Announcing the Utter Ramblings EL4 repository
March 14, 2007 by Jason · 33 Comments
If you're a regular reader of the site, you may have noticed the "Yum Repository" link at the top of the page. If so, congratulations, you're one of the first to try out a new service I'm offering on this site.
As it appears, most of the posts on this blog thus far have been how-to's on updating your RHEL & CentOS servers to use the newest versions of httpd, PHP, and MySQL. I'm still planning on creating those articles as needed, but only the source packages will be linked to the page. Binary releases for i386 (x86-64 coming soon) will now be available for easy updating through my brand new yum repository (and yes, before you ask, 'up2date' can read a yum repo).
I'm hoping that this will cut down on not only the effort required to update your systems, but also on the possible glitches that can come from updating a complex set of packages like PHP (where, with prior provided methods, you'd need to type out all of the file names that you wanted to install all at once, otherwise you'd have dependency issues with upgrading from an earlier release).
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Upgrading to MySQL 5.0.37 on RHEL and CentOS
March 9, 2007 by Jason · 11 Comments
Well, I'm back again with yet another release of MySQL. Coming only a few short days after the Enterprise release of 5.0.36 under the Monthly Rapid Update program, MySQL has decided to release 5.0.37 as a community edition.
As with my last release, this one is based on the latest Fedora src.rpm from the development tree and has been modified to use the newest source package, package new files that didn't exist before, remove patches that have been integrated into the main code-base, and, as a first for me, to add a patch to reverse part of a recent commit that breaks regression testing.
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Update to “Upgrading to MySQL 5.0.36 on RHEL and CentOS”
March 8, 2007 by Jason · 7 Comments
If you followed my earlier guide on Upgrading to MySQL 5.0.36 on RHEL & CentOS 4, you don't really need to read this. If you haven't, you may want to read the other for reference, but I would strongly recommend that you follow this guide instead.
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Upgrading to MySQL 5.0.36 on RHEL and CentOS
March 6, 2007 by Jason · 9 Comments
Let me start by saying, "yes, I know that MySQL 5.0.36 isn't on the download page yet". That's because this is an enterprise-only release under the Monthly Rapid Update program. That said, there is absolutely nothing preventing the build of this version as a community release.
As with my prior release of MySQL 5.0.33 for RHEL & CentOS 4, the i386 binary packages and the src.rpm are packaged in the "Red Hat"-style that is used for the RHEL-, CentOS-, and Fedora-distributed packages. That means that the client & shared libraries are packaged as "mysql", that the "mysqld" daemon is packaged as "mysql-server", etc.
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Review: Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 Sound Card
March 3, 2007 by Jason · 11 Comments
Just under 2 weeks ago I ordered an Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 Sound Card based on some recommendations I read over on AVSForum.com. The card finally arrived the middle of this past week and I got the time to install it in my HTPC last night (to replace the integrated sound from nVidia's SoundStorm).
For those of you that don't know, the X-Meridian is based on the C-Media Oxygen HD CMI8788 audio processor. Now, if you're not familiar with that particular chip, just know that it can do pretty much anything, including but not limited to Dolby Digital Live, Dolby ProLogic IIx, Dolby Headphone, Dolby Virtual Speaker, DTS Interactive, and DTS Neo:PC. While this card does pack some incredible features for digital output, where it really shines is when you switch over to the analog outputs.
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XCache 1.2.0 src.rpm Updated
February 23, 2007 by Jason · Leave a Comment
For those of you using it, the src.rpm for XCache 1.2.0 in my PHP Caching and Acceleration with XCache tutorial has been updated to fix a bug that might occur on some servers (see this ticket for more information).
Online Capacity Expansion (Gone South) with Openfiler and a 3Ware RAID card
February 20, 2007 by Jason · 5 Comments
If you've been reading my blog then you'd know that I use OpenFiler for my home storage needs. When I originally provisioned the system it was with a pretty beefy box. One thing I went short on though was storage. I purchased a high-end RAID card (3Ware 9590SE-16ML) but then proceeded to only install 3 drives (Western Digital RE2 500 GB). I did this for a bunch of reasons, but the most important are that, 1. hard drives cost money and they wern't currently needed, 2. hard drive prices go down, and 3. the raid controller I purchased supports Online Capacity Expansion (OCE).
A few days ago I noticed that my storage array was about 80% full. As such, I decided to order another 500GB RE2 (for $40 less than the original three, proving point #2) and test out 3Ware's OCE.
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Upgrading to PHP 5.2.1 on RHEL and CentOS
February 10, 2007 by Jason · 36 Comments
Well, PHP 5.2.1 was released on Thursday so here we go again. PHP 5.2.1 contains more than 180 bug fixes, as well as some performance improvements (official release statement). For those of you that like to stay on the bleeding edge, here's my how-to on upgrading to PHP 5.2.1 for RHEL & CentOS 4.
As I have done with the last few upgrade tutorials, I'm including the modified src.rpm at the bottom of this post. Compiled RPM packages are NOT going to be included as PHP RPMs are dependent on the version of httpd that you're running. If you didn't follow my Upgrading to httpd 2.2.4 how-to, my compiled binaries won't do you a bit of good. In any case, if you've followed any of my other tutorials, you're probably pretty familiar with the process. If not, read my how-to's on Upgrading to PHP 5.1.6 & Upgrading to PHP 5.2.0 BEFORE proceeding as they both contain helpful information about the process.
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How-To: Compiling XCache from Source
January 30, 2007 by Jason · 27 Comments
For those of you that are not running RPM-based distros, you're probably feeling a bit left out. Up until now, all of my tutorials have dealt with upgrading RPM-based distros. Well, that ends here. I'm going to walk through the fairly simple process of compiling and installing XCache for httpd from the original source.
The current stable release of XCache is 1.0.3. The "Unstable" release, made for PHP 5.1 & 5.2, is 1.2.0. Despite the label, I have not found anything "unstable" about the 1.2.0 version. That said, there have been a few issues reported on the vBulletin forums for users of PHP 4. If you are running PHP 4, I'd recommend that you use 1.0.3, just to be safe. Now, down to the work.
The 15750 Hz “Noise” from my TV is driving me NUTS!
January 27, 2007 by Jason · 10 Comments
Can anyone else hear the 15750 Hz tone generated by most TVs? My girlfriend was telling me I was crazy and that the sound didn't exist until my Uncle Chuck explained that the sound does exist while we were back in Illinois for my Grandmother's birthday & Christmas.
I've got two TVs in my apartment (a 15-ish-year-old 20" GE and a 3-year-old 36" Toshiba) and I can hear both if they are on no matter where I am in the apartment (2 BR/2 BA, separate kitchen & dining room; it's not a small place), even if the doors are closed.
I'm almost ready to go out and spend $3000 on a nice 1080p LCD screen so that I can sit in the living room in peace because even turning the volume way up (with 500W of Klipsch power behind it) doesn't drown it out... Heh, the only good news is that all of the big-box retail stores are getting rid of their CRT screens (or at least tossing them in the back corner of the store) so if I do break down and decide to go shopping, at least I won't get a headache at the same time.