Popularity: 1% [?]

After more than a month since Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 has been released, CentOS 5.5 has finally been released as the community equivalent to the RHEL5.5. CentOS 5.5 is available for both i386 and x86_64 systems and its packages and features match that of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5. This includes new hardware support, run-time memory allocation for KVM guests, EXT4 file-system support, Fibre Channel over Ethernet capabilities, eCryptfs support, and many other new items to assist those running CentOS/RHEL in a server or workstation environment.

“CentOS as a group is a community of open source contributors and users. Typical CentOS users are organisations and individuals that do not need strong commercial support in order to achieve successful operation. CentOS is 100% compatible rebuild of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux, in full compliance with Red Hat’s redistribution requirements. CentOS is for people who need an enterprise class operating system stability without the cost of certification and support.”

Download CentOS 5.5 here
Read the Release Notes here

How to upgrade to CentOS 5.5:

1. BACKUP your system
2. Use the commands below to upgrade:
#yum clean all
#yum update glibc\*
#yum update yum\* rpm\* python\*
#yum clean all
#yum update
#reboot

How to check your system for the new version installed after the reboot.

#lsb_release -a

Popularity: unranked [?]

If the top command shows the processes currently taking the most CPU time and memory, iftop displays network usage by connection making your hosts’ bandwidth moitoring usage easier.  Iftop displays a table of hosts and their bandwidth usage for the past 2, 10 and 40 seconds. Identifying which hosts are causing network congestion is easy using iftop since it displays the pair of hosts responsible for most of the bandwidth on the top of the table.

iftop overview:

• iftop (interface top) derives the name from the standard unix top command. top command displays real-time CPU Usage. iftop command displays real-time network bandwidth usage.
• iftop displays the network usage of a specific interface on the host.
• Using iftop you can identify which host is responsible for slowing down your network.
• To find out which process is causing the problem, note down the port number from the iftop and use netstat -p to identify the process.
• iftop monitors your network activity, and displays a table of current bandwidth.

Download iftop

# cd /root
# wget http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pdw/iftop/download/iftop-0.17.tar.gz

Install iftop

# cd /root
# tar -xzvf iftop-0.17.tar.gz
# cd iftop-0.17
# ./configure
# make
# make install

Use iftop

#iftop

iftop commands

S - display source port
D - display destination port
n - show IP instead of host name
1/2/3 - sort by the specified column
< - sort by source name
> - sort by dest name
P - pause display
j/k - scroll display
? - for help

Popularity: 1% [?]

Red Hat today released the first public beta of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL 6), the next generation of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 blurs the lines between virtual, physical, and cloud computing to address shifts taking place in the modern IT environment. Featuring updated core technology, from the kernel to the application infrastructure to the development toolchain, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 is designed to meet the needs of the coming generations of hardware and software technologies.

RHEL 6 BETA also comes with comprehensive IPv6 support (NFS 4, CIFS, mobile support [RFC 3775], ISATAP support), FCoE, iSCSI, and a new and improved mac 802.11 wireless stack. Scalability was another focus, ext4 file system provides support for larger file sizes and significantly reduces repair times over ext3. XFS® is a high-performance file system that supports extremely large files and is optimized for large data transfers.  RHEL 6 BETA also has wide support for virtualization.

RHEL 6 Beta comes with both GNOME and KDE 4.3 as default options. Mozilla Firefox 3.5, Mozilla Thunderbird 3 and OpenOffice.org 3.1 also come with RHEL 6 BETA.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Ringio launched a new cloud-based service for small and mid-sized businesses. The service integrates web-based CRM and advanced telephony features.  Users can accept or redirect incoming calls as they appear on the screen; Ringio then completes the call to the user’s desired 10-digit phone number or sends it to voice mail. If users are not logged into the system, they can still receive calls on the Ringio number; in that case, an audio caller ID gives them the same screening options.

Ringio’s intelligent call-routing functionality is provided by Voxeo, a longtime platform host with an extensive history in IVR and convergent communications.

“We define ‘rich calling’ as bringing a telephone call and relevant information about the caller together at the same time to enrich communication and information sharing, and – most important – to accelerate speed-to-satisfaction,” said Michael Zirngibl, Ringio co-founder and chairman.

Ringio was founded by Zirngibl, Aparicio and Ashish Soni, who serves as president and chief technology officer of the company. Previously, the three were CEO, CTO and vice president of technology and operations, respectively, at Angel.com, a speech- and interactive voice response (IVR) provider. They worked together at Angel.com for more than 10 years, building it into prominence as a provider of automated IVR and call-center solutions for medium and large businesses.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Mythdora 12.23 which is based on Fedora 12  has been released. MythDora is aimed at DVR enthusiasts and bundles the popular open-source DVR software MythTV with the latest stable Fedora release.  It also comes with an updated kernel, the Linux kernel 2.6.32.11-99.

System Requirements:

* A minimum of 512MB of RAM is suggested to use the graphical installer
* A hard disk of 15GB in size if you choose to use the default partitioning

General Features:

* Fedora 12 + updates
* mythtv-0.23-rc2+
* kernel 2.6.32.11-99
* lirc-0.8.6-6
* imdb-bulk-update-1.16

DVD Features:

* Gnome,KDE, LXDE, XFCE, and ratpoison desktops
* nvidia driver packages, 195, 173xx and older 96xx
* Handbrake-0.9.4

LiveCD Features:

* XFCE desktop environment
* nvidia-195 driver package
* Ability to change timezone in firstboot’s configuration

Changes in MythDora 12:

* The auto-installation method has been removed
* The frontend now heavily relies on the timezone of the system matching the backend
* mythflix, mythphone and mythstreamtv have been dropped
* Only themes based on the new API are included
* atilibusb and other ir devices are now standardized under the devinput userspace. Note that lircd & lircrc files have changed
* Forced execution of mythdora setup via firstboot so it cannot be missed
* Stock rpmfusion based mythtv packages, settings and themes
* Updated the included firmware for expanded model support

Popularity: 1% [?]