inside the mind of a linux admin

Want to make the scroll bars larger in Gnome + Firefox?

I did too. I love my Dell XPS 13 because it’s small, lightweight and fast. I also surprisingly enjoy using the touchscreen (much more than I thought I would before purchasing). However, because of its 13″ screen and the very high resolution, it makes the scroll bars in firefox and other applications extremely tiny. Combine […]

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How do you install Node.JS on CentOS?

There’s a ton of outdated information floating around the web on how to simply and effectively install Node.JS on CentOS, specifically one of my legacy boxes that runs 5.11. I spent about 15-20 minutes toying around with various hacky ways to do this. To save you the time, here’s the easiest way I found: Perform […]

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Configure Postfix to use a remote SMTP relay server via alternate port

On one of my local Ubuntu workstations at home, I sometimes have the need to send mail out using mailutils/mailx inside of scripts or on the command line. I also don’t necessarily want/need to set up an entire mail server on my workstation. In addition, Verizon FiOS doesn’t take too kindly to this for purposes […]

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Creating a local ownCloud mount point in Linux using WebDAV

ownCloud is enterprise file sync and share that is self-hosted in your data center, on your servers, using your storage. ownCloud provides Universal File Access through a single front-end to all of your disparate systems. Users can access company files on any device, anytime, from anywhere while IT can manage, control and audit file sharing […]

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Brightness Controls not working on Dell Inspiron Laptop with Intel Graphics

On one of my personal laptops (Dell Inspiron 17R), my attempts at using the function key combinations to change the brightness did not yield any results on Fedora 20, Linux Mint 17, or Ubuntu 14.10. The LCD brightness was stuck at “can barely see, but must conserve battery because I’m stuck on an island mode” […]

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Remote vulnerability in bash – patches available for CVE-2014-6271, CVE-2014-7169

Bash or the Bourne again shell, is a UNIX like shell, which is perhaps one of the most installed utilities on any Linux system. From its creation in 1980, bash has evolved from a simple terminal based command interpreter to many other fancy uses. In Linux, environment variables provide a way to influence the behavior […]

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How to fix Dell XPS 13 Touchscreen on Fedora 20

I recently purchased a Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook with the touch screen and immediately wiped the blazing fast SSD free of all Microsoft garbage. After installing the latest Fedora 20 64 bit, I was pleased to see that most all of the hardware worked out of the box… Except the touch screen – one of […]

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Virtualization: KVM equivalent to “vzctl enter” in OpenVZ

If you are used to using Virtuozzo or OpenVZ containers and are looking to make the switch to the full virtualization solution KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine), you may find one very convenient feature missing: the ability to enter into a virtual environment from the parent node. Of course, the most popular solution used to access […]

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Fix: Error in Description line when installing Dell printer driver on Ubuntu

So, I have a Dell V715w that I’ve had for years. I wanted to get one of my Ubuntu workstations to print to it. What was first thought to be convenient, Dell’s website actually has a Ubuntu Linux installer and drivers available for download on their website here: http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/04/driverdetails?driverid=R247653 Dell V715W AIO Inkjet Printer, A00 […]

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Encrypting synergy traffic via OpenSSL and stunnel

I use synergy to control several different linux systems in my office using a single keyboard and mouse. The only issue I have with this software is it does not (yet?) natively support SSL encryption for your traffic. This is problematic when transmitting plain-text passwords between systems, which I do often. This HOWTO will explain […]

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