Derwynd's Weblog

Set Time Zone + Fedora 18

[root@dlp ~]# timedatectl status
# show current settings

Local time: Mon 2013-04-15 10:51:47 IST
Universal time: Mon 2013-04-15 05:21:47 UTC
RTC time: Mon 2013-04-15 05:21:47
Timezone: Asia/Kolkata (IST, +0530)
NTP enabled: yes
NTP synchronized: yes
RTC in local TZ: no
DST active: n/a

[root@dlp ~]# timedatectl set-ntp true
#Enable an NTP daemon (chronyd):

April 15, 2013 Posted by derwynd | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Fedora 17 + Tata Photon (Huawei)

Connect Photon

#  lsusb | grep -i HUAWEI

Bus 001 Device 006: ID 12d1:140b Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. EC1260 Wireless Data Modem HSD USB Card

See whats in bold

Go in directory

# /etc/usb_modeswitch.d

# vi 12d1\:140b

# Huawei E180
TargetClass=0xff
HuaweiMode=1
DefaultVendor= 0x12d1
DefaultProduct=0x140b
TargetVendor=0x12d1
TargetProduct=0x140b
MessageContent=”55534243123456780000000000000011062000000100000000000000000000″

# usb_modeswitch -I -W -c 12d1:140b

Reading config file: 12d1:140b

* usb_modeswitch: handle USB devices with multiple modes
* Version 1.2.3 (C) Josua Dietze 2012
* Based on libusb0 (0.1.12 and above)

! PLEASE REPORT NEW CONFIGURATIONS !

DefaultVendor=  0x12d1
DefaultProduct= 0x140b
TargetVendor=   0x12d1
TargetProduct=  0x140b
TargetClass=    0xff
TargetProductList=””

DetachStorageOnly=0
HuaweiMode=1
SierraMode=0
SonyMode=0
QisdaMode=0
GCTMode=0
KobilMode=0
SequansMode=0
MobileActionMode=0
CiscoMode=0
MessageEndpoint=  not set
MessageContent=”55534243123456780000000000000011062000000100000000000000000000″
NeedResponse=0
ResponseEndpoint= not set

InquireDevice disabled
Success check disabled
System integration mode disabled

Looking for target devices …
searching devices, found USB ID 8087:0020
searching devices, found USB ID 1d6b:0002
searching devices, found USB ID 138a:0007
searching devices, found USB ID 12d1:140b
found matching vendor ID
found matching product ID
target class ff matching
adding device

# nm-connection-editor

Create a new mobile broadband connection . Select Tata Photon Plus.
Connection NO : #777

Username : internet
password: internet

September 25, 2012 Posted by derwynd | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Fedora 17: Install OpenSSH Server

How to install the OpenSSH Server on Fedora 17 for remote access.

Open a terminal, become root and install the software.

# su -
# yum install -y openssh-server

Use existing user that need to be allowed to SSH  remotely (eg someuser someuser2).

Now, edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and add the following.

PermitRootLogin no
AllowUsers someuser someuser2

The above will disable logins for root and only permit connects from someuser someuser2.

And finally, enable and start the SSH service.

systemctl enable sshd.service
systemctl start sshd.service

September 12, 2012 Posted by derwynd | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Change the default keyring password

So you forgot the keyring password (hey happens to all of us at some point of time).

here’s  what I did

$ cd .gnome2/keyrings/

$ rm -rf *

restarted application that was asking for the password and was ready to go.

August 28, 2012 Posted by derwynd | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Error: Could not stat() command file ‘/usr/local/nagios/var/rw/nagios.cmd’!

if you encounter this:

Error: Could not stat() command file ‘/usr/local/nagios/var/rw/nagios.cmd’!

try testing your selinux settings

start with:

setenforce 0
this will disable for now

Or else check permissions on file

chown nagios.nagcmd /usr/local/nagios/var/rw
chmod g+rwx /usr/local/nagios/var/rw
chmod g+s /usr/local/nagios/var/rw

August 7, 2012 Posted by derwynd | Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Gnone 3.X adding personal launcher

Wanted to add Firefox as a personal launcher here’s a sample of what I did

$ cat /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Version=14.0.1
Name=Mozilla Firefox
Comment=Firefox Web Browser
GenericName[en]=Firefox
Terminal=false
Exec=/usr/bin/firefox
Icon=/data/esentails/firefox/icons/mozicon128.png
Type=Application
X-MultipleArgs=false
Categories=Application;Internet;
MimeType=text/plain;
InitialPreference=5
StartupNotify=true

It should show up in your gnome overview and then you’ll be able to drag it as a favorite.

July 23, 2012 Posted by derwynd | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Gnome 3.x Change Panel

To change color of gnome 3.x panel

$ vi /usr/share/gnome-shell/theme/gnome-shell.css

search for

/* Panel */

#panel {
background-color: black;
font-weight: bold;
height: 1.86em;
}

I changed

background-color: grey;

But I’m sure you could also try a

border-image: url("border.png");

and play with opacity .

save the file reload the gnome3 desktop by hitting

Alt+F2

then enter

r

hit

Enter

July 20, 2012 Posted by derwynd | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

KDE remove autostart programs

Had a situation where kde was starting programs automatically on restart.

Found the file

/home/user/.kde/share/config/ksmserverrc

Edited this file to disable autostart of programs on logout

November 9, 2011 Posted by derwynd | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

GPS on Linux

Compile kernel with usb-modem feature

Connect the GPS to usb port ….

Check /var/log/messages

$ tailf /var/log/messages

Jun 20 22:26:39 localhost kernel: usb 6-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
Jun 20 22:26:40 localhost kernel: usb 6-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Jun 20 22:26:40 localhost kernel: cdc_acm 6-2:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device

Device created is ttyACM0

This should give you a continuous stream

$ cat /dev/ttyACM0

$GPRMC,071601.00,A,1907.09660,N,07252.30735,E,0.029,235.62,130711,,,A*67
$GPGGA,071601.00,1907.09660,N,07252.30735,E,1,09,2.21,33.2,M,-62.8,M,,*40
$GPGSV,3,1,12,13,82,086,34,20,11,177,35,19,43,072,35,10,25,274,*77
$GPGSV,3,3,12,07,40,343,15,11,20,137,31,08,25,316,10,28,32,250,*7A
$GPZDA,071601.00,13,07,2011,00,00*60

Now that the device is detected lets install the rpms required

$ yum install -y gpsd gpsd-clients

Incase Not created Please create

Created startup script

$ cat /etc/init.d/gpsd
#!/bin/sh
#
# gpsd Service daemon for mediating access to a GPS
#
# chkconfig: – 44 66
# description: gpsd is a service daemon that mediates access to a GPS sensor \
# connected to the host computer by serial or USB interface, \
# making its data on the location/course/velocity of the sensor \
# available to be queried on TCP port 2947 of the host computer.
# processname: gpsd
# pidfile: /var/run/gpsd.pid

case “$1” in
start|stop|restart)
$1
;;
force-reload)
restart
;;
status)
status $prog
;;
try-restart|condrestart)
if status $prog >/dev/null ; then
restart
fi
;;
reload)
status $prog >/dev/null || exit 7
# If config can be reloaded without restarting, implement it here,
# remove the “exit”, and add “reload” to the usage message below.
action $”Service $prog does not support the reload action: ” /bin/false
exit 3
;;
*)
echo $”Usage: $0 {start|stop|status|restart|try-restart|force-reload}”
exit 2
esac

$ echo “/etc/init.d/gpsd start ” >> /etc/rc.local
Or start it via services

Graphic front end
$ /usr/bin/xgps

Running cgps utility, I can obtain the following (You will know where I am by interpreting the Lat/Lon). cgps runs on serial or console terminal and connects to local port 2947, which is the default port that gpsd listened to for serving queries from client programs:

$ cgps localhost 2947

CGPS Test Client
┌───────────────────────────────────────────┐┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│ Time: 2011-07-13T06:27:43.00Z ││PRN: Elev: Azim: SNR: Used: │
│ Latitude: 19.118427 N ││ │
│ Longitude: 72.871813 E ││ │
│ Altitude: 50.3 m ││ │
│ Speed: 0.0 kph ││ │
│ Heading: 356.4 degrees ││ │
│ HPE: 8 m ││ │
│ VPE: 13 m ││ │
│ Climb: 0.0 m/min ││ │
│ Status: 3D FIX ││ │
│ Change: 0 secs ││ │
│ ││ │
│ ││ │
└───────────────────────────────────────────┘└─────────────────────────────────┘
┌───────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Command: │
└───────────────────────────────────────────┘
GPSD,O=GGA 1310538463.00 0.005 19.118427 72.871813 50.30 ? ? 356
.4500 0.011 0.000 ? ? ?
GPSD,O=GSA 1310538463.00 0.005 19.118427 72.871813 50.30 8.32 13.20 356.4500
0.011 0.000 165.6961 16.64 ?

There are two more native way to interact with gpsd for retrieving GPS data – by telnet or gpspipe. Since gpsd listen to port 2947, you can just “telnet” to it. Once connect, type ‘p’ or ‘d’ followed by return will query for position and time respectively

$ telnet localhost 2947
Trying 127.0.0.1…
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is ‘^]’.
p
GPSD,P=19.118280 72.871878
d
GPSD,D=2011-07-13T06:33:19.00Z

$ gpspipe -r localhost 2947
GPSD,R=1
$GPGSV,4,2,14,10,25,287,14,32,05,165,,06,16,048,33,23,63,124,48*70
$GPGSV,4,3,14,03,29,054,35,07,36,330,,16,08,039,,08,20,305,29*74
$GPGSV,4,4,14,11,15,147,,28,25,239,26*7B
$GPGLL,1907.09502,N,07252.31343,E,065047.00,A,A*6C
$GPZDA,065047.00,13,07,2011,00,00*61

Setting up time via gps

#!/bin/bash
#setup time via gps
i=0;
while [ “$i” -lt 5 ];
do
sleep 5
(echo d ; sleep 1; echo d; sleep 1; echo d) | (nc localhost 2947) > /tmp/gps_time &
TEST=$!
sleep 4
kill -s SIGINT $TEST
i=$(($i+1))
date=$`cat /tmp/gps_time | tail -n 1`
year=$(echo $date | sed ‘s/.*D=\([0-9]*\)-.*/\1/’)
[ “$year” -gt 2004 ] && break
done;
echo “slept $i times while waiting gps lock..”

echo “Setting date $date”
export TZ=UTC
date $(echo $date | sed ‘s/GPSD,D=\([0-9]*\)\(.*\):.*/\2\1/’ | sed ‘s/[^0-9]//g’)
sleep 2
export TZ=”/usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Calcutta”
add3sec=`date –date=’3 seconds’`
date -s “${add3sec}”
date
hwclock –systohc
hwclock

Getting Location via bash
#!/bin/bash
#setup time via gps
i=0;
while [ “$i” -lt 5 ];
do
sleep 5
(echo dp ) | (nc localhost 2947) > /tmp/gps_location &
TEST=$!
sleep 1
kill -s SIGINT $TEST
i=$(($i+1))
echo $i
done;
echo “slept $i times while waiting gps lock..”

cat /tmp/gps_location| \
awk -F “P=” ‘{ print $NF}’ | \
awk ‘{ print “Latitude: ” $1 ” Longitude: ” $2}’

July 17, 2011 Posted by derwynd | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Debian Squeeze change root password

== Method 1 ==

Boot into grub, select single user but do not press enter.
Press e to bring you into edit mode.
Scroll down to the kernel line, it starts with “linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6…….”
Scroll to the end of that line and press space key once and type

init=/bin/bash

Press Crtl x to boot

$ remount / as rw

$ mount -rw -o remount /

Change password with

$ passwd

type your new password, hit enter and reboot.

== Method 2 ==
Boot from another installation of Debian. (One can use a LiveCD to get access to the “/” partition.)
Then, mount the partition where you have Squeeze’s “/”, then changed directory to /mnt/etc
Used vim as an editor to edit the file shadow.
It found the line starting with root:
Deleted everything between the first and second colons, and voila’,
root::$6$fsdsdgdsg74.:14862:0:99999:7:::

Reboot as root without a password.
At the end use passwd to set a new root password.

April 14, 2011 Posted by derwynd | Uncategorized | 6 Comments