Month: October 2023

Hello,
In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Enable BBR on Ubuntu 23.10

BBR stands for Bottleneck Bandwidth and RTT is a congestion control system. You can enable TCP BBR on your Linux desktop to improve the overall web surfing experience. By default, Linux uses the Reno and CUBIC congestion control algorithm.

Enabling BBR in Linux can help improve network performance by optimizing bandwidth utilization, reducing latency, and mitigating packet loss. We’ll show you how this is enabled:

Run the following command to check available congestion control algorithms,

sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_available_congestion_control

Output:

root@ubuntu23:~# sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_available_congestion_control
net.ipv4.tcp_available_congestion_control = reno cubic

Run the below command to check the current congestion control algorithm used in your system,

sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control

Output:

root@ubuntu23:~# sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control
net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control = cubic

Enabling TCP BBR in Ubuntu

Open the following configuration file /etc/sysctl.conf to enable enable TCP BBR.

nano /etc/sysctl.conf

At the end of the config file, add the following lines.

net.core.default_qdisc=fq
net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control=bbr

Save the file, and refresh your configuration by using this command,

sysctl -p

Output:

root@ubuntu23:~# sysctl -p
net.core.default_qdisc = fq
net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control = bbr

Now, Verify if BBR is enabled in your system,

sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control

Output:

root@ubuntu23:~# sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control
net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control = bbr

Hello,
In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Install Node.js on Ubuntu 23.10

Node.js is an open-source, server-side runtime environment that allows you to run JavaScript on the server. It is designed to be efficient and lightweight and is commonly used to build scalable network applications and web services.

To install Node.js on an Ubuntu 23.10 server, you can follow these steps:

Login to the Ubuntu 23.10 server and update the package repository information.

apt update

Install NVM manager

NVM, which stands for Node Version Manager, is a popular tool for managing multiple versions of Node.js on a single machine. It allows you to switch between different Node.js versions and manage global and project-specific versions with ease.

To install nvm, you can use the following command in your terminal:

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.39.3/install.sh | bash

Output:

root@vps:~# wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.39.3/install.sh | bash
=> Downloading nvm from git to '/root/.nvm'
=> Cloning into '/root/.nvm'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 360, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (360/360), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (306/306), done.
remote: Total 360 (delta 41), reused 167 (delta 28), pack-reused 0
Receiving objects: 100% (360/360), 220.29 KiB | 2.16 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (41/41), done.
* (HEAD detached at FETCH_HEAD)
  master
=> Compressing and cleaning up git repository

=> Appending nvm source string to /root/.bashrc
=> Appending bash_completion source string to /root/.bashrc
=> Close and reopen your terminal to start using nvm or run the following to use it now:

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"  # This loads nvm
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion"  # This loads nvm bash_completion
root@vps:~#

Update your shell ~/.profile by running following command

source ~/.profile

Next, Check the if NVM installed or not by checking for its version.

nvm --version

Output:

root@vps:~# nvm --version
0.39.3
root@vps:~#

List out the all available Node.js versions. you can see all Node.js versions from the first version to the latest version.

nvm ls-remote

Output:

root@vps:~# nvm ls-remote
        v0.1.14
        v0.1.15
        v0.1.16
        v0.1.17
        v0.1.18
        .......
        ......
        .....
        ....
        ...
        ..
        v20.6.1
        v20.7.0
        v20.8.0
        v20.8.1
        v21.0.0
root@vps:~#

To install a specific Node.js version, use the following command. Here, we are installing v21.0.0. If you want to install another version, replacing v21.0.0 with the version number you want:

nvm install 21.0.0

Output:

root@vps:~# nvm install 21.0.0
Downloading and installing node v21.0.0...
Downloading https://nodejs.org/dist/v21.0.0/node-v21.0.0-linux-x64.tar.xz...
############################################################################################################## 100.0%
Computing checksum with sha256sum
Checksums matched!
Now using node v21.0.0 (npm v10.2.0)
Creating default alias: default -> 21.0.0 (-> v21.0.0)
root@vps:~#

And check the version of the Node.js once the installation is done.

node -v

Output:

root@vps:~# node -v
v21.0.0
root@vps:~#

Done!

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Install GCC on Debian 12

GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection is a compiler system developed to support various programming languages. GCC is the standard compiler for most projects related to GNU and Linux, including the Linux kernel.

Installing GCC on Debian

Debian repositories contain build-essential package which contains the GCC compiler, g++ and make

Debian an existing system by running following command

apt upgrade 

apt install build-essential

If you want to install the manual page for GCC, run the below command,

apt-get install manpages-dev

After installing, to verify that GCC is successfully installed by checking gcc version,

gcc --version

Output:

 root@server:~# gcc --version
 gcc (Debian 12.2.0-14) 12.2.0
 Copyright (C) 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
 warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

root@server:~#

Compiling a Hello World Example

Create a basic C code source, eg: let’s create a hello world C program and open hello.c text file,

nano hello.c

Add the following code to hello.c file

// hello.c
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    printf("Hello, world!\n");
    return 0;
}

Compile it into an executable and execute the hello program by running the following commands,

gcc hello.c -o hello

./hello

Output:

root@server:~# ./hello 
Hello, world!

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Install and use PHP Composer on Debian 12

Composer is a dependency manager for the programming language, PHP. It functions as some sort of project manager that helps the programmer manage dependencies that will be used on a project-to-project basis.

Installing Composer on Debian 12

First, need to check for any pending system updates,

apt update

apt upgrade

Install the required packages.

apt install wget php-cli php-zip unzip

Download the composer installer file.

wget -O composer-setup.php https://getcomposer.org/installer

Output:

root@vps:~# wget -O composer-setup.php https://getcomposer.org/installer
--2023-06-13 20:51:32--  https://getcomposer.org/installer
Resolving getcomposer.org (getcomposer.org)... 142.44.245.229, 2607:5300:201:2100::4:d105
Connecting to getcomposer.org (getcomposer.org)|142.44.245.229|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 58140 (57K) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: ‘composer-setup.php’

composer-setup.php                100%[=============================================================>]  56.78K  --.-KB/s    in 0.08s   

2023-06-13 20:51:32 (738 KB/s) - ‘composer-setup.php’ saved [58140/58140]

root@vps:~# 

To install Composer globally inside the /usr/local/bin directory by running the following command.

php composer-setup.php --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

Output:

root@vps:~# php composer-setup.php --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
All settings correct for using Composer
Downloading...

Composer (version 2.5.8) successfully installed to: /usr/local/bin/composer
Use it: php /usr/local/bin/composer

root@vps:~# 

If a new Composer version is available, update the package by running the following command.

composer self-update 

Use Composer in PHP Project

mkdir ~/my-first-composer-project

cd ~/my-first-composer-project

Initialize a new composer.json and install the carbon package by running the following command.

composer require nesbot/carbon

Output:

root@vps:~/my-first-composer-project# composer require nesbot/carbon
Do not run Composer as root/super user! See https://getcomposer.org/root for details
Continue as root/super user [yes]? yes
Info from https://repo.packagist.org: #StandWithUkraine
./composer.json has been created
Running composer update nesbot/carbon
Loading composer repositories with package information
Updating dependencies
Lock file operations: 5 installs, 0 updates, 0 removals
  - Locking nesbot/carbon (2.67.0)
  - Locking symfony/polyfill-mbstring (v1.27.0)
  - Locking symfony/polyfill-php80 (v1.27.0)
  - Locking symfony/translation (v6.3.0)
  - Locking symfony/translation-contracts (v3.3.0)
....

After the installation is complete, you can see that Composer created two files composer.json and composer.lock along with a vendor directory.

ls -l

Output:

root@vps:~/my-first-composer-project# ls -l
total 28
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    60 Jun 13 20:55 composer.json
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16387 Jun 13 20:55 composer.lock
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root  4096 Jun 13 20:55 vendor
root@vps:~/my-first-composer-project# 

Create a new file named testing.php and paste the following content.

<?php

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use Carbon\Carbon;

printf("Now: %s", Carbon::now());

Run the script by running the following command.

php testing.php

Output:

root@vps:~/my-first-composer-project# php testing.php 
Now: 2023-06-13 20:58:35root@vps:~/my-first-composer-project# 

Next, if you want to update the package then you can use the following command.

composer update

Output:

root@vps:~/my-first-composer-project# composer update
Do not run Composer as root/super user! See https://getcomposer.org/root for details
Continue as root/super user [yes]? yes
Composer is operating significantly slower than normal because you do not have the PHP curl extension enabled.
Loading composer repositories with package information
Updating dependencies
Nothing to modify in lock file
Installing dependencies from lock file (including require-dev)
Nothing to install, update or remove
Generating autoload files
5 packages you are using are looking for funding.
Use the `composer fund` command to find out more!
No security vulnerability advisories found
root@vps:~/my-first-composer-project# 

Done!