secure apt-get
Debiean-heads might find it interesting that Joey Hess has produced a detailed SecureApt article on how to use security features of apt-get. The particularly interesting bits are: details about the security levels put into packages examples of how apt-key aught to be used timeline that the debian pgp keys will adhere to problems to be avoided and symptoms you will see if you have ’em links to relevant documentation
xen domain0 on debian
This is part of my [xen box setup]{rtag/xen-box-setup} “series”. Xen domain 0 (or dom0) is special. It starts up all the other xen hosts and, be it by a rule or simply by convention, it tends to run all the drivers. I have already covered how I [partitioned my disk]{lvm2-on-raid1}. Let’s now start with this fresh install of debian/testing and get a xen dom0 running on top of it. The following steps assume that the system: is a 32bit x86 box running debian/testing has RAID1 devices configured as per my [LVM2 on RAID1]{lvm2-on-raid1} writeup uses grub for a bootloader was booting a recent 2.6.x kernel
LVM2 on RAID1 mirror
This is part of my [xen box setup]{rtag/xen-box-setup} “series”. :) I’ve installed debian on a RAID1 device, /dev/md0. This takes up a fraction of the disk, and my plan is to create a large LVM2 group on another RAID1 that I can use to dynamically create devices for my xen domains.
building a RHEL4 kernel with kdb support
Sometimes I have a need to reproduce bugs on other platforms. When that platform uses a heavily patched kernel, it makes it hard to debug. Below are some notes I took while building a RHEL4 kernel with kdb support.
xen on debian
I decided to try out xen on my development / test box. I will write a bit more about what I did, but first here are some links:
Upgraded look
I switched to Dave’s perl version of my blog. The old blog is still available here. One of the cool additions from his mercurial tree was support for Markdown. Which makes generating html easier. When I make changes to the source, I will publish my changes in my mercurial tree. Thanks Dave!
Flattered by a copy
Dave had recently rewritten my PHP blog in "a real language" (perl). I think I will be switching to his version soon. Still waiting on him to export the HG tree
vim7 from source
I found a bug in vim6.4 (my comment block was too big and the line after the comment block was not left-justified) and wanted to see if vim7 had a fix.
Perl, Catalyst, CPAN, and Debian
I've decided to give Catalyst a try. I am not a big web-head, but occasionally I want to put stuff up on my site... and would like most of the work to be done for me, but not so much of the work that I cannot control what is happening. I was not ready for a new scripting language so Ruby on Rails and Turbo Gears were out. Catalyst is available from CPAN -- the real reason why anyone would be crazy enough to use perl. But running CPAN stuff on Debian is a pain in the ass, more so then Debian taught me is an acceptable level of ass pain, because perl stuff in Debian tends to lag behind CPAN; even in testing.
last.fm
I just *heart* last.fm. It really is the LAST radio station you will need to tune into... well, unless you're in the car or on a bus or something silly like that. Last.fm is a streaming internet radio station that learns to what you listen to. It also allows you to listen to stations tailored to other people, or listen to particular types of music, or artists similar to the ones you like, etc, etc etc.