FreeBSD /usr/ports build with all the default options

Something to remind myself

make -DBATCH install clean

Changes to make CutyCapt bypassing ssl certificate confirmation

I need to use CutyCapt to run with https url on server side. However, it doesn’t support https url. A patch for bypassing the SSL certificate confirmation has been submitted on this page (and other additional features). However that change has never been pulled to the main release. So I tried to apply the patch to the source, the patch process didn’t work and the build failed.

Configure Shellinabox as a url path on FreeBSD

I need to test my web application on a remote network. For policy reason, I am only allowed web access to my FreeBSD box (no ssh) which makes the debugging to the backend processes very difficult. Hence, I need to install a web based ssh client, shellinabox, a daemon program that opens a listening port service html pages with http requests and the backend is a ssh login process.

Emacs command line to indent Javascript code and convert tabs to spaces

Part of my project checkin script is to automatically apply coding style and converting tabs to spaces. Here is the command line:

emacs -batch file.js --eval "(custom-set-variables '(js-indent-level 2))"  -f mark-whole-buffer -f indent-region -f mark-whole-buffer -f untabify -f save-buffer -kill

Change the value of js-indent-level to any religion of white spaces.

Running CutyCapt + Qt on FreeBSD

I need to generate some screenshots from a Javascript graphing library, Highcharts, on the server side as in a background process. Luckily, this post in Highchart forum has the answer. As for running CutyCapt on FreeBSD, there is only minor difference. Here are the steps:

Install FreeBSD archive packages online via sysinstall

I wrote this just for reminding myself. Sometimes, when you try to install a package on a older release FreeBSD machine via sysinstall using the online method, you will find the release become obsolete and cannot be installed anymore.

Plymouth: Create your own splash screen with scrolling boot messages

I have been trying to create a simple splash screen and configure it with scrolling boot messages. However, there are very little online documentation and reference, brief introductions can be found at Plymouth themes: Fix, install, create in Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and Software/Plymouth/Scripts. In here, I am documenting how to create the splash screen with scrolling messages.

Ubuntu 10.04 LiveCD customisation gotchas

Here are the gotchas that I came across so far via building Ubuntu 10.04 LiveCD from scratch.

How to extract storage device information (Parte 2 – using lshw and xmlstarlet)

In Ubuntu 10.04, udevinfo is no longer available and I need to write a LiveCD tool to retrieve storage information (such as vendor, size, filesystem, label) from existing partitions (e.g /dev/sda1). So I cannot use the command lines anymore mentioned in my previous blog.

After a day of researching various tools and experiment parsing command line outputs. Eventually, I decide to use lshw to generate all the storage information and output into XML format. Then use xmlstarlet to extract specific device data.

Note on creating Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) LiveCD from scratch – missing initctl

It’s about time for me to update the LiveCD product, AppQoS Live! (based on Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy) and move on to Lucid 10.04 as more newer hardware having trouble to work with.

I was following the LiveCDCustomizationFromScratch documentation to experiment Ubuntu 10.04 LiveCD. Then I hit a problem when I booted off from the created LiveCD. The boot screen just hangs. Switching to one virtual console, the last few messages on the screen are:

Begin: Running /scripts/init-bottom/ ... 
Done.
init: ureadahead-other main process terminated with status 4
init: ureadahead-other main process terminated with status 4