i wanted only computers on my local network to be able to login (or if i connect remotely using an ssh tunnel) so one solution is to add the following to the end of /etc/apache2/apache2.conf (remember to back up your original apache2.conf before you start tinkering)

#deny access to phpmyadmin
<Directory /var/www/phpmyadmin>
        Order Deny,Allow
        Deny from all
        Allow from 10.0.0.1/24
</Directory>

you’ll need to the reload apache using

/etc/init.d/apache2 reload

if you wanted to add another IP address or domain insert another Allow line like this

#deny access to phpmyadmin
<Directory /var/www/phpmyadmin>
        Order Deny,Allow
        Deny from all
        Allow from 10.0.0.1/24
        Allow from .yourdomain.com
        Allow from 102.51.333.65
</Directory>

and reload apache again.

decent options for folders and files with a right-click

sensible start menu. sensible.

comprehensive configuration options in control center

with the fglrx drivers installed my tv is supported as an extended desktop/monitor.

the kernel count is rising

not too heavy on resources

gimp installed by default! (reading this, ubuntu?)

i reduced some of the font sizes as i found them rather large for my laptop’s screen.

i call my scipt watch so i did a ‘joe watch’ in a terminal and entered the following…

#!/bin/bash
watch –n 60 w

save with ‘ctrl+k+x’. to run the script enter ‘./watch’ in the directory where you created the file. ‘ctrl+c’ to cancel it.

apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental

why this is necessary with debian and not any of the other gnome 3 based distros i’ve installed on the same machine (ubuntu, fedora, mint) i’m not sure but this worked for me.

apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

when that’s done run, as your regular user,

ccsm

this’ll grind away for a little while and then present you with the tweakables. scroll down and uncheck the ‘Window Decoration’ option. vuescan should now launch correctly.

#!/bin/bash
rsync –avp –delete /var /media/backup/local
rsync –avp –delete /etc /media/backup/local
rsync –avp — delete /home /media/backup/local

to run the script become root (as you’ll need that permission for /var and /etc) and run ‘./sys_backup’ without the quotes.
however, i wanted something a bit more comprehensive (and incremental) without me putting in too much effort. looked at bacula. too complicated. settled on backupninja. to install on a debian based system, as root, issue the following ‘apt-get install backupninja’ to grab it from the repos. next we want to edit the main configuration file. ‘joe /etc/backupninja.conf’ will open it and you can change the parameters to suit your setup. mine’s only a local backup so it looks a bit like this.
#                          |\_
# B A C K U P N I N J A   /()/
#                         ‘\|
# main configuration file
#

# how verbose to make the logs
# 5 — Debugging messages     (and below)
# 4 — Informational messages (and below)
# 3 — Warnings               (and below)
# 2 — Errors                 (and below)
# 1 — Fatal errors           (only)
loglevel = 4

# send a summary of the backup status to
# this email address:
reportemail = col@localhost

# if set to ‘yes’, a report email will be generated
# even if all modules reported success. (default = yes)
reportsuccess = yes

# if set to ‘yes’, info messages from handlers will be
# sent into the email (default = no)
reportinfo = no

# if set to ‘yes’, a report email will be generated
# even if there was no error. (default = yes)
reportwarning = yes

# if set to ‘yes’, disk space usage will be included in
# the backup email report
reportspace = yes

# where to rsync the backupninja.log to be aggregated in
# a ninjareport
reporthost =

# what user to connect to reporthost to sync the
# backupninja.log
reportuser = ninja

# where on the reporthost should the report go
# NOTE: the name of the log will be used in the report,
# use a globally unique name, preferably the hostname
reportdirectory = /var/lib/backupninja/reports

# set to the administration group that is allowed to
# read/write configuration files in /etc/backup.d
admingroup = root

#######################################################
# for most installations, the defaults below are good #
#######################################################

# where to log:
logfile = /var/log/backupninja.log

# directory where all the backup configuration files live
configdirectory = /etc/backup.d

# where backupninja helper scripts are found
scriptdirectory = /usr/share/backupninja

# where backupninja libs are found
libdirectory = /usr/lib/backupninja

# whether to use colors in the log file
usecolors = yes

# default value for ‘when’
when = everyday at 01:00

# if running vservers, set to yes
vservers = no

# programs paths
# SLAPCAT=/usr/sbin/slapcat
# LDAPSEARCH=/usr/bin/ldapsearch
# RDIFFBACKUP=/usr/bin/rdiff-backup
# CSTREAM=/usr/bin/cstream
# MYSQL=/usr/bin/mysql
# MYSQLHOTCOPY=/usr/bin/mysqlhotcopy
# MYSQLDUMP=/usr/bin/mysqldump
# PSQL=/usr/bin/psql
# PGSQLDUMP=/usr/bin/pg_dump
# PGSQLDUMPALL=/usr/bin/pg_dumpall
# GZIP=/bin/gzip
# GZIP_OPTS=’–rsyncable’
# RSYNC=/usr/bin/rsync
# VSERVERINFO=/usr/sbin/vserver-info
# VSERVER=/usr/sbin/vserver
# VROOTDIR=/var/lib/vservers

most of the settings have been left as they are. save the file with a ctrl+k+x in joe.
i’m using rdiff only but there are other options available. see the backupninja wiki for more info.
now to get an action (or backup job) sorted. from the wiki above we’re going to use the action.rdiff file. first we want to cd into the backup.d directory like so. as root ‘cd /etc/backup.d’. then ‘wget http://cloudplasma.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/action.rdiff’ to download the default configuration file. do a ‘joe action.rdiff’ to open it and tweak it to your liking. mine resembles the following…
######################################################
## source section
## (where the files to be backed up are coming from)

[source]

# an optional subdirectory below ‘directory’ (see [dest])
label = box

# only local type is currently supported
type = local

# how many days of data to keep
keep = 185

# files to include in the backup
# (supports globbing with ‘*’)
include = /var/spool/cron/crontabs
include = /var/backups
include = /etc
include = /root
include = /home
include = /usr/local/bin
include = /usr/local/sbin
include = /var/lib/dpkg/status
include = /var/lib/dpkg/status-old

# files to exclude from the backup
# (supports globbing with ‘*’)
#exclude = /home/*/.gnupg

######################################################
## destination section
## (where the files are copied to)

[dest]

# remote or local? If local, you dont need to specify a host below
type = local

# the machine which will receive the backups
host = backup

# put the backups under this directory
directory = /media/backup/ninja

# make the files owned by this user
# note: you must be able to ssh backupuser@backhost
# without specifying a password
# user = col

save it with ctrl+k+x as before. now it should run at 1.00 am every day. you can try it now by running ‘backupnija –n’ as root.
if you run into permission errors make sure that action.rdiff has 400 permissions (‘chmod 400 action.rdiff’) and that joe hasn’t left a temp version of action.rdiff in the backup directory (‘rm action.rdiff~’).

the old machine runs debian 6.0.3 and deals with a few chores…apache, postfix, remote ssh tunnelling, subsonic and a couple of samba shares. the old install is obviously 32 bit…the new one will be 64 bit (also running debian 6.0.3…i haven’t found a more stable server os) so that prevents a straight rsync as many of the packages will be incompatible with the different architecture. a chum got me thinking…a simple way to get a new box running the same apps as the old one is to replicate the packages that are installed. this can be done simply with the following…on the old box issue the following in a terminal…doesn’t need to be as root…

dpkg –get-selections > installedpackages

this creates a file called ‘installedpackages’ that contains all the applications that have been installed on the old system. if you have the new server up and running and accessible via ssh you can then copy the file over with scp…if not use USB

scp installedpackages username@newserver:/home/username

this will plonk it into your home folder on the new machine. so now log into your new machine and as root issue the command

dpkg –set-selections < installedpackages

and then

apt-get dselect-upgrade

this will install all the packages that ran on the old box…to the new one.

NB that this, obviously, doesn’t move your /home directories, email, web sites or any configuration files. you can do this via USB or using the scp method detailed above. lots of the configuration files are stored in /etc, web sites are generally in /var/www. i’m not dealing with things like mysql now but here’s some info on that.

doing the initial update using apt-get update and then apt-get dist-upgrade (as root). a couple of the ‘extra. repositories were unavailable. also neither ai32-libs or ia32-libs-multiarch would install due to dependency problems.

this build of ubuntu is shipping with firefox 9 and thunderbird 9 but by the time april 2012 rolls around both of these will probably have morphed to version 11 with no noticeable improvements.

as i said…they’re sticking with unity. just as feature-rich as always…

not too light on resources either but then i’ve got a bit of ram to spare.

now as i mentioned before…unity isn’t for me. i could have installed gnome 3 but prefer things to be slightly more configurable so here’s how to add xfce as a desktop environment…in other words change ubuntu 12.04 into xubuntu 12.04…

as root issue the command apt-get install xubuntu-desktop this will grab 120MB or so from the repositories…after it has finished log out. when you’re greeted with the log in screen click the wee gear icon next to your username and choose ‘xfce session’ or whatever. this’ll give you something slightly more usable. i’ve used xfce a fair bit in the past…still not 100% sure of it but it kicks unity’s arse…see below for a quick look.

too many icons…not sure why all my drives have to be shown by default. right-click the bottom menu and go into panel options to make it auto-hide.

ah…proper menus…bliss…

and there’s my daily look at el reg…with some thumbnails…

to sum up. ubuntu’s going in the wrong direction for me interface-wise. they won’t change and i don’t think i’ll ever like it. for an alpha version it seems stable though…adding xfce makes it a lot nicer to use. how long will i stick with it? probably until this afternoon.

subsonic should take care of all your media streaming desires. grab it from here. i’ll be using the debian version on my headerless server.

first off install the java runtime environment (shame, that)…as root issue the following

apt-get install openjdk-6-jre

once that’s complete you’ll need to install the binary you downloaded earlier. again, as root…

dpkg -i subsonic-x.x.deb

and that should be it up and running. login to the new installation using your domain or IP at port 4040 (i’m testing from home so for me that’s http://box:4040) and you should be greeted with something like this

username and password are admin (change the password straight after you login for the first time). most important step? add the path to your media…

a directory for your playlists isn’t created during the install procedure so add one now…as root…

mkdir /var/playlists

now to forward the relevant ports on your router so that streaming will work remotely…the default is, as mentioned before, 4040 but you can change that if you like

if you want to stream from afar you’ll need a domain name if you don’t want to use your IP (which will change if you have a dynamic connection). i use dyn.com but it seems their free service doesn’t exist anymore…i could be wrong. you could try no-ip.com.

that’s about it…you can now browse your media, load and save playlists…and play your tunes.

EDIT — i like it. a lot. have donated and i recommend you do too if you find it useful. it’ll give you a constant url for your dynamic IP address…android app that works after the 30 days trial…and help the developer to continue to improve this cracking bit of code.