I have been a long time Windows XP user on the desktop (it was actually a pretty good OS), but I just couldn’t get excited about making the move to Vista. So, I concluded sometime last year that I was going to have to make the move to either Ubuntu or Mac. I have managed both Solaris and Linux servers through out my entire career, and have always loved a Unix environment for that. So, I was pretty excited to have a real command line on my desktop.

To get started on my transition I bought a ThinkPad on Craigslist a few months ago and loaded Ubuntu on it. After a handful of time consuming issues (video drivers, getting the VPN client to work, etc…), I was up and running. It has been amazing – about ninety-five percent of the time. What about that other five percent of the time? You know those annoying things that should just work…

Well, they leave me only one option: MacBook. It is time for me to join the masses of annoying Mac users who always remind everyone how much better their lives are. Honestly, I am looking forward to it, and I plan to let everyone know how much better life is on that side of the world (no matter what the reality is). Only one problem, I am waiting for Steve to put on his depends and announce the next gen of Mac books – so it looks like I have a few more months of the almost good life on Ubuntu.

Hey Jimmy, are you going to join me in Macland or turn back to your old faithful, Gentoo?

I have used tinydns/djbdns for hosting DNS for quite a while and installed it on a number of previous Ubuntu versions, but installing it on the latest Hardy Heron server edition didn’t go very smoothly. So, I thought I would try and capture my steps for anyone looking to use tinydns on Hardy. Good Luck!

PRE-INSTALL:

• sudo apt-get install build-essential
• Add to /etc/apt/sources.list: deb http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib non-free
• sudo apt-get update

INSTALL ALL THE PACKAGES:

• ucspi-tcp-src:
  • sudo apt-get install ucspi-tcp-src
  • sudo build-ucspi-tcp
    • Accept all the defaults

• daemontools
  • sudo apt-get install daemontools-installer
  • sudo build-daemontools
    • Accept all the defaults
  • sudo ln -s /etc/inittab{new} /etc/inittab

• DJBDNS
  • sudo apt-get install djbdns-installer
  • sudo build-djbdns
    • Accept all the defaults

CONFIG PACKAGES:

• Create Users (if they aren’t created for you):
  • sudo adduser –no-create-home –disabled-login -shell /bin/false dnscache
  • sudo adduser –no-create-home –disabled-login -shell /bin/false dnslog
  • sudo adduser –no-create-home –disabled-login -shell /bin/false tinydns

• Configure dnscache:
  • sudo mkdir /var/lib/svscan
  • sudo dnscache-conf dnscache dnslog /var/lib/svscan/dnscache
  • sudo ln -sf /var/lib/svscan/dnscache /service
    • Check that “supervise” directory was create in /service/dnscache – If it wasn’t something is wrong… See: http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/djbdns/index.htm

• Configure tinydns:
  • sudo tinydns-conf tinydns dnslog /var/lib/svscan/tinydns 10.0.0.105
  • sudo ln -sf /var/lib/svscan/tinydns /service
    • Check that “supervise” directory was create in /service/tinydns – If it wasn’t something is wrong. See: http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/djbdns/index.htm

• Edit /etc/resolv.conf
  • search revivehosting.com
  • nameserver 127.0.0.1

START-UP CONFIGURATION:

• INIT:
  • touch /etc/event.d/svscan
  • update contents to:
    • start on runlevel 2
start on runlevel 3
start on runlevel 4
start on runlevel 5
stop on shutdown
respawn
exec /usr/bin/svscanboot
• sudo /etc/init.d/djbdns restart

Test Install:

• dnsip www.google.com (dnscache)

References:

• http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/djbdns/index.htm
• http://www.fredshack.com/docs/djbdns.html
• http://www.howtoforge.com/install-djbdns-nameserver-on-debian-etch
• http://www.len.ro/work/tools/gutsy-on-a-ubuntu-server/dhcp-and-djbdns
• http://cr.yp.to/djbdns/run-server.html
• http://www.fredshack.com/docs/djbdns.html
• http://www.paralipsis.org/2008/04/configuring-daemontools-under-ubuntu-upstart/