Kevin Delaney's Blog

mySQLTuner: Get your mysql DB up to scratch!

delkevin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:14:11 +0000

If you want to improve the performance of your MySql Database you should take a look at MySqlTuner. MySqlTuner is a perl script which is used to analyze the database and provide recommendations to improve configurations on the database itself and on the the resources needed to be allocated on the database. In turn, MySqlTuner will also let you know if the resources you have allocated are too much.

This script can be downloaded from

[root@localhost ~] wget mysqltuner.pl

After it is downloaded, it can be executed immediately.

After I ran the script, this is the out and recommendations I recieved:

Keyboard problems with Linux and VMware

delkevin — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:35:30 +0000

Today I installed VMware Workstation 6.5.0 on Ubuntu 6.10 which is running on my laptop. All was well until I tried to use the arrow keys. this build of VM workstation for linux seems to have a keyboard mapping issue. After a bit of investigation I found a solution that is working for me.

Open /etc/vmware/config using vi or nano.

you should see the following:

At the bottom of this file I have added “xkeymap.nokeycodeMap=true”

When I reboot the workstation, the problem was solved. After you reboot and power on a virtual machine you should see the following message

I have read that this “quick fix” may cause problems with unity but I have not had to deal with that yet so I will take this fix and be happy.

Reference: Vmware Community Forum

Ubuntu: A laptops friend

delkevin — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:54:06 +0000

In my last post I told you that I installed CentOS on my laptop. The only problem was that CentOS just didnt like my network card no matter what I did. With that in mind, I opted for Ubuntu 8.10 and I havent looked back. I am going to be using Ubuntu on a regular basis in college and I hope it will heighten my knowlegde of the Linux environment. So far, one of my favourite aspects of the distro is the “Synaptic Package Manager” which allow you to search for applications and software. This is a list of pre-approved software which saves searching the net looking for what you need and then hoping that it will work.

For my Ubuntu install I downloaded an image from HEAnet and burned it to disc. I then booted the disc and you are greeted with a very user friendly GUI installation guide. once the installation was complete I booted into the OS and was prompted to download drivers for my wireless card and graphics card. For a newcomer to linux, Ubuntu is a nice introduction before you try and tackle the more difficult stuff. Some “purists” believe that making linux more like Microsoft is a bad thing but if it gets more people using it, it will be better supported and that will benefit everyone.

Dual Boots and Boot Loaders

delkevin — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:51:11 +0000

Today, I installed XP and CentOS on my Laptop. foolishly I decided to install CentOS first and then XP. By doing this I seem to have overwritten the bootloader created in the CentOS install with the MBR of XP. Creating a dual boot system can be a difficult thing to do right. When doing so , the things you should keep in mind are as follows.

Decide what allocation of disk there should be for each OS – I decided to give equal allocation for each OS as I HOPE to use CentOS on a more regular basis as to familiarise myself with the OS. keep in mind that you also have to allocate swap space (rule of thumb is double RAM)
Choose a bootloder you prefer - CentOS comes with GRUB (Grand Unified Bootloader) and that’s the one I used and I would highly recommend it.
Choosing a default OS to boot – I choose to have CentOS as my default. This can be edited in the Grub.conf file along with other options such as the splash image location, timeout lenght, OS names etc.
Lastly, ALWAYS INSTALL THE LINUX OS LAST – This will make things a lot less complicated. Windows seems to be blind to other operating systems and will overwrite the MBR that is there without a thought. To fix my mistake I looked at different options such as booting a SuperGrub from disk to see if I could sort it that way but in the end it was simpler just to install CentOS again and wipe the first install of the distro. Using this method, it created as new grub and added the Windows partition to it. job done. This solution is fine as long as you don’t need to retrieve anything from you Linux partition.

Now I all have to do is make the network card work in CentOS. Any Advice would be welcomed!

To Be Continued…….

Welcome To My First Blog

delkevin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:20:14 +0000

Hello, This is my first post and this blog will be used to chronicle my progress and share knowledge with my fellow students and with the rest of internet if they are so inclined. hope to have something new and interesting up soon!