Debian Lenny: Start a VirtualBox Headless Machine as a service with an init script
So, you installed Virtualbox 3.2 on your Debian Lenny system with a bridged network, and you assigned an IP via your router, and now you want your headless VM to start with a /etc/init.d/ script.
What to do. What to do.
Well, you could use the skeleton provided by the Debian developers that's in the /etc/init.d directory. and modify it.
Or, you could copy the script below, name it, change the important variables, chmod it to 755, and then update-rd.d with defaultst. It works great!
#!/bin/bash
## Script to run VirtualBox as a service on GNU/Linux
Debian Lenny: How to Audit and Build SELinux modules to allow specific actions.
This is more of a placeholder for me - the original source is on fedoraunity and if you're using fedora, go there. I'm have both Fedora and Debian Lenny w/SELinux installed, and SELinux management is the same. (I just prefer Debian's sanity)
To be able to load the module into the kernel you must be root and be in root's home. Also, there are packages you need for building the modules. It is also recommended you use "auditd". The main package you will need to build the modules is "checkpolicy".
aptitude install checkpolicy
To install auditd:
Debian Lenny: Setting SELinux policy so apache can talk to zope
If using SELinux, you must customize the enforcement policy to allow Apache to connect to Zope. You may either audit the actions and build a policy or use the one here. This policy applies to Debian Lenny SELinux targeted. The following will allow apache to connect to zope:
module zope 1.0;
require {
class tcp_socket name_connect;
type http_cache_port_t;
type httpd_t;
};
allow httpd_t http_cache_port_t:tcp_socket name_connect;
Fedora 12 RAID1 fails to boot to /dev/md0 when /md0 is mounted as /boot
If you install Fedora 12 with /boot on a RAID array - either as its own partition or as part of a root partition that is on a RAID array - and also install the bootloader to that partition rather than to the system MBR, the partition will not be marked as bootable, as it should be. This renders the installed Fedora unbootable. To work around this issue, you must manually mark the appropriate partition as bootable with a tool such as fdisk.
This bug should be fixed for Fedora 13 releases (anaconda-13.8-1 or greater).
Debian Lenny Grub install fails when /boot is on a RAID1 device
I noticed something on my Debian Lenny box that runs software RAID1 that struck me. At one time, I had a drive (sdb) fail. When I was testing sdb with sda unattached, sdb wouldn't boot because the MBR of sdb didn't have a record. That was odd, because Debian installed fine with with /dev/md0 as /boot, and grub installed without failure, and tail /proc/mdstat showed that the drives were UU. I thought that I was fine.
Oh... what was I thinking.
Fedora 12 and HP DV9700 series laptop w/Broadcom Wireless
Okay, life at the lake house got interesting yesterday.
I installed Fedora 12 (i686 PAE version) on an HP laptop. Unlike Ubuntu, which loaded and configured the broadcom wireless card without error, Red Hat's anaconda was a real pain in the butt. I found that there is a PAE kernel module for the broadcom wireless card. Once installed, and module loaded (I rebooted just to be sure that I was done with configuration), all was well.
So, what did I do?
sudo yum search broadcom
Norton Removal Tool equals success
Okay, I'm a computer geek. I admit it. Sad thing, most of my friends know the same thing. "Jeff is a computer geek" - it's not that I'm complaining, but I'm often called upon to help when some dork in India or the Philippine Islands working for a cheap ass company messes up a friends computer..
How to Install Fonts in Debian Lenny
Part of my long migration from Windows to Linux took a leap forward today. I've been using Debian now for about 2 years, and I would say that I am nearly 100% MS free. If I dumped games, and gave up Adobe and Sony products - I could walk away without ever needing Windows again..
Today, all I wanted to do was to add some fonts. I have the TrueType (TTF) files available that I used for years in Windows, and I wanted to install them and edit a PNG with GIMP.
The solution is simple If you're using GNOME::
1. hit <CTRL>-L with the desktop visible, or in a nautilus window
2. enter fonts:// and hit <ENTER> - you should see icons/list of all the fonts installed
3. open another nautilus window, navigate to the location of the TTF file you want to install
4. drag and drop the TTF file into the fonts windowDone.
I opened GIMP, opened my graphic file, and then looked for the font that I added... and wala. Success.
Awesome, amazing, and simple. I'm learning more and more that often the answer in LInux is simple, it's just a matter of learning a new way of doing things, which is often more simple that I imagined.
Dog Sight
Dogs are not color blind - they see color, but their chromatic acuity is significantly less than humans'. This is for two reasons: (1) dogs have far fewer cone cells in their retina (cone cells are responsible for seeing color); and (2) dogs are dichromatic (they see only two primary colors - blue and yellow) whereas humans are trichromatic, meaning we see three primary colors - red, blue, and green.