Arun Stephens

That is kind of annoying. I am going to follow the instructions from http://neuro.me.uk/2009/09/20/revert-to-standard-ubuntu-kernel-on-ovh-or-kimsufi-servers/ later this weekend, and get back to a standard kernel. Or next week. So if the server goes does down, that’s why! Update: Not happening this weekend! Too much work to do. Update 2: Did it. It works. No problems there. Read post »

For some strange reason, the Ubuntu people decided that the latest release should mimic Mac OS as much as possible. The default background is now purple, eerily similar to the Mac OS default. And they decided to move the buttons to the left hand side, just like on a Mac. Which is annoying. Not because I am used to Windows, but because if you were used to previous versions of Ubuntu, you’d be very annoyed. Rant over, here’s Read post »

By default in Ubuntu (and probably other distributions), when you log into the SSH server, it will do a reverse DNS lookup of the client for security reasons. That’s fine, but it’s kind of annoying when you don’t have a working reverse DNS for your IP address. Like for all my internal addresses. To turn it off (thanks to http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=577616): Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and add the following line: UseDNS Read post »

This is nothing new, but I wanted to stop X from starting on bootup with Ubuntu Desktop 8.04. I would prefer to start it using startx. The easy solution, from within the Ubuntu desktop (seeing X has started already, I may as well use graphical tools) click the System menu, then Services. Unlock (if you need to) and deselect Graphical login manager (gdm). BE CAREFUL THOUGH: If you apply those changes, X will stop, presumably because it was started Read post »

I have been looking for a SQL-based way to store all my old email messages. I think I may have found it. There is an email system called DBMail that stores messages in a database (MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQLite) and exposes them (for want of a better word) through POP3 and IMAP. At the moment I use Gmail, forwarding to Exchange 2007, Outlook 2007 and a huge PST. Searching the PST takes a while. Gmail doesn’t have everything in Read post »