Adding Third-Party APT Repositories

On Debian-based Linux servers, APT is the package manager of choice. By default, running apt-get will connect to the Linux distribution’s main package repository. In most situations, this is enough, but there are situations where you might want to add additional repositories. For example, if you are using a special web-based control panel or other unique software, the vendor may provide you with an update repository for that software.

1. To add repositories to your apt sources, you will need to login as root.

su

2. Edit the sources.list file found in the apt configuration directory:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list or vi /etc/apt/sources.list

3. Copy the source line given to you by the repository maintainer, and paste it on an empty line at the bottom of the file. It should look something like this:

deb http://websiteurl.net/debian sid main contrib free

3. Save the file and exit.

4. After saving, the new packages will not show up in the cache until you refresh it. Run the following command:

apt-get update

Now, you should see the new packages when you search and try to install them. If you ever need to disable the repository, simply place a “#” in front of it in the sources.list file to comment out the line. To remove it completely, just delete it. Anytime you make changes, be sure to run “apt-get update” again.

Upgrade Your Server with APT

Debian-based servers have a unique ability to easily upgrade from one major version to another without re-installation and will little reconfiguration.

To begin you will need to specify the location of the new packages in /etc/apt/sources.list. In other words, APT will need to know where the new packages are.

To upgrade an entire distribution to a new version of it, just run the following command as root:

apt-get dist-upgrade

There are a couple of things to consider when performing a full upgrade. Do you really need any of the latest packages? If your current distribution is still supported, it may not be worth the risk, and the risk is that some packages might not install correctly. Furthermore, downloading and installing so many packages will slow down your server while it is upgrading.

It is best to weigh the pros against the cons and then decide if your system really needs the upgrade or if you can keep it updated and secure with the current version.

Enabling bootlogd on Debian Linux servers

Question: I am concerned about some services loaded during my Linux server’s boot up, but it does not seem to keep any log of it. How do I fix this?

Answer: If you are running a Debian-based server, boot-logging is disabled by default. The only way to find out what is happening during a boot, other than being at the console and watching it happen, is to enable bootlogd.

Using a text editor (such as vi or nano), edit the file /etc/default/bootlogd as root.

Find the line that has “BOOTLOGD_ENABLE” and change “no” to “yes”.

BOOTLOGD_ENABLE=yes

Once you have rebooted, you should now have information in /var/log/boot about your system’s booting process.

Linux server round-up

Over the past year, we have discussed many different schemes for Linux servers, which included many Linux distributions. Here is a quick overview of the major players in the Linux server market.

Redhat Enterprise Linux – With the biggest financial revenue in the Linux market, Redhat is a force to be reckoned with, but whether they are right for your web hosting company depends on how much you can afford. If you like Redhat, you might consider CentOS.

CentOS – A free alternative to RHEL, based on the same source code, minus Redhat’s guarantees, technical support, and logo artwork.

Fedora – The cutting-edge testbed for RHEL. This is a community driven OS with a lot of community support but not paid technical support.
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