A New Day

Well i'm finally back i haven't blogged since april its been a while a lot has happened since my last post. Well i decided to leave Nasa and go into business for myself. Ive been planning to make this move for a long time, but i did not think i was going to do it this soon. But There were just so many wrong things happening that i just could not take it anymore. Sometimes i wonder about IT and its direction you get these corporate guys that come in and think they know Technology but only to find out that they are just button pushers waiting on your next big idea so they can take it and say that they created it. Well enough rambling about that, I'm very excited about my new adventure this is going to be very interesting to see where this is going to go. Well thats all for now time for breakfast and starting the day. Later

CentOS/RHEL EPEL Repo Install Tutorial

This is quick blurb about CentOS/RHEL EPEL repo, this tutorial walks you through the process of installing the EPEL Repository on versions 4, 5 & 6 of CentOS/RHEL Linux. The EPEL repository gives you access to RPM’s which allows you to install unsupported software.

How to install EPEL on CentOS/RHEL (all version)

CentOS 4 EPEL Install

How to install EPEL on Centos 4 / RHEL 4:

rpm -Uvh http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/4/i386/epel-release-4-10.noarch.rpm
CentOS 5 EPEL Install

How to install EPEL on Centos 5 / RHEL 5:

rpm -Uvh http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm
CentOS 6 EPEL Install

How to install EPEL on Centos 6 / RHEL 6:

rpm -Uvh http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/i386/epel-release-6-5.noarch.rpm
Once installed just run the following command:

yum install package-name

SSD Drives and Mac OSX

Good Morning World, I've been missing for a while but its great to be back to normal. Between planning for a wedding, working, and running a consulting business I've been going 100% per hour non stop. Well anyway just want to share my experience on sad and macbook pro. I'm a virtual machine nut thats all i use my macbook pro for now a days for running virtual machines. So i went out bought a 120gb sad intel drive. i must say if you have a mac and no sad drive you a doing your self a huge disservice. i would recommend going with an sad drive. my boot time is a lot faster , as well as compile time for my code I'm loving it.

Openbsd PF on Mac OSX Lion

Once Again Happy New Year. I've been playing around with the PF firewall on mac osx lion. I have to say that this is a great feature thats built into Mac OSX Lion that a lot of users do not take advantage of. Many People feel that they don't need a firewall just because they are not running windows which is the biggest mistake anyone could ever make. The PF firewall was originally developed for the Openbsd unix OS. Previous version's of Mac OSX were running the now obsolete ipfw firewall software which was also developed on the Openbsd platform. Well lets get to the topic at hand, This is a quick tutorial on how to setup and configure the PF firewall on Mac OSX Lion. In order to setup and configure PF you must have root or sudo access. Everything you need is located in the /etc/pf.conf file this is the main configuration file that PF reads when carrying out its packet filtering duties, All configuration settings are done in the pf.conf file. Now if you need more information on the pf.conf file and what configuration settings are needed in order to get your firewall up and running type the following command man pf.conf or go to openbsd.org which has excellent documentation as well on the PF firewall. Once you have the pf.conf configured the way you like it its now time to upload the conf file into the pf engine, first we have to make sure that pf has been enabled which can be done with the following command pfctl -e Once the PF has been enabled you can upload your config file to the pf engine using the following command:
pfctl -f /etc/pf.conf.


# pfctl -f /etc/pf.conf Load the pf.conf file
# pfctl -nf /etc/pf.conf Parse the file, but don't load it

# pfctl -sr Show the current ruleset
# pfctl -ss Show the current state table
# pfctl -si Show filter stats and counters
# pfctl -sa Show EVERYTHING it can show


below is a sample of my pf.conf file.


################################
#My PF Wireless Configuration #
################################


#################
#Variables #
#################

wi_if="en1"
loop_if="lo0"

####################################
#Lets get to the Filtering #
####################################


##################################
#Blocking Everything by Default #
##################################
block in all
block out all



###################################
#Selective Traffic #
###################################
pass in quick on $wi_if from any to any
pass out quick on $wi_if from any to any
pass in quick on $wi_if proto icmp
pass out quick on $wi_if proto icmp


As i said before the PF firewall has a lot of cool features just too many to go over in this tutorial. If you want to know more just let these 3 things be your guide man pf.conf google.com or openbsd.org :)

The Price of Passion

Lately I've been a CNN junkie just looking at whats going around the world. And began thinking about my own life and how many would consider me rich. But really none of that stuff matters to me. not status, not money. Only thing i can think about is love,
having compassion for others, helping others. I starting to focus more on writing code for others and try to help solve the issues of the world by writing useful code. I'm reverting back to a child's heart where things are simple no complications only love. Many will look at this post and say that im crazy but i dont care. I think of deeds like a boomerang. what every deed you throw out there it will come back to you weather good or bad. Well enough rambling from me now off to pack and get ready for Thanksgiving.

Thoughts from a Unix Nerd

These last couple of days ive been thinking about alot of things especially about whats going on in the unix/linux world. Well for starters im only 31 ive been dealing with linux since 2001 Wow time fly's when your having to code :), for a while i was losing my patience and passion for IT as a whole. Open Source seemed like it was slowing off due to big corporations(anti opensource projects) and Microsoft. Everyone is becoming an apple (Mac OSX ) fan, which don't get me wrong apple is a great product and has a great OS, but it has its flaws just like every other OS Windows 7 is a good OS as well both are running neck and neck. But for the past few days i'm starting to get my fire back ive started messing around with solaris again which is an os that ive enjoyed over the years linux is cool but its something about that solaris ( shaking like a fiend) lol :). Well thats enough rambling from me work calls lol :) everyone have a safe and blessed day :)

Upgrading to Mac OSX Lion

For the past month I've been waiting to sink my teeth into Lion (Mac OS X 10.7). Well i finally upgraded, I will say that this was the most difficult upgrade that i have ever experienced with apple. Well lets get to it Here are the following steps that i took in order to upgrade to lion from snow leopard: (Note these steps are not written in stone I'm sure there are better ways of upgrading to lion but these are just the steps that i took in order to make it work)


Step1: Make Sure Please make sure that you backup your system using time machine before you upgrade

Step2: Download Mac OS X Lion from the app store, (Note remember in order to upgrade to Lion you have to be running OS X 10.6.8 ) This update prepares you for your upgrade to Lion

Note: when running the install it will first install mac osx 10.7 and then reboot, and then will install any 3rd party drivers it needed and then reboot for a second time.

Step3: Now this is where i began having issues after running the installer my upgrade keep pausing at -42 minutes remaining, this was so crazy that i had the apple rep take a pic of my screen and send it into apple :) fun stuff, Here is how I over came that issue i had to reset my NVRAM and PRAM (Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys.) on my MACBOOK PRO which allowed me to do
a fresh install of Lion and the restored all my applications that i backed up using time machine.

Step4: Have fun and Enjoy Lion :)

Updating Python on RHEL

Good Morning its a wonderful Friday im so excited for no reason lol :) well anyways here is a quick tutorial on how to upgrade python without overwriting your existing version of python in RHEL(Red Hat Linux ) this method will also work on centos as well. So enough talking here are the steps that i took in order to get this to work.

Step 1 - > wget http://dl.iuscommunity.org/pub/ius/stable/Redhat/5/x86_64/epel-release-1-1.ius.el5.noarch.rpm


Step 2 -> rpm -Uvh epel-release-1-1.ius.el5.noarch.rpm

Step 3 -> yum install python26

Step 4 -> rpm -qil python26 | grep /usr/bin

That's all so now when you want to use python 2.6 just point to the /usr/bin/python26 directory instead of the original /usr/bin/python. This is a safer method b/c python is so closely tied with yum that it can cause alot of issues :0. well enjoy your new version of python and happy scripting :)

Upgrading Openbsd

Today is a wonderful Monday and im feeling great. Just finished upgrading my virtual firewall that right virtual firewall that is running openbsd from version 4.8 to 4.9. This is just a quick tutorial on how to do just that the simple way. Note: This is my way of upgrading openbsd if you have a better way please feel free to do so nothing is stopping you, On that note lets get started. NOTE: This tutorial is now for newbies this is an advanced tutorial. if you dont know how to install openbsd please go to openbsd.org and read up on how to install open in the installation guide

Step 1. Download a copy of openbsd 4.9 bsd.rd

Step 2. Copy the bsd.rd file to the / directory you can use any method you like. i like using scp (secure copy) here is an example if you are not familiar with scp

scp bsd.rd blah@192.168.1.1:/home/blah



Step 3. Power down or Reboot your box however when your at the boot prompt type in the following

bsd.rd and press the enter or return button

Step 4. following the prompts


Step 5. Enjoy your new version of Openbsd.

Network Card Bonding in Red Hat Enterprise 6

Good Morning all most of you guys are probably asleep which is cool. Im currently on a mission right now to obtain my RHCSA Certification by the end of my so this is one of may posts that i will be posting as i go through each module. First post of this mission i will be doing Network Card Bonding in RedHat Linux 6 these are the following steps that i took to get this to work.

Step 1. change into the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts directory and create the following file: ifcfg-bond0

Step 2. open the ifcfg-bond0 with you favorite edit (mine being vi) and add the following content:

DEVICE=bond0
IPADDR=192.168.6.70
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=192.168.6.3
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=none
USERCTL=no

Step 3. open the ifcfg-eth(N) note:N -> the interface number example eth0 eth1 etc etc... ifcfg-eth0 and ifcfg-eth1 and add the following content

####################
#eth0 file content #
####################

ifcfg-eth0:

DEVICE=eth0
USERCTL=no
BOOTPROTO=none
MASTER=bond0
SLAVE=yes
ONBOOT=yes

#####################
#eth1 file content #
#####################

ifcfg-eth1

DEVICE=eth1
USERCTL=no
ONBOOT=yes
MASTER=bond0
SLAVE=yes
BOOTPROTO=none


Step 4. change into the /etc/modprobe.d/ directory and create the bonding.conf file

Step 5. open the bonding.conf and add the following content

alias bond0 bonding

Step 6. run the following command: service network restart

Step 7. Enjoy your bonded network interfaces :)

well im off to bed have to be at work in a few hours night night all :)

Coming to Jesus

Today is a wonderful day and im really enjoying it. I thank GOD that he has allowed me to live to see another day. And starting from today on im giving my life over to my lord and savior jesus christ i know that its going to take alot of work on my part to stay focused and stay in the word and resist temptation but i know that GOD will keep me and substain me. I just asking from all of you who view my blog is please pray for me as i will pray for you. GOD bless all of you.