I like using Ubuntu’s UFW command, but today I needed to allow outgoing ICMP. I received results as so: $ ping 4.2.2.2 PING 4.2.2.2 (4.2.2.2) 56(84) bytes of data. ping: sendmsg: Operation not permitted ping: sendmsg: Operation not permitted ping: sendmsg: Operation not permitted To allow outbound icmp I edited ‘before.rules’ and added the following lines. $ sudo vi /etc/ufw/before.rules # allow outbound icmp -A ufw-before-output -p icmp -m state --state NEW,ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT -A ufw-before-output -p icmp -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

I’ve started to get into Google’s App Engine again, and have started developing a simple product that I had a use for. The initial first draft was a quick 200 lines in webapp, and it worked great. However, I’m starting to find certain things quite cumbersome. I’m a huge fan of Django, and but also about keeping things as simple as possible, which is why I picked webapp to begin with. I’m now considering making a swap to Django, but there are some development issues; namely, I’m using Ubuntu 10.04, Python 2.6, and Django 1.2. This setup presents several setbacks, as GAE has the requirement of Django 1.1 and Python 2.5. There are two solutions that I found: a) use virtualenv, …

All my Django sites are running 1.2, which poses a conflict with writing apps for Google’s App Engine, as use_library currently only supports < Django 1.1. There are two solutions that I found: a) use virtualenv, or b) chroot, which I’ve already detailed. This document will hopefully show you how to create a virtual environment to use a secondary django version, especially for GAE. Of the two options, I think this one is a bit quicker, but there will likely be tradeoffs that a chroot environment can deal with better, e.g. python imaging (I don’t use it for GAE). First, install PIP and virtualenv:

As a preface, I take absolutely no credit for the below instructions. Stefan L kindly sent these through these instructions on installing Debian on the 3310A. I need to send a special thanks to Stefan, as I receive a lot of emails about the 3310 - but I don’t have one, so I can’t really do much: The only edit I’ve done is change out the links to my files on S3. If you find these helpful, or want to suggest an alteration, please leave a comment.

I’ve been using Atheros for quite some time, and I’ve always liked the madwifi drivers. They allowed really easy switching into monitor mode, and decent levels of packet injection. However, since I’m mostly in an office now, instead of writing web apps in cafes and trying to score free internet, I don’t really need anything fancy. My gentoo stage 1 (3?) days are over. I use Ubuntu, because I’m lazy, and it mostly works.

I’ve received this error a few times when working with pytz: Error reading file '/usr/share/xml/iso-codes/iso_3166.xml' In short, install the ‘iso-codes’ package in Ubuntu/Debian. I’m sure this is covered in the manual that I didn’t read, but I’m sure others didn’t read it too. apt-get install iso-codes

I’ve hit this problem a few times, and figured I’d leave a note for myself how to fix it. Ubuntu 8.04 seems to hiccup sometimes (on a VPS) for generating the correct locales. In particular, I get this error, a lot: perl: warning: Setting locale failed. perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings: LANGUAGE = (unset), LC_ALL = (unset), LANG = "en_US.UTF-8" are supported and installed on your system. perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C"). Normally I just do ‘dpkg-reconfigure locales’, but with 8.04, this doesn’t seem to do squat. The solution is to edit the /var/lib/locales/supported.d/local file, and insert the correct locales (it will …

After restoring databases from one server to another I sometimes get this error on Ubuntu or Debian: error: 'Access denied for user 'debian-sys-maint'@'localhost' (using password: YES)' This makes a lot of sense, and the solution is pretty simple. If you look in: cat /etc/mysql/debian.cnf You’ll see the defaults for your system. Copy the password listed there, and open a connection to MySQL as root (or some other user). Next, enter this (lets say your password specified in debian.cnf was ‘abracadabra’:

Using TimeVault with a shared drive as a backend is actually quite easy, but it does require a few special things setup. Note: this is gonna be a brief summary. Install samba-tools, smbfs… sudo apt-get install samba-tools smbfs A lot more other stuff may install as well. Create a script that mounts your samba share. You could also do this in fstab, but I tend to suspend my laptop when I come home, and I like clicking buttons.

I now have successful installation of VMware Server 2 (Beta RC1) on top of Ubuntu 8.04 64-bit. I have been using various virtualization technologies for years, and VMware is usually the easiest to install and configure. So far, VMware Server 2 RC1, has proven to be the exception to the rule. That said, I am very excited by the direction VMware is taking – this new server version looks to have great potential.