With that said, installation of mu is not that simple. Earlier in mu 0.4 it was a nightmare as I had to go through lots of and different installation errors, but now with thanks to developer Dirk-jan Binnema who fixed a bug for me and made a few changes to leisure its installation, it’s not that hard if you know the calculated amount of steps involved:

• Compiling glib 2.24
• Compiling and installing xapian and xapin-config
• Adding /usr/local/bin/pkg-config to current PKG_CONFIG_PATH
• Fixing that notorious bug of “undefined reference to sqlite3_prepare_v2″ in sqlite-dev package that exists in all RHEL related packages (not needed as version 0.7 eliminates sqlite dependency by using xapian instead)

Presuming that you’ve all compiling and development tools (gcc, gcc++, libtool), installation involves these underlined steps. Try not to use package versions other than the ones mentioned. Trust me, when I say that.

1. Installing glib2, updating system library and exporting pkg-config path.

# wget http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/glib/2.24/glib-2.24.1.tar.gz
# tar zxvf glib-2.24.1.tar.gz
# cd glib-2.24.1/
# ./configure
# make
# make install
# echo "/usr/local/lib/" >> /etc/ld.so.conf.d/glib2-i386.conf
# ldconfig
# export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/lib/pkgconfig

2. Installing gmime

# wget http://dl.atrpms.net/el5-i386/atrpms/stable/atrpms-package-config-120-3.el5.i386.rpm
# rpm -ivh atrpms-package-config-120-3.el5.i386.rpm
# yum --enablerepo=atrpms install gmime-2.4.7-1.99 gmime-devel-2.4.7-1.99

3. Installing xapian

# wget http://centos.karan.org/kbsingh-CentOS-Extras.repo -0 /etc/yum.repos.d/kbsingh-CentOS-Extras.repo
# yum install --enable=kbs-CentOS-Testing xapian-core xapian-core-devel -y

4. Compiling and installing mu

# wget http://mu0.googlecode.com/files/mu-0.7.tar.gz
# git clone git://gitorious.org/mu/mu-ng.git
# tar zxvf mu-0.7.tar.gz
# rm -f mu-0.7/src/mu-cmd-index.c
# cp mu-ng/src/mu-cmd-index.c mu-0.7/src/
# cd mu-0.7/
# ./configure
# make
# make install

That’s all you need to get started. There’s no other tool like ‘mu view’ (formerly mu-msginfo) for getting instant command line outputs of an email formatted in maildir format. I instantly fell in love with it when I first used.
Wish a nice playing with it!

As I used ‘beep’ program already a few times in Ubuntu I knew it would be interesting to use it with new ‘-n’ feature instead of using issuing beep command for an each frequency beep. That is, the whole script here at http://redmine.pfsense.org/repositories/annotate/pfsense/usr/local/bin/beep.sh can be translated into a single beep command of:

beep -f 500 -l 155 -n -f 400 -l 155 -n -f 600 -l 155 -n -f 800 -l 155 -n -f 800 -l 155 -n -f 600 -l 155 -n -f 800 -l 155 -n -f 500 -l 155 -n -f 400 -l 155 -n -f 400 -l 155

But after installing beep and running didn’t make any sound. I witnessed that spkr kernel module as well as the motherboard speaker were well being detected but still no sound. After investigating, it turns out that its bug in kernel earlier than 2.6.18-164 interestingly using external speakers instead of PC’s internal one for producing system bells. Basically its a bug called as an ‘aggression’ for a feature that breaks of with any newer kernel release. I saw multiple bugs relating to the problem in Red Hat’s bugzilla https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=532444, https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=525390 and https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=526751. So, I hit upon the CentOS 5′s lastest kernel, 2.6.18-194.8.1.el5 and that gave me back my system beeps

[root@Bassu ~]# dmesg | grep -i ‘speaker’
input: PC Speaker as /class/input/input2
[root@Bassu ~]# lsmod | grep -i spkr
pcspkr                  7105  0

Almost I finished adding beeps in rc.local and shutdown, I stumbled upon a good init script which I modified a bit and added chkconfig parameters so it can be added into RHEL’s ntsysv services – exactly what I needed! Then I found another beep melody for Beethoven’s theme

beep -f 659 -l 460 -n -f 784 -l 340 -n -f 659 -l 230 -n -f 659 -l 110 -n -f 880 -l 230 -n -f 659 -l 230 -n -f 587 -l 230 -n -f 659 -l 460 -n -f 988 -l 340 -n -f 659 -l 230 -n -f 659 -l 110 -n -f 1047-l 230 -n -f 988 -l 230 -n -f 784 -l 230 -n -f 659 -l 230 -n -f 988 -l 230 -n -f 1318 -l 230 -n -f 659 -l 110 -n -f 587 -l 230 -n -f 587 -l 110 -n -f 494 -l 230 -n -f 740 -l 230 -n -f 659 -l 460

Add below script to file, /etc/init.d/beep, make it executable and do a ‘chkconfig –add beep’ to add it as a system service.

#!/bin/sh
# chkconfig: 2345 95 20
# description: Beep PC speaker with analog melody on startup and stoppage
#
# processname: beep
NAME=beep
BEEP=/usr/bin/$NAME
MELODY_START="-f 65.4064 -l 100 -n -f 130.813 -l 100 -n -f 261.626 -l 100 -n -f 523.251 -l 100 -n -f 1046.50 -l 100 -n -f 2093.00 -l 100 -n -f 4186.01 -l 100"
MELODY_STOP="-f 523.251 -l 100 -D 100 -n -f 391.995 -l 100 -D 100 -n -f 329.628 -l 100 -D 100 -n -f 261.626 -l 200"
SCRIPTNAME=/etc/init.d/$NAME
#ARGS="-e /dev/input/event0"
# Exit if the package is not installed
[ -x "$BEEP" ] || exit 0
case "$1" in
 start)
 $BEEP $ARGS $MELODY_START
 ;;
 stop)
 $BEEP $ARGS $MELODY_STOP
 ;;
 restart|force-reload)
 # Do nothing
 ;;
 *)
 echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|restart|force-reload}" >&2
 exit 3
 ;;
esac

With that said, coming out of Mario world and now going back to my laziness

UPDATE:

Talking about the Mario, I just created its beep command from some random junk of frequencies I found. So, here it goes:

beep -f 330 -l 137 -n -f 330 -l 275 -n -f 330 -l 137 -d 137 -n -f 262 -l 137 -n -f 330 -l 275 -n -f 392 -l 550 -d 550 -n -f 262 -l 412 -n -f 196 -l 137 -d 275 -n -f 164 -l 137 -d 137 -n -f 220 -l 275 -n -f 247 -l 137 -d 137 -n -f 233 -l 137 -n -f 220 -l 275 -n -f 196 -l 205 -n -f 330 -l 205 -n -f 392 -l 275 -n -f 440 -l 275 -n -f 349 -l 137 -n -f 392 -l 137 -d 137 -n -f 330 -l 275 -n -f 262 -l 137 -n -f 294 -l 137 -n -f 247 -l 412 -n -f 262 -l 412 -n -f 196 -l 137 -d 275 -n -f 164 -l 275 -d 137 -n -f 220 -l 275 -n -f 247 -l 137 -d 137 -n -f 233 -l 137 -n -f 220 -l 275 -n -f 196 -l 205 -n -f 330 -l 205 -n -f 392 -l 275 -n -f 440 -l 275 -n -f 349 -l 137 -n -f 392 -l 137 -d 137 -n -f 330 -l 275 -n -f 262 -l 137 -n -f 294 -l 137 -n -f 247 -l 412 -d 275 -n -f 392 -l 137 -n -f 370 -l 137 -n -f 349 -l 137 -n -f 311 -l 275 -n -f 330 -l 137 -d 137 -n -f 207 -l 137 -n -f 220 -l 137 -n -f 262 -l 137 -d 137 -n -f 220 -l 137 -n -f 262 -l 137 -n -f 294 -l 137 -d 275 -n -f 392 -l 137 -n -f 370 -l 137 -n -f 349 -l 137 -n -f 311 -l 275 -n -f 330 -l 137 -d 137 -n -f 523 -l 275 -n -f 523 -l 137 -n -f 523 -l 550 -n -f 392 -l 137 -n -f 370 -l 137 -n -f 349 -l 137 -n -f 311 -l 275 -n -f 330 -l 137 -d 137 -n -f 207 -l 137 -n -f 220 -l 137 -n -f 262 -l 137 -d 137 -n -f 220 -l 137 -n -f 262 -l 137 -n -f 294 -l 137 -d 275 -n -f 311 -l 275 -d 137 -n -f 294 -l 275 -n -f 262 -l 550 -d 550

$ ssh -vl abbas 10.10.10.251

Last login: Mon Jul  5 03:58:16 2010 from 10.10.10.243
Could not chdir to home directory /home/abbas: Permission denied
/bin/bash: Permission denied
debug1: channel 0: free: client-session, nchannels 1
Connection to 10.10.10.251 closed.
Transferred: sent 2048, received 2072 bytes, in 0.0 seconds
Bytes per second: sent 51120.7, received 51719.8
debug1: Exit status 1

# stat /
File: `/'
Size: 4096          Blocks: 16         IO Block: 4096   directory
Device: fd00h/64768d    Inode: 2           Links: 23
Access: (0700/drwx------)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2010-07-04 04:02:02.000000000 -0400
Modify: 2010-07-02 10:14:43.000000000 -0400
Change: 2010-07-05 03:58:50.000000000 -0400

Ours is just in the middle of mango trees’ garden and it makes the whole adventure quite more fascinating than fun, it sounds The borehole of well is more than 150 feet and seeing it from top makes your vision a bit dizzy and you can fall off right into it if you’re seeing by bending yourself. I’m afraid of heights but that doesn’t mean I may also be afraid of depths (holly shame-o, lol) but that’s exactly this level of depth does. It’s illusionary. So, I had to sit down, pull my hand above this 20′ diameter of wide-open hole and take a snap from there, lol But that’s not much scary if you go down by downstairs’ side. Pump that throws water up is a 4HP.

There’s small sort of control room out of it that’s closed most of the times unless there’s a problem. In summer it runs all day usually! Then there’s when fun begins. When you put your head under full speed blowing water, you get your ears and nose full of water. As water in reservoir was full up to my neck and above all its floor was slippery, I really cannot withstand compelling force of blazingly cold water and fell off couple of times. Hilarious but funny as hell! Check out rest of the snaps, while I try to find out a way of eating these mangoes floating on icy water in this bucket. You really don’t get mangoes if you seed papayas !!!

Cheers.

via off
forwarded_for off

And then the below ‘via’ entity would disappear from web header requests being sent from a web browser making recipient webservers unaware of the intermediary proxy location, you’re coming from!

I was running a script that included a few of other scripts and it was not showing unicode characters properly when it ran as in a cron. Solution is to include ‘export LANG=en_US.UTF-8′ in your shell script but the ideal way to do so I found was to pass on this environment variable directly in command parameter of a cron job.

The unicode character that was missing earlier ‘degree‘ symbol became visible as soon as I added the variable LANG=en_US.UTF-8 to crontab’s command.

# crontab -l
MAILTO=""
57 9 * * * LANG=en_US.UTF-8 /root/back/hdd-report/report

I got an email from mdmonitor telling me about DegradedArray event. So, when I was rebuilding the array, I noticed I got no alerts about rebuild process or  array status updates which I really wanted to investigate. Till that time, I wasn’t event knowing that ‘mdadm –monitor’ only sends you the critical updates. So, I pulled up man pages and saw these are critical events:

• DeviceDisappeared
• Fail
• FailSpare
• DegradedArray

Rest of the events are not reported at all! Also, that RHEL5′s mdadm package has pre-compiled template of email that mdadm sends upon occurrence of a critical event which I wanted to change from as well cause it looks pretty immature:

This is an automatically generated mail message from mdadm running on HOSTNAME
A DegradedArray event had been detected on md device /dev/md1.
Faithfully yours, etc.

P.S. The /proc/mdstat file currently contains the following:
bla bla bla

Seriously, it says “faithfully”… wth? Lol. We know that all machines are faithful to a human unless they’re not broken or gay! It definitely needed to be changed. Checking /etc/init.d/mdmonitor at least gave an idea that its not something changeable but it uses default template when MAILADDR is specified while it doesn’t when PROGRAM parameter is used in /etc/mdadm.conf by passing on RAID array as arguments to the script which is used, instead.

I did this then.

# mdadm --detail --scan >> /etc/mdadm.conf

# echo "PROGRAM /etc/raidalerter" >> /etc/mdadm.conf
# sed -e '1i\DEVICE partitions' -i  /etc/mdadm.conf
# cat /etc/raidalerter    (create this file with below script)

#!/bin/bash
echo -e "Likely an unfavourable or a bad thing just happened to your RAID. Even if its recovering, it was a bad thing which caused this! \n\n\n" $(cat -A /proc/mdstat | sed 's/\$/\\n/g') | mail -s "$1 on $2 $3 at $HOSTNAME" some-mail-address@example.com

# chmod +x /etc/raidalerter
# service mdmonitor restart

Provided that you’ve an MTA working fine, mails would be delivered upon any of RAID incidents to the maximum verbosity possible. I don’t think that any of the hardware raids does so?!
I then tested it on a small array to make sure that alerts are deliverable.

# mdadm /dev/md0 -f /dev/sdb1 -r /dev/sdb1
mdadm: set /dev/sdb1 faulty in /dev/md0
mdadm: hot removed /dev/sdb1
# mdadm /dev/md0 -a /dev/sdb1
mdadm: re-added /dev/sdb1

Preview:

Subject: RebuildFinished on /dev/md0 at ToughGuy
Likely an unfavorable or a bad thing just happened to your RAID. Even if its recovering, it was a bad thing which caused this! Personalities :

[raid1]
md1 : active
raid1 sdb3[1] sda3[0]
724555520 blocks [2/2] [UU]
md0 : active
raid1 sdb1[1] sda1[0]
4008064 blocks [2/2] [UU]
unused devices: <none>