FreeBSD - Make ports not to include X11 or GUI related library

FreeBSD is an excellent operating system, be it on a Desktop (PC-BSD) or Server. Its stability and flexibility was never an issue, nor even software availability (21135 ports currently available to deploy).

Most of the time, ports will install the necessary dependencies to fulfill its requirement. But certain ports installs the X11 (X window system) libraries. Which we don't need it if the installation is meant to run on a server environment.

In this case, we will need to tell ports not to include the X11 libraries. This will certainly save some hard disk space, compilation time and avoid unnecessary security vulnerabilities.

Here is how to specify NOT to include X11 related libraries during ports installation :

FreeBSD - How to manage ports in FreeBSD using portmanager

There are various way of managing ports, using utilities. The usual "cd /usr/ports/<ports directory>; 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 :

1. portmanager scans for what dependencies are needed and then determine what needed to be upgrade or install in order to fulfill the dependencies. At this stage, the dependencies are identified install/upgrade which is good as other utilities tends to fail in the mid of the installation just because some ports are too old or cannot install.
2. portmanager supports output its messages to a log file. This is especially useful for trouble shooting what port / dependencies are giving problem.
3. portmanager is also able to backup the current port/dependency before installing the new port. This useful when the new port cannot be install or interrupted during the installation, resulted a state where new port fail to install and new port have been deleted.
4. portmanager collects its data by scanning the ports tree rather then building an index for the installed ports and depend on it. This is very less likely to cause problem as indexes are tend to be corrupted when abruptly (Ctrl-C) stopping installation in the halfway.
5. portmanager gives a summary when installing dependencies/port. This gives an idea how many ports needs to be install or upgrade. This also means how much caffeine needed :p

OSX - How to arrange Menu Bar icons

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 click

on an icon then start arranging them.

Adios !!!

FreeBSD - How to setup ports using wget to download

The default download program for ports is using fetch. fetch is fine but my personal preference is wget. wget uses 1 connection to download, unlike my previous post that mentioned "Download ports simultaneously with multiple connections".

But wget gives extra bell and whistle like date/time of the download, log to file, continue from a partially downloaded file, rate limit of the download & others.

The below is how to setup ports to use wget to download :

FreeBSD - Tips to prepare large ports installation

Ports gets it's sources from internet. If the sources is big or there are multiple tens of sources, the tendency to fail in the mid of the ports installation increases.

Scenario 1:
Bumpy internet broadband internet connection, like mine, will disconnect halfway when downloading big files (> 10 MB)

Scenario 2:
Large ports that depends on tens if not hundreds of other ports. e.g. KDE4 or other window manager.

Scenario 3:
Limited online time frame and will need to take the machine off line after a period of internet usage.

Scenario 4:
Need to download the sources so that it can be moved to another box for compilation. A box that does not have reasonable or slow internet bandwidth to download.

Often, the above scenario are stuck with me, unfortunately. But the fortunate part is, while meddling with ports, a few steps can be taken to reduce the chances of these hiccups.

For illustration purpose, we'll use installation of KDE4 (the excellent Desktop environment) as an example. KDE4 depends on hundreds of other ports. The download of the sources alone will take some time and this serve as a good example. Here are the steps :

FreeBSD - Ports is fetching from slow servers

Ports randomly gets it's source server list from /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.sites.mk, as defined by the port maintainer. But the top 1st choice of the list may not be the one physically near to us and thus the download speed is much desirable. Most of the time compiling ports doesn't necessary takes a long time (like my 3 years AMD athlon 1.8Ghz perform fairly good). In fact, downloading of the sources is the one that takes a long time.

In this case, we'll need to tune the ports so that it fetches the sources from the nearest (physically) server. A nearer server normally means less latency and less latency means faster connection (this may not be the whole truth but truth is in it. :p)

The port "fastest_sites" will test the latency of the server listed in /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.sites.mk and output to a file. The file is suitable to be included in /etc/make.conf which tell ports where to fetch the sources from.

Here it is how to:

Gimp - How to convert background of logo or picture into transparency

Gimp stands for "GNU Image Manipulation Program", which is an open source image editing problem. It's capability often compare to professional software but fortunately, Gimp acceptance as Pro image editing software is getting better. Even so, Gimp is still popular among beginner up to hobbyist user.

Gimp's available on multiple platform and since it is open source, you can bet it's available on BSDs.

This post will brief through how to transform a logo or picture to transparent background, suitable for dark or colored web page background.

FreeBSD - Compilation errors on port KDE4 in FreeBSD 8.0

While adding GUI Desktop environment into my development box, an error encountered when compiling KDE4, the stable and nice looking Desktop environment. Compiling KDE4 can take quite some time as it depends on few hundred other ports. Alternatively, you can install KDE4 from the packages by using the command :

pkg_add -r kde4

But installing programs using ports is always my preference. Although ports takes additional time to compile but the flexibility to configure what options to enable or disable is preferred. By using ports, it also allows us to search (make quicksearch name=port-name) the local repository (/usr/ports) on what other related programs we can have.

Back to the topic. Halfway ports compiling KDE4, it halted with an error compiling the port "kdebase-runtime-4.3.4". Instead of searching the errors in a one big whole of logs, manually compile /usr/ports/x11/kdebase4-runtime to zoom in the error. Below is what the ports complained about while installing /usr/ports/x11/kdebase4-runtime (which is part of the dependencies of KDE4) :

[  2%] Built target kcm_mailtransport_automoc
[  2%] Built target mailtransport_automoc
[  2%] Built target microblog_automoc
[  2%] Built target kpimtextedit_automoc
[  2%] Built target syndication_automoc
Scanning dependencies of target gpgmepp
[  2%] Building CXX object gpgme++/CMakeFiles/gpgmepp.dir/gpgmepp_automoc.o
Linking CXX shared library ../lib/libgpgme++.so
[  7%] Built target gpgmepp
Scanning dependencies of target gpgmepp-pthread
[  7%] Building CXX object gpgme++/CMakeFiles/gpgmepp-pthread.dir/gpgmepp-pthread_automoc.o
Linking CXX shared library ../lib/libgpgme++-pthread.so
[ 11%] Built target gpgmepp-pthread
[ 11%] Building CXX object akonadi/CMakeFiles/akonadi-kde.dir/itemserializer.o
In file included from /usr/local/include/boost/parameter/aux_/arg_list.hpp:14,
from /usr/local/include/boost/parameter/aux_/tagged_argument.hpp:10,
from /usr/local/include/boost/parameter/aux_/tag.hpp:8,
from /usr/local/include/boost/parameter/keyword.hpp:10,
from /usr/local/include/boost/parameter/name.hpp:8,
from /usr/local/include/boost/graph/named_function_params.hpp:15,
from /usr/local/include/boost/graph/depth_first_search.hpp:21,
from /usr/local/include/boost/graph/topological_sort.hpp:16,
from /usr/ports/deskutils/kdepimlibs4/work/kdepimlibs-4.3.4/akonadi/itemserializer.cpp:40:
/usr/local/include/boost/parameter/aux_/maybe.hpp:13:53: error: boost/python/detail/referent_storage.hpp: No such file or directory
In file included from /usr/local/include/boost/parameter/aux_/arg_list.hpp:14,
from /usr/local/include/boost/parameter/aux_/tagged_argument.hpp:10,
from /usr/local/include/boost/parameter/aux_/tag.hpp:8,
from /usr/local/include/boost/parameter/keyword.hpp:10,
from /usr/local/include/boost/parameter/name.hpp:8,
from /usr/local/include/boost/graph/named_function_params.hpp:15,
from /usr/local/include/boost/graph/depth_first_search.hpp:21,
from /usr/local/include/boost/graph/topological_sort.hpp:16,
from /usr/ports/deskutils/kdepimlibs4/work/kdepimlibs-4.3.4/akonadi/itemserializer.cpp:40:
/usr/local/include/boost/parameter/aux_/maybe.hpp:90: error: 'boost::python' has not been declared
/usr/local/include/boost/parameter/aux_/maybe.hpp:90: error: expected unqualified-id before '<' token
/usr/local/include/boost/parameter/aux_/maybe.hpp: In member function 'typename boost::add_reference::type>::type boost::parameter::aux::maybe::construct2(const U&) const':
/usr/local/include/boost/parameter/aux_/maybe.hpp:59: error: 'm_storage' was not declared in this scope
/usr/local/include/boost/parameter/aux_/maybe.hpp: In member function 'void boost::parameter::aux::maybe::destroy()':
/usr/local/include/boost/parameter/aux_/maybe.hpp:72: error: 'm_storage' was not declared in this scope
*** Error code 1
1 error
*** Error code 2
1 error
*** Error code 2
1 error
*** Error code 1

Stop in /usr/ports/deskutils/kdepimlibs4.

From the errors, it seems kdepimlibs4 is missing of a dependencies related to "boost::python".

FreeBSD - How to check swap space or partition info

Use the command :

swapinfo

Specified the parameter "-h" to convert the bytes to "h"uman readable form :

swapinfo -h

Sayonara !!!

FreeBSD - ports install Exim email server with patch error

Learned another thing today. The ports tree is just a repository of available software, it can be deleted & regenerated. Why would some one wants to delete the ports tree? It needed to be delete and regenerated because some patch was downloaded incorrectly and the problem stubbornly persists.

Sample of the error :

===>  Applying FreeBSD patches for exim-4.71

Ignoring previously applied (or reversed) patch.
2 out of 2 hunks ignored--saving rejects to src/daemon.c.rej
=> Patch patch-src-daemon.c failed to apply cleanly.
=> Patch(es) patch-OS::Makefile-FreeBSD patch-scripts::exim_install applied cleanly.
*** Error code 1

Stop in /usr/ports/mail/exim.
*** Error code 1

Stop in /usr/ports/mail/exim.

The error complained about a patch file which the patch file did exists.

What have been tried :

• portsnap fetch update;make

  NO, it didn't work

• make clean;make rmconfig;make

  NO, it didn't work

• make config, deselect all options, make

  NO, it didn't work

• rm -rf /usr/ports/distfiles/exim then make

  NO, it didn't work

After meddling around for a few minutes, still no clue. Is time to check out :

IRC server : irc.freenode.net

IRC channel : #freebsd

FreeBSD - Backup and restore FreeBSD using Fixit CD

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 another bootable CD which its label name consits of "livefs" (Live File System). It's also known as "disk 2" prior to FreeBSD 7.
e.g.

Installation disc -- > 8.0-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso
Live File systems disc --> 8.0-RELEASE-i386-livefs.iso

Do take note that the dump/restore instruction from the previous post "Freebsd – Backup & restore for disaster recovery" is still valid. This post is served as a "update" as it won't be using FreeSBIE, rather, it will using the livefs to start the restoration of the partition(s).

Without further ado, here's the instruction :

FreeBSD - Ports complain about Checksum Mismatch error

File integrity checking has been built in for ports, checksum of file. Comparing checksum of a file is automatically done when ports is going to extract the compress file. It's a important process to make sure that the file downloaded are not altered in anyway, be it missing bits during download or some one maliciously change the contents of the original compress file. Imaging, what would happen if some one insert a trojan house or some spyware into the installation file and happen to be download and installed by users on the internet. The consequences is un-imaginably scary.

But this may not always be the case as ports takes its source from well known web sites and the ports are written by the author of the program which happen to be a commiter port maintainer which (please correct me if this is not the case) gone through a thorough process of checks & verification.

Warning of checksum error may most of the time caused by bumpy download connection that break the downloaded file. e.g. missing bits, halfway terminated file download process.

During installation of the ports, it will complain an error :

FreeBSD - Fundraising for FreeBSD Foundation

This will be the last post from me of this year and i think i owe my favorite OS too much and hopefully this will slightly, tiny, little, bitty post make my conscience feels better.

Please donate to FreeBSD Foundation.

About the FreeBSD Foundation

What is the FreeBSD Foundation?

The FreeBSD Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the FreeBSD Project. The Foundation gratefully accepts donations from individuals and businesses, using them to fund projects which further the development of the FreeBSD operating system. In addition, the Foundation can represent the FreeBSD Project in executing contracts, license agreements, and other legal arrangements which require a recognized legal entity. The FreeBSD Foundation is entirely supported by donations.

What can I expect from the FreeBSD Foundation?

The FreeBSD Foundation will support both the development and the popularization of FreeBSD, the world's best open source operating system. Here are some of the projects that the Foundation can and will support in the future:

• Development of software for FreeBSD to benefit the user and developer community, including contract development of critical system infrastructure, porting of closed source applications such as Java(TM).
• Obtaining computers and other equipment for developers to use toward improving FreeBSD, such as the network performance cluster, FreeBSD.org cluster, and personal development systems for developers.
• Providing additional Internet infrastructure to aid in the development and distribution of FreeBSD.
• Support developer communication and coordination, including financial support for developer summits and developer travel.
• Encouraging the formation of FreeBSD user groups.
• Cultivating press coverage and advertising the utility and availability of FreeBSD.

As you read, FreeBSD Foundation helps the FreeBSD community and that means it helps make FreeBSD a better OS. Unlike other OS that have funds to create hypes and noise, FreeBSD has always been "quiet and working" OS.

Major servers runs on FreeBSD. Major hardware runs on FreeBSD. FreeBSD deserve a better support in terms of funding.

In this seasons of giving, give some to FreeBSD. Donate to FreeBSD Foundation.

Peace.

FreeBSD - Known Vulnerabilities audit check on FreeBSD Ports

The FreeBSD Ports repository have a rich base of software. As of today, it has 21000 ++ ports. As we all know, all software have bugs. Some bugs leads to vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities opens door to unwanted access, at least not to those have ill intentions.

Every now and then, FreeBSD sysadm tends to install or upgrade new ports. As such, we should be more aware of what bugs or vulnerabilities that comes with it. Even we may not be able to fix it, but at least we should be aware of it so that we can find alternatives to secure it.

For ports, there is a utility to check on what vulnerabilities have been reported on it. Here is how to install and update it frequently :

OpenID - How to find out OpenID URL

Any of us easily owned a dozen accounts on different services on the internet. Be it Google, Yahoo, WordPress.com and others, these are just a few well known service providers. How about others? e.g. Slashdot (http://slashdot.org/), Stack Overflow(http://stackoverflow.com/), Server Fault(http://serverfault.com/) and the list goes on.

Luckily these sites are equip with OpenID. OpenID make our life easy by having 1 single sign on account (registered with the service providers) authenticate against multiple web sites.

e.g. an account with Google (or gmail) can be sign on into Slashdot, Stack Overflow, Server Fault and others.

Often, these website equip with OpenID sign on service have this "OpenID URL", but how do we get this "OpenID URL"? Or, what is this "OpenID URL"?

Here it is, the "OpenID URL" :

Perl - Connect using SSH with Perl & CPAN module

It has been weeks since the last time blogging about Perl. My day to day job has been tying most of my free time and blah blah blah excuses ... :p

My job deals with FreeBSD server, 90% of my time. Daily routines includes checking server health status. FreeBSD has these periodic scripts that will report server health status to sysadm daily, but the emails are always being "ignore" as the info in it are too vast. So, i decided to cough out a simple Perl script that will use SSH to connect to the servers and pull some health status report. This post will talk about using cpan module's, NET::SSH::Perl, to execute commands then print out the results.

Purpose of this script :

• connect to server using ssh
• authenticate only using public key
• run a command and print out the result

Perl modules used :

1. Perl::Critic = perl's best practice
2. Net::SSH::Perl = the basic of using ssh in perl
3. Net::SSH::Perl::Key::RSA = authenticate using public key
4. Class::ErrorHandler = needed by Net::SSH::Perl::Key::RSA module

To reduce the hiccups, install the modules listed above by using CPAN client.

Here is the script :

Ubuntu - How to change default menu for Net Book Remix

Net Book Remix is another spin off of Ubuntu. It's strength is to make Ubuntu to run on Netbook, miniature laptop which target for internet applications users. Typically, the screen size are small (from 9" - 12"), thus it is light (0.8kg - 1.5kg) and runs on Atom processor. The kernel and programs on NBR (Net Book Remix) are tune to run leaner, to accommodate the limited processor speed. The limited processor is in fact a good thing, less heat generated and generally, NBR are quite "cool".

The most notable difference about NBR and the usual Ubuntu linux distribution is, it's menu. The "Ubuntu NetBook Desktop" is the menu that covers the whole desktop with menu items. But people like me, still prefer the "Classic Desktop", with the menu panel on top and windows panel at bottom. Most desirably is the desktop are visible with the frequent access files and programs in it.

So, how do we change the "Ubuntu NetBook Desktop" to the usual "Classic Desktop"? Here is how to do it :

FreeBSD - For the love of all

For the love of the world, please do this.

Step 1 :

cd /usr/src

Step 2 :

make love

Enjoy the output :)

World Peace !!!

FreeBSD - Download ports simultaneously with multiple connections

By default, ports uses 1 connection to download and thus unbearably slow when a server rate limit the connection. Alternatively, we can tell ports to use external utility in order to open multiple connections and download simultaneously.

vim - Commenting multiple lines, block comment

Perl does not have block comment feature. The Acme::Comment module was the easiest way to make Perl do block commenting, with additional features, it allows customization of open & close punctuation mark.

Until yesterday, my first Perl code got some problem and had to seek help from the IRC channel perl-help @ irc.perl.org (these guys are really helpful, thanks dudes!). Just when they were helping me to solve the problem, Caelum tip me on how to block comment in Perl using vim. I thought it was a good idea as it doesn't need to load additional module to handle the block comment thing, which save some CPU processing.

Here it is :