Category: Tech

How to install ruby 1.9.2 on Ubuntu 10.04

Ryan3 Comments on How to install ruby 1.9.2 on Ubuntu 10.04bash, Debian, LTS, ruby, Ubuuntu

The current LTS version of Ubuntu is 10.04 and the most current version of ruby it ships with is 1.9.1. Unfurtunately 1.9.1 wasn’t that great of a release and anyone using the 1.9 branch really should use the stable 1.9.2.

After doing a bit of researching I found some information on how the best approach to get ruby installed is. Downloading the source, compiling it and registering the installed version with the package manager.

The following little bash script takes care of installing ruby 1.9.2 on a ubuntu or debian based system (or any other version if you change the $Version variable in the script). The script just consolidates information found online and wraps it up into a nice bashscript

 

Using iFolder as an open source Dropbox alternative

Ryan8 Comments on Using iFolder as an open source Dropbox alternativeDropbox, files, iFolder, Internet Stuff, sync

I’ve had a few posting here in my blog over the years about trying to keep data synced over various computers. Nowadays it has gotten easier since it seems everyone is chruning out their own online storage. Classics like Dropbox or SugarSync, and then we have the big companies  Google, Microsoft and Ubuntu trying their luck. Basically they all provide you with 2-5Gb free storage, and more space and features for more money. But they all have one downside, whether encrypted or not, you are leaving your own files to the mercy of an external company. There is not really any voodoo in the whole system, basically you just have some space online, a bit of encryption, and some way to ensure that all clients of a user are synced, nonetheless building your own service can be a hassle as I have found out.

Currently I’m using SVN as a workaround. I just sometimes forget to commit, which leads to me having old data and no access to updated files. Instead of starting from scratch and build strange stuff with rsync I had a look if there were any open source solutions out there. And I was pleased to find a few. Unfortunately they are almost all in the “I have an idea and a few mockups” stage, maybe even some beta version that does something, but nothing really “production” level. Another downside was that most of them either supported Linux or Windows, but often not both.

One open source solution I stumbled across is iFolder,  seasoned software supported by Novell, with clients for Windows, Linux and Mac. And if all else fails you can use the web interface to access your files. Admin and User web interface are both easy to use. I don’t remember how I stumbled across it, but I do know that it’s not one of the main products you see named when searching for alternatives to Dropbox.

If you have SuSE as an OS, then installing the software is immensely simplified due to SuSE belonging to Novell, just follow the SuSE instructions on the website. I prefer debian based installations and found Ubuntu instructions at help.ubuntu.com that were written mainly for Ubuntu, but should work with any debian deviate.

I’m not going to repeat anything from the installation instructions, they already did a fine job of documenting everything. One thing is important however: the Client 3.8.0.0 just plain doesn’t work. unfortunately it is the one linked from the website. Go to the sourceforge repository, and download the newer 3.8.03 client. That one works like a charm.

How to easily add colored text output in bash scripts

Ryan1 Comment on How to easily add colored text output in bash scriptsbash, color, scripting

Here is small snippet that can give your shell scripts some nice output: colortext.sh As with the debug.sh script, just download it to the same directory as your own script and add it with

It contains one simple function called text with the syntax text “text to be output”. Color can be red, green, yellow, blue or grey. The function does not automatically add a linebreak to the putput, so pop a \n in there if you need it. I prefer using it together with printf for clean and easy color output.

Here are some examples of how the function can be used, and below the corresponding output:

Output:

normal text
blue text, yellow text
 Status of script: [ERROR]
Status of script: [OK]

How to get Teamspeak 3 running on a current Linux

Ryan1 Comment on How to get Teamspeak 3 running on a current LinuxDebian, linux, teamspeak 3, ubuntu

Teamspeak is know for lagging a bit behind with development.

The last few days I have been upgrading my servers to current distributions, today the Voice servers were on the list to get Debian 6 / Ubuntu 11.04. And again I ran into problems with Teamspeak, turns out they won’t work with libmysqlclient 16 libraries and require the good old 15 version (which isn’t available out-of-the-box in the latest Debian and Ubuntu release).

So anybody running into the same problem (do a ldd libts3db_mysql.so to check), can hop on over to http://packages.debian.org/lenny/libmysqlclient15off and download the package for your architecture and install it with dpkg -i

How to add debugging to shellscripts

Ryan1 Comment on How to add debugging to shellscriptsbash, debug

Debugging bash scripts is pretty straightforward, throwing around a couple echo and set -x quickly gives you what you need. But what if you want to add a nice breakpoint,  debugging to lots of paces in the code or turn all debugging on or off at once? Then this little script I wrote is the right thing for you: debug.sh just download it to the same directory as your script and include it with the following line:

It contains 4 simple functions that will make your bash coding easier.
debug and breakpoint both print the argument with a timestamp to STDERR
You can turn off all the functions by adding a DEBUG=false into your code

Example:

Output: