Debian

Debian related stuff

Updating the time on a xen domU

Jul 30th

Posted by Clifford W. Hansen in Debian

I suggest that the dom0 has the ntp daemon running and keeps the time up to date, but if you don’t have controll of the dom0 and need to get your domU’s time synced (which you should anyways) try the following:

# echo 1 > /proc/sys/xen/independent_wallclock

I was getting the following before this:

# ntpdate pool.ntp.org
30 Jul 11:29:51 ntpdate[2769]: step time server 75.144.70.35 offset -163.032327 sec
# ntpdate pool.ntp.org
30 Jul 11:29:56 ntpdate[2774]: step time server 173.45.232.54 offset -163.045007 sec
# ntpdate pool.ntp.org
30 Jul 11:29:59 ntpdate[2776]: step time server 75.144.70.35 offset -163.033134 sec
# echo 1 > /proc/sys/xen/independent_wallclock
# ntpdate pool.ntp.org
30 Jul 11:30:17 ntpdate[3462]: step time server 192.43.244.18 offset -163.044422 sec
# ntpdate pool.ntp.org
30 Jul 11:30:35 ntpdate[3648]: adjust time server 192.43.244.18 offset -0.006104 sec
# ntpdate pool.ntp.org
30 Jul 11:30:38 ntpdate[3649]: adjust time server 192.43.244.18 offset 0.237696 sec
# /etc/init.d/ntpd start
Starting ntpd:                                             [  OK  ]

Hope that helps ;)

SARS eFiling and Linux

Jul 7th

Posted by Clifford W. Hansen in Debian

2 comments

SARS (South African Revenue Service) a couple of yeas ago (eFiling) introduced an awesome system, where you could go online and submit your tax return.

The problems I have had have been annoying, firstly (2008) I was unable to do anything as the system required you to have Adobe Reader 8.2, this was not available for Linux. And you can imagine the support staff were very helpfull… NOT

And then 2009 & 2010, a similar problem or so it seemed, when ever I tried to load one of the system generated PDF files it would tell me I needed to upgrade my Adobe Reader (which at the moment is 9.3.3, the latest I believe).

After trying to figure out what could be the problem I found it to be a javascript related issue, yes javascript in a PDF…

Solution
Well to solve this problem you need to have the Debian Multimedia repository setup.

And then all you need to do is:

apt-get install acroread mozilla-acroread acroread-plugins

After that restart firefox/iceweasel and there you have it, the missing peice of the puzzel acroread-plugins

So now I have submitted my returns for 2008/2009/2010, here’s waiting for a refund *holds thumbs*

Remote syncing files using git

Jan 26th

Posted by Clifford W. Hansen in Debian

I’ve been wanting to write a post about this for a while, and a friend of mine asked about it a couple of weeks ago, and here it is…

First you need to create a remote Git repository, either on your own server or Codaset, GitHub

You will need to create a local repository:

mkdir directory_to_sync
cd directory_to_sync
git init
touch .gitignore
git add .gitignore
git commit

To create a remote Git repository do the following on your server:

mkdir repository.git
cd repository.git
git init --bare

Once you have created the remote repository you will need to link it to your local copy:

git remote add origin ssh://server_address/path_to_repository
git push origin master
git pull origin master

To make life easier I always edit the Git config file and add the following:

vi .git/config
[push]
        default = current
[branch "master"]
        remote = origin
        merge = master

The only problem with this approach is that you need to store the files in a seperate directory, but we ca get around this “limitation” by using symlinks for example to store the .bash* files in Git:

ln -s directory_to_sync/.bashrc ./

Well I hope this helps someone out there :)

The post is brought to you by lekhonee v0.7

Moving… again…

Jan 25th

Posted by Clifford W. Hansen in Debian

Well, I can’t believe how time has flown, Cecilia and I split up end of October last year, and we were still staying together till the end of the lease. I found a new place end of November, and now finally get to move in :)

So now instead of driving 100Km a day (from Durbanville to Tokai), I am now gonna be driving 10Km a day :) <– AWESOME!!!

And now I’m closer to the beach, it’s like a 10min drive, on a busy day :) so will be spending alot more time there, and when Catelyn comes to visit she will also, she loves “THE BEACH” as she puts it… hehe…

So as one part of my life finally comes to a close, another starts up…

Now finally I’ll have more time to spend on the stuff I love, and hopefully I will be able to start contributing to the Debian comunity.

New things to learn, new people to meet, new experiences to experience… #ROCKON #AWESOME

OpenMoko Neo Freerunner mobile phone

Jan 5th

Posted by Clifford W. Hansen in Debian

1 comment

So the OpenMoko Neo Freerunner mobile phone has been available in SA for a while now, and I can’t wait to get my hands on one, due to various situations this wasn’t likely to happen soon.

Then I stumbled apon a competition at WebAddict, so now I have a chance to win one, not only will I have an awesome phone that I can install Debian or Google Android on, but I’ll have a replacement for the 5800 that was stolen a couple of weeks ago… :)

Checkout the competion, it’s really an awesome phone… :)

Tweetdeck and 64Bit Linux

Dec 24th

Posted by Clifford W. Hansen in Debian

So I’ve been trying to get TweetDeck running on my work PC for a while, and none of the howto’s I followed were able to help :(

Then this morning I stumbled apon this gem and lo and behold it worked (kinda) I just had to set the permisisons on the /opt/Adobe Air/ directory.

AWESOME!!! :D

Anyways, this is mainly so if I ever reinstall (which I tend to do anyways every couple of weeks lolz… selftorture++)

Syncing google and my toys

Dec 5th

Posted by Clifford W. Hansen in Debian

1 comment

So for a while now I have had google syncing my contacts and calendar with my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone. Google Symbian Sync

Then earlier today I stumbled apon “how to sync evolution with googles pim apps” which allows me to sync my contacts and calendar with Evolution (I’m using Ubuntu 9.10 on my netbook)

This is awesome, now if I add a contact to either my phone, gmail or evolution it gets synced across all devices… #FTW!!!

New host and toys… :)

Nov 22nd

Posted by Clifford W. Hansen in Debian

1 comment

My 100th entry :D

New Toys
Cecilia and myself were looking over the finances the other day, and due to her laptop giving issues, and myself not having a decent machine. At the moment iBurst is running a special where you get a netbook, USB modem and 1Gb bandwidth a month We found it would be cheaper to cancel the current Internet connection and get two of these and external hosting.

I am currently writing this post on my netbook. :)

The netbook is a Samsung N140.

  • CPU: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz (Dual core)
  • Memory: 1Gb
  • HDD: 160Gb
  • Wifi: BGN
  • Bluetooth 2.1
  • Screen 10.1″ 1024×600

Hosting
For the past couple of years I have been hosting this blog on my server at home, I got static IP from iBurst which helped. unfortunatly due to bandwidth usage and cost I have had to move this blog offsite (moved my mail a couple of months ago)

So this blog is now hosted by A Small Orange, and thanks goes out to Geoff Garbers for suggesting them :)

Well now back to setting up a dev enviroment on the netbook… :)

DD-WRT finally… :)

Nov 15th

Posted by Clifford W. Hansen in Debian

1 comment

So last night I installed DD-WRT on my Linksys WRT54GL

So far it’s pretty kewl… :)

Next step Serial Port Hack and MMC hack and then Debian… :)

after

New network/machine setup

Nov 14th

Posted by Clifford W. Hansen in Debian

1 comment

So I finally got myself the Linksys WRT54GL and now my network hardware went from:

Before

And now after:

After

Now to try load DD-WRT onto her, and then eventually Debian… :)

Also finally sorted out the laptop that I am using, well the screen was moved to Cecilia’s laptop and this one was using the external, with a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Recycled Laptop

Well just waiting for the last couple of thing to finish on Cecilia’s laptop (had to reinstall) and then off to bed…

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