Category: System Administration

Simple python functions that provide openssl -aes-256-cbc compatible encrypt/decrypt

The example here shows how to encrypt and decrypt data using python in a way that is fully compatible with openssl aes-256-cbc. It is based on the work that I did in C++ Cipher class that is published on this site. It works for both python-2.7 and python-3.x.

The key idea is based on the way that openssl generates the key and iv data from password as well as the “Salted__” prefix that it uses.

The complete routine can be downloaded here: mycrypt.py.
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Private data management tool using client side javascript

I recently created a web based tool that allows you to manage your private data and generate passwords safely. If you are interested in trying it click here.

I suspect that it will only work on newer browsers. I have only tested it on Firefox 15, IE 9 and Chrome 23. See the tool help for more detailed information.
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Install firefox 15.0.1 with flash and java support on linux

This blog describes how I installed firefox 15.0.1 with java jre-7u7 and flash 11.2 on a CentOS 5.8 host. None of the installation commands were distro specific so it should work on any linux system.

This technique allows you to test different versions of firefox/java/flash without interfering with your system defaults. It also allows you to install a centralized version that can be shared by other users.
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Installing jshint and rhino for command line javascript analysis

I recently had to install jshint and rhino. It was a bit of a challenge because they needed ant and npm (node package manager). This blog describes what I did and provides a bash shell script that you can use.
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Make X11 programs work in an ssh sudo session

Have you ever needed to run an X11 based program like emacs or firefox in a sudo session and received one of the following errors?

This blog describes how to fix the problem.
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Bash script to download, build and install gcc 4.6.3 and boost 1.49

I recently had to build gcc 4.6.3 on CentOS 5.5 so I put together this script to do all of the work. It is released in text mode so that you can cut-n-paste it from the web page. The shell version is also available: http://projects.joelinoff.com/gcc-4.6.3/bld.sh if you want to download it directly using a tool like wget.

The full installation of gcc-4.6.3 and boost-1.49 requires about 4GB of disk space. After the build is complete you can delete the archives, bld and src directory trees to reclaim about 3.4GB of disk space.
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OpenIndiana 151a NIC Aggregation

My colleagues and I recently built a filer using OI 151a/ZFS and wanted to increase the throughput by aggregating multiple NICs to a common IP address that is dedicated for data. We did it by physically adding a card with 4 NICs, aggregating the ports on server and then updating the switch to enable link aggregation (port trunking) on the 2 connections.
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