Strict Standards: date() [function.date] Error

Rai    Linux, Troubleshooting     apache, compile, configuration, date, error, fix, Linux, nagios, nagvis, ntpd, php, php.ini, red hat, rhel, sles, source, standards, strict, suse, time zone, timezone, utc, warning

I was installing NagVis when I came across this weird message:

Strict Standards: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system’s timezone settings. Please use the date.timezone setting, the TZ environment variable or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected ‘UTC’ for ‘GMT/0.0/no DST’ instead in /usr/local/nagios/nagvis/nagvis/includes/classes/objects/NagVisStatefulObject.php on line 360

It clearly says that I should check the timezone, which I did. But there’s nothing wrong with time or date. ntpd is running and it set the correct timezone so what could be wrong?

If you are reading this then probably you are seeing this error too. To fix this, open your php.ini using your favourite text editor (like vi) and add this line:

date.timezone=UTC

Take note that depending on how you installed php, it could be in /etc/php.ini (RedHat) or /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini (SLES) or if compiled, /usr/local/php5/php.ini.

You need to restart Apache for changes to take effect.

WordPress 2.5 Widget Issues

Rai    Troubleshooting, Wordpress     sidebar, wordpress 2.5, wordpress. widget

WordPress 2.5 is the latest version to date of the world’s most popular publishing system. Despite my innards telling me not to go with the update, I went ahead did it anyway.

read more

How Tell Your Hard Drive Is About To Die

Rai    Hardware, Troubleshooting     deframentation, disk drive, disk error, hard drive, scandisk, troubleshoot

LifeHack.org writes all the tell-tale signs to know if your hard drive will soon fail and die on you. Very helpful since I have already suffered enough from hard drives that decided to just get tired and stop breathing – er… spinning.
read more

Free Toolkits for Technical Support Engineers

Rai    Tips, Troubleshooting     basic programs, technical support, toolkit, windows

For two years of my early career life, I was a struggling Windows support who worked from being a Windows help desk support to Windows on-site support before becoming a Linux system administrator.

read more

Howto: Install yum On RHEL 4

Rai    How-To's, Linux, Tips, Troubleshooting     centos, Linux, package, repository, rhel, rpm, up2date, update, yum

There are more than a couple of ways of updating Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) packages on your machine. One is by using up2date, the default package updater of RHEL systems. Unlike Fedora and CentOS which uses yum, up2date requires you to be registered to Red Hat Network (RHN) to be able to download or update your packages from the RHN repository.

Now, what if you need to install a certain package that is not available in your current repository by up2date? Or what if the package in the repository wreaks havoc in your system? Maybe you should try using yum to install or update rpm packages.

But… but… but how can I install yum in my RHEL machine?, you may ask. It’s actually very simple.

I got this tip from Babar Haq’s Blog with a little modification since I am using RHEL 4.

1. Download yum by using wget

# wget http://linux.duke.edu/projects/yum/download/2.0/yum-2.0.8-1.noarch.rpm

2. Install the rpm

# rpm -ivh yum-2.0.8-1.noarch.rpm

3. Configure /etc/yum.conf to use compatible repository

[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
pkgpolicy=newest
distroverpkg=redhat-release
tolerant=1
exactarch=1

[base]
name=CentOS-$releasever – Base
baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/os/i386/
gpgcheck=1

[updates]
name=Red Hat Linux $releasever – Updates
baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/updates/i386/
gpgcheck=1

4. Download and install the CentOS GPG Key

# wget http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-4

# rpm –import RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-4

5. Test yum to see if it works (I tested by running full update on my machine)

# yum update

*Note: This will update ALL installed packages in your machine. If you do not want to do this, cancel the process or skip this step.

If you reach step 5 without encountering any errors, it means that yum is successfully updating your machine with the latest versions available in the repo.

This worked perfectly fine for me. If you experienced any errors, post a message and I will try to help you out