Saturday 28-11-2015

79K and counting!

Last Friday I hit 79K mark...
Going full speed ahead, but pretty certain I won't make it to 100K before the year is out.

OpenVPN: Use MRTG To Graph Connected Users To The VPN

This is a little and simple shell script I wrote to graph using MRTG the number of users who are connected to a VPN server.
The script is really, really simple (as this VPN setup).
It searches for a string on a log file, and then counts and graphs how many times that string appears.
The script itself (simply edit the LAN to suit your needs):

#!/bin/sh

LOG='/path/to/your.openvpn.log'
LAN='10.17.25.'

if [ `cat $LOG | egrep $LAN | wc -l` = 0 ]
then
    echo `cat $LOG | egrep $LAN | wc -l`
    echo `cat $LOG | egrep $LAN | wc -l` Logged Users
else
    echo `cat $LOG | egrep $LAN | wc -l`
    echo `cat $LOG | egrep $LAN | wc -l` Logged Users
fi

# EoF #

And then the MRTG configuration file snip:

###############################
## Users connected to the VPN
###############################
Target[local_openvpn]: `sh /path/to/script.sh`
Options[local_openvpn]: nopercent,gauge,noinfo,nobanner,noo
Title[local_openvpn]: Number of VPN Connections
MaxBytes[local_openvpn]: 100
YLegend[local_openvpn]: Users
ShortLegend[local_openvpn]:
LegendO[local_openvpn]: VPN Users:
Legend2[local_openvpn]: VPN Users
PageTop[local_openvpn]: Users Logged to The VPN
WithPeak[local_openvpn]:wmy
Legend4[local_openvpn]: Max number of users on the VPN

A Coarse, Ugly Theme Killer

Even tho this isn't the Flatabulous theme -it is actually the Ambiance Touch for Willy theme- this is exactly the same problem on Evolution that I mentioned on my previous post.
Maybe it isn’t a theme problem but an NVIDIA/ Nouveau one...

The Unity Desktop

Installed the Ambiance Touch for Willy theme on my Thinkpad W530.
 I like it, it is flat, the decorations and the windows are tiny, and it looks rather nice, spiffy and modern.

One thing tho, by default, the theme is called "Ambiance", and since I don't like to install themes under "~/.themes", I have renamed it as "Ambiance-Touch" and installed it on the global/ for all users location, on "/usr/share/themes/".
I d'loaded and extracted the tgz file on "~/Downloads", renamed the original directory "Ambiance" to "Ambiance-Touch" and then cd onto it, and edited the files:

• Ambiance-Touch/index.theme
• Ambiance-Touch/metacity-1/metacity-theme-1.xml

The index.theme file looks like this: (using my custom cursor!)

[Desktop Entry]
Type=X-GNOME-Metatheme
Name=Ambiance-Touch
Comment=Ubuntu Ambiance Touch theme
Encoding=UTF-8

[X-GNOME-Metatheme]
GtkTheme=Ambiance-Touch
MetacityTheme=Ambiance-Touch
IconTheme=ubuntu-mono-dark
CursorTheme=basic-goofy-black+
ButtonLayout=close,minimize,maximize:
X-Ubuntu-UseOverlayScrollbars=true

INTOH, on the metacity-theme-1.xml file, all I did was simply changing the name on the name tag, line 5.

Movies During The Weekend

No, we haven't, really, we didn't.
There is nothing wrong, but we simply had no time.
We had general elections around here, it was a hectic weekend.
The backlog keeps growing...

Sunday 15-11-2015

Rdio.com Is (Going To Be) Dead!

It's only a matter of days (maybe weeks?) but it's going down...
What a crap!
Moved to Rdio after Grooveshark' s death on May, and now this.
At first, IMHO, Rdio was a bit crappy, coming from Grooveshark, but eventually loved it, discovered a lot of music thru it...
Anyways, as usual, thanks for all the streams!

Monit: Apache returns "Execution Failed" status

Got a gig to administer a couple of servers on the Google Cloud Platform the other day.
So I got a few Ubuntu Servers 14.04 up & running and installed all the crap I usually need/ run on the boxes I get my hands on...

Now, after setting up Monit a bit, and starting it up, I've noticed that the Apache process was in problems.
No matter what I did, I got the same status... In the end, the problem was really, really stupid to fix...

Check the path to the pid file on the /etc/monit/conf.d/apache2 file:
Change the pid from /var/run/apache2.pid to /var/run/apache2/apache2.pid and restart the Monit service.
Of course, you already have copied the file /etc/monit/monitrc.d/apache2 to /etc/monit/conf.d/apache2, right?

Give us a reading on the 1202 Program Alarm

Last Saturday finished Beevor's "Ardennes".
Started right away with "Digital Apollo", which was in the waiting for a while now.
I simply love it so far (I'm about 15% onto it).
Chapter 2; Chauffeurs and Airmen in the Age of Systems, looks like an addendum to "The Right Stuff".

More Private Roku

These last couple of days I've been working a lot on Roku private channels.
I've created a few of them with Instant TV Channel for Roku, it is quite a cumbersome process (not to mention all the necessary graphic files that you need to upload to the Roku's site...).

78K and counting!

12 days later... Another thousand up!
Would I make it to 100K by year's end?
Seems hard, but doable.

Saturday 14-11-2015

Wireless HP Laserjet Professional P1100/ P1560/ P1600 on Linux Mint

So, I gave the GF the T410 about a week ago or so because we got together one year and also she can get a look at "Life On The Linux Side Of Things" (this time, it should be a better and longer deal than the last time we did this...)
Last night she asked me to setup her wireless printer on the T410... I don't have a printer, and I print hardly a page or two a year...
Luckily, it  turns out the thing was amazingly easy... Simply type on a Terminal:

sudo hp-setup

And then select "Network Ethernet / Wireless".
The installer ID'd the printer on her LAN, downloaded the driver, and that was that.

Flatabulous: Near Perfect Flatness

Lately I've been hunting down flat themes for Unity (after all, I have to keep myself trendy, right?)
One of the best I've found is Flatabulous.
I like it a lot, specially because it's border-less (the Terminal's screenshot on the developer's site looks ultra hip & cool IMHO), it's flat (duh!), looks elegant and nice.
But, I've also found a couple of nasty bugs that ruin the whole thing, the whole experience.
There is one large "black hole" or space on Gedit when there is only one tab open (see screenshot).
Another small horror happens on Evolution's main window, on the section with icons for Contacts, Calendar, Taks, etc (no screenshot for that at the moment), it looks rough, with thick black borders that look from another planet on the whole theme vibe.
A minor gripe, and this is just me, I guess, is that the windows are really square.... I like the top corners of my windows to be rounded, but, hey, I like I said, that's just me...

Unwobbling The T60p

 Last Monday I had to open my Thinkpad T60p and apply a bit of Magic Unwobbling science to it... That is a bit of tape, to make it stop squeaking.
This old, thick and amazingly sticky tape is just perfect for the job!

The First Rule About Private Channels

How on Earth I've managed to use a Roku (since January) without private channels????
My favorites, at the moment, are:

• Area 52

Not many movies, but the few ones they have are real classics, some of those I´ve seen as a child.

• Channel PEAR

Amazing, and I mean **really** amazing content

Movies During The Weekend

(Well, sort of... )
We had a very atypical weekend, believe it or not, we didn't even watch a full movie....
We tried with "Knock Knock", but we couldn't finish it.
Better luck netx weekend, I guess...
As a side note, I did watch a couple of movies during the past week, but, looking back, I should have not ;)

• Ender's Game

Boy that was awful & extremely boring...

• The Stand

For the love of Jeebus! I want those 6 hours of my life back!!!!

Skype: Esoteric, Quasi-medieval Icons

Got this strange icons on Skype the other day...
I swear I wasn't looking to mix iron onto gold while using Skye...

Linux Mint 17.2: Total Crash Changing Themes

Started to have problems while trying to use or change different themes on my Linux Mint 17.2 setup.
If I open the Appearance setting program, it automatically closes after a couple of seconds with the error message:

$ xfce4-appearance-settings
GLib (gthread-posix.c): Unexpected error from C library during 'malloc': Cannot allocate memory.  Aborting.
Aborted

$ xfce4-appearance-settings
(xfce4-appearance-settings:12260): GLib-ERROR **: /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.40.2/./glib/gmem.c:133: failed to allocate 2048 bytes
Trace/breakpoint trap

If I try to do it thru the Settings manager, it simple closes the whole thing when I select the Appearance icon.

The only option to change themes at the moment is executing the command posted above, but thru sudo:

$ sudo xfce4-appearance-settings

And then logout and back in to see the changes, a total and complete PITA...

Thursday 05-11-2015

The current Linux Mint (XFCE) desktop

The glorious T60p with a flat, dark, hip and trendy look.
The theme is RAVEfinity's Ambiance Flat.
And the icons are the Vibrancy Nonmono Dark Green set, again from Vibrancy Colors Icon Theme.

Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaella (XFCE) checklist on the T60p

Some notes I took  on the configuration afterwards the installation of Linux Mint 17.2 XFCE on a T60p.

1- Install updates
Since this is a new, fresh, release there are not that many updates available, arond 157 MB of files or so.
Then reboot the lappie.

2- Turn the damn Caps Lock key to work as a tab
See this Oesediez post
Via Settings > Session and Startup > Add
Logout and back in to activate

3- Install the first batch of extra software:

sudo apt-get install openvpn openssh-server rar unrar emacs23-nox gip wine evolution

4- Set screensaver
Set to blank screen (after 10 minutes) and Lock Screen after 11 minutes
Logout and back in to activate (?)

5- Suspend
Test the suspend & resume of the lappie

6- Get the mouse cursor icon
Copy "basic-goofy-black+" to the directory /usr/share/icons/ and then goto
Settings > Mouse and Trackpad > Thene and select "basic-goofy-black+"

7- Sync files from backups
First from the script "sync.local.dillinger-small-ssd.sh" (create the targets dirs first!)
Then from the script "sync.local.dillinger-hdd.sh"

8- Change the login window
System > Login Window
Change from "Mint-X" to "Linux Mint".
Goto Option and un-check "Automatically select  the last logged in user".

9- Global Emacs key kindings
See this Oesediez post
Set thru: Settings > Settings Editor
Select the Channel called xsettings
Select any item on Gtk, and then click on New, and enter the values as on the screenshot.

That is, a new string, with the value Emacs, it is very important to type:
KeyThemeName

After the "/Gtk/" bit on the Property box.

77K and counting!

You know what?
Another thousand up!
100K Or Bust!!!

Movies During The Weekend

Once again, a pretty, pretty relaxed weekend, we were really tired.

• The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

It was nice, althgouh I fell sleep a couple of times while watching it... But funny, nevertheless...

• House Of Cards

Still struggling to get the third season over with... It is getting harder and harder...

Saturday 31-10-2015