Matt Croydon::Postneo

Category: Linux

  • Hula!

    I was excited to hear Nat and Miguel talking about The Hula Project yesterday as I was catching up on my feeds.

    Hula is an email and calendaring server. I think they’re taking the right approach: instead of trying to do everything for everybody they’re going to focus on email and calendar. They’re going to try to make the best darned email and calendar server out there. They’re also looking to make of Javascript and DHTML to create a rich web UI.

    I have to say that I’d love to have something like this. A month or two ago I spent a few weeks off and on banging on OPEN-XCHANGE. I tried several times to get the prereqs right so that I could build slapd from source and then build OPEN-XCHANGE in order to be able to configure all of the stuff that needed to be configured. At first I got stuck near the top of the Debian install instructions. Then I got stuck in the middle, and by the time I had written a shell script to do most of the dirty work, I got stuck at adding the LDAP user. I also looked at installing OpenGroupware but a lackluster attempt at figuring out what to do with nightly build .debs I gave up.

    I’m going to repurpose a box and put Debian unstable on it (testing has an older version of automake) to play with Hula, as it seems like it has the easiest build/install process so far:

    ./configure
    make
    su make install

    Granted there is some configuration to do after that, but from what I’ve heard in #hula on freenode the process is quite easy.

    That’s not to say that I’ve stopped looking at alternatives to iCal-over-webdav or Exchange or an exchange workalike for my calendaring and general togetherness. I’d love to see a livecd with openexchange already running on it. For now I think I’ll build Hula and see what the buzz is about. I’m confident that it’s going to progress and improve quickly.

  • Just Browsing: Books that Caught my Eye

    As a break from classwork last night my wife and I headed to the local Borders to do a little book browsing. I didn’t pick anything up, but several titles caught my eye. Here are the books that I would have picked up if money were no issue and there were a few extra hours in each day:

    • Novell Certified Linux Engineer (Novell CLE) Study Guide: I almost went for a cert with the previous SUSE cert system. I also remembered that I’m a Java Certifieid Programmer and would do more Java certs if I had the time. I really wish that there were a J2ME cert book out there that I could study in my downtime.
    • Secure Architectures with OpenBSD: This looked like a meaty book with lots of information on hardening the already paranoid OpenBSD as well as ways to use it without making stupid mistakes.
    • Managing Security with Snort and IDS: There aren’t enough yellow O’Reilly books. Snort has intrigued me for some time and I’d love to read up on it someday.
    • Advanced Unix Programming: I’ve never been a really low-level guy, but I’ve had a newfound respect for plumbing since I’ve been shoving 0’s and 1’s around this semester. This looks like a great reference for low-ish level programming in a Unix (or Unix-like) environment.
    • Knoppix Hacks: I swear, if you leave two Hacks books alone for 20 minutes they’ll mate and have offspring. There really are a lot of things you can do with Knoppix.
    • Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications : A Programmer’s Guide: This one was showcased a little bit and gets down to the nitty gritty of stuff that you need to do in order to know your stuff. I’m always amazed at how much you need to know about whatever subject you’re coding for.
    • XML Hacks: What did I tell you? There’s another. A bunch of tricks with XML from cool but useless to wow.
    • Python Programming Patterns: I don’t think I’ve seen enterprise-grade patterns using Python before. This looks like a good book for those looking for an excuse to use Python in the workplace.
    • Moleskine by Kikkerland: Some great small notebooks and stuff. They could be great for jotting down notes before they can make their way to my wiki.

    It was great to get out and graze at the bookstore a bit. It has been awhile since I’ve done so. Of course I have a similar number of tech books already on the shelf that I haven’t had a chance to read, but I always want more.

    What books have you looked at lately? I was bummed not to find Mono: A Developer’s Notebook on the shelf, but considering that there were several there last time, I think that’s a good sign.

  • VLC Media Player (Formerly Videolan) Rocks!

    Codecs and Linux distros don’t mix. A few years ago, Red Hat stuff stopped playing mp3s. I love my debian Sarge desktop, but Totem just doesn’t support enough codecs out of the box. It’ll handle the basics fine and keeps in line with the minimalistic clean-lines Gnome philosophy. It just won’t handle everything that I throw at it.

    Enter VLC.

    Man, this thing does it all. It can stream just about everything, and it handles a lot of the Windows-based formats that other players throw ugly codec errors on. It may not be as pretty as Totem, but it sure as heck gets the job done.

    Installation was cake on my Debian box. I followed these instructions but opted to install most of the related optional and suggested packages. I also went the sid route as opposed to the woody route. VLC was downloaded and installed in just a few minutes, tho I didn’t get a chance to try it out right away. Sure enough I threw some .wmv and .avi files at it and it handled them perfectly. I don’t have speakers on this box so I can’t vouch for sound decoding, but the video looked just fine.

    I’d highly recommend VLC in addition to whatever media player you’re using now under Linux. There is also a Win32 and Mac OSX version. Take a look at it, I think you’ll like it.

  • What Ubuntu Needs

    I love Ubuntu. It takes some of the best parts of Debian (god bless you apt-get) and fuses it with a good philosophy and some leading edge (but stable enough) Gnome technology. The thing that got me to try Ubuntu was that they were the first distro with Gnome 2.8. I just had to check it out, so I installed it on some tesbed hardware. I was immediately impressed at the clean lines and the improvements in Gnome 2.8.

    After awhile I got busy and the testbed got reappropriated to some other task. I went back to using my trusty Celery 600 (with lots of ram) Debian-testing desktop nearly fulltime again.

    I decided to take a look at Ubuntu again when Edd mentioned it in his weblog in late September. I decided to pop it on the linux space of my dual PIII 733 box. I keep most of the drive space on this box dedicated to Windows, because there are still just some things that can’t be done with the penguin. I switched back over to Ubuntu for everyday tasks for awhile: mail, web, irc, etc. It’s really pretty, really clean, and extremely repsonsive. I used the Synaptic package manager for the first time and was extremely impresed. I installed an SMP kernel. I installed Python and other apps that I had been missing.

    Eventually though I went back to my slow and steady Debian box. At the time I wasn’t sure why, but now I think I’ve figured it out. With Ubuntu, you can install a program in no time with Synaptic or with apt-get install. It’s really braindead-simple. Unfortunately when you install a program on Ubuntu you get the program and not an associated start menu entry. This gets really annoying quickly. After I install the program I then have to either manually add a shortcut to the programs menu or (more frequently) have to guess the name of the executable and run it from the ‘run program’ prompt or from a shell. This gets old really fast, as often the binary does not carry the same name as the package.

    From what I’ve come to understand from lurking in #ubuntu on Freenode and from poking around various wikis and documentation is that not adding programs to any menu is a philisophical decision. I’ve got to disagree. I really think that what Ubuntu lacks most is an ‘Ubuntu’ or ‘Extras’ menu that newly installed programs get shoved in to. Yes, it gets crowded. There’s really no way to avoid it, but if you put it in its own menu you keep the ‘clean’ looks of the everyday tasks like Internet, Office, etc. I really think that such a menu would add value to the Ubuntu distribution and would definitely make it easier to use various programs that have been installed but have faded from view.

    What do you think?

  • Stable Before It\’s Stable

    Debian stable tends to be ancient. With Debian “sarge” just around the corner, the “testing” disto has become even more solid than it usually is. For production systems, a traditional (but aging) “stable” distribution is great. Only proven and rock solid components can be found in “stable.” The problem with “stable” is that it gets stale. It’s been almost three years since “woody” (the current “stable” release) came out. “Woody” is just getting tired. Apache 1.3.x and other tried and true packages just don’t do it for me anymore.

    I joke with my fellow geeks that Debian “testing” (and often even “unstable”) is more stable for desktop use than many other distros. I tend to keep a “testing” desktop, as it seems to hold a good balance between the bleeding edge and stagnation. But “testing” just isn’t always good enough for production environments. For this, we need something more stable.

    I’m just getting ready to commission a Debian box for semi-production use, and I’ve decided to replace my normal “stable” or “testing” entries in /etc/apt/sources.list with “sarge.” My reasoning is that for now it’s somewhere between “testing” and “stable” (we’re in release candidate territory here), but once it becomes “stable” it will remain fresh enough for my tastes for quite some time. I’ll be happy with Apache2+Dav+Subversion+other goodies that I’ve come to rely on from “testing.” At the same time, it will stabalize in the very near future and allow me to keep it in production as a “stable” box.

    This is just something for people getting ready to deploy Debian-based servers in the near future to think about. If you reference “sarge” in place of “stable,” “testing,” or “unstable,” you can have the best of both worlds. You’re running “stable” before it’s “stable.”

  • Plesk Coming to Debian

    While I was loitering in the requirements section of SWsoft’s Plesk website I noticed a curious thing:

    Standard configuration of Debian 3.1 (coming out in the end of December)

    Hey, check that out! I’m assuming that once Debian 3.1 is final Plesk is planning to launch support for the platform. Traditionally Plesk has only supported RPM-based distros (first Red Hat and now RHEL, Fedora, SUSE, and more). I also notice that they’re planning to roll out support for Mandrake and FreeBSD.

    While it’s obviously running a bit behind, this move further underscores the move away from legacy Red Hat, expensive Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and bloated/slow Fedora Core and towards other systems. I think it also adds to the viability of Debian as a replacement for traditional Red Hat systems. I’ve already seen anecdotal evidence of Debian being rolled out in traditionally Red Hat shops, but I’m always glad to see more evidence.

    Now that I’ve babbled a bit, allow me to explain what Plesk is for those of you who don’t know. Plesk is a web-based control panel similar to Ensim, CPanel, and even (sorta) Webmin. It’s commercial glue on top of a LAMP architecture that allows colo customers and web hosting providers to sell and resell their services. I didn’t originally have a particular affinity towards Plesk but ended up deploying it on one of my servers. It requires a little bit of maintenence and updates of course but in general it’s a very good fire-and-forget platform manager.

    I might just have to upgrade to Plesk 7.5 reloaded when I can redeploy it on a Debian box.

  • Apache2 and PHP5 in Less than 10 Minutes

    This weeks Debian Weekly News featured a link to some unofficial debs of PHP5. I’ve been meaning to tinker with PHP5 for some time now and jumped on the opportunity to do so.

    I took a fresh and minimal Debian Testing install (updated from a tiny stable install) and added the following line to my /etc/apt/sources.list:

    deb http://people.debian.org/~dexter php5 sid

    After an apt-get update I used apt-get install to install the following packages:

    • apache2-mpm-prefork
    • libapache2-mod-php5
    • Many of the standard Apache2 modules
    • Many of the standard PHP5 modules listed here
    • A few suggested and recommended packages.

    I ran the install command with -s a few times to see what would be installed, but zero to working Apache2 + PHP5 took me less than 10 minutes. Of course this is running unofficial stuff on a Testing system (though if you ask nice enough you should be able to pull this off on an otherwise Stable distro, but why would you do that?), so use it at your own risk. I’d suggest that you not try this on a production system. Until we see PHP5 incorporated into the various distros, this might be the quickest way to give it a go.

    I’m excited to tinker with the new OOPness features in PHP5. I’ve also got my eye on a particular MVC framework called Mojavi.

    Update (1/12/2005): As some have noticed it looks like there has been some moving and shaking in this unofficial unstable php5 build. After an apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade a few days ago, I lost the ability to use DomDocument. I checked the dists directory and changed my sources.list to reflect sid-old.

    I changed my sources.list back to sid after noticing that there were fresh new (5.0.3-0.3) pakages dated this morning at 4am. The new packages are excellent!

    Let me say again, don’t use this on a production system. But do look around, have some fun, and get a feel for php5. Special thanks to Piotr Roszatycki (dexter) for generating these packages.

  • /me is back.

    It’s been a long couple of months and I apologize for the hiatus. It’s a long story for another day, but lets put it this way, I’m back! I’ve moved from Radio Userland to WordPress. I promise that I’ll share my (semi-painful and procrastination-ridden) migration process in due time.

    The .css that is currently driving the site is Dots by Alex King, which I’m currently tweaking. I’ve still got some random bits that I need to find and url rewrite to fit the new engine, but I’ve done my best to keep the old permalinks. If you find something that’s whacky, please drop me a line at matt at the domain ooiio.com. Thanks!

  • Novell Shipping Linux Technical Resource Kits

    I was pleasantly suprised to see an automated email from Novell in my inbox this evening.  A few weeks ago I applied for the free Linux Technical Resource Kit, which will supposedly have a bunch of Novell, SuSE, and Ximian goodies in it.  It looks like demand for these kits has far exceeded Novell’s expectations, but I’m glad that they’re making good on  the offer and getting their stuff in front of as many eager eyes as possible.  They held off shipping the kits for a bit so that they could include an eval version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9, which I can’t wait to throw on a box.

    I’ll be waiting for my care package in the mailbox.  Thanks Novell!

  • Open Source Exchange Killers

    Slashdot:

    Netline Internet Service announced today that it would contribute its OPEN-XCHANGE Server, the core technology underlying the industry’s top-selling Linux-based groupware, collaboration, and messaging application, under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

    This is definitely good news.  I saw an OpenExchange sales pitch a few years ago at Linux World New York and I must say that I was impressed.  The online demo looks pretty good, but having Outlook “just work” is killer.  And that should be no problem according to an article at ZDNet.  The web interface feels a bit less cluttered than OpenGroupware, and I’m hoping that it rocks.  I hope to find the time to take a look at this bad boy.

  • Novell Ditches SuSE Cert

    Linux Today links to a CertCities article about the abrupt certification change that Novell has made since aquiring SuSE.  They’re dropping the SuSE Certified Linux Professional exam completely and replacing it with a Novell Certified Linux Professional certification.  This new cert will be based more on simulation than on answering questions, and drops the Linux Professional Institute prerequisite.

    The new exam will set you back $195, which isn’t all that bad.

    I’m really glad that I decided to go for the Sun Certified Java Programmer cert and not the SuSE cert.

  • INSERT CD

    Via DistroWatch, INSERT stands for Inside Security Rescue Toolkit. It is based on Knoppix and looks like a solid distro for recovery, security audits, antivirus checking, and more. It’s based on Knoppix 3.4 and uses the 2.6 kernel. It looks like it can handle just about any filesystem that you would normally need, including NTFS.

    It is a lightweight (about 50 megs) distro, but packs a bunch of programs in. I have not had a chance to give this distro a try, but I’m definitely going to download it and check it out.

  • SUSE 9.1 Personal For Free

    Distrowatch reports that SUSE has released a full working version of SUSE 9.1 rather than the usual ftp install free version.  You can grab it from your local mirror.  The timing is perfect for people running older SUSE versiongs, as SUSE is discontinuing security updates for SUSE 8.0.

    This is a great move, SUSE.

  • Debian x86-64 Go For Launch

    LWN carries the news from debian-devel-announce:

    We are proud to announce the Debian AMD64 port is ready for inclusion in Sid. The port is currently at 97% compiled with most of the remaining packages having FTBFS RC bugs filed for unrelated reasons. We have also finished debian-installer for the AMD64 port and generate daily builds. All that still remains to be done is for dpkg to include the amd64 patch, for archive space be given to the port, and for an official buildd to be setup.

    Excellent work guys.  I know how fast a well-tweaked Debian system can be, and the thought of running Debian on AMD64 is quite exciting.  AMD64 gear is still a little too expensive, but I’ve seen several sub-$700 desktop systems with AMD64 inside.  Getting closer…

  • Access Point Infrastructure on a CD

    An article on Slashdot about open source hotspots has a lot of information that I was unaware of.  Most importantly, there are two livecd Linux distributions for Wi-Fi infrastructure that I did not know about.  First, Knoppix begat Morphix which begat PublicIP, which makes setting up and administering a free hotspot as easy as possible.  The second, LESS Networks, allows users to download and install a hotspot on their hardware.  LESS seems to be a bit more techie oriented, but that’s okay too.

    Also of note in the linked article is a French hotspot distro called Sesame.  It looks like at least some of these distros are building on top of well known free Wi-Fi projects like NoCat.  If mesh networking is more your bag, don’t forget to check out the Meshbox.  A less sophisticated version of a lot of the wi-fi hotspot distributions can be accomplished on a Linksys WRT54G and third party firmware.

    I’m so glad that we live in a world that includes niche Linux distributions for free wi-fi hotspots.

  • Which Linux Certification?

    The first time I installed Linux, I downloaded individual disk images of Slackware over 14.4 or 28.8 dialup.  I was able to snag an image or two from my dial-up shell account each night.  A, AP, D, K, L, N, etc.  It took forever.  LILO and I managed to roach the MBR of the family Pentium 60 a few times.  Oops.  Sorry.

    What I’m trying to say is that I’m not a Linux newb.  I’ve installed and tinkered with pretty much every major distro that is out there.  I have an extra machine under the desk as a testbed, just so that I can take a look at the latest and greatest distro that just came out.  I’ve got quite a bit of real-world Linux experience, just not in a corporate environement, and not on paper.

    I’d like to change that.  I’d like a Linux cert of some kind or another that can back up what I already know: I know my way around Linux.  Unfortunately, I’m not sure which cert to go after.  A year ago, I would not have been asking this question.  It would have been RHCE, and don’t look back.  They’ve gone for the high end enterprise clients and left the small to medium guys out in the cold.  Hey, it’s a business decision, it had to be done, but Red Hat is no longer the de-facto distro.  Therefore, a RHCE isn’t worth what it used to be.

    I flipped through a Linux+ practice exam in the bookstore the other day.  I correctly answered 18 out of 20 that I looked at.  I’m sure with a little cramming I could have nailed the other two.  I’m confident that with a few weeks and a good book, I can fill in the holes to pass a Linux+ with no problem.  But do I want a Linux+ cert?  Is it taken seriously?  Should I be looking at other certs?

    After doing a little bit of research, it looks like there are four major Linux certification programs out there.  Here’s what I’ve learned about them so far:

    • RHCE: It used to be the only cert worth having.  Nowadays, I’m not so sure.
    • CompTIA Linux+: This one looks easy to pass, which is good but bad.  Exam cost is around $200 or so, and there’s only the one.
    • Linux Professional Institute currently offers three levels of certification with two exams for each.  It is interesting to note that SUSE is basing their certifications as supplemental to the LPI certs.  I’m a big picture guy, and I think that Novell/SUSE/Ximian could be the next standard platform.  For that reason, I see the LPI certs as attractive.  I could be a SUSE Linux Professional after passing two LPI exams and a SUSE exam.  SUSE has cool logos.
    • SAIR Linux: They have two certification programs: Linux Certified Administrator and Linux Certified Engineer.  The roadmap reminds me a lot of MCSE.  It looks like you have to pass four exams for each cert.  This is the cert that I know the least about.

    So whcih one of the above certs is best?  Which is most worth having?  I’m inclined to go the Linux+ route in order to make my resume look more attractive in the short term, but I don’t want to waste my money if it’s a total joke.  Longer term, I can see the LPI/SUSE certs being valuable.  If you have some insight, please email me (<%radio.macros.mailTo ()%>) or stop by the wiki page WhichLinuxCertIsBest.

  • Howard County Library Moves to Linux

    Newsforge:

    Over the past year, the Howard County (Md.) Public Library has migrated more than 200 public PCs from Windows 98 and Windows NT to Linux. These PCs are used both to surf the Internet and to access the library’s catalogues. NewsForge recently spoke with Brian Auger, associate director of the library, and the IT team responsible for the migration. We wanted to learn more about why and how it was accomplished, and how pleased they are with the results.

    Wow, that’s surreal.  I’m in Howard County right now.  They chose an interesting route: Linux from Scratch + Gnome, Mozilla, and OpenOffice.org.  A cron script is run twice a day to see if there are any updates to be downloaded from a master server.

    More information, including some screenshots can be found at LuMiXtech.

    Way to go, Howard County!  Stories like this and the library behind White Box Enterprise Linux give my warm fuzzy penguin feelings.

  • Knoppix 3.4 Fresh from the Oven

    Via Slashdot, Knoppix 3.4 is fresh and hot.  I’m currently torrenting the 3.4 release, though it seems to have stalled out on me.  If I ever get it down, I’ll do my duty and leave the torrent open  You might also try your luck with one of the mirrors.  A quick peek at the package list is impressive for a live Linux distro, but I don’t see any Earth shattering changes.

    I feel like a bandwidth hog.  I just downloaded a 3.3 build yesterday.

  • Open Sourcing Solaris: GPL? BSD? A Good Decision?

    Infoworld:

    Sun Microsystems Inc. may be selling servers running Linux, but that doesn’t mean it is cutting back on the evolution of Solaris. Among its plans, the company is considering offering a free, open source version of its flagship operating system, said Jonathan Schwartz, the company’s recently appointed president and chief operating officer.

    “Maybe we’ll GPL it,” Schwartz said of Solaris, referring to the GNU General Public License under which the Linux operating system is distributed. “We’re still looking at that.”

    Those are not words to be thrown around lightly.  Of course it would be more logical for Solaris to bre released under a BSD-like operating system, as it was derived from BSD code.  It is encouraging to see Sun thinking about such things.

    Solaris no longer has the clout that it used to.  People use it, sure, but many have migrated away from Solaris on Sparc hardware to a flavour of Linux on x86.  I’m sure that an open-source version of Solaris would give it a lot of publicity.  It may need such publicity in order to survive.

    Solaris 9 (and a preview version of 10) can be downloaded for free, but a per-seat commercial license does apply.

    Here’s another interesting tidbit:

    Sun will likely move “very quickly” to a free licensing model where Solaris revenue would come from a paid subscription, Schwartz said. He wasn’t specific about when this might occur or what the pricing of such a model might be, other than to say it would be “less than Red Hat.”

    “Less than Red Hat” still leaves a good bit of room to be overpriced though.  Once again, I’m really stoked that Sun is thinking about such things, given how anti-open source they’ve been about Java.  Keep up the intelligent decisions, Sun!

  • Hardly Newsworthy: Windows on Linux

    SpecOps Labs has been getting a lot of press in the last few days after their “breakthrough” announcement.  Their new software product will allow you to run Windows apps in Linux.

    Pardon me, but haven’t you been able to do the same thing using Wine for years now?  There are also commercial products like Crossover Office and Crossover Plugin if you have specific needs that are not neccesarily covered under Wine.

    I know that Wine isn’t perfect.  It can run some apps, but can’t run others.  Hey, that’s life.  I have a feeling that SpecOps’ David is going to be the same way.  I’d love to be wrong, but I have a feeling that David is going to rock for some things and choke on others.  Just like Wine.

    I’m all about new technology, breaking new ground, and pushing the envelope.  I just wish that the tech media would mention that many of the “revolutionary” things that SpecOps are claiming can already be done, and have been possible for years.