Recently in Debian Category

Logging Email From PHP Scripts

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This is more a note for myself than anything else ...

By default a lot of php scripts will send emails that appear as coming from the Apache user, which makes tracking down a rogue script really annoying and time-consuming.

You end up with entries in the mail logs similar to this one:

Apr 27 18:22:29 servername postfix/qmgr[23581]: 0F53421C1FA: from=<www-data@servername.com>, size=929, nrcpt=1 (queue active)

Which isn't particularly helpful if you have more than one site (vhost) on a particular server.

Making it a bit saner can be done via a simple addition to the Apache vhost config:

php_admin_value sendmail_path '/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i -f address@domain.tld'

So now any emails sent from that vhost will reference the email specified instead of the Apache user:

Apr 27 19:40:34 servername postfix/qmgr[2469]: 16A8F21C1FA: from=<address@domain.tld>, size=358, nrcpt=1 (queue active)

There are other additions to Php that can log the path to the script itself, though until such time as someone makes it available for Debian / Ubuntu I don't really fancy having to compile it in manually

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Pidgin 2.5.5

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pidgin logo

I hadn't had any issues with either Pidgin or Adium since the minor issue back in January.

However, as of yesterday, ICQ was refusing to work on Pidgin.

Seemingly there was a new release of Pidgin (2.5.5), however Ubuntu hadn't released a packaged version.

Since Pidgin is open source and they release the source files it is possible for a user to create their own Ubuntu / Debian package (.deb), however I don't like doing that unless I really really have to.

Fortunately there are other people out there who are more than capable of packaging files, so you can get a working set of .deb files here.

In order to install the new version of Pidgin you will need to remove the old one first. You won't lose your configuration settings by removing the old version (unless you purge it completely). You can probably do that via the UI, however it's just as easy to do it from the command line as root:
apt-get remove pidgin

Download all the .deb files from the site I linked to above and install each of them using:
dpkg -i filename.deb

The last one you install should be pidgin itself (the version I got was pidgin_2.5.5-1~getdeb1_i386.deb), so the command would be:
dpkg -i pidgin_2.5.5-1~getdeb1_i386.deb

It seems to be working fine now, so I'm happy.

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Cross Browser Testing Makes Sense

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Trying to get sites to display identically across multiple browsers and multiple operating systems is awkward. This site probably doesn't display particularly well on all browsers, but I'm not a professional web designer / developer, so you'll have to excuse me. It's also not a corporate / business website trying to sell products or services to the public.

Screenclick, however, is a business website.

Earlier this evening I decided to visit it on my Mac using Firefox. Apart from the really annoying splash page, which doesn't do anything useful, the main page does not load correctly in Firefox 3 on the Mac:
screenclick-firefox-mac.png

Now if you open the same page in Safari you seem something totally different:
screenclick-safari.pngWhy?

Seemingly somebody decided to use Microsoft's Silverlight, but didn't bother to do a simple plugin check that would either prompt the user to install the plugin or gracefully degrade.

I won't be able to view their site on my Linux desktop either, as Silverlight isn't available for Linux (there is a port, but last time I checked there wasn't a native Debian / Ubuntu version available)

UPDATE: I've now moved to my Ubuntu Linux desktop and this is what I get:

The wonderfully helpful splash page (do they honestly expect me to continue browsing after seeing that?)

screenclick ubuntu linux

and the inner page (for some odd reason it's actually telling me that I need Silverlight now, whereas it wasn't on my Mac!)

screenclick-ubuntu-mainpage.png


PS: For a slightly different view on the Screenclick site check out Hugh's post

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Mackers SMS Script Rocks!

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I've used the Mackers SMS script on and off over the last couple of years, but I don't think I've ever mentioned how cool and useful it is.

I tried to get the OSX desktop widget to work, but it threw a rather annoying and unhelpful error message. Fortunately the Debian / Ubuntu version is a total breeze to install, so I was up and running again in a couple of minutes.

I'm not a very heavy texter, but I can't see the point in paying for something if I don't have to ie. I get a certain number of free texts every month, so I might as well use them!


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Linux Is Bad For Your Health

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Whoever is behind XKCD is a genius.

Today's gem is pure geek, but linux zealots will appreciate it (click to enlarge):

cautionary-linux.png


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Check Which Version of Ubuntu You're Running

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Ubuntu logo

Image via Wikipedia

If you want to check which version of Ubuntu is installed on a machine run the following command:

lsb_release -a

On Debian the command is:

cat /etc/debian_version

The redhat equivalent, which would work on redhat derivatives as well, is:

cat /etc/redhat-release


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XKCD on Debian / Ubuntu SSH Security Holes

The guys at XKCD have done it again!

I took delivery of some of their tshirts this morning, as well as my Top Gun tshirt
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Debian (and Ubuntu) SSH / OpenSSL Security Hole

ubuntulogo.png
Earlier today both Debian and Ubuntu maintainers announced a serious security issue with both Open SSH and Open SSL.


There is, of course, a post about it on SlashDot, but if you'd rather skip the crud (ie. some of the rather inane comments) and are running a Debian (or derivative system such as Ubuntu) do a dist-upgrade as soon as you can.

If you're using SSH keys you'll need to generate fresh ones, as any keys currently "in the wild" maybe vulnerable to brute force attacks.
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Ubuntu on Dell

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Dell has launched its range of Ubuntu powered desktops. At present the product range is only available for purchase in the US. If you go to the dedicated OSS site you will be greeted with this (click to enlarge) : Ubuntu on Dell - landing page image and the product page has the following: (click to enlarge) Ubuntu on Dell - product page image The introductory text is pretty clear:
ou asked, we listened. For advanced users and tech enthusiasts, we’re happy to offer a new open-source operating system, so you can dive in and truly enjoy a PC experience just the way you want it. In addition to the FreeDOS systems we already offer, we are proud to announce PCs with Ubuntu. Not sure Open Source is for You? The main thing to note is that when you choose open source you don’t get a Windows® operating system. If you’re here by mistake and you are looking for a Dell PC with Windows.....
I wonder how long before we'll be able to order these from Dell in Europe ....
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Dig on windows

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For a variety of reasons I'm currently using windows as my desktop at home (this will probably change as soon as I have the energy to do something about it :) ) In any case I ran into an interesting issue this evening with a domain's DNS. While I could see that the root nameservers had picked up the change and any server on our network could see the new IP, my windows desktop couldn't. I wanted to see what was going on, so I grabbed a copy of dig for windows. It's a handy little package that also includes a command line whois. Seemingly it was ported from debian and can handle most things quite well (it didn't know what to do with a .mobi though!)
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