Ubuntu-12.04 "Packages was corrupt"

When you install Ubuntu-12.04.1-server-amd64 from Kickstart server unattended (and probably ubuntu-12.04-server-amd64 as well) you'll get an error message that the "Packages file was corrupt" and the installation stops.  If you hit continue button it goes on.

Here is the file in Ubuntu distro that causes the error:
ubuntu-12.04/dists/precise/restricted/binary-amd64/Packages.gz

It's a bug.  Few people reported it to Ubuntu team but Ubuntu guys (like Fabio Marconi)  don't seem to care and just closed the tickets.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/debian-installer/+bug/1023069

Solution:

1.  Unzip that file manually in your Kickstart installation directory.  E.g.:
/srv/kickstart/ubuntu-12.04/dists/precise/restricted/binary-amd64# gunzip Packages.gz

2.  Copy the original file from your iso image directory to the same location:
/srv/kickstart/ubuntu-12.04/dists/precise/restricted/binary-amd64/

You should have 3 files in there:

-r--r--r-- 1 root root   0 Nov 15 17:30 Packages
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  20 Nov 15 17:31 Packages.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 103 Nov 15 17:30 Release

That's it - now the installer will be happy.



Reason as far as I understand it.
The installer unzips those file during the installation.  After Packages.gz gets unzipped, the size of the new file shows 0 (because it's an emtpy file to start with).  The installer "thinks" that the file is corrupt and stops the installation process.  When you give it unzipped version of the same empty file, it happily continues the installation.

How to redirect non-www URLs to www URLs in Apache

Below is the answer on how redirect your traffic to www URLs.

E.g.
http://domain.com -> http://www.domain.com
https://domain.com -> https://www.domain.com

Q:  Why would you need it?
A:  Search engines will regard those as different pages with duplicate content.
http://www.thesitewizard.com/apache/redirect-domain-www-subdomain.shtml

You can either put this code in .htaccess file or inside your site configuration under
/etc/httpd/conf/sites-enabled


Non-SSL redirection goes within <VirtualHost *:80> </VirtualHost>:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain\.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com$1 [R=permanent,L]

SSL redirection goes within <VirtualHost *:443> </VirtualHost>:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain\.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.domain.com$1 [R=permanent,L]

Chef server

How to install Chef server on Ubuntu.

Opscode documentation is extremely confusing.  The following simple instructions tell you how to install Chef server version 10.16.2 on Ubuntu-12.04.

Keep in mind that Opscode guys changed their versioning.  Starting with version 0.10.12 they call it 10.12.0.  So the newest version as it is right now is 10.16.2.

To install it become root:
sudo su -
and run the following:

apt-get install sudo wget lsb-release

echo "deb http://apt.opscode.com/ `lsb_release -cs`-0.10 main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opscode.list

mkdir -p /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d

gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 83EF826A

gpg --export packages@opscode.com | sudo tee 

/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/opscode-keyring.gpg > /dev/null

apt-get update

apt-get install opscode-keyring

apt-get upgrade

apt-get install chef chef-server

Check the version:

chef-server -v
Chef Server (API) Version: 10.16.2

GIT repository

The next thing you probably need is GIT repo where you keep all the cookbooks, etc.

git config --global user.name "Igor Grinkin"
git config --global user.email igor@yourdomain.com
git clone git://code.yourrepo.com/chef_server.git
cd chef_server
git pull origin master