Formatting USB drives in Xubuntu
This morning I needed to format a USB drive in Xubuntu, but I couldn't find the disk utility software. It turns out that it is not installed by default in…
Redirecting and displaying standard output and error
Most Linux sysadmins will know this little trick for redirecting standard output and standard error (i.e. 'all' output from a command) to a file: make &> /tmp/build.log However, sometimes you'll…
Reinstate logging after upgrading to Debian Wheezy
Recently I noticed that Postfix had stopped logging information about emails which I sent through my VM (I run mutt locally over SSH in a screen session). On closer inspection, it turned…
Debian Packaging Tutorial
On Saturday I gave a tutorial on Debian packaging at the Manchester Linux Users Group, using Twig as the example package. For anyone who didn't manage to make the session, or…
Overriding default PHP settings in Debian and Ubuntu
For most PHP sites the default settings in php.ini will be sufficient. However, in some circumstances you may find yourself needing to override the defaults -- for example if you…
Slackware 12.0 is out
The creaking Linux distribution known as Slackware has clocked over another major version number to make it to 12.0. Amazingly, Slackware is still largely maintained by one individual, Patrick Volkerding,…