I have been running my FreeNX for several years with no problem then all of a sudden I tried to log in today and I received a black screen. After several searches I found out that it’s a problem with the window manager temporary files being corrupt. Just to test I changed the settings on my nx client to use another window manager “KDE” in the system and it worked. To resolve the issue I SSHed into the box and deleted all gconfd, orbit and mapping tmp folders/files for the affected user. Tried to reconnect again and it worked.

In this post I will be making a list of great Linux cmd’s that I find all over the net one great place to stop by is commandlinefu.com they have a great deal of important linux cmd’s.

First cmd is mtr, it combines your ping and netstat cmd’s. In CentOS you have to su- to run this cmd:

mtr google.com

The following cmd I just started using recently and it has been a life saver I don’t know how I went all that time without it. The cmd is screen it works like your VNC or NX but for the terminal, it is especially handy if you SSH into your box but you don’t want to leave the terminal running waiting for a task to finish, you just start a screen run your cmd and detach from the screen. Now even if your connection gets disconnected or you disconnect yourself all you have to do when you connect again is run “screen -dR” and you are connected back to your earlier session and you can check on the progress of your task. To list screen instances “screen -ls”.

screen

Ctrl+a   ->pressing this twice moves to the next screen

Ctrl+a+c  ->adds a new screen to you screen instance

Ctrl+a+d ->detach from screen session

Ctrl+d  ->exit a screen

screen -dR   ->connect to/start a screen session

Mount a drive world writeable

mount -t ntfs-3g -o umask=000 /dev/drive /mnt/mountpoint

mount -t cifs -o umask=000,username=username,password=password //ipaddress/folder /mnt/mountpoint

by adding the option umask=000 any user can write to the mounted folder, this comes in handy when you want to write to a mounted drive as a regular user.  I have had a problem with some slack based distro’s not accepting this option in the current format and might need to play around with the mask cmd placement to see what works.

I just upgraded to CentOS 5.5 and while talking to a friend of mine we got into talking about updating vs clean install. After my update I had to restore to an image before the update as my mail system was not working, checked all packages contained in the update and zeroed the cause to a sendmail update. Which was disabling my current MTA “postfix”. I fixed that and another issue with my open office and I was ready to go. While my friend prefers to just do a clean install.

To me it just comes down to preference, if you have a heavily customized system it’s time saving to just do an upgrade, but if you are running a generic system with few modifications a clean install might be the best way for you.

Do a back up a recoverable system backup or a backup for all important docs you have on system before you proceed with the commands below

yum clean all
yum update glibc\*
yum update yum\* rpm\* python\*
yum clean all
yum update
reboot

Check  your  new version with :

lsb_release  -a

I had installed ipupdate while trying out dnsexit.com and loved its simplicity, dnsexit.com provides a great service but in the end I chose to stick with my current registrar lqconsulting who is a major supporter of Linux users, they also run linuxquestions.org of which am a member. I had tried to configure ddclient to work with my registrar but I did not have enough info about my registrar’s requirements of the client to work with their site. So in the mean time I have edited ipupdate to send me an email everytime my ip address changes while still doing evrything else it does. I prefer it this way over updating my registrar, since I do a lot of remoting in and it takes a few minutes before a new IP is updated to nameservers “around 20min”, but if I already have my new IP in my mail when it changes I don’t have to wait until nameservers update my site IP for me to be able to remote in. I have provided the edited file below for anyone who wants to use it also the tar,rpm and deb files that install it.

For install instructions go to:

My edited file
You can replace the installations ipupdate.pl with mine for v1.6-2 or just copy over my additions to them whichever works for you.

I went for my first 5k run today, got there late had to run through a street full of people, I don’t know what was my time as race had already started when we got there but when I crossed the finish line clock was at 35 min, am excited just to have been there.
Note to self come with stop watch next time come early. I will scan my race number put it here just as a reminder for me.

Am definitely getting back to form I went running on my long course(6Ml) and made it back yeah!!! “without walking, looking forward to the 5k run next  week. Am running 4ml in 35 min, the route has enough inclines to give me a chill every time I get ready to go out for a run. That is one of the main reasons I just can’t do treadmills, they don’t replicate enough the experience of running in the outdoors.

Today I went running and ended up walking home. No it wasn’t a new course I went running just one I haven’t run in a long time but for my excuse it was also the hottest day yet this year 86F. I just started running again a few weeks ago after recovering from a foot injury. I started out with a short course for the first few weeks and thought I was ready to go back to where I was before, but my body was not co-operating. I became so dehydrated I stopped sweating, next I started getting mini cramps in my legs, and that’s when I knew my run was over, I walked home for the first time in my life. I have seen it happen to some of my training buddies before but never to me.
It also seems the older you get your body slows down more than you think, it certainly gets harder to lose those few pounds you gained over Xmas, and you take longer than you used to to get used to working out again it definitely hurts more too.

The one good thing about Linux is the range of distributions available. Every few months I will load a new Distribution on my flash drive or make a Live cd and try it out. I am currently trying out Linux Mint and I like it, I would definitely recommend it for new users it comes loaded with most apps that you need day to day. It’s eye candy is one of the best I have checked out so far, I even loaded it onto one of my old boxes that am planning on donating.

If you help fix people’s computers you will come across devices that windows will not have drivers for or you may be having problems downloading them from the machine manufacturer site, here is a quick way to go about it.

Go to Device Manager right click on unrecognised device there will be an exclamation mark on it click Properties ->Details and select Hardwae ID’s from the property drop down list. VID_ and VEN_ are used to identify vendors and PID_ and DEV_ identify Product ID. The HEX value following Product ID “PID_/DEV_” or Vendor ID “VID_/VEN_” is what you use in your search to identify the device.

Now go to pcidatabase.com enter your product or vendor id to such for your device.