Adding a return URL during logout with CAS

CAS (Central Authentication Service) is a single-sign-on service (say that several times quickly) and through accessing a CAS /logout URL, as an application, you’re able to log the given user out.  What wasn’t clear (by Googling) was whether there’s a possibility to redirect the user back to the original application (or a given URL).  I now know, thanks to the CAS Protocol Documentation (section 2.3), that any posts that mention adding ?service=http://my.url/ to the /logout URL are incorrect, as this isn’t a valid parameter (at least not at time of writing).

However …

in web programming · Wed 11 January 2012

Configuring pulseaudio-equalizer defaults

I’ve recently been using the Logitech G930 headset with my Ubuntu 11.10 install and I’ve found that the default configuration offers nothing in terms of decent sound (tinny, no bass, etc). Thankfully, I’ve been able to turn to pulseaudio-equalizer for help with turning down the treble and up the bass. However, using pulseaudio-equalizer-gtk wasn’t an entirely satisfying experience as the default volume for my headset kept being set to 100% upon restart. Now, if you recall my previous post on this headset, having the volume for the device set at 100% leads to static being …

in Ubuntu · Fri 16 December 2011

Notes about Redmine and GitHub Post-commit Hooks

We’re currently using Redmine for our project tracking and recently have wanted to have our GitHub projects automatically get updated within Redmine. A post-commit hook to the rescue!

1. Download and install this super plugin: https://github.com/koppen/redmine_github_hook and restart your Redmine instance.

2. Set up your local Git instance for your repository.  This is simple, but you need to follow these steps or else pulling your changes down won’t work:

   git clone --bare git://github.com/davidjb/123.git
   cd 123.git
   git remote add origin git://github.com/davidjb/123.git
   

3. Configure your Redmine project’s …

in GitHub · Wed 14 December 2011

User IDs show as comment authors in Plone 4.x after migration from plone.app.discussion

If you’ve migrated your site from earlier versions of Plone to the latest ones in the 4.x series, or else have started using plone.app.discussion earlier than that, you might have come across a situation where comments on your site show user IDs as authors rather than a user’s full name. If you see this anywhere, chances are your comment’s migration didn’t go according to plan, and that the Creator information didn’t get recorded correctly on the comment.

I’ve just written this on the Collective developer docs: http://readthedocs.org/docs/collective-docs …

in Plone · Tue 01 November 2011

Logitech G930 Headphones audio quality under Ubuntu

So I recently purchased a new set of Logitech G930 headphones and am currently using them with the latest version of Ubuntu, 11.10.  Set up was a breeze - just plug, check your PulseAudio config, and play.  For those of you, like me originally, who were wondering whether the G930 works on Linux, it certain does on Ubuntu.

Now, it wasn’t all peaches and cream because of two things.  Firstly, the audio output with the default configuration was completely lacking any depth and ‘substance’ to the sound being produced.  I’m not an audiophile and I have slight hearing …

in Linux · Mon 24 October 2011

RSS Feed for OCZ Vertex 3 SSD firmware updates

Here’s a quick and dirty solution to me not being able to keep updated with OCZ firmware updates for my Vertex 3 SSD.  For whatever reason, OCZ doesn’t provide a news feed of firmware updates (that I know of, correct me if I’m wrong!) so I’ve sorted a screen scraping Yahoo Pipes pipe to do it for me:

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=a1f15d7ead0122567ad6537b2de484a3&_render=rss

This RSS feed will (or should) only ever feature just 1 item - the latest version information for the firmware.  So, it won’t handle keeping track of …

in Hardware · Thu 20 October 2011

Dell SK-8135 keyboard not working during boot (POST, BIOS, GRUB) on OptiPlex 990

Just a quick note to anyone out there confused out of their mind if their Dell keyboard isn’t working with their computer during boot: there is some incompatibility between the OptiPlex 990 and the Dell SK-8135 keyboard.  I’m using the A06 BIOS, which is latest at the time of writing.

The result of this is that you cannot use the keyboard during boot, so not within POST, not to …

in Hardware · Thu 20 October 2011

Epic-sized (Really Large) Files with Plone 4.1.2

In case you were ever curious, it’s definitely possible to upload epic-sized files within the Plone CMS. Browser support aside (Firefox and your 2 GB limits, I’m looking you), I’d previously had issues with being able to upload files larger than 4 GB, if memory serves correctly. Previously, there was an issue with files causing out-of-memory issues, and I’m fairly sure the errors I was getting were related to what was fixed by this change.

For today’s test, Google Chrome was able to upload a 26.3 GB (28212643840 bytes) .tar file into Plone on …

in Plone · Wed 12 October 2011

AttributeError: ‘NoneType’ object has no attribute ‘items’: Can’t upgrade Plone 3 to 4.x

You may have seen an error like the one below when you’ve gone to upgrade your Plone site to something in the Plone 4.x series from Plone 3:

2011-09-14 08:43:32 ERROR plone.app.upgrade Upgrade aborted. Error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/david/.buildout/eggs/Products.CMFPlone-4.1-py2.6.egg/Products/CMFPlone/MigrationTool.py", line 175, in upgrade
    step['step'].doStep(setup)
  File "/home/david/.buildout/eggs/Products.GenericSetup-1.6.3-py2.6.egg/Products/GenericSetup/upgrade.py", line 142, in doStep
    self.handler(tool)
  File "/home/david/.buildout/eggs/plone.app.upgrade-1.1-py2.6 …

in Plone · Wed 14 September 2011

SCP remote files back home using reverse SSH (in 1 command)

My recent work has involved copying files from a remote host, only accessible via a hop, back to my local computer. This has been simple in the past as the remote host has been able to connect to the local computer and SCP files directly, on account of the firewall allowing this. Recently, the firewall against the local computer has been reconfigured for security and direct connection is no longer possible. I could pass my files through a 3rd-party that both the remote and local machines can get to, but let’s say I don’t have one.

What you …

in Linux · Tue 13 September 2011