Personal blogging

The variant of the online diary, which we are all used to call blog, goes sometimes well beyond the boundaries of simple communication: there are great articles, essays and a lot of interactive stuff that create a very entertaining environment for any Internet user. Furthermore, it is not uncommon to even find future brilliant writers who shape their skill online; it all begins with the regular recording of personal thoughts, ideas, comments on books, films or music. Personal blogs also allow limitless space for the expression of critical opinions from various domains, not to mention that they preserve a record of one's development.

Nevertheless, what most Internet experts advise is that one should keep personal and business blogging as separate activities, since mixing them can be detrimental particularly for the special online promotion of some products or services. Many analysts argue that personal blogging is often characterized by an ascending evolution since steady writing develops good thinking and synthesis skills. However, there are a few rules you must follow into making sure that your personal blog is a good, yet trustworthy mirror of yourself. The first thing you need to work on is the topic of the articles, essays that are responsible for the overall image of the blog.

There are not few the examples that include very poor personal blogs, with uninteresting topics, grammar and punctuation mistakes and very few substantial links. Keep in mind that there should be a so-called self-censoring when it comes to exposing all sorts of personal details in the pages of your blog. Unfortunately, there have been cases of stalking or stolen identity; keep in mind that you can be personal, without revealing anything from your intimate life. Why this precaution? Because, some of the comments you'll receive on the blog may truly hurt your feelings and even change your life.

Some bloggers have chosen to limit access to their pages by the use of a digital password; thus, only family and friends are allowed to log in. People actually consider this a good means of protecting their families from possible external threats when the virtual world may overlap with the real one. Things will stay bright as long as you are able to monitor blog content and information quality on a regular basis. The good thing about blogs is the fact that you can always go back to a formal entry and make some changes or analyze things from a different perspective and this stays valid for bloggers and users alike.

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Optimizing your blog for search engines

Competition is fierce online, and the top places on the search result pages are the most hunted for; therefore, any blog owner who tries to make money on the Internet needs to use a whole strategy to attract the best visitors and the highest traffic. The working principle for the blog optimization for search engines is the keyword. When you start the race for SEO (search engine optimization), you already have an advantage: blogs are usually the ones to receive more traffic then other complex sites due to their highly informational content. By keywords we mean those sentences or structures that a user types in the search box of an engine.

Blogs mainly rely on articles that are regularly updated and re-freshened, so that they have something new to offer all the time. Before you write the blog content, you'll need to make a list with all the keywords related to your domain and which are most likely to be typed in the search box by Internet users. A brain-storming session is ideal to find the best structures you need to include in the articles; keep in mind that there are some rules you may have to follow here as well.

For instance, choosing some very general keywords is not the best way to promote a business via a blog given the fact that though you may receive a high traffic, the profit could remain modest. The explanation is very simple here: too broad terms attract all sorts of users, even those that are not interested in purchasing something. SEO experts use all sorts of parameters to check the profitability of a blog, and one of them deals precisely with the number of relevant users the web-page gets.

Once you manage to get the most high-in-demand keywords, you'll still have to do a lot of work in order to keep the blog position high in traffic. The status of keywords may change from one day to the other, given the intense competition that characterizes the Internet in general; consequently, every time you update or change the site content, you need to perform a keyword analysis beforehand and see where they stand in rankings. Last but not least, there is one thing that remains the golden rule of search engine optimization: quality informational content, that should be the essence of any successful blog!

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Veritas Notes (VCS 3.5)

Here are cluster level commands for stopping, starting, modifying and viewing a Veritas cluster from the command line.

Note that the majority of these commands are in /opt/VRTS/bin:

Starting VCS:

hastart [-force-stale] hasys -force system

Stopping VCS:

hastop -local [-force-evacuate] hastop -sys system [-force-evacuate] hastop -all [ -force]

Open/Save/Close Cluster Configuration:

haconf -makerw-dump-dump -makero

Add Cluster User:

hauser -add username

View the current cluster status:

hastatus -summary

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Is blogging profitable?

For anyone eager to make some extra money, the Internet is probably the richest source of business opportunities, and blogging is one such great chance to generate income with low costs and little effort. How is that possible? At the beginning blogging started as the modern online diary, but it evolved towards new forms that presently provide both personal expression and money making advantages. Let's take a look at two main ways to turn a blog into a home-business. The starting point for any online commercial action is the creation of a highly interesting web page.

Anyone running some form of business that could benefit from online promotion may choose blogging as a great form of advertising. A blog targets a special audience segment: those people interested in the products and services you offer. A blogger should therefore create a highly specific web page with content that is relevant for his or her field of activity. There may be references to the promoted products, or just links to them. Most business owners who take advantage of the profit blogging brings, choose to include various options on the pages.

First and foremost, you have to make web search possible directly from your blog; hence, you'll need to use one of the Google programs that enables such facilities. Then, any blog visitor should have a minimum degree of independence once he or she has accessed your site, meaning that they should be allowed to perform actions: download pictures, documents and files, post comments or simply subscribe for regular updates. In order to make blogging profitable, try to keep a close watch over the traffic the blog receives, and constantly monitor how well it appears in search engine rankings.

Last but not least, blogging is also profitable for those who don't have a business to promote: you may actually make money by allowing ads and banners related to your domain appear on the site. By the intermediary of the Google advertising programs, Adwords and Adsense, you will be paid for each click a visitor makes on a specific ad, or every time somebody performs a certain action on the blog. You'll just have to follow the Google Adwords or Adsense instructions and apply them to the blog pages; the best way to generate revenue under such circumstances is to make sure your blog appears on the first result page of the search engines.

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How to make money blogging

There are two ways of making money blogging, one more profitable than the other. First of all, small business owners find a great advantage in the use of blogs that provide rich informational content and the opportunity for great marketing promotions. But let's take a look at how you can turn blogging into a profitable activity. There are two possibilities: you either get paid for allowing other business owners to advertise on your site or you can include the blog in one of the many affiliate programs that enjoy such a popularity on the Internet nowadays.

In case you choose to exploit the advertising potential of your blog, the best program to work with is Google Adsense; you'll get paid every time an ad on your site gets clicked, regardless of whether this action converts into profit or not. The logical question that may rise here is: how can you get more clicks for the ads on the blog? Don't think about clicking your own ads to make some more money; fraud clicks are a very hot subject in the business, and Google teams are very efficient at identifying them. Such dishonest practice could cost you dearly if you dare to use it.

You can increase the profitability of the ads on your blog by taking advertising into consideration when you design the site. For instance, the fonts and colors used for the ads should be only slightly different from the rest of the page, without standing out. Why? Because the more visible you make them, the more likely it is that they'll annoy the user, and the entire purpose of your blog is to get people to spend quality time on the page. Adsense is a program that displays only those ads that are related to the domain the blog tackles with, so that you cannot complain about too large a number of irrelevant visitors.

Last, but not least, you can use the blog as part of an affiliate program, which involves promoting the products or services of a specific business. For instance if you've got a blog dealing with diving, you can very well turn into an affiliate for a company that sells diving equipment. The amount of money you are supposed to get is usually part of the individual agreement you sign with the other party, and it usually depends on how well you manage to use the blog to actually convince people to purchase one of the products. Friendly links, special discounts, promotions and e-news letters are all part of an affiliate campaign that could turn a simple blog into a great revenue generator.

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Business blogging

Many large and small businesses alike have recently discovered the great advantages of blogging in maintaining good communication relationships with both employees and customers. It is obvious that for some people, blogs have become a means of sharing information and expertise at very advanced levels and this can only mean increased profit for the company. It is a common knowledge by now that small businesses profit the most from blogging. Why? Because a highly specific web page such as a blog, successfully substitutes an extensive online presence. Instead of a static page, you offer a very dynamic blog where feed-back is encouraged and various issues get tackled with.

Many Internet experts consider blogs a very informal, yet popular way of developing business contacts, since, the informational content receives a different approach than in the case of classic promotion sites. Business owners can definitely enjoy great recommendations from users, but there are also dissatisfied customers who could review the products or services unfavorably. You'll have to be prepared to handle such situations with the utmost diplomacy in order to avoid a worsening of the situation. On the other hand, a business blog provides the opportunity to run market research and avoid hiring employees that don't fit requirements.

Business blogs also function as the right tool to spread news to all the employees at once; this kind of blog application is usually preferred by larger companies who can reach the staff in a more comfortable way and on a daily basis. Statistics claim that blogging significantly contributes to team building and communication between the departments of the same company; hence, there has been an increased preference for blogging over newsletters. Nevertheless, we also have to mention the more difficult aspects of business blogging as well.

For instance, maintaining an updated blog requires quite a lot of time and work, it may even be necessary to have someone perform all the operations on a regular basis. Then, the e-commerce possibilities are fewer when it comes to using a blog over a regular site; you may find it very advantageous to start blogging when you just initiate your business online, but then, you may choose to use it in parallel with a regular promotion site, once things get to look brighter. If at the beginning you take advantage of the minimal costs required by a business blog, later you need to monitor efficiency first and foremost.

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Street Fighter : Legend of Chun-Li starring Kristin Kreuk

Was browsing the web for upcoming movies and found out about this...
I've alway liked how she looked, specially during the earlier seasons of smallville.

Checkout the movie posters below... I got to watch this ( I believe a trailer is available on yutube.)

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SSH minus the password or passphrase

Step 1:

As the user you are going to be , and on the machine you will be logging on, type: ssh-keygen -t rsa

Follow the prompts and use the defaults for the filenames it gives you. Don't enter in a passphrase, otherwise you will still be prompted for a password when trying to connect.

You should then have two new files in ~/.ssh, id_rsa and id_rsa.pub.

Step 2:

Open ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub and copy the line in it to the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the host you will be connecting to as the user you will be logging in as.

Step 3:

Now try it out. Try ssh'ing from the host you created the id_rsa* files on to the one you added a line to the authorized_keys file. You won't be prompted for a password any more.

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How do I start blogging?

Presently, we can definitely say that online communications are probably the most successful and effective ones worldwide; they save money, time, while also allowing transactions, commercial advertising and even business administration. Blogging is part of this general trend of putting everything on the web, regardless of whether we are talking about business, hobbies or personal stuff. There are some basic guidelines that lie at the foundation of any blogs; therefore, we could say that you need the ABC of blogging before actually starting to enjoy it. The most important thing for the creation of the blog is the purpose: why do you create it for?

There are some people who choose to create a blog on their own, whereas others prefer to hire some pro to set things on the right track. First of all, before starting the actual blogging project, you'll need to create a detailed plan in which to include: objectives, investment with the analysis of cost and profit, targeted audience, blog updates and administration and monitoring tools. Blogging is a very accessible thing to do for both business and personal reasons, nevertheless, its real value is obvious when it attracts relevant traffic.

There are all sorts of issues you need to take into consideration; search for special software that helps you track the best keywords you should include in the articles posted on the blog! This means of attracting traffic by identifying the keywords that are the highest in demand goes hand in hand with special devices that help one evaluate the keyword performance over a specific period of time. Thus, all Internet users interested in blogging, particularly business owners who use blogs for promotion campaigns, need to learn as many SEO secrets as they can, since they have to optimize not just the blog content as such but the ads that appear on it as well.

Another important issue when starting a blog is the content; keep in mind that the best sites of this kind are the ones with highly interesting information. Search engines love great content and visitors linger more on your blog as well if the articles, the videos or the pictures are catchy. For those bloggers who are also running their business online, a good word of advice here is the combination of informational articles and e-news letters. The users that subscribe to periodical informative bulletins should be offered all sorts of promotions and special contests to keep the interest vivid. More such tricks can be learned if you take the time to learn something on Internet marketing, it could mean a great deal for any new blogger.

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SVC command for Sol 10

To check the service is online or offline:

svcs -v

e.g.

#svcs -v ssh
online - 12:23:17 115 svc:/network/ssh:default

To Stop the service:

#svcadm disable network/ssh

To start the service:

#svcadm enable network/ssh

To restart the service:

# svcadm restart network/ssh

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Getting quality content for your blog

All Internet marketing guides stress the importance of using only quality content for the blog pages, yet, the question remains: how can one decide which is good content and which not? I simply suggest that we start from the very nature of the blog: a highly informational and personal site which tackles with subjects in a specific domain. Hence, when designing the blog, don't make it too complex, stick to the simple structures that allow users to perform actions easily on the page. The frame should also be very simple and the eventual ads and links need to naturally blend in the content of the blog as such. Web design provides the great advantage of using similar fonts and formats, so that only some elements on the page should stand out.

Furthermore, you may have learned by now that you need to create the site content around some high-in-demand keywords that users type in the search box of the engine. The more the keywords, the higher the chances to have your blog appear in the first result pages. However, many bloggers understand keyword density the wrong way. The blog content should naturally include the keywords in an easy-to-read kind of way; a keyword density that goes higher than 2 or 3% could make the articles less appealing to the reader.

There are some tips you may consider when creating quality content for a blog. First of all, regardless of the domain and the target audience, it should be reader-friendly and even reader-oriented if it be the case. This means that even when you deal with a scientific topic, you can still keep the reader's attention vivid since not everybody who visits your blog has a professional cultural background. Write everything in short or medium-sized paragraphs so that the information naturally flows without being hard to track in case of an interruption.

Statistics show that blogs that include links in the very article content are more successful than those who present links at the bottom of the page for instance. Inserted links allow the reader to get a puzzle-explanation of a concept or provide the opportunity to show interest for specific products or services. Furthermore, the blogs that make a happy combination of written content, pictures and videos are considered a lot more appealing to the average Internet user, and thus receive a lot more traffic. The key to being successful within the blogging system is definitely the continuous adaptation to the requests of the market.

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Getting a blogging job

The blogging phenomenon has reached such dimensions that presently it has gained prominence on a market where competition is anything but mild. This is how it came that business owners actually hire people to optimize blogs and keep a close watch over what happens on the web; companies that use blogs to make the relationship with clients and employees more informal and efficient are usually the ones in need of finding people for blogging jobs. After all, it takes quite some time to update fresh materials, answer comments and post opinions. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon to turn blogging into some form of home business.

If you could make enough money to live decently, I'm sure you'd like to stay home in front of the computer instead of commuting every day to the other side of the city. However, don't make the mistake of thinking that income keeps coming without any effort on the blgger's part; on the contrary, to make a blog profitable, you need perseverance, knowledge in the field, adequate software and a lot of time. Let's take the simple case of search engine optimization – what we shortly call SEO. Finding the right keywords to incorporate in the blog content is probably the first corner stone in the business.

What are the qualities of someone who blogs for a living? First of all, you need full knowledge of how search engines operate in combination with an advertising program: Adsense or Adwords, preferably. Then, you should be able to make a serious selection of the keywords and understand the way you have to bid for them: the keywords highest in demand are also the most expensive ones. You have to be able to identify those keywords that become inactive or that have a very low return on investment rate, and thus be able to get them back in use or replace them with new functional ones.

Working as a blogger also implies Internet marketing and e-commerce solid knowledge. It is true that the general rules of traditional marketing apply here as well, but we cannot ignore the fact that the web is a different market with specific rules and laws of action. There are all sorts of marketing tools you may find available on various sites, and you should not ignore their importance, particularly since products and services promoted via blogs depend on advanced advertising techniques.

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Replacing Failed Internal Disk (no Hardware-RAID) for V440 Server

1. Verify which disk drive corresponds with which logical device name andphysical device name.

Listed below is the table for the v440 disk devices:

Disk Slot Number Logical Device Name[1] Physical Device Name——————————————————————————————-Slot 0 c1t0d0 /devices/pci@1f,700000/scsi@2/sd@0,0Slot 1 c1t1d0 /devices/pci@1f,700000/scsi@2/sd@1,0Slot 2 c1t2d0 /devices/pci@1f,700000/scsi@2/sd@2,0Slot 3 c1t3d0 /devices/pci@1f,700000/scsi@2/sd@3,0

2. Verify that a hardware disk mirror does not exist

#raidctlNo RAID volumes found.
****NOTE**** If Raid volumes exist see infodoc 73040

3. View status of SCSI devices

#cfgadm -alAp_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Conditionc0 scsi-bus connected configured unknownc0::dsk/c0t0d0 CD-ROM connected configured unknownc1 scsi-bus connected configured unknownc1::dsk/c1t0d0 disk connected configured unknownc1::dsk/c1t1d0 disk connected configured unknownc1::dsk/c1t2d0 disk connected configured unknownc1::dsk/c1t3d0 disk connected configured unknownc2 scsi-bus connected configured unknownc2::dsk/c2t2d0 disk connected configured unknownusb0/1 unknown empty unconfigured okusb0/2 unknown empty unconfigured okusb1/1 unknown empty unconfigured okusb1/2 unknown empty unconfigured ok

4. Remove the disk drive from the device tree

#cfgadm -c unconfigure

example -> #cfgadm -c unconfigure c1::dsk/c1t3d0This example removes c1t3d0 from the device tree. The blue OK-to-Remve LED forthe disk being removed will become lit.

5. Verify that the device has been removed from the device tree

#cfgadm -al

Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Conditionc0 scsi-bus connected configured unknownc0::dsk/c0t0d0 CD-ROM connected configured unknownc1 scsi-bus connected configured unknownc1::dsk/c1t0d0 disk connected configured unknownc1::dsk/c1t1d0 disk connected configured unknownc1::dsk/c1t2d0 disk connected configured unknownc1::dsk/c1t3d0 unavailable connected unconfigured unknownc2 scsi-bus connected configured unknownc2::dsk/c2t2d0 disk connected configured unknownusb0/1 unknown empty unconfigured okusb0/2 unknown empty unconfigured okusb1/1 unknown empty unconfigured okusb1/2 unknown empty unconfigured ok

*NOTE that c1t3d0 is now unavailable and unconfigured. The disks blueOK-to-Remve LED is lit

6. Remove the disk drive

7. Install a new disk drive

8. Configure the new disk drive

#cfgadm -c
example->#cfgadm -c configure c1::dsk/c1t3d0

*NOTE that the green activity LED flashes as the new disk at c1t3d0 is added tothe device tree

9. Verify that the new disk drive is in the device tree

#cfgadm -al

Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Conditionc0 scsi-bus connected configured unknownc0::dsk/c0t0d0 CD-ROM connected configured unknownc1 scsi-bus connected configured unknownc1::dsk/c1t0d0 disk connected configured unknownc1::dsk/c1t1d0 disk connected configured unknownc1::dsk/c1t2d0 disk connected configured unknownc1::dsk/c1t3d0 disk connected configured unknownc2 scsi-bus connected configured unknownc2::dsk/c2t2d0 disk connected configured unknownusb0/1 unknown empty unconfigured okusb0/2 unknown empty unconfigured okusb1/1 unknown empty unconfigured okusb1/2 unknown empty unconfigured ok

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Nifty sed one liners for metastat

Was wanting to check for validation of root disks being mirrored and came across these one-liners:

1. metastat | sed -n '/Mirror/{n;p;n;p;n;p;n;p;}'

Output:

Submirror 0: d31

State: Okay

Submirror 1: d32

State: Okay

Submirror 0: d41

State: Okay

Submirror 1: d42

State: Okay

Submirror 0: d21

State: Okay

Submirror 1: d22

State: Okay

Submirror 0: d11

State: Okay

Submirror 1: d12

State: Okay

Submirror 0: d101

State: Okay

Submirror 1: d102

State: Okay

2. metastat | sed -n '/Mirror/{p;n;p;n;p;n;p;n;p;}'

d30: Mirror

Submirror 0: d31

State: Okay

Submirror 1: d32

State: Okay

d40: Mirror

Submirror 0: d41

State: Okay

Submirror 1: d42

State: Okay

d20: Mirror

Submirror 0: d21

State: Okay

Submirror 1: d22

State: Okay

d10: Mirror

Submirror 0: d11

State: Okay

Submirror 1: d12

State: Okay

d100: Mirror

Submirror 0: d101

State: Okay

Submirror 1: d102

State: Okay

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Blogging – ten sites you need to know

Now that you are part of the blogging phenomenon that has spread all around the world, or you simply aspire to learn something about the online community, there is plenty of assistance you can find online to help you optimize your own blog the best way you want.

For instance, a host giant like www.xanga.com provides a great chance to start a blog on your own; it is a good opportunity for anyone interested in joining a world-wide community that shares pictures, videos, thoughts and points of view. Furthermore, you'll also get precious information from many domains.

Another such great host site is www.myspace.com where you may register your blog under a variety of categories depending on the theme and topic. There is a wide selection of users and definitely good quality traffic if you make the blog worth visiting.

For those who want to make some money with their blogs, by advertising, I strongly recommend www.adsense.com, a Google-joint program that enables bloggers to make a really good income. How come? On this site you closely follow all the necessary steps to choose the ads (both images and text) that best match your blog content.

It is the same business direction that triggers lots of queries in terms of Internet marketing: you may learn more about the bright or the dark sides of the web by having a look at http://www.marketingquickiesv2.com/ionut/first20.html.

Blogging takes time and effort, and you can definitely avoid some mistakes other pros warn against by permanently inquiring on new stratagems to use with Adsense; after all you have to make as much money as you can. Hence, http://www.marketingquickiesv2.com/adsense-adwords-marketing.html is a site that should teach you something.

You should also need to subscribe to one of the many sites that provide blog lists so that you may be more easily found by interested users. http://www.blogcatalog.com/ is a good choice to promote your blog and create traffic.

In the same listing categories we have to mention the giant http://dir.yahoo.com/news_and_media/blogs/ that is one comprehensive directory where you'll definitely want to have your blog subscribed. The same stays true for http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Weblogs/ that functions according to the same working principles.

We should also point out to a “blog on blogs” that is definitely worth visiting given the large amount of information on the topic: http://www.problogger.net/. For someone who is just learning the rules of the game, there is much to find out here!

Last but not least, there are all sorts of professional sites that can help you with the tools you actually need for blogging. Here I refer to http://asymptomatic.net/blogbreakdown.htm and other similar pages that may guide and assist you in the attempt to find the software that best matches your blog. Good luck!

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ACLs for serving websites from a ZFS filesystem (Sol)

Having your web servers backed by a zfs filesystem allows for the setting of ACL's to allow for permissions propagation. This is important especially on multi-user web hosting systems where multiple users (minimally the webmaster, the system administrator, and the web server processes) all need to be able to read and often write to web content. Sure, you could do this with simple POSIX group permissions, but often those are too limiting or lead to wider permissions than are desirable. ACLs, while adding some complexity, allow for very specific and controllable permissions to be attached to files. ZFS takes it one step further than POSIX ACLs by enabling granular control over attributes like execution vs. read; write vs. permission changes; append data vs. truncate; even permit or deny the creation of subdirectories. All of these ACL permissions can optionally be set to inherit down within the filesystem structure.

You will need to probably cover two bases: One with read/write permissions to the web server process, where the web server itself need to be able to change or add content, and one that is read only. The site webmaster and system administrator should always have read/write access to their own content. Now because we are lucky enough to know Ben Klang who is a ninja and everyone aspires to be like we get access to his .bashrc file. It has a special wrapper built in that allows use to use to prefix commands like chmod with an s like schmod to have SUN_PERSONALITY exported for you. I would show you guys how to do that but your not ninja's like Ben and he'd probably kill me and all your family members just for thinking about it. So yeah you'll just have to do it in a one liner. SUN_PERSONALITY is only required on Nexenta to invoke the Solaris-bundled versions of `chmod' and `ls'. On a "vanilla" Solaris or Solaris Express system, no such environment variable is necessary.

Read Only
Set only read permissions. This is useful for setting as the default on the entire website and then applying the below read/write permissions to only the applicable folders.

#> SUN_PERSONALITY=1 chmod A+group:www-data:read_data/execute:file_inherit/dir_inherit:allow

Read / Write
Set read/write permissions so they propagate down as well. This is useful for a toplevel writeable directory.

#> SUN_PERSONALITY=1 chmod A+group:www-data:list_directory/read_data/add_file/write_data/add_subdirectory/
append_data/write_xattr/execute:file_inherit/dir_inherit:allow

#> schmod A+group:www-data:read_data/execute:file_inherit/dir_inherit:allow
#> sls

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Blogging - making it pay

Maybe the starting point of a profitable blog is a great topic, but there is definitely more to the business than that. There are two options a blogger has when trying to make the page generate revenue from advertising: either to stay on top of other blogs or provide good-quality material that ensures a high readership. Though the former option may look like the true Internet promise, things are slightly different when you have to achieve a high ad click rate. Let's see the dos and don'ts of blogging when it comes to making money from advertising.

First of all, you need to consider the number of readers you target with the blog articles, and set an average or modest click rate in case the domain you're dealing with is not a very common one. You may get valuable clicks, but they may not be enough to generate the income you need; therefore, always try to maintain a balance between the advertising rate you set for the blog and the amount of traffic you manage to draw by well-researched, informational content. The best Google program to use here is definitely Adsense, but keep in mind that the ads are relevant for the site material and vice versa, hence, focus on quality not quantity.

One of the smartest ways to attract traffic and therefore increase the chances to get more ad clicks is by the use of continuation links. All you have to do is post a link with an excerpt from the blog article and post it on the main page. The whole point is to make it catchy: the reader sees it, interest rises and he or she clicks on the link to get to the body of the story. If you only post the title of an article within the link, you risk that the visitor leave the page without actually minding the post.

Don't make the mistake of linking your blog only to top pages in the business. Yes, there are sites that are considered reference points in the field, and you actually risk of orienting the reader's attention towards a competitor. Links are great tools, but they are not everything for a blog: first comes nice, unique information, and only then should you focus on directing the reader to other similar pages. The best links to use are those that take the visitor to a detailed explanation of the information on your blog, while also allowing the return to the initial page. Good luck!

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Presenting... The bitch cruiser bike nsfw

Once in a while we come across an invention that's so ludicrously chauvinist, even our testosterone-fueled rants sputter to speechlessness. Go om ride it but wear protection hehehe.

Bid for your own bitchcruiser on eBay.

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Blog Traffic - Web 2.0 traffic tactics

The blogging phenomenon perfectly integrates in the second generation of web services know as Web 2.0 since this is the most convenient platform for all Internet moves. What is there for bloggers with Web 2.0? First of all, the whole aim of the new web-technology is to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users, on the one hand, and increase the usage rate on the other hand. The next legitimate question that rises here touches on the best ways to attract traffic in the conditions of the transition to blogs that are sources of highly functional content.

First and foremost, we need to say here that with blogs web information is no longer centralized in terms of authority, not to mention that the freedom to use and re-use material is limitless. From a certain point of view blogs become a real market, in which content is the transaction environment. Hence, Web 2.0 traffic tactics mainly gravitate around the optimization of blog articles for advanced search on the search engines. Though it may be very tempting, don't aim too high from the very beginning, it is almost impossible to get large numbers of visitors form the first blogging days.

The key to getting good traffic is perseverance and service quality. Content has to be re-freshed every week if not more often; in order to make that an easier task, it is enough to change some of the content, even if you don't replace it all. With the large number of applications available with Web 2.0, you should place a Google search box directly on the site, so that any user may find it comfortable to perform any further search directly from your blog page. What's there for you? You make the user spend more time on the site and, consequently, you increase the chances of his or her returning to the blog in the future.

People are now more interested in blogs that have RSS feeds; well, you'll have to let Internet users know that as soon as you can! Initially, graphics were the best means to indicate the presence of an RSS feed; the great advantage now is that you can adjust the very colors used for this attention sign to the theme or topic specific to the blog itself. The system is created in such an easy to use way that all you have to do is insert the text and the color scheme and then a graphic pattern is generated immediately.

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Review of WPRemix – Blogging Master Theme

In my search for a new look to my blog I’ve come across a very interesting website that offers a master theme called WordPress Remix.
Now this theme is not like other WordPress themes. It allows you to create over 50 themes giving you color and layout options. It also allows you to build a full site using WordPress which is awesome news for any serious bloggers and internet marketers.
AFFILIATE LINK
Now, I’ve been searching for a couple of weeks and WPRemix seems to be just what I’m looking for. It’s the only Blog theme on the net I’ve seen with…
- WYSIWYG Page editor. No more mess up with code. Insert and edit page template directly from visual editor. A complete CMS experience!
- Over 50 Page Templates. Choose from over 50 pre-structured, strategically built page templates that covers almost every layout possibility.
- Flexibility. Create different pages and have same sidebar for all pages or you can have them different for each of them!
- Smart Drop Menu. The smart drop menu in wpremix 2 remembers exactly where you are and where you came from!
- Dynamic Codes. You can even insert and execute PHP and Java script codes from visual editor following WP Remix code guide.
- Add-on modules. Built in such way, it accommodates add-on modules that you can use to empower WP Remix. such as shopping cart, dynamic gallery...
I’m sure you’ll agree that this is more than any other theme. There’s tons of other stuff and I recommend to visit their site and see the demo for yourself:
AFFILIATE LINK

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What is blogging?

The Internet plays a huge role in the lives of people on the entire planet; it is the fastest means to communicate with friends on the other side of the world and the richest source of information when you have to research for something. The latest trend and probably the most successful way of expressing oneself via the Internet is the blog. What does blogging actually mean? The whole concept revolves around the personal need to express feelings or thoughts, share opinions, spread news or simply have fun. A blog is actually a small individual web page more like a diary that you keep online; it receives regular updates and allows the use of links, photos, videos and extended documents.

Many people were attracted by the “blogging” phenomenon thanks to the great opportunity of making themselves heard by a specific targeted audience. Blogs are not complex web pages, it entirely depends on what the creator wants to share with the world. When you've got great pieces of news, funny links or a hobby to talk about, a blog may be just the right way to open up to an international “community”. Most often, blogs attract more attention than large and well-designed web pages? How is it possible for blogging to have reached such a status?

First of all, blogs generally tackle with one issue of interest for the user; there is fresh and rich informational content, and extended friendly links to other sites or blogs in the domain. It has become common knowledge by now that blogs often receive more traffic than other web pages. Why? The answer lies within the very essence of a search engine structure: what a search engine likes most is fresh and high quality content. This is the main preeminence blogs and the blogging phenomenon has managed to achieve ahead of normal web pages.

If blogging started as the perfect diary online, it has now come to acquire different dimensions, of which the commercial one is the most well-developed. I'll give you an illustrative example here: let's say you like gardening, and you've also started your own home business of growing plants. A blog on flowers, plants and their peculiarities would meet the requirements of other people who share your hobby, but it would also function as a great promotion tool for the development of your business. Therefore, web marketing and the need to communicate happily meet within the very concept of “blogging”.

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Blogging to the Bank 3.0 - Honest Review

Blogging has been around for a few years now. Most people use blogs to record their thoughts and lives, while the select few use them as a free way to make a fortune.
One guy who uses this to his advantage is Rob Benwell. In 2006 he dished the dirt on the tips and tricks to making a fortune using blogging. But as time passes the old systems become obsolete and new techniques are required. This is where his brand new, fresh off the press Blogging to the Bank 3.0 system comes into play.

For those who know who Rob Benwell is like me, you’ve probably made a killing using blogs.
For those who don’t, he’s the story:
Back in 2005 he was struggling to make any profit online, had dropped out of college and was getting deep into debt. He was trying all the techniques the gurus tell you and wasn’t getting anywhere fast. All of that went in the bin and he started using his own techniques and started making more and more money using simple blogs. In early 2006 he shared this with the world and had a great ebook called blogging to the bank. Tons of people got rich from using these techniques (including me). He then spoke at Online Marketing Legend Yanik Silver’s underground Seminar where he revealed even more of his underground strategies. Then July 2007 he released Blogging to the Bank 2.0 which showed users his new methods to creating online wealth using blogs. In total both versions have been read by over 50,000 people across the world.
But as I said earlier, the techniques used in these ebooks are now showing there age. Some of them are not even working in the slightest! This is where blogging to the bank 3.0 comes into play.
AFFILIATE LINK
It’s full of great new techniques that work online right now! Everything’s explained in plain English with all the fluff cut out. I got hold of an advanced copy of the book for a much higher price than what it actually sells for and it has been worth every single cent! I got it in the afternoon and by the evening I was creating new profitable blogs. Within a couple of hours of them being active I had made a nice little profit.
Blogging To The Bank 3.0 teaches you Robs new step by step blueprint to creating highly profitable long term niche blogs using the newest optimization techniques. There’s even a section on advanced Search Engine Optimization. Most people think SEO is difficult but Rob explains this nice and simply so even the blogging newbie will understand it.
Blogging To The Bank 3.0 is a breath of fresh air and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to make easy money online.

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How to promote your blog

Regardless of the reasons for which you have created a blog, it can become a success only if you know how to promote it: in other words, you have to attract traffic. There are several ways to do so, depending on what you aim at with your blog; first of all, you need to get a look on the web and see what the competition is like. Blogging is something you learn and improve as you acquire more experience; actually we could say there are no boundaries related to the possibility to promote something online. The best help you can get is from domains related to yours, by the use of friendly links.

Once you've got the pages ready don't hesitate to have links to your blog posted on other sites, which you may have to do the same in exchange to help others. Nevertheless, it is good to mention here that you must pay attention to the web page quality to make sure that you don't promote something that contradicts your principles. Then, you should probably know that there are all sorts of blog directories where you may submit your pages so that you make it more easily accessible. Generally such sites require a description of your blog, and it is here that you need to show your skills.

In case you have to describe the blog as clearly as possible, try to focus on the general topic and aim of the blog. The title you include here will be part of a category that you must select very carefully, so that it reflects your intention completely. This introductory part should not be too long, though you'll have to include some descriptive details and high-in-demand keywords. If you manage to do all these insertions correctly, then you can expect to get great traffic to the blog.

When you are new in the blogging world, you have to let people know that you're available with great subjects, pictures, articles, products and anything else specific to your field. The best way to spread the news about your blog is to write press releases and submit them to free directories; statistics show that many bloggers chose this promotion method as it is the most profitable in terms of attracting friendly links and good positions in search engine rankings. Forum postings are also great to be used in parallel with press release listings, and results should not be late to appear right away.

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Blogging – What's it all about?

Blogging is one of the most popular Internet-related phenomenon that has incited the curiosity of millions of people all over the world; it represents a great opportunity for those who create blogs and for those who use them. Very often qualified as the trend of keeping personal diaries online, blogging is far more complex owing to the fact that every web log carries the touch of the owner's imagination, interest and wit. The range of topics blogs deal with is incredibly wide: from politics and economics to sky diving and snorkeling. The next very important aspect after blog content is actually the interactive format of the pages that allows users to take action on the site.

Part of the history of blogging includes the very first attempts to run an account of one's personal life, and many of the blog owners liked to call themselves journalists or diarists. In the early days of blogging around the mid-90s, people enjoyed the experience of belonging to the online community that went beyond all sorts of boundaries. This was the time when the very first combination of text, pictures and videos were included in a blog, as the most accurate way of reflecting one's life. Sometimes, bloggers transmitted live images with the help of various portable devices, creating the so-called semi-automated blogging.

At the beginning, blogs were not individual pages, as they mainly functioned as components of larger websites; nevertheless, with the rapid development of technologies, it came into everyone's power to create and support a personal independent web log. The only condition to enjoy a successful blogging experience is to stick to high quality content that makes any visitor return to the site and even take action on it. Creativity and innovation are probably the best ways to define the blogging experience since we can identify a true craze to be seen online.

Presently, you can find guides to creating successful blogs, since, many small business owners perceive the phenomenon as a great chance to promote products and services online. Blogs are presently part of the Internet marketing strategies anyone should use as included within online advertising campaigns; the great advantage of blogging is that it mainly targets potential customers, reducing the number of uninterested users. We could say that thanks to advertising and Internet marketing, blogging has actually become a very promising type of business.

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Blogging 101

Once the secret of blogging was out, the interest in special tips and tricks to make it profitable soon knew a remarkable upsurge. The 101 revealed secrets for highly profitable blogs has actually become a common notion online, since the competition is tight, and achieving good blog traffic becomes crucial for the survival online. If you make a top ten list of the best ways to improve traffic and you simply post it on your blog, you could soon realize there are plenty of people who take it as a rule of the thumb and pass it on like a hot potato.

One such blogging 101 trick is to get links or profiles on very popular websites that have already got a great name in the business. How can you convince them to accept your request? Well, sometimes it pretty much depends on good fortune, but usually, you'll have to email them an intention letter with a detail description of your blog. It would probably be a good idea if you looked for some online marketing tips before presenting the hot features of your web page. Don't worry if you don't get results from the first attempts, try with others, since once you get a link on their site, your blog will profit immensely.

We cannot avoid mentioning the fact that there are all sorts of “hidden” tricks that are nevertheless used to attract traffic and increase rankings. For instance, blog popularity often comes when links to your pages are added multiple times on other sites, not to mention that the creation of a large number of accounts also leads to a higher ranking thanks to the bonus points that are usually offered in return. Some bloggers have used innovative, yet doubtful, methods, such as Google, Yahoo or Microsoft site purchase to increase their traffic and the list of examples could easily go on.

In order to spread the word about your blog, you can always turn to RSS; this is probably one of the best ways to make a special intro for a new blog on the web. Most blog services are also RSS feed generators, in case you lack this tool, you can always turn to FeedForAll software to create the feeds. A site such as www.feedforall.com will definitely be a good starting point for a novice of the blogging adventure, since, presently the RSS is the best means of making your blog popular.

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Error installing in Solaris: No space left on device..

f you receive this error when running pkgadd on datastream packages, you are likely filling up the /var file system, as pkgadd extracts the contents of the package into/var/tmp.

Example errors when filling up the /var file system when running pkgadd on a gcc 3.3 package:

Processing package instance from

gcc
(sparc) 3.3
cpio: Cannot write "reloc/lib/libstdc++.a", errno 28, No space left on device
cpio: Cannot write "reloc/lib/libstdc++.so.5.0.4", errno 28, No space left on device
cpio: Cannot write "reloc/lib/libsupc++.a", errno 28, No space left on device

The solution is either to symbolically link /var/tmp into a larger file system that can accommodate extracting the package, or to translate the package from datastream format (one monolithic file) into file system format (extracting the package into its component parts). I recommend the latter solution.

For example, if you have a large file system named /files1, you can translate the package into file system format with:
pkgtrans package /files1
ex. pkgtrans gcc-3.3-sol7-sparc-local /files1

To install the package:
pkgadd -d /files1

After the package is installed, you can remove the package in file system format with:
rm -r /files1/package
ex. rm -r /files1/SMCgcc

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Tabs for your Putty...

Well I was browsing around seeking updated tool for my use and stumble upon this application that puts tab on putty. Actually it serves as a putty connection manager.

Still has rough edges in this application but I see a great potential if this improves.

I you want to try this out, you can find it here:

PuTTY Connection Manager from puttycm.free.fr

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Chilling with Shawty Songs

I heard this song from Stevie Hoang entitled Shawty. I like the song but what really caught my attention was the word Shawty because I noticed that there were a lot of songs that talk about that word. For example, Get it Shawty by LLoyd, Shawty by Plies Ft. T-Pain, Buy you a drank (shawty snappin) by T-Pain f Young Joc and Shortie Like Mine by Bow Wow.

What is shawty anyway?

Well according to our friendly google search:

Shawty — a Southern derivation of “shorty” or “shortie” — has multiple meanings, according to several Internet slang dictionaries. It can reference a good friend, a small child, a newcomer or even someone shorter than you.

Did it make sense? hehe

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Additional swap space (RH)

Swap needed to be increased to 8GB from 4GB on a RHEL 5 system. All hard drive space was already allocated, so I had to create a swap file (/files0/swapfile in this example) instead of a swap partition.

$ free total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 8177384 4098900 4078484 0 133220 3671700 -/+ buffers/cache: 293980 7883404 Swap: 4192912 0 4192912

Procedure

Create the 4GB swap file.

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/files0/swapfile bs=1024 count=4194304 4194304+0 records in 4194304+0 records out 4294967296 bytes (4.3 GB) copied, 36.1759 seconds, 119 MB/s

Setup the swap file.

# mkswap /files0/swapfile Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 4294963 kB

Enable the swap file immediately.

# swapon /files0/swap file

Enable the swap file after reboot.

Add the following to /etc/fstab:

/files0/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0

Confirm the swap file has been added to swap.

$ free total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 8177384 8058892 118492 0 116668 7534592 -/+ buffers/cache: 407632 7769752 Swap: 8387208 0 8387208

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Swap Administration

A standard Solaris swap space partition that is not under the control of volume management software cannot be resized. However, you can add swap space by using free space from another partition.

To create a swapfile:
mkfile size swapfile

Here is an example to create an additional 512M swapfile:
mkfile 512M /files0/swapfile

Add the swapfile to system swap space:
swap -a /files0/swapfile

Add an /etc/vfstab entry to have the swapfile added after each reboot:
/files0/swapfile - - swap - no -

Make sure to manually remove this /etc/vfstab entry if you ever delete the additional swapfile with swap -d.

Additional swap commands

List swap space:
swap -l

List swap space statistics:
swap -s

Delete a swapfile:
swap -d swapfile

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Youtube Utube Yotube Yutube Video Screw Up and Vidoe Errors

As of the moment, Yotube has this on its home page:

We are currently performing site maintenance. Be cool - we’ll be back 100% in a bit.

They already performed system maintenance hours ago, but I think they had encountered some problems and videos uploaded by some users were replaced by a different video.

I experienced this problem with two yotube videos from NBA TV, one of the best channels there is.

Anyway, cool right?

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Solaris Recommended Patch Clusters Install

Solaris Recommended Patch Clusters contain all operating system and security patches for the Solaris Operating Environment "deemed to be of universal interest." They may be safely applied on most Solaris installations, and should be installed on a regular basis--quarterly, if possible.

Installation of Recommended Patch Clusters requires approximately two hours of system downtime. Installation is performed in single-user mode, and a reboot of the system is required when Patch Cluster installation is finished.

To determine your current patch level, run the showrev command. The bottom line of showrev output indicates the version of the kernel you are running (e.g. 117350-27). When others ask for your current patch level, they generally are referring to the kernel version number.

The following is a step-by-step method for retrieving and installating Solaris Recommended Patch Clusters.

1. Download the latest Patch Cluster and README for your release of the Solaris Operating Environment.

For most users, it will be easiest to download these from SunSolve. If you would like to download them from the command line, create a Sun Online Account and follow the instructions below. Read Document 82023 for more information.

Solaris 10 (requires an account with a valid Sun Service Plan):

$ wget --http-user=Sun_Online_user --http-passwd=Sun_Online_password --no-check-certificate "https://sunsolve.sun.com/private-cgi/pdownload.pl?target=10_Recommended.zip&method=h" -O 10_Recommended.zip

$ wget --http-user=Sun_Online_user --http-passwd=Sun_Online_password --no-check-certificate "https://sunsolve.sun.com/private-cgi/pdownload.pl?target=10_Recommended.README&method=h" -O 10_Recommended.README

Solaris 9:

$ wget --http-user=Sun_Online_user --http-passwd=Sun_Online_password --no-check-certificate "https://sunsolve.sun.com/private-cgi/pdownload.pl?target=9_Recommended.zip&method=h" -O 9_Recommended.zip

$ wget --http-user=Sun_Online_user --http-passwd=Sun_Online_password --no-check-certificate "https://sunsolve.sun.com/private-cgi/pdownload.pl?target=9_Recommended.README&method=h" -O 9_Recommended.README

Solaris 8:

$ wget --http-user=Sun_Online_user --http-passwd=Sun_Online_password --no-check-certificate "https://sunsolve.sun.com/private-cgi/pdownload.pl?target=8_Recommended.zip&method=h" -O 8_Recommended.zip

$ wget --http-user=Sun_Online_user --http-passwd=Sun_Online_password --no-check-certificate "https://sunsolve.sun.com/private-cgi/pdownload.pl?target=8_Recommended.README&method=h" -O 8_Recommended.README

Solaris 7:

$ wget --http-user=Sun_Online_user --http-passwd=Sun_Online_password --no-check-certificate "https://sunsolve.sun.com/private-cgi/pdownload.pl?target=7_Recommended.zip&method=h" -O 7_Recommended.zip

$ wget --http-user=Sun_Online_user --http-passwd=Sun_Online_password --no-check-certificate "https://sunsolve.sun.com/private-cgi/pdownload.pl?target=7_Recommended.README&method=h" -O 7_Recommended.README

Solaris 2.6

$ wget --http-user=Sun_Online_user --http-passwd=Sun_Online_password --no-check-certificate "https://sunsolve.sun.com/private-cgi/pdownload.pl?target=2.6_Recommended&method=h" -O 2.6_Recommended.tar.Z

Solaris 2.5.1

$ wget --http-user=Sun_Online_user --http-passwd=Sun_Online_password --no-check-certificate "https://sunsolve.sun.com/private-cgi/pdownload.pl?target=2.5.1_Recommended&method=h" -O 2.5.1_Recommended.tar.Z

Deprecated URIs:

Solaris 2.5.1:
ftp://patches.sun.com/patchroot/clusters/2.5.1_Recommended.tar.Z
ftp://patches.sun.com/patchroot/clusters/2.5.1_Recommended.README

Solaris 2.6:
ftp://patches.sun.com/patchroot/clusters/2.6_Recommended.tar.Z
ftp://patches.sun.com/patchroot/clusters/2.6_Recommended.README

Solaris 7:
ftp://patches.sun.com/patchroot/clusters/7_Recommended.zip
ftp://patches.sun.com/patchroot/clusters/7_Recommended.README

Solaris 8:
ftp://patches.sun.com/patchroot/clusters/8_Recommended.zip
ftp://patches.sun.com/patchroot/clusters/8_Recommended.README

Solaris 9:
ftp://patches.sun.com/patchroot/clusters/9_Recommended.zip
ftp://patches.sun.com/patchroot/clusters/9_Recommended.README

Solaris 10:
ftp://patches.sun.com/patchroot/clusters/10_Recommended.zip
ftp://patches.sun.com/patchroot/clusters/10_Recommended.README

2. View the README file before proceeding with Cluster installation.

3. Move the Patch Cluster archive onto a file system with sufficient free space in which to extract the archive.

To determine the number of kilobytes needed to extract a .zip file, run:
$ unzip -l $FILE | tail -1 | awk '{ print $1 / 1024 }'

Example:
$ unzip -l 8_Recommended.zip | tail -1 | awk '{ print $1 / 1024 }'
489285529

To determine the number of kilobytes needed to extract a .tar.Z file, run:
$ zcat $FILE.tar.Z | tar tvf - | awk '{ KILOBYTES += $3 / 1024 } END { print KILOBYTES }'

Example:
$ zcat 2.6_Recommended.tar.Z | tar tvf - | awk '{ KILOBYTES += $3 / 1024 } END { print KILOBYTES }
128420

4. Extract the Patch Cluster archive.

To extract a .zip file, run:
$ unzip $FILE.zip

To extract a .tar.Z file, run:
$ zcat $FILE.tar.Z | tar xvf -

5. Login as the root user on the system console, and bring the system to single-user mode. Although Patch Cluster installation may be performed in multi-user mode (e.g. run level 3), it may cause problems with running programs and services.

# init S

6. Backup the configuration files for the Sun SCSI disk (sd) and SCSI tape (st) drivers. Patch Cluster installation will overwrite the drivers' configuration files. If your system uses SCSI disks with non-zero LUNs (common with RAIDs or external storage arrays) or "wide" SCSI tape devices (i.e. SCSI IDs 8-15), these devices will not be recognized by the operating system after system reboot.

# cp /kernel/drv/sd.conf /kernel/drv/sd.conf.pre_cluster_installation
# cp /kernel/drv/st.conf /kernel/drv/st.conf.pre_cluster_installation

7. Install the Recommended Patch Cluster.

$ cd $PATCH_CLUSTER_DIRECTORY
# ./install_cluster

During Cluster installation, you may see failures when installing individual patches.

Example:
Installation of patch failed. Return code 2.
Installation of patch failed. Return code 8.

Return code 2 indicates that the patch has already been installed. This message is common when installing the Recommended Patch Cluster on a regular basis.

Return code 8 indicates that the patch is for a package that is not installed on your system.

Both of these return codes are common, and may be safely ignored. For information on other return codes, examine the /usr/sbin/patchadd file.

8. Restore the Sun SCSI disk and SCSI tape driver configuration files.

# mv /kernel/drv/sd.conf.pre_cluster_installation /kernel/drv/sd.conf
# mv /kernel/drv/st.conf.pre_cluster_installation /kernel/drv/st.conf

9. Reboot the system.
# shutdown -i6 -g0 -y

After rebooting, you may verify your new patch level with the showrev command. To list of all patches installed on your system, run the showrev -p command.

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SSH and ssh-agent Brian Hatch

No one likes typing passwords. If people had their way, computers would simply know who they were and what they should have access to without us proving it at every turn.[1] In my last article I showed you how to create SSH Identities/Pubkeys, which can be used as an alternative to password authentication. However, I then went right back and told you to passphrase protect them, so now you were substituting one password for another, seemingly gaining nothing.
This week we have the payoff. We'll take the Identity/Pubkey trust we created last time, and learn how to use the ssh-agent program as our keymaster. We'll decrypt our keys once, put them in into the agent, and have it handle all our authentication needs thereafter.
Starting up the AgentTo start up the agent you can simply run it on the command line:
$ ssh-agent
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-OqdW7921/agent.7921; export SSH_AUTH_SOCK;
SSH_AGENT_PID=7922; export SSH_AGENT_PID;
echo Agent pid 7922;
When the agent starts, it writes some information to your screen that you can use to set up your shell's environment variables. In the above example, it is using Bourne shell syntax. If you were in a C-shell, say /bin/csh or /bin/tcsh, then it would have generated the variables differently. If ssh-agent can't determine which shell you are using correctly, you can use the -s or -c arguments to force it to provide Bourne or C-shell syntax, respectively.
The /usr/bin/ssh program uses the SSH_AUTH_SOCK environment variable to know how to contact the ssh-agent you're running, so once you run the agent, you should set the variables it provided. The easiest way to do this, and the reason it outputs those variables ready-to-go, is that you can use the shell eval function and backtics (`) to run the agent and the commands it creates, all in one fell swoop:
# Note: no ssh agent related variables yet
$ set grep SSH_

# Run it inside backticks, which will capture the output and
# pass it to 'eval' which will run it in your current shell.
$ eval `ssh-agent`
Agent pid 7943

# And now those variables are in your shell, ready to use.
$ set grep SSH_
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-xoGi7942/agent.7942
SSH_AGENT_PID=7943
If you have the SSH_AGENT_PID variable set, you can kill off the agent using ssh-agent -k. You can always kill the daemon manually with the kill command as well.
Putting keys into the agent
The agent isn't very useful until you've actually put keys into it. All your agent key management is handled by the ssh-add command. If you run it without arguments, it will add any of the 'standard' keys $HOME/.ssh/identity, $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa, and $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa. If your keys are passphrase protected (and they should be!) then it will ask you for the passphrase to decode them. If the keys use the same passphrase, it will only ask you once, which can be convienient.[2]
So, let's actually put our keys into the agent:
$ ps -fp $SSH_AGENT_PID
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
lainee 7943 1 0 15:52 ? 00:00:00 ssh-agent

# Are there any keys in there currently?
# 'ssh-add -l' (list) will show us.
$ ssh-add -l
The agent has no identities.

# Let's import the default keys. In our case, we have
# each key protected with the same passphrase, which is
# why it only asks once.
$ ssh-add
Enter passphrase for /home/lainee/.ssh/id_rsa:
Identity added: /home/lainee/.ssh/id_rsa (/home/lainee/.ssh/id_rsa)
Identity added: /home/lainee/.ssh/id_dsa (/home/lainee/.ssh/id_dsa)
Identity added: /home/lainee/.ssh/identity (lainee@desktop)

# What's in our agent now?
$ ssh-add -l
1024 79:e9:6f:99:a3:2d:ae:f3:bd:3a:87:6c:ed:4e:bb:ad lainee@desktop (RSA1)
1024 23:d5:2b:20:02:a4:1a:c2:d0:d8:66:8f:a9:67:db:c0 id_dsa (DSA)
1024 e8:17:67:cf:9c:24:2b:59:ad:48:1d:e6:ea:d6:d9:3d id_rsa(RSA)

# And let's add a few one-off keys also
$ ssh-add ssh-keys/id*
Enter passphrase for id_dsa.webrooters:
Identity added: id_dsa.webrooters (id_dsa.webrooters)
Enter passphrase for identity.webrooters:
Identity added: identity.webrooters (webrooters@my_company.com)


# What's in our agent now?
$ ssh-add -l
1024 79:e9:6f:99:a3:2d:ae:f3:bd:3a:87:6c:ed:4e:bb:ad lainee@desktop (RSA1)
1024 23:d5:2b:20:02:a4:1a:a9:67:db:c0:c2:d0:d8:66:8f id_dsa (DSA)
1024 e8:17:67:cf:9c:24:2b:59:ad:48:1d:e6:ea:d6:d9:3d id_rsa(RSA)
1024 1a:c2:d0:d8:66:23:d5:2b:20:02:a4:8f:a9:67:db:c0 id_dsa.webrooters (DSA)
1024 ae:f3:bd:3a:87:79:e9:6f:99:4e:bb:ad:a3:2d:6c:ed webrooters@my_company.com (RSA1)
Above we used ssh-add to add the default keys, ssh-add -l to list the keys in the agent, and ssh-add filenamelist to add other keys explicitly.
Deleting keys from the agentYou can use the ssh-agent -d command to delete keys from the agent, as seen here:
# List keys
$ ssh-add -l
1024 79:e9:6f:99:a3:2d:ae:f3:bd:3a:87:6c:ed:4e:bb:ad lainee@desktop (RSA1)
1024 23:d5:2b:20:02:a4:1a:a9:67:db:c0:c2:d0:d8:66:8f id_dsa (DSA)
1024 e8:17:67:cf:9c:24:2b:59:ad:48:1d:e6:ea:d6:d9:3d id_rsa(RSA)
1024 1a:c2:d0:d8:66:23:d5:2b:20:02:a4:8f:a9:67:db:c0 id_dsa.webrooters (DSA)
1024 ae:f3:bd:3a:87:79:e9:6f:99:4e:bb:ad:a3:2d:6c:ed webrooters@my_company.com (RSA1)

# Remove the key that came from the file ~/.ssh/id_dsa.webrooters
# from the agent. (Does not remove the file from the directory.)
$ ssh-add -d ~/.ssh/id_dsa.webrooters
Identity removed: id_dsa.webrooters (id_dsa.webrooters.pub)

# List keys again
$ ssh-add -l
1024 79:e9:6f:99:a3:2d:ae:f3:bd:3a:87:6c:ed:4e:bb:ad lainee@desktop (RSA1)
1024 23:d5:2b:20:02:a4:1a:a9:67:db:c0:c2:d0:d8:66:8f id_dsa (DSA)
1024 e8:17:67:cf:9c:24:2b:59:ad:48:1d:e6:ea:d6:d9:3d id_rsa(RSA)
1024 ae:f3:bd:3a:87:79:e9:6f:99:4e:bb:ad:a3:2d:6c:ed webrooters@my_company.com (RSA1)
Why might you want to delete keys from the agent? The most common reasons are:
You want to temporarily add a key that you want to use a lot for the next hour, but don't want it to stick around after you're done with it for security/paranoia reasons. (See the "Agent Security Concerns" section later.)
You no longer use the keys, for example if you've upgraded all your servers to support SSHv2, and your RSA1 keys aren't used any more.
You have too many keys in your agent, so you remove the keys that are least necessary. See the next section for why this may occur.
Too Many Agent Keys?SSH servers only allow you to attempt to authenticate a certain number of times. Each failed password attempt, each failed pubkey/identity that is offered, etc, take up one of these attempts. If you have a lot of SSH keys in your agent, you may find that an SSH server may kick you out before allowing you to attempt password authentication at all. If this is the case, there are a few different workarounds.
If you have keys in your agent that you don't need any more (for instance old obsolete RSA1 keys) then you can delete them from the agent using ssh-agent -d filename.
If you know you want to use password authentication, you can prevent SSH from offering keys at all by temporarily disabling your SSH_AUTH_SOCK envorionment variable:
$ SSH_AUTH_SOCK='' ssh user@myserver ...
Or you can use put configuration options into ~/.ssh/options, or supply them manually on the command line:
# Using the configuration file:
$ head ~/.ssh/config
Host myserver
# Allow SSHv1 Identity authentication?
RSAAuthentication no
# Allow SSHv2 Pubkey authentication?
PubkeyAuthentication no
$ ssh myserver
or
# Put it all on the command line.
# Or better yet, put it in a shell script or an alias...
$ ssh -o'RSAAuthentication=no' -o 'PubkeyAuthentication=no' user@myserver ...
If you want to use a specific key, but it's too far down in the list in the agent (the SSH server kicks you out before it's offered) then you are out of luck. While I wish there were a way to suggest an order for the agent to offer keys, I don't know of one. If anyone has an idea, let me know. I'd love to just be able to supply a -i filename option on the command line, but that doesn't work.
Agent Security ConcernsThe ssh-agent creates a unix domain socket, and then listens for connections from /usr/bin/ssh on this socket. It relies on simple unix permissions to prevent access to this socket, which means that any keys you put into your agent are available to anyone who can connect to this socket.
When the agent starts, it creates a new directory in /tmp/ with restrictive permissions (0700), and creates it's socket therein with similarly restrictive permissions (0600). However, the root user on this machine still has the ability to override access restrictions on all local files, so root can access your agent's keys!
root# set grep SSH_
root# ssh-add -l
Cannot connect to your agent.

root# ls -l /tmp/ssh-*/*
srwx------ 1 lainee alandra 0 Jan 21 11:51 /tmp/ssh-OqdW7921/agent.7921

root# SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-OqdW7921/agent.7921
root# export SSH_AUTH_SOCK
root# ssh-add -l
1024 79:e9:6f:99:a3:2d:ae:f3:bd:3a:87:6c:ed:4e:bb:ad lainee@desktop (RSA1)
1024 23:d5:2b:20:02:a4:1a:a9:67:db:c0:c2:d0:d8:66:8f id_dsa (DSA)
1024 e8:17:67:cf:9c:24:2b:59:ad:48:1d:e6:ea:d6:d9:3d id_rsa(RSA)
1024 ae:f3:bd:3a:87:79:e9:6f:99:4e:bb:ad:a3:2d:6c:ed webrooters@my_company.com (RSA1)
So the bad news is that your agent keys are usable by the root user. The good news, however, is that they are only usable while the agent is running -- root could use your agent to authenticate to your accounts on other systems, but it doesn't provide direct access to the keys themselves. This means that the keys can't be taken off the machine and used from other locations indefinitely.
Is there any way to keep root from using your agent, even though it can subvert unix file permissions? Yes, you can. If you supply the -c option when you import your keys into the agent, then the agent will not allow them to be used without confirmation. When someone attempts to use your agent to authenticate to a server, the ssh-agent will run the ssh-askpass program. This program will pop up on your X11 desktop and ask for confirmation before proceding to use the key.
At this point you're probably going to realize that we're still fighting a losing battle. The local root account can access your X11 desktop, all your processes, you name it. If you can't trust the root user, you're in trouble.
However this will prevent root on machines to which you've forwarded the agent from accessing your agent.
Agent forwardingOne of the nice things about the agent is that it can follow you as you SSH from machine to machine. The default in newer versions of OpenSSH is to disable agent forwarding by default, so you'll need to decide when it's correct for you to use and specify it appropriately.
How does the agent forwarding actually work? In short, the agent is running on one machine, and each time you SSH with agent forwarding, the server creates a 'tunnel' back through the SSH connection to the agent so it's available for any further SSH connections.
Let's say we're on our desktop, we SSH to a management server with agent forwarding, and from the management server SSH to our mail server. Here's what happens:
/usr/bin/ssh on your desktop connects to the management server, authenticates, and requests agent forwarding.
/usr/sbin/sshd on the management server creates a socket in /tmp/ssh-XXXXXXX/agent.##### and sets the SSH_AUTH_SOCK environment variable to match.
The SSH daemon then starts up your shell, and you begin doing your work on the management server.
When you decide to SSH out to the mail server, the /usr/bin/ssh program (here on the management server) sees the SSH_AUTH_SOCK environment variable and connects to that local socket file.
The SSH daemon, who is the other end of the local socket /tmp/ssh-XXXXXXX/agent.#####, simply transfers data from /usr/bin/ssh on the management server to and from the ssh-agent running on your desktop. All the key mathematics are handled on the actual agent, which is running on your desktop, not on any of the intervening machines.
The agent authenticates you to the mail server, and you're in.
Using agent forwarding can save you a lot of time and typing.
Also note that since your agent is available to any machine to which you forward it, it's also accessible by root on those systems, so don't forward it unless you trust those systems with your authentication credentials!
Turn off agent forwarding globallyUnless you have a good reason to forward the agent by default, you should verify that the agent forwarding is disabled by default. Locate the global ssh_config file, which typically lives in /etc/ or /etc/ssh/ and make sure you have the following:
Host *
ForwardAgent no
This will disable ssh-agent forwarding unless explicitly requested.
Agent forwarding on the command lineTo forward your agent via the command line, just include a -A flag:
desktop$ ssh -A user@remotehost
The -a option disables agent forwarding, which is the default.
Agent forwarding via the config fileIf you have a host to which you always wish to forward your agent, without the trouble of supplying the -A flag, you can create entries in ~/.ssh/config to turn it on for these hosts:
$ cat ~/.ssh/config
Host shellserver
ForwardAgent yes

Host management-server
ForwardAgent yes

Host *
ForwardAgent no
Although the restrictive Host * section should be already contained in the global ssh_config file, I prefer to have it in my personal copy regardless.
Other Useful FeaturesThere are several other command line flags and features of ssh-add and ssh-agent.
ssh-add -L
When called with a captial "L" argument, ssh-add will output the entire key, not just the fingerprint. Useful for concatenating into one's ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file.
ssh-add -D
Delete all keys from the agent
ssh-add -x
Lock the agent with a password - it will be unusable until you unlock it again. A good thing to do if you want to leave your keys in the agent when you go home at night - you'll need to unlock it when you return, and no one can abuse it while it's locked. Unlock using ssh-add -X and supplying the password again.
ssh-add -t seconds filename
The -t tells the agent to discard the key after a specified amount of time. A good way to temporarily have keys in your agent, or feed your own paranoia.
ssh-agent -t seconds
Select a default lifetime for keys when the agent starts up. Lifetimes specified on the ssh-add command line, if present, override this default.
ConclusionWe've seen how ssh-agent can save a great deal of time and typing when used with SSH Identity/Pubkey authentication. While we're still some ways away from computers simply knowing who we are and what we have access to, tools like ssh-agent go a long way to keeping authentication strong yet making it easy-to-use.

Notes
[1] Unfortunately, many of those users are the same ones that choose their sweethearts's name for their password, and then stick it on their monitor in case they forget it.
[2] You may choose to have different passphrases for the keys to prefer security over convienience, but if you use a strong passphrase and each key has equivalent access, then a compromise of one is no worse than a compromise of all anyway.

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Creating a custom Solaris 8 installation CD

It is possible to create a custom bootable Solaris 8 installation CD.

Note: these steps were obtained from the Building a Bootable JumpStart Installation CD-ROM Sun BluePrint. I advise you to read this document in its entirety to fully understand the procedure below.

1. Create the "work area." We will make a directory called bicd, short for "bootable installation CD."
mkdir -p /bicd/s0

2. Populate the work area with the contents of Solaris 8 Software CD 1.
cd /cdrom/cdrom0/s0
find . -print | cpio -pudm /bicd/s0

/etc/init.d/volmgt stop
cd /bicd
for i in 1 2 3 4 5
do
dd if=/dev/dsk/c0t6d0s${i} of=sol2.8.s${i} bs=512
done

3. In order to free up space for custom packages and scripts on the custom installation CD, I removed /usr/openwin from the work area. This prevents us from using the GUI operating system installer, but it frees up approximately 58 MB for customization.

du -sk /bicd/s0/Solaris_8/Tools/Boot/usr/openwin
58608 /bicd/s0/Solaris_8/Tools/Boot/usr/openwin

rm -rf /bicd/s0/Solaris_8/Tools/Boot/usr/openwin

4. Customize the bootable installation CD. All customizations should be placed in /bicd/s0/Solaris_8/misc/.install_config; you may create additional subdirectories within this directory.

I began customization by removing all files in /bicd/s0/Solaris_8/misc/.install_config. You may want to examine these files for "profile" examples prior to removal, or you may choose to preserve the files.

rm /bicd/s0/Solaris_8/misc/.install_config/*

Here is what I have in my pkgs subdirectory:

ls -l
total 90630
-rw-r--r-- 1 root sys 35840 Dec 22 2003 ANDIrand-0.7-5.8-sparc-1.pkg
-r--r--r-- 1 root sys 889344 Dec 23 2003 CISscan
drwxr-xr-x 5 root other 512 Jan 29 2004 SUNWlvma
drwxr-xr-x 5 root other 512 Jan 29 2004 SUNWlvmg
drwxr-xr-x 4 root other 512 Jan 29 2004 SUNWlvmr
drwxr-xr-x 5 root other 512 Jan 29 2004 SUNWmdg
drwxr-xr-x 5 root other 512 Jan 29 2004 SUNWmdnr
drwxr-xr-x 5 root other 512 Jan 29 2004 SUNWmdnu
drwxr-xr-x 5 root other 512 Jan 29 2004 SUNWmdr
drwxr-xr-x 5 root other 512 Jan 29 2004 SUNWmdu
drwxr-xr-x 5 root other 512 Jan 29 2004 SUNWmdx
-r--r--r-- 1 root sys 205 Feb 13 2004 admin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root sys 54375 Dec 23 2003 fix-modes.tar.Z
-rw-r--r-- 1 root sys 30914560 Dec 23 2003 libgcc-3.3-sol8-sparc-local
-rw-r--r-- 1 root sys 1569280 Dec 22 2003 openssh-3.7.1p2-sol8-sparc-local
-rw-r--r-- 1 root sys 10967040 Dec 22 2003 openssl-0.9.7c-sol8-sparc-local
-rw-r--r-- 1 root sys 1216512 Dec 23 2003 wget-1.8.2-sol8-sparc-local
-rw-r--r-- 1 root sys 657408 Dec 23 2003 zlib-1.1.4-sol8-sparc-local

Explanation:

SUNWlvma (DiskSuite)
SUNWlvmr (DiskSuite)
SUNWmdnr (DiskSuite)
SUNWmdr (DiskSuite)
SUNWmdx (DiskSuite)
SUNWlvmg (DiskSuite)
SUNWmdg (DiskSuite)
SUNWmdnu (DiskSuite)
SUNWmdu (DiskSuite)
ANDIrand-0.7-5.8-sparc-1.pkg (for OpenSSH)
openssl-0.9.7c-sol8-sparc-local (for OpenSSH)
libgcc-3.3-sol8-sparc-local (for OpenSSH)
openssh-3.7.1p2-sol8-sparc-local (for OpenSSH)
zlib-1.1.4-sol8-sparc-local (for OpenSSH)
wget-1.8.2-sol8-sparc-local (for Recommended Patch Cluster installation script)
CISscan (Center for Internet Security host-based security scanner)
fix-modes.tar.Z ("hardens" file-permissions)

In addition, I have a custom admin file for non-interactive package installation.

cat admin
#ident "@(#)default 1.4 92/12/23 SMI" /* SVr4.0 1.5.2.1 */
mail=
instance=unique
partial=ask
runlevel=ask
idepend=nocheck
rdepend=ask
space=ask
setuid=nocheck
conflict=ask
action=nocheck
basedir=default

Here is what I have in my scripts subdirectory:

ls -l
total 54
-rwxr--r-- 1 root sys 2043 Jan 12 2004 README
-rw-r--r-- 1 root sys 1188 Dec 26 2003 S97OpenSSHinstall
-rw-r--r-- 1 root sys 1804 Feb 13 2004 finish
-rw-r--r-- 1 root sys 10620 Jan 13 2004 harden
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root sys 2139 Jan 12 2004 install_patch_cluster
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root sys 5510 Mar 3 2004 mirror_boot_disk
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root sys 336 Dec 22 2003 sshd

Here is what I have in my profiles subdirectory:

ls -l
total 24
-rw-r--r-- 1 hutch hutch 353 Jan 29 2004 S2.8-18G.profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 hutch hutch 289 Jan 29 2004 S2.8-1G.profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 hutch hutch 289 Jan 29 2004 S2.8-2G.profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 hutch hutch 303 Jan 29 2004 S2.8-4G.profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 hutch hutch 352 Feb 13 2004 S2.8-9G.profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 hutch hutch 354 Jan 29 2004 S2.8-large_rootdisk.profile

5. Create the rules file. Here is the rules file I used on my custom Solaris 8 installation CD:

cat rules
# Profiles for rootdisk sizes of 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 9GB, 18GB, and larger (36+GB)
disksize rootdisk 1-1250 - profiles/S2.8-1G.profile scripts/finish
disksize rootdisk 1251-3250 - profiles/S2.8-2G.profile scripts/finish
disksize rootdisk 3251-8000 - profiles/S2.8-4G.profile scripts/finish
disksize rootdisk 8001-17000 - profiles/S2.8-9G.profile scripts/finish
disksize rootdisk 17001-34000 - profiles/S2.8-18G.profile scripts/finish
disksize rootdisk 34001-1000000 - profiles/S2.8-large_rootdisk.profile scripts/finish

6. Parse the rules file with the JumpStart check script on the Solaris 8 Software 1 CD; this creates the rules.ok file.

# /etc/init.d/volmgt start
# /cdrom/cdrom0/s0/Solaris_8/Misc/jumpstart_sample/check
Validating rules...
Validating profile profiles/S2.8-1G.profile...
Validating profile profiles/S2.8-2G.profile...
Validating profile profiles/S2.8-4G.profile...
Validating profile profiles/S2.8-9G.profile...
Validating profile profiles/S2.8-18G.profile...
Validating profile profiles/S2.8-large_rootdisk.profile...
The custom JumpStart configuration is ok.

7. Modify the /bicd/s0/Solaris_8/Tools/Boot/usr/sbin/install.d/profind script.

Change:

cdrom()
{
# Factory JumpStart is only allowed with factory
# stub images, indicated by the file /tmp/.preinstall
#
if [ -f /tmp/.preinstall ]; then
mount -o ro -F lofs ${CD_CONFIG_DIR} ${SI_CONFIG_DIR} >/dev/null 2>&1

if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
verify_config "defaults" "CDROM"
fi
fi
}

To:

cdrom()
{
gettext " <<<>>>"; echo
rmdir ${SI_CONFIG_DIR}
ln -s /cdrom/.install_config ${SI_CONFIG_DIR}
exit 0
}

8. Create the custom Solaris 8 ISO. The following script performs all the steps needed to create the ISO. mkisofs is found in the SUNWmkcd package.

#!/bin/sh

# Define variables
WORK_AREA=/bicd
SLICE_0_SECTORS=1056640
ISO=bicd2.8.iso

if [ ! -d $WORK_AREA ] ; then
echo "$WORK_AREA does not exist."
exit 1
fi

cd $WORK_AREA

mkisofs -R -d -L -l -o sol2.8.S0 s0 > /dev/null 2>&1
RECORDS_IN=`dd if=sol2.8.S0 of=new.sol2.8.s0 bs=512 skip=1 2>&1 | grep "records in" | awk -F+ '{print $1}'`

if [ "$RECORDS_IN" -gt "$SLICE_0_SECTORS" ] ; then
echo "${WORK_AREA}/s0 cannot be larger than $SLICE_0_SECTORS sectors."
exit 1
fi

PAD_SIZE=`echo "$SLICE_0_SECTORS - ($RECORDS_IN + 1)" | bc`

dd if=/dev/zero of=pad.s0 bs=512 count=$PAD_SIZE > /dev/null 2>&1

cat sol2.8.cdrom.vtoc new.sol2.8.s0 pad.s0 sol2.8.s1 sol2.8.s2 sol2.8.s3 sol2.8.s4 sol2.8.s5 > $ISO

9. Burn the ISO using your preferred method.

10. Boot your custom Solaris 8 installation CD-ROM. It is essential to pass the - install flags to reference the JumpStart files on your custom CD.

boot cdrom - install
-- or --
boot cdrom - install w

The latter instructs the installer not to use OpenWindows during operating system installation. Since /usr/openwin does not exist on the custom CD in this example, specifying the w will only prevent an error message; both options will use the curses-based installer.

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