Debian/Ubuntu not resolving domains with the .local tld
For some time I've been wondering why none of my Debian/Ubuntu workstations would resolve something like 'proxy.mycompany.local'. Simpy resolving 'proxy' would work.
I already knew that .local is not a correct tld, but since it was recomended by Microsoft to use this when installing Active Directory we used it. I never had any problems with it because most of the time I just use ip addresses when I need to access a server.
Now I installed a proxy server and a new mail relay server so I started using them as proxy.mycompany.local and relay.mycompany.local. The I found out that none of my Debian or Ubuntu workstations would resolve those addresses. At first I blamed the Microsoft DNS server for this. That's the easiest and most logical thing to do ;-). But Windows XP/Vista clients did resolve those addresses. Strange huh?
Then I started wireshark on my client. I did a query for proxy.mycompany.local and then there was.... an MDNS request instead of a normal DNS request?!?
This quickly gave me the conclusion that it was something avahi related because this does all the zeroconf stuff with Debian/Ubuntu. Avahi seems to be configured to pick up any request ending in .local and make MDNS requests for it. This must be a problem for more people because there must be loads of Microsoft networks out there ending in .local. I won't say this is a fault from the avahi guys because it's also completely wrong to use .local as tld.
My current solution is to just simply disable Avahi on my workstations. On Ubuntu I just do 'System -> Administration -> Services' and disable 'Multicast DNS Service Discovery' there. With Debian I just disable the startup of Avahi in /etc/default/avahi-daemon by settting 'AVAHI_DAEMON_START=0'.
Rebuild a 3ware array
Note to self:
If you want to rebuild a degraded array on a 3ware controller (9550SXU-8 in my case): insert the new disk, start the 3ware tw_cli utility and type '/c1/u0 start rebuild disk=5'. Replace the controller, unit and disk number with the right values of course... ;-)
Recovering a partition table
Just because I keep forgetting it. Use TestDisk to recover them. It seems to work quite well.
Poetry…
O freddled gruntbuggly...
...thy micturations are to me
As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee.
Groop I implore thee,
my foonting turlingdromes.
And hooptiously drangle me with crinkly bindlewurdles,
Or I will rend thee in the gobberwards with my blurglecruncheon,
see if I don't!
Rockbox
Today I finaly liberated my Ipod nano with Rockbox. Don't know why I chose april the 1st to do this...
After flirting a couple of times with Ipod Linux and Rockbox I chose Rockbox. It seems a bit more functional and stable at the moment. Normaly I try to run Linux on everything I own, but Ipod Linux wasn't just ready enough for me. Maybe I didn't try hard enough.
The installation of rockbox on a nano is just plain simple. Download the code for your Ipod, download the fontpack and the ipodpatcher. Connect the Ipod to your computer, copy the contents of the zipfile to the the ipod and run the ipodpatcher. Reboot... done... easy.
One of the features I really like is that you can upload your log files to last.fm. This way I can finaly expand my musical taste with the use of last.fm.
The navigation through menu's is a bit different than what you're used to if you're used to an Ipod. I somehow keep pressing the wrong buttons. Instead of using the menu and select buttons to go through menus you use the ff and rew buttons. This is a bit awkward at first but after using it for a while it's more intuitive.
The standard Rockbox theme is ugly so I chose to go with a different theme. I set up the ipod Vision Real OSX theme which looks nice :-)
I also like that I don't need some tool to store music on my Ipod anymore. I just copy the music to my ipod and it works. No more Itunes (which is not available for Linux), gtkpod or whatever tool you can use for it. You can scroll through the files on your Ipod or use the Rockbox database for playing music.
Anywayz, I think I will have lots of fun with this and I recomend using it to everyone.
Screenshots (taken with phone):
Will the miracle happen?
Yesterday on debian-devel-announce mailinglist:
N = 2 Apr 2007:
0 RC bugs. Barring any problems that would cause us to need to re-roll the installer <knock on wood>, we should be ready to release.
Will there be a debian release? Who knows....