I added table optimization to the sqlbackup script. This now:
optimizes existing databases (similar to defrag)
dumps them thru bzip2 & stores in $dest by $date
dumps directly into a remote mysql-server
rsyncs database dump to remote machine for archiving.
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I’ve written a pretty basic (but ugly) script to retrieve the PCI ID of a wireless network card. This is helpful for anyone trying to find the ID for use with ndiswrapper.
You can find this for download under my Downloads section. Simply unzip/untar, and run using “./id-catcher”. Assuming it finds your ID it’ll simply output:
YOUR PCIID IS:
You can then take this and search for equivalent drivers at the ndiswrapper listing page.
My sqlbackup script may need some tweaking–I’m looking into it. I noticed after four days of regular, problem-free use it now reports Access denied for ‘user’ at ‘remote.machine’ when dumping directly into the database. I am not sure why but hopefully I can figure it out.
I did remedy the situation by re-granting access to ‘user’ on ‘remote.machine’ but I want to find out why that happens at all & try to avoid it in the first place.
I’ll keep you updated.
I’ve put together a MySQL backup script for use on this server. I thought someone else might appreciate use of it (or just use as a basic template). You’re welcome to download a copy (see Downloads). Basically it does this:
Instructions for personal automated setup are included in the script. Let me know if you have any problems with it.
known bugs:
This does not yet dump into a remote machine if the database does not yet exist. Each database must be created manually the first time (looking into a fix).
Rsync does not remove older than 7 days from remote machine. Still deciding whether this is a feature (more history on remote machine) or bug (fill up disk space).
After further testing it seems my backup drive was the faulty one and my main drive is just fine. I also kept a backup of my backup so I haven’t lost any data but what a hassle for a quiet sunday morning.
I may see if I can find a cheap HDD as a replacement. Maybe eBay has something..
I booted my desktop this morning and I’ve got some strange hard disk errors. Luckily, of course, I’ve got backups on a second mounted drive (which seems to be fine) and a few other machines I can use in the meantime.
I think I’m going to try a full re-install and see if a full format & disk scan will clean things up. I have no idea what would have caused it. If I learn anything I’ll let you know.
[fsck & e2fsck haven't been able to completely clear up the issue]
I noticed something new in Gmail this morning. Google Chat is now available (not yet for all accounts).
So far, with the little testing that I’ve done, it seems pretty cool. Of course I already have all of my contacts setup in gaim (best IM client known to man) but this could be a nice little addition. Not that we need any more ways to contact one another, its a cool new toy to play with.
If you don’t have gmail let me know and I’ll send you an invite. If you don’t have gaim I’d suggest checking it out. It sure beats the living daylights out of AIM or MSN or Yahoo! or iCQ or IRC, etc, etc (and yet is still compatible with all of them).
I’ve updated the wireless howto with, I think, clearer instructions vs the previous listing I had. I have also included a search engine.
The search engine should be helpful to narrow down the listings to only what you need. It will search the ndiswrapper listings and show you the pages it finds your PCI ID. You may have to look thru the resulting page a little but, again, it should help in narrowing it down.
Any questions about the howto? drop a comment in the box.
Well in an unexpected turn of events Internet Exploder actually helped me find a very minor mistake in the site-content.
In the previous post I complained about Internet Exploder not displaying the page correctly. Well it turns out it was my lazy editing of the code that caused it and the other browsers (Firefox & Opera) just didnt care enough to alter the display. Searching thru it we found the solution, which was my mistake.
I never thought Id say this but Thank you Internet Exploder. You saved my website yeah, I feel a little dirty too 
For whatever reason (and trust me Ive been trying to solve it all day!) Microsoft Internet Explorer doesnt load our page correctly. Ive tried just about everything I can think of but in the meantime, if you want this to display at its very best, I suggest downloading Firefox to use as your browser.
You can read more about Firefox here or download it directly here.
UPDATE: Doing more testing shows that Opera also displays everything correctly, even when identified as Internet Explorer.