Vvvegard!

We can utilize the power (.. or lack?) of mod_rewrite in Apache2 to dynamically add subdomains for all subdirectories in a certain folder. I cannot recall where i first read how to do this, but all creds goes to someone on the Internet! Also, this only works “out-of-the-box” for Debian Lenny running latest stable version of Apache2, but it should work on all systems running Apache2, with slight modification.

First we need to enable some modules:

a2enmod rewrite vhost_alias
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Next up we do some rewrite magic, you need to change some paths and domains to reflect your setup, personally I just use some search and replace in nano to reflect whatever domain and site I’m setting up.

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName eksempel.no
ServerAlias *.eksempel.no #wildcard catch all
VirtualDocumentRoot /var/www/%1
UseCanonicalName Off
IndexOptions FancyIndexing
### Use mod_rewrite to direct eksempel.no to www.eksempel.no
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^eksempel.no
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}$1 [R=301,L]
### Logging
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access_log_eksempel combined
<Directory /var/www>
AllowOverride None
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

You must also restart Apache2 for your changes to apply.

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

If you ever had the following error message on you Macbook’s SuperDrive,

The disc can’t be burned; it might be incompatible with this disc drive. Please try a different brand of disc, or try burning at a slower speed.

you are probably in luck. It’s does not seem to be some sort of firmware error or anything wrong with the disk you are using. It’s simply the SuperDrives laser that has gotten dusty and needs cleaning. Simple find a creditcard and a t-shirt with long threaded weaving. Use the creditcard to hold the cloth wrapped around and insert it into the SuperDrive and carefully move it back and forth whilst applying a little force downwards. The optical sensor should be on the left side, but I cleaned both sides.

Note, if you are within warranty you should not do this at home. I guess mighty Steve would void your ass back to outer space if he ever saw you doing it… For some pictures of the madness, head over to PicasaWeb.