I wanted to setup Apache, MySQL, PHP etc on my laptop so I could do some development while on holiday. To get the standard LAMP setup on Ubuntu hardy, just type the following into a terminal.

sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 mysql-client-5.0 mysql-server-5.0 phpmyadmin libapache2-mod-php5 libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql

Source: http://humanlanguage.wordpress.com/2006/12/03/install-lamp-on-ubuntu/

Cheers
Ryan Partington

This is an excellent little command I found on someones blog today. "sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog" will give you an active look at the syslog. So anything new that enters the log, will automatically update your terminal session. Great for troubleshooting, as in my case PPTP!

Cheers
Ryan Partington

Ubuntu 8.04 was released last week. As I've been doing some development recently I thought I'd take this baby for a test drive and I'm glad I did. Ubuntu 8.04 as a desktop application is sweet. I'm from a windows background at this is the first time I've taken a serious look at an alternative. Once downloaded I search for a few development tools, gPHP edit, Rapid SVN, Filezilla ftp which can all be located from within the operating systems package manager Synaptic. Synaptic then downloads the latest releases from the internet and installs them for you. As you can imagine, you don't need your credit card for all these applications as they're all licensed under the GNU (General Public License) model.

Get it downloaded and install it as dual boot if you're unsure, it simply sits under windows 'add/remove programs' list so you can remove it whenever you want, but I'll doubt you will!

Cheers
Ryan Partington

In the past I had added an additional repository to my Centos server. This was so I could use a later version of the mod_security module under apache. I decided I wanted to remove all the packages installed by this new repository as it was no longer being maintained.

Step one is to remove the .repo file from /etc/yum.repos.d/
Then run 'yum list extras' and notice the packages you want to remove
Then type 'rpm -e --justdb --nodeps <package-name1> <package-name2> <package-name3>' and list all the package names you want to reinstall.
Then 'yum install <package-name1> <package-name2> <package-name3>'

Yum will automatically re-install any missing binaries, but it will not overwrite your existing config files. Instead, the 'default' config files will be written as '<filename>.rpmnew'.

I found the information here (
http://www.liquidstate.net/2007/10/05/reinstalling-a-package-using-yum/ )
which proved an excellent resource.

Additional Nonsense:

[10:35] <rick111> i added a repo which had later versions on some core centos files, i installed the updates. now i've removed the repo and would like the old versions back, when i run 'yum update' it does not show me the files to downgrade, is this possible?
[10:38] <range> Not really. You have to remove those packages and install them again.
[10:38] * whatever-thingy (n=whatever@79-77-80-145.dynamic.dsl.as9105.com) has joined #centos
[10:39] <rick111> thanks
[10:39] * chmac7 (n=chmac@125.24.0.95.adsl.dynamic.totbb.net) has joined #centos
[10:39] <rick111> can i query what packages where installed by that repo?
[10:40] * chmac (n=chmac@125.24.23.233.adsl.dynamic.totbb.net) Quit (Nick collision from services.)
[10:40] <range> Depends on the repository.
[10:40] <rick111> if the option was available, how would i go about running the search?
[10:40] <range> Depends on the repository.
[10:41] * chmac7 is now known as chmac
[10:41] * Zylogue (n=Zylogue@wsip-98-174-167-3.ok.ok.cox.net) has joined #centos
[10:42] <range> Some of them encode the name of the repository into the package name, so you could search for that. On others you have to query buildhost or packager (with rpms queryoptions) to see where it comes from.
[10:42] <rick111> thanks
[10:44] * bman777 (n=bman@nat/ibm/x-98a728a5cec03df8) has joined #centos
[10:49] * alex[slx] (n=alex@unaffiliated/amusolino) has joined #centos
[10:54] * Norky (n=dan@milton.ocsl.co.uk) Quit (Read error: 104 (Connection reset by peer))
[10:54] <rick111> all packages had the word 'jason' in, but if i do a yum search *jason* it sayd nothing is installed?
[10:55] <cap_> rick111, "yum list extras" will list all installed packages that yum doesn't feel responsible for
[10:55] * Zylogue (n=Zylogue@wsip-98-174-167-3.ok.ok.cox.net) Quit ("Leaving")
[10:55] <cap_> rick111, you would want to do "rpm -qa | grep jason"
[10:55] <rick111> thank you
[10:55] <rick111> ahhh the extras thing found them, thanks cap_
[10:56] <cap_> :-)
[10:56] <cap_> as for the difference between "rpm -qa | grep ...
[10:56] <cap_> woops
[10:56] <cap_> "yum list '*str*'" and "yum search str"
[10:57] <rick111> ahhh!
[10:57] <cap_> the first will search in pkg-names/version/rel in installed packages only
[10:57] <cap_> yum list will search in names for all packages in available repos
[10:57] <cap_> and yum search will free text search in all available packages including description text etc.
[10:58] * Norky (n=dan@milton.ocsl.co.uk) has joined #centos
[10:58] <rick111> thats excellent thanks

Linux has RPMs (originally Red Hat Package Manager, abbreviated RPM) which are packages that contain the installation/removal instructions of applications across many Linux distributions. Some are pre-installed on Linux and many can be downloaded. Some application are dependent of certain RPMs being installed. It can be difficult when trying to explorer what's in which RPM and gather details. http://rpm.pbone.net is an excellent resource which which provides summary and descriptions of many RPMs. As I use Centos here's the link directly to the Centos RPM information.

Enjoy
Ryan Partington

Some tips to bare in mind once Linux is installed.

• Setup SSH on a different port than 22
• Only use protocol 2 (SSH)
• Webmin is a powerful linux web based management tool, use 'yum install webmin' to configure
• Always setup an alternative account to root, and use the alternative to login
• Disable root login via SSH
• To elevate your permissions to root once logged in type 'su -' and enter the root password
  

That concludes our short 5 part introduction to Linux

Cheers
Ryan Partington

Installing new software from the command line can be troublesome. With certain Linux distributions you get a tool called 'yum' preinstalled. YUM is an application deployment tool.

Lets look at installing tcpdump, a packet analysis tool using YUM.

'yum install tcpdump'
yum - the command
install - the function we are asking YUM to perform
tcpdump - the application

[root@ryanpartington ~]# yum list tcp*
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Installed Packages
tcp_wrappers.i386 7.6-40.2.1 installed
tcpdump.i386 14:3.9.4-8.1 installed

Cheers
Ryan Partington

You'll want to know what ports are open on your linux box, so lets review the the 'netstat' command.(click view page for more information)

Cheers
Ryan Partington

We're working from the command prompt so it's useful to know how best to find files. The command we're going to take a sneaky peaky at is 'find' (click view page for full article)

Cheers
Ryan Partington

Learning something new can be overwhelming and difficult. Just by familurising yourself to certain princples over time can help progression. I want to introduce you to some very basic Linux commands over a five part series. Reading time will be about 60 seconds and even if you forget the commands and syntax, hopefully basic princples will remain. (click view page to read this article)

Thanks
Ryan Partington