Archive
Posts from 2010
Viewing the scripts that run when you install a Linux RPM
RPM packages contain the ability to run scripts after a package is added or removed. These scripts can perform actions like adding or removing users, cleaning up temporary files, or checking to make sure a software component that is contained within a package isn't running. To view the contents of the scripts that will be run, you can use the rpm "--scripts" option: RPM provides four types of pre and post installation scripts that can be run: preinstall scriptlet -- this will run before a package is installed * postinstall scriptlet -- this will run after a package is installed* preuninstall scriptlet -- this will run before a package is uninstalled * postuninstall scriptlet -- this will run after a package is uninstalled There are some awesome RPM options buried in the documentation, and you will definitely want to read through the various RPM resources prior to creating RPMs.
$ read more →Creating a bootable OpenSolaris USB thumb drive
This past week, I had the need to install opensolaris on a host using a USB thumb drive. To create a bootable USB drive, I first needed to snag the distribution constructor tools via mercurial (I ran these commands from an OpenSolaris host): The caiman slim source Mercurial repository contains a script named usbcopy, which you can use to copy a USB image from the genunix site to your USB drive: After the image was copied, I plugged the drive into my machine and it booted to the opensolaris desktop without issue. From there I did an install and everything appears to be working flawlessly! Nice.
$ read more →My quest for the perfect fruit smoothie
I have been a smoothie addict for several years, and recently got interested in saving some cash and making my own (at $5 a smoothie, the commercial smoothie shops were making $60+ from me each month!). To begin my quest for the perfect smoothie, I had to define a few requirements: Smoothies needed to be cheaper than the commercial joints I needed a blender that would stand up to smoothie making abuse (crushing ice can kill blades pretty quick) My smoothies needed to taste BETTER than the commercial joints My first task was locating a high quality blender. I had numerous discussions with employees at various smoothie making shops, and they told me that their commercial blenders are crazy expensive (my estimates are in the $300 to $500 range). Ouch…
$ read more →Getting syslog-ng to filter messages by source IP address
I received a call this week from one of our network guys because messages from several network devices weren't being logged by our centralized log server. When I started debugging the issue, I noticed that traffic from the hosts (host1 in this example) was making it to our syslog-ng server: While the traffic was making it to the server, the syslog messages were not being matched against a rule we had defined. Being the curious guy I am, I decided to read the syslog RFC to get a better understanding of the syslog message format. If you aren't familiar with syslog messages, they take the following form: The PRI section contains the facility and priority, the HEADER section contains a timestamp and the hostname or IP address of the device, and the MSG section contains the message the host is trying to send to the server…
$ read more →VTL project for Linux
I came across the Linux tape library project website the other night, and this looks like a sweet project. If we could combine this solution with ZFS, the combination would be truly incredible! I need to install the LVTL software in my lab and give it a spin!
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