Cannot get latest version of phpMyAdmin to work - mb_detect_encoding gettext error

Do you get a blank page with the latest version of phpMyAdmin? Looking in the logs you see:

[Tue Feb 03 11:47:35 2015] [error] [client 137.222.17.70] PHP Fatal error:  Call
 to undefined function mb_detect_encoding() in libraries/php-gettext/gettext.inc on line 177

Install php-mbstring:

# yum install php-mbstring

Clear Puppet Client Certificate - for signing by another server

root@puppetclient:~# puppet agent --test
Warning: Unable to fetch my node definition, but the agent run will continue:
Warning: SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read server certificate B: certificate verify failed: [self signed certificate in certificate chain for /CN=Puppet CA: puppetmaster.domain.net]
Info: Retrieving pluginfacts
Error: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts.d]: Failed to generate additional resources using 'eval_generate': SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read server certificate B: certificate verify failed: [self signed certificate in certificate chain for /CN=Puppet CA: puppetmaster.domain.net]
Error: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts.d]: Could not evaluate: Could not retrieve file metadata for puppet://puppet/pluginfacts: SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read server certificate B: certificate verify failed: [self signed certificate in certificate chain for /CN=Puppet CA: puppetmaster.domain.net]
Wrapped exception:
SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read server certificate B: certificate verify failed: [self signed certificate in certificate chain for /CN=Puppet CA: puppetmaster.domain.net]
Info: Retrieving plugin
Error: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib]: Failed to generate additional resources using 'eval_generate': SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read server certificate B: certificate verify failed: [self signed certificate in certificate chain for /CN=Puppet CA: puppetmaster.domain.net]
Error: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib]: Could not evaluate: Could not retrieve file metadata for puppet://puppet/plugins: SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read server certificate B: certificate verify failed: [self signed certificate in certificate chain for /CN=Puppet CA: puppetmaster.domain.net]
Wrapped exception:
SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read server certificate B: certificate verify failed: [self signed certificate in certificate chain for /CN=Puppet CA: puppetmaster.domain.net]
Error: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read server certificate B: certificate verify failed: [self signed certificate in certificate chain for /CN=Puppet CA: puppetmaster.domain.net]
Warning: Not using cache on failed catalog
Error: Could not retrieve catalog; skipping run
Error: Could not send report: SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read server certificate B: certificate verify failed: [self signed certificate in certificate chain for /CN=Puppet CA: puppetmaster.domain.net]

root@puppetclient:~# cd /etc/puppet/

environments  manifests  modules  ssl  templates
root@puppetclient:/etc/puppet# mv ssl /var/tmp

root@puppetclient:/etc/puppet# puppet cert list -a
Notice: Signed certificate request for ca

root@puppetclient:/etc/puppet# puppet agent --test
Info: Creating a new SSL key for puppetclient.domain.net
Info: Caching certificate for ca
Info: csr_attributes file loading from /etc/puppet/csr_attributes.yaml
Info: Creating a new SSL certificate request for puppetclient.domain.net
Info: Certificate Request fingerprint (SHA256): A4:3D:23:2F:9C:76:FD:BE:D3:3F:D4:CE:9B:CA:88:00:4F:C3:07:4A:2D:FB:A1:A1:61:21:E1:10:03:07:6C:C3
Info: Caching certificate for puppetclient.domain.net
Info: Caching certificate_revocation_list for ca
Info: Caching certificate for ca
Warning: Unable to fetch my node definition, but the agent run will continue:
Warning: Error 400 on SERVER: Failed to find puppetclient.domain.net via exec: Execution of '/etc/puppet/node.rb puppetclient.domain.net' returned 1:
Info: Retrieving pluginfacts
Info: Retrieving plugin
Notice: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib/puppet]/ensure: created
Notice: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib/puppet/provider]/ensure: created
Notice: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib/puppet/provider/augeasprovider]/ensure: created
Notice: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib/puppet/provider/ini_subsetting]/ensure: created
Notice: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib/puppet/provider/augeasprovider/default.rb]/ensure: defined content as '{md5}b5377fd9cd6f96b0bd08e7213c7fc363'
Notice: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib/puppet/provider/file_line]/ensure: created
Notice: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib/puppet/util]/ensure: created
Notice: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib/puppet/util/ipcidr.rb]/ensure: defined content as '{md5}e1160dfd6e73fc5ef2bb8abc291f6fd5'

[snip]

Notice: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib/puppet/parser/functions/parsejson.rb]/ensure: defined content as '{md5}e7f968c34928107b84cd0860daf50ab1'
Notice: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib/puppet/parser/functions/validate_cmd.rb]/ensure: defined content as '{md5}78fd21cb3fc52efc3b53ba2b3301de18'
Notice: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib/puppet/parser/functions/nslookup.rb]/ensure: defined content as '{md5}976cfe36eec535d97a17139c7408f0bd'
Info: Loading facts
Info: Caching catalog for puppetclient.domain.net
Info: Applying configuration version '1422885145'
Info: Creating state file /var/lib/puppet/state/state.yaml
Notice: Finished catalog run in 0.10 seconds

Can't start a VM with Ganeti - Debian 7

So you just installed a Debian 7 Wheezy Ganeti managed Xen cluster node and it won't start up your VM with this error:

# gnt-instance start goat.cs
Waiting for job 1277134 for vminstance ...
Job 1277134 for goat.cs has failed: Failure: command execution error:
Could not start instance: Hypervisor error: Failed to start instance goat.cs: exited with exit code 1 (Using config file "/etc/xen/goat.cs".
Error: Device 0 (vif) could not be connected. /etc/xen/scripts/vif-bridge failed; error detected.
)

If look in the log file xen-hotplug.log and see this error:

# tail /var/log/xen/xen-hotplug.log
/etc/xen/scripts/vif-bridge: line 84: setup_bridge_port: command not found

Then edit the /etc/xen/scripts/xen-network-common.sh script removing the _ (underscore) from the _setup_bridge_port command. This should fix the problem and allow you to start your VM.

Star Wars - Lego Hobbit - Go Sushi!

Revert to a previous Boot Environment - Solaris 11

Revert to a previous Boot Environment:

beadm list
beadm activate solaris-backup-1
reboot

How to set CentOS/Redhat to auto update

# yum update -y
# yum install yum-cron
# chkconfig yum-cron on

Unattended Updates - Debian

To set up auto updates on Debian, do the following:

apt-get install unattended-upgrades apt-listchanges

Edit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades and uncomment the line:

Unattended-Upgrade::Mail "root";

Edit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades, and add the following:

APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";
APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "1";

Or run the following command as root:

dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades