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Archive for 2010

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Universal Go-oo 3.2 build available

February 12th, 2010 by

I am happy to announce that the universal Go-oo 3.1.1 build is available for Linux (i586, x86_64), MAC OSX Intel, and Windows[*]. See also download and installation instructions. The builds include many upstream and Go-oo fixes.

Go-oo team hopes that you will be happy with this release. Though, any software contains bugs and we kindly ask you to report them, so that we could fix them in the future releases. Also you could send feedback to the ooo-build@lists.freedesktop.org mailing list or contact us on irc.freenode.net, channel #go-oo.

[*] We are sorry but the bundled extension with dictionaries is broken in the GoOo-3.2-10.exe Windows build. Please remove it in Tools/Extension Manager… and install the fixed one. Only this single fix will be included in the upcomming GoOo-3.2-11.exe build. We are going to upload it the following week. You need not update to the 3.2-11 build if you re-install the extension manually or if you do not use the spell checker. Only Windows users are affected by this bug. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

—

PS: I feel a bit schizophrenic. I want to blog about the openSUSE builds at planetsuse and about the universal build at planet.go-oo. Both builds are based on the same sources, so the schedule is almost the same. We only do more alpha and beta builds for openSUSE because it is so easy with the Build Service.

Posted in Desktop, OpenOffice.org | 7 Comments »

OpenOffice_org 3.2 final available for openSUSE

February 12th, 2010 by

I’m happy to announce OpenOffice.org 3.2 final packages for openSUSE. They are available in the Build Service OpenOffice:org:STABLE project and include many upstream and Go-oo improvements and fixes. Please, check the wiki page for more details about the openSUSE OOo build.

The openSUSE OOo team hopes that you will be happy with this release. Though, any software contains bugs and we kindly ask you to report them, so that we could fixed them in the future releases.

Other information and plans:

We have also updated the OpenOffice_org-LanguageTool extension to the version 1.0.

We are already working on the 3.2.1 release. I would like to put the first alpha build into the OpenOffice:org:UNSTABLE project within next few weeks.

Posted in Desktop, OpenOffice.org | 2 Comments »

openSUSE Forums – Tighter Integration with the openSUSE Board

February 11th, 2010 by

After a review by the openSUSE board and some significant changes in the administration, the openSUSE forums is well placed to provide sterling support to it’s users. The openSUSE forums team can be seen here: Forum Team
A general drawing together of all the openSUSE community (including the forums), will mean better communication over all the areas, this should translate in to improved support for the users. The forum now has language specific areas: Forum
And a Wiki area too. This will compliment the enormous work being done in the Wiki to improve user support. Both have their compliment of Forum specific Moderators. Here at openSUSE forum we really go the extra mile to help you.
A big thank you goes out to the openSUSE board for their help over recent months. All here in the forum look forward to working along with the rest of the community.

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Posted in Forums | Comments Off on openSUSE Forums – Tighter Integration with the openSUSE Board

new osc feature to review requests

February 11th, 2010 by

Hi,

darix asked me to implement a new feature (and to blog about it 🙂 ) to review requests interactively. How it works:

osc request show <request id> –interactive. Example:
marcus@linux:~> osc rq show 32152 –interactive
Request #32152:

submit:   home:Marcus_H/bar(r1)(update) -> home:Marcus_H/foo

Message:
foo bar

State:   new          2010-02-11T02:40:20 Marcus_H
Comment: None

d(i)ff/(a)ccept/(d)ecline/(r)evoke/(c)ancel > a -m “reviewed and accepted”
marcus@linux:~>

If you just specified “a” or “d” or “r” osc will run $EDITOR to enter a message. To enable this interactive mode permanently add “request_show_interactive = 1” to the “[general]” section in your ~/.oscrc.

Comments, feature requests etc. are always welcome.

Posted in Build Service | 4 Comments »

AstroGarrobo Beta

February 10th, 2010 by

Space, the Final Frontier! This is the tale of one Amateur Astronomer that have found in openSUSE a terrific tool for public outreach, self-learning and teaching platform.

Ok, that was a bit exagerated.

But the truth is that I am enjoying the new SUSE Studio suite. And that’s because it is facilitating my job as an educator. I work with the Nicaraguan Amateur Astronomers Society (ANASA) in teaching basic astronomy to the public. Obviously, my workhorse is an openSUSE laptop, loaded with Stellarium, Celestia, KStars and Xephem (and many other tools for my personal job as an astronomer).

(more…)

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Build Service, Education, GNOME, openSUSE 11.2 | Comments Off on AstroGarrobo Beta

Xen para-virtualized openSUSE 11.2

February 10th, 2010 by

I had to install Xen para-virtualized openSUSE 11.2 (PVM), lucky for me 11.2 DVD iso has broken xen kernel so it does not install, the live CDs do not have any xen kernel at all so they are not useful either. After reading up all the posts on the bugzilla and forums about the subject, found the way to get it done, here is a howto for anyone else who is looking for the solution.

1. Set up http installation source

Install web-server pattern from yast to install apache2 in Dom0

Edit apache configuration /etc/apache2/default-server.conf to follow symlinks, it should look something like this:

#Options none
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

Mount the DVD iso and copy all the files to your webserver root.

mount openSUSE-11.2-DVD-i586.iso /mnt -o loop
mkdir -p /srv/www/htdocs/suse-11.2
cp -ar /mnt/* /srv/www/htdocs/suse-11.2/
cd /srv/www/htdocs/suse-11.2/boot/i386/
rm *-xen*
wget http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/boot/i386/initrd-xen
wget http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/boot/i386/vmlinuz-xen
ln -s initrd-xen initrd-xenpae
ln -s vmlinuz-xen vmlinuz-xenpae
cd /srv/www/htdocs/
wget http://download.opensuse.org/update/11.2/rpm/i586/kernel-xen-2.6.31.12-0.1.1.i586.rpm (or the latest)
mv kernel-xen-2.6.31.12-0.1.1.i586.rpm kx.rpm
rcapache2 start

2. Start installation via “yast2 vm-install”, select para-virtualization and as installation source use http://dom0IP/suse-11.2/
3. The hack part:
When the install is about 80%  or “Stop” the reboot after the completion of first stage install, switch to tty2 by using “Sendkey > ctrl+alt+F2”.

chroot /mnt
rpm -Uvh http://dom0IP/kx.rpm –force

Reboot and let the install run its course, at the end of it there should be working domU

Edit: If you have fast internet connection available during install, add the update repository as “Addon product”, with that in place the above hack will not be necessary.

Edit2: If the image still don’t boot, mount the disk image to edit grub’s menu.lst:

mount -o loop,offset=32256 /full/path/to/image/disk0 /mnt
cd /mnt
ln -s vmlinuz-….-xen vmlinuz-xen
ln -s initrd-…..-xen.img initrd-xen
vi /mnt/grub/menu.lst #to look like below:

title XEN
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-xen root=…..
initrd /initrd-xen

Posted in Documentation, Kernel, openSUSE 11.2, Virtualization | 2 Comments »

Cheat ocfs2-tools

February 9th, 2010 by

When running ocfs2 on cLVM, openais+pacemaker setup, you may run into something like described below.

The symptoms:

umount /data1
mspx1d0:~ # tunefs.ocfs2 –fs-features=sparse,unwritten /dev/system/data1
tunefs.ocfs2: Unable to access cluster service while opening device “/dev/system/data1”
mspx1d0:~ # mount /dev/system/data1 /data1
mspx1d0:~ # tunefs.ocfs2 –fs-features=sparse,unwritten /dev/system/data1
tunefs.ocfs2: Configuration error discovered while opening device “/dev/system/data1”

Here is how to get past cluster check when running ocfs2-tools.

From hb_gui or crm stop mounting of the file system and ocf::ocfs2:o2cb resources.

Install ocfs2-tools-o2cb package

Do normal stack configuration using /etc/init.d/o2cb configure, but do not auto start on boot. Read the fine ocfs2 manual.

Bring ocfs2 online: /etc/init.d/o2cb online ocfs2

Start ocfs2 service: rcocfs2 start

Update cluster stack on your partition with ocfs2 filesystem: tunefs.ocfs2 –update-cluster-stack /dev/system/data1

Do your thing with ocfs2-tools, such as: tunefs.ocfs2 -v –fs-features=sparse,unwritten /dev/system/data1

Stop ocfs2 service and unload o2cb: rcocfs2 stop && /etc/init.d/o2cb offline ocfs2 && /etc/init.d/o2cb unload

Re-enable ocf::ocfs2:o2cb resources and run tunefs.ocfs2 –update-cluster-stack /dev/system/data1 again. Re-enable mounting from hb_gui.  Hope there is a simpler way somewhere that I am not aware of.

Posted in Documentation, openSUSE 11.2, Server, Systems Management | Comments Off on Cheat ocfs2-tools

OpenOffice_org 3.2 rc5 available for openSUSE

February 8th, 2010 by

I’m happy to announce OpenOffice.org 3.2 rc5 packages for openSUSE. They are available in the Build Service OpenOffice:org:UNSTABLE project and include many upstream and Go-oo fixes. See also overview of integrated features and enhancements. Please, look for more details about the openSUSE OOo build on the wiki page.

The packages are release candidates. Though, they have not passed the full QA test and might still include even serious bugs. Therefore they are not intended for data-critical usage. A good practice is to archive any important data before an use, …

As usual, we kindly ask any interested beta testers to try the package and report bugs. See also the list of known bugs.

Other information and plans:

There were more blocker bugs in the rc4, so we needed to release rc5 in the end. The good news is that no new blocker bug has been reported last few days. If nothing bad happen with the next few days, rc5 will be final and I will put it to the OpenOffice:org:STABLE project by the end of this week. Please, keep your fingers crossed 😉

Posted in Desktop, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on OpenOffice_org 3.2 rc5 available for openSUSE

Writing man pages

February 7th, 2010 by

Here are a few resources for those among you thinking of writing proper documentation for your new project, or to contribute writings or translations to your favorite Community.

Man pages are written in Troff, the original UNIX typesetting system. Nowadays, few people (most notably man page writers and IETF RFC authors) regularly use this markup, but it is rather simple and elegant once you get to know it. For writing man pages, the learning curve is very good, as you only need to know a few macros and, just as if you were working on html and pilfering the sources of an existing  page doing just what you need, you have a wealth of examples to teach you right there on your trusty *NIX box. As the Wikipedia points out:

Troff features commands to designate fonts, spacing, paragraphs, margins, footnotes and more. Unlike many other text formatters, troff can position characters arbitrarily on a page, even overlapping them, and has a fully programmable input language. Separate preprocessors are used for more convenient production of tables, diagrams, and mathematics.

But you don’t need to master all that! For man pages, what you need is knowledge of the man macro package, originally written by James Clark and documented in man(7) or groff_man(7) depending on your distro. Troff input is processed from text files, so you just need your favorite text editor, and a bit of time to play with the markup to learn it in the process.

Here is a way to get started quickly: Linux Journal published a great tutorial a few years back, and the Linux Manual contains the ever-important style guidelines in man-pages(7). Start from scratch, or make a copy of an existing manual page and start editing. One more tip for you:

man ./foo.1

is your friend, to see what you just wrote and marked up in all its glory — and bugs.

WEB RESOURCES
Linux Journal: Writing man Pages Using groff
The Linux Manual: man-pages(7)
The Linux Manual: man(7)

BOOKS
Arnold Robbins, Nelson Beebe, Classic Shell Scripting (O’Reilly – 9780596005955) – Appendix A “Writing Man Pages” is for you.
Dale Dougherty, Tim O’Reilly, Unix Text Processing (out of print, released in the public domain) – all the Troff you could ever want, but not the man macros.

Posted in Base System, Documentation | 1 Comment »

Hermes Twittering about openSUSE Factory

February 1st, 2010 by

I'm going to FOSDEM, the Free and Open Source Software Developers' European Meeting

Last week we updated Hermes on our production servers, they’re running a version now which will become a first Hermes release. I hope to get it packaged and released this week to present it on FOSDEM where I’ll give a talk about Hermes. Don’t miss it if you’re interested in this useful technology.

There went in a lot of technical improvement and bugfixes which one gets aware of if a system like Hermes runs in production for quite some time, such as missing indexes here and there which slow down the database and stuff like that. But that is another story.

What I actually wanted to talk about is the the fact that Hermes now is twittering now for you. You can follow it under the OBSHermes Twitter account. Hermes currently twitters about version updates of all packages in the openSUSE Factory project, so this is your tweet if you want to be at the bleading edge of Factory.

It is configurable for the administrator what actually is twittered. Is there other useful information around the openSUSE project which you would like to see twittered about? If so, please let me know.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Boosters, Build Service, Factory | Comments Off on Hermes Twittering about openSUSE Factory

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