Linux – Using Screens
Screens is a very handy tool when working in a terminal. It allows one to do more than one thing at a time with only one window. This is an extremely brief overview of how to use screens, for a more in depth guide check out:
A Guide to Efficiently Using Irssi and Screen – quadpoint.org; and
Linux Screen Tutorial and How To – Rackaid
Installation
If you do not already have it, install it using the package manager you currently have installed (yum install screen / apt-get install screen )
..(22:53 $).> yum install screen
Running
Starting it up is simple:
..(22:46 $).> screen
Common Commands
Commands in screen often follow the ctrl+a [x] style, most commonly used are
Ctrl+a d --> detaches screens and brings you back to your main terminal Ctrl+a n --> moves to the next screen; and Ctrl+a c --> creates a new window
Reattaching
When detached and at your main terminal window, you can restore your screens with:
..(08:19 $).> screen -raAd
Technically screen -r will work but this one does some more fancy voodoo with resizing and detaching from other sessions currently open.
Fixing screens
This is more a note to myself since I infrequently halt my screens, and for the most part the point of this posting here…
Ctrl+a s or ctrl s --> halts screens (usually by accidental keystrokes) Ctrl+a q or ctrl q --> starts them back up!
Alternately one can simply add “stty -ixon -ixoff” into their .bashrc profile to turn off flow control and that should take care of it as well.
Adding Windows network shares on CentOS
In an effort to make my life easier and be able to access my files securely and easily I’ve set up my linux box to be able to read the window shares that I have running on my main box. This may not always be the setup I’ll have – but it is for now.
My linux box is a headless system that is setup without a GUI, and accessible through SSH, and on the same home network as my windows computer. On the windows computer I currently have a few shares available – though I will just be demonstrating with one share in this tutorial.
First, to see what shares are available, we run a command with smbclient:
smbclient -L 192.168.100.50
L simply lists the shares it finds, and here I just use the IP address of the machine I am looking at.
It will produce some output like this:
Domain=[HOME] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager] Sharename Type Comment --------- ---- ------- Complete Disk E$ Disk Default share IPC$ IPC Remote IPC D$ Disk Default share I$ Disk Default share G$ Disk Default share L Disk ADMIN$ Disk Remote Admin H$ Disk Default share C$ Disk Default share J$ Disk Default share
In this case I wish to mount the L drive, so I use the following command, where -t cifs is specifying the common internet file system, then we have the network path to the share, -o specifies options which are the username and password, and lastly the place we want to see the share (which is a folder that we’ve already created on the linux box) :
mount -t cifs //192.168.100.50/L -o username=owner,password= /home/user/winbox/L
So now that I have the share up and running, I can make it stick around permanently by editing fstab. I am a vi person, but just fire up your favourite editor like as follows:
vi /etc/fstab
At the bottom of the file we insert the following line, where we have the network path, the mount path, file system, username/password (_netdev so that it holds off trying to mount until the network is established), and 0 0 for the dump and fsck so that both ignore the mounted path:
//192.168.100.50/L /home/user/winbox/L cifs username=owner,password=,_netdev 0 0
Once we have that edited, we need to make sure the system will still survive a reboot by testing the mounts:
mount -a
And with that, it looks good to go. I can now SSH into this box from another pc somewhere else in the world, and with an application like winSCP I can pull files down to view them.
Other things that may be useful if you are stuck:
Work, and furthering myself.
So for the past few months I’ve found myself consistently working. Been nice. I’ve also moved to a newer bigger place. Also nice. My time has been taken up with working, studying, and of course relaxing. Again nice.
Found myself with an A+ certification. Not much to really say about it other than it’s really just a drop in the bucket of the rest of things I’ve done. Gearing up to hammer out a CCNA finally though – especially considering that I have everything together for it – and likely my ITIL, CISSP, and sometime next year CCNP, and really finding myself with a rekindled interest in programming. My current employer seems interested in a different direction congruent to their own interests, but that doesn’t mean I cannot further my own self. It is plausible that I may be retuning to university next fall depending upon the environment I find myself in as well.
So, yep, I am pretty busy these days. Never really did much in terms of proving my skills and education, but the market seems to be calling for it as there are not all that many jobs available still. Also in the plan for the next week is to create a good solid workspace for myself. My old desk fails to have adequate space for all the computer equipment and leatherwork gear I have in my office area. There shall be photos of it when it is all done though!
And yes, I am continuing to work on leather items! Recently I’ve been working on a mask of sorts that I am quite excited about, and I have also managed to complete a neck corset, as well as a simple bracer. I have managed to get some nice new supplies and am hoping to get much more done whilst studying and in place of being bored.
That is about all for now though.
Work, travels, and all around good things
For the past few months now I have found myself working! April and May had me traveling this route: Google Maps, 2010 Journey, of which I have many photos of that are waiting to be processed (all added of course to the few thousand I have not gotten around to yet). In the first week of May though, I managed to capture this small panorama of the Peace River and Dunvegan:
I also managed to capture some photos of the forest fire in Opal, the sunset on Highway 63 near Fort McMurray, and some wildlife in the Muskoseepi Park in Grande Prairie, as well as some others here and there.
After completing that short contract, it was barely a week before I was put into my new role. It seems to be a fairly quiet and comfortable environment, which will certainly be nice. So finances looking up, free time looking up, and motivation also being quite on the up lately, things are really splendid! Still studying for some certifications (CCNA getting put on the backburner for the sake of what they wish me to complete for this new position), and still working on photography and some leatherwork, as well as taking care of my lovies, and seemingly reading more and more comics as the days go by…
It’s also very likely that I am moving (well less of the likely sort and more of a question of when it will happen). Hopefully that gets cleared up – yet it is all for the best too since I shall finally get to have my Marilyn around more often.
Wanted: Employment
It’s been a while, but there has not been a whole lot new for me to talk about lately. Been looking for a job, full time, and not really found myself doing much of anything else. I have a slew of photographs to edit and upload, been trying to do the photo 365 project, though there seem to be some holes in there what with job hunt being that difficult and that time consuming.
Admittedly, the matter of employment has become a rather difficult thing. There is very little in terms of IT related jobs, especially around here. I’ve watched it since I became unemployed last year and while it improved marginally in the fall when I started job hunting again, I’ve also noticed that its gone downhill again here.
Terrible news for me at least, and I am trying my best to remain optimistic despite the fact that unless I have some money coming in right soon, bad things are going to happen.
Leatherworking and mask making
Over the past couple of months I have had the opportunity to actually learn some proper techniques and had access to leather working tools. It has been something that I desired to do for years so I am very thankful for the opportunity and rather pleased with the results of the work that I did. It is likely to be something that I shall continue to work with for many years to come.
While I created a few leather arm bands, and a choker, the most interesting items were the masks:
Beyond that, not a great deal is new, been doing plenty of reading, a fair bit of sketching, and just taking the time to enjoy the free time I have.
Some time now…
Well it has been some time since the last update, and while I did have desire to continue updating all I really had to talk about was my ever growing family.
As it is, I still have need to share my two newest additions, Sponges and Deca:
Sponges is an amel motley corn snake, a few years old, and about four feet long. I adopted him from a friend who was unable to make certain he was getting the proper care he needed. Decarabia is my little baby black stripe ball python, only a few months old, and about a foot long currently. Already in the past month she has seemingly plumped up a bit. Both are very cuddly and friendly, and fairly constricty with their cuddles too!
Also, in the past few months I have been doing some manner of studying. Been working towards getting a couple IT certs, including redoing my CCNA (and likely continuing on towards the CCNP) and a CISSP certification. As such I now have this sitting alongside my desk:
And then of course, last but not least – given that this is the season for Halloween – I have an outfit to show off. Made by Kathleen, it is Silhouette from the Minutemen:
More family additions!
Yay!
I rescued these lil fire bellied toads from a friend who wasn’t able to take care of them anymore today:
After some tank cleaning, and water changing and feeding they seem to have calmed back down. The kitty has sure taken an interest in them – though it seems that she is more keen on the surviving minnows in the tank ^^;
Hopefully in the next few days I’ll manage to get some rearranging done to keep them all happy~ I’m super excited though. They are really cute 
Other than that, I’ve got a bunch of photos that I am slowly working through from the summer here. With any luck I’ll have something to show in a week or so. It’s been a very busy, crazy summer for me this year.
Canada Day 2009 Fireworks and Spring Walks
This past week found me out and about taking photos at the Canada Day parade and the fireworks celebration in the evening. I’ve yet to get through all of the parade photos – yet the firework photos can be found on my flickr here:
Canada Day 2009 – Edmonton
Also earlier this spring I took a few afternoons with my camera to walk about the river valley and other parts of the city. I’ve got one of those sets posted on myflickr as well at:
Spring Walks 2009
Other than that, I’ve been going through a great deal of my older unprocessed photos – albeit rather slowly. Hopefully one day I shall manage to catch up on it all.
The 2009 Edmonton Pride Parade!
Last weekend was the annual Edmonton Pride Parade, and I finally managed to make it out this year.
For anyone intersted in seeing the set, you can find it on my flickr account via:
The 2009 Edmonton Pride Parade!
There is a good chance that I may go back and edit a few of the photos to put them up on my site here too. When that happens, I’ll be sure to bring it up 
Somehow during the day of the parade I managed to sprain my toe which is interesting to say the least as I had no idea until I removed my footwear that evening. I also got hit in the face by a stray beach ball and had to dive from water guns and water ballons a few times. Very treacherous!