Linux

Have you ever forgotten your MySQL root password? It’s one of those things that just happens despite the numerous precautions one might take. As a result, you are locked out of your database server. You can’t create new databases and are left with little control over the state of your database server. In such situations knowing how to regain root access to your database server comes in handy. So here’s what you can do to reset the password for the root user in MySQL on both Windows and Linux. [click to continue...]

SmartCam turns a Symbian Series 60 phone with bluetooth and camera into a webcam ready to use with your PC. It is open source software, licenced under the GPLv2 and will run on Linux or Windows. There are commercial applications that will do the same thing, but I believe in using and supporting free, open source software whenever possible. [click to continue...]

“A stitch in time saves nine”, goes an old saying. In the world of computers we refer to that stitch as backups. When running a production IT infrastructure, it is imperative that we achieve an uptime on our servers and applications of as close to a hundred percent as possible. While there are a number of ways to make an IT infrastructure solid, it is impossible to make it failure proof. So we make a plan B.

Servers are made of three broad layers - the hardware, the operating system and applications, and the data. In case of a hardware failure it is rather simple to replace the machine with a new one. Installing the operating system and applications too are relatively simple. The part that is hard to replace is the data and configuration that your applications use. In case of failure this is the part that can not be replaced. So we backup that data on a regular basis. We back it up in such a way that it becomes easy to retrieve in case of emergency. [click to continue...]

Apart from video games one of the great advantages of using computers is that they don’t seem to mind doing boring and repetitive tasks that we would rather not do. For monotonous tasks such as running daily backups we are better off scheduling them to run at a certain time every day, and do more interesting stuff with our time. Linux and UNIX usually come with the utility “crontab” by default. This very useful command allows you to schedule tasks to run at a specified time and repeat as configured. A task scheduled using “crontab” is called a “cron job”. [click to continue...]

If you have a Linux server running at your office or at a data center for which you are responsible, you want to maintain an uptime of as close to a hundred percent. In such a case you want to make sure you keep an eye on how the system is running. To be precise you want to monitor all the system resources that contribute to the system running fine which then results in a high uptime. Memory, CPU, disk usage… are some of the things you want to observe. We would usually use a combination of the tools that come with a Linux or UNIX installation, such as “free”, “top”, “vmstat”… I’ll introduce you to a tool that gives you just about all the info that the other tools combined give you, all under one roof - Dstat. The developer of this command line tool, Dag Wieers, calls it “a versatile replacement for vmstat, iostat, netstat and ifstat”. He adds that “Dstat overcomes some of their limitations and adds some extra features…” To me Dstat is the mother of all command line system monitoring tools. It’s simple to install, easy to use, can be tweaked with ease, and it generates reports that you can plot as a graph to impress your boss. [click to continue...]

TrueCrypt is a free, open source, system for establishing and maintaining an on-the-fly-encrypted filesystem. TrueCrypt is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. Encrypted volumes can be used with any supported OS regardless of which OS they were created on. [click to continue...]

This isn’t really a tutorial, more like a list of some of the bash commands that I use the most and a very brief description of what I use them for. [click to continue...]

Sometimes you want to change your partition layout after you’ve been using your system for awhile. One great too for this job is GParted. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to resize partitions using the GParted Live CD. [click to continue...]

Disk Usage Analyzer is a Gnome utility for analyzing disk usage. It displays statistics about your disk usage in an intuitive, easy to use graphical interface. [click to continue...]

I like to be able to access files on my desktop computer from my laptop while I’m on the road. Luckily Linux has this feature built in. In this tutorial I’ll be using the SSH protocol because it provides far more security than FTP. I strongly advise using SSH because it transmits user names, passwords, and all data through an encrypted tunnel whereas FTP is highly susceptible to third party snooping. [click to continue...]

This tutorial could (perhaps should) also be called “How to create custom keyboard shortcuts in Gnome” - as that’s essentially what it is.

There are a number of keyboard shortcuts available in the Gnome Desktop. I like to add a few custom shortcuts for opening applications that I use regularly. Here’s how I do it. [click to continue...]

This tutorial will walk you every step of the way through creating a ringtone from one of your MP3 files, using the free and open-source software Audacity. Audacity is an Audio Editing tool available for Windows, OS X, and Linux. Though this tutorial uses Windows for the exact steps, Linux and OS X users should be able to follow along as well. [click to continue...]

Codeweavers is offering a copy of CrossOver for Mac (or Linux) for free - today only! The programs normally retail for $40, but will be available free of charge (one license per customer) until midnight CST.

via Switching To Mac

Sometimes you end up somewhere with your laptop where you just can’t find any open WiFi. Luckily you have a Nokia N95 and a USB data cable. I’m going to show you how to tether your N95 to your laptop via USB the quick and dirty command line way, as well as the prettier GUI way. In these examples I am running Fedora 9 and Gnome. [click to continue...]