2007 Jun 24 - Sun

Perl Tools

In an earlier article, I wrote about an IP Address Management database. To manage the data framework through the web, I'm thinking it might be well to use Catalyst Web Framework, a Perl based Model/View/Controller designed for data based web infrastructures. An Introductory Article introduces Catalyst use along with Ajax.

In another vein, there is an article on how to do Perl Scripts for Perl-Less People from Cygwin. It looks to be as simple as doing:

perlcc -o foo.exe foo.pl

and then running the result to find the dependent dlls.... then packaging the exe and dlls together and shipping them off to the poor soul who needed the solution in the first place.

[/OpenSource] permanent link

Cygwin Customizations

The default shell for Cygwin uses a DOS command shell, which has limited usefulness. To enhance the console experience, here are some customizations. To enhance the shell prompt, use the Cygwin installer to install 'rxvt'.

The icon that the Cygwin installer puts on your desktop has a link to a start up file. I've put the following into my startup file in order to start up rxvt as the default terminal. As you see, I've also installed 'nano' and set it as the default editor.

@echo off
C:
chdir C:\cygwin\bin
set EDITOR=nano
set VISUAL=nano
set CYGWIN=codepage:oem tty binmode title
rxvt -fg green -fn "Lucida Console-12" -geometry 80x50 -sl 1000 -sb -e bash --login -i

The installer may or may not place a few other relevant files in your home drive: .bash_profile, .bashrc, and .inputrc. These can be found in /etc/skel and should be copied to your home directory. They can then be edited to taste.

For copying text in the rxvt terminal window, simply highlight the text while holding the left mouse button. It will be automatically copied to the clipboard once the mouse button is released. To paste the text, hold the shift key while pressing the left mouse button. This is slightly different from putty, which does not require the shift key to be held. To select a range of words you can double click on the first word, then set the mouse cursor to the right of the last word or letter you want copied, and right-click.

Here is a Cygwin Prompt Here method.

Use cygwin to run crontab jobs.

The following can be added to .bashrc to pipe any command to less (so ls):

#A function to pipe any command to less:
function so {
eval "$@" |less -I~
}

A Cygwin FAQ has some useful comments regarding mkpasswd, Octave, enhanced Bash profiles, X, and csh.

[/OpenSource] permanent link

TACACS + Linux

Up till now, I thought that TACACS use was limited to authentication/authorization of logins and commands on Cisco devices. There is an article at Freemode.net regarding TACACS + Linux for authentication.

[/OpenSource/Linux] permanent link

Trading Site of the Day -- Blog on Blogs: The 24/7 Wall St. Twenty-Five Best Financial Blogs

A site called 24/7 Wall Street, which features "Insightful Analysis and Commentary for U.S. and Global Equity Investors", has an article called The 24/7 Wall St. Twenty-Five Best Financial Blogs. These are good starting off points for further research into the daily markets.

[/Trading/SiteOfTheDay/D200706] permanent link

Debian Sample Network Configuration

For my future reference.

######################################################################
# /etc/network/interfaces -- configuration file for ifup(8), ifdown(8)
# See the interfaces(5) manpage for information on what options are
# available.
######################################################################

# We always want the loopback interface.
#
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# To use dhcp:
#
# auto eth0
# iface eth0 inet dhcp

# An example static IP setup: (broadcast and gateway are optional)
#
# auto eth0
# iface eth0 inet static
#     address 192.168.0.42
#     network 192.168.0.0
#     netmask 255.255.255.0
#     broadcast 192.168.0.255
#     gateway 192.168.0.1

[/OpenSource/Debian] permanent link

Linux Backup Application: Mondo

Mondo, Mindo. To be expounded on shortly.

[/OpenSource] permanent link

Installing XWindows/KDE on Debian

For the initial installation of Debian, I simply do a 'standard' install. No desktop. I may also add database (which is PostgreSQL 8.1), dns, and web server (which is Apache 2.0).

After the reboot, I'll install some basic packages to get KDE running: apt-get install xserver-xorg-core apt-get install x-window-system apt-get install xserver-xfree86 apt-get install xserver-xorg apt-get install x-window-system-core apt-get install kde-core

Running the command 'startx &' will get XWindows going and the KDE personalizer started.

Putting 'startkde' in .xinitrc in my home directory sets the preference for kde. Other possible window managers include gnome, xfce4, icewm, fluxbox, fvwm (loosely ordered by decreasing order of preference).

[/OpenSource/Debian] permanent link

Debian Linux on a Mini-Box

I picked up a small form factor Mini-Box M200-LCD Barebone System. It is a nice small embedded systems unit with a backlit LCD and front panel buttons. I chose a unit with a 1GHz processor, 512MB of memory, and a 40GB harddrive. The unit does not have a floppy drive or a CDROM drive. It does come with ample USB slots. It also has a Compact Flash slot hidden behind a door on the front.

With a little bit of fiddling, I was able to Debian installed and running on the unit. Here is what I did to get it up and running.

The Compact Flash is configured as a Master device on the second IDE channel.

I chose to use a USB Key to boot strap the unit into network mode to get the full Debian distribution installed.

The USB key needs to be created on another Linux system, in this case I used a VMWare'd version on an XP box, . (WinImage was suggested to me, but I could never get it to work according to what little instruction I could find). In VMWare, I needed to associate the USB controller to the VMWare session. Windows saw the USB drive disappear as a result. When I inserted the USB Key into USB slot, the Linux console indicated the drive name to be used. In this case, it was /dev/sdc.

I downloaded the netinst iso image from the Debian package site. I also obtained the boot.img.gz boot image for the distribution. Pascal Le Bail has a web page called Installing Debian Sarge from a USB memory stick (USB key) where he explains the simple process. The instructions have been incorporated into the Debian Installation Manual.

Once the files are available, a short series of commands makes the key bootable:

zcat boot.img.gz >/dev/sdc1

gets the image onto the USB Key.

mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt
cp netinst.iso /mnt

gets the iso installed on to the key.

The USB key can then be plugged into a USB slot on the Mini-Box and the power turned on. In the bios, the secret is to:

• set USB ZIP as the first boot device
• in the USB settings, turn on USB legacy mode

The Mini-Box will boot in to the Debian installer and allow a network download/configuration of a Debian installation.

The interesting part of the Mini-Box is it's LCD/Button front panel. A sample program and SDK have been made available.

There is a demo program called usblcd available to show how things are done. The source and SDK can be downloaded and built.

Assuming Debian's build tools have not been installed, here are the build steps:

apt-get install autoconf
apt-get install gcc-4.1-base
apt-get install gcc-4.1
apt-get install gcc
apt-get install automake
apt-get install binutils
apt-get install binutils-dev
apt-get install libtool
apt-get install libusb-dev
apt-get install libhid-dev
 ./autogen.sh
make
make install

You can then use commands like:

usblcd backlight 1
usblcd backlight 0
usblcd backlight 1
usblcd led 2 1
usblcd led 2 0
usblcd clear

[/OpenSource/Debian] permanent link