Linux Wizard
Ressources documentaires pour Mandriva Linux et les Logiciels Libres
Some Mandriva 2010 Spring Reviews
Jul 20th
Here are some Mandriva 2010 Spring reviews I found on the web thanks to http://www.tuxmachines.org/ :
- Mandriva 2010 Spring with GNOME : http://g33q.co.za/2010/07/11/review-mandriva-2010-spring-gnome-with-screenshots/
- Mandriva 2010 Spring with KDE : http://g33q.co.za/2010/07/12/review-mandriva-2010-spring-kde-with-screenshots/
- Ars Technica revizw Mandriva 2010 Spring : http://arstechnica.com/open-source/reviews/2010/07/mandriva-rescued-from-bankruptcy-releases-new-version.ars
- Mandriva 2010 Spring review for newbies : http://mandrivachronicles.blogspot.com/2010/07/mandriva-2010-spring-review-for-newbies.html
Multilingual support in my blog
Jul 19th
Since some days, i installed the WPML plugin which allow to have multilingual support for WordPress. You can switch from one language to another one from the widget on the left side, or the links at the bottom of the pages.
- By default the site will be displayed in english. It will contains most of my technicals and Linux/Mandriva related posts
- the french site will be accessible by http://www.linux-wizard.net/fr/ URL. There will have some technicals relating stuffs, but most of the time you will find only my personal stuff.
- Technicals documentations that i will upload to my blog will mostly be in French.
Importing a SVN repository from one server to another one
Jul 13th
As now I’m using Netbeans, I had issues with key based authentication for CVS project in Netbeans. That’s why I decide to import my CVS project to SVN. At some point, as the SVN repository was on my own personal computer, I decide to move it to a public server I had, but only allow SSH access to it. So here is the procedure to move a SVN repository to another SVN server, and only allow svn+ssh access ( no webdav, no network svnserve access ) under Mandriva.
- On your old SVN server, you have to dump the entire SVN repository :
svnadmin dump /path/to/your/repository > /tmp/repository.svn_dump
- Now copy the dump file somewhere on the new SVN server. You may want to use scp if your SSH key based authentication is working correctly. For example :
scp /tmp/repository.svn_dump user@new-svn-server:/tmp
- Once done, you may want to delete the dump file on the old server and eventually delete also the old SVN repo
- On your new server, install the SVN server package and its associated tools :
urpmi subversion-server subversion-tools
- check that svnserve is not started at boot by xinetd. For this check /etc/xinetd.d/svnserve configuration file and check that you have disable = yes as follows :
# default: off # description: svnserve is the server part of Subversion. service svnserve { disable = yes port = 3690 socket_type = stream protocol = tcp wait = no user = svn server = /usr/bin/svnserve server_args = -i -r /var/lib/svn/repositories } - Now create the repository tree on the new server :
svnadmin create /var/lib/svn/repositories/
- Import the dumped repository file in the new SVN repository :
svnadmin load /var/lib/svn/repositories/ < /tmp/repository.svn_dump
- If the importation is successful, now you should ensure that the users connecting with SSH will have write access to the repository. For this add the users to the svn group :
usermod -G svn -a user
- Now add a default ACL for the group to the repository giving read, write and execute ( rwX ) rights to all members of the svn group :
setfacl -R -m d:g:svn:rwX /var/lib/svn/repositories/
- Check that from a remote computer you can list the content of the repository :
svn list svn+ssh://user@new-svn-server/var/lib/svn/repositories
Happy coding with Subversion 
Ressources :
- Converting a CVS repository to a SVN one with cvs2svn : http://cvs2svn.tigris.org/cvs2svn.html
- Moving a SVN repository to another server : http://www.petefreitag.com/item/665.cfm
- SVN cheat sheet : http://www.abbeyworkshop.com/howto/misc/svn01/
- How to manage different projects under SVN : http://subversion.apache.org/faq.html#multi-proj
- SVN reference book : http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.1/ch01s07.html
- French howto about SVN usage : http://wiki.mandriva.com/fr/subversion
- How to use SVN with Eclipse : http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-ecl-subversion/
- Guided tour of subversion with Netbeans : http://netbeans.org/kb/docs/ide/subversion.html
- SVN+SSH usage with Netbeans : http://wiki.netbeans.org/FaqSubversionSSH
- Why you should use branches with SVN : http://webmonkeyswithlaserbeams.wordpress.com/2008/08/26/subversion-branch-management/
- Best practices for managing releases with Subversion : http://www.karlkatzke.com/best-practices-for-managing-releases-with-subversion/
- Creating and managing releases branches : http://docs.jboss.org/process-guide/en/html/svn-admin.html
- Notes on branches management with subversion : http://soniahamilton.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/notes-on-branch-management-wit-subversion/
Netbeans : my new PHP IDE of choice
Jul 13th
During a long
time my PHP development of choice was http://www.eclipse.org/ and the PHP plugin for Eclipse : http://www.phpeclipse.com/. Please note that there’s another PHP plugin for Eclipse developped by Zend and IBM : http://www.eclipse.org/pdt/ also known as the PHP Development Project. However I was mostly using Eclipse and phpeclipse as it was the first PHP plugin I used, and I did appreciate the native integration of CVS and team management tools.
However tonight I decide to give a try to Netbeans with PHP support. What can I say ? I just fall in love. Whereas I have to be used to the new syntax highlighting, PHP support in Netbeans is top for several reasons :
- Netbeans seems to start faster than Eclipse and can also import Eclipse projects,
- it support project creation from Zend or Symphony frameworks ( even if I don’t use them ),
- it supports natively and easily PHP debugging ( with xdebug ) and PHPUnit/Selenium tests,
- It allows Code Coverage,
- It correctly support and parsed my CSS files or .sql files,
- Even better … It allows to connect to your database, view its schema, table structures, and of course execute queries and test your migration SQL scripts,
- it allows to search through a plugin directly in the PHP manual
- it can dynamically parsed and handle your PHPDoc tags and then present your PHP file structure with the PHPDoc you add : this is a good insensitive to write correct PHPDoc,
- Last but not least it provides native CVS and Mercurial integration
In only a few clicks I add way more features than with Eclipse and PHPEclipse. Whereas it’s possible to add xdebug support to eclipse and phpeclipse, the process is not automatic and can be somewhat hard. So finally I switched to Netbeans for my PHP dev. The procedure is very straightforward under Mandriva 2010 Spring as Netbeans packages is already available. Here is the procedure, under Mandriva 2010 Spring, to install Netbeans with a useful and complete PHP development environment :
- install the Netbeans 6.8 and its related packages with urpmi :
urpmi netbeans
- install PHPUnit, xdebug and Selenium :
urpmi php-pear-PHPUnit php-xdebug php-pear-Testing_Selenium
- restart Apache to activate the PHP extensions :
service httpd restart
- Now start Netbeans from the menu : Application -> Development -> Development Environment -> Netbeans IDE 6.8
- Once Netbeans have started, deline if you wish the registration, and then select on the right pane “Install Plugins“. Here is the list of plugins I did choose for my PHP development : Database, PHP, Php Manual Search, Selenium module for PHP. Installing plugins is very easy, just select them, and then follow the instructions ( most of the time hiting Next or validating a License ). Don’t forget to accept Php Manual and thus even if the plugin is considered as not trusted.
- Once your plugins have been installed, restart Netbeans. You may want to decline sending informations about you to Netbeans team.
Now you can import your old Eclipse projects, or if as me you are using a control version system, just checkout your repository ( Team -> CVS -> Checkout ). Mercurial and subversion are supported. For those willing to have Git support, they should have a look at the third party plugin : Netbeans Git Plugin ( homepage : Netbeans Git Module ). To add third parties plugins, download them as .nbm file, then install them with Tools -> Plugins -> [Downloaded] tab -> Add Plugins.
There’s one big caveat however : Netbeans internal SSH client doesn’t support key authentification. You will have to use password authentification, or create a SSH tunnel. For further informations see http://wiki.netbeans.org/FaqHowToSetUpSSHAuth.
And now happy PHP coding with Netbeans
2ème post sous WordPress
Jul 12th
Here is my second post under WordPress. I did the following changes :
- change the theme from RedBel to Mystique which provides a better layout
- I manage to add 2 separates pages to show my personal photos, but also my Linux desktop environments screenshots during my lifetime as a Linux user
- I disabled All in One SEO extension as Mystique already provides SEO features
- I disabled also Google Ajax Feed Slide Show Widget and replace it by Lazyest Gallery. This one will only show my local screenshots and not my personal photos as slideshow on the left side.
- I did removed Inline Posts as I will create each time a new page for the HOWTO/FAQ … normally …
- I add Network Publisher extension. Normally It will allow me to automatically published my blog posts to Facebook. i did also subscribe to http://www.linksalpha.com/ as this service will allow me to simultaneously published my posts to Facebook, Twitter and Identi.ca
- Oh, by the way, I did subscribe to twitter and identi.ca. You can find me under willsalsa76 surname
In the next days, i’m planning to blog about new features of the Mandriva 2010 Spring, but also show some mockups I’ve done for some Mandriva tools 
iPad reviews or an ergonomy lesson
Apr 6th
Here are 2 videos reviews of the last Apple iPad. I do hope this will give some UI design and usabilities/ergonomics ideas to Linux dev :
Nous avons testé l'iPad avant son arrivée en France
envoyé par LEXPRESS. – Vidéos des dernières découvertes scientifiques.
]]
Showing files metadata under KDE is like Russian roulette
Jan 31st
While reading KDE Planet, I’ve noticed this blog post from Peter Penz : Internal Cleanups. He was talking about code cleanups and refactoring he was doing in Dolphin code, which is a very good thing IMHO. Then I learnt something very annoying : since KDE 4.x and Nepomuk integration Dolphin is unable to show metadata informations for a file if the file is not indexed by Strigi and Nepomuk ( KDE bug #193592 ). This explains why I had more and more issues having the size of a photo … Most of the time I did end up starting Gwenview for this ! This is really insane to have to rely on indexing to show a simple information like the dimensions of a photo. Here are the issues I could see :
- On my workstations at work, we are using /home on NFS, and really I don’t want to enable Nepomuk and Strigi indexing. I do fear about the NFS support for Nepomuk/Strigi, and the fact that I will clutter my file server with the indexing database of each of my users. I have 90Go of data on my file server, I can’t imagine the size of the indexing database … SCSI disks are not cheap !
- Even if I do activate Nepomuk+Strigi indexing, by default only the user $HOME will be indexed. However what about the service/staff directories ? Indeed, several people of the same staff do share some common directories where they did put all of their files. What about this ? Do I have to enable manually the indexing of theses directories each time, and end up with duplicated indexed contents ?
- Still on this subject, if you go to /usr/share/pixmaps or /usr/share/wallpaper or on an usb key, you won’t be able to see the metadata of the file as theses locations are not indexed. It means that from the end user perspective, Dolphin behavior will change for no reason as one time it will display the info, and another time not. For the end user : Dolphin will not be a reliable way to show basic informations about a file !
- Activating Nepomuk/Strigi is not without issue for Dolphin too … I did notice that since I do have activate Nepomuk and strigi on my personal laptop, sometimes when entering a directory or when double-clicking on a file, Dolphin will just … freeze … No feedback, no error message, no wait message, no explanations … If you click on the UI, you will notice, once Dolphin will unfreeze, that your actions were taken into account. Just now, Dolhin was frozen during at least 30 seconds after trying to open a OpenOffice Writer document by double-clicking on it. So dolphin end up being unreliable for me … Each time I do something, I do fear about Dolphin freezes.
These kinds of behavior should really be avoided on a modern desktop environment, and reliability and speed should be top priorities. Consistent behavior should be important, especially for basics features. If I understand well, I may not expect a fix for this before KDE 4.5/4.6, which means … 2011 at worst in a stable Linux distribution …
Fixing computer freeze when using Intel chipset with dual view
Jan 12th
Today I was willing to configure 2 laptop running Mandriva 2010 to do presentations during a meeting. So I was willing to use clone output. Unfortunately, doing so will result in an instant system freeze. Even worst, if the projector is plugged before powering on the laptop, the kernel will crash at boot ! Both laptop were using Intel chipsets ( Dell Latitude E6500, Asus A6VA ). The only solution is to disable KMS support. For this you need to generate an initrd without the i915 module ( use –builtin=i915 ), and then to eventually add in modprobe.conf : options i915 modeset=0. Once done, reboot the computer. Whereas you will not have KMS support, at least you will have dual ouput in clone mode support with no fear on freezing the kernel …
How to configure local mail delivery
Dec 31st
I have a separate server which hosts my database. Each night, a cron script is run to dump the databases contents and rsynced the backups to another server. The backup script will log the backup in /var/log, but also send a mail. Most of the time I’m using ssmtp to use my ISP SMTP server as a relay. However my database server most of the time is not connected to internet ( and this on purpose ). This is where the issue comes : ssmtp doesn’t allow local mail delivery 
Even stranger, by default local mail delivery seems to not work at all in a default Mandriva installation
To handle local mail delivery, you need a local Mail Delivery Agent ( MDA ), and your Mail Transfert Agent ( MTA ) should called the local MDA to deliver local mails. So here are 2 methods to handle local mail delivery.
Using SENDMAIL
The easiest to have local mail delivery is to install … sendmail. Just install sendmail package and start the corresponding service, and your are done.
- Install sendmail package :
urpmi sendmail
- Check that sendmail is used to provide send command :
update-alternatives --display sendmail-command
- If this is not the case, instruct update-alternative to use sendmail :
update-alternatives --config sendmail-command
- Start the sendmail service :
service sendmail restart
Using ESMTP
Another way is to use ESMTP. i do advised to use ESMTP because it allow to configure easily a SMTP relay host, and handle also local delivery. However by default, ESMTP is not usable in default Mandriva configuration as it will not install a local MDA ( mdv bug #56759 ) and does not provide a default system-wide configuration file ( mdv bug #56757 ). So here his the procedure for a very simple ESMTP configuration which handle a SMTP relay and local mail delivery :
- Install esmtp and procmail packages :
urpmi esmtp procmail
- Check that esmtp is used to emulate sendmail :
update-alternatives --display sendmail-command
- If this is not the case, instruct update-alternative to use esmtp :
update-alternatives --config sendmail-command
- Once done, create an empty system-wide configuration file for esmtp :
touch /etc/esmtprc
- If you want to configure a SMTP relay host to send mails outside, add the hostname option followed by the SMTP address in /etc/esmtprc. For example :
# The place where the mail goes. The actual machine name is required # no MX records are consulted. Commonly mailhosts are named mail.domain.com hostname = smtp.myisp.com:25
- Now add support to procmail as local MDA for local mail delivery by setting the mda option in /etc/esmtprc :
# Use procmail as MDA for local mail delivery mda "/usr/bin/procmail -d %T"
Testing you local mail delivery setup
Now that sendmail or ESMTP are configured, you should test if local mail delivery is working correctly. The easiest way is to use the mail command to send, but also read your local mails. For example to send a mail containing the content of /etc/nsswitch.conf to the root user, just type :
mail -v -s "Local mail test" root < /etc/nsswitch.conf
. Now log as root, and type mail to consult root mails. you may want to use Mutt eventually to read your mails instead of mail
As a linux sysadmin I do care about
Dec 30th
This testimonial comes after reading a blog post from Albert Astals Cid : Consistency. Indeed I do find useless the debate about UI and buttons consistency ( which is different from buttons order issue ). So here are the point for which I do care as a Linux sysadmin with nearly 75 workstations running Linux, 5 notebook running Linux + Windows, and 7 servers running Linux. As a Linux sysadmin, when :
- /home on NFS support is not optimal ( sqlite usage, akonadi, digikam database, … ) : I do care
- when applications have regressions ( printing support, lack of complete POSIX ACL support in NFSv4 ) : I do care
- when applications are slow or slower under Linux than under Windows ( openoffice, PDF printing with okular vs acroread, Kmail 3 vs Kmail 4 ) : I do care
- when applications crashes ( plasma ) or are buggy ( system-config-printer ) : i do care
- when french accentuated characters are not correctly handled : i do care
- when sound is not working correctly ( pulseaudio, pulseaudio support in phonon, mute mixer entry ) : i do care
- when setting a wireless connection may be buggy ( unstable drivers ) and the connection is unreliable : i do care
- when using a video-projector ( for presentations/meetings ) is not evident for the users and easy : i do care
So the UI look & feel is somewhat useless. I just want something that look mostly good, is acceptable, with a good usability. Good wallpapers ? most users just put their childrens photo as desktop background, and put a lot of icons on the desktops. Good theme ? most of the time, they don’t care. Consistency ? they don’t care : they just want to be able to distinguish closed and minimize buttons
The only time my users were impressed by something visual was the “present windows” effects of kwin ( left upper corner ) which shows all windows at once as they find it useful.
Plasmo
