Linux Tomorrow

Some people like to know about patching running Linux kernel. Patching production kernel is a risky business. Following procedure will help you to fix the problem.

Step # 1: Make sure your product is affected

First find out if your product is affected by reported exploit. For example, vmsplice() but only affects RHEL 5.x but RHEL 4.x,3.x, and 2.1.x are not affected at all. You can always obtain this information by visiting vendors bug reporting system called bugzilla. Also make sure bug affects your architectures. For example, a bug may only affect 64 bit or 32 bit platform.

Step # 2: Apply patch

You better apply and test patch in a test environment. Please note that some vendors such as Redhat and Suse modifies or backports kernel. So it is good idea to apply patch to their kernel source code tree. Otherwise you can always grab and apply patch to latest kernel version.

Step # 3: How do I apply kernel patch?

WARNING! These instructions require having the skills of a sysadmin. Personally, I avoid recompiling any kernel unless absolutely necessary. Most our production boxes (over 1400+) are powered by mix of RHEL 4 and 5. Wrong kernel option can disable hardware or may not boot system at all. If you don’t understand the internal kernel dependencies don’t try this on a production box.

Change directory to your kernel source code:
# cd linux-2.6.xx.yy
Download and save patch file as fix.vmsplice.exploit.patch:
# cat fix.vmsplice.exploit.patch
Output:

--- a/fs/splice.c
+++ b/fs/splice.c
@@ -1234,7 +1234,7 @@ static int get_iovec_page_array(const struct iovec __user *iov,
           if (unlikely(!len))
                   break;
           error = -EFAULT;
-               if (unlikely(!base))
+               if (!access_ok(VERIFY_READ, base, len))
                   break;

           /*

Now apply patch using patch command, enter:
# patch <>
Now recompile and install Linux kernel.


I hope this quick and dirty guide will save someones time. On a related note Erek has unofficial patched RPMs for CentOS / RHEL distros.

9 Testing

Now let's simulate a hard drive failure. It doesn't matter if you select /dev/sda or /dev/sdb here. In this example I assume that /dev/sdb has failed.

To simulate the hard drive failure, you can either shut down the system and remove /dev/sdb from the system, or you (soft-)remove it like this:

mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --fail /dev/sdb1
mdadm --manage /dev/md1 --fail /dev/sdb2
mdadm --manage /dev/md2 --fail /dev/sdb3

mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --remove /dev/sdb1
mdadm --manage /dev/md1 --remove /dev/sdb2
mdadm --manage /dev/md2 --remove /dev/sdb3

Shut down the system:

shutdown -h now

Then put in a new /dev/sdb drive (if you simulate a failure of /dev/sda, you should now put /dev/sdb in /dev/sda's place and connect the new HDD as /dev/sdb!) and boot the system. It should still start without problems.

Now run

cat /proc/mdstat

and you should see that we have a degraded array:

[root@server1 ~]# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4]
md0 : active raid1 sda1[0]
104320 blocks [2/1] [U_]

md1 : active raid1 sda2[0]
513984 blocks [2/1] [U_]

md2 : active raid1 sda3[0]
4618560 blocks [2/1] [U_]

unused devices:
[root@server1 ~]#

The output of

fdisk -l

should look as follows:

[root@server1 ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 5368 MB, 5368709120 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 652 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0007b217

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda2 14 77 514080 fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda3 78 652 4618687+ fd Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdb: 5368 MB, 5368709120 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 652 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/md2: 4729 MB, 4729405440 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 1154640 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/md2 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/md1: 526 MB, 526319616 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 128496 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/md1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/md0: 106 MB, 106823680 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 26080 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/md0 doesn't contain a valid partition table
[root@server1 ~]#

Now we copy the partition table of /dev/sda to /dev/sdb:

sfdisk -d /dev/sda | sfdisk /dev/sdb

(If you get an error, you can try the --force option:

sfdisk -d /dev/sda | sfdisk --force /dev/sdb

)

[root@server1 ~]# sfdisk -d /dev/sda | sfdisk /dev/sdb
Checking that no-one is using this disk right now ...
OK

Disk /dev/sdb: 652 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track

sfdisk: ERROR: sector 0 does not have an msdos signature
/dev/sdb: unrecognized partition table type
Old situation:
No partitions found
New situation:
Units = sectors of 512 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #sectors Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 208844 208782 fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb2 208845 1237004 1028160 fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb3 1237005 10474379 9237375 fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb4 0 - 0 0 Empty
Successfully wrote the new partition table

Re-reading the partition table ...

If you created or changed a DOS partition, /dev/foo7, say, then use dd(1)
to zero the first 512 bytes: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/foo7 bs=512 count=1
(See fdisk(8).)
[root@server1 ~]#

Afterwards we remove any remains of a previous RAID array from /dev/sdb...

mdadm --zero-superblock /dev/sdb1
mdadm --zero-superblock /dev/sdb2
mdadm --zero-superblock /dev/sdb3

... and add /dev/sdb to the RAID array:

mdadm -a /dev/md0 /dev/sdb1
mdadm -a /dev/md1 /dev/sdb2
mdadm -a /dev/md2 /dev/sdb3

Now take a look at

cat /proc/mdstat

[root@server1 ~]# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4]
md0 : active raid1 sdb1[1] sda1[0]
104320 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md1 : active raid1 sdb2[1] sda2[0]
513984 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md2 : active raid1 sdb3[2] sda3[0]
4618560 blocks [2/1] [U_]
[===>.................] recovery = 15.4% (715584/4618560) finish=4.9min speed=13222K/sec

unused devices:
[root@server1 ~]#

Wait until the synchronization has finished:

[root@server1 ~]# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4]
md0 : active raid1 sdb1[1] sda1[0]
104320 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md1 : active raid1 sdb2[1] sda2[0]
513984 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md2 : active raid1 sdb3[1] sda3[0]
4618560 blocks [2/2] [UU]

unused devices:
[root@server1 ~]#

Then run

grub

and install the bootloader on both HDDs:

root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
root (hd1,0)
setup (hd1)
quit

That's it. You've just replaced a failed hard drive in your RAID1 array.

10 Links

• The Software-RAID Howto: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-RAID-HOWTO.html
• Fedora: http://fedoraproject.org

7 Preparing /dev/sda

If all goes well, you should now find /dev/md0 and /dev/md2 in the output of

df -h

[root@server1 ~]# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/md2 4.4G 2.4G 1.8G 58% /
/dev/md0 99M 15M 80M 16% /boot
tmpfs 185M 0 185M 0% /dev/shm
[root@server1 ~]#

The output of

cat /proc/mdstat

should be as follows:

[root@server1 ~]# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4]
md0 : active raid1 sdb1[1]
104320 blocks [2/1] [_U]

md1 : active raid1 sdb2[1]
513984 blocks [2/1] [_U]

md2 : active raid1 sdb3[1]
4618560 blocks [2/1] [_U]

unused devices:
[root@server1 ~]#

Now we must change the partition types of our three partitions on /dev/sda to Linux raid autodetect as well:

fdisk /dev/sda

[root@server1 ~]# fdisk /dev/sda

Command (m for help): <-- t
Partition number (1-4): <-- 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): <-- fd
Changed system type of partition 1 to fd (Linux raid autodetect)

Command (m for help): <-- t
Partition number (1-4): <-- 2
Hex code (type L to list codes): <-- fd
Changed system type of partition 2 to fd (Linux raid autodetect)

Command (m for help): <-- t
Partition number (1-4): <-- 3
Hex code (type L to list codes): <-- fd
Changed system type of partition 3 to fd (Linux raid autodetect)

Command (m for help): <-- w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
[root@server1 ~]#

Now we can add /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, and /dev/sda3 to the respective RAID arrays:

mdadm --add /dev/md0 /dev/sda1
mdadm --add /dev/md1 /dev/sda2
mdadm --add /dev/md2 /dev/sda3

Now take a look at

cat /proc/mdstat

... and you should see that the RAID arrays are being synchronized:

[root@server1 ~]# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4]
md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1]
104320 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md1 : active raid1 sda2[0] sdb2[1]
513984 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md2 : active raid1 sda3[2] sdb3[1]
4618560 blocks [2/1] [_U]
[=====>...............] recovery = 29.9% (1384256/4618560) finish=2.3min speed=22626K/sec

unused devices:
[root@server1 ~]#

(You can run

watch cat /proc/mdstat

to get an ongoing output of the process. To leave watch, press CTRL+C.)

Wait until the synchronization has finished (the output should then look like this:

[root@server1 ~]# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4]
md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1]
104320 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md1 : active raid1 sda2[0] sdb2[1]
513984 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md2 : active raid1 sda3[0] sdb3[1]
4618560 blocks [2/2] [UU]

unused devices:
[root@server1 ~]#

).

Then adjust /etc/mdadm.conf to the new situation:

mdadm --examine --scan > /etc/mdadm.conf

/etc/mdadm.conf should now look something like this:

cat /etc/mdadm.conf

ARRAY /dev/md0 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=2848a3f5:cd1c26b6:e762ed83:696752f9
ARRAY /dev/md1 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=8a004bac:92261691:227767de:4adf6592
ARRAY /dev/md2 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=939f1c71:be9c10fd:d9e5f8c6:a46bcd49

8 Preparing GRUB (Part 2)

We are almost done now. Now we must modify /boot/grub/menu.lst again. Right now it is configured to boot from /dev/sdb (hd1,0). Of course, we still want the system to be able to boot in case /dev/sdb fails. Therefore we copy the first kernel stanza (which contains hd1), paste it below and replace hd1 with hd0. Furthermore we comment out all other kernel stanzas so that it looks as follows:

vi /boot/grub/menu.lst

# 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/sda3
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
fallback=1
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.23.1-42.fc8)
    root (hd1,0)
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 ro root=/dev/md2 rhgb quiet
    initrd /initrd-2.6.23.1-42.fc8.img

title Fedora (2.6.23.1-42.fc8)
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 ro root=/dev/md2 rhgb quiet
    initrd /initrd-2.6.23.1-42.fc8.img

#title Fedora (2.6.23.1-42.fc8)
#       root (hd0,0)
#       kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
#       initrd /initrd-2.6.23.1-42.fc8.img

Afterwards, update your ramdisk:

mv /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img_orig2
mkinitrd /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img `uname -r`

... and reboot the system:

reboot

It should boot without problems.

That's it - you've successfully set up software RAID1 on your running Fedora 8 system!

4 Creating Our RAID Arrays

Now let's create our RAID arrays /dev/md0, /dev/md1, and /dev/md2. /dev/sdb1 will be added to /dev/md0, /dev/sdb2 to /dev/md1, and /dev/sdb3 to /dev/md2. /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, and /dev/sda3 can't be added right now (because the system is currently running on them), therefore we use the placeholder missing in the following three commands:

mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-disks=2 missing /dev/sdb1
mdadm --create /dev/md1 --level=1 --raid-disks=2 missing /dev/sdb2
mdadm --create /dev/md2 --level=1 --raid-disks=2 missing /dev/sdb3

The command

cat /proc/mdstat

should now show that you have three degraded RAID arrays ([_U] or [U_] means that an array is degraded while [UU] means that the array is ok):

[root@server1 ~]# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10]
md2 : active raid1 sdb3[1]
4618560 blocks [2/1] [_U]

md1 : active raid1 sdb2[1]
513984 blocks [2/1] [_U]

md0 : active raid1 sdb1[1]
104320 blocks [2/1] [_U]

unused devices:
[root@server1 ~]#

Next we create filesystems on our RAID arrays (ext3 on /dev/md0 and /dev/md2 and swap on /dev/md1):

mkfs.ext3 /dev/md0
mkswap /dev/md1
mkfs.ext3 /dev/md2

Next we create /etc/mdadm.conf as follows:

mdadm --examine --scan > /etc/mdadm.conf

Display the contents of the file:

cat /etc/mdadm.conf

In the file you should now see details about our three (degraded) RAID arrays:

ARRAY /dev/md0 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=2848a3f5:cd1c26b6:e762ed83:696752f9
ARRAY /dev/md1 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=8a004bac:92261691:227767de:4adf6592
ARRAY /dev/md2 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=939f1c71:be9c10fd:d9e5f8c6:a46bcd49

5 Adjusting The System To RAID1

Now let's mount /dev/md0 and /dev/md2 (we don't need to mount the swap array /dev/md1):

mkdir /mnt/md0
mkdir /mnt/md2

mount /dev/md0 /mnt/md0
mount /dev/md2 /mnt/md2

You should now find both arrays in the output of

mount

[root@server1 ~]# mount
/dev/sda3 on / type ext3 (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
/dev/md0 on /mnt/md0 type ext3 (rw)
/dev/md2 on /mnt/md2 type ext3 (rw)
[root@server1 ~]#

Next we modify /etc/fstab. Replace LABEL=/boot with /dev/md0, LABEL=SWAP-sda2 with /dev/md1, and LABEL=/ with /dev/md2 so that the file looks as follows:

vi /etc/fstab

/dev/md2                 /                       ext3    defaults        1 1
/dev/md0             /boot                   ext3    defaults        1 2
tmpfs                   /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0
devpts                  /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0
sysfs                   /sys                    sysfs   defaults        0 0
proc                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0
/dev/md1         swap                    swap    defaults        0 0

Next replace LABEL=/boot with /dev/md0 and LABEL=/ with /dev/md2 in /etc/mtab:

vi /etc/mtab

/dev/md2 / ext3 rw 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
/dev/md0 /boot ext3 rw 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
none /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc rw 0 0
sunrpc /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs rpc_pipefs rw 0 0

Now up to the GRUB boot loader. Open /boot/grub/menu.lst and add fallback=1 right after default=0:

vi /boot/grub/menu.lst

[...]
default=0
fallback=1
[...]

This makes that if the first kernel (counting starts with 0, so the first kernel is 0) fails to boot, kernel #2 will be booted.

In the same file, go to the bottom where you should find some kernel stanzas. Copy the first of them and paste the stanza before the first existing stanza; replace root=LABEL=/ with root=/dev/md2 and root (hd0,0) with root (hd1,0):

[...]
title Fedora (2.6.23.1-42.fc8)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 ro root=/dev/md2 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.23.1-42.fc8.img

title Fedora (2.6.23.1-42.fc8)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.23.1-42.fc8.img

The whole file should look something like this:

# 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/sda3
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
fallback=1
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.23.1-42.fc8)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 ro root=/dev/md2 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.23.1-42.fc8.img

title Fedora (2.6.23.1-42.fc8)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.23.1-42.fc8.img

root (hd1,0) refers to /dev/sdb which is already part of our RAID arrays. We will reboot the system in a few moments; the system will then try to boot from our (still degraded) RAID arrays; if it fails, it will boot from /dev/sda (-> fallback 1).

Next we adjust our ramdisk to the new situation:

mv /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img_orig
mkinitrd /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img `uname -r`

Now we copy the contents of /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda3 to /dev/md0 and /dev/md2 (which are mounted on /mnt/md0 and /mnt/md2):

cp -dpRx / /mnt/md2

cd /boot
cp -dpRx . /mnt/md0

6 Preparing GRUB (Part 1)

Afterwards we must install the GRUB bootloader on the second hard drive /dev/sdb:

grub

On the GRUB shell, type in the following commands:

root (hd0,0)

grub> root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub>

setup (hd0)

grub> setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 16 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+16 p (hd0,0)/grub/stage2 /grub/grub.conf"... succeeded
Done.

grub>

root (hd1,0)

grub> root (hd1,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0xfd

grub>

setup (hd1)

grub> setup (hd1)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd1)"... 16 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /grub/stage1 (hd1) (hd1)1+16 p (hd1,0)/grub/stage2 /grub/grub.conf"... succeeded
Done.

grub>

quit

Now, back on the normal shell, we reboot the system and hope that it boots ok from our RAID arrays:

reboot

PreviousNext

Make no mistake about, the Linux 2.6.x kernel is a *large* undertaking that just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Apparently it's also getting harder to maintain as well in terms of ensuring that regressions don't occur and that new code is fully tested.

That's where the new 'Linux Next' effort comes in.

Linux next started off as a 'dream' of kernel maintainer Andrew Morton who has noted that few kernel developers are testing other kernel developers' development code which is leading to some problems.

Morton has proposed a "linux-next" tree that once per day would merge various Linux subsystem trees and then run compilation tests after applying each tree. While that may sound simple enough, in practice it's no small task.

Kernel developer Stephen Rothwell has stepped up to the plate and has announced that he will help to run part of the Linux next tree. While the effort could well serve to make the Linux development process more complicated, its goal clearly is to ensure a higher overall code quality by making sure code merges actually work before Linus Torvalds actually pushes out a RC (release candidate).

The way i see it from my simple laypersons point of view, Linux next forces code to be a whole lot cleaner before it gets submitted and forces more testing, earlier and more often - which ultimately is a great thing.

There has been some very 'healthy' discussion on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) about Linux next with perhaps the most colorful language coming from non-other than Linus Torvalds himself.

If you're not confident enough about your work, don't push it out! It's
that simple. Pushing out to a public branch is a small "release".

Have the [EXPLETIVE DELETED]back-bone to be able to stand behind what you did!

Red Hat is out this week with a series of initiatives to further expand and develop its JBoss middleware platform. On the commercially available product side there is the JBoss SOA (define) platform and on the community side there are three separate projects including Black Tie (for BEA Tuxedo migration), RHQ (a management effort for middleware management) and SOA Governance.

All told the projects are part of Red Hat's effort to accelerate JBoss to take on 50 percent of the enterprise middleware market.

"As you look at these projects they first start off in the community but they will become products and part of our product portfolio," Craig Muzilla, VP Middleware Business at Red Hat explained. "We believe that they will all help to accelerate our open source middleware since they all relate to the challenges that IT has."

During a conference call with the media, JBoss CTO Sacha Labourey explained that the Black Tie effort came out of JBoss's acquisition of Ajuna in 2005. The goal of Black Tie is simple - to get users of BEA's Tuxedo transaction server.

Black Tie which is expected to have its first open source release in the next 60 days will allow for interoperability with Tuxedo as a transaction server. Labourey claimed it could possibly serve as a replacement to Tuxedo in certain scenarios as well.

The goal of RHQ is not necessarily intended to be a standalone effort but rather to act as a framework on which a complete management product is based. JBoss Operations Network v2.0 (JON 2.0) from Red Hat will be one such product. JON 2 is set for a Spring of 2008 release.

In terms of governance, JBoss is kicking off a series of projects all under the larger banner of SOA governance. Craig Muzilla, VP Middleware Business at Red Hat, explained that all of the SOA governance projects are aimed at helping the adoption of JBoss's middleware. While Muzilla could not provide all the hard details on the SOA governance project he did indicate that there will be at least three core areas including registry, repository and policy management.

The registry effort will have a project in it called JBoss DNA which Muzilla described as a metadata repository that will be based on technology acquired from Metamatrix. Red Hat acquired Metamatrix for an undisclosed sum in April of 2007.

In addition to the new open source efforts, JBoss also announced the general availability of its SOA platform. The JBoss SOA platform is an integrated set of JBoss technologies that have been combined to form a full SOA solution. Among the JBoss tools included in JBoss SOA is JBoss ESB (for service integration), jBPM (for workflow) and JBoss Rules (for policy).

Summing up, Labourey said JBoss' announcements are about innovation of middleware and SOA.

Originally posted on Zabbix 1.4.4 from source on Debian Etch. This guide will walk you through installing Zabbix 1.4.4 from source on Debian Etch. 1.4.4 has many improvements over what is currently available in apt, and it's not hard so you might as well do it this way. *Note: this walkthrough assumes that you will be running the zabbix database on the same machine as the frontend. You dont have to obviously, just do the mysql setup on whatever db server you are using and point the necessary things to it.

Required Packages: build-essential libmysqlclient-dev libssl-dev libsnmp-dev apache2 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-gd php5-mysql mysql-server

aptitude -y install build-essential libmysqlclient-dev libssl-dev libsnmp-dev apache2 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-gd php5-mysql mysql-server

Zabbix needs to have its own user and group so let's create them (you need to do this as root).

groupadd zabbix
useradd -c 'Zabbix' -d /home/zabbix -g zabbix -s /bin/bash zabbix
mkdir /home/zabbix
chown zabbix:zabbix /home/zabbix

Let's set up the MySQL database for zabbix.

mysql -p -u root
create database zabbix;
grant all on zabbix.* to 'zabbix'@'localhost' identified by 'PASSWORD';
quit;

Where PASSWORD is the password you want zabbix to connect to the database with.

Let's go ahead and grab the zabbix source.

su - zabbix
wget http://internap.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/zabbix/zabbix-1.4.4.tar.gz
tar zxvf zabbix-1.4.4.tar.gz
cd zabbix-1.4.4

Now let's build the source and install zabbix_server and zabbix_agentd.

./configure --prefix=/usr --with-mysql --with-net-snmp --enable-server --enable-agent
make
exit
make install

We need to add the zabbix ports to /etc/services, and create some config files for zabbix.

echo "
zabbix_agent 10050/tcp # Zabbix ports
zabbix_trap 10051/tcp" >> /etc/services
mkdir -p /etc/zabbix
chown -R zabbix:zabbix /etc/zabbix
cp misc/conf/zabbix_* /etc/zabbix
vim /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf

ensure Server=127.0.0.1

vim /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf

max_execution_time = 300
date.timezone = UTC
ensure DBHost=localhost or your db host
ensure DBName=zabbix
ensure DBUser=zabbix
ensure DBPassword=ZABBIX_PASSWORD

where ZABBIX_PASSWORD is the password you set when creating db.

The zabbix package has init scripts for Debian and they only need minor modification to get them working so let's use them.

cp /home/zabbix/zabbix-1.4.4/misc/init.d/debian/* /etc/init.d/

Now modify both of those scripts changing

DAEMON=/home/zabbix/bin/${NAME}

to

DAEMON=/usr/sbin/${NAME}

Great; now we just need to get the database schema loaded, and then we need to set up the frontend. Let's load the database schema first.

mysql -u root -p zabbix < /home/zabbix/zabbix-1.4.4/create/schema/mysql.sql
mysql -u root -p zabbix < /home/zabbix/zabbix-1.4.4/create/data/data.sql
mysql -u root -p zabbix < /home/zabbix/zabbix-1.4.4/create/data/images_mysql.sql

Great; now it's just the frontend left. I like to put all of my webaps down in /var/www.

mkdir -p /var/www/zabbix
cp -R /home/zabbix/zabbix-1.4.4/frontends/php/* /var/www/zabbix/
chown -R zabbix:zabbix /var/www/zabbix/*

Create /etc/apache2/sites-available/zabbix with the following content:


ServerName zabbix.fqdn.tld
DocumentRoot /var/www/zabbix

Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None



I disable the default site, and enable the zabbix site with a2ensite:

a2ensite zabbix
a2dissite default

Just a few minor edits in /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini:

max_execution_time = 300
date.timezone = UTC

Restart apache, zabbix-server, and zabbix-agent and you should be ready to rock and roll. You will need to browse to your zabbix frontend and complete the web-driven install which should be easy enough.

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart
/etc/init.d/zabbix-server start
/etc/init.d/zabbix-agent start
update-rc.d zabbix-server default
update-rc.d zabbix-agent default

* adapted and updated from http://www.howtoforge.com/zabbix_network_monitoring
Zabbix 1.4.4 from source on Debian Etch

Have you ever said, "This program is pretty nice, but I wish it would ..."? For applications that offer the capability, scripting gives users the ability to customize, extend, and tailor a program to meet their needs. Scribus, a free page layout program that runs on Linux (and Mac OS and Windows) uses the Python programming language for user scripting. Python scripting in Scribus can drastically improve your work flow, and it's relatively easy for beginners to not only use scripts, but also write them.

Scripts are useful for page layout in a few interrelated ways, including automating repetitive tasks and tasks that involve measuring, such as placing page elements and creating page guides.

Not much is required to use Python scripts in Scribus. If your distribution successfully runs Scribus, then you probably have the required Python components. For this evaluation, I downloaded, compiled, and installed the latest stable Python version (1.3.3.11). You can start a Python script from within Scribus by going to the Script menu and choosing either Execute Script..., which opens a dialog box for selecting a script to run, or Scribus Scripts, which lists the scripts in the /usr/share/scribus/scripts directory, which contains the official scripts for Scribus. Placing additional scripts in that directory (as the root user or using sudo) makes those scripts available from the menu.

Two official scripts are provided: CalendarWizard.py and FontSample.py. Both feature dialog boxes with numerous options that showcase how Python scripts can extend the functionality of Scribus. The font sample script can take a long time to run, depending on your processor speed, memory, and number of fonts, but Scribus displays a handy progress bar showing the percentage of script completion.

Additionally, the /usr/share/scribus/samples directory contains 15 scripts intended not just for immediate use, but also as samples to study when creating your own scripts. The scripts in the samples directory are varied and range from a heavily commented boilerplate script (boilerplate.py) to functional scripts that, for example, set up a layout for CD pockets (pochette_CD.py), or add legends to images (legende.py). As the titles of some of the scripts indicate, many have comments and even dialog box text written in the native languages of the script authors, but the script description is usually in English.
More Scripts

More Scribus scripts are available online at the Scribus wiki's page on scripts and plugins. I found here a script to make empty space around an image inside an image frame -- something not yet possible in Scribus. The script works by drawing a second, empty frame 10 measurement units larger than the selected image or text frame. When I first ran the script, I had my default units set to inches, and the script created a 10-inch border around the image I selected. If you want to use this script without modification, be sure that your default units are set for points.

A more comprehensive approach to manipulating images uses a series of scripts for aligning an image inside its frame, scaling an image to fill a frame proportionally (i.e., scaling the image to the largest size possible within the frame while keeping its proportions intact), and scaling and aligning an image via a wizard and an advanced wizard that build upon the first two scripts. These scripts are great examples of how Python scripting extends Scribus's capabilities.

Using scripts that others have written is as simple as copying them from the Web page, pasting them into a text editor (preferably one that is aware of Python syntax, such as Emacs, Vim, Kate, or gedit), and then saving the script to a file ending in .py. You can then run the script from the Scribus script menu. The advantage of pasting the script into a syntax-aware text editor is that white space is important in Python, and a good editor will help you check that everything is aligned correctly.
Writing a script

Prior to doing the research for this article, I had not done any programming in Python. I did, however, have extensive experience using Adobe's scripting language for PageMaker, and I found that most of the principles carried over. A wonderful resource for beginners wanting to learn more about Python is the 110-page PDF tutorial A Byte of Python by Swaroop C H. It is well-written, easy to follow, and may be the best introduction to Python programming available.

Armed with a little bit of knowledge of Python, and having the scripting application programming interface (API) available online and from Scribus's help menu, I set out to write a couple of scripts. With all the sample scripts available, I did not have to start from scratch.

I began by modifying the script for making an empty space around an image so that the space would be 10 points regardless of the default measurement unit set by the user. To do that, I needed to get the current units setting, store it in a variable, temporarily set the units to points, and then reset the units to their original setting. To accomplish those tasks, I added the following commands to the script I downloaded:

* userUnit = getUnit() -- set a variable storing the current units setting
* setUnit(0) -- sets the units to points (0). (1) is millimeters (2) is inches and (3) is picas.
* setUnit(userUnit) -- resets the units to the original setting

#!/usr/bin/env python # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- import sys try: import scribus except ImportError: print "This script only works from within Scribus" sys.exit(1) def makebox(x,y,w,h): a = scribus.createImage(x, y, w, h) scribus.textFlowsAroundFrame(a, 1) def main(): if scribus.haveDoc(): scribus.setRedraw(1) userUnit = scribus.getUnit() scribus.setUnit(0) x,y = scribus.getPosition() w,h = scribus.getSize() x2 = x - border y2 = y - border w2 = w + border * 2 h2 = h + border * 2 makebox(x2,y2,w2,h2) scribus.redrawAll() scribus.setUnit(userUnit) else: result = scribus.messageBox('Error','You need a Document open, and a frame selected.') # Change the 'border' value to change the size of space around your frame border = 10 main()

#!/usr/bin/env python # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- """ Draws a line below the selected frame. """ import sys try: from scribus import * except ImportError: print "This script only runs from within Scribus." sys.exit(1) import os def main(): userUnit = getUnit() setUnit(1) sel_count = selectionCount() if sel_count == 0: messageBox("underline_block.py", "Please select the object to add a line to before running this script.", ICON_INFORMATION) sys.exit(1) x,y = getPosition() l,h = getSize() createLine(x, y+h, x+l, y+h) setUnit(userUnit) if __name__ == '__main__': main()

Linpus Technologies has long been known in Taiwan for its Linux distributions. Now, it wants to become a player in the global Linux market with its new Linux distribution Linpus Linux Lite, which features a dual-mode user interface. One mode is for people who may never have used a computer before; the other is for experienced Linux users.

According to the company, these two modes are Easy and Normal. Easy mode uses large, colorful icons, arranging software in terms of its use. So, for example, instead of offering users a choice of Web browser and e-mail programs, there's an icon for the Internet. Under this icon, there are other icons for Firefox, as well as links that use Firefox to automatically connect to Google Maps, Wikipedia and YouTube. If users want a more traditional PC interface, they merely need to tap an icon on the master tool bar and they'll switch to Normal mode, which is a KDE 3.5x desktop.

This functional approach to the desktop is quite similar to that of Good OS' gOS 2.0. With gOS, which is deployed on Everex's inexpensive gPC, both Internet and office applications are built around Google's online software stack. Linpus offers a middle-of-the-road approach with an easy-to-use, functional desktop interface, but with the more usual PC-based applications underneath it.

Linux Lite is also designed to run on minimal hardware. Linpus claims the product will run well on PCs with 366MHz processors, 128MB of DRAM (dynamic RAM) and 512MB of disk space. At the same time, Linux Lite comes with an assortment of open-source software staples, such as OpenOffice.org.

"Our objective with this product was to create an operating system that offered choice and addressed specifically the ease-of-use needs of end users of UMPC [Ultra-Mobile PC] devices," Warren Coles, Linpus' sales and marketing manager, said in a statement. "If you are using a small screen, if you are a child, older person or inexperienced user, you will find the icon interface particularly helpful."

While Linpus would be happy to see end users pick up Linux Lite, the company is really targeting hardware vendors. "Our company has always been committed to creating user-friendly, mass-market Linux," Coles said. "Because of this, we have invested our time into not just being another desktop distribution, but in resolving all the issues involved in getting desktop Linux to market.

"Specifically, we provide unprecedented levels of support for hardware vendors —- and we recently pioneered our own preload solution and have worked extremely hard to create stable sleep and suspend modes for notebooks," he said.

"By having operating system, application and driver teams working side by side, in close proximity to the hardware manufacturers, we offer tremendous quality, value and time-to-market strengths," Coles added. "Ultimately, both the consumer and Linux enthusiasts benefit from a smooth, stable, out-of-the-box Linux operating system at the best price."

Reading between the lines, Linpus is encouraging would-be North American resellers and systems integrators to work with Linpus and Taiwanese PC vendors to deliver inexpensive, small laptops to the American market. Asustek has already shown this approach can be successful, with its popular Eee Linux desktop and laptop PCs.

Linux seems to have chosen the 2008 Mobile World Congress to quietly make its way onto the new consumer devices so in abundance at the annual mobile Mecca.

Texas Instruments “G-Phone”

Stalwarts like Symbian and Microsoft have been somewhat upstaged by the rough-and-tough technology concept demonstrations of Google’s mobile platform, Android. Both Qualcomm and Texas Instruments showed impressive demos of the platform, with developer boards and some concept devices on show.

Texas Instruments showed off a development board, a development handset and – the show-stopper – Android running on a mobile form factor device. Qualcomm’s demo, on a development board, featured a touch screen and a custom-made mole-whacking game – apparently created in 60 minutes on Google’s Android software development kit (SDK).

Android offers cell phone manufacturers a “stack” of software for rolling out on their mobile phones. Manufacturers will be able to utilise the software to give them a firm base – including operating system, middleware and typical cell phone applications like SMS, contacts, voice and web browser.

Qualcomm’s Android offering

It is hoped that the Linux stack and good SDKs will promote application developers to create more apps for the mobile platform. Vodafone’s CEO, Arun Sarin, stated that he believed there should be no more than four or five operating systems for mobile phones, compared to the 40 in the market currently. The proliferation of mobile platforms has severly hamstrung the roll-out of applications for the “fourth screen”.

While Android offers a full stack, the LiMo (Linux Mobile) Foundation delivers a unified middleware and OS layer – the manufacturers build all the applications on top of the platform. Some manufacturers clearly prefer this model, giving them the ability to completely customise the user experience on their platforms. LiMo is significantly more advanced than Android after its year in the market – the LiMo Foundation showed off phones from the likes of Motorola, LG, NEC, Panasonic and Samsung.

Motorola’s Motorokr E8 LiMo phone

Thanks to Google’s lead in the software, the Android phones have been slugged “G-Phones”, in response to Apple’s phone nomenclature, although more than 30 technology companies are part of the Open Handset Alliance, the group backing Android.

LiMo representatives stated that Android would not compete directly with its foundation, although Android’s promoters told Tectonic that they believed that Android’s full solution will prove more popular over time.

Since Android has been demo’d running live on processors and chipsets from TI and Qualcomm, the platform is technically ready for manufacturers to develop and prototype the solution. We can expect some Android devices at next year’s MWC. Should Sarin’s vision of four or five operating systems come true, Linux is a safe bet as one of them.

Source : http://www.tectonic.co.za

This guide will walk you through installing the KnowledgeTree Document Management System on Ubuntu 7.10 Server. This guide does not include any pictures. I just felt with this type of install, that they were not warranted.

Please note that this installation is performed on a base install of Ubuntu 7.10. Since the KnowledgeTree stack installer contains its own versions of Apache and MySQL, it will cause problems on an existing LAMP server.

With that warning out of the way, let's begin.

After you have installed Ubuntu 7.10 Server (remember - a base installation; do not install Apache or MySQL), we need to perform a few steps to get the system ready.

Edit sources.list

In this step, I will edit out the CD-ROM from the sources.list configuration. You do not have to perform this step, I just don't like using the CD for software installations.

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

The section that we are looking for will read:

deb cdrom:[Ubuntu-Server 7.10 _Gutsy Gibbon_ - Release i386 (20071016)]/ gutsy main restricted

Add a "#" in front of that line so that it reads:

Press "Ctrl o" to write out the changes and "Ctrl x" to exit nano.

With that done, you need to update sources.list. This can be done by typing:

sudo apt-get update

After the update has finished, you will want to ensure that you have the most recent updates for your server. Run the following command to perform the upgrade:

sudo apt-get upgrade

Finally, you can install openssh-server, so that the rest of the installation can be performed remotely.

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

The rest of this tutorial can be performed remotely using an SSH client, such as PuTTY

In order to use the email functionality with KnowledgeTree, you will want to install an SMTP server. For this guide, I will use Sendmail.

sudo apt-get install sendmail

When prompted, type "y" to install Sendmail and its dependencies. There should be a total of nine packages installed, including:

liblockfile1 m4 make procmail sendmail sendmail-base sendmail-bin sendmail-cf sensible-mda

Obtaining And Installing KnowledgeTree

You are now ready to get the KnowledgeTree installer. I like to work out of the tmp directory for installations such as this. To get there, enter the following command:

cd /tmp/

Use the following command to get the KnowledgeTree installer. At the time of writing this article, the most recent version stood at 3.4.6.

sudo wget http://internap.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/kt-dms/ktdms-oss-3.4.6-linux-installer.bin

Before the installation can begin, you need to change the permissions on the installer to allow it to run. Run the following command:

sudo chmod +x ktdms-oss-3.4.6-linux-installer.bin

With that done, it is time to begin installing KnowledgeTree. To do this, run:

sudo ./ktdms-oss-3.4.6-linux-installer.bin

The following text is how the installation process will play out. You will be prompted during the installation enter information pertinent to your environment. These entries are in red text..

Do you accept this license? [y/n]:
Enter y and press enter
Please specify the directory where KnowledgeTree Document Management System OSS will be installed
Installation directory [/opt/ktdms]: Enter for default
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
MySQL Root Password
Initial password for the DMS root user account
created during the MySQL database installation.
Password : Enter a password of your choosing
Re-enter : Re-enter the same password
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
MySQL User Password
Initial password for the DMS user account
created during the MySQL database installation.
Password : Enter a password of your choosing
Re-enter : Re-enter the same password
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DB Port
Please enter the port for your MySQL database.
MySQL database Port [3306]: Enter for default
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
WebServer Port
Please enter the port that Apache will listen to by default.
Apache Web Server Port [8080]: Enter for default
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SSL Support
Do you wish to install SSL support?
Install SSL support [y/n]: This is a personal choice, but since this setup is for home use, I will enter "n", so that SSL is not enabled.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help us make KnowledgeTree a better product
Please help us improve KnowledgeTree by telling us a bit about yourself.We will use this information to more effectively tailor KnowledgeTree for your industry,organization size,and,if you agree,to notify you of news about KnowledgeTree and its family of products.
[1] Yes, I want to register with KnowledgeTree
[2] No, I prefer to skip registration
Please choose an option [1] : Again, this is a personal choice. For the tutorial, I will enter "2" for no.
Please Note: We will not share your information with 3rd parties without your consent nor will we send you information not directly related to KnowledgeTree products and services.Please see our Privacy and Data Retention Policies for more information
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Setup is now ready to begin installing KnowledgeTree Document Management System OSS on your computer.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]: "Y" to proceed
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Setup has finished installing KnowledgeTree Document Management System OSS on your computer.
View Readme file? [Y/n]? Again, this is a personal choice. For the tutorial, I will enter "n" for no.
Open Online Release Notes [Y/n]: Again, this is a personal choice. For the tutorial, I will enter "n" for no.
Launch KnowledgeTree DMS now? [Y/n]: Enter "y" to launch KnowledgeTree

If you are using KnowledgeTree locally, you can open a browser and go to http://127.0.0.1:8080 to reach the dashboard. If you are using KnowledgeTree remotely, you can get to the dashboard by using the server's IP address, such as http://192.168.1.115:8080

The default login information is as follows:
Username: admin
Password: admin

You may also choose your language here, if English (which is the default) is not your native language.

Configure Email Functionality

In order to get the email functionality working, we need to edit the [email] section of the config.ini. Run the following command:

sudo nano /opt/ktdms/config.ini

Enter your password when prompted.

Once you are in the config.ini file, you can easily find the section to edit by using the search function. Press "CTRL W" and on the search line enter:

enter emailServer = none

Now change this to read:

emailServer = /usr/sbin/sendmail

Press "Ctrl o" to write out your changes and "Ctrl x" to exit nano.

Now, if you refresh the KnowledgeTree dashboard, the email warning will be gone.

Starting And Stopping KnowledgeTree

You can control KnowledgeTree with the following commands:

sudo/opt/ktdms/./dmsctl.sh start
sudo /opt/ktdms/./dmsctl.sh stop
sudo /opt/ktdms/./dmsctl.sh restart

I prefer not to have to do this though, so you can add a command to your crontab and have it run automatically on boot. If you would prefer this, use the following command:

sudo crontab -e

Paste the following line into your crontab:

@reboot /opt/ktdms/./dmsctl.sh start

One thing you will notice though, is that KnowledgeTree asks for your MySQL password when starting. To get around this (if security is not a concern), you can edit the dmsctl.sh file in your KnowledgeTree directory.

sudo nano /opt/ktdms/dmsctl.sh

In the dmsctl.sh file, find the following section:

MYSQL_PASSWORD=""

Now change it so that it reads along the following lines:

MYSQL_PASSWORD="MySQL root password you created during the installation"

Press "Ctrl o" to write out your changes and "Ctrl x" to exit nano.

To test and ensure that everything is working as it should be you can reboot and KnowledgeTree should start automatically.

If you want to test this, run the following command:

sudo shutdown -r now

Links For Administration Guides And Assistance

Administration and Configuration
KnowledgeTree Forums
Backing up and restoring KnowledgeTree