Last time I set up xterm I did not note the site used to figure out my Xresources file... that will teach me. This time I saved them both (here), and have gleefully added my shiny Xresources file to the myconfig git repository which is growing slowly.

In my re­dis­cov­ery of FreeBSD I discovered some portmaster settings which help immensely with two competing problems when using the ports system.

1. We need build-de­pen­den­cies installed to build certain ports.

2. We do not want build-de­pen­den­cies installed all the time.

Rebuilding the de­pen­den­cies every time some port needs a particular one stinks, and apparently someone else thought so as well. They came up with a solution I like, but I also know I check the solutions I create too rarely, and included doc­u­men­ta­tion of each option in my version (contents of /usr/local/etc/portmaster.rc below).

# Do not create temporary backup packages before pkg_delete (-B)
NO_BACKUP=Bopt

# Make and save a package of 

After ex­per­i­ment­ing with Crux (which I enjoyed!), I found myself drifting back to FreeBSD for a few reasons (including a few crux crashes under VirtualBox and my comfort with the layout).

I ended up ex­per­i­ment­ing with tmux instead of dvtm, but getting the a hi-res console working in FreeBSD under VirtualBox was (for some reason) a pain. To get it working, I had to use the Kim Lai FreeBSD frame­buffer howto as a reference, and make some mod­i­fi­ca­tions.

# cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf
# cp GENERIC GENERIC-SC_PIXEL_MODE
# echo "options SC_PIXEL_MODE" >> GENERIC-SC_PIXEL_MODE
# cd /usr/src
# make buildkernel KERNCONF=GENERIC-SC_PIXEL_MODE
# make installkernel KERNCONF=GENERIC-SC_PIXEL_MODE
# echo 'vesa_load="YES"' >> /boot/loader.conf
# echo 'allscreens_flags="MODE_325"' >> /etc/rc.conf
# shutdown 

Apparently my penchant for over-com­pli­cat­ed solutions (at least, the first time I try) is still somewhat in effect. I was looking for a good solution to mounting my home server file-systems on my laptop whether I am home or on the road. My home solution to this point has been Samba, as the wife is on a Windows machine, but I decided there had to be a better way.

That way first attempted to manifested itself as NFS over SSH... right. After reading about the com­plex­i­ties and possible security problems with that approach, I read another article comparing NFS over SSH to OpenVPN, and started to research …continue.

While going through the last of the old posts, and making sure I did not leave too many broken links about, I stumbled across the "Who's on Force" post from a while back. In finding that video to make sure I was not leaving people hanging, I found "Who's on Shrek" by the same author (local copy).

Just as hilarious... and just as well done!

This may be something everyone else but me knows, but let me get this on the web before I need it again and can't remember.

When you install a shared library as a user (for example, to $HOME/usr/lib), and expect to be able to use that library when running a program linked to that library, you need to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH prior to running the program.

For example, if you install toky­ocab­i­net with PREFIX set to $HOME/usr, then compile and install mutt using that toky­ocab­i­net, then you must set LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$HOME/usr/lib" and make it accessible to mutt, otherwise mutt won't run.

The connection between the error message and solution was obvious... once I …continue.

While preparing for an upgrade of the server recently, I noticed a surprising thing... the uptime was over 400 days! For a server costing only $12 per month, that is remarkable. I took a screenshot (below), because I can't think of another machine I've managed which has made it that long.

This documents the solution I used to publish an httpup ports re­pos­ti­to­ry for crux.

• Initialize an scm repository in a directory. I chose git, you could probably use any decent scm.

• Set your scm to ignore the package files.

• Create a sub­di­rec­to­ry for every port, then a Pkgfile for each port.

• Use "Creating Packages" in the current crux handbook to create the Pkgfile.

• Use pkgmk to generate the footprint and md5sum files (and build the package).

• Use fakeroot to generate the footprint (gets rid of user-specific user/group in footprint file).

• Use httpup-repgen to generate the REPO file.

• See the httpup …continue.

Browsing about on K.Mandla's blog I ended up fascinated with his ex­per­i­ments in no X, dvtm, and various other light­weight software. As I went further down the rabbit hole, I ended up searching for a source-based linux dis­tri­b­u­tion which was very simple (doesn't pull in lots of de­pen­den­cies on install), and had something like the FreeBSD ports system. Crux was what I found, and (so far) I've only found one piece of software I needed that the ports system did not have. Better than that - the ports system was simple enough that I was able to create a port for the missing softare that night, and …continue.

This documents the solution I finally discovered when searching for ways to get all my installed fonts to show up in fc-list, xlsfonts, and xfontsel on a Debian testing in­stal­la­tion. I specif­i­cal­ly did not want to have to install Gnome, XFCE, or another desktop en­vi­ron­ment when openbox and xterm and Firefox would fulfill my needs.

• Using the package manager and/or local in­stal­la­tion procedures (not covered here) install your desired fonts.

• Make sure those font di­rec­to­ries are in your xorg.conf file.

• In each directory where the fonts are installed (on my system all the True Type fonts were located under /usr/share/fonts/truetype/) run mkfontscale and …continue.