Ubuntu tips and trials
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  • 2009
    • November
      • New Blog!
        05/11/09
        I haven't had a lot of stuff to put on this new blog for some time. My time has been spent on my new blog over here: http://mellowd.co.uk/ccie/

        Comments now work! Feel free to pop by to take a look.

        D

    • August
      • TACACS+ mini HOWTO
        04/08/09
        Why a mini HOWTO? Well I'm going to explain how I set up a simple TACACS+ server on a Linux box. If you want any sort of AD integration you'll need to look elsewhere.

        I recently got given the project of installing a new linux box with a number of services. One of them was to re

    • May
      • Showing line numbers in vi or vim
        22/05/09
        Ever changed a line of config only for the application to spit out:

        FATAL: Bungled squid.conf line 716: icp_access allow localnet

        How to quickly find line 716? Open your file in vi or vim and type:

        :set number

        This setting is not saved when you exit so th

    • January
      • Converting .mdf files to .iso
        26/01/09
        So you've got a .mdf file and you need to convert it to iso? No problem!

        There is a handy utility called mdf2iso that will do it for you. To install it first type the following:

        sudo aptitude update
        sudo aptitude install mdf2iso

        Now all you need to do is th

  • 2008
    • October
      • Upgrading Ubuntu server 8.04 to 8.10
        31/10/08
        So you need to upgrade your 8.04 server version to 8.10? Easy!

        First of all, I wouldn't suggest you try any upgrade unless your server is fully backed up, BACK IT UP!

        You'll need to first install the update manager (it might already be installed)
        sudo aptitude in

    • August
      • Converting .FLAC files to high quiality .MP3 files with only one command
        18/08/08
        So you have your nice lossless audio all compressed into FLAC. How do you quickly convert them to high quality mp3's to stick on your ipod or some other mp3 player? I've written a script below that will do it for you in one easy step. It takes a few steps to set it up first, but once it�

    • June
      • Setting up a terminal server on a cisco device
        15/06/08
        I've been practising a lot of various BGP/OSPF/EIGRP and IS-IS things at work. I've set up a lab there which will allow me from home to access all of these devices through their console ports without actually sitting in front of them.

        In order to do that I've used an old 2

    • January
      • Converting .daa files to .iso files
        20/01/08
        so you've just downloaded a .daa file and want a quick easy way to convert it to a .iso image?

        First you need the freeware poweriso application:

        sudo wget http://poweriso.com/poweriso-1.1.tar.gz
        Extract it like so:

        sudo tar -zxvf poweriso-1.1.tar.gz

  • 2007
    • December
      • Finding which hardware you've got
        28/12/07
        Let's say you need to list all your current hardware, or maybe you just need to know what type of network card you got? Easy!

        sudo lshw

        this will simply list all your hardware. If there is way too much to take in and it scrolls off you can do one of two things, either this

      • Check folder size
        13/12/07
        Need a quick way to check the size of any folder from the terminal?

        du -hs /folder/

        -h will show it in human readable format as opposed to block size, and -s will give you a summary.

      • Testing your hard drive speed
        04/12/07
        A quick and easy way to test your hard drive speed. First you'll need to ensure hdparm is installed. If not type this:

        sudo aptitude hdparm

        Now to test your device you type this:

        hdparm -Tt /dev/hdX
        or
        hdparm -Tt /dev/sdX
      • Longest english word in the world
        04/12/07
        Shortened to 'Titan' This word describes the largest protein known. It contains 189819 letters. If you copy and paste this into word you'll notice it stretches over 44 pages long!

        Here is the full word for Methionylthreonylthreonyl...isoleucine...

        (I had to link

      • ARGH!
        04/12/07
        This blog isn't working correctly. The stats are not showing up and no comments or ratings can be left. I apologise if anyone has left a comment. It seems my host has php safe mode switched on and won't switch it off. I'm trying to find another host at the moment who could do this.
      • Cool terminal games
        03/12/07
        So you've SSH'd into your server and feel like playing a quick game? I've found a couple of funs ones here, please let me know any more cool terminal games to play!

        Tetris
        apt-get install bastet
        Space Invaders
        apt-get install ninvaders
        Moon

      • AMD Cool 'n Quiet on your server
        03/12/07
        Okay, so in a GUI enviroment it's very easy to ensure that your cpu is correctly going into power saving mode when it needs to. But how do you do that on your server? I use a great little app called powernowd.

        apt-get install powernowd

        Powernowd has a few options,

      • Keeping a terminal session active from anywhere
        01/12/07
        There is a very useful application that can do this. I use this for rTorrent. It's a command line bittorrent client. Let's say I've opened it while I'm SSH'd in from work. I don't want to end the session and then re-open the session when I get home. I want the same sess

      • Remove ipv6 from ubuntu
        01/12/07
        It seems ipv6 is enabled by default in ubuntu and I've also heard that people are complaining that it slows them down. Here is a quick way to get rid of it.

        vim /etc/modprobe.d/aliases

        Look for the line which says alias net-pf-10 ipv6 and change it to alias net

      • Useful terminal application - htop
        01/12/07
        You may use top every now and again, but I've come accross an even better program called htop. It's similar to top but it's gives a better quick view of exactly what is happening on your system.

        apt-get install htop
        Now whenever you need it just type

    • November
      • Bioshock
        30/11/07
        Well, I just finished this game. Fantastic! Haven't had this much fun with a game for a while. Play it if you can!


      • The upgrade
        29/11/07
        I ran into a problem. I built my server using the old pc I got from work. I wanted to put my 400GB and 250GB hard drives in there and use my raptor 150GB for my main PC again. As the motherboard only supports IDE I went and bought myself a SATA PCI card. Unfortunately this old motherboard refused to

      • Getting the latest version of transmission running on Ubuntu
        19/11/07
        I've just tried installing transmission from the repositores and it's currently sitting on version 0.72. the latest version is 0.93 though so how do we go about installing it?
        First things first, type this:

        apt-get build-dep transmission

        This will ensure the

      • Cleaning up your packages
        18/11/07
        It's worthwhile to do this every now again again on your ubuntu box when you've been installing and uninstalling new apps. This will go through and check which packages have been installed that are no longer needed. It will then remove them for you

        apt-get autoremove
      • Quick upgrade
        18/11/07
        Need to quickly upgrade your packages on ubuntu?

        apt-get update
        apt-get upgrade
        Accept if you're happy and job done.

      • Searching the repositories
        18/11/07
        Need to install a package but you don't know the exact name?

        apt-get update
        apt-cache search whatever
        Replace whatever with what you are looking for.

      • Creating a new file of any size
        16/11/07
        Ever wanted to test something and all you needed was a file of an exact size. It's very easy to just create a new file of any size with this:

        dd if=/dev/zero of=myfile bs=1024 count=1024

        This will create a new file with a size of exactly 1MB (1024k) You can easily

      • Useful build and cpu commands
        16/11/07
        Want to find out more information on the current cpu running?
        cat /proc/cpuinfo
        Want to find out what build of Linux you are running?

        uname -a
        Want to know what recources are being used?

        top

      • New Gutsy server
        14/11/07
        At work we had an upgrade so they threw a whole bunch of old PC's away. I took one for this use. The specs are as follows:

        Pentium 4 1.8Ghz
        384MB Ram
        DVD

        That's pretty much it. I've got a 400 and 250GB sata hard drive in my main pc which I would like to

      • About
        14/11/07
        Well, I've finally decided to do it. I'm putting together a new Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon server. I'd like to use it as a domain controller, file server, torrent runner, media server and backup server. I might put a few more uses on it later.

        I'll slowly but surely rolling o