Month: February 2016

Windows 10 post install clean-up

This may not be the opinion of many, but Microsoft Windows 10 is an attractive theme.  More compelling reasons to upgrade to it include critical updates and product support. That being said, having upgraded a computer or two to Microsoft Windows 10, I have noted that there are additional applications that I consider as bloatware.  Removing this bloatware through the…

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Create an nginx load balancer

I wanted to play with a simple load balancer with powerful implications. A load balancer using nginx as the front end and two apache servers on the backend. server1 – apache – 192.168.1.89 (CentOS 6) yum -y install httpd echo server1 /var/www/html/index.html lokkit -s http -s https chkconfig httpd on && service httpd restart server2 – apache -192.168.1.90 (CentOS 6)…

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Manually update the Garmin nuvi 1100

For one reason or another a Garmin nuvi 1100 would not update. It kept rebooting itself repeatedly to where it would not be recognized by the computer long enough to perform the simplest of tasks. I tried the Garmin Express, Garmin WebUpdater, and the GarminMapUpdater for PC. With the Garmin WebUpdater, there was enough time to update the system from…

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Install and upgrade nginx on CentOS6

Nginx is a web server. It can act as a reverse proxy server, as well as a load balancer and an HTTP cache. There was a need for an nginx reverse proxy (RP), so found a set of instructions that worked. However, after implementing those instructions, and getting everything configured, it was a determined a newer version of Nginx was…

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Another way to install Java JDK 8

I have written on and improved upon the installation process for Oracle’s Java JDK over the years.  Creating a script with a hard-coded filename has a considerable drawback, particularly as it pertains to Java JDK. Oracle updates their product often and with a naming convention that doesn’t permit for any reasonable guess as to what the next version should be. …

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Install DOSBox on CentOS 7

There are so many websites and YouTube videos that indicate and demonstrate that it is possible to install and use DOSBox on CentOS 7.  I tried many different things which all seemed to roadblock at the prerequisite for libSDL_sound-1.0.so.1. Ranging from building from source that one specific prerequisite, where the build was apparently successful, the prerequisite still remained.  A build…

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Create a man page

This little exercise is to create a man page.  The goal is to take a simple online man page that is in XML and copy into a text file.  Add a couple of markups here and there, test, and validate it. Create a manpage Additional examples and options are available on the author’s site, here.  I took that html page…

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Display Man pages in color

While learning about the creation of man pages, I came across something that I had not considered before, man page in color?  This can be done with a little installation of most. Using a CentOS 6 minimal install, most can be installed via yum. Add most to the environment. Check out the man pages in color. Source(s) https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/unix-linux-color-man-pages-configuration/

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Using shc to compile a shell script

Not being a programmer, I do write a descent shell script from time to time.  In the Microsoft world, there are all sorts of script compilers that will compile a batch, visual basic, or any number of other scripts into an executable.  A benefit of an executable could be the files portability or even an attempt to obfuscate the code. …

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Msys2 a Cygwin alternative

Cygwin has served well over the years and still does; however, recently on a Microsoft Windows 10 computer, cygwin did not cooperate.  Removing all remnants and services related to cygwin and then reinstalling from scratch seemed to resolve any issue that I was encountering.  There was an issue that still remained that could not be fully resolved.  The issue, whenever…

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Rebuild the virtual machine’s .vmx file from vmware.log

While attempting to diagnose a problem where there are a couple of (orphaned) virtual machines as identified by the VMware vSphere Client, one of interest seemed to have all the files in the datastore, however, upon closer inspection the .vmx file was zero byte.  The .vmx file can be rebuilt with the vmware.log file. Basically, I downloaded the most recent…

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