Phil Bayfield

A little about me, my photos and some general geeky stuff!

Ubuntu 10.04 – Looks like it will ship with PHP 5.3

Mar 4

Posted by Phil in Servers, Software | No Comments

I took a look on Launchpad today to see if there was any indication as to which version of PHP Ubuntu had decided to ship with the next release. As it’s an LTS release there is always the possibility that they may go for the slightly more stable options than the slightly more experimental options as they will have to support this edition for the next 3 years.

It appears from a package search that 2 days ago PHP 5.3.1 packages were added to Lucid. It’s quite a big step, and will be interesting if they also include a 5.2.x release along side it as so many applications are not ready for 5.3 yet.

More information can be found on Launchpad:


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Zend Server 5.0 Upgrade Fix

Mar 3

Posted by Phil in Servers | No Comments

As mentioned in my previous post about Zend Server 5.0 upgrade, the GUI images are missing following the upgrade.

It turns out that for some reason Apt doesn’t properly upgrade the Zend Server package itself, to fix this I ran the repository installer script again on all effected machines.

$ sudo ./install_zs.sh 5.3 ce

Running this script will preform the following:
* Configure your package manager to use Zend Server repository
* Install Zend Server on your system using your package manager

Hit ENTER to install Zend Server, or Ctrl+C to abort now.

–2010-03-01 22:53:18– http://repos.zend.com/deb/zend.key
Resolving repos.zend.com… 93.188.128.18
Connecting to repos.zend.com|93.188.128.18|:80… connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 200 OK
Length: 1673 (1.6K) [text/plain]
Saving to: `STDOUT’

100%[==============================================================================================================================>] 1,673 –.-K/s in 0s

2010-03-01 22:53:19 (57.4 MB/s) – `-’ saved [1673/1673]

OK
Writing extended state information… Done
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic Release.gpg
Get:1 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Translation-en_GB [63.7kB]
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security Release.gpg
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security/main Translation-en_GB
Get:2 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/restricted Translation-en_GB [3,402B]
Get:3 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/universe Translation-en_GB [33.2kB]
Get:4 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/multiverse Translation-en_GB [43.8kB]
Get:5 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates Release.gpg [189B]
Ign http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/main Translation-en_GB
Ign http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/restricted Translation-en_GB
Ign http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/universe Translation-en_GB
Ign http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/multiverse Translation-en_GB
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security/restricted Translation-en_GB
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security/universe Translation-en_GB
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security/multiverse Translation-en_GB
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security Release
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic Release
Get:6 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates Release [44.1kB]
Hit http://repos.zend.com server Release.gpg
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security/main Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security/restricted Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security/main Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security/restricted Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security/universe Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security/universe Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security/multiverse Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security/multiverse Sources
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/restricted Packages
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Sources
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/restricted Sources
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/universe Packages
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/universe Sources
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/multiverse Packages
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/multiverse Sources
Get:7 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/main Packages [182kB]
Get:8 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/restricted Packages [14B]
Get:9 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/main Sources [54.4kB]
Get:10 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/restricted Sources [14B]
Get:11 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/universe Packages [108kB]
Get:12 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/universe Sources [26.3kB]
Get:13 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/multiverse Packages [6,844B]
Get:14 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/multiverse Sources [3,820B]
Ign http://repos.zend.com server/non-free Translation-en_GB
Hit http://repos.zend.com server-testing Release.gpg
Ign http://repos.zend.com server-testing/non-free Translation-en_GB
Hit http://repos.zend.com server Release
Hit http://repos.zend.com server-testing Release
Ign http://repos.zend.com server/non-free Packages
Ign http://repos.zend.com server-testing/non-free Packages
Ign http://repos.zend.com server/non-free Packages
Ign http://repos.zend.com server-testing/non-free Packages
Hit http://repos.zend.com server/non-free Packages
Hit http://repos.zend.com server-testing/non-free Packages
Fetched 569kB in 3s (188kB/s)
Reading package lists… Done

Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Reading extended state information
Initialising package states… Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
help-zend-server-ce{a}
The following packages will be REMOVED:
libcurl3{u} php-5.3-code-tracing-zend-server{u} php-5.3-pecl-http-zend-server{u}
The following packages will be upgraded:
zend-server-ce-php-5.3
1 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 3 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 3,668kB of archives. After unpacking 13.3MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] y
Writing extended state information… Done
Get:1 http://repos.zend.com server/non-free help-zend-server-ce 5.0.0+b6 [3,666kB]
Get:2 http://repos.zend.com server/non-free zend-server-ce-php-5.3 5.0.0+b2 [1,388B]
Fetched 3,668kB in 0s (7,644kB/s)
(Reading database … 78500 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing php-5.3-pecl-http-zend-server …
Removing libcurl3 …
Removing php-5.3-code-tracing-zend-server …
Processing triggers for libc-bin …
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
Selecting previously deselected package help-zend-server-ce.
(Reading database … 78474 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking help-zend-server-ce (from …/help-zend-server-ce_5.0.0+b6_all.deb) …
Preparing to replace zend-server-ce-php-5.3 4.0.5+b5 (using …/zend-server-ce-php-5.3_5.0.0+b2_all.deb) …
Stopping Zend Server 5.0 ..

Stopping Zend Server GUI [Lighttpd] [OK]

Zend Server stopped.
Unpacking replacement zend-server-ce-php-5.3 …
* Starting web server apache2 [ OK ]
Setting up help-zend-server-ce (5.0.0+b6) …
Setting up zend-server-ce-php-5.3 (5.0.0+b2) …
* Stopping web server apache2 … waiting [ OK ]
Starting Zend Server 5.0 ..

spawn-fcgi: child spawned successfully: PID: 4704
Starting Zend Server GUI [Lighttpd] [OK]
[ 01.03.2010 22:54:20 SYSTEM] watchdog for lighttpd is running.
[ 01.03.2010 22:54:20 SYSTEM] lighttpd is running.

Zend Server started…

Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Reading extended state information
Initialising package states… Done
Writing extended state information… Done

Current status: 1 update [-1].
Zend Server was successfully installed.

After this everything worked as it should!

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New ffmpeg builds projects page

Feb 24

Posted by Phil in General, Servers | No Comments

I’ve added a new projects page for my ffmpeg builds for PHP 5.3.
The new page also includes a version compiled against PHP 5.3.1 from today’s new Zend Server release.

The new page can be found here.

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Zend Server 5 / PHP 5.3.1 released

Feb 24

Posted by Phil in Servers | 2 Comments

Today Zend announced the release of Zend Server 5.0, which also includes PHP 5.3.1.

I have performed an apt-get update/upgrade on my servers which worked without issue, however the GUI seams to be a bit buggy following the upgrade. Firstly it looks like some of the styles and images are wrong/missing and secondly the restart button doesn’t seam to work.

For full downloads visit the Zend website:


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Star Trek Online

Feb 19

Posted by Phil in Gaming | No Comments

Here are a few screenshots of the very early stages of STO. They are all from the space part of the game, but this is by far the best bit! This is one of the most fun MMO games for a long time, probably since Star Wars Galaxies (I’m not a fan of World of Borecraft and the various ‘clones’ that have dominated the genre for the last few years). Admittedly the ground game is kinda boring, but the space game is awesome. The missions (episodes) in the game feel just like an eposide of Star Trek, it’s certainly true to it’s name.

The UK from space
Ships
Borg Cube
Space Fight

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Wordpress plugin for Thumbshots.org/Thumbshots.com website previews

Feb 18

Posted by Phil in General | No Comments

I have now published my Thumbshots plugin for Wordpress which is available here.

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Jedward now officially as good as Joe Mcelderry

Feb 14

Posted by Phil in General | No Comments

Apparently their debut single went into the charts at number 2 last week, making them on par with Joe Mcelderry.
I’m a bit slow on the uptake here as this happened almost a week ago, but that may be because I don’t care much for the pop charts.
This of course also means that Rage Against The Machine are better than both Joe Mcelderry and Jedward. :)

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PHP 5.3 on Ubuntu – Configuration

Feb 13

Posted by Phil in Servers | No Comments

I’ve been testing PHP 5.3 on various Ubuntu machines for the last few months (since around the time of my first post). I’m now running it on a production server for 1 site.

I noticed I have been getting a lot of hits on my previous post, mainly from others looking for ways to install PHP 5.3 on Ubuntu so I thought it was about time for a follow up.

I’m using PHP 5.3.0 as this is the latest release for Zend Server, the only 5.3.1 release I’m aware of is the DotDeb packages. I try to stay clear of DotDeb, mainly because the packages are built for Debian which often causes issues and conflicts. (Ubuntu is based on Debian unstable so can potentially have a completely different version of every package than the Debian stable branch, as well as changes/tweaks/updates from the Ubuntu team.)

Here are the tweaks I have made to enable PHP to run smoothly, it’s generally quicker to use the Zend web GUI, but these changes can also be done by editing php.ini or adding/removing symbolic links to extensions:

Config changes:

  • Set the default timezone. This seams to be a requirement for PHP 5.3 to have the local timezone set, otherwise we are spammed with about 20 deprecated message when PHP starts. There are a number of ways to do this, the easiest of which is to set the date.timezone config parameter.
  • Set the full path to sendmail. The PHP mail() command will fail unless this is done, this is due to a bug in either PHP or Zend Server (which of them, I’m not sure). Set the sendmail_path config parameter to do this.
  • [Optional] By default the maximum file size you can upload is around 8Mb, if you are likely be using larger files than this, video uploads for example, this change becomes essential. There are 2 options for this setting, both post_max_size and upload_max_filesize should be set.
  • [Optional] By default session timeouts are very short (only about 20 mins), I find it’s usualy a good idea to make it longer.

Extension changes:

  • By default Zend Server comes with tonnes of database extensions, MySQL, PostGreSQL, MSSQL, ODBC, OCI8, SQLite plus PDO versions of most of the above. There is no point having extensions in there we don’t need, pick the extension(s) you need and disable the rest.
  • Disable pcntl on web server environments, as it is apparently not supposed to be used in this way.

This is really all is need to get things up and running, shouldn’t take more than a minute to do.

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BT finally sorted everything out, all it took was a letter to the CEO!

Feb 10

Posted by Phil in General | No Comments

I received a phone call this afternoon from Sandra at BT.
She informed me that they had investigated my complaint and found that I had indeed cancelled the order, however it had not been cancelled correctly on all their systems.
She also said that she would be issuing a credit to my account for the full amount and would be informing the collection agency that the debt had been cancelled.
She failed to mention how ‘early termination charges’ for a £30/month broadband account amounted to this obscene sum of money.

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BT respond once more

Feb 5

Posted by Phil in General | No Comments

A fairly uninformative update, however nice to see that this is being dealt with properly.

Subject: FW: ****** ************* *** – Reference **/********/**
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 2010 15:32:11 -0000
From: Sandra Toal
To: Phil Bayfield

Dear Mr Bayfield,

I am just sending you an email to confirm I am still investigating your complaint and will be in touch with you as soon as I can with my findings.

Regards
Sandra

Sandra Toal
BT Business Executive Level Complaints

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