Ben Kevan’s Blog

RealPlayer dropped from openSUSE, here’s why

On the opensuse factory forums Alberto wondered why RealPlayer was dropped from openSUSE and pointed to this novell bugzilla report

I can’t believe that it’s because of the cost issue (as RealPlayer’s website doesn’t say there’s a cost but you do have to sign a license with them). Here are some of the portions of interest from RealPlayers Licensing FAQ:

2. What are the requirements for distributing the RealPlayer or RealJukebox on my CD?
Complete the on-line registration form, agree to the terms in the license agreement and submit your registration. Once your registration is approved you will be given the location where you can download a RealPlayer/RealJukebox specifically for distribution.

Granting of a license to distribute the RealPlayer/RealJukebox is subject to RealNetworks’ approval for quality assurance and appropriateness of material and software bundle. Granting of a license is also subject to all United States laws and trade policies.

3. How much does it cost to distribute the RealPlayer/RealJukebox on my CD?
Distributing the RealPlayer is free for Windows, Mac and available Unix platforms.

Honestly, I am glad Novell has done this, and hope all others do to. It should send a big enough message to other companies that have freely distributed software that “it should be allowed without an agreement, as long as it isn’t modified”.

if you really want realplayer 11 you can download it from real.com

Tags: 11.0, legal, opensuse, real player

Installing Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer on Linux (openSUSE) with CrossOver

In light of my download of CrossOver I thought I’d go over a quick overview of installing IE and Office on openSUSE.

I am assuming that you’ve already purchsed, registered and downloaded 9the rpm version) crossover-pro from CodeWeavers.com so here we go:

Open up a terminal / console / xterm and:

sudo zypper install /location/of/codeweaver.rpm
or
sudo rpm -ivh /location/of/codeweaver.rpm

The installation of codeweaver crossover pro is now completed (simple enough)

Now lets go on ahead and install Microsoft Office and IE (You must have a legal copy of MS Office to run the application on your Linux box).

To do this run:

sh -c “/opt/cxoffice/bin/cxinstallwizard”

That will bring up a window like so:

In the menu chose Internet Explorer (or Office, which ever you are going to install).

If choosing office, you can choose to install from the CD-ROM or from the installer file. To change to the installer file choose the option:

Other installer file:

and just browse to the location of the setup.exe

Now it’s just like a regular installation of Microsoft Office.

If installing IE it’s even easier, it asks a few simple steps and you’re done.

Sorry this walk through is quite choppy, i’ll probably fix it up later and beautify it, but it’s halloween and many other festives to enjoy.

Tags: codeweavers, emulation, wine

CrossOver by CodeWeavers and why I might drop native wine

I think the “lame duck” free CrossOver office day will do much better then bad for CodeWeavers. I will honestly have to say after a year I’ll re-evaluate wine / codeweaver progression and if codeweaver still outperforms wine as it does now, then I’ll cough up the few bucks and subscribe for another year (not to mention I am sure they’ll have another Major release around December to try to get the people that are “on the edge” after the lame duck download.

Ok.. so today I got my email with my registration code and went ahead and download and installed it. I then installed Office / IE6 (which I previously had run in Wine) and i’d be damned. The performance was way better, wineserver wouldn’t hang on occassion (this is a problem I had with wine running IE6), some little issues that wine had with ie6 (the look of the address bar etc) aren’t in codeweavers cross over office, Microsoft Word / Excel work faster, and better not to mention the 2007 Compatability pack was simple to install.

So props to the codeweaver developers, the wine developers (since this is really what it’s based off of), and the lame duck free day (again, a damn great ploy as they will at least get another 50 - 100 customers I am sure).

This is a great movement that I think will show that opensource companies can actually make a profit.

Tags: codeweavers, emulation, wine

Script for disabling users (follow up for creating user)

Just to follow up on my Blog posting of the creating users script, I give you my script for disabling users (disabling etc may come to follow).. So without further a-do, here we go:

PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
PGM=`basename $0`

if [ $(id -u) -eq 0 ]; then

# Logging information
DATESTAMP=`date +%Y%m%d`
TIMESTAMP=`date +%H%M%S`
LOGDIR=/var/log/$PGM

# Find out who I am
ME=`whoami`

while [ $# -ge 1 ] ; do
case $1 in
-h*)
echo “Use: $PGM account”
exit
;;
-*) die “$PGM: unknown option \”$1\”" ;;
*) USER_TO_DIS=$1 ;;
esac
shift
done

# If no user is defined we have to get one
while [ "$USER_TO_DIS" = "" ] ; do
echo -n “Who do you want to disable? “
read USER_TO_DIS || die “” 0
done

# check to be sure that the person has an account on the local machine
egrep -s “^${USER_TO_DIS}:” /etc/passwd >/dev/null
case $? in
0)
echo “Disabling from password file”

lockit passwd.lock

egrep -v “^${USER_TO_DIS}:” /tmp/passwd.tmp
egrep “^${USER_TO_DIS}:” /etc/passwd | \
awk -F: ‘{print $1 “:*DISABLED*:” $3 “:” $4 “:” $5 “:” $6 “:” $7}’ >>/tmp/passwd.tmp

ed /tmp/passwd.tmp < s/^${USER_TO_DIS}:/X${USER_TO_DIS}:/p
w
q
EOF

cmp /etc/passwd /tmp/passwd.tmp >/dev/null
case $? in
0) rm /tmp/passwd.tmp ;;
*)
mv /tmp/passwd.tmp /etc/passwd
;;
esac
chmod a-w /etc/passwd
chmod a+r /etc/passwd
unlockit passwd.lock
;;
1)
echo “$PGM: $USER_TO_DIS Does not have an account on $HOST”
;;
esac

egrep -s “[:,]${USER_TO_DIS}$|[:,]${USER_TO_DIS},” /etc/group >/dev/null
case $? in
0)
echo “Disabling from group file”

lockit group.lock

sed -e “s/\([:,]\)${USER_TO_DIS},/\1X${USER_TO_DIS},/” \
-e “s/\([:,]\)${USER_TO_DIS}$/\1X${USER_TO_DIS}/” \
/tmp/group.tmp

cmp /etc/group /tmp/group.tmp >/dev/null
case $? in
0) rm /tmp/group.tmp ;;
*)
mv /tmp/group.tmp /etc/group
#/etc/dist/bin/mail-group
;;
esac
chmod a-w /etc/group
chmod a+r /etc/group
unlockit group.lock
;;
1)
echo “$PGM: $USER_TO_DIS Does not have a group entry on $HOST”
;;
esac

# remove any left over mail spool file
rm -f /var/mail/${USER_TO_DIS}

# insure log directory exists
test -d $LOGDIR || mkdir -p $LOGDIR
LOGFILE=$LOGDIR/$DATESTAMP

# log what we do
echo “$TIMESTAMP-$ME $USER_TO_DIS” >>$LOGFILE

exit
else
echo “Only root may run $PGM”
exit 2
fi

Please any feedback is quite helpful, and any input to make the script better is obviously welcomed. Later I’ll post up some stuff for quarterly changes, enabling disabled users, and a few other things I’ve been putting together lately. Hope this series will be helpful.

Tags: linux, programing, scripts, user management

sudo zypper up from factory repo now requires EULA Agreement

So,

I went to upgrade from openSUSE 11.1 Beta 3Plus to Beta4 via the factory oss repository (i also have non-oss enabled), and for the first time ever it required me to agree to an EULA before upgrading.

Why is this? I already agreed to a EULA when installing the previous version, will I have to agree to a EULA every time a version change comes up, even if done via zypper dup or zypper up?

In order to install ‘openSUSE’ (product), you must agree to terms of the following license agreement:
openSUSE 11.1
Novell Pre-Release Software License Agreement
PLEASE READ THIS AGREEMENT CAREFULLY. BY INSTALLING OR OTHERWISE USING
THE SOFTWARE (INCLUDING ITS COMPONENTS), YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS OF
THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THESE TERMS, DO NOT DOWNLOAD,
INSTALL OR USE THE SOFTWARE AND, IF APPLICABLE, RETURN THE ENTIRE
UNUSED PACKAGE TO THE RESELLER WITH YOUR RECEIPT FOR A REFUND. THE
SOFTWARE MAY NOT BE SOLD, TRANSFERRED, OR FURTHER DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT
PRIOR WRITTEN AUTHORIZATION FROM NOVELL.

One of the very interesting points of the EULA, is that “THE SOFTWARE MAY NOT BE SOLD, TRANSFERRED, OR FURTHER DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PRIOR WRITTEN AUTHORIZATION FROM NOVELL.”

Am I not allowed to share openSUSE with others?

I am quite dissapointed with the EULA agreement during an upgrade. A new install I am fine with, but an upgrade using the package manager.. that hurts.

Renaming a Logical Volume (how to rename)

Today I was asked to rename a logical volume (something I hadn’t done before, but figured it was quite easy). Here’s what I ran:

lvm help

Which showed me the option of:

lvrename Rename a logical volume

Ah.. I thought to myself, this should be easy enough. So I did a quick poke at the man pages of lvmrename which netted me

lvrename [-A|--autobackup {y|n}] [-d|--debug] [-f|--force] [-h|--help] [-t|--test] [-v|--verbose] [--version]
VolumeGroupName OldLogicalVolumeName NewLogicalVolumeName

note: ugggg sorry for the formatting.. thank you wordpress.

So off I went, and here’s what I did:

sudo umount /mountpoint
sudo lvrename /dev/volgroupname/lgvold /dev/volgroupname/lgvnew
sudo vi /etc/fstab
fixed the required fstab settings
sudo mount -a (or you can mount each one individually, but in my situation I was able to just run umouna -a).

That’s it. Simple as that.

If you do happen to rename while mounted you’ll not be able to unmount. In that case just change to the new location in fstab and bounce the box (yes, that’s the easiest way.. sinec the device will keep showing busy, even though lsof and everything reports it shouldn’t be).

That’s it.. hope someone finds this helpful.

Tags: linux, lvm, maintinence

Using fslint to take control of your filesystem openSUSE

fslint is a great tool to help you maintain a clean filesystem by finding empty directory, duplicate files, temporary files, and broken sym links (among other things). One of the great features of fslint is it comes with a gui version called fslint-gui (imagine that).

To get, build and install fslint do the following:

wget http://www.pixelbeat.org/fslint/fslint-2.28.tar.gz
sudo rpmbuild -ta fslint-2.28.tar.gz
sudo rpm -Uvh /usr/src/packages/RPMS/noarch/fslint-2.28-1.suse.noarch.rpm

Note:If you use ubuntu you can install with:

sudo apt-get install fslint
or
sudo aptitude install fslint

Now run:

fslint-gui

First I would remove everything in the “Search Path” and add what you want to search no by clicking “Add”.

Note: Here you can choose what type of scan you want to do (recursive etc).

Now it’s as easy as clicking “Find”

Once the scan is completed it’ll fill out the selected section with its findings:

In my “Duplicates” section you can see I have many duplicates

I can either delete them here by clicking on them and choosing “Delete”

Or feel free to use it how you want. You can just take the output save it, and clean manually, or you can use it just to see what you might have out there.

I highly encourage you to check it out, try it on some folders in your home directory, just remember the bigger the directories being scanned, the longer the scan will take. This will also help you better understand your machine, and where you save your data :o)

Tags: filesystems, fslint, opensuse, performance

Boost libraries making their way into mainstream openSUSE

Today I did an update of factory using:

sudo zypper up -t package -r Factory\ Repo

To pick up the new updates. I checked out the new packages to be installed and removed and to my surprise I found taht most the boost packages have no been marked to be installed, this in the main stream installation of openSUSE 11.1. I’ll be interested to see if they all get installed by default with a new installation (I imagine they will).

Here’s all the boost packages being installed on my machine right now:

libboost_date_time-gcc43-mt-1_36-1_36_0 libboost_filesystem-gcc43-mt-1_36-1_36_0
libboost_graph-gcc43-mt-1_36-1_36_0 libboost_iostreams-gcc43-mt-1_36-1_36_0
libboost_math-gcc43-mt-1_36-1_36_0 libboost_mpi-gcc43-mt-1_36-1_36_0
libboost_program_options-gcc43-mt-1_36-1_36_0
libboost_python-gcc43-mt-1_36-1_36_0 libboost_regex-gcc43-mt-1_36-1_36_0
libboost_serialization-gcc43-mt-1_36-1_36_0
libboost_signals-gcc43-mt-1_36-1_36_0 libboost_system-gcc43-mt-1_36-1_36_0
libboost_test-gcc43-mt-1_36-1_36_0 libboost_thread-gcc43-mt-1_36-1_36_0
libboost_wave-gcc43-mt-1_36-1_36_0

As you can see the newest versions are being implemented (1.36.0). I wonder if we’ll get 1.37.0 which is due to be released at the end of October.

If you haven’t read the improvements that Boost can bring, or just want to learn more about it I’d highly recommend check it out at www.boost.org

I haven’t seen any openSUSE notification that boost was going to be included, so why the hush hush?

Tags: boost, opensuse, performance

Recover your lost Root Password openSUSE

A few days ago I recieved a funny email from someone (won’t name who, or where from) that they forgot their root password. My first thought was that they wanted to reset someone elses root password because who in the world would forget their ROOT PASSWORD. But then, I got to thinking. Maybe this person really did forget their password. So I thought I’d let him/her know how to do it:

First, reboot your machine and in the boot menu (Grub or LILO menu) put in the following:

Grub:
init=/bin/bash
LILO:
linux init=/bin/bash

Once you’re logged into the bash shell simply run:

passwd

enter in the new password twice, and then

reboot

For the security concious out there, this is one of the main reasons you should use a boot loader password. The password would keep them from changing these settings. Again they would also need physical access to the box.

Tags: opensuse, security

Speed up your Linux Boot and normal use ( openSUSE )

In a world where faster (in most sense) is better, people are always looking for ways to increase the efficency of their computers. While i’ve read other peoples thoughts and recommendations regarding speeding up your linux installation, many I just clearly do not agree with. Here are things I have done, and things I could/would have done if I was on less adept hardware:

First: I want to get out that clearing the terminals launch at boot via /etc/inittab will not help as much as many guides try to say. This uses just a very minute amount of RAM, and you’ll rarely see a difference. However if you do feel you want to chage this, you can disable (comment out) the following lines in /etc/inittab:

3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6

I recommend not removing any more then those. Again, this will give you minute gains in RAM usage.

Second: A great practice on any operating system (Microsoft and Linux alike) is to disable un-needed processes. This can be done quite easilly via YaST. To do this open YaST, click on System and click on System Services (Runlevel) see Figure 1. (note if you do not see this run the following to install it:)

sudo zypper in yast2-runlevel

Figure 1

Things I have disabled are:
joystick (I do not run any joystick etc)
nfs (I don’t attach to any NFS mount points)
ntp (I don’t care to attach to any NTP source)
(Note: I won’t tell you which ones TO disable as it is up to you to determine WHICH services are not needed, be sure you know what you are doing here.

Note: In Ubuntu the application that will do this for you is sysv-rc-conf. You can install it via:

sudo aptitude install sysv-rc-conf

Third: Is a great and simple way to increase the effectiveness of the RAM on your machine. This modification will allow more of your process to be stored into memory and not be sent to your swap (RAM is faster then Disk).
Note: This modification is for the machines with quite a bit of extra RAM to hand out and not for systems that lack usable RAM.

First you can check what your current swappiness level is (the higher the swappiness setting, the more often it will write to your swap (again which is located on disk). You can do this by running:

cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

I believe openSUSE ships by default at 60, but most distributions ship with swappiness set to 50 - 60.

Now to test this setting before making it permenant. You can run:

sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=0

If you feel the performance gains, are good, or you just feel like setting it permenantly you must modify /etc/sysctl.conf. To do this edit the file in your favorite editor:

gnomesu gedit /etc/sysctl.conf
kdesu kwrite /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo vi /etc/sysctl.conf

Add the following line to the end of /etc/sysctl.conf:

vm.swappiness = 5

(Note: You can choose your value, the lower the value the less swapping that will take place).

Fourth: Disable IPv6 if you will not be using it. I won’t go too far into this, you can do this in YaST –> Network Devices –> Network Settings.

Fifth: Tune your applications.
OpenOffice.org Will allow you to change it’s memory consumption. You can do this by opening any OpenOffice.org application, then going to Tools –> Options –> OpenOffice.org –>> Memory. You can play around with this setting for your need, but changing the number of graphics in cache, and increasing the amount per object may be quite useful.

Compiz Most people consider this to be a great “eye candy tool”. I honestly consider it a functionality and productivity tool and use it for this function day by day. If you NEED to run it, make sure you trim what plugins load, and just slim it down to the functional features you use. If you don’t need Compiz just disable the desktop effects. This will free up a good amount of resources.

Sixth: Replace bulky applications:
Firefox I actually didn’t want to touch on this because FireFox 3.1 looks like it will actually lower the memory consumption by Firefox, but with that said, 3.1 is in Alpha (or pre-Alpha so I have to mention this). Use Opera, which can be install via:

sudo zypper in opera

.
Opera is a full feature browser, and uses quite a bit less memory and overall resources then firefox does. If you’re running KDE you also have the choice of Konqueror, but again I would highly recommend Opera if you’re low on resources, or looking to conserve.
OpenOffice.org You have many other word processors avaliable to you in Linux. If you just need a basic editor use gedit, kwrite, or if you need a more feature full processor and can’t afford the hit from openoffice use obiword, or koffice.

Change your Desktop Environment. Most people will run GNOME or KDE. Those are some of the higher resource intense DE’s and on a machine where resources are really in need can be replaced with lightweight DE’s like XFCE (blackbox, enlightenment, icewm (note: these ones are for more advanced users)). XFCE can easily be installed via YaST. To do this open YaST –> Software –> Software Management. Under Filter choose Patterns and check the XFCE Desktop Environment option.
(Personal Experience: I find that KDE uses fewer resources then GNOME, and find it’s functionality to be even greater. This is one reason I have chosen openSUSE over Ubuntu. Sure, you can install Kubuntu or KDE packages within Ubuntu, but it is not developed upon like it is on openSUSE).

Those are the basic things that can be done to help speed up your machine for daily use, and to speed up your boot process.

Now onto some other things that I’ve done on my machine just from personal experiences:
Run

ps -ef | more

Check what is running that I don’t really need. Kill the process. After i’ve killed the processes I don’t care for I save my session ( I do this because I have my KDE set to start on the last manually saved session ).

Another modification I’ve added to try to increase performance with EXT3 is adding

noatime,nodiratime

in my /etc/fstab mount point for my /home.
This is how the line looks in fstab:

/dev/system/home /home ext3 acl,user_xattr,noatime,nodiratime 1 2

Install a Vanilla Kernel. This will remove all the patches installed by the SUSE developers, but will increase your boot time by about 10 - 15% (dropped my boot time by about 8 seconds). This is for advanced users, if enough people as for this, maybe i’ll blog about it.

I also removed that damned dog Beagle, and the security feature apparmor. I removed beagle because most my files are kept on a offline disk, and again this is one of the main reasons I removed apparmor.

I’m sure i’ve done other things, and I just can’t remember right now. I’ve just pulled these off the top of my head and can’t really think of anything as it is bed time.

Shameless plug: You can read a previous posting of mine which will allow you to check your before and after boot times. Check out the posting here for that.

Hope this helps someone and please feel free to add your comments to make this a better comprhensive list.

Tags: opensuse, performance, ubuntu

Script for adding new users

A few people have asked about scripting new user installation for your needs so I thought I would share the script I have made and use to create users in my environment. In my environment I require the assigning of the UID (as I would like UID’s to be the same across all machines), comment (GELOC (I use it for putting in the full name of the user)) and obviously the username. I have also written it to assign a default password that is set to expire and change the next time they log in.

So without further ado:
#!/bin/bash
# Script to add a user to Linux systems

# Make sure we have the required paths
PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
PGM=`basename $0`

if [ $(id -u) -eq 0 ]; then

# Logging information
DATESTAMP=`date +%Y%m%d`
TIMESTAMP=`date +%H%M%S`
LOGDIR=/var/log/$PGM

# Find out who I am
ME=`whoami`

# Gather argument information
while [ $# -ge 1 ] ; do
case $1 in
-c*) COMNT=`echo $1 | sed -e ’s/^-c//’` ;;
-d*) HDIR=`echo $1 | sed -e ’s/^-d//’` ;;
-g*) GROUP=`echo $1 | sed -e ’s/^-g//’` ;;
-s*) USHELL=`echo $1 | sed -e ’s/^-s//’` ;;
-u*) UUID=`echo $1 | sed -e ’s/^-u//’` ;;
-h*)
echo “Use: $PGM -uUID -gGROUP -cCOMMENTS [-d/path/to/homedir] [-sSHELL] account”
exit
;;
-*) die “$PGM: unknown option \”$1\”" ;;
*) ACCT=$1 ;;
esac
shift
done

# If no account name on command line, get one
if [ "$ACCT" = "" ] ; then
while [ "$ACCT" = "" ] ; do
echo -n “What is the username? “
read ACCT
done
fi

# If no uid on command line, get one
if [ "$UUID" = "" ] ; then
while [ "$UUID" = "" ] ; do
echo -n “You need to provide a UID? “
read UUID
done
fi

# If no comment on command line, get one
if [ "$COMNT" = "" ] ; then
while [ "$COMNT" = "" ] ; do
echo -n “You need to provide comments (ie Full Name)? “
read COMNT
done
fi

# If no group on command line, assume “users”
if [ "$GROUP" = "" ] ; then
GROUP=users
fi
GID=`grep ^$GROUP: /etc/group | awk -F: ‘{print $3}’`
test “$GID” = “” && die “No group named $GROUP”

# If no home directory on command line, assume /home/$ACCT
if [ "$HDIR" = "" ] ; then
HDIR=/home/$ACCT
fi

# If no shell on command line, assume /bin/bash
if [ "$USHELL" = "" ] ; then
USHELL=/bin/bash
fi

echo “This is what is to be added - ok? (^C if not)”
echo “$ACCT::$UUID:$GID:$COMNT:$HDIR:$USHELL”
read ans

# insure log directory exists
test -d $LOGDIR || mkdir -p $LOGDIR
LOGFILE=$LOGDIR/$DATESTAMP

egrep -w “^$ACCT” /etc/passwd >/dev/null
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
echo “$ACCT exists!”
exit 1
else
password=$ACCT
pass=$(perl -e ‘print crypt($ARGV[0], “password”)’ $password)
useradd -u $UUID -g $GID -c “$COMNT” -d $HDIR -s $USHELL $ACCT -p $pass && chage -d 0 $ACCT

[ $? -eq 0 ] && echo “$ACCT has been added to system! They will be required to change password on first login” || echo “Failed to add $ACCT!”
# log what we do
echo “$TIMESTAMP-$ME-$ACCT::$UUID:$GID:$COMNT:$HDIR:$USHELL” >>$LOGFILE
fi
else
echo “Only root can run $PGM”
exit 2
fi

I have to say sorry for the formatting that wordpress butchered. I do use good practice when scripting, just wordpress didn’t show that.. haha.

Tags: scripting, user management

Command not found - openSUSE 11.1 preview

Have you ever tried running an application, only to get “command not found”. Well, that sucks and you’ve probably asked yourself “well, ummm, what package is this application part of?”.

Well wonder no more. As openSUSE 11.1 this feature has been implemented. I first saw the feature in openSUSE Beta 3. I must note, that I did an upgrade from 11.0 to Beta 2, then to Beta 3 so my experiences may not be exactly like yours.

First, I installed the command-not-found package, which is on the factory repository.

sudo zypper in command-not-found

Next, I opened up Konsole (I run KDE) and typed evolution (GNOME Mail Client, which I do not have installed). Bummer, all I got was:

bash: evolution: command not found

It didn’t tell me what to install.

So I checked out the README for command-not-found which can be found i nthe following spot:

/usr/share/doc/packages/command-not-found/README

Note: This is for users of the BASH shell.
Awesome, it tells me I have to add:

if [ -f /etc/bash_command_not_found ]; then
. /etc/bash_command_not_found
fi

to

/etc/bash.bashrc

Which would give it to all users, but I decided I only wanted to activate it for myself, so I put the above in:

~/.bashrc

Killed my session, relaunched konsole and type evolution, now I get:

The program ‘evolution’ can be found in the following package:
* evolution [ path: /usr/bin/evolution, repository: zypp (OSS_11.1_Factory) ]
Try: sudo zypper install evolution
bash: evolution: command not found

Sweet. Awesome, about time.. however I don’t want to install it so I won’t run sudo zypper install evolution. However, I think “Try:” should be rephrased to:

Try installing with: sudo zypper install evolution

I haven’t checked to see how it’s immplemented in a new install of openSUSE 11.1 Beta 3, but I am hoping it’s activated by default for all users.

Great job openSUSE guys.

Tags: bash, opensuse

Microsoft Security apparently is a Bad Request

So right on the cusps of the Emergency patch release by Microsoft on Oct 17th, I decided to try to read up on it (I run Linux, so I was immune anyways). Read More about that here

But to my surprise when I went to go read up on security on Microsoft’s stuff, I thought “Hey, they must have a security subdomail”, so I went to security.microsoft.com and here is what I got:

Click for image for full size picture

How I read that is Microsoft Security is a Bad Request (or a request that cannot be fulfilled).

Just thought I’d share with you guys, it made me laugh.

Tags: Microsoft, security

openSUSE 11.1 Beta 3 My first shot (KDE 4.1.2)

As you may have read, openSUSE 11.1 was realeased and was shipped with KDE 4.1.2. I’ll go into my initial experience with 4.1.2, after I touch on a few changes since some of the older betas:

What’s changed since beta 1?
Major changes in this release include:
» Live CDs for x86 and GNOME and KDE
» OpenOffice.org 3.0
» Mono 2.0 Final
» Linux 2.6.27.1 (fixes e1000e issue)
» CUPS 1.3.9
» Parts of 11.1 branding are now in place
» Amarok 2.0 beta 2
» Banshee 1.3.2
» GNOME 2.24

» KDE and GNOME integration is ignored (bnc#433076)
» GNOME quickstarter does not work (bnc#434778)
» localized strings are not updated from extra sources
» optional packages are not really optional because the registry files are not spread correctly
» the user configuration includes symlinks to /usr/share/ooo3 instead of that real files; it might be a feature but it might also cause problems in the future.
» pyuno components are still not registered
» Suse-puzzler.xls works only partly; e.h. “Sneaky Peak” or “About” works but the “Shuffle” does nohing. Also, pieces can’t be moved by mouse.
» some missing hacks from ooo-build/bin/package-ooo and older OOo.spec
» missing OOo-sdk compat stuff (to build voiko…, bnc#428403)

List gathered from openSUSE 11.1 Beta 3 announcement

So now onto my experience.

My installation was simple, I actually did a

sudo zypper dup

From openSUSE 11.0. I ran it a few times, and after a while all was updated. (Note: I skipped the whole portion of me removing all my 11.0 repositories including the OSS and NON-OSS)

I originally only had KDE 3.5.10 on the machine, which behaved as it should, (with the exception of a problem with compiz. A bug report has been filed, and shouldn’t effect everyone. Please check out http://bugzilla.novell.com if you wanna poke around). Since this was such an easy upgrade, and nothing changed on the KDE 3 side, I decided to install the highly touted, and highly talked about (in both good and bad ways) KDE 4 (note: I tried KDE 4.0.0 - 4.0.4, and made the conclusion that it was not ready for my daily production work use).

I open up YaST and install the 2 KDE4 Patterns. I add kde4-konsole, and NetworkManager-kde4 to the mix, and log into KDE4. My first impression was “Damn, this is pretty nice looking.”. I was logged in, I had a panel that I could actaully modify (height etc), and I had been logged in for over 10 minutes without a crash (I’ve now gone 100% longer in KDE4 this time, then I have in previous attempts). KNetworkManager(3) launched instead of KDE4’s KNetworkManager (I assume this is because I had another session open, so I don’t consider this a fault).

I then pushed my luck. I added a second panel. Went to resize it, but no juice. The panel I added was able to be resized bigger, but not smaller ( I found this out after I made it 450 pixels for fun). Ok, removed the silly thing. Now the honeymoon period feels over, since KDE4 and I are starting to have our little bickering contest. I pout off like a little kid to change my theme, maybe a new look will make me feel better. Switch to the first theme, and apply.. Cool, but not cool enough, so I try the next. Dropped down the box, chose one, and clicked apply… BLINK.. plasma crashes, and everything comes back (hey, at least it came back, in 4.0.0 you were left with nothing).

Opened up dolphin, man I think to myself, this thing is snappppppy. I am quite impressed with the performance. I do a few other things that would put you guys to sleep, and log back into my KDE3 session to write this up.

So how would I rate my overall experience? a 7 / 10. A much higher 2 / 10 I would have given 4.0.4. Most my issues seem to be with the panel (I love my little panel). Here are my biggest gripes:
1.) Newly added panel couldn’t be resized
2.) When resized my panel to 24Pixel, the system tray icons were off the screen, and other icons were not scaled (maybe I needed to restart x?, whelp I don’t care to find out).
3.) I couldn’t change the translucency setting on the panel.. (booooo.. ok.. minute point).

A few other things I can’t think of right now.. since I did just get a root canal, and going back for a crown and some fillings..

All in all, I would actually install and use KDE4, if it weren’t on my machine that I use daily for work, and hell I may actually try it for work if I get too bored :o)

I know this is a pretty shotty review, but I plan on doing a much more comprehensive one with openSUSE 11.1 Final, which will include KDE 4.1.2 and GNOME 2.24 (Both installed into a Virtual Machine with all the packages they want from installation), with many more pictures, and quite possibly the installation process :o) So be sure to check back.

Note: I have had other issues with Beta 3, that I did not include in this, since they were not KDE 4.1.2 centric. They include netconfig not using /etc/sysconfig/network/config, and few other very minor “enhancements”. But .. you all the get point, it’s a beta build.

Tags: 11.1, kde4, opensuse

Using bootchart to capture your boot process openSUSE 11

Have you booted up your computer and wondered, what is really going on here. Why is it taking so long, or how could a new kernel, or a kernel modification help speed up my boot. Well wonder no more.

There is an application for Linux called Bootchart, which allows you to do just that. First, lets install it and see what we get. To install on openSUSE just run:

sudo zypper in bootchart -y

You now have it installed, but now what? Here you can either type in init=/sbin/bootchartd in the grub menu box, or (this is the approach I took) add an entry into grub’s /boot/grub/menu.lst. For this example we will be utilizing YaST, to copy our current default Grub entry and modify to work with bootchart (you only have to log into this option when you want to chart your boot process).

To do this, do the following:

Log into YaST, go to System on the left hand side, and click on “Boot Loader” in the right hand pane.

This will bring up the Grub Menu Editor, Next Click on the choice that has the check mark next to it (this is your default kernel option that gets chosen when you boot).

Now click on “Add”, and choose the “Clone Selected Section” option

Click “Next”, now in the “Optional Kernel Command Line Parameter” field, put in “init=/sbin/bootchartd” (without the quotes) and assign a reasonable name (I try to keep the name the same as my copied selection, and add - BootChart to the end).

Click on “Ok” and verify you see the new option in your list of Grub menu choices:

Now it is time to reboot your computer and at the Grub menu, choose your new Grub menu option that was just created.

Ok, cool.. So what did that do?
It actaully created a compressed file in /var/log named bootchart.tgz. But having just that file would do nothing for you, since it’s not in a readable format.

So here is where we work all the magic. To format what we just made into a usable format run:

sudo bootchart –format png

Important Note: That is 2 -’s not a single -, 2 different ones - -
Note: at this point you can format it as svg, png or eps by changing the last option.

Here is an example of what you’d get:

Now, you are all done. You can wow your co-workers, impress your bosses, or do whatever you want to your kernel to try to trim that time down. Now when you next log into your kernel, you just continue going into your original default option, and the next time you want to chart your boot time again, just go back to that option added. If you’re going to do a new kernel to test the new kernels speed, make sure you add the init=/sbin/bootchard to the kernel params when you put it into grub.

Here you can see a comparison I did to see what I would gain from compiling a kernel with just a fewer options (I didn’t want to take too much time and hammering out a very thing kernel, just to show the usage of the tool for this write up, but here are two of my charts).

Vanilla 2.6.27.2 Kernel
SUSE 2.6.27.1 Kernel from openSUSE 11.1 Beta 3

I hope you enjoyed this write up, and with all the extra time on your hands you should check out:
BootChart.org as they obviously have good material there regarding bootchart.

Tags: bootchart, grub, kernel, opensuse, performance