Planet Cyprix

As part of an overall upgrade for my systems, I’m moving to a brand new server. It’s my first rackmount server at 1U high and will be going into a colocation centre soonish.

It will be running a variety of applications including:

• Mandriva Linux 2010.0
• Web Serving: Nginx, Apache 2.2, PHP 5.3
• Mail: Postfix, Dovecot, RoundCube
• DNS: PowerDNS, Bind
• Database: MySQL
• Virtual Hosting: VirtualBox

Server Specifications:

• Intel SR1530HSH with S3200SHVL Motherboard. 320w PSU, 3x Hot Swap SATA HDD, 2x Gb Nic
• Intel Q9550 Processor – 4x 2.83ghz, 12mb cache, e0 stepping
• Intel Q9400 Processor – 4x 2.66ghz, 6mb cache, r0 stepping
• 4x 2gb (8gb total) Kingston DDR2 800Mhz Ram
• 2x 1Tb Seagate Hard Drives (in RAID 1)

Update: Unfortunately, the E0 stepping Q9550 is not supported for the bios of the s3200 motherboard, so I’ve had to switch down to the Q9400 with only 6mb cache .

Photos:

Intel SR1530HSH 1U Server - Front

Intel SR1530HSH 1U Server - Rear

Intel SR1530HSH 1U Server - Top

Intel SR1530HSH 1U Server - Inside

Lots going on at the moment. I’m migrating most of mine and my clients websites to nginx from apache in preparation for moving everything to a new server.

First thoughts? Nginx is super fast, reasonably easy to configure (once you figure out the php issues) and saves a heap on memory. Downside? I’ve had the odd niggle with moving old sites across – especially since I’m moving to php 5.3 and MySQL 5.1 at the same time, otherwise all good.

The other major change is the look of this blog. The old K2 theme was becoming an issue to deal with (mainly because I didn’t update it enough) so I’ve now moved to this lovely theme: inove. I’ve also done a fresh wordpress install of 2.8.4 and added pretty links – so anyone linking to the old structure might have the odd issue, but otherwise should be painless. Oh yeah – any images on the older posts (pre Aug 2009) are gone.

Anyway here is a list of upgrades currently underway:

• php 5.2.x to 5.3.0
• mysql 5.0 to mysql-max 5.1
• apache 2.2/mod_php to nginx 0.8.10/php-fcgi
• athlon64 2ghz 1gb ram to athlon64 X2 2ghz 2gb ram
• mandriva 2008.x/2009.x to 2010.0 (Cooker)
• wordpress 2.x.x to 2.8.4
• mediawiki 1.x to 1.15.1
• bind 9 to powerdns 2.9.22
• and a few more that i’ve forgotten about

Today I got my DViCO FusionHDTV Pro (dvb-t) card working under mandriva linux in Melbourne, Australia.

I’ve been wanting to do this for years and has actually been the major stopper in Mandriva becoming my primary OS on my desktop (besides my laptop(s), wifes laptop, friends laptops, and all my servers). I always figured I could dual-boot for LAN parties.

Anyway… I did it like this.

Step 1. Install Mandriva 2009.1 Spring Powerpack (64bit)

Step 2. Setup online repositories including PLF mirrors

Step 3. Install dvb-apps and most other dvb utils (run `urpmq dvb- -a` to see them)

Step 4. Install mplayer, smplayer and usual auto installed plf codecs

Step 5. (as per v4l mailing list) Download ‘extract_xc3028.pl’ script, and drivers

Step 6. Extract driver and copied it to `/lib/firmware` (do not use Chris Pascoe’s firmware as it is not req’d – and not working)

Step 7. (following instructions from the ubuntu forums) Run `scandvb /usr/share/dvb-apps/scan/dvb-t/au-Melbourne > channels.conf`

Step 8.  Run `sudo cp channels.conf /etc && cp channels.conf ~/.tzap`

Step 9. Test Setup – run `mplayer dvb://”ABC2″`

Step 10. Due to all Australian HDTV channels using AC3 onlyfor sound we need to set the PIDS correctly for the audio as AC3 is by default 0. If you don’t you won’t get any sound on any of the HD channels.

Step 11. For each channel (ABC, 7, 9, 10 and SBS) run `tzap -c /etc/channels.conf -r “ABC1″` <- replacing “ABC1″ with the channel name. Then in a new console run scandvb -c and save the contents.

Step 12. Convert the AC3 values from hex to decimal. (Hint google: convert ….. to decimal)

Step 13. Edit /etc/channels.conf and add the decimal AC3 values in the file. Replace the zero in …:0:… with the AC3 value.

Step 14. Enjoy.

Ahhh

When Steve Ballmer screws you over.
New Nigerian Classmate PC’s with Mandriva Linux to have MS Windows installed later.

What a load of crock! I suppose nobody ever accused MS of being ethical (at least without the sarcasm).

Why does this make any sense at all. I mean just look at this process:
Step 1 – Buy 17,000 Classmate PCs with Mandriva Linux preinstalled
Step 2 – See machines working correctly
Step 3 – Have machines shipped
Step 4 – Pay for hardware and software
Step 5 – Install MS Windoze on all PCs (?!&?*?#$!!!!!)

How the hell does any of that work? Is Microsoft just playing dirty wherever it can? Do they just want to subsidise African nations computer needs?

If they want to pay me to use MS Windows, send me a message.

read more | digg story

Just a quick note for everyone.

Mandriva Linux 2008.0 is out and going strong. Keeping that in mind, I have now updated this server to run 2008.0 with very few problems (via urpmi –auto-select). This is a first for me with any Mandriva server. Well done guys!

I’ve also installed the Powerpack on my Toshiba Satellite 2410 laptop with no real issues, but with great new fonts and features (like automount ntfs-3g) all around.

Since it’s been a while since I last posted, I thought I’d bring you all up to date with the new Mandriva release. Spring beautiful spring!

For the last month (and a bit) I’ve been running Mandriva 2007.1 Spring PowerPack on my Toshiba Satellite 2410. To avoid people having to skip to the conclusion, I’m sticking with Mandriva Linux Spring on my laptop permanently! Read more…