Creating An NFS-Like Standalone Storage Server With GlusterFS On Fedora 12

This tutorial shows how to set up a standalone storage server on Fedora 12. Instead of NFS, I will use GlusterFS here. The client system will be able to access the storage as if it was a local filesystem. GlusterFS is a clustered file-system capable of scaling to several peta-bytes. It aggregates various storage bricks over Infiniband RDMA or TCP/IP interconnect into one large parallel network file system. Storage bricks can be made of any commodity hardware such as x86_64 servers with SATA-II RAID and Infiniband HBA.

http://www.howtoforge.com/creating-an-nfs-like-standalone-storage-server-with-glusterfs-on-fedora-12

50 Open Source Tools: Desktop Downloads

Just found a nice big list of interesting FOSS software. Some is focused strictly on Linux, others for Windows, and some are ports to both.

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3866581/50-Open-Source-Tools-Desktop-Downloads.htm

Build Regular Expressions with a GUI

Kodos is a Python program that helps you learn and create regular expressions via a GUI interface. Vincent Danen offers this introduction to using regular expressions.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/opensource/?p=1251

Linux frustrates!

A nice article for Linux N00bz. Starts off a little whiney, but ends up giving you a little peace in the end.

I have heard of my geeky friends talking about this Linux stuff. I wasn't sure what it was so I asked them about it. Honestly, I thought they were trying to sell me some religion the way they jumped all over me trying to explain what Linux is. They did make some very good points though. I have always felt uncomfortable with using a pirated version of windows but I can't justify the expense of buying an original version. I am also tired of all the problems I have been having because of virus and spyware infestations. These Linux guys tell me that they don't have any problems with that stuff.

http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/locutus/linux-frustrates-37036

LTSP 5.2 is out!

After almost two years or work and 994 commits later made by only 14 contributors, I'm proud to announce that the Linux Terminal Server Project project released LTSP 5.2 on Wednesday the 17th of February.

https://www.stgraber.org/2010/02/21/ltsp-52-out

Tin Hat: High security Linux

Tin Hat is a Linux distribution derived from hardened Gentoo which aims to provide a very secure, stable and fast Desktop environment that lives purely in RAM.

Tin Hat boots from CD, or optionally a pen drive, but it is not a LiveCD. It does not mount any file system from CD via unionfs or otherwise. Rather, Tin Hat is a massive image (approx. 2.3GB) which loads into tmpfs upon booting.

http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=8892

Record your Desktop with Linux Tools

 You can capture video of all of the amazing things happening on your desktop with one of Linux’s many screencasting applications. These programs are perfect for creating demonstrations for blogs and tutorials, and for illustrating projects with more than just still images.

Many different programs are available, and they all provide a different set of features, options, and output formats. When choosing, consider the degree of control you want to have over your video resolution and whether the video is intended to work on non-Linux operating systems. Common open source output formats, such as FLAC and Ogg Theora, work natively on Linux but require software and plugins on proprietary operating systems. User interfaces also vary greatly; some applications are nothing more than an icon in the system tray while others depend on large interfaces with many options.

http://www.cherrysave.com/linux/record-your-desktop-with-linux-tools/

Determine If Shell Input is Coming From the Terminal or From a Pipe

Working on a little script the other day I had the need to determine if the input to the script was coming from a pipe or from the terminal. Seems like a simple enough thing to determine but nothing jumped immediately to mind and a quick internet search didn't help much either. After a bit of pondering I came up with two solutions: the stat command and using information from the proc file system.

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/determine-if-shell-input-coming-terminal-or-pipe

Install software updates and security patches without rebooting

 There's a real irony to my article this week. Just as I began to write, I got an e-mail from one of my hosted service providers. To paraphrase the message, it says: "Dear Customer, we will be performing maintenance on your application server for a few hours this weekend. We plan to install critical software updates and security patches. During this window you may experience brief interruptions in service. Sorry for the inconvenience."

You've seen similar messages before. Perhaps you even write them and send them out to your own customers when you need to install software updates and security fixes. While the process of installing software updates is disruptive and expensive -- Gartner estimates downtime for a critical system costs $42,000 an hour -- there's no getting around the need to apply updates. According to Microsoft, 90 percent of the attacks in the wild exploit known vulnerabilities.

It's essential to patch systems to keep them reliable and secure. But while you must patch, must you reboot the server to apply the patch? Not necessarily.

http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/techexec/2010/021510bestpractices.html

F12 Upgrade

Finally got around to upgrading a couple of F10 machines to F12. The only problem I encountered was with the nouveau video drivers conflicting with the previous nvidia setup.

FedoraForum.org came through with the correct set of incantations to get init 5 back up...

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=204752

Hands-on: new single-window mode makes GIMP less gimpy

 The venerable GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is undergoing a significant transformation. The next major release, version 2.8, will introduce an improved user interface with an optional single-window mode.

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/reviews/2010/02/hands-on-new-single-window-mode-makes-gimp-less-gimpy.ars

A newbie's guide to Fedora 12

Fedora is a great choice of distribution to start with. It's easy to install and just as easy to use. It's one of the most well-respected distributions available, and has a very tight relationship with its parent and chief sponsor, Red Hat. With Fedora, you have access to one of the largest communities in the world of Linux, and one of the the biggest selections of software to play with. In this mini-feature, we're going to walk you through your first steps installing and using Fedora 12 so that everyone can get started and have fun in the Linux community.

http://www.tuxradar.com/content/newbies-guide-fedora-12