Ubuntu 12.04 + OSX Time Machine

I think I have covered this in an old post, but I just fixed some things that have been bugging me. The first referenced article at the bottom was a huge help in getting me started, but he has a lot of malformed xml tags. He also creates 3 files, which I've found you do not need, just create one.

Ok, first install netatalk and avahi.

sudo apt-get install netatalk avahi-daemon

Now let's create and edit our new avahi service

sudo nano /etc/avahi/services/afp.service

<?xml version="1.0" standalone='no'?>
<!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">
<service-group>
    <name replace-wildcards="yes">%h</name>
    <service>
        <type>_afpovertcp._tcp</type>
        <port>548</port>
    </service>
    <service>
        <type>_device-info._tcp</type>
        <port>548</port>
        <txt-record>model=Xserve</txt-record>
    </service>
    <service>
        <type>_adisk._tcp</type>
        <port>9</port>
        <txt-record>sys=waMA=MM:MM:MM:MM:MM:MM</txt-record>
        <txt-record>dk0=adVF=0x81,adVN=TimeMachine,adVU=UUUU</txt-record>
    </service>
</service-group>

If you are running Samba on this server as well, you might want to change the <name> field. I have changed mine to <name>timelord</name>. This will allow your timemachine/apple shares to coexist on the same server (it will look like a different server in Finder though)
MM:MM:MM:MM:MM:MM should be the MAC address of your Ubuntu server. You can quickly find it by running the following command.

ifconfig -a | grep HWaddr

UUUU needs to be a unique UUID. Go to guidgen.com to generate a UUID. Now save the file, and let's move on.

Create some directories and a new user:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/timemachine

sudo useradd -c "Time Machine User" -d /mnt/timemachine/ -s /bin/false -g 10 timemachine

sudo passwd timemachine

Set your timemachine share so it is supported:

sudo touch /mnt/timemachine/.com.apple.timemachine.supported

Set some ACLs:

sudo chown -R timemachine:users /mnt/timemachine

Next we move to setting up two files for netatalk:

sudo nano /etc/netatalk/afpd.conf

at the very bottom of the file, add:

- -tcp -nozeroconf

This tells netatalk to use tcp and not use zeroconf, if you don't use this then you will get two enties in Finder.

Configure your /etc/netatalk/AppleVolumes.default file:

# By default all users have access to their home directories.
#~/                      "Home Directory"
/mnt/timemachine "TimeMachine" allow:timemachine options:tm
# End of File

Now restart your services, and you should be done:

sudo service netatalk restart

sudo service avahi-daemon restart

References:
http://www.64bit.co.uk/index.php/archives/261
http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/01/02/ubuntu-and-mac-os-x-integration/
http://derekingrouville.ca/2011/ubuntu-time-machine-server-for-osx-lion/
http://www.bootc.net/archives/2010/11/07/apple-time-machine-and-netatalk/
http://netatalk.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Bonjour_record_adisk_adVF_values
Time Machine Server Requirements

Ubuntu Adding Samba Users and Groups

I will be adding users to both my Ubuntu Server, then create their samba user counterpart.

First we need to add a group for our users to join.

sudo groupadd smbusers

Then we need to use the useradd command to add new users to the group we just created (or any existing group); and add the user to the system. The syntax is "useradd -G {group-name} username"

sudo useradd -G smbusers username
sudo passwd username (optional)
sudo smbpasswd -a username

If you already have a user that is created and want to add them to a group, you can do this.

sudo usermod -a -G smbusers username

References:
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/adding-a-user-to-a-samba-smb-share/
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-linux-add-user-to-group/

Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS NIC Bonding (updated for 12.04)

First let's install ifenslave, this is required to bond the nic's.

sudo apt-get install ifenslave

Then we need to edit /etc/network/interfaces

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
#auto eth0
#iface eth0 inet dhcp

# This section works for 10.04
#auto bond0
#iface bond0 inet static
#address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
#gateway xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
#netmask xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
#bond-slaves eth0 eth1
# LACP confuration
#bond_mode 802.3ad
#bond_miimon 100
#bond_lacp_rate 1

# This section works for 12.04
auto eth0
 iface eth0 inet manual
   bond-master bond0

auto eth1
 iface eth1 inet manual
   bond-master bond0

auto bond0
iface bond0 inet static
address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
gateway xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
netmask xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
# LACP confuration
bond-mode 802.3ad
bond-miimon 100
bond-lacp_rate 1
bond-slaves none

*NOTE* If you only have 2 NIC's and want them bonded comment out your eth0 lines

Next update your resolv.conf so you have DNS; edit /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/head

sudo nano /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/head
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
search domain.name

Restart network services

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

*NOTE* Here is info about different bonding modes:
mode=0 (balance-rr) Round-robin policy: Transmit packets in sequential order from the first available slave through the last. This mode provides load balancing and fault tolerance.

mode=1 (active-backup) Active-backup policy: Only one slave in the bond is active. A different slave becomes active if, and only if, the active slave fails. The bond’s MAC address is externally visible on only one port (network adapter) to avoid confusing the switch. This mode provides fault tolerance. The primary option affects the behavior of this mode.

mode=2 (balance-xor) XOR policy: Transmit based on [(source MAC address XOR'd with destination MAC address) modulo slave count]. This selects the same slave for each destination MAC address. This mode provides load balancing and fault tolerance.

mode=3 (broadcast) Broadcast policy: transmits everything on all slave interfaces. This mode provides fault tolerance.

mode=4 (802.3ad) IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic link aggregation. Creates aggregation groups that share the same speed and duplex settings. Utilizes all slaves in the active aggregator according to the 802.3ad specification.

* Pre-requisites:
* Ethtool support in the base drivers for retrieving the speed and duplex of each slave.
* A switch that supports IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic link aggregation. Most switches will require some type of configuration to enable 802.3ad mode.

mode=5 (balance-tlb) Adaptive transmit load balancing: channel bonding that does not require any special switch support. The outgoing traffic is distributed according to the current load (computed relative to the speed) on each slave. Incoming traffic is received by the current slave. If the receiving slave fails, another slave takes over the MAC address of the failed receiving slave.

* Prerequisite: Ethtool support in the base drivers for retrieving the speed of each slave.

mode=6 (balance-alb) Adaptive load balancing: includes balance-tlb plus receive load balancing (rlb) for IPV4 traffic, and does not require any special switch support. The receive load balancing is achieved by ARP negotiation. The bonding driver intercepts the ARP Replies sent by the local system on their way out and overwrites the source hardware address with the unique hardware address of one of the slaves in the bond such that different peers use different hardware addresses for the server.

References:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuBonding
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-setup-bond-or-team-network-cards-in-ubuntu-10-1010-04.html

Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS RocketRaid 26xx DKMS Driver

First, install the build tools:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Download the driver source from Highpoint:

lwp-download http://www.highpoint-tech.com/BIOS_Driver/rr26xx/2640X1-2640X4-2642/Linux/rr264x-linux-src-v1.3-legacy_single-101203-0910.tar.gz

Extract the tar:

tar -zxvf rr264x-linux-src-v1.3-legacy_single-101203-0910.tar.gz
mv rr2640-linux-src-v1.3-legacy_single rr26xx-linux-src-v1.3
cd rr26xx-linux-src-v1.3

Make sure DKMS is installed:

sudo aptitude install dkms

Create the DKMS configuration file:

cat >dkms.conf

Cut and Paste the following text:

MAKE="make"
BUILT_MODULE_NAME=rr26xx
DEST_MODULE_LOCATION=/kernel/drivers/scsi
PACKAGE_NAME=rr26xx
PACKAGE_VERSION=1.3
AUTOINSTALL=yes
POST_BUILD="do_Module.symvers rr26xx save $dkms_tree/$module/$module_version/build/Module.symvers"
REMAKE_INITRD=yes

Hit "Control-D" (as in Dog) to close the file.

Copy the Makefile and Config files up to the top directory:

cp product/rr2640/linuxls/* .
mv Makefile Makefile_orig

Modify the HPT_ROOT in the Makefile:

sed 's/HPT_ROOT := ..\/..\/../HPT_ROOT := \/var\/lib\/dkms\/rr26xx\/1.3\/build/' Makefile_orig >Makefile

Move the source into /usr/src for DKMS:

cd ..
sudo mv rr26xx-linux-src-v1.3 /usr/src/rr26xx-1.3

Trick dkms into looking in the /usr/src directory for the precompiled RocketRaid object code:

mv /usr/src/rr26xx-1.3/lib /usr/src/rr26xx-1.3/real_lib
ln -s /usr/src/rr26xx-1.3/real_lib /usr/src/rr26xx-1.3/lib

*NOTE* For some reason dkms will not copy object files (.o) when doing builds, so we need to fool it.
*NOTE* Above symbolic link must be complete (absolute) path!

Add the source to DKMS:

sudo dkms add -m rr26xx -v 1.3

Build the module:

sudo dkms build -k `uname -r` -m rr26xx -v 1.3

*NOTE* This should hopefully compile correctly. If not, you can view the log output from the file "/var/lib/dkms/rr26xx/1.3/build/make.log"

Next install the module:

sudo dkms install -k `uname -r` -m rr26xx -v 1.3

Finally, create the boot image:

sudo mkinitramfs -o /boot/initrd.img-`uname -r` `uname -r`

*UPDATE* I just verified that this will make it through a kernel update. I just updated my server to 2.6.32-37-server and rebooted, my card was detected, and the raid array was intact.

References:
This is adapted from https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RocketRaid#RocketRaid_26xx_Driver
with support from this forum http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1633597

Mythbuntu: Antec Fusion v1 VFD & MCE Remote (Updated for 10.10)

This is an updated how-to of my notes from an earlier post. Things have changed since Ubuntu 9.04, I am now on 10.10 due to the inclusion of Trim support. The mceusb remote should just work out of the box. Here are some notes on it. So basically this is to get your Antec Fusion v1 VFD working.

Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS Allowing Symlinks with Samba

Apparently in 10.04 you need to add a few lines to allow symlinks in your samba share. I kept getting access denied in Windows.

Under Global, add the following 3 lines:

[global]
follow symlinks = yes
wide links = yes
unix extensions = no

Now restart Samba

sudo /etc/init.d/smbd restart

You should be good to go!

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS bootable software RAID-1

Start from your home directory

cd ~

Install mdadm

sudo apt-get install mdadm

You need 2 modules loaded, md and raid1 Ubuntu 10.04 should automatically have md loaded. You can verify this by running "fgrep CONFIG_MD /boot/config-$(uname -r)"

We need to load the raid1 module so when you reboot it will load.

sudo echo raid1 >> /etc/modules

Now we will load it manually so we don't have to reboot

sudo modprobe raid1

Verify its loaded

lsmod | grep raid1

Next we are going to copy the partition info from sda to sdb.

sudo sfdisk -d /dev/sda > sda.out
sudo sfdisk -f /dev/sdb < sda.out

*NOTE* If you get "I don't like these partitions – nothing changed." Verify it by comparing the output of sfdisk -l /dev/sda and sfdisk -l /dev/sdb.

Change the partition type of the /dev/sdb Linux partition(s) to "Linux raid autodetect"

sudo sfdisk --change-id /dev/sdb 1 fd

Now we're ready to create the array. We specify a RAID 1 array with 2 devices. The first drive is missing (we add it later) and the second is /dev/sdb1:

sudo mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 missing /dev/sdb1

Now, we need to create and update the mdadm.conf.

sudo cp /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf /etc/mdadm/mdadm.bak && sudo cp /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf mdadm.conf && sudo mdadm --detail --scan >> mdadm.conf && sudo cp mdadm.conf /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf

*NOTE* It will put in a parameter metadata=00.90 that will cause warnings later. Apparently, this is a bug and it is safe to remove it.

Now, we format the raid volume

sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/md0

Find out the UUID of the array

sudo blkid

Make a copy of /etc/fstab in your home directory and change root to mount to the UUID of the array.  Don't change the real /etc/fstab quite yet.

sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak && sudo cp /etc/fstab fstab && sudo nano fstab

Really quick, check what kernel you are running you will need this for the next section.

uname -r

Next is adding a custom GRUB2 setup

sudo cp /etc/grub.d/40_custom 09_swraid1_setup && sudo nano 09_swraid1_setup

Replace "2.6.32-36-server" with your kernel version you got from running "uname -r"

menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-36-server' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
        recordfail
        insmod raid
        insmod mdraid
        insmod ext2
        set root='(md0)'
        linux   /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-36-server root=/dev/md0 ro   quiet
        initrd  /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-36-server
}

Now copy both files we just created to their respective locations

sudo cp fstab /etc/ && sudo cp 09_swraid1_setup /etc/grub.d/

Let's update Grub

sudo update-grub && sudo update-initramfs -u

And make sure Grub is installed on both drives

sudo grub-install /dev/sda && sudo grub-install /dev/sdb

Create a directory called "tmpraid"

sudo mkdir /tmpraid

Mount the array on /tmparray

sudo mount /dev/md0 /tmpraid && sudo rsync -vaxP / /tmpraid

Reboot...

sudo reboot

Change the partition type of sda now

sudo sfdisk --change-id /dev/sda 1 fd

Add it to the array:

sudo mdadm --add /dev/md0 /dev/sda1

Let's watch /dev/sda sync:

watch cat /proc/mdstat

Let's delete the GRUB entry we created earlier since it is no longer needed

sudo rm -f /etc/grub.d/09_swraid1_setup

Now let's finish up

sudo update-grub && sudo update-initramfs -u

Now we're done, reboot and test if you so wish.

References:
http://www.jfamiglietti.com/john/?p=152
http://linuxconfig.org/Linux_Software_Raid_1_Setup

Mythbuntu: Antec Fusion v1 VFD & MCE Remote

I like simple. But in trying to get my VFD and MCE remote working seemed anything but. So this is how I got my VFD and MCE remote working. This is pretty strait forward, I tried all sorts of articles but all in all, if you are running 0.22 this is what I came up with.

Mythbuntu: Mounting Media

I was going to write up a long nice detailed thing here, but then I found this, https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MountWindowsSharesPermanently and now I don't need to as it explains it way better.

Ubuntu 9.10 Remix Frustration

Ok, so I downloaded Ubuntu 9.10 Remix; burned it; installed it. All flawlessly on my Dell 700m. This laptop is old, Pentium M 1.8; 2GB Ram, 60 GB Hard Drive. Yes, I know this is a old laptop, but honestly it does everything that a "Netbook" does 12.1"  1280x800 screen, DVD Burner.. OK battery life.

So, I installed Remix, and everything went as expected except that I can't use it.  It seems that the Intel 852/855 Video chipset doesn't properly work due to the "fancy" video rendering Remix uses.

I doubt anyone is reading this, but if you have a possible solution I would be glad to hear it. From what I can tell I think Remix is perfect for this laptop so ...

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and Dell 700M

So "netbook's" seem all the rage these days, so i thought i would dust off my old Dell 700m, it's not quite as small as a current netbook, but it is nice and tiny.

My plans include putting in a nice little 32GB SSD drive, and upgrading the processor to a 2.10Ghz when they are ~20 (no rush, not a big difference in speed over the current 1.8Ghz Pentium M)

Anyway.. i installed Ubuntu on it, and it's been nice for surfing and basic tasks... but ran into a problem of it not shuting down properly. More like X was crashing...

There are a number of tricks out there to try and fix it, this one seems to make it happen less than any others.

First i shut off the splash screen's (edit /boot/grub/menu.lst)

then, in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, change:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "intel"
EndSection
to
Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "intel"
Option "ForceEnablePipeA" "true"
EndSection

it seems to make it better... we'll see!

EDIT: I'm including this link, as it has other options that might help on other hardware.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/208479