Category Archives: Installing and Configuration

Start Stop VirtualBox with systemd

This post will show how to start stop Virtualbox with systemd. The documentation for both auto-starting virtualbox and that for systemd I found to be appalling. The virtual box documentation has an example but that is wrong. The example code is bash and it is sourced by another file. There is a variable assignment at the top but it has spaces around the equals so it fails with a schoolboy syntax error. For systemd what there is, and there is a lot of it, does not make sense. The man pages have lots of English words that go together to mean nothing but the usual marketing bullshit we are constantly get bombarded with.

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DNSCrypt and dnsmasq on Ubuntu 18.04

This is how I got DNSCrypt and dnsmasq on Ubuntu 18.04 working together. dnsmasq is used for local domains and DHCP while we use DNSCrypt as our forwarding DNSD server. To quote from the OpenDNS website “DNSCrypt is a piece of lightweight software that everyone should use to boost online privacy and security. It works by encrypting all DNS traffic between the user and OpenDNS, preventing any spying, spoofing or man-in-the-middle attacks.”.

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Test Networking Lab Ubuntu On 18.04

Overview

I wanted to create a test networking lab Ubuntu on 18.04 to try out configurations without having to hack my real LAN about. I decided to use VirtualBox virtual machines as the software is freely available and works with Linux very nicely. For the network in the test networking lab Ubuntu on 18.04 we will need to separate from our own normal LAN. VirtualBox provides this in of the box. We simply set the network interfaces to use “Internal Network”. This way any gust VMs on the host within the internal network can only see each other.

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Mail Server on Ubuntu 18.04 Part 1

Welcome to Mail Server on Ubuntu 18.04 Part 1. This is the first part of a series of blog posts. It will use Postfix, dovecot and amavis. Setting up a mail server is a complex project it is one of the most difficult and complex servers to setup. There are many different tools/packages that have to come together before it is working. There are many more packages that can be installed before you have something that is usable in the real world with all the hackers and spammers around.

*Do not follow this blog post on a production server unless you are
 [crazy|dumb|mad|nutz|stupid] and want to be unemployed!

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Using ir-keytable with Mythtv

  • Using ir-keytable with Mythtv is far simpler than using lircd and is the way forward. with ir-keytable there are less files and less configuring to deal with. I use a generic IR remote which is IR6 compatible. It is also a look-a-like for a MCE remote. Similar to the black one on the right but mine is silver 🙂

    I did my testing on a Virtualbox guest running a Minimal Ubuntu Linux 18.04 server and Raspbian Stretch 2018-06-27. Follow that link to see how I did that. The IR sensor is USB so that goes into the host and then when the virtual machine is running use the menu option Devices -> USB -> TopSeed Technology Corp. eHome Infrared Transceiver.

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  • Ubuntu 18.04 Minimal Server Install.

    This post will, quickly, run through how to create an Ubuntu 18.04 Minimal Server Install. It also only takes a short time, taking between 5 to 15 minutes to install depending on your hardware and the number of times you have run through it. I find it an ideal way to try out and learn how to install Ubuntu in various configurations. I build these test machines as virtual machines running on Virtualbox as this allows me to throw it away without messing about with real hardware.

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    DNS with bind9 and DHCP on Ubuntu 16.04

    This post will show you how to install DNS with bind9 and DHCP on Ubuntu 16.04. We will end up with a full blown bind9 DNS with an integrated DHCP server. If you are a home user and your network has grown such that you are tired of using all static IP addresses and having to configure the /etc/hosts files by hand, then use the great tool dnsmasq. See my How to set up dnsmasq. Dnsmasq is so much simpler to setup and maintain than bind9, you should think about using it.

    DNS with bind9 and DHCP on Ubuntu 16.04 also works on a Raspberry PI 3 running the Ubuntu Image.
    

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    Installing Munin on Ubuntu 16.04

    Installing Munin on Ubuntu 16.04 is not the hard. Munin is a monitoring system that runs over the network for the local server and remote servers. It monitors all the basics out of the box. We can use it to monitor servers of all types to see what has happened and help find out why stuff broke or started to go slow.

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