The Linux Questions Thread: a bunch of pitfalls, but technically it's possible

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Linux Questions Thread: a bunch of pitfalls, but technically it's possible

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gregday: May 23, 2003

I'm building a ZFS pool using zfs-fuse with a couple of 1TB drives, and I'm planning to use the entire disks. Is there any reason I should use the sda1, sdb1, sdc1, etc. instead of just sda, sdb, sdc? This is all going into one big pool that will contain only one filesystem.

# ? Jul 14, 2009 02:32

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 06:10

waffle iron: Jan 16, 2004

It's up to you, but I'd keep a partition table with labels so it's obvious that the disks aren't empty if someone where examine them. I don't think you'll be crying over the loss of 4kb a disk. That and if the partitions have labels/uuids, you can address them by that in your fstab.

# ? Jul 14, 2009 03:02

maskenfreiheit: Dec 30, 2004

Edit: Double Post

maskenfreiheit fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Mar 13, 2017

# ? Jul 14, 2009 04:00

TOO SCSI FOR MY CAT: Oct 12, 2008; this is what happens when you take UI design away from engineers and give it to a bunch of hipster art student "designers"

FYI a local privilege escalation vulnerability has been discovered in 2.6.30 [diff]. If you're administering a multi-user system and run bleeding-edge kernels, it would be a good idea to upgrade immediately.

# ? Jul 17, 2009 17:28

maskenfreiheit: Dec 30, 2004

Edit: Double Post

maskenfreiheit fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Mar 13, 2017

# ? Jul 17, 2009 18:13

maskenfreiheit: Dec 30, 2004

[Double post, my bad]

maskenfreiheit fucked around with this message at 21:55 on Jul 17, 2009

# ? Jul 17, 2009 21:27

Sharrow: Aug 20, 2007; So... mediocre.

[debian/ubuntu]

We're looking at replacing our dev/prod hardware with some beefier stuff, and I figure this is the perfect time to look at config management.

Development is probably going to degenerate into a shitpile as usual, but what's the easiest way to keep staging and production as identical as possible? We have a decent deployment system for source code, it's things like Apache configs I'm thinking about.

I guess it's probably time to learn Puppet? Stick /etc under Git and push changes?

# ? Jul 20, 2009 17:01

Twlight: Feb 18, 2005; I brag about getting free drinks from my boss to make myself feel superior; Fun Shoe

Sharrow posted:

[debian/ubuntu]

We're looking at replacing our dev/prod hardware with some beefier stuff, and I figure this is the perfect time to look at config management.

Development is probably going to degenerate into a shitpile as usual, but what's the easiest way to keep staging and production as identical as possible? We have a decent deployment system for source code, it's things like Apache configs I'm thinking about.

I guess it's probably time to learn Puppet? Stick /etc under Git and push changes?

I've been using cfengine as well as mercural for config change management give that a look.

# ? Jul 20, 2009 17:23

JammyB: May 23, 2001; I slept with Mary and Joseph never found out

Hi all, I'm running Ubuntu Server and trying to set up Mercurial for three users (all running Windows, and probably TortoiseHg for the other two who are scared of command lines). I've set up Mercurial and SSH server no problem, but now I'm a bit confused about the file system and where things should be kept.

At the moment I'm keeping projects in ~/mercurial/<projectname>/<mercurial rep>.

Keeping projects under my own home directory doesn't seem correct though, so is there a specific place for stuff like this that needs to be shared with all users? I'd also like to set it up so that when any of us login through SSH, it defaults to the mercurial directory to make things simpler, is that possible? Cheers.

# ? Jul 20, 2009 20:27

Bob Morales: Aug 18, 2006; ~~Just wear the fucking mask, Bob~~

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

JammyB posted:

Hi all, I'm running Ubuntu Server and trying to set up Mercurialers.

Check out the CVS thread:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3113983

# ? Jul 20, 2009 20:30

BrutalGoerge: Feb 26, 2007; FPS-Bananite ^_^

I have a Centos5.2 game server, and I put wine + x window syetem on it so I could run a garrysmod server (windows only

) now and then, but for some reason, the vnc connection to it has become mind-numbingly slow. It literally takes 10 minutes after I type something for the command to show up on the prompt.

I tried removing all the related packages: wine, vncserver, x window system. Then i installed them again, but it's still not working correctly.

Before, it was pretty fast, I could move windows around without lag, I don't know what could have changed.

# ? Jul 21, 2009 19:50

NZAmoeba: Feb 14, 2005; It turns out it's MAN!; Hair Elf

I need someone to tell me if this box is salvageable or not. It's been working fine for years, but now whenever it tries to boot I get this error during startup: "kernel panic: vfs: unable to mount root fs on 01:01"

It's able to get to and beyond the boot loader screen, which makes me a bit sceptical that it's a hard drive crash, but there's been zero config changes on this box so I'm not sure what could have caused this.

Is there anything I can do to try and recover the system? A total flatten/reinstall isn't going to be an option, this box is actually part of a larger test instrument in our lab, so while it's a typical x86, it runs a proprietary flavour of redhat with a bunch of software and licenses on it that are somewhat important. Unfortunately it's also well beyond it's obsolete phase according to the supplier so there's no more warranty/repair on this thing.

Googling this error brings up a bunch of people having trouble getting fresh installs to work, not a system that's been static for years.

In case the real error is further up the screen, here's a screenshot:

Click here for the full 794x595 image.

note: I'm very inexperienced in linux but good at following instructions!

# ? Jul 21, 2009 23:39

SynVisions: Jun 29, 2003

NZAmoeba posted:

I need someone to tell me if this box is salvageable or not. It's been working fine for years, but now whenever it tries to boot I get this error during startup: "kernel panic: vfs: unable to mount root fs on 01:01"

It's able to get to and beyond the boot loader screen, which makes me a bit sceptical that it's a hard drive crash, but there's been zero config changes on this box so I'm not sure what could have caused this.

Is there anything I can do to try and recover the system? A total flatten/reinstall isn't going to be an option, this box is actually part of a larger test instrument in our lab, so while it's a typical x86, it runs a proprietary flavour of redhat with a bunch of software and licenses on it that are somewhat important. Unfortunately it's also well beyond it's obsolete phase according to the supplier so there's no more warranty/repair on this thing.

Googling this error brings up a bunch of people having trouble getting fresh installs to work, not a system that's been static for years.

In case the real error is further up the screen, here's a screenshot:

Click here for the full 794x595 image.

note: I'm very inexperienced in linux but good at following instructions!

I'm not certain, but it sure looks like a bad drive to me.

I would boot off a live CD and try to mount the partition and salvage what important data you can.

That'll tell you fairly quickly whether there's a problem with the drive or not, and even if there is no problem, you made a long overdue backup of your important data

SynVisions fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Jul 22, 2009

# ? Jul 22, 2009 01:16

KeviNguyen: Aug 9, 2007; obligatory Asian

Hi, just started experimenting with linux recently. I first tried Ubuntu for a little bit then moved on to Arch because the idea of getting to fine tune everything interested me. Anyway, I set up Arch all fine and decided to use openbox for my window manager. But one thing lacking to me is gui for configuration of my system. Stuff like changing the volume and mouse settings, etc. Similar to like control panel in windows. Now my question is: Is there a program for like a control panel GUI?

# ? Jul 22, 2009 06:08

dont skimp on the shrimp: Apr 23, 2008

KeviNguyen posted:

Hi, just started experimenting with linux recently. I first tried Ubuntu for a little bit then moved on to Arch because the idea of getting to fine tune everything interested me. Anyway, I set up Arch all fine and decided to use openbox for my window manager. But one thing lacking to me is gui for configuration of my system. Stuff like changing the volume and mouse settings, etc. Similar to like control panel in windows. Now my question is: Is there a program for like a control panel GUI?

Depends. If you use pulseaudio, then you have pavucontrol, if you use alsa, you have something called wmix.

There's not really a control panel belonging to openbox, closest bet would either be the xfce-control panel or lxde. Personally, I'd recommend the xfce one, just remember to add xfce-mcs-manager to autostart.sh

# ? Jul 22, 2009 12:42

ynef: Jun 12, 2002

KeviNguyen posted:

Hi, just started experimenting with linux recently. I first tried Ubuntu for a little bit then moved on to Arch because the idea of getting to fine tune everything interested me. Anyway, I set up Arch all fine and decided to use openbox for my window manager. But one thing lacking to me is gui for configuration of my system. Stuff like changing the volume and mouse settings, etc. Similar to like control panel in windows. Now my question is: Is there a program for like a control panel GUI?

There are about a bazillion different GUIs for setting up each and every one of the aspects that you mention, but only the bigger Desktop Environments (like GNOME, KDE, XFCE, etc...) usually come with a centralized "all settings in one place" kind of Control Panel like application. Openbox does not, since it is just a window manager (and a good one!).

Ask what stuff you want to change, and someone will be able to tell you a good GUI to tweak those settings (or, at the very least, which file to edit).

# ? Jul 22, 2009 12:57

HolyDukeNukem: Sep 10, 2008

KeviNguyen posted:

Hi, just started experimenting with linux recently. I first tried Ubuntu for a little bit then moved on to Arch because the idea of getting to fine tune everything interested me. Anyway, I set up Arch all fine and decided to use openbox for my window manager. But one thing lacking to me is gui for configuration of my system. Stuff like changing the volume and mouse settings, etc. Similar to like control panel in windows. Now my question is: Is there a program for like a control panel GUI?

wicd-connecting to internet
gvolwheel-application to control volume (check AUR)
stalonetray-standalone system tray

# ? Jul 22, 2009 14:31

derdewey: Dec 3, 2004

I'm having a hell of a time making a transparent bridge on linux. I'm on kernel 2.6.21 with 802.11d briding built right in. This is a debian system and I have installed bridge-utils. Here are the commands I am trying to use to set it up:

code:

ifconfig eth0 down
ifconfig eth1 down
ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0
ifconfig eth1 0.0.0.0
brctl addbr br0
brctl addif br0 eth0
brctl addif br0 eth1
ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0 promisc up
ifconfig eth1 0.0.0.0 promisc up
ifconfig br0 10.40.8.88 up

Pings get through with okay latency but downloading files through the bridge is awful. We're talking B/s with 5 second pauses. It's an embedded ARM platform running at 200mhz, but still. Any tips on debugging this thing?

# ? Jul 22, 2009 17:10

Polygynous: Dec 13, 2006; welp

GregNorc posted:

So I need to patch ath5k to allow AP mode. I downloaded compat wireless as the guide I found says, put I've never used patch before... I assume I run patch (patchfile) then make and then make install, but have no clue how exactly to do it.

Also currently I get this error when trying to run make in the compat-wireless folder:
code:
[songwhale@localhost compat-wireless-2.6.30]$ make
/bin/sh: line 0: test: -ge: unary operator expected
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686/build
M=/usr/src/compat-wireless-2.6.30 modules
make: *** /lib/modules/2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686/build: No such file or
directory.  Stop.
make: *** [modules] Error 2

had a look at this, and /lib/modules/version/build should be a symlink to the directory containing the kernel headers, so I would guess you'll want to figure out why that isn't happening.

# ? Jul 22, 2009 22:44

KeviNguyen: Aug 9, 2007; obligatory Asian

Thanks for the suggestions guys
wicd and gvolwheel were exactly what I was looking for
I'm also looking for config GUIs for things like mouse and video settings? Also task manager like say in Windows where you can see every process running and end them easily. I know GNOME has a program like this. Another question I have is is there a way to run programs as root from a non-root account? I'd like to add some entries to my menu so I can just quickly open a root terminal or file manager window.

And one final thing. I can't seem to mount my other non-linux hard drives.I get this error "org.freedesktop.hal.storage.mount-fixed no <-- (action, result)" I've tried everything that I have found from searching through google and forums including editing the policykit file and ~/.xinitrc

Thanks guys. I'm really enjoying linux so far and doing everything manually has provided a good learning experience.

# ? Jul 23, 2009 05:40

dont skimp on the shrimp: Apr 23, 2008

Well, nvidia has something called nvdock, you could give that a try. You could also try the xfce taskmanager if you want something more lightweight than the gnome one. Or just use htop, it's pretty awesome and runs in a terminal.

For the root stuff you could use gksu, which is what gnome uses to auth you. Simply put gksu before the program you need to run.

What filesystem are the other drives? I'm guessing fat32 or NTFS.

# ? Jul 23, 2009 11:18

HolyDukeNukem: Sep 10, 2008

KeviNguyen posted:

Thanks for the suggestions guys
wicd and gvolwheel were exactly what I was looking for
I'm also looking for config GUIs for things like mouse and video settings? Also task manager like say in Windows where you can see every process running and end them easily. I know GNOME has a program like this. Another question I have is is there a way to run programs as root from a non-root account? I'd like to add some entries to my menu so I can just quickly open a root terminal or file manager window.

And one final thing. I can't seem to mount my other non-linux hard drives.I get this error "org.freedesktop.hal.storage.mount-fixed no <-- (action, result)" I've tried everything that I have found from searching through google and forums including editing the policykit file and ~/.xinitrc

Thanks guys. I'm really enjoying linux so far and doing everything manually has provided a good learning experience.

conky if u would like to see a whole bunch of info on ur computer

but pypanel is perfect for wat ur looking for in a task manager.

# ? Jul 23, 2009 13:44

HolyDukeNukem: Sep 10, 2008

KeviNguyen posted:

Thanks for the suggestions guys
wicd and gvolwheel were exactly what I was looking for
I'm also looking for config GUIs for things like mouse and video settings? Also task manager like say in Windows where you can see every process running and end them easily. I know GNOME has a program like this. Another question I have is is there a way to run programs as root from a non-root account? I'd like to add some entries to my menu so I can just quickly open a root terminal or file manager window.

And one final thing. I can't seem to mount my other non-linux hard drives.I get this error "org.freedesktop.hal.storage.mount-fixed no <-- (action, result)" I've tried everything that I have found from searching through google and forums including editing the policykit file and ~/.xinitrc

Thanks guys. I'm really enjoying linux so far and doing everything manually has provided a good learning experience.

also, i can't remember what i did to fix the automounting issue. but here is a good place to start: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HAL#Auto-mounting_fails

there's also a lot of forum threads about it and i know one of them has the fix you just gotta search and try things definitely start with: org.freedesktop.hal.storage.mount-fixed no <-- (action, result) arch
in google

# ? Jul 23, 2009 13:55

adante: Sep 18, 2003

in ubuntu, when i aptitude show <package>, how do i tell what repository it is from?

if I want to install a package from a particular repository, is there a way to do that?

# ? Jul 24, 2009 08:59

tohveli: Nov 25, 2007; ♪　オー　マリア

I have pretty much the same question as adante here ^

Say there is a package in Debian unstable/sid I need, but I want to use the stable branch otherwise. Is there a way to install the package with apt? I know it's possible to wget the .dpkg and install it with dpkg -i (or use lenny-backports), but would help to be able to mark the package to use a different distribution, and install or upgrade it via apt.

# ? Jul 24, 2009 09:37

bitprophet: Jul 22, 2004; Taco Defender

tohveli posted:

I have pretty much the same question as adante here ^

Say there is a package in Debian unstable/sid I need, but I want to use the stable branch otherwise. Is there a way to install the package with apt? I know it's possible to wget the .dpkg and install it with dpkg -i (or use lenny-backports), but would help to be able to mark the package to use a different distribution, and install or upgrade it via apt.

Look for docs on "pinning", that's the term for saying a given package should stay at version X or at Debian release version Y (at least one of those, possibly both). I don't recall exactly how to do it as I don't use it myself much

I wish I had an answer to adante's question but I don't and now I wish I did!

# ? Jul 24, 2009 14:17

HolyDukeNukem: Sep 10, 2008

tohveli posted:

I have pretty much the same question as adante here ^

Say there is a package in Debian unstable/sid I need, but I want to use the stable branch otherwise. Is there a way to install the package with apt? I know it's possible to wget the .dpkg and install it with dpkg -i (or use lenny-backports), but would help to be able to mark the package to use a different distribution, and install or upgrade it via apt.

i remember there was a way in synaptic where you could force the version if synaptic found multiple versions of a program, but i don't remember where is was in the menu's

# ? Jul 24, 2009 14:34

crab avatar: Mar 15, 2006; iÅ§ KÃ«3Å, cÄ§ gÃ¸Ã i- <Ecl8

kcncuda71 posted:

i remember there was a way in synaptic where you could force the version if synaptic found multiple versions of a program, but i don't remember where is was in the menu's

crab avatar fucked around with this message at 14:48 on Jul 24, 2009

# ? Jul 24, 2009 14:46

HolyDukeNukem: Sep 10, 2008

jegHegy posted:

thx, i haven't used a debian based system in a little while.

# ? Jul 24, 2009 14:49

maskenfreiheit: Dec 30, 2004

Edit: Double Post

maskenfreiheit fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Mar 13, 2017

# ? Jul 24, 2009 20:24

Polygynous: Dec 13, 2006; welp

It looks like that patch is already in the kernel, 2.6.30 seems to have that stuff at least. It's possible whatever you're reading is out of date.

# ? Jul 24, 2009 23:48

KeviNguyen: Aug 9, 2007; obligatory Asian

Zom Aur posted:

Well, nvidia has something called nvdock, you could give that a try. You could also try the xfce taskmanager if you want something more lightweight than the gnome one. Or just use htop, it's pretty awesome and runs in a terminal.

For the root stuff you could use gksu, which is what gnome uses to auth you. Simply put gksu before the program you need to run.

What filesystem are the other drives? I'm guessing fat32 or NTFS.

Thanks, decided to go with htop and gksu, exactly what I was looking for. As for the drives, they are NTFS

kcncuda71 posted:

also, i can't remember what i did to fix the automounting issue. but here is a good place to start: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HAL#Auto-mounting_fails

there's also a lot of forum threads about it and i know one of them has the fix you just gotta search and try things definitely start with: org.freedesktop.hal.storage.mount-fixed no <-- (action, result) arch
in google

Yeah, I've already tried almost all the solutions that I've found on the forums and through google =\
It's driving me nuts

# ? Jul 26, 2009 11:00

hey mom its 420: May 12, 2007

Reposting this from the Ubuntu thread, hope that isn't a problem.

Bonus posted:

I'm using Ubuntu 9.04 and I have the Apple keyboard. I'm used to the alt keys being right next to the space key and then the meta keys being next to the alt keys, but the Apple keyboard has the command keys and the alt keys switched around.

I want my left meta (command) key to act as the left alt and my left alt key to act as the left meta key. Likewise, I would like the right meta key to act as the right alt key and my right alt key to act as my right meta key.

I have managed to swap the left meta and alt keys by going to System -> Preferences -> Keyboard -> Layouts -> Layout Options and then setting the Alt/Win key behavior as "Left Alt is swapped with Left Win". However, I don't know how to swap the right meta and alt keys in the same manner. Does anyone have any pointers or ideas? Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

# ? Jul 26, 2009 13:17

dont skimp on the shrimp: Apr 23, 2008

KeviNguyen posted:

Thanks, decided to go with htop and gksu, exactly what I was looking for. As for the drives, they are NTFS

Automounting with NTFS is generally a bitch in my experience, since it usually defaults to the older NTFS driver, not NTFS-3g.

The best solution I found was to symlink ntfs-3g to mount.ntfs or something like that. I don't have any link handy right now, so be sure to look this up before you try it. Be sure to add your user to the ntfsuser group too.

# ? Jul 26, 2009 14:41

Loaf32: Feb 18, 2007; I'M NOT ABOUT TO START SPENDING MONEY ON THE FORUMS, THANKS.

Bonus posted:

Reposting this from the Ubuntu thread, hope that isn't a problem.

See if this helps:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Keybindings

# ? Jul 26, 2009 18:15

maskenfreiheit: Dec 30, 2004

Edit: Double Post

maskenfreiheit fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Mar 13, 2017

# ? Jul 27, 2009 13:40

NZAmoeba: Feb 14, 2005; It turns out it's MAN!; Hair Elf

NZAmoeba posted:

I need someone to tell me if this box is salvageable or not. It's been working fine for years, but now whenever it tries to boot I get this error during startup: "kernel panic: vfs: unable to mount root fs on 01:01"

It's able to get to and beyond the boot loader screen, which makes me a bit sceptical that it's a hard drive crash, but there's been zero config changes on this box so I'm not sure what could have caused this.

Is there anything I can do to try and recover the system? A total flatten/reinstall isn't going to be an option, this box is actually part of a larger test instrument in our lab, so while it's a typical x86, it runs a proprietary flavour of redhat with a bunch of software and licenses on it that are somewhat important. Unfortunately it's also well beyond it's obsolete phase according to the supplier so there's no more warranty/repair on this thing.

Googling this error brings up a bunch of people having trouble getting fresh installs to work, not a system that's been static for years.

In case the real error is further up the screen, here's a screenshot:

Click here for the full 794x595 image.

note: I'm very inexperienced in linux but good at following instructions!

Following on from this, I'm going to take an image from a working box and apply it to a new disk drive to stick into this one. Looking at the screenshot I'd be right in guessing that it's using the ext2 file system? What's a good app for taking an image from one drive and applying it to another one (that's bigger, 120 instead of 80gb)

edit: I'll probably be running both the source and destination disks in the same machine, not transfering to DVD or anything like that.

# ? Jul 28, 2009 02:17

serling: Aug 25, 2005

I'm currently on a Fedora-machine, and could really benefit from some kind of SSH-manager of some sort. I basically just want a better overview over my outgoing connections, as I usually spawn a shitload of them through an entire day.

It doesn't matter if it's a terminal or GUI-based deal, as long as it's easily readable, and somehow groups or organizes my ssh-terminal windows, sessions, etc.

Any suggestions?

# ? Jul 28, 2009 09:52

JHVH-1: Jun 28, 2002

NZAmoeba posted:

Following on from this, I'm going to take an image from a working box and apply it to a new disk drive to stick into this one. Looking at the screenshot I'd be right in guessing that it's using the ext2 file system? What's a good app for taking an image from one drive and applying it to another one (that's bigger, 120 instead of 80gb)

edit: I'll probably be running both the source and destination disks in the same machine, not transfering to DVD or anything like that.

You should be able to ddrescue to the bigger disk, then I suggest running fsck on the partitions (in case there is corruption from the bad disk). Then get partedmagic from http://partedmagic.com/ which is a gparted livecd and can grow ext2/ext3 sizes, but make sure you back up any important data first. The livecd has ddrescue on it, so you can do it all from one CD.

# ? Jul 28, 2009 12:33

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 06:10

NZAmoeba: Feb 14, 2005; It turns out it's MAN!; Hair Elf

JHVH-1 posted:

You should be able to ddrescue to the bigger disk, then I suggest running fsck on the partitions (in case there is corruption from the bad disk). Then get partedmagic from http://partedmagic.com/ which is a gparted livecd and can grow ext2/ext3 sizes, but make sure you back up any important data first. The livecd has ddrescue on it, so you can do it all from one CD.

My description might be a bit confusing. I've got one failed hard drive for a test box. I have another test box with a working hard drive that I suspect is completely identical.

I want to throw out the bad drive, take a drive image from the functioning box, and apply it to a new hard drive which is larger.

# ? Jul 28, 2009 22:53

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Linux Questions Thread: a bunch of pitfalls, but technically it's possible

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