If all you need the kernel version you can try
uname -a

This outputs something like this

Linux localhost.localdomain 2.4.20-31.9 #1 Tue Apr 13 18:04:23 EDT 2004 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

If you need the actual distro name you can try
cat /etc/*release

In Ubuntu it shows up as

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=9.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=jaunty
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION=”Ubuntu 9.04″

Or even
cat /etc/issue

which spits out the following on Ubuntu

Ubuntu 9.04 \n \l

You can combine all three to get the following
uname -a && cat /etc/*release && cat /etc/issue

All you’ll need is to install the SUNWsmmgr package.
pkg install SUNWsmmgr
All of the config files, including snmpd.conf are in /etc/sma/snmp.

The service to enable snmp is called sma.
svcadm enable svc:/application/management/sma:default

To install utilities like snmpwalk and snmpget, you can install the SUNWsmcmd package.

Install dkms and the GNU C Compiler using the following command:

sudo apt-get install dkms gcc

Install the build and header files for Ubuntu using the following command:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

$(uname -r) in the above command just passes your kernel version to apt-get

To do this, edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config by adding the AllowUsers directive in the following format.

AllowUsers user@host

This allows the user ‘user’ to login at the host named ‘host’. Multiple users can listed by separating each with a space. You can also use * to specify wildcards. You can also specify IP addresses and ranges using *.

AllowUsers *@192.168.1.* johndoe@192.168.1.3

This will allow all users to log into all computers with address starting with 192.168.1 and the user johndoe to log only into the with IP address 192.168.1.3.

This will work for other Linux OSes as well.

lsof -i TCP:443
This command will list all processes, their pids, and user under which the process is running, that are utilizing port 443.

To list all TCP ports, one could use
lsof -i TCP

Type lsof –help for more options.

I recently put into service a new server running Ubuntu Server 8.04.1 to host our SVN and continuous build server (Hudson). I was looking for a way to authenticate the server against Active Directory and came across Likewise Open. I was surprised at the simplicity of the whole setup.

1. sudo apt-get install likewise-open
2. sudo domainjoin-cli join yourdomain.com yourADusername
3. sudo update-rc.d likewise-open defaults
4. sudo /etc/init.d/likewise-open start

Just make sure to replace yourdomain.com and yourADusername with your own domain name and active directory username. If you’re using a firewall, which you should be, make sure the required TCP/UDP ports are open.

I still need to figure out how to mount network shares automatically. I’ll keep this post updated with my findings.

1. Power up your computer.
2. Press ESC at the grub menu.
3. Press e for edit.
4. Highlight the line that begins “Ubuntu, KERNEL ………” and press e.
5. Go to the end of this line, add rw init=/bin/bash and press enter.
6. Press b to boot your system.
7. Your system will boot up to a passwordless root shell.
8. Type in passwd username where username is the username you lost the password for.
9. Set your password.
10. Type in reboot.

That is it! you can now log in using your new password. You can even reset your root password here but cannot login with it at the login screen.

Action	Shortcut	Alternate Shortcut
Cut	Ctrl+X	Del+Shift
Copy	Ctrl+C	Insert+Ctrl
Paste	Ctrl+V	Insert+Shift

These are kind of confusing so I’m sticking to the Ctrl+ shortcuts. For those who use different keyboard layouts like Dvorák the X, C and V keys are placed far apart and awkward to use. In such cases the alternate shortcuts maybe easier to use.

2. Click on Add.

3. On the Basic tab, Use the following settings under Login Options:

Protocol: XMPP
Screen name: google id (everything before the @ symbol)
Domain: gmail.com (use googlemail.com if your email ends in @googlemail.com)
Password: your password
Remember Password: check for automatic login

The Resource and Local Alias fields are not required

4. On the Advanced tab,

Force old (port 5223) SSL: Checked
Allow plaintext auth over unencrypted streams: Unchecked
Connect Port: 443
Connect Server: talk.google.com
Proxy type: Use Global Proxy Settings

5. Click the Save button.

Troubleshooting:
If you’ve tried a number of settings prior to this guide and are still unable to connect,

1. Click the Save button and not the Register button after modifying any settings.
2. The Enable checkbox next to your account in the Accounts window needs to be checked.