root user password recovery / resetting on Debian/GNU based linux systems

I have had need for this more often than I would like of late, it is a nice and quick way to reset the root password if you can’t remember, or the person who had it isn’t around any more. You need access to the actual console of course, physical access or a remote KVM. I’ve used this on both Debian boxes and Ubuntu boxes recently.

1. rebooot the machine
2. interrupt the boot sequence at the GRUB bootloader / LILO screen (I haven’t seen LILO on Deban / Ubuntu in quite a while)
3. edit the boot line with “kernel” information (select and press e to edit)
4. add init=/bin/bash to the end of the line
5. hit enter and then press ‘b’ to boot
6. when the boot sequence has finished, type the following:

mount -o remount,rw /
passwd root
(enter the new password for the ‘root’ user)
shutdown -r now (to reboot and login as root with the new password)

Debian : Apache : PHP : Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:The MySQL adapter “mysql” is not available.

Got this today when I browsed to my Joomla site, which I had just imported from elsewhere.

Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:The MySQL adapter "mysql" is not available.

Setting the correct database password in the joomla configuration file fixed the issue.

Sed and Print in Perl

I recently needed a sed-like script for a web based perl app doing to internally convert request ports and came across some interesting print code in the process of testing it

#!/usr/bin/perl

sub println
{
$\ = "\n";
@_ = ($_) unless @_;
print @_;
}

 

my $sec = "https://dmom.domain.com:633/confirm/me/";
$sec =~ s/:633/:81/;
println $sec;

VNC server : Fatal server error: could not open default font ‘fixed’

Trying to run vnc-server recently on a debian system, I ran into the following issue:

cat .vnc/debian-dev\:1.log
14/08/09 14:40:01 Xvnc version 3.3.7 - built Dec 30 2006 12:50:35
14/08/09 14:40:01 Copyright (C) 2002-2003 RealVNC Ltd.
14/08/09 14:40:01 Copyright (C) 1994-2000 AT&T Laboratories Cambridge.
14/08/09 14:40:01 All Rights Reserved.
14/08/09 14:40:01 See http://www.realvnc.com for information on VNC
14/08/09 14:40:01 Desktop name 'X' (debian-dev:1)
14/08/09 14:40:01 Protocol version supported 3.3
14/08/09 14:40:01 Listening for VNC connections on TCP port 5901
Font directory '/usr/share/fonts/truetype/' not found - ignoring

Fatal server error:
could not open default font 'fixed'


I solved the issue with some apt-get for dependancies as per below

apt-get install xutils xbase-clients xfonts-base xfonts-75dpi xfonts-100dpi

Ref:  http://www.debianhelp.org/node/5720

QuickSilver-esque shortcuts application on Ubuntu Debian GNU/Linux

Some of my colleagues have Apple Macs and use an application called ‘Quick Silver’ for managing frequently use application/scripts/text files/notes/ims/etc.

I was impressed with what one could do with it and began looking for something similar on Ubuntu.

There is a clone for Gnome called Gnome-Do [ http://www.gnomedo.com ] that lives up to the task pretty well from what I can gather so-far. There are some good updates in the ‘Intrepid Ibex’ release (8.10) that are not in the ‘Hardy Heron’ release (8.04), such as a more complete and useful preferences menu, more plugins and managing them individually through the applications preferences.

Try it out, after installing gnome-do, you need to set it up to launch at gnome login (easily done via the preferences in the intrepid version). Then you can invoke it with the SUPER+SPACEBAR short-cut.

Synching your Palm Tungsten|T to J-Pilot over USB on Ubuntu Debian GNU/Linux

Ok, simple enough.

Install J-Pilot (I used apt, apt-get install jpilot !)

• Navigate the menu to File -> Preferences
• Select the “Settings’ tab”
• Enter usb: in the “Serial Port” field.
• Select “OK”
• Press the HotSync button on the cradle.
• Click the HotSync button on the left of the J-Pilot window.

Next for some plugins, watch this space!

Palm Pilot: Backing stuff up over USB on Ubuntu Debian GNU/Linux

Quite easy really. Once you have the usb connection validated (see earlier post), backing up is simply a matter of :

pilot-xfer -p usb: -b ~/my-new-palm-backup-dir

You can also do a local update (-u palm-backup-dir) or a sync (-s palm-backup-dir).

Further options are available with pilot-xfer --help

Now to have a look at J-Pilot, a GUI. (no, it’s not written in Java)

Palm Tungsten T, USB, Pilot-Link, Ubuntu Debian GNU/Linux

Couldn’t get my old Palm Tungsten T to work with pilot link. After reading around and trying various things with dev files, I eventually found this post about a bug in pilot link.

Sure enough, removing the visor module with

sudo modprobe -r visor

meant the Palm now responded to

pilot-xfer -p usb: -l

and I got a lot of output about files on the Palm when I hit the sync button on the USB cradle.

So, I have added

blacklist visor

to

/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

so that module won’t be loaded in the future.

Hopefully this bodes well for my attempts at seamless synchronisation of my Palm Tungsten|T on Ubuntu

Creating labels for disks in Ubuntu Debian GNU/Linux

The ability to create or change the disk label of fat/fat32/vfat file systems/partitions doesn’t come with Parted; yet is quite simple to achieve with Ubuntu Debian GNU/Linux .

This comes in very handy when you have a number of fat devices (like USB, SD, etc) and want something more meaningful than just “disk” as its name.

Get mtools if you haven’t it already
sudo apt-get install mtools

Create a configuration file to avoid some error reporting
echo "mtools_skip_check=1" > ~/.mtoolsrc

Check where your disk is in the linux devices
mount

Label your disk
mlabel -i /dev/sdb1 -s ::my_disc

…and there you have it.

Disconnect the device and reconnect it and the label will show when it is auto mounted.

Undelete files on a vfat partition in Ubuntu Debian GNU/Linux

I have recently used the ‘photorec’ component of the ‘testdisk’ application for recovering files from FAT32 file systems.

I had used it before to recover files from general USB devices and others like Compact Flash/MMC/Secure Digital media with great success.

Then, I was focusing on recovery of photos and movies.

This time I was looking for various non-image files. Again I was suitably impressed by its coverage, and its simplicity in terms of use and speed.

They name may suggest only photos, but this is a great piece of software, regardless of what kind of file you are trying to recover.