Archive
Posts from 2008
Finding a file's package name offline in Fedora without yum whatprovides
One really cool feature of ubuntu is the command-not-found script. If you try to execute a program, say, nmap -- and that dpkg hasn't been installed, the command-not-found script executes to parse a locally installed database to suggest, "hey, you should try executing # apt-get install nmap" or something similar. This really makes ubuntu more user friendly. Fedora has the ability to use " # yum whatprovides <>" but yum is going to bomb out if you don't have a working network connection…
$ read more →The best website ever
Oh my gosh, this is the funniest (and coolest) site I have seen in a LONG LONG time!
$ read more →Disable Hardware on SPARC Platforms from the OBP
You can disable hardware directly from the OBP with “asr” commands. If it’s a production critical machine, and it won’t boot because of a failed component, you can disable the hardware from the OBP and get the machine back up (although crippled) to minimize your production downtime impact. Rebooting with command: boot Boot device: /pci@1e,600000/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0/disk@0,0 File and args: -rsv Loading ufs-file-system package 1.4 04 Aug 1995 13:02:54. FCode UFS Reader 1.12 00/07/17 15:48:16…
$ read more →x86 / linux boot process
There is quite a bit of documentation around the internet on the linux boot process, but Gustavo Duarte I think did an excellent job describing this in a clear and concise way. He also has several links to the Linux kernel source code and describes what is occurring step-by-step through the bootstrap phase all the way to the execution of /sbin/init. His first entry lays the foundation of the basis of the x86 Intel chipset, memory map, and logical motherboard layout. This provides a basic understanding about the traditional hardware motherboard implementations…
$ read more →Viewing the changes that have occurred to an RPM package
I recently encountered a bug in one of the Linux utilities I was using, and upgrading to the latest version of the utility appeared to fix the issue. Being the curious guy I am, I started poking around the web and various release notes to see when the issue was fixed. While digging through this information, I came across the SUPER handy yum changelog plugin. This nifty plugin will display the changes that have occurred to a package, along with the version those changes were incorporated into…
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