Author Archives: skanx

Compile a debian kernel with make-kpkg

The debian way (etch packages):
# apt-get install linux-source-2.6.18 kernel-package build-essential fakeroot libncurses5-dev
$ cd /usr/local/src
$ tar jxvf /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.18.tar.bz2
$ cp /boot/config-2.6.18-6-686 linux-source-2.6.18/.config
$ cd linux-source-2.6.18
$ make menuconfig
$ fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd clean
$ fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd kernel_image

Examples:
fakeroot make-kpkg --arch amd64 clean
fakeroot make-kpkg --arch amd64 --initrd --append-to-version=-skx.2008082001 kernel_image

Avez-vous pensé à adhérer à l’April ?

Promouvoir et soutenir le logiciel libre

L’April a pour but la promotion et la défense des logiciels libres. Je connais l’existence de l’April depuis des années, mais pourtant je n’avais jamais pensé à y adhérer… voilà qui est fait, profitant de la piqûre de rappel administrée par la campagne d’adhésion qui a lieu actuellement : “Objectif 5000 adhérents”.

L’April défend nos idées, le montant de minimal de la cotisation est de 10 euros, et je pense qu’ils seront bien utilisés.

J’adhère toutes affaires cessantes !

Disable a Linux module

The RHEL / Centos way:
edit /etc/modprobe.conf, and add :
alias <modulename> off

The Debian way:
Create a file ‘/etc/modprobe.d/<modulename>’ containing ‘blacklist <modulename>’.
Run ‘depmod -ae’ as root
Recreate your initrd with ‘update-initramfs -u’
/!\ Read http://wiki.debian.org/KernelModuleBlacklisting, then do not use ‘/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist’ and remove ‘/etc/modprobe.conf’ as it supersedes anything in /etc/modprobe.d/*.
source : Debian wiki

The Tobi way:
edit /etc/modprobe.conf, and add :
install <modulename> /bin/true

inspiration: DotMana

Lenny, Xen domU and amd64

There is not yet a xen-amd64 domU kernel for Lenny. There might not be one on release day. Discussion here: http://groups.google.com/group/linux.debian.devel/browse_thread/thread/8940430a093bbda5/546883797d0cbdf9

Fortunately, someone builds a 2.6.26-xen-amd64 kernel.
Add this to your sources.list:
deb http://kernel-archive.buildserver.net/debian-kernel/waldi/xen-extra/ all main

Install these packages:
linux-image-2.6.26-1-xen-amd64
linux-modules-2.6.26-1-xen-amd64

Fix the “new Xen console” problem (xen now uses hvc0 for its console):
If you use pygrub, in grub.conf on the domU add these kernel parameters : console=hvc0 xencons=tty
title Debian 2.6.26
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-xen-amd64 ro root=/dev/sda1 console=hvc0 xencons=tty
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-1-xen-amd64

If you don’t use pygrub, specify extra = “console=hvc0 xencons=tty” in your virtual machine xen config file.

Use at your own risk 😉

By the way, this fixed a nasty bug for me: php5-cli used to segfault a lot when using linux-image-2.6.18-6-xen-amd64 under Lenny. It’s stable now.

Edit: linux-image-2.6.26-1-xen-amd64 is now available in unstable 🙂

WordPress search engine optimization

Well, now that I just had my first non-spam comment, I have to start improving my search engine referencing, right ? 😉

I noticed that I had no description meta tag, and that google just used the beginning of the last post for a description. This is not right (and not sexy). The problem is the same for every single page (home, tags, categories, archives, single posts, etc.).
Wait, did I say ? Tags, categories and archives ? Search engines index all of these pages ? So every post must be indexed at least 3 times. Doesn’t looks good either, does it ?

I just installed a new plugin that promises to adress all of these problems : all-in-one-seo-pack. At once. Really cool. Optimizes titles, generates META tags automatically, avoids duplicate content, very configurable (but still easy to install: you don’t have to fine-tune everthing, just enter a title and a description. The default config is OK in most cases).