LAMPdocs: Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP

Since my default browser is Firefox, I frequently use its ability to select some text in the page and “Search Google For [selected text comes here]“. Opera provides this functionality too, the only bad thing is that results are open in the same window. This way I have to go back to the page, then select the text, then copy it to clipboard, and then use Google Search.

There is a keyboard shortcut that simplifies this procedure. If you need to open search results in a new page, you have to select the text you like to search for, then Hold Ctrl+Shift, then Right click your mouse and select “Search“. It’s very strange that I cannot do this without pressing two additional buttons on the keyboard, anyway, this is simpler than to copy and paste the text you look for. Hope this saves you some time.

Yesterday all Epassporte account owners have found a message in their account telling that Epassporte activity was blocked by VISA International and they are no longer able to issue new cards. Al the funds in member accounts have become frozen. Though Epassporte owner encourages us not to worry about this, it is a certain phenomenon in Online Business.

Several years ago a famous Russian payment system named Fethard has faced problems just like these. Funds were frozen for an undefined period of time. I haven’t seen any changes during last years, and I was happy I had no money there. But most people that had funds there have not received them yet. Since I have been living online for last 7 years, I think I can give some advices to newcomers.

1. Do not store big amount of funds on Online Payment Processor accounts. These systems are not as trusty as bank accounts and bank issued credit cards. If your account is blocked, you’ll have to wait until the situation is resolved.

2. Do log in to your online accounts frequently. I have an issue with Moneybookers, that’s why I already know that it is important. You should log in at least once a week to ensure that there are no problems.

3. Ensure that all the necessary verification steps are done. Most online payment systems require to upload documents, recent utility bills, etc. It is a good practice to contact them to find out whether you can do anything to verify your account. If something goes wrong, it is important to have a verified account.

4. Write down all the contact details for these payment systems. If their site goes down, you can get in touch with them using these numbers. Some payment providers have even ICQ support (Like Epassporte’s Michael).

5. Do not send money to unauthorized and potentially fraudulent accounts. Even if you’re planning to deal with some stuff like that, create a separate account and don’t touch your official one

6. Do not leave payment memos blank. If you perform any transfers using your online accounts, make sure that your payments have “human readable” destinations.

7. Withdraw your funds frequently. This seems to be easy enough, the only thing is you need to have funds to withdraw. This means: receive as many funds as possible

Hope this information saves you from potential financial losses.

If you have to deal with VPS, there are some specific solutions, that should be known by a Linux administrator. Today I will post the solution for yum error.

You can get this error on software update. For example, when trying to update ImageMagick:

-bash-3.1# yum update ImageMagick
Loading “installonlyn” plugin
error: no dbpath has been set
error: cannot open Packages database in /%{_dbpath}
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/bin/yum”, line 29, in ?
yummain.main(sys.argv[1:])
File “/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py”, line 82, in main
base.getOptionsConfig(args)
File “/usr/share/yum-cli/cli.py”, line 206, in getOptionsConfig
errorlevel=opts.errorlevel)
File “/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/__init__.py”, line 132, in
doConfigSetup
self.conf = config.readMainConfig(startupconf)
File “/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/config.py”, line 598, in
readMainConfig
yumvars['releasever'] = _getsysver(startupconf.installroot,
startupconf.distroverpkg)
File “/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/config.py”, line 661, in
_getsysver
idx = ts.dbMatch(‘provides’, distroverpkg)
TypeError: rpmdb open failed

Let’s see the error message. It tells us: error: no dbpath has been set. How should we proceed?

First of all, you need to try to clear the database. Here is the set of commands that should help you to do this:

#yum clean all
#rm -f /var/lib/rpm/__db*
#rpm –rebuilddb
#yum update

If this doesn’t help, here is another set:

#rm /dev/urandom
#mknod -m 644 /dev/urandom c 1 9

After that, run

#yum clean all

This should do the trick.

I am not sure where you can use this list, I just would like to share it with you. I think you might need it developing WAP sites. Here is the link: Mobile User Agent List