Re: [W2l] Welcome-to-Linux/Welcome-to-FOSS Planning - what we'd like to have

[Ori Idan]

On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 10:52 PM, Shlomi Fish  wrote:

> On Sunday 20 Sep 2009 18:42:49 Ori Idan wrote:
> > As allways I volunteer to give the philosophy lecture.
>
> That would be nice. I think we should also need a backup lecturer. Maybe
> Eddie
> or Lisha or someone. And if you have any comments on the summary that would
> be
> nice.
>
I think Eddie is a good backup unless someone else volunteer.


>
> > I can also give a rerun of the living in the community lecture.
>
> I don't think it will be necessary as part of the core 2-4 parts series.


It can be and may be should be part of the extended lectures.

-- 
Ori Idan
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Web hosters in UK - option

[Amos Shapira]

Hi,

I just stumbled upon these crowd based in the UK and providing VPS for
8 UKP/month: http://bitfolk.com/

I have no idea who they are or what's the level of their service but
in light of some questions I saw here in the last few weeks I though
this might interest someone.

BTW - I reached them because I saw reference to
"whoami.nameserver.net" as a way to find out your upstream DNS server
- has anyone heard about this?

Cheers,

--Amos

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Re: How to do grub-install on a (non loading) virtual guest

[Amos Shapira]

kpartx is a godsend for (virtual+)LVM2 environments. We use it all the
time to access our virtual machines disks from the vm host (xen,
Centos 5).

I'm not sure why you have to create the device files, though - unless
the vm filesystem is too screwed up for chroot (which it doesn't
appear in your case), you shlould be able to (after your kpartx
command):
1. Mount the vm's root partition (e.g. On /mnt/root).
2. "mount -bind /$x /mnt/root/$x" for $x in "dev", "sys" and "proc"
3. Chroot /mnt/root
4. Do your stuff
5. Reverese the above.

That'a how, for instance, I used to install Ubuntu desktop version
with LVM2 (which didn't support setting up LVM2 in its installation
disk).

-Amos

On 9/20/09, Ehud Karni  wrote:
> I had problems with repeated virtual guest crashing and the grub boot
> loader destroyed.  I found a way of doing grub-install to the virtual
> guest (a file, not a partition) on Centos5 host.
>
> I hope it may help anyone with a similar problem.
>
>
> 0) Ensure the virtual machine is not working (use `xm list' to check).
>
> 1) Mount the virtual disk (cooked file) on loop device. I use the
>`loop7' device because other loop devices may be used by working
>virtual guests.
>losetup /dev/loop7 
>
> 2) Add all the partitions to the device mapper:
>kpartx -a /dev/loop7
>
> 3) Mount the virtual root partition:
>mkdir -p /mnt/virt
>mount /dev/mapper/loop7p1 /mnt/virt
>
> 4) Check the Major/Minor values of the mounted devices
>ls -l /dev/loop7* /dev/mapper/loop7*
>
> 5) Work in as root partition:
>chroot /mnt/virt
>
> 6) create /dev/hda and /dev/hda1 devices:
>mknod dev/hda  b 7 7- Major/minor of /dev/loop7
>mknod dev/hda1 b 253 0  - Major/Minor of /dev/mapper/loop7p1
>
> 7) Fix the grub by re-install:
>grub-install /dev/hda
>
> 8) Exit the `chroot' jail
>exit
>
> 9) Unmount the virtual root partition:
>umount /mnt/virt
>rmdir  /mnt/virt
>
> 10) Clear the /dev/mapper partitions:
>kpartx -d /dev/loop7
>
> 11) Release the loop device:
>losetup -d /dev/loop7
>
> Now you can restart the virtual guest: xm create 
>
> Ehud
>
>
> --
>  Ehud Karni   Tel: +972-3-7966-561  /"\
>  Mivtach - Simon  Fax: +972-3-7976-561  \ /  ASCII Ribbon Campaign
>  Insurance agencies   (USA) voice mail and   X   Against   HTML   Mail
>  http://www.mvs.co.il  FAX:  1-815-5509341  / \
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>
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>

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Re: [W2l] Welcome-to-Linux/Welcome-to-FOSS Planning - what we'd like to have

[Shlomi Fish]

On Sunday 20 Sep 2009 18:42:49 Ori Idan wrote:
> As allways I volunteer to give the philosophy lecture.

That would be nice. I think we should also need a backup lecturer. Maybe Eddie 
or Lisha or someone. And if you have any comments on the summary that would be 
nice.

> I can also give a rerun of the living in the community lecture.

I don't think it will be necessary as part of the core 2-4 parts series. We'll 
just refer people to the slides, or maybe you give them as part of the 
extended series. I think the original "How to ask questions the smart way" by 
ESR & Rick Moen is instructive but a bit patronising. As important netiquette 
is, we should be friendly and tolerable to questions of newcomers, even if 
they appear a little clueless at first, because they may prove to be a useful 
addition to our community. See for example, my:

http://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/perl-newcomers/

And there's been some discussion on related topics on the Perl blogosphere 
lately too.

I realise newbies and especially the clueless ones can be annoying, but I'd 
rather not lose a single one because, one by one, we can end up losing a lot. 
I've already talked with a FOSS developer on Freenode's #perl who said he's 
been using NetBSD because #netbsd was the only distribution channel which 
treated him with friendliness and respect. So things like that count.

Regards,

Shlomi Fish

[Trimming the quoted message]
-- 
-
Shlomi Fish   http://www.shlomifish.org/
What Makes Software Apps High Quality -  http://shlom.in/sw-quality

Chuck Norris read the entire English Wikipedia in 24 hours. Twice.

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[HAIFUX LECTURE] Advanced Gdb - David Khosid

[Orna Agmon Ben-Yehuda]

Tomorrow, on Monday, September 21st at 18:30, Haifux will gather to
hear  David Khosid talk about

   Advanced Gdb

This is a re-run of a Telux talk from Spetember 6th, 2009. In view of
guy keren's recent talks, the focus of the Haifux talk will be
automating repetitive tasks, a little more on debugging STL containers
etc.

Abstract of original talk from Telux:

In general, I will be sharing my discovery with you: When the
debugging of modern software is required, basic GDB techniques are
insufficient, but new techniques can be created from the nearly 160
commands available in GDB. "Modern software" refers to multi-
threading, using STL and other libraries, IPC, signals and exception
mechanisms. In this lecture, I will explain techniques for debugging
large, modern software written in C++.

The presentation will be accompanied by vivid examples for all the topics.

Covered topics:

   1. Preparing a program for debugging; starting the debug session
   2. Controlling GDB: getting help, navigating, using breakpoints and
watchpoints
   3. Extending GDB through user-defined commands
   4. Analyzing STL containers and algorithms
   5. Dealing with multi-threading, C++ exceptions
   6. Managing signals
   7. Automating repetitive tasks on the almost unchanging code base
   8. Remote debugging

=

We meet in Taub building, room 6. For instructions see:
http://www.haifux.org/where.html

Attendance is free, and you are all invited!

==
Future lectures:

Social and Cultural perspective on the Israeli FOSS community   Liora
Shlomi  26/10/2009

W2L: Development Tools (12:30, SSDL lab) - Eli Billauer and Tzafrir
Rehan 28/10/2009

W2L: FOSS Philosophy: Orna Agmon ben-Yehuda 2/11/2009

Configuration Party (16:30-20:30, SSDL lab) 3/11/2009 - Volunteers Required

How Time Flies: Jiffies, Hi-Res Timers and the Tickless Kernel  Gilad
Ben-Yossef      09/11/2009

0AD     Aviv Sharon, Shimon Grinberg and TBD    07/12/2009       A
real-time FOSS strategy game

Nested Virtualization   Muli Ben-Yehuda         21/12/2009

The FOSS Community as a Social Phenomenon       Yaron Dishon    18/01/2010

We still have two open slots for 2009, grab them while they're hot!

Open Slots:
October 12
November 23

==

We are always interested in hearing your talks and ideas. If you wish
to give a talk, hold a discussion, or just plan some event Haifux
might be interested in, please contact us at webmas...@haifux.org

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Re: [W2l] Welcome-to-Linux/Welcome-to-FOSS Planning - what we'd like to have

[Ori Idan]

As allways I volunteer to give the philosophy lecture.
I can also give a rerun of the living in the community lecture.

-- 
Ori Idan


On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 4:54 PM, Shlomi Fish  wrote:

> Hi all!
>
> Well, as you may have noticed, there wasn't a general consensus on whether
> "Welcome-to-Linux" (= W2L) or "Welcome-to-FOSS" (= W2FOSS) were better.
> However, looking at the schedule at:
>
> http://welcome.linux.org.il/2008/timetable.html
>
> it seems very old-fashioned and rehearsed. We can just keep the slides and
> refer people to them. As the Telux/TelFOSS "benevolent dictator"[1], I
> think
> we'll do something which is kind-of in between.
>
> What I think is that we need at first is a two part series. The first
> installment (not necessarily the first one to be given) will be a showcase
> of
> lots of FOSS (Linux, but also portable software) awesomeness-factor:
> graphics,
> features, usability, some free games[2], Amarok, kaffeine/totem, etc. We
> should remember that using a laptop (with Linux or otherwise) and having an
> Internet there are mutually exclusive, unless we can get Eddie to somehow
> give
> us the necessary Tel Aviv Uni INET privileges.
>
> The second installment will be about the FOSS philosophy, ideology and its
> practical implications. The summary of it that I have so far is:
>
> <<<
> Welcome-to-Linux / Welcome-to-FOSS abstract
> ---
>
> * Introduction:
>- What is Free Software/Open Source:
>- source code
>- analogy to wikipedia. (?)
>- Edit/View source.
>- The FSF Free Software Definition
>- FOSS != Public Domain
>- copyleft.
>- some restrictions.
>- share-alike
>- permissive licences (BSDL, X11L, etc.)
>- do what you want with them?
>- mostly
>-
>
> * Examples of open source software:
>- Firefox.
>- OpenOffice.org
>- Linux.
>- what is an operating system.
>- A free kernel.
>- The GNU/Linux run-time.
>- lots of names - X11 (X.Org), KDE, GNOME, OpenSSH.
>- don't be alarmed.
>- Other similar OSes (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD).
>- Many distributions.
>- all packaging the same FOSS components (with some
> modifications).
>- Different glue, behaviour and features.
>- Different bugs.
>- Our recommended distributions:
>- Fedora
>- Mandriva
>- Ubuntu
>- links to pages with information about them
>- material of previous presentations.
>-
>
> * Advantages of open-source:
>- May not cost money.
>- gratis/costless/free-as-in-free-beer.
>- freely distributable
>- Note: it's ok to sell it!
>- Story of Stallman selling tapes of GNU software to people who
>could not download them from the Internet.
>- Can be modified and enhanced:
>- study the source to learn how the program works.
>- for enlightenement.
>- to compensate for lacking documentation.
>-
>- fix bugs.
>- add new features.
>- refactoring.
>- fork
>- Use the Internet for collaboration
>- Bazaar model of development.
>- Refer to the Cathedral and the Bazaar series.
>- Not anti-commercial / anti-business.
>- Many valid business models.
>- Examples (?)
>- Lots of profitable companies.
>- As opposed to tangible goods (e.g: hammers, cars, food), software
>once developed, can be mass-produced at zero cost.
>- Many developers develop FOSS for fun
>- Many developers get paid to develop it.
> >>>
>
> It could use some work, but I hope you get my drift, and suggestions will
> be
> welcome.
>
> After these two presentation (whose order I'm still not sure about but I'm
> leaning to make the first one the first.) we can have a presentation for
> developers covering the various options for FOSS development (not only C or
> even only Java) and maybe then have some Haifux-like "Staying-in-FOSS"
> presentations. These seems more hip, more modern and less resource
> consuming
> than having a 5-installments long series just about Linux.
>
> I also see that Haifux will have a Welcome-to-Linux series this year, and
> would like to commend them for it.
>
> Thoughts anyone?
>
> Regards,
>
>Shlomi Fish
>
> [1] - not "for life", though. I welcome spin-offs of Telux, coups, etc.
>
> [2] - Yes, I know that they are not up-to-par with commercial offerings,
> (see
> the other thread) but many open-source games can still be impressive:
> PySolFC,
> Extreme Tux Racer, etc. These can provide a large glitz factor too.
>
> --
> -
> Shlomi Fish  

How to do grub-install on a (non loading) virtual guest

[Ehud Karni]

I had problems with repeated virtual guest crashing and the grub boot
loader destroyed.  I found a way of doing grub-install to the virtual
guest (a file, not a partition) on Centos5 host.

I hope it may help anyone with a similar problem.


0) Ensure the virtual machine is not working (use `xm list' to check).

1) Mount the virtual disk (cooked file) on loop device. I use the
   `loop7' device because other loop devices may be used by working
   virtual guests.
   losetup /dev/loop7 

2) Add all the partitions to the device mapper:
   kpartx -a /dev/loop7

3) Mount the virtual root partition:
   mkdir -p /mnt/virt
   mount /dev/mapper/loop7p1 /mnt/virt

4) Check the Major/Minor values of the mounted devices
   ls -l /dev/loop7* /dev/mapper/loop7*

5) Work in as root partition:
   chroot /mnt/virt

6) create /dev/hda and /dev/hda1 devices:
   mknod dev/hda  b 7 7- Major/minor of /dev/loop7
   mknod dev/hda1 b 253 0  - Major/Minor of /dev/mapper/loop7p1

7) Fix the grub by re-install:
   grub-install /dev/hda

8) Exit the `chroot' jail
   exit

9) Unmount the virtual root partition:
   umount /mnt/virt
   rmdir  /mnt/virt

10) Clear the /dev/mapper partitions:
   kpartx -d /dev/loop7

11) Release the loop device:
   losetup -d /dev/loop7

Now you can restart the virtual guest: xm create 

Ehud


--
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 Mivtach - Simon  Fax: +972-3-7976-561  \ /  ASCII Ribbon Campaign
 Insurance agencies   (USA) voice mail and   X   Against   HTML   Mail
 http://www.mvs.co.il  FAX:  1-815-5509341  / \
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