miércoles, 31 de octubre de 2007

BSD, the More Unix-like OS

The computer industry can be a scary place. Products try to evolve carefully, but get caught in the publicity machine and quickly grow out of control. This year’s poster child for too-fast growth is Linux. While many network managers have found Linux to be more stable and reliable than Windows 2000, they also have begun to worry about whether the hype machine will destabilize Linux. Into this picture steps Linux’s lesser-known cousins, the Berkeley Software Distribution-based operating systems - FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and BSDI.

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Creating Local SVN Repository (Home Repository)

In this tutorial I will explain how to create a local Subversion (SVN) repository, intended for a single user. I assume that you already know the benefits of keeping track of old revision of projects or important documents such as a resume or a thesis you have been writing. Subversion offers you a very convenient yet strong method to do so, and the easiest way to do so with Subversion (SVN) is to create a local, home, repository intended for a single user - you.

Oracle Instant Client for PHP & Linux

Linux + Oracle + PHP

konang.blogspot.com

Apache authentication and authorization using LDAP

Network administrators frequently use the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) to implement a centralized directory server. You can use LDAP to authenticate users in Apache. Two popular open source LDAP solutions are OpenLDAP and Red Hat Directory Server. According to the Apache documentation, Novell LDAP and iPlanet Directory Server are also supported. This article focuses on OpenLDAP, but the concepts and examples should be applicable to the others.

The Uncertain Future of BitTorrent

The people behind the popular BitTorrent tracker are working on a new version of the BitTorrent protocol that could become the successor to the current one, maintained by BitTorrent Inc. The company founded by Bram Cohen — original author of this protocol — now has decided to close the source for several new features in the BitTorrent protocol, and this "gives them too much power and influence".

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FreeBSD 7.0 beats Linux in multi-core systems

Two years have past since FreeBSD came out with a new version, but don’t think that the development has halted just because of this long period. Soon it’s time for the launch of FreeBSD 7.0 which offers ton of new things. According to tests performed by FreeBSD, the new version will beat Linux when it comes to multi-core systems.

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Create A Backup Image of Your System with DriveImage

Freeware application DriveImage XML creates and restores images of any drive or partition on your system. That means that next time you freshly install Windows on your computer (whether XP or Vista), you can back up that clean and sparkling system state with DriveImage XML.

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Cracking Windows passwords with Linux

If you lose a Windows password, or you buy a system that has an OS on it, but you don't know the password, what are you to do? The best thing to do would be to throw in a Linux CD, format the drive, and install the Distro. But, what if you want to boot to the system and see what's on there, and get data off?

Well, we have quite a few options. I'm going to cover two of them.

martes, 30 de octubre de 2007

BSD, The Humble UNIX Family

Back in the beginning of the operating systems history, UNIX was the king of the scene. For the general public, UNIX might be the best known from Jurassic Park (“It’s a UNIX system! I know this!”). Although many use and know only Microsoft’s Windows operating system, UNIX (and alike) operating systems are still alive and well, and many might not realize they actually use UNIX systems every day - Internet literally runs on UNIX(-alike) systems. BSD is one operating system family that originates from the original UNIX source code.

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GIMP: Liquid rescaling by example

Have you ever taken a picture which would be just great only if you could remove that strange unwanted object that showed up in the middle of nowhere and now kills the whole effect? Or perhaps you just want to get rid of your ex-girlfriend and keep the photo with a fantastic landscape alone? Whatever your secret plans are, GIMP Liquid rescale plugin is there for you. Just use it!

No more TextMaker for FreeBSD

According to SoftMaker president Martin Kotulla, the only commercial word processor available as a native FreeBSD application, TextMaker, will no longer support that platform as of the upcoming 2008 edition. There will of course be a Windows edition, and a native Linux edition (which should be able to run through the Linux binary compatibility software in FreeBSD), but the FreeBSD edition will not grow beyond TextMaker (and the full SoftMaker Office suite) 2006 unless there is more demand from FreeBSD users, and the operating system itself becomes easier to develop for.

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Introducing FreeBSD 7.0

FreeBSD 7.0 will be the next release of FreeBSD, and is the first major release in 2 years. It's due out some time later this year (currently in pre-release and available for testing). FreeBSD 7.0 brings major changes to the BSD and open source operating system landscape.

(more...)

domingo, 28 de octubre de 2007

JDK 1.6.0 patchset 2 "Mestengo"

On behalf of the BSD Java Porting team, I'm pleased to announce the availability of Patchset 2 "Mestengo" for JDK 1.6, based on the JDK 1.6.0 Update 2 JRL source code.

This patchset includes bug fixes and updates the code base to use the 1.6.0 Update 2 source code. However, the most exciting part of this patchset is that the browser plugin code now fully supports amd64. This is the first such support of any operating system that I'm aware of and I'd like to specially thank Jung-uk Kim and Kurt Miller for their work on this.

(more...)

sábado, 27 de octubre de 2007

Using daemontools (supervise) on FreeBSD

daemontools is a collection of tools for managing UNIX services.

supervise monitors a service. It starts the service and restarts the service if it dies. Setting up a new service is easy: all supervise needs is a directory with a run script that runs the service.

At first when I was introduced to this tool at work, I thought “What a typical Linux-admin. FreeBSD’s rc. system is superior.” Despite my personal preferences, whatever software is used at work is what I have to use and learn to use, too. After getting a little more familiar with supervise, and installing it on a FreeBSD server, I was finally convinced that this may also have a place on FreeBSD machines.

viernes, 26 de octubre de 2007

Formateando una unidad de disquete en FreeBSD

Para esto se usará el comando fdformat(1) de la siguiente forma:

1) /usr/sbin/fdformat fd0 (Formateo a bajo nivel)
2) /sbin/bsdlabel -B -w /dev/fd0 fd1440 (Etiquetado)
3) /sbin/newfs_msdos /dev/fd0 (Formateo a alto nivel)

Con el paso 3 aplicamos un sistema de archivos fat.

fácil, no?

Ajax for media

With the advent of widely available broadband, media, movies, images, and sound drive the Web 2.0 revolution. Learn to combine media with technologies such as PHP and Asynchronous JavaScript™ + XML (Ajax) to create a compelling experience for your customers.

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OpenBSD diskless install

Here is a recipe to boot OpenBSD (4.1) from an OpenBSD (4.1) box. This can be used to boot any machine that has no disks and supports pxeboot. The advantage is you save a little money on not buying hard-disks, but on the other hand, the "server" that serves everything must be always on.

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jueves, 25 de octubre de 2007

GNOME 2.20.1 available for FreeBSD

On behalf of the FreeBSD GNOME team, it is my great pleasure to announce that GNOME 2.20.1 has been merged into the FreeBSD ports tree. The official GNOME 2.20 release notes can be found at http://www.gnome.org/start/2.20/notes/en/ .

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miércoles, 24 de octubre de 2007

GIMP 2.4 Released!

General Improvements:

  1. Refreshed Look
  2. Scalable Brushes
  3. Selection Tools
  4. Foreground Select Tool
  5. Align Tool
  6. Changes in menus
  7. Improved display when zooming in or out
  8. Support for file formats

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The BSD Community Compared to the Linux Community

I'll tell you the number one thing right off that I like better about BSD than Linux: the peace and quiet.

Update on The FreeBSD Foundation's Auction

Dear FreeBSD Community,

I'm so excited about the response we have received regarding the auction. So far, the bidding is up to $345!

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Foundation auctioning off First Copy of Absolute FreeBSD

The FreeBSD Foundation is pleased to announce we're kicking off our 2007 Fall Fundraising campaign by auctioning off the first copy of the book Absolute FreeBSD, 2nd Edition. You can be the first one to own this book, while helping the FreeBSD Project and community. This book was generously donated by the author himself and he will include a signed authentic laser-printed Certificate of Authenticity, and a signed bookplate.

(more...)

martes, 23 de octubre de 2007

7.0-BETA1 Available, 6.3-BETA1 coming soon...

We have entered the final phases of the FreeBSD-7.0 Release cycle which also means the beginning of the FreeBSD-6.3 Release cycle. Because the people who support the ports for FreeBSD also need to go through a freeze cycle as part of releases we had decided to combine the two releases to try and minimize the impact on the ports maintainers.

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8-CURRENT, RELENG_7 and RELENG_6 have gotten latest unionfs improvements

Hi unionfs folks

It is my pleasure and honor to announce the commitment of
latest unionfs improvements for 8-current, RELENG_7 and
RELENG_6. Now you can get more stable operation using
unionfs on latest 8/7/6.

(more...)

viernes, 19 de octubre de 2007

Ten Years of pkgsrc

10 years ago - on October 3rd 1997 - the pkgsrc software management system was created by Alistair Crooks and Hubert Feyrer. pkgsrc, the NetBSD Packages Collection, was intended primarily as a packaging system for NetBSD. Derived from the FreeBSD Ports system, pkgsrc became a success story. Today, pkgsrc is a cross-platform framework, running on the BSDs, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, many Unix derivatives, and even on QNX and Windows.

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Secure a Wireless LAN

Take your mouse and hover it over the Wifi icon in the bottom right of your computer screen. Go ahead, do it. It will show you the name of your wireless network. If you're like 80% of Wifi users, the wireless network you are connected to is titled something like, "Linksys (Unsecured)" or "Default (Unsecured)".

An unsecured wireless network is an open invitation to hackers to walk right in to your computer and steal your personal information, upload malware onto your computer, and otherwise terrorize you. Thankfully, securing your Wifi connection is extraordinarily simple to do. In this article we cover 10 simple steps that will take your wireless network from being a welcome beacon to hackers to the wi-fi equivalent of Fort Knox. So let's get started…

Aprende a "photoshopear" con Gimp

Te presentamos tres técnicas para que te inicies en el programa elegido por las huestes "libertarias", cuando se trata de editar imágenes. Conoce la forma de retocar fotografías, quitar ojos rojos, usar filtros y poner atractivos efectos con esta herramienta 100% gratuita y en español. Porque Gimp, señores, alcanza para todos.

FreeBSD 6.2 EoL =~ s/January/May/

Hello Everyone,

In light of the longer-than-expected window between 6.3-RELEASE and 6.2-RELEASE, the End-of-Life date for FreeBSD 6.2 has been adjusted from January 31st, 2008 to May 31st, 2008. As a result, FreeBSD 5.5, FreeBSD 6.1, and FreeBSD 6.2 will all cease to be supported at the end of May 2008.

(more...)

Creating and Managing A Jailed Virtual Host in FreeBSD

This Howto article is intended to be a practical example, and I will start my host system with FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE. The Install will be of the "minimal" variety, and for the first part of this document, we will not update the system with buildworld. After a jail is created, we will then update the host, and then update the jail. This will demonstrate a practical example of how to build, and then maintain a jail thru critical security releases.

Managing Multiple FreeBSD Systems

It is quite simple to manage multiple FreeBSD systems on your network, and to keep them maintained to the same revision level. The buildworld process can be quite long, but luckily, you only need to do it once, no matter how many FreeBSD machines you operate. In this document, I will describe how to keep multiple machines updated from only one copy of the ports tree, and one copy of the system sources.

PHP Access To An MSSQL Database From Debian Etch With ODBC And FreeTDS

This assumes you already have Apache2 and PHP5 set up properly on your system. My efforts to get this connection working were compiled from information found at www.unixodbc.org and www.freetds.org. These steps worked for me with an Apache2 web server with php5 running on Debian Etch stable in October of 2007. The SQL server is running Microsoft SQL 2005 on a Windows 2003 Server OS.

Using Remote Modem

Sometimes we need to use a modem or some other serial device connected to another computer. And occasionally, we have access to the device itself. So, here is an example of how it can be accomplished.

Unofficial Patch For Windows URI Hole

The latest Microsoft patches published on October's Patch Tuesday did not include a solution, so hackers have taken on the problem themselves. One, KJK::Hyperion, has published (as open source) an unofficial patch that cleans up the critical parameters of URI system calls before calling the vulnerable Windows system function.

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Share Files on Usenet

The main advantage of Usenet is speed. P2P networks like BitTorrent and Kazaa depend on peers for download speed and reliability. Usenet, on the other hand, depends largely on the speed of your connection. There's no slow peer connection to choke your downloads. Combine those advantages with the fact that Usenet files are generally posted by trusted members, and thus less likely to contain malicious code and you begin to see why its popularity is growing.

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martes, 16 de octubre de 2007

FreeBSD: The best server OS.

I've configured and maintained over 100 UNIX-based servers over the years starting with Slackware Linux 2.0 back in 1995. Over all course of all the deployments I've become very biased about my operating systems. Linux clearly has a solid lead with desktop applications, but for server deployments and maintainability, I believe firmly in FreeBSD.

DenyHosts on FreeBSD 6.2

If you run a nix server for a little while, you’ll notice that bots will try to gain illegitimate access to your server through ssh. While this unsettles a lot of people, there’s really nothing to worry about as long as you don’t permit root logins (Many Linux distributions allow direct root login via ssh by default) and have a strong password policy.

Nonetheless, taking just an extra measure of security is a good idea, and this is where DenyHosts comes into the picture. DenyHosts is a small Python script which makes password-guessing on your OpenSSH deployments virtually impossible, by allowing only a limited number of login attempts to your sshd. After a set number of tries, DenyHosts simply denies the given IP further attempts. What’s even cooler about DenyHosts, is that the most recent version (2.0) allows you to benefit from over 23.400 other peoples ban lists, thus meaning you’re saving yourself a lot of worrying about those pesky login attempts. An added bonus is that you’ll save yourself a few kB’s of network traffic and a few CPU cycles by straight-out denying any previous offenders a connection to your server. :)

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Stepping out of Linux and into BSD: A first look at PC-BSD

Is BSD ready for prime-time? PC-BSD 1.4, a desktop-centered, FreeBSD based operating system has just been released and is looking to attract attention from the growing throngs of Linux users. But how well does it stack up to popular and easy to use Linux distributions like Ubuntu? Why should anyone care about BSD, isn't it dead? Read on for more about the latest release of this up-and-coming desktop BSD, including installation and desktop screenshots.

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KDE 3.5.8 Released

The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.5.8, a maintenance release for the latest generation of the most advanced and powerful free desktop for GNU/Linux and other UNIXes. KDE now supports 65 languages, making it available to more people than most non-free software and can be easily extended to support others by communities who wish to contribute to the open source project.

The main focus of improvements for KDE 3.5.8 is

* Improvements in Konqueror and its web browsing component KHTML. Bugs in handling HTTP connections have been fixed, KHTML has improved support of some CSS features for more standards compliance.

* In the kdegraphics package, lots of fixes in KDE's PDF viewer and Kolourpaint, a painting application, went into this release.

* The KDE PIM suite has, as usual, seen numerous stability fixes, covering KDE's email client KMail, the organizer application KOrganizer and various other bits and pieces.

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More on OpenBSD's new compiler

A few weeks ago, the OpenBSD Project announced that the Portable C Compiler (PCC) had been added to the OpenBSD source tree. There has already been some explanation of why the traditional GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is troublesome and why a new compiler is needed, but there are still some details left uncovered. In this interview, Theo de Raadt and Otto Moerbeek of the OpenBSD Project offer more information about PCC and GCC and where they are headed within the project.

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domingo, 14 de octubre de 2007

a basic FreeBSD server install part 2 - Apache, PHP, and MySQL

These articles are being written in order to try and clear up the misconception that FreeBSD is difficult to install and use. With the proper documentation and information, FreeBSD can be just as easy to use as any other Linux- or UNIX-type operating system. In this part of the basic FreeBSD server tutorial, we will be discussing installing Apache, PHP, and MySQL from the ports collection as well as a number of other topics. The following is a list of everything this article will cover:

* Installing Apache 2.2.x from ports
* Installing PHP 5.2.4 and mod_php from ports
* Installing MySQL and php5-mysql (MySQL extension for PHP 5)
* Setting up per-user web directories
* Setting up Virtual Hosts for your domains
* Setting up phpMyAdmin on a Virtual Host for easy administration of MySQL databases
* Various other tips & tricks

Demystifying the Linux start-up processes

Linux users can boast long times between reboots, but even so, the startup screens will grace your display at some time. Here’s just what your computer is doing during this process, the several important steps that occur and the order they take place, and how you can take control.

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Configuring WCCP2 on a Cisco 3620/7206 router with Squid-2.6.16 running on FreeBSD-6.x

This How-To details the steps required to configure WCCP version 2 with a Cisco 3620 or 7206 router together with Squid-2.6.STABLE16 running on FreeBSD-6.2.

MySQL performance tuning

This document serves as a starting point for MySQL performance tuning. This document is a combination of research and experience. When I started this document, I utilized a great Google video [1] as a reference for the document structure and many bullet items. I would suggest watching this video. I then filled in a few blanks, and combined a few other articles into this overview.

viernes, 12 de octubre de 2007

How to Protect Your Web Server from Attacks

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released a new publication that provides detailed tips on how to make web servers more resistant to potential attacks. Called “Guidelines on Securing Public Web Servers,” the publication covers some of the latest threats to web security, while reflecting general changes in web technology that have taken place since the first version of the guide was published 5 years ago.

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10 tips for securing Apache

In this article, I will provide you with 10 tips that will help you keep your Apache Web server protected from predators. Bear in mind that you need to carefully evaluate each of these tips to make sure that they are right for your organization.

'Hybrid' HDD Technology To Allow Data Access Without Booting

You've got a file on your laptop that you need to access — but you don't want to wait for your laptop to boot up to get at it. New technology from the company Silicon Storage Technology will make the contents of a hard drive accessible via a computer's USB port even when the computer is powered down.

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AsiaBSDCon 2008 Call for Papers

AsiaBSDCon is a conference for users and developers on BSD based systems. The next conference will be held in Tokyo, in March of 2008. The conference is for anyone developing, deploying and using systems based on FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFlyBSD, Darwin and MacOS X. AsiaBSDCon is a technical conference and aims to collect the best technical papers and presentations available to ensure that the latest developments in our open source community are shared with the widest possible audience.

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Threading Benchmarks, NetBSD versus FreeBSD

Andrew Doran posted some threading benchmark results to NetBSD's tech-kern mailing list, following up to some benchmarks he'd posted earlier. The results compared NetBSD -current with FreeBSD -current, and the Linux 2.6.21 kernel. Kris Kennaway was surprised by the results, and ran his own benchmarks with minimal configuration changes, summarizing, "this measurement shows that FreeBSD is performing 70-80% better than NetBSD in this 4 CPU configuration. This is in contrast to Andrew's findings which seem to show NetBSD performing 10% better than FreeBSD on a 4 CPU system (a very old one though)." He added, "the drop-off above 8 threads on FreeBSD is due to non-scalability of mysql itself. i.e. it comes from pthread mutex contention in userland."

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miércoles, 10 de octubre de 2007

FreeBSD Status Reports for the Third Quarter of 2007

This report covers FreeBSD related projects between July and October 2007. The sixth EuroBSDCon was held in Denmark in September. The Google Summer of Code project came to a close and lots of participants are working getting their code merged back into FreeBSD.

martes, 9 de octubre de 2007

How to keep your old PC alive

Windows and most of the proprietary software requires more and more computer power as it's version increases. This results to new hardware all the time for us. But what about our old abandoned PCs? Should we throw them away?
Of course not! Linux gives us many opportunities to use our old hardware and keep it alive while saving money.

OpenOffice.org 2.3 Review

Unlike previous 2.x releases, OpenOffice.org 2.3 is a new and enhanced feature release rather than a bug fix. There are several smart changes, a whole new approach to adding new features and of course the much anticipated new charting tool. This is definitely a release to get to know.

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Fluxbox 1.0 Released

Fluxbox 1.0 has been released.

Linux Kernel 2.6.23 Released

After 3 months, Linus has released Linux 2.6.23.

(more...)

lunes, 8 de octubre de 2007

PostgreSQL 8.2 LiveCD

Pg_live es una distribución en formato LiveCD basada en Xubuntu creada por el Grupo de Usuarios *BSD de Nueva York "diseñada y optimizada expresamente para el administrador y el entusiasta de la base de datos PostgreSQL". El CD de Pg_live arranca con un servidor web Apache con PHP, SSH y, por supuesto, PosgreSQL compilado con los siguientes lenguajes procedurales: plpgsql, plperl, pltcl, plpython, plruby, pljava y plr. Se incluyen también 3 clientes de PostgreSQL (psql, PgAdmin3 y phpPgAdmin) y replicación con Slony, además de miles de páginas de documentación y hasta el todavía vigente libro Practical PostgreSQL.

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Windows XP SP3 Build 3205 Released w/ New Features

"Windows XP SP3 build 3205 is the first official & authorized release of the next Windows XP service pack; and has been made available to testers as a part of the Windows Server 2008/Windows Vista SP1 beta program."

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domingo, 7 de octubre de 2007

Desktop FreeBSD Part 8: Updating the Core System

So, how are you liking FreeBSD? Do you believe it's something you work with, live with day after day? If you find you've gotten used to it, maybe the time has come to get more acquainted with one of the best features of FreeBSD: It's relatively painless to update the entire system by rebuilding it from code. The emphasis is not so much slavishly chasing the cutting edge of BSD technology. Instead, our focus will be on security updates and optimization.

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4.2 Release Song - 100001 1010101

Theo de Raadt announces the song for OpenBSD 4.2:

Just back from my (hiking) trip, I am happy to announce the 4.2 song has been added to the lyrics page at

http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html

Yes, it is designed to sound like a mid-era Rush song, ie. something from Grace Under Pressure or such. And there's a few easter eggs hidden in the song as well. It also explains the inside sleeve image...

(more...)

viernes, 5 de octubre de 2007

Minimal FreeBSD Installation

This article shows you how to install one of the most stable OS in a virtual environment using the VMWare virtualization server. This however should not frighten or disappoint you, as the technique is pretty much the same for non-virtual environment.

Secure remote access to your desktop

Accessing your home server safely can be problematic, especially if you don't have a fixed IP address, but with Linux, DynDNS, PAM, and NX Free you can create a safe remote access path to your machine.

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PostgreSQL Replication with Slony-I

"In this post, we look at another replication mechanism available for PostgreSQL, Slony-I. Slony-I is an asynchronous, master-slave replication system. With PGCluster, we had the ability to load balance connections to the PostgreSQL database, knowing that data that is modified in one server will be replicated across to the other server. Additionally, its synchronous nature gave us confidence that, in the event of a failure, all completed transactions will be accounted for. With Slony-I, we run into a very different type of replication. Slony-I is a master-slave system, designed to utilize one master database, and one or more slaves. Data is replicated in a one-way fashion, from the master to the slave(s). It does not include a built-in load balancing feature like PGCluster, and there is no automatic failover from a failed master to one of the slaves. Failover must be manually configured using a third-party utility, such as heartbeat. Slony-I's asynchronous nature means that, in the event of a database failure, there may be uncommitted transactions that have not been replicated across. Slony-I performs batching of transaction replication in order to improve performance. However, if the master fails prior to a batch of transactions being replicated, those transactions are lost."

PostgreSQL Replication with PGCluster

"In an earlier post, I briefly mentioned the PGCluster project. PGCluster is an extension of the PostgreSQL database, designed to give it synchronous, multi-master replication. Replication is one of the areas in which PostgreSQL is lacking in comparison to other proprietary databases, such as Oracle or MS SQL Server. However, after playing around with PGCluster, I have become very impressed with its capabilities. If development continues, PGCluster could offer a sound solution to a very important problem that large enterprises will encounter if they wish to role out PostgreSQL in a high-availability situation."

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Install SNMP on Debian

In this tutorial I’m going to teach you how to install SNMP on Debian and configure it for local or remote use. Simple Network Management Protocol is a widely used protocol for monitoring the health and welfare of network equipment, computer equipment and even devices like UPS’s. Net-SNMP is a suite of applications used to implement SNMP v1, SNMP v2c and SNMP v3 using both IPv4 and IPv6. In my case I’m using snmp to monitor the status of my servers, both linux and windows. I use Cacti to graph all this information. (I will cover cacti installation on Debian in a future post).

jueves, 4 de octubre de 2007

NetBSD 4.0 Release Candidate 2 available for download

on behalf of the NetBSD Release Engineering team, I am happy to announce the availability of NetBSD 4.0 Release Candidate 2.

Binaries and ISOs are available from

ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-4.0_RC2

The list of changes from the 3.0 release is available in the release
notes, online at
ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-4.0_RC2/i386/INSTALL.html#Changes%20Between%20T...

There have been many fixes since the previous release candidate, RC1.

The most important ones are:

- ICH9 support in wm(4).
- Enhanced Speedstep support for VIA C7/Eden and amd64.
- many bugfixes for IPF.
- FAST_IPSEC fixes.
- wpi(4) bugfix.
- proplib local DoS fix.
- fix procfs exposing the real path of an executable inside chroot.
- msdosfs bugfix.
- fix of crash dumps on sparc64.
- ACPI SCI (system control interrupt) bug fix, addresses interrupt storms seen on some machines.

(more...)

Flash on FreeBSD/PC-BSD/DBSD

"Previously we reported Matteo’s suggestion on how to get Flash and YouTube/Google Video to work on FreeBSD, but now that gnash-0.8.1 is in the ports tree (and hence avilable for FreeBSD, PC-BSD and DesktopBSD), the greasemonkey+mplayer hack is no longer needed to watch these videos."

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ComixWall ISG 4.1b released

The first public release of ComixWall ISG 4.1b is ready for download.

ComixWall is developed on OpenBSD using ports/packages and other software, and uses only free/open source software licensed under either BSD or GPL. ComixWall is freely available for all. The project goal is to have all the advanced features of many commercial and closed-source (some half open source) ISGs. This is a very serious undertaking, because most of the free and open source firewalls available on the Internet fail to support many of the features available on those commercial and closed-source ISGs.

(more...)

miércoles, 3 de octubre de 2007

FreeBSD-SA-07:08.openssl

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-announce/

Open Journal Systems on FreeBSD

As the name suggests, Open Journal Systems is an open source system for publishing and managing online journals. I'm currently evaluating its indexing, email notification, and reader comment features to see if they are suited to the collaborative features we wish to add to the OSBR.

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PC-BSD 1.4

Two reviews of PC-BSD 1.4.

martes, 2 de octubre de 2007

Resize Images without Sacrificing Content with GIMP

Ever have to crop or resize a picture to fit it better on a web site but end up disappointed with the content you have to lose from the photo? Using a method called liquid rescaling, your pics can be rescaled while retaining almost all of the pertinent content, so you can get the best of both worlds—a smaller image that retains everything you want. If it still sounds a little unclear, check out the video to see this brilliant idea in action.

If you're a fan of the open source image editor GIMP, you can download and install the Liquid Rescale GIMP plug-in to get liquid rescaling results (after you install it by moving the downloaded files into your GIMP directory, you'll see the Liquid Rescale option under the Layer menu).

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First look at PC-BSD 1.4

PC-BSD 1.4 was released last week and I was quite anxious to test it. I had looked at a couple of earlier versions and I was always quite impressed at the work this small development team was doing. PC-BSD is based on FreeBSD and this release is built using 6.2-STABLE. FreeBSD can still be a bit intimidating to some users, but PC-BSD works to eliminate that. In fact, PC-BSD is so user-friendly it might be considered the Ubuntu of free BSDs.

lunes, 1 de octubre de 2007

serving more UNIX GUIs with VNC at the same time

There is an easy way to access your Linux's GUI: VNC.

Flash Player 9 Update

This update, codenamed “Moviestar,” includes new features, enhancements and bug fixes for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux versions of Flash Player 9, including:

* Support for H.264 video and HE-AAC audio codecs.
* Multi-core support for vector rendering.
* Full screen mode with hardware scaling.
* Flash Player cache for common platform components, such as the Flex framework.
* Support for Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) in the Windows plug-in.