I’d kept an eye on the o2 pay-as-you-go mobile broadband for a while, because it offered the cheapest, noncommittal setup. A one off £20 for the USB dongle, and then as little as £2 for 500MB for a 24 hour period.

So I plug in the dongle and we get a nice little installer to set everything up; installing drivers and the o2 Mobile Connect application. The annoying thing is that if you install going this route, you can only connect if you have this app open. You can’t just use system preferences. Also, turns out this ‘handy’ installer program then blocks you from getting to the installation files again, and the dongle will refuse to do anything unless Mobile Connect is open (you’ll get a red light on the dongle when it’s being evil).

So, what can you do?

1. Drag Mobile Connect.app to the trash from your Applications directory.
2. Then head into System > Library > Extensions and delete ZTEUSBCDCACMData.kext and ZTEUSBMassStorageFilter.kext
3. Go into Network in System Preferences and remove the devices starting with ZTEUSB.
4. Then restart your Mac.

Now, let’s install things a different route giving everyone more flexibility.

1. Plug in the dongle and when the CD Icon appears on the desktop, open it up, but rather than double clicking on the installer, right click on it and select ‘Show Package Contents’.
2. Now head to Contents then Resources. Now double click on the drv.pkg file and install this only.
3. Once complete, restart your Mac again.

And now to configure the connection:

1. Open System Preferences, and go to the Network pane.
2. You should have three new items in there. Click on ZTEUSBModem.
3. Set the telephone number to *99#
4. Username to o2bb
5. Password to password
6. Click on Advanced. Select Vendor; Generic, Model; GPRS (GSM/3G) and set the APN to m-bb.o2.co.uk
7. Click on OK and then Apply.
8. Now you can click ‘Connect’ and all should work fine.

That is of course, besides the crappy image compression and caching o2 force onto you! Need to find a solution for that next.

Update: Here’s a solution for getting around the image compression, and Javascript injection; use a SSH SOCKS proxy. Works a treat.

1. Open up Terminal.app
2. Run ssh -ND 9999 username@yourserver.com
3. Enter your password if/when prompted (you may have key authentication setup)
4. That’s the SOCKS proxy setup. Now go to System Preferences and open the network connection.
5. Click on ZTEUSBModem.
6. Then Advanced, Proxies
7. Check the SOCKS Proxy and enter in localhost and 9999
8. Click OK and then Apply.

All done. You should now get perfect images and no longer have Javascript inserted into all webpages. Both of which weren’t clearly mentioned when purchasing my dongle.

The first rewrite condition checks to see if the file exists, and only if it does, will it redirect all traffic to it. The second rewrite condition is there to prevent an infinite loop, by only redirecting traffic to files other than maintenance.html.

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/maintenance.html -f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/maintenance.html
RewriteRule ^.*$    /maintenance.html [L]

Install and setup

Install PHP 5:

sudo aptitude install php5-cgi

Install nginx:

sudo aptitude install nginx

Create PHP 5 FastCGI start-up script:

sudo nano /etc/init.d/php-fastcgi

Inside, put:

#!/bin/bash
BIND=127.0.0.1:9000
USER=www-data
PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=15
PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=1000

PHP_CGI=/usr/bin/php-cgi
PHP_CGI_NAME=`basename $PHP_CGI`
PHP_CGI_ARGS="- USER=$USER PATH=/usr/bin PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=$PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=$PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS $PHP_CGI -b $BIND"
RETVAL=0

start() {
      echo -n "Starting PHP FastCGI: "
      start-stop-daemon --quiet --start --background --chuid "$USER" --exec /usr/bin/env -- $PHP_CGI_ARGS
      RETVAL=$?
      echo "$PHP_CGI_NAME."
}
stop() {
      echo -n "Stopping PHP FastCGI: "
      killall -q -w -u $USER $PHP_CGI
      RETVAL=$?
      echo "$PHP_CGI_NAME."
}

case "$1" in
    start)
      start
  ;;
    stop)
      stop
  ;;
    restart)
      stop
      start
  ;;
    *)
      echo "Usage: php-fastcgi {start|stop|restart}"
      exit 1
  ;;
esac
exit $RETVAL

Make start-up script executable:

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/php-fastcgi

Launch PHP:

sudo /etc/init.d/php-fastcgi start

Launch at start-up:

sudo update-rc.d php-fastcgi defaults

That’s it. All installed and ready to go.

Test

In your server config, add the following:

location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_pass    127.0.0.1:9000;
    fastcgi_index   index.php;
    fastcgi_param   SCRIPT_FILENAME /var/www/nginx-default$fastcgi_script_name;
    include         fastcgi_params;
}

Restart nginx:

sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart

Create a file in your web root (in the example above, /var/www/nginx-default/test.php):

<?php

phpinfo();

Visit the page in your browser and you should see the standard PHP info page. And you’re done.

Source: Aberration

Create your authentication controller in system/application/libraries and call it MY_Controller.php. It’s important that you prefix the controller name with MY_, or whatever you have specified $config['subclass_prefix'] as in your configuration.

<?php

class MY_Controller extends Controller
{
    public function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct();
        $this->load->library('session');
        if (!$this->session->userdata('loggedin'))
        {
            header('Location: /sessions/login');
        }
    }
}

This basically checks if the session data for loggedin is set to true. If not, it’ll redirect the user to the /sessions/login URL. This means we have to create a basic controller to handle the sessions.

<?php

class Sessions extends Controller
{
    public function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct();
        $this->load->library('session');
    }

    public function login()
    {
        $this->load->view('header');
        $this->load->view('sessions/login');
        $this->load->view('footer');
    }

    public function authenticate()
    {
        $this->load->model('user', '', true);
        if ($this->user->authenticate($this->input->post('username'), $this->input->post('password')))
        {
            $this->session->set_userdata('loggedin', true);
            header('Location: /');
        }
        else
        {
            header('Location: /sessions/login');
        }
    }

    public function logout()
    {
        $this->session->unset_userdata('loggedin');
        header('Location: /');
    }
}

The login view is a basic form with fields for username and password that submits to /sessions/authenticate. This controller then loads the user model and checks that a user with the username and password exists. If so, it sets the session data for loggedin to true and redirects the user back to the default controller. If not, it takes the user back to the login page.

Then to implement the authentication in a controller, simply do:

<?php

class SecretPlace extends MY_Controller
{
...

It’s a good idea to store your session data in your database and encrypt your cookies with $config['sess_encrypt_cookie'] = TRUE; in config.php. That way people won’t be able to snoop around and try to trick your application into thinking they’re authenticated.

$HTTP["url"] =~ "/\.(git|svn)/" {
    url.access-deny = ( "" )
}

curl -V

Check that the output contains https:

>: curl -V
curl 7.19.2 (i386-apple-darwin9.5.0) libcurl/7.19.2 OpenSSL/0.9.8i zlib/1.2.3
Protocols: tftp ftp telnet dict http file https ftps 
Features: Largefile NTLM SSL libz

If it doesn’t:

sudo port deactivate curl
sudo port install curl +ssl

Once you have curl with https support:

sudo pecl install pecl_http

If you followed my previous howto, you’ll want to move the module to the location specified in your php.ini file:

sudo cp /opt/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20060613/http.so /opt/local/lib/php/extensions

Restart lighttpd and then you’ll be good to go.

I’m now switching to lighttpd for my development server, so have come up with the following recipe to install PHP5 and the great Imagick extension for image manipulation.

Follow these instructions at your own risk! They worked fine on my setup but I can’t guarantee they will for you.

1. Install Xcode.
2. Install MacPorts.

3. Now update MacPorts:

   sudo port selfupdate
   

4. Install lighttpd:

   sudo port install lighttpd
   

   Install the startup item and copy the default configuration file:

   sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.lighttpd.plist
   sudo cp /opt/local/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf.default /opt/local/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf
   

5. Now we install PHP with the FastCGI, MySQL and Pear variants.

   sudo port install php5 +fastcgi +mysql5 +pear
   

   In order for this to work, I had to disable the port perl5.8 by using the following command:

   sudo port deactivate perl5.8
   sudo port activate perl5
   

   Then run the command again and it should succeed:

   sudo port install php5 +fastcgi +mysql5 +pear
   

6. Copy over the default PHP configuration:

   sudo cp /opt/local/etc/php.ini-dist /opt/local/etc/php.ini
   

7. Now open up the PHP configuration file:

   sudo mate /opt/local/etc/php.ini
   

   Add the following line to the file:

   cgi.fix_pathinfo=1
   

   Find extension_dir = "./" and replace it with:

   extension_dir = "/opt/local/lib/php/extensions"
   extension=imagick.so
   

8. Edit the lighttpd configuration file:

   sudo mate /opt/local/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf
   

   Ensure that the following is uncommented:

   fastcgi.server = ( ".php" =>
       ( "localhost" =>
           (
               "socket" => "/var/run/lighttpd/php-fastcgi.socket",
               "bin-path" => "/opt/local/bin/php-cgi"
           )
       )
   )
   

   And also make lighttpd run as the user www:

   server.username = "www"
   server.groupname = "www"
   

   Add the following if you want to be able to use your Sites directory in your home directory. I also changed the default document root to the OS X default:

   server.modules += ("mod_userdir")
   userdir.path = "Sites"
   userdir.basepath = "/Users/"
   server.document-root = "/Library/WebServer/Documents"
   

   Ensure that "mod_fastcgi", is uncommented.

9. Now we need to setup a few directories, and make the user www the owner for them:

   sudo mkdir /var/run/lighttpd
   sudo mkdir /var/log/lighttpd
   sudo chown www:www /var/run/lighttpd
   sudo chown www:www /var/log/lighttpd
   

10. Now install ImageMagick:

    sudo port install imagemagick
    

11. Now we need to download the Imagick PHP module. I was hoping this would be as easy as sudo pecl install imagick, however I got an error for that, and so a manual build and install of the module is necessary:

    curl -O http://pecl.php.net/get/imagick-2.2.1.tgz
    tar xvfz imagick-2.2.1.tgz
    cd imagick-2.2.1/
    phpize
    ./configure --with-imagick=/opt/local
    make
    sudo make install
    sudo cp /opt/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20060613/imagick.so /opt/local/lib/php/extensions
    

And finally, you can then run LightTPD with the following. The -D flag tells lighttpd not to run in the background–you don’t need to use it:

lighttpd -f /opt/local/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf -D

You should then be able to visit a PHP file in your browser to test that it works. A simple test file would be:

<?php
$img = new Imagick('pic.jpg');
$img->rotateImage('#fff', 45);
header('Content-type: image/jpeg');
echo $img;
?>

This is just a simple Imagick rotate on an image.

yum install lighttpd lighttpd-fastcgi php
mkdir /var/run/lighttpd
touch /var/run/lighttpd/php-fastcgi.socket
chown -R lighttpd:lighttpd /var/run/lighttpd/
vim /etc/php.ini

Add in php.ini the following; cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1. Save and close the file.

Now open up /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf. Uncomment the following line "mod_fastcgi", from the server.modules option. Then ensure that the following is uncommented:

fastcgi.server  = ( ".php" =>
    ( "localhost" =>
        (
            "socket" => "/var/run/lighttpd/php-fastcgi.socket",
            "bin-path" => "/usr/bin/php-cgi"
        )
    )
)

Save the file. Now create a test file, /srv/www/lighttpd/index.php and just include <?php phpinfo(); ?>. Now open your favourite browser and visit http://localhost/index.php. You should be greeted with a friendly PHP page, and you’re set to go.

sudo gvim /etc/fstab
/fd0
I
#
<esc>
:wq

That should do it. Check out Nautilus.

For those interested about the vim commands I used in this post, read here.

sudo gvim /etc/X11/xorg.conf

When gVim opens, type in the following:

/Virtual

Then hit enter. That’ll search the file for the line that we need to comment out. When it’s found, hit i on the keyboard to enter the Insert mode of gVim. Now prepend a # before the Virtual keyword to comment out the entire line.

Hit escape on the keyboard, then type in :wq to save and quit.

Next time you have the login screen in front of you, it should be using the correct screen resolution.