Book review: Implementing SAMBA 4

Samba is a Windows implementation of sharing files and folders in Linux world. It is a favorite way of sharing your files on Linux with Windows users. But its use is much more than that. It can also act as servers of various roles.

Implementing SAMBA 4 is a book worth reading for Linux admins, system engineers or anybody who plan to use and master SAMBA configurations. In this version, a new feature, Active Directory Domain Controller (AD DC) is the most sought after by admins. This will let you configure SAMBA 4 as an AD DC. Using Debian 7 as the OS, I found no problem with it although many admins out there are using Fedora/Red Hat/CentOS as the main distros of choice.

Looking at the table of contents, I can say this book is not for beginners. So you have been warned. :)

Reading the sample chapter provided (Chapter 3), this book is an interesting to read. Steps are shown in pictures and clearly explained. Although I have little knowledge of AD DC, this book will make it easier for you to understand the steps needed by lots of screenshots.

Other topics mentioned that I found important and interesting are:

• Understand the migration steps from Samba 3 to Samba 4
• Integrate GNU/Linux operating system authentication into the AD
• Understand the tasks and attention points when replacing a Microsoft Windows AD

If you are looking for a reading to better understand on how to configure SAMBA 4 for your AD DC, I recommend this kind of book.

Using mail command to send email using SMTP AUTH and no SSL

This is the command to send email using mail server with SMTP AUTH.

mail -v -s "Testing SMTP AUTH from mail command" -S smtp-auth=login -S smtp=smtp://mysmtpmailserver.com:587 -S from=me@mysmtpmailserver.com -S smtp-auth-user=me -S smtp-auth-password=mypassword mybuddy@somehost.com


-v = verbose
-s = subject
-S = option

For more options and info, please type man mail or info mail.
The last email address is the recipient address.
You can replace mail with mailx.

This command is useful to test your mailserver setup without login to GUI.

Have fun! :)

Apache redirection

I want to redirect all of my users who go to www.mywebmailserver.com to webmail.mywebmailserver.com. I have learned that from my googling, there are 2 popular ways to do it in apache web server. First, by using mod_rewrite and second, I can use redirect. The latter is the simplest. So I chose it. :)

Put this in vhost container.

NameVirtualHost www.mywebmailserver.com
<virtualhost www.mywebmailserver.com>
ServerName www.mywebmailserver.com
Redirect 301 / http://webmail.mywebmailserver.com/
</virtualhost>

In Mageia 4, the file is located in /etc/httpd/conf/vhosts.d and the file name is 00_default_vhosts.conf

That's it. Restart or reload apache for the changes to take effect.

Have fun!

Mageia 4 and HP Laserjet P1102 can't print

Hi all,

Since upgrading my Mageia 3 to 4, I never test my printer. It worked in Mageia 3. I never knew that it was going to give me a headache LoL. It didn't work!. I tried reinstalling the CUPS, the driver, and even changing the USB cable. It was after 2 weeks of busy schedule, I thought I wanted to try to find a solution.

After googling a bit, I found out from a post which I didnt remember to bookmark it, the culprit was the usblp module. Remove it by rmmod usblp and the printer could print again. I could say the problem is the module conflicts with the HP printer driver. Your mileage may vary.

Have fun!

Chromium becomes sluggish

For so many months now I find my Chromium becomes sluggish. I thought it is because of scripts that I installed to play games on Facebook but I never tried to search for a solution until recently. A blog post by Kostya Vasilyev here reveals the real culprit. Since I disabled the plugin, my Chromium becomes stable and fast again. Thanks buddy. The steps are the same although the plugin name is not.

Here are the steps:

1. Type  chrome://plugins in the address bar
2. Find the plugin named Chromoting Viewer
3. Disable it
4. Done.

You may want to restart your browser although it is not necessary.

Mageia 4

Mageia 4 has been released on Feb 3rd 2014. For Mageia 3 users, you will get a notification to upgrade. Just click on it and after answer a few questions, you're set to go. I just did that and at the time of this writing, I'm using Mageia 4. 

From my point of view, I didn't notice any major differences in terms of usability beside the usual change of wallpapers, screensavers and a little bit of widgets. I'm sure, overtime I will find more and more. The Welcome dialog (see below) is a very good approach for newcomers and newbies alike to Mageia world. 

For those who are in search of a distro, Mageia is worth to try.

Enjoy!

ralink firmware

In Mageia, not all packages from non-free repo are installed by default. One of them is ralink-firmware. In Mageia 2, various ralink wireless firmwares are separated in many packages like rt61-, rt2860-, rt2870-, rt3090-, rt73-. Now they are bundled in one package.

If you connect external wireless hardware that uses those rt chipsets family, you have to install this package. Please examine your syslog for the error in loading the driver such as this:

Dec 24 18:54:00 localhost kernel: ieee80211 phy1: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Loading firmware file 'rt2870.bin'
Dec 24 18:54:00 localhost kernel: ieee80211 phy1: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Error - Failed to request Firmware

Install the firmware by issuing :

urpmi ralink-firmware

or you can use rpmdrake GUI for that.

Cheers.