Category: News

After helping my friend test out his VMware server over the internet I decided that I’d give it a go on my more powerful server. My main reason for this is like any other of my project, which is to learn. The biggest problem I have faced so far is the custom compiled kernel that I use and that I do not have X11 installed on the server. I have fixed most of these problems but I am having to recompile the kernel to have VM support so I’m using the latest snapshot kernel. VM stands for Virtual Machine and is a way of running many computers inside one physical computer.

Something that I have been thinking about for a while was to make a list of all the computer abbreviations used and what they mean. The main purpose of this is to be a quick lookup list to find out meanings you don’t know and to help new members with terms. The list can be seen here on the Kustom PCs forums.

After the problems I was having with the USB I found out the reason for this was because of the major changes from Debian 3.1 to 4.0. I reformatted my more powerful server with the latest debian and installed the things that I needed to compile the kernel. I used this guide to help me with it but it was similar to how I compiled the kernel before. The reason for the reformat was so that it had all the software that it was going to use installed on it where as my main server didn’t because it was upgraded from Debian 3.1 Sarge. After about a total of 5 and a half hours both the servers had the latest kernel image and headers compiled for them that I later installed on the computers. After doing a quick test on them to see that the USB was working I was happen to use it. Next time I compile the kernel I will not have the server in my bedroom since it makes it fairly hard to sleep.

Since upgrading the kernel on the main server I have found that it disabled the USB ports. This causes lots of problems since they are used for the printer and the zip drive. What I have done is updated to the latest kernel that debian provide to you and this has made some changes to the system such as changing the program that controls the USB ports. At the moment I have updated both to the newest debian kernel so that I have all the extra bits that came with it to hopefully allow the new compiled kernel to work with USB. Apart from USB the servers are working fine.

I have also been given an old computer to play around with that once I’ve had my fun I might use as a terminal station. That is a computer that is only used to access other network computers via command line. It’s a HP 712/80 running HP-UX 10.20 and I think it was made in 1994.

Yesterday I was working on both my server and upgrading the kernel for them. As I was uninstalling the old kernel I accidentally typed in the command for the wrong server. This resulted in the main server not having a kernel to boot but other than that it was fine. After working on it for about an hour and a half this morning I managed to get it to boot a kernel from a Ubtuntu LiveCD and then install the new kernel that I had compiled on the second server. Normal service has been resumed and all that is left to do is remove the Ubuntu kernel and reboot.

This morning we changed our ISP from Orange (it was freeserve when we joined) to Demon Internet. The reason for the change was to get rid of all the spam that we have been getting over the years and to save money. Demon Internet is cheaper than Orange was and provided a better service with no download limits. At a later point when the server is generating income we may change to a static IP address meaning that the down time will be reduced.

I have just received an email today from Demon informing me that the our new internet package will be going live on Thursday. This will cause some disruption to the service as I will have to configure the router to connect to our new ISP. This will mean that we get a new IP address which will take black-flag.co.uk offline for about 20 minutes and cosmo1847.co.uk for an hour or two. The time taken will depend upon how long it takes to configure the router and connect to the internet.

It has been brought to my attention today that there is a large amount of spam comments that wordpress has had but I do not allow comments to be seen unless I have approved them, the drawback of this is that I normally don’t notice that someone has made a comment. I am trying to get a plugin sorted out that will make you ask for an image before it will allow you to post. Until then the service will be temperamental as the MySQL database gets turned on and off.

6:30pm the same day.
I have been having problems with the counter measures I have install. What I am trying to do is get the wordpress system to ask the user what is written in a image that the server generates, this will prevent bots from being able to make comments. What I am doing now is removing all the comments from the database and closing all comments and pings for the posts, this is for all the wordpress system on this server.

During the running of the server I have learned much about how programs work and the running of the server. Whilst learning to tend to make a little mess of things here and there and for this reason I am going to reformat the server to do a fresh start. This will be the first time that the server has been reformatted since October because I have found Debian GNU/Linux to be so stable. I will compile the programs and kernel from scratch to give me the latest software. If things all go well the server should be back up and working within a few hours but if they do not go well I will reformat it again and go back to square one.

Hello everyone. I have moved all my domains and that of Amiapoil Burmese over from 1and1 to Heart Internet. The reason for this was because Heart Internet provide DNS services for free along with the domain hosting. Due to this move all email send to black-flag.co.uk will bounce back because there is currently no email server controlling the email but you can email at cosmo1847.co.uk, you just put something @ infront of the domain to email me. I hope to have Amiapoil Burmese moved over and sorted out over soon.