install ubuntu 9.10 karmic on lvm

Recently I upgraded my Ubuntu install on my netbook to the latest version of 9.10 karmic. I wasn't too happy with the leftovers and some applet configurations that were missing after upgrading so I decided to just reinstall directly to 9.10. I thought this would also give me a chance to redo my filesystem layouts to better utilize my 4GB SSD and 12G SSD in my netbook.

Things quickly turned ugly as I found out that the 'advanced partitioning' provided by ubuntu is no where near what I am used to when installing RHEL or SLES at work. I soon found out to install to LVM you first need to setup your LVM configuration and mkfs your volumes BEFORE you start the ubuntu install. After everything is setup it will see them and you can then specify what you want to mount where and the install will work as you want it.

Of course there are some workarounds to doing all this ... here is the process I used.

1. Get your Ubuntu 9.10 install/live cd
2. If you do not have network for the system your installing to (wired or wireless) then download the following to a USB drive (these are 32-bit versions since I have a netbook, you may need to find 64-bit versions for your install)
   
   • lvm2 - http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic/i386/lvm2/download
   • watershed - http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic/i386/watershed/download
   • libreadline5 - http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic/i386/libreadline5/download
3. Boot your system using the Ubuntu 9.10 install/live cd
4. Once booted open a terminal and get root
   
   • sudo su -
5. For systems with no network:
   
   • Insert your USB stick with the packages you downloaded above
   • cd to /media/[USBdriveName]/[directoryWithPackages]
   • Install lvm2 and watershed to the live cd OS
     
     • dpkg -i lvm2*.dev watershed*.deb
       
6. For systems with network:
   
   • apt-get update
   • apt-get install lvm2

Now that lvm2 is installed you can create your PVs, VGs, LVs. You can do this however you want. The following is what I did as a reference for people who may not know much about LVM. My setup including striping between 2 disks so you may want to adjust how you do things ...

1. fdisk /dev/sda
   
   • o
   • w
   • n
   • p
   • 1
   • 1
   • +100M
   • n
   • p
   • 2
   • 
     
   • 
     
   • t
   • 2
   • 8e
   • w
     
2. fdisk /dev/sdb
   
   • o
   • w
3. This is where I had some issues. I had some type of lock on /dev/sdb when trying to do the next step of pvcreate to pull it into LVM ... so I needed to reboot to release it. If you need to reboot to use your disk you will need to follow steps 1-6 from the first section to get a live boot enviornment with LVM running again.
4. pvcreate /dev/sda2
5. pvcreate /dev/sdb
6. mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1
7. vgcreate rootdisk /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb
8. lvcreate -i2 -I4 -L6G -nroot_lv rootdisk
9. lvcreate -l100%PVS -nvar_lv rootdisk /dev/sda2
10. lvcreate -l100%PVS -nhome_lv rootdisk /dev/sdb
11. mkfs.ext4 /dev/rootdisk/root_lv
12. mkfs.ext4 /dev/rootdisk/var_lv
13. mkfs.ext4 /dev/rootdisk/home_lv

We now have LVM setup to host /, /var and /home filesystems. /boot will exist directly on /dev/sda1 (I later found out I could have tried to include it in LVM because 9.10 uses grub2, but too late now :( ) . So now you can initiate the install.

1. Start install
2. When you get to partition/disk setup section choose advanced
3. You will see the /dev/mapper/[vg]-[lv] devices you created in LVM. Below them will be the filesystem you put on each. Highlight the filesystem one and click the "Change..." button to specify the filesystem to use (should match how you mkfs above) and where to mount. DO NOT HAVE THE INSTALL REFORMAT THE FILESYSTEM.
4. For /dev/sda1 highlight and click "Change...". Specify the filesystem, where to mount (/boot) and DO HAVE IT FORMAT IT!
5. Proceed through the rest of the questions to start the install

One the install is finished WE ARE NOT DONE YET. The install installed it to where we want it, but it did NOT install LVM to our new OS! So now we need to mount everything by hand and chroot to our new OS to install LVM and then remake the initramfs. (If you reboot at this point it will not boot stating it can not find your /dev/mapper/[rootVG]-[rootLV]

These instructions follow how I setup my system, you need to make adjustments for the VG/LV names you created.

1. mount /dev/rootdisk/root_lv /mnt
2. mount /dev/rootdisk/var_lv /mnt/var
3. mount /dev/rootdisk/home_lv /mnt/home
4. mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
5. mount -t proc proc /mnt/proc
6. mount -t sysfs sys /mnt/sys
7. mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
8. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE NETWORK:
   
   • Insert your USB stick with the packages you downloaded above
   • cd to /media/[USBdriveName]/[directoryWithPackages]
   • cp lvm2*.dev watershed*.deb libreadline5*.deb /mnt/var/tmp
     
   • chroot /mnt
   • cd /var/tmp
     
   • dpkg -i lvm2*.dev watershed*.deb libreadline5*.deb
9. IF YOU HAVE NETWORK:
   
   • chroot /mnt
   • apt-get update
   • apt-get install lvm2
10. mkinitramfs -o /boot/[filenameOfCurrentInitramfs]
11. reboot

That should be it. I made these instructions all after-the-fact, so its all from memory trying to walkthrough what I did. I hope I didn't miss anything, but this should set you on the right track regardless. Below are links I referenced while trying to figure this out that may be helpful as well:

• Packages for ubuntu karmic
  
  • http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic/
• Talking about installing ubuntu to LVM in general
  
  • http://www.debuntu.org/how-to-install-ubuntu-over-lvm-filesystem
    
• Where I found out that I needed to install lvm2 to my installed OS to allow it to boot from root filesystem in LVM
  
  • http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1312248
• LVM striping howto
  
  • http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/recipethreescsistripe.html

undelete on ext3 filesystem

So I wiped out a directory that I thought I no longer needed. Turns out there was a 900K file that I didn't have copies of anywhere else in that directory. :(

So I quick googled on undelete for ext3 filesystems and found numerous posts on how its not possible. Funny thing it is possible ...

I eventually found http://code.google.com/p/ext3grep/ which was my lifesaver.

I'm not going to go into how to use this tool because there is already a great writeup @ http://www.xs4all.nl/~carlo17/howto/undelete_ext3.html

Suffice it to say I got my file back and I'm happy!

animate your desktop in linux

I've always wanted to have a slideshow of pictures for my desktop instead of just having 1 static image. I now know of 2 ways to do this. One I scripted myself, and another is program I found and learned to utilize which works better and is better.

First I'll detail my script, but be sure to continue to read further down as a better solution exists!

I initially created a script for GNOME that I was able to point to a directory full of images and have it randomly display a picture from the directory of images as my background. I then created a cronjob to execute the script so about every couple hours I would have a new backgroup.

NOTE: This will only work in GNOME 2.x as the script utilizes gconftool-2. I'm sure it can be modified to work with other versions of GNOME as well.

• Create the script!
  
  • vi chgBackground.sh
    
  • #!/bin/sh
    
    PID=$$
    
    PHOTO_DIR=$1
    
    if [[ -z ${PHOTO_DIR} ]]; then
    echo "You must specify a directory that has your photos."
    exit 1
    fi
    
    if [[ ! -d ${PHOTO_DIR} ]]; then
    echo "Directory '${PHOTO_DIR}' does not exist."
    exit 1
    fi
    
    # Look for files with extension .jpg or .png
    PIC_COUNT="`find ${PHOTO_DIR} -iregex ".*\.\(jpg\|png\)$" | wc -l`"
    
    if [[ ${PIC_COUNT} -eq 0 ]]; then
    echo "No pictures found!"
    exit 1
    fi
    
    find ${PHOTO_DIR} -iregex ".*\.\(jpg\|png\)$" > /tmp/chgBackground.${PID}
    
    RANDOM=${PID}
    RAN_VAR=`echo $[(${RANDOM} % ${PIC_COUNT}) + 1]`
    
    BKG_PATH=`head -${RAN_VAR} /tmp/chgBackground.${PID} | tail -1`
    
    /opt/gnome/bin/gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename ${BKG_PATH}
    
    rm -f /tmp/chgBackground.${PID}
    
• Set perms to execute the script
  
  • chmod +x chgBackground.sh
• Run the script!
  
  • chgBackground.sh /path/to/pics
• Schedule in crontab to run automatically
  
  • crontab -e
  • Add the following to change every hour:
    
    • 0 * * * * sh -x /path/to/script/chgBackground.sh > /dev/null

I later learned of a program called xwinwrap. This binary allows you to run a program over your desktop. That is to say you could use this program to have VLC playing a video and make that your background. Below are the steps I used to have gslideshow from xscreensaver run as my background, with glslideshow configured to point to a directory full of images.

• Download xwinwrap from http://tech.shantanugoel.com/projects/linux/shantz-xwinwrap
• unzip the downloaded file

Now, the command I use is:

• /path/to/xwinwrap -fs -st -sp -b -ov -- /usr/lib64/xscreensaver/glslideshow -window-id WID -duration 8 -pan 8 -fade 2 &

What the above command does is:

• -fs : parameter for xwinwrap to run fullscreen
• -st and -sp : I set these so that when xwinwrap runs it does not show up with a program window in the "Workspace Switcher" applet
• -b : This has xwinwrap run below GNOME panels
• -ov : This allows xwinwrap to run in all virtual desktops
• -- /usr/lib64/xscreensaver/glslideshow -window-id WID -duration 8 -pan 8 -fade 2 : This is an argument passwed to xwinwrap of the command you pass to xwinwrap to be run over your desktop
  
  • -window-id WID : parameter for glslideshow to run fullscreen in your GNOME window
  • -duration 8 : parameter for glslideshow on how long to have a single photo displayed
  • -pan 8 : how long to pan the image for (if less then duration it will pan the image over 2 cycles for same image)
  • -fade 2 : parameter for glslideshow on how to to fade between images
• & : allows xwinwrap to run in the background

To set the imageDirectory for glslideshow to use:

• vi ~/.xscreensaver
  
  • edit/add the line containing "imageDirectory" to point to the directory of images
    
    • EXAMPLE:
      imageDirectory: /path/to/images
      

You can obviously change the argument you pass to xwinwrap to run different image/video applications to have overlayed over your desktop.

linux pptp configuration with MS vpn

I've been trying for a while to configure pptp to connect to my work vpn which uses an MS vpn server. Turns out configuration is fairly straightforward and that my main issue was really simple actually... anyways, the errors I was getting when trying to debug it were the following:

root@mclittle:/etc/ppp# pon myvpn debug dump logfd 2 nodetach
pppd options in effect:
debug # (from command line)
nodetach # (from command line)
logfd 2 # (from command line)
dump # (from command line)
noauth # (from /etc/ppp/options.pptp)
refuse-pap # (from /etc/ppp/options.pptp)
refuse-chap # (from /etc/ppp/options.pptp)
refuse-mschap # (from /etc/ppp/options.pptp)
refuse-eap # (from /etc/ppp/options.pptp)
name jdoe # (from /etc/ppp/peers/myvpn)
user jdoe # (from /etc/ppp/peers/myvpn)
remotename PPTP # (from /etc/ppp/peers/myvpn)
# (from /etc/ppp/options.pptp)
pty pptp vpn.domain.com --nolaunchpppd # (from /etc/ppp/peers/myvpn)
crtscts # (from /etc/ppp/options)
# (from /etc/ppp/options)
asyncmap 0 # (from /etc/ppp/options)
lcp-echo-failure 4 # (from /etc/ppp/options)
lcp-echo-interval 30 # (from /etc/ppp/options)
hide-password # (from /etc/ppp/options)
ipparam myvpn # (from /etc/ppp/peers/myvpn)
proxyarp # (from /etc/ppp/options)
nobsdcomp # (from /etc/ppp/options.pptp)
nodeflate # (from /etc/ppp/options.pptp)
require-mppe-128 # (from /etc/ppp/peers/myvpn)
noipx # (from /etc/ppp/options)
using channel 26
Using interface ppp0
Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/pts/2
sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0x556ea98d> <pcomp> <accomp>]
rcvd [LCP ConfReq id=0x0 <mru 1400> <auth eap> <magic 0x20e4721> <pcomp> <accomp> <callback CBCP> <mrru 1614> <endpoint [local:e7.d1.73.2d.b1.7b.49.5b.bc.41.b8.ae.36.14.95.be.00.00.00.00]> < 17 04 19 f5>]
No auth is possible
sent [LCP ConfRej id=0x0 <auth eap> <callback CBCP> <mrru 1614> < 17 04 19 f5>]
rcvd [LCP ConfAck id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0x556ea98d> <pcomp> <accomp>]
rcvd [LCP TermReq id=0x1 02 0e 47 21 00 3c cd 74 00 00 03 97]
sent [LCP TermAck id=0x1]
sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0x556ea98d> <pcomp> <accomp>]
sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0x556ea98d> <pcomp> <accomp>]
^CTerminating on signal 2
sent [LCP TermReq id=0x2 "User request"]
Child process pptp vpn.domain.com --nolaunchpppd (pid 5494) terminated with signal 2
Modem hangup
Connection terminated.

Anyways, here is what I did on an ubuntu system to get it to work, should be pretty much the same for other distributions.

First I am going to go through the information we will need and setup some "variables" so you know where to use them in your configs. I'll post configs with the "variable", and a config with sample data.

Packages Needed:

The followingm packages are needed to be installed:

• pptpd
• pptp-linux
  
• ppp
  

These can be installed with the following command:

• sudo apt-get install ppp pptpd pptp-linux
  

Config Data Needed:

• PPTP server name: ${VPN_SERVER}: vpn.doamin.com
• VPN User Name: ${USERNAME}: jdoe
• VPN Domain: ${DOMAIN}: USA
  
• VPN Password: ${PASSWORD}: jpass
• Connection name: ${CONFIG_FILE}: myvpn
• Password Alias: ${PASS_ALIAS}: myvpnalias
  

Here are the steps to take:

1. First lets configure our username/password that will be used for the VPN. We will edit /etc/ppp/chap-secrets:
   
   • SAMPLE:
     
     ${DOMAIN}\\${USERNAME} ${PASS_ALIAS} ${PASSWORD} *
   • EXAMPLE:
     
     USA\\jdoe myvpnalias jpass *
2. Now we will create a connection config file. This file is to be created in /etc/ppp/peers/. With our example data that would mean /etc/ppp/peers/myvpn
   
   • SAMPLE:
     
     pty "pptp ${VPN_SERVER} --nolaunchpppd"
     name ${DOMAIN}\\${USERNAME}
     user ${DOMAIN}\\${USERNAME}
     remotename ${PASS_ALIAS}
     require-mppe-128
     file /etc/ppp/options.pptp
     ipparam ${CONFIG_FILE}
   • EXAMPLE:
     
     pty "pptp vpn.domain.com --nolaunchpppd"
     name USA\\jdoe
     user USA\\jdoe
     remotename myvpnalias
     require-mppe-128
     file /etc/ppp/options.pptp
     ipparam myvpn
3. We can now connect to our pptp server:
   
   • pon ${CONFIG_FILE}
   • pon myvpn
     
     • Watch your /var/log/messages file on the status of your connection
     • When connected, you should have a new IP provided by the VPN server on a ppp0 device
4. To disconnect your vpn connection:
   
   • poff ${CONFIG_FILE}
     
   • poff myvpn

Troubleshooting:

If you are not getting connected, you can start your pptp with the following command for debugging output:

• pon ${CONFIG_FILE} debug dump logfd 2 detach
• pon myvpn debug dump logfd 2 detach

References:

• http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/howto-configure-ubuntu-fedora-linux-pptp-client.html
• http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-298267-highlight-.html
  

eee 901 hang during ubuntu linux suspend

My eee 901 was randomly hanging when entering a suspend mode. What would happen is when I try to resume it would just sit at a black screen. I would need to hard reset my system to bring it back online. Searching the web, I found the following that seems to be working for me.

• vi /etc/pm/sleep.d/55hddpause
  

  • Add the following:
    
    #!/bin/bash
    case $1 in
    suspend)
    echo "Is my script running???"
    sync
    sleep 10
    esac

• chmod +x /etc/pm/sleep.d/55pause

After creating that script which will run when your computer suspends I have not had anymore issues with resuming.

References:

• http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=442950#p442950
  

hp ilo and self-signed certs with firefox 3

A very annoying thing I've encountered is that on our intranet we use to access hp iLOs the iLOs use self signed certs. Using firefox 3 to access these iLOs causes firefox to freak out and initiate a 4 step process to bypass the "unsecure" certificate. I got sick of wasting time for this since we manage hundreds of servers. I found the following plugin the brings the 4 click process down to 1 click:

• https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6843

Obviously (or maybe not), don't use this for a browser that you are using to serf the internet with ... only use it on a browser that you are using to access a secure and private network.

If someone knows of a way to eliminate the "Secure Connection Failed" warning page altogether, please leave a comment and let me know!

class com.hp.ilo2.remcons.remcons.class not found

Working on an HP system I administrate I ran into the following java error message when trying to pull up the remote console in firefox on my linux workstation

• class com.hp.ilo2.remcons.remcons.class not found

What ended up being the solution was removing a cache directory that firefox has (clearing the cache from firefox did not work ...):

• Close All Firefox Windows
  
• cd $HOME/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/
• rm -rf Cache

Now start firefox back up and try it again, should be working (or at least it did for me).