Scratching My Needs

FreeBSD - How to allow normal user to mount USB drive

2010-07-26T09:40:00.001+08:00

Recently, I've got a few external hard disk and one of them is formatted into file system FAT32 (msdosfs or vfat), because the files are to be interchange between Linux, OSX & FreeBSD. After the files are save from OSX, the external hard disk cannot be mounted onto FreeBSD or PC-BSD as a normal user. Since these are just some media files and frequently need to be interchange between these 2 OS,

N900 - A phone running open source OS & programs

2010-06-16T22:24:00.002+08:00

N900 is the latest offering from Nokia that answers the open source crave for software freedom, it runs Maemo, an OS based on linux, specifically Debian. Maemo also uses "apt" as package manager. Its GUI is fantastic, with accurate touch screen experience. Command line comes with it by default, to access the very core of the OS. And not like some other OS that hides hard to NOT let user touch it

N900 - How to clear all the phone data & settings

2010-07-23T23:38:00.000+08:00

N900 is a great phone with a lot of drooling features (refer to this post "N900 - A phone running open source OS & programs"). Particularly, because it is running Maemo which have a active & generous community. But I've to give it up because I've found a phone that fits more into my lifestyle. Nonetheless, it is still great mobile phone to have. The N900 is different from other mobile phone.

Blackberry - How to reboot the phone using keyboard shortcut key

2010-07-21T08:33:00.000+08:00

After an update of the blackberry OS or some software installation, it might prompt to reboot the blackberry phone in order to finish the installation. But some times, we need to use it so we'll choose "Reboot Later" but after finishing using it, how do we initiate the reboot sequence? Once in a blue moon, the phone is acting up a bit weird, application not responding, some apps is taking too

FreeBSD - How to compile custom kernel

2010-07-19T11:04:00.000+08:00

Normally, the generic kernel that comes with default FreeBSD installations are good enough for most installations. But some machines that I worked on are having more then 4gb of memory. Be default, the i386 processor architecture only recognizes 4gb or less memory. Any random access memory larger then 4gb, the kernel will need to enable the feature PAE (Physical Address Extension) in order to

FreeBSD - How to reset root account password

2010-07-17T14:36:00.000+08:00

After the initial installation, the root password should be changed to a complicated enough password, then forget it. We're not suppose to use the root login & password as it might exposed to unnecessary risk. My preferred way of system administration should use sudo. It's more secure, controllable, and flexible. But things happen. Today, I've totally forgotten root password. The box is lock out

OSX - How to arrange Menu Bar icons

2010-01-13T16:19:00.001+08:00

When too many icon clogging on the Menu Bar, re-arrange them might look better. The shortcut key to arrange the icons is : Cmd + mouse left clickon an icon then start arranging them. Adios !!!

N900 - How to overclock the processor speed of N900

2010-07-15T22:11:00.000+08:00

The N900 is a flexible mobile phone that runs Maemo operating system. It should not be compare as a mobile phone but rather as a mobile tablet with an extra function, phone. As my previous post introduction, it comes with a large display, keyboard & a snappy processor. Because of Maemo, now it even allows processor overclocking. By overclocking to 850mhz, I've noticed that the average battery

FreeBSD - How to upgrade the kernel or base system

2009-07-10T08:01:00.002+08:00

The nature of FreeBSD is so rock-solid stable that some system administrator adopt the philosophy "if it ain't broken, don't fix it", others, beg to differ. Upgrading & patching of servers should be diligently carry out so that security vulnerabilities are minimize to the least (who can be sure of their servers are 100% secure ???), introduce to new application features (which geek doesn't like

BlackBerry - Quite a smart phone

2010-07-13T09:23:00.004+08:00

BlackBerry is a smartphone that aims not only business user, but also casual user that wanna connect to people. The rich social application that comes with BlackBerry encourages frequent communication between people, through various channels. e.g. : BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) is another kind of messenger that is capable of transmitting picture, sound, file or even GPS location to contact list.

BlackBerry - Multi alarm clock application on BlackBerry

2010-07-14T09:01:00.000+08:00

Like most of the mobile users, I use my blackberry phone as an alarm clock. But the alarm clock application that comes with it only allow to have one alarm entry at a time. Which is not enough for my lifestyle. I did thought of using the calendar reminder as alarm clock but that would disrupt my daily todo stuff & meeting reminder ringtone. Multiple alarm clock entry is a simple and yet

sudo - How to create another root (equivalent) account on linux or freebsd

2009-06-18T20:03:00.002+08:00

The usual root account are meant for critical task, such as single user mode related operation. It hails the power of the system, as well the power of destruction (try "rm -rf /" :p). That's the reason why a lot of company have a policy to seal the root account or make some red tape so that one will give up requesting to use it. But sealing the root account will make daily routine system

OSX - How to retrieve files on external hdd with HFS+ file system

2010-07-11T16:23:00.000+08:00

HFS+ => Hierarchical File System Plus Apple's OS X uses HFS+ (HFS plus) file system. It is the default file system since OS X Tiger (10.4). 255 characters can be used in file name. It can support up to 8 million terabytes and yes, that's huge! I've just got a external hard disk and decided to format it using HFS+ file system as it is more efficient when mounted on the mac, which I used it most

FreeBSD - How to manage ports in FreeBSD using portmanager

2010-01-14T15:21:00.003+08:00

There are various way of managing ports, using utilities. The usual "cd /usr/ports/; make; make install; make clean", portmaster, portupgrade and others. Today, this post will brief on how to use portmanager to install, upgrade and delete ports. Using portmanager to manage ports have a few advantage : portmanager scans for what dependencies are needed and then determine what

ssh - error "Host key verification failed" when trying to connect or copy a file to ssh server

2009-05-19T23:15:00.004+08:00

The below error was display while trying to ssh or scp to a ssh server : @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @ WARNING: POSSIBLE DNS SPOOFING DETECTED! @ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ The RSA host key for domain-name.com has changed, and the key for the according IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is unknown. This could either

OS X - Screen appear blur and only center part seems clear

2010-07-05T09:23:00.001+08:00

One fine day, when I turn on my mac, suddenly everything on the display seems blur. Only the center part of the screen display is clear & sharp (like normal). It almost seems like it is a display card problem. But reluctant to make this an excuse to change my mac (:p), I check out the system preferences. And I noticed that there's a zoom function at "Universal Access". Just trying my luck to turn

How to display route table or default gateway

2009-05-07T19:47:00.002+08:00

Route table are part of the area to troubleshoot when a connection have problem. Route table can the the most frequent problem to look at after assigning an IP address. Other times, it is mainly for adding additional routes when wireless & wired connection are both in use. This post will attempt to list out a few ways to display route table and also how to assign default route aka default gateway

FreeBSD - How to format & partition additional hard disk

2010-06-24T11:16:00.000+08:00

While housekeeping the external hard disk laying around, I managed to squeeze out one spare hard disk out of this cleaning practice. The size is big enough to act as a backup media for my FreeBSD server & desktop workstations. The external hard disk partition layout preferred would be 3 partitions. The 1st (backup of OS & data) & 2nd partition (data backup) will be FreeBSD UFS & the 3rd will be

FreeBSD - How to setup & configure jail with ezjail

2010-06-17T23:42:00.000+08:00

OS virtualization is a technology that enable multiple copies of guest OS to run on top of a host OS. Why do we wanna do this? - partition resources to share across multiple guest OS (current hardware to run multiple light guest OS. e.g. FreeBSD & Linux) - enhance security (guest OS are isolated and thus hacking into a guest OS leaves other OS safe) - saves power & money (hosting rack space &

Perl - A happy note, on N900

2010-06-14T01:00:00.008+08:00

The Nokia N900 runs perl : ~ $ perl -v This is perl, v5.8.3 built for arm-linux-gnueabi-thread-multi Copyright 1987-2003, Larry Wall Perl may be copied only under the terms of either the Artistic License or the GNU General Public License, which may be found in the Perl 5 source kit. Complete documentation for Perl, including FAQ lists, should be found on this system using `man perl' or `

FreeBSD - Backup and restore FreeBSD using Fixit CD

2010-01-02T17:31:00.002+08:00

Since FreeSBIE have not been updated since year 2007, its kernel recognizing new hardware starts to worry me as it is based on FreeBSD 6.2 and it is going to reach EoL (end of life) by end of this year, 2010. Is time to experiment on new way restoring backup. The FreeBSD installation process does mentioned about "Fixit" CD booting. After meddling around with it, it's actually referring to

N900 - How to ssh into N900 using OpenSSH

2010-06-11T18:14:00.002+08:00

Since the Nokia N900 runs on Maemo, Debian based Linux, it also offers open source programs. The secure shell is one of open source gems. Maemo offers the OpenSSH variety of secure shell. OpenSSH on Maemo not only offers encrypted secure remote shell, it also comes with functions that runs like the desktop version. Such as ssh socks 5 tunneling, that can be used to encrypt traffic transmit of

Nokia E71 and E63 tips - shell or command line access using ssh (secure shell)

2009-06-21T01:00:00.002+08:00

The Nokia E71 & E63 is a versatile phone for people that needs the business suite of application, e.g. email, messenger, documents & spreadsheet, camera and most importantly, the symbian platform. The symbian platform is widely used on mobile phones. Symbian's platform also have a wide variety of applications. For *NIX system administration, shell access to the command line (using ssh) of the

Nokia E71 and E63 tips and short cut keys

2009-05-13T19:53:00.002+08:00

Nokia E71 and E63 are great phones, operating on Symbian S60 series operating systems. Its keyboard is easy to type, the LCD is sharp, the keys position are great and most importantly, the battery last long enough, approximately 5-7 days for an average user like me. The phone also comes with a lot of practical applications, e.g. word processor, spreadsheet, simple note pad, email client and etc.

Perl - How to list installed modules

2010-03-27T07:28:00.001+08:00

A note for myself. This is how to list out what perl modules are installed. Way 1 : perl -MFile::Find=find -MFile::Spec::Functions -Tlwe 'find { wanted => sub { print canonpath $_ if /\.pm\z/ }, no_chdir => 1 }, @INC' Way 2 : perldoc perllocal *** these are all taken from http://perldoc.perl.org/perlmodlib.html Das Vidanya !!!