upgrading zlib

I have to upgrade my zlib to version 1.2.3 to upgrade clamav 0.93. If you have recent version (after July 18,2005), you might have it installed already. For older distros, upgrade is a must to avoid security vulnerabilities in 1.2.1 and 1.2.2. You can download the source code here : http://www.zlib.net/zlib-1.2.3.tar.gz

Install from source.
1. unpack the source : tar xzvf zlib-1.2.3.tar.gz
2. change to source dir: cd zlib-1.2.3
3. configure it: ./configure --shared --prefix=/usr
4. 'make' it: make
5. install it: make install (this will install the library in dir /usr)

Extra check:
1. Go to /usr/lib and check whether symbolic links are ok :
[root@proxy lib]# ls -l libz*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 May 16 06:29 libz.so -> libz.so.1.2.3*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 May 16 06:29 libz.so.1 -> libz.so.1.2.3*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 82305 May 16 06:29 libz.so.1.2.3*

If old libraries are still lying around or libz.so and libz.so.1 point to old library e.g libz.so -> libz.so.1.2.1, delete them.

That's all there is to it.

Reference:
zlib home

Installing CentOS 5.1

Hi all,

I am installing CentOS 5.1 to a machine at my friend's office. I had to download 7 ISOs beforehand but it needs only 5 CDs for complete installation (depending on what packages I want to install). I might have downloaded the DVD iso but since I don't have DVD-RW drive, I chose to download the CD ISOs.

The machine is HP Proliant 350 G5 with Intel Xeon processor and it is a 64-bit machine (as all modern Xeon processors are). The machine has been installed Fedora Core 5 before and it had many problems as FC5 is designed for desktop and not server. This should be expected. The machine will be used for database, dhcp and DNS server.

Compiz-Fusion on Mandriva Spring 2008

Upgrading Mandriva 2008 to Mandriva 2008.1 aka Mandriva Spring

Screenshot of KDE 4 on Mandriva Spring 2008

Here are the steps to upgrade mandriva 2008 to 2008.1 via online repos.

1) Back up the current urpmi.cfg
2) Change the repos mentioned in urpmi.cfg from 2008.0 to 2008.1
3) Run urpmi.update -a to verify repos
4) urpmi --auto-update -v

If there are problems with dependencies, remove the old versions (notably KDE4 as in my experience, yours maybe with different packages). Then in some cases you have to run this command:

5) urpmi --auto-select

Relax and sit back while watching the packages being upgraded. For my system, almost 1600 packages upgraded. Lastly, you will be instructed to reboot the system because of kernel and dbus upgrade. So far the new system is running smoothly without problem.

reference: Mandriva Forum

My history of commands

Based on kagesenshi's post titled Me! Me!, I also want to know what commands were used by me regularly. So:

[zamri@localhost ~]$ history | awk '{a[$2]++ } END{for(i in a){print a[i] " " i}}'|sort -rn|head
126 ssh
100 ls
97 smbclient
86 cd
76 su
58 wine
48 ping
35 joe
32 exit
17 ps

There you go. The ouput isn't surprising. I did lots of ssh to my servers and wine (ahaaa!! surprise!), I played windows games a lot for the last 4 months. Now I stop playing 'em completely. It is boring when you always win. :P

clamav 0.93 released

I just feel like it was yesterday I upgraded my clamav to 0.92.1. Now it is version 0.93. I gotta upgrade it ASAP. Thanks to the spirit of OSS. The excitement will never end. :)

Changes since 0.92.1:

  * libclamav:
   - New logic in scan limits: provides much more efficient protection against
     DoS attacks but also results in different command line and config options
     to clamscan and clamd (see below)
   - New/improved modules: unzip, SIS, cabinet, CHM, SZDD, text normalisator,
     entity converter
   - Improved filetype detection; filetype definitions can be remotely updated
   - Support for .cld containers (which replace .inc directories)
   - Improved pattern matcher and signature formats
   - More efficient scanning of HTML files
   - Many other improvements

 * clamd:
   - NEW CONFIG FILE OPTIONS: MaxScanSize, MaxFileSize, MaxRecursion, MaxFiles
   - ** THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS ARE NO LONGER SUPPORTED **: MailMaxRecursion,
     ArchiveMaxFileSize, ArchiveMaxRecursion, ArchiveMaxFiles,
     ArchiveMaxCompressionRatio, ArchiveBlockMax

 * clamscan:
   - NEW CMDLINE OPTIONS: --max-filesize, --max-scansize
   - REMOVED OPTIONS: --block-max, --max-space, --max-ratio

 * freshclam:
   - NEW CONFIG OPTION CompressLocalDatabase
   - NEW CMDLINE SWITCH --no-warnings
   - main.inc and daily.inc directories are no longer used by ClamAV; please
     remove them manually from your database directory

Please note the new config file options.

Well... happy upgrading!. :)

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