I don’t understand why a company would invest time in developing something so annoying to its users. Or would we rather prefer the “ERROR: Server too busy to respond” browser error page?

We make use of the ‘vnc’ application that is available on most Linux OS/bootloaders. However, my instructions below are for GRUB on CentOS 5.4 only. I use TightVNC to connect to the VNC server, you might want to download and install this on your PC now.

To reinstall, you must be able to access your server through SSH and be able to edit files as the root user. If you are unable to do this, you must be able to escalate privileges in your shell by using su OR have sufficient permission on the server to edit the boot loader’s files (/etc/grub.conf)

Download the PXE boot initrd.img and vmlinuz files to your /boot. You can download them from a repository closest to your server so that the speed is acceptable. LiteServer.nl is closest to mine.

cd /boot
wget http://mirror.liteserver.nl/pub/centos/5.4/os/x86_64/images/pxeboot/initrd.img
wget http://mirror.liteserver.nl/pub/centos/5.4/os/x86_64/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz

Edit the following file:

/etc/grub.conf

If the above file is missing, try editing:

/boot/grub/grub.conf

Edit the aforementioned file to look like the following:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title CentOS
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz vnc vncpassword=PASSWORD headless ip=YOURIP netmask=255.255.255.0 gateway=GATEWAY dns=208.67.222.222 ksdevice=eth0 method=http://mirror.liteserver.nl/pub/centos/5.4/os/x86_64/ lang=en_US keymap=us
initrd /initrd.img

PASSWORD : set the password you want to use to access the VNC

YOURIP : this is the IP address of the server, you will use it to access VNC

GATEWAY : this is the gateway to your network/ IP address (contact your network operator for such information)

DNS : I’m utilizing OpenDNS here. You are free to use any other provider.

KSDEVICE : this is the enternet interface used for accessing the Internet. If you are unsure, please leave it as eth0 (ethZERO).

METHOD : this is the URL of your repository. You can replace it with the closest one to your server. However, remember to maintain the entire URL/ directory structure.

IMPORTANT: The kernel line is suppose to be continuous WITHOUT any breaks (just one line). Syntax is very important in this file. Failure in doing so will render the server unbootable and may require physical presence (onsite engineers).

Save grub.conf and reboot the system. Wait for an additional minute or two. If all works well, you can enter YOURIP:1 (port one) in the TightVNC Viewer’s VNC server field. It will prompt for a password. Enter the same as you have mentioned in your grub.conf file. Your session will be authenticated and you’ll be shown the CentOS (or Fedora/RHEL) Setup screen. Enjoy

If you have any difficulty or questions, please feel free to comment.

I have used Apache’s HTTP authentication method to password protect my /wp-admin folder. However, since I also utilize URL rewriting (mod_rewrite) on WordPress’ permalink, accessing /wp-admin becomes impossible. WordPress spits a 404 error page.

I can go on to explain what is happening here, but I’ll explain that at a later date. I made a quick fix for this. However if someone has a better way and cleaner way to do it, share it in the comments.

You must enter this code in your .htaccess file. This problem occurs mostly when you have WP installed directly in the DocumentRoot (www or public_html).

Options +FollowSymLinks

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On

#  RewriteRule ^(.+)\.html$ http://www.yourDomain.com/$1/ [NC,R=301,L]

# Don’t match internal sub requests (eg. to /index.php).
RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} ^$
# Don’t continue for /wp-login.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/(wp-login)\.php$ [NC]
# Don’t continue for /wp-admin/*
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/(wp-admin|wp-content|wp-includes)(/.*)?$ [NC]
#  RewriteRule ^(.+)\.php$ http://www.yourDomain.com/$1/ [NC,R=301,L]

# BEGIN WordPress Permalink Rewrite
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
# END WordPress Permalink Rewrite
</IfModule>

If this does not work for you, please do let me know by making a comment.

Thanks to Shawn for such hilarious compilation.

To simply put it, I’m too lazy. I know I’m lazy. I know if I don’t put it up now, I’ll never put it up — when there is an actual need for it.

OR

I like to think ahead and scale. As complex as that! My work and interest revolves around high availability and large scale computing, which constantly requires upgrades and additions with planning. My though process has been “upgraded” to such for my day to day activities (I hope!); which now includes coming out here and adding some purposeless content.

What I’m trying to convey through this little post here is … jeez, I lost it. Some other time may be