The simplest package ever

From time to time I need to some tweaking of our packages and then I need a simple package that builds lightning-fast in order to test stuff.

This is the package I am using

https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/home:jordimassaguerpla:test/simple

Feel free to "fork" it.

updates forecast for openSUSE (UFO) ...

Recommended updates frequency
for openSUSE 11.0, 11.1 and 11.2

Last Saturday I did a presentation in "la volcanica" event (http://www.volcanica.cat) . It was a short presentation summarizing our work done in the UFO project.

UFO is the shortname for Updates Forecast for Opensuse, and is a project that tries to get a prediction model for openSUSE updates, so that we can know how many updates will be in a period of time.

Our results until today are:

1- a big amount of the recommended updates are released during the next 3 months after releasing an openSUSE version.
2- security updates though are being released over the whole life of the openSUSE version
3- when the next openSUSE version is released, most of the recommended updates (>70%) have been published

So, when you make an appliance based on openSUSE, the best moment to release it is after 3 months, because, as long as you are including the updates on it, you'll be avoiding a big amount of updates to your clients, and when the next openSUSE is published (6-8 months) you will mostly be having security updates, so you can concentrate on working on the next version of your appliance.

I know the results may look obvious, but our goal is to put the numbers on it, so we can compare different versions, distributions, and calculate the amount of resources needed to maintain an appliance.

proxying opensuse repositories

When building a custom distribution or an appliance, you must create a custom repository where to store the updates. Actually you should create a set of repositories, so you can test the updates before delivering to your users.

Proxyrepo is a tool we've created for managing such repositories. We are using it on at least one custom linux distribution. It works quite well for us and is a good tool for managing the updates based on our current methodology.

Here is a little description on how it works:

It mirrors different repositories (opensuse, opensuse build service repositories, and external repositories) and let you move the rpms and the updateinfo.xml files from that repository to the testing repository.

Not all the rpms go to the testing repository, only a subset, that is, the ones that are at your distribution or appliance. Also, a list of rpms called "blacklist" is checked. The blacklist are those rpms that should not go to our clients before being reviewed. These rpms are the rpms that were modified for any reason for building the distribution or appliance.

Moreover, the information on the different updateinfo.xml files is splitted into parts so later on they will be merge to only one and only one updateinfo.xml file.

From testing you move your rpms and updateinfo.xml files to unstable, where a repository is actually created merging all the updateinfo.xml files and creating the other needed files.

Once unstable is verified, the repository is moved to qa, so the qa team can verify that. After that, the repo is sent to production so your users will get the updates.

When the qa team detects some kind of bug, the production repository is copied back to the qa repository, and the qa is copied back to unstable, so developers can work again on it on testing and push again the updates.

You can get the sourcecode by :

git clone git://gitorious.org/opensuse/proxyrepo.git

It is a set of shell scripts that uses rsync, wget, createrepo tool and enhancerepo (a modified version of enhancerepo that is also at the git repository).

linkat 3.0 beta 2

The beta 2 for the linkat 3.0 has been released. Linkat is an education distribution based on openSUSE and openSUSE edu . Linkat is the distribution that the Education Ministry of Catalunya (Spain) is installing on different schools and, a part from the education software, it has some default values for installing linkat 3.0 as a server, a client, or a standalone. Moreover, once installed, LTPS can be configured. You can download a copy from:

ftp://ftp.grn.es/mirrors/linkat/3.0/

I have developed some YaST modules for this project, made some rpms, and set up an update repository.

update forecast for opensuse: milestone 0.1

Update forecast has reached milestone 0.1!

Update forecast is a project for creating a prediction model for openSUSE updates, extensible to any distribution updates, so we can have a prediction of how many updates will come. That is a research project and we do not know whether there is such a model, but for sure the work will be worth it and we'll learn a lot.

This first milestone was to study the openSUSE 11.0 updates and for doing so we implemented a small java application that parses the updateinfo.xml file, the file that has the information of the publication of the updates. As a result, we wrote a white paper that was presented at the Free Software Conference in Barcelona (http://www.jornadespl.org) last week.

You can download the code and the white paper from sourceforge: http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/updateforecast .

You can download the presentation from http://www.jornadespl.org/biblioteca/viii-jornades/xerrades-curtes/model-predictiu-dactualitzacions-software

This project is being sponsored by the Ministry of Industry Science and Technology of the Spain, the European Union, ITechGrup and A65.cat.

openSUSE Factory open

This new is some days old but haven't checkout the news for a while:

http://news.opensuse.org/2009/06/18/opensuse-factory-is-now-open/

openSUSE Factory is open! That means that people outside Novell will have a chance to real participate on the openSUSE distribution. That is GREAT news!

I've seen there is some discussion around it motivated by fear. Fear that people will contribute garbage... Well, I think there are really good programmers on different opensource projects and not all of them are Novell employees. People will be given commit privileges by merit, as it is done on the most important opensource communities.

Congratulations to openSUSE and the people who took this decision.

By the way, to those who think only Novell employees should commit to the distribution because of Quality, use SLES, that is a distribution that is reviewed by Novell, certified, etc.

limejeos development appliance

LimeJeos is a project at the opensuse community for building a very small linux, that is a JeOS (Just enough Operating System) based on opensuse as a base for appliances.

This JeOS is defined as a kiwi project.

This appliance has a checkout version of the code in svn of this project and all the kiwi tools needed to create a limejeos appliance and so, an appliance based on limejeos.

Just login as user root, password linux, and you'll find everything you need in the work directory. You can also make a "svn update" to get the latest code.

It is based on opensuse11.0 and has been built with the suse studio, a web application for building appliances based on openSUSE. LimeJeOS and the suse studio have in common that they both use kiwi.

Download it and give it a try!

http://www.lin.cat/LimeJeOS_development-0.0.1.vmx.tar.gz

Configuring Vodafone Spain 3G and openSUSE 11.0

After looking at google and some docs like http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:HUAWEI_E220_Support I did not succeed to configure my Vodafone 3G modem (HUAWEI) with opensuse 11.0 until I looked at the configuration on a windows machine.

To sum it up, the important things I was not doing are that the username and password are vodafone (both of them), and the phone number must be *99***16# .

Also important, that I had to remove the pin by inserting the phone card into a Vodafone phone.

So, if you are having trouble with your Vodafone Spain, check those values on /etc/wvdial.conf:

Phone = *99***16#
Username = vodafone
Password = vodafone

and on /etc/ppp/chap-secrets and /etc/ppp/pap-secrets:

vodafone * vodafone

Also, the network manager does not work always for me, so I ended up by removing it (on yast2-network general section) and using wvdial instead on a terminal:

sudo wvdial

Hint: You can use wvdialconf with your modem plugged to get a sample wvdial.conf where you only have to change the values I mentioned.

limejeos at volcanica.cat

Yesterday I did a talk (30') about limejeos at volcanica (http://www.volcanica.cat) . The talk included a small demo were we created a web server appliance, using limejeos as a base and kiwi as the tool. The web server appliance included an html page as part of the demo.

There were few people but they were very interested, specially on the demo. The demo actually was:

[everything as root]

0- Create a mirror for opensuse packages. Actually I copied the DVD into a folder and make this folder available from http (for example in /srv/www/htdocs/suse and install apache2).

1- checkout a copy of limejeos:
svn co https://forgesvn1.novell.com/svn/opensuse/trunk/distribution/images/LimeJeOS

actually 0 and 1 were done previous to the demo.

2- create a new folder for our appliance and copy the build.sh script and the generic folder (from openSUSE11.0 folder)

3- edit the generic/config.xml and:

3.1- Add the apache2 and apache2-prefork package (add it after the vim package)

3.2- Replace the opensuse repo by a the local mirror (for example http://localhost/suse)

4- edit the generic/config.sh and add "insserv apache2" at the end

5- create the folders generic/root/srv/www/htdocs

6- edit the file generic/root/srv/www/htdocs/index.html

7- Then, and only because of time issues, edit the build.xml and remove all the kiwi lines except the two ones for the vmx.

8- Run build.sh

It took 6 minutes to create the vmware folder (out-vmx) with the vmware files. Then we copied somewhere else and changed the owner so we could open it with the vmware-console. And then, opened the vmware console (as the user that owns the files) and click on "open machine" and "play".

Of course, we opened a firefox and point it to http://apliance_ip and we were able to see the index.html content.

It took about 15-20 minutes to do all the demo, and I realized that was the most interesting part of the talk. We had a small issue (always on a demo...) about trying to reconfigure the network while we were running kiwi. So, do not configure the network while you are running kiwi. ;) .

At that was all. I enjoyed a lot and drove back home.

catalan student + limejeos = 6000 euros

Catalan government has just announced a list of projects on his particular "summer of code" (even thought summer is to end).

The only restriction is that students must be enrolled on a catalan University. From the 22 projects, 3 of them are about LimeJeOS, so 3 students will have the opportunity to work on limejeos related projects. This 3 students will get 2000 euros each one.

The projects are for creating sofware appliances based on limeJeOS.

So, if you are enrolled on a catalan university on want to work on limejeos, look at :

http://www.lafarga.cat/beques/jordi-massaguer-pla-limejeos

or contact me, as I am the mentor on them.

installation mit instlux von windows

One day I got an openSUSE 11.0 box and I was checking the manual while waiting for a plane transfer at an airport, when I saw that there was a chapter about how to install openSUSE with instlux!

instlux was my contribution to openSUSE 10.3 and I was so happy when I saw that, not only in the 11.0 DVD but also on the manual. As said, the time I saw that I was in an airport, waiting for a plane transfer, and I was really really happy! My contribution was there! It was a pity that I was traveling alone because I could not tell anyone.

Seeing instlux on a manual has been the best gift to the instlux project. Everything started because I was not able to install linux on a laptop. Then I googled around and found a howto on doing it using the installed windows and grub4dos. After that, and with my linux laptop, I wrote an nsis script that was doing all that and opened a sourceforge project.

I tried to make people know about that, so I started writing to wikis, developers mailing lists, telling people that I knew, until one day that I connect to an only meeting room on the opensuse IRC channel. I told the guys there, and I was invited to talk about that on the fosdem lightning talks, so I sent a presentation as soon as the call was opened, and got accepted.

Then things were better. At Fosdem I met AJ (who I have to thank for that) and talk about it. A lot of people was willing to talk to AJ, so we talked for 5 minutes and that was all. Instlux was included on openSUSE 10.3 and got help from suse people that implemented the missing details.

openSUSE community looked very happy to have instlux, and I was very happy to participate. Actually, what I like more is the feeling of getting involved on a community like openSUSE.

instlux is not the only system for doing that, but I think I can say that was the first one that was implemented as a windows installer and included on a distribution.

Right now, I am not spending time on instlux, as SUSE/Novell has more resources, and I am very happy of that, as I can spend time on other projects.

So, thanks openSUSE guys for letting me get involved!

building the limejeos

LimeJeos (http://en.opensuse.org/limejeos) is the base for software appliances based on openSUSE. But LimeJeos is not only that, but a kiwi project, that is an xml file, that lets you build it. And that is the most important part. Why? Cause you can build your own software appliance based on LimeJeos (openSUSE) by modifying this xml file, and that is scriptable and so can be automatized on your release process.

What I mean? I mean that you can, for example, everytime you release a new version of your software, create a software appliance, that is a linux livecd, or a vmware, or a Xen, or usb or a disc image, that contains a minimal linux and your application.

Here you have the instructions on how to build your limejeos (this instructions have been copied from http://lizards.opensuse.org/2008/07/16/opensuse-gets-the-jeos/, where you can find more information,too):

Check out the current version of LimeJeOS using the following commands:

svn co https://forgesvn1.novell.com/svn/opensuse/trunk/distribution/images/LimeJeOS

Make sure you have the needed kiwi packages installed. You will need at least: kiwi, kiwi-tools and kiwi-desc-vmxboot and/or kiwi-desc-xenboot from http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Tools/. When those conditions are met, building the openJeOS images is accomplished by just running the “./build.sh” script from the LimeJeOS repository.

./build.sh

Please note that the build process will need at least twice as much diskspace as the final images, so you’ll need around 2 GB of free disk space at this time to build Lime JeOS.

After you have booted the virtual system, log in as user “root” with password “linux”.

installing a local build service on openSUSE 11

I recently installed a build service (http://en.opensuse.org/buildservice) on an openSUSE11 for demonstration purposes and here are my notes.

The build service is a GREAT tool in order to help you build packages for openSUSE but also for other distributions like Ubuntu, Fedora, ... so if you are building your own software and would like to distribute it by providing installers for different linux, this may be your tool.

I'll talk about the internals another day, but today I'll talk about how to install it.

The easiest way is to go to http://download.opensuse.org and search for obs. You'll find a product call obs-server. Click on the one-click-install and everything will be done (adding the openSUSE:Tools repo and installing the different components.

Once you have done that, that was pretty easy, you open the file /usr/share/doc/packages/obs-api/README.setup and follow the instructions.

However, I came up with some problems so I am giving the following advice:

1- If you have problems with authentication or authorization on the database, and if your platform is for testing, just use the root mysql user with no password. Warning: never do that on production systems!!

2- If your firefox does not find your application, like happened to me, use virtual hosts. As this is only for demonstration, I edit the /etc/hosts and add:

127.0.42.1 obs

127.0.42.2 obs2

127.0.42.3 obs3

and then change the 127.0.42.* by the corresponding obs* name on

/etc/lighttpd/vhosts.d/obs.conf

/srv/www/obs/webclient/config/environments/production_slave.rb (IMPORTANT: this change is not on the README.setup and you have to do it. I sent a ticket to bugzilla.novell.com so they can add it to it, but until then, you have to remember that, or make a grep)

Adapt the README.setup instructions to use those virtual hosts.

After following the instrucions, you'll be able to login as admin (password opensuse).

You can create a new user from http://obs2 (login with the admin user).

Then, you can login as the new user and create a project and a package. I am attaching here a simple spec you can use to test the building process. One that not requires more than this spec. After that, add the openSUSE10.3 repository (or anyother suse) and press "trigger rebuild".

After that, the build should start. If you do not see any message, press the "update" icon on the build section.

And to end with this very fast introduction on setting up a build service on an openSUSE11, we can change the openSUSE logo by one of our choice by editing the file

/srv/www/obs/webclient/app/views/layouts/application2.rhtml

look for the geeko.jpg and replace that by your own logo.

#
# simple spec file for testing the build service
#

# norootforbuild

Name: simple
License: BSD 3-Clause
Group: System/Fhs
Version: 11.0
Release: 47.1
Summary: Simple rpm
BuildRoot: %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-build

%description
This package contains a simple file for testing the build service.

%prep

%build

%install
touch $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/simple

%files
%defattr(644,root,root,755)
/simple

installing openSUSE11 on a Lenovox61s (part 2)

ah it could not have been that easy....

Grub was not installed. I do not know if it has something to do with skipping the partition configuration. So I boot again from the livecd and install grub from there.

Actually it wasn't that straightforward. I did different attempts so I can not be sure 100% which thing make it work, but here is a try:

1- open a terminal
2- su
3- run grub-install

the yast2 boot loader module should appear and then :

4- ask for a proposal (expert button)
5- write to disc (very important! I believe that is very important and if you click next or finish without that it may not work)
6- I try to run grub-install again and the yast module was not opened. I do not know if this is important, I mean the fact that I run it twice, but I am writing it down just in case.

Then I could restart and everything works VERY WELL. It is a pity that the installation was a little tricky....

installing openSUSE11 on a Lenovox61s

I just bought a Lenovo Thinkpad x61s. I once use a thinkpad x61 and felt in love with it so now, that I am a freelance and need a good laptop, just went for one. And here I am, installing an openSUSE11 on it.

Booting with the LiveCD has been a great success! Everything works! Graphics, sound, ethernet, wireless... it really rocks!

However, when trying to install it, get a problem with the partition setup, that is that parted could not change the sda label (don't know why it wants to do that), so I ended up opening a terminal and using fdisk to create my partition table (opened the 414158 report bug in bugzilla.novell.com ).

After that, I format it using mkfs.ext3 and mkswap and started again the live installer... and then, it worked!! Right now, while I am writing here, the system is being installed (installing from live just rocks!!!!)

So, good job lenovo and suse!

100 of linkat2 schools the government said

The catalan government has just announced that a hundred of schools will have linkat2 next september. Linkat2 is based on SLED10 and on openSUSE software. In two years all schools will have linkat2. All that was announced during the expodidactica http://www.expodidactica.com . You can read (in catalan) the new at

http://www.3cat24.cat/noticia/268294/barcelones/Un-centenar-de-centres-disposaran-a-partir-del-proxim-curs-del-programari-lliure-Linkat-amb-mes-de-2000-aplicacions-educatives

Cocktail.lin.cat and LimeJeOS at the Summer Of Code - submit your applications before 31st March!

If you are a student and want to get 4500$ this summer for working on a free software project, submit you application to google before the 31st of March. Moreover, if you would like to get involved in a project for building software appliances and linux distributions, propose a LimeJeOS and cocktail.lin.cat project as openSUSE projects when submitting.

More info at: http://cocktail.lin.cat/summer_of_code_2008.html

LimeJeOS: The openSUSE based JeOS

A new project called Lime JeOS (LInux Minimal Edition Just enough Operating System) has been created at the openSUSE community.

Lime JeOS is a project meant to be the base for sofware appliances. Similar to Ubuntu JeOS but more powerful as it is build on the openBuildService.

LimeJeOS is part of a very ambitious project: cocktail.lin.cat .

Cocktail.lin.cat is a project for building software appliances on top of openSUSE. It uses LimeJeOS (pronounced like lime juice), Eis (Enterprise Information Software pronounced like Ice) and KIWI (The openSUSE imaging system) for building them.

So LimeJeOS is only the first step to make building software appliances in a very easy and powerful way based on openSUSE. Software appliances will be a must use and must know technology in the near future, as it has many benefits for ISVs and software companies.

no more comkat but openSUSE edu. Long life to openSUSE edu

The project comkat has been moved to openSUSE educational project.

The COMmunity repository for linKAT has been a project for those developers willing to collaborate to linkat, a linux distribution for the catalan schools run by the government. Comkat was run by individuals as volunteers.

When the comkat project started, there was no possibility to have an account for anybody at the open build service . That was one of the main reason to build an own repository where anybody could drop her rpms. Another reason was that it did not exist any specific project for education at openSUSE. Keep in mind that education projects should contain education software and that software should be for all ages.

However, things have changed. Anyone can get an open build service account, and right now there is a project, the openSUSE education project, that did not exist before.

These two points make the comkat project director (me) decided to move to the openSUSE education project (I am already a mantainer of the Education:Desktop and Education:Server subprojects at the BuildService), so we could join efforts and contribute to the openSUSE community.

So, long life to the openSUSE education project!

linkat logo done by Artur Tallada and Marià Cano.

instlux as part of the openSUSE project

instlux became part of the openSUSE project with the 10.3 public release of openSUSE. The instlux project will no longer be mantained at sourceforge, but at the openSUSE community, which is a big community and I am very proud of contributing the project to it.

So, from now on:

homepage: http://en.opensuse.org/Instlux

bug traquer: http://en.opensuse.org/Submitting_Bug_Reports

support (forums, mailing lists, etc.):
http://en.opensuse.org/Communicate

The only thing that will remain at sourceforge will be code, that is, the svn. However there will be no new releases at sourceforge, as they will be released together with the openSUSE releases.

You can read about instlux at the novell connection magazine:

http://www.novell.com/connectionmagazine/2007/q4/tech_talk_3.html?sourceid=NCM_q4_07_tt3

Being instlux part of openSUSE is a very good thing for the project, actually I can not think about anything better, as being part of a bigger community gives instlux a better future that does not depend only on me having free time.

The photo has been taken by Zioluc and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 license