Is your puppetdb failing with something like this:

java.lang.AssertionError: Assert failed: (keyword? kw)
 at puppetlabs.kitchensink.core$without_ns.invokeStatic (core.clj:613)
    puppetlabs.kitchensink.core$without_ns.invoke (core.clj:613)
    puppetlabs.trapperkeeper.core$main.invokeStatic (core.clj:175)
    puppetlabs.trapperkeeper.core$main.doInvoke (core.clj:159)
    clojure.lang.RestFn.applyTo (RestFn.java:137)
    clojure.core$apply.invokeStatic (core.clj:646)
    clojure.core$apply.invoke (core.clj:641)
    puppetlabs.puppetdb.cli.services$_main.invokeStatic (services.clj:468)
    puppetlabs.puppetdb.cli.services$_main.doInvoke (services.clj:465)
    ...

make sure your postgresql setup works.

Setup mock:

mock -r epel-7-x86_64 --rootdir /tmp/mock --init
mock -r epel-7-x86_64 --rootdir /tmp/mock -i yum
mock -r epel-7-x86_64 --rootdir /tmp/mock --shell

Install dependencies:

yum install wget scons apr-devel apr-util-devel zlib-devel openssl-devel sqlite-devel perl-ExtUtils-Embed autoconf libtool

Download and build serf:

cd /tmp
wget https://www.apache.org/dist/serf/serf-1.3.9.tar.bz2
tar -xjf serf-1.3.9.tar.bz2
cd serf-1.3.9
scons

Download and build subversion:

cd /tmp
wget http://ftp.heikorichter.name/apache/subversion/subversion-1.9.7.tar.bz2
tar -xjf subversion-1.9.7.tar.bz2
cd subversion-1.9.7
./autogen.sh
./configure --disable-shared --enable-static --with-serf=/tmp/serf-1.3.9 CPPFLAGS="-I/tmp/serf-1.3.9" LDFLAGS="/tmp/serf-1.3.9/libserf-1.a"

Edit Makefile and change

SVN_SERF_LIBS = -lserf-1

into

SVN_SERF_LIBS =

Build

make -j5 svn

You will get a couple of unresolved symbols errors e.g.:

/tmp/subversion-1.9.7/subversion/libsvn_ra_serf/.libs/libsvn_ra_serf-1.a(serf.o): In function `ra_serf_get_description':
/tmp/subversion-1.9.7/subversion/libsvn_ra_serf/serf.c:75: undefined reference to `serf_lib_version'
...

Rerun the last command, but append /tmp/serf-1.3.9/libserf-1.a -lssl -lcrypto

The result is not a completely static build

# ldd ./svn | grep serf
#

but it contains serf:

# ./subversion/svn/svn --version
	svn, version 1.9.7 (r1800392)
	...
	* ra_serf : Module for accessing a repository via WebDAV protocol using serf.
	  - using serf 1.3.9 (compiled with 1.3.9)
	  - handles 'http' scheme
	  - handles 'https' scheme
	...

I recently needed to build a CentOS package on Debian Jessie, however mock from jessie-backports gave me this error:

ImportError: No module named six

Turns out, I was missing the package python3-six.

Is your Debian Jessie dropping you into an emergency shell on boot due to LVM mount problems? Check that your /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules is valid. Also look at ip l to see if you have no interface called rename[0-9].

While installing icinga2 from debmon.org on a Raspberry Pi 1 running Raspbian I was getting:

Job for icinga2.service failed. See 'systemctl status icinga2.service' and 'journalctl -xn' for details.
invoke-rc.d: initscript icinga2, action "start" failed.
Jan 26 15:16:01 pi1 prepare-dirs[3995]: Could not fetch RunAsUser variable.  Error ''. Exiting.

When running the icinga2 binary directly I got

Illegal instruction

Turns out Raspbian’s armhf is not quite armhf. Luckily I had a Raspberry Pi 2 available and with the help of rpi23-gen-image I could create a Jessie image and install icinga2.

While updating from Debian wheezy to jessie, one installation hung with grub-mount using all RAM and SWAP until it got OOM killed. Disabling the grub os prober part helped.

Using imaps and getting:

Could not connect to ssl://localhost:993: Unknown reason in
/usr/share/roundcube/program/lib/Roundcube/rcube_imap.php

check that your configured servername matches the certificate’s cn.

If you are running into this error:

Error: Could not run: undefined method `[]' for false:FalseClass

one of your yaml files in hiera is invalid, maybe empty.

Windows 7 SP 1 fresh installed and not updating? svchost stuck at 100% CPU? PC-WELT-Fix Windows Update not helping? WSUS Offline Update not working?

This HOWTO from skanthak worked for me:

[...] Download at least the last cumulative (security) update package for Internet
Explorer 8, 3124275 alias MS16-001, and the latest (security) update package for
the Windows Update Client, currently (September 20, 2016) 3161647; the latter is
available only as part of the "July 2016" (optional) update rollup package
3172605. [...]

# aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC671 Analog [ALC671 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

/etc/asound.conf

pcm.dmixer {
	type dmix
	ipc_key 1024
	ipc_key_add_uid false
	ipc_perm 0660
	slave {
		pcm "hw:0,7"
		rate 48000
		channels 2
		period_time 0
		period_size 1024
		buffer_time 0
		buffer_size 4096
	}
}

pcm.!default {
	type plug
	slave.pcm "dmixer"
}