Useful debian packages to install in DAB appliances

[apmuthu]

Nice packages to install in a DAB appliance for checking if daemons are enabled for autostart and tracing faults.

apt-get install chkconfig
apt-get install strace
apt-get install rcconf

For those who are accustomed to the RedHat/Fedora/CentOS

service daemonname start|stop|restart|status|reload

method of controlling daemons, the debian sysvconfig package can be installed thus:

apt-get install sysvconfig

 

[apmuthu]

To check the Network Interfaces:

# apt-get install ethtool

The use like:

# ethtool -i eth0
 
driver: tg3
version: 3.96-1
firmware-version: 5703-v2.21a
bus-info: 0000:02:01.0
 
# ethtool -i eth1
 
driver: tg3
version: 3.96-1
firmware-version: 5703-v2.21a
bus-info: 0000:02:02.0

Even if the device driver is not clear (as in this case with tg3 being for Broadcom NICs), lspci will show you the same..

# lspci | grep Ethernet
02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5703X Gigabit Ethernet (rev 02)
02:02.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5703X Gigabit Ethernet (rev 02)

To sync your Hardware Clock:

hwclock -w

 

[apmuthu]

To view the contents of a .deb file without actually downloading and installing it (d-pkg -L)
we install apt-file with:

 # apt-get update && apt-get install apt-file

and update the cache info with:

# apt-file update

We then use it like so:

# apt-file list packageName
# apt-file list wget

Further info link.

 

[apmuthu]

Although the screen package is very useful on the ProxMox VE host, it can come in handy on some OpenVZ containers (and possibly QEMU Linux KVMs as well). This package allows us to have a TTY session working in the background long after the main session has been terminated and can be re-attached to on subsequent logins and can be shared with other users as well.

Install with:

apt-get install screen

List existing screens with:

screen -list

Create a new screen or attach to an existing one (eg., named mysession):

screen -aR mysession

Detach from within screen with:

CTRL-a d

Press Control key (CTRL) and while depressed, press the a key and release both then press the d key.