Monday, August 4, 2008

MySQL vs Ubuntu 8.04: Default settings really annoy me!

By default Ubuntu 8.04 sets MySQL to listen to local connections only.
This really is an annoying and stupid thing I found in the server (!) version of Ubuntu Hardy Heron.

Here the solution.

Here some thoughts of mine:
  • Does a server mantainer need Ubuntu to prevent him from using MySQL for the purpose it has been meant?
  • Does someone still use all-in-one machines, equipped with DBMS, appserver, webserver and whatever else (maybe someone like this still exists...)?
I have to admit it: the only OS I saw doing stupid things like this one is... Windows.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Tunneling Desktop Environments via SSH

Xorovo "Shared Knowledge" Program


Sometimes working with SSH using the terminal isn't enough. These times SSH could be used to tunnel a graphical interface from the remote machine to the one we are using.


Requires:

Server machine: Linux, Gnome OR KDE OR any other desktop environment running on a X server

Client machine: any X-server-powered OS (Linux works with X by default, but also Windows machines could be equipped with some sort of X server), SSH client installed



Procedure: Starting simple graphical applications

First of all start the console and type:
ssh -X username@remotehostname -p port

providing the right username, remote host name (or remote host IP) and the right port.

After providing the password you are logged in the remote machine.
You can start any application of the remote machine, e.g. you can do:
gedit &

and Gedit will be started on the remote host and displayed on our X server.


Procedure: Starting a desktop environment

First of all start the console and type:
whereis xterm

Remind the path returned by the command and type:
xinit path/to/xterm -- :1

This command opens a new X session (on the display "1").
This session contains an xterm terminal.

In the xterm terminal type:
ssh -X username@remotehostname -p port

providing the right username, remote host name (or remote host IP) and the right port.

After providing the password you are logged in the remote machine.
You can start any application of the remote machine, but the useful thing is you can also start an entire desktop environment:

gnome-session (if you want to start Gnome)
startkde (if you want to start KDE)
startxfce4 (if you want to start XFCE4)