Posts Tagged ‘Thanksfully’
Saturday, August 21st, 2010 
In my previous post I've blogged how to install and configure Trac on Debian
The next logical question for me was how to use trac with multiple user accounts.
Thanksfully this happened to be very easy. All I had to do to setup different trac users was to add different Apache htaccess authentication accounts.
Consequently you will be logged in in Trac's interface after you login with your Apache htaccess user and password with the same user as provided in the Apache authentication dialog.
Of course to create the required Trac login accounts, you need to first have setup an Apache AuthType Basic declaration.
For example you will have to add something similar to:
<Location "/">
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Trac - projects"
AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/trac.passwd
Require valid-user
</Location>
your Apache virtualhost or domain configuration file.
In order to add the two users user1 and user2 then I simply had to add the users with the htpasswd Apache password tool.
debian:~# htpasswd -c /etc/apache2/trac.passwd user1
debian:~# htpasswd -c /etc/apache2/trac.passwd user2
Thanks God this was easy 🙂
Tags: apache, apache authentication, apache htaccess, apache password, apache virtualhost, apache2, authentication dialog, AuthType, AuthUserFile, configuration file, configure, course, dialog, domain, domain configuration, file, god, How to, How to add/create user accounts to be used with Trac (issue tracking system) on Linux, htaccess authentication, htpasswd, interface, issue, Linux, logical question, login, lt, order, passwd, password, password tool, question, quot, setup, something, system, Thanksfully, tool, trac, user accounts, Virtualhost
Posted in Linux, System Administration, Web and CMS | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 17th, 2012 
I use Debian Linux for my desktop for quite some time; Even though there are plenty of MP3 / CD players around in Debian, I’m used to the good old XMMS, hence I often prefer to use XMMS to play my music instead of newer players like RhythmBox or audacious.
Actually audacious is not bad substitute for XMMS and is by default part of Debian but to me it seems more buggy and tends to crash during playing some music formats more than xmms ….
As most people might know, XMMS is no longer supported in almost all modern Linux distributions, so anyone using Debian, Ubuntu or other deb derivative Linux would have to normally compile it from source.
Compiling from source is time consuming and I think often it doesn’t pay back the effort. Thanksfully, though not officially supported by Debian crew XMMS still can be installed using a deb xmms prebuilt package repository kindly provided by a hacker fellow knuta.
Using the pre-build deb packages, installing xmms on new Debian installs comes to:
debian:~# echo 'deb http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~knuta/xmms/squeeze ./' >> /etc/apt/sources.list
debian:~# echo 'deb-src http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~knuta/xmms/squeeze ./' >> /etc/apt/sources.list
debian:~# apt-get update && apt-get -y install xmms
There are also deb xmms built for Ubuntu, so Ubuntu users could install xmms using repositories:
deb http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~knuta/xmms/karmic ./
deb-src http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~knuta/xmms/karmic ./
That’s all now xmms is ready to use. Enjoy 🙂
Tags: amp, Auto, buggy, Compiling, consuming, Crew, deb, deb packages, Debian, Desktop, Draft, fellow, hacker, Installing, Linux, linux distributions, mp3 cd players, music, music formats, package, pvv, quite some time, repositories, repository, RhythmBox, squeeze, substitute, Thanksfully, time, time consuming, Ubuntu, update, way, XMMS, xmmsThere
Posted in System Administration | No Comments »
Thursday, April 5th, 2012 
I've been planning to run my own domain WHOIS service, for quite sime time and I always postpone or forgot to do it.
If you wonder, why would I need a (personal) web whois service, well it is way easier to use and remember for future use reference if you run it on your own URL, than wasting time in search for a whois service in google and then using some other's service to get just a simple DOMAIN WHOIS info.
So back to my post topic, I postpopned and postponed to run my own web whois, just until yesterday, whether I have remembered about my idea to have my own whois up and running and proceeded wtih it.
To achieve my goal I checked if there is free software or (open source) software that easily does this.
I know I can write one for me from scratch, but since it would have cost me some at least a week of programming and testing and I didn't wanted to go this way.
To check if someone had already made an easy to install web whois service, I looked through in the "ultimate source for free software" sourceforge.net
Looking for the "whois web service" keywords, displayed few projects on top. But unfortunately many of the projects sources was not available anymore from http://sf.net and the project developers pages..
Thanksfully in a while, I found a project called SpeedyWhois, which PHP source was available for download.
With all prior said about project missing sources, Just in case if SpeedyWhois source disappears in the future (like it probably) happened with, some of the other WHOIS web service projects, I've made SpeedyWhois mirror for download here
Contrary to my idea that installing the web whois service might be a "pain in the ass", (like is the case with so many free software php scripts and apps) – the installation went quite smoothly.
To install it I took the following 4 steps:
1. Download the source (zip archive) with wget
# cd /var/www/whois-service;
/var/www/whois-service# wget -q https://www.pc-freak.net/files/speedywhois-0.1.4.zip
2. Unarchive it with unzip command
/var/www/whois-service# unzip speedywhois-0.1.4.zip
…
3. Set the proper DNS records My NS are using Godaddy, so I set my desired subdomain record from their domain name manager.
4. Edit Apache httpd.conf to create VirtualHost
This step is not mandatory, but I thought it is nice if I put the whois service under a subdomain, so add a VirtualHost to my httpd.conf
The Virtualhost Apache directives, I used are:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin hipo_aT_www.pc-freak.net
DocumentRoot /var/www/whois-service
ServerName whois.www.pc-freak.net
<Directory /var/www/whois-service
AllowOverride All
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from All
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
Onwards to take effect of new Webserver configs, I did Apache restart
# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/apache2 restart
Whenever I have some free time, maybe I will work on the code, to try to add support for logging of previous whois requests and posting links pointing to the previous whois done via the web WHOIS service on the main whois page.
One thing that I disliked about how SpeedyWHOIS is written is, if there is no WHOIS information returned for a domain request (e.g.) a:
# whois domainname.com
returns an empty information, the script doesn't warn with a message there is no WHOIS data available for this domain or something.
This is not so important as this kind of behaviour of 'error' handling can easily be changed with minimum changes in the php code.
If you wonder, why do I need the web whois service, the answer is it is way easier to use.
I don't have more time to research a bit further on the alternative open source web whois services, so I would be glad to hear from anyone who tested other web whois service that is free comes under a FOSS license.
In the mean time, I'm sure people with a small internet websites like mine who are looking to run their OWN (personal) whois service SpeedyWHOIS does a great job.
Tags: Auto, code, contrary, domain, domain web, domain whois, download, Draft, free software, goal, google, idea, info, information, installation, minute, mirror, nbsp, open source software, pain in the ass, personal domain, personal web, programming, project, project developers, quot, scratch, scripts, Search, service projects, sime, software, software php, someone, SpeedyWHOIS, Thanksfully, time, top, topic, Virtualhost, wasting, wasting time, way, web service, web whois, wget, while, whois, whois web, yesterday
Posted in Everyday Life, System Administration, Web and CMS | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, March 13th, 2012 The default picture viewer on Xubuntu's XFCE is risterroro. Risterroro is quite lightweight, but anyways is lacking even basic functionality with reading a number of pictures in a directory and showing, them one by one lacks any picture automated slider. The lack of picture back/forward functionality makes picture viewing very inconvenient on those Linux distro.
Thanksfully this kind of unconfortable default behaviour on Xubuntu can easily be changed to use a handy picture viewer program called gpicview
xubuntu-linux:~# apt-get install --yes gpicview
Gpicview is a good minimalistic program which has all the functionality of the default GNOME picture viewer program eog – (eye of the Gnome). If you're aaccustomed to GNOME's eog you can always install and use eog instead 🙂
Tags: Auto, behaviour, default, default behaviour, directory, distro, Draft, eog, functionality, Gnome, gpicview, gpicviewGpicview, kind, Lack, Linux, linux distro, minimalistic, number, picture, program, Risterroro, slider, Thanksfully, viewer, XFCE, Xubuntu
Posted in Linux, Linux and FreeBSD Desktop, System Administration | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 Today I made my general medical check-up. Now I’m waiting for the results I hope they would be fine. But ofcourse it’s up to God.
Today I had 2 hours of driving lessons from 8 to 10. Right after that I went to the medical clinic to make blood tests.
Thanksfully blood taking procedure was fast and painless, it was kind from my mother to address me an hour, so when I went to the clinic I went directly to the lab where they took a blood sample from me.
A little later we went to “Banicharnica” which is a common cheap fast breakfast place here in Bulgaria. And after that we visited few shops and Bought some clothes. Now after a while I’ll have to go to the “DSK” bank and send the rest of the money which I owe for my room in the hostel in Holland.
And towards evening I have one more driving lesson. Tomorrow it’s my driving practical exam. It’s up to God’s will if I pass or fail. So I hope that God would be mercyful and send his word and grant me that exam, because I know by the word of Christ that without his divine mercy we alone can’t do anything.
END—–
Tags: Banicharnica, Bank, blood sample, blood tests, Bought, breakfast, breakfast place, bulgaria, clinic, clothes, divine mercy, driving lesson, driving lessons, DSK, end, Evening, fine, General, god, holland, hostel, kind, lab, medical check, medical clinic, mercy, money, Ofcourse, place, procedure, quot, Thanksfully, while
Posted in Everyday Life | No Comments »
Friday, January 27th, 2012 By default latest Debian GDM does not provide an automatic way to login using user AVATARS (like Windows does).
This is pretty strange, especially if you compare to Ubuntu and many other Linux distributions which already has support for AVATAR login via GDM
The reason for this is that currently Debian is shipped with old version of gdm2 and this gdm version does not have support for clickable login avatars.
Debian looks by default like this:
Thanksfully this non-user friendly GNOME login screen behaviour can be changed by simply installing gdm3
root@debian:~# apt-get --yes install gdm3
...
This will remove the old gdm installed package as well as fast-user-switch-applet and install the gdm3.
Having installed the gdm3 with configured a background will look like so:
I was quite stunned that gdm3 does not have included support for themes . As far as I've spoken with some ppl in irc.freenode #gnome the reason for this oddity is it crashed a lot when a theme is configred.
By default the gdm2 themes are provided by a package called gdm-themes, since gdm3 does not support themes (yet), the package gdm3-themes is missing.
Tags: avatar, avatars, behaviour, Debian, debian gnu, freenode, GDM, Gnome, gnu linux, Linux, linux distributions, login, nbsp, non-user, oddity, old version, package, ppl, reason, root, screen, squeeze, support, support themes, Thanksfully, theme, Ubuntu, version, way
Posted in Gnome, Linux, Linux and FreeBSD Desktop, Various | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 14th, 2010 I’ve recently received a number of images in JPEG format as a feedback on a project plan that was constructed by a team I’m participating at the university where I study.
Somebody from my project group has scanned or taken snapshots of each of the hard copy paper feedback and has sent it to my mail.
I’ve received 13 images so I had to open them one by one to get each of the Project Plan to read the feedback on the page this was really unhandy, so I decided to give it a try on how to generate a common PDF file from all my picture files.
Thanksfully it happened to be very easy and trivial using the good old Image Magick
In order to complete the task of generating one PDF from a number of pictures all I did was.1. Switch to the directory where I have saved all my jpeg images
debian:~# cd /home/hipo/Desktop/my_images_directory/
2. Use the convert binary part of imagemagick package to generate the actual PDF file from the group of images
debian:~# convert *.jpg outputpdffile.pdf
If the images are numbered and contain many scanned pages of course you can always pass by all the images to the /usr/bin/convert binary, like for instance:
debian:~# convert 1.jpg 2.jpg 3.jpg 4.jpg 5.jpg outputpdffile.pdf
Even though in my case I had to convert to PDF from multiple JPEG (JPG) pictures, convertion with convert is not restricted to convert only from JPEG, but you can also convert to PDF by using other graphical file formats.
For instance to convert multiple PNG pictures to a single PDF file the command will be absolutely the same except you change the file extension of the graphic files e.g.:
debian:~# convert 1.PNG 2.PNG 3.PNG 4.PNG 5.PNG OUTPUT-PDF-FILE.PDF
I was quite happy eventually to know Linux is so flexible and such a trivial things are able to be completed in such an easy way.
Tags: cd home, convertion, copy, course, Create PDF file from (jpg) pictures in Linux, Desktop, feedback, file, file extension, file formats, format, gif images, graphic files, hipo, home, Image, image magick, ImageMagick, images directory, instance, JPEG, jpeg images, jpg gif, Linux, Magick, mail, number, order, OUTPUT-PDF-FILE, outputpdffile, package, page, Paper, picture, png, project, project group, snapshots, somebody, switch, team, Thanksfully, trivial things, unhandy, usr, usr bin, way
Posted in Linux, Linux and FreeBSD Desktop, Various | 5 Comments »
Saturday, February 4th, 2012 If you're using Debian GNU/Linux wheezy/sid, you have already figured out GNOME3 settings to start GNOME in Classic mode (like in GNOME 2), starts gnome in a mode where the desktop is not showing the usual Computer, Home, Trash etc.
Besides that in that strange back-compitability Classic GNOME mode its impossible to add any program as a link in desktop like in the good old GNOME 2.
Thanksfully this abusive behaviour of the backwards compitability mode is easily fixable by two simple steps, here they are:
1. Install gnome-tweak-tool – (Tool to adjust advanced configuration settings for GNOME
root@debian:~# apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool
2. Start gnome-tweak tool
Press ALT+F2 and run gnome-tweak-tool or run it via xterm / gnome-terminal:
moonman@Moon:~$ gnome-tweak-tool
Change in Desktop, Have file manager handle the desktop the settings to ON
Once the Screenshot Handle Desktop is set to ON, further drag and dropping any application to the Desktop will be working.
Something really irritating is that launching applications in GNOME 3 does not work properly if you just press ALT+F2 and type in lets say gnome-terminal , to work around this weirdity you will have to install gnome-shell package.
Tags: Auto, behaviour, classic mode, compitability, configuration settings, debian gnu, desktop icons, Draft, f2, Gnome, gnu linux, Handle, Install, link, Linux, manager, Mode, moon, moonman, package, Press, root, shell package, sid, simple steps, something, Start, Thanksfully, tool, tool 2, tool change, tool tool, trash, type, weirdity, wheezy, xterm
Posted in Gnome, Linux, Linux and FreeBSD Desktop | 1 Comment »
Sunday, April 11th, 2010 I have a running awstats installation and needed a way to protect the cgi-bin statistics with a password. Thanksfully there is a way to achieve that through the Apache. To secure your let’s say awstats.pl or any other /cgi-bin/ executable with a password here is what you need to do:
First make sure you have:
Allowoverride All directive enabled in your Apache Directory permissions for the /cgi-bin/.
Next you will need to create an .htaccess file in your /cgi-bin/ directory .The file should contain something close to:
<FilesMatch "awstats.pl">AuthName "Login Required"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /var/www/awstats/.htpasswd
require valid-user
</FilesMatch>
The above example presumes that you have created the .htpasswd in /var/www/awstats/.
To create this file issue the command:
debian:~# htpasswd -c /var/www/awstats/.htpasswd admin
That’s all now your awstats installation or any other executable specified in FileMatch would be created with a password.
Tags: Allowoverride, apache, AuthType, AuthUserFile, awstats, cgi bin directory, command, directive, directory permissions, file, htaccess file, htpasswd, installation, issue, login, lt, password, Password Protecting single file with htaccess password / Securing single exetubale in Apache with password through htaccess, pl, Protecting, quot, Securing, single file, something, statistics, Thanksfully, var, way, www
Posted in Linux, System Administration, Web and CMS | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 While I was deploying a new Nagios install to Monitor some Windows hosts I’ve came across the following error in Nagios’s web interface:
Sorry, but Nagios is currently not checking for external commands, so your command will not be committed!
Read the documentation for information on how to enable external commands...
This error is caused by an option configuration for /etc/nagios/nrpe.cfg (part of the nrpe-nagios-server Debian package.
The config variable in nrpe.cfg causing the error is check_external_command=0 , the fix comes to changing the variable to:
check_external_command=1
As well as restart the /etc/init.d/nagios-nrpe-server and /etc/init.d/nagios3 services:
debian:~# /etc/init.d/nagios3 restart
...
debian:~# /etc/init.d/nagios-nrpe-server
...
This changes has work out the error Sorry, but Nagios is currently not checking for external commands, so your command will not be committed! , however immediately after another kind of error appared in Nagios web interface when I tried to use the send Nagios commands button. The error was:
Error: Could not stat() command file '/var/lib/nagios3/rw/nagios.cmd'!
This error is due to a deb package, which seems to be affecting the current deb versions of Nagios shipped with Debian 6 Squeeze stable, as well as the Latest Ubuntu release 11.04.
Thanksfully there is a work around to the problem I found online, to fix it up I had to execute the commands:
debian:~# /etc/init.d/nagios3 stop debian:~# dpkg-statoverride --update --add nagios www-data 2710 /var/lib/nagios3/rw
debian:~# dpkg-statoverride --update --add nagios nagios 751 /var/lib/nagios3
debian:~# /etc/init.d/nagios3 start
And hooray Thanks God the error is gone 😉
Tags: Button, check, checking, command, config, deb, deb package, dpkg, ERROR, file, god, hooray, information, kind, lib, monitor, nagios, online, option, package, squeeze, Stable, stat, Thanksfully, Ubuntu, var, web interface, work, www data
Posted in Linux, System Administration | 8 Comments »
