openssl command for self signed certificates

This looks like a good introduction:
openssl req -x509 \
-nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:1024 \
-keyout mycert.pem -out mycert.pem

In ubuntu Gutsy, apache2-ssl-certificate is gone. It has been replaced with make-ssl-cert, which uses /usr/share/ssl-cert/ssleay.cnf.
There was probably a layer8 problem involved, but I could not get make-ssl-cert to give me 365 days of validity, nor sha256 (sha256 I did not test extensively) with make-ssl-cert. To add sha256 to the mix, just use the -sha256 parameter with the openssl command above.
sha256 indeed breaks Internet explorer 6 and 7 on windows XP. On windows Vista, IE7 works, even with rsa:2048. Firefox, the only other browser I tested, works flawlessly on windows XP. Its hard for me not to make sneery comments about this…