyday exercise I feel physically better. After that I prayed a bit.Afterwards I red the road regulations and laws book (as I mentioned in my previous bloggings I have starteda driving license courses). Somewhere around 12:30 Gery did called and asked me if I’m willing to go outfor a coffee. I accepted and we saw each other infront of the fountain. Because all the tables outside wasoccupied we and in the coffee itself was too hot we decided to move to the Kukla coffee. We coffeed a bittalked about stuff shared how our lifes are going etc. etc. After that I had to go to the college becauseI need a copy of my school completion diploma because my driver lessons teacher requires as well as therest of the documents my ID card, a picture etcetera, etcetera. In the college I met Todor Dyankov who wasteaching me at Statistics and in Marketing II at the college and Ertan also Nina the librarian, I have tosay all of them are pretty cool :). Ertan showed me what he has made using Adobe’s flex product andexplained how convinient it’s usage is for creation of books and various other web based sort of manuals.Later at home I red more some chapters of the road regulations book. After which in 18:45 I went to the stomatology(this is the usual place where driving teachers park their cars and where we met with my instructor), he askedif it’s possible to change the driving lesson to be in Tuesday for 18:30 to be honest I haven’t had much choice since theteacher had some urgent job to do. Right after that I went to my mother and father grocery shop because previously wehad a stipulation that I my father and a close family friend (Georgi a namesake) would go somewhere out of the city becausethe 32 hours for which it suppoed that I had to be ready for the exam were far from enough for me to become a proficient driver.Eventually we went with my father’s car (Opel Astra) to a place which was before used as a Driving Polygon and is a perfectplace for a novice driver like me. The most hard thing for me in governing the car was starting the car from first speed usingthe clutch pedal simultaneously with the “gas” pedal. With some practice there I can say I got better at starting the car on 1st speedalthough still it’s pretty hard for me to move the car on 1st speed from stopped position when the car is on a small hill.After that we went out of the polygon and I drive on the road of Bogdanovo village. Right after we went back to the city.I went to see Bino because I have promised him to go out for a walk together. We had a nice walk in the city park, I came backhome I went to see my grandma just like I often do lately I stood there for 20 minutes and went home, ate and here I’m now blogging :)END—–

How to disable PC Speaker on FreeBSD / Mute PC-Speaker on BSD kernels

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

 

old school personal computer pc speaker / freebsd disable Pc-Speaker picture

After finding out How PC Speaker is muted on Linux , I've decided to also disable the annoying beeps on BSD. This is in tandem with the minimalistic philosophy I try to apply to every server I manage.

Also on BSD Desktop machines it is quite annoying especially if csh (C Shell) is used, everytime you press TAB you get the beep sound. On BSD beep sound produced on tab completion is louder than in Linux and that makes it even more annoying …

Disabling pc-speaker beeps on BSDs is done via a sysctl kernel variable:

freebsd# sysctl hw.syscons.bell=0
hw.syscons.bell: 0 -> 0

To further permanently disable on system boot add hw.syscons.bell=0 to /etc/sysctl.conf, e.g.:

freebsd# echo 'hw.syscons.bell=0' >> /etc/sysctl.conf

 

Well that's it no more mind drilling beeps :)

 

Nikwi Deluxe a top quality Freeware Debian / Ubuntu Linux Jump and Run Arcade Game

Monday, December 19th, 2011

Nikwi Deluxe Linux arcade game Freeware game main screen screenshot

Nikwi Deluxe is another good quality jump and run game for Linux

The main actor you play with is a (Dexter like) looking kid who has to collect all candy items on the level screen. The game graphics are quite a good level if compared to the most Linux jump and run games. Nikwi Deluxe Freeware Game GNU / Linux game

Your game hero is not equipped with any weapon or (jump over the enemies like in Maries) and you not haven't got any mean to kill enemies, but you have to always avoid them. There are some funny looking crawl (birds) shitting from the above every now and then, if you're hit by a the bird's droplet you die. The game has 30 levels and after each level succesful completion you're provided with a password that can be used as a "Save Game" like if you quit from game and on next game run you would like to start directly from the last game level you reachedNikwi Deluxe is another good quality jump and run game for Linux

nikwi deluxe Linux level screenshot

The only game downfall is the missing music as well as the not too brilliant sound. To boost my game experience, however put some background music and give the game a try 😉