No, I hadn't configured freeside to create MySQL accounts, I thought I had, but I didn't, when I wasn't sure of the DBI settings.

I worked them out, and configured it. It wouldn't add accounts however.

Turned out to be a permissions issue with the radius user on the database, I'd created a MySQL user radius.. with no permissions, oops. Then, while trying to fix that, I thought I would be smart and try to add extra hosts into the access list, that doesn't work (at least not comma separating them).

I also noticed the user for doing replication between servers/databases had no permissions, that's probably why replication wasn't working. (Nagios was the same, it had silly permissions granted, so I changed them, in case it will get nagios working).

I worked it out, and I had it creating MySQL entries so that the main radius server will work, and also creating user accounts on the mail server.

When I did some radius tests, I found that it was accepting the users details, but not returning anything.

When I dug around, I found it was because freeside wasn't adding a radiusgroup, so radius didn't know if the user had a dynamic or a static IP, and it didn't return any TCPIP settings. I added the group in, and set it as default, I'm not sure if it's working properly however.

I installed qmail, it's a bit tricky, because it's a source distribution, that you have to build. I replaced exim with nullmailer, then I tried to install the qmail deb I had built, and it wouldn't go in because it conflicted with nullmailer (or exim), I then tried to uninstall nullmailer (it refuses, because you apparently can't have no mailer), and then, I tell it to install the qmail deb again, and it works out to remove nullmailer and install qmail.

Both servers did the same thing.

The install wasn't happy at the end, because I hadn't setup the DNS.

I did that, found that the reverse lookups weren't updating properly, and then basically ended up doing the whole thing again.

I setup slave DNS on the other machine after that.

I spent quite a while trying to fix some of the perl errors that freeside gives, I can't work out what this nonsense about "insecure dependencies" is, and why the self signup server refuses to start, and gives "access denied" errors in the console when you try and start it.

I went back to qmail configuration, couldn't get it started, nonsense about "error reading control files" I found eventually, that this was because there were no default config files, specifying what domains to accept mail for etc.

I configured one box as the proper mailer, with the mail going into the user's home directories, so quota will work, and the other server as backup.

My mate rang me, we had a chat for a bit, he wanted to know what the CDs and cases I bought cost etc. We didn't chat about much else. He said one of the customers of the business that screwed up over had called him, wanting some help, because he couldn't get his webmail to work, apparently it's all broken. That's no surprise, they probably tried to replace the webmail we had, because each server was different, because each server had different mailers, and different mail store formats.

I watched a bit of tv.

I got a couple of SMS on my phone, they were from a mate I haven't seen for a while.

He wanted to know if I wanted a ticket to The Who concert, and to know what was going on with the tickets, apparently they go on sale on the net tomorrow (Gold and Silver tickets) and the general admission tickets are sold through the agents from Thursday.

(He didn't tell me all that in the SMS, I called him to find out the story, left a message, and he called me back an hour or so later).

The Silver tickets (fairly close to the stage) are $99 each, not too bad, the General Admission/Binocular seating tickets are $90 anyway.

He definately wanted one, I think I'll go, and 2 others have already given him the cash for the tickets.

I said I would confirm with the others, and then I'll order them in the morning with my credit card (it seems no one else has one).

I got off the phone, and called one mate, he said it was fine, and would pay me in a week or so. Whatever, I've got a month on my card.

I tried calling the sixth person who'll be going, left a message, he didn't get back to me. I'll try calling him in the morning just before I try buying the tickets.

I went back to watching tv.

I heard all these loud bangs outside, a fair distance away, at first I thought it was fireworks, but I didn't see any flashes from it.

A few seconds later, a whole bunch of sirens could be heard, about 6 I think. Must have been gunshots or something, it sounded like it.

I went outside and looked in the general direction where it was coming from, a few kilometres away, I saw 3 or 4 emergency vehicles heading east (I could just see the flashing lights).

A few minutes later, I heard more. I wonder what it was.

The MotoGP came on, and I sat and watched Rossi win yet again.

I started putting a webmail interface on the server, I've not got very far with that. I think a lot of the fiddling stuff will get done once the equipment is in place, and the service is running.

I'm sure people will put up with "stand by while this is setup" in regards to webmail and a few other things, for a week or so while I get them done. After that, things like nagios and the backup scripts can all be done in their own time, they're only for my benefit anyway.

I was now a bit hungry (about 10pm) so I had some fish and chips for dinner. I need to go shopping again, I ate the last of the breakfast cereal when I got up this afternoon.