FLOSS Valley

Sharing a directory in GNU/Linux

2010-01-27T08:02:00.000-08:00

To set up a common directory for local users in a GNU/Linux system follow these simple steps. As a test case consider setting up a folder named "share" in the /home partition for multiple users.

1. Create a group named "sharegroup" which has read, write and execute to the common directory.

# groupadd sharegroup

2. Edit the file /etc/group and find the entry for "sharegroup". Edit the line so that it looks like the following:

sharegroup:x:501:user1,user2,user3

3. Edit /etc/fstab and change the entry corresponding to the /home partition. The "defaults" should be changed to "rw,acl"

UUID=b1e202a5-87c4-488d-934f-93c3862bb440    /home    ext4    rw,acl    1 2

4. Create a folder /home/share and assign the permissions:

# mkdir /home/share

# chown root:sharegroup /home/share -R

# chmod 775 /home/share -R

5. Set the Access Control using the following command:

# setfacl -R -m d:g:sharegroup:rwx /home/share

Now the access control is set and all the users user1, user2 and user3 can create and modify files and folders in /home/share. You can verify the acl using the following command:

# getfacl /home/share

References:
http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialManagingGroups.html

Combine several PDF files into a single file

2009-07-01T04:22:00.000-07:00

1. How to combine several PDF files into a single PDF file ?

To combine multiple pdf files into one, you can use the GhostScript program which comes with all popular GNU/Linux distributions.

gs -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=combinedfile.pdf file1.pdf file2.pdf

Here is the options

-dBATCH -- tells Ghostscript to processes the PDF files, and then exit. If this is not included gs will just keep running
-dNOPAUSE -- forces gs to process each page without pausing for user interaction
-sDEVICE=pdfwrite -- use the built-in PDF writer to combine the files
-sOutputFile=finished.pdf -- specify the output file.

A Quick and Dirty Guide to Poedit

2008-07-08T01:13:00.000-07:00

Poedit is a cross-platform gettext catalogs(*.po files) editor. Usually, translators use conventional editors such as gedit, vim or kate for translation. These are basically text editors and there is possibility of making mistakes easily. Poedit offers several features which can help to translate the files much faster and in an efficient way. Poedit is released under the MIT license. Here are some of the features :

Translation memory : Poedit can generate a database of translated strings from the *.po and *.mo files that are already installed within the system.
Cross platform: Poedit is available for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X and Windows systems. In GNU/Linux Poedit can integrate with both GNOME and KDE desktop environments.
Unicode support : Poedit has full unicode support in GNU/Linux systems.
Poedit can also update the PO file creation time and other meta information automatically.

A full list of features are available here :

Installation:
Binary packages of Poedit are available for all the popular GNU/Linux distributions. You can use yum or apt-get to install Poedit, depending on your distribution.

In Fedora:
# yum install poedit

In Debian/Ubuntu:
#apt-get install poedit

The source and windows packages are available here.

Setting up Poedit:
Poedit can be launched from a terminal using the command "poedit" or from Applications --> Programming --> Poedit. On first run, Poedit asks some of the essential information such as your name, email address, translation memory settings, etc... You can also change the preferences at a later time from File --> Preferences .
The Personalize and Translation Memory are the important tabs in the Preferences section. Provide your full name and email address in the Personalize tab. This information will be inserted on all the files that you work with poedit.

The Translation Memory setup is not a mandatory task, but doing so may ease the process of translation. This is an one time setting and you may not require to change unless you wish to add new po/mo files to the translation memory.

Click the Add button to add the language, it will give a popup window like this:
Select the language and them press OK. Now generate the database for the said language by pressing the Generate Database button.

It will then show the list of locale paths that are associated with the selected language. Press Next to continue.

In some systems there may may not be any local in /usr/local. So remove it from the list, if you don't have locale files in /usr/local.
Press Finish to generate the database. Poedit then scans the translated files and generate the database.

The preferences settings are now complete.

Setting up a new catalog:
In Poedit, each po file is referred as a catalog. There are two methods to create a Catalog – either from an existing POT file or from scratch. To create a catalog from an existing POT file, download the latest POT file from the project repository and point it to File --> New Catalog From POT file.
Here you have to provide the name of the project and team information, which will be automatically updated in the meta section of the translated po file.

Provide a name for the translated file and save it. Usually the po file name will be the same as the POT file except that it has a .po file extension. Poedit can suggest translated strings if available. To know the available options, Right-Click on the original string.

You can also know the status of the translation towards the left-bottom of the poedit window.

Conclusion:
Poedit is not the only tool available for translation. Here are some options:

kbabel
Rosetta
Gtranslator

Related :
http://blip.tv/file/1054521/

Internet Connection in GNU/Linux through Mobile devices

2008-04-23T23:21:00.000-07:00

Contributors: Manilal K M, Abhilash S, Vinay Kumar (FreeFox Members).
First published on 18th September 2007 in http://freefolks.blogspot.com(discontinued)

If you have a GPRS enabled mobile device and connection, accessing Internet in your desktop is a simple and straight forward task. The following tutorial is based on Fedora Core 6 and Nokia 5300 handset. Even though the tutorial is based on Fedora Core, it will work with almost all the GNU/Linux distributions in which wvdial package is installed.

Step 1: Install WvDial
WvDial is a program that can automatically detect the modem and configure Internet in your GNU/Linux desktop. If you don't have WvDial installed in your desktop, download and install wvdial package from your distro's repository. There are pre-built rpms for Fedora, CentOS, Debian and Ubuntu. If you can manage a working Internet connection, then use yum or apt-get to install wvdial.

Step 2: Connect mobile and personal computer
Connect your mobile phone and personal computer using USB cable. Switch your handset to "Nokia Mode".

Step 3: Create the wvdial configuration file
To create the configuration file type the following command in the terminal as root

# wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf
You can see the following output in your console

Scanning your serial ports for a modem.

ttyS0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 -- failed with 2400 baud, next try: 9600 baud
ttyS0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 -- failed with 9600 baud, next try: 115200 baud
ttyS0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 -- and failed too at 115200, giving up.
Port Scan<*1>: S1   S2   S3
WvModem<*1>: Cannot get information for serial port.
ttyACM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 -- OK
ttyACM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 Z -- OK
ttyACM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 -- OK
ttyACM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 -- OK
ttyACM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 -- OK
ttyACM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 -- OK
ttyACM0<*1>: Modem Identifier: ATI -- Nokia
ttyACM0<*1>: Speed 4800: AT -- OK
ttyACM0<*1>: Speed 9600: AT -- OK
ttyACM0<*1>: Speed 19200: AT -- OK
ttyACM0<*1>: Speed 38400: AT -- OK
ttyACM0<*1>: Speed 57600: AT -- OK
ttyACM0<*1>: Speed 115200: AT -- OK
ttyACM0<*1>: Speed 230400: AT -- OK
ttyACM0<*1>: Speed 460800: AT -- OK
ttyACM0<*1>: Max speed is 460800; that should be safe.
ttyACM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 -- OK

Found an USB modem on /dev/ttyACM0.
Modem configuration written to /etc/wvdial.conf.
ttyACM0: Speed 460800; init "ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0"

The /etc/wvdial.conf will look like this :

[Dialer Defaults]
Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
Baud = 460800
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ISDN = 0
Modem Type = USB Modem
; Phone = 
; Username = 
; Password =

Edit the file and supply the Dialing code, Username and Password. The dialling code is usually *99# and the Username and Password will supplied by your provider. If your connection (Eg unlimited plans) doesn't require a Username and Password, then put a null string in single quotes. Don't forget to remove the leading ';' before saving the file.

Step 4: Dialling to the Phone
Once the configuration is done, run the command wvdial to dial to the phone and to get connected.

[root@triveni ~]# wvdial

--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.54.0
--> Cannot get information for serial port.
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
--> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
OK
--> Modem initialized.
--> Sending: ATDT*99#
--> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT*99#
CONNECT
~[7f]}#@!}!} } }2}#}$@#}!}$}%\}"}&} }*} } g}%~
--> Carrier detected.  Waiting for prompt.
~[7f]}#@!}!} } }2}#}$@#}!}$}%\}"}&} }*} } g}%~
--> PPP negotiation detected.
--> Starting pppd at Wed Sep 19 11:16:52 2007
--> pid of pppd: 4711
--> Using interface ppp0
--> pppd: dem
--> pppd: dem
--> pppd: dem
--> local  IP address 117.97.37.210
--> pppd: dem
--> remote IP address 10.6.6.6
--> pppd: dem
--> primary   DNS address 202.56.250.5
--> pppd: dem
--> secondary DNS address 202.56.250.6
--> pppd: dem

Troubleshooting Tips:
1. In Fedora Core you have to manually edit /etc/resolv.conf and set the correct nameserver address. The DNS address will be displayed once you run wvdial.

2. In CentOS-4 (RHEL-4), you may get the following error message and got disconnected:

--> Carrier detected.  Waiting for prompt.
--> Connected, but carrier signal lost!  Retrying...
--> Sending: ATDT*99#
--> Waiting for carrier

You can fix this issue by adding the follwoing line to /etc/wvdial.conf

Carrier Check = No

References
WvDial @ Alumnit
WvDial
http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49242

Developing AJAX Application using Smarty and Xajax

2007-11-30T01:42:00.000-08:00

Update 19th Sep 2010: The Xajax project website is changed to http://www.xajax-project.org due to the following reason.

AJAX, which stands for Asynchronous Javascript and XML, increases user friendliness and speed of the web applications by transferring only small chunks of data from the web server. Essentially, AJAX is a group of technology which comprises of HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML, Javascript. The whole idea behind AJAX is the XMLHttpRequest object which transfers the data between the web server and web browser in the XML format. Developing AJAX applications for the web is a challenge due to it's inherent issues about security and browser compatibility. To overcome this disadvantage and to increase the modularity of web applications, the Open Source community have come up with various AJAX libraries for different server-side scripting languages.

PHP(Pre-Hypertext Processor) is one of the prominent web scripting tools which is used in heterogenous environments. PHP applications are highly portable and easy to develop. Initially, developing AJAX applications in PHP was really a pain. The development of open source AJAX libraries simplified this issue and now there are more than a dozen of PHP-AJAX libraries are available. Xajax,
PHPLiveX, CAJAX, Tigermouse, Sajax, HTML_AJAX are some of them. Xajax is one of the fast developing and robust PHP-AJAX framework which is used in different Open Source Projects. This tutorial primarily deals with how to integrate Xajax, Smarty and ADOdb when it comes into real application development. Even though, Xajax is in the early stages of it's development, it's very stable and is suitable for production environments.

Earlier, in PHP applications, the program logic may be tied-up with the HTML content and it's a difficult task to separate them. Smarty, A template engine for PHP, came to the rescue and the development of PHP applications became more simple. By using Smarty, it is possible to slice the HTML contents to be loaded and requests those slices using Xajax.

ADOdb is a popular Open Source Database Abstraction Library for PHP. It is specifically designed for speed and supports multiple datbases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, etc..

In addition to the variety of technical features provided by these libraries, all these libraries have a strong supporting community which contributes to the development. Xajax, ADOdb and Smarty are all licensed under GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). This means that you can include them in proprietary applications also, provided the copyright notice and licensing terms are preserved in the source code.

This tutorial will explain how to develop a simple AJAX application using Smarty and Xajax with a simple example. The sample application is developed in a Fedora 7 + Apache-2.2 + MySQL-5 server. In short, the following are the pre-requisites for this tutorial

PHP-5.2.3
MySQL-5.0.27
ADOdb-4.94
Xajax-0.2.4
Smarty-2.6.16

Create the database structure

The example is based on a student database, in which the personal details of a student are stored. The application simply searches the databse based on certain criteria. This tutorial assumes that the database name is studentdb and the table name is student. The complete source code and the database schema of the sample application is available here (gzipped file, size:416K). Here are the MySQL commands to create the database, table and populate it with sample data.

# mysqladmin create studentdb -uroot -p
# mysql studentdb -uroot -p

mysql> CREATE TABLE student (student_id int(11) NOT NULL, student_name varchar(255) NOT NULL, student_major varchar(255) NOT NULL, student_gender varchar(6) NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (student_id), KEY student_major (student_major) );

mysql> INSERT INTO student VALUES (1,'Anju','chemistry','female');
mysql> INSERT INTO student VALUES (2,'Ram','chemistry','male');
mysql> INSERT INTO student VALUES (2,'Raju','chemistry','male');
mysql> INSERT INTO student VALUES (4,'Hari','commerce','male');
mysql> INSERT INTO student VALUES (5,'Kala','mathematics','female');

Create the source code layout

The source code layout followed for this application is as follows:
index.php - Gateway script for this application
includes - This directory contains the third party libraries like Smarty, xajax and ADOdb
query.php - Contains the methods(functions that interact with the database)
templates - The HTML templates
templates_c - compile directory for Smarty.

Setup the Configuration

Since this is a very small application, the index.php holds all the configuration parameters and settings for Xajax, Smarty and ADOdb. Include all the necessary libraries into our application, this can be done with the following statements:


require_once 'includes/adodb/adodb.inc.php';
require_once 'includes/xajax/xajax.inc.php';
require_once 'includes/smarty/Smarty.class.php';

The core interface functionality is achieved through Xajax. We may have to tweak the xajax core file, so that it can identify the correct path to the Javascript files. Edit the file xajax/xajax.inc.php and towards line #811, modify the following line so that it should reflect the correct relative path for your application.

if ($sJsFile == NULL) $sJsFile = "includes/xajax/xajax_js/xajax.js";

You may also need to edit line #832

$sJsFile = "includes/xajax/xajax_js/xajax.js";

Using the Application Programming Interface(API)

Instantiate the database object and call the Connect() method to create a database connection with MySQL server.


$dbObj = ADONewConnection("mysql");
$dbObj->Connect('localhost','root','xxxxx', 'studentdb');
$dbObj->SetFetchMode(ADODB_FETCH_ASSOC);

Create a smarty object, and set the configuration parameters. It is desirable to separate the application specific templates and ccompile directory from the Smarty library. The variables template_dir and templates_c holds the parameters for the HTML templates and the Smarty compile directory respectively.

$smarty = new Smarty();
$smarty->template_dir = "templates/";
$smarty->compile_dir = "templates_c/";

Create an instance of Xajax object in the index.php of the application.

$xajax = new xajax();
$xajax->setRequestURI("index.php");

The setRequestURI() method of the Xajax class sets the URI to which requests will be made. It takes one argument, which is the relative/absolute path of the PHP script executed when a AJAX request occurs. Optionally you can turn on the debug mode in Xajax, to know what's happening in the background.

$xajax->debugOn();

Now, since all the configuration and settings are done, we will define the application specific functions or methods. There are mainly two AJAX functions for our sample application. These two functions onSelectCategory() and showResult(). The onSelectCategory() is called when the value in the select box is changed. Basically the xajax library generates Javascript functions dynamically from the PHP code. The interface between the written PHP code and Javascript is the XajaxResponse object. The xajaxResponse class is used to create responses to be sent back to your Web page. The response contains commands to update the web page. Every xajax function should have an instance of XajaxResponse and it should return the XML generated. The getXML() function returns the XML which contains the data to be updated on the web page. The XajaxResponse object is created using the following code:

$objResponse = new xajaxResponse();

and the XML object is returned using :

return $objResponse->getXML();

We use the ADOdb binding methods in query.php to fetch the application specific data from the database. Here is a sample function from query.php

function getMajors() {
global $dbObj;
$sql = "select distinct student_major from student";
$result = $dbObj->Execute($sql);
return $result->GetArray();
}

In the onSelectCategory() method, we use Smarty's assign() method to assign the array to the template. The getMajor() function retrieves the data from the database and we use Smarty assign() method to embed the data to the HTML template.

$smarty->assign('majors',getMajors());

Remember that the template is sliced so that only minimal html is updated in the web page. Once the variable is assigned to the template, we can use Smarty fetch() method to generate HTML embedded with the data. The following code assigns the values to the template and update the web page using XajaxResponse object.

$objResponse->addAssign("divcriteria", "innerHTML", $smarty->fetch('query_id.tpl'));

The addAssign() method takes three arguments :

ID- ID of the HTML element which is to be updated (Eg. divcriteria is the id of the <DIV> tag used in this example).
Attribute - Attribute of the HTML element which is updated (Eg. InnerHTML, value, class, etc...)
Data - Data which is to be updated. In the above example, the data is generated dynamically using the Smarty fetch() method.

The rest of the code in the function is self explanatory. Once the functions are defined, the xajax functions should be registered with the Xajax registerFunction() method. If the xajax function is not registered, the Javascript interpreter will not identify it as a AJAXfunction. The registerFunction() method takes two arguments, one of which is a default argument. In our example the following line registers a PHP function with Xajax.:

$xajax->registerFunction("onSelectCategory");

Function - The name of the function which is to be called through Xajax.(Eg. OnSelectCategory)
RequestType - This is an optional argument which defaults to XAJAX_POST. Other possible value is XAJAX_GET. This argument sets the request type of the xajax request.

An Xajax Request/Response is not complete without the processRequest() method. This is the core interface between the PHP code executed in the server and Javascript executed in the browser. It handles all the Xajax requests and provide suitable responses to the browser. This function should only be called once within a Xajax Request/Response cycle. Otherwise the functions called prior to the last processRequest() will be ignored.

$xajax->processRequests();

The generated Javascript should be assigned to Smarty, so that the Javascript code is embedded within the HTML code. This is attained through the getJavascript() method of the Xajax object.

$smarty->assign('xajax_js', $xajax->getJavascript());

Since all the Javascript and the application data are embedded within the Smarty object, we need to call the master template file to display the final output. We use Smarty display() method to show the formatted data in the web browser.

$smarty->display('index.tpl');

Coding the client component

The server component of Xajax and Smarty is completed, and now we have to include the generated Smarty variables in the template. Remember that, the Javascript required for Xajax calls are assigned to Smarty. The master template file is the index.tpl, which includes the Javascript and the application data. The generated Javascript is placed under the <HEAD> tag in the template.

<HEAD>
{$xajax_js}
</HEAD>

The xajax functions that we defined in the Xajax server component are called with a different nomenclature in the client side. All the functions are prefixed with “xajax_”. To submit the form values to the server we use Xajax getFormValues() method. The getFormValues is a Javascript function which takes a mandatory argument and two optional argument. The first argument specifies the id of the form. The second argument is a boolean value which determines whether to submit the disabled elements and the third argument allows to specify a prefix name for the HTML elements.

Once these steps are completed, you are ready with a working AJAX application which talks with your server.

Building a Fedora Core Distribution

2007-10-24T03:10:00.000-07:00

(This was an old documentation for building an GNU/Linux distribution based on Fedora Core 1. This documentation may not work with the newer versions of Fedora)

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

Revised on : 14:33:02 IST ; 22nd August 2005
Revised on : 13:45:02 IST ; 22nd July 2005
Revised on : 11:47:45 IST ; 16th August 2004
Revised on : 10:55:18 IST ; 10th January 2004
Created on : 12:13:13 IST; 23rd December 2003

Step 0:
Requirements:

Fedora Core Installation CD's for i386 (Both RPMS and SRPMS)
i386 Machine installed with RedHat/Fedora Core 1 (Custom installation
with All packages)Minimum 3.6 GB of Hard Disk space

Step 1
Copy all the CD's to a suitable location. The work area I chose is /home/fedora/i386. The later part of this documentation is based on this path. If you wish to make only the binary version then no need to copy the SRPMS.
# cp /mnt/cdrom/* /home/fedora/i386/ -rf
you can ignore warnings(if any) of overwriting TRANS.TBL, COPYING, and README files.

Step 2:
Install the source rpm of anaconda. I modified only the package anaconda-images.
# rpm -ivh anaconda-images-9.0-3.src.rpm
Modify the anaconda source as desired and rebuild using the rpmbuild utility.
# cd /usr/src/fedora
# rpmbuild –ba SPECS/anaconda-images.spec

Step 3
If everything is right we will have new binary in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386 as well as a new source RPM in /usr/src/redhat/SRPMS. Remove the existing anaconda binary in /home/fedora/i386/fedora/RPMS/anaconda-images-9.0-3.src.rpm
# rm /home/fedora/i386/Fedora/RPMS/anaconda-images-9.0-3.src.rpm
Copy binaries into the /home/fedora/i386/fedora/RPMS, working directory;
# cp /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/anaconda-images-9.0-3.src.rpm /home/fedora/i386/Fedora/RPMS/

Step 4
Run genhdlist to check image.
# /usr/lib/anaconda-runtime/genhdlist --withnumbers --productpath=Kairali /home/fedora/i386/
If the command is successful then there will be files such as hdlist, hdlist2 in the directory /home/fedora/i386/fedora/base. This command may report about the duplicate packages if found.

Step 5
If you are modifying the package list, then you have to edit the comps.xml file. After editing the comps.xml you have to again run genhdlist and then check with getfullcomps.py
# /usr/share/comps-extras/getfullcomps.py comps.xml /home/fedora i386 > /dev/null
The getfullcomps.py script has been removed from Fedora Core. Download the script from here and copy it to /usr/share/comps-extras.

Step 6
Run pkgorder to generate the package order. But before that don't forget to set the PYTHONPATH
# export PYTHONPATH=/usr/lib/anaconda
# /usr/lib/anaconda-runtime/pkgorder /home/fedora/i386 i386 Kairali| tee /home/fedora/pkgorder.txt
This command will generate the pkgorder file at the same time will display all the packages that you have added.

Step 7
Build new anaconda installer images
# /usr/lib/anaconda-runtime/buildinstall --comp dist-9 --pkgorder /home/fedora/pkgorder.txt --product 'Kairali Linux' --release 1 --version 1 –prodpath fedora /home/fedora/i386
If everything is OK then you will get messages something like this:

warning: /home/fedora/i386/fedora/RPMS/anaconda-runtime-9.0-4.i386.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID db42a60e Building images...
warning: /home/fedora/i386/fedora/RPMS/anaconda-runtime-9.0-4.i386.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID db42a60e Assembling package list...
warning: /home/fedora/i386/fedora/RPMS/anaconda-9.0-4.i386.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID db42a60e
warning: /home/fedora/i386/fedora/RPMS/anaconda-9.0-4.i386.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID db42a60e Expanding packages... anaconda-9.0-4.i386.rpm
warning: /home/fedora/i386/fedora/RPMS/anaconda-9.0-4.i386.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID db42a60e Expanding packages... anaconda-runtime-9.0-4.i386.rpm
warning: /home/fedora/i386/fedora/RPMS/anaconda-runtime-9.0-4.i386.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID db42a60e Expanding packages... ash-0.3.8-8.i386.rpm
warning: /home/fedora/i386/fedora/RPMS/ash-0.3.8-8.i386.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID db42a60e
-
-
-
Overriding busybox version of xargs
Overriding busybox version of zcat
Scrubbing trees...
Compressing .mo files in stage2 images...
Creating fontconfig cache
/usr/bin/fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts": caching, 0 fonts, 5 dirs
/usr/bin/fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/bitmap-fonts": caching, 2 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/bin/fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/ja": caching, 0 fonts, 1 dirs
-
-
-
Patching python library...
Removing unused python files in hdimage... done.
Cleaning ramdisk install images...
Getting package order...
Loading //lib/kbd/keymaps/i386/azerty/be-latin1.map.gz found 7 valid keymaps creating keymap file /tmp/keymaps.9240/be-latin1.map
Loading //lib/kbd/keymaps/i386/qwerty/bg.map.gz found 9 valid keymaps
-
-
-
Wrote /home/fedora/i386/fedora/base/hdstg2.img (9936k)...
Building stage2.img
Wrote /home/fedora/i386/fedora/base/stage2.img (62628k)
Cleaning up images
Size of boot image is 4 sectors -> No emulation
Total translation table size: 2048
Total rockridge attributes bytes: 1445
Total directory bytes: 2048 Path table size(bytes): 26
Max brk space used 7000 1808 extents written (3 Mb)
Writing .discinfo file timestamp not specified; using the current time

Hopefully,
we have a new installer. Now this directory can be used for NFS
installation.
The following steps are relevant only if you are
trying to pack the installation CDs.

Step 8
#/usr/lib/anaconda-runtime/splittree.py --arch=i386 --total-discs=6 --bin-discs=3 --src-discs=3 -–release-string="Kairali Linux" --pkgorderfile=/home/fedora/pkgorder --distdir=/home/fedora/i386
--srcdir=/home/fedora/ --productpath=Fedora
If there are no SRPMS in your buildtree then a warning will raised indicating the failure of packaging SRPMS , which can be ignored if your not bothered about creating source CDs. If you want to reduce the number of CDs, then use the following command

# /usr/lib/anaconda-runtime/splittree.py --arch=i386 --total-discs=3 --bin-discs=2 --src-discs=1 --release-string="Kairali Linux" --pkgorder=/home/fedora/pkgorder.txt --distdir=i386 --srcdir=SRPMS
--productpath=Kairali

Step 9
The hdlist* files in /home/fedora/i386-disc1/fedora/base/ are hard-linked copies of the original ones in the
/home/fedora/i386/fedora/base/ directory, and are very likely (certain!) not to work properly for cdrom installs. So they need to be re-created. genhdlist is used again to create new hdlist files, but this time referencing the "package order catalogue" and the newly-created i386-disc[123] directory trees...
# rm -f /home/fedora/i386-disc1/fedora/base/hdlist*
# /usr/lib/anaconda-runtime/genhdlist --withnumbers --fileorder /home/fedora/pkgorder.txt /home/fedora/i386-disc[123] --productpath Kairali

Step 10
Make the iso images for all the CD's
#cd /home/fedora/i386-disc1
#mkisofs -b images/bootdisk.img -c boot.cat -v -r -T -J -V Kairali-1.0_D1 -o /home/fedora/KL_D1.iso
/home/fedora/i386-disc1
#mkisofs -JR -l -V Kairali-1.0_D2 -o KL_D2.iso i386-disc2
The output will be something like the following:

mkisofs 2.0 (i686-pc-linux-gnu)
Scanning /home/fedora/i386-disc1
Scanning /home/fedora/i386-disc1/dosutils
Scanning /home/fedora/i386-disc1/dosutils/autoboot
Scanning /home/fedora/i386-disc1/dosutils/fips15c
Scanning /home/fedora/i386-disc1/dosutils/fips15c/restorrb
Excluded: /home/fedora/i386-disc1/dosutils/fips15c/restorrb/TRANS.TBL
Scanning /home/fedora/i386-disc1/dosutils/fips15c/source
Excluded: /home/fedora/i386-disc1/dosutils/fips15c/source/TRANS.TBL
Repeat the step for creating all the other 3 images.
-
-
-
Writing: Joliet directory tree
Start Block 85 Done with: Joliet directory tree Block(s) 38
-
-
-
96.57% done, estimate finish Tue Dec 23 12:06:40 2003
98.11% done, estimate finish Tue Dec 23 12:06:40 2003
99.64% done, estimate finish Tue Dec 23 12:06:42 2003
Total translation table size: 43639
Total rockridge attributes bytes: 64841
Total directory bytes: 108544
Path table size(bytes): 248
Done with: The File(s) Block(s) 326025
Writing: Ending pad block Start Block 326149
Done with: Ending pad block Block(s) 27
Max brk space used 82000 326176 extents written (637 Mb)

Caveat: In Fedora Core 4 use the following command to create the ISO Image:

#mkisofs -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -J -p "ost@cdit.org" -V "Kairali GNU/Linux 1.2" -r
-T -v -A "Kairali GNU/Linux 1.2" -o kairali_12.iso -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -l i386

Step 11
Burn the image to the CD using your favourite program (cdrecord, xcdroast or gtoaster) and it's ready for Installation.

Resources:
http://www.linuxworks.com.au/redhat-installer-howto.html
http://www.contribs.com/contribs/rsi/howto/SME%20Anaconda%20HowTo.htm
http://www.e-smith.org/docs/howto/howto_modify_e-smith_interface_rpm.php3
http://contribs.org/contribs/dmay/mitel/howto/sme-iso-howto.html
http://www.linuxworks.com.au/PB-rhcd.html
http://rau.homedns.org/twiki/bin/view/Anaconda/AnacondaDocumentationProject
http://www.rpm.org/
http://fedora.redhat.com/
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/AnacondaBuildDocProject

MediaWiki Syntax Tips

2007-06-12T03:06:00.000-07:00

Wikis are becoming very much popular among people who write and publish technical documentation. One of the most prominent example of Wiki is the Wikipedia, which is the largest knowledge base in Internet. The Wikipedia uses MediaWiki as the tool to create and manage the contents collaboratively among volunteers around the world.

Creating and Managing documentation in a Wiki is very easy and simple as long as you are familiar with the Wiki Syntax. Even though wikis also accept the HTML syntax, it's a good convention to strictly follow the Wiki syntax. This article will list some of the tags that I uses frequently to create wiki pages. Please remember that this list is NOT at all comprehensive.

Headings
There are different levels of headings available in mediawiki syntax. The level headings starts with an '=" sign and ends with the same character.

First level =Heading=
Second level ==Heading==
Third Level  ===Heading===
Fourth Level ====Heading====

Be careful about the number of = preceding and following the Heading.

Table of Contents
By default if the number of Headings in a page is 3 or more, then a Table of Contents (TOC) will be automatically generated by the wiki. You can avoid the TOC by simply putting a

__NOTOC__

in the page, preferably at the top.

Labels for Camel Case Page name
Most the wiki users use Camel case style to create wiki pages. This will make the URL shorter but reduces readbality in a page. To provide an alternate text for camel case style page names, use the following syntax

[[CamelCase|Camel Case]]

Editing the Sidebar navigation menu
To edit the Sidebar navigation menu just enter MediaWiki:Sidebar in the Search box and edit the resultant page. The sidebar navigation uses a different syntax. To open a new navigation box, define a title with *. To Create Hyperlinks just start with two asterisks (**).
Eg.

* Title
** ArticleName| Article name
** http://flossvalley.blogspot.com|FLOSS Valley

Reference
MediaWiki Help

Free and Open Source Resources

2007-03-04T22:50:00.000-08:00

News

Documentation

Forums & Support

64bit Fedora Core 6 and Flash Plugin in Firefox

2007-03-04T22:06:00.001-08:00

Many people have problems in viewing Adobe/Macromedia flash movies in the Firefox installed in 64bit version of Fedora Core 6. This is due to the fact that Adobe hasn't released a 64bit version of flash player for GNU/Linux. Here is a simple method to get rid of this difficulty.

First , check whether i386 version of firefox is installed on your system. Run the following commands and analyse the result:

# rpm -qa | grep firefox

If 64bit version of firefox is installed, then there will be two instances of firefox listed. If it's not installed, then either download 64bit version of firefox from http://fedora.redhat.com or use the following command.

# yum install firefox.i386

Normally, after installing 64bit version, the system will always load the 64bit version of firefox. To disable it, you need to edit the /usr/bin/firefox script and load the i386 libraries instead of 64bit libraries. Open the file in vi or vim and the find the following lines:

MOZ_LIB_DIR="/usr/lib"
if [ -x "/usr/lib64/firefox-1.5.0.10/firefox-bin" ]
then
MOZ_LIB_DIR="/usr/lib64"
fi

Modify the line MOZ_LIB_DIR="/usr/lib64" to MOZ_LIB_DIR="/usr/lib"
Save the file and quit. Now install flash player and check whether you can see the flash movies.

Getting started with OpenLDAP

2007-03-04T22:04:00.000-08:00

1.Pre-requisites:
Fedora Core 4
openldap-servers-2.2.23-5
openldap-clients-2.2.23-5
openldap-devel-2.2.23-5
openldap-2.2.23-5

2. Edit the configuration file: /etc/openldap/slapd.conf
database bdb
suffix "dc=libregeek,dc=net"
rootdn "cn=root,dc=libregeek,dc=net"
rootpw xxxxxx

3. Check whether it works.
Start the LDAP server
#/etc/init.d/ldap start

4. Check whether it works.
Run the command :
# ldapsearch -x -b '' -s base '(objectclass=*)' namingContexts
The output will be like this :
[root@triveni ~]# ldapsearch -x -b '' -s base '(objectclass=*)' namingContexts
# extended LDIF #
# LDAPv3 # base <> with scope base # filter: (objectclass=*)
# requesting: namingContexts #
# dn: namingContexts: dc=libregeek,dc=net
# search result search: 2 result: 0 Success
# numResponses: 2
# numEntries: 1

5. Add initial entries to the ldap directory: 
Create an ldif file with the text editor(vi) : 
dn: dc=libregeek,dc=net
objectclass: dcObject
objectclass: organization
o: FreedomFox
dc: libregeek
dn: cn=root,
dc=libregeek,dc=net
objectclass: organizationalRole
cn: root

6. Run the command : 
#ldapadd -x -D "cn=root,dc=libregeek,dc=net" -W -f libregeek.ldif
The output will be:
[root@triveni ~]# ldapadd -x -D "cn=root,dc=libregeek,dc=net" -W -f libregeek.ldif
Enter LDAP Password:
adding new entry "dc=libregeek,dc=net"
adding new entry "cn=root,dc=libregeek,dc=net"

7. Check whether it works :
# ldapsearch -x -b 'dc=libregeek,dc=net' '(objectclass=*)'

the output will  be:
[root@triveni ~]# ldapsearch -x -b 'dc=libregeek,dc=net' '(objectclass=*)'
# extended LDIF #
# LDAPv3 # base  with scope sub
# filter: (objectclass=*)
# requesting: ALL #
# libregeek.net dn: dc=libregeek,dc=net
objectClass: dcObject
objectClass: organization
o: FreedomFox
dc: libregeek
# root, libregeek.net
dn: cn=root,dc=libregeek,dc=net
objectClass: organizationalRole
cn: root
# search result
search: 2
result: 0
Success
# numResponses: 3
# numEntries: 2

More Resources:
ftp://ftp.kalamazoolinux.org/pub/pdf/ldapv3.pdf
http://www.openldap.org/doc/admin23/quickstart.html
http://www.openldap.org/doc/admin23/dbtools.html
http://fedoranews.org/mediawiki/index.php/How_to_setup_and_maintain_OpenLDAP_server_for_your_network
http://www.trustix.org/wiki/index.php/OpenLDAP
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6266
http://www.zytrax.com/books/
http://www.openldap.org/faq/data/cache/52.html
http://sapiens.wustl.edu/~sysmain/info/openldap/openldap_configure_acl.html

IP Routing in Fedora Core 3

2007-03-04T21:51:00.000-08:00

The following describes how to set up a Router on the Fedora Core Linux. This configuration may help you if you have an ISP, in which the IP Address is assigned via DHCP.
1. Configure the two network interfaces according to the network
ifcfg-eth0

DEVICE=eth0
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=static
IPADDR=192.168.102.50
NETMASK=255.255.255.0

ifcfg-eth1:

DEVICE=eth1
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
HWADDR=00:E0:4D:02:60:30

2. Enable the IPV4 Routing (both static and dynamic)
2.1 static :
Edit /etc/sysctl.conf
change "net.ipv4.ip_forward = 0" to "net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1"

Run the following command:
# echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

3. Configure the IP tables
3.1 Flush all the current rules:
# iptables -F -t nat

3.2 Set the Masquerading
# iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -o eth1 -j MASQUERADE

Check your connectivity by pinging to both the networks.