Installing ezmlm on Debian squeeze with existing qmail and vpopmail system.

This is a quick explanation how to install and configure ezmlm-idx on Debian Squeeze on existing qmail/vpopmail installation.

Since ezmlm-idx is not on an official Debian release we need to build our own deb package. First we need to add experimental sources in /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb-src http://ftp.bg.debian.org/debian/ experimental main contrib non-free

Update and get the source:

# apt-get update
# apt-get source ezmlm-idx

Install additional packages needed by ezmlm-idx (if you are planning to use it with mysql/pgsql):

# apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev libpq-dev

There is a Debian specific bug (probably that is why ezmlm-idx is not in the official release) inside this package and it is path to qmail-queue program. The path to qmail-queue is hardcoded in file conf-qmail: "/var/lib/qmail" and ezmlm-manage tries to launch it from there. Solutions are either to edit conf-qmail file and change path to /usr/sbin or to make a link:

# mkdir /var/lib/qmail
# ln -s /usr/sbin /var/lib/qmail/bin

Now build the package:

# cd ezmlm-idx-7.1.1
# dpkg-buildpackage -uc -rfakeroot

If everything is ok there will be three new deb packages.

# ls -la
total 2232
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root    4096 Apr  8 11:58 .
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root    4096 Apr  8 11:50 ..
drwxr-xr-x  5 root root   24576 Apr  8 11:58 ezmlm-idx-7.1.1
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  104602 Apr  8 11:58 ezmlm-idx-mysql_7.1.1-1~exp0_i386.deb
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  105098 Apr  8 11:58 ezmlm-idx-pgsql_7.1.1-1~exp0_i386.deb
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    5508 Apr  8 11:57 ezmlm-idx_7.1.1-1~exp0.diff.gz
-rw-r--r--  1 root root     837 Apr  8 11:57 ezmlm-idx_7.1.1-1~exp0.dsc
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    2447 Apr  8 11:58 ezmlm-idx_7.1.1-1~exp0_i386.changes
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1284294 Apr  8 11:58 ezmlm-idx_7.1.1-1~exp0_i386.deb
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  718954 Apr 17  2012 ezmlm-idx_7.1.1.orig.tar.gz

Install it:

# dpkg -i ezmlm-idx_7.1.1-1~exp0_i386.deb
Selecting previously deselected package ezmlm-idx.
(Reading database ... 42574 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking ezmlm-idx (from ezmlm-idx_7.1.1-1~exp0_i386.deb) ...
Setting up ezmlm-idx (7.1.1-1~exp0) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
#

Now we can make our mailing list. If vpopmail is installed in /home/vpopmail here is the command to make new mailing list:

# ezmlm-make /home/vpopmail/domains/lists.example.com/testlist /home/vpopmail/domains/lists.example.com/.qmail-testlist testlist lists.example.com

Change ownership of newly created files and directories.

# chown vpopmail:vchkpw  /home/vpopmail/domains/lists.example.com/* -R
# chown vpopmail:vchkpw  /home/vpopmail/domains/lists.example.com/.* -R

This will make mailing list "testlist" on domain lists.example.com. You can subscribe by sending mail at address testlist-subscribe@lists.example.com. For more information you can see man pages of ezmlm and by sending mail to testlist-help@lists.example.com.

Debian GNU/Linux mounting Novell NetWare volumes

This is example of mounting Novell NetWare 5.1 partitions with Debian GNU/Linux (in this case - unstable with kernel 3.2.0).

First we need ncpfs package.

# apt-get install ncpfs

Then we need ncpfs module in kernel (it comes with debian kernel).

# modprobe ncpfs

Novell Context is support.gabrovo.hq
Username is niki
Server IP address is 10.1.42.24
Volume to mount is called - data

# ncpmount -o tcp -S 10.1.42.24 -A 10.1.42.24 -U niki.support.gabrovo.hq -V data /mnt/
Logging into 10.1.42.24 as NIKI.SUPPORT.GABROVO.HQ
Password:
# ls -la /mnt/
total 5
drwxr-xr-x  1 root root  512 Jan  1  1986 .
drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 Mar  7 14:12 ..
dr-xr-xr-x  1 root root  512 Mar 12 13:57 MAN

# df -h
Filesystem                                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
rootfs                                                  389G   23G  362G   6% /
udev                                                     10M     0   10M   0% /dev
tmpfs                                                   596M  848K  595M   1% /run
/dev/disk/by-uuid/2e00092b-1986-4e86-9887-996ff2949e05  389G  23G  362G   6% /
tmpfs                                                   5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
tmpfs                                                   3.4G  172K  3.4G   1% /run/shm
10.1.42.24/NIKI.SUPPORT.GABROVO.HQ                               137G 132G  4.9G  97% /mnt

Mount options and what they mean as follow:
-o tcp - use tcp (or -o udp)
-S 10.1.42.24 - server name/ip address.
-A 10.1.42.24 - which server to ask for name addresses.
-U niki.support.gabrovo.hq - niki is the user name and support.gabrovo.hq is context tree.
-V data - name of the volume to mount - "data".

If you did something wrong when mounting you can clear all your connections to novell with the following command:

# ncplogout -a

Installing skype on Debian Unstable amd64

Installing skype on 64bit linux is easy but how to do it is hard to find on the skype site. Here is what you need to do.

In this case I will show how to install skype on Debian GNU/Linux Unstable amd64. First download the skype package from skype.com - Skype for Debian 7.0 (multiarch).

Install it with the following command:

# dpkg -i --force-all skype-debian_4.1.0.20-1_i386.deb

Now you have installed skype but it will not work because of missing libraries. You can see what is missing with the following command:

# ldd `which skype`
        linux-gate.so.1 =>  (0xf7793000)
        libasound.so.2 => not found

        libXv.so.1 => not found

        libXss.so.1 => not found

        librt.so.1 => /lib32/librt.so.1 (0xf776d000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib32/libdl.so.2 (0xf7769000)
        libX11.so.6 => not found

        libXext.so.6 => not found

        libQtDBus.so.4 => not found

        libQtWebKit.so.4 => not found

        libQtXml.so.4 => not found

        libQtGui.so.4 => not found

        libQtNetwork.so.4 => not found

        libQtCore.so.4 => not found

        libpthread.so.0 => /lib32/libpthread.so.0 (0xf774e000)
        libstdc++.so.6 => not found
        libm.so.6 => /lib32/libm.so.6 (0xf7727000)
        libgcc_s.so.1 => /usr/lib32/libgcc_s.so.1 (0xf770a000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib32/libc.so.6 (0xf75a8000)
        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xf7794000)

As we see there are missing libs and this happens because skype deb package is build for i386 arch and we have amd64.

We need to add another architecture to apt with the following command:

# dpkg --add-architecture i386
# apt-get update

Now we can install missing libs:

# apt-get -f install

This will download and install missing i386 libs. Now you can start skype.

Note: You can install any package by adding :i386 or :amd64 after the package name: apt-get install  tcpdump:i386

How to install djbdns in Debian Squeeze as deb package

Djbdns deb package is missing from latest Debian release (squeeze). There is a discussion regarding rapid dns cache poisoning attack which prevented djbdns package to be included in Debian squeeze release. There are two packages for djbdns in debian - djbdns which is original package of djbdns + 3 minor patches fixing some problems and dbndns which is debian fork of djbdns + ipv6 support patch. If you need ipv6 support in your dns install dbndns, if you don't need it i suggest you to install djbdns package.

Here is how can you install it on Debian squeeze as a deb package.

Add this line to /etc/apt/sources.list

deb-src http://ftp.bg.debian.org/debian/ sid main non-free contrib

You can choose another debian mirror if you like.

# apt-get update
# apt-get source djbdns

This will download source of the package and unpack it in your current directory. We need build-essential meta package installed so we can build some custom packages.

# apt-get install build-essential

Now all we need is to enter the directory of the unpacked djbdns package and run:

# dpkg-buildpackage -uc -rfakeroot

If there is no error the result of the above command will produce djbdns_1.05-8_i386.deb package which contains tinydns, dnscache, axfrdns ... etc. and dnscache-run_1.05-8_all.deb which contains run scripts for daemontools. All you need is to install them as follow:

# dpkg -i djbdns_1.05-8_i386.deb dnscache-run_1.05-8_all.deb 

Just to be sure that nothing goes wrong after upgrade we need to 'hold' these packages

# echo djbdns hold | dpkg --set-selections
# echo dnscache-run hold | dpkg --set-selections

Make sure to check this readme  /usr/share/doc/djbdns/README.Debian

Note: /service directory is moved under /etc/service to match debian configuration standarts.

That is all, now you have working djbdns (or dbndns) as a Debian package in squeeze