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By Rob, February 17, 2009 5:49 PM

On 14th February 2009, Debian 5.0 (lenny) was officially released.

For a few years now, I’ve been running Debian GNU/Linux on my Linksys NSLU2 (commonly known as a ‘slug’). I use it to run various services on my home network, but primarily it’s used as an FTP interface to my ‘Toppy’, otherwise known as a Topfield TF5800 Freeview/DVB-T Hard Disk Recorder (PVR), and to populate its MyStuff EPG TAP with daily TV listings from the Radio Times.

The NSLU2 is a great little device. Its small (really small), low power, silent, relatively inexpensive and just works. Ive modified it to run at 266MHz, from the stock 133MHz. Note: This isnt overclocking it. The ARM CPU in use is designed to run at 266MHz, but its limited in the NSLU2 to run at 133MHz. A simple modification allows it to run at its full speed.

When I heard that lenny had been released, I thought I’d go ahead and update my slug, as I like to stay current. The great thing about Debian, is that it’s so easy to maintain. I logged in, and did the usual ‘apt-get update‘ followed by an ‘apt-get dist-upgrade‘, expecting a huge amount of updates to appear. What I actually saw was only a handful of packages offering themselves for the taking, and there was no sight of a full distribution upgrade.

Continue reading 'Upgrading Debian Etch to Lenny (on NSLU2)'»

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By Rob, February 10, 2009 2:22 PM

I’ve been using VMWare ESX 3.5 for a while now, and whilst pretty much all configuration can be performed using the Virtual Infrastructure Client, there are a few configuration changes that I’ve come across that need to be performed from the command line. These configuration commands are generally prefixed with ‘esxcfg-’, and there are quite a few of them. They appear to be largely (publicly) undocumented by VMWare (especially if you dont like sifting through man pages), but I came across an excellent break-down of these commands by the consultants & trainers at Taupo Consulting.

For example:

• esxcfg-advcfg – Get/Set Advanced Configuration (e.g. modify ‘EnableResignature’)
• esxcfg-firewall – Modify the iptables firewall configuration
• esxcfg-module – View and set options for start-up of the VMkernel modules (drivers)
• esxcfg-vswitch – List, add, modify or delete virtual Ethernet switches
• esxcfg-info – Information about the host
• esxcfg-boot – Configure the GRUB options presented at boot time
• esxcfg-vmknic – View and set configuration of the VMkernel ports on virtual Ethernet switches

….and many more, with full descriptions and usage examples.

They also mention many of the configuration files and their locations, along with some popular Linux commands for those unfamiliar with working at the Linux command line. Definitely worth a bookmark if you administer ESX hosts.