xdeb.net

This site now has a new theme, it is a blue colour variation of the theme I use on xdeb.org. I wanted to make xdeb.org and xdeb.net more similar since they are two sides of the same coin.

Now we are running on Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 Lenny. The biggest change is that we now can run Bazaar 2.x on the server thanks to lenny-backports. Debian etch-backport only had Bazaar 1.5 and that started to be to old.

Few major difference otherwise, just a bit more modern and polished. Debian stable releases are newer cutting edge, but they are rock solid.

The xdeb.net server has been running on a VPS from VPSLink in USA. They have a good service but with the stronger US dollar it started to feel unnecessary to have a extra server just for xdeb. I have now moved xdeb.net to the VPS at GleSYS that also host combonet.se.

The total load is no problem for one VPS and for emergency e-mail service there is always Gmail, MobilMe etc.

All the services seems to have been moved over successfully.

I first did the upgrade on Monday and had it up and running. Then my host had problems with the RAID and tried to rebuild it, failed and restored from backup. A slight problem was that the backup was one week old! It’s a cheep service but still, a week old backup is very disappointing. Lets hope it was a one time thing.

Late last night and early today I did the upgrade to Debian Etch for the second time and it seems to be working well.

xdeb.net now runs Apache2, PHP5, MYSQL 5 and Postfix 2.3 etc. We are modern :-)!

All the services are configured in the same way as before so people using xdeb.net should not need to change anything.

My main site xdeb.org as well as XdebWiki has now moved to xdeb.net. The server has been working very well and I hope it stays like that :-).

I have been away traveling for a month, without a computer. On my return I was happy to see that the server was humming along without any problems. This bodes well for the future!

A web based photo gallery is a fun and practical way to share your photos with family and friends. The best I have found is Gallery 2. It’s very actively developed and has a large user base. It doesn’t feel as solid as Drupal but far better then most projects I have tested.

It has good integration with Apples iPhoto via the plugin iPhotoToGallery. It’s also supposed to work well with Windows XP built-in publisher function.

I used to use Apples .mac to publish photos but has been looking for altarnatives for some time. Apples .mac is a bit overpriced and for some strange reason they have removed the super easy export of photos from iPhoto 6, the latest version, to .mac. You are now supposed to export via Apples iWeb, to many mouse clicks for me. Gallery 2 + iPhotoToGallery gives me back a simple and quick way to publish photos.

I first tried Gallery 2 on my old web host but they like many other are using PHP Safe Mode. As they talk about in the Gallery 2 FAQ Gallery is not designed to work with safe mode. Now I have my own server I can set it up any way I like :-).

Family and friends are welcome to Familjen Jonssons bildgalleri, you need an account to use the site.

As I write this the DNS around the globe is updated with the new location of my site vigillar.se, it is now hosted on xdeb.net. This is the fist real test of this server.

For people speaking Swedish vigillar.se is a Swedish alternative to sites like digg.com and reddit.com. For everyone else it’s a demo site for the Drupal “Vote up/down Package”.

Vigillar.se has some traffic but is not mission critical making it a good choice for a first site on xdeb.net. So far it seems to be working as it should :-).

I have been thinking about getting my own server for a long time. A server to play around with, test new stuff and host my own domains. With freedom comes responsibility. Your own server means you are responsible when the harddrive die, when a system upgrade goes wrong etc. This is the main reason why it has taken so long.