JasperServer appServerDir

By following the instructions here, I was trying to install JasperServer from a war file distribution when I hit a wall.

The buildomatic scripts fail at finding the right appServerDir value set at default.master.properties. The trick here is to simply use the "/" instead of the Windoze "\" separator when setting its value at default.master.properties

To check if the configuration of the said file is correct, you need to execute js-ant gen-config

Installing Webmin on Ubuntu

As a SysAd, I find Webmin invaluable. Almost all I needed to do can be done from Webmin such MySQL, mail and web administration. I have been using it for 7 years and I have no complaints whatsoever. Best of all, its free (but support is available if you want it)!

If you have not heard of Webmin, here is the description from http://webmin.com:

Webmin is a web-based interface for system administration for Unix. Using any modern web browser, you can setup user accounts, Apache, DNS, file sharing and much more. Webmin removes the need to manually edit Unix configuration files like /etc/passwd, and lets you manage a system from the console or remotely.

Installin it on Ubuntu is easy. Just download the package on the console by:

1) wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin_1.500_all.deb
2) dpkg -i webmin_1.500_all.deb
3) apt-get install -f


Now its done. Enjoy!

Repair Perl Locale Errors

Thanks for this article , I was able to fix my perl locale errors on Karmic Koala.

Error Messages:

perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
LANGUAGE = (unset),
LC_ALL = "en_US",
LC_CTYPE = "en_US.UTF-8",
LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory

This is the solution:

sudo apt-get install language-pack-en-base
sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

DBCC SHRINKFILE - MSSQL2000

The easiest way to shrink Transaction Logs in MSSQL 2000 is to use the GUI (Enterprise Manager). I had so much pain and agitation using DBCC SHRINKFILE and other commands related to this using MS SQL Analyzer.

You had been warned! :D

perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:

If you ever get this from an Ubuntu install:

perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
LANGUAGE = (unset),
LC_ALL = "en_US.utf8",
LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory

Just do:

you may have to regen the locales using "locale-gen " where localename is the name of the locale you want to regenerate (e.g. "en_US.UTF-8"), then "dpkg-reconfigure locales"

ref: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=75493

Find files based on modification time and copy to new directory

I've been trying to find a script to copy files from one directory to another. I stumbled upon this article but I don't want to download scripts to the server. Trying to modify it had eaten a lot of time, since I'm a bash noob.

Resolved to find a simple answer, I experimented with moving files using the find command:

find -fprintf outfile 'mv "%h/%f" targetdir"%h/%f" \n';

After generating the outfile, I chickened-out and decided to copy the files instead. One stumbling block was that plain cp by itself does not copy directories recursively.

I found the answer here:

find . -name "*.mp3" -exec cp -v --parents {} /new/directory \;

The --parents option saved the day for me.

Mount a USB Drive in an old Linux Distro

I always forget this, prompting me to search the web everytime...

To mount a USB device in an old distro such as RH9, just plug the device and wait for a few moments before typing dmesg. The output should list a new device at /dev/sd?. Once you know this, you can mount it using mount -t auto /dev/sd? /mnt/usb if you have created /mnt/usb prior to that. If not, then create a similarly named directory under the /mnt folder or wherever you want to mount it.

If you cannot find anything useful from dmesg output, type modprobe -r ehci_hcd once you plug the disk while you are already in gnome. In that way, you remove the module

ehci_hcd

and the module

ohci_hcd

handles the disk automounting process