My notes.

Elonex Webbook screen issue

2010-01-14T17:49:00.014Z

I got hold of an used old (2008) Elonex Webbook during my holidays with windowz install and as it was free I didn't complained and was really happy for it.

The specs are quite cool:

CPU type VIA C7-M 1600 MhzDisplay Size 10.2" 1024 X 600
RAM 512 MB
Hard Disk 80 GB
Wireless Interfaces 802.11b/g
Ethernet 10/100
Battery run time 2.5 hours
Other Webcam, 3-in-1 memory card reader. 3 USB Ports.
Weight 1304gm
Size (w/h/d mm) 252/183/33 mm

Below a picture (sorry about the quality) of the webbook:

I never thought of having a netbook if I could get a laptop with all the toys but apart of getting used to the keyboard (full qwerty but rather small and keep pressing the wrong keys) I quite like it.

The first week as I was away I used it with Windowz and was impressed for the response time. Will not support loading all the Adobe Premier collection but to walk around, sit on a coffee shop, park bench and surf the web, respond that last email, check the doc/xls file or chat is quite good.

Once back home the first thing I do was upgrade the RAM to 1GB with a spare DIMM I had. Checking the web I found people trying to use 2GB but only 1 seems to be recognized.

Second thing was install Ubuntu. I downloaded Ubuntu Network Remix 9.10 (UNR from now on) and it after a long installation time, it came up with everything running.. or walking. UNR 9.10 make it really slow. I tried to remove packages but not luck. The webbook took ages to move around applications or moving the mouse around to launch something.

As being so slow wouldn't be of any use for me, I decided to go for Ubuntu 8.04 as this was the release that I found the webbook was first offered. By the way it was sold in the UK by the carphone warehouse as free when subscribing to a 3G plan.

Installing Ubuntu/Xubuntu 8.04/8.10/9.04 was simple but with a problem. The screen was dead. Completely blank. The only way to keep using it was connecting an external monitor to the VGA output.

Surfing around I found some posts to change the xorg.conf config (will post it later) it didn't not bring life back to the screen. Neither was trying to download the video driver from VIA in Taiwan or upgrading the openchrome ubuntu package of the versions I installed using apt-get.

The solution was to download the tar.gz of the latest openchrome driver, compile it and install it manually.

The process was as follows:

a) download xf86-video-openchrome-latest.tar.gz from http://www.openchrome.org/trac/wiki/Installation.
b) follow the steps to untar/compile/install
c) tar xvzf xf86-video-openchrome-latest.tar.gz
d) cd xf86-video-openchrome-0.2.904/
e) ./configure --prefix=/usr
f) make
g) sudo -h make install
h) sudo make install
i) close your windows. get out of x (Ctrl+Alt+BkSP) and start x again (startx). Or just simple reboot the laptop.

After this you have lights on the webbook screen but nothing the rate is not ok and cannot see anything. You need now to change your xorg.conf as follows:

rb@rbwebbook:~$
rb@rbwebbook:~$ cd /etc/X11/
rb@rbwebbook:/etc/X11$ more xorg.conf

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "OpenChrome"
Option "PanelSize" "1024x600"
Option "ForcePanel"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

The key settings here are PanelSize and ForcePanel to make it work.

Below is an picture of the screen working!

As always this post is more for me to remember how to fix this in the future.

Mark Shuttleworth chat

2009-10-06T17:58:00.002+01:00

Went to a Mark Shuttleworth talk in the London BT building near St. Paul's cathedral. The chat was about open source in the enterprise and was a good chance to hear someone who actually made his own company and is helping the Linux community.

Installing VirtualBox Guest Additions on Centos

2009-08-07T13:35:00.005+01:00

Notes from:
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=4960

Log in as root and type in terminal:

yum install gcc -y
yum install kernel sources -y
yum install kernel-devel -y

Restart the system.
Mount the VboxGuestAdditions.iso.
Move to the following directory:

cd /media/VBOXADDTIONS_2.2.4_47978

As root execute:

sh ./VBoxLinuxAddtions-x86.run

Restart the system again and good luck!

Home wirelss network with a Cisco Aironet 1130AG

2009-02-19T18:15:00.007Z

The office drop a Cisco Aironet 1130ag as they upgraded to a newer release and I was able to get hold of it. I am still trying to learn more about Cisco and hope to have my CCNA in a few months and I tested this new toy with great success..

To start, I flatshare and the broadband connection in my place is shared with other people. The access point from my ISP is on a comon room and I use wireless desktops and laptops. My test environement for the Aironet was the following:

This is read as follows:

I use an Ubuntu box as my desktop connected to the "home" wireless network. This desktop has a nic connected to a small 100Mbits switch on a "private" network. To this switch I connected a small Cisco 805 (also discarded away by my company) that I use to play with "cisco" and as DHCP server. Also connected to the switch I have a Winblowz desktop to run those win32 applications I cannot get rid off and I connected the Cisco Aironet 1130AG to it. The Ubuntu desktop is my gateway to the "home wireless network".

I know I could use the Ubuntu box also as DHCP but .... I wanted to play with Cisco and once that was working (quite easy by the way). I never removed it.

Now.. the plan was to have my private wireless network away from my "flatmates" that I could use with my laptop. At the same time I wanted to surf the net so using the existing configuration would allowed me connect to the "private wireless network" by the Aironet, use the Ubuntu box as gateway (as I do from the windoze box) and jump to the "house wireless network" to get into the internet.

All this was quite easy. Old post on this site shows how to configure the Ubuntu box as gateway and how to configure the Cisco 805 as DHCP server and now will write down the configuration of the Cisco Aironet 1130AG I used (that I got from this site).

To start...

a) connected a console cable to the Aironet and to your pc serial port. I used the ubuntu box and minicom.

b) connected the aironet to the switch using a straight through cable.

c) powered on the aironet and log in with privileged mode. It seems the default password is "Cisco".

d) to have WEP enabled just configure the following:

dot11 ssid myssid
authentication open
guest-mode
!
dot11 network-map
power inline negotiation prestandard source
!
!
username Cisco password 7 1531021F0725
!
bridge irb
!
!
interface Dot11Radio0
no ip address
no ip route-cache
!
ssid myssid
!
speed basic-1.0 basic-2.0 basic-5.5 basic-11.0
station-role root
rts threshold 2312
bridge-group 1
bridge-group 1 subscriber-loop-control
bridge-group 1 block-unknown-source
no bridge-group 1 unicast-flooding
bridge-group 1 spanning-disabled
!
interface Dot11Radio1
no ip address
no ip route-cache
!
ssid myssid
!
no dfs band block
channel dfs
station-role root
rts threshold 2312
bridge-group 1
bridge-group 1 subscriber-loop-control
bridge-group 1 block-unknown-source
no bridge-group 1 source-learning
no bridge-group 1 unicast-flooding
bridge-group 1 spanning-disabled
!

The aironet has 2 anthenas Dot11Radio1 and Dot11Radio0 for 802.11a/b/g and they are bridged to fastehternet0 therefore the ip given by the DHCP server is also the same for the wireless interfaces.

As you can see that was it.. quite simple but I guess once I get on with my CCNA and start knowing more about Cisco config I will be able to do more interesting stuff... (radius authentification for example).

This was as good thing to play with and I am sure I will be able to use the Aironet wireless in a best example in the future as right now is just to play around.

Links:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/access_point/12.3_7_JA/configuration/guide/s37frst.html#wp1036371

My notes on Virtualbox in Windows xp

2009-01-10T11:12:00.006Z

I installed Virtualbox 2.1.0 on my Windowz laptop (new office laptop with +3GB the ram) and I will install Debian etch images on it.

The "host" software installation is quite simple and the "guest" installation is straight forward both on Windowz or Debian.

One note, during setup try set the directory where to install the virtualbox images (.vdi files) on a c:\virt_images directory or similar. The reason is that the default is in your %HOMEDRIVE%HOMEPATH%\.VirtualBox\Hardrives directory that works fine but if you try to clone it using the vboxmanage clonehd the name will bring up some errors.

Example:

C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox>vboxmanage clonehd C:\Documents/and/Settings\username\.VirtualBox\HardDisks\debian_1.vdi C:\Documents/and/Settings\username\.VirtualBox\HardDisks\debian_2.vdi
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.1.0
(C) 2005-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

[!] FAILED calling virtualBox->OpenHardDisk2(src, srcDisk.asOutParam()) at line
372!
[!] Primary RC = VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80BB0005) - Runtime subsystem error
[!] Full error info present: true , basic error info present: true
[!] Result Code = VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80BB0005) - Runtime subsystem error
[!] Text = Could not get the storage format of the hard disk 'C:\Documents\and\Settings\username\.VirtualBox\HardDisks\debian_1.vdi' (VERR_PATH_NOT_FOUND)
[!] Component = HardDisk2, Interface: IHardDisk2, {ed6e2525-c2fd-42a4-917a-7a9045ac9e15}
[!] Callee = IVirtualBox, {339abca2-f47a-4302-87f5-7bc324e6bbde}

C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox>

You can solve this by simple adding "" on the file paths

C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox>vboxmanage clonehd "C:\Documents and Settings\username\.VirtualBox\HardDisks\debian_1.vdi" "C:\Documents and Settings\username\.VirtualBox\HardDisks\debian_2.vdi"
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.1.0
(C) 2005-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
Clone hard disk created in format 'VDI'. UUID: e78ab4e8-5666-4bea-a592-b277265c5b19

C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox>

Moving forward, once Virtualbox is installed you can install Debian as normal on one of the images. It will ask for a name, type (linux, windows, etc), memory amount and hard disk image. As it is a new installation we create a new one.

Debian installation is as normal and you shouldn't have any problem. Note I change the networking settings from "NAT" to "host interface" so I can have an IP from my dhcp server and be able to ssh to the "virtual disk".

Once you have Debian installed you need to install "Virtualbox Guest Additions" on it. This was the tricky part for me, the host box would have an iso that can be mounted "dinamically" by going to the "Devices/Install Guest Addtions" guest window menu and it should mount the iso automatically on /media/cdrom but it my case it didn't work. To solve this I install ssh - apt-get install ssh - and copy the iso image from my windows host to the debian guest.

Next I did a:

apt-get install gcc
apt-get install build-essential module-assistant

Next step is buidling the kernel modules

m-a prepare

Next mount the iso file sftp before to you disk:

debvirt01:~# mount -o loop -t iso9660 /home/ricardo/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso /media/cdrom

And finally run the Virtualbox setup:

debvirt01:~# cd /media/cdrom
debvirt01:/media/cdrom# ls
32Bit VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run VBoxWindowsAdditions-amd64.exe
64Bit VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe
AUTORUN.INF VBoxSolarisAdditions.pkg VBoxWindowsAdditions-x86.exe
debvirt01:/media/cdrom# sh /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 2.1.0 Guest Additions for Linux installation.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
VirtualBox 2.1.0 Guest Additions installation
Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel module...
Building the shared folder support kernel module...
Installing the VirtualBox Guest Additions...

Could not find X.org or XFree86 on the guest system. The X Window drivers
will not be installed.
debvirt01:/media/cdrom#

Ok, that's it. It should fully work now (The x window drivers message is due the fact I didn't install anything else on my original debian install)

To check the modules are running you can do the following:

debvirt01:~# dmesg | grep vbox
vboxadd: Successfully loaded version 2.1.0 (interface 0x00010004)
vboxvfs: Successfully loaded version 2.1.0 (interface 0x00010004)
debvirt01:~#

user@debvirt01:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
vboxvfs 41504 0
vboxadd 62816 2 vboxvfs
user@debvirt01:~$

Last thing, I couldn't boot the the image cloned from the original. Both grub and lilo fails to boot and I don't know who to restore fix it. I am trying to find out how to boot with a rescue disk on the "virtual" box and try to restore grub but couldn't find out how yet. Any notes let me know..

---- out of topic -----

Debian Lenny has packages that helps on the process above but when addng the repository on source.lists and running an apt-get update we get the following error:

debvirt01:/etc/apt# apt-get update
W: GPG error: http://download.virtualbox.org etch Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY DCF9F87B6DFBCBAE
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
debvirt01:/etc/apt#

This error is the following: "Those are just letting you know the GPG keys arent saved to the disk. The mastering process for some reason deletes the additional keys.....The problem being the sites change gpg codes constantly.."

To solve it just run the following command:

debvirt01:/etc/apt#
wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/sun_vbox.asc \
-O- | sudo apt-key add -

You will be able to run apt-get update normally and therefore retrieve the necessary virtualbox packages.

Other link with details:

http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/11/27/virtualbox-puel-ubuntu.html

Adding a css to my blog

2009-01-04T22:56:00.006Z

I noticed that I don't find optimal to find what is commands entry from clear text on my blog so surfing around I found this css entry that I am will start applying whenever I enter a command or code to the page.

On Blogger, on the Layout tab I selected "edit html" and added the following:

/* Added by RB
----------------------------------------------- */

.command{ padding:1em;
border:1px
dashed #2f6fab;
color:black;
background-color:#f9f9f9;
line-height:1.1em;
font-family:Courier New,Courier,mono;
font-size:12px;
font-style:italic
}

Example:

tar -xzvf speex-1.2rc1.tar.gz

Adding Speex codec on Asterisk Installation

2008-12-28T19:15:00.001Z

During the installation before compiling asterisk (this can be done after dadhi and libpri) download the souce of speex from http://speex.org/downloads/ into /usr/src/

The installation is quite simple:

tar -xzvf speex-1.2rc1.tar.gz
cd speex-1.2rc1
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
make install
ldconfig
cd ..

Dadhi installation

2008-12-26T18:30:00.004Z

New asterisk install, this time zaptel is replaced by dahdi. The installation is quite simple just download the files from asterisk.org on /usr/src, untar files and run the following:

cd /usr/src/dahdi-linux-2.1.0.3#
make clean
make
make install

cd /usr/src/dahdi-tools-2.1.0.2#
./configure
make
make install
make config

Two files to check /etc/dahdi/system.conf and /etc/dahdi/init.conf. On the fist one change zone to UK.

After this as I am not running any voice hardware you can run:

modprobe dadhi
modprobe dadhi-dummy

And a lsmod | more will show the following output:

Module Size Used by
dahdi_dummy 5224 0
dahdi 186280 1 dahdi_dummy

Dadhi README notes available at:
http://svn.digium.com/view/dahdi/tools/tags/2.0.0-rc2/UPGRADE.txt?view=co

Error on Cisco 805 boot (boot#..)

2008-12-25T16:27:00.003Z

I use a small Cisco 805 as dhcp server in my house. After a power failure the system started with the following prompt:

user@user-desktop:~$ minicom

Welcome to minicom 2.3-rc1

OPTIONS: I18n
Compiled on Dec 10 2007, 10:36:19.
Port /dev/ttyS0

Press CTRL-A Z for help on special keys

TinyROM version 1.4(1)
19:37 11/07/00
Copyright (c) 1998-2000 by cisco Systems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

POST .............. OK. 16MB DRAM, 12MB Flash.

boot#
boot#

Honestly don't know what this is and the commands available were:

boot# help
boot Execute image or CLI command script.
delete Deletes file-name from flash (8th delete is permanent).
disable Disable privileged commands.
echo Display arguments (to test CLI behavior).
enable Enable privileged or debug commands.
erase Erase deleted and invalid files from flash.
help Display help for command (* for all).
list List files currently in ram and saved in flash.
load Load saved boot environment from flash.
passwd Set or change the ROM password.
reset Reset console port to current parameters.
set Set boot environment values.
save Save boot environment or loaded file to flash.
show Show current or saved boot environment.
upload Load image or configuration data into RAM.
undelete Undelete file-name (maximum of 8 deletes & undeletes).
boot#

Luckily googling around I found this page from cisco: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/ts/fn/200/fn27475.html that shows what to do to recover the system.

The command "set" will show the device config and which file it will be use to boot. The output of the set command show that I didn't have any boot image.

boot# set
set baud =9600
set data-bits =8
set parity =none
set stop-bits =1
set console-flags =0
set mac-address =000B.BE48.D887
set unit-ip =0.0.0.0
set serv-ip =0.0.0.0
set netmask =0.0.0.0
set gate-ip =0.0.0.0
set pkt-timeout =4
set tftp-timeout =16
set boot-action =none
set file-name =""
set watchdog =off
set prompt ="boot"
set ios-conf =0xA0
boot#

The second command to use is "list" that shows what you have saved on the ROM. I could find the ios image preset to boot from. Using the "set" command you configure the router to boot using the cisco image like follows:

boot# list
Status Size Dev Name
------ 48K flash TinyROM-1.4(1)
---r-- 911 flash full-config
---r-x 7529K flash c805-xxxx-5.bin
4480K free 12288K total
boot#

The list showed the c805-xxxx.bin being present, using set I change the boot-action and file-name settings:

boot# set boot-action=flash
boot# set file-name="c805-xxxx-5.bin"

Once done just use the "save" command to (guess...) save the configuration and finally "boot" to load the ios into memory.

boot# save
save: succeeded (0 seconds).
boot# boot
Accessing flash:c805-xxxx-5.bin

Booting "c805-xxxx-5.bin" ...,

After the "Booting c805......" message the system starts as normal.

H.323 delay in outbound dialling

2008-12-01T18:47:00.003Z

Last week users reported a long delay when dialling out from their SIP extensions. My setup is quite simple.

Avaya PBX connected to the outside world - H323 Trunk to Asterisk - Asterisk connected to SIP users using softphones from their macs/linux laptops (all this because Avaya don't have a decent softphone for macs/linux yet).

The logs for a few test calls showed a 60+ seconds delay from the time the call was dialled to the time the call was placed over the H323 ip trunk between Avaya and Asterisk.

After checking that it was not a sip problem, dialling problem, h323 trunk problem by checking logs, tcpdump, avaya trunk side, etc. I concluded the problem was on the h323 setup on Asterisk.

Googling around I found only 1 case of a user asking on the asterisk user list about a similar problem and that he fixed the problem by "disable h323 srv lookups".

I honestly didn't have about srv-enum-etc but helped me find out the problem. My DNS was not resolving any request because it was down. It didn't matter that on /etc/resolve.conf I had 4 dns entries, the first one was down and it was enough to stop this.

It seems h323 does a srv lookup for enum information before dialing out and possible it can be disabled. I couldn't find how unfortunately so to fix this I had to point the box to another dns server on my network. Once this was done all starting working again.

Just in case I am copying some logs of what I was seeing when the problem was present.

[Nov 28 15:34:09] VERBOSE[10584] logger.c: -- Executing [myavayaextension@default:1] Dial("SIP/myasteriskextension-081b5bc8", "H323/myavayaextension@Avaya") in new stack
[Nov 28 15:34:09] VERBOSE[10584] logger.c: -- Requested transfer capability: 0x00 - SPEECH
------------------- 64 seconds delay -----------------
[Nov 28 15:35:13] VERBOSE[10584] logger.c: -- Called myavayaextension@Avaya
[Nov 28 15:35:13] VERBOSE[10584] logger.c: -- H323/Avaya-31 is making progress passing it to SIP/myasteriskextension-081b5bc8
[Nov 28 15:35:13] VERBOSE[10584] logger.c: -- H323/Avaya-31 is ringing
[Nov 28 15:35:17] VERBOSE[10584] logger.c: -- H323/Avaya-31 answered SIP/myasteriskextension-081b5bc8
[Nov 28 15:35:18] VERBOSE[10584] logger.c: == Spawn extension (default, myavayaextension, 1) exited non-zero on 'SIP/myasteriskextension-081b5bc8'

[Nov 28 15:19:52] VERBOSE[10551] logger.c: -- Executing [myavayaextension@default:1] Dial("SIP/myasteriskextension-081b5bc8", "H323/myavayaextension@Avaya") in new stack
[Nov 28 15:19:52] DEBUG[10551] chan_h323.c: type=H323, format=8, data=myavayaextension@Avaya.
[Nov 28 15:19:52] DEBUG[10551] chan_h323.c: Extension: myavayaextensionHost: Avaya
[Nov 28 15:19:52] DEBUG[10551] chan_h323.c: Calling to myavayaextension@Avaya on H323/Avaya-30
[Nov 28 15:19:52] VERBOSE[10551] logger.c: -- Requested transfer capability: 0x00 - SPEECH
[Nov 28 15:19:52] DEBUG[10551] chan_h323.c: Placing outgoing call to myavayaextension@192.168.58.216:1720, 101
[Nov 28 15:19:52] VERBOSE[10551] logger.c: -- Making call to myavayaextension@192.168.58.216:1720 without gatekeeper.
[Nov 28 15:19:52] VERBOSE[10551] logger.c: Using 192.168.58.227 for outbound call
------------------- 64 seconds delay -----------------
[Nov 28 15:20:56] VERBOSE[10551] logger.c: == New H.323 Connection created.
[Nov 28 15:20:56] VERBOSE[10551] logger.c: -- root is calling host myavayaextension@192.168.58.216:1720
[Nov 28 15:20:56] VERBOSE[10551] logger.c: -- Call token is ip$localhost/9446
[Nov 28 15:20:56] VERBOSE[10551] logger.c: -- Call reference is 9446
[Nov 28 15:20:56] VERBOSE[10551] logger.c: -- DTMF Payload is [pt=101]
[Nov 28 15:20:56] VERBOSE[10551] logger.c: -- Called myavayaextension@Avaya

Notes:
myasteriskextension
myavayaextension = my 5 digit extension on the avaya pbx.

Start asterisk on boot

2008-06-15T20:06:00.002+01:00

I always forget how to start asterisk manually. The steps after installation are:

myserver:/etc/init.d# cp /usr/src/asterisk-1.4.21/contrib/init.d/rc.debian.asterisk /etc/init.d/asterisk

myserver:/etc/init.d# cd /etc/init.d/

myserver:/etc/init.d# ls asterisk
asterisk

myserver:/etc/init.d# chmod 755 asterisk

myserver:/etc/init.d# update-rc.d asterisk defaults
Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/asterisk ...
/etc/rc0.d/K20asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
/etc/rc1.d/K20asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
/etc/rc6.d/K20asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
/etc/rc2.d/S20asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
/etc/rc3.d/S20asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
/etc/rc4.d/S20asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
/etc/rc5.d/S20asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk

myserver:/etc/init.d#

Private network with Ubuntu and Cisco router as dhcp server

2008-06-15T07:50:00.004+01:00

I share my internet connection at my house and I wanted to set up my own network to connect my laptops with the desktops. Using the wireless was not the best option to transfer large files between systems therefore I set up a small network.

The "house" network is on the 192.168.0.0/24 and connects to the internet, my private network is on the 192.168.1.0/24. The devices are connected through a 10/100 switch and except one PC the ip are set by a dhcp server (I don't have more than 5 pcs at the time).

My main pc is an Ubuntu desktop with 2 network cards.
wlan0 - connects to the internet through a wireless router. Uses network 192.168.0.0/24
eth0 - ethernet card to use on my private network. Uses network 192.168.1.0/24

First check your iptables.. run the command iptables -L

user@pc:~$ sudo iptables -L
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
user@pc:~$

This shows the table is empty. Now to enable internet sharing on the Desktop PC I run the following rules:

$sudo iptables -A FORWARD -i wlan0 -o eth0 -s 192.168.1.0/24 -m state --state NEW -j ACCEPT
$sudo iptables -A FORWARD -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
$sudo iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -j MASQUERADE

rule1 allows forwarded packets (initial ones)
rule2 allows forwarding of established connection packets (and those related to ones that started)
rule3 does the NAT

Running iptables -L now shows the following:

user@pc:/home$ sudo iptables -L
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
ACCEPT all -- 192.168.1.0/24 anywhere state NEW
ACCEPT all -- anywhere anywhere state RELATED,ESTABLISHED

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
user@pc:/home$

This change is only valid until next reboot, therefore we need to make it permanent. Read the links at the of this post but what I did was the following.

a. First save the current configuration on a local file by running:

sudo sh -c "iptables-save > /home//iptables.rules"

Many post I read suggest saving the file on /etc/iptables.rules but in my case the file was not being saved at all. Checking logs I found messages of "permission denied" when the system was trying to save the file therefore I used my own directory that I guess is not the best option regarding security.

Another note found was that this process was done on every shutdown. I my case I did it once and will use the same file for every reboot. If I need to change something I will do it live and save the file again.

b. Second set a small script to load the file save with the iptables configuration on boot. This can be done by creating a little shell on the /etc/network/if-pre-up.d directory named iptaload.

user@pc:/etc/network/if-pre-up.d$ ls -l
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 65 2009-01-06 20:46 iptaload
user@pc:/etc/network/if-pre-up.d$

The file iptload reads as follows:

user@pc:/etc/network/if-pre-up.d$ more iptaload
#!/bin/sh
iptables-restore < /home//iptables.rules
exit 0
user@pc:/etc/network/if-pre-up.d$

Now at this stage you changed your iptables and should work on every reboot.

Next configure the gateway for routing between two interfaces by enabling IP forwarding. First check the current state using:

cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

It will show either a 0 or a 1 where:

0=disabled
1=enabled

If the value is 0 to enable it run the following command:

sudo sh -c "echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward"

Many webpages mention that to make the above change permanent you need to edit /etc/sysctl.conf and add these lines:

net.ipv4.conf.default.forwarding=1
net.ipv4.conf.all.forwarding=1

And run the command:

sudo sysctl -p

That gives the following output:

user@pc:~$ sudo sysctl -p
kernel.printk = 4 4 1 7
kernel.maps_protect = 1
fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 524288
vm.mmap_min_addr = 65536
net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1
net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 1
user@pc:~$

You should now see new forward state using cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward and the change should persist after reboot but the sysctl -p didn't work on my case.

Again another trick, I edited the /etc/rc.local file to execute the change of the ip_forward value on boot. Some people run this with cron every x minutes.. don't know why so often. The rc.local file looks as follows:

user@pc:/etc$ more rc.local
#!/bin/sh -e

sh -c "echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward"
exit 0
user@pc:/etc$

At this stage you should have a pc that can forward packets from your eth0 that is the private network to your wlan0 that is the "public" network, but remember that your pc does not do DHCP or DNS (at least mine, you can set that up too) so I also set up a DHCP server on an old Cisco 805 router, set the IP of the router to 192.168.1.2 and added a dhcp server config as follows:

ip dhcp excluded-address 192.168.1.1
ip dhcp excluded-address 192.168.1.2
!
ip dhcp pool mynetwork
network 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0
default-router 192.168.1.1
dns-server 192.168.0.1
!

Where 192.168.1.1 is the ip of my Ubuntu PC and 192.168.1.2 is the ip assigned to the Cisco router.

Why use the Cisco switch? Is it really necessary? No it is not. I know that the ubuntu desktop could also be the dhcp server, and dns server or forward the dns setup of my isp but this gives me a reason to start playing with cisco routers. Next plan is to connect it to a 1700, a pc on that end access the internet from it.

The following link - where I copied this from - shows the step mentioned above and gives more examples and a better explanation about it:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Internet/ConnectionSharing?action=show&redirect=InternetConnectionSharing

and

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/IptablesHowTo

Cisco Switch 3500XL: password recovery

2008-05-06T11:15:00.004+01:00

I found one Cisco Catalyst 3500 XL on the storage room, haven't been used for a while therefore we will play with it. After reboot I noticed it has a password (as it should) on it so the first step is to change it (I am sure the networking guys would not mind :) )

The process is as follows:
Cisco official information:
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/474/pswdrec_2900xl.html

My notes:
Turn on the power of the Catalyst 3500XL while pressing the "MODE" button. Wait until the light on port 1 is off (and the rest still on). You should see the following information:

C3500XL Boot Loader (C3500-HBOOT-M) Version 12.0(5.2)XU, MAINTENANCE INTERIM SOF
TWARE
Compiled Mon 17-Jul-00 18:42 by ayounes
starting...
Base ethernet MAC Address: 00:04:c1:c4:ed:10
Xmodem file system is available.

The system has been interrupted prior to initializing the
flash filesystem. The following commands will initialize
the flash filesystem, and finish loading the operating
system software:

flash_init
load_helper
boot

switch: flash_init --------------> run the "flash_init" command
Initializing Flash...
flashfs[0]: 112 files, 3 directories
flashfs[0]: 0 orphaned files, 0 orphaned directories
flashfs[0]: Total bytes: 3612672
flashfs[0]: Bytes used: 2776576
flashfs[0]: Bytes available: 836096
flashfs[0]: flashfs fsck took 3 seconds.
...done Initializing Flash.
Boot Sector Filesystem (bs:) installed, fsid: 3
Parameter Block Filesystem (pb:) installed, fsid: 4
switch: load_helper --------------> run the "load_helper" command
switch: dir flash: --------------> run the "dir flash:" command (colon included)
Directory of flash:/

2 -rwx 1645807 c3500XL-c3h2s-mz-120.5.2-XU.bin ----> current image loaded
3 -rwx 94680 c3500XL-diag-mz-120.5.2-XU
4 drwx 6784 html
111 -rwx 272 env_vars
112 -rwx 1020 vlan.dat
114 -rwx 25 snmpengineid
115 -rwx 5606 config.txt
116 -rwx 3436 config.text ----> configuration file loaded

836096 bytes available (2776576 bytes used)
switch:
switch: rename flash:config.text flash:config.old -----------> backup the current configuration file
switch: dir flash:
Directory of flash:/

2 -rwx 1645807 c3500XL-c3h2s-mz-120.5.2-XU.bin
3 -rwx 94680 c3500XL-diag-mz-120.5.2-XU
4 drwx 6784 html
111 -rwx 272 env_vars
112 -rwx 1020 vlan.dat
114 -rwx 25 snmpengineid
115 -rwx 5606 config.txt
116 -rwx 3436 config.old

836096 bytes available (2776576 bytes used)
switch:

switch: boot -----------> run the "boot" to initialize the system. The image will be loaded but no configuration file will be found forcing the system to enter into setup mode.

Loading "flash:c3500XL-c3h2s-mz-120.5.2-XU.bin"...##############################
################################################################################
#############################################

File "flash:c3500XL-c3h2s-mz-120.5.2-XU.bin" uncompressed and installed, entry p
oint: 0x3000
executing...

Restricted Rights Legend

Use, duplication, or disclosure by the Government is
subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph
(c) of the Commercial Computer Software - Restricted
Rights clause at FAR sec. 52.227-19 and subparagraph
(c) (1) (ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer
Software clause at DFARS sec. 252.227-7013.

cisco Systems, Inc.
170 West Tasman Drive
San Jose, California 95134-1706

Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software
IOS (tm) C3500XL Software (C3500XL-C3H2S-M), Vers
TERIM SOFTWARE
Copyright (c) 1986-2000 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Mon 17-Jul-00 18:29 by ayounes
Image text-base: 0x00003000, data-base: 0x00301F3C

Initializing C3500XL flash...
flashfs[1]: 112 files, 3 directories
flashfs[1]: 0 orphaned files, 0 orphaned directories
flashfs[1]: Total bytes: 3612672
flashfs[1]: Bytes used: 2776576
flashfs[1]: Bytes available: 836096
flashfs[1]: flashfs fsck took 3 seconds.
flashfs[1]: Initialization complete.
...done Initializing C3500XL flash.
C3500XL POST: System Board Tes
C3500XL POST: Daughter Card Test: Passed
C3500XL POST: CPU Buffer Test: Passed
C3500XL POST: CPU Notify RAM Test: Passed
C3500XL POST: CPU Interface Test: Passed
C3500XL POST: Testing Switch Core: Passed
C3500XL POST: Testing Buffer Table: Passed
C3500XL POST: Data Buffer Test: Passed
C3500XL POST: Configuring Switch Parameters: Passed
C3500XL POST: Ethernet Controller Test: Passed
C3500XL POST: MII Test: Passed
cisco WS-C3548-XL (PowerPC403) processor (revision 0x01) with 16384K/1024K bytes
of memory.
Processor board ID XXXHNNHHXXX, with hardware revision 0x00
Last reset from power-on

Processor is running Enterprise Edition Software
Cluster command switch capable
Cluster member switch capable
48 FastEthernet/IEEE 802.3 interface(s)
2 Gigabit Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 interface(s)

32K bytes of flash-simulated non-volatile configuration memory.
Base ethernet MAC Address: 00:04:c1:c4:ed:10
Motherboard assembly number: 73-3903-07
Power supply part number: 34-0971-01
Motherboard serial number: XXXNNNNNXXX
Motherboard serial number: XXXNNNNNXXX
Model revision number: A0
Motherboard revision number: B0
Model number: WS-C3548-XL-EN
System serial number: XXXHNNHHXXX
C3500XL INIT: Complete

00:00:34: %SYS-5-RESTART: System restarted --
Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software
IOS (tm) C3500XL Software (C3500XL-C3H2S-M), Version 12.0(5.2)XU, MAINTENANCE IN
TERIM SOFTWARE
Copyright (c) 1986-2000 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Mon 17-Jul-00 18:29 by ayounes

--- System Configuration Dialog ---

At any point you may enter a question mark '?' for help.
Use ctrl-c to abort configuration dialog at any prompt.
Default settings are in square brackets '[]'.

Continue with configuration dialog? [yes/no]: n -----------> Enter "n" to not use the configuration dialog
Press RETURN to get started. -----------> PRESS ENTER

Switch>
Switch>enable -----------> Run the "enable" command to go into Privileged mode.
Switch#dir flash: -----------> Check the flash to see the "config.old" file is there.
Directory of flash:/

2 -rwx 1645807 Jul 18 2000 01:47:40 c3500XL-c3h2s-mz-120.5.2-XU.bin
3 -rwx 94680 Jul 18 2000 01:47:40 c3500XL-diag-mz-120.5.2-XU
4 drwx 6784 Jul 18 2000 01:47:41 html
111 -rwx 272 Jan 01 1970 00:00:21 env_vars
112 -rwx 1020 Mar 08 1993 04:11:03 vlan.dat
114 -rwx 25 Mar 17 2005 13:29:07 snmpengineid
115 -rwx 5606 Mar 01 1993 00:39:03 config.txt
116 -rwx 3436 Mar 08 1993 02:48:59 config.old

3612672 bytes total (836096 bytes free)
Switch#rename flash:config.old flash:config.text -----------> Restore the config.old to config.text
Destination filename [config.text]? -----------> PRESS ENTER
Switch#

Switch#rename flash:config.old flash:config.text
Destination filename [config.text]?
Switch#copy flash:config.text system:running-config -----------> Copy the configuration file into memory
Destination filename [running-config]? -----------> PRESS ENTER

Switch#
Switch# -----------> At this point you can run a "show running" command to check the configuration of the switch

witch#config t -----------> Enter the "config t" command to enter the configuration global mode.
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Switch(config)#enable secret secret -----------> change the enable password
Switch(config)#enable password password -----------> change the password password
Switch(config)#line vty 0 15 -----------> change the telnet password
Switch(config-line)#password telnet
Switch(config-line)#login
Switch(config-line)#^Z
Switch#
Switch#config t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Switch(config)#line con 0
Switch(config-line)#password console -----------> change the console password
Switch(config-line)#^Z
Switch#
Switch#write memory -----------> Save configuration into memory
Building configuration...
Switch#

Done, reboot the switch and now you have full access.

Cisco Routers - Basic notes

2008-05-06T08:46:00.003+01:00

I am playing with Cisco routers now, this are be my notes:

Internal Components:

RAM. Random access memory. This is the working buffer memory.
ROM. Read only memory. contains bootstrap process and basic (most of times) IOS for basic functionality (as recover password)
FLASH MEMORY. Stores full image of IOS.--
NVRAN. non valitle RAM. Does not loose power when turn off.
- start up configuration file

Boot process:

a. Power on
b. Power on Self Test (POST) (check memory, and cards).
c. bootstrap from ROM
d. looks in FLASH for IOS
e. loads the IOS into RAM from FLASH
f. IOS looks for configuration in NVRAM
f.1 If found it load the IOS into FLASH Memory
f.2 If not found executes teh auto setup mode (menu driven system).

Contexts:
router> ----> user mode (show config, telnet, basic)
router# ----> priviliged mode (show commands, pings, save config, backup)
router(config)# ----> global configuraiton mode (configuration interfaces, security, hostname)
Control - Z is to move from global configuration mode to priviliged mode.

Conectivity:
console port password -----> line con 0
auxiliary port password ---> line aux 0
telnet password -----------> line vty 0 4

Set up a passwords:
On the glboal configuration mode run the following commands to set up a password for the enable command:

router(config)# enable password xxxxxxxxxxx (sets the password but it is shown on screen)
router(config)# enable secret xxxxxxxxxxxxx (sets an encrypted enable password, once secret is enabled password by itself don't work anymore)

To set up password for different access:

router#
router(config)#line console 0 | line auxiliary 0 | line vty 0 4
router(config-line)# login (to ask for prompt)
router(config-line)# password xxxxxxxxxxxxx (to set up the passwod)
control-Z

To encrypt all passwords runt the following command:
router(config)service password-encryption

To set up a banner:
router(config)#banner motd $ message message message $
(Note $ is the delimeter and can be anything, just check to have spaces at the end and beginning)

Setting up an IP on an ehternet port:
A show running-config shows that I have one fastethernet port not configured, set as:
interface FastEthernet0
no ip address
shutdown
speed auto

I will change it to:

interface FastEthernet0
no ip address
shutdown
speed auto

To do this run:

1721-router#config t ---------> to enter global configuraiton mode
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
1721-router(config)#interface f0 ----> to enter configuration of fastethernet 0
1721-router(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.3 255.255.255.0
1721-router(config-if)#no shutdown ----> to activate
1721-router(config-if)#
*Mar 1 07:56:30.838: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface FastEthernet0, changed state top ----> that means I have physical connectivity
*Mar 1 07:56:31.838: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEther,change to up ------> shows I have encapsulation. Connections to another host.
1721-router#ping 192.168.1.1 ----> to test that is working I ping a pc on the network
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 192.168.1.1, timeout is 2 seconds:
.!!!!
Success rate is 80 percent (4/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/1/1 ms
1721-router#

To save the configuration:
router#copy running-config start-config ----> for IOS version 12 and above
router#write memmory ---------> before IOS version 12

Example:
1721-router#copy run star
Destination filename [startup-config]?
Building configuration...
[OK]
1721-router#

To backup config:
router#copy run tftp --> this copy the running configuration TO the tftp server (will ask for details)
router#copy tftp run/start --> this copy the running configuration FROM the tftp server (will ask for details)
(NOT TESTED YET)

my passwords:
enable password/secret
console console
aux aux
telnet1-4 telnet
telnet0 telnet0

Notes on my D-Link DWL-G520+ with Ubuntu 8.04

2008-05-04T17:57:00.003+01:00

Don't recall how I install the board, I think that I just plug it in and Ubuntu did it's magic (long gone the days of having to install modules, recompile kernels, etc).

So the board was recognized but when I tried to log into my wireless network my pc froze, halted, stop working, didn't answer, etc. . The process was quite simple, turn on the pc and on the nm-applet select the essid of my home network. Enter the key or passphrase and done.

The problem starts at this moment, the pc is complete frozen. No mouse, ctrl-alt-backspace, ast-f1/f9, ssh to it, nothing.. no response at all. Therefore the next step was to unplug it and start again but after the 3rd attempt it was obvious that there was a problem somewhere.

My guess is that the nm-applet is trying to execute itself without sudo therefore a pop up asking for the password should appear but that never happened and the pc goes into frozen mode waiting for somebody/something to enter the sudo password to continue. (at least that is my theory). To go around this what I did was to add the details manually on the configuration file. The steps are below:

The D-Link DWL-G520+ is recoganized as follows:
richard:/etc/network$ lspci
05:09.0 Network controller: Texas Instruments ACX 111 54Mbps Wireless Interface
40:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 01)
richard$

on /etc/network/interfaces you enter the following settings for your wlan0.

richard:/etc/network$ more interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless-key
wireless-essid
richard:/etc/network$

Finally you restart you network devices:

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

and done.. that connects you to your home wireless network. (forget about the eht0, that is for something else).

If somebody reads this, follow it as last resource. Google quite a lot first and when you find the correct solution let me know.

good luck.

Tips to register to freenode irc (ubuntu and asterisk)

2008-05-04T17:00:00.005+01:00

Notes from http://www.wikihow.com/Register-a-User-Name-on-Freenode

1. Join the Freenode network. Open your favorite IRC client and type:
/server irc.freenode.net

2. Idintfiy your nick.
/msg NickServ IDENTIFY

3. Change your user name to the user name you have chosen. Suppose you chose the nick "rocketship". Type the following in the window titled Freenode:
/nick rocketship

4. Register your nick or user name. Type the following command and replace "your_password" with a password that will be easy to remember.
/msg nickserv register your_password

5. Associate a valid email address with your user name. This step is important because it will allow you to assign a new password in case you forget the current one. Type the following:
/msg nickserv set email your-email

If you want your email address to remain private, use the following command:
/msg nickserv set hide email on

6. Register an alternate nickname using the same password. If you would like to register an alternate nickname, repeat the same procedure, using steps 2 to 4.

7. Link your two user names. This will make your two nicknames function as one in various ways. For example, you will not have to sign in each time you wish to change your nickname. Many people change their nicknames to a variant that indicates that they are absent. The linked nicknames will also share memos (messages sent through MemoServ), access to channels, etc. Type the following, when you are using your secondary nickname:
/msg nickserv link your_primary_nick your_password

8. Identify with Nickserv. Each time you connect, you should sign in, or "identify" yourself, using the following command:
/msg nickserv identify your_password

ragblogin+unitedkingdon+argentina

How to Play Encrypted DVDs in Hardy

2008-04-27T14:18:00.002+01:00

In order to play DVDs you need to install the Medibuntu Repository and a couple of packages.

This will add the Medibuntu repository to your repository lists
In a terminal type:
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

Then you have to add the GPG Key to authentic the packages
In a terminal type:
wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Now update your system to load the Medibuntu repository into your apt-get sources
sudo apt-get update

Download the DVDs playback packages
In a terminal type:
sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 libdvdread3

Read usb pen drive on ubuntu server

2008-04-25T16:35:00.002+01:00

Insert pen drive and cehck the file below to see how the USB stick is being recognized:

sudo vi /var/log/messages

Apr 25 17:46:29 lmnuknet03 kernel: [19465.773928] usb 4-5: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
Apr 25 17:46:29 lmnuknet03 kernel: [19465.927909] usb 4-5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Apr 25 17:46:29 lmnuknet03 kernel: [19465.993713] usbcore: registered new interface driver libusual
Apr 25 17:46:29 lmnuknet03 kernel: [19466.008173] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Apr 25 17:46:29 lmnuknet03 kernel: [19466.010379] scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Apr 25 17:46:29 lmnuknet03 kernel: [19466.011834] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
Apr 25 17:46:29 lmnuknet03 kernel: [19466.011843] USB Mass Storage support registered.
Apr 25 17:46:34 lmnuknet03 kernel: [19470.992039] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 PMAP PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
Apr 25 17:46:35 lmnuknet03 kernel: [19471.530326] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 977664 512-byte hardware sectors (501 MB)
Apr 25 17:46:35 lmnuknet03 kernel: [19471.531203] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Apr 25 17:46:35 lmnuknet03 kernel: [19471.533813] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 977664 512-byte hardware sectors (501 MB)
Apr 25 17:46:35 lmnuknet03 kernel: [19471.534442] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Apr 25 17:46:35 lmnuknet03 kernel: [19471.534473] sdb: sdb1
Apr 25 17:46:35 lmnuknet03 kernel: [19471.535263] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
Apr 25 17:46:35 lmnuknet03 kernel: [19471.535315] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0

Create a directory where to mount the drive. Example is:
$mkdir /tmp/pen

Mount the pen drive on the new directory:
$sudo mount /dev/sdb1 -t auto /tmp/pen

Access the files:
$cd /tmp/pen

Tftp server ubuntu

2008-04-25T16:30:00.003+01:00

Install TFTT application:

apt-get install tftpd-hpa

Edit the following file as follows:

$sudo vi /etc/default/tftpd-hpa
# /etc/default/tftpd-hpa
RUN_DAEMON="yes" -----> CHANGED FROM "NO"
OPTIONS="-l -s /home/pxetero/"

Start the process:

$sudo /etc/init.d/tftpd-hpa start

Check the application is set up:

$sudo /etc/inted.conf
#:BOOT: TFTP Service is provided primarly for booting. Most sites
# run this only on machines as "boot servers".
tftp dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /usr/sbin/in.tftpd -s /var/lib/tftpboot

ntpadate/nagios

2008-04-17T23:53:00.008+01:00

Just a couple of notes..

Nagios --> after changes run:

582 /usr/local/nagios/bin/nagios -v /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg
583 /etc/init.d/nagios restart

Ntpdate --> run

595 ntpdate xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Nagios --> Configure Nagios to automatically start when the system boots.

#ln -s /etc/init.d/nagios /etc/rcS.d/S99nagios

Nagios --> add users
a) create the user
htpasswd /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users username
b) give rights to see hosts/services/etc.
vi /usr/local/nagios/etc/cfig.cfg

Asterisk TTS example on 1.4

2008-02-14T17:11:00.004Z

Following previous posts the following examples can be use to test the usage of TTS from the dialplan in Asterisk.

Example 1:
We set up small script that will be executed from the Asterisk dialplan. This script will take as parameter the text that will be transform to a wav file to later be played.

On extensions.conf configure the following extensions:

exten => 1222,1,Answer()
exten => 1222,n,Set(TEST="Welcome to TTS example")
exten => 1222,n,System(/tmp/test2.sh ${TEST})
exten => 1222,n,Playback(/tmp/test)
exten => 1222,n,Hangup()

On /tmp/test2.sh (add necessary rights to the file) configure the following shell script:

#!/bin/bash
#delete any previous file
/bin/rm -rf /tmp/test.wav

#Convert the text to a wav file
/opt/swift/bin/swift -o /tmp/test.wav -p audio/sampling-rate=8000,audio/channels=1 " $@"

#Don't run sox until swift is done
wait
/usr/bin/sox /tmp/test.wav /tmp/newtest.wav trim 7.5

#copy the old file with the trimmed file
/bin/cp /tmp/newtest.wav /tmp/test.wav

Sox is an application that allows you manipulate/convert audio files from the command line. The page with information about it is http://sox.sourceforge.net/. The installation is quite simple on Debian "apt-get install sox".

The content of the asterisk variable ${TEST} is send as parameters of the shell script. The script uses $1...$n as parameters but you can use $@ to use all the parameters sent. (there must be a better way!! to do this). The following line convert the text into a wav file and save it as /tmp/test.wav.

/opt/swift/bin/swift -o /tmp/test.wav -p audio/sampling-rate=8000,audio/channels=1 " $@"

Once we run it we use sox to trim the first 7.5 seconds of the file that we don't need for this test. This creates a new file named newtest.wav (original no?)

Finally we rename the file to the original name and is later played by asterisk dialplan with the command "exten => 1222,n,Playback(/tmp/test)"

Note this is just a demo/test/proof of concept. For production you should buy some licenses and evaluate the usage of the app_swift from Asterisk to improve this.

Example2:
Using the example below we create a demo "time of the day" service.

The configuration of the extensions.conf file is pretty much the same but we remove the commands to send a text to it.

exten => 1222,1,Answer()
exten => 1222,n,System(/tmp/test2.sh)
exten => 1222,n,Playback(/tmp/test)
exten => 1222,n,Hangup()

The script only has the details to get the different elements of the date from the unix system and concatenate them on a single string to be converted to wav file later by swift. The shell looks like this:

#!/bin/bash
hour=`date +'%l'`
am=`date +'%p'`
minute=`date +'%M'`
day=`date +'%d'`
month=`date +'%B'`
year=`date '+20%y'`

texto="The current time is $hour:$minute $am . Today is the $month-$day-$year "

#delete any previous file
/bin/rm -rf /tmp/test.wav

#Convert the text to a wav file
/opt/swift/bin/swift -o /tmp/test.wav -p audio/sampling-rate=8000,audio/channels=1 " $texto"

#Don't run sox until swift is done
wait
/usr/bin/sox /tmp/test.wav /tmp/newtest.wav trim 7.5

#copy the old file with the trimmed file
/bin/cp /tmp/newtest.wav /tmp/test.wav
#!/bin/bash

The played TTS can be improved to make it more user friendly.

Other date options:
man strftime
%A is replaced by the locale's full weekday name.
%a is replaced by the locale's abbreviated weekday name.
%B is replaced by the locale's full month name.
%b or %h is replaced by the locale's abbreviated month name.
%C is replaced by the century (a year divided by 100 and truncated to an integer) as a decimal number (00-99).
%c is replaced by the locale's appropriate date and time representation.
%D is replaced by the date in the format ``%m/%d/%y''.
%d is replaced by the day of the month as a decimal number (01-31).
%e is replaced by the day of month as a decimal number (1-31); single digits are preceded by a blank.
%H is replaced by the hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (00-23).
%I is replaced by the hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (01-12).
%j is replaced by the day of the year as a decimal number (001-366).
%k is replaced by the hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (0-23); single digits are preceded by a blank.
%l is replaced by the hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (1-12); single digits are preceded by a blank.
%M is replaced by the minute as a decimal number (00-59).
%m is replaced by the month as a decimal number (01-12).
%n is replaced by a newline.
%p is replaced by the locale's equivalent of either ``AM'' or ``PM''.
%R is replaced by the time in the format ``%H:%M''.
%r is replaced by the locale's representation of 12-hour clock time using AM/PM notation.
%T is replaced by the time in the format ``%H:%M:%S''.
%t is replaced by a tab.
%S is replaced by the second as a decimal number (00-60).
%s is replaced by the number of seconds since the Epoch, UCT (seemktime(3)).
%U is replaced by the week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number (00-53).
%u is replaced by the weekday (Monday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number (1-7).
%V is replaced by the week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number (01-53). If the week containing January 1 has four or more days in the new year, then it is week 1; otherwise it is week 53 of the previous year, and the next week is week 1.
%W is replaced by the week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number (00-53).
%w is replaced by the weekday (Sunday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number (0-6).
%X is replaced by the locale's appropriate time representation.
%x is replaced by the locale's appropriate date representation.
%Y is replaced by the year with century as a decimal number.
%y is replaced by the year without century as a decimal number (00-99).
%Z is replaced by the time zone name.
%% is replaced by `%'.

Cepstral Allison on Asterisk 1.4 Test

2008-02-14T15:54:00.004Z

Download the Ceptrals voice of your preference and system. I like Allison particularly better than the UK one.

Do the download on /usr/src.

lmntel01:/usr/src# wget http://downloads.cepstral.com/cepstral/i386-linux/Cepstral_Allison_i386-linux_4.2.1.tar.gz
--22:01:46-- http://downloads.cepstral.com/cepstral/i386-linux/Cepstral_Allison_i386-linux_4.2.1.tar.gz
=> `Cepstral_Allison_i386-linux_4.2.1.tar.gz'
Resolving downloads.cepstral.com... 216.92.127.89
Connecting to downloads.cepstral.com|216.92.127.89|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 107,474,833 (102M) [application/x-tar]

100%[========================================>] 107,474,833 1.15M/s ETA 00:00

22:03:26 (1.03 MB/s) - `Cepstral_Allison_i386-linux_4.2.1.tar.gz' saved [107474833/107474833]

lmntel01:/usr/src#

Untar the file and enter the directory:

lmntel01:/usr/src#tar -xzvf Cepstral_Allison_i386-linux_4.2.1.tar.gz
lmntel01:/usr/src#cd Cepstral_Allison_i386-linux_4.2.1

Execute the installation script:

lmntel01:/usr/src/Cepstral_Allison_i386-linux_4.2.1/#./install.sh

The installation process goes like this:

Do you agree to these terms? Enter -yes- to continue: yes

Install into what directory? [/opt/swift]

Swift will be installed in the following directories:

Voices in /opt/swift/voices
Shared libraries in /opt/swift/lib
Binaries in /opt/swift/bin
Configuration file in /opt/swift/etc
Header files in /opt/swift/include
Examples in /opt/swift/examples
Sound effects filters in /opt/swift/sfx
Documentation in /opt/swift/doc

Is this acceptable? Enter 'yes' to continue: yes

Installing libraries...

***************************************************************************
If you are installing Swift system-wide, you may need to add the following
line to /etc/ld.so.conf and run ldconfig as root:

/opt/swift/lib

(Otherwise, you will need to add it to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment
variable in order to run programs linked against the Swift libraries.)
***************************************************************************

Installing voice Allison...

Creating configuration...

Installing binaries...
Installing symbolic link to swift...
Installing man page...

Setting permissions...

Testing the installed swift binary...
/opt/swift/bin/swift -o /dev/null 'hello world'

***************************************************************************
****************** Installation Completed Successfully! *******************
***************************************************************************

lmntel01:/usr/src/Cepstral_Allison_i386-linux_4.2.1/#

After this you must restart Asterisk and after the reboot to confirm the installation run the command below and check the outpu.

lmntel01:/usr/src/Cepstral_Allison_i386-linux_4.2.1/#asterisk -rx "core show application swift"

-= Info about application 'Swift' =-

[Synopsis]
Speak text through Swift text-to-speech engine.

[Description]
Swift(text) Speaks the given text through the Swift TTS engine.
Returns -1 on hangup or 0 otherwise. User can exit by pressing any key.

-- Remote UNIX connection
rbast:~/Cepstral_Allison_i386-linux_4.2.1#

Also you can generate a TTS wav file on the command line by running:

To test the installation you can:
/opt/swift/bin/swift -o /tmp/test.wav -p audio/sampling-rate=8000,audio/channels=1 "This is a test."

And finally just create an extension on the context of your choice to play it:

exten => 1234,1,Answer()
exten => 1234,2,Playback(/tmp/test)
exten => 1234,3,Hangup()

You will notice that as there is not a license for this package you will hear an introduction message asking you to buy a license on Cepstral web site.

Asterisk Voicemail - Quick Exim4 notes

2008-02-09T01:32:00.000Z

After installing asterisk I set up the voicemail configuration. First un apt-get install exim4 and then run pkg-reconfigure exim4-config and follow the instructions.

After the configuration exim4 should restart itself but if not use /etc/init.d/exim4 restart.

Configure the voicemail.conf file as follows:

[general]
format=wav
serveremail=asterisk
attach=yes
skipms=3000
maxsilence=10
silencethreshold=128
maxlogins=3
pbxskip=yes
fromstring=Voicemail
emailbody=Dear ${VM_NAME}:\n\n\tjust wanted to let you know you were just left a ${VM_DUR} long message (number ${VM_MSGNUM})\nin mailbox ${VM_MAILBOX} from ${VM_CALLERID}, on ${VM_DATE}. The message is attached. Thanks!\n\n\t\t\t\t\n
emaildateformat=%A, %B %d, %Y at %r
sendvoicemail=no
delete=yes

[zonemessages]
eastern=America/New_York|'vm-received' Q 'digits/at' IMp
central=America/Chicago|'vm-received' Q 'digits/at' IMp
central24=America/Chicago|'vm-received' q 'digits/at' H N 'hours'
military=Zulu|'vm-received' q 'digits/at' H N 'hours' 'phonetic/z_p'
european=Europe/Copenhagen|'vm-received' a d b 'digits/at' HM

[default]
89300 => 89300,User1,user1@mailserver.com

Now on Sip.con add the mailbox line (mailbox account and context of voicemail.conf)

[89300]
type=friend
regexten=89300
context=default
mailbox=89300@default
secret=89300
username=89300
callerid="User1" <89300>
host=dynamic
nat=yes
canreinvite=no
disallow=all
allow=alaw
allow=ulaw
dtmfmode=inband

Finally on extensions.conf set each SIP extensions (will use macros later) to wait for 20 seconds and go to Voicemails as follows:

[default]
exten => 89300,1,Dial(SIP/89300,20)
exten => 89300,2,VoiceMail(89300@default)
exten => 89300,3,PlayBack(vm-goodbye)
exten => 89300,4,HangUp()

Set H323 trunk between Asterisk and Avaya

2008-02-08T19:42:00.000Z

Once asterisk and H323 is installed (previous post) follow the below configuration files to have the ip trunk up and running do the following configuration:

Setup h323.conf, sip.conf and extensions.conf as the examples below:

The h323.conf just defines the link between the Avaya and the Asterisk server.

/etc/asterisk/h323.conf
; The NuFone Network's ;
Open H.323 driver configuration ;
[general]
port = 1720
bindaddr = 192.168.58.227
disallow=all
allow=alaw
dtmfmode=inband
gatekeeper = DISABLE
context=default
progress_setup = 8
progress_alert = 8
h245tunneling=yes

[Avaya]
type=friend
context=default
host=192.168.58.216
port=1720
disallow=all
allow=alaw,g729,gsm,slinear

On sip.conf I set two demo extensions 89301 and 89300. This are numbers similar to my Avaya extension range and they also match a DDI range.

/etc/asterisk/sip.conf
[general]
context=default
allowoverlap=no
bindport=5060
bindaddr=0.0.0.0
srvlookup=yes

[89300]
type=friend
regexten=89300
context=default
secret=89300
username=89300
callerid="User1" <89300>
host=dynamic
nat=yes
canreinvite=no
disallow=all
allow=alaw
allow=ulaw
dtmfmode=inband

[89301]
type=friend
regexten=89301
context=default
secret=89301
username=89301
callerid="User2" <89301>
host=dynamic
nat=yes
canreinvite=no
disallow=all
allow=alaw
allow=ulaw
dtmfmode=inband

On extensions.con I set up a basic dial plan to send sip calls to each sip phone and calls from the sip phones to the Avaya system.

/etc/asterisk/extensions.conf

; extensions.conf - the Asterisk dial plan
[general]
static=yes
writeprotect=no
autofallthrough=yes
clearglobalvars=no

[globals]
TRUNKMSD=1

[default]
;Simple direct to sip extensions
exten => 89300,1,Dial(SIP/89300)
exten => 89301,1,Dial(SIP/89301)

;Simple rule to divert all calls from Sip extensions to Avaya extensions and External numbers on PSTN.

exten => _8XXXX,1,Dial(H323/${EXTEN}@Avaya); Avaya Extension
exten => _90ZXXXXXXXXX,1,Dial(H323/${EXTEN}@Avaya); External National UK Number

Configure the Avaya side:

The first thing to check is to see if you have the following:
a. On system-parameters customer-options in the second page you must have enough Maximum Administered H.323 Trunks to use.
b. A CLAN to use.
b. A MEDPRO to use.

Note that my Avaya PBX is a CM version 3.1.2, there might be other requirements that I might be missing.

1) Set up the names of the Avaya CLAN and the Asterisk server on node-names ip
(in the image below lmntel01 would be my Asterisk ip address and 192.168.58.216 my clan address)

2) Below are the details of my CLAN, note the network region defined. In this case 6.

3) The configuration of the CLAN is shown below:

4) The network region 6 has the following configuration:

c) The network region 6 has defined ip-codec 6 taht has the following codecs (NOTE: the use of this codecs is due system configuration/hardware limitiations. You should try to use something else than G729)

d) Now you have to define the IP Trunk and IP Signaling group. You have to create both on sync, below just the final output.

Note that the Supplementary Service Protocol needs to be set to "a" to allow the passing of call info (extension number, name, etc) from and to the two systems. This will be shown at the end of this post in an Avaya to Asterisk extension call.

e) At this stage you should have the H323 IP trunk up and running between the two systems. You might require a busyout of signalig group/trunk to bring it up.

f) The next step is to define the routing off calls from the Avaya to the Asterisk box using the new trunk created.

First I set up on the uniform-dial-plan that all my extensions begining wiht 893xx and 5 digits should use the ARS table. My Avaya dial plan is of 5 digits, and I do an inc-call-handling-trmt to change external DDI to an internal extension. For example 02070189301 is set to the internal number 89301, note that 89301 is NOT an extension that is defined on the Avaya system.

Then on the ARS analysis table I defined that the 893xx range should use the route pattern 66. (not sure which call type I have to use, on my test the last one was natl therefore it was left like that).

Finally the route-pattern 66 is defined using the trunk 66 previously created and that would be all the configuration needed.

One final step that I had to do was to complete my public-unknown-numbering table. I found on the test that while the extension name was sent to the asterisk server the extension name was not. External calls to the DDI worked fine and the caller number was passed but when calling from an internal extension there was a problem.

After googling and checking this I found that by setting the first digits of my Avaya extensions and the trunk all the Avaya extensions sent the number to the Asterisk server and were display on the IPSoftphone being used for testing.

An example of a call using X-Lite sofphone is below. From extension 84562 on my Avaya PBX I placed a call to extension 89300 on the Asterisk server. The configuration of 84562 is below:

You can see on the result that the name and the extension number is sent to Asterisk. This is due using Supplementary Service Protocol a on the second page of the trunk 66 definition as mentioned before.

Installing Asterisk Again with H323 support

2008-02-08T18:08:00.001Z

I never put live my old installation, then a few weeks later I lost the machine where it was and then I just simple forget. Now after playing a little here are the details for the installation (again).

(this was compiled from a few sites and my notes)

I located all my files on /usr/src

asterisk-1.4.12.1.tar.gz
asterisk-addons-1.4.3.tar.gz
libpri-1.4.1.tar.gz
zaptel-1.4.5.1.tar.gz
openh323-v1_18_0-src-tar.gz
pwlib-v1_10_3-src-tar.gz

(you will need to untar the files -- tar -xzvf -- )

cd /usr/src

Install Zaptel
cd zaptel-1.4.5.1
./configure
make menuselect
make
make install ---> as root
make config ---> as root
cd ..

make config Note:
If you have any zaptel hardware it is now recommended to edit /etc/default/zaptel or /etc/sysconfig/zaptel and set there an optimal value for the variable MODULES .

Install Libpri
cd libpri-1.4.1
make
make install ---> as root
cd ..

Install pwlib
cd pwlib_v1_10_3
./configure --prefix=/usr
make opt
make install

export PWLIBDIR=/usr/src/pwlib_v1_10_3
cp $PWLIBDIR/lib/libpt_linux_x86_r.so.1.10.3 /usr/lib
cd ..

We copy the shared library manually into the system folder.

It is very important that you set the PWLIBDIR to your path, othewise OpenH323 will not find it.

Install openh323
cd openh323_v1_18_0
./configure --prefix=/usr./configure --prefix=/usr
make opt
make install
export OPENH323DIR=/usr/src/openh323_v1_18_0
cp $OPENH323DIR/lib/libh323_linux_x86_r.so.1.18.0 /usr/lib
cd ..

Install Asterisk
cd asterisk-1.4.12.1
./configure --prefix=/usr
make menuselect

At this point use the menuselect utility to select which Zaptel hardware - if any - you have on board. Please remeber that if you want to exit keeping the changes you made, you must press x, while q will quit without saving and the left arrow will get you back to the previous menu. Even if you do not have Zaptel hardware, you should compile the ztdummy driver.

On the channels menu you will be able to see the chan_h323 availabble for installation.

make

When you compile with make you will get the error shown on the image below therefore you will have to run the make command again:

make

make install
make samples
cd ..

This should be it. I checked that my /etc/zaptel.conf was missing. Not sure if this is because I didn't have any hardware installed. Just in case I copied
cp /home/ricardo/asterisk_intall/zaptel-1.4.5.1/zaptel.conf.sample /etc/zaptel.conf

Run the moprobe on zapte/ztdummy

modprobe zaptel
lsmod
modprobe ztdummy
lsmod

Change the default zone on zaptel.conf to UK

vi /etc/zaptel.conf

loadzone=uk

After starting Asterisk and logging into the console type the command show channeltypes to check that H323 has been install and is running.

Then you have to follow the next post with the details of the Avaya-Asterisk H323 ip trunk.

Please check this website for more details on the h323 installation:
http://astrecipes.net/index.php?q=astrecipes/compiling+asterisk+1.4+with+tdm400+and+h323

Solaris tips (for the CMS)

2008-02-08T13:45:00.000Z

I had to use the following tips time to time so I am posting them here to save me the time to look for them again (and avoid the possibility of the original sites going off-line).

1. Set up your /etc/hosts file.

It should look something like this:
127.0.0.1       localhost
192.168.0.150   solaris-box-1 solaris-box-1.yourdomain.com loghost
Make sure the second line has the correct IP address, hostname, and FQDN. The first line is the loopback entry. Along with #5, Solaris will know its name and IP address.

2. Create or edit /etc/nodename

Contains the hostname of the computer (same as hostname.hme0).
# cat nodename
solaris-box-1

3. Create or edit /etc/defaultrouter

Surprisingly enough, this file contains the IP address of your default router (or gateway). When you reboot and the network initialization scripts run, it will add a default route to the IP address in this file.
# cat defaultrouter
192.168.0.1

Now it knows about it's own network parameters and it's time to get it to use DNS. The next steps will tell it to use other nameservers. If you want to set up a nameserver on the local machine, see the man page for named.

4. Edit /etc/nsswitch.conf

If you haven't edited this file before, it should look suspiciously like like this:

passwd:     files
group:      files
hosts:      files
networks:   files
protocols:  files
rpc:        files
ethers:     files
netmasks:   files
bootparams: files
publickey:  files
# At present there isn't a 'files' backend for netgroup;  the system will
#   figure it out pretty quickly, and won't use netgroups at all.
netgroup:   files
automount:  files
aliases:    files
services:   files
sendmailvars:   files

Add the word 'dns' after 'files' on the 'hosts' line:

passwd:     files
group:      files
hosts:      files dns
networks:   files
protocols:  files
rpc:        files
ethers:     files
netmasks:   files
bootparams: files
publickey:  files
# At present there isn't a 'files' backend for netgroup;  the system will
#   figure it out pretty quickly, and won't use netgroups at all.
netgroup:   files
automount:  files
aliases:    files
services:   files
sendmailvars:   files

Now it knows to query a nameserver when looking up a name. Next we have to tell it what nameservers to use:

5. Create or edit /etc/resolv.conf

Here you tell it three things:

What domain we're in
Specify any additional search domains
What the nameservers are (it will use them in the order you put them in the file)

When you're done it should look something like this:
# cat resolv.conf
domain yourdomain.com
search yourdomain.com
search client1.com
nameserver 192.168.0.9
nameserver 192.168.0.11
For more information, see the man page for resolv.conf.

6. Edit /etc/hostname.hme0

This file should contain the hostname of your machine, without the domain name. So, if the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name = hostname + domain name) is solaris-box-1.yourdomain.com, the file should look like this:
# cat hostname.hme0
solaris-box-1
This assumes that your Ethernet adatper is hme0, the default device name for the first Ethernet adapter.

7. Reboot

# sync;sync;sync
# reboot

8. Change IPs


UNIX Shell:      All Primary shells (sh,ksh,csh)
Function:    Use ifconfig to change your IP address immediately. Edit your /etc/hosts file to change it permanently.
Syntax:    Immediate change: ifconfig interface new IPaddress subnet mask

Permanent change: vi /etc/hosts
  interface   Specifies the network interface, e.g. hme0 for 100 Mbps or le0 for 10 Mbps.
  new IPaddress   Specifies the new IP address that you want to assign the computer.
  subnet mask   Specifies the subnet mask for your local network.

File Name:   hosts    Directory:    /etc    Type:   External
  ifconfig hme0 192.168.1.250 255.255.255.0     Sets the IP address to 192.168.1.250 on interface hme0.
  ifconfig le0 192.168.1.250 255.255.255.0     Sets the IP address to 192.168.1.250 on interface le0

9. Recover ROOT password

You need to have physical access to the machine's console.

Note the root partition;

Solaris uses

* /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 on the Ultra5/10 and Blade 100
* /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0 for Blade 1000.

Press the STOP and A keys simultaneously, or, on an ASCII terminal or emulator, send a ) to halt the operating system, if it's running.

Boot single-user from CD-ROM (boot cdrom -s) or network install/jumpstart server (boot net -s). For CD media use the CD-ROM labeled "Installation". I prom pssword is set you need to know it

Mount the root partition on "/a". "/a" is an empty mount point that exists at this stage of the installation procedure. For example:

#mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /a

If the mount command fails and since "/a" always exists, then you either typed in the wrong device, OR the system is seeing the root partition as something else.

Do a "ls /tmp/dev/dsk" and see what is there. "c0t6" things are the CD-ROM, what is left is what one needs to try. On a Blade 1000/2000, choose /dev/dsk/c1t1d0s0, and execute: #mount /dev/dsk/c1t1d0s0 /a

Set your terminal type so you can use a full-screen editor, such as vi. You can skip this step if you know how to use "ex" or "vi" from open mode.

* If you're on a sun console, type "TERM=sun; export TERM";
* If you are using an ascii terminal or terminal emulator on a PC for your console, set TERM to the terminal type for example: TERM=vt100; export TERM.

Edit the passwd file, /a/etc/shadow (or perhaps in older versions, /etc/passwd) and remove the encrypted password entry for root.

Type: "cd /; then "umount /a"

Reboot as normal in single-user mode ("boot -s"). The root account will not have a password. Give it a new one using the passwd command. PROM passwords: Naturally, you may not want anyone with physical access to the machine to be able to do the above to erase the root password. Suns have a security password mechanism in the PROM which can be set (this is turned off by default). The man page for the eeprom command describes this feature.

If security-mode is set to "command", the machine only be booted without the prom password from the default device (i.e. booting from CD-ROM or install server will require the prom password). Changing the root password in this case requires moving the default device (e.g. the boot disk) to a different SCSI target (or equivalent), and replacing it with a similarly bootable device for which the root password is known. If security-mode is set to full, the machine cannot be booted without the prom password, even from the default device; defeating this requires replacing the NVRAM on the motherboard. "Full" security has its drawbacks -- if, during normal operations, the machine is power-cycled (e.g. by a power outage) or halted (e.g. by STOP-A), it cannot reboot without the intervention of someone who knows the prom password.

10. Others (and repeated)

"I've almost just reinstalled Solaris to get the network settings fixed!" Ya, sometimes you can get alittle confused and irritated. Whether it's a new Linux distro, or diffrent UNIX OS, everyone puts their network configuration in diffrent places and learning each systems setup can be a pita. So, what if you don't even wanna bother learning all the network configuration stuff and what files does what... what if you could just re-run the networking configuration and have it all sorted out? You can! Solaris has a nifty command that can reset the base networking and configuration to a clean system: "sys-unconfig". If you buy a pre-installed system from Sun or a VAR, what they will generally do is install Solaris, customize the install as needbe and then run "sys-unconfig" before putting the system in the box and shipping it out. The command will scratch the networking configuration (most of it anyway), the root password, time zone, etc. Once sys-unconfig finished cleaning out the files it will immediately halt the system (shut it down). Next time you boot the system it will prompt you for all the networking information, time zone, locale and a new root password. This is the "quick-no-hassle" reconfiguration method. Generally we do not recommend this as ideal, but it will do the trick. If you plan on selling a pre-installed system or you are moving your system to a new network where all the info is changing, this is the command to use. Just use it carefully.

"I know root shouldn't login remotely, but I really want too!" Logging into a system via telnet, ftp, or ssh is just bad... very bad. However, some times people think they need to do this or they simply don't care about security. If you really wanna drop your pants like this, edit: /etc/default/login. In this file, you'll see a line for CONSOLE. To allow root to log in via telnet or ftp just comment out this line and your done. To allow root login via SSH you need to edit a diffrent file: /etc/ssh/sshd_config. Change the value of PermitRootLogin from "no" to "yes" and restart SSH via "svcadm restart ssh". The SSH configuration file is just the same as Linux since Solaris uses OpenSSH. Please note, that allowing root to log in remotely is a massive security risk and needlessly stupid, don't do this unless you absolutely must.

"How do I set and make the default gateway persistant across reboots?" The default gateway is easy to configure, just put the IP address of the default gateway in /etc/defaultrouter. If this file doesn't exist just create it and add the IP. The IP address of the gateway should be the ONLY thing in this file, nothing else. Typically you should just use echo, like this: "echo 10.0.0.255 > /etc/defaultrouter". Once you've changed the file you can restart the physical network interfaces to make the changes effective without a reboot ("svcadm restart physical").

How do I set or change my IP address? Setting and changing IP addresses on Solaris is a snap. Just add the IP and hostname that you wish to use to /etc/hosts. Then put the hostname (by itself) in teh /etc/hostname.(interface) file. Then just restart the physical networking via SMF ("svcadm restart phsyical") and your done! Example: "echo '10.0.0.25 solarisrox' >> /etc/hosts; echo 'solarisrox' > /etc/hostname.hme0" assuming that hme0 was the interface you wanted to use. Don't worry about this changing the hostname for the whole workstation, the hostname for the system is kept in /etc/nodename. You can add the default gateway as we discussed just above. If you need to specify a non-standard subnet netmask you can add it to /etc/netmasks. You can have as many subnet masks in the /etc/netmasks file as you like, one per line, just follow the instructions at the top of the file.

How do I configure DHCP? DHCP is pretty easy to configure, just create 2 empty files: /etc/hostname.(interface) and /etc/dhcp.(interface). If you are using HME0 you could do this: "echo "" > /etc/hostname.hme0 > /etc/dhcp.hme0". You might want to wipe out information that might conflict like the /etc/defaultrouter file if you created one. Once you've got these two empty files ready just restart the physical network to make the changes effective without a reboot ("svcadm restart physical"). If you want to customize the properties of the DHCP agent you can check out the " System Administration Guide: IP Services" manual. Remember that DHCP settings take acouple seconds to be retrieved from the server so if you reset the physical interfaces as mentioned above and you notice that nothing happened, just wait a couple seconds (30 secs is the default timeout).

I can't figure out what the network interface is called! Linux sort of makes network interface naming easy because typically interfaces are named "eth0", "eth1", so on and so forth. In Solaris, however, the name of the interface is decided by the interface driver. For instance, the onboard ethernet of a Sun Ultra workstation uses the HME (Happy Meal Ethernet, also more boringly called Hundred Meg Ethernet) driver and so the first instance is "hme0". You can look at the device mappings to driver names using "prtconf -D". In general, Solaris will find your network device and try to configure it so generally just checking "ifconfig -a" is enough to find it.

My l337 workstations network device isn't frickin' support!?! Sadly there are lots of networking devices that aren't officially supported (right now anyway, OpenSolaris hopes to change this). Thankfully there are tons of really kool Solaris developers that have been creating open source drivers! Check out these free NIC drivers by Masayuki Murayama! Grok google for drivers, you just might find your l337 gear really does have drivers avalible, they just aren't in Solaris right now.

There ya go.. some quick Solaris networking tips. As always, check out docs.sun.com's Solaris10 manuals for help and details.

Tar and Gzip

2008-01-16T19:58:00.000Z

I always forget the tar and gzip process.. so here is my quick reference.

Creating a tape archive:
tar -cf archive.tar myDirectories/
Note - using the "v" flag prints out extra messages, as verbose mode, though it's not related to extracting files.

Listing the contents of an archive:
tar -tf archive.tar

Extracting all files from an archive:
tar -xf archive.tar
To extract just partial pieces from the archive, supply a file or directory name after the archive name. You can list as many as desiered here, separated by spaces.
tar -xf archive.tar filename

Compress:
gzip archive.tar

Decompress:
gunzip archive.tar.gz

Merged filenames:
Sometimes, you will download files ending with the extension *.tgz - these are essentially identical to files ending with *.tar.gz files. You can gunzip them, and untar them just the same way. If you're working with a recent version of gnu tar, you may be able to take a shortcut, as described below.

My list

2008-01-16T18:57:00.000Z

No comments, just my list

Mini Anden - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_Anden

Payton List - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peyton_List

Catherine Blanchet - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cate_Blanchett

Audrey Hepburn - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_Hepburn

Grace Kelly - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_kelly

My Rubik

2007-12-01T21:59:00.001Z

Ok, first and second layer are easy. Below are the steps I follow to finish the third layer and last face.

Perl script to automatically dowload files from a web site.

2007-10-06T22:08:00.000+01:00

I've been reading Learning Perl book from Randal L. Schwartz and just the introduction gave me the tip to automate a task that otherwise would have taken more time.

Again I am installing Asterisk and a Debian box, I have a list of all the necessary files but now Asterisk put all the sounds files on separate files and not in one package as before.

Instead of downloading 31 pages manually I got a the link to all of them, put them on a file (named filesd) one o each line and run the following Perl script:

#!/usr/bin/perl
open (FILESD, filesd);
while ($pathf = ){
open (WGET, "wget $pathf");
close (WGET);
}

The filesd file is just a plain file like the one shown below:

ricardo@lmntel01:~/test$ more filesd
http://downloads.digium.com/pub/asterisk/releases/asterisk-1.4.12.1.tar.gz
http://downloads.digium.com/pub/zaptel/releases/zaptel-1.4.5.1.tar.gz
http://downloads.digium.com/pub/libpri/releases/libpri-1.4.1.tar.gz
http://downloads.digium.com/pub/asterisk/releases/asterisk-addons-1.4.3.tar.gz

I know this could have been done with WGET but I got tired of trying to find the correct flag to download them, and I also know there is no error check, report, fancy things and whistles but hey I just finish the introduction.

Eclipse + Perl = Epic

2007-09-30T11:02:00.000+01:00

Googling around for a gui ide for Perl I found that there is a plugin for Eclipse. As I also use Eclipse for Java I decided to give it a try and knowing nothing else I found it quite useful. No more of those first vi days (no offense, vi is great but a gui is faster).

You can find about EPIC on http://e-p-i-c.sourceforge.net/, and this time I will not going to explain the installation (as I already installed and didn't took notes) but if you follow their installation manual there is no miss:

http://e-p-i-c.sourceforge.net/downloads/EPIC_User%27s_Guide.pdf

Good luck and if there is a better option let me know and I will give it a try.

Eclipse and Java SDK 1.5 on Debian Etch

2007-09-30T10:47:00.000+01:00

As I am still trying to learn java, linux, perl, asterisk and everything I can get distracted with I needed to run eclipse on a new box I set up at home with Debian Etch.

I found the below page quite good on the details on how to achieve this. My steps are copied below:

http://www.crazysquirrel.com/computing/debian/java.jspx

$ apt-get -u install java-package

$ fakeroot make-jpkg java_ee_sdk-5_03-linux.bin

You will see the follwing output:
Creating temporary directory: /tmp/make-jpkg.fktzTQ6486
Loading plugins: blackdown-j2re.sh blackdown-j2sdk.sh common.sh ibm-j2re.sh ibm-j2sdk.sh j2re.sh j2sdk-doc.sh j2sdk.sh j2se.sh sun-j2re.sh sun-j2sdk-doc.sh sun-j2sdk.sh

Detected Debian build architecture: i386
Detected Debian GNU type: i486-linux-gnu

No matching plugin was found.
Removing temporary directory: done

The above command didn't work with the package java_ee_sdk-5_03-linux.bin so first I tried to make it work. First use the command below to see you have the latest java package installed. I have .28 that is current enough.

$ apt-cache policy java-package | head -2
java-package:
Installed: 0.28

Second try to lie to the installer telling that the installation type if i386 (google arround the message of "plugin not found" and that was the advice). You do this step by entering the following line:

$DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE=[i386]-linux fakeroot make-jpkg java_ee_sdk-5_03-linux.bin

The trick is on hte DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE that you pass to the process. But as I was still using the java_ee_sdk-5_03-linux.bin from sun it didn't work because the problem was not the plugin but the USER (me) and instead of java_ee_sdk-5_03-linux.bin I should have been using jdk-1_5_0_12-linux-i586.bin. This is the JDK for what make-jpkg was done and after downloading it I was able to make it work.

$fakeroot make-jpkg jdk-1_5_0_12-linux-i586.bin

dpkg-deb: building package `sun-j2sdk1.5' in `/tmp/make-jpkg.trHEuC6948/sun-j2sdk1.5_1.5.0+update12_i386.deb'.
copy sun-j2sdk1.5_1.5.0+update12_i386.deb into directory /home/ricardo/java_source/

The Debian package has been created in the current directory. You can
install the package as root (e.g. dpkg -i sun-j2sdk1.5_1.5.0+update12_i386.deb).

Removing temporary directory: done

After that the package is done and now you only need to run dpkg to install it:

$dpkg -i sun-j2sdk1.5_1.5.0+update12_i386.deb

Check your Java Version just in case you have 2 and you have to use alternatives (explained in another blog) to select the Sun one as default and not the GNU one (usually installed but not in this case).

# java -version
java version "1.5.0_12"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_12-b04)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_12-b04, mixed mode, sharing)

Installing Wireless D-Link DWL-G520+ on Debian etch

2007-09-30T10:30:00.000+01:00

I got a desktop pc, nothing fancy and old p4 with 700MB RAM and a 40GB disk. I will be using it at home where I normally use my work Laptop (Latitude D620 with Ubuntu 7.04) and there is wireless access.

Instead of Ubuntu I installed Debian on it, I downloaded the netinstall of Debian 4 (etch) and did the basic installation. For the first step I did the installation in the office connecting the pc to the network as I am not good doing everything from zero.

Once the pc was up and running I started investigating about my wireless card. I am using a D-Link DWL-G520+. I has been working great on a windows box for the last year and was time to move it to linux.

Looking around you find two main options (although I found some new drivers) using ndiswrapper and acx100.

Much of the googling I read mentioned that acx100 was the correct one for the g520 so I install that one. The installation is simple enough and the steps are below. Note that I've been using it for the last 24hrs and I am not happy with it. I even try to put the Ubuntu install cd and forget about debian/acx100 as the connection fails every now and them (I have on my desk my laptop and this pc and while the pc fails some times and have to either restart X or reboot the machine due a complete freeze the laptop stays connected all the time, arghhh).

The information on how to install the driver ison the acx100 wiki page. The steps I followed are listed below:

http://acx100.sourceforge.net/wiki/Distribution_list/Debian

(as root)

# apt-get update

# apt-get install acx100-source wireless-tools

# module-assistant prepare

(the below step is a menu driven, you have to build the acx100 module)
# module-assistant # It will show a menu to build and install it.
|---> Select / acx100 / Build
|----> Yes
|----> Yes
# modprobe acx

If you want you could load the driver automatically with:

#echo acx >>/etc/modules

#wget http://195.66.192.167/linux/acx_patches/fw/acx111_1.2.1.34/tiacx111c16

#cp tiacx111c16 /lib/firmware/`uname -r`/acx/1.2.1.34
(manually created `uname -r`/acx )

#vi /etc/network/interfaces

# The wireless network interface
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp

#shutdown -r now

That was it, after the reboot the machine detected the wireless networks around. Selected mine and enter password and was logged (again I fails time to time).

Synergy 1.3.1 Windowz XP and Ubuntu 7.04

2007-09-10T14:09:00.000+01:00

For the last weeks I've been using my laptop with Ubuntu and my office desktop with the corporate windows xp. I was using the Terminal Server Client to work on my desktop but switching between windows was quite boring.

In the past when I used to have windows on boths boxes I run synergy to share the keyboard/mouse but didn't install it yet.

First thing the sudo apt-get install synergy althouth it didn't show any error it didn't show any success either so I remove it.

Next googling around I found the following link with a good explanation on what to do to get started, the link is: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynergyHowto

So the steps are:

a) download Synergy the tar.tz from the Synergy project page http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/. The direct link is:
http://kent.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/synergy2/synergy-1.3.1.tar.gz

Untar the file on your home directory.

b) Next install necessary libraries:

sudo apt-get install libxtst-dev
sudo apt-get install build-essential

c) Now configure this but specify the location of the libraries.. if not an error of X cannot be found will appear.

sudo ./configure -x-libraries /usr/lib -x-includes /usr/includes
sudo make install

d) The previous step created synergc (client) and syngers (server) on your home director. The webpage mentioned below ask us to move the mto /user/bin so we do a:

sudo mv /usr/local/bin/synergyc /usr/bin
sudo mv /usr/local/bin/synergys /usr/bin

e) The next step is to configure synergy. The system uses a file called synergy.conf , there is an example on the installation folder at /synergy-1.3.1/examples/synergy.conf.

The configuration is quite easy, I have to say that easier than setting this between to windows boxes. Basically you say which are your 2 boxes and then where is which one respecting the other.

Here you have to use the hostname of your linux box and the name of the windowz box you set up on the windowz client.

So my synergy.conf looks like this:

On the windows machine you set up the ip/hostname (you choose) of your linux box and click on the advance button at the end to set up the name assigned to this machine:

On the advance settings just check the name, if you are having problems just make sure that the name on the below screen is the same as the one on the synergy.conf on your linux box. If they are not the same you will get errors on your client machine.

After this run the server synergys --config synergy.conf from your command line (check previous page you can mv the synergy.conf to your home directory and just run synergy) and start the client, you should be able to use your linux mouse/keyboard on both boxes!!!

Please read the document from the ubuntu documentation mentioned above.

Regards
Richard

Configuring Minicom on Ubuntu to connect to Cisco Router

2007-09-05T20:35:00.000+01:00

Ok, that was a large title for this task but what the heck. What needs to be done to achieve this? We need a piece of software called minicom (this has been around for ages, google it and you will learn a lot) and follow the next steps shown below:

a) install minicom and follow the normal procedures

sudo apt-get isntall minicom

b) check your serial ports.

We need to know the serial ports on your machine, so a dmseg would do the trick. Look for ttyS and take note of the number after it, in my case I have ttyS0 ready to use.

richard@wok:~$ dmesg|grep ttyS
[ 1.430818] serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
[ 1.431528] 00:0c: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
richard@wok:~$

c) launch minicom as root

$sudo minicom

You will see a page as the one below. The first lines shows the configuration (I already modified mine, so yours must be the default ones).

c) Press control + a and Z to go to the menu. The first thing we will change is the dialing string so select the letter "O" for "command string" on the below menu.

d) The previous step should have brought you to the image below. With the arrows keys select "Modem and dialing" and press enter.

e) Now you are on the image below. Press A to set the cursor on the first line and delete everything (I use to have the following configuration ~^M~AT S7=45 S0=0 L1 V1 X4 &c1 E1 Q0^M ). One done press ESC or RETURN to go back to the menu.

f) Now back on the menu select "Serial Port Setup" with the arrow keys.

g) Using the letters configure the options:
A - For Serial Device
E - For Bps/Par/Bits

Copy the configuration below, the option "E" will bring a new menu where you select the details. The option A has to match with what you find on the dmseg step "b" of this guide.

h) Exit to the main menu and reset minicom. Restart it so the changes would take effect (maybe there is an option to make the changes live without restarting minicom but this is a small step).

After rebooting minicom with the Cisco router connected with the blue cable to your pc/laptop just turn the Cisco on and you will see the details on the screen and you are good to go. Example below:

I will add more details/tips along the way.

As always good luck!

FTP Server: Proftpd

2007-09-01T20:03:00.000+01:00

I put a server to share files with friends and I had in my hands a little project on how to share them. For this time I chose to use the always friendly FTP service. Googling around I found Proftpd as one of the heavyweights for this and decided to install it. It can be found at: http://www.proftpd.org/.

I am using Debian, 3.1 with kernel 2.6.22.6. Installation thanks to apt is quite easy..

a) apt-get install proftpd .. that was it. no more. (there is a question on installing as inetd or standalone, you should choose your favorite).

The next steps were to set it up so I can create ftp users "virtual" without shell access (they are not that good friends!) and limit them to upload/download only in certain directories.

First add the following on /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf

# Set /home/FTP-shared directory as home directory
DefaultRoot /media/muploads

# Lock all the users in home directory, ***** really important *****
DefaultRoot ~

AuthUserFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd
AuthGroupFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.group

Umask 022 022
AllowOverwrite off

DenyAll

Umask 022 022
AllowOverwrite off

DenyAll

/media/muploads/uploads/>
Umask 022 022
AllowOverwrite on

DenyAll

The directories /media/muploads/uploads and /media/muploads/downloads should exist already.

Second you have to create the users. For this you need to download a file called ftpasswd. This script would be used to create 2 files, ftp.passwd and ftp.group. Both files replaces the system group and passwd files. Read the documentation to learn more about them.

ftpasswd --passwd --name=user --uid=501 --gid=500 --home=/media/muploads --she
ll=/bin/false
ftpasswd --group --name=ftpvirt --gid=500 --member=user

The first command with the --passwd flag will ask you for a password for the user "user", just add it.

The next step is to add the shell /bin/false to the /etc/shells file. If this step is not done when user "user" tries to log in it would get an error as the shell doesn't exist. Note that the shell actually doesn't exist as we don't want the uses to telnet or ssh to the pc but adding the line /bin/false to the file solves the problem.

The final step is to change the permissions of the directories.

on /media/muploads do a:

chown 500:501 downloads
chown 500:501 uploads
chmod 777 uploads

The userid and groupid are the same for all users and directory. It doesn't matter that they don't exists (keep an eye if you have several users not to use this ids). The chmod 777 is quite extreme and you should use something more secure.

The result, an ftp server that allows connections from virtual users. Diverts them directory to a general home directory and not systems home directories and that are allowed to download from one directory and only upload into another.

As always I am sure there are security holes the size on the moon on this procedure but it is a start.

Installing new hard disk on Debian

2007-09-01T16:11:00.000+01:00

I got a new disk 40GB disk (found it on the office ether of unused stuff) and installed it on my little Debian server that only has a 20GB disk on it.

The usage of the new disk would be something very productive for the organization, we will use it to share movies!. Ok probably IT Security will kick my ass if they found out but we will deal with that later.

So the steps to add the disk are quite simple. This is an IDE disk and the first step is to connect the hardware (power, ide cable etc). Power up and the fun begins.

a) run fdisk /dev/hdb to partition the disk (check dmseg to see the name it has, in my case hdb that is the standard).
b) on fdisk I just created a primary partition and used 100% of the disk. This depends on the purpose of the disk so study your options. Once the partition is created quit fdisk saving the changes.
c) next step is to format the partition. I am using ext3 so the command to run is
mkfs.ext3 /dev/hdb1
d) next you create a mount partition
mkdir /media/muploads
e) next you mount the disk
mount /dev/hdb1 /media/muploads
f) finally change your fstab settings so the disk is mounted on every boot.
vi /etc/fstab
add the following line
/dev/hdb1 /media/muploads ext3 defaults 0 2

That was all. I am sure betting things can be done for RAID, etc. Notes are welcome (almost).
Good luck

Book: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com Juggernaut

2007-09-01T01:09:00.001+01:00

I just finished reading this book - Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com Juggernaut by James Marcus - and unfortunately I couldn't see the put my experience on the authors tale. I enjoyed the book and found it amusing and educational on my search to see how business are made but as I work on a dot.com myself I was hoping to find an outside look of what I daily see.

My work on a dot.com is not as glamorous as James's but I believe I leave my footprint on the not so "dot.com" part of the business (after all I am a telephony administrator/engineer on it) and also I have to say and I join the on the late shift (5 years after the company appear) so I was not on the stock options group - although I new some of them and when the company was finally bought there were no millionaires on the building except the top execs - as he was.

Going back to the book, first I would like to write reviews like his but this is just a group of characters put together in bad sentences with what is on my head, so Sorry James!. I leave the book with the wish to read as much as possible. I love the passion on reading the author has and shows on his writing. I consider myself lucky to be able to read more than 15 books a year that although I know is nothing - my father easily reads 4/5 times that number - is much more than all the people I know. I want to start reading the not so marking books, most of my reading is bestseller top shelf nice cover good reviewed type of book. I want to read and enjoy those not so known authors that haven't sold their souls to the publishing machinery, it is just september so I still have a chance to get it.

Another point of the book that I didn't like was that the book could have been about a beer factory and not one of the pioneers on the tech boom. I know the author mentions it all the time but every business wants to revolutionize his market anyway so if you replace the amazon for other success history the books remain the same. What I am trying to see is that I see it more as a history about corporate work than a specific book about working in amazon. Again sorry James but I don't think you will never read this anyway, I really think nobody would ever read this in fact!

In summary a good read, I like books like The Search or Google more to learn about dot.com companies but I recommend the book (this is my editorial at the end!) to everybody.

Another Asterisk 1.4.11 installation

2007-08-24T19:52:00.000+01:00

I haven't tested this installation at the time of the post (want to leave the office!!) but as always I keep my notes here to go back my steps later if needed.

The installation is simple as always.

a) Check version of GNU Make is greater than 3.79, just run

rbtest:/home/ricardo/asterisk_intall# make -v
GNU Make 3.81

b) Install some dependencies (errors show during the installation of pwlib)
$ apt-get install libldap2-dev
configure: error: pwlib needs the GNU Project fast lexical analyzer generator flex
$ apt-get install flex
configure: error: pwlib needs the GNU Project parser generator bison
$ apt-get install bison

19 apt-get install kernel-packages ncurses-dev fakeroot bzip2
20 apt-get install kernel-package ncurses-dev fakeroot bzip2
21 apt-get install yaird fakeroot
22 apt-get install make-kpkg kernel_image
23 apt-get install kernel_image
24 apt-get install sudo
25 apt-get install iniramfs-tools
26 apt-get install initramfs-tools
27 apt-get install bzip2
28 apt-get install libncurses-dev
30 ap-get install wget
35 apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential libnewt-dev libusb-dev

c) Download packages asterisk:

rbtest:/home/ricardo/asterisk_intall# ls -ltr
total 16772
-rw-r--r-- 1 ricardo ricardo 11218944 2007-08-24 16:25 asterisk-1.4.11.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 ricardo ricardo 1563752 2007-08-24 16:25 zaptel-1.4.5.1.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 ricardo ricardo 81178 2007-08-24 16:25 libpri-1.4.1.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 ricardo ricardo 1000286 2007-08-24 16:26 asterisk-addons-1.4.2.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 ricardo ricardo 3249876 2007-08-24 16:26 asterisk-sounds-1.2.1.tar.gz
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2007-08-24 18:03 libpri-1.4.1
drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 2007-08-24 19:11 asterisk-1.4.11
drwxr-sr-x 14 root root 12288 2007-08-24 19:21 zaptel-1.4.5.1
rbtest:/home/ricardo/asterisk_intall#

d) Download packages openh323

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/openh323/pwlib-v1_10_3-src-tar.gz
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/openh323/openh323-v1_18_0-src-tar.gz

rbtest:/home/ricardo/openh323_install# ls -ltr
total 5704
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3742730 2006-03-26 12:28 openh323-v1_18_0-src-tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2079871 2007-01-25 00:01 pwlib-v1_10_3-src-tar.gz
drwxr-xr-x 9 1010 3000 4096 2007-08-24 18:28 pwlib_v1_10_3
drwxr-xr-x 7 1010 3000 4096 2007-08-24 18:40 openh323_v1_18_0
rbtest:/home/ricardo/openh323_install#

e) Install Openh323

tar zxvf pwlib-v1_10_3-src-tar.gz
cd pwlib_v1_10_3/
./configure
make

export PWLIBDIR=/home/ricardo/openh323_install/pwlib_v1_10_3
cp $PWLIBDIR/lib/libpt_linux_x86_r.so.1.10.3 /usr/lib
cd ..

It is very important that you set the PWLIBDIR to your path, othewise OpenH323 will not find it.

tar zxvf openh323-v1_18_0-src-tar.gz
cd openh323_v1_18_0/
./configure
make opt

export OPENH323DIR=/home/ricardo/openh323_install/openh323_v1_18_0
cp $OPENH323DIR/lib/libh323_linux_x86_r.so.1.18.0 /usr/lib

Aain we must set the OPENH323DIR variable, so Asterisk can know here to look for OpenH323. We copy the library manually to the system directory, as we do not care about the rest of OpenH323 features.

f) Install zaptel, libpri, asterisk

tar zxvf zaptel-1.4.4.tar.gz
cd zaptel-1.4.4
./configure
make menuselect

At this point use the menuselect utility to select which Zaptel hardware - if any - you have on board. Please remeber that if you want to exit keeping the changes you made, you must press x, while q will quit without saving and the left arrow will get you back to the previous menu. Even if you do not have Zaptel hardware, you should compile the ztdummy driver.

make
make install

Now we install libpri

tar zxvf libpri-1.4.1.tar.gz
make
make install
cd ..

Now we build Asterisk itself:

tar zxvf asterisk-1.4.8.tar.gz
./configure
make menuselect

At this point, you should go to the Channels menu and see that H323 is enabled. If it's not, vey likely you did not set OPENH323DIR or PWLIBDIR, so configure cannot enable H.323 by default.

make

You will get the following error, so run the make again:
When compiling with H.323 support, the first time you run make it will end with an error telling you to run make again. This is okay, just do it as it says.

***************************************************************

********** Re-run 'make' to pick up H.323 parameters **********

***************************************************************
make[1]: *** [h323/libchanh323.a] Error 1

make

make install
make samples
cd ..

This should be it. I checked that my /etc/zaptel.conf was missing. Not sure if this is because I didn't have any hardware installed. Just in case I copied
150 cp /home/ricardo/asterisk_intall/zaptel-1.4.5.1/zaptel.conf.sample /etc/zaptel.conf

Run the moprobe on zapte/ztdummy

151 modprobe zaptel
152 lsmod
153 modprobe ztdummy
154 lsmod

Change the default zone on zaptel.conf to UK

156 vi /etc/zaptel.conf

Run the configuration and obviously 0 boards configured message appear:
157 ztcfg -v

Started Asterisk
158 asterisk -vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvc

Will test this solution. Will do the installation of add-ons and sounds later as add-ons brings an h323 solution by itself.

Enabling H.323
In order to enable H.323, you simply edit /etc/asterisk/h323.conf as follows:

gatekeeper = DISCOVER
context=h323

This will tell it to find the gatekeeper automatically and to route incoming calls to context h323.
To place an outbound call fron Asterisk, you just dial:

exten => 21,1,Dial(h323/21)

This will find the terminal 21 through the Gatekeeper and will call it as needed.

Main article retrieved from:
http://astrecipes.net/index.php?n=286

Install Sun Java on Ubuntu 7.04

2007-08-23T21:42:00.000+01:00

The installation of Java is quite easy. The default installation has the GNU version of Java, to run Sun engine first install the following packages:

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts

Then check the version of Java running, the GNU version should still be the default one:

ricardo@lmnwok1:~$ java -version
java version "1.4.2"
gij (GNU libgcj) version 4.1.2 (Ubuntu 4.1.2-0ubuntu5)

Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
ricardo@lmnwok1:~$

To select the new Sun engine run the update-alternatives as below and select the option you want to use:

ricardo@lmnwok1:~$ sudo update-alternatives --config java

There are 3 alternatives which provide `java'.

Selection Alternative
-----------------------------------------------
1 /usr/bin/gij-wrapper-4.1
2 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java
*+ 3 /usr/lib/jvm/java-gcj/jre/bin/java

Press enter to keep the default[*], or type selection number: 2
Using `/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java' to provide `java'.
ricardo@lmnwok1:~$

Now when checking the version you will see the new one:

ricardo@lmnwok1:~$ java -version
java version "1.6.0"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0-b105)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0-b105, mixed mode, sharing)
ricardo@lmnwok1:~$

After this as in my other post change the JRE used by Eclipse.

Ubuntu 7.04 on Dell Latitude D620

2007-08-21T19:27:00.000+01:00

I got that urge again of installing linux on my laptop. I've been using Fedora in the past but after the latest crash (that needed to get a new hard disk but I had to admit that I don't know if Fedora crash the disk or the disk crash Fedora) and as I normally install Debian on the servers (and due all the people I know and magazines and post I have read about Ubuntu) I decided to install Ubuntu on my laptop.

I went to the Ubuntu site and downloaded the image for the CD, run it on my laptop and first I was surprised about the installation process. Normally I install windows, leave enough space for Linux and then install Linux on the free space.

Ubuntu is different from the start. The cd is a LiveCD, once it is loaded on the desktop there is a shortcut to install Ubuntu. You click on it and you go on with the wizard. The only part that you have to keep an eye is on the disk partitioning. The automatic wizard resize existing file disk option didn't work (some kind of error) a friend at the office mentioned that he had the same problem and selected the option to do it manually. I choose it and altered my windows partition and it did an automatic resize of it (don't know if it worked as I haven't use my windows partition yet), once you have enough space you create you swap and you other mounting points. As this is my first attempt I created only "swap" and "/".

Next the installation is quite simple, once finished I run this two install packages:

# sudo apt-get install 915resolution (reboot)

On which you need to edit the /etc/default/915resolution file.

MODE=Auto
XRESO=1440
YRESO=900
BIT=

And...
# sudo apt-get install network-manager-pptp

I am still playing with this last one.

I will add more notes later as soon as I get my feet wet on Ubuntu (first thing I noticed is that I have to sudo everything.. I miss root)

Book: Hardvard Business Review on Innovation

2007-07-10T15:29:00.000+01:00

This is basically a compilation of articles that appeared on the HBR magazine. The articles present on this book are:

* Creating New Market Space
* Creating Breakthroughs at 3M
* Building an Innovation Factory
* Knowing a Winning Business Ida When You see One
* Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change
* Discovering New Points of Differentiation
* From Spare Change to Real Change: The Social Sector as Beta Site for Business Innovation
* Enlightened Experimentation: The New Imperative for Innovation

What did I learn from it? Consciously not much, the book started very well but it became boring or not that enlightening at the end so it took me much more time to finish it than expected (as falling sleep while reading a single page).

But what it left me with 2 mayor notes, the way to innovation is breaking models and managers solve but innovator leads (or similar). I am sure that if one day I do the change from my low technically emotional job working under and with completely useless people in my opinion, I will read it again quickly to remember the tips it gives on how to think.

Also the fact that they sell a book at almost 20U$D made of articles from a magazine that they already sold (physically, on the web, subscription, pamphlets, umbrellas, etc) gives a little of faith on the innovation of this guys.

So do I recommend it? Yes but as quick read.

Book: Stories of Your Life and Others

2007-07-04T19:36:00.000+01:00

Stories of Your life and Others by Ted Chiang might be the second science fiction book I read in the last two years and I recommend it to everyone. The previous one was "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" but I liked Chiang's writing better.

I might be doing a comparison of rocks and apples here but the different writing stiles of each history make it great. I was impressed with one of them about a man whose intelligence gets increase on where the writing makes your heart beat accelerate and takes you to a journey were you can feel how the main character is feeling things.

All stories were great and unique making you think, dream and look back. Again a book recommended to all. By the way you have no idea how much it took me to upload the image of the cover of the book (copyright to the owner, publicist, etc, etc), kind of spooky maybe the fiction is should not be before the science.

Read, explore, open new windows and get lost as much as possible!

(As always all images, etc are copyright by the owner and this never happened)

Boring notes of day to day Linux

2007-06-26T20:01:00.000+01:00

These are just some notes from my last asterisk installation (done on may 15th but notes lost between all the desktop files) and they are here because man is the only animal that stumbles on the same rock and even worst I am far away to grew up.

a) Usefull installations for debian:

apt-get install mc bzip2 zip unzip ngrep iproute less

b) Some detatails on debian networking:

Networking:

rbast:/etc/network# pwd
/etc/network
rbast:/etc/network# more interfaces
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
rbast:/etc/network#

Could be changed to:
This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 10.0.2.51
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 10.0.2.254

c) how to open bz2 files (I always forget!!!)

tar -xjvf asterisk_settings.tar.bz2

d) I got an autoconf error

autonf error: solved by installing atuconf (apt-get) and running make config.

232 make
233 make config
234 make install
235 history

e) I got a cc1plus error

Asterisk installation: Got an error related to cc1plus while doing the .configuration. I apt-geted the packaged and worked.

apt-get install build-essential

f) Finally booting Asterisk at start time:

147 cd /etc/init.d/
148 cp /usr/src/asterisk-1.4.4/contrib/init.d/rc.debian.asterisk ./asterisk
149 ls
150 update-rc.d asterisk defaults

It should display the following output:

rbast:/etc/init.d# update-rc.d asterisk defaults
Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/asterisk ...
/etc/rc0.d/K20asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
/etc/rc1.d/K20asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
/etc/rc6.d/K20asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
/etc/rc2.d/S20asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
/etc/rc3.d/S20asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
/etc/rc4.d/S20asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
/etc/rc5.d/S20asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
rbast:/etc/init.d# history

Must have applications for your Windows PC

2007-06-25T15:32:00.000+01:00

Below is a list of applications that do my work and windows experience more easy. They are not sorted in any particular order and note that they are all light applications, no hundreds of MB involved.

Total commander - http://www.ghisler.com/
A clon of the famous Norton commander used long time ago (yes I am that old and also you can have mc on your Linux) that you can use to manage your files, ftp, connect to other boxes, etc. Visit the website and go back in time where things were simpler.

Cerberus - http://www.cerberusftp.com/
An FTP server easy and quickly to run on you pc.

Snagit - http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp
A must have if you have to send documents with manuals or showing users what to do. Easily capture your screen, edit it, modified it, copy it and just send it or paste it or save it in whichever format you want.

Textpad - http://www.textpad.com/
A text editor to replace the old notepad on which you cannot do much. If you deal with logs and simple files and want to do searchs, compares, replaces, etc. this is the tool for you (other textedit or vim for windows but I always go back to Textepad).

Putty - http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
Not sure if this is the right site where to download it but Google for it. A great and complete telnet and ssh and others. Very useful to replace the windows telnet.

Videolan - http://www.videolan.org/
This is to reproduce video files of all types (almost) very easy to use with some extra features as to stream your movie to your friends if they are on the same network.

Synergy - http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/
If you have 2 pcs or more you can just use 1 keyboard and mouse to control both systems. I have my desktop and my laptop in the office and I use my normal keyboard for both, it shares memory so copy paste can be copy and no more having several mouse laying around not knowing which one to use and occupying all your desktop space.

Foxit pdf reader - http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php
This is not a must but aren't you tired of downloading 70MB to read a 30K pdf!!. This is a PDF reader free to use, there is a pay option for a writer but I don't need it yet. One day Adobe would need to launch a light version of their app that consumes less memory also.

Other applications I sue are the CoolEdit, RealVNC (or any vnc clon), WinSPC3 and ActivePorts.

Ok that is my list for the time being, I would have to go through my start/programs menu to find out more but if I have to find them then they are not essential.

Good luck!!

Benjamin Franklin's Thirteen Virtues

2007-06-24T16:04:00.000+01:00

One of the things I would like to take from Benjamin Franklin are the virtudes that he tried to follow. I have a lot of work to do on most of them, but it simpler now that I have identify them.

1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION. Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11.TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

(is there something wrong that I liked the virtudes of somebody who lived +200 years ago when slavery was still in practice?... also if you think about it, the world lives by 10 rules that were given to us +2000 and other +6000 and even longer)

Book - Benjamin Franklin An American Life

2007-06-24T15:17:00.000+01:00

I read Walter Isaacson book about Benjamin Franklin - note I am not american and english is not my first language! - and I have to say that I like it.

I am not a writer, critic and I am consider myself a normal human being with my own mind. I think the book was more about Benjamin Franklin on the american revolution (then the "An American Life" of the title makes sense) that a biography of this really interesting man. You can argue that this life was america and I agree on that. Everybody has the right to his own opinion right?

I recommend this book to everybody and one can lear a lot from it (or at least a few things depending on how commited and inteligent you are, in my case.. I just learned a little). As said the book focused more on Franklin's part on the American Independence, how from a loyal royalist became a patriot and help the US to get it idependence. (In my opinion a change more induced by the "practicallity of it" that the book mentioned he always focus on rather on actually believing it).

You can also learn about his family and scientific work, how he thought, worked and specially wrote. It is amazing how good (always in a practical way) he was writting and how much he wrote, ok no every idiot (: has his own blog but for back then this man really knew how to express ideas, how to influence people and how to tell the truth.

I didn't like how John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Washington were portrayed (does that word exists?) and I didn't share Franklin's view about family.

In general I admire the guy, would buy him a beer as the book say but would not spend my christmas with him as I like to be with my family.

Funny thing at the same time I read this book I saw the movie called the "Shooter" (ok a blockbuster type of movie full of explosions with a die hard type of hero) and on it near the end the poor underdog hero confronts a US "sitting" senator about his actions and this says: "There are no sides.... there are republican and democrats there are haves and haves not... This is a country where a secretary of defense can go on tv and tell the american public that this is about freedom is not about oil" so ok, this is a movie but how far is from the true?

Again read this book or any other biography of Franklin, after this I am looking forward to read about Washington and Edison.

Testing Google Docs!

2007-06-24T14:58:00.000+01:00

This is a test of google docs direct posting to blogger. It is an nice alternative to the blogpost post manager and google is full of utils to make your net experience more control by them!

So at this moment I am using.

Blogspot... where I publish (not very often) what I do (that means I need to do more).
Must have? Not really, you can use other servers.

Docs. Will become a must very shortly. Word and Excel like formats available on the web? No more loosing files due hard disk failures? No more forgetting the file at home? Sharing it with a team? Great features, a little concern about security (you would not put your company salary here yet) and would like to see a feature like automatic archive (imagine go back to all previous version of the same file).

Picasa. Having see how useful this is. Now you can have a blog and a flog?. I used to have Flirck (just testing on one of my first posts) but was limited on the amount of files per month or size. Let's see if this gives me the freedon (and remains FREE) to upload more files to share with family and friends.

Talk. Ok another hotmail messenger, yahoo messenger, icq, skype client kind of thing and I get lost between them. (I am using skype to test vxml, google talk never, hotmail messenger friends, yahoo meseenger work, icq I lost my account long time ago).
Must have? Not really Keep using your old clients and skype if you want to talk on voip

Calendar. A nice calendar to have on the web, maybe it can be connected to Orkut.
Must have? Yes if you want to get out of outlook calendar. Yahoo has another one but don't use it so much.

Desktop. This is a client install for search on my hd and add some gadgets (calendar) on my desktop (that looks a lot as Windows Vista gadgets.. the previous version had a white background).
Must have? Yes. Looking for files or emails is easier and faster.

Toolbar. Nice to have, just add features to your IE or Firefox.

Gmail. Once you create an account you can activate everything so not used atm but nice. Note that people used to pay for having one of the invitations to gmail when it was still on beta. The 1GB (or more) that provides is great but how many accounts does a person really needs. I wish they could all have pop3 like in the old days.

And that is not all, if you go to the google homepage and choose "more" (on the search bar) you have more things to install. I use a lot maps and images and remember that now google have youtube database of vidoes.

Little Java program

2007-02-28T21:16:00.000Z

My first little java program... after a few tries with the Hello World and reading a book I did my beeting game. It is not a great thing but I need to get used to break problems in parts - the example below doesn't do 100% that.

I need to be able to break each action as much as possible, at the begining I thought it was going to be easy but for this simple example I kept falling into creating one big procedural class. I should be able to break it even more and caught more exception (like entering chars/strings instead of numbers) and will do it after I finish the second book of begining java.

import java.text.NumberFormat;

public class Account {

static int balance;

public Account (int amount) {
balance = amount;
}

public Account () {
balance = 0;
}

public void credit (int betamount){
balance = balance + (2 * betamount);
}

public void debit (int betamount){
balance = balance - betamount;
}

public boolean checkBet (int betamount){
if (betamount > balance) {
return false;
} else {
return true;
}
}

public void showbalance (){
NumberFormat nf = NumberFormat.getCurrencyInstance();
System.out.println("Available balance is : " + nf.format(balance));
}
}

Main class

import java.util.Random;
import java.util.Scanner;

public class BettingGame {

static Random myRandom = new Random();
static Scanner myScanner = new Scanner(System.in);

public static void main(String[] args) {

Account myAccount = new Account(1000);
int available;
myAccount.showbalance();
boolean keepgoiang = true;

do {

System.out.println ("How much will you bet? ");
if (!myScanner.hasNextInt()){
myScanner.next();
continue;
}
int bet = myScanner.nextInt();
if (bet == 0) {
break;
}
if (myAccount.checkBet(bet)){

do {
System.out.println ("Which number do you chose");
if (myScanner.hasNextInt()){
break;
}
}while (!myScanner.hasNextInt());
int number = myScanner.nextInt();
int rannum = RandomGenerator(0,10);
System.out.println("Lucky number is: " + rannum);
if (number == rannum){
System.out.print("You win. ");
myAccount.credit(bet);
} else {
System.out.print("Better Luck next time. ");
myAccount.debit(bet);
}

} else {
System.out.println ("Not enough founds for that bet");
}
myAccount.showbalance();
if (Account.balance == 0) {
keepgoing = false;
}

}while (keepgoing);

if (myAccount.balance > 0 ) {
System.out.println("Great you quit with money on your pocket");
myAccount.showbalance();
} else {
System.out.println("You are fucked!");
myAccount.showbalance();
}

}

public static int RandomGenerator (int min, int max){
int RamNumber = myRandom.nextInt(10) + 1;
return RamNumber;
}

}

An image of the output on the console:

Fedora Eclipse 3.2.0 and jdk-1_5_0

2007-02-12T20:10:00.000Z

I am leraning Java (trying to at least) and during the installation I was very pleased to see the Eclipse package under the options but the version installed uses jre-1.4.2-gcj. That is the java runtime engine from the gnu project. It is a great effort but to someone who is reading books about java and the Sun version you get to cases where particular clases/packages (I still don't get hold of the names) are not available. Therefore I installed the Sun JDK.

As always after googling a little I found a great how-to and here are my notes. The link to the original post is at the botton of this post.

First download a jdk/jre from Sun. At the moment of writing this version 6 was available. At work I using a tool to create vxml code with eclipse that recommends 1.4.2 so I choose 1.5 (just in the middle).

I downloaded jdk-1_5_0_11-linux-i586.bin. There is a rpm but every site I checked recommends not getting closed to the sun rpm and all prefers to just run the binary.

Once downloaed copy it to /opt directory and give it rights to be executed. The easiest way is chmod +x filename.

Next cd to /opt and just run the binnary.

./jdk-1_5_0_11-linux-i586.bin

This will install everything under the current directory. In my case I ended with /opt/jdk1.5.0_11

Note that the JDK installed Sun JRE so you might want to use this jre instead that the gnu one when browsing the web. So to do this you just create a link on the mozilla

ln -s /opt/jdk1.5.0_11/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so

If you use firefox don't worry as firefox checks the mozilla plugins.

Now we start with the tricky part. You need to create a file java.sh to include the new paths, in my case I created the following:

[ricardo@mybox]$ more /etc/profile.d/java.sh
export J2RE_HOME=/opt/jdk1.5.0_11/jre
export PATH=$J2RE_HOME/bin:$PATH
[ricardo@mybox]

Once you have this file execute it by typing:

source /etc/profile.d/java.sh

This wll set your new java paths. To check it run the command below:

[ricardo@mybox]$ which java
/opt/jdk1.5.0_11/jre/bin/java
[ricardo@mybox]$

Next step is to run the following command to be able to later change the from gnu java to sun java.

/usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /opt/jdk1.5.0_11/jre/bin/java 2

Then type

/usr/sbin/alternatives --config java

This will show you something like this:

[ricardo@mybox]$ /usr/sbin/alternatives --config java

There are 2 programs which provide 'java'.

Selection Command
-----------------------------------------------
* 1 /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj/bin/java
+ 2 /opt/jdk1.5.0_11/jre/bin/java

Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number:

In the case above the + sign was on option 1. I selected 2 so it changed to the new version I installed.

Final step is to run the command below and get a similar entry as mine.

[ricardo@mybox]$ /usr/sbin/alternatives --display java
java - status is manual.
link currently points to /opt/jdk1.5.0_11/jre/bin/java
/usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj/bin/java - priority 1420
slave keytool: /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj/bin/keytool
slave rmiregistry: /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj/bin/rmiregistry
slave jre_exports: /usr/lib/jvm-exports/jre-1.4.2-gcj
slave jre: /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj
/opt/jdk1.5.0_11/jre/bin/java - priority 2
slave keytool: (null)
slave rmiregistry: (null)
slave jre_exports: (null)
slave jre: (null)
Current `best' version is /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj/bin/java.

Now Eclipse. Eclipse keep using the old runtime everytime you create a new project.

To solve this when you create a project go to the JRE section and click on "Configure JREs" as shown on the image below.

Then on the following screen you click on add and complete the form with the details shown below (note that the libraries section will be auto completed once you selcted the home directory).

The final step is to check the new JRE and every new project will be using the Sun engine.

That is all, Good luck!

Much more information on the link below:
http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_core_5_installation_notes.html#Java

Install Fedora Core 6 on a Dell Latitude D620

2007-02-11T17:38:00.000Z

I got a new laptop at work (the hp nx6125 decided to give up on me) and as every time I have a new pc/laptop I will try to run linux on it until -as always- remember that I am a windows sofa lazy user and go back to it. Therefore until my concious realizes that I am trying to learn something here are the notes on what I did. (note if you want notes on how to install windows just click next during installation until death knocks on your door).

I use two flavours of Linux.. Fedora for personal use and Debian for Servers.. Why? No idea.

Note that his are my notes.. the urls where I got all this from are below. This notes are for me to avoid googling again for this in the future.

*****Installation
Downloaded the hp dvd image and booted from the DVD and just hit enter. I found later notes of people recommending the following boot options:

linux i686
--- Check http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Bugs/FC6Common. Seems that some early versions installed the wrong architecture kernel version (in the document i586 instead of i686).

linux resolution=1440×900
--- For some reason some use this kind of resolution. I haven't tried it yet but not sure if this is for the nvidia or intel board.

The installation is straight forward and I surf around the packages and selected the ones I wanted. Note that after the installation Fedora will try to update all your applications, if you select Extras as package sources this update process will take a bit longer so have a good book or movie ready while your system goes to the net and updates everything (including kernel).

The hardware on my pc is:

[root@box loginname]$ /sbin/lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 01)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller IDE (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
03:01.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ601/6912/711E0 CardBus/SmartCardBus Controller (rev 40)
09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5752 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)

From here the only things that I had to work around were:
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)

I will add the details for this below on the document.

*****Sudo

Sudo helps normal accounts to run application as root without being root. To add the normal user account as root run the command visudo and enter the following line.

loginname ALL=(ALL) ALL

The sudo configuration is pretty easy and straight forward. You can also create different groups to give access to diferent things like files or applications. In the above case would have access to everything and it will need to type it's own password everytime that sudos a command.

*****Yum

Yum is the apt-get of Fedora and the life saver of the novice that would take care of dependencies and file location when isntalling/updating/removing new software. I remember on '96 or '97 playing with Slackware (influenced by Antonio Ex@@@) and FreeBSD (influenced by Juan Carlos Ne@@@@@) and untaring files and running the make, make config, make install to find out that a file somewhere was not present or your gcc was not the correct one, etc. And yes if you do the manth that was more than 10 years ago and still don't know shit. One day If I get rich and don't need to work anymore I will spend time to learn Slackware (imho the best way to learn what happens under the hood).

I added freshrpm to the repository

[root@box loginname]cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
[root@box loginname]# more freshrpms.repo
[freeshrpms]
name=FreshRPMs for Fedora Core $releasever - $basearch
baseurl=http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/freshrpms
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://freshrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY-freshrpms

*****Fedora Kernel Headers

We will need the kernel headers at some point (wireless) and always a pain in the ass but I follow this steps found on the web and it worked.

Note this is a 99% copy of a page I found with my notes around. The original link is below (sorry for this guys!).

First move to:
cd /usr/src/redhat/

We need to download the kernel SRPM package, whose version and release match our currently running kernel. This version is shown by the following command:

# uname -r
2.6.19-1.2895.fc6

I use the following link wget http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/updates/6/SRPMS/kernel-2.6.19-1.2895.fc6.src.rpm

Next thing is to install the SRPM package. This just extracts the included files in the proper directories under /usr/src/redhat/ or to the directory tree you use for building. It does not actually install any kernels. As a user, run:.
# rpm -ivh kernel-$(uname -r).src.rpm

This extracts the kernel source packages and the various patches in the SOURCES directory and the spec file in the SPECS directory. The SRC RPM file is not needed any more.

Next, we execute the %prep stage of the spec file, by issuing the following command:

# rpmbuild -bp --target $(arch) --rmsource --rmspec SPECS/kernel-2.6.spec

This extracts the kernel source code package and applies all the Red Hat patches. All the files are placed in the BUILD directory. Here follows an explanation of the options:
-bp : Execute only the %prep stage
–target : Specify the architecture. You can explicitly put your architecture, instead of the $(arch) in this option. This is the same thing.
–rmsource : This removes all the kernel SRC RPM related files under the SOURCES directory, so no unneeded files are left to the system.
–rmspec : This also removes the spec file from the SPECS directory.

Now, we move to the directory containing the fedora kernel sources:

# cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.19/linux-2.6.19.i686

Copy the proper kernel configuration file, that matches your architecture, from the configs directory and place it in our current working directory, naming it as .config and replacing the already existent .config file. For example, I used the kernel-2.6.14-i686.config file :

# cp configs/kernel-2.6.19-i586.config .config

These files most probably contain the same configuration options, but we do this for completeness.

Next thing is to add the proper kernel release number to the Makefile (in directory: BUILD/kernel-2.6.19/linux-2.6.19.i686/). As it is stated in the Fedora release notes, in order to "protect the innocent" the value of the EXTRAVERSION field is -prep. Open this Makefile in a text editor and replace the -prep with the release number of your currently running kernel. For example, my running kernel at the time of writing is 2.6.14-1.1637_FC4. I replace the:

EXTRAVERSION = -prep
with :
EXTRAVERSION = -1.2895.fc6

Example:
# vi /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.19/linux-2.6.19.i686/Makefile
VERSION = 2
PATCHLEVEL = 6
SUBLEVEL = 19
EXTRAVERSION = -1.2895.fc6
NAME=Avast! A bilge rat!

The last action of the basic configuration is to run the following command:

# make oldconfig

This command sets the default answers to all kernel configuration questions according to the settings of our .config file. This command is more relevant to kernel re-building, but won’t hurt issuing it.

At this point, if you try to compile any third party kernel modules using this directory as the kernel source directory, you will most probably encounter errors. This is because some more preparation should be done to the kernel sources (this mainly involves the include directory).

A full compilation of the kernel would set all these things straight, but one of the goals is to avoid the compilation of the kernel to save some time. We have not modified any of the kernel configuration options or applied any extra patches, so this would be pointless anyway.

I remind that our current directory is:
/usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.19/linux-2.6.19.i686

A file, named Module.symvers, which contains information about the native kernel modules, needs to be present inside our current directory. This file is normally created after the native kernel modules are compiled. Since we are not building the kernel or any modules and since we have not modified the default kernel configuration, we can use the Module.symvers file, which is included in the official fedora kernel-devel RPM.

The presense of this file is important when we compile any third party modules using these kernel headers. If it’s not there, then our modules will not contain any dependency information, regarding the native kernel modules. This way, if the third party module depends on some native kernel modules, then you will have to load the latter manually.

So, copy the Module.symvers file from the directory, where the official fedora kernel-devel package is installed, into our current directory:

# cp /usr/src/kernels/$(uname -r)-$(arch)/Module.symvers .

Finally, we issue the following command:

# make prepare scripts

This creates:

The include/linux/version.h file, which contains kernel versioning information.
The proper asm symlink for your platform and the asm-offsets.h file inside your platform’s specific asm directory.
The scripts that come with the kernel sources. These are needed when we compile third party modules using these headers.

This is the proper and most complete way of preparing our headers, instead of compiling each of the files mentioned above individually.

That should be the end of all the needed actions in order to accomplish our goal. Final Words: At this point, we have a custom directory that contains:

The fedora kernel sources. The kernel has not been compiled.
The kernel headers that match those of the kernel-devel RPM package with the difference that they are complete. No files are missing.

The directory /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.19/linux-2.6.19.i686 can be moved to any place you like. Give it a proper name that includes your currently running kernel version and release. The kernel headers, contained in this directory, can be used in order to compile any third party kernel modules. The rest of the contents of the /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/ directory, can be deleted, unless you need it.

*****Wireless Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
My wireless is a Intel. I don't recall exactly what I did as I surf a lot but here is what I remember:

0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)

a) Install dkms-ipw3945, ipw3945d and ipw3945-firmware from freshrpms, install the kernel-devel package for your kernel (already done) and reboot.

yum install ipw3945 (not sure)
yum install dkms-ipw3945-1.2.0-1.noarch.rpm
yum install ipw3945-firmware-1.13-1.noarch.rpm
yum install ipw3945d-1.7.22-4.i386.rpm

b) Add the NetworkManager to Gnome so I can geet a fancy icon to log into networks.

Install the software: su -c 'yum install NetworkManager NetworkManager-glib NetworkManager-gnome'
Set the main service to start on boot: su -c '/sbin/chkconfig --level 345 NetworkManager on'
Set the dispatcher service to start on boot: su -c '/sbin/chkconfig --level 345 NetworkManagerDispatcher on'
Start the services: su -c '/sbin/service NetworkManager start ; /sbin/service NetworkManagerDispatcher start'
Now enter this command to load the tray icon: NetworkManagerInfo & (or just Reboot as I did).

*****VPN
This was really easy. Install PPTP and the pptpconfig GUI using the following commands:

# rpm -Uvh http://pptpclient.sourceforge.net/yum/stable/fc6/pptp-release-current.noarch.rpm
# yum --enablerepo=pptp-stable install pptpconfig

Then open ppptconfig application from the Applications/Internet menu and complete the configuration. On my case I had to disable (or enable?) one of the Encryption options to be able to connect to my work. Also on the Routing tab you can either select to route all traffic through the tunnel or set up rules so your internet traffic goes through your home broadband and your corporate applications go through the tunnel (don't know if this is a good idea on a security point of view).

*****NTFS
Mounting NTFS partition on FC6

My laptop has 2 windows partions, one for the windows applications/windows installation and a second one to keep files, documents, etc. This is to avoid any problem in case I need to reinstall windows and to use as sandbox with the Fedora partition.

My steps were:

a) As root (or sudo)
yum install fuse fuse-libs ntfs-3g ntfsprogs ntfsprogs-gnomevfs

b) Check disk configuration to see where the partition is:
[root@box loginname]# /sbin/fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1958 15727603+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 1959 5222 26218080 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 5223 5235 104422+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 5236 7296 16554982+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 5236 7296 16554951 8e Linux LVM

The partition I want to mount is /dev/sda2, so I change the /etc/fstab and add the last line on the example below:

[root@box loginname]$ more /etc/fstab
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda2 /mnt/drive_e ntfs-3g rw,defaults,umask=0000 0 0

Where /mnt/drive_e is a directory I created to "label" the mounting point.
Then ntfs-3g is the file system and note that rw will make the partition read/write. You can also set it up as ro (read only). Check the man mount for the meaning of umask as it gives several options.

*****Screen Resolution Intel 945 Dell 620
Surfing around I found that many of this dells come with a nvidia driver and I guess my company is a cheaper one and went for the Intel 945 option.

The lspci shows the version of the Display controller
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

Installation went well but the system keeps booting on 1024x768. I read along and I can see that I can at least run this laptip at 1200x800 and in some cases at 1440x900. Haven't been able to run at 1440x900 but here is what I did for 1280x800.

a) yum install 915resolution
It looks that you need this utility to run customs resolution on the 945. Also this utility needs to be run everytime that you boot your pc.

A few tips, after installing run "locate 915resolution" if nothing is found then run an updatedb.

After install run a 915resolution -l and you will get a list of all options. Probably 1280x800 is not there so run the following options to create the 1280x800

/usr/sbin/915resolution 49 1280 800
/usr/sbin/915resolution 38 1280 800
/usr/sbin/915resolution 58 1280 800

As you have to run this everytime the box boots you can add them on the /etc/rc.local.

I also added the file /etc/default/915resolution so that it has XRESO=1280 YRESO=800.

Finally I changed the /etc/X11/xorg.conf as follows (note that everytime I change the display configuration using the gnome utility this file looses this changes - I was trying to have 2 montiros running) but along the above steps are done it doesn't seem to affect it. Just in case below are the details I originally used on xorg.conf.

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor 1024x768"
HorizSync 24.0 - 64.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 60.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "i810"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1440x900" "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

*****FIX DVD DMA
(again copied from another site) For some of us, DMA isn't enabled by default for our wonderful FC5 powered computers (like some Dells and Thinkpads). I've been spending a month or two (off and on) trying to find out how to work arround this problem. The long answer, from what I understand, for why this happens has to do with an IDE and a SATA/PATA drivers that are conflicting with one another and trying to control the drive (you might notice that the drive is labled /dev/hdc) and the DMA doesn't work well... or at all. According to the bug-report that I read, this is not a bug but an expected side effect of some DVD drive setups. With recently released kernels it is not required to make a custom-build, so this is done based off of a yum-installed kernel.

Signs of this problem include choppy DVD playback or slow image reading and when running "hdparm -d1 /dev/hdc" to turn DMA on it will respond with "Operation not permitted". If you see this and, like me, have been trying to find a way to enable DMA on your drive this should help you and I'm writing this so that people with this (apperently common) problem can referance one place to solve it.

Ok, now to get to the part where I tell you how to...

In the terminal:

$su -
#gedit /etc/modprobe.conf

add the following line to the end of the file (leaving an extra empty line behind it):

options libata atapi_enabled=1

save, close and continue in the terminal:

#gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

add the following to the boot parameter:

combined_mode=libata

save, close and reboot.

Now your DVD drive should be called "/dev/scd0", DMA will not be needed and Xine should be able to play it without the choppyness. Further effects of a working DVD drive (from what I hear, tell myself to make me feel better and dream) include faster CD ripping speeds and general read speeds, improved oooo-aaahhhh factor of showing off Linux, improved firtility and a marginal decrease in Windows dependancy...

*****Other installations
yum install flash-plugin
yum install wifi-radar
yum install wlassistant
yum install gnome-commander

*****Usefull URLs
Below are the URLs I used to get the information. Read them as the people who wrote them knew what they were doing that is not my case most of the time.

http://pptpclient.sourceforge.net/howto-fedora-core-6.phtml
http://www.g-loaded.eu/2005/12/14/the-complete-fedora-kernel-headers/
http://klamstwo.org/evad/archives/3
http://mikelococo.com/2007/01/fc6-on-d620/
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-fc6.html
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=515648
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Tools/NetworkManager#head-fc3fe44e92c63867615113b1ef69cf4fc0dc03cf
http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=114586

C51B50E96BD6109DF982BBD4F6

Installing Asterisk, Java SDK, recompiling Kernel on Debian

2007-01-13T22:15:00.001Z

This is nothing to be proud off.. two things I wanted to install. Note this is not JAVA for Asterisk, keep googling on how to do that, this is just a few packages I installed on a Debian box.

------

a) Java SDK - Sun webpage has jdk-6-linux-i586.bin but I followed some instructions (running the binary and trying to create the Debian package) but they didn't work so I check what was available. I found that testing (etch) had a Sun Java package ready to apt-get install.

-------

b) Asterisk again (this is a second server, I want to experiment with IAX and SIP trunks between asterisks)

For (a) I couldn't install it on normal ways so I cheated. Following is what I did -not on purpose.

Installed Sarge from Netinstall and updated it.
5 cd /etc/apt/
1 vi sources.list
2 apt-get update
3 apt-get dist-upgrade
4 shutdown -r now

Upgraded to Etch (by changing the sourcelist)
5 cd /etc/apt/
12 apt-get install fakeroot
13 apt-get install java-package ncurses-dev wget bzip2
17 vi sources.list
18 apt-get update
19 apt-get dist-upgrade
20 uname -r
21 shutdown -r now

Install Jdk 5 (not 6)
22 apt-get install sun-java5-jdk
23 which java

After this I went to install asterisk but when compiling Zaptel I got the error that the headers didn't match although they were there and they were the same as the uname -r. I tried to uninstall them and install them again but once uninstalled I couldn't install them again... so I decided to do something that I always fails... build the kernel from the sources.

Upgraded the kernel to latest one on kernel.org
I install a bunch of packages that not sure what they are for
105 apt-get install kernel-package ncurses-dev fakeroot wget bzip2
106 apt-get install make-kpkg kernel_image
130 apt-get install yaird fakeroot
134 apt-get install initramfs-tools

Also in the process I created a Sudo account.
apt-get install sudo
adduser ricardosudo
visudo -> modified a file with PICO
added ricadosudo ALL=(ALL) ALL
sudo adduser ricardosudo src

And here it gets weird:
cd /usr/src
tar jxf /path/to/linux-2.6.19.2.tar.bz2
cd linux-2.6.19.2/
cp /boot/config-$(uname -r) .config ---> basically I am copying the .config left by the default installation to avoid starting from zero.
make oldconfig ---> not sure if necessary. Here you are asked A LOT of things. Try to answer what you can but probably this will remind you a Windoze NEXT NEXT NEXT era.
make menuconfig --> here again I think that I could avoid the previous step. anyway go through the options and remove anything you think you don't need as it will make the kernel smaller and compile quicker. What do I don't need you ask? Go for the obvious - like removing support for ATI if you have an Intel Graphic board.

Example of the screen of menuconfig:

A few things to check are:
Processor type and features ---> Processor family (Pentium 4)
Processor type and features ---> Timer Frequency (1000 Hz)
Processor type and features ---> Preemption Model ---> Preemptible Kernel (Low-Latency Desktop)

Exit to the main menu and SAVE then run:
fakeroot make-kpkg clean

Run the make-kpkg commmand like: fakeroot make-kpkg --append-to-version "<-suffix>" --revision "" --us --uc --initrd kernel_image kernel_headers Where <-suffix> is whatever you want (like -mykernel), and change with a number (like the date, 05112006.)

Example: fakeroot make-kpkg --append-to-version "-mykernel" --revision "01132007" --us --uc --initrd kernel_image kernel_headers

After this you will get 2 deb files, you can use dpkg -i to install them.

dpkg -i linux-headers-2.6.19.2-mykernel_01132007_i386.deb
dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.19.2-mykernel_01132007_i386.deb

Here my box went wrong saying that I needed Yaird initramfs-tools and another package and could continue. I try to apt-get install those package bUt it kept saying "The following packages have unmet dependencies." but also it said to try to run apt-get install -f (note alone, not any other instance).

After this I run the dpkg again and now it worked.

After this I was able to install Asterisk as always and it worked. I am sure that I am doing something wrong and hope to learn what it is along the way.

NOTE: When compiling Zaptel I run the modprobe zaptel and modprobe ztdummy as I don't have any fxo,fxs,tdm board on this box. It will us the ztdummy for timing. An lsmod shows the modules...

rbtest:/usr/src# lsmod
Module Size Used by
ztdummy 5544 0
zaptel 208932 1 ztdummy
crc_ccitt 2304 1 zaptel

Something good came out of this.. NO KERNEL PANIC on an attempt to recompile a kernel. I have to say.. first time I didn't got one of this.

Some links that I used to do this were:

http://www.falkotimme.com/howtos/debian_kernel2.6_compile/
http://wizah.blogspot.com/2005/12/debian-how-to-custom-kernel-compile.html
http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/kernel2.6.htm

Installing Asterisk again

2007-01-08T00:09:00.000Z

I installed Asterisk again. This time version 1.4.

As always I did a Debian Sarge netsinstall. On boot I choose the linux26 option to have a 2.6 kernel rather than the 2.4 that comes by default.. Why? Have no idea.

The installation is really basic, I don't choose any configuration when Debian asksfor "Desktop", "Web Server", etc.. I just give the ok and start with an empty server.

(Note that I tried to run the "testing" or "etch" version of netinstall but Asterisk requieres headers. The etch version repository don't have the headers for the default installation and you need to recompile.. AND I CANNOT RECOMPILE THE BLODDY KERNEL YET. I tried, I really tried and read several posts/pages and run diferent methods - from building my debian kernel package to actually recompile the kernel from source - but always I get a Kernel Panic. If anybody want's to sit with me and show me how to do it, I will pay for the lunch/coffee).

After the installation I changed the source.list to add contrib and non-free packages when installing new software. The file can be seen below:

rbast:/etc/asterisk# cd /etc/apt/
rbast:/etc/apt# more sources.list
#deb file:///cdrom/ sarge main

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib non-free
rbast:/etc/apt#

You have to run apt-get update after this to let Debian pick up the changes (need to read more about apt).

Then I run the apt-get dist-upgrade to upgrade all the packages installed.

First step after install - as I like to do things remotely - is to do the apt-get install ssh. This will install a ssh client and server (openssh) so I can log in remotely and keep working from my laptop. Ah.. I never mentioned this but the "server" is an old HP PIII box.

Next step install the headers needed for Asterisk:

apt-get install kernel-headers-`uname -r`

Download all the packages again:

wget http://ftp.digium.com/pub/asterisk/releases/asterisk-1.4.0.tar.gz
wget http://ftp.digium.com/pub/zaptel/releases/zaptel-1.4.0.tar.gz
wget http://ftp.digium.com/pub/libpri/releases/libpri-1.4.0.tar.gz
wget http://ftp.digium.com/pub/asterisk/releases/asterisk-addons-1.4.0.tar.gz
wget http://ftp.digium.com/pub/asterisk/releases/asterisk-sounds-1.2.1.tar.gz

And follow the installation as with 1.2.x, only a few things changed (maybe more.. correct me please).

On the asterisk package you need to run the configure utility as show below:
tar xvfz asterisk-1.4.0.tar.gz
cd asterisk-1.4.0
./configure
make
make install
make samples

Also on the asterisk-addons or you will get an error message after the make if not.

Some tips I picked up this time (also the last time but I didn't take note of them at that time) are:

a) run lspci - shows the 2 fxo clones I bought (2 years ago by now).

rbast:/usr/src/asterisk# lspci
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801AA AC'97 Audio (rev 02)
0000:01:0b.0 Communication controller: Tiger Jet Network Inc. Tiger3XX Modem/ISDN interface
0000:01:0e.0 Communication controller: Tiger Jet Network Inc. Tiger3XX Modem/ISDN interface
rbast:/usr/src/asterisk#

b) run lsmod - shows the modules loaded. (I have way too much modules)

rbast:/usr/src/asterisk# lsmod
Module Size Used by
wcfxo 12448 0
zaptel 231332 1 wcfxo

Other usefull things to check are:
cat /proc/zaptel/* --> it should show 2 files.

After installation I need to configure my 2 fxo boards:

In zaptel.conf set the following configuration:

fxsks=1-2
loadzone=uk
defaultzone=uk

Then execute:

/sbin/ztcfg -vvvv

In zapata.conf set the following configuration:

[channels]
language=en
context=zap
signalling=fxs_ks
callerid="Line 1"
channel => 1
callerid="Line 2"
channel => 2

Finally reload chan_zap.so

Set sip.conf as follows to have 2 extensions - a grandstream budgetone 100 and then a normal xlite softphone.

[10001]
type=friend
context=sip
regexten=10001
secret=10001
username=10001
callerid="GrandStream1" <10001>
host=dynamic
nat=no
canreinvite=yes
dtmfmode=info
call-limit=1
disallow=all
allow=ulaw
allow=alaw
callingpres=allowed_passed_screen

[10002]
type=friend
regexten=10002
context=sip
secret=10002
username=10002
callerid="XLite" <10002>
host=dynamic
nat=yes
canreinvite=no
disallow=all
llow=gsm
allow=ulaw
allow=alaw

My extensions.conf atm is rather simple. I have 2 sip phones, 2 zap lines and just for testing the following configuration should work:

[general]
static=yes
writeprotect=no
clearglobalvars=no
[sip]
exten => 10001,1,Dial(SIP/10001,20,tr);
exten => 10002,1,Dial(SIP/10002,20,tr);
exten => _8XXXX,1,Dial,Zap/1/${EXTEN}
exten => _9XXXXXXXXXXX,1,Dial,Zap/1/${EXTEN}
[zap]
exten => s,1,Dial(SIP/10001,20,tr);

The above configuration should ring the 2 sip phones and allow the sip phones to ring any extension on my office through the 1st zap channel (need to read about macros to use both and pick up an available zap channel).

It will also send any call from my pbx to the grandstream phone.

My PBX is an Avaya CM3. I want to set up an H323 trunk, but at the moment anybody dialing extension 8xxx1 and 8xxx2 (I am not trying to hide the extensions number, I really don't remember them) will send the calls to the grandstream sip phone.

The Grandstream configuration is simple and show on the picture attached. To configure it first check the phone ip - activate dhcp or enter an ip using he keypad - and log in. The default password is admin, if you don't know the password you can reset it by going to the "reset" option on the phone menu throught the keypad and enter the mac address of the phone. Look for the grandstream manual on the net as they have some rules of how to change the mac address letters for numbers.

That is all for today.. Good luck!

Usefull links:
http://kb.digium.com/ -> Digium Knowledge Base.

Networking Setup on Debian Linux

2006-12-03T19:10:00.000Z

The networking configuration and eth0 is configured in the file /etc/network/interfaces file.If the system is set up to use dhcp, then the /etc/network/interfaces would contain:

iface eth0 inet dhcp

To change the system to use a static IP address, change the /etc/network/interfaces file to:

iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.254

Asterisk Installation on Debian Sarge 3.1

2006-08-24T21:04:00.000+01:00

Asterisk Installation on Debian Sarge:
Linux rbast 2.6.8-2-386 #1 Tue Aug 16 12:46:35 UTC 2005 i686 GNU/Linux

After several days of trying to have a Linux box with a recompiled kernel (and failed every time) I gave up and just do the basic/minimum and no packages installation of debian netinstall. After that I started the Asterisk installation.

Here are the steps. They worked for me, I picked them up from several sites.

cd /usr/src/
apt-get install kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-386

apt-get install cvs
apt-get install libssl-dev
apt-get install zlib1g-dev
apt-get install libnewt-dev
apt-get install bison
apt-get install ncurses-dev
apt-get install libssl-dev
apt-get install initrd-tools
apt-get install procps

mkdir asterisk
cd asterisk

wget http://ftp.digium.com/pub/asterisk/asterisk-1.2.4.tar.gz
wget http://ftp.digium.com/pub/zaptel/zaptel-1.2-current.tar.gz
wget http://ftp.digium.com/pub/libpri/libpri-1.2-current.tar.gz
wget http://ftp.digium.com/pub/libiax/iax-0.2.2.tar.gz
wget http://ftp.digium.com/pub/asterisk/asterisk-1.2-current.tar.gz
wget http://ftp.digium.com/pub/asterisk/asterisk-addons-1.2-current.tar. gz

tar xvfz libpri-1.2-current.tar.gz
cd libpri-1.2.3/
make clean
make
make install

cd ..
tar xvfz zaptel-1.2-current.tar.gz
cd zaptel-1.2.8/
make clean
make linux26)
make install
modprobe zaptel
modprobe wcfxo
ztcfg
(from goods2world where I bout the cheap/clone x100p. => Also, this commands need to get executed whenever
you restart the system. Make sure to add it to init.d loading scripts. Stupid installation manual can be found
here http://www.goods2world.com/downloads/X100PG2W.pdf)

cd ..
tar xvfz asterisk-1.2-current.tar.gz
cd asterisk-1.2.11/
make
make install
make samples

(don't know why I put this notes here)
wget http://ftp.digium.com/pub/asterisk/g729/linux/32-bit/i386/codec_g72 9a.so
wget http://ftp.digium.com/pub/asterisk/g729/register_utility/glibc2.3.5 /x86/register
wget http://ftp.digium.com/pub/asterisk/releases/asterisk-sounds-1.2.1.t ar.gz

cd ..
tar xvfz asterisk-sounds-1.2.1.tar.gz
cd asterisk-sounds-1.2.1
make clean
make install

cd ..
cd asterisk-addons-1.2.4/
make clean
make
make install

cd..
modprobe ztdummy

From Asterisk TFOT
Let’s look at some examples. To start Asterisk and connect to the CLI with a verbos-
ity level of 3, use the following command:
# /usr/sbin/asterisk –cvvv
If the Asterisk process is already running (for example, if you started Asterisk with
/usr/sbin/asterisk), instead use the reconnect switch, like so:
# /usr/sbin/asterisk –vvvr

Get a sipphone and install it. Try to connect to the ip of the server and dial any number.
The examples installation prepared the system to accept any incoming call and play a menu so
anything you dial will work. If you hear the menu. You are ready for phase II (now what!!!)

Next step. READ THE MANUALS!!!!

SELinux Tip

2006-08-22T11:47:00.000+01:00

I installed vlcplayer and mplayer to watch movies and also add some codecs. When run this applications generated errors on dmesg like the following:

audit(1156241386.596:14): avc: denied { execmod } for pid=2850 comm="vlc" name="libavutil.so.49.0.0" dev=dm-0 ino=284990 scontext=user_u:system_r:unconfined_t:s0 tcontext=system_u:object_r:lib_t:s0 tclass=file

This was an issue on SELinux don't giving them access to the files. Looking around I found the following comment on http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/selinux-faq-fc5/:

SELinux restricts certain memory protection operation. Following is a list of those denials, as well as possible reasons and solutions for those denials. For more information on these restrictions, see http://people.redhat.com/drepper/selinux-mem.html.

These show up in /var/log/messages (or /var/log/audit/audit.log if using the audit daemon) as avc denials. These can also show up when running programs with errors like

error while loading shared libraries: /usr/lib/libavutil.so.49:
cannot restore segment prot after reloc: Permission denied

which indicates that the library is trying to perform a text relocation and failing. Text relocations are bad, but can be allowed via the first hint below. Below are the SELinux memory permissions that are denied, as well as hints at how to address these denials.

execmod

This is usually based on a library label. You can permanently change the context on the library with the following commands

# /usr/sbin/semanage fcontext -a -t textrel_shlib_t '/usr/lib/libavutil.so.49.0.0'
# /sbin/restorecon -v /usr/lib/libavutil.so.49.0.0

with the particular library at fault in place of /usr/lib/libavutil.so.49.0.0. Now your application should be able to run. Please report this as a bugzilla.
execstack

Attempt to execstack -c LIBRARY. Now try your application again. If the application now works, the library was mistakenly marked as requiring execstack. Please report this as a bugzilla.
execmem, execheap

A boolean for each one of these memory check errors have been provided. So if you need to run an application requiring either of these permissions, you can set the boolean allow_exec* to fix the problem. For instance if you try to run an application and you get an AVC message containing an execstack failure. You can set the boolean with

setsebool -P allow_execstack=1

Wireless on a nx6125

2006-08-20T17:40:00.000+01:00

My work laptop is an HP nx6125 and it comes with a Broadcom wireless adapter. To make it run on windows I used ndiswrapper and worked fine. I went to HP support page and dowload the window drives. There I took the file bcmwl5a.ini (bcmwl5.ini doesn't work) and bcmwl5.sys and copied on the ndiswrapper directory.

Check this site for details:

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Installation
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Fedora

After ndiswrapper installation the process is as follows:

ndiswrapper -i
ndiswrapper -l
ndiswrapper -m
modprobe ndiswrapper

ifconfig eth0 down
ifconfig eth1 up (In fedora wlan is eth1)
iwconfig eth1 key
iwconfig eth1 essid
dhclient eth1
ifconfig to check the system

At this time you will see eth1 on the Network Manager of Fedora.

Serial Connection

2006-08-20T17:16:00.000+01:00

My asterisk box (no monitor or keyboard) will need serial connection "just in case the network" goes down. I have another box next to it and connected through the serial. To allow this we need to change the inittab file as by default the serial connection is usually disabled.

As root vi /etc/inittab:
rbold:/etc# vi inittab

Check the file and you will find something like this:

# Example how to put a getty on a serial line (for a terminal)
T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 9600 vt100
#T1:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS1 9600 vt100

In my case I remove the coment from the fist line and it worked. I've seen on the web examples with s0 instead of T0, it makes more sense but maybe it is a Debian thing.

The options for this file are:

-L force line to be local line with no need for carrier detect (when you have no modem).
9600 serial line rate in bps. Set this to your dumb terminal or terminal emulator line rate.
ttyS0 this is the serial port identifier.
vt100 is the terminal emulation.

Check the web for more otpions

Update

2006-08-20T15:21:00.000+01:00

I got lost for 2 months. I was resolved to start on this and now is time. Since I started this a few things have happened:

Change job (well kind of - different company but same desk).
Change city, I left city move to a little boring - great to just read and learn - town.
Bought a Nikon D50
Installed FC5 on my laptop as base work OS (still have a pc with WXP for some win32 stuff).
Installed a Debian 3.1r2 - Unstable- pc to run Asterisk on it. Installation TODAY!
Got an iMac as secondary work pc.

Well lets see how this goes.

A new begining

2006-05-13T14:28:00.000+01:00

Ok, this blog is a personal sponsor. I am a techie, but not the techie I would like to be. I've been working on IT for the past 5 years. Have I modified commercial (small businness or system gateways) software applications (php, c++, visual basic, .net, java, javascript, shell scripts, perl, vxml an I believe another couple more) on my work? YES I HAVE. Do I consider myself a programmer? NO.

I can read simple code, understand it and change to achieve what I need. But I can't start from scratch, I never was asked to and I am kind of lazy (therefore this page will be my sponsor). I have tried to learn proper software development hundreds of time and I have to say that if I had a response for every "Hello World" that I have done I would still be greeting people.

I love IT, I love when I am a faced a problem and solve it but after work (and I work long hours as I like to see things well done and on my terms so usually take upon other people work) I go back home and just relax watching tv, reading a book and try to stay out of the pc.

My interests are Linux, Java, software development, Asterisk PBX, vxml, voip, databases. I will try to start with linux, java and asterisk and see where they meet - I know you will say from that I can linked them from the begining - but will try to understand each of them and then integrate the others.

How many times I have installed Linux? Lost count, I have installed slackware, red hat, fedora, debian, gentoo, ubuntu several times. After the install I get bored and go back to watch tv (my work laptop has windoze and slackware but don't ask when was the last time I boot lilo on slack).

How many times I have install the java tools ... the same.

How many times I have installed asterisk.... 4/5. I even hosted 4 extensions to talk with friends around the world and we used it ..... for a week until we got bored and switch to normal software.

So this is my new beginning, I will be posting what I do and I will help me see how lazy I am. And force the shame to take me out of bed, couch, dreams and keep working and learn new things.

For info.. what I do? I am a pbx/cti/ivr/pds administrator.

By the way, this is my first blog or thing in the net, I just went to google put blog on the search box and opened the first link. I see that this things has an "Edit Comments" option so therefore I assume people would be able to add comments. So fell free to add anything you like....

Finally although this is going to be mostly focus on techie things I will try to post normal things...

good luck