AlmaLinux

Everything’s Archy

by

Distro hopping has been successful! I’ll probably have the server up tomorrow, just need to go over networking and firewall permissions. The servers passed testing locally, no missing dependencies. If this is successful I’ll move my GMod VM’s over to Arch Linux as well, but I’ll probably stick to Alma Linux for Quake 3 and webservers. The Valve stuff needs newer dependencies and libraries, which are harder to obtain under RHEL distros.

I’ll get started up on it again tomorrow after getting some rest, if I do it now I’ll probably fuck something up. I can only look at a terminal for so long before going cross-eye’d.

The Pondering Continues

by

The TF2 Servers will be down for awhile longer. I’m running into complications with AlmaLinux 9.2 and 8.9. 9.2 lacks a dependency that I need (the 32 bit version of ncurses-compat), and 8.9 is running an older version of glibc than what TF2 requires. I’m seriously contemplating switching from a RHEL based distro to an Arch one as a result. What I don’t get, is why a server that has been upgraded to be 64bit still requires 32bit dependencies for it to even remotely fucking function.

On the bright side: Tomorrow is my Friday, and following that is a week off from work. I’m sure I’ll be able to science something together, even if it means doing a little distro hopping.

Suddenly Updates

by

I was once again greeted with a warm sun upon my awakening, and another uneventful work day to pass. I thought I had my after work routine planned out; crash on the couch and play something fun, or maybe even get a little sun with my Steam Deck and maybe break in the new headphones that arrived in the mail. Instead I was greeted with a TF2 server update, and to be honest, I was expecting hiccups.

They upgraded the Linux server and client to run in 64 bit, which itself isn’t a problem. Unfortunately I’m running on an older version of glibc, and upon looking at updates I decided it would be better to just upgrade AlmaLinux all together. So the TF2 servers will probably be down until my weekend starts. In the meantime I’ve spun up a fresh VM with a shinier version of AlmaLinux! It’ll be something for me to tinker with after work tomorrow. At some point I should update my other Linux systems and servers, another day…

Meanwhile… On My Corner Of The Interwebz

by

I got the Quake III Arena Servers up and running last night, and tonight I spun up VM for the GMod Servers. I pretty much have everything in place other than the server files; I’ll work on transferring them over and setting it all up the rest of the way. If I don’t get stuck in dependency hell I should have both GMod’s up and running tomorrow evening under Alma. The old VM for GMod was at 95% on disk space. I took out GMod Cinema to make room, and also expanded for potential future servers. I’ve been thinking one of these weekends I’d like to see what other Gamemodes GMod has to offer; perhaps even gather some Slackers together to do some science!

Pressing Forward, Laying Backwards

by

Did more server work this evening. I made a backup of the current gameserver files, and got Samba up and running under AlmaLinux to perform the file transfer. It was fun trying to remember how it all worked — I haven’t setup a Samba share in an eternity. One of the problems with setting up a Linux server is that once you have it deployed it remains reliable (when configured properly) enough that when it comes time to upgrade or switch OS’s it’s fun trying to remember what to setup, what to give permissions to, etc.

Tomorrow’s goal will be to boot the Quake III Servers. It’ll give me a potential excuse to shoot some shit, and old school! Shit… that means I’m gonna have to mod Quake to run in 4K! XD

And So It Begins

by

I’ve started work on a new VM today! I’ve only setup a blank AlmaLinux install so far, but the building blocks are there for me to continue another day, hopefully tomorrow. I don’t have much else to write, as that was most of my evening. I’d like to get started on transferring files over to start the Quake 3 Servers, then I can focus on the Gmod and L4D VM’s.

Goodbye CentOS. Long Live AlmaLinux!

by

As of this post I’m officially up and running on the new AlmaLinux webserver! All databases are pointing to their proper locations, the new Guild Of Slackers website is up!… kinda. I’m doing a bit of redecorating before I go live with it. 😀 I’ll probably unleash the wiki once I finish my plans for the main website — it’s basically going to be a web-portal of sorts, showing group information and our lines of communication (Discord, Mumble, Steam Group etc). I don’t see much of a point in making it a group website like before, especially since most people use the above mentioned for communication purposes. Then I still have to do the gameservers… then I can take a break from dependency hell and get back to focusing on the more artsy digital stuff.

Getting Established Under AlmaLinux

by

Over the weekend I donated a small bit of my time to getting the new webserver up and running. I spun up a new Droplet at DigitalOcean with an image of AlmaLinux, and after some trial and error I had a barebones lampstack setup within minutes! Then came setting up the new Mumble server, and tomorrow I might play with getting a wiki up… for fun.

Future Plans For Future Me

by

Sometime in the not too distant future I will be upgrading my Linux servers, both my webserver and my game servers. I’m currently running all of my servers on CentOS 7, which is getting its support dropped at the end of the year along with CentOS 8. I could upgrade to CentOS Stream, but it updates far too frequently for me to run it as a server distro. So far I’m leaning towards switching to AlmaLinux — I should be able to follow the same procedures used to setup CentOS 8 to get everything back up and running on new builds. I’m prepping to do the webserver first, so if anyone happens to see a blank void where a website once stood, fret not. I will always return in the evening to complain about dependency hell.