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There are at least two methods that can be used to install the fglrx driver in Debian. The first, and recommended way is to use the native Debian packages directly from the non-free repository.

Get the packages updates:
sudo aptitude update

Install your kernel headers:
sudo aptitude install linux-headers-`uname -r`

Download and install the necessary compilers:
sudo aptitude install build-essential

Get the packages updates:
sudo aptitude update

Install the driver:
sudo aptitude install module-assistant fglrx-driver fglrx-kernel-src

Build and install the module:
sudo module-assistant auto-install fglrx-kernel-src

After this you will need:
sudo aticonfig --initial

This will update your xorg.conf to use the new driver. Restart for the changes to take effect.

First install the apache with this command:

apt-get install apache2

Now use locate to find if the mod_rewrite.so is availble on your server:

updatedb
locate mod_rewrite.so

it will found in “/usr/lib/apache2/modules”

New apache follow some folders to enable and disable mods so now do this:

cd /etc/apache2/mods-enabled
touch rewrite.load
vim rewrite.load (you may use any editor to edit this file)

Now paste this following line:

LoadModule rewrite_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_rewrite.so

Then edit:
/etc/apache2/sites-available/default

Find the following:

Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
allow from all

and change it to

Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride all
Order allow,deny
allow from all

and finally restart Apache:

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

OK, you done

When it comes to database servers, there are several free database server applications available. The intended use of the database server will have some impact on which database package you choose. MySQL is the most widely used free database server. However, it’s use is primarily to act as a back end database for Web site applications written in embedded scripting languages like PHP because it doesn’t support things like triggers, stored procedures, and replication (yet).

Open a terminal. You will need to install all the parts as root, so… suit up!

Install Apache web server

apt-get install apache2

Install MySQL server

apt-get install mysql-server

Install PHP 5

apt-get install php5

Install MySQL extension for PHP

apt-get install php5-mysql

Install xDebug extension for PHP – the extension for debugging.

apt-get install php5-xdebug

This all what you have to install. Now we will set up Apache and PHP.

After installing Apache the server should be running. If you click this link http://localhost/ the Firefox is opened and you should see a page with the text “it works!”.

Enable remote debugging in xDebug

In the folder /var/www/ create an info.php file with content with the property tags:

phpinfo();

Hit http://localhost/info.php and you should see how the PHP runtime is setup. Search for the property xdebug.remote_enable property. By default this property is switched off.

To enable this property you have to open file /etc/php5/conf.d/xdebug.ini and add this line:
xdebug.remote_enable=on

and restart the Apache web server

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

What is Screen?
As the man page states, “Screen is a full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical terminal between several processes (typically interactive shells).” This can be a life saver when working on your dedicated server. Screen has a several great features for helping you administer your server more productively and safely. I am going to discuss the three features (multiple windows, logging, sessions) that I use the most but be sure to see the man page for full details.

$ sudo apt-get install screen

Using Screen
Screen is started from the command line just like any other command:

$ screen

You may or may not get a text message about screen. If you do not, then you probably think nothing has happened, but it has. You are now inside of a window within screen. This functions just like a normal shell except for a few special characters. Screen uses the command “Ctrl-A” as a signal to send commands to screen instead of the shell. To get help, just use “Ctrl-A” then “?”. You should now have the screen help page.

Key bindings are the commands the screen accepts after you hit “Ctrl-A”. You can reconfigure these keys to your liking using a .screenrc file, but I just use the defaults.

Multiple Windows
Screen, like many windows managers, can support multiple windows. This is very useful for doing many tasks at the same time without opening new sessions. As a systems manager, I often have four or five SSH sessions going at the same time. In each of the shell, I may be running two or three tasks. Without screen, that would require 15 SSH sessions, logins, windows, etc. With screen, each system gets its own single session and I use screen to manage different tasks on that system.

To open a new window, you just use “Ctrl-A” “c”. This will create a new window for you with your default prompt. For example, I can be running top and then open a new window to do other things. Top stays running! It is still there. To try this for yourself, start up screen and then run top.

tymonn@debianbox:~$ top

top - 15:40:41 up  1:28,  3 users,  load average: 0.25, 0.36, 0.36
Tasks: 120 total,   2 running, 116 sleeping,   2 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  5.2%us,  1.1%sy,  0.0%ni, 93.7%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   2075424k total,  2033216k used,    42208k free,   571872k buffers
Swap:  1052184k total,        0k used,  1052184k free,   969644k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 3624 tymonn    20   0  148m  59m  20m S    3  3.0   3:35.83 rhythmbox
 5073 tymonn    20   0  260m 117m  24m R    3  5.8   9:46.60 firefox-bin
 3261 root      20   0  325m  91m  22m S    2  4.5   1:24.69 Xorg

Now create another window use “Ctrl-A” “c”

$

Now you have 2 windows, You can create several windows and toggle through them with “Ctrl-A” “n” for the next window or “Ctrl-A” “p” for the previous window. Each process will keep running while your work elsewhere.

Leaving Screen
There are two ways to get out of screen. The first is just like logging out of a shell. You kill the window with “Ctrl-A” “K” or “exit” will work on some systems. This will kill the current windows. If you have other windows, you will drop into one of those. If this is the last window, then you will exit screen.

The second way to leave screen is to detach from a windows. This method leaves the process running and simple closes the window. If you have really long processes, you need to close your SSH program, you can detach from the window using “Ctrl-A” “d”. This will drop you into your shell. All screen windows are still there and you can re-attach to them later.

Attaching to Sessions
So you are using screen now and compiling that program. It is taking forever and suddenly your connection drops. Don’t worry screen will keep the compilation going. Login to your system and use the screen listing tool to see what sessions are running:

tymonn@debianbox:~$ screen -ls
There are screens on:
	6039.pts-4.debianbox	(14/06/2008 15:02:09)	(Detached)
	5873.pts-0.debianbox	(14/06/2008 14:56:33)	(Detached)
2 Sockets in /var/run/screen/S-tymonn.

tymonn@debianbox:~$

Here you see I have two different screen sessions. To re-attach to a session, use the re-attach command:

tymonn@debianbox:~$ screen -r 6039.pts-4.debianbox

Just use screen with the -r flag and the session name. You are now re-attached to the screen. A nice thing about this, is you can re-attach from anywhere. If you are at work or a clients office, you can use screen to start a job and then logout. When you get back to your office or home, you can login and get back to work.

Screen Logging
As a consultant, I find it important to keep track of what I do to someone’s server. Fortunately, screen makes this easy. Using “Ctrl-A” “H”, creates a running log of the session. Screen will keep appending data to the file through multiple sessions. Using the log function is very useful for capturing what you have done, especially if you are making a lot of changes. If something goes awry, you can look back through your logs.

This video shows results from a research project involving simulated Darwinian evolutions of virtual block creatures. A population of several hundred creatures is created within a supercomputer, and each creature is tested for their ability to perform a given task, such the ability to swim in a simulated water environment. Those that are most successful survive, and their virtual genes containing coded instructions for their growth, are copied, combined, and mutated to make offspring for a new population. The new creatures are again tested, and some may be improvements on their parents. As this cycle of variation and selection continues, creatures with more and more successful behaviors can emerge.

The creatures shown are results from many independent simulations in which they were selected for swimming, walking, jumping, following, and competing for control of a green cube.

Interview with Karl Sims, the creator of this program:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1rHS3R0llU