Peter Vatistas

Here is a very cut and dry list of my preferred web hosts and colocation facilities. Over the years I have been through my share of web hosts; below you will find web hosts I’ve personally used and/or currently use along with the services I know they do best.

Managed Dedicated Servers
FreeBSD & Linux Servers: Choopa
Windows Servers: Rackspace, LanLogic

Unmanaged Dedicated Servers
FreeBSD & Linux: Limelight, Servers for Less, WebAir
Windows Servers: ServerBeach, Limelight

Colocation Facility
Limelight, Cave Creek Hosting

Virtual (Shared) Servers
WebAir, ATCI Hosting

Exchange Servers
LanLogic, Rackspace

Game Servers
Dedicated & Shared: GameServers

Thats it! Simple and to the point. I hope this list helps you in your desicion for choosing a web host. None of the web host links I provide above are affiliate or partner links, I do not make a penny if you sign up. Just remember me when your adding links to your website.. WWW.PETER-V.COM!!!!   LOL!

BTW, I want to hear what you think about these hosts as well as who you host with and why you like/dislike them.

Good luck!

The Ubuntu Live 2008 conference, which was scheduled to take place July 21-22 in Portland, OR has been canceled. Canonical plans to include some Ubuntu content in the O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON), also happening July 21-25 in Portland, Oregon.

For the official statement and more information please refer to the Ubuntu Live webpage.

Now here is a common issue I see all the time for many Ubuntu laptop users. After installing Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon on a laptop the ability to control the volume using the laptop’s keyboard keys does not work (often times).

To fix this you’ll need to determine the device’s track the volume is actually adjusted on; by default I notice this is set to headphone and from my experience the correct one usually is PCM.

Open the volume control and press the volume up/down buttons to see which level moves. Once you’ve found the correct track (whether is be PCM or PCM2) you need to set it from within the sound preferences menu.

Go to system > preferences > sound and look at the bottom of the device tab. Select the correct track here and test; everything should now work properly.

Here it is, the meat and potatoes of setting up a FAMP server (FreeBSD 6.3, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl). Keep in mind these instructions are exactly what I do step by step to setup a FreeBSD webserver. Originally when I started with FreeBSD I couldn’t find a solid source of reliable information on how to set all this up. Every time I would ask someone for some good instruction I was always directed to www.freebsd.org. I have to tell you it is extremely overwhelming for me at that time to even understand anything off of that site’s directions - as well written as it is.
Over the last few years I have come across some decent walkthroughs and tutorials but 90% of them were still either out dated or lacking 1 or 2 steps that can really jack things up. I have really tried to make this tutorial as straight forward as possible, no BS and no info that’s going to waste your time.

Before I install anything I always make sure I have the latest release of FreeBSD installed with the Developer distribution. Many tutorials out there tell you to install the bare minimum of FreeBSD with the “Minimum” distro, I recommend Developer. If you need a good step by step on how to install FreeBSD (6.2 & 6.3) then click here. Remember, instead of selecting the minimal option on the Distributions screen, choose Developer.

Once you have FreeBSD installed the steps below will show you how to setup and configure a full FAMP server. Good luck!

# cd /usr/ports/lang/php5
# make config
select: Apache
# make install

# cd /usr/ports/lang/php5-extensions
# make config
select: bcmath, bz2, ctype, curl, dom, ftp, gd, gettext, mbstring, mysql, pcre, posix, pdo, session, simplexml, sqlite, xml, zlib (also by default there are many options pre-selected including some of the ones listed here, make sure to leave those checked).
# make install

Usually after everything is done you will notice a few mysql errors appear, run this command:

# pkg_add -r mysql50-server

Now before editing any file on my system I always make a backup of it:
# cp /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf.orig

Now let’s edit your Apache config file to get everything configured properly:
# edit /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf

Change the default listen address to the IP address of your webserver.

#Listen 12.34.56.78:80
To:
#Listen 192.168.1.10:80 (example, use your machines IP Address)

Change the email address of the ServerAdmin to your email address or the address of the person in charge on this server:

#ServerAdmin you@your.address (use your email address)

Change the ServerName option, if you don’t have a fully qualified domain name please change this to the servers IP address:

#ServerName www.example.com
To:
#ServerName 192.168.1.10 (example, use your machines IP Address - for internal, intranet implementations)
Or:
#ServerName www.peter-v.com (example, use your domain name if you have one and your going to point DNS to that machine)

# Add a DirectoryIndex option:
DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm index.php3 index.php4

# In the AddType section add the following for PHP:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .htm .html
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

Now exit and save, your all done with Apache.

# echo ‘/usr/local/sbin/apachectl start’ >> /etc/rc.local

Now let’s configure MySQL:

# cp /usr/local/share/mysql/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf
# echo ‘mysql_enable=”YES”‘ >> /etc/rc.conf

# /usr/local/bin/mysql_install_db
# chown -R mysql:mysql /var/db/mysql
# /usr/local/share/mysql/mysql.server start

If the command: # /usr/local/share/mysql/mysql.server start doesn’t work or fails, try this command:
# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/mysql-server.sh start

# /usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h Hostname.domainname.tld password ‘YourPassword’
# /usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root password ‘YourPassword’

Example:

# /usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h webserver.peter-v.com password ’secret’
# /usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root password ’secret’

Now let’s install Perl DBI and DBD Support (which many apps need that run using Apache and MySQL):

# cd /usr/ports/databases/p5-DBI && make install && make clean
# cd /usr/ports/databases/p5-DBD-mysql50 && make install && make clean

Reboot.

That’s it, your all done and now you’ve got yourself a FAMP Webserver.

Tips:

If at anytime in this tutorial a command doesn’t work, try rebooting first. Sometimes after installing certain applications or components it is required to reboot before being able to utilize it. After a quick reboot it always works.

I would love to hear your comments and if you have any suggestions or issues with this tutorial please leave a comment, thanks!

Just got message from a loyal reader of mine asking if it is possible to stop Ubuntu from asking for the Ubuntu CD when he installs applications from packages. This is actually very simple, all you need to do is go to:

System>Administration>Software Sources

Select the “Third Party” tab and un-check “cdrom:” - reload your sources and your good to go!

I am in the process of building a social site using Drupal and realized I didn’t have GD support for PHP5 installed on my server. I’m sure this is a common roadblock for people new to installing Drupal or even just PHP so here is what you need to do:

Open terminal and type in the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install php5-gd

Now restart Apache

# sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

There you go, you now have GD Support for PHP5 in Ubuntu. Get your Drupal on!

Here’s a screenshot of the proposed theme for Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy - I think it’s pretty slick but still far from the current OS GUI competition.

In the last three weeks I have received 8 requests on how to install Cinelerra on Ubuntu (Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon to be exact). So, this is how to correctly install Cinelerra on Ubuntu and add a little more memory for it to run in the kernel.

System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager:
Settings>Repositories>Third-Party Software Tab:

Click the Add button and add this repository:

deb http://giss.tv/~vale/ubuntu32 ./

Close, Reload the search “Cinelerra”. Mark for install & hit Apply (to install). When that is done just close out of Synaptic.

Now open terminal and type (I use ee to edit but you can also use gedit):

sudo ee /etc/sysctl.conf

And add this line to the bottom of the file (this adds the extra memory for Cinelerra to run properly):

kernel/shmmax=0x7fffffff

Now save and close and run this command (instead of rebooting):

sudo sysctl -p

Now go to Applications> Sound & Video>Cinelerra and get your editing on!

/ - Root directory that forms the base of the file system. All files and directories are logically contained inside the root directory regardless of their physical locations.

/bin - Contains the executable programs that are part of the Linux operating system. Many Linux commands, such as cat, cp, ls, more, and tar, are locate in /bin

/boot - Contains the Linux kernel and other files needed by LILO and GRUB boot managers.

/dev - Contains all device files. Linux treats each device as a special file. All such files are located in /dev.

/etc - Contains most system configuration files and the initialisation scripts in /etc/rc.d subdirectory.

/home - Home directory is the parent to the home directories of users.

/lib - Contains library files, including loadable driver modules needed to boot the system.

/lost+found - Directory for lost files. Every disk partition has a lost+found directory.

/media - Directory for mounting files systems on removable media like CD-ROM drives, floppy disks, and Zip drives.

/mnt - A directory for temporarily mounted filesystems.

/opt - Optional software packages copy/install files here.

/proc - A special directory in a virtual filesystem. It contains the information about various aspects of a Linux system.

/root - Home directory of the root user.

/sbin - Contains administrative binary files. Commands such as mount, shutdown, umount, reside here.

/srv - Contains data for services (HTTP, FTP, etc.) offered by the system.

/sys - A special directory that contains information about the devices, as seen by the Linux kernel.

/tmp - Temporary directory which can be used as a scratch directory (storage for temporary files). The contents of this directory are cleared each time the system boots.

/usr - Contains subdirectories for many programs such as the X Window System.

/usr/bin - Contains executable files for many Linux commands. It is not part of the core Linux operating system.

/usr/include - Contains header files for C and C++ programming languages

/usr/lib - Contains libraries for C and C++ programming languages.

/usr/local - Contains local files. It has a similar directories as /usr contains.

/usr/sbin - Contains administrative commands.

/usr/share - Contains files that are shared, like, default configuration files, images, documentation, etc.

/usr/src - Contains the source code for the Linux kernel.

/var - Contains various system files such as log, mail directories, print spool, etc. which tend to change in numbers and size over time.

/var/cache - Storage area for cached data for applications.

/var/lib - Contains information relating to the current state of applications. Programs modify this when they run.

/var/lock - Contains lock files which are checked by applications so that a resource can be used by one application only.

/var/log - Contains log files for differenct applications.

/var/mail - Contains users’ emails.

/var/opt - Contains variable data for packages stored in /opt directory.

/var/run - Contains data describing the system since it was booted.

/var/spool - Contains data that is waiting for some kind of processing.

/var/tmp - Contains temporary files preserved between system reboots.

This is a great post and very helpful for anyone diving into Linux, see the original post here: Linux Directory Structure

Today I downloaded and installed Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron Alpha 1 on my development server and I am very excited!

I do not recommend installing Ubuntu 8.04 on a production machine due to the amount of bugs and expected breakage as with any Alpha stage application or operating system. If you are interested in testing or even fixing bugs then get your download on!!

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Download

Good Luck!