Qmail Project On Hiatus

After spending most of my time this weekend finally getting Qmail (along with all of it's Toaster friends) running on Mac OS X Server 10.2.6, I am putting the project on hiatus until Mac OS X Tiger Server comes out.

I have extensive notes on how to get the install done (get'er done!), but won't be posting those since it is fine tuned for my setup, not anyone else's. I burned down my server umpteen times trying to get this thing to finally work. Thank goodness for Carbon Copy Cloner. I restored my system back to "new" about 8 or 9 times. Most of it was due to the fact that the qmail toaster components require newer software than what ships with the default OS X Server 10.2 package. Perl was the biggest offender. I compiled it manually, and used the Aaron Faby version. Neither one turned out right.

Then there is also the question of security and stability. I will need to do further testing in regards to both aspects. Almost anything you read on the net says to NOT run Qmail SMTP and POP3 services through Xinetd. Mac OS X doesn't really have the /etc/rc.d and /etc/init.d directory structure that these programs are looking for. I had better luck running them through Xinetd than adding scripts to /System/Library/StartupItems (which can add the scripts to the end of the /etc/rc.common file). All materials found online suggest running these services through tcpserver and let those services be monitored by daemontools. I used neither.

I will see if these things work more in harmony under Tiger Server. But for now, Qmail here at the ranch will continue running on Yellow Dog Linux

The install under Linux is almost a breeze now, since everything works as it's supposed to. Too funny!

</marcus>

Project Status Update

Thought I'd chime in today to give a status update on what's happening with the projects I mentioned in my last post (oh so long, long, long ago.)

Project #1 - Qmail on Mac OS X

This is a tedious install. I almost had everything working, and then it blew apart, so I'm currently starting over.... again (for the eleventieth time!)

Everything was working splendidly, until I went to install the latest version of SpamAssassin. It required that I upgrade my version of Perl first. The Perl upgrade seemed to go fine, that is, until I started checking to see if everything that was previously installed was still working. For some reason, the box would no longer send or receive mail and some startup items refused to start. I futzded with it for a while and finally decided to restore the box back to original and start over with a fresh copy of Mac OS X Server. This time around, the first thing on my to-do list was to upgrade Perl. Things seem to be going OK so far, and I am once again a little past half way through the install.

As long as the Starbucks holds out, I'll continue pursuing this project.

Project #2 - Call of Duty Server

The Call of Duty server I had set up at the house rapidly exceeded my bandwidth limitations. To keep [Housewares] alive, I had to move the entire operation to a rented server from GibGames. The server now runs out of a Dallas facility with huge fat pipes. This allows me to have a 12 player server running 24-7 without sucking down all available bandwidth at the homestead. Once I am out of my Comcast contract, I plan on upgrading the pipes here at home and will bring the server back in-house. GibGames has been great, though. They run a superb system and I would highly recommend them to anyone else out there in need of a Call of Duty server rental.

No updates on the other two projects. I really haven't had the time to look into them.

</marcus>

Project Lineup

Okay, time to get back into the swing of things. The purpose of this here blog is to keep track of things that I do and the projects I work on. Stuff I know real well one day is gone the next, as I am busy absorbing the specifics of whatever project I'm currently working on. I work on a wide variety of things, so knowledge comes and goes, at a rather quick pace.

With that said, I am currently working on 3 projects I'll be documenting as I go along.

Project #1: OS X Mail Server

The mail system that delivers and receives mail for marcuslingl.net is powered by Qmail and runs on an iMac running Yellow Dog Linux 3. When shopping for mail servers, I was most impressed by Qmail and the management tools written for it, such as qmailadmin. Unfortunately, there were no quick and dirty installers for Mac OS X. Qmail Toasters, however, are plentiful for Linux. Hence, the Qmail/Linux decision was easy to make. Well, now that I am more familiar with it, I would like to move it all to Mac OS X.

The mail project will include getting Qmail, vpopmail, courier IMAP, qmailadmin, vqadmin, squirrelmail, mrtg, and spamassassin working together in harmony on Mac OS X.

Project #2: Call of Duty Server

My weekly Call of Duty habit has caused me to start running my own COD server. Unfortunately, I do not yet have dedicated hardware (Xserve) for it. Right now I am working on PHP scripts to pull data from the temporary server I have running, and display information such as server status and player stats.


Project #3: Website Update

I have finished reviewing all the latest weblog tools such as ExpressionEngine and Geeklog, and am beginning work on the next version of Marcuslingl.Net. I am in no hurry to push something out, so don't expect anything new soon.


Project #4: Spyware Removal Manual

This one's a long stretch, mainly because there is so much to write, and spyware is constantly changing, where yesterdays removal methods no longer work today. This one may not see the light of day for quite some time.

The projects are listed in order of importance, so as soon as I have something to write-up about Qmail on Mac OS X, I'll post it.

Open Man Pages with ManOpen

While looking for a way to print nicely formated man pages (sometimes I find them easier to read on paper than scrolling up and down in the terminal... call me weird), I came across this handy little freeware app called ManOpen. ManOpen makes finding and searching man pages easy! It also has an "apropos" feature ( man -k), letting you see all man pages available for reading. And of course, the printing feature works great. Printed man pages come out looking like they should and easy to read. ManOpen also comes with a command line tool openman. You can find out more about ManOpen on it's home page.

Here are some screen shots:







Runs on Mac OSX. What's not to like?

Terminal Burn

Here's a neat little quirk I came across this week.

Usually, when I launch Terminal, I keep it's default black on white appearance settings. This week I went a little wild and crazy, and changed my settings to green on black...semi-transparent. (Go to Terminal-->Window Settings-->Colors. Slide the Transparency setting half-way. If you're feeling wild and crazy as well, go ahead and click the "Use Settings for Defaults" button to make this your default choice when launching Terminal).

I noticed that if I let my screen sit for a few minutes and then start using it again, I could faintly make out what used to be on the screen, like it had been burned in. Very reminiscent of the old monochrome monitors, available in green or amber.

Here's the before screenshot:



and the "after" screenshot, where I scrolled up a few lines:





A nice touch put in by the Apple programmers. Very cool!