Ubuntu

Some distributions run a caching nameserver in the background out of the box while some do not. To clear the cache if you have such a daemon running, simply restart the nscd service in ubuntu.

Most DNS clients will cache the results of name resolution request to speed up multiple lookups to the same URL. Just think about how many requests are made to the same domain when visiting a single web page. Every file, image, style sheet, etc. that is on that page and served from the same domain requires a DNS lookup.

So if you have an invalid DNS entry cached on your local client you’ll need to flush it out of the cache so your client can do a new lookup and get the correct information. Or your other option is to wait until that DNS entry expires and the cache flushes it automatically… which typically takes about 24 hours.

In ubuntu if you want to flush DNS cache you need to restart nscd daemon

Install nscd using the following command

sudo aptitude install nscd

Flush DNS Cache in Ubuntu Using the following command

sudo /etc/init.d/nscd restart

Reference

The first that you will want to do is to get the Cisco VPN client software from your IT department. I tried to get this directly from Cisco’s website, only to find after going through their completely too long registration process, that the software wasn’t made available to me because I wasn’t a special registration type (I’m figuring you have to register with some sort of Cisco specific ID or something particular to the products that you have purchased from Cisco). At any rate, I got mine from my IT department.

Once you have it, download it to your /home/user directory. Replace user with the user that you are currently logged into as.

Most likely this is in a .tar.gz format, so you’ll need to run the following from a Terminal:

tar zxvf vpnclient-linux-x86_64-4.8.01.0640-k9.tar.gz

this will unzip the file into /home/user/vpnclient directory.

Next you’ll need to know that you have the linux header file for the current version that you are running. You’ll want to run the following to show the current version:

uname -r

When I ran this on my system, I got:

2.6.24-18-generic

To make sure that you have the right version, you’ll want to run the following:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.24-18-generic

For me, my update manager has downloaded this before, so I didn’t have anything to download. After this is run, you’ll want to make sure you are in the /home/user/vpnclient directory and run the following:

sudo make

This will make the installer for the vpnclient. Because you need to run a patch, make sure you’ve run:

sudo apt-get install patch

Now to the fun stuff, download the patch from here and save it to your /home/user/vpnclient directory. Run the following from the vpnclient directory:

patch < ./vpnclient-linux-2.6.24-final.diff

and you should see the following:

patching file GenDefs.h
patching file interceptor.c

Once that is done, run the following:

sudo ./vpn_install

You should see the following questions asked:

Directory where binaries will be installed [/usr/local/bin]

Automatically start the VPN service at boot time [yes]

In order to build the VPN kernel module, you must have the
kernel headers for the version of the kernel you are running.

Directory containing linux kernel source code [/lib/modules/2.6.24-18-generic/build]

* Binaries will be installed in “/usr/local/bin”.
* Modules will be installed in “/lib/modules/2.6.24-18-generic/CiscoVPN”.
* The VPN service will be started AUTOMATICALLY at boot time.
* Kernel source from “/lib/modules/2.6.24-18-generic/build” will be used to build the module.

Is the above correct [y]

Answer yes to all of them. All things considering you should see that the install process goes through. The last things that you should see when the installer finishes up is:

Setting permissions.
/opt/cisco-vpnclient/bin/cvpnd (setuid root)
/opt/cisco-vpnclient (group bin readable)
/etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient (group bin readable)
/etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient/Profiles (group bin readable)
/etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient/Certificates (group bin readable)
* You may wish to change these permissions to restrict access to root.
* You must run “/etc/init.d/vpnclient_init start” before using the client.
* This script will be run AUTOMATICALLY every time you reboot your computer.

Then you’ll just need to move your *.pcf files into the profiles directory and away you go! This can be done by a simple:

cp *.pcf /etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient/Profiles

Then you’ll want to start the software, you can do this by running the command:

sudo /etc/init.d/vpnclient_init start

Within your profile names, make sure that you don’t have any spaces in them. To start the software, you’ll want to run:

sudo vpnclient connect NameOfConnection

You’ll replace NameOfConnection with the name of the connection file without the .pcf extension.

When you are performing an:

sudo apt-get update

You are prompted for the Ubuntu CD:

Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Media change: please insert the disc labeled
‘Ubuntu-Server 7.10 _Gutsy Gibbon_ – Release i386 (20071016)’
in the drive ‘/cdrom/’ and press enter

To get around this, go into your sources list:

sudo joe /etc/apt/sources.list

and look for the line at the top:

deb cdrom:[Ubuntu-Server 7.10 _Gutsy Gibbon_ - Release i386 (20071016)]/ gutsy main restricted

and comment this out:

#deb cdrom:[Ubuntu-Server 7.10 _Gutsy Gibbon_ - Release i386 (20071016)]/ gutsy main restricted

Rerunning:

sudo apt-get update

will now download the sources, instead of trying to get them from a CD.

The first thing that you will want to do is to setup LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) on your image. I’m doing this on a fresh Ubuntu Desktop 32bit 8.04 installation so that I can use X11. A great guide exists here, but I’ll post the steps here as well (sometimes those pesky links die).

Installing Apache2

1. Open up the Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal).

2. Copy/Paste the following line of code into Terminal and then press enter:

sudo apt-get install apache2

3. The Terminal will then ask you for you’re password, type it and then press enter.

Testing Apache2

To make sure everything installed correctly we will now test Apache to ensure it is working properly.

1. Open up any web browser and then enter the following into the web address:

http://localhost/

You should see a folder entitled apache2-default/. Open it and you will see a message saying “It works!” , congrats to you!

Installing PHP5

In this part we will install PHP 5.

Step 1. Again open up the Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal).

Step 2. Copy/Paste the following line into Terminal and press enter:

sudo apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5

Step 3. In order for PHP to work and be compatible with Apache we must restart it. Type the following code in Terminal to do this:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Testing PHP5

To ensure there are no issues with PHP let’s give it a quick test run.

Step 1. In the terminal copy/paste the following line:

sudo gedit /var/www/testphp.php

This will open up a file called phptest.php.

Step 2. Create a phpinfo page to test PHP and verify that it’s functioning. I have a copy here that you can use. Right click on the link and go to Save As to save the test page. You’ll want to then upload that saved file to your FTP site. Or if you are on your Ubuntu machine, you can run the below. Make sure that you’re in the DocumentRoot directory (see your Apache conf for the DocumentRoot path).

wget http://evolutioncreations.com/download/phptest.php

Step 3. Save and close the file.

Step 4. Now open you’re web browser and type the following into the web address:

http://localhost/testphp.php

Congrats you have now installed both Apache and PHP!

Installing MySQL5

To finish this guide up we will install MySQL. (Note – Out of Apache and PHP, MySQL is the most difficult to set up. I will provide some great resources for anyone having trouble at the end of this guide.)

Step 1. Once again open up the amazing Terminal and then copy/paste this line:

sudo apt-get install mysql-server

Step 3. This is where things may start to get tricky. Begin by typing the following into Terminal:

mysql -u root -p

Enter in the password that you setup during the apt-get install process.

Step 4. We are now going to install a program called phpMyAdmin which is an easy tool to edit your databases. Copy/paste the following line into Terminal:

sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql phpmyadmin

After that is installed our next task is to get PHP to work with MySQL. To do this we will need to open a file entitled php.ini. To open it type the following:

gksudo gedit /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Step 5. Once the text editor opens the php.ini file, go to the bottom of the file and add in the following line:

extension=mysql.so

This will allow you to use MySQL within your PHP scripts.

Now just restart Apache and you are all set!

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Installing OpenFire 3.5.1

The first thing that we want to do in preparation to install OpenFire is to install Java. Since I’m doing this on a fresh install of Ubuntu Java isn’t installed. But if you do have it installed, make sure you hava version 6.

Step 1. To check your Java version you can run the command:

java -version

If nothing returns, or you get something that tells you that you need to install Java, proceed to step 2. If you do get something back and Java is version 6, then skip to step 3.

Step 2. To install Java, run the following command from Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal):

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-bin

Since you only have one version of Java installed on your system, you don’t need to go to step 2a. If you have multiple versions of Java installed, you will want to specify your Java version:

sudo update-alternatives –config java
select /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java

Step 3. To create your MySQL user and database. Since your LAMP installation installs phpMyAdmin, first log into phpMyAdmin using root as your username and the password you configured during the installation process.

On the main page, locate Priviledges and scroll down to Add a new User.

Use the following on the New User screen:

Username = Enter a username, I used ‘openfire’
Host = From the drop down menu, select localhost
Password = Enter a password, retype your password

Under the Database for user section of that page, click on the radio button for Create database with same name and grant all priviledges.

At the bottom of the page, click on the Go button.

Step 4. Now that we have setup the database and user, we want to get the OpenFire package. First go to:

cd /opt

Then run:

sudo wget http://www.igniterealtime.org/downloadServlet?filename=openfire/openfire_3_5_1.tar.gz

Once the file downloads, run:

sudo mv downloadServlet\?filename\=openfire%2openfire_3_5_1.tar.gz openfire_3_5_1.tar.gz

then run:

sudo tar zxvf openfire_3_5_1.tar.gz

then create a a symlink:

ln -s /opt/openfire/bin/openfire /etc/init.d/

You know have to make your symlink executable:

chmod +x /etc/init.d/openfire

Now we have to fix an error that comes up when you try and restart the service. Go into the /opt directory:

cd /opt/openfire

and run:

nohup: appending output to `nohup.out’

Congraduations! You can now finish the configuration through the URL:

http://localhost:9090/

LAMP Installation Reference
OpenFire Installation Reference