Debian

Broken package

initscripts : Breaks: nfs-common (< 1:1.2.5-3) but 1:1.2.2-4squeeze2 is to be installed

If you're on Debian 6 (squeeze) do:

vim /etc/apt/sources.list

Make sure there are no lines like the one below:

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian sid main

Cron log

cat /var/log/syslog | grep CRON

motd

http://wiki.debian.org/motd

MySQL

It is commonly easier to use this to dump and restore MySQL, instead of using mysqldump on the new server via .sql files:

mysqldump --default-character-set=binary --user=root --password=EnterPasswordHere databasename > dbdump.txt

mysql --silent --local --password=EnterPasswordHere DatabaseName < dbdump.txt

Speed up SSH login

By default for some reason in Debian 6 (Squeeze) /etc/ssh/sshd_config does not have UseDNS=no within it. Add it into the file and restart SSH and this will greatly improve SSH login as a sudo user or root. GSSAPIAuthentication=no may also help.

Transmission

The easiest way to get this working is by doing:

vim /etc/apt/sources.list

Add in this line:

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian sid main

Do apt-get update , then do:

apt-cache show transmission-cli | grep Version
apt-cache show transmission-common | grep Version
apt-cache show transmission-daemon | grep Version

apt-get install transmission-cli transmission-common transmission-daemon

Then, to edit the files without it overwriting /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json

Stop the service, edit the file, backup the file and then start the service.

/etc/init.d/transmission-daemon stop
vim /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json
cp /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json /root/settings.json.backup
/etc/init.d/transmission-daemon start

Check /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json is the same file you edited and that it is owned by debian-transmission:debian-transmission

Wordpress

If you are using a Vanilla build of a Unix OS you will need to do this so themes and plugins can install:

cd /var/www/vhosts/
chown www-data:www-data yourdomain.co.uk/* -R

Stop prompting for FTP credentials

echo "" >> /var/www/vhosts/yourdomain.co.uk/wp-config.php
echo "define('FS_METHOD', 'direct');" >> /var/www/vhosts/yourdomain.co.uk/wp-config.php