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Archive for the ‘YaST’ Category

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28 Partitions on a Single Disk? No Problem!

August 5th, 2009 by

So far it was only possible to have upto 16 device nodes for a single disks. This restricted the number of usable partitions. As a workaround kpartx could be used to create device mapper mappings for further partitions but that was never fully integrated in openSUSE.

With version 2.6.28 the kernel supports upto 256 device nodes per disk, much more than the partition table allows. But since the implementation is not straightforward, the additional device nodes are assigned dynamically, user-space programs may need to be adapted.

For openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 5 YaST was extended to support this new kernel feature.

Some quick tests showed only problems with LVM. If you are interested in this feature and have the possibility please give it a try so that we find remaining bugs.

Posted in Base System, Kernel, openSUSE 11.2, YaST | 1 Comment »

Installation: Resizing Windows before proposing Linux partitions

June 25th, 2009 by

While “selling” openSUSE to a friend of mine, I tried to explain him all the steps of the installation and all the configuration options which I had changed. He was not any geek and it was his first time seeing Linux.

While most of the installation did not need much explanations, I definitely spent most of the time on partitioning. Not that initial proposal was not fine, unless one has special requirements, but there is one elementar input, which even newbies may want to set: How to split disk between Windows and Linux. The installation proposal works just fine, but if one needs to keep more or less space for Windows than proposed and does not have any skills, he is doomed – and so would have been he.

(more…)

Posted in openSUSE 11.2, YaST | Comments Off on Installation: Resizing Windows before proposing Linux partitions

Sending Proxy Settings via DHCP

June 3rd, 2009 by

It’s a bit “overdressed” for my little homenet, but playing around with DHCP, DNS and YaST is always interesting….

My DHCP Server at home is configured to use LDAP – and I’ve done the configuration via YaST. Now I read in some M$ pages, that it’s possible to tell the Clients via DHCP (and Apache) to use my Proxy server automatically. (Yes, my wife still needs Win** for her schoolwork.)

First, I had to figure out how I can insert two “non standard” options into the LDAP configuration of the DHCP server. I called “yast2 dhcp-server” (thanks for the tab completion, btw!), marked the “Global Options” entry and clicked on “Edit” (not Add!). On the next page, click on “Add” to add a new Option. Just delete the first available entry “allow” and replace it with the full line as you would write it in dhcpd.conf. In my case, this is
option wpad code 252 = text;
and
option wpad “http://myserver/proxy.pac\n”;
(dunno if the “\n” is really needed). That’s the trick. Have a look at /var/log/messages in a separate terminal when you finish the yast2 dhcp-server module to catch possible errors.

Now all what’s left is a running apache server on “myserver” delivering the “proxy.pac” file to your users. The file content is well known – and google would find hundreds of examples for you.

Tags:
Posted in Network, YaST | 1 Comment »

Ruby on rails, Ajax and memory watching

May 14th, 2009 by

As work on webinterface for YaST is in progress we must learn new technologies suitable for web development. WebYast will be written in ruby and ruby on rails framework. Also because WebYast is new interface it could contain AJAX features for better user comfort. Today I found that ajax support in RoR is on good level and with documentation it takes few minutes to create first example which show current used memory on server. It is not connected anyhow to YaST because I want to focus on AJAX.
And here is a code. It update page every fifth second (but not refresh only update div, on bigger page it is really significant):
/views/home/index.html.erb:
<%= javascript_include_tag :defaults %>
<h1>Hello world!</h1>
<%= periodically_call_remote(:url => { :action => 'get_averages' }, :update => 'avg',:frequency => '5') %>
<div id="avg">
Memory usage is X MB </div>
controllers/home_controller.rb:
class HomeController < ApplicationController
   def index
   end
   def get_averages
     output = `free -m` # bash solution - | sed 's/Mem:[^0-9]+[0-9]+[^0-9]+([0-9]+).*$/1/;2q;1d'`
     output = $1 if (output =~ /.*n(.*)n.*n.*n/) #let live second line
     output = $1 if (output =~ /.*:s+S+s+(S+)s+/) #second field
     render :text => "Usage mem is "+output+"MB RAM."
   end
end

And thats all to watch your server usage.

Posted in YaST | Comments Off on Ruby on rails, Ajax and memory watching

User readable logging of YaST modules

April 6th, 2009 by

For quite some time, we had user requests (fate #100386) to provide the logging that would be readable to users (= not only YaST developers). Such logs should provide the information what certain YaST action is really doing to the system and exclude all the internal debug info our y2logs are full of.

Martin and Stano created some concept and added new logging functions y2usernote and y2useritem. These log to the new log file, /var/log/YaST2/y2changes (or $HOME/.y2changes).

The question which is still not resolved is how should we use these functions? Which events our modules produce should provide description as “note” and which should provide “items”? What level of complexity should be presented to user? Should we log the real actions, just like commands passed to system agent or rather the explanations of the actions taken? Or both?

Let’s go to the example. The changes are already in FACTORY version of yast2-users packages (yast2-perl-bindings needed as well), so you may even try yourself.

At first, I started logging actions done in Write function. I deleted one user and renamed another. See:

2009-02-05 15:15:55 <item> rivendell User and Group Management module started
2009-02-05 15:16:12 <note> rivendell File written: ‘/etc/group’
2009-02-05 15:16:12 <note> rivendell User pre-deletion script called: ‘/usr/sbin/userdel-pre.local cc 1003 100 /local/home/cc’
2009-02-05 15:16:12 <note> rivendell File written: ‘/etc/passwd’
2009-02-05 15:16:12 <note> rivendell User ‘aa’ renamed to ‘bb’
2009-02-05 15:16:12 <note> rivendell Home directory moved: ‘/bin/mv /local/home/aa /local/home/bb’
2009-02-05 15:16:12 <note> rivendell File written: ‘/etc/shadow’
2009-02-05 15:16:12 <note> rivendell nscd cache invalidated: ‘/usr/sbin/nscd -i passwd’
2009-02-05 15:16:12 <note> rivendell nscd cache invalidated: ‘/usr/sbin/nscd -i group’
2009-02-05 15:16:12 <note> rivendell Group ‘dialout’ modified
2009-02-05 15:16:12 <note> rivendell Group ‘video’ modified
2009-02-05 15:16:12 <note> rivendell Home directory removed: ‘/bin/rm -rf /local/home/cc’
2009-02-05 15:16:12 <note> rivendell User post-deletion script called: ‘/usr/sbin/userdel-post.local cc 1003 100 /local/home/cc’
2009-02-05 15:16:13 <item> rivendell User and Group Management module finished

Now, it is not bad, but the item “File written: ‘/etc/group'” doesn’t give much detailed info about what was done to that file. Stano proposed printing the diffs of the original and modified one, it could look this way:

2009-02-09 10:05:50 <item> rivendell User and Group Management module started
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell Backup created: ‘/bin/cp /etc/group /etc/group.YaST2save’
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell File written: ‘/etc/group’
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell Comparing original and new version:
— /etc/group.YaST2save    2009-02-09 11:05:49.000000000 +0100
+++ /etc/group    2009-02-09 11:05:49.000000000 +0100
@@ -8,3 +8,3 @@
daemon:x:2:
-dialout:x:16:bb,hh,linux,zz
+dialout:x:16:aa,hh,linux
disk:x:6:
@@ -45,3 +45,3 @@
vboxusers:!:113:jsuchome
-video:x:33:bb,hh,linux,zz
+video:x:33:aa,hh,linux
wheel:x:10:
`
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell User pre-deletion script called: ‘/usr/sbin/userdel-pre.local zz 1003 100 /local/home/zz’
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell Backup created: ‘/bin/cp /etc/passwd /etc/passwd.YaST2save’
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell File written: ‘/etc/passwd’
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell Comparing original and new version:
— /etc/passwd.YaST2save    2009-02-09 11:05:49.000000000 +0100
+++ /etc/passwd    2009-02-09 11:05:49.000000000 +0100
@@ -28,6 +28,5 @@
wwwrun:x:30:8:WWW daemon apache:/var/lib/wwwrun:/bin/false
-bb:x:1002:100:AAA:/local/home/bb:/bin/bash
+aa:x:1002:100:AAA:/local/home/aa:/bin/bash
hh:x:1000:100:hhh:/local/home/hh:/bin/bash
linux:x:1001:100:linux:/local/home/linux:/bin/bash
-zz:x:1003:100:zz:/local/home/zz:/bin/bash
+::::::
`
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell User ‘bb’ renamed to ‘aa’
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell Home directory moved: ‘/bin/mv /local/home/bb /local/home/aa’
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell Backup created: ‘/bin/cp /etc/shadow /etc/shadow.YaST2save’
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell File written: ‘/etc/shadow’
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell nscd cache invalidated: ‘/usr/sbin/nscd -i passwd’
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell nscd cache invalidated: ‘/usr/sbin/nscd -i group’
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell Group ‘dialout’ modified
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell Group ‘video’ modified
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell Home directory removed: ‘/bin/rm -rf /local/home/zz’
2009-02-09 11:05:49 <note> rivendell User post-deletion script called: ‘/usr/sbin/userdel-post.local zz 1003 100 /local/home/zz’
2009-02-09 11:05:50 <item> rivendell User and Group Management module finished

Here, the user knows more about the real changes, but the log file is getting a bit less readable again… still I think I’d prefer it.

You could see on examples that I don’t really use the advantage of having 2 logging functions. AFAIK Martin’s original proposal was to use items to tell what actions are we going to perform and notes to log the details of such action. This is hardly achievable in yast2-users module (may be better with
others), since at the time of writing we don’t know the “user actions” taken, this is the info which is known when user is clicking in the UI (*). So another idea is to log directly when users is using UI and not at the time of write. See the last example (this is not a full log this time, just part of it):

2009-02-06 15:54:02 <item> rivendell User and Group Management module started
2009-02-06 15:54:11 <note> rivendell (UI info) User ‘bb’ removed from group ‘dialout’
2009-02-06 15:54:11 <note> rivendell (UI info) User ‘aa’ added to group ‘dialout’
2009-02-06 15:54:11 <note> rivendell (UI info) User ‘bb’ removed from group ‘video’
2009-02-06 15:54:11 <note> rivendell (UI info) User ‘aa’ added to group ‘video’
2009-02-06 15:54:11 <note> rivendell (UI info) User ‘bb’ renamed to ‘aa’
2009-02-06 15:54:11 <item> rivendell (UI info) User modified: ‘aa’
2009-02-06 16:03:10 <item> rivendell User and Group Management module finished

I think the last method is getting more talkative and actually is not more helpful.

So – comments? Proposals?

(*) Actually it would need to be cached during the UI-clicking and logged at the time of writing only if user doesn’t cancel the actions.

Tags:
Posted in Systems Management, YaST | 7 Comments »

New YaST-Web released 1.0.1

April 1st, 2009 by

We have released a new version of Web-YaST with following changes:

  • Added translation support on the client side.
  • Added ruby-gettext
  • Split off ruby-rpam and ruby-polkit in single packages.
  • Switch off IPv6 in lighttpd cause it has produced some undefined errors. (esp. on 64bit)
  • Added package dependencies concerning rails. The last few weeks have shown that RAILS versions are not really compatible. So many problems have been happened due different RAILS versions on the systems where YaST-Web has been installed. Please use RAILS 2.1
  • Cleanup code.

The newest packages can be found here:
https://build.opensuse.org/project/show?project=home:schubi2

Or

https://build.opensuse.org/project/show?project=YaST:Web

It would be nice to get some feedback. Bugzilla would be a nice option  🙂

Thank you !

Posted in Systems Management, YaST | 4 Comments »

YaST and Compiz during Installation

April 1st, 2009 by

We (Thomas Göttlicher, J. Daniel Schmidt and Arvin Schnell) have use all our
remaining ITO for this really cool feature.

Normally compiz (more precisely the cube module) shows each desktop on the
surface of a cuboid. Since we don’t have several desktops during installation
we decided to show the “wizard” steps on the cuboid. Pressing “Next” or “Back”
rotates the cuboid around the y-axis:

screenshot1

Entering a “subwizard” rotates the cuboid around the x-axis:

screenshot2

Fortunately most computers are fast enough to render the 3D-scene even without
special hardware support that we lack during installation.

Will be available in Factory within the next weeks. Comments are welcome.

Posted in YaST | 14 Comments »

Context Menus in YaST Partitioner

March 6th, 2009 by

We received some complains that the redesigned partitioner on openSUSE 11.1 is
tedious to use. To remedy these shortcomings I’m adding context menus to the
tables so that it is no longer required to select the correct view using the
navigation tree to perform some operation. Almost all operation should be
available via context menus in the main view listing all devices.

screenshot

As usual comments are welcome.

Posted in Systems Management, Usability, YaST | 11 Comments »

YaST Qt UI with Context Menus

March 6th, 2009 by

Context menus are supported by almost all UI frameworks and most people got used to them. Therefore it’s high time to provide context menus in the YaST Qt UI as well. yast2-qt-2.18.6 offers this feature, packages are available in my build service repository.

contextmenu

In four simple steps YCP programmers can benefit from this new feature:

Step 1:
Create a widget and tell via `opt(`contextMenu) that a ContextMenuActivated Event should be emitted when the user right clicks the widget:

`SelectionBox( `id(`sport), `opt(`notify,`immediate, `contextMenu),
"Open a context menu:",
[
"Item1",
"Item2",
"Item3"
] );

Step 2:
Wait and analyze events:
event = UI::WaitForEvent( ... );
...
if ( event["EventReason"]:"" == "ContextMenuActivated" )
...

Step 3:
Open a context menu. The argument of OpenContextMenu() describes the menu structure:

UI::OpenContextMenu( `menu(
[ `item(`id(`folder), "&Folder"  ),
`menu( "&Document",
[ `item(`id(`text),
"&Text File" ),
`item(`id(`image),
"&Image"     ) ]) ]  ));
Step 4:
Analyze the returned `id and trigger an action. An example called ContextMenu.ycp is included in the package yast2-ycp-ui-bindings.

Usability
A Context menu provides shortcuts to actions for a certain widget or item. This features improves usability when it’s used properly. Application programmers should avoid making certain features only using context menus because users might not find them.
Please keep in mind that YaST ncurses doesn’t provide context menus. Each operation that is only available via a context menu is useless in YaST ncurses because the user cannot select it.

Posted in Miscellaneous, Usability, YaST | 4 Comments »

Writing first YCP program

February 13th, 2009 by

Hi folks!

It was a long time since my last blog. 😉

Today, i will show you my first program, it`s a simple test program which shows basic functions of YCP

Let`s start!!

first of all, you need all core development YaST and QT packages

(All mentioned bottom steps, can be made with normal user )

second , you must create a  symlink to /usr/lib/YaST2/bin/y2base

$ ln -s <destination> <linkname>

(In my case name of symlink is y2base.)

third , you need two console`s , one for program writing and one for monitoring .y2log (where you can see all debug messages)

if you wish more detailed debug output during root session, than type in console following :

$ su

$ export Y2DEBUG=1

$ exit

(switching back to normal user)

Ok, lets see the code of PushButton.ycp !

{
// Build a dialog with one button and two labels.
// Wait until that button is clicked,
// then close the dialog and terminate.

UI::OpenDialog( `VBox(
`Label(`opt(`boldFont),”PushButton TEST!!!!!!!!”),
`PushButton( “&OK” ),
`Label(`opt(`boldFont),”JUST SIMPLE TEST”)
)
);

UI::UserInput();
UI::CloseDialog();
}

Than:

$ chmod 765 PushButton.ycp

After you have written the program  , type in the console:

$ ./y2base ./PushButton.ycp qt

You will get following window:

PushButton

What is amazing at YCP, that this code can be interpreted into ncurses

Try following command:

$ ./y2base ./PushButton.ycp ncurses

Result:

You have written only one code , which can be used in two different gui environments graphical and  text mode!

In my next blog i will write about creating own SCR Agent.

Tags: ,
Posted in Systems Management, YaST | 7 Comments »

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