Posts for the month of January 2014

Fixing sudo timeouts

So at work, a script needs to download a set of large RPMs and then install them. This is in a Makefile, so if sudo returns a negative, it fails and you need to find the temporary directory, or re-run. sudo can be told to change the timeout, but that seems to only be by modifying /etc/sudoers, not via a commandline option. So if the user walks away during the download and doesn't come back within five minutes (by default) after the download is complete, no dice.

Here's the applicable section of the Makefile: 

# We are passed the RPM_BASE_NAME - we will pull down the entire matching directory

ifdef RPM_BASE_NAME
TMP_DIR:=$(shell mktemp -d)
endif

rpminstall:
  echo Fetching $(RPM_BASE_NAME) RPMs...
  # -r=recursive, -nv=non-verbose (but not quiet), -nd=make no directories, -nH=make no host names
  # -P=move to path first, -Arpm=accept only RPM files
  wget -r -nv -nd -nH -P $(TMP_DIR) -Arpm -np $(DLSITE)/$(RPM_BASE_NAME)/
  # If you walk away and come back, your download was wasted after sudo's five minute timeout!
  sudo -n ls /tmp > /dev/null 2>/dev/null || read -n1 -sp "sudo credentials have expired. Press any key when you are ready to continue." dontcare
  echo " "
  sudo -p "Please enter %u's password to install required RPMs: " rpm -Uvh $(TMP_DIR)/*rpm
  -rm -rf $(TMP_DIR)

Raspberry Pi and a BT Keyboard

I bought a Favi Bluetooth keyboard to use with the Raspberry Pi.

I wish I documented better how I got it running. I followed somebody else's page, but don't have the details…

Some of the root user's history: 

update-rc.d -f dbus defaults
apt-get install bluetooth bluez-utils blueman
hcitool scan
hcitool dev
hcitool lescan
hcitool inq
hciconfig -a
bluez-simple-agent hci0  54:46:6B:xx:xx:xx
bluez-test-device trusted  54:46:6B:xx:xx:xx yes
bluez-test-input connect 54:46:6B:xx:xx:xx

I added /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart to /etc/rc.local

I possibly added blacklist hci_usb to /etc/modprobe.d/raspi-blacklist.conf

I can't get it to work again, so maybe some day…