The fastestmirror plugin automatically selects the fastest package mirror for your system. While useful, you might want to disable it if you’re experiencing slow mirror detection, prefer a specific mirror, or troubleshoot package manager issues. The plugin is provided by yum-plugin-fastestmirror (on older EL7 systems) or as part of DNF’s core functionality (EL8+). Unlike older…
Getting accurate I/O metrics per process is critical for troubleshooting performance issues, identifying storage bottlenecks, and capacity planning. Linux provides several tools for this task, each with different trade-offs between accuracy and overhead. Using /proc/[pid]/io The simplest approach is reading directly from the proc filesystem. Each process has an io file containing I/O statistics: cat…
The error “Cannot make directory ‘/var/run/screen/S-apache’: Permission denied” typically means the screen session directory can’t be created under /var/run/screen/. This happens when screen lacks proper permissions or when security policies block the operation. Verify screen installation and permissions First, confirm screen is installed with correct permissions: $ ls -la $(which screen) -rwxr-sr-x 1 root screen…
The default data directory for MySQL and MariaDB installed from official repositories on modern distributions is: /var/lib/mysql This applies to CentOS 7, Rocky Linux 9, Fedora, and most RHEL-based systems. Finding the Data Directory Programmatically If you’ve customized your installation or need to verify the exact location, there are several reliable methods. Query MariaDB/MySQL Configuration…
Short open tags (<? ?>) create compatibility issues with XML declarations and are considered poor practice. While they’re disabled by default in modern PHP versions, you may need to manage this setting when working with legacy code or specific server configurations. Configuration Methods Via php.ini The primary way to control short open tags is through…
Files with replication factor 1 are a liability in production HDFS clusters. They have no redundancy, meaning a single node failure results in data loss. Identifying and fixing these files should be part of your regular cluster maintenance. Using the HDFS CLI The most straightforward approach is using hdfs fsck with output parsing: hdfs fsck…
When launching WPS Office on Rocky Linux 9+ or similar distributions, you may encounter this error: $ wpp /opt/kingsoft/wps-office/office6/wpp: error while loading shared libraries: libbz2.so.1.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory This is a library version mismatch issue common when WPS Office binaries were compiled against an older version of libbz2….
EncFS is a FUSE-based encrypted overlay filesystem that was once popular for transparent file encryption. However, its use on Android has become impractical due to Android’s security architecture. Here’s what you need to know in 2026. Why EncFS Doesn’t Work Well on Android Anymore Android’s evolution has made direct EncFS usage difficult: Scoped Storage (enforced…
The command journalctl -b -1 should show the previous boot’s journal, but on many systems it returns: Failed to look up boot -1: No such boot ID in journal This happens because persistent journal storage isn’t enabled by default. Without it, journald only keeps logs in volatile memory (/run/log/journal), which gets cleared on shutdown. Enable…
On Linux systems, the root filesystem (/) can be on various device types — a raw disk partition, an LVM logical volume, or other storage configurations. Finding the underlying physical disk requires checking the device hierarchy, which differs depending on the storage setup. Quick method with df and lsblk The simplest approach uses lsblk with…
Process priority management is essential for ensuring critical tasks get CPU resources when needed. Linux provides several mechanisms to control how the kernel scheduler allocates CPU time to processes. Understanding Priority Levels Linux uses two priority concepts: Nice value: ranges from -20 (highest priority) to 19 (lowest priority). Default is 0. Real-time priority: ranges from…
When upgrading libvirt from an older version (like 1.2.2) to 2.5.0 or later, you may encounter a socket connection error when trying to create VMs: ERROR Failed to connect socket to ‘/var/run/libvirt/virtlogd-sock’: No such file or directory Domain installation does not appear to have been successful. This happens because libvirt 2.5.0 introduced the virtlogd daemon…
Linux doesn’t provide a glibc wrapper for ioprio_set(), so you need to call it directly via syscall(). Here’s the basic approach: #include <unistd.h> #include <sys/syscall.h> syscall(SYS_ioprio_set, IOPRIO_WHO_PROCESS, pid, ioprio_value); Required definitions You’ll need to define the I/O priority classes, target types, and helper macros. Add these to your source file or header: /* I/O priority…
When trying to mount an encrypted EncFS directory as a normal user, you may encounter this error: $ encfs -s ~/t/.enc ~/t/enc EncFS Password: fuse: failed to exec fusermount: Permission denied fuse failed. Common problems: – fuse kernel module not installed (modprobe fuse) – invalid options — see usage message Even though the same command…
The most common approach is using Apache’s mod_rewrite module. Add this to your .htaccess file in your document root: <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [L,R=301] </IfModule> This uses a 301 permanent redirect, which tells browsers and search engines that the www version is canonical. The conditions…
VM exits occur when a guest VM transitions to hypervisor mode to handle privileged operations, I/O requests, or other events. Tracking exit counts and types helps identify performance bottlenecks, inefficient guest behavior, and hypervisor overhead. Quick Exit Statistics The debugfs interface provides a simple view of exit counts: cat /sys/kernel/debug/kvm/exits This shows aggregate exit counts…
aria2 is a lightweight, multi-protocol download manager that supports HTTP(S), FTP, BitTorrent, and Metalink protocols. It’s particularly useful for resumable downloads, parallel connections, and command-line automation. Prerequisites You’ll need root or sudo access. This guide covers CentOS 7, CentOS Stream, and Rocky Linux 8+. For older systems still on CentOS 7, package availability may be…
aclocal is part of GNU Autotools and generates aclocal.m4 files needed by the autoconf build system. It’s typically required when working with projects that use traditional Autotools-based builds. Quick Install sudo dnf install automake The automake package provides aclocal, automake, and related utilities. Verify the Installation After installation, confirm aclocal is available: aclocal –version You…
NFS squashes root access to an anonymous user (typically nobody) by default as a security measure. When a client connects as root, the server remaps that user to an unprivileged account, preventing root from having unrestricted access to exported shares. This can cause permission issues if your application genuinely requires root-level file operations. Using no_root_squash…
Different projects and languages have different indentation conventions. Rather than manually adjusting settings each time you switch contexts, you can define custom commands in Vim to toggle between common tab widths quickly. Using Custom Functions and Mappings Add these functions to your ~/.vimrc: function SetTab2() set shiftwidth=2 set tabstop=2 set softtabstop=2 echo “Set tab to…