tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-229947762024-03-14T01:11:04.863+11:00Andree's Debian & General MusingsAndree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-70195944675757856042008-11-03T23:02:00.020+11:002008-11-04T00:11:10.877+11:00EeePC 901 with Ubuntu Intrepid IbexI have finally bought an EeePC 901, mainly to use for travelling.<br /><br />I had been holding off for some weeks because I had hoped (in vain) that the Linux version with 20GB SSD and without a Windows XP license would become available here in Australia.<br /><br />Anyway, I decided to try putting brand new Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex on it and I must say it worked really well. Here is what I did:<br /><ul><li>Downloaded the standard Intrepid i386 Desktop CD and put it on a USB memory stick using <a href="http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/">UNetbootin</a>.</li><li>Installed with the following disk layout: / on 4GB SSD, 1GB swap and 7GB /home on 8GB SSD. (I setup a 1GB swap partition for hibernation and also used ext3 even though some sources say that the flash memory may die during the lifetime of the box.)</li><li>One issue I noticed was that my static IP configuration did get lost between reboots. Eventually I created a new connection from scratch and that worked fine.</li><li>After installation, I added the <a href="http://www.array.org/ubuntu/">Ubuntu EeePC kernel</a> and assorted tools which resolved the WLAN problem (even though I have not actually connected to any access points yet) and got all of the Hot Keys to work.</li><li>I thought the screen was a bit dark, so I looked around and found that using the following command makes it much brighter: <span style="font-weight: bold;">setpci -s 00:02.1 f4.b=ff. </span>(This may fry the screen apparently, so use at own risk.)<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></li><li>Also, the sound volume was very low. Appending the following to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base fixed this: <span style="font-weight: bold;">options snd-hda-intel model=auto</span><br /></li></ul>Everything else is pretty much ok. Apart from smaller fonts and makingg windows go above the top panel (with: <span style="font-weight: bold;">gconftool-2 --set /apps/compiz/plugins/move/allscreens/options/constrain_y --type bool 0</span>), I have not really made any changes.<br /><br />I am typing this on the little keyboard of the 901 and it is actually quite usable even though I would not want to type pages and pages on it. (Somehow the Blogger editor behaves a bit funny, but I guess this has nothing to do with the hardware but if anything with Firefox 3.)<br /><br />So far, I think this is an excellent little machine - it even plays <a href="http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/">Big Buck Bunny</a> in 720p without any problems. ;-)<br /><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote>Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-25214461517404986502007-05-07T07:42:00.000+10:002007-05-07T07:56:47.709+10:00Etch Upgrade - Sweet AsI upgraded my little file & print server and firewall (in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">UML</span>) VIA C3 box on the weekend.<br /><br />Everything went perfectly smooth, it even worked to upgrade via the apt-proxy that's running on the box. Super cool!<br /><br />The only issue I had was non-working HTTP connections via my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Telstra</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Bigpond</span> cable connection after the upgrade of the firewall <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">UML</span>. In the end I fixed it by forcing the same <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">MTU</span> on the cable-facing as on the LAN-facing interface. It may be related to NAT, but it worked with the same 2.6.18 kernel before the upgrade, so maybe it is an <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">iptables</span> thing.Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-7637885743172138032007-05-02T19:16:00.000+10:002007-05-07T07:42:41.019+10:00Mondo Rescue 2.2.2 Packages ReadyNew packages for amd64 and i386 are in unstable now. I did have to fix a few things here and there to get it to work. The biggest change is internal, however, I've finally moved to using upstream's install.sh script for the Debian package.<br /><br />I've tested with kernels 2.6.18-4-amd64 (amd64) and 2.6.18-4-k7 (i386) and the usual assortment of nasties, i.e. NFS, AFS, LVM & RAID using NFS as restore media and amd64 and i386 as platforms.<br /><br />Looks like 2.2.3 will be hot on its heels because of a bzip2-related issue with 2.2.2. (I normally use gzip, i.e. '-G' option, because it is heaps faster and compression rates are really only slightly worse.)Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-21328799027815929102007-03-05T20:35:00.000+11:002007-03-05T21:09:12.492+11:00IA64 Support for Mondo Rescue!The first fruit of my work on Debian IA64 packages for Mondo Rescue are now on <a href="http://people.debian.org/%7Eandree/packages/">http://people.debian.org/~andree/packages/</a>. It took a bit longer than I had anticipated and there was a bit of an interruption while I stayed on beautiful <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk_Island">Norfolk Island</a> for two weeks.<br /><br />Everything should be fine and dandy apart from the fact that <span style="font-weight: bold;">restores will currently miserably fail on IA64</span> because parted2fdisk expects an older version of parted than what Etch and Sid contain.<br /><br />So, why publish IA64 packages at all if they don't even work, I hear you scream. Well, firstly I thought I give a bit of an update and show that things are actually moving forward. Secondly, maybe I'm lucky and someone is interested in helping out with getting parted2fdisk to work with newer versions of parted or (better) in getting mondo migrated to using parted natively on all platforms (pending Bruno's approval).<br /><br />Other than that, the packages have a few user-visible improvements and fixes across all supported architectures and they bring the Debian packages a fair bit closer to upstream - see the changelogs for details.<br /><br />As usual, check out the new packages, let me know if something doesn't (or does) work, get involved! ;-)Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1169632371750808052007-01-24T20:28:00.000+11:002007-01-25T19:53:20.716+11:00linux.conf.au 2007 GleaningsI was fortunate enough to attend <a href="http://lca2007.linux.org.au/">lca2007</a> last week and to meet Bruno Cornec, the <a href="http://www.mondorescue.org/">Mondo Rescue</a> project leader, for the first time in the flesh.<br /><br />The conference was pretty cool, and I found the quality of the program to be generally impressingly high: Excellent topics, superb presentation skills, humor and genuine passion for the topic at hand. The atmosphere and organisation were great, too - extremely well done, <a href="http://lca2007.linux.org.au/Contact">7 Team</a>!<br /><br />My personal two highlights were:<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span><ul><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Tanenbaum">Andrew Tanenbaum</a>'s keynote because he really sticks to his guns and even after <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MINIX">20 years or so</a> finds new aspects that could make <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microkernel">microkernel</a> architectures appealing. This time it is system self-healing and robustness. Even though I yet have to try out the <a href="http://www.minix3.org/">Minix 3</a> CD I found in my conference bag, I guess he may have a point (and moving functionality into user space has been a happening thing for years now). I found the keynote to be both amusing and instructive and dealing with a pressing topic. Also, even though it probably is far from usable in real-world scenarios, at least with Minix 3 there is code and an actual system to demonstrate the ideas and concepts.</li><li><a href="http://www.0xdeadbeef.com/weblog/">Christopher Blizzard</a>'s keynote about <a href="http://www.laptop.org/">OLPC</a>, his participation in the <a href="http://miniconf6.debconf.org/">Debian Miniconf</a> distribution discussion and a conversation that we had over lunch after. (Admittedly, I was so excited during parts of the latter that I couldn't decide what topic to bring up, oh well.) My impression is that Chris is a person of integrity and real compassion for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software">Free Software</a>. He appears to have a very positive attitude and comes across as genuine. Chris may not have said that much new during his keynote, but I think he worked the subject of relevance for projects well. More importantly, Chris was the only one in the Debian Miniconf distribution discussion to make a firm stand for Open Source as an ideal and against binary drivers. (Not 100% true, <a href="http://azure.humbug.org.au/%7Eaj/blog">AJ</a> was as well, but really more appearing to report what Debian does. And a question for <a href="http://www.opensuse.org/">openSUSE</a>: Do you really think a marketing guy on a discussion panel will appeal to people?)</li></ul>Apart from the conference as such, it was super cool to meet Bruno. We had a number of good conversations and did some nice hacking, burning the midnight oil a couple of times. And <a href="http://www.hp.com/go/linux/">HP</a> gave me a (used) <a href="http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Home.jsp?&lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=12454&prodSeriesId=82074&lang=en&cc=us">zx2000</a> (which Bruno carried all the way from France to Sydney!) to enable me to work on the (Debian) Itanium port of Mondo Rescue - thank you HP and Bruno! <a href="http://lca2007.linux.org.au/talk/113">Bruno's talk</a> was well received, and it was great to actually meet people that use the software that I spend quite a bit of time on. :-)<br /><br />Finally, there is the Linus phenomenon (so you can tell this is my first<br />Linux conference) - he amazingly is basically left in peace: People who know him obviously talk to him and he participates vividly in discussions and so forth, but everyone else does the business as usual thing - no autographs, no photos, no nothing. I was (positively) impressed and refrained from asking him to sign my copy of <a href="http://www.thinkgeek.com/books/nonfiction/38b2/">Just for Fun</a> (just kidding).<br /><br />Finally, finally, I propose to find an <a href="http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/awesome">alternative</a> for the term 'awesome' next year. ;-)<span class="down" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"></span>Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1168781820116469412007-01-14T23:42:00.000+11:002007-01-15T00:38:32.130+11:00Debian Pre-Release of Mondo Rescue 2.2.1, Take 2mindi-2.21~r1021-2 and mondo-2.21~r1021-2 are now on <a href="http://people.debian.org/%7Eandree/packages/">http://people.debian.org/~andree/packages/</a> with the following changes:<br /><ul><li>petris works again during restore (self-inflicted, oh well).</li><li>Restore of ISO images and friends should now work when gzip (i.e. '-G') is used.</li><li>The network interfaces should be fine now when booting into a restored system for the first time.</li></ul>Other than that:<br /><ul><li>The crash in mondorestore when nuking from tape has disappeared. I have no idea what caused it or why it went away again, though...<br /></li><li>Kernel 2.6.18-3-k7 hangs when 'acpi=off' is specified (which is the default as per mindi's ADDITIONAL_BOOT_PARAMS, so restore fails with this kernel). I have filed bug <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=406809">#406809</a> which may or may not be related to <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=389931">#389931</a>.</li><li>The issue with booting a (NTFS) Windows partition failing after a restore appears to be normal as per the <a href="http://wiki.linux-ntfs.org/doku.php?id=ntfsclone">ntfsclone</a> <a href="http://man.linux-ntfs.org/ntfsclone.8.html">manpage</a>:<blockquote>Usually, Windows will not be able to boot, unless you copy, move or restore NTFS to the same partition which starts at the same sector on the same type of disk having the same BIOS legacy cylinder setting as the original partition and disk had.</blockquote></li></ul><ul><li>I have tried a few things playing with <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/index.shtml/">parted</a> and <a href="http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html">ntfsresize</a>, but so far the only thing that works reliably in order to get Windows to boot is resizing the partition using <a href="http://gparted.sourceforge.net/">gparted</a>. I still have to figure out what it is that gparted does differently. (If you know, please tell me!)<br /></li></ul>Off to bed now so that I'm fine and dandy when I pick up <a href="http://www.hyper-linux.org/">Bruno</a> from the airport in the morning for <a href="http://lca2007.linux.org.au/">lca2007</a>. :-)Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1168259756163906782007-01-08T23:15:00.000+11:002007-01-09T07:51:42.736+11:00Debian Pre-Release of Mondo Rescue 2.2.1Preliminary Debian packages for Mondo Rescue 2.2.1 are available at the usual place: <a href="http://people.debian.org/%7Eandree/packages/">http://people.debian.org/~andree/packages/</a>. (r1021 is the SVN revision of the actual 2.2.1 release.)<br /><br />The new version comes with quite an impressive list of fixes and enhancements as can be seen on the <a href="http://www.mondorescue.org">Mondo Rescue website</a>. The new '-G' option which allows for using gzip as the compressor is my personal favourite as it really speeds things up! Also, I've finally gotten around to fixing <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=222065">#222065</a> and there is no more unsolicited creation of directories in /var/cache anymore (neither submitted upstream yet).<br /><br />Unfortunately, there are a few issues:<br /><ul><li>Links in directories that actually are links themselves are not resolved correctly (fixed in the Debian package.).</li><li>nuke restore from tape makes mondorestore crash (at least on amd64). The workaround is to use automatic or interactive mode.</li><li>Windows 2000 does not boot after a restore (at least on amd64). The data is restored but there is something wrong with how fdisk creates the partition (I believe). This actually also happens with 2.2.0 as well, so it is not a regression. I have to look into this more. The workaround is to use gparted (or similar) and resize the windows partition/filesystem by a few MB.<br /></li><li>petris doesn't start when restoring (again at least on amd64). Surely the most minor issue I noticed so far...<br /></li></ul>Anyway, apart from the above, things seem to be ok. Give it a try if you like! If you do find more issues, let us know via the <a href="mailto:mondo-devel@lists.sourceforge.net">mailing list</a> and - even better - send a patch. ;-)<br /><br />Other than that, (belated) Happy New Year to everyone! :-)Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1167135023984174932006-12-26T22:55:00.000+11:002006-12-26T23:39:37.960+11:00Mondo Rescue Debian NewsI've used the Christmas time to do some work on Mondo Rescue:<br /><br />I've uploaded <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/mindi">mindi-2.20-2</a> which fixes RC bug <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=403454">#403454</a> and important bug <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=404315">#404315</a>. Luckily, I only had to apply patches provided by Matija & Bruno - thanks guys! I've <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2006/12/msg01113.html">asked</a> for the new version to be allowed into Etch but haven't heard anything yet (maybe I should have waited a few days first or something?).<br /><br />Also, I've packaged the new pre-release version of Mondo Rescue. You can grab it from here: <a href="http://people.debian.org/%7Eandree/packages/">http://people.debian.org/~andree/packages/</a>. I would much appreciate feedback on how things are working on Etch. So, if you take them for a spin, please let me know how it went, good or bad! The upcoming new release <a href="http://trac.mondorescue.org/query?status=closed&milestone=2.2.1">fixes a substantial number of bugs</a> and comes with some <a href="http://trac.mondorescue.org/browser/branches/stable/mindi/ChangeLog">notable</a> <a href="http://trac.mondorescue.org/browser/branches/stable/mondo/ChangeLog">improvements</a>, so it should definitely be worth checking out.<br /><br />Finally, when doing some testing I came across a problem with the stock Debian 2.6.18 kernel when used on a Mondo Rescue recovery media. It sometimes already hangs while booting and sometimes starts the restore only to hang later during formatting or even later during restore. This seems to only happen on i386 whereas amd64 is fine. It may also be restricted to my hardware (although it hangs in Qemu as well). 2.6.17 is fine btw. If anyone has an idea what could be causing this, that would be great as I haven't got the foggiest at the moment (there is no message whatsoever, it just hangs).Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1165104943879641012006-12-03T10:45:00.000+11:002006-12-03T15:14:20.436+11:00Upgrade Testing with QEMUI have been really busy until two weeks ago [Shameless plug: If you need a (technical) project manager and/or hands-on Basis person to get your SAP R/3 system upgraded to ECC6, get in touch.]. Which means I've been a bit slack - so slack in fact that <a href="http://blogs.turmzimmer.net/">Andreas Barth</a> had to resolve <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=398425">an RC bug in one of my packages</a> - mea culpa.<br /><br />Ridden by guilt I decided to finally do what I've been wanting to for some time: Putting the steps together to do a Debian test upgrade using <a href="http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/">QEMU</a>. I chose QEMU because it is free and readily comes with Debian. It is slower than VMware, at least without the non-free kernel module, but still usable on somewhat reasonable hardware. The actual upgrade steps given below are independent of the virtualisation technology used, so they will apply to VMware as well.<br /><br />Without further ado, here goes:<br /><ul><li>install the <a href="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_packages.pl?keywords=qemu&searchon=names&version=all&release=all">qemu package</a></li><li>optionally install the kqemu module:</li><ul><li>install the <a href="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_packages.pl?keywords=kqemu-source&searchon=names&version=all&release=all">kqemu-source</a> package (from 'non-free')<br /></li><li>run '<span style="font-weight: bold;">module-assistant prepare</span>'</li><li>run '<span style="font-weight: bold;">module-assistant auto-build kqemu</span>' (<a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://blog.daniel-baumann.ch/">Daniel</a><span style="font-style: italic;">, in case you read this: This may be easier than running make-kpkg as suggested in the README.</span>)<br /></li><li>install built package with '<span style="font-weight: bold;">dpkg -i kqemu-modules-[kernel version]<kernel></kernel></span><kernel>'</kernel></li><li>possibly change permisisons/ownership of '/dev/kqemu' to allow non-root users<br /></li><li>run '<span style="font-weight: bold;">depmod -a</span>' and '<span style="font-weight: bold;">modprobe kqemu</span>' to load module<br /></li></ul><li>create a disk image (<span style="font-style: italic;">Using qcow means we are not using a sparse file, so compressing and decompressing does not inflate the file.</span>): <span style="font-weight: bold;">qemu-img create -f qcow hda_40GB_sarge.qcow 40G</span></li><li>get a sarge install CD, e.g. <a href="http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/i386/iso-cd/debian-31r4-i386-netinst.iso">31r4 netinst</a></li><li>install the initial sarge system:</li><ul><li>start qemu e.g. like this: <span style="font-weight: bold;">qemu -m 512 -hda ./hda_40GB_sarge.qcow -cdrom ./sarge-31r4-i386-netinst.iso -boot d</span></li><li>start the installer and go through the normal motions</li><li>restart qemu like this: <span style="font-weight: bold;">qemu -m 512 -hda ./hda_40GB_sarge.qcow</span></li><li>finish the installation:</li><ul><li>select a mirror (<span style="font-style: italic;">Note that DNS is not setup - fix this or use IP addresses for repositories. Also, something like </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_packages.pl?keywords=apt-proxy&searchon=names&version=all&release=all">apt-proxy</a><span style="font-style: italic;"> comes in quite handy.</span>)</li><li>choose 'manual package selection' in the installer</li><li>update the packages as suggested by aptitude</li><li>quit aptitude and finish the installation</li></ul></ul><li>now would be a good time to take a copy of the fresh sarge install before continuing:</li><ul><li>halt the (qemu) system</li><li>copy the image file, e.g.: <span style="font-weight: bold;">cp hda_40GB_sarge.qcow hda_40GB_sarge_pristine.qcow</span></li><li>compress the copy (<span style="font-style: italic;">The uncompressed image is ~ 1GB, the bzip'ed one ~ 100MB.</span>)<br /></li></ul><li>install X:</li><ul><li>start aptitude, select 'x-window-system-core' and install</li><li>leave all X config settings standard, except:</li><ul><li>mouse device: /dev/psaux</li><li>mouse type: PS/2</li><li>screen size: 1024x768 (or similar)</li></ul></ul><li>install Gnome (<span style="font-style: italic;">That's just what I use, KDE or others are equally fine.</span>):</li><ul><li>start aptitude and select the following packages and install:<br /></li><ul><li>'gnome-desktop-environment'</li><li>'xscreensaver'</li><li>'gdm'</li><li>'gdm-thmes'</li><li>'synaptic'</li><li>'menu'</li><li>'menu-xdg'</li></ul><li>quit aptitude</li><li>restart gdm: <span style="font-weight: bold;">invoke-rc.d gdm restart</span></li></ul><li>now might be a good time to take another copy of the sarge install before continuing:</li><ul><li>halt the (qemu) system</li><li>copy the image file, e.g.: <span style="font-weight: bold;">cp hda_40GB_sarge.qcow hda_40GB_sarge_gnome.qcow</span></li><li>compress the new copy (<span style="font-style: italic;">The uncompressed image is now ~ 2GB, the bzip'ed one ~ 540MB.</span>)<br /></li></ul><li>install other software as desired that you want test the upgrade with, e.g.:</li><ul><li>'mondo'</li><li>'mondo-doc'</li></ul><li>perform the upgrade (following <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/i386/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html">the preliminary Release Notes</a>):</li><ul><li>get to the command line in the qemu system, e.g. by running '<span style="font-weight: bold;">invoke-rc.d gdm stop</span>' in a gnome-terminal </li><li>change apt source from sarge to etch</li><li>run '<span style="font-weight: bold;">apt-get update</span>'</li><li>upgrade the kernel by running '<span style="font-weight: bold;">aptitude install linux-image-2.6-486</span>' (<span style="font-style: italic;">This is not what the Release Notes say but it works for me.</span>) (<span style="font-style: italic;">Say 'Yes' to removing the running kernel.</span>)</li><li>upgrade aptitude by running '<span style="font-weight: bold;">aptitude update aptitude</span>'</li><li>upgrade the system by running '<span style="font-weight: bold;">aptitude -f --with-recommends dist-upgrade</span>'</li><li>if applicable, rerun and keep rejecting offerings to resolve conflicts until the one upgrading mondo is offered (I'll have to look into this.)</li><li>run '<span style="font-weight: bold;">aptitude -f --with-recommends install gnome-desktop-environment</span>' to reinstall Gnome</li></ul></ul>All in all, things seem to work ok. However, this is far from hitting the friendly green upgrade button and it just happens. So, I thought I try the next best thing to the friendly green upgrade button which is synaptic. Doing an upgrade with synaptic does actually work quite smoothly. It needs to be restarted a few times, leaves some cruft in terms of obsolete and orphan packages and the reboot doesn't really work from within Gnome, but other than that it is ok. Most notably, it didn't leave me with an unusable system in the middle of it all.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.advogato.org/person/robertc/">Robert Collins</a> made some interesting remarks about the challenges of upgrades last week when we had dinner with <a href="http://blog.madduck.net/">Martin Krafft</a> and a number of other great people. It looks like the Ubuntu folks are <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DistUpgradeProcessImprovements?highlight=%28update-manager%29">working</a> on improving update-manager but also the underlying infrastructure to smooth out the upgrade process. Maybe there could be an opportunity to work together on this and achieve a situation where upgrades become as smooth as installs are now due to the fantastic work of the <a href="http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">d-i</a> people.Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1160403582015310802006-10-09T23:22:00.000+10:002006-10-10T00:19:42.080+10:00New Upstream Mondo Rescue PackagesI have just uploaded mindi and mondo 2.20 (version numbers are now the same for mindi and mondo).<br /><br />This release marks a bit of a milestone in that we can ship the pristine upstream source in Debian for the first time because the busybox binaries were removed upstream. This together with the numerous bug fixes and stability improvements and combined with the fact that there are no revolutionary new features (despite the version number jump) made me decide to try and push the new upstream version into <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/">etch</a>.<br /><br />'Try' because although I've tested things quite thoroughly on both amd64 and i386, there is always a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residual_risk">residual risk</a> (one of my favourite <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliteration">alliterations</a> ;-) ) of something bad slipping through. I think that taking this risk is justified, though, because 2.20 should be a definite improvement over 2.09. Bruno and I worked really hard to get this released in time for etch (Thank you, Bruno, for making my priority your priority!).<br /><br />While testing, I found <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=389931">#389931</a>, <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=389729">#389729</a> and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=390653">#390653</a> (Thanks for your great help, Russ!). I've also found that archiving to tape doesn't work for me (still gathering more information, so no bug report yet), but it also fails with 2.09, i.e. there is no regression.<br /><br />Main testing was performed on:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/sid/">sid</a>, <a href="http://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/">amd64</a>, linux-image-2.6.18-1-amd64 (2.6.18-2), with NFS & AFS mounts, LVM, RAID1 & RAID5, onto NFS</li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/sid/">sid</a>, <a href="http://www.debian.org/ports/i386/">i386</a>, linux-image-2.6.18-1-k7 (2.6.18-2), with NFS & AFS mounts, onto DVDs</li></ul>Oh, and this also contains the fix for RC bug <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=391127">#391127</a>.<br /><br />People seem to be using <a href="http://www.mondorescue.org/">Mondo Rescue</a> on 'vintage' versions of Debian which is presumably due to Mondo Rescue being disaster recovery software. So, I've made a change to post-nuke suggested by Augustin Amann (Thank you, Augustin!) to make people using the latest packages on <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/sarge/">sarge</a> happier. I'm still in two minds about adding versioned depends on grep and binutils to make the life of <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/woody/">woody</a> (!) users a bit easier as well.Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1160311673424766292006-10-08T22:30:00.000+10:002006-10-08T22:47:53.440+10:00Freedom vs. Engineering, Part II<a href="http://blog.windfluechter.net/?q=node/141">Ingo:</a> What you describe is still an engineering problem, not one of freedom. If you can't do it yourself, you could find someone to do it for you. The point is that all the bits and pieces are freely accessible.<br />If you truly believe that the dependencies on tmpfs and udev should only be recommends, then I think you should file bug reports against the affected packages.<br /><br />PS: I've had trouble with package dependencies as a user myself. I've also had a <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=336395">bug filed</a> against one of my packages where I did reduce a depends to a recommends. So, I think I understand where you are coming from and generally agree that dependencies can be a chore. My point is merely that this is not about freedom but about engineering.<br /><br />PPS: Seems like the PS turned out as long as the post. ;-)Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1160288110927922862006-10-08T16:09:00.000+10:002006-10-08T16:15:10.926+10:00RE: Being forced into non-freeness of choice by Debian packages<a href="http://blog.windfluechter.net/?q=node/140">Ingo:</a> Maybe I am a bit over-sensitive here, but whilst I feel your pain, your complaint is a pure engineering issue and has nothing to do with (software) freedom. You have all the freedom to take the software packages you mention and change them so you don't have to use udev or tmpfs.Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1160284046602241602006-10-08T14:08:00.000+10:002006-10-08T15:59:51.560+10:00Debian Voting GaloreI've crawled out from underneath my <a href="http://www.mondorescue.org/">Mondo Rescue</a> stone and looked in bewilderment at the various vote messages in my inbox. (It's not quite as bad, I've followed things to some detail passively on private and planet.)<br /><br />The main questions seem to be:<br /><ul><li>Is it <a href="http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/vote_006">good</a> or <a href="http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/vote_005">bad</a> to collect money to pay people for getting specific tasks done in Debian? Does involvement of the DPL in such an initiative constitute a conflict of interest?</li></ul><ul><li>What is more important to the project, <a href="http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/vote_004">freedom of the content</a> or <a href="http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/vote_007">hardware compatibility of the system</a> shipped with Etch?</li></ul>Here is how I've voted and why:<br /><br /><blockquote>a65763d3-b1e2-4530-8ff8-aa5915274eb4<br />[ 1 ] Choice 1: Re-affirm DPL, wish success to unofficial Dunc Tank<br />[ 2 ] Choice 2: Re-affirm DPL, do not endorse nor support his other projects<br />[ ] Choice 3: Further discussion<br /><br /></blockquote><blockquote>49a98df6-2bd4-40c8-a559-7e15212dbd26<br />[ ] Choice 1: Recall the project leader<br />[ 1 ] Choice 2: Further discussion</blockquote><br />I think AJ is trying to improve things in Debian and that Dunc Tank is one attempt to do so. I believe it is a worthwhile attempt and can understand that he wants to be involved. While I also understand the concerns raised by other people, I believe that only time will tell whether Dunc Tank is in fact good or bad for Debian (I hope it's good). As far as the conflict of interest issue goes, I think it's less than ideal but the smaller evil to keep AJ as DPL whilst he's involved with Dunc Tank. I don't think AJ should run again if he stays involved in Dunc Tank as he is at the moment. I think that we need to consider integrating Dunc Tank into Debian if it is still alive and kicking in 12 months time. (Or to set up something similar as part of the project.)<br /><br /><blockquote>c2d43675-9efa-4809-a4aa-af042b62786e<br />[ 1 ] Choice 1: Release Etch even with kernel firmware issues<br />[ 2 ] Choice 2: Special exception to DFSG2 for firmware as long as required [3:1]<br />[ ] Choice 3: Further discussion<br /><br /></blockquote><blockquote>22fc4edd-1f6c-454f-b204-6aa0bad0ce1d<br />[ ] Choice 1: DFSG #2 applies to all programmatic works<br />[ 1 ] Choice 2: Further discussion</blockquote><br />I believe that we should indeed release Etch as planned even if that means shipping a number of firmware blobs. I do not think that an ongoing exception is appropriate here. If this is still not resolved by the time we want to release Etch+1, let's have an other GR.<br /><br />I am not sure what "program" really means in DFSG #2 - I've always taken it to mean the software, documentation, fonts and artwork that we ship as part of Debian. It likely has to comprise more than that, but I am convinced there have to be some exceptions:<br /><ul><li>It defeats the purpose and very nature to modify licence texts. If people can change a licence at will, there is not much point having one in the first place.<br /></li><li>It equally defeats the purpose to modify logos (and thus their representations as files of whatever format). Logos allow users to recognise more easily what content is available. It does not make sense to allow modification or use in a different context of such a logo as it would then be more confusing than helpful.*<br /></li></ul>I believe that these are just two examples of potentially many where 'free' versus 'non-free' are inadequate categories to think in.<br /><br />Finally, the DFSG are part of the Social Contract and not the other way round. I like this because I value doing the best for our users higher than some rules. The DFSG exist to empower our users - I don't believe that removing firmware blobs from the kernel serves this purpose. That said, we should by all means strive towards free firmware, but I view this as more of an incremental, ongoing task of convincing vendors over time.<br /><br />* I believe for example that the <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=354622">dispute over Firefox</a> would be best resolved by Debian using the Firefox logo (and name) and the Mozilla folks dropping there requirement for patch review.Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1159102875111656132006-09-24T22:50:00.000+10:002006-09-24T23:01:15.123+10:00Pre-Release mindi and mondo Packages AvailableI have some hopes that mindi 1.20 and mondo 2.20 will be released sufficiently early for the freeze (i.e. soon ;-) ). To help ensuring that things are indeed in good shape at release time, I thought, I make some pre-release packages <a href="http://people.debian.org/%7Eandree/packages/">available</a>.<br /><br />Please test and send feedback - good or bad!<br /><br />I've done some testing myself on amd64/DVD and i386/NFS with good results apart from the missing fixes for <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=320152">#320152</a> and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=379966">#379966</a> - they will be in upstream or the final package versions though.Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1159075126802405292006-09-24T15:06:00.000+10:002006-09-24T15:18:46.816+10:00Yeah - OpenOffice packages for amd64!Just noticed the new native 2.04~rc2 OpenOffice packages for amd64 in unstable. My first impression is: Wow, I've never seen writer starting up so fast! (Way under a second.)<br /><br />Congratulations to the <a href="http://openoffice.debian.net/">Debian OpenOffice.org Team</a>!Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1158760479502924552006-09-20T22:39:00.000+10:002006-09-21T00:00:16.246+10:00Bending the DFSG a little......is what <a href="http://steelgryphon.com/blog/">Mike Connor</a> appears to be suggesting <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=354622;msg=56">here</a>. As far as I can tell, <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/01/msg00503.html">this has already happened</a> - the way I interpret #8 of the <a href="http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines">DFSG</a>, it is not just about Debian and derivatives but absolutely everyone including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_laden">Osama Bin Laden</a> and<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_w_bush"> George Walker Bush</a> and even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_howard">John Howard</a>. ;-)<br /><br />Seriously, though, I perfectly understand that Mozilla needs to protect its <a href="http://www.brandchannel.com/boty_results/global_2005.html">brand</a> and they certainly have every right to do so. And we have every right to change the name and modify the code without asking anyone for approval. A right that we will have to exercise by the looks of it. How about 'freefox' (probably too close) or the 'browser otherwise known as firefox', short '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bokaf">bokaf</a>' (anyone?).<br /><br />I believe that Mozilla is doing the free software movement a disservice when they are as hard-nosed about their brand as it appears they are. They certainly need to put mechanisms in place to protect themselves from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr_Evil">Dr. Evil</a>s of the world. Debian most definitely does not belong into this category (neither do Redhat nor Suse nor any other Linux distribution I can think of). So why not just let sleeping dogs lie?<br /><br /><a href="http://ze-dinosaur.livejournal.com/">Eric Dorland</a> and <a href="http://web.dodds.net/%7Evorlon/wiki/blog.html">Steve Langasek</a> are my heroes for remaining calm and on topic in the discussion.Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1158666002959282792006-09-19T21:17:00.000+10:002006-09-19T21:40:03.093+10:00AFS Support for Mondo RescueI've finally uploaded mondo-2.09-3 packages which contain the changes to get Mondo Rescue working with AFS to fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=385790">#385790</a>. I should have communicated better with Bruno because he has done some <a href="http://www.mondorescue.org/cgi-bin/trac.cgi/changeset/787">work</a> in parallel on this. We have come largely to the same conclusions, though, which is always reassuring.<br /><br />2.09-3 also has some more changes done in the post-nuke arena. I felt that because it is now an integral part of the Debian package it needed some more love. Changes are:<br /><ul><li>Log the fact that no post-nuke script was found during restore.</li><li>Perform after nuke steps even if we dropped back to interactive mode because of issue with mount list.</li><li>Ask user after nuke to wait until s/he is returned to command prompt before rebooting.</li><li>Use run_program_and_log_output() instead of system() to get output of post-nuke logged.</li><li>Output screen messages about post-nuke.</li></ul>With these changes added, post-nuke behaviour is still not perfect but probably good enough for now. Hopefully, Bruno agrees and accepts the changes upstream.<br /><br />Finally, I've managed to get hold of a <a href="http://www.exabyte.com/products/products/get_products.cfm?prod_id=303">VXA-1a</a> tape streamer. It's IDE which sucks because Debian removed ide-scsi from the standard kernels a while back, so the <a href="http://www.exabyte.com/support/online/downloads/downloads.cfm?did=385&prod_id=303">vxaTool</a> doesn't work (yes, I know how to compile kernels, but I like to run a standard environment so that I can pick up on and reproduce issues). Then again, it's just for testing anyway and I can report that I've successfully done test runs with Mondo Rescue using it.<br /><br />Speaking of testing, mondo-2.09-3 was tested:<br /><ul><li>on sid amd64</li><li>running kernel 2.6.17-2-amd64 (2.6.17-9)</li><li>using DVD and tape (!!) as backup media (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=384692">NFS is still stuffed</a>)</li></ul>(mindi-2.09-2 which I uploaded a few days ago was basically tested the same.)Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1158060517794809932006-09-12T21:08:00.000+10:002006-10-06T20:35:58.310+10:00Easy Peasy AFS on DebianBug <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=385790">#385790</a> prompted me to set up an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_file_system/">AFS</a> client on my sid installation. This is something I hadn't done since I left uni almost nine years ago. Back then it was a bit fiddly to get the Transarc AFS client for Linux to work if I remember correctly.<br /><br />Things have quite obviously improved since then. The following is all that was required (with some helpful information provided by the submitter - thanks, Kevin!):<br /><ul><li>install packages openafs-modules-source and module-assistant<br /></li><li>follow the instructions in /usr/share/doc/openafs-modules-source/README.modules, i.e:</li><ul><li>module-assistant prepare openafs-modules</li><li>module-assistant auto-build openafs-modules</li><li>dpkg -i /usr/src/openafs-modules-<your>.deb<br /></your></li></ul><li>install package openafs-client and configure like this:</li><ul><li>leave AFS cell of workstation at default, i.e. local domain<br /></li><li>leave cache at 50000 kb</li><li>leave DB server host for home cell blank</li><li>answer 'Yes' <yes> <yes> to 'Run Openafs client now and at boot?'</yes></yes></li></ul><li>if this doesn't work, run dpkg-reconfigure openafs-client like this:</li><ul><li>leave AFS cell of workstation at default, i.e. local domain</li><li>leave cache at 50000 kb</li><li>answer 'Yes' <yes><yes> to 'Run Openafs client now and at boot?'</yes></yes></li></ul><ul><li>answer 'Yes' <yes><yes> to 'Look up AFS cells in DNS?'</yes></yes></li><li>answer 'Yes' <yes><yes> to 'Encrypt authenticated traffic with AFS fileserver?'</yes></yes></li><li>answer 'Yes' <yes><yes> to 'Dynamically generate the contents of /afs?'</yes></yes></li><li>answer 'Yes' <yes><yes> to 'Use fakestat to avoid hangs when listing /afs?'</yes></yes></li><li>leave DB server host for home cell blank</li><li>answer 'Yes' <yes> to 'Run Openafs client now and at boot?' (again)<br /></yes></li></ul><li>...and restart openafs-client afterwards</li></ul>(The need to reconfigure may be a bug, not sure.)<br /><br />In summary, <a href="http://www.openafs.org/">OpenAFS</a> and <a href="http://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=hartmans@debian.org">Sam Hartman</a>'s packaging effort make AFS a breeze to install on Debian!<br /><br />Now all I have to do is find the time to fix the bug. ;-)<br /><br />[Update] Important detail I forgot to mention: Open port 7001 on your firewall for UDP.<br />[Update] Added what to answer, i.e. 'Yes'. Doh.Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1157881652876393642006-09-10T19:29:00.000+10:002006-09-10T19:47:32.886+10:00SAP on Debian<a href="http://www.sap.com/index.epx">SAP</a> <a href="www.sap.com/linux/">has supported Linux</a> for many years. Debian, though, is not one of the supported distributions which I find unfortunate because I am an SAP <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consultant">consultant</a> and a Debian developer. ;-)<br /><br />I have manually installed an <a href="http://www50.sap.com/linux/eval/index.asp">SAP Testdrive</a> system on Debian from RPM packages years ago which was very painful. <a href="https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/4b5f23d3-0901-0010-19b6-d2e98d5586fb">Gregor Wolf's instructions</a> on <a href="https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn">SDN</a> make things look much less daunting for a regular install. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to try this in the next couple of months...Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1157880415906055842006-09-10T19:00:00.000+10:002006-09-10T19:26:55.916+10:00Mark Shuttleworth on Debian<a href="http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/56">Mark's take on what Debian's strengths and weaknesses are</a> makes for an interesting read. The way I interpret it, he wants us to be the plateau that other parties can put their spikes on top of (to use his symbolism). He mentions etch towards the end as one of those spikes, but essentially suggests we focus pretty much all our energy on sid because this is what we are good at and where our passion lies.<br /><br />I beg to differ.<br /><br />I firmly believe that Debian must remain relevant as an end-user distribution. Not only because essentially this is what our <a href="http://www.debian.org/social_contract">Social Contract</a> is all about but also because without (relevant) releases I very much doubt we'd be able to keep the momentum and attract (or even keep) good people as (new) developers.<br /><br />From Mark's point of view, his line of argumentation certainly makes sense: The better sid, the better a derivative like Ubuntu. From our point of view I believe it doesn't.<br /><br />And by the way, I do run sarge on my machine as "production" environment and I am thus much looking forward to the release of etch.<br /><br />That said, I do think that Ubuntu is better than Debian in some ways (but certainly not all), so on this I agree with Mark. I am just not sure that this really has to stay this way. Competition is good. ;-)Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1157377370035777792006-09-04T22:59:00.000+10:002006-09-10T19:00:12.516+10:00Vista rocks, AIGLX/Compiz is so, soNothing like the above to get a bit of an audience, I guess... ;-)<br /><br />I tried the freely available (i.e. no Passport account or other crap required) pre-RC1 build of Windows Vista sometime last week. Whilst I didn't delve all that deeply into new stuff that's under the bonnet, I played around with the new Aero GUI a bit. And I must say that I'm somewhat impressed. I thought the Luna style of XP was totally, utterly and completely ridiculous when I first saw it. Compared to that, Aero is quite neat and subtle. I rather like the frosted glass effect of the window title bar, the way windows are stacked at an angle for easy selection, the glowing window buttons and a few other bits and pieces.<br /><br />I've since wiped that disk and installed Fedora Core 6 Test 2 to have a look at AIGLX/Compiz. I thought I use Fedora since this is where AIGLX originates. I'm not at all excited about XGL because it appears to pretty much require proprietary drivers - not good. (I've actually got a Radeon 9600 which has experimental but AFAICS working 3D acceleration in Xorg from version 7.0). So far, so good. I got the cube thing working, wobbly windows, window and menu shadows, minimise/restore window effects, the 'film' desktop chooser, transparency on move and likely more that I can't recall right now. It's all working and not crashing. The only issue is that it doesn't feel "natural" (for lack of a better word). Maybe it's because there is a bit of a lag when doing something for the first time or after a while, i.e. moving a new and large window or spinning the desktop cube. I certainly think that my Radeon 9600 card should be up to it - after all it spins the cube at break-neck speeds. When doing similar things on OSX or even Vista it feels like this is just what you do; with AIGLX/Compiz it more feels like "Look what I can do!" without that certain matter-of-course-ness. Or, to reveal my age ;-), it feels a bit like early eighties pop music that had just discovered the possibilities of digital <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesizers">synthesizers</a>. (Also, and this can probably be considered a real bug, scrolling in Firefox is dead slow with AIGLX/Compiz.)<br /><br />Having said all that, I'm surely and truly excited about the possibilities of a vectorised desktop and think it's got oodles of potential. And I'm equally surely and truly appreciating the work people have put into this. I've merely come to realise that the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx9FgLr9oTk">blurred videos on youtube</a> may not necessarily convey the current state of affairs with total accuracy.Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1157115897437846602006-09-01T21:57:00.000+10:002006-09-01T23:05:28.330+10:00linux.conf.au<a href="http://lca2007.linux.org.au/">linux.conf.au</a> will be held from 15 - 20 January 2007 in Sydney, Australia.<br /><br />Hopefully, Bruno and I will be given the opportunity to share with others our experience with upstream/downstream maintenance of <a href="http://www.mondorescue.org/">Mondo Rescue</a>. The presentation we have submitted about this is called "Mondo Rescue & Debian - an Example for Upstream/Downstream Collaboration".<br /><br />It would be positively fabulous to actively participate in the conference and to be surrounded by people that share the same interest in FOSS. And meeting Bruno in person would be cool, too - after all, we've worked quite closely together for a year now without even speaking to each other. Maybe we'd even get some hacking done! ;-)<br /><br />I am excited!Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1156944167353885272006-08-30T23:18:00.000+10:002006-08-30T23:22:47.366+10:00POSIX DocumentationFor some reason, I always thought that it costs money to access the <a href="http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/toc.htm">POSIX Standard</a>. Not so - <a href="http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/toc.htm">it's freely available</a> (and they even provide a Firefox search plugin)!Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1156940329439398532006-08-30T21:50:00.000+10:002006-08-30T22:18:49.513+10:00Cheap Thrills (mondo 2.09-2)I've just uploaded mondo 2.09-2 which comes with a number of improvements and bug fixes (one reported and more unreported):<br /><ul><li>No more garbled screens or error messages because of insufficiently escaped strings used in <span style="font-style: italic;">system()</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">popen()</span>. (Well, not quite true, but the <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=379966">one known issue</a> should be fixed now with new function module <span style="font-style: italic;">mr_stresc()</span> that can be used wherever else needed.)</li><li>mondorestore will now ask in non-nuke mode whether an existing post-nuke script is to be executed. (Doing this is generally a good idea on Debian as the post-nuke script in the package updates the initrd image to adjust for RAID and other system changes.)<br /></li><li>Fixed issue where stabgrub-me would fail if /etc/grub.conf is a symbolic link preventing the user from editing the grub config file. (This requires readlink which I've added to mindi-busybox, hence the new mindi-busybox package version.)</li><li>I was getting segmentation faults in space_occupied_by_cd() - it's not a good idea to do <span style="font-style: italic;">fin = popen(...)</span> followed by <span style="font-style: italic;">fgets(...,...,fin)</span> without checking the success of the former. Fixed this by evaluating <span style="font-style: italic;">errno</span> after the <span style="font-style: italic;">popen() </span>call. (Strangely, with the <span style="font-style: italic;">errno</span> checking in place, <span style="font-style: italic;">popen()</span> doesn't seem to fail anymore, which might indicate a different underlying issue althogether - we'll see.)<br /></li></ul>Whilst working on the above I also experienced <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=384974">problems with ntfsclone</a> and the still very present <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=384692">NFS issue with kernel 2.6.17</a>.<br /><br />Because of bespoke NFS issue I tested with DVDs as backup media on amd64 with kernel 2.6.17-2-amd64 (2.6.17-7).Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22994776.post-1156506926674654142006-08-25T21:30:00.000+10:002006-08-25T21:55:26.710+10:00Blast from Your Past......is not only an interesting <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blast_from_Your_Past">Ringo Starr album</a>, but also describes quite fittingly the nature of an email I received today from <a href="http://home.twcny.rr.com/nerode/neroden/">Nathanael Nerode</a>.<br /><br />In his email, Nathanael inquires about <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=16827">#16827</a>, which I had filed a whopping eight years and 231 days ago today.<br /><br />I hadn't used neither <a href="http://home.nyc.rr.com/twopks/olvwm/">olvwm</a> nor <a href="http://www.lyx.org/">LyX</a> for many years (although especially the latter served me extremely well at the time). But I thought that Nathanael boldly going where noone had gone for more than eight years deserved an equally bold answer, so I installed and tested. The good news is that the issue does indeed appear to be fixed! :-)Andree Leidenfrosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283256192526426220noreply@blogger.com0