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Stella GNU/Linux 6.5

7th December 2013
Hello, following the release of CentOS 6.5 earlier I'm pleased to announce the release of updated Stella ISOs carrying the same version numbers - 6.5.

Download the 32 bit ISO or the 64 bit one (more mirrors available from the project's page).

If you are interested in more details you should check out the RHEL 6.5 release notes:
https://www.redhat.com/about/news/press-archive/2013/11/red-hat-launches-latest-version-of-red-hat-enterprise-linux-6
https://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html-single/6.5_Release_Notes/index.html

Enjoy! :-)
Tags: 6.5, linux, stella. | No comments

Setting up Confluence behind mod_proxy

19th November 2013
I've recently tried to set up Confluence behind Apache HTTPD (mod_proxy) and it did not go as smoothly as the Atlassian docs suggest.

Here's what needs doing:
1 - Go here and download the 64 bit Linux installer (I'm on Centos 6 64bit)
2 - Make it executable and execute it, use the default values when asked or what you think is appropriate
3 - If you want to use a MySQL DB download this and extract from it mysql-connector-java-5.1.27-bin.jar, putting it in /opt/atlassian/confluence/confluence/WEB-INF/lib/ on the server
4 - Restart Confluence: service confluence restart
5 - Go to http://confluence.example.com:8090 and finish the setup, then go in Confluence Admin -> General Configuration and edit the Site Configuration Edit, updating Server Base Url to match the subdomain you want to use in the end, e.g. http://confluence.example.com or https://confluence.example.com if you want SSL. Save the settings.
6 - Enable proxing in Apache httpd; edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and modify your virtualhost such that it looks like this:
<VirtualHost 12.34.56.78:443>
DocumentRoot "/var/www/confluence"
ServerName confluence.example.com
SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /path/to/server.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /path/to/server.key
ProxyRequests Off
ProxyPreserveHost On
ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8090/
ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8090/
</VirtualHost>
7 - Edit /opt/atlassian/confluence/conf/server.xml and add this in the Connector's line: proxyName="confluence.example.com" proxyPort="443" scheme="https" so that it resembles this
8 - Restart both httpd and confluence services
9 - Go to https://confluence.example.com and enjoy!
Tags: apache, atlassian, centos, confluence, howto, mod_proxy, proxy. | No comments

10 years of SELinux

15th November 2013
Apparently the EL and Fedora world has been using SELinux for 10 years now. It also made it in Debian.
Here's a very nice article about it:
 We are celebrating the SELinux 10th year anversary this year. Hard to believe it.
 SELinux was first introduced in Fedora Core 3 and later in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. 
 For those who have never used SELinux, or would like an explanation...

 SElinux is a labeling system. Every process has a label. 
Every file/directory object in the operating system has a label.
Even network ports, devices, and potentially hostnames have labels assigned to them. 
 We write rules to control the access of a process label to an a object label like a file. We call this policy. The kernel enforces the rules.
Sometimes this enforcement is called Mandatory Access Control (MAC). 

 The owner of an object does not have discretion over the security attributes of a object.
Standard Linux access control, owner/group + permission flags like rwx, is often called Discretionary Access Control (DAC).
SELinux has no concept of UID or ownership of files. Everything is controlled by the labels. Meaning an SELinux system can be setup without an all powerful root process.
Read more ...
Tags: linux, security, selinux. | No comments

Cloudstack 4.2.0 is out!

2nd October 2013
The Apache foundation announces version 4.2 of Cloudstack cloud platform!
There are loads of new interesting features, check them out:

http://cloudstack.apache.org/docs/en-US/Apache_CloudStack/4.2.0/html/Release_Notes
Tags: cloud, cloudstack, kvm. | No comments

Non-ergonomic ergonomic keyboards

25th August 2013
After many years of extensive computer use my body is starting to complain through various pains in various places.

I have looked into investing in appropriate, ergonomic equipment and having bought a Steel Case chair, I'm now looking for a good, ergonomic keyboard and am really disappointed with my findings.

Virtually all sub-£100 keyboards that I found are sporting a bad design. Observe this Microsoft keyboard (like all Microsoft keyboards):

Have you noticed it yet?


It's the numpad. It's too big and should not exist. I don't care about the numpad, I can use the other numeric keys.
It should not exist because in order to use the mouse my hand needs to move 20-40 cm, back and forth and back and forth, countless times per day. This is not good for my aching hand.

99% of the so called ergonomic keyboards have this problem. The ones that do not are the Kinesis Advantage Ergonomic Contoured Keyboard and the Truly Ergonomic Mechanical Keyboard (there may be others that I missed), but they are quite expensive.

I wonder, what would happen to that keyboard if you physically cut off the numpad?


PS: And of course, this has been tried already, successfully! I really like the Truly Ergonomic, but I think I'll try the cheap way first and see how it goes. :-)
Tags: ergonomic, keyboard, stupid. | No comments

Mailpipe - taking e-mail back

4th August 2013
Just stumbled upon Mailpipe and I love the idea behind it.
It's basically modern, beautiful, functional webmail software that wants to take on GMail and the likes while providing the same quality features and more (e.g. PGP).
Feel free to support them here:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mailpile-taking-e-mail-back
Tags: email, freedom, mailpipe, privacy. | No comments

Star Trek is so very much current - "I don't like what we've become"

3rd August 2013
I was watching the other day Star Trek TNG, "The Drumhead" episode and I just couldn't believe how current their problems are
(I'm talking about the whole ACTA/Surveillance/Spy/Censor the internet stuff and not only).

Enjoy a bunch of scences and some epic acting from Patrick Stewart below:

http://dl.nux.ro/video/drumhead/drumhead.mp4

I highly recommend you watch the whole episode (and the whole series). :-)
Tags: fuck this shit, startrek. | No comments

Cloudstack Centos 6 template

26th June 2013
Everytime I installed Cloudstack I had to limit my tests to the bundled Centos 5.5 template, which is not the best one around.
For this reason I created a nice and clean minimal CentOS6 64bit template that has the password and ssh key init scripts installed and functional.
You can download it from here: http://li.nux.ro/download/cloudstack/images/

Make sure to consult the README file.
Tags: centos, cloudstack, el6, template. | No comments

Fixing get_iplayer's "RTMP_ReadPacket, failed to read RTMP packet header - raw code = 256"

11th June 2013
As of last week I've been having problems downloading my favourite programmes via get_iplayer.
Turns out BBC made some changes to IPlayer and get_iplayer lags behind so I am getting some of the below:
ERROR: WriteN, RTMP send error 10054 (42 bytes)
ERROR: RTMP_ReadPacket, failed to read RTMP packet header
INFO: Command exit code 1 (raw code = 256)


Until the get_iplayer developers issue a new version that fixes the problem you can fix it temporarily by running: 
get_iplayer --prefs-add --rtmp-tv-opts="--swfVfy=http://www.bbc.co.uk/emp/releases/iplayer/revisions/617463_618125_4/617463_618125_4_emp.swf"


Source: https://github.com/dinkypumpkin/get_iplayer/wiki/swfurl
Tags: bbc, get_iplayer, iplayer, rtmpdump. | No comments

Cloudstack 4.1.0

7th June 2013
A couple of days ago the Apache foundation has released Cloudstack version 4.1.0 which brings a lot of new interesting stuff:
An API discovery service that allows an end point to list its supported APIs and their details.
Added an Events Framework to CloudStack to provide an “event bus” with publish, subscribe, and unsubscribe semantics. Includes a RabbitMQ plugin that can interact with AMQP servers. Introduces the notion of a state change event.
Implement L3 router functionality in the Nicira NVP plugin, and including support for KVM (previously Xen-only).
API request throttling to prevent attacks via frequent API requests.
AWS-style regions.
Egress firewall rules for guest networks.
Resizing root and data volumes.
Reset SSH key to access VMs.
Support for EC2 Query API.
Autoscaling support in conjunction with load balancing devices such as NetScaler.

Looking forward to testing it.
Download from here: http://cloudstack.apt-get.eu/rhel/4.1/
The original announcement here:
https://blogs.apache.org/cloudstack/entry/apache_cloudstack_4_1_0

PS: one can use this for a simple deployment: https://github.com/penguin2716/autoinstall_cloudstack/blob/master/README.org.
Tags: cloud, cloudstack, kvm. | No comments