Yakuake - An easy access console

Yakuake (Yet Another Kuake KDE terminal emulator) is a KDE console application that I use the most for months now. Before, I used to use konsole but after installing yakuake, I rarely use konsole anymore. The most important feature is the quick easy access to it by pressing a key. The key is configurable. I can't remember what is the default key for it but I choose F8 because the default is used by another application.

Installing yakuake
Debian - use synaptic or aptitude or apt-get install yakuake
Mandriva - use graphical rpmdrake or urpmi yakuake
other distros - please consult your distro documentation.

I have read a Linux mag (don't know which) that it is favorite among KDE developers and will be replacing konsole. I don't know whether this is true. Anyone can confirm this?

References:
Yakuake home page (new update)
Yakuake - An easy access konsole for KDE
More info : http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=29153

dbmail 2.2.10 released

I have just upgraded my dbmail to 2.2.10. There are bugs fixed. So upgrade is highly recommended.

Changes since 2.2.9:

- - PostgreSQL 8.3 compatibility (# 676).
- - Duplicate key errors and other insertion problems ( #685, #686).

Download:
http://www.dbmail.org/download/2.2/dbmail-2.2.10.tar.gz

Debian etch backport:
deb http://debian.nfgd.net/debian stable main

Full changelog:
http://git.dbmail.eu/?p=paul/dbmail;a=shortlog;h=v2.2.10

Refer my previous post on how to upgrade dbmail (without database schema change).

Transparent proxy with squid 2.6

I have upgraded my squid from 2.5 STABLE13 to 2.6 STABLE18. Transparent proxy is setup differently in this version. You need this directives in squid.conf (usually in /etc or /usr/local/etc or /usr/local/squid/etc, check with your distro).

acl our_networks src 192.168.2.0/24 127.0.0.1
http_access allow our_networks
http_port 192.168.2.1:3128 transparent
always_direct allow all

where 192.168.2.1 is your proxy server IP address.


If you have flushed your iptables, create new rule:

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i  eth0 -p tcp –dport  80 -j REDIRECT –to-port 3128

where 3128 is the port where squid is running.

References:
http://www.deckle.co.za/squid-users-guide/Transparent_Caching/Proxy

Squid - File size limit exceeded

Yesterday (15th Feb 2008) my squid died unexpectedly. I tried to restart it several times but to no avail. So I tried to see what went wrong by debugging and ran it in foreground. So,

squid -NCd3

N = put it in foreground
C = don't catch fatal signals
d = set debug level (3 is the level)

It threw a bunch of messages with the last line was File size limit exceeded. Just like this but I got no core dumped!. With no clue how to solve it, I recompiled squid (2.6-stable17) with extra parameters (with-max-fd=8192 and --with-large-files):

./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --enable-icmp --enable-kill-parent-hack --enable-ssl --enable-linux-netfilter --enable-large-cache-files --enable-follow-x-forwarded-for --with-large-files

It solved it. Shane reported here that this happens when file store.log is bigger that 2 GB. Disabling the use of store.log (or other relevant files for that matter) will get rid of this problem.

dbmail 2.2.9 released

From dbmail mailing-list (Feb, 9 2008):

Hi all,

I'm pleased to announce the availability of DBMail version 2.2.9, the latest in the stable/production series.

THis is a bugfix maintenance release.

Bugs fixed since 2.2.8:

DBMail - 2.2.9
==============
- 0000668: [Command-Line programs (dbmail-users, dbmail-util)]
dbmail-export segmentation fault and mbox compatibility (paul)
- 0000663: [Authentication layer] Authldap module reloads when it try to recconect
- 0000662: [Authentication layer] Ability to bypass authentication on Active Directory
- 0000660: [IMAP daemon] imapd provides better inetd compatability (paul)

Changelog:

http://git.dbmail.eu/?p=paul/dbmail;a=shortlog;h=v2.2.9

Download:

http://www.dbmail.org/download/2.2/dbmail-2.2.9.tar.gz


kind regards,
Paul Stevens paul at nfg.nl

What is dbmail?
Read here

up-imapproxy-1.2.6 released

From imapproxy-info mailing list:

Hi,

I'm pleased to announce that up-imapproxy-1.2.6 has been released and is
available for download from http://www.imapproxy.org.

Updates since 1.2.5 include:

* General daemon enhancement (closing extra file descriptors at startup,
pidfile support)

* OpenSSL is now threadsafe.

* ipv6 support added.

* In general, this code should be in sync with the debian distribution now.

Many thanks to José Luis Tallón, Jan Grant, Matt Selsky and Antonio Querubin
for their contributions to this release.  As always, thanks to Ray Link for
hosting the imapproxy.org site. If I had to pay for hosting, there probably
wouldn't be an imapproxy.org site.

Please send any bug reports, requests, questions, comments, praise, hate,
etc to this mailing list.

Thanks,

Dave

More info: imapproxy

KDE 4.0 released (at last!)

The much-awaited KDE 4.0 has been released on Friday 11 Jan 2007.

From the announcement page:

The KDE Community is thrilled to announce the immediate availability of KDE 4.0. This significant release marks both the end of the long and intensive development cycle leading up to KDE 4.0 and the beginning of the KDE 4 era.

The KDE 4 Libraries have seen major improvements in almost all areas. The Phonon multimedia framework provides platform independent multimedia support to all KDE applications, the Solid hardware integration framework makes interacting with (removable) devices easier and provides tools for better power management.

The KDE 4 Desktop has gained some major new capabilities. The Plasma desktop shell offers a new desktop interface, including panel, menu and widgets on the desktop as well as a dashboard function. KWin, the KDE Window manager, now supports advanced graphical effects to ease interaction with your windows.

Lots of KDE Applications have seen improvements as well. Visual updates through vector-based artwork, changes in the underlying libraries, user interface enhancements, new features, even new applications -- you name it, KDE 4.0 has it. Okular, the new document viewer and Dolphin, the new file manager are only two applications that leverage KDE 4.0's new technologies.

To install KDE 4.0, the experimental branch must be enabled. Add the following to /etc/apt/sources.list, then update APT.

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ experimental main non-free contrib

deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ experimental main non-free contrib

APT will not install packages from experimental unless specifically requested. To install a package from experimental, run the command:

aptitude -t experimental install kdebase kdebase-workspace


or

apt-get -t experimental install kdebase kdebase-workspace


Those are the basic packages. For other packages, please look here.

Have fun!