Category: Misc

Export the mail archive using the SYMPA web interface, extract the zipfile and run the following script over the mail directory. You need to have “formail” installed. #!/bin/bash # This scripts takes a sympa email archive and converts it into a # single mbox file path=”$1″ dest=”$2″ function die() { echo “$1” exit } #…

Occasionally OpenStack VMs fail to spawn or fail to terminate and cannot be removed from the VM list. Deleting the VM using the command line or web interface has no effect, they are stuck in the “spawning” or “deleting” state. To get rid of these zombie entries I remove them from the database using the…

If you have rooted a Nook Simple Touch e.g. using http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1343143, you may want to run some scripts to download some books directly onto your device. The problem is that these books you saved to /media or /sdcard only show up in the library after you reboot the Nook. To force a library refresh, create…

Here’s a list of the parts: Intel Core i7 2600K $335.00 Corsair Vengeance CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 $149.00 Antec Sonata IV with 620W $187.00 Crucial M4 SSD 256GB $439.00 LG CH12LS28 12X BD-R Blu-ray DVD Combo Drive $69.00 Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro CO CPU Cooler $59.00 Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 Motherboard $165.00 First I had to…

iSCSI support in the new Drobo is a really neat feature. Here’s how to mount the Drobo as a block device in Linux: install some hard disks and connect the Drobo via USB cable to a Windows or Mac computer open the Drobo Dashboard and create a volume. I recommend to set it to 16TB…

After upgrading to Ubuntu 11.10, my MCE remote stopped working in XBMC. Since XBMC did not get an update (it’s coming from a separate PPA), I assume the LIRC button naming for the “mceusb” driver has changed in the new lirc package. It doesn’t match the “mceusb” section in XBMC’s Lircmap.xml anymore. What I had to…

Openfire on Ubuntu may get into a state where it doesn’t accept incoming connections anymore. The process is still there, the log files do not give any hints, but new XMPP clients just hang at the connection attempt. The reason for this behaviour may be a limit on a user’s maximum number of file descriptors.…

When quitting XBMC or when switching from full screen to windowed mode, the desktop becomes scrambled and unusable. This happens on Ubuntu 11.04 with the fglrx drivers for Radeon cards. The fix is to turn off  the “tear-free” feature in the Catalyst control panel.

The Medion LT 9888 laptop was sold at ALDI Germany in 1998. I’ve been using it as a Linux Server for more than 10 continous years now and it just refuses to die. In order to boot Linux on it, I’m using the following kernel command line options: vga=0x305 pci=irqmask=0x8fff

Since the folks in the T-Mobile store were clueless, I had to figure out myself how to get mobile internet on my iPhone using a T-Mobile prepaid SIM (or pay-as-you-go, as they call it here). Ensure your iPhone is not locked to a provider Buy a $10 T-Mobile pay as you go SIM. I could…