CentOS 6.x Mythtv 0.24 install and setup hotwo

This is originally created with CentOS 6.0. Prior to the release of CentOS 6.1, I strongly urge all admin's to use the CentOS 6.0 CR Updates to enhance the security of your system. Also, my CentOS Mythtv server was a  "Desktop" install option for this example. I have cable TV and have used both the Hauppauge PVR-250 and now the Hauppauge PVR-500 since my needs are basic.

UPDATE: I have the PVR-500 CentOS 6 setup info with pictures for mythtv 0.24 now.

Get the security related updates first:

rpm -ihv /home/pj/Downloads/centos-release-cr-6-0.el6.centos.i686.rpm
yum update

Install both EPEL and RPMFORGE repositories and please remember to also install *AND* setup either priorities or protectbase yum plugins.

rpm -ihv http://dl.atrpms.net/all/atrpms-repo-6-4.el6.i686.rpm
rpm -ihv http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/6/i386/epel-release-6-5.noarch.rpm
yum install yum-plugin-priorities

Do these error messages look familiar?

 --> Processing Conflict: 1:qt47-x11-4.7.2-1_18.el6.i686 conflicts qt-x11 < 1:4.7.2-1_18.el6
--> Processing Conflict: 1:qt47-x11-4.7.2-1_18.el6.i686 conflicts qt4-x11 < 1:4.7.2-1_18.el6
--> Processing Conflict: 1:qt47-x11-4.7.2-1_18.el6.i686 conflicts phonon < 4.3.80-1
Error: qt47-x11 conflicts with qt-x11

OR

file /usr/share/man/man3/XML::SAX::Base.3pm.gz conflicts between attempted installs of perl-XML-SAX-Base-1.04-3.el6.noarch and perl-XML-SAX-0.96-7.el6.noarch
file /usr/share/man/man3/XML::SAX::Exception.3pm.gz conflicts between attempted installs of perl-XML-SAX-Base-1.04-3.el6.noarch and perl-XML-SAX-0.96-7.el6.noarch

Clean out the older/problem bits:

yum remove qt-x11 qt phonon perl-XML-SAX-Base

Install the initial problem packages:

yum install qt47 qt47-x11 qt47-webkit qt47-mysql --enablerepo=atrpms-testing

The big download and install:

yum install mythtv --enablerepo=atrpms-testing --exclude=perl-XML-SAX-Base

Make sure mysqld and mythbackend on going to try and start on boot

chkconfig mythbackend on mysqld on

You really need to read through the mythtv-HOWTO or even Installing MythTV on RHEL/CentOS

I'm migrating from CentOS 5.7 -> 6.0 following normal backup and restore steps:

service mysqld start
mysql < /usr/share/doc/mythtv-docs-0.24.1/database/mc.sql

A new simple no-security-just-get-it-running setup could include:

echo 'grant all on mythconverg.* to mythtv@"%" identified by "mythtv";' |mysql mythconverg
echo 'flush privileges;'|mysql mythconverg
mythtv-setupp

Again, you really need to read through the mythtv-HOWTO or even Installing MythTV on RHEL/CentOS for your specific tuner card.

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/atrpms/users/15601

Dell printer firmware update stupidity and howto

Not sure why Dell is taking recent steps backwards with regard to Linux support, but clearly it is. The recent BIOS update issues have given way to printer update utilities that are not Linux install friendly. The most recent example is the otherwise decent Dell 2555dn MFP. The previous A02 version of the firmware (DELL_2355DN-MONO-LASER-MFP_A02_R302331.exe) was just a self-extracting zip file. So a simple

unzip DELL_2355DN-MONO-LASER-MFP_A02_R302331.exe

would provide me with the needed "*.hd" (Dell2355dn_A02_v2.70.03.06.hd in this case) firmware file to load via the update firmware web page.
Now Dell seems to add in their install/extractor utility like the general Windows driver files have... and it takes some extra effort.

My current system/admin setup is based on CentOS 6.x but any recent distro will likely be very close. I'm going to assume that you have already downloaded the file and you are at a command/terminal prompt.

1. Install wine as root

yum install wine cabextract

2. As a normal user get winetricks and install "vcrun6"

wget http://winetricks.org/winetricks
chmod +x winetricks
./winetricks vcrun6

3. As a normal user run the installer like and just exit after the GUI comes up

wine Dell2355dn_A03_2.70.03.08.exe

4. After you should be able to find the needed *.hd file in "~/.wine/drive_c/users/YOUR_USERNAME/Temp/". For this example, it was "~/.wine/drive_c/users/pj/Temp/Dell2355dn_A03_2.70.03.08.hd"

Possible error messages:
If you don't have the VBRUN 6 installed (vcrun6) you will get an error like:
err:module:import_dll Library MFC42.DLL (which is needed by L BLAHBLAH) not found
err:module:LdrInitializeThunk Main exe initialization for L BLAHBLAH failed, status c0000135

CentOS 6 lpadmin generic postscript printer addition

It really took a while for me to figure out how to add printers via the command line using lpadmin on CentOS 6. So, this information also will apply to newer Fedora users as well as RHEL 6 users:

For generic LPD/LPR Postscript print server:

lpadmin -p printer_name -m drv:///sample.drv/generic.ppd -v lpd://your_print_server/raw1 -D "Your printer description" -L "Your printer location" -o printer-error-policy=retry-job -o printer-is-shared=false -E

For generic LPD/LPR PCL print server:
lpadmin -p printer_name -m drv:///sample.drv/generpcl.ppd -v lpd://your_print_server/raw1 -D "Your printer description" -L "Your printer location" -o printer-error-policy=retry-job -o printer-is-shared=false -E

For Jetdirect/RAW print servers

lpadmin -p printer_name -m drv:///sample.drv/generic.ppd -v socket://your_print_server:9100 -D "Your printer description" -L "Your printer location" -o printer-error-policy=retry-job -o printer-is-shared=false -E

The new part is "drv:///sample.drv/generic.ppd" as the model instead of "postscript.ppd.gz" or similar from the past. This seems to trigger a ppd file build from the script/file of "/usr/share/cups/drv/sample.drv" as part of the cups package.

Notes:

I don't like the default option of not retrying failed jobs. It's a dumb default IMHO! The "-o printer-error-policy=retry-job" is a better choice.

I also tend to turn off sharing as a general rule. You may want it on, however. The "-o printer-is-shared=false" turns off printer sharing.

The Jetdirect/RAW printer socket can change for print servers with multiple ports. First port is 9100, second is 9101 etc. The same kinda process exists for the LPD/LPR print server where "raw1" will increment for printer port as a generic rule.

CentOS 6.0 Zimbra 7.1.2 Open Source Edition misc setup notes

This not a formal information page... it is a free form of helpful Zimbra bits of information that I needed in order setup a Zimbra server. This Zimbra setup has a seperate openldap server as the authentication server. The ldap specific stuff has been removed. We were moving from a VERY distributed mail setup. Each of the 40 plus remote sites is a mail destination, each with it's own mail server (postfix) and IMAP (dovecot) setup.

#to set env variables needed by zimbra provided services

. ~/bin/zmshutil ; zmsetvars

#sets zimbra to listen in https mode restart of zimbra needed (as zimbra)

zmtlsctl https

#set max upload imap size to 30MB (as zimbra)

zmprov mcf zimbraFileUploadMaxSize 30000000

#to get the zimbraID COS "class of service" (as zimbra)

zmprov gc Default |grep zimbraId:

#this will let all your users login with just the first part of their e-mail address (as zimbra)

zmprov mcf zimbraDefaultDomainName YOURDOMAIN.WHATEVER

#set up bulk add from host with authentication connection for users

getent passwd | egrep -v "thing1|thing2|:x:|:\*:" | sort -t : -k 3g,3 > /tmp/ldapinfo.txt
perl zimbra-passwd2zmprov.pl -domain YOURDOMAIN.WHATEVER -password ZIMBRA_PASSWORD < /tmp/ldapinfo.txt > ldapinfo.zmp

#if you still need to route most users through another server until migration (as zimbra)

cat ldapinfo.zmp |perl -e 'while (<>) { chop;print ($_," zimbraMailTransport smtp:MAIL.YOURDOMAIN.WHATEVER:25\n"); }' > ldapinfo1.zmp
zmprov < ldapinfo1.zmp

#increase the number of threads for lmtp, imap, http(s) etc (as zimbra) from http://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Performance_Tuning_Guidelines_for_Large_Deployments

zmprov ms `zmhostname` zimbraHttpNumThreads 500

zmprov ms `zmhostname` zimbraImapNumThreads 500

zmprov ms `zmhostname` zimbraLmtpNumThreads 50

zmprov ms `zmhostname` zimbraMessageCacheSize 10000
zmlocalconfig -e mailboxd_java_heap_size=9830 #20% of system ram - system ram = 48GB for this example
zmlocalconfig -e zimbra_require_interprocess_security=0

#for users moving to Zimbra server that had other mail destinations

zmprov ma "YOURUSER@YOURDOMAIN.WHATEVER" zimbraMailHost ZIMBRA.YOURDOMAIN.WHATEVER
zmprov ma "YOURUSER@YOURDOMAIN.WHATEVER" zimbraMailTransport lmtp:ZIMBRA.YOURDOMAIN.WHATEVER:7025

#added next 3 lines to /etc/sysctl.conf based on info from zimbra http://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Performance_Tuning_Guidelines_for_Large_Deployments

net.ipv4.tcp_fin_timeout=15
net.ipv4.tcp_tw_reuse=1
net.ipv4.tcp_tw_recycle=1

#also modified /opt/zimbra/conf/my.cnf after memory addition to server

innodb_buffer_pool_size
innodb_max_dirty_pages_pct

#/opt/zimbra/mysql/bin/mysqlcheck errors:

mysql.general_log
 Error    : You can't use locks with log tables.
 mysql.slow_log
 Error    : You can't use locks with log tables.

fix with:

mv /cassens/zimbra/db/data/mysql/*_log.frm /tmp/
/etc/init.d/zimbra restart

#mount zimbra filesystem with "noatime" option

#web pages or external info:
http://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Split_Domain
http://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Mysql_Crash_Recovery
http://wiki.dovecot.org/Authentication/MasterUsers
http://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Zmprov_Examples
http://www.zimbra.com/docs/ne/latest/administration_guide/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm#href=ZCS_Admin_Guide_7_NE.Managing_Resources.html
http://www.zimbra.com/docs/ne/latest/administration_guide/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm#href=ZCS_Admin_Guide_7_NE.VMware_Zimbra_Collaboration_Server.html
http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php
http://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Performance_Tuning_Guidelines_for_Large_Deployments
http://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Open_Source_Edition_Backup_Procedure
http://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Moving_ZCS_to_New_Server
http://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Guide_to_imapsync

How to set or reset a Dell Service Tag

Kinda bummed about having to do this on my own, but it just seemed easier. I have a Dell PowerEdge R710 that DID NOT handle either a iDrac or BIOS version update very well. The BIOS would not show a version number and the iDRAC6 would just hang. Couldn't reset the iDRAC and could barely get the box running again (had to pull power and do a dance and hope for it to boot). Most of the time the iDRAC boot option would get auto selected... long story. None of the 2 days of work requested by Dell tech's helped... they had to replace both the motherboard and iDRAC6 card. (on a side note, I may post on the large number of ways to flash firmware or BIOS's that Dell has provided to Linux users)

Sadly, the "asset" program the tech had with him seemed to only set the "Asset Tag" and not the Service Tag. The BIOS was the only thing that would show the Service Tag correctly. None of the normal ways to get the ST would produce results:

dmidecode -s system-serial-number
racadm getsvctag
getSystemId

I did find a DOS asset.exe executable, but who wants to boot a server system to DOS?! There was the lonesysadmin.net peeps with a plausible boot .iso... nah, there's gotta be a better way without having to resort to that... More google'n and bingo the hint I needed.

Turns out that the OMSA install I had could do what I wanted. I just didn't know it. At least for CentOS 6.0 and with smbios-utils-python-2.2.26-6.1.el6.x86_64 on a Dell R710 with BIOS 3.0.0, I can run:

smbios-sys-info --service-tag --set=123456

and this will set/reset my newly replaced motherboard to have the Service Tag I need! Please note that this Service Tag also persists over reboots unlike some older posts seem to have issues with.

As always, YMMV

CentOS 5.6 bugzilla email reply-to bugs howto

This is a quick and dirty set of steps to get an internal bugzilla to allow replies from bugzilla emails to be added to a bug. I'm sure there is a more "proper" way, but since the user that runs email is "nobody" for CentOS, I don't see how at this time.

First, I am using the EPEL repository in order to be a newer bugzilla than is provided with stock CentOS 5.6 at this time. In fact, I tend to even use the "testing" repo in order to get what I want. The current version as of this writing is bugzilla-3.2.10-1.el5 if you are interested. The information here is realy just a documentation place for what I have had to do for a while now.

/usr/share/bugzilla/checksetup.pl

Make sure you have all the perl modules to run email_in.pl at least from the command line. If you run this, it should *not* return any error. It should just sit there waiting for input; just +c to terminate.

/usr/share/bugzilla/email_in.pl

Make sure you have a bugzilla alias. Make sure to check a past email to see what the reply-to address is going to be. You can add the alias like the following on the server that has bugzilla running on it.

echo 'bugzilla-daemon:"| cd /usr/share/bugzilla/ ; /usr/share/bugzilla/email_in.pl -vvv > /tmp/email_in.pl.out 2>&1"' >> /etc/aliases
newaliases

Here is the shotgun approach I took in order to get replies to function. Keep in mind that this system does *not* have user accounts on it and is internal to a network. I would *NOT* do this for on with user accounts or if it was exposed to the outside world. If you happen to know the proper way to handle this, drop me a note!

find /var/lib/bugzilla/data -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find /var/lib/bugzilla/data -type f -exec chmod 744 {} \;
find /var/lib/bugzilla/data \( -name "*.pm" -o -name "*.pl" -o -name "*.cgi" \) -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find /usr/share/bugzilla/ -type f -exec chmod 744 {} \;
find /usr/share/bugzilla/ -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find /usr/share/bugzilla/ \( -name "*.pm" -o -name "*.pl" -o -name "*.cgi" \) -exec chmod 755 {} \;
chmod 755 /etc/bugzilla/
chmod 744 /etc/bugzilla/localconfig

Please note that *any* time you run "checksetup.pl", you will need to redo the commands above! That perl script will make the bugzilla install more secure again. It is good practice to make sure that you can past most all of the module recommendations it has prior to doing anything else.

When you start wanting to send test messages to bugzilla, make sure to watch the maillog for errors. Those errors *may* also come back as emails if you are lucky.

tail -f /var/log/maillog|grep bug

Also, based on an email_in.pl bugzilla bug I slightly modified the /usr/share/bugzilla/email_in.pl by applying THIS very easy patch to fix this next error.

Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at Bugzilla/DB.pm line 106, <STDIN> line 49.
Use of uninitialized value in require at (eval 99) line 2, <STDIN> line 49.
Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at Bugzilla/DB.pm line 106, <STDIN> line 49.
Can't call method "isa" without a package or object reference at /usr/share/bugzilla/email_in.pl line 303, <STDIN> line 49.

If the permissions are messed up, you will get errors like:

Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at Bugzilla/DB.pm line 106, <STDIN> line 57.
Use of uninitialized value in require at (eval 100) line 2, <STDIN> line 57.
Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at Bugzilla/DB.pm line 106, <STDIN> line 57.
'' is not a valid choice for $db_driver in localconfig: Null filename used 

OR

Error reading /var/lib/bugzilla/data/params: Permission denied at Bugzilla/Config.pm line 319.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/bugzilla/email_in.pl line 43.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/bugzilla/email_in.pl line 43.

OR

Use of uninitialized value in string ne at Bugzilla/Util.pm line 290, <STDIN> line 49.
Use of uninitialized value in string eq at process_bug.cgi line 435, <STDIN> line 49.
of uninitialized value in string eq at Bugzilla/Mailer.pm line 57.
Use of uninitialized value in string eq at Bugzilla/Mailer.pm line 121.
Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at Bugzilla/Mailer.pm line 141.
Use of uninitialized value in string eq at Bugzilla/Mailer.pm line 152.
Use of uninitialized value in string eq at Bugzilla/Mailer.pm line 160.
error: template error: file error - failed to create compiled templates directory: /var/lib/bugzilla/data/template/template/en/default/global (mkdir /var/lib/bugzilla/data/template: Permission denied 

Garden of the Gods horseback riding review - Academy Riding Stables

Family vacations can still be an opportunity to blog. This one is not geek related in any way, however. Other than this geek had a GREAT time horseback riding on trails of the Garden of the gods. The horses and guides were provided by:
Academy Riding Stables
phone (888)-700-0410 or phone (719)-633-5667
4 El Paso Blvd. Colorado Springs, CO 80904
I even got a discount of a couple of bucks per person from pikes-peak.com.

The Academy Riding Stables are very well organized group. Even when a larger group than originally expected group appeared. They split our 2 hour time slot into 2 groups instead of one larger one. Each group had both a lead rider and trailing rider. Safety seemed to be a high priority for the leaders. There was emphasis on how to approach, mount and ride the horses in a safe way. Helmets were provided for all that wanted them and use of helmets was encouraged. There were 10 riders from 8(ish) to much older. A person in charge selected horses of appropriate sizes based on each riders' size. My horse was very well suited to me and was well behaved.

Our ride began with a rather uneventful trek through a portion of residential area that borders Garden of the gods. This was a couple of blocks that included public roads and alleys. A trail was started about 10 minutes into the ride. First portion of the trail was easy and very wide. The horses knew were they were going and none ventured from the path. The first third a portion of the park that was generally easy with more gentile hills and valley like views.

The next 2/3 of the ride were primarily single horse width trails with changing terrain. Some climbs were very exhilarating both in final view of the area and ability of the horses to get up them. I was very thrilling to have my horse going down some rather steep steps with little effort. Even my youngest thought this was very exciting! Theses trails were not part of the general hiking area of the Garden of the gods if you were to go into the main rock formation area. We had views of part of that area, but our route focused on more of the perimeter. The views from the top of some of the hills are very breathtaking! The surrounding mountains and area are just beautiful. Words do not do justice to the majestic view that I had.

The ride lasted for 2 hours and included interesting commentary from the ride leaders. They made every effort to make sure all of the group was given information about the area we were in. Many times the end support rider would repeat the entire message to make sure the end riders understood. The information they provided was both interesting and worthwhile.

On a animal treatment note, I would like to commend the Academy Riding Stables for how well they seem to treat the animals in their care. Each horse that was brought for a rider was known by name and treated with kindness. Each of the riders was made aware that the horses should be allowed to drink their fill of water before the trip. Horse handling instructions were emphasized. All the horse stables seemed to be well kept and stocked with plenty of food. There was large areas for horsed to roam free. Heck even observed a couple of horses that were given showers while we were waiting for our turn to ride.

Make sure to get there early to fill out the paperwork. Reservations are required.

Google has lots of images
I will post some of my own pics very soon. I even used my DroidX with GPS tracking to map the route.
Note: I did not receive any compensation for this review.