Linux Tales

Linux!

This is a page detailing my current projects, findings, useful links etc. as regards Linux & Unix System Administration. The cat links above are my direct connection to PSU Computer Action Team main pages - see cat1 and cat3 only.

Useful links:
Unix Compressed files - extracting all types
http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_core_3_installation_notes.html
http://www.linux-sxs.org/internet_serving/apache2.html
http://sunsolve.sun.com/data/805/805-2682/html/chap2.install.doc.html
http://www.insecure.org/
http://www.webmin.com
http://www.siliconvalleyccie.com - VERY GOOD online eBook on linux configuration!
My Fujitsu Linux project webpage
Pocket PDA Linux website

Blog????

June 14 - 2am l think...

I've currently completed re-installing Centos4 on my Dell Server - see --> eBox . My 3 yr old faithful W2000 aka Zelda file server with about 120Gb of shared stuff for my home intranet and business (no not just mp3 files) finally died - the fan blew out! Got to get another box entirely. My W2003 box aka Zion runs Windows 2003 advanced server box still works flawlessly as does the Small Business Server box. Zeus is a dual P2 with 1Gb RAM and 2 SCSI drives 8+17Gb.

I've also succesfully installed Webmin on Zeus which is the linux box running Centos4- which l find very very useful and loaded with GUI mini apps for administering your linux server. Now l can easily make changes to essential services such as apache, mysql and postgres.
I'm thinking of crash testing my mysql box by dumping the entire wikipedia database which is about 26Gb - its amazing that you can download an entire "open source knowledge" bank. See http://www.wikipedia.org

June 28th
So much for the ECE department - last year l didnt get the internship to Germany. This year it was down to me and someone else and we would have a week to be in Germany, get visas and all - then it was finally cancelled!.

Very very annoying build of MySQL this week on a Sun Solaris box - seems su as root doesnt have the same functionality as with linux. All because l have to edit permissions to /etc/my.cnf!
Switched from FC3 to Centos 4.1 on my linux partition on my laptop - this Dell 6000 blows away my previous Inspirion 8100 on mobility and battery life, not to talk about costing half what l paid 2-3yrs ago for the Inspirion.
Working on smoothwall and configuring a Cisco Wireless Bridge AP for an installation in africa! Communicating with my colleagues/client over there by email and IM.
Discovered another useful linux gui application - something l always wanted in linux - firestarter - which allows you to configure internel connection sharing as well as firewall just like smoothwall, though smoothwall is mainly for firewall/wireless access points.

Click on the highlighted text to be directed to related websites.

8/20/05

Attended the rocket launch at Bend Oregon - great! see pictures on pictures menu.

Working on getting my Intel BG2200 wireless card to work with FC3 - so far no success, but my orinoco wireless card works with it. The Dell Inspirion sees the Intel card but delays activating it.

Had issues with FC4 and Centus 4.1 on my laptop. Needed sound +++ other stuff which fails on installing FC4 and lots of websites comment it might be a hardware issue with the Inspirion 6000. Trick - l reinstalled FC3 and upgraded the kernel and everything seems to work. Also rebuilt/installed kde 3.4.2 and Gnome 2.1 which come as standard w/FC4

8/5/05

Working on the PHP/MySQL code behind http://www.ece.pdx.edu/~ieee website which l help maintain. Kept getting this annoying error after a user registers, authenticates and wants to login. Found a solution at: http://www.geeklog.net

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This problem is actually listed in the "common problems" section of the installation instructions, but many users only seem to run into it when they start configuring their site after the initial setup. So here we go again:

This is commonly known as the "whitespace problem".

The error message typically looks something like

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /path/to/geeklog/public_html/config.php:581) in /path/to/geeklog/public_html/system/lib- sessions.php on line 180

(line numbers and file names may vary). The problem is that many editors seem to add additional blanks (spaces) and/or empty lines at the end of a file when you edit it. This so-called whitespace is then sent to the browser when the file is loaded and interferes with the header of a page that Geeklog tries to send to the browser, often causing problems such as login problems.

The fix is, obviously, to remove that whitespace from the file. Read the error message carefully. It says "output started at ..." followed by a file name and a line number. That is the file (and line) that you need to edit. Ignore the second file name - that is only a file that included the file that has the whitespace. The first file is the one you have to edit, not the second one.

Since the editor you've been using caused this problem in the first place, you should use another editor to fix the problem and remove the whitespace. See this and this forum thread for some recommendations for editors to use on Windows. Unix/Linux users can't go wrong with vi.

--
You can do what you want, if you don't think you can't,
So dont think you can't if you can. -Charles Inge