Bye bye blog

This blog was started with some great intentions and a mass of energy - which is now all put into the following website instead:

http://dbwebb.se/

That site is all about web programming, but its all in the swedish language.

Bye bye blogger. I'll leave it as it is.

/mos

How I got a new homeserver using FreeBSD and Zotac ZBOX

I really needed a new homeserver where I can run some apache, mysql, php and git for development purpose. Ive long searched but stumbled on a Zotac ZBOX.

I had to add a disk (160GB, 2.5") and some memory (2GB). The Zotac costed 2000 SEK, all together it rounded up to a bit more than 3000SEK. More than reasonable for a home server.

I installed FreeBSD, minimal configuration. It all went fine besides some trouble getting into the BIOS. But with some help from the online support of Zotac it worked out. Great support, by the way, looked like IRC. To get into the BIOS I had to press the delete button at the same time as a light flashed at the computer. Strange, but it worked out.

Ready to rock. My own homeserver in the library, right by the books. Only connected to the powercord and the internet. Thats all that is needed.

From Installera hemmaserver i bokhyllan, Zotac Zbox med FreeBSD

And here is the server to be replaced (the white one)... some change or?

From Homeserver using Zotac Zbox and FreeBSD

You can see the pictures from the installation and setup procedure here.

Installera hemmaserver i bokhyllan, Zotac Zbox med FreeBSD

Keep ports collection updated using portsnap

We will use the ports collection and do all installations from that. We have choosen to use portsnap as the way to keep the ports library updated.

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/ports-using.html
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/updating-upgrading-portsnap.html

It seems fairly straight forward and by first look it was much easier than doing it by csup.

Just to go to /usr/ports and execute:

# portsnap fetch
# portsnap extract 

Irssi installation

So i just finished installing irssi on the server. Had some problem with ftp ports not opened which made it quite hard to install one of the prerequisites called pcre-8.00 which could only be fetched from ftpsources. After some waiting on charlie to open up it finally installed like a charm today.

I also noticed that "whereis irssi"will give the wrong location (/chinese/irssi) so had to do some digging in the /usr/ports/ directory.

1. cd /usr/ports/irc/irssi
2. make (takes awhile)
3. make install
4. make clean
5. done
6. Have charlie open up irc ports so we can connect to servers

Screen was installed previous to irssi but there were no problems with that so not worth its on post.

Next up apache! But first some php otherwise mos will lynch me.

Use git instead of subversion

Maybe we should use git instead of subversion. I've tried it a bit and its neat. There is also a gittrack. I vote for this.

Git and Trac - A Love Story.

Quick installation post

We will not write how to install FreeBSD as it's simple enough that anyone should be able to do it themselves without much trouble, starting over won't be much of a problem as long as you've documented your steps properly.

With that said here's a guide in swedish on how to do an installation with gnome.

Very long link to guide

Note that we will not install gnome on our server so on step 4 in that guide pick the "minimalistic"option and you will not need a boot manager either since your OSdrive should be the first one.

The handbook is your friend!

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/

Setting up for rootaccess via SSH

So since gaining root access via ssh or from a normal user account is by default blocked in FreeBSD it's important to fix this first thing after the installation is complete, unless planning to do everything logged in physically as root that is.

Login as root and do the following

# cd /etc
# ee group

Change this:
wheel:*:0:root
To this:
wheel:*:0:root,youraccountname

And thats it, you can now use the "su" command while being logged in via ssh on your normal account.

The Wipserver has arrived

Watch it being unpacked by some hungry students.

wipserver

The Plan!

So maybe it's a good idea to make some kind of plan and workflow to get an idea of were we're going with this project and what we want to achieve.

The idea of the project is to setup and maintain a server based of a unix/linux distro with the purpose of being able to function as an open-source platform as well as giving students access to an irssi client which should make it easier, for those not having their own server in the closet, to become active members of BTHs irc community.

Below will be a basic off-the-top of my head list of the program and functions that i feel are suited for the project.

1. Minimalistic FreeBSD installation with ports and SSH enabled.
   
2. Use portsnap to keep the ports collection updated.
3. Install screen.
4. Install irssi. 
5. Install Apache.
6. Install PHP.
7. Install MySQL.
8. Install Subversion and Git.
9. Install Trac (and GitWeb?). 
10. Setup backup solution.
    
11. Setup environment for each user.

I think thats basically it i think. Feel free to come with suggestions and ideas Mos.

The work has begun

This is the live documentation of building and maintaining a server for open-source projects. The server is maintained by students from Blekinge Institute of Technology (bth.se).