Housey is hooked up to the 8048 dev system. Housey wasn’t very smart at startup, so I added some init scripts. uClibc uses System V init, which means (among other things) that S scripts in /etc/init.d are executed in ASCII order. So, S10 runs before S20. I put two scripts in /etc/init.d. In S40net I […]
Startup Scripts for Housey
Creating Filesystems On Hdc
The default uClibc install doesn’t have hdc devices. You can’t make an ext3 filesystem or use fdisk either, for that matter. The first task is to create the hdc devices using mknod: mknod hdc b 22 0 mknod hdc1 b 22 1 mknod hdc2 b 22 2 mknod hdc3 b 22 3 Not too painful. […]
Video for Crackers
Now, you could consider this an article about how to set up a web cam using GNU/Linux or something… Naw… We want to write a story involving chickens. Crackers is Agatha’s new GIAGD machine that she uses to put up pictures of the chickens living in her moveable chicken coop. We bought a used SE440BX-2 […]
SSHD on GIAGD
The uClibc dev system includes SSHD, but you need to set up host keys in /etc first: [root@crackers /]# ssh-keygen -t dsa -f /etc/ssh_host_dsa_key Generating public/private dsa key pair. Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): Enter same passphrase again: Your identification has been saved in /etc/ssh_host_dsa_key. Your public kkey has been saved in /etc/ssh_host_dsa_key.pub. The […]
New GIAGD distribution
For more information on the fabulous furry GIAGD fun, see this article. I revisited this, because there is a new root filesystem available at uclibc that includes perl and ssh. I nosed around for new versions of the extra source code I needed to get housey to boot. Here are some links: Lilo NASM GPM […]
Debian on a USBCard — Part 1 – Creating the filesystem
We have used our GIAGD distribution for our various utility computers that run stuff like our 8048 dev system and our chicken cam. It is a bit of a pain to maintain our own distribution based on uClibc; however, there is a fabulous new development. You can now get a port of Debian woody compiled […]
Debian on a USBCard — Part 2 – Transferring the Filesystem
In this article we discussed the Debian port to uClibc, and we created an ext3 filesystem on a USBCard. Now, we need to transfer the filesystem from the tarball to the USBCard. First, let’s mount our newly created filesystem: root@srv-1 / # mount -t ext3 /dev/sdc1 /mnt root@srv-1 / # mount /dev/hda3 on / type […]
Debian on a USBCard — Part 3 – Compiling the Kernel
In this article we transferred the filesystem to our UBCard. Now, we need to create a kernel. Before we create our kernel, though, we need to know what options to compile in. We are starting with our GIAGD .config from this article. Now, we are using VMware to bring this filesystem up. Since we don’t […]
Debian on a USBCard — Part 4 – Final Configuration
In this article we created a kernel for our USBCard system. Once we have the kernel in place we need to run lilo and adjust some other configuration files. To do this, just boot off of the Superrescue CD again and: mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /mnt chroot /mnt Now, we can edit /etc/lilo.conf: boot = […]
A Small GNU/Linux System – Revisited
We have a number of utility computers running that are based on uClibc. Every time we rebuild the devices, we have to basically create a new distribution. It appears that the Debian packages are no longer being maintained. That is OK, though, because we have figured out most of the tricks to getting this to […]
Running GTK Apps Without X
Check out the GTK on DirectFB project, if running an app like the GIMP without X11 excites you. DirectFB uses the framebuffer device in the Linux kernel, and can replace X as a “Window System”, or at least, the basic parts of one. The fact that an app as complicated as the GIMP can run […]
Openbravo ERP – Initial VM Evaluation
Openbravo is an Open Source web-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The license is a variation of the Mozilla Public License. The Openbravo project is very popular and has more than 100 employees. The management team has an impressive lineup, including Cees Poortman who was the Managing Director of Navision Netherlands, Director for Microsoft Business […]
Copying Table Structures With MySQL
We often have to get basic tables in place for our MySQL web backend. To create a new database: [root@main gg]# mysql -p Enter password: Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g. Your MySQL connection id is 8374 to server version: 3.23.54 Type ‘help;’ or ‘\h’ for help. Type ‘\c’ to […]
Creating a Database With MySQL
Let’s say we want to track our servers using a database instead of those nasty spreadsheets that many of us use. MySQL is a pretty simple and cheap way to get started. We are going to use a blank root password in these examples to ease typing, however, you should change the root password following […]
Importing Spreadsheets Into MySQL
In this article, we created a database in MySQL, as well as a sample table called systemsdoc. This article is for you screwheads that still document your systems with Excel spreadsheets. Eventually, we will show you how to run reports and update the database via customized web pages. First, though, we need to get the […]
Getting phpMyAdmin to Work With Gentoo
We emerged Apache to start, and noticed that PHP didn’t work correctly. Kinda makes sense, but ya gotta start somewhere. We’ve relied on RPMs in the past, as in this article. There are some gotchas. Agatha’s Gentoo workstation is a year old or so, now, so emerge mod_php and emerge phpmyadmin didn’t quite work as […]
Adding Records to MySQL Databases With HTML/PHP
In this article, we loaded up our new MySQL database with data. Adding records from a CLI tool is a bit cumbersome. PHP is a great way to add records to a MySQL database. For more information on PHP, see our articles here. The first step in using PHP is to set up the database […]
Deleting Records in MySQL Databases With HTML/PHP
In this article, we updated a troubling record. Well, let’s just delete the whole record. In fact, let’s delete the record with HTML and PHP!! Easy as pie. First we need a little HTML: <html> <head> <title>SystemsDoc Delete</title> </head> <body bgcolor=”white”> <form method=”POST” action=”sysdocdelete.php”> <table> <col span=”1″ align=”right”> <tr> <td><font color=”blue”>UID to delete:</font></td> <td><input type=”text” […]
Creating Sorted Reports For MySQL Databases With HTML/PHP
Do you have a fondness for greenbar? Well, here is a report that alternates colors in a similar fashion. Woohoo!! Greenbar!!! See this article for details on the database we are running the report against, and our other articles on HTML/PHP. A book we like that really helped us is Web Database Applications with PHP […]
PostgreSQL Initial Install
PostgreSql is an Open Source project with a BSD license. It is a mature and stable database with transactions, stored procedures, and rollback. PostgreSQL is available for win32;however, we will be compiling and installing this on a GNU/Linux system. First, let’s grab the source from here and decompress: root@srv-1 src # tar -xjf postgresql-8.0.0beta1.tar.bz2 root@srv-1 […]
