Common Server issues – FAQs and answers from those in the know
find -mtime not finding expected files
15 December 2025 @ 11:30 am
I am trying to find a list of files older than x days. An example of one such file is:
-rw-r----- 1 user1 user1 480K Dec 12 16:25 a_filename.20251212162502
If today is the 17th Dec, then in theory if I run in the same directory as the file:
find . -type f -mtime +2 -print
it should find the file, right?
but it doesn't.
If I run stat on the file it also looks ok:
stat a_filename.20251212162502
File: a_filename.20251212162502
Size: 491491 Blocks: 960 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Device: 254,2 Inode: 13 Links: 1
Access: (0640/-rw-r-----) Uid: ( 1001/user1) Gid: ( 115/ user1)
Access: 2025-12-12 16:25:02.364593519 +0000
Modify: 2025-12-12 16:25:00.127955492 +0000
Change: 2025-12-12 16:25:02.368593490 +0000
Birth: 2025-12-12 16:25:02.364593519 +0000
I'm running Debian 12 if that makes any difference. Is there another way to locate th
Permission issue after migrating dovecot config to 2.4
15 December 2025 @ 2:20 am
Dovecot throws error messages after a recent upgrade from 2.3 to 2.4.1
I migrated the previous configuration to 2.4 standards and ran doveconf -n successfully. Dovecot and Postfix services start without errors. However, I get the following message in the logs when receiving a mail.
Dec 14 05:57:53 xxxxxxx.com postfix/pipe[1439]: 3D7241F694: [email protected], relay=dovecot, delay=3.7, delays=3.6/0.02/0/0.07, dsn=5.3.0, status=bounced (Command died with status 89: "/usr/libexec/dovecot/dovecot-lda". Command output: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf line 5: cert_file: open(/etc/letsencrypt/live/xxxxxxx.com/fullchain.pem) failed: Permission denied )
The fullchain.pem cert file exists. I have checked other similar questions on the subject but the solutions do not apply. Does dovecot 2.4 differ in its requirement for file permissions? This is happening on a machine that
IBM Verify Identity Access 11 - SAML authentication on virtual junction
14 December 2025 @ 10:44 am
I'm struggling with IBM Verify Identity Access 11 configuration, with something that probably should be super straightforward.
I have Federation with MS Entra, which I think, based on the logs, seems to work.
I want to force SAML authentication on virtual junction, either by button or (even better) on first access and after successful sign in - start sending IV-user header to target backend.
I cannot neither trigger this sign in (I always get the standard forms login.html) nor after triggering the sps//saml20/logininitial URL - sending the header to backend server.
I've even failed with posting this question on ibm.community - but i've got information "your post will be reviewed" and no sign of it yet - like it didn't happen...
How logrotate works with apache? DDOS attack filled server disc
14 December 2025 @ 8:11 am
I experienced a full disk issue probably connected to a DDOS attack, the apache access log file was huge.
I know logrotation is triggered by default by file size. My server is an Ubuntu 20.04 with default apache and logrotate configuration.
My question is: does logrotate checks the file size just when its processes is scheduled, usually once a day by a daily cron job?
If yes, this explains how access log can become huge in a single day.
Can't access Samba server on Linux guest from Windows [closed]
14 December 2025 @ 4:52 am
I followed this tutorial to create a shared folder in my Linux guest machine in Virtual Box that can be accessed from my host machine (Windows 11).
I am able to access the samba share from Linux by navigating to my own IP but not in Windows. When navigating to the guest machines IP in File Explorer in Windows (host) I get the error "You possibly spelled it wrong" etc.
From what I'm finding while searching it looks like I possibly need to add another network adapter to my VM like host-only, but I'm not clear on how to do this.
VirtualBox version 7.2.4
Kali Linux 2025.4
Windows 11
Apache fails to start in FreeBSD 15 with an error can't find files
14 December 2025 @ 12:17 am
I'm having issues getting Apache to start.
If I run apache -t I get this output: httpd: Syntax error on line 526 of /usr/local/etc/apache24/httpd.conf: Could not open configuration file /etc/apache/extra/httpd-ssl.conf: No such file or directory
Which is wrong I can go to the extra folder and open the "missing' file.
I'm stumped, Apache 2.4, FreeBSD 15, on a VM (If it matters)
Strange directories under /tmp/ - thoughts? [closed]
13 December 2025 @ 9:11 pm
I suddenly saw under /tmp the following directories which made me a bit suspicious, thought that maybe i have a hacker that push things out via some job running on my Mac
total 8
drwxrwxrwx@ 7 myself wheel 224 Dec 2 20:45 .
drwxrwxrwt 28 root wheel 896 Dec 4 14:30 ..
drwxr-xr-x@ 2 myself wheel 64 Dec 4 14:40 attachments
drwxr-xr-x@ 2 myself wheel 64 Dec 2 20:45 completed
drwxr-xr-x@ 2 myself wheel 64 Dec 2 20:45 new
drwxr-xr-x@ 2 myself wheel 64 Dec 2 20:45 pending
-rw-------@ 1 myself wheel 56 Dec 2 20:45 settings.dat
/tmp/dumps/
├── attachments
├── completed
├── new
├── pending
└── settings.dat
So I run the following program in order to "catch" changes in that directory that might explain it
$ fswatch -o /tmp/dumps/ | xargs -n1 -I{} ~/tmp/whoisthis.sh
# After 1day
5 directories, 1 file
total 0
drwxrwxrwx@ 3 myself wheel 96 Dec 7 00:00 .
drwx
Trust anchor for certification path not found [closed]
13 December 2025 @ 5:05 pm
Windows Server 2012 R2 running IIS 8.5 and Plesk.
PositiveSSL Certificate for www.vetinorder.gr issued by Sectigo. The request CSR was created in IIS 8.5. Response zip file contains:
Root CA Certificate - USERTrustRSACertificationAuthority.crt
Intermediate CA Certificate - SectigoPublicServerAuthenticationRootR46_USERTrust.crt
Intermediate CA Certificate - SectigoPublicServerAuthenticationCADVR36.crt
PositiveSSL Certificate - www_vetinorder_gr.crt
Even though the certificate has been installed the SSL Certificate Checker reports:
TLS Certificate is not trusted The certificate is not signed by a
trusted authority (checking against Mozilla's root store). If you
bought the certificate from a trusted authority, you probably just
need to install one or more Intermediate cert
Automate KVM image creation for testing purposes
13 December 2025 @ 2:49 pm
I'm trying to clean up the testing workflow for a project I'm working on, a database built on top of io_uring and NVMe.
Right now I'm using KVM and its NVMe device emulator to power the dev environment, but the developer experience is poor: I have a script to recreate the KVM image but it requires some manual steps, and I don't want to commit the KVM image itself for obvious reasons
My questions are:
Is there an alternative to dockerfiles for KVM images?
If not, what are my best options for my use case?
Things I tried:
Running an nvmevirt device emulator, but it's not suitable for my test environment because it requires to load a kernel module
Mocking an NVMe device with some code and a memory backed file, but it's not real testing
Windows 10 ESU machines not updating using WSUS
13 December 2025 @ 12:28 pm
I have Windows 10 22H2 PCs that are activated for the commercial Extended Security Update (ESU).
When the devices are configured to update using WSUS, they do not update.
I can see them in the WSUS console, and it detects that a cumulative security update needs to be applied, but nothing happens.
If the devices are configured to update directly from the Internet, the update is applied.
WSUS can update minor things like defender signatures or Edge updates on these PCs, but not security updates.
WSUS is version 10.0.17763.5830. It is running on Windows server 2019 std.The update I'm trying to install is KB5071546. There is no mention of this update in the windowsupdate log. WindowsUpdateClient log reports that "Windows Update successfully found 0 updates."