Part 3 – Installing Ubuntu Linux

In part two, we discussed putting together the hardware of your server. Now that your computer is put together, plug in your power cord and your Ethernet cord to your router. Since you don’t have anything on this computer yet, you will need a spare keyboard and monitor while you set this up. Go ahead and plug these in too.

You will also need to have a copy of Ubuntu Linux Server edition so you can install it. If you would rather use the desktop edition, that is your choice, but this tutorial was written for the server edition. Also, I did this within a month of Ubuntu 9.10 coming out. It was very buggy at the time, and I had issues with it. So I decided to use 9.04. You will need a second USB key to make the install as there is no optical drive on this computer. If you have another kind of external drive (hard disk drive or CD Drive), you can try using that. This computer’s bios does support booting from USB.

Once you have gotten the iso of Ubuntu, you will need to put this on a USB key to install the OS. It will fit on a 1 GB drive. I tried extracting the files from the iso by using Diskmagic and WinRAR and copying them to the USB drive, but that didn’t work. The way I got it to work is by downloading a file from unetbootin, and using that to put the installation files on my 1GB USB drive. Visit this site to make your USB key so that you can install from it: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

SETUP AND INSTALLATION

Once you have the USB key ready, insert it into one of the USB ports on the computer. Power up the computer and you will see the Foxconn screen as it begins its boot up sequence. At this point, press the delete key to enter the setup menu to have a look a the bios. This bios will allow you to boot up from a USB drive, which is VERY important for installing and running the OS as the two disk drives are planned to be used for data only.

First we will edit the system information so we can change the boot warnings. Here make sure that Halt on is set to All Erros But, and have Keyboard and Mouse enabled. Since this will be a headless system, we need to make sure it’s not going to halt the boot up because there is no keyboard or mouse present.

Hit ENTER on System Information

Make sure it says ENABLED by Keyboard and Mouse

More »

Part Two: Building the Computer

Our first post in this series covered the planning of building our server.

Lets get started making a server. First, be sure and read the directions that come with this box. I was successful in not breaking anything when I did what it had to say.

There is one screw on the back. A simple Phillips head screwdriver will get it off. This will allow you to slide off the side panel for access to the inside of the box.

Next, we will need to pull of the faceplate. Follow the directions that came with your computer carefully, and it will come off. There are flimsy plastic clips holding it on. They do come off, so don’t force anything. I managed not to break mine.

Now that you have all of the outside pieces off, you need to unscrew the internal drive cage that will hold your 2^nd hard drive. It is designed to hold one 5 ¼ in optical drive. I bought an adapter that allows you to put a 3 ½ in drive into a 5 ¼ in bay.

All of the components once it has been disassembled.

Overhead view of inside of computer

Once you have it all apart, put your memory in.

Memory

More »

Part 1: Introduction and Planning

This tutorial is about how to make your own Ubuntu Linux file server. If you are wanting to follow along and are curious about the difficulty of this endeavor, I would give it a 6/10, where 10 is some kind of rocket science thing. I did my best to make this a step by step guide for anyone who, like myself, has lots of questions and isn’t totally sure what they are doing. I tried not to leave too much up to assumptions.

I am still a beginner at using Linux, but have been using a PC since the command line days of DOS. The reason I have decided to write this post is because I spent many hours perusing the Internet looking for answers on how to do what I wanted. What I found is that no one had posted exactly step by step for the noob how to do everything I wanted. So I had to take bits and pieces of pages from blog posts, message forums, the Ubuntu documentation, Linux Reality Podcasts, and help from the good folks at ubuntuforums.org to get where I wanted. I documented in Evernote along the way what I was doing so if I screwed up, I wouldn’t have to start all over again figuring things out (it took more than one try to get it to work). I wrote this post because I wanted to help others who may be trying to do something similar but can’t find all the steps. A lot of learning took place for me along the way. I did everything through the CLI (command line interface). It was like writing a book in a foreign language. I had to look up everything as I didn’t know the commands needed to do what I wanted. Once I knew what the commands were, I had to learn how to use them.

Here is what I wanted. A safe place to store my documents, music, photos, financial information, and anything else that I didn’t want to lose without worrying about a disk dying on me or succumbing to a virus. I am fully aware that this doesn’t solve every risk, but it did enough to make me happy for now. (This post might give you some insight to my paranoia with not trusting an external hard drive for my needs.) I also recently got married and wanted to make sure my wife and I both had access to everything in a central location. Since I am now the family IT guy, I wanted to make sure I had her data in a safe place too. This was also going to serve as a print server, and possibly more some time down the road. I wanted this to be virus free, cheap, long lasting, and energy efficient as it was going to be on 24/7. Once I was done getting it going, I wanted to be able to walk away and leave it sitting on a shelf doing its thing without needs for reboots, security updates, etc. I wanted it to be a headless system. That means no monitor, keyboard, or mouse. Just a power cord and an Ethernet cord. I’m sure my task would have been much easier had I just bought a fancy new computer and put windows server something on there or used OS X server, but apparently, I enjoy doing things the hard way (and I’m cheap).

The following is my setup:

• Ubuntu Server 9.4
• Foxconn barebone R10-S4 CPU
• Intel Dual-core Atom 330 processor
• MB with integrated Ethernet, video, sound
• Kingston 2 GB RAM DDR2 533
• 1 8GB Patriot USB key drive
• 2 750 GB SATA Western Digital Caviar Green Drives
• Linksys WRT54GL router with Tomato firmware
• Computers on network: Macbook and iMac with Snow Leopard, Dell Inspiron laptop with Windows XP

More »

I was reading through some sites today when I came across a blog mentioning that five of the voters of the Baseball Writers Association did not vote this year. Big deal right?

This isn’t five voters who forgot to vote, they intentionally turned in blank ballots. Why? We don’t know all of the reasons why except for one guy, Jay Mariotti.

I didn’t vote for anybody in the baseball hall of fame this year. Ya know why?  To me…the first ballot is sacred. I think Roberto Alomar is an eventual Hall of Famer, not the first time. Edgar Martinez, designated hitter, eventually, but not the first time. Same goes for maybe Fred McGriff. As far as Blyleven and Dawson…if they haven’t gotten in for years and years I cannot vote them in now. Ripken, Rickey Henderson and Gwynn. They are true first ballot Hall of Famers, but I didn’t vote for anybody, throw me out of the Baseball Writers. I don’t care. SOURCE

Wow, I’m sure that was a great reason.

Personally, I can’t believe that five voters who have a pretty big responsibility didn’t have the consideration to at least vote. If they don’t want to vote, they should give the responsibility to someone who does care about the Baseball Hall of Fame. For crying out loud, Jay even asked to be kicked out. Please, someone do it.

Why is this significant, ask Bert Blyleven about how he feels about missing out on the Hall of Fame for the 13th time. Guess how many votes he needed to get in?

5

I can’t believe that five people don’t think that following baseball players were worthy of the Hall of Fame, at all:

• Andre Dawson
• Bert Blyleven
• Roberto Alomar
• Jack Morris
• Barry Larkin
• Lee Smith
• Edgar Martinez
• Tim Raines
• Fred McGriff
• Don Mattingly

All are All-Star calibre players that any manager would have loved to have on their team. Great players whose names any baseball fan knows. Are they all worthy of the Hall of Fame, no, but you can’t tell me that none of these players deserve to get in. I also don’t think it’s right to leave the ballot blank just because you want to make a statement.

Something needs to be done about the Hall of Fame voting.

From http://www.gettyimages.com/

It’s been 9 years, but former Cub great, Andre Dawson, has finally made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I am very happy about the news. Last year, I posted about my disappointment that he didn’t make it.

Dawson’s numbers were not staggering, especially when compared to the juiced ball era that we are coming out of. His lack of any dominating category explains why he wasn’t a first year Hall of Fame player. He got in by how he played.

Dawson began his career in Montreal with the Expos, now the Washington Nationals. Early in his career, Dawson was known for his speed and great hitting. He and Tim Raines were a lethal pair. Unfortunately, the artificial turf in Olympic Statium destroyed his knees, and he was unable to run like he did in his early years. Throughout the rest of his career, his knees bothered him. Dawson’s problems with his knees started from high school football. He added power to his skill set to offset his lack of speed.

After playing on the turf for 11 years in Montreal, he had to move. Montreal was not going to resign him as they were afraid of the condition of his knees. Most teams were unsure of his knees and were hesitant to sign him. Dawson also knew he had to get back onto playing on the grass. He talked with the Cubs to ask if they would sign him, and they did. He just wanted to play, and he told the Cubs he would play for what ever they wanted to pay him. He got paid $500,000 that year, compared to $1.2 M the previous year. That season (1987), he then went on to turn in his MVP season for a Cub team that went on to be last place in their division that year. That year he led the league in Total Bases (353), HR’s (49) and RBI’s (137). MVP’s typically get picked from winning teams, but Dawson played so well, he was able to secure the honor despite his team’s lack of success.

I can remember watching him play on WGN as a kid. He was a great player, a steady clean up hitter. He struck out a lot, but could hit. My favorite thing about Dawson was watching his fielding. He played right field in Wrigley. The winds in Wrigley make it one of the toughest right fields to play. I remember watching him throw runners out with is powerful arm. My favorite was when he would charge a hard hit single and throw out the runner at first because the runner wasn’t hustling. The Wrigley faithful respected him. The bleacher bums in right would bow down as he would take his position.

Dawson’s teammates spoke highly of him. Although his knees hurt constantly and limited his potential, he didn’t complain and he didn’t let his knees stop him from giving 100%.

Dawson played for the Montreal Expos (76-86), the Chicago Cubs (87-92), the Boston Red Sox (93-94), and the Florida Marlins (95-96). His highlights are as follows:

• Rookie of The Year 1977
• MVP 1987
• Eight Gold Gloves
• Eight All-Star games
• Four Silver Slugger Awards
  
• Third Player in history to have 400 HR and 300 SB

His career numbers:

Batting Average: .279
OPS: .806
HR: 438
RBI: 1591
SB: 314
Fld%: .983

Now, to find out what cap he is going to wear when he is inducted this summer. I’m hoping they chose a Cubs hat. Way to go Hawk!

I decided to write a blog post to tell the tale of my getting married and the events around it. I’m sure some would love to read about it, and it makes for a good way for me to chronicle it for some day in the future for me. Pictures surrounding this epic tale can be found here. The tale of the engagement can be found on a previous blog post. The wedding date was September 27, 2009 to Wendy Millington. I decided years ago that for my bachelor’s party, that I wanted to go on a backpacking trip with my friends. So, I invited some of my backpacking buddies to go with me on a my trip. My brother Chris and a friend of mine from college, Ramsey, were able to make the trip out here. Both of them were groomsmen in my wedding as well. The trip was to be known as the Bad Ass Bachelor Backpacking Adventure (BABBA). The plan was for us to go to Rocky Mountain National Park in North Central CO for a 5 day backpacking trip. I had poured over a map looking for a good loop route that we could take that wouldn’t be too tough on those coming from lower elevation. I had finally found my route. We were going to start on the Grand Lake side of the park, work our way up to the Continental Divide, and then back down to the North Inlet to put us back where we started. Chris made a nice profile of the trip co_trip

I had flown out to Salt Lake City to visit with Wendy the week before the trip. The house we had signed a contract on had a shady realtor who signed another contract on the house. This had put our house hunt on delay as we had hoped to close on the house on my trip out there. We found another one and we just had to wait for everything to go through. While out there, Wendy picked up cold from one of her patients which she happily passed along to me. We both hoped to be well in time for our wedding. I was more worried about being able to hack it on the trail.

The day I flew back into Denver, Chris and Ramsey both also flew in. I was to arrive within an hour of both of them getting there to try to ensure a small wait time. Southwest was late getting me there by about an hour. Once we all met up, we headed to my car. I had checked the weather before I left Salt Lake and discovered that the weather had gone from beautiful with highs in the 70’s to snow starting the day we were to hit the trail. Ramsey was from FL and didn’t even own a pair of blue jeans. He had his cold weather sleeping bag though. Chris was from VA. I had told him he wouldn’t need his arctic gear as it was beautiful weather. So much for that. More »

Merry Christmas!

Wow, what a year. Last year left off with Wendy and I going to visit each other’s families for Christmas. Now we are married! Lots of good changes have happened.

I proposed to Wendy in May of 2009. We got married Sept 27, 2009 in Evergreen, CO. The wedding was perfect. It was an outdoor wedding with great weather and we had lots of family and friends come to celebrate our day with us. Afterwards we went to Hawaii for 10 days for our honeymoon. We had a great time. The highlight for me was the helicopter tour. For my bachelor’s party, my brother Chris, and a good friend from college, Ramsey, came out to CO with me to do a backpacking trip. The weather didn’t cooperate, so we had to alter our plans, but we had a great time.

I had to resign from my EMT job at the ambulance company, Pridemark, when I moved. It has been an adjustment for me not having a job. I’m in the process of trying to get my EMT certification here in UT so I an get another job. So far, not going so well, but I’ll keep trying at it. I still am pursuing my dream of being a firefighter.

I had the privilege to work with some more great partners this last year at Pridemark. There are some great people who are in the business of EMS and Fire. I rotated through three full time paramedic partners this year, two of them who had just finished paramedic school. Bryan and I had started working together last year, and he found a job with another agency earlier this year. He too was a Boy Scout and a computer geek. We had a good time talking about common interests. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a lot of good calls together. My second partner was just out of paramedic school, but had been a long time EMT at Pridemark. Pierre was a black cloud of death (we call people who attract lots of calls black clouds and those who don’t attract them white clouds). I got to see a lot of great stuff working with him. It was also nice to have some one who had an almost identical mindset on work, politics, etc. Deb was my third partner, and we unfortunately didn’t get to work very long but she was also a great partner. She had a very sweet personality and was also a very smart medic. She made some schedule changes for me so that I could have a good partner to finish off my time at Pridemark. Unfortunately, she got really sick my last week at work and had to go into the hospital. She’s better now, but she had us all scared there for a while. The most impressive thing about it was watching how the Pridemark family stepped up to help out during this time. I can only hope that I will ever be able to work with a group of people like that again. Definitely good people. It was actually a good way to go out as it helped reinforce to me how great the people were that I had been working with the last few years.

It was sad to leave behind friends and everything that I loved about CO, but I believe it was well worth it to finally be married and living in the same town with Wendy (we had known each other for 12 years). I will be returning to Denver for a few days in late January for the Children’s Hospital EMS conference. It will be good to get to see friends then.

Wendy is still working for Kidscare as an urgent care pediatrician. She really loves her job and the people she works with.

We bought a house in Sandy, UT which is a suburb of Salt Lake City. We really like the house. It has a great backyard, and lots of space inside too. I’m excited about have a home to take care of. The neighbors seem friendly, and the street is very quiet. One of the neighbors told me he can be at the ski resort in 13 minutes from his house. Wow, guess I better learn how to ski. I didn’t get much biking in before the weather got cold. I guess its part of getting old that I don’t like to bike when it gets below 40F. There seems to be good places to bike. About a mile from our house, one of the canyons starts winding its way up into the mountains. I’m excited about exploring new rides around here. There seems to be a lot of people who bike here in the warmer weather too.

This week, I got to check another thing off my list. As many of you know, I’ve been wanting another dog since I left MS. Monday, we drove up to Idaho to an animal shelter and adopted Maddie. Maddie is a 4 year old black and tan German Shepherd dog. We were lucky to find a full blooded GSD in a shelter. The family who owned her said she was chasing the neighbor’s cows and was afraid she would get shot. She is a fantastic dog. Really smart and sweet. Wendy and I are really happy to add her to our family. Benjamin, the cat, isn’t quite as excited about it as we are, but we are working on it.

This year, Wendy and I decided to stay at home or the holidays. Between her work schedule and us getting settled into our new home as newlyweds, we thought it would just be best to stay here for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have to admit, I don’t miss the hustle and bustle of the airport around this time. We decorated the house and are planning to cook a big dinner tonight. We are excited to be celebrating the holidays in our new home and starting our own family traditions.

As always, our home is open to visitors who want to make their way to the land of Utah.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Jason and Wendy Cotting

Photos:
http://anvilgear.com/gallery/

The 2009 Cotting Family Portrait

Today, my grandfather would have been 98. He was born 11/11/1911. He fought in WW2 in N. Africa, Sicily, and Italy. He was a a Lieutenant in the Army with the artillery. His CO was killed early on, and he stepped up to take over without ever getting a promotion until he got back home. My grandmother told me stories about how he flew in a little single engine airplane over the enemy lines to see where the targets were and where his artillery was falling. She said that when he got home, every time a plane flew over during the night, he would throw her on the floor with him on top of her because of the air raids that he had lived through. They decided not to get married until after he got back from the war in case he didn’t. My grandmother waited for him to return. I still have his cast iron helmet with it’s insignia on it. I treasure it. He rarely spoke of his experiences, but knowing my grandfather, he served with distinction, honor, and integrity.

My family has served in the military for a long time. Our last name used to be Cutting. Not quite sure when or why, but it changed to Cotting. We have records in our genealogy that tell of a Lt. Cutting who served with General Washington during the Revolutionary War. In the Civil war, a Colonel John Mosby CSA, led a famous group known as Mosby’s Rangers (Raiders) to fight against the Union. He was also a relative of mine. My grandfather’s brother (my great uncle) was in the Navy in the Pacific during WW2. My father served part time in the Air National Guard for 20 years. He started during Vietnam. His brother, my uncle, also served in the Army during Vietnam.

I’m so thankful for everyone that has ever served to protect my freedoms. From the Revolutionary war to today. Many have gone to the Alter of Freedom so that I could enjoy a life of freedom. Some returned, too many did not, but they were brave enough to go. Most of them don’t have a clue who I am, but they went anyway.

I hope that their sacrifice isn’t wasted. People in power don’t seem to realize what a country of freedom stands for. It doesn’t need all of their rules and regulations that they seem to think. I don’t need the government to tell me what is best for me. That is the opposite of freedom.

On August 30, 2009, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal requested more troops for the fight in Afghanistan. Obama has yet to give an answer. I personally believe this is irresponsible to be so indecisive. I can respect the notion of how difficult it must be to send our troops to fight and die. I can not respect the indecisiveness of a leader. This wasn’t his first time to hesitate when we needed him to pull the trigger. Anyone remember the pirates?

Our service men and women are the best in the world. Lets keep them that way and thank them for all they have done and will do.

USS Arizona Memorial

I recently got to attend all four games of the Rockies vs Cubs series here in Denver. I was quite disappointed with it. Below is a letter I wrote to the Cubs, not that I expect to hear anything back.

Dear Cubs, I have been waiting with anticipation all year for my beloved Cubs to come to Denver to play baseball. I even took time off from work just so I could see all four games of the series. And I paid a lot of money for some of the tickets I got. Imagine to my surprise throughout this four game series, I didn’t get what I paid for. I paid to watch a Major League Baseball team play world class caliber baseball. What I got instead was a bunch of bush league baseball play that certainly was not the product I paid for. I only got to see one major league starting pitcher, Ryan Dempster, pitch well. Zambrano was scratched and the starter for that night only lasted two innings. Randy Wells, a rookie, was beaten up. And Gorzelanny couldn’t get out of the second inning before he got injured. He was then replaced by some minor leaguer. The defense was atrocious. It looked like the bad news bears out there. Do the Cubs even understand that the large brown leather thing on their hand is where the ball is supposed to go when the ball is hit at them? Do they understand that when runners are on base, they are supposed to drive them in? Does Soriano understand that he is paid to hustle, not lollie gag around the outfield chasing butterflies and hopping every time he makes a catch? And if the Cubs are so interested in winning, then why in the top of the 9th inning while the Cubs were rallying did Lee get lifted for Fontenot as a pinch hitter? Seriously, Jeff Baker was the best you could do for 2B? He’s not even hitting above the Mendoza line. I sat behind one of the Rockies executives on Monday night and he just laughed when Baker came up to bat. He said they were glad to get rid of him. So, the purpose of this mail is that I am asking for my money back. You miss advertised and I bought a product that was labeled on thing, and I got something that was of a much worse quality. If the Cubs come back to Denver again, please make sure to inform fans if this is their B team or their A team. If I am going to go to a game to watch minor league baseball, I would rather pay minor league prices to see it.

These are some funny political bumper stickers I got in an email. Enjoy!