This tutorial explains how to use the GeoIP module with nginx to block visitors by country. This is made possible by the GeoIP database which maps users’ IP addresses to countries. nginx must be compiled with the HttpGeoipModule to use the GeoIP database.

squidGuard is flexible and ultra fast filter, redirector and access controller plugin for squid proxy server (it works with both squid version 2.x and 3.x). It lets you define multiple access rules with different restrictions for different user groups on a squid cache. squidGuard uses squid’s standard redirector interface.

You need to use hostapd server as access point and authentication servers. It implements IEEE 802.11 access point management, IEEE 802.1X/WPA/WPA2/EAP Authenticators, RADIUS client, EAP server, and RADIUS authentication server. The current version supports Linux:

This guide explains how you can create advanced virtual hosts on a lighttpd web server on Debian Squeeze that are stored in a MySQL database. The method described here does not use the lighttpd mod_mysql_vhost module, and unlike mod_mysql_vhost (which allows you to store only the hostname and document root of a vhost in a [...]

Akhil Vij has called on the Debian developers list to help test his software, “systemd-to-sysvinit-converter”, which can take a systemd configuration file and create sysvinit scripts based on it. It does this by analysing the service units within the systemd file and emulating the required functionality in the generated scripts.

I know how to setup a firewall under RHEL / Fedora and CentOS Linux quickly. How do I setup a host-based firewall under Debian or Ubuntu Linux server or desktop system? How do I install Shoreline firewall (Shorewall) utility to build firewall based on the Netfilter under Debian or Ubuntu Linux?

This guide explains how you can use mod_mysql_vhost to create simple virtual hosts on a lighttpd web server on Debian Squeeze. With mod_mysql_vhost, lighttpd can read the vhost configuration from a MySQL database. Currently, you can store the domain and the document root in the MySQL database which results in very simple virtual hosts. If [...]

Most Debian source packages are using the “3.0 (quilt)” format. This means that Debian changes to upstream files are managed in a quilt patch series. Knowledge of quilt is thus a must if you want to get involved in some serious packaging work. Don’t worry, this tutorial will teach you how to use quilt in [...]

Avant Window Navigator (AWN or Awn) is a fully customisable dock-like bar for the GNOME desktop environment.This quick blog post explains how to install and use Avant Window Navigator (AWN) under Debian Linux 6.x+.

I love titles like that. Anyway, I am intensely enjoying being back in Debian-space, and I am slowly accreting small mechanisms of usefulness around me. Vim keystrokes are bleeding out everywhere. My caps lock is now a Meta key, and springs up little windows when I dance on it.

I would like to install something from source code. The site says that I need to download it from git repository. How do I download a git repository under Debian / Ubuntu Linux? Get the explanation in this guide

The Emerald Window Decorator is a custom window decorator shipped with Compiz Fusion that allows for theming and full composite window decorations with the use of engines.

In this post I will explain how to install compiz on Debian Linux 6 with NVIDIA GPU. However, instructions should also work on Debian lenny and Intel 3000 or latest Intel 4000 video cards.

The NVIDIA Linux proprietary unified drivers supports various features such as 3d rendering, opengl and much more. This post covers installing and configuring NVIDIA’s proprietary graphic card driver for Debian Linux 6 amd64.

When you rent a dedicated server nowadays, almost all providers give you FTP backup space for your server on one of the provider’s backup systems. This tutorial shows how you can use duplicity and duply to create encrypted (so that nobody with access to the backup server can read sensitive data in your backups) backups [...]

This instruction describes how to install Debian Squeeze on an iBook with a G3 PPC CPU. It is the way that worked for me and it might be usefull for others who want to bring back some live to a nice little machine.

Though my track record with in-place upgrades of Linux/Unix systems is far from positive, I decided to do just that with my long-running (since late 2010) Debian Squeeze laptop today. It went surprisingly well — and by that I mean I’m using a fully upgraded Debian Wheezy laptop to create this post in Nautilus via [...]

A quick tip for Debian users who want to install and stay up to date with the latest Oracle Java 7 (JDK7): the WebUpd8 Java 7 PPA works on Debian too since the package is just an installer and all you have to do is manually add the PPA repository to the Software Sources.

FTP is a very insecure protocol because all passwords and all data are transferred in clear text. By using TLS, the whole communication can be encrypted, thus making FTP much more secure. This article explains how to set up vsftpd with TLS on a Debian Squeeze server.

A hacker has found a way to get root access to the Linux based firmware of Sony Bravia TV’s. The root access was gained by using a Python script that goes by the name Nimue and which is available on Github.

In this tutorial I’m goning to show you how to get phpMyAdmin running on your Raspberry Pi, that means I’m already going to assume you have MySQL, PHP, Apache and SSH access already set up, if you don’t you can follow these tutorials that I wrote earlier to get you started

At the time of writing, Debian 7.0 is still in it’s testing phase, so if you’re reading from the future, your mileage my vary. Here is a short guide of how to make encrypted disks on Wheezy.

I write a lot of little Python scripts. And I use Ubuntu and Debian. So why aren’t any of my scripts packaged for those distros? Because Debian packaging is absurdly hard, and there’s very little documentation on how to do it. In particular, there’s no help on how to take something small, like a Python [...]

Running an OS meant for a traditional computer on an Android phone is always an interesting experience. As such, most devices—even older ones—are given the option to load Linux at some point. This is the case for the Sony Ericsson Xperia X8, as it can now run Debian, and quite well, at that.

Here are the steps to compile a kernel from source in debian based systems. These steps have worked successfully on debian 6.0 (linux 2.6.32) – You will need a package by the name kernel-package, which implements the commands required for compilation, hence run

Then Gallery2 was released which used a database, either MySQL or PostgreSQL, and was a huge improvement in speed. My main galleries do have about 10-20.000 pictures each. But Gallery2 is aged nowadays and the next logical step would be to migrate to Gallery3. But what a mess!

We’re pleased to announce that — after 5 months of work — the Debian Administrator’s Handbook is now available, both as a beautiful 495-page paperback and as an ebook (PDF, EPUB, MOBI formats).

mylvmbackup is a Perl script for quickly creating MySQL backups. It uses LVM’s snapshot feature to do so. To perform a backup, mylvmbackup obtains a read lock on all tables and flushes all server caches to disk, creates a snapshot of the volume containing the MySQL data directory, and unlocks the tables again. This article [...]

This is the first in a line of tutorials I am working on for less experienced linux users to effectively use their VPS. I’ve been tinkering with a little script that some of you might find helpful, it’s designed to install LXDE and NoMachine on a fresh VPS installation.

EncFS provides an encrypted filesystem in user-space. It runs without any special permissions and uses the FUSE library and Linux kernel module to provide the filesystem interface. It is a pass-through filesystem, not an encrypted block device, which means it is created on top of an existing filesystem. This tutorial shows how you can use [...]