posted by steve | Category: Linux & Open Source

Upgraded to Debian Wheezy last night.  Followed the official upgrade instructions.  Things went generally well and I’m amazed by how well major upgrades go with Debian.  Wheezy is the second major release for this particular server and it had an uptime of 476 days before today’s upgrade. A couple problems were noted, specifically with the upgrade of the mysql server and dovecot.  Both seem to have breaking changes.  For MySQL, the breaking change is that [...Read more...]

posted by steve | Category: Linux & Open Source

I was working on a patched Debian system recently using PHP functions feof and fread.  I went to run my test script and managed to auger Apache in while at the same time dumping over 1GB worth of errors into the Apache error log in a matter of minutes.  Over and over (over 5,000,000 entries, actually), with these errors: [Wed Dec 07 11:17:00 2011] [error] [client xx.xx.xx.xx] PHP Warning: feof() expects parameter 1 to be [...Read more...]

posted by steve | Category: Linux & Open Source

I’m seeing a weird crash of Firefox (1.0PR) on a Debian testing box apparently due to Firefox trying something that GrSec doesn’t like. Specifically, kernel: grsec: attempted resource overstep by requesting 4096 for RLIMIT_CORE against limit 0 by (firefox-bin:3092) UID(1000) EUID(1000), parent (firefox-bin:30648) UID(1000) EUID(1000) This is still on 2.4.25 though, so I should probably update that. Curiously, it only happens when visiting amazon.com and only then sometimes, though pretty regularly on that site. I [...Read more...]

posted by steve | Category: Linux & Open Source

Xandros, the popular Debian-based Linux desktop package that I wrote about for LinuxWorld Magazine has made their newest version, 3.0, available for free download. Called the “Open Circulation Edition”, this version combines Skype Internet calling, Firefox, Thunderbird, and more into the already great Xandros package. Other bits from their press release: Four-click install with automatic disk partitioning Dual-boot installation with Windows XP Industry-leading hardware detection and configuration Drag-and-drop CD burning in Xandros File Manager Seamless [...Read more...]

posted by steve | Category: Linux & Open Source

A couple people have e-mailed me asking if I’m at this week’s LinuxWorld Expo in Boston. I am not. Sorry!

posted by steve | Category: Linux & Open Source

Built a first-go at a deb package with Parrot 0.1.0. Note that this package is not sane insofar as lintian produces warnings (not errors). One area is not accounted for: 1. Man pages. I’ve not done the man page stuff for this release. The deb is here. Please give me feedback as I only have three deb machines on which to install this package, it’s not what I would call ‘tested’. Use at your own [...Read more...]

posted by steve | Category: Linux & Open Source

I’m moving away from Moveable Type. I went to grab a new version of it for the upcoming site redesign and saw that their licensing has changed and is not conducive to the type of site that I’d like to run. I definitely don’t mind paying for software, especially software as good as MT. But the licensing schemes they’re offering are unacceptable and therefore I find myself in need of new blog software. With that [...Read more...]