Archive for December, 2009

QuickBooks Enterprise Install on Debian

Operating System: Debian Lenny 5.0

This server needs an /opt directory for the package install, so the partitioning is a little bit different than a typical Linux setup. This is what mine ended up looking like:

Filesystem Size Mounted on
/dev/sda1 2G /
/swap X /swap
/dev/sda9 (rest) /home
/dev/sda6 2G /opt
/dev/sda7 1G /tmp
/dev/sda5 3G /usr
/dev/sda8 2G /var

Setup a few packages necessary for the server first.

apt-get install samba gamin alien

Now users and groups need to be added for permissions and the Samba folder share access.

groupadd quickbooks
useradd -d /home/user1 -g quickbooks user1
useradd -d /home/user2 -g quickbooks user2
useradd -d /home/user3 -g quickbooks user3
useradd -d /home/user4 -g quickbooks user4
smbpasswd -a user1
smbpasswd -a user2
smbpasswd -a user3
smbpasswd -a user4

Create the folder where the QuickBooks data files will be stored and set the appropriate permissions.

mkdir /home/qbdata
chown user1:quickbooks /home/qbdata/
chmod 775 /home/qbdata/

Now configure Samba by moving the built in configuration and writing your own.

cd /etc/samba
mv smb.conf smb.conf.orig
cp smb.conf.orig smb.conf
vi smb.conf

The configuration file should read:

[global]
   workgroup = WORKGROUP
   server string = %h server
   dns proxy = no
   log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
   max log size = 1000
   syslog = 0
   panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
   encrypt passwords = true
   passdb backend = tdbsam
   obey pam restrictions = yes
   unix password sync = yes
   passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
   passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
   pam password change = yes

[qbdata]
   path = /home/qbdata
   comment = Quickbooks Enterprise database share
   valid users = user1,user2,user3,user4
   public = no
   writeable = yes
   printable = no
   create mask = 0765

Now restart Samba and test the permissions using a Windows client. You should be able to see the logs created by each client and who was accessing the share.

/etc/init.d/samba restart
tail /var/log/samba/log.smbd
tail /var/log/samba/log.rst-win-utl3

Using Alien, we’ll create a deb package from an rpm so it can be installed. Some other directories and files need to be created for logging purposes since Debian uses rsyslog and QuickBooks won’t create them on its own.

cd /usr/src
wget http://http-download.intuit.com/http.intuit/CMO/qbes/resources/qbdbm-20.0-5.i386.rpm
alien qbdbm-20.0-5.i386.rpm
mkdir /var/lock/subsys
dpkg -i qbdbm_20.0-6_i386.deb
touch /var/log/qbdbfilemon.log
touch /var/log/qbdbmgrn_20.log
touch /var/lock/subsys/qbdbfilemon
touch /var/lock/subsys/qbdbmgrn_20

We need to add a line to the syslog configuration in /etc/rsyslog.conf, just put it at the end.

daemon.*                        -/var/log/qbdbfilemon.log

Setup the QuickBooks binaries to startup automatically.

update-rc.d qbdbfilemon defaults
update-rc.d qbdbmgrn_20 defaults

Modify the file /opt/qb/util/qbmonitord.conf in include the directory where the QuickBooks data will live.

/home/qbdata

Restart the server and you should be able to run a ps -e and see the following processes running indicating the server is up. There also should be a /home/qbdata/qbdir.dat file created automatically.

 1987 ?        00:00:01 qbmonitord
 1994 ?        00:00:02 gam_server
 1995 ?        00:25:40 QBDBMgrN_20

Slackware 13 on Lenovo T61, Intel Wireless 4965

I had some trouble getting the wireless to function properly on my T61 with Slackware 13. I tried combinations of wicd (the wireless network manager) and DHCP clients, different drivers, but nothing seemed to work. I could see the wireless points, but they always showed up as “hidden” and appear to connect, but would dever be able to get an IP address.

At this point I moved to Debian to see if that would connect using wicd. Sure enough, wicd connected and authenticated fine, but a kernel panic in Lenny using that wireless adapter would only leave it connected for about 5 minutes and then lock. Enough of that.

Back to Slackware. One thing I noticed was that Debian used the latest wicd, version 1.6.2.2 where the Slackware extras includes the 1.6.2.1 Slackware package. Even the wicd site recommends using the included package in the extras.

Slackware also came with the same firmware for the 4965 wireless as Debian, so I know if I used that, I should be good to go on that end. First, enable the firmware as root:

modprobe iwl4965

Restart your computer and make sure the wireless adapter is loading properly on boot. You should be able to do an lsmod | grep iwlagn and see a few lines with the module enabled. Now grab wicd 1.6.2.2 from source; you can view them here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/wicd/files/. Unpack it and install wicd.

cd /usr/src
wget http://sourceurl/wicd-1.6.2.2.tar.gz
tar zxvf wicd-1.6.2.2.tar.gz
cd wicd-1.6.2.2
python setup.py configure
python setup.py install

You can check /etc/rc.d and find a rc.wicd executable. This means the daemon should start on it’s own when booting. Start the wicd daemon and then the curses version of the client.

wicd
wicd-curses

The curses GUI is pretty easy to understand and you should be able to configure the network no problem. When you hit Shift+C to connect to an AP, you can see that it will authenticate and grab an IP this time…finally. I’ve been able to connect to WPAv2 and WPAv1. Previously I could connect to neither, although I never tried plain old WEP. Others clamined WEP would work and WPA would not, but not being able to connect to a WPA network was a big show stopper for me.

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