Tech & Toys
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amanda disk only backups
I’ve just found this quite usefull in setting up amanda to do disk only backups.
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Forcing a linux NIC to a particular setting
To force a linux nic to 100Meg Full Duplex for example:
[root@ sm-b01 network-scripts]# mii-tool eth0: no autonegotiation, 100baseTx-HD, link ok eth1: no autonegotiation, 100baseTx-HD, link ok [root@sm-b01 root]# mii-tool -F 100baseTx-FD eth0 [root@sm-b01 root]# mii-tool -F 100baseTx-FD eth1 [root@sm-b01 root]# mii-tool eth0: 100 Mbit, full duplex, link ok eth1: 100 Mbit, full duplex, link okUPDATE: I have since discovered that mii-tool doesnt support gigabit ethernet NICs, to force these to a particular setting, or to see what setting they have auto-negotiated use
ethtool, which is included in RedHat 9, but if you dont have it you can get it from Source Forge.ethtoolcan be used to set and get the current state:[root@mon-b01 root]# ethtool eth1 Settings for eth1: Supported ports: [ TP MII ] Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full Supports auto-negotiation: Yes Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full Advertised auto-negotiation: No Speed: 100Mb/s Duplex: Full Port: Twisted Pair PHYAD: 1 Transceiver: internal Auto-negotiation: off Supports Wake-on: puag Wake-on: g Link detected: yes [root@mon-b01 root]# ethtool -s eth1 speed 100 duplex fullUPDATE: Have found this post which explains how to set the duplex and speed settings permanently on RedHat 9, although will probably work for most distributions.
The options you can pass to the network drivers (for the e100 module) are well documented here (Broken link
http://www.scyld.com/network/eepro100.html) and most of the other network drivers are documented back (Broken linkhttp://www.scyld.com/network/index.html#pci) a page.
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iSync and Sony Ericsson P900 problems
Remove everything from this directory, apart from 2 files:
/Library/Application Support/SyncService/501(501 being by uid). The two files to keep are:
BTConduitDefaults.plist SymbianConduitDefaults.plistThe latter was full of shite so I made it look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple. com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <array> <dict> <key>kNSSyncDeviceID</key> <string>00-0a-d9-e8-b7-3a</string> <strong><---- change this to your mac address</strong> <key>kNSSyncDeviceName</key> <string>P900</string> <key>kNSSyncDeviceShouldSlowSyncCalendars</key> <true/> <key>kNSSyncDeviceShouldSlowSyncContacts</key> <true/> <key>kNSSyncDeviceUseCalendars</key> <true/> <key>kNSSyncDeviceUseContacts</key> <true/> </dict> </array> </plist>Then try to repair the phone, it should find it and so does iSync.
Thanks to Steve for this fix
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Perl CPAN reconfiguration
To reconfigure CPAN:
% towel root # perl -MCPAN -e shell cpan shell -- CPAN exploration and modules installation (v1.59_54) ReadLine support available (try 'install Bundle::CPAN') cpan> o conf init /usr/lib/perl5/5.6.1/CPAN/Config.pm initialized. CPAN is the world-wide archive of perl resources. It consists of about 100 sites that all replicate the same contents all around the globe. Many countries have at least one CPAN site already. The resources found on CPAN are easily accessible with the CPAN.pm module. If you want to use CPAN.pm, you have to configure it properly. If you do not want to enter a dialog now, you can answer 'no' to this question and I'll try to autoconfigure. (Note: you can revisit this dialog anytime later by typing 'o conf init' at the cpan prompt.) Are you ready for manual configuration? [yes]
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Dlink DSL 504 Port forward
I regularly add port forwards to our adsl router from the CLI, but I never remember how…
robin@eddie robin $ <strong>telnet 192.168.254.254</strong> Trying 192.168.254.254... Connected to 192.168.254.254. Escape character is '^]'. password: logged on; type `@close' to close connection. 192.168.254.254> <strong>nat</strong> 192.168.254.254 nat> <strong>inbound list</strong> # Interface Port/EndPort/LocalPort/proto New_IP_Addr State Comment Flags 1 ppp_device 22/ 22/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.100 enabled tcp22 2 ppp_device 6257/ 6257/ 0/udp 192.168.254.10 enabled udp6257 3 ppp_device 4662/ 4662/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.10 enabled udp4662 4 ppp_device 4672/ 4672/ 0/udp 192.168.254.10 enabled tcp4672 5 ppp_device 3389/ 3389/ 3389/udp 192.168.254.10 enabled RDP 6 ppp_device 9192/ 9192/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.100 enabled camserv 7 ppp_device 4711/ 4711/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.10 enabled tcp4711 8 ppp_device 3389/ 3389/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.10 enabled bob 9 ppp_device 25/ 25/ 25/tcp 192.168.254.100 enabled smtp 10 ppp_device 53/ 53/ 53/udp 192.168.254.99 enabled dns 11 ppp_device 4712/ 4712/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.10 enabled tcp4712 12 ppp_device 6699/ 6699/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.11 enabled tcp6699 13 ppp_device 6698/ 6698/ 0/udp 192.168.254.11 enabled udp6698 14 ppp_device 80/ 80/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.100 enabled tcp80 15 ppp_device 8080/ 8080/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.12 enabled tcp8080 16 ppp_device 3283/ 3283/ 3283/udp 192.168.254.12 enabled appleremote 17 ppp_device 21/ 21/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.100 enabled tcp21 (ALG) 18 ppp_device 20/ 20/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.100 enabled tcp20 19 ppp_device 11809/ 11809/ 11809/tcp 192.168.254.11 enabled msmsgs (192.168.254.11:11809) 11809 TCP 20 ppp_device 7997/ 7997/ 7997/udp 192.168.254.11 enabled msmsgs (192.168.254.11:7997) 7997 UDP 21 ppp_device 15503/ 15503/ 15503/udp 192.168.254.10 enabled msmsgs (192.168.254.10:15503) 15503 UDP 22 ppp_device 9519/ 9519/ 9519/tcp 192.168.254.10 enabled msmsgs (192.168.254.10:9519) 9519 TCP 192.168.254.254 nat> <strong>inbound help add</strong> add <i/f name> <port>/<end_port>/<localport>/<proto> <new IP> <state> <comment>- add a rule 192.168.254.254 nat> <strong>inbound add ppp_device 3283/3283/3283/tcp 192.168.254.12 enabled appleremotetcp</strong> 192.168.254.254 nat> <strong>inbound list</strong> # Interface Port/EndPort/LocalPort/proto New_IP_Addr State Comment Flags 1 ppp_device 22/ 22/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.100 enabled tcp22 2 ppp_device 6257/ 6257/ 0/udp 192.168.254.10 enabled udp6257 3 ppp_device 4662/ 4662/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.10 enabled udp4662 4 ppp_device 4672/ 4672/ 0/udp 192.168.254.10 enabled tcp4672 5 ppp_device 3389/ 3389/ 3389/udp 192.168.254.10 enabled RDP 6 ppp_device 9192/ 9192/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.100 enabled camserv 7 ppp_device 4711/ 4711/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.10 enabled tcp4711 8 ppp_device 3389/ 3389/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.10 enabled bob 9 ppp_device 25/ 25/ 25/tcp 192.168.254.100 enabled smtp 10 ppp_device 53/ 53/ 53/udp 192.168.254.99 enabled dns 11 ppp_device 4712/ 4712/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.10 enabled tcp4712 12 ppp_device 6699/ 6699/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.11 enabled tcp6699 13 ppp_device 6698/ 6698/ 0/udp 192.168.254.11 enabled udp6698 14 ppp_device 80/ 80/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.100 enabled tcp80 15 ppp_device 8080/ 8080/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.12 enabled tcp8080 16 ppp_device 3283/ 3283/ 3283/udp 192.168.254.12 enabled appleremote 17 ppp_device 21/ 21/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.100 enabled tcp21 (ALG) 18 ppp_device 20/ 20/ 0/tcp 192.168.254.100 enabled tcp20 19 ppp_device 11809/ 11809/ 11809/tcp 192.168.254.11 enabled msmsgs (192.168.254.11:11809) 11809 TCP 20 ppp_device 7997/ 7997/ 7997/udp 192.168.254.11 enabled msmsgs (192.168.254.11:7997) 7997 UDP 21 ppp_device 8804/ 8804/ 8804/udp 192.168.254.10 enabled msmsgs (192.168.254.10:8804) 8804 UDP 22 ppp_device 14288/ 14288/ 14288/tcp 192.168.254.10 enabled msmsgs (192.168.254.10:14288) 14288 TCP 23 ppp_device 3283/ 3283/ 3283/tcp 192.168.254.12 enabled appleremotetcp 192.168.254.254 nat> <strong>config save</strong> Saving configuration...Configuration saved. 192.168.254.254 nat> <strong>@close</strong> Connection closed by foreign host.
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Linux PPTP server
This week I will be mainly fooling with VPN’s. First off is a PPTP server so the Windows 2k and XP laptops can connect. I’ve found this little daemon which seems to work perfectly well for XP, 2K machines and my Mac OS X (10.1.3) Powerbook and Imac.
The only fiddly bits with installing poptop is that you need a patched up version of pppd so that you can support all the of Microsoft extensions and force the link to be encrypted.
The first step in creating my pptp server was to install a recent patched up version of pppd, which I found here. Installing this is as easy as installing any other RPM and required no post installation fiddling.
Next up was to install the MPEE (Microsoft Point-to-Point Encryption) support, this comes as a set of kernel modules from the pptpclient project. Their documentation, and download page is here. I used this (Broken link
http://pptpclient.sourceforge.net/mppe/kernel-mppe-2.4.20-20.9smp.i686.rpm) rpm, because our RedHat 9 machine had been patched up to the2.4.20-20.9kernel and is a SMP box.The final bit of software needed to make all this work was the actually poptop binaries, I could not find a RPM for these so I had to install them from source. Rather than using their current (1.1.4-b4) beta I prefered to use the current stable release (1.1.3) which can be downloaded from here. When I install an application from source I always install the application in accordance to the OFA (Optimal Flexible Architecture) standard, more details of which can be found on Dannys (Broken link
http://www.alphazed.co.uk/admin/ofa.php) site. Rather than just unpack the source and run./configure && make && make installas root I use a couple of simple scripts, so that the compile is repeatable and at a later date I can tell exactly what options were used. Below is my Build scriptgunzip -c pptpd-1.1.3-20030409.tar.gz | tar xvf - cd poptop ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/app/poptop-1.1.3 makeand the Install script:
cd poptop make installOnce poptop was installed I needed to write a couple of simple config files, the options and how all this fits together is documented very well on the poptop home page in their Documentation section, so I will not explain all the options here, but I will include my config files for reference:
/etc/pptpd.conf
speed 115200 option /etc/ppp/pptp-options debug localip 10.1.1.100-199 remoteip 10.1.2.100-199 listen 213.52.209.13 pidfile /var/run/pptpd.pid/etc/ppp/pptp-options
debug name pptp domain install.mydomain auth refuse-pap refuse-chap refuse-mschap require-mschap-v2 require-mppe ms-dns 172.16.2.11/etc/ppp/chap-secrets
myusername pptp mypassword 10.1.2.100The final bit of the puzzle was to sort out a nice redhat style start stop script, I couldnt find an existing one so I’ve written one, which you can grab here (Broken link ~~http://milliwaysconsulting.net/useful.things/downloads/pptpd.sh~~).
After the daemon has been started its a simple matter of configuring your 2k/XP clients to connect. A nice tutorial of how to configure 2K can be found here.
One last note, if you are connecting to a machine which runs iptables or some similar firewall you will need to allow PPTP into the machine, we run a iptables firewall on our PPTP server, the following rules will allow it through:
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --destination-port 1723 -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p 47 -j ACCEPTThat is all I needed to do to get my clients connecting. It should be noted that the clients were all behind adsl routers (Dlink DSL 504, with forward PPTP turned on), More work needs to be done if your clients are behind a linux NAT box.
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Making htpasswd files in windows
Several of my hosting customers have asked about creating htpasswd files in windows. I’ve found this (Broken link
http://help.bnsi.net/htpasswd/htpasswd.php) howto which also links to thehtpasswd.exe.
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ssh2 keys howto
Found this (Broken link
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~pkeck/ssh/) page, has some usefull information wrt single use keys
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DJB Software broken with glibc 2.3.1
I just tried to compile daemontools (Broken link ~~http://cr.yp.to/daemontools/~~), ucspi-tcp (Broken link
http://cr.yp.to/ucspi-tcp/) etc on RedHat 9 and found that they all error in a similar way, complaining abouterrno.hApparently its caused by RedHat using glibc-2.3.1, some nice fellow has created patches for all the djb tools here (Broken link
http://qmail.cbn.net.id/moni.csi.hu/pub/glibc-2.3.1/)Read more here (Broken link
http://qmail.cbn.net.id/moni.csi.hu/pub/glibc-2.3.1/README)
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Addressbook export
I just needed to export a load of contacts from addressbook into some app which doesnt understand vcards. Found this ute:
http://gwenhiver.net/applications/addressbookexporter/index.php