Ubuntu wifi drivers for Dell Vostro A860

A regular system update within Ubuntu 8.04 broke the wifi drivers a Dell Vostro A860. Here’s all it took to get it going again:

Code:

mkdir ~/tmp
cd ~/tmp

Download madwifi hal driver:

Code:

wget http://snapshots.madwifi.org/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-current.tar.gz

… and extract it:

Code:

tar zxvf http://snapshots.madwifi.org/madwifi...current.tar.gz

Go into source directory:

Code:

cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3861-20080903/

… and run:

Code:

make
sudo make install
sudo reboot

From the bottom of this post.

Jabra BT3030 as a headset in Ubuntu Linux (8.04)

These instructions worked great for me with Audacious on my Ubuntu laptop with built-in bluetooth. I got a new bluetooth headset (Jabra BT3030) that works well for music and as a phone headset.

Fresh gnudialer install on CentOS 5

# do a CentOS 5 install
# deselect Office Productivity
# select Developement
# select Web Server
# disable selinux  (this is a MUST do)
# reboot
#

#
#rpm --import /usr/share/rhn/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora

yum -y update
updatedb

yum -y install joe
yum -y install screen
yum -y install kernel-devel
yum -y install cdrecord
yum -y install mkisofs
yum -y install libidn
yum -y install libgcj
yum -y install bison
yum -y install libtermcap
yum -y install libtermcap-devel
yum -y install newt
yum -y install newt-devel
yum -y install ncurses
yum -y install ncurses-devel
yum -y install openssl
yum -y install openssl-devel
updatedb

service httpd start

cd /usr/src

yum -y install mysql.i386
yum -y install mysql-server
yum -y install mysql-devel

service mysqld start
wget http://www.dynx.net/ASTERISK/gnudialer/easy_setup/create_tables.sql
mysql -uroot < create_tables.sql

# CHANGE THIS
mysqladmin -uroot password '~somepassword'

service httpd start

#wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin-1.350-1.noarch.rpm
#rpm -i webmin-1.350-1.noarch.rpm

cd /usr/src

wget http://downloads.digium.com/pub/asterisk/releases/asterisk-1.2.24.tar.gz
tar zxfv asterisk-1.2.24.tar.gz
wget http://downloads.digium.com/pub/asterisk/releases/asterisk-addons-1.2.8.tar.gz
tar zxfv asterisk-addons-1.2.8.tar.gz
wget http://downloads.digium.com/pub/libpri/releases/libpri-1.2.6.tar.gz
tar zxfv libpri-1.2.6.tar.gz
wget http://downloads.digium.com/pub/zaptel/releases/zaptel-1.2.22.tar.gz
tar zxfv zaptel-1.2.22.tar.gz

cd /usr/src/libpri-1.2.6
make clean
make
make install

cd /usr/src/zaptel-1.2.22
make clean
make
make install
make config

cd /usr/src/asterisk.1.2.24
make mpg123
make clean
make
make install
make samples
/usr/sbin/safe_asterisk

yum -y install subversion
cd /usr/src
svn checkout http://dynx.net/svn/gnudialer-puff/trunk gnudialer-puff
cd gnudialer-puff
make clean
make
make install
make reload

cd /usr/src/gnudialer-puff/astcrm-1.1.6
wget http://www.dynx.net/ASTERISK/gnudialer/java/j2sdk-1_4_2_08-linux-i586.rpm
rpm -i j2sdk-1_4_2_08-linux-i586.rpm
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2_08/bin
export CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:.
make clean
make
make install

# remember you need to still read all the /usr/src/gnudialer-puff/README's and INSTALL
# remember you need to still read all the /usr/src/gnudialer-puff/astcrm-1.1.6/README's and INSTALL
# you need to do this because you MUST change the user/pass in various areas,
# or use the defaults if you are UNSURE whats needs to change.

Original File

Changing the hostname of a Scalix server

Changing the fully qualified domain name of a Scalix server is a little tricky. Following the procedure here I was able to accomplish it pretty easily.

hudlite server password

It is pretty easy to find the server password for hudlite if you don’t have it.

Connect via ssh to to the server

issue the following command:

ps aux | grep hud
The password is returned on the line with the ./hudlite-server process

From the fonality knowledgebase.

Dell Precision M4300 Suspend/Resume problem resolved (Ubuntu 8.04)

I’ve had hibernate working from day one, but suspend never quite worked properly. With a few tweaks that I found on this page, I have it suspending on shutting the lid and resuming on open. It takes a little longer than I’d prefer to resume, but it is fine.

Repair Grub startup problems quickly and easily

After hosing Grub settings on my main machine, I stumbled onto one of those tools that just blew me away.

Super Grub boot disk is small, quick and easy. You just download and burn it to a CD, boot from the CD, and follow along with the excellently written documentation wiki. It took me less than 10 minutes start to finish to be back up and running, and as a side benefit found a good reference about boot loaders.

SSH Sessions with no password

This was adapted from here.

The basic idea is that in the crypto system that ssh uses (RSA or/and DSA)  the encryption and  decryption are done using different keys. Basically, what the user (client) needs is to generate a public/private key pair. The server will know the public key, but only the client will know the private key. When the client connects to the server, it  tells its own public key. If this key is allowed (if it is between the known public keys list on the server), the server will send a randomic number to the client. This encrypted number can only be decrypted if the appropriate decryption key is used, and this decryption key is the client’s private one. The client then uses then its own private key and decrypt the number. If this is done correctly, the server will grant the access with no more questions. As you can see the system is safe, because the client never tells anybody about its private key; and this key cannot be inferred using the public one.

What must be done is to generate a public/private key pair, and copy the public part into the appropriate place on the server side.

Step by step instructions:

On the user’s home directory, on the client machine, type

local> ssh-keygen -t dsa -f .ssh/id_dsa

-t tells the type of encryption
-f tells where to store the public/private key pairs. In this case, the .ssh directory on home is being used

A password will be asked; leave this part blank, just pressing <enter>
Now, go the .ssh directory, and you will find two new files: id_dsa and id_dsa.pub. The last one is the public part. Now, copy the public key to the server machine

local> cd .ssh
local> scp id_dsa.pub user@remote:~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub

Of course, this time you will need to enter the password.
Now, login into the server machine and go to the .ssh directory on the server side

local> ssh user@remote
remote> cd .ssh

Now, add the client’s public key to the know public keys on the server

remote> cat id_dsa.pub >> authorized_keys2
remote> chmod 640 authorized_keys2
remote> rm id_dsa.pub
remote> exit

That’s all.
Next time you log into the remote server, no password will be asked!

Combined with the gnome sshmenu applet, this can be a real time saver.

IAX2 trunking trixbox Pro servers

This is to complement my most popular post, from 2 years ago, which is about trunking two freePBX servers. It is even easier to trunk two trixbox Pro servers and set up 4 digit dialing.

Example:

server 1 ID: 1231000  has 7xxx extensions. Extensions dialed 6xxx will go to server 2

server 2 ID: 3212000 has 6xxx extensions. Extensions dialed 7xxx will go to server 1

Substitute your server ID numbers where applicable

SERVER 1 SETTINGS:

From server 1 control panel, go to the Options:voip page. Add a voip account with the following settings:

Provider: Other, IAX2

Route Name: 3212000

Username: leave blank

Password: leave blank

Register: No

Server: s3212000x.trixbox.fonality.com

Click Add Voip Account, and acknowledge the dire warning.

go to the Options:dial plan page.

Add a new dial plan:

Prefix: 6

dial string: xxx

Description and Type: optional

Route: VoIP: 3212000

Strip Digits: 0

Prepend: 000 (VERY IMPORTANT)

Click Add Dial Plan

SERVER 2 SETTINGS:

From server 2 control panel, go to the Options:voip page. Add a voip account with the following settings:

Provider: Other, IAX2

Route Name: 1231000

Username: leave blank

Password: leave blank

Register: No

Server: s1231000x.trixbox.fonality.com

Click Add Voip Account, and acknowledge the dire warning.

go to the Options:dial plan page.

Add a new dial plan:

Prefix: 7

dial string: xxx

Description and Type: optional

Route: VoIP: 1231000

Strip Digits: 0

Prepend: 000 (VERY IMPORTANT)

Click Add Dial Plan

You now should have 4 digit dialing between servers.

trixbox Pro, DNS, and internet outages – what I have learned from my pain

With the floods here in Iowa this summer I suddenly had several customers with no internet connections. I expected voip trunks to not work, but several of them also were losing registration on all their phones. I thought I had understood how to set up DNS properly, but I did not quite have it.

Here’s the best formula as I understand it:

Have your gateway use a valid public DNS server.
Have the trixbox Pro server use the gateway as the primary DNS, and a public DNS server as the secondary DNS
Have the phones use the trixbox Pro server as their only DNS.

One thing that drove me about insane was my sandbox server was on a cheap netgear router. I guess cheap routers can’t be counted on to function properly at all without a WAN link. I could unplug the WAN link and within a minute the phones would lose registration, even with everything else set up correctly. Today I put an IPCOP firewall on the sandbox network and everything functions exactly like it should without the WAN link.

A Linksys WRT54G loses registrations at intervals but keeps the trixbox Pro system marginally functional. A Linksys WRTT54G with DD-WRT firmware functions properly, though.

A related problem with VERY similar symptoms:
Having a SIP trunk with a FQDN will cause all phones to unregister in the event of an internet outage. Changing to a straight IP address removes that problem. I guess that is an asterisk bug.