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June 20, 2011

Enlarge a xen Image (.img) File

Filed under: Linux,Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 7:03 pm

This HOWTO will allow you to increase the size of .img files created with dd. Note that this process changes the on-disk image in place and hence it is highly recommended that you back up the image first. Also, make sure the image is not already mounted or backing a live domain or virtual machine! This process is *not* recommended for decreasing the overall size of an image and would likely cause the image itself to be corrupted if attempted.
Replace image_file and size_in_MB appropriately
# dd if=/dev/zero of=image_file bs=1M conv=notrunc count=1 seek=size_in_MB
# losetup /dev/loop0 image_file
# e2fsck -f /dev/loop0
# resize2fs /dev/loop0
# e2fsck -f /dev/loop0
# losetup -d /dev/loop0

May 30, 2011

smbd unable to connect to cups server

Filed under: Linux,Uncategorized — Tags: , , — admin @ 12:26 am

I have printing disabled (load printers = no, commented the printer share) in Samba but still puts lots of lines like this in the syslog:

May 29 16:31:02 home smbd[9505]: [2011/05/29 16:31:02, 0] printing/print_cups.c:cups_connect(69)
May 29 16:31:02 home smbd[9505]: Unable to connect to CUPS server localhost:631 - Connection refused

After trying many things, this worked for me:

load printers = no #(this alone isn't enough)
show add printer wizard = no
printing = none
printcap name = /dev/null
disable spoolss = yes

January 27, 2011

Setting up mod_ssl on Apache Centos 5

Filed under: Linux — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 12:11 pm

This tutorial will explain how to set up a site over https on Centos 5.2, although it should work on most linux distributions. The tutorial uses a self signed key so will work well for a personal website or testing purposes. This is provided as is so proceed at your own risk and take backups!

Getting the required software

For an SSL encrypted web server you will need a few things. Depending on your install you may or may not have OpenSSL and mod_ssl, Apache’s interface to OpenSSL.

Use yum to get them if you need them.

yum install mod_ssl openssl

Yum will either tell you they are installed or will install them for you.

Generate a self-signed certificate

Using OpenSSL we will generate a self-signed certificate. If you are using this on a production server you will need a key from Trusted Certificate Authority, but if you are just using this on a personal site or for testing purposes a self-signed certificate is fine. To create the key you will need to be root so you can either su to root or use sudo in front of the commands

openssl genrsa -out ca.key 1024 # Generate private key

# Generate CSR
openssl req -new -key ca.key -out ca.csr

# Generate Self Signed Key
openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in ca.csr -signkey ca.key -out ca.crt

# Move the files to the correct locations
mv ca.crt /etc/pki/tls/certs
mv ca.key /etc/pki/tls/private/ca.key
mv ca.csr /etc/pki/tls/private/ca.csr

Then we need to update the Apache SSL configuration file

vi +/SSLCertificateFile /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf

Change the paths to match where the Key file is stored. If you’ve used the method above it will be

SSLCertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca.crt

Then set the correct path for the Certificate Key File a few lines below. If you’ve followed the instructions above it is:

SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/pki/tls/private/ca.key

Quit and save the file and then restart Apache

/etc/init.d/httpd restart

All being well you should now be able to connect over https to your server and see a default Centos page. As the certificate is self signed browsers will generally ask you whether you want to accept the certificate. Firefox 3 won’t let you connect at all but you can override this.

Setting up the virtual hosts

Just as you set virtual hosts for http on port 80 so you do for https on port 433. A typical virtual host for a site on port 80 looks like this



AllowOverride All

DocumentRoot /var/www/vhosts/yoursite.com/httpdocs
ServerName yoursite.com

To add a sister site on port 443 you need to add the following at the top of your file

NameVirtualHost *:443

and then a VirtualHost record something like this:


SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/pki/tls/private/ca.key

AllowOverride All

DocumentRoot /var/www/vhosts/yoursite.com/httpsdocs
ServerName yoursite.com

Restart Apache again using

/etc/init.d/httpd restart

You should now have a site working over https. If you can’t connect you probably need to open the port on your firewall:

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT /sbin/service iptables save iptables -L -v

this tutorial is from http://shapeshed.com/journal/setting_up_mod_ssl_on_apache_centos_52/

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