Change Your Shell To BASH in FreeBSD

First, need to build from the ports tree.

cd /usr/ports/shells/bash
make install

Edit the shells file

vi /etc/shells

Add this line if does not already exist;

/usr/local/bin/bash

Execute the chsh command and change the line that says;

Shell: /bin/csh

to

Shell: /usr/local/bin/bash

Logout and login again and you will have a bash shell!

HOWTO: Team Fortress 2 Dedicated Server

Create a folder in your home directory and cd into it;

mkdir ~/hlds
cd ~/hlds

You need to obtain the half Life Dedicated Server Update Tool from the steam website;

wget http://www.steampowered.com/download/hldsupdatetool.bin

When the download is done make the bin file executable and execute it;

chmod +x hldsupdatetool.bin
./hldsupdatetool.bin

Do an initial install of the dreaded steam;

./steam

This will do some downloading and updating for a while.

When it finishes it will probably say "Please retry the command." So, we do as it says and it will update again.

When that is done we then need to download the actual Team Fortress server files;

./steam -command update -game "tf" -dir .

Now, for some reason when you do an install, it doesn't actually download all the necessary files. We need to do a "verify-all" to force it to download all the missing files;

./steam -command update -game tf -verify_all

It also doesn't provide a server config file. You can create one or use the one here.

vi orangebox/tf/cfg/server.cfg

// Team Fortress 2 Server Configuration File, To be used with TF2 only!
hostname "Tuxnetworks TF2 Server" // this is your server name as shown in the server list
sv_password "" // your server password. a pair of double quotes means it is not set and anyone can join

//rcon settings
rcon_password "change_this_password" // your rcon password to log into the dev rcon console or HLSW rcon console

// Rcon Cvars
sv_rcon_banpenalty 15 //Number of minutes to ban users who fail rcon authentication
sv_rcon_log 1 //Enable/disable rcon logging.
sv_rcon_maxfailures 3 //Max number of times a user can fail rcon authentication before being banned
sv_rcon_minfailures 5 //Number of times a user can fail rcon authentication in sv_rcon_minfailuretime before being banned
sv_rcon_minfailuretime 10 //Number of seconds to track failed rcon authentications

sv_cheats 0
mp_autoteambalance 0
mp_teams_unbalance_limit 0


// Server Cvars
mp_allowspectators 1 //Toggles whether the server allows spectator mode or not
mp_autocrosshair 0
mp_bonusroundtime 5 //Time in seconds after round win until round restarts
mp_chattime 5 //amount of time in seconds players can chat after the game is over
mp_limitteams 0
mp_decals 1
mp_defaultteam 1
mp_disable_autokick 1 //Prevents a userid from being auto-kicked
mp_enableroundwaittime 1 //Enable timers to wait between rounds.
mp_fadetoblack 0 //fade a player's screen to black when he dies
mp_falldamage 5 //Amount of damage players sustains from a fall
mp_flashlight 0 //Toggles flashlight on or off
mp_footsteps 1 //Toggles footsteps on or off
mp_forcecamera 0 //Restricts spectator modes for dead players
mp_forcerespawn 0
mp_forcerespawnplayers 1 //Force all players to respawn.
mp_forcewin 1 //Forces team to win
mp_fraglimit 0
mp_idledealmethod 0 //Deals with Idle Players. 1 = Sends them into Spectator mode then kicks them if they're still idle, 2 = Kicks them out of the game
mp_idlemaxtime 1 //Maximum time a player is allowed to be idle (in minutes)
mp_maxrounds 10 //max number of rounds to play before server changes maps
mp_teams_unbalance_limit 2 //Teams are unbalanced when one team has this many more players than the other team. (0 disables check)
mp_teststalemate 0 //Test the stalemate mode. Parameter: <0/1>. If 1, the map will reset at the end.
mp_time_between_capscoring 5 //Delay between scoring of owned capture points.
mp_timelimit 120 //game time per map in minutes
mp_winlimit 10 //Max number of rounds one team can win before server changes maps
sv_allow_color_correction 1 //Allow or disallow clients to use color correction on this server.
sv_allow_wait_command 0 //Allow or disallow the wait command on clients connected to this server.
sv_allowdownload 1 //Allow clients to download files
sv_allowupload 1 //Allow clients to upload customizations files
sv_alltalk 0 //Players can hear all other players, no team restrictions
sv_alternateticks 0 //If set, server only simulates entities on even numbered ticks.
sv_autosave 0 //Set to 1 to autosave game on level transition. Does not affect autosave triggers.
sv_bonus_challenge 0 //Set to values other than 0 to select a bonus map challenge type.
sv_cacheencodedents 1 //If set to 1, does an optimization to prevent extra SendTable_Encode calls.
sv_cheats 0 //Allow cheats on server
sv_clearhinthistory 0 //Clear memory of server side hints displayed to the player.
sv_consistency 1 //Whether the server enforces file consistency for critical files
sv_contact "" //Contact email for server sysop
sv_downloadurl "" //Location from which clients can download missing files
sv_enableoldqueries 1 //Enable support for old style (HL1) server queries
sv_pausable 0 //Is the server pausable.

// Lan or internet play, Server region cvars
sv_lan 0 //Server is a lan server ( no heartbeat, no authentication, no non-class C addresses )
sv_region 255 // Region Codes: 0 - US East coast, 1 - US West coast, 2 - South America, 2 - South America, 3 - Europe, 4 - Asia, 5 - Australia, 6 - Middle East, 7 - Africa, 255 - world

//server Logging
sv_log_onefile 0 //Log server information to only one file.
sv_logbans 1 //Log server bans in the server logs.
sv_logblocks 0 //If true when log when a query is blocked (can cause very large log files)
sv_logecho 0 //Echo log information to the console.
sv_logfile 1 //Log server information in the log file.
sv_logflush 0 //Flush the log file to disk on each write (slow).
sv_logsdir "logs" //Folder in the game directory where server logs will be stored.

//Server Rates
sv_maxcmdrate 0 //(If sv_mincmdrate is > 0), this sets the maximum value for cl_cmdrate.
sv_maxrate 20000 //Max bandwidth rate allowed on server, 0 == unlimited
sv_maxreplay 2 //Maximum replay time in seconds
sv_maxupdaterate 100 //Maximum updates per second that the server will allow
sv_mincmdrate 0 //This sets the minimum value for cl_cmdrate. 0 == unlimited.
sv_minrate 0 //Min bandwidth rate allowed on server, 0 == unlimited
sv_minupdaterate 30 //Minimum updates per second that the server will allow


Finally, we want to start our server. It's easiest to do this using a short shell script;

vi tf2.sh

#!/bin/sh
echo "Starting Team Fortress Server"
sleep 1
cd ./orangebox
./srcds_run -console -game tf +map cp_dustbowl +maxplayers 8 -autoupdate +ip 1.2.3.4


make your script executable;

chmod +x tf2.sh

When you execute the script there are all sorts of warnings and errors. I've looked up some of them and apparently this is "normal". The server seems to run OK anyway.

Stop cron jobs from sending email

If you have a cronjob that is constantly spamming you with emails, then add the following to the offending line in your crontab;

>> /dev/null 2>&1

Example;

* * * * * root /root/checkvpn.cron >> /dev/null 2>&1

Voila! No more annoying emails!

Reverting your default editor to vi

In their ongoing quest to destroy ubuntu, Team Shuttleworth have decided to change the default editor for visudo to the train wreck that is nano. To change it back we need to change our default editor back to vi.

#sudo update-alternatives --config editor
There are 3 choices for the alternative editor (providing /usr/bin/editor).

Selection Path Priority Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0 /bin/nano 40 auto mode
1 /bin/nano 40 manual mode
2 /usr/bin/vim.basic 30 manual mode
3 /usr/bin/vim.tiny 10 manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 3
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/vim.tiny to provide /usr/bin/editor (editor) in manual mode.


As shown in the code box above, you need to choose option 3

Enable Directory Listing in Apache2

You need to add a line to your "site" file. For the default site you would do this;

vi /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default

Add this line inside the main VirtualHost *:80 section;

Options Includes ExecCGI

Restart apache and you are done!

rsync on a non standard port

If you have a machine with an ssh server that listens on a port other than the default 22 then you need to modify the way you would normally invoke the rsync command.

rsync -parv --inplace -e "ssh -p 2222" $source $dest

HOWTO: Syncing your /home with a server

Do you have a storage server where you keep your files? Do you think it would be a neat idea to keep a copy of your user files (home directory) on that storage in case your laptop or desktop suffers some sort of a catastrophe? Would you like an approximation of Windows roaming profiles?

If you answered yes to any of the above then read on! (However you should read the disclaimer at the end of this post.)

PLATFORM :
* Ubuntu (Tested with 10.04.1 Lucid but should work with any version)

PREREQUISITES :
* You must have passwordless SSH configured between the client and server users on the two hosts.
* rsync and openssh-server are installed on both hosts.

b) On the server;

The server part is pretty simple. First we will login as the root user;

sudo -i

We need a place to store the copies of the home folders. Create a folder;

mkdir -p /store/homes

Go back to the client;

Now assuming that we have keyless access to our server from the client we just need a script to do the syncing.

Create a script in /etc/init.d

root@hack:~# vi /etc/init.d/homesync
#!/bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: homesync
# Required-Start: $remote_fs $syslog
# Required-Stop: $remote_fs $syslog
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: sync homes at startup and shutdown
# Description:
### END INIT INFO

MODE=$1
TARGET="root@zen:/store/homes/"
EXCLUDE="/root/excludes.rsync"

case $MODE in

start)
rsync -parv --inplace $TARGET /home/
;;

stop)
rsync -parv --inplace --exclude-from=$EXCLUDE --delete /home/ $TARGET
;;

esac


Note: Of course you need to change TARGET= to suit your own environment. Also, if your SSH server is listening on a non standard port you will need to modify the rsync command as per this post

Make the script executable;

chmod +x /etc/init.d/homesync

If you look carefully, you will notice that the script will refer to /root/excludes.rsync for any files or folders that it should avoid syncing. We should create that file;

touch /root/excludes.rsync

Now, there are no files on the server yet so we should do an initial sync.

WARNING: If this is not the first (ie primary) client that you are setting this up on then don't run the following command as is or else it will wipe out the "backup" that is already on the server. In such a case you need to replace the "stop" in the command with "start" in order to retrieve the primary files from the server instead.

Perform an initial sync;

/etc/init.d/homesync stop

Note: Depending on how much stuff you have in your user homes this may take some time. You should also ensure that you have enough space to fit everything!

OK, assuming everything is working, the final step is to make sure the homesync script executes when the system stops and start. We do that with the update-rc.d command;

sudo update-rc.d -f homesync defaults

That's it. You can test your setup by adding or altering a file in your home folder and then shutting down your system. If you check the server you should see your changes appear there after it shuts down. If you delete or alter the file again on the server the change should appear on the client after reboot.

If you want to exclude particular files or directories then you may list them in the exludes.rsync file we created earlier.

Here is a sample list;

Junk*
oops*
.pulse*
.cache*
tmp*
temp*
gvfs*
.gvfs*
.Trash*
Trash*
*~
Thumbs.db*
desktop.ini*
lost+found*


DISCLAIMER: Be very careful using this setup in a multiuser environment where there is more than one PC (in use) at any one time. If a user is logged in on more than one PC then it is possible that they could lose data. Be sure you understand the limitations of this system before proceeding down such a path. Also note that the script only executes at startup and shutdown so if the PC is rarely restarted then this system will be of little value. I recommend using it for a simple home network only. It is not flexible or robust enough for use in a corporate network. And one final note, this does not work if you connect to the server using a wifi connection due to the way Ubuntu connects and disconnects after the user logs in. Any script such as this one that runs at boot time will not be able to connect to the network in order to do the sync. In such scenarios you could consider using a cron job or syncing manually.