Geeky Nerdy

Boot messages log file

2009-04-08T15:49:00.001+02:00

Booting in linux systems is faster and faster. And that's really good news. But the side effect is that when a problem occurs, you hardly have time to read the corresponding line.
Fortunately, the boot logs are stored in the following file:

/var/log/dmesg

Serve current directory tree at http://$HOSTNAME:8000/

2009-03-31T17:31:00.001+02:00

$ python -m SimpleHTTPServer

Submitted by pixelbeat

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Unmount busy cd/dvd drive

2009-01-16T11:17:00.001+01:00

If you cannot unmount your cd/dvd drive (eject/umount commands) because it is used by a program, you can type as root:

fuser -k /media/cdrom

Delete a file safely

2008-12-01T14:57:00.001+01:00

To prevent people from retrieving secure data you want to be deleted,
you can use the shred command:

$ shred -u -v myfile

Will erase myfile.

Simple and efficient.

Have information about a running process

2008-12-01T11:27:00.001+01:00

I recently had to backup my hard drive using "dd".
I had 110 Go to backup and it takes a while.

Then, someone made me discover the magic command to get some information about the status of the process.
Typing in another console :

$ killall -USR1 dd

gave me all the information I need (number of Go copied, etc...).

Great tip !

Even better:

$ watch -n 10 killall -USR1 dd

will execute the command every 10 seconds.
Command line is great.

Log everything with shorewall

2008-10-07T09:32:00.001+02:00

If you're using shorewall as your firewall, then this tip might be useful to you.
Sometimes, your firewall blocks some access and you do not know what happens.
To know exactly what's going on on your network, just add these lines to your /etc/shorewall/rules files:

LOG:2 net net all
LOG:2 fw net all
LOG:2 net fw all
LOG:2 fw fw all

Then, with
tail -f /var/log/messages

you will see the detailed log and will be able to fix the /etc/shorewall/rules file accordingly.

End of the world

2008-10-02T14:14:00.001+02:00

pastebin

2008-09-08T16:18:00.001+02:00

Pastebin is really useful when chatting on the IRC. You can copy your logs on the site and get an url to provide to people.
I've just discovered the software pastebin (on mandriva : urpmi pastebin) that simplifies the process.
Just type:

# command | pastebin

where command is the program that generates logs and you got the url to provide to your friends.

How to prepend a line to a text file

2008-08-23T17:46:00.001+02:00

echo "text"|cat - yourfile > /tmp/out && mv /tmp/out yourfile

Google through the command line

2008-08-19T16:13:00.001+02:00

Only for geeks, it is here http://goosh.org/.

Thesaurus in the command line

2008-07-29T12:41:00.002+02:00

The following simple script from here (I added "sed -e 's/ //g'" to make it work) enables you too search any definition/synonym without leaving the command line:

#!/bin/bash

#
# Thesaurus - Find something original to say :)
#
# 2008 - Mike Golvach - eggi@comcast.net
#
# Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License
#

if [ $# -lt 1 ]
then
    echo "Usage: $0 YourThesaurusTerm"
    echo "May be two or more words separated"
    echo "by spaces, but only one definition"
    echo "per execution."
    echo "Ex: $0 goodness"
    echo "Ex: $0 goodness gracious"
    exit 1
fi

args="$@"
wget=/usr/bin/wget

if [ $# -gt 1 ]
then
    args=`echo $args|se
d 's/ /%20/g'`
fi

echo
$wget -nv -O - http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q="$args" 2>&1| egrep -i 'Synonyms:|Definition:|No results found|Thesaurus suggestions:'|se
d -e 's/ //g' -e 's/
\/>/\n/g' -e 's/<[^>]*>//g' -e 's/ / /g' -e 's/\(.\)$/\1\n/' -e 's/Would you.*$//'

exit 0

Sorting Google search results by date

2008-07-24T13:31:00.001+02:00

This feature is really missing in the google search engine. But... if you put the following line in the address bar:
javascript:window.location+=%22&as_qdr=d%22;
Then, a listbox will appear to restrict the search results depending on various criteria (last 24 hours, 7 days, month, 2 months etc...).
To avoid having to cut and paste the above code on a regular basis, you can make it a bookmark (firefox or delicious for instance).

This is THE phone for the geeks

2008-07-08T10:25:00.002+02:00

This linux-based phone uses the OpenSource OpenMoko OS.

Featuring AGP, Bluetooth, Wifi, motion sensors, it can be considered as an OpenSource Enhanced version of the iPhone. Learn more about this jewel here.

I want to have one !

Nice try

2008-06-13T10:29:00.004+02:00

The Big Bang Theory

2008-06-09T11:57:00.002+02:00

I've just discovered this situtation comedy specially addressing the everyday life of geeky nerdy room mates.
It's nammed "The Big Bang Theory" and it's really worth watching.

Install wife

2008-06-02T11:17:00.001+02:00

Voice stress analysis

2008-05-28T15:26:00.002+02:00

Want to thrill like in a spy movie ? Need to check information from an untrusted person ? Or just want to have fun ?
Then you might try the LiarLiar soft than can detect the stress in your voice.

have fun !

Remember pulseaudio configuration

2008-05-26T17:27:00.002+02:00

Pulseaudio is a great software. Problem is it seems not to remember the settings you set through padevchooser. Hence, you have to apply them again and again each time your machine restarts.

But there is a solution to change the pulseaudio default configuration once and for all ?

First try the working command using pacmd. Once you found the right command to apply, write it in the /etc/pulse/default.pa file.

As an example, I have two sound cards and I wanted the default configuration to output the sound to both soundcards. thus I added the line:

set-default-sink combined