Decode access secret key from Terraform IAM user creation

Problem

You want to use the pgp encryption when using Terraform to create an AWS IAM user, and you have the secret access token returned as an output but encoded.

Solution

Use the following to get the actual secret key decoded (after copying your encoded key to a file encrypted_key.txt:

$ cat encrypted_key.txt | base64 --decode | gpg -d

Terraform Cloud – ‘operations’ attribute is deprecate, and cannot be used in conjuction with ‘execution’. Use the latter only

Problem

You are trying to add a new workspace in your organization in Terraform Cloud, using the same connected VCS (Gitlab) as the one you already have setup, but you get the above error when trying to add it in Firefox (Linux – Ubuntu – 79).

Solution

Use Chromi(um) to create the workspace as it works there. You can then use it in Firefox as normal.

Error initializing storage of type raft: failed to create fsm: failed to open bolt file: open /home/vault/data/vault.db: permission denied

Problem

Trying to start the vault server following the guides that specify creating the data directory in /home/vault/data results in the above error and service cannot be started.

Solution

According to the guide here: https://learn.hashicorp.com/tutorials/vault/raft-deployment-guide?in=vault/day-one-raft, changing the data directory to /opt/raft and the hcl file to reflect that the server can be started without any errors.

Failed to initialize build ‘qemu’: post-processor type not found: exoscale-import

Problem

Trying to follow along the example in the Exoscale article about creating custom templates, you get the error about exoscale-import not found, when you are trying to validate the packer template.

Solution

Make sure that you use a current packer installation as the exoscale-import was not supported in the older versions.

kosmas:terraform (add_vault *%)$ packer --version
1.0.4

So after installing the latest version the above error goes away

kosmas:terraform (add_vault *%)$ packer --version
1.6.1

qemu: Error launching VM: Qemu failed to start. Please run with PACKER_LOG=1 to get more info.

Problem

You are trying to build a QEMU image with Packer, but you are getting the error suggesting to use the PACKER_LOG=1 option. But there is no indication where to place it in the command line.

Solution

Put it at the begging of the command line as folows:

kosmas:terraform (add_vault *%)$ PACKER_LOG=1 packer build vault_orchestration/template.json

Raspberry, Ubuntu and Megatools

To install megtools (command line utilities for Mega.nz), in your raspberry with ubuntu installed follow the steps below (thanks to the instructions from here: https://www.instructables.com/id/Descarga-archivos-de-Mega-con-Raspberry-Pi/)

  • Install the necessary packages
sudo apt-get -y install build-essential libglib2.0-dev libssl-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libgirepository1.0-dev 

You may also need to add some additional packages if there is an error about the documentation.

  • Get the latest source code from https://megatools.megous.com
wget https://megatools.megous.com/builds/megatools-1.10.3.tar.gz
  • Compile and install them
tar xvfz megatools-1.10.3.tar.gz
cd megatools-1.10.3
./configure
make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
  • Add your Mega account credentials in ~/.megarc like:
[Login]
Username = my_mega@email
Password = mypassword
  • use the mega tools commands (megacopy, megals, megaget etc.

Erlang and Elixir with asdf in Raspberry 4 with Ubuntu 20.04

To install the latest/current versions of erlang (23.0.2) and elixir (1.10.3), follow the instructions below:

Install asdf ( full instructions https://asdf-vm.com/#/core-manage-asdf-vm):

git clone https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf.git ~/.asdf --branch v0.7.8

Add the following two lines in your ~/.bashrc file:

# Add asdf version manager 
. $HOME/.asdf/asdf.sh
. $HOME/.asdf/completions/asdf.bash

Reload/Source your bash file with

source ~/.bashrc

Install the erlang plugin

asdf plugin add erlang

If you get the following warnings:

...
Extracting source code
Building Erlang/OTP 23.0.2 (asdf_23.0.2), please wait...
WARNING: It appears that a required development package 'libssl-dev' is not installed.
WARNING: It appears that a required development package 'automake' is not installed.
WARNING: It appears that a required development package 'autoconf' is not installed.
WARNING: It appears that a required development package 'libncurses5-dev' is not installed.
Configure failed.
...

Install the missing packages:

sudo apt install libssl-dev automake autoconf libncurses5-dev

Install latest erlang version:

asdf install erlang latest
...
Erlang/OTP 23.0.2 (asdf_23.0.2) has been successfully built
...

Set it up globally (if you want):

asdf global erlang 23.0.2

Add elixir plugin:

asdf plugin add elixir

Install latest elixir version (1.10.3):

asdf install elixir latest

Set it up globally:

asdf global elixir 1.10.3-otp-23

Finally you can also install the latest Phoenix version (1.5.3):

mix archive.install hex phx_new 1.5.3

WiFi, Raspberry Pi 4 B, Ubuntu 20.04

After installing an image of the Ubuntu server on the Raspberry 4, the wifi is not automatically configured after the initial book.

In order to be able to use the WiFi follow the steps described below for setting up your wifi in your SD card, and then reboot your raspberry (make sure that the indentation in the yaml file is correct, and also your WiFi access point is enclosed in quotes):

https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-your-raspberry-pi#3-wifi-or-ethernet