Sometimes web page Javascript will disallow you to auto fill your saved password credentials. In recent versions of Firefox there’s now a way to fill out credentials without digging into preferences -> security -> saved passwords. Simply enter the username and hit tab. From there you can right click into the password field and there should be an on option to “fill password”. Select the user and off you go. See below for illustration. Continue reading
Always Fill Saved Credentials in Firefox
Posted in open source, sysadmin
Tagged firefox, password, security, tip, web browser
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How to Manually Create/Tune an Elasticsearch Index
The ELK stack provides a very powerful set of tools that allow administrators and developers unfettered access and customizable log aggregation across any manner of server, application or device. Recently I needed to stand up a new ELK stack on a new environment and ran into an “Unable to fetch mapping, Do you have indices matching the pattern?” error. This is how I fixed it. Continue reading
Posted in open source, sysadmin
Tagged elasticsearch, elk, linux, logging, logstash, sysadmin
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Learning OpenStack Networking (Neutron) 2nd Edition
I’ve recently had the pleasure of editing/reviewing the new second edition OpenStack Neutron book by James Denton. It’s published by Pakt Publishing who has also published a few other OpenStack-related books, including one by Dan Radez on OpenStack Essentials.
OpenStack Neutron is one of more mystifying components of OpenStack and James does a great job of dispelling the complexity in easy-to-read examples and real world usage. While the focus is on Ubuntu-based distributions the concepts and takeaway is universal. You can order from Amazon pre-order or from Packt Pub today.
Funcamp Open Source Game Servers
Recently I posted guides around playing actively maintained free/Open Source games like Enemy Territory: Legacy, or Urban Terror. I’ve set up a few game servers for the general public in my free time and I’ll list them here along with details and statistics. All of these games are free to play and run natively on Linux (and also Windows and OSX) and aren’t very demanding on your computer resources. Continue reading
Posted in gaming, open source
Tagged enemy territory, funcamp, gaming, linux gameservers, linux gaming, open source, public, urban terror
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Play Enemy Territory Legacy! (Linux, Mac, Windows)
In my previous post about Enemy Territory I mentioned an active, maintained fork of this infamous Splash Damage WWII RPG-shooter from the mid-2000’s. I found time to install, play and setup servers for Enemy Territory: Legacy – If you’re looking for a fun, free Open Source class-based FPS this is it. Continue reading
Rate Limiting and Multicast on Dell Force10 Switches
Sometimes it’s hard finding extensive, easily digestible documentation on FTOS running on the Dell Force10 switch platform. Recently we had to apply simple rate limiting against ports generating more bandwidth than they should but not get too in the weeds with QoS policies. Also, we’ve needed to enable controls to throttle multicast traffic. I hope this information proves useful for someone else. Continue reading
Posted in open source, sysadmin
Tagged dell, force10, ftos, multicast, networking, rate limiting, switch, sysadmin
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Batchelor’s Breakfast (Fried Egg, Salmon, Toast)
Here’s a really easy, quick breakfast tip that requires hardly any time and preparation. I dare call it a recipe because it’s so easy to make, but perhaps some folks haven’t thought of it. I usually eat this once or twice a week for breakfast – one normally or two if I’m extra hungry. Today we’ll be making two because it’s that kind of morning. This normally feeds two reasonable people, Let’s get started. Continue reading
Urban Terror: Fun, Free FPS Game
Urban Terror is a free first person shooter based on the Open Source Quake III engine that advertises itself as a “Hollywood tactical shooter.” It’s native for Linux, Mac and Windows like Enemy Territory, but uses realistic weapons, damage models and terrain. It’s been in active development since 1999. Here’s how to get started. Continue reading
Posted in gaming, open source
Tagged free FPS, gaming, linux, linux gaming, open source, urban terror
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Play Enemy Territory! (Linux, Mac, Windows)
Enemy Territory is a free, Open Source multi-player first-person shooter video game set during World War II. It was created in 2003 by Splash Damage and runs great on low-end hardware. It features a well-designed class and progression system. I’ve run an Enemy Territory server for quite some time, you can download the game and play it for free on my server or others online. Continue reading
Posted in gaming, open source
Tagged enemy territory, gaming, linux, linux gaming, open source, retro gaming
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Create vsftpd Users the Easy Way
The FTP protocol has been around a long time, some of us remember using it fondly while others might shudder at the very mention of its name. The fact remains it’s not going away, and it does what it’s supposed to do very well: lightweight file transfer. Wrap this with TLS and it’s a fairly secure, cross-platform way of remote file transfer. A simple, lightweight but feature-filled FTP daemon I prefer is VSFTPD, but managing virtual users is still a manual process. I’ve written a simple user creation tool to make virtual users. Let’s get started. Continue reading
Posted in open source, sysadmin
Tagged automation, ftp, linux, open source, sysadmin, vsftpd
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Vegetarian Zucchini Pasta
This is a traditional Neapolitan recipe for vegetarian zucchini pasta popular in 19th century Napoli. It’s simple, quick and delicious. Total cost is around 6€, feeds two and takes around 30minutes. Prices listed are for Dublin, Ireland. Let’s get started. Continue reading
Take Control of your Email with Mutt, OfflineIMAP and Notmuch
I’ve been an avid user of the Mutt email client for quite some time, preferring it to GUI clients or web for its speed, hotkey-everything approach, and integration with vim that compliment my daily workflow. Still, I found search functionality lacking compared to Thunderbird or other GUI clients. Mutt has built-in, powerful regex search but I sought something more intuitive – I could never remember the arcane syntax for it to be timely but I didn’t want to bother with a cumbersome GUI for searching and indexing. Here is how I combined Mutt, OfflineIMAP and Notmuch into a powerful email/search system to take back my inbox. Continue reading
Posted in open source, sysadmin
Tagged email, gmail offlineimap mutt, linux, mutt, neomutt offlineimap linux, notmuch, notmuch mutt offlineimap, offlineimap, productivity, sysadmin
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Getting OpenStack Tenant Info by Floating IP Address
When running a public cloud you sometimes need to obtain user or tenant information quickly based on their public IP address. Here is a simple shell tool to accomplish this rather than having to piece together information in several commands, looking in several places. Continue reading
Posted in open source, sysadmin
Tagged cloud, openstack, public cloud, sysadmin, tooling
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Make OpenStack Glance Images Accessible to Selective Tenants
Recently I needed to make a Glance image available to a specific user but not make it public. In this example an image needed to be available only to the services tenant and owner. There’s a facility for this inside the native Glance CLI client tool called glance member-create. This works by associating a list of tenants who can access the image. Continue reading
Stout-basted Toulouse Sausages and Vegetables
This is a more experimental recipe for seasoned French Toulouse sausages tossed in Siren Brewing Broken Dreams stout. The sweetness and consistency of the stout contrasts well with the assortment of spices and the strong taste of Toulouse sausages. This feeds two, takes 20minutes and cost me about €8 in Dublin, Ireland. The stout we used cost more than all the ingredients however. Let’s get started. Continue reading
