VMware Fusion 2.0

Working with VMware Fusion 1.x version was always exciting, but the absence of a good video device was still missing. Can't play games, no Compiz-Fusion.

Upgraded to Vmware 2.0. It provides a 128 MB display device but only to Windows XP and Vista virtual machines. Now I can play most of the games in Windows VM. They have also improved mouse control and its speed while playing games, which is very bad in older version.

But it does not provides same device while installing/working on Linux Systems. It still detect old VGA adapter where I can't even enable desktop effects.

It would have been great if Vmware fusion developers can provide a good display adapters for linux kind of operating systems. I know many people are out there and wishing for the same.

Good Luck!

Postfix + BCC

BCC option available with Postfix which are very useful to get copies of incoming/outgoing emails of users without their knowledge.

Case 1:

A copy of all user's incoming and outgoing emails should automatically bcc'ed to a specific user without any user's attention.

Add always_bcc in /etc/postfix/main.cf file.

always_bcc = archiveuser@domain.com

Reload the Postfix config.
/etc/init.d/postfix reload

Case 2:

All incoming emails for suspecioususer@domain.com should be bcc'ed to a manager.

Add following in /etc/postfix/main.cf file.

recipient_bcc_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/recipient_bcc

Create a file /etc/postfix/recipient_bcc and enter userlist whose incoming emails you want to bcc to another user.

cat /etc/postfix/recipient_bcc
suspecioususer@domain.com manager@domain.com
otheruser@domain.com otheruser@domain.com

Create the hash file.
postmap /etc/postfix/recipient_bcc

Reload the Postfix config.
/etc/init.d/postfix reload

Check /var/log/maillog for results.

You can use sender_maps in main.cf which will send all outgoing emails of a specific user to other user mentioned in maps file. The configuration will look almost similar as mentioned above.

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Postfix - Relaying mails through a third party server

Here I will describe how to relay emails through a third party server from a Postfix server.

Without SMTP AUTH:

If relaying server does not authenticates while relaying through it, use following. Define "relayhost" parameter in /etc/postfix/mail.cf like follows.

relayhost = smtp.relayhost.com

This will do a MX lookup for smtp.relay.com and then send email to smtp.relayhost.com

relayhost = [ smtp.relayhost.com ]

The square brackets turns off MX lookups of smtp.relay.com and simply resolve its IP address and send the emails.

Save the file and reload postfix.

/etc/init.d/postfix reload


With SMTP AUTH:

Most of the relaying server needs you to authenticate with them for relaying through them. Follow these steps to relay with SMTPAUTH.

Add these settings to /etc/postfix/main.cf

smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtp_sasl_security_options =

Create a file called /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd which should contain the username and password for relaying. (It will be provided by relay server provider).

smtp.relayhost.com username:password

The password is enterted in cleartext format, make it readably only by root.

chown root:root /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
chmod 600 /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd

Create the hash file.
postmap /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd

Make the hash file world readable.
chmod 644 /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd.db

Reload the Postfix config.
/etc/init.d/postfix reload

Teseting the results:

Send an email from local postfix to an external user and it should be relayed through smtp.relayhost.com. Check /var/log/maillog for "relay" log. It will log the errors if there are any configuration mistakes.

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SMTP Auth

The perfect steps to configure SMTP auth in sendmail as well for Postfix! The instrctions are specifically for RHEL-4 systems, and should have installed sendmail/postfix, and saslauthd packages.

Sendmail

Enter or uncomment following in /etc/mail/sendmail.mc file.

TRUST_AUTH_MECH(`DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5 LOGIN PLAIN')dnl
define(`confAUTH_MECHANISMS', `DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5 LOGIN PLAIN')dnl

define(`confCACERT_PATH',`/

etc/pki/tls/certs')
define(`confCACERT',`/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca- bundle.crt')
define(`confSERVER_CERT',`/etc/pki/tls/esquarecerts/servercert.pem')
define(`confSERVER_KEY',`/etc/pki/tls/esquarecerts/serverkey.pem')

FEATURE(authinfo)dnl

Save the file. And run following commands to generate the certificates.

cd /etc/pki/tls/certs/
make sendmail.pem

Provide necessary information, and that completes the cert generation.

If you want the authentication using pam modify following line in /etc/sysconfig/saslauthd and in /etc/init.d/saslauthd

MECH=shadow

Change it to....

MECH=pam

Save the files and run:

cd /etc/mail
make
/etc/init.d/sendmail restart

That should be OK to start sendmail with SMTP Auth. Following are Postfix instructions.

Postfix

Following RPMs must be installed in order to configure SMTP auth with Postfix. You can check with rpm command:

rpm -qa |grep cyrus

cyrus-sasl
cyrus-sasl-devel
cyrus-sasl-md5
cyrus-sasl-plain

Add/modify following lines in /etc/postfix/main.cf to look like following:

mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8

smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtpd_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
smtpd_sasl_local_domain = $myhostname

smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_sasl_authenticated, permit_mynetworks, check_relay_domains

And following lines in master.cf:

smtp inet n - n - - smtpd

to..

smtp inet n - n - - smtpd -v

reload postfix service

/etc/init.d/postfix reload

Thats done! You should be able to use SMTP auth with your clients now.

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gOS

gOS (Good OS), when I heard it first time, it sounded like Google OS ;-) But I was wrong, the OS is based on Ubuntu Fiesty Fawn and comes with all the default applications.

I tried to install it on my VMWare fusion and it worked nicely on it. It was a good experience.
Here some details of installation.

Download the ISO from http://www.thinkgos.com/downloads
Created a virtual machine in VMware fusion with 512 MB RAM and 5 gig of hard drive and booted from the downloded ISO image. Here was first glance.



Its good to discover an OS before installing it. Booted nicely within a very short time and this was the first look.



You can simply double click on install icon to start the installation. With simple settings about installation, it starts the process.



And with a restart...



I am all set to go!



One thing makes it different that other OS is, it got all the online applications built in, along with default applications available Ubuntu Fiest Fawn. Online applications placed in a MAC like doc (Avant Window Navigator) and opens in Firefox (A powerful browser). With some research, I can add more applications to the doc such as Pidgin.

Here is a list of online applications:
Myspace: Invite, Group, Forum, Film, Favoriates, Events, Comedy etc.
News: Vally Wag, TMZ, The Superficial, PopSuger, Pink is the New Blog, Perez Hilton, My Space News, MTA news, Access Hollywood.
Photos: Splash Up, Picnik, PhotoBucket, Fotoflexer, Flickr, Flauntr.
Video: Youtube, Vimeo, Veoh, Revver, MySpaceTV, Metacafe, Google Video, Dailymotion.
Music: Yahoo! Music, Pandora, Myspace Music Video, Myspace Music, LastFM, Jango, Imeem, Amazon MP3.
TV: NBC, Hulu TV, Hulu Movies, Fancast, CurrentTV, CBS.
Tools: Skype, Meebo, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Gmail, Firefox, Buzzworld, Box.net.
Fun: gOS Universe, Orisinal Games, My Space Layout, Ask Dev.

It gives a beautiful view to work in, and all compiz fusion effects. However, I was not able to use compiz effects in Vmware fusion, even if I provide a virtual graphics card :-( Also by installation Google gears, I can use most of google applications offline, it really increases its usability.

At last, a good OS to explore new possibilities in open source world! (I am still exploring it and will keep updated this document).

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The power of Compiz-Fusion

I am working in Linux since long time and its one of exciting operating systems, for its awesome GUI and stable backend! I am also a big fan of Compiz-fusion and beryl effects. On my Fedora 8 desktop, I used many stuff from Gnome-look and various other sites to create some beautiful combination for and it really rocks!

Checkout some of my beautiful desktop screenshots. I used Compiz-Fusion, Avant Window Manager, Screenlets, Mac4Lin (Icons), some customized GTK themes. You can download full size images by clicking on it.















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