Fedora 21 + djbdns

I've been using djbdns for a long time on many different platforms. It's secure, fast, and cryptic. You could even call it peculiar or eccentric if you like. It was a perfect match for OpenBSD, but that's a story for another day. It's too easy on Ubuntu, since it's available through apt-get, so that doesn't need a discussion at all. Today, we're here to talk about Fedora.

I have a shiny, new installation of Fedora Server 21. I picked some package groups that sounded interesting for my purposes but intentionally did not select DNS because I didn't want BIND on my server. (Remember, secure is the goal.)

As often as I've installed it, I still check the directions, since it's always best to follow along very specifically when DJB says to do something. Step 1 is for local documentation, so I skip that. Step 2 is download, but I already have it. Step 3, extract. Step 4, compile (using the fix for the Linux bug as described). Step 5, install. Easy! But first, make sure you installed daemontools and ucspi-tcp. Whoops. No harm, no foul, just go install those.

Unfortunately, neither of those compiles. Luckily I've seen that before. It's a quick replacement in one file for each package.

daemontools

/package/admin/daemontools-0.76/src/error.h

• - extern int errno;
+ #include

ucspi-tcp

ucspi-tcp-0.88/error.h

• - extern int errno;
+ #include

I then return to the first page to pick which specific application I want to configure. In my case, it's often external cache. I note at the top "These instructions assume that you have already installed daemontools and djbdns, and that svscan is already running." It seems logical to check first: `ps auxw | grep svcscan` What's that? It's not running?!

I check the install script in the package which leads me to /package/admin/daemontools/package/run which has:

if test -r /etc/inittab
then
  /command/setlock /etc/inittab package/run.inittab
else
  /command/setlock /etc/rc.local package/run.rclocal
fi

Sure enough, /etc/inittab exists:

# inittab is no longer used.
#
# ADDING CONFIGURATION HERE WILL HAVE NO EFFECT ON YOUR SYSTEM.

Well that's not good. Fedora 21 uses systemd. <sigh> DJB checks for the file; Fedora includes the unused file; svcscan thus fails to start.

I could probably modify /package/admin/daemontools-0.76/package/run.inittab to check for some text in /etc/inittab, but that hardly seems good either. Who know what text will be in there in the future or in another language, or ...

Putting it into /etc/rc.local isn't the systemd way anyway. It also didn't work. Probably because I don't have csh which is what was added to rc.local using that method. I would wager that DJB would say Fedora is doing things wrong; it used to work fine; they broke it; not his fault.

I can't really argue with that, but I still want it to work. My guess is installing csh with sudo yum install csh is probably the quickest fix. I'll call that "the end" as I delve into systemd for the first time to see if I can get that working.

Update: This! I now have svscan running from systemd.

VirtualBox Host key

I'm using Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS with the latest patches available.  I spun up a virtual machine in VirtualBox 4.3.10 and quickly became annoyed that common key combinations popped up messages, some of which offered to shutdown or reboot my guest OS.

I found the Preferences, Input, Virtual Machine, Host Key Combination setting pretty easily and changed it from the default Right Ctrl to Left Ctrl + Left Shift, considering it's far more rare for me to press two modifiers at the same time, other than Ctrl-Alt perhaps.

No soap.  The Right Ctrl stayed as the modifier!  I thought maybe I had to try turning it off and on again.  Maybe exit VirtualBox entirely?  Still nothing.  Every time, the preference would reset back to the default.

I even found the configuration file ~/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml on my system, though the new default is ~/.config/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml but it was not obvious what I might want to change the value to.

<ExtraDataItem name="GUI/Input/HostKeyCombination" value="65508"/>


Then I found a bug report!

Comment 1 had my answer:

1. Open VBox "Preferences..." / Input page / Virtual Machine tab.
2. Change the shortcut for "Host Key Combination" in embedded-editor of the shortcut table and (!) press Enter (or Return) key while this shortcut embedded-editor is opened. GUI applying shortcut changes only in that case as this is the default Qt behavior. If you simple press OK button instead your change will be discarded.

 Fix is part of VBox 4.3.14

Ubuntu changed my clock to UTC

I dual boot my computer between Ubuntu and Windows 7. After my upgrade from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS to 14.04 LTS, I noticed that my clock was wrong in Windows. It was obvious that my hardware clock had been on EST and got switched to UTC during the upgrade. The worst part, I think, is that I even remember getting asked during the upgrade what time zone to set the hardware clock to. I guess the default changed, since my result was different.

I knew there had to be a way to fix it, and a quick search showed me the answer. Ubuntu hardware clock correction

A rambling post about pens

I don't use pens very often. I'm a computer geek, after all. I was recently frustrated when every pen I picked up was horrible in some way. Most were completely dry (probably because I don't use them very often) and many skipped or wouldn't write in various places on the paper I had.

I think I actually threw away some of the pens I had in my desk at work, probably the last time I changed offices. I had only two pens, both given to me by vendors. One was horrible when I got it last year, yet I didn't throw it away for some reason. The other is so many years old, I can't even remember when I got it. I'm guessing 9 years. It's time to move on.

Just to see what I would get, I searched for "what is the best pen" (after a search for "perfect pen" didn't get me what I was looking for.) Of course, I use Bing for that because of their rewards program, but you can use any search engine and find similar results for simple questions like this. Sign up for Bing Rewards

What I found was a recommendation on The Wirecutter from four separate pen bloggers for the same pen.

What did they all recommend? Uni-ball Jetstream

What did I buy? I bought a few different items because I'm an office supply junkie. I didn't know which point and color I might prefer, and the Extra Fine had a nice looking grip. I really did try to buy just 3 pens but somehow ended up with enough to dry out over the next couple decades.

• Uni-ball Jetstream Fine Point 0.7mm Retractable Roller Ball Pens, Black Ink, Pack of 3
• Uni-ball Jetstream Extra Fine Point 0.5mm Retractable Roller Ball Pens, Rubber Grip, Black Ink, Pack of 3
• Uni-ball Jetstream 101 Roller Ball Pens, Bold Point, Black Ink, Pack of 12
• Uni-ball Jetstream 101 Roller Ball Pens, Bold Point, Blue Ink, Pack of 12

I had to walk away at that point, because I found myself researching fountain pens. Luckily (?) I misplaced the review of the fast drying ink, and I didn't want to buy a fountain pen only to find the ink smeared all over my hand as I dragged it across the page.

Links to the pen blogs, also available from the recommendation on The Wirecutter

• The Pen Addict
• Office Supply Geek
• No Pen Intended
• Gourmet Pens

I went to the library. And I got a book!

I know many of you are already shocked, but the library does still have books!

The story begins with me learning that Dean Koontz has published another Odd Thomas book. I had just recently finished the last one, so I thought I had more time. Unfortunately, the book club I had been using was shut down, so no more monthly $9.99 hardcover books (with free shipping).

I'm getting a bit off track, so lets focus. The book I wanted (er, want, since I don't have it yet) is Saint Odd. I also found there is a slightly unrelated book, Odd Interlude that I haven't read. Finally, I learned of some Odd Thomas graphic novels, the first being In Odd We Trust.

I didn't really want to get a graphic novel in Kindle format, and I wasn't even sure I'd like it, so I didn't want to buy it. The part about it being black and white didn't sink in until I opened it, but that comes later.

First I checked the library web site to see if they had the book. They did! But not at the main library. It was available from the tiny branch that is actually closer to my house than the main library.

The slight catch is the crazy hours.

Having found a time I could get there, I started wandering through the library. Without looking at many books, the process of viewing all the shelves would have taken about 30 seconds. Before I could even make it to the back of one side, a friendly librarian asked if she could help me. Since I hadn't seen any signs (like the main library has) I readily agreed. Having only my memory to work with, I said I was looking for an Odd Thomas book, and that it was a graphic novel. I also suggested that it was supposed to be in the 700 section and that the author was Dean Koontz.

She got almost back to the correct place (not that I knew that at the time) then stopped and asked the other librarian if she knew where the Odd Thomas graphic novel was. The other librarian said, "It's in the 700's." Hmm. That's what I said. Scary! The first librarian then finished walking the last 10 feet to the correct section and touching a book randomly said, "I'm not sure exactly where it is, but it should be in this section." I caught a glimpse of the cover of the book she was touching as she moved it slightly. "That's it!" I exclaimed. She had just randomly pulled the book I was looking for.

I'm not sure if I'll actually find time to read it, but one Amazon reviewer said it should only take an hour or so. That leaves me some hope.

Convert YouTube video to mp3 audio

My YouTube downloaders broke a while ago. I came across this site while trying to find something that works today. Lucky for me, I only wanted audio today (to make an alarm ringtone for my phone). It does all the work. There's nothing to download (other than your mp3) and nothing to install. Just paste in the URL and let it convert.

http://www.youtube-mp3.org/

Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Beta 2 failure on VMWare

I saw a post from Ubuntu on Facebook that was asking for beta testers. I didn't officially sign up, but I did download http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-server/daily/20120417/precise-server-amd64.iso to test on a VMWare ESXi embedded cluster running 3.5.0 build 110271

The system booted from the ISO, and I proceeded through the keyboard selection and network settings. Then there was nothing. The system didn't lock up; pressing Alt-F2 got me to a working terminal.

The installation screen looked like this:

The log on Alt-F4 showed this:

I'll try again as well as search for other images to see if one works better than the one I downloaded.

Update: When I set up the VM, I didn't select the correct switch, so DHCP failed. During the install, I changed the switch and let it retry the network configuration. It succeeded then asked for the hostname. I just repeated those steps and have the same purple screen with no more activity. Having the correct network switch selected before network configuration allowed the install to complete normally. I call that a bug.