misc « Buzzword LLC

andrew/octagon/www spork cuc Using Cucumber Preloading Rails environment Loading Spork.prefork block... can't activate , already activated rspec-1.3.2 (Gem::Exception)

sorry, what can’t you activate, exactly? i somehow broke my barely-working cucumber setup by attempting to use capybara-envjs.

there’s a 90% chance i’ll figure this out in the next hour and also forget to update this with the sure-to-be-roundabout solution.

capybara, cucumber, rails

xmonad is totally awesome

July 26th, 2011 Posted in misc

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i pretty much gave up on the stock ubuntu install after they decided to focus their efforts on unity. “ubuntu classic” is fine, i guess, but i’ve been looking for ways to enhance my productivity (i know that sounds lame — my bullshit meter is off the scale right now as well) and xmonad seems to be just the tool for that.

it takes a whole bunch of tweaking to even get it to run the first time, but i’d say it’s worth it. tiles, dude!

don’t (not) use a mediatemple vps.

April 15th, 2011 Posted in misc

2 Comments »

edit 2011/04/16 1009 EST:
spoke too soon. they compiled a newer version of sudo (1.8.1) because a way old (1.7.2) is the only version in yum. you guys!

context: i’m using a mediatemple vps. they provide centos 5.3 with a custom kernel. this would be great, if it worked:

andrew >> sudo -u apache ls [sudo] password for andrew: sudo: Error dropping capabilities, aborting : Operation not permitted

bug described here.

i’m not 100% sure that upgrading the kernel (2.6.9 –> 2.6.18) would fix it, but it’s worth a shot. since (mt) uses a custom kernel for their vps, you can’t upgrade it yourself. fine, i guess, so let’s contact support to see what they can do.

me:

when trying to use sudo to run a command as a particular user, it fails:

andrew@indigodigital >> sudo -u apache ls
[sudo] password for andrew:
sudo: Error dropping capabilities, aborting
: Operation not permitted

described here:

http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=3512

it’s crucial that users be able to use sudo to run commands as other users.

using sudo 1.7.2p1-10.el5.

them:

Thank you for your inquiry.

For information about how to create a sudo user on the (dv) Dedicated-Virtual, you can refer to this article:

http://wiki.mediatemple.net/w/(dv):Create_sudo_user_and_disable_SSH_for_root

Please keep in mind that the (dv) Dedicated-Virtual Server is a self-managed server, and assistance with its configuration and maintenance is outside of the (mt) Media Temple scope of support.

All suggestions in this message are provided entirely as a courtesy.

If you have any further questions regarding your (mt) Media Temple services, please feel free to contact us at any time.

Best regards,

Phil D.
Customer Support
(mt) Media Temple
877-578-4000
310-564-2007

http://kb.mediatemple.net/questions/824/

thanks guys, really. i’ll look past your completely irrelevant response. so it’s self-managed, right? then how do i upgrade the kernel or use a different os? you’ve constructed a nice loophole for yourselves here.

yeah, so don’t use a mediatemple vps.

mediatemple, vps