Thursday, January 21st, 2010
We have added a category called “Announcements” for announcements in lieu of spamming the group with e-mail.
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
Here are some notes from the Starfish meeting
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
Windows Local Administrator Password Reset
Petter Nordahl-Hagen’s offline password reset tool.
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/
I have used this tool kit for over a decade and it is reliable, as long as you understand the one big caveat:
Encrypted XP, Vista, or Windows 7 files will stay encrypted. That is, if you don’t know the original Administrator password for an encrypted set of files changing the Administrator’s password won’t help.
If given the option of removing the password rather than changing it removal is usually safer.
—-
Uh, I forgetted my Linux root password, too.
This is substantially easier on Linux.
Boot the machine.
‘e’ the kernel /vmlinuz… line of the Grub menu when it appears.
Add a 1 to the end of the line.
‘b’ to boot and the machine will boot to single user root mode and you will already be logged in as root.
passwd[enter]
You will be prompted for the new password twice.
You are done.
Reboot.
In either Windows or Linux once you have replaced the Administrator or root password you can change all other passwords on the system. As you can see this is a good reason to keep your computer physically secured. The advent of huge open workspaces poses a very serious security threat and in these environments it is usually a good idea to password protect the CMOS on the computer and disable booting from anything except the hard disk drive. In these environments it is also wise to lock or seal the computer case to prevent people from erasing the CMOS password using the jumper on the motherboard.
On the server side of the network in Cube Land you can restrict or monitor access by time frame. This is a very good idea in facilities that may be idle for days during holidays. I have gone as far as having the server contact site security when logins happened at unexpected times. If you do this you have to maintain a small database of user ID’s and people’s names. The e-mail to security identifies the location of the computer and the person whose account is being used to login. Then they drop by and verify that the person is who they should be and not somebody who has stolen a password. If this is well organized the employees never know the system is there monitoring after hours access and the security folks learn who is normally in the building working late, and who it is unusual to see on the system at 1:00 a.m.
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
GRUB: The GNU GRand Unified Bootloader
GRUB is the thing that breaks most often in a dual-booted Linux system, but it is also the easiest to repair if you have a boot CD-ROM or Flash drive handy.
There are a number of useful commands in grub.conf or menu.lst (usually a link pointed to grub.conf)
On Fedora you can find grub.conf here:
/boot/grub/grub.conf
Here is a dual boot example:
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol03
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda This is a comment telling you where it thinks the boot volume is.
default=0 This is the operating system you want to boot. 0 is first, 1 is second, and so on.
timeout=5 This is how many seconds you want the menu to appear on the screen before booting--the countdown timer.
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz This is the splash screen. It is 640x480 by 16 colors. To create a custom screen
to be displayed behind the boot loader you create a 640x480 file in The GIMP and then change the Image->Mode->Indexed
This will display a screen where the only change you need to make from the defaults is the maximum number of colors.
Set the maximum number of colors to 14 (that's colors + B&W = 16).
Then save the file as name.xpm.gz and move it to the /boot/grub/ folder.
Change splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/name.xpm.gz.
If all went well your computer will now have a picture of Yoda on the screen when it boots.
hiddenmenu This is optional and allows you to hide the menu unless a user presses a key during the boot sequence.
title Fedora (2.6.30.10-105.2.23.fc11.i586) This is the title of the first operating system. It can be anything you like.
root (hd0,0) This is the partition to look for the operating system on. This is the one area where some configuration tools can
keep your system from booting properly. The symptom looks like this:
GRUB_
You boot the machine and that is all that happens and that is all it says.
The good news is that this tells you that GRUB has taken over the Master Boot Record.
The bad news is that it is all dressed up with nowhere to go and you will have to boot from a CD and fix the grub.conf file.
(hd0,0) points to the first IDE disk partition in the system. Some SATA drives are recognized as "sd" devices as are SCSI drives.
The easiest way to resolve this issue is trial and error. If (hd0,0) isn't the boot drive it is most likely that it is (hd0,1) and
partition 0 is hidden and used by the original equipment manufacturer for diagnostics--this is true on both IBM and Dell.
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.30.10-105.2.23.fc11.i586 ro root=/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol01 rhgb quiet
This is where the Linux kernel lives.
/vmlinuz... is the name of the kernel file stored in the /boot directory
The root path generally points to your / directory.
rhgb and quiet are the default start up modes for GRUB.
'rhgb' causes a graphic boot.
'quiet suppresses printing messages to the screen prior to rhgb starting.
If you want to boot your machine without X-Windows coming up, usually because X-Windows won't come up,
you can add a runlevel as a single digit after quiet. 'blah-blah-blah, etc.,etc.,etc, rghb quiet 3'
1 = single user mode. This will let you change the root password if you have forgotten it.
2 = two. I never use it so I don't know what is different, it might load network drivers.
3 = terminal mode. This is precisely the same mode you are in when you are running a terminal in Gnome.
4 = four. Again I never use it so I don't know what is different about it.
5 = Graphic mode. This is what the machine will normally default to.
To accomplish the same thing from the terminal without rebooting the machine you can use the init command.
initrd /initrd-2.6.30.10-105.2.23.fc11.i586.img
This is the image of the initial RAM disk used to run the system while it boots. This file is also stored in /boot
If you are running multiple versions of Linux on multiple disk partitions you will have a vmlinuz and an initrd.img
for each version of Linux you have on the machine. They can all live in the same /boot directory with no problem.
title Windows
unhide (hd0,1) The (un)hide command can be used to protect partitions from other OS's seeing them.
In general it is a BAD idea to hide (hd0,0) if your Master Boot Record is on that partition.
rootnoverify (hd0,1) This tells GRUB not to care what is on this drive.
chainloader +1 This tells GRUB to start executing the first thing it sees on the partition.
makeactive This tells GRUB to boot it up and be done.
It is pretty common to use hide and unhide when you are using non-Linux OS’s on the machine to prevent confusion and disaster.
And again if GRUB just comes up and says GRUB_ you are on your way to guessing which partition is which. On the other hand GRUB is bulletproof, even if it isn’t Teflon-coated so as long as you get to that point you know your MBR is okay and you can calmly boot from a CD-ROM and edit your /boot/grub/grub.conf or menu.lst file until you find the right drive.
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
Drive DMA Conflict
So you try to install to the hard disk drive from the LiveCD and it never quite gets done…
1. Check the BIOS for odd settings.
2. When you boot the LiveCD instead of letting it boot into X-Windows press ESC and then edit the “boot” line and add a “3” at the end of the line to bring the computer up in the terminal instead of loading all of the other stuff for the desktop. This takes significantly less RAM and will run faster.
3. Login as “root” with no password.
4. Run the /usr/bin/liveinst command. This will do the same live installation that the desktop link does, but it does not require as much RAM and it does not appear to lose track of the CD-ROM.
GLParted
Repartitioning using GLParted. I found that the GLParted routine supplied with the Puppy OS live CD is a bit more reliable than the one supplied by the GLParted project. No matter which one you use to shrink your Windows partition do each operation one at a time–the software will let you delete multiple partitions, but this does not seem to be reliable on older hardware. It is better to make one change and then hit the apply button and let it get written to the drive.
I was able to repartition FUMC3 using GLParted without any major problems and install Fedora 11 to the remaining space on the HDD and keep Windows running. This gives us a Windows box in the group so we can examine Samba and the cross-platform tools available to us.
Puppy Linux
I was amazed at how fast Puppy Linux is on very old hardware. I attempted to do a HDD install so I could boot from the old machine without much luck. It is probably better to take Puppy’s advice and simply create a file to store the OS changes in and continue to boot it from CD.
Yum (Yellowdog Update Manager)
This week we’ll cover Yum for the folks who didn’t make it out in the snow. For those of you who did the important things to know are:
1. Always check the list of updates for updates to the kernel and to yum. I have found that these are best done by themselves, especially yum updates.
2. To check for updates su – into the root account or use the sudo command and:
#yum check-update
This will give you a list of the outstanding updates for your installed software from the various repositories you are using.
Check the list for updates named “kernel” or “yum.”
Here’s what it looks like for three days worth of updates to my home server…
# yum check-update
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, refresh-packagekit Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile updates/metalink | 10 kB 00:00 * fedora: mirrors.pavlovmedia.net * livna: rpm.livna.org * rpmfusion-free: mirrors.cat.pdx.edu * rpmfusion-free-updates: mirrors.cat.pdx.edu * rpmfusion-nonfree: mirrors.cat.pdx.edu * rpmfusion-nonfree-updates: mirrors.cat.pdx.edu * updates: mirrors.pavlovmedia.net adobe-linux-i386 | 951 B 00:00 livna | 2.4 kB 00:00 rpmfusion-free-updates | 3.8 kB 00:00 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates | 3.8 kB 00:00 updates | 4.4 kB 00:00 updates/primary_db | 5.3 MB 01:23 compiz.i586 0.7.8-20.fc11 updates compiz-gnome.i586 0.7.8-20.fc11 updates crda.i586 1.1.1_2009.11.25-2.fc11 updates jack_capture.i586 0.9.40-1.fc11 updates kde-settings.noarch 4.2-17 updates kde-settings-kdm.noarch 4.2-17 updates kdebase.i586 6:4.4.0-3.fc11 updates kdebase-libs.i586 6:4.4.0-3.fc11 updates kdebase-runtime.i586 4.4.0-3.fc11 updates kdebase-runtime-libs.i586 4.4.0-3.fc11 updates kdebase-workspace.i586 4.4.0-7.fc11 updates kdebase-workspace-libs.i586 4.4.0-7.fc11 updates kdelibs.i586 6:4.4.0-9.fc11 updates kdelibs-common.i586 6:4.4.0-9.fc11 updates kdepimlibs.i586 4.4.0-2.fc11 updates kdm.i586 4.4.0-7.fc11 updates ksysguardd.i586 4.4.0-7.fc11 updates libudev0.i586 141-8.fc11 updates libusb1.i586 1.0.6-1.fc11 updates libvolume_id.i586 141-8.fc11 updates oxygen-icon-theme.noarch 4.4.0-2.fc11 updates qedje.i586 0.4.0-6.fc11 updates qt.i586 1:4.6.2-1.fc11 updates qt-sqlite.i586 1:4.6.2-1.fc11 updates qt-x11.i586 1:4.6.2-1.fc11 updates qzion.i586 0.4.0-7.fc11 updates soprano.i586 2.4.0.1-1.fc11 updates strigi-libs.i586 0.7.2-2.fc11 updates transmission-common.i586 1.90-1.fc11.1 updates transmission-gtk.i586 1.90-1.fc11.1 updates udev.i586 141-8.fc11 updates webkitkde.i586 0.0.5-0.1.svn1088283.fc11 updates webkitpart.i586 0.0.5-0.1.svn1088283.fc11 updates
Three days worth of updates to my home server. After you have confirmed that there are no kernel or yum updates in the list…
#yum update Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, refresh-packagekit Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile * fedora: mirrors.pavlovmedia.net * livna: rpm.livna.org * rpmfusion-free: mirrors.cat.pdx.edu * rpmfusion-free-updates: mirrors.cat.pdx.edu * rpmfusion-nonfree: mirrors.cat.pdx.edu * rpmfusion-nonfree-updates: mirrors.cat.pdx.edu * updates: mirrors.pavlovmedia.net Setting up Update Process Resolving Dependencies --> Running transaction check ---> Package compiz.i586 0:0.7.8-20.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package compiz-gnome.i586 0:0.7.8-20.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package crda.i586 0:1.1.1_2009.11.25-2.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package jack_capture.i586 0:0.9.40-1.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package kde-settings.noarch 0:4.2-17 set to be updated ---> Package kde-settings-kdm.noarch 0:4.2-17 set to be updated ---> Package kdebase.i586 6:4.4.0-3.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package kdebase-libs.i586 6:4.4.0-3.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package kdebase-runtime.i586 0:4.4.0-3.fc11 set to be updated --> Processing Dependency: libattica.so.0 for package: kdebase-runtime-4.4.0-3.fc11.i586 ---> Package kdebase-runtime-libs.i586 0:4.4.0-3.fc11 set to be updated --> Processing Dependency: libssh.so.4 for package: kdebase-runtime-libs-4.4.0-3.fc11.i586 ---> Package kdebase-workspace.i586 0:4.4.0-7.fc11 set to be updated --> Processing Dependency: libakonadi-kde.so.4 for package: kdebase-workspace-4.4.0-7.fc11.i586 --> Processing Dependency: libakonadi-kmime.so.4 for package: kdebase-workspace-4.4.0-7.fc11.i586 ---> Package kdebase-workspace-libs.i586 0:4.4.0-7.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package kdelibs.i586 6:4.4.0-9.fc11 set to be updated --> Processing Dependency: libpolkit-qt-core.so.0 for package: 6:kdelibs-4.4.0-9.fc11.i586 --> Processing Dependency: libqca.so.2 for package: 6:kdelibs-4.4.0-9.fc11.i586 --> Processing Dependency: shared-desktop-ontologies for package: 6:kdelibs-4.4.0-9.fc11.i586 ---> Package kdelibs-common.i586 6:4.4.0-9.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package kdepimlibs.i586 0:4.4.0-2.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package kdm.i586 0:4.4.0-7.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package ksysguardd.i586 0:4.4.0-7.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package libudev0.i586 0:141-8.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package libusb1.i586 0:1.0.6-1.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package libvolume_id.i586 0:141-8.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package oxygen-icon-theme.noarch 0:4.4.0-2.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package qedje.i586 0:0.4.0-6.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package qt.i586 1:4.6.2-1.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package qt-sqlite.i586 1:4.6.2-1.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package qt-x11.i586 1:4.6.2-1.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package qzion.i586 0:0.4.0-7.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package soprano.i586 0:2.4.0.1-1.fc11 set to be updated --> Processing Dependency: virtuoso-opensource for package: soprano-2.4.0.1-1.fc11.i586 --> Processing Dependency: libiodbc.so.2 for package: soprano-2.4.0.1-1.fc11.i586 ---> Package strigi-libs.i586 0:0.7.2-2.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package transmission-common.i586 0:1.90-1.fc11.1 set to be updated ---> Package transmission-gtk.i586 0:1.90-1.fc11.1 set to be updated ---> Package udev.i586 0:141-8.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package webkitkde.i586 0:0.0.5-0.1.svn1088283.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package webkitpart.i586 0:0.0.5-0.1.svn1088283.fc11 set to be updated --> Running transaction check ---> Package attica.i586 0:0.1.2-1.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package kdepimlibs-akonadi.i586 0:4.4.0-2.fc11 set to be updated --> Processing Dependency: akonadi(x86-32) >= 1.3.1 for package: kdepimlibs-akonadi-4.4.0-2.fc11.i586 --> Processing Dependency: libakonadiprotocolinternals.so.1 for package: kdepimlibs-akonadi-4.4.0-2.fc11.i586 ---> Package libiodbc.i586 0:3.52.7-1.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package libssh.i586 0:0.4.1-1.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package polkit-qt.i586 0:0.9.3-2.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package qca2.i586 0:2.0.2-1.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package shared-desktop-ontologies.noarch 0:0.2-3.fc11 set to be updated ---> Package virtuoso-opensource.i586 0:6.1.0-2.fc11 set to be updated --> Running transaction check ---> Package akonadi.i586 0:1.3.1-2.fc11 set to be updated --> Processing Dependency: qt4-mysql for package: akonadi-1.3.1-2.fc11.i586 --> Running transaction check ---> Package qt-mysql.i586 1:4.6.2-1.fc11 set to be updated --> Finished Dependency Resolution Dependencies Resolved ========================================================================================================= Package Arch Version Repository Size ========================================================================================================= Installing: kdelibs i586 6:4.4.0-9.fc11 updates 15 M replacing kdelibs-experimental.i586 4.3.5-1.fc11 Updating: compiz i586 0.7.8-20.fc11 updates 433 k compiz-gnome i586 0.7.8-20.fc11 updates 161 k crda i586 1.1.1_2009.11.25-2.fc11 updates 23 k jack_capture i586 0.9.40-1.fc11 updates 68 k kde-settings noarch 4.2-17 updates 41 k kde-settings-kdm noarch 4.2-17 updates 26 k kdebase i586 6:4.4.0-3.fc11 updates 5.2 M kdebase-libs i586 6:4.4.0-3.fc11 updates 346 k kdebase-runtime i586 4.4.0-3.fc11 updates 7.8 M kdebase-runtime-libs i586 4.4.0-3.fc11 updates 1.3 M kdebase-workspace i586 4.4.0-7.fc11 updates 17 M kdebase-workspace-libs i586 4.4.0-7.fc11 updates 1.2 M kdelibs-common i586 6:4.4.0-9.fc11 updates 2.2 M kdepimlibs i586 4.4.0-2.fc11 updates 2.6 M kdm i586 4.4.0-7.fc11 updates 3.5 M ksysguardd i586 4.4.0-7.fc11 updates 86 k libudev0 i586 141-8.fc11 updates 64 k libusb1 i586 1.0.6-1.fc11 updates 59 k libvolume_id i586 141-8.fc11 updates 62 k oxygen-icon-theme noarch 4.4.0-2.fc11 updates 21 M qedje i586 0.4.0-6.fc11 updates 95 k qt i586 1:4.6.2-1.fc11 updates 5.2 M qt-sqlite i586 1:4.6.2-1.fc11 updates 51 k qt-x11 i586 1:4.6.2-1.fc11 updates 20 M qzion i586 0.4.0-7.fc11 updates 65 k soprano i586 2.4.0.1-1.fc11 updates 838 k strigi-libs i586 0.7.2-2.fc11 updates 537 k transmission-common i586 1.90-1.fc11.1 updates 426 k transmission-gtk i586 1.90-1.fc11.1 updates 800 k udev i586 141-8.fc11 updates 333 k webkitkde i586 0.0.5-0.1.svn1088283.fc11 updates 14 k webkitpart i586 0.0.5-0.1.svn1088283.fc11 updates 163 k Installing for dependencies: akonadi i586 1.3.1-2.fc11 updates 748 k attica i586 0.1.2-1.fc11 updates 133 k kdepimlibs-akonadi i586 4.4.0-2.fc11 updates 956 k libiodbc i586 3.52.7-1.fc11 updates 194 k libssh i586 0.4.1-1.fc11 updates 115 k polkit-qt i586 0.9.3-2.fc11 updates 57 k qca2 i586 2.0.2-1.fc11 updates 513 k qt-mysql i586 1:4.6.2-1.fc11 updates 59 k shared-desktop-ontologies noarch 0.2-3.fc11 updates 119 k virtuoso-opensource i586 6.1.0-2.fc11 updates 4.1 M Transaction Summary ========================================================================================================= Install 11 Package(s) Upgrade 32 Package(s) Total download size: 114 M Is this ok [y/N]: y
Your last chance to bailout before doing the downloads and applying the updates.
Downloading Packages: (1/43): akonadi-1.3.1-2.fc11.i586.rpm | 748 kB 00:12 (2/43): attica-0.1.2-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 133 kB 00:02 (3/43): compiz-0.7.8-20.fc11.i586.rpm | 433 kB 00:06 (4/43): compiz-gnome-0.7.8-20.fc11.i586.rpm | 161 kB 00:02 (5/43): crda-1.1.1_2009.11.25-2.fc11.i586.rpm | 23 kB 00:01 (6/43): jack_capture-0.9.40-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 68 kB 00:01 (7/43): kde-settings-4.2-17.noarch.rpm | 41 kB 00:01 (8/43): kde-settings-kdm-4.2-17.noarch.rpm | 26 kB 00:00 (9/43): kdebase-4.4.0-3.fc11.i586.rpm | 5.2 MB 01:22 (10/43): kdebase-libs-4.4.0-3.fc11.i586.rpm | 346 kB 00:06 (11/43): kdebase-runtime-4.4.0-3.fc11.i586.rpm | 7.8 MB 02:06 (12/43): kdebase-runtime-libs-4.4.0-3.fc11.i586.rpm | 1.3 MB 00:20 (13/43): kdebase-workspace-4.4.0-7.fc11.i586.rpm | 17 MB 04:35 (14/43): kdebase-workspace-libs-4.4.0-7.fc11.i586.rpm | 1.2 MB 00:19 (15/43): kdelibs-4.4.0-9.fc11.i586.rpm | 15 MB 03:59 (16/43): kdelibs-common-4.4.0-9.fc11.i586.rpm | 2.2 MB 00:36 (17/43): kdepimlibs-4.4.0-2.fc11.i586.rpm | 2.6 MB 00:41 (18/43): kdepimlibs-akonadi-4.4.0-2.fc11.i586.rpm | 956 kB 00:15 (19/43): kdm-4.4.0-7.fc11.i586.rpm | 3.5 MB 01:03 (20/43): ksysguardd-4.4.0-7.fc11.i586.rpm | 86 kB 00:01 (21/43): libiodbc-3.52.7-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 194 kB 00:03 (22/43): libssh-0.4.1-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 115 kB 00:01 (23/43): libudev0-141-8.fc11.i586.rpm | 64 kB 00:00 (24/43): libusb1-1.0.6-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 59 kB 00:00 (25/43): libvolume_id-141-8.fc11.i586.rpm | 62 kB 00:01 (26/43): oxygen-icon-theme-4.4.0-2.fc11.noarch.rpm | 21 MB 05:42 (27/43): polkit-qt-0.9.3-2.fc11.i586.rpm | 57 kB 00:00 (28/43): qca2-2.0.2-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 513 kB 00:07 (29/43): qedje-0.4.0-6.fc11.i586.rpm | 95 kB 00:01 (30/43): qt-4.6.2-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 5.2 MB 01:25 (31/43): qt-mysql-4.6.2-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 59 kB 00:00 (32/43): qt-sqlite-4.6.2-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 51 kB 00:00 (33/43): qt-x11-4.6.2-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 20 MB 05:15 (34/43): qzion-0.4.0-7.fc11.i586.rpm | 65 kB 00:01 (35/43): shared-desktop-ontologies-0.2-3.fc11.noarch.rpm | 119 kB 00:01 (36/43): soprano-2.4.0.1-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 838 kB 00:13 (37/43): strigi-libs-0.7.2-2.fc11.i586.rpm | 537 kB 00:08 (38/43): transmission-common-1.90-1.fc11.1.i586.rpm | 426 kB 00:06 (39/43): transmission-gtk-1.90-1.fc11.1.i586.rpm | 800 kB 00:12 (40/43): udev-141-8.fc11.i586.rpm | 333 kB 00:05 (41/43): virtuoso-opensource-6.1.0-2.fc11.i586.rpm | 4.1 MB 01:03 (42/43): webkitkde-0.0.5-0.1.svn1088283.fc11.i586.rpm | 14 kB 00:00 (43/43): webkitpart-0.0.5-0.1.svn1088283.fc11.i586.rpm | 163 kB 00:02 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 63 kB/s | 114 MB 30:49 Running rpm_check_debug Running Transaction Test Finished Transaction Test Transaction Test Succeeded Running Transaction Updating : 1:qt-4.6.2-1.fc11.i586 1/77 Updating : oxygen-icon-theme-4.4.0-2.fc11.noarch 2/77 Updating : kde-settings-4.2-17.noarch 3/77 Updating : kde-settings-kdm-4.2-17.noarch 4/77 Updating : 6:kdelibs-common-4.4.0-9.fc11.i586 5/77 Updating : webkitkde-0.0.5-0.1.svn1088283.fc11.i586 6/77 Installing : shared-desktop-ontologies-0.2-3.fc11.noarch 7/77 Updating : strigi-libs-0.7.2-2.fc11.i586 8/77 Updating : compiz-0.7.8-20.fc11.i586 9/77 Updating : libvolume_id-141-8.fc11.i586 10/77 Updating : udev-141-8.fc11.i586 11/77 Installing : attica-0.1.2-1.fc11.i586 12/77 Updating : transmission-common-1.90-1.fc11.1.i586 13/77 Installing : libiodbc-3.52.7-1.fc11.i586 14/77 Installing : virtuoso-opensource-6.1.0-2.fc11.i586 15/77 Updating : soprano-2.4.0.1-1.fc11.i586 16/77 Installing : 1:qt-mysql-4.6.2-1.fc11.i586 17/77 Installing : akonadi-1.3.1-2.fc11.i586 18/77 Installing : qca2-2.0.2-1.fc11.i586 19/77 Updating : 1:qt-sqlite-4.6.2-1.fc11.i586 20/77 Updating : 1:qt-x11-4.6.2-1.fc11.i586 21/77 Updating : qzion-0.4.0-7.fc11.i586 22/77 Updating : qedje-0.4.0-6.fc11.i586 23/77 Installing : polkit-qt-0.9.3-2.fc11.i586 24/77 Installing : 6:kdelibs-4.4.0-9.fc11.i586 25/77 Updating : webkitpart-0.0.5-0.1.svn1088283.fc11.i586 26/77 Installing : libssh-0.4.1-1.fc11.i586 27/77 Updating : libudev0-141-8.fc11.i586 28/77 Updating : libusb1-1.0.6-1.fc11.i586 29/77 Updating : ksysguardd-4.4.0-7.fc11.i586 30/77 Updating : transmission-gtk-1.90-1.fc11.1.i586 31/77 Updating : crda-1.1.1_2009.11.25-2.fc11.i586 32/77 Updating : compiz-gnome-0.7.8-20.fc11.i586 33/77 Updating : jack_capture-0.9.40-1.fc11.i586 34/77 Updating : kdepimlibs-4.4.0-2.fc11.i586 35/77 Updating : kdebase-runtime-4.4.0-3.fc11.i586 36/77 Updating : 6:kdebase-libs-4.4.0-3.fc11.i586 37/77 Updating : kdebase-runtime-libs-4.4.0-3.fc11.i586 38/77 Installing : kdepimlibs-akonadi-4.4.0-2.fc11.i586 39/77 Updating : 6:kdebase-4.4.0-3.fc11.i586 40/77 Updating : kdebase-workspace-libs-4.4.0-7.fc11.i586 41/77 Updating : kdebase-workspace-4.4.0-7.fc11.i586 42/77 Updating : kdm-4.4.0-7.fc11.i586 43/77 Cleanup : 1:qt-4.5.3-9.fc11.i586 44/77 Cleanup : kdebase-runtime-4.3.5-2.fc11.i586 45/77 Cleanup : transmission-gtk-1.90-1.fc11.i586 46/77 Cleanup : 6:kdelibs-common-4.3.5-2.fc11.i586 47/77 Cleanup : webkitpart-0.0.2-0.1.20091109svn.fc11.i586 48/77 Cleanup : ksysguardd-4.3.5-2.fc11.1.i586 49/77 Cleanup : kdm-4.3.5-2.fc11.1.i586 50/77 Cleanup : 6:kdelibs-4.3.5-2.fc11.i586 51/77 Erasing : kdelibs-experimental-4.3.5-1.fc11.i586 52/77 Cleanup : udev-141-7.fc11.i586 53/77 Cleanup : soprano-2.3.1-1.fc11.i586 54/77 Cleanup : 6:kdebase-libs-4.3.5-3.fc11.i586 55/77 Cleanup : jack_capture-0.9.35-1.fc11.i586 56/77 Cleanup : libusb1-1.0.0-2.fc11.i586 57/77 Cleanup : libvolume_id-141-7.fc11.i586 58/77 Cleanup : kdebase-workspace-libs-4.3.5-2.fc11.1.i586 59/77 Cleanup : kdepimlibs-4.3.5-1.fc11.i586 60/77 Cleanup : kde-settings-4.2-16.1.noarch 61/77 Cleanup : strigi-libs-0.7.1-1.fc11.i586 62/77 Cleanup : kde-settings-kdm-4.2-16.1.noarch 63/77 Cleanup : kdebase-workspace-4.3.5-2.fc11.1.i586 64/77 Cleanup : compiz-gnome-0.7.8-19.fc11.i586 65/77 Cleanup : kdebase-runtime-libs-4.3.5-2.fc11.i586 66/77 Cleanup : 1:qt-sqlite-4.5.3-9.fc11.i586 67/77 Cleanup : qzion-0.4.0-5.fc11.i586 68/77 Cleanup : libudev0-141-7.fc11.i586 69/77 Cleanup : 1:qt-x11-4.5.3-9.fc11.i586 70/77 Cleanup : webkitkde-0.0.2-0.1.20091109svn.fc11.i586 71/77 Cleanup : oxygen-icon-theme-4.3.5-1.fc11.noarch 72/77 Cleanup : qedje-0.4.0-4.fc11.i586 73/77 Cleanup : 6:kdebase-4.3.5-3.fc11.i586 74/77 Cleanup : crda-1.1.0_2009.11.25-2.fc11.i586 75/77 Cleanup : transmission-common-1.90-1.fc11.i586 76/77 Cleanup : compiz-0.7.8-19.fc11.i586 77/77 Installed: kdelibs.i586 6:4.4.0-9.fc11 Dependency Installed: akonadi.i586 0:1.3.1-2.fc11 attica.i586 0:0.1.2-1.fc11 kdepimlibs-akonadi.i586 0:4.4.0-2.fc11 libiodbc.i586 0:3.52.7-1.fc11 libssh.i586 0:0.4.1-1.fc11 polkit-qt.i586 0:0.9.3-2.fc11 qca2.i586 0:2.0.2-1.fc11 qt-mysql.i586 1:4.6.2-1.fc11 shared-desktop-ontologies.noarch 0:0.2-3.fc11 virtuoso-opensource.i586 0:6.1.0-2.fc11 Updated: compiz.i586 0:0.7.8-20.fc11 compiz-gnome.i586 0:0.7.8-20.fc11 crda.i586 0:1.1.1_2009.11.25-2.fc11 jack_capture.i586 0:0.9.40-1.fc11 kde-settings.noarch 0:4.2-17 kde-settings-kdm.noarch 0:4.2-17 kdebase.i586 6:4.4.0-3.fc11 kdebase-libs.i586 6:4.4.0-3.fc11 kdebase-runtime.i586 0:4.4.0-3.fc11 kdebase-runtime-libs.i586 0:4.4.0-3.fc11 kdebase-workspace.i586 0:4.4.0-7.fc11 kdebase-workspace-libs.i586 0:4.4.0-7.fc11 kdelibs-common.i586 6:4.4.0-9.fc11 kdepimlibs.i586 0:4.4.0-2.fc11 kdm.i586 0:4.4.0-7.fc11 ksysguardd.i586 0:4.4.0-7.fc11 libudev0.i586 0:141-8.fc11 libusb1.i586 0:1.0.6-1.fc11 libvolume_id.i586 0:141-8.fc11 oxygen-icon-theme.noarch 0:4.4.0-2.fc11 qedje.i586 0:0.4.0-6.fc11 qt.i586 1:4.6.2-1.fc11 qt-sqlite.i586 1:4.6.2-1.fc11 qt-x11.i586 1:4.6.2-1.fc11 qzion.i586 0:0.4.0-7.fc11 soprano.i586 0:2.4.0.1-1.fc11 strigi-libs.i586 0:0.7.2-2.fc11 transmission-common.i586 0:1.90-1.fc11.1 transmission-gtk.i586 0:1.90-1.fc11.1 udev.i586 0:141-8.fc11 webkitkde.i586 0:0.0.5-0.1.svn1088283.fc11 webkitpart.i586 0:0.0.5-0.1.svn1088283.fc11 Replaced: kdelibs-experimental.i586 0:4.3.5-1.fc11 Complete! #
That’s all there is to updating the thousands of programs on your computer. When it works it works well, when it fails it fails spectacularly. I usually install Fedora twice on my home machine so I have a minimal OS I can boot into in order deal with oddball issues caused by running entirely out of drive space–I do a lot of animation and from time to time I will fill up my disk with temporary files.
# df -h
This will tell you how much space you have on your drives in -h (human) readable format.
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Music and video demonstration…
This was NOT easy to get running on my home server.
In theory this link should open in a new tab and play in whatever media player you have configured to play Flash files.
The applications I used to create this file were:
- LMMS the Linux MultiMedia Studio, a very cool sampler and sequencing package
- jackd — required to run sound for LMMS, and not a trivial package to configure
- Audacity — a sound file editor used to normalize and compress the .wav file from LMMS
- Istanbul — a full motion screen and audio capture application. Mark the area of the screen you want to capture and press go.
- AviDemux Video Editor
- ffmpeg — the non-Fedora package that makes all things MPEG possible — retrieved from the RPMFusion repository — it’s low level MP3 conversion utility is presently broken. This often happens and it will no doubt be fixed shortly. The workaround is to generate an .avi file and convert it at the command line to .swf
- Totem — The Gnome movie player
- Blender3D — to sequence and remix the audio with the video capture from the Totem visualization sequence
- BlueFish — to edit the HTML file used to run the player
At this stage of the game there is nothing very easy about getting Linux multi-media applications to work right out of the box. You spend a couple of hours, or days, or weeks reading HOWTO files. I have a good set of rules I follow in setting up problematic applications:
- Read the developer’s documentation. They know the most about the application, but they may know nothing about the OS you are using.
- Search for system specific “howto” documents: howto avidemux Fedora 11
- Search for the error message you are getting: xrun error jackd Fedora 11
- Rinse and repeat and read a whole lot of forum entries and bug reports looking for workarounds.
Here is the answer to Peter’s question the first day: Can I make music using a Linux box?
The short answer is: Yes.
The long answer is: Are you willing to sweat blood for a few days to get your system configured.
The longer answer is: Are you willing to spend some serious time learning about digital sound engineering and invest in the analog equipment it takes to do it right if you are recording live music. A professional grade microphone can cost as much as a computer, but if you are recording for publication on CD it matters. If you are recording for digital publication only (iTunes) then the quality of your microphone is not as important as your post production skills in cleaning up your files and boosting levels to deal with compression issues. In this example the distorted guitar sounds very mellow when compared to the CD quality file due to data loss in compressing it to a size that works well on the web.
Friday, February 12th, 2010
Evil Internet…
People somewhere (Finland?) have decided that the Internet is ubiquitous, go figure. So if you customize anything on the installation, or you happen to have a live network card, the installer decides to save you time on updating by connecting to the repository during the installation.
On the other hand the “I can’t find the local repository xml” error we were seeing could be related to the age of the chip set in the CD drive we were using, or I have a bad download for the first disk and need to do a cross check using another repository. We’ll try both and see which it is.
There is a solution to the first–you disable the on board Ethernet during the installation.
But if the CD-ROM can’t see its own repository then we need to see our local network repository so we need the network on. Or we can do a terrifying manual installation and then use YUM to update it without ever leaving the console prompt–I hope I can skip that fun, but you never know.
Catch-22, or maybe Catch-23–anyway there are workarounds.
I was close in my assumption that the LiveCD would do the trick, but I didn’t know that the LiveCD would not tolerate changes to the partitions. That’s pretty easy to deal with–if we had bribed the janitor with an extra bowl of stew we might have had enough time last night.
My plan is to hit the cave early next week for most of an afternoon, maybe two, and see how many machines I can drag kicking and screaming into the present so I can get you guys sitting in front of them and learning how to maintain them once they are installed.
Once I understand how to get Fedora 11 to load on the antiques I’ll put together a how to document on what is needed to install it on a steam powered computer.
http://www.datamancer.net/steampunklaptop/steampunklaptop.htm
Open source is everywhere
Most of the office applications and graphics tools for Linux are also distributed for Windows and Mac, as well. It takes a while to get used to this notion, but it can save you a bucket of money if you are willing to learn to use the free software that is already out there.
The most useful tools that I use cross-platform on a regular basis are:
OpenOffice — is not as flashy as MS Office and renders fonts less than ideally, but it has a more robust presentation package, and the word processor can export directly to .pdf format files, including fill in forms, and it supports all of the Microsoft file formats through 2003 so you can send files to people who have paid the $200-400 Microsoft tax and they can use them.
The GIMP — easily as powerful as Photoshop at a price that can’t be beat. This was not always so, but the latest versions are good enough for professional graphics work.
InkScape — still at little dodgy here and there, but a very powerful vector graphics editor.
Blender3D — a very powerful 3D animation engine capable of winning Oscars for short features. The Windows version does not produce standalone games, but the Linux version does. An odd and useful feature of the game system is that the game can be recorded into the animation engine. This makes it easy to animate complex physics without having to guess about what gravity would do with the heap of pianos and furniture your character is standing on to change the light bulb. It only takes a couple of years to master all of the tools provided by the program and by the time you do new capabilities have been added.
I also use a couple of video editors, but the sequencer in Blender3D is good enough for most video editing and can do some pretty complex multi-track mixing, as well. People are using Blender3D to produce commercial work and some of it is pretty amazing.
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
Murphy’s Law of Reliable Optical Media
Remember how I said, “Oh, you can skip the media check if you have already done a successful installation from the CD…”
Well, one of our antique drives put a scratch in the verified media. It is a scratch in the direction of travel so a drive can’t recover from it.
So how could this happen to incredibly reliable optical media? And why do the CD’s my dog chewed on sound fine when I play them?
When CD’s were first invented they were expensive. They had expensive anti-scratch coatings. They cost $7.95 each and a CD burner cost $5,000.00…
Now CD’s are close enough to free through the wonder of Chinese technology. They are coated with scratch collecting compounds intended to reduce manufacturing cost and increase sales. While your music CD player can skip over a lot of bits of data and make a good guess that your ears might not detect, your computer needs the data under the scratch and is picky about it.
Here’s where my techno-nerd gripe comes into play. In this case the CD failed because of a defect, but the software attempted to overcome the defect by going to Plan B: When the CD fails look on the Internet. As we saw, it did not have a failure mode that said: Hey, dude, your dog like ate your CD, man, we’re going to go out in the world to look for data.
It went straight to Plan B without informing us that it was having a problem. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain…
Murphy redux: The SCSI Drive in the HP server box.
This is a known issue with the present SCSI driver and some SCSI controllers. The disc detector in the present Linux core distribution does not allow enough time for SCSI transactions to occur with many older model controllers. When the SCSI controller brings the drive up it runs some integrity checks and while it is doing them the drive is off line. The detection software sees the SCSI controller, but the controller has its hands over its eyes so the detection software can’t see any drives connected to it. Rather than saying, “Look, George, I think I have finded one of them there SCSI controller thingies in this here computer gummy,” and then waiting a reasonable amount of time to find any drives, the search routine goes with the “you can’t see me because I have my hands over my eyes” part of the game and simply ignores the possibility that there might be SCSI drives in the computer at all.
There are a whole bunch of nasty workarounds for this, but we won’t try them this evening. This is knowledge to know of:
Sometimes the boot option: noprobe will work around the problem for you.
More often than not you will have to manually rebuild the RAM disk image that is used to boot the machine to include a special module to force the installer to wait for the SCSI drives to initialize. This is fairly painful during an installation and is akin to doing your own brain surgery prior to removing your own appendix–it falls into the “do not try this at home” category in a big way because you are rebuilding the system in memory and then running the installation manually up to the point where it has detected the drive.
Another issue with SCSI drives is that the GRUB boot loader will more often than not see a SCSI drive as a secondary drive, even if it is the only drive in the system. That means that GRUB’s default configuration, which is to look for HDD(0,0), doesn’t work to boot the machine at all. So having finally gotten the installation to run all the way through when the machine reboots it is looking for the /boot partition on HDD(0,0) when in fact it is on HDD(0,1) or HDD(1,1) depending on where it believes the controller is. This gives you no reasonable symptoms and just throws you out to the GRUB console (a place you never want to be.) The GRUB console is a like a fire axe–if it is your only tool the situation is already badly out of control.
This problem is very easy to fix if you know the nature of the beast. You guess and edit the grub.conf file to look on the most likely suspects in this order: HDD(0,1), HDD(1,1), HDD(0,2),HDD(1,2) and so on until the machine boots. Ta-da.
The first time I encountered this problem I had to research for a week because I had no idea what was causing the problem and had to spend a lot of time reading user forums until I found somebody who was having precisely the same set of symptoms and who had found the solution to the problem through trial and error.
As a rule of thumb: Research is usually faster than trial and error. Let other people get apoplectic and pound their heads against walls and beat their computers for you. If you have a problem with a Linux installation there is a very high probability that somebody has already figured out a solution. Sometimes the answers are not easy to find, but you learn a lot on the journey.
The Internet is a bit like having access to something like the Library of Alexandria for all computing knowledge, except of course that it is located in the basement of a replica of the Great Pyramid situated on the Las Vegas Strip with the only entrance through the casino, past the bar and the floor show, through a smoke filled room filled with who knows who doing who knows what, then backstage through a maze of leftover props and scenery and down a rusty iron spiral staircase concealed under a stack of ostrich feathered Fellini-esque hats the size of hula hoops heaped in the darkest corner of a disused broom closet at the back of the showgirls’ dressing room–there are endless distractions available to the unwary…
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Superuser root. su –
If you are becoming a Linux Administrator out in the big bad world you will want to know about a command called “sudo” that allows you to execute a single command as root and then return to your regular logon.
However, sudo requires configuration, and there is an easy way out:
su – [ENTER]
password: [TheRootAccountPassword][ENTER]
The prompt on the command line will change from $ to # to let you know that you are running as root. The dash tells the system to execute all of the scripts associated with root’s login. This will put you in root’s home directory, /root, and will give you all of the paths you need to use system commands.
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
“The vi editor is a vastly superior and efficient text editing tool unsurpassed by any modern software,” squeaked the Unix.
Yeah, right.
But like roaches and taxes vi is everywhere.
I long ago gave up learning languages like Esperanto and Sanskrit, or complex text editors meant for programmers in the 1960’s.
To start vi at the command line type: vi filename [ENTER]
This will fire up the incredible nuclear software that runs vi and open your file for editing using the many hundreds of powerful vi commands.
Press ‘i’ for insert mode. Now all of your arrow keys work, the enter key will make a new line, and backspace will delete. For most simple editing that is all you need.
When you are done making your changes press [ESC] followed by a colon [:] to exit insert mode and get to the omnipotent vi command mode.
Issue the powerful vi exit command: x!
Write. Quit. Ignore any pesky messages.
If you just want to quit without making changes because you have a sinking feeling that what you have done will completely trash your computer…
Issue the powerful vi never mind command: q!
99% of the time when you are using vi to edit files from the command prompt these are all the commands you will need to ever know:
vi filename [ENTER]
i – insert
[ESC] then : – open command line
: x![ENTER]- save and quit ignoring warnings
: q![ENTER] – quit ignoring warnings
In Fedora’s implementation, and most Unix distributions, your original file is kept around and named filename~. If you have second thoughts about it all you can always: cp filename~ filename [ENTER] and go back to the old version.
The best practice is to make a copy before you start editing a configuration file.
cp fusionreactorconf fusionreactorconf.bak [ENTER]
then
vi fusionreactorconf [ENTER] knowing that if you really mess things up you can go back to where you started.
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Unofficial Guide
Sadly this very useful document is now gone–it was usurped by the largest domian squatting firm on the web and now points to a bunch of hats.
www.fedorafaq.org has a useful document of similar nature, though it does not point to quite as many useful third party packages as the original document I cited did.
