Handling spaces in rsync paths Spaces in file and directory paths are a common source of rsync failures. When paths contain spaces, the shell interprets them as argument separators unless you properly escape or quote them. Here’s how to handle this correctly. The core issue When rsync receives an unquoted path with spaces, the shell…
Creating Unique Temporary Files in Bash Temporary files are essential for any non-trivial Bash script. Whether you’re processing data, staging changes, or handling inter-process communication, you need reliable ways to create uniquely-named files that won’t collide with other processes. Using mktemp The standard and most reliable approach is mktemp, which generates a cryptographically random temporary…
VM Exit Monitoring in KVM VM exits occur when a guest VM transitions to hypervisor mode to handle privileged operations, I/O requests, or other events. Tracking exit counts and types helps identify performance bottlenecks, inefficient guest behavior, and hypervisor overhead. Quick Exit Statistics The debugfs interface provides a simple view of exit counts: cat /sys/kernel/debug/kvm/exits…
Installing aria2 on CentOS and Rocky Linux aria2 is a lightweight, multi-protocol download manager that supports HTTP(S), FTP, BitTorrent, and Metalink protocols. It’s particularly useful for resumable downloads, parallel connections, and command-line automation. Prerequisites You’ll need root or sudo access. This guide covers CentOS 7, CentOS Stream, and Rocky Linux 8+. For older systems still…
Installing curlftpfs curlftpfs is a FUSE-based filesystem that lets you mount FTP/SFTP servers as local directories. This is useful for treating remote FTP locations like local storage without downloading files individually. Prerequisites FUSE kernel module loaded (usually default on modern systems) Root or sudo access Network connectivity to your FTP server Installation on RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux…
Getting VM IP Addresses in KVM with virsh When you create VMs in KVM, they’re typically assigned IP addresses via DHCP. Finding those addresses so you can SSH in requires a few steps. Here are the practical approaches. Using virsh domiflist and ARP The traditional method combines virsh domiflist to get the VM’s MAC address,…
VNC Remote Desktop Access VNC (Virtual Network Computing) provides a graphical remote desktop connection to Linux servers. It’s straightforward to set up and useful when you need GUI access to a headless or distant system. Installation On the server side, install a VNC server package. TigerVNC is the most reliable choice across distributions: Debian/Ubuntu: sudo…
Installing SSHFS on CentOS 7, Rocky Linux 9, and other RHEL-based systems SSHFS isn’t available in the default repositories on most RHEL-based distributions. If you try to install it directly, you’ll get an error: # yum install sshfs No package sshfs available. Error: Nothing to do The package lives in EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise…
CONFIG_HZ Overview CONFIG_HZ sets the kernel’s internal timer interrupt frequency (measured in Hz). This determines how often the kernel’s scheduler runs and how fine-grained process preemption can be. The default value is typically 250 Hz on most distributions, though some set it to 1000 Hz for lower latency workloads. Higher CONFIG_HZ values (like 1000 Hz)…
Setting Ubuntu to boot in text mode Ubuntu boots to the graphical desktop by default, but you can change it to boot directly to a text-mode login prompt. This is useful for headless servers, troubleshooting, or resource-constrained systems. The method depends on your init system. Modern Ubuntu uses systemd, but the GRUB approach still works…
Flash Player on CentOS 7 Adobe Flash Player reached End of Life on December 31, 2020, and Adobe blocked all Flash content from executing in 2021. Installing Flash Player on CentOS 7 in 2026 is neither practical nor recommended—the plugin won’t execute Flash content anyway, and doing so introduces security vulnerabilities to your system. If…
Installing aclocal on Fedora aclocal is part of GNU Autotools and generates aclocal.m4 files needed by the autoconf build system. It’s typically required when working with projects that use traditional Autotools-based builds. Quick Install sudo dnf install automake The automake package provides aclocal, automake, and related utilities. Verify the Installation After installation, confirm aclocal is…
Adding Multiple Static IPs to a Xen VM Configuring multiple static IP addresses on a Xen VM is useful for hosting multiple services, SSL certificates, or failover scenarios. The approach depends on your underlying Linux distribution and whether you’re using traditional network configuration or modern network managers. Using ip Command for Immediate Changes The quickest…
RTL8192cu driver stability on RHEL-based systems The RTL8192cu is a legacy USB WiFi adapter that’s still in use, but it has known stability issues on modern kernels. If your adapter keeps dropping connections or fails to resume after sleep, you’re likely hitting the same power management bug that affects many devices. Disable power management The…
Allowing Root Access to NFS Directories NFS squashes root access to an anonymous user (typically nobody) by default as a security measure. When a client connects as root, the server remaps that user to an unprivileged account, preventing root from having unrestricted access to exported shares. This can cause permission issues if your application genuinely…
Installing PARSEC 3.0 Benchmark PARSEC is a widely-used CPU-bound benchmark suite containing real applications and complex third-party library dependencies. The installation can be challenging due to these external requirements, but following this guide will get you up and running. Prerequisites Before starting, install the required build tools and libraries: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install…
Getting NAS Parallel Benchmarks Running The NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB) remain a standard tool for evaluating HPC system performance, though landscape has shifted toward additional metrics like HPCG and memory bandwidth tests. This guide covers installation and basic usage. Prerequisites Before installing NPB, you’ll need: Fortran compiler — gfortran is the standard choice on most…
Common sysctl.conf Syntax Errors The “invalid syntax, continuing…” warning from sysctl typically means your /etc/sysctl.conf file has a malformed line that the parser can’t understand. Here’s how to diagnose and fix it. Identifying the Problem When you run sysctl -p to load configuration from /etc/sysctl.conf, any syntax error will be printed with a line number:…
Installing glibc, glibc-common, and GD libraries on Rocky Linux 9 If you already have PHP and nginx running on Rocky Linux 9 and need to add or update glibc, glibc-common, and GD libraries independently, you can do so safely without disrupting your existing installation. Understanding the dependencies glibc: The GNU C Library — the core…
Writing to Standard Error in Go Sending output to stderr keeps error messages separate from normal program output, making it easier to redirect and filter logs in shell scripts and pipelines. Basic Approach with fmt The simplest method uses fmt.Fprintln() with os.Stderr: package main import ( “fmt” “os” ) func main() { fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, “This is…