Use GMail SMTP to send mail in PHP

Maybe some of use might face difficulty to use mail() in PHP espesially when the server is behind firewall or the is no SMTP application running on the server.

In this case, you might need an external SMTP server to push the email. Here i would like to suggest you guys to follow this tutorial

If you have anything to share as well, please leave coment 😀

Fedora and Red Hat servers compromised – CentOS unaffected

Let’s start with an item that dominated the coverage on many Linux web sites – the security breach of Fedora and Red Hat servers. This is what happened: “Last week we discovered that some Fedora servers were illegally accessed. The intrusion into the servers was quickly discovered, and the servers were taken offline. One of the compromised Fedora servers was a system used for signing Fedora packages. However, based on our efforts, we have high confidence that the intruder was not able to capture the passphrase used to secure the Fedora package signing key.” The fact that it took Fedora more than a week to publish a report on the problem was heavily criticised by some media (see this article by ITWire). However, the simple truth is that as soon as Fedora discovered the breach, they have stopped providing software updates, they mobilised their resources to deal with the situation and, once they analysed the extent of the problem, published a report about it. That’s pretty much what I would expect from any distribution – nothing more and nothing less. The incident also confirms another fact: there is no such thing as “100% secure” and similar issues are bound to happen from time to time (one of the Debian servers was also hit by a security compromise in July 2006). While it is regrettable that a server of a major Linux project gets broken into, there is no doubt that Fedora has dealt with the situation in a highly efficient, competent and responsible manner.

As far as the users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux are concerned, the company sent out the following security alert (RHSA-2008-0855) to its customers: “Last week Red Hat detected an intrusion on certain of its computer systems and took immediate action. … In connection with the incident, the intruder was able to sign a small number of OpenSSH packages relating only to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (i386 and x86_64 architectures only) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (x86_64 architecture only). As a precautionary measure, we are releasing an updated version of these packages, and have published a list of the tampered packages and how to detect them.” But those customers who use Red Hat Network to update their products are not affected by the issue: “Our processes and efforts to date indicate that packages obtained by Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscribers via Red Hat Network are not at risk.”

Next, it was the turn of CentOS, a distribution that is effectively a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and which uses RHEL packages for their own security updates. Karanbir Singh in CentOS position on systems intrusion at Red Hat: “We take security issues very seriously, and as soon as we were made aware of the situation I undertook a complete audit of the entire CentOS 4/5 build and signing infrastructure. We can now assure everyone that no compromise has taken place anywhere within the CentOS infrastructure. Our entire set-up is located behind multiple firewalls, and only accessible from a very small number of places, by only a few people. Also included in this audit were all entry points to the build services, signing machines, primary release machines and connectivity between all these hosts. … Finally, while we feel confident that there is no possibility of this compromise having been passed onto the CentOS user base, we still encourage users to verify their packages independently using whatever resources they might have available.”

[Hahaha… Source: Distrowatch]

Gentoo Linux 2008.0 released

The 2008.0 final release is out! Code-named “It’s got what plants crave,” this release contains numerous new features including an updated installer, improved hardware support, a complete rework of profiles, and a move to Xfce instead of GNOME on the LiveCD. LiveDVDs are not available for x86 or amd64, although they may become available in the future. The 2008.0 release also includes updated versions of many packages already available in your ebuild tree.

[more]

Ubuntu Cover Malu!

Seperti yang aku ulang-ulangkan di SINI, SINI, SINI dan SINI. UBUNTU 8.04 IS A MISTAKE! Hahaha… Tak tahan dengan rasa malu, Ubuntu hari ini meng-announce-kan menunculan Ubuntu 8.04.1

LTS pun nak buat main2… sampai keluar update version untuk LTS.. haih.. ape la dieorang nie…

BTW untuk release announcement, sila click SINI

Perfect Desktop Installation of Ubuntu 8.04 on MSI VR320 & MSI VR320X

[image source: MSI]

This tutorial can also be used for computers with the following spec:

1. Realtek High Definition Audio
2. RT61 or RT2500 Wireless Cards

Ok.. lets start..

1. Download the installation CD. (see GettingUbuntu)
2. Burn the ISO to a CD (see BurningIsoHowto) and check to make sure it was burned correctly. (see Installation/CDIntegrityCheck)
3. Proceed with normal installation of Ubuntu by booting from the installation CD. (see GraphicalInstall)
4. Once the installation is finish, reboot your machine and boot into your fresh Ubuntu 8.04
5. Run update and upgrade

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

6. Add the Medibuntu repo as well 😉

   sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

   sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

7. Now run apt-get update and install the medibuntu keyring

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

8. As i mentioned in my previous post, Ubuntu 8.04 contains several problems especially when it is running on my notebook. Some of the problems are looping sound and unsupported wifi card. To avoid these, you can use i386 kernel and so far all the problems are no longer appear. To install the i386 kernel, run the following command

   sudo apt-get install linux-headers-386 linux-image-386 linux-386

   sudo apt-get install linux-headers-386 linux-image-386 linux-386

9. Now your need to reboot and boot into the i386 kernel
10. Lets install several packages

    sudo apt-get install envyng-gtk audacious vlc mplayer mozilla-mplayer w32codecs flashplugin-nonfree libflashsupport gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-pitfdll gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse libavcodec1d libavformat1d libavutil1d libcdaudio1 libdc1394-13 libdvdread3 libfaac0 libfaad0 libgmyth0 libgsm1 libiptcdata0 liblame0 libmjpegtools0c2a libmpeg2-4 libmysqlclient15off libopenspc0 libpostproc1d libquicktime1 libsidplay1 libsoundtouch1c2 libwildmidi0 libx264-57 libxvidcore4 msttcorefonts unrar sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin

    sudo apt-get install envyng-gtk audacious vlc mplayer mozilla-mplayer w32codecs flashplugin-nonfree libflashsupport gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-pitfdll gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse libavcodec1d libavformat1d libavutil1d libcdaudio1 libdc1394-13 libdvdread3 libfaac0 libfaad0 libgmyth0 libgsm1 libiptcdata0 liblame0 libmjpegtools0c2a libmpeg2-4 libmysqlclient15off libopenspc0 libpostproc1d libquicktime1 libsidplay1 libsoundtouch1c2 libwildmidi0 libx264-57 libxvidcore4 msttcorefonts unrar sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin

11. MSI VR320 or 320X is using ATI graphics card, so you need to install the ATI driver. Since EnvyNG has been install in previous step, now you just need to run EnvyNG
    Applications > System Tools > EnvyNG
    Once EnvyNG is loaded, just simply click Apply and wait for the installation to finish. After that reboot your machine
12. Apply THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS and THIS tweak
13. Done!

Q: I think my fresh installation is fine on my spec. Why it is different on your spec?
A: Ubuntu 8.04 is a mistake!