Archive for May, 2008

Solaris 10 post-installation tasks

Friday, May 30th, 2008

This post outlines some of the post-installation tasks I usually perform after a fresh Solaris 10 installation. Note that this is my own approach and that it is based on x86 archictecture.

The first general tasks involve linuxifying the new environment and setting some environment variables:

a) Changing root account settings:

vi /etc/passwd
root:x:0:0:Super-User:/root:/usr/bin/bash

b) Creating a directory for the root account:

mkdir /root
mv /.bash* /root
mv /.sunw /root

c) Modifying /etc/profile or /root/.bash_profile according to my preferences:

PS1=’[33[01;31m]SERVER-NAME [33[00m]u@h:[33[01;34m]w[33[00m]$ ‘

alias la=”ls -alh”
alias cp=”cp -i”
alias mv=”mv -i”
alias rm=”rm -i”

PATH=/opt/csw/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/openwin/bin:/usr/dt/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:$PATH
export PATH

export TERM=xterm

d) Network stuff:

vi /etc/resolv.conf

search mydomain.com
nameserver 192.168.1.2

vi /etc/defaultrouter

192.168.1.1

cd /etc
cp nsswitch.dns nsswitch.conf

e) Once finished this basic configuration, I usually install and configure PKG-GET for the package management:

mkdir /tmp/karkoma

cd /tmp/karkoma

/usr/sfw/bin/wget http://www.blastwave.org/pkg_get.pkg
pkgadd -d pkg_get.pkg all

/usr/sfw/bin/wget http://www.blastwave.org/wget-i386.bin
chmod 755 wget-i386.bin

PATH=/tmp/karkoma:/opt/csw/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/dt/bin:/usr/openwin/bin:/usr/ccs/bin
export PATH

vi /opt/csw/etc/pkg-get.conf

Change this file according to your needs, remember to pick a mirror nearest to you. Then continue with the following:

pkg-get -i wget

PATH=/opt/csw/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/openwin/bin:/usr/dt/bin:/usr/ccs/bin
export PATH

pkg-get -i gnupg

Note that by adding the PATH to /etc/profile it will be available system wide.

f) Add users to your new environment:

mkdir -p /export/home
useradd -d /export/home/username -m -s /bin/bash -c “Franz Kafka” username
passwd username

g) Finally disable un-needed services

svcadm disable sendmail
svcadm disable ftp
svcadm disable telnet
svcadm disable finger

That’s all. Now, what kind of tasks do you perform in a fresh installation?

References:

Another alternative to Bind: Unbound DNS server

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

DJBDNS, MaraDNS… and now another player in the DNS servers ground: Unbound.

Unbound is a validating, recursive, and caching DNS resolver.

The C implementation of Unbound is developed and maintained by NLnet Labs. It is based on ideas and algorithms taken from a java prototype developed by Verisign labs, Nominet, Kirei and ep.net.

Unbound is designed as a set of modular components, so that also DNSSEC (secure DNS) validation and stub-resolvers (that do not run as a server, but are linked into an application) are easily possible.

The source code is under a BSD License.

Unbound 1.0.0 was released in May 20.

Nine Inch Nails’ new album under Creative Commons

Monday, May 5th, 2008

You know that this kind of post is not usual in this site but I think it worth it. According to their web site:

as a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new nine inch nails album one hundred percent free, exclusively via nin.com.

the music is available in a variety of formats including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE. your link will include all options – all free. all downloads include a PDF with artwork and credits.

the slip is licensed under a creative commons attribution non-commercial share alike license.

This people is really a pioneer in the music world. Congratullations to their fans.