Minimal Ubuntu 8.04 Server Install

I find myself removing packages that I don't need, especially if the packages belong to processes that are using processor resources. There is a way to start from the ground up, you can have a minimal system and just add what you need. This has the added benefit of extra security, your system doesn't have services running that you don't use. You won't use a Ubuntu Server CD, but the Desktop Live CD.

Installing Drupal 6.4 On A Lighttpd Web Server (Debian Etch)

This guide explains how you can install Drupal 6.4 on a lighttpd web server on Debian Etch. Drupal comes with an .htaccess file with mod_rewrite rules (for Apache) that do not work on lighttpd. Without this .htaccess file it is not possible to have clean URLs in your Drupal installation. Fortunately there's a way to make lighttpd behave as if it could read the .htaccess file.

Checking Package Dependencies with apt-rdepends On Debian/Ubuntu

This short guide shows how you can check the dependencies of a package with the tool apt-rdepends on Debian and Ubuntu systems. The great thing about apt-rdepends is that it resolves dependencies recursively, i.e., not only does it show the direct dependencies of a package, but also the dependencies' dependencies. This is great, for example, if you want to rebuild a package from the sources, etc.

How To Block Spammers/Hackers With Apache2's mod_spamhaus (Debian Etch)

mod_spamhaus is an Apache module that uses DNSBL in order to block spam relay via web forms, preventing URL injection, block http DDoS attacks from bots and generally protecting your web service denying access to a known bad IP address.

A Note From The Editors: Anonymous Comments

You might have noticed that up to now, you could comment on a tutorial only as a registered user. We handled it that way to prevent spam.

In order to drive a more lively discussion about our articles, we have decided to open the comment function to anyone, regardless if you're a registered user or not. Please note that we will take the time to approve each and every comment to fight spam, so your comments might not go live immediately.   

We'd be excited to see loads of comments from anyone to make annotations, report bugs in the tutorials (yes, we are human and make errors), present better solutions, etc.

If you have questions or need help, please use our forum instead as it's easier to help people there due to formatting options, etc. We reserve the right to not publish help requests in the comments.

And now: Comments, anyone?

Installing memcached And The PHP5 memcache Module On Debian Etch (Apache2)

This guide explains how to install memcached and the PHP5 memcache module on a Debian Etch system with Apache2. memcached is a daemon that can store objects in the system's memory (e.g. results of database queries) which can speed up your web site tremendously. You can use memcached over a network (i.e., install your web application on one server and memcached on another server), but usually you install both on one server to avoid the networking overhead.

Script To Check If MySQL Master Master Replication Is Working Correctly

This short article explains how you can use a short script to check whether your MySQL master master replication is working as expected or not.

Authentication, Authorization & Accounting With FreeRadius & MySQL Backend & Web Based Management with Daloradius

This tutorial explains how to set up a FreeRadius 2.x server for wifi authentication, authorization and accounting in conjunction with mysql & web based management with Daloradius on CentOS 5.x. Production deployment is also possible with minor tweaking. But as usual I do not guarantee anything & take no responsibilities.

Installing Games On Ubuntu With Playdeb

Playdeb is a repository for Ubuntu games that makes it easy to install games that are available on getdeb.net. This article shows how you can install games using Playdeb on an Ubuntu 8.04 desktop.

Installing Lighttpd With PHP5 And MySQL Support On Fedora 9

Lighttpd is a secure, fast, standards-compliant web server designed for speed-critical environments. This tutorial shows how you can install Lighttpd on a Fedora 9 server with PHP5 support (through FastCGI) and MySQL support.

Port-Forwarding With rinetd On Debian Etch

This article shows how you can do port-forwarding with rinetd on Debian Etch. rinetd allows you to forward ports from one system to another. This useful if you have moved your web sites to a new server with a different IP address. Of course, you have modified your DNS records, but it can take a few days until DNS changes become effective, and that is where rinetd comes into play. If clients still use the old DNS records, rinetd can redirect them to the new server. With rinetd, you do not have to fiddle with iptables rules.

Recover Linux with Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery

Data loss is a common threat for the computer users, which can happen due to software malfunction, virus attack, accidental formatting of hard drive volumes, accidental deletion of important files or directories and many other reasons. User never knows when the data loss will occur. But there is no need to panic! Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery software is here for your help.

Installing Flash Player 9 On 64Bit Linux (x86_64)

Someone said, Flash Player 9 doesn't run on 64 bit Linux, but sure it does... and you can install it, just follow the simple steps below.

Spam Blocking And Web Filtering With The Untangle 5.3 Network Gateway

Untangle bundles common open-source applications for blocking spam, spyware, viruses, adware and unwanted content on the network in one single Linux distribution. It can be integrated into existing networks either as a router or as a transparent bridge (directly behind the router, but before the switch that connects the client PCs with the router). The best thing about Untangle is that you don't have to reconfigure the client PCs - Untangle works out of the box.

Tuning MySQL Performance with MySQLTuner

MySQLTuner is a Perl script that analyzes your MySQL performance and, based on the statistics it gathers, gives recommendations which variables you should adjust in order to increase performance. That way, you can tune your my.cnf file to tease out the last bit of performance from your MySQL server and make it work more efficiently.

Integrating eAccelerator Into PHP5 And Lighttpd (Debian Etch)

This guide explains how to integrate eAccelerator into PHP5 and lighttpd on a Debian Etch system. From the eAccelerator project page: "eAccelerator is a free open-source PHP accelerator, optimizer, and dynamic content cache. It increases the performance of PHP scripts by caching them in their compiled state, so that the overhead of compiling is almost completely eliminated. It also optimizes scripts to speed up their execution. eAccelerator typically reduces server load and increases the speed of your PHP code by 1-10 times."

Triggering Commands On File/Directory Changes With Incron

This guide shows how you can install and use incron on a Debian Etch system. Incron is similar to cron, but instead of running commands based on time, it can trigger commands when file or directory events occur (e.g. a file modification, changes of permissions, etc.).

Preventing Brute Force Attacks With Fail2ban On Mandriva 2008.1

In this article I will show how to install and configure fail2ban on a Mandriva 2008.1 system. Fail2ban is a tool that observes login attempts to various services, e.g. SSH, FTP, SMTP, Apache, etc., and if it finds failed login attempts again and again from the same IP address or host, fail2ban stops further login attempts from that IP address/host by blocking it with an iptables firewall rule.

Displaying RSS And Atom Feeds On Your Web Site With SimplePie

SimplePie is a PHP library that can fetch, cache, parse, and normalize RSS and Atom feeds. It allows you to display the newest articles from websites with RSS or Atom feeds on your own site. This is a great way to add new, fresh, and relevant information to your site. This guide shows how you can set it up for your own web site.

uvhd - File Investigation Utility

'uvhd' is a binary file investigation utility. It displays the contents of any file in vertical hexadecimal format, and prompts for commands to browse, search, select, update, scan/replace, print, translate, etc. uvhd is an interactive utility with a command line interface and 18 help screens.