User:Serge

Serge is a fairweather believer in supersonic bionic robot voodoo power. However, he was not born on Jupiter and is therefore unable to travel via fax machine.

HDD testers

• Find server rack
• Find rapid rails
• Find 2U systems to fit rapid rails
• Install power strip
• Install rapid rails into server rack
• Install 8-port KVM into server rack
• Install keyboard tray into server rack
• Install keyboard
• Install monitor into server rack
• Install network switch
• Empty components out of 2U systems
• Cold chisel out metal dividers from 2U systems
• Remove doors from 2U systems
• Mount 2U system shells in rapid rails
• Line shells with fiberglass plate
• Mount cable guides for KVM cables
• Make button/LED holders
• Make HDD holders
• Install motherboards
  • Motherboards should have 2 IDE channels, 2 IDE channels, onboard video, and PS/2 connectors for keyboard/mouse
• Install PSUs
• Install buttons/LEDs
• Route and install KVM cables
• Bundle and install network and power cables
• Install IDE and SATA cables
• Install power extensions for PSUs
• Set up motherboards for booting from network
  • If motherboards cannot boot from network, install netbootable NICs

Installing Debian 6.0 a1 on PPC machines

Answers for installation questions

The answers for these questions are not preseeded yet, so the installation will ask you lots of questions. The answers are bolded:

• Select keyboard layout
  • Keymap to use for a USB keyboard: American English
• Configure the network
  • Hostname: macbox
  • Domain name: fglan (leaving this blank may also be fine)
• Choose a mirror of the Debian archive
  • Debian archive mirror country: United States
  • Debian archive mirror: ftp.us.debian.org
  • HTTP proxy: (leave this blank)
• Set up users and passwords
  • Root password: freegeek
  • Full name for the new user: oem
  • Password: freegeek
• Configure the clock
  • Select your time zone: Pacific
• Partition disks
  • Partitioning method: Guided - use entire disk
  • Partitioning scheme: All files in one partition

The system will partition the HDD at this point. Once it's done, it will ask the following questions:

• Configuring popularity contest
  • Participate in the package usage survey?: No
• Software selection
  • Choose software to install:
    • For desktops: Graphical desktop environment and Standard system utilities
    • For laptops: Graphical desktop environment, Standard system utilities and Laptop

Enabling management of wired network by Network Manager

Network Manager is not set to manage the wired network by default. It must be enabled manually. To do so, edit /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf from:

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile

[ifupdown]
managed=false

to:

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile

[ifupdown]
managed=true

Either restart networking or restart the system to let this take effect.

Enabling keyboard keys as mouse buttons

Most Mac mice only have one button, which makes it difficult to use the middle- and right-click functions built into most window managers. Fortunately, though, we can make unused keys on the keyboard act as the middle and right buttons of a mouse by adding the following to /etc/sysctl.conf:

# 3-button mouse emulation
# turn on emulation
/dev/mac_hid/mouse_button_emulation = 1
# Send middle mouse button signal with the F11 key
/dev/mac_hid/mouse_button2_keycode = 87
# Send right mouse button signal with the F12 key
/dev/mac_hid/mouse_button3_keycode = 88
# For different keys, use showkey to tell you what the code is.

Restart the system to let this take effect.

Enabling sudo for a user account

By default, sudo is configured to work only with users that have been added to the sudo group in /etc/group. However, when a user account is created during the installation process, it is not automatically added to the sudo group. This must be set up manually, and there are a few different ways to do so.

Via the graphical user interface (GUI):

• Go to System -> "Administration -> Users and Groups
• Click the Manage Groups button
• Select sudo from the Group settings list, and click the Properties button
• Select the checkbox next to the username you'd like to give sudo access to, and click the Okay button
• When prompted, provide the root password (it should be freegeek by default)
• Close the Users and Groups utility

Via the command line interface (CLI):

• Open up a terminal
• Switch to the root account by running the following:

su

• When prompted, provide the root passwork (it should be freegeek by default)
• Run the following, but replace [username] with the actual username (eg. oem):

adduser [username] sudo

• Logout of the root account by running the following:

exit