Dropbox

I wanted to start using my Ubuntu One on my Debian server. Instead I tried out Dropbox. The installation is straightforward, I followed this guide. I needed to update the init.d script a little (I even updated the wiki @ Dropbox site).
I plan to use my account to store backups of my SVN repository, it's very small at the moment so the free 2GB quota should be enough for me. I will create a script that will compress, encrypt and store the SVN repo to Dropbox.

Update to Squeeze

Just updated to Squeeze. No issues so far, only munin got relocated from /var/cache/munin/www to /var/www/munin .

chmod recursion -- files only

chmod recursion -- files only
A great thread! Learned something new today again.

SFTP on Ubuntu/Debian

I reused this article again, so it's worth bookmarking.
SFTP on Ubuntu and Debian in 9 easy steps

Buzz

Google saved my ass once again..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JVqj7TIi-k

Atom - software

A brief followup on the software installed on my Atom PC.
I already mentioned Munin, a great monitoring software, very easy to setup. Even though there is quite a few plugins available in the Debian Lenny package, I have added and/or modified some (openssh, apache_accesses - with added SSL support, enabled graphing for apt).
Ever since I started sshd on port 22, I noticed some password guessing attacks, mostly for root, but also for oracle, guest, test, support, squid, svn. I tried to limit the number of connections via iptables as described here and here. Currently I am testing denyhosts.
I have also installed Apache2 with SSL, subversion, WebSVN (I originally wanted to use Insurrection but failed to configure it).

Atom

I got myself a new PC. It's based on Intel Atom D510 (1.66 GHz, 1M Cache, 2 cores), 1GB RAM, VGA is integrated but I use it as a headless machine. The processor has only passive cooler, so it's completely silent. The board is placed in a Travla C137 case, which has external PSU. I had a spare WD 160G 2.5" USB HDD laying around, so I used it.
I installed Debian Lenny (amd64) on the HDD. It was a bit of PITA, because I used my USB key as an installation medium. After a bit of googling I learned I need to use the 4th primary partition in order to boot from a USB device. There's also a small catch, the configuration of GRUB need to be changed after installation, because the HDD is sdb during install, but sda after the OS is installed (and USB key removed).
Here's the list of web pages that helped me during the install:

• Debian etch on ThinkPad X31 via USB stick (for dummies like me)


• Boot grml from usb-stick/firewire-device


• Grub Error 24: Attempt to access block outside partition


• Editing /boot/grub/menu.lst to change the GRUB boot menu


• chroot then "update-grub" gives errors

The PC is now up and running, I just configured munin on it, here are some resources:

• How-To: Monitoring a Server with Munin


• Munin Statistics


• Server Monitoring With munin And monit On Debian Lenny