Sometimes it is necessary to patch the Linux source code - e.g. after new drivers or security bugfixes have been applied.

As a rule this task is done by your chosen distributor - but maybe you don't want to wait for that (or you like doing this on your own).

I'm currently preparing myself for the LPIC-2 certification - …

When updating the GRUB2 package on a clean install of CRUX Linux I recently stumbled upon the following error:

1# prt-get update grub2
2...
3Pkgfile: line 28: ./grub-mkfont: No such file or directory"

The solution for this issue was simple - the freetype package was missing. This package is needed for generating …

Sometimes it is necessary to break down the patch status of the Linux landscape.

Especially if the administrator's work is subjected to security standards a constant documentation of maintenance tasks is often necessary.

Using Spacewalk, Red Hat Satellite or SUSE Manager available patches are described as errata. Those …

Recently I finished my first ArchLinux installation since 2010. Many things have change since I used the distro the last time and I felt a little bit helpless first.

The former ArchLinux installer isn't used anymore - the experienced Linux user has to prepare the hard drives for the installation on his own. The …

Recently I had a issue when trying to use the OSA dispatcher integrated in Spacewalk, Red Hat Satellite and SUSE Manager. The software was unable to push actions to registered client systems - it seems that there was a problem with the appropriate service:

1# service jabberd status
2router dead but subsys locked
3sm …

Recently I stumped upon the following error while creating GPG keys for signing self-created RPM packages :

1can't connect to `/home/su-rpmdev/.gnupg/S.gpg-agent': No such file or directory
2gpg-agent[14392]: command get_passphrase failed: Operation cancelled
3gpg: cancelled by user
4gpg: Key generation …

Virtualized Linux guests running on VMware vSphere can only offer the best performance if the helper software VMware Tools in the most recent version.

If you have ever used VMware products you know that constant updates guarantee the support of new operating systems and hardware. But this has also the disadvantage that …

Some system updates (e.g. kernel updates) require the affected Linux system to be rebooted. If the system is managed using Spacewalk, Red Hat Satellite or SUSE Manager this reboot can be scheduled after patching the host very comfortably.

However it is possible that after the reboot (watch the output of the uptime …