Hello 
I'm Siobhan Curran/Kisa Naumova, and this is my weblog. I tend to write about stuff like crossdressing, Macs, code, cats, wine and Second Life, but in general it's just an ongoing conversation about all sorts of stuff. If you'd like to know a little bit more about what this all is, I recommend starting on this page which has a little bit of info on who I am, and what I'm trying to do — or you could dive into my five years worth of archives if you like.
Otherwise, feel free to close this box and explore...
Well now...
You would have thought, considering the complete mess I get into every time I do something to the server, that my attempts to install MacOS X Server yesterday would have left me with an enormous headache. The sort of scene where I end up hurling thousands of pounds worth of equipment across the room in disgust, crinoline flying everywhere and me with a great big stroppy fit...
It was (relatively) painless really. OK, so there are a few teething problems (in a minute I will detail the fun and excitement of rebuilding all the web-databases) but it seems to be OK. Obviously, the thing isn't attached to the Internet yet — that's a job for next week...
OK, stage one: Boot from the CD...
Stage two: OMG, do I really want to erase the disk? (I had the option of just upgrading, but seeing as how I had made a TOTAL backup, I figured a clean system is a better system 
Stage three: That was quick ?!
Stage four: Cross your fingers...
So anyway, it does all work (obviously since I'm updating my diary which is hosted on it) — the Users and Groups thing seems to be working (I can log on as me from any of my machines) and all I have to do now is (a) get it hooked up to broadband, and (b) start turning on all the services. Apache is the only thing running just now — I still need to do email and DNS and FTP and SMB and God knows how many others... Sarah West is going to get a hundred and one annoying phonecalls from me, I can see...
Slight peculiarities:
(1) The bizarre conflicting error message:
It would seem that I can't install the Admin Tools on a Mac unless it's running OS X 10.2.3 or OS X 10.2.3 Server eh? Hmmmm. BUT I AM RUNNING OS X 10.2.3 SERVER! I JUST BLOODY INSTALLED IT!
(2) The MySQL Saga:
(Look, I know, I've gone all geeky. I'm just writing this up so I have something to refer back to if I ever do this again)
One of the major things I did before I installed the server was to make fifty thousand (slight exaggeration there) back ups of the MySQL databases. Backing up normal documents and stuff isn't a problem — but seeing as how (a) the databases are stored wierdly, and (b) if I lose them I've lost this entire diary amongst other things, I wanted to make sure I had at least two copies.
So I did a mysqldump --all-databases > databases.sql a few times, just to be sure. Then I installed the server...
Thing is, when I came to reload them, I couldn't bloody find them. Panic. Could I be so stupid that I backed them up onto the drive that I just erased?
Well, no. I'm not that stupid. What I'd done is back them up onto the second drive in my machine — but since all the permissions and sttuff had changed, I wasn't seeing them. Took me to reboot from the backup drive and move things around a bit to get at them.
Also, when I did eventually reload them, all the privileges were screwed up. Now, I have just spent this morning rebuilding the user privilege table, and it all works. But I just found the MySQL command "FLUSH PRIVILEGES" which would have saved me a ton of work...
..I know, usual story eh?
