Debian.Eskimo.COM is going to be down for a while.  I broke something badly during the install that has caused NIS authentication not to work, am restoring from a backup, and then will be continuing with the install.

In the meantime, please use Mint.Eskimo.COM, it is derived from Ubuntu which in turn derived from Debian and has almost identical applications.  Pine isn’t on there yet but alpine is present and functions almost identical to pine.

With Mint you can use Mate (which looks nearly identical to Gnome2 from which it was derived) or KDE desktops as well as LXDE and MCTE.  Do not use Gnome because it is Gnome3 or Unity, because these are not compatible with x2go.  Eventually I’ll get VNC configured, these desktops do work with VNC though they are painful.

I am taking Debian down for this afternoon to completely rebuild the server.  I’ve learned enough about Debian installs doing Ubuntu and Mint to warrant re-doing this server to make it a more complete and stable server for your use.

I am taking a radius server to the co-location facility for installation there.  This wouldn’t take so long if it weren’t rush hour but it is so I’ll be awhile.

I broke the graphical interface on centos7.eskimo.com by installing some 3rd party software that was incompatible.  It is fixed now.

The old eskimo.com shell server is revived.  I’m pretty much out of spare parts now.  If anyone has a working Sun SS-10 they want to get rid of, or good parts for one, please let me know.

What appears to have happened is that three of four heat sink retainers broke and the heat sink separated from the CPU and it cooked.

If you feel like exploring another new server while eskimo.com is down, ‘mint.eskimo.com’ is now online running the Mint 17 Linux distribution.

Please note that the only graphical interface presently supported for this machine is x2go.  If you come in with x2go please use the ‘Mate’ desktop.  The x2go platform does not support desktops which require accelerated graphics or compositing desktops.

The old Sparc based SS-10 SunOS 4.1.4 shell server, ‘Eskimo.Com’ is down.  Eskimo.Com is still the NIS master and thus important.  I will be out of the office for probably a couple of hours to work on it.  I hope to be back by 3pm or so.

Those of you who have been contemplating Centos 7, we’ve just turned up a new shell server with Centos 7 and it is available for your use although there aren’t a lot of applications installed yet.

Presently the only way to access it graphically is with x2go, and then you must use either Mate or KDE desktop.  The Gnome is Gnome 3 and presently doesn’t work without accelerated graphics which remote desktop applications can not provide.  However, Mate is a continuation of Gnome 2 and works much as Gnome 2 worked under Centos 6 as used on shellx.

The server name is centos7.eskimo.com.  Your same login, password, files, etc, will be present.

Debian.eskimo.com is finished.  All servers are restored to service and no additional service affecting outages will be required this weekend.

All machines are returned to service except debian.eskimo.com and it should be back in about fifteen minutes.  All customer facing and non-replicated servers maintenance will be completed this morning so there will not be additional outages Sunday morning.