Chris’ Blog

So, this is the second time I have tried to address the problem I was getting with some Subversion repositories I was trying to configure to be served by Apache. I was trying to use the SVNPath directive to serve one repository but it was not having any of it, so instead I ended up serving them as a temporary measure using SVNParentPath in the format http://svn.example.com/~name/repos/ which is not what I wanted. I am using the Location container in Apache configuration to configure up my repositories, the path I had specified was /~name/. This is where the problem comes in, I would try to checkout the repository over the network and be greeted with a 405 Method Not Allowed error like so:

svn: PROPFIND request failed on '/~name'
svn: PROPFIND of '/~name': 405 Method Not Allowed (http://svn.example.com)

This stuck me as odd, it seemed the Apache was not serving the repository URI using the WebDAV module. When I gave up on an earlier attempt I reverted to using SVNParentPath and accessing the repository over the URI http://svn.example.com/~name/repos/ which worked perfectly and I couldn’t spot why. Turns out I made a single character mistake, my Apache configuration was set to use the path of /~name/ I should have used /~name because SVN truncates the trailing slash even if you specify it on the command line. Bugger!

I just upgraded this blog using a Subversion patch, seems to be working ok, will keep and eye out for any 404s see if I missed any new files and the like. I also started to burn my feed.

I have made the decision to disable Akismet, after reading some hype about the new Wordpress 2.3’s plugin version check API, which turned out to be negative but reveals something interesting with regards to Akismet. The following code is taken from the official Akismet plugin for Wordpres.

        $ignore = array( 'HTTP_COOKIE' );

        foreach ( $_SERVER as $key => $value )
                if ( !in_array( $key, $ignore ) )
                        $comment["$key"] = $value;

        $query_string = '';
        foreach ( $comment as $key => $data )
                $query_string .= $key . '=' . urlencode( stripslashes($data) ) . '&';

        $response = akismet_http_post($query_string, $akismet_api_host, '/1.1/comment-check', $akismet_api_port);

The bit that worries me is the use of $_SERVER, the only item from this array not sent is HTTP_COOKIE, fair enough. But why do you need to know the full paths to the files on my server and other server environment variables Akismet? I do not have a problem with sending data to Akismet, just not this data!

Source

You can tell Linux to respond to broadcast pings by running this snippet from the console.

$ echo 0 | sudo tee /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts

Edit /etc/sysctl.conf to set the option permanently.

Turns out I had a computer on for even longer which I had forgotten about! benjamin, one of my Linksys WRT54-g’s. He doesn’t really do much apart from provide WiFi access for my PDA and networking for my room (two 100Mbps feeds are not enough). He will be moving back to Exeter with me later today, so beast will overtake him in terms of my record recorded uptime.

root@benjamin:~# uptime
 00:43:01 up 102 days, 43 min, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

Yesterday beast my NSLU2 passed 100 days of uptime a personal record for any of my machines, somewhat geeky

chris@beast:~$ uptime
 20:47:30 up 101 days,  3:00,  1 user,  load average: 0.08, 0.16, 0.11

I find a firewall on my windows installation personally a waste of resources, so I have it removed in my nLite customised installation media. Well I had problems installing the Company of Heros: Opposing Fronts Beta, it kept trying to adjust Windows Firewall and of course failing. So I had to reinstall it, found out how to here.

I have upgraded to Wordpress 2.2.2, again using a patch. I have put together a page on patches for the benefit of others.

I have been away from my blog for quite a while, general laziness on my behalf. I’ve been fairly ‘busy’ by my own standards working part time, doing some project work, playing games, sleeping and socialising. My summer is panning out quite nicely, and I am now wanting to return to Exeter for my second year, the sooner the better. I am just about to apply the Wordpress upgrade that has been released in my absence, and reading the dumper truck load of e-mails that I have received. Fun.

I noticed the e-mail alerts about my backups were a lot smaller than they should be, sure enough there was a problem. Logged into my server, and the prognosis was bad.

chris@sandman:~$ ls /backup/
ls: reading directory /backup/: Input/output error
chris@sandman:~$ sudo umount /backup/
chris@sandman:~$ sudo mount /backup/
mount: /dev/hdb1: can't read superblock
chris@sandman:~$ sudo xfs_check /dev/hdb1
xfs_check: /dev/hdb1 is invalid (cannot read first 512 bytes)

By this time I was very worried, decided rather than mess around anymore I would try a reboot and see what became of that. It would appear either the kernel got confused or the IDE controller decided to sulk. a reboot solved it.