CentOS

Configuring my new server on which I've decided to use CentOS (aka RHEL ... shhhh! it's a secret!).

• cat /proc/cpuinfo - to list CPUs (verify I have a quad-core box)

Weird Ubuntu Install Issue

I installed Ubuntu Server AMD64 8.04.1 on a Compaq Presario with an AMD Athlon X2 4200 (64 bit) processor. The installation went flawless and it was able to connect to the internet using DHCP.

After installation, upon reboot, the ethernet card seemed to be non-functional. When I plugged it into the router, the status light failed to light up. The solution to this was to shutdown, unplug the power for 10 seconds, reconnect and reboot. For some reason this fixed whatever problem had occurred. Perhaps some cached data that doesn't get flushed until power is completely off?

Useful Linux Commands

For any of these use man [command name] to get details. Some of these may only work on Ubuntu.

• ifup - startup up network interfaces
• ifdown - shutdown network interfaces
• ifconfig - get status of network interfaces
• lspci - list all PCI devices
• lsmod - list all installed modules
• lshw - list hardware -C network for network
• update-rc.d [script name] defaults - for creating proper rc.* entries for an /etc/init.d script
• netstat -nt - list active connections
• fdisk -l - list all physical disk partitions

Useful Linux Files

• /etc/network/interfaces - interface configuration
• /var/spool/cron - cron files
• /etc/cron.daily - (and hourly, weekly, monthly) - for recurring tasks not configured through a particular users crontab file

apt-get configuration

Tried to do apt-get install rcs, but got Couldn't find package rcs error. Used this Ubuntu guide to figure this out.

I added a new mirror to my /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu dapper main

Then I ran

$ apt-get update

Which apparently updates the package list for all the mirrors. After doing this, I was able to successfully install rcs. It is possible that the new mirror I added was not necessary (in other words, perhaps I just needed to run the update command).

Update: Running apt-get update also corrected an issue where the package-updater wasn't able to download some CUPS updates.

Apache 2 and Ubuntu

They organize the Apache 2 config files slight differently. Note use of a2enmod to activate modules.

Misc

$ apt-get install subversion
$ apt-get install openssh-server
$ apt-get install portmap nfs-kernel-server (NFS client and server)
$ apt-get install portmap nfs-common (NFS client only)
$ apt-get install samba smbfs
$ apt-get install lvm2
$ apt-get install mysql-server
$ apt-get install mysql-client-5.0
$ apt-get install ntp

Other - less common

$ apt-get install unzip
$ apt-get install cvs
$ apt-get install rcs
$ apt-get install alpine (command line mail)
$ apt-get install meld (visual side-by-side diff tool)
$ apt-get install dsniff (for tcpkill and other network tools)