BackupPC can’t backup cPanel host

You probably noticed that BackupPC fails to backup your cPanel host over rsync with the following error:

Got fatal error during xfer (fileListReceive failed)

Nothing else. Nada.

If you increase the ssh verbosity, you will see that there is an error stdin: is not a tty.

It turns out that cPanel adds mesg y to your .bashrc and /etc/bashrc, which somehow messes up the remote rsync data channel over ssh.

To overcome this issue, add on top of your .bashrc and /etc/bashrc on cPanel host:

Nagios: check_imap_login

Since I didn’t find a check_imap Nagios plugin with the login feature, response time measurement with perfdata output, as well as flexible warning and critical thresholds, a colleague of mine and I have modified an existing check_imap_login plugin by Bertera Pietro and uploaded it on Github:

https://github.com/isavcic/check_imap_login

Options:

check_imap_login -u -p -H [-s] -w -c
-s is for using IMAPS

OpenIndiana vnic MTU change

In order to support jumbo frames on OpenIndiana while not having dedicated physical interfaces for iSCSI/NFS/CIFS traffic, you need to raise MTU on physical interfaces to 9000 and reduce it on vnics lying on top of them which are for non-iSCSI/NFS/CIFS traffic.

If you try to do it with dladm:

# dladm set-linkprop -p mtu=1500 pub.408
dladm: warning: cannot set link property 'mtu' on 'pub.408': operation not supported

ipadm to the rescue!

# ipadm set-ifprop -p mtu=1500 -m ipv4 pub.408

BackupPC BackupFilesExclude not working for rsync?

1. Use keys (which represent the transfer root) for greater clarity
2. Exclude needs to be relative to the transfer root
3. Make sure you’re using rsync exclude syntax properly!

For example, I have a RsyncShareName /service, under which is a chroot environment containing /proc, /var/lib/mysql etc. I want those folders to exist in my backup, but not their contents (for obvious reasons). Therefore, I made a BackupFilesExclude key /service and for it I added /proc/** and /var/lib/mysql/**. Works as intended.

How to remove anti-reflective coating from sunglasses

After investigating how to do it on the net, since I didn’t have access to all of those fancy polishing pastes nor solutions which dissolve the coating, I polished my Ray-Bans with Colgate Triple Action toothpaste. Result? Flawless!

Toothpaste has been used for ages to correct minor scratches on CDs and as we all know, CD surface is very fragile. Try it for yourself on a CD and see if your toothpaste scratches it and if not, I would say it is safe to use on your sunglasses.

Ableton 3-Band Sidechain Compressor

In search for a multiband sidechain compressor solution for Ableton, I stumbled upon Jason Timothy’s 29-band sidechain compressor. Jason’s approach was good to some extent, but I noticed that the crossovers between EQ frequency bands are not “flat”, ie. Ableton’s EQ (Jason’s EQ configuration of it, that is) emphasizes the frequencies that lie between the bands.

For an improvement, in my opinion, one has to use Linkwitz-Riley filters for perfect band separation: the frequency roll-off of those filters is perfect in the sense that the roll-off of a certain band, when summed up with the roll-off of adjacent band, doesn’t emphasize nor attenuate the signal. (For a graphical explanation, please refer to this picture. “LR” stands for “Linkwitz-Riley”.) Also, I believe that common multiband compressors use exactly this filter type, as do certain audio speakers, for audio crossover between the woofer, mid-range and tweeter.

By using Christian-W. Budde’s Dual Linkwitz-Riley Filters VST I achieved just that: I separated the signal to Low, Mid and High bands and connected Compressors to each one, which in turn can be sidechained.

For example, this 3-Band Sidechain Compressor can be used for attenuating the bass line so that it doesn’t clash with the kick drum too much.

Thanks to Jason Timothy for the initial idea!

Download it here. (Requires Ableton v8.1.1!)

Thou shalt not make nukes

From Sun Web Learning Center license:

CUSTOMER ACKNOWLEDGES THAT COURSEWARE IS NOT DESIGNED OR INTENDED FOR USE IN THE DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION,OPERATION OR MAINTENANCE OF ANY NUCLEAR FACILITY. SUN DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR SUCH USES.

Aww… But… But I really wanted to run Solaris in my nuclear weapons plant! :(

Veggie dry sausage-like cream cheese spread

By experimenting with a couple of ingredients, I have made a cream cheese spread that, at least to my senses, resembles the Serbian dry sausage taste a lot. Weird!

Recipe:

3 tbsp cream cheese (“A la kajmak” or similar)
3 tbsp yogurt
4 leaves of fresh basil
2 cloves of garlic
salt

Put the cream cheese and yogurt in a cup, cut basil and garlic into very small pieces and add them to the mixture. Stir well. Add salt to taste and spread over some nice wholemeal bread.

Enjoy!

XP Performance Edition: srpski keyboard layout HOWTO

Performance Edition Windows XP je uprošćena verzija XP-a koja ima poizbacivane gomile drajvera i nepotrebnih gluposti, ali nažalost izbačena je i podrška za srpski keyboard layout, ćirilični i latinični. Kako ispraviti? Lako.

1. Prekopirati sa regularnog XP-a (možda bi i w2k poslužio?) fajlove kbdycc.dll i kbdycl.dll iz C:\WINDOWS\system32 foldera
2. Uneti u registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layouts\0000081a]
"Layout Text"="Serbian (Latin)"
"Layout Display Name"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\input.dll,-5038"
"Layout File"="KBDYCL.DLL"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layouts\00000c1a]
"Layout Text"="Serbian (Cyrillic)"
"Layout Display Name"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\input.dll,-5057"
"Layout File"="KBDYCC.DLL"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\Locale]
"0000081a"="2"
"00000c1a"="5"

Disclaimer: ovo radite na sopstvenu odgovornost. Javite ako i kod vas radi.

SoX, yeah!