Switching to Linux

Ubuntu directions for installing Linux on USB through OSX

2010-10-11T04:54:00.000-07:00

Note: this procedure requires an .img file that you will be required to create from the .iso file you download.

TIP: Drag and Drop a file from Finder to Terminal to 'paste' the full path without typing and risking type errors.

1. Download the desired file

2. Open the Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities/ or query Terminal in Spotlight)

3. Convert the .iso file to .img using the convert option of hdiutil (e.g.,hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o ~/path/to/target.img ~/path/to/ubuntu.iso)

4. Note: OS X tends to put the .dmg ending on the output file automatically.

5. Run diskutil list to get the current list of devices

6. Insert your flash media

7. Run diskutil list again and determine the device node assigned to your flash media (e.g. /dev/disk2)

8. Run diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN (replace N with the disk number from the last command; in the previous example, N would be 2)

9. Execute sudo dd if=/path/to/downloaded.img of=/dev/rdiskN bs=1m (replace /path/to/downloaded.img with the path where the image file is located; for example, ./ubuntu.imgor ./ubuntu.dmg).

▪ Using /dev/rdisk instead of /dev/disk may be faster.

▪ If you see the error dd: Invalid number '1m', you are using GNU dd. Use the same command but replace bs=1m with bs=1M.

▪ If you see the error dd: /dev/diskN: Resource busy, make sure the disk is not in use. Start the 'Disk Utility.app' and unmount (don't eject) the drive.

10. Run diskutil eject/dev/diskN and remove your flash media when the command completes

11. Restart your Mac and press alt while the Mac is restarting to choose the USB-Stick

Enabling write when in rescue mode in Fedora

2009-06-27T09:35:00.000-07:00


$mount -o remount, rw /

Mounting 13TB Raid

2009-06-03T07:22:00.000-07:00

This is some quick info I learned while trying to mount a 13TB partition in RHEL 5.3. The main thing is that fdisk does not like to make partitions larger than 2.2TB because dos labels are not recognized. The second is that ext3 file system doesn't like anything bigger than 8Tb. So here is what I did to go around it. I had to used parted instead of fdisk to overcome that 2TB limit.


#parted /dev/sdd
#mklabel gpt
>mkpart primary 0 13000G
>quit
#yum install e4fsprogs
#mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdd1

To lay this all out I had to rename the label of the partition to gpt so I could use the larger partitionsize and then I installed support for ext4 and used that as the filesystem. Yes I know I punked out a bit but I am sick of trying to find work arounds for ext3.

APPENDED NOTE!!

You can't mount ext4 in RHEL just yet lol kind of important. I went back and did


#mkfs.ext3 -F /dev/sdd1

and it took the filesystem

Setting IP addresses through terminal (RHEL)

2009-05-25T07:40:00.000-07:00

For some reason this is something that will just not stick in my head and I always have to go searching for it. The way you permanently set/change the ethx ip address is to edit the following file:

nano /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ethx

In this file you can set the ip address, gateway, netmask and ipv6 stuff.

To change the DNS addresses you must edit the following different file:

nano /etc/resolv.conf

Once you have made the changes you need to restart the network service to use the changes

service network restart

!!Remember all these commands need to be done as either root or through sudo!!

Sad news for Ubuntu on SunBlade 100's with Condor Users

2009-03-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

I had about 20 Sunblade 100 units sitting around the lab and decided with my team to make a static cluster using them. Well the install of Ubuntu went pretty well using Server 8.10 and Server 7.10. Even loaded the Ubuntu-Gnome desktop on a couple of them just to see it. So with all going well I tryied to load the ever complicated Condor Project to tie them together. Well after trying multiple versions, based on debian, rehl, sparc, and eventually even compiling from source code I can say that Condor on a Sun with Ubuntu using the SPARC processor just will not work. Sorry guys.

We ended up loading Solaris 10 and loading Condor. If anybody does find a way please feel free to leave a comment but I doubt it happening any time soon.

USB 3.0 Demo with 5 second Ubuntu boot!!

2008-12-14T15:55:00.001-08:00

Installing Condor in OSX 10.5

2008-12-10T11:44:00.000-08:00

I found this process in a weird place on condor's site ... it was in the tutorials under Administration Tutorial. At the same time this worked. The only thing I did differently was to download the Condor package for Intel Mac 10.4. Sorry but you will have to do all of this from the terminal window. Beyond that everything else worked. So here is my "workflow" lol...

Downloaded Condor for Intel Mac 10.4 (In my case I used 7.0.5).
Opened terminal (Hard drive --> Applications --> Utilities --> Terminal)
Logged in to my root account with "su" and then typed in my password (If you dont know your root password your boned lol ok seriously you need to either see your system administrator or try this out http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/5331-how-do-i-reset-root-password.html but if your root account just isnt on check out this link http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1528)
Type "useradd condor" and press [Enter]
Type "chmod a+rx ~condor" and press [Enter]
Type "cd /" and press [Enter]
Type "mkdir condor" and press [Enter]
Type "cd /condor" and press [Enter]
Type "cp /Users/jeaimepowell/Desktop/condor-7.0.5-MacOSX10.4-x86-dynamic.tar.gz /condor/" and press [Enter]
Type "tar -xzf condor-7.0.5-MacOSX10.4-x86-dynamic.tar.gz " and press [Enter]
Type "cd condor-7.0.5" and press [Enter]
Type "./condor_configure --install --install-dir=/condor/condor \ --local-dir=/condor/condor/var --owner=condor
" and press [Enter] (I got some errors but it installed)
Type "ln -s /condor/condor/etc/condor_config ~condor/" and press [Enter]
Type "PATH=$PATH:/condor/condor/bin/:/condor/condor/sbin/" and press [Enter]
Type "nano /condor/condor/etc/condor_config" and press [Enter]
Look through the file in Part 2 until you find "HOSTALLOW_WRITE =" and remover the text after it and just have a "*"
Press [ctrl] [x] and press "Y" then hit [enter] twice
Type "condor_master" and press [Enter]
Type "ps -ef |grep condor" and press [Enter] (you should see a bunch of condor processes running
After a half a minute or so you should be able to type "condor_status" and actually see your machine on the node.
You are done!

Installing Condor the easy-easy way

2008-12-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

So I have to be honest here... the traditional install of condor using the "Newer Unix Install" has kicked my butt. I ran into permission issues, directory location issues,environmental variable issues, hostname issues and all other sorts problems I would rather forget. Well as a last ditch effort and kind of as a joke to myself I decided to install Fedora (FC10) and look in the package manager (In Gnome "System-->Administration-->Add/Remove Software) for Condor. To my complete shock it was there under "Condor:High Throughput Computing"!!! I checked it and it installed and get this...I typed "condor_status" in the terminal window and boom-bam it was working!! The main condor folder (release directory) is all over the place in the system but the bastard just works. So just to lay it out in a non ubber geek way:

Install Fedora (I used FC10 but I dont know if it is in other cores)
Open "System-->Administration-->Add/Remove Software"
Search for Condor (type it in the search box and hit enter)
Put a check next to "Condor:High Throughput Computing" (I checked the Condor headers one too but I dont know if it is necessary)
Click "Apply" (In my case it also added a few other dependencies automagically so dont be worried if you see that)
When it is done open a terminal window (Applications --> System Tools --> Terminal)
Type "condor_status" and you should see a status with one node.
You are done!!

So to fellow grad students and techs trying to get Condor running I hope this helps!! And just to put it out there, the all powerful condor_config file is located in the /etc/condor folder.

Good Luck!!

Installing Canon i860 in Fedora Core 9 (gutenprint)

2008-09-03T06:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the easiest way I have found to get the driver in there.

Goto Systen --> Administration --> Add/Remove Software
In the search box type "gutenprint" and click [Find]
Add a check mark next to "Cups drivers for Canon, Epson, HP and compatible printers"
Click "Apply"
Then goto System --> Administration --> Printing
Click "New"
Select the "i860 USB #1" and click [Forward] (this was in my case it may be a different number for you)
Select "Canon" and click [Forward]
The "i860" model and "Canon i860 - CUPS+Gutenprint v.5.0.2 ...] should be selected and click [Forward]
You can change the name if you want but i just left it as "i860" and clicked [Apply]
Once the install is complete I would test the printer by selecting it from the list and clicking [Print Test Page]

And you are done!!

No sound from flash (Youtube) in Fedora Core 9

2008-09-03T05:45:00.000-07:00

No I am not the one who came up with this fix. The credit goes to /crisis website.

Open a terminal window
Type
```
su - 
```
and enter your root password
Type
```
 yum install libflashsupport
```
When it is done you should be good to go.

Linux Commands used in Greenland to Admin the server

2008-07-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

For System Monitoring

-top - displays the load and memory usage of all applications and processors

-uptime - show system load and should not be over 20 (for Greenland field server)

-vmstat [-S M 5] (S M show in megabytes and 5 says update every 5 seconds) - shows memory usage.... hopefully will not use swap file because it will slow down the processing

-mpstat [-P ALL](for all processors or can put the number of the specific processor) - shows cpu usage

-df - displays mounted drives and locations

-du [-h](shows a human readable view) - displays disk usage

-SMclient - displays RAID status

-nodestatus - displays MDCE MatLab workers running

-/etc/init.d/mdce [status] - displays whether mdce is running

-/sbin/service [name] [start stop status restart] - used to access other service such as nfs, portmap ...etc

-cat /etc/fstab - lists mounts and apps that run at startup

-dmesg - kernel messages such as when you plug up a usb device

-/var/log - contains many system logs for error checking

Grub Boot Screen Options (press a at the Grub startup screen)

-Single - starts linux in single users mode with root access
-while in single user mode can type init 3 (3 being the run level you want)
-console=/dev/ttyS0 - means the output of the startup is passed to the serial port

Rsync Command options

can use the following syntax to to rsync directly to a network drive

rsync -av jpowell@192.168.254.108:/mnt/storage/20080717A /media/usb

***If you add a / to the trailing source location, it means to copy the data in the folder....without it copies the parent folder too

autossh command

autossh -M [port1] (-M says what port 1 to monitor on) -N (dont run a command) -R [port2]:localhost:22 (open up the port 2 on the IP machine to create a tunnel to your machine (localhost) on port 22) [user@ip](ssh location you want to connect to)

example:
autossh -M 20000 -N -R 11000:localhost:22 jpowell@ssh.cresis.ku.edu -p 62

person ssh in to this would use:
ssh -p 11000 localhost (this is assuming they are on ssh.cresis.ku.edu)

dd command options

dd -fi=input directory -do=file out

Managing users and permissions

useradd - used to add users
syntax:
useradd -c "normal user" -d /home/userid -g users\
-G webadm,helpdesk -s\ /bin/bash userid
***This command creates a new user called "userid," the last parameter in the command. A comment is entered that says "normal user." Userid's home directory will be "/home/userid." Userid's primary group will be users, but userid will also be placed in the "webadm" and "helpdesk" groups. Userid will use the "/bin/bash" shell as the normal console environment.

passwd [userid] - changes the users password

userdel -r userid - deletes a user ...the -r means to also delete the home directory

more /etc/passwd - allows you to view all the users and their associations - The first column contains the user name. The second column contains the user's password. The third column contains the user's numeric id. The fourth column contains the numeric id for the user's primary group. The fifth column contains the user's full name, or a comment. The sixth column contains the location of the user's home directory. Normally this directory lives in the /home directory and has the same name as the user id. The seventh column contains the user's default console shell.

groupadd mygroup - adds groups

ls -l - produces the following information relating to groups
-rw-r--r-- 1 userid mygroup 703 Jun 23 22:12 myfile

Ignoring the other columns for the moment, look at the third, fourth, and last columns. The third column contains the name of the owner of the file, userid. The fourth column contains the group associated with the file, mygroup. The last column is the file name. Each file can have only one owner and one group. It is possible to assign rights to Other, the users who don't fall into either category. Think of Other as the equivalent of the Windows group Everyone.

chown [owner] [file] - changes the owner of a file or directory

chmod [+-r+-w+-x] [file] - changes the permissions for a file

Network Mangement

ifconfig [ethernet port] - view current ethernet port configuration

ifup [eth port] - turn ethernet port on

ifdown [eth port]- turn ethernet port off

dhclient [ethernet port] - sets the ethernet port to dhcp and grabs IP

/sbin/service iptables stop - Linux firewall service stop

Crontab Management

crontab - allows you to work with items in the cron (task scheduler)
-l means list all cron jobs

Other often used commands

halt - to stop system

mount - to mount drives

umount [-f] (forces unmount) - to unmount drives

su - - root user with environment

ssh [-Y] (to port graphics)

nano - text editor

fsck - scans and defragments drive (perform at least once per month to not have it automatically kick in [that sucks])

rm -rf [directory]- removes directories with data inside

find - finds freggin anything

sleep [number of seconds] - very useful in scripts to make the system wait

man - manual it is your friend

less - displays a file page by page

Lifecast Post Test

2008-07-12T08:44:00.001-07:00

First post from my iTouch! I love the app store!

Posted with LifeCast

How to check what is running on your system

2008-07-09T07:08:00.000-07:00

Ok if you have ever looked over the shoulder of a linux person goign to town you may have seen something like

ps -aux | grep cron

so here is what is really going on in that command

ps

The ps command tells you what processes are actually running. In the manual it actual says that it gives you a snapshop of what is running on the system.

-aux

says print all processes owned by a user named "x" this could be changed to specify a specific user

The "|" or pipe symbol says to this command and this other command together

grep

"grep" is a filter. If you were to simply type "ps" you woudl get a screen full of processes running for your user. By adding the "|" along with "grep" you can filter those processes down to what you need. In this case we looked for "cron" jobs (scheduled tasks). That can of course be changed to anything else you may need to check on.

So to say it all together the command

ps -aux | grep cron

is actually telling the computer to show all processes under any user that specifically deals with cron.

Hope that helps!!

How to manually mount a USB Drive in Redhat

2008-07-06T07:53:00.000-07:00

Inserting a USB storage device

Plug in the device.
Check the contents of the file /var/log/dmesg to see what the system named the device. (You can use the command dmesg as well.) It should appear as a SCSI device, so the name should be similar to /dev/sda or /dev/sdb.
Use the command fdisk -l , replacing with the device name from /var/log/dmesg to determine the partitions on the device. Most USB flash drives and other portable storage media types have only one partition, so the output of the fdisk command will most likely be something like /dev/sda1 or /dev/sdb1.
Create a directory (mkdir) to serve as the drive's mount point. It is recommended to use a name that is easy to remember like /mnt/usb.
Mount the device with the mount command. If the device was detected as /dev/sda and the fdisk command showed /dev/sda1 as your partition, the command would be:
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb
The mount command should automatically detect the partition type and mount the drive. It can be problematic to add the mount command to the file/etc/fstab, as the device may be detected with a different name if system devices are changed or if more than one USB device is plugged in at the same time. For this reason, it is recommended to mount the device manually with the full mount command listed above instead of relying on an entry in /etc/fstab.

Geeky way to send a terminal message to a user

2008-07-03T08:13:00.000-07:00

How to send someone a message over linux or unix

Step 1: Type who to find out what port they are on (the pts with the number is the port)
Step 2: cat >/dev/ptx/y
Step 3: type message
Step 4: press: "Ctrl + d" to end

***could also use the "write username [then optionally pts/terminal#]

What is the deal with Fedora Core 8??

2007-11-23T08:34:00.001-08:00

For the Polar Grid project I use a job scheduler named Condor. Unfortunately attempts to get Condor running in Ubuntu have been completely unsuccessful. So I figure I need to go ahead and get use to Fedora. Fine I download spiffy new FC8 and load it up. Pretty straight forward install. The only issue I kind of had to deal with was that because I have both a SATA and an IDE drive in my system and wanted the SATA to be the primary, I had to have GRUB load on the IDE drive. No biggie.

So I'm think all will be well just like it was with Ubuntu as far as general system stability. I was wrong as hell. I had constant lock-ups. Programs froze all the time. I'm not even talking about 3rd party apps which were a joke to get running, I mean built in software like Firefox and Compiz.

For you hard core nuts out there I did all of the the updates with the same results, so back I went to Ubuntu 7.10 and I have had nothing but smooth sailing.

I am going to try CentOS because I have to have Condor but as for my primary system and all of the Macs in my lab, Fedora is out.

Dual-booting -- Setting the default OS in Grub (Unbutu)

2007-08-21T09:19:00.000-07:00

Ok if you have decided to just try Ubuntu out without fully committing you may have found yourself in a dual-boot situation. Well when you install Ubuntu it sets it self as the default OS. Well you may not want that or you may have other versions of Linux that you want as the default. Well that is where the grub "menu.lst" file comes into play. To open the file you type:


sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Find the following section in the file:


## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

The important line is the last one. You will need to change that number 0 to match the Windows boot section. Typically it's always going to be 6 on a default dual-boot configuration. Change this value to 6, and then save and reboot your machine. You should go into Windows instead of Ubuntu automatically. (To figure out what number the OS you want to install is simply count from 0 down the menu to find the number of the wanted OS. In my case it was 6)

Special thanks to: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/set-windows-as-default-os-when-dual-booting-ubuntu/

[Mega Linux Nerd] Shell App -- Cygwin

2007-08-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

A PhD fresh off the boat told me about this Windows Linux Shell emulator Cygwin. Now i have to tell you that personally this isn't exactly the kill app I have been waiting for but for you ultra nerds out there that love emacs or vi or just good ole` bash commands, this is the thing for you. Now the install isn't as intuitive as would have liked because it is a live distribution. So in otherswords if you are trying to get this off a modem connection -- you might as well hang it up. Once the distribution all you get is a prompt. Nothing more just a prompt although per Dr. A you can start the xserver and possibly pull up Gnome if you really want a GUI interface but why lol? I guess if you don't have a compiler or you just want to mess with someone, this would be the app for you but, if you are looking for something to help make a person want to switch, just leave it alone.

Package Files (.rpm and .deb)

2007-08-15T05:07:00.000-07:00

I just learned this here recently. Specifically I learned it from a podcast I listen to called Going Linux (Episode #12) so I have to give the credit to the narrator Larry Bushey. I highly recommend his podcast especially for new users. Having said that, lets get into this thing.

In Windows we used exe and msi files to install software. There was a certain comfort there when we simply double-clicked a downloaded file to begin an install. Well--Linux has the same thing believe it or not. The two most common are .rpm and .deb. There is a catch though. Certain versions of Linux can only use certain package files natively. Rpm is generally linked to RedHat and its spin-offs (Fedora, CentOS ....). The deb packages are generally linked to Debian (go figure it makes sense lol), and its spin-offs (Ubuntu, Knoppix ...). With these packages in the correct Linux version, the installation of software is a breeze.

What if you want to install a kick but app that is in the wrong package for the Linux OS you are in?? In my case I was in Ubuntu, and there was a game that was a rpm. What to do...what to do?? Well thanks to Larry I found out about a program called Alien. Now the cool thing is Alien is probably in your Synaptic Package manager already. But if not you can get it from the this link. Now I am going to warn you that Alien is command line driven. I know I'm sorry but you have use this tool from the console. Once you have installed it and opened the console (terminal for you Fedora users) you can type:


/usr/bin/alien -d package.rpm

or if you want to go to rpm


/usr/bin/alien --to-rpm package.deb

Once it is complete you can double click on the new package and boom-bam your program will install.

Now I also want to throw in there that Alien can convert to a bunch of other packages like Stampede .slp, and Slackware .tgz file formats. Alien can also handle Solaris' .pkg.

So there you go ... happy hunt-and-pecking!!

Condor Reconfigure

2007-07-30T08:09:00.000-07:00

This pages purpose is to show how to reconfigure a condor pool if the master/server units IP address changes. (Note: This has happened in our case because 1: The server did not have a static IP address. 2:The direct IP address was being used instead of a domain name in condor_config CONDOR_HOST.)

The Condor Master (Fedora RC7 Linux with Gnome)

First a couple quick questions answered.

     1. Condor is located in two main directories
           Actual program scripts

         /usr/local/condor/sbin

           Condor configuration

         /etc/condor

   2. No the condor master does not run auto-magically when you start the system                 
      --well at least not in Linux

Now here is what I had to do:

1. open a terminal window and get the new IP address of the machine

/sbin/./ifconfig

2. I had to edit the condor_config file to enter in the new IP address (In case you didn't know it the condor_config file is for both the master's config and the workers. (Note: if you are not root, you may have to type su or sudo prior to running this command)

 gedit /etc/condor_config

change the CONDOR_HOST under Part 1 then save the config. (Note: If you cannot save, you may need to open the file as root by doing su or sudo.)

3. Now you have to start the master. (Note: If you already have the master running you may just be able to type ./condor_reconfigure)


cd /usr/local/condor/sbin
./condor_master

As long as you don't see any errors you should be good to go. 4. Check to make sure the condor is running by typing

condor_status

Assuming all went well you should get something like the following:

[condor@ecsulab222-16 ~]$ condor_status

Name          OpSys       Arch   State      Activity   LoadAv Mem   ActvtyTime

10-24-5-83.my LINUX       INTEL  Unclaimed  Idle       0.000   883  0+02:15:04


                   Total Owner Claimed Unclaimed Matched Preempting Backfill

       INTEL/LINUX     1     0       0         1       0          0        0

             Total     1     0       0         1       0          0        0

Now for the workers

Condor Workers (MAC OS X, Linux, Windows XP)

Mac OS X and Linux (Note: Make sure you still have the IP address of the Condor Master)

1. Open a Terminal window and edit the condor_config file to change the CONDOR_HOST under Part 1 to the IP address of the Master

 open /Users/condor/condor_config

Then save the file. (Note: If you cannot save, you may need to open the file as root by doing su then running the open command.)

2. You must start the master manually

cd /usr/local/condor/sbin/
./condor_master

3. Now you must force the master to take the reconfiguration

./condor_reconfig

4. After a minute or so as long as you haven't had any errors you can go back to the condor master and do a condor_status to look for the OS X machine.

[condor@ecsulab222-16 ~]$ condor_status

Name          OpSys       Arch   State      Activity   LoadAv Mem   ActvtyTime

10-24-5-83.my LINUX       INTEL  Unclaimed  Idle       0.000   883  0+02:45:04
10-24-5-51.my OSX         PPC    Unclaimed  Idle       0.010   128  0+00:09:49

                   Total Owner Claimed Unclaimed Matched Preempting Backfill

       INTEL/LINUX     1     0       0         1       0          0        0
           PPC/OSX     1     0       0         1       0          0        0

             Total     2     0       0         2       0          0        0

Windows XP

1. Open the c:\condor\condor_config file. (Note: when you double click the icon and it asks what program to open in, I suggest NotePad.)

2. Change the CONDOR_HOST under Part 1 to the IP address of the Master.

3. Save the file. (Note: If you are unable to save, you may need to log in to an account with administrative privileges.)

4. Restart the computer.

5. After a minute or so once the computer has booted, and as long as you haven't had any errors, you can go back to the condor master and do a condor_status to look for the WINNT 51 machine.

[condor@ecsulab222-16 ~]$ condor_status

Name          OpSys       Arch   State      Activity   LoadAv Mem   ActvtyTime

10-24-5-122.m LINUX       INTEL  Unclaimed  Idle       0.480   376[?????]
10-24-5-83.my LINUX       INTEL  Unclaimed  Idle       0.000   883  0+02:45:04
10-24-5-51.my OSX         PPC    Unclaimed  Idle       0.010   128  0+00:09:49
cerser1       WINNT51     INTEL  Unclaimed  Idle       0.000   511  0+00:09:39
cerser2       WINNT51     INTEL  Unclaimed  Idle       0.000   511  0+00:04:38
cerser3       WINNT51     INTEL  Unclaimed  Idle       0.000   511  0+00:04:38
cerser4       WINNT51     INTEL  Unclaimed  Idle       0.000   511  0+00:04:34

                   Total Owner Claimed Unclaimed Matched Preempting Backfill

       INTEL/LINUX     2     0       0         2       0          0        0
     INTEL/WINNT51     4     0       0         4       0          0        0
           PPC/OSX     1     0       0         1       0          0        0

             Total     7     0       0         7       0          0        0

SeaSpace (TeraScan) and CentOS

2007-07-25T05:54:00.000-07:00

One of the tasks I set for my self at work is to reload all the lab systems with dual boot Linux and Windows XP. The university I work for has a TeraScan system installed so that we can receive imagery data directly from satellites. I decided to give Seaspace a call to see which flavor of Linux they would recommend. Well in order for the software to work you must have Redhat Enterprise installed. A site license for Redhat Enterprise is not cheap in any form or fashion. Even though Linux itself is free, the support or specialized programs to go along with it are not. As a matter of fact your looking around $9k to purchase Redhat Enterprise. I asked if Fedora which is supposedly RedHat open sourced would work. the agent informed me that they had not had good luck with Fedora, because of the many changes that have occurred in the OS.

When I heard that I though oh crap, that is gonna take a while to get passed through the budget. Thankfully the agent from SeaSpace let me know that CentOS is a direct port from the RedHat kernel. The best part is that CentOS is free! I have downloaded the ISO and I will of course keep you apprised of how it goes.

Should I really be running Ubuntu??

2007-07-23T06:39:00.000-07:00

When I started this blog I was all about the Ubuntu distribution of Linux. I hate to say it but it is just to much of a pain to do anything in it. Don't get me wrong i love the fact that everything that is needed for most new Linux users comes pre-installed. I'm not a normal user. I like to try stuff. I like to install new versions of Beryl. I like to install WINE, and run PC games. I have to work in a program named Condor for GRID computing that isn't supported in Ubuntu. I hate to say it but Ubuntu just isn't getting it for me. I am seriously considering switching over to either Suse or Fedora. I'm leaning greater to the Fedora side because of user lead forums and what not. I guess this is a part of every Linux users plight. Since Linux isn't standardized or centralized different distributions may be better for a person or companies particular situation. It sucks but so is life you know? So --Ubuntu guys I am sorry but I just can't take sudo'ing everything anymore. I want a root account. I want to be able to use su. I want some of the power of true Linux back. So I am going to have to jump ship to a different distribution.

I can't run "make" in Ubuntu

2007-07-20T07:36:00.001-07:00

I have tried to install a couple things that kept asking me to "./configure" and then"make install". I kept getting a "unknown command" when I tried to run it. Well after a bit of searching I found out that this was because there was no C/C++ Compiler installed. Websites spoke of all types of freaky weird ways to make it work when I came upon a post about "Synaptic Package Manager" which was a life saver.

Basically Synaptic is a graphical version of apt-get which if you have run across...you will. Apt-get is a command line way to download and install programs in Linux from the command line (Red Hat also uses "yum"). Well the catch is that if any part of the program name has changed --say oh the version number, you may not be able to find the app.

Because Synaptic is visual you do do a simple search to visually pick what you need. (Note: If your flavor of Linux does not have synaptic you should be able to use the command apt-get update && apt-get install synaptic)

I said all that to say this. To install that elusive compiler program you can open Synaptic by

Going to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manger.
Click on "Reload" to update the available packages.
Click on the "Search" button.
Type in "gcc" and press enter. (Note: gcc is a command line C/C++ compiler)
Select all instances of "gcc" that appear
Click "Apply" and the packages will be installed for you.
Close Synaptic
Run your "make install" command from the terminal window.

In my case I also had to add a library in which case you can go back into Synaptic and simply search or what ever library name it needs.

Special Note: Remember in Ubuntu you must add "sudo" to the front of "make" in the terminal window so the OS will not complain about permission issues.

Installing games in Ubuntu

2007-07-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

Ok guys the reason i haven't been posting much is because I am currently in a battle of witts between my computer and myself. I like to play games--there I said it. I like PC games at that. There is an application called Wine that allows people to install and play windows games, and other applications in Linux. Cool beans right--wrong. The wine install was pretty easy.

Open a terminal window from "Applications --> Accessories"


sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/feisty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

Once that is done you are supposedly able to type

sudo wine

Yeah well if during the install of the application you must say--change CDs you get the error "Cannot eject CD because application is using it". Umm yeah well that sucks. I thought I had it figured out with the "sudo wine eject" command but althogh the Cd ejected, the installation would not continue. As soon as I get this figured out I will tell yall all about it.

How to install Ubuntu (Feisty Fawn) in OS X using Parallels - a complete walkthrough

2007-07-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

I found this on another persons site but the just did such an excellent job that I had to reprint it. The original site was: http://www.simplehelp.net/2007/04/27/how-to-install-ubuntu-feisty-fawn-in-os-x-using-parallels-a-complete-walkthrough/

How to install Ubuntu (Feisty Fawn) in OS X using Parallels - a complete walkthrough

This tutorial will take you every single step of the way through installing Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) using Parallels for OS X. In other words, even your parents should be able to follow along.

1. Who this tutorial is for
2. Background
3. Setting up Parallels for Ubuntu
4. Running Ubuntu for the first time
5. Tidying up, adding sound and increasing the screen resolution

Who this tutorial is for

This tutorial is for anyone with an Intel based Mac who is curious about Linux - specifically Ubuntu, and has about an hour to kill (not including the time it takes to download Ubuntu).

The steps and screenshots used for this tutorial are specific to Parallels Build 3188 running on a MacBook Pro w/ OS X (10.4.9). With that said, they will be nearly identical if you have a Mac Pro, Mac Mini, MacBook or any other Intel based Apple Mac.

Background

Ubuntu is a free, open source Linux-based operating system with a clear focus on the user and usability (it should �Just Work��). When you finish your Ubuntu installation your system is immediately usable. On the desktop you have a full set of business productivity applications, internet applications, drawing and graphics applications, and games. For more information on Ubuntu, visit http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu.

As you may have noticed, here at Simplehelp we often recommend software, and 90-something percent of the time that software is free. Parallels isn�t free, but it really is worth the cost. It will allow you to run other operating systems (like Ubuntu) on your Mac - without having to worry about any of your OS X settings, documents or files being accidentally deleted. And if you don�t like Ubuntu you can trash it and carry on like it never happened.
One other (major) benefit of using Parallels is that you run the other operating system (in this case Ubuntu) while OS X is running. You don�t need to restart your computer each time you want to switch from OS X to Ubuntu and vice-versa.

Read more about Parallels here: http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/.

This tutorial would not have been made possible (or at least it would have taken me a lot longer) without the help of Kent Bye.

Before you start - make sure to download Ubuntu from http://www.ubuntu.com/download. The file you�ll want to download (as of 4/27/07) is ubuntu-7.04-desktop-i386.iso. Also, make sure Parallels Desktop is installed.

Setting up Parallels for Ubuntu

If this is the first time you�re using Parallels, the Wizard will launch automatically. If it�s not the first time you�ve used Parallels, launch the Wizard by selecting New…

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Select Custom as the type of installation mode, and then Next to continue.

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Choose Solaris as the OS Type: and Other Solaris as the OS Version:. No, that’s not a mistake. At the time of this writing, Parallels build 3188 has some issues when it comes to installing Ubuntu 7.04. Selecting Solaris as the OS will help you get around those issues, and in a later step you’ll be changing this setting anyway. Click Next to continue.

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Here you�ll need to select the amount of RAM that will be dedicated to the guest operating system (Ubuntu). If your Mac has 512MB of RAM, you�ll want to select 256MB or a bit less. Below 128MB will make Ubuntu a bit slow. Because I have 2GB in my MacBook Pro, I�ve opted to dedicate 768MB to Ubuntu - and both OS X and Ubuntu run very quickly. After you�ve selected an amount, click Next to continue. NOTE: some users (scroll way down to see comments) have reported problems when opting for more than 512MB of RAM. You may want to set it to 512 or less now - you can always increase it later.

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Select Create a new hard disk image and click Next to continue.

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Now you�ll need to set the size of the �hard drive� that Ubuntu will use. It might be possible to select less than a gigabyte (1024) and still install Ubuntu, but there would be very little room left for anything else. I would suggest 2 or more gigs (2048) at a minimum.
Review the differences between Expanding and Plain as a disk format. Parallels suggests using Expanding, and since I�ve only noticed a small difference in performance between the two, I would suggest it as well. Either way, don�t stress out over this decision too much - you can convert from one format to the other, using Parallels Image Tool, if you ever need to. Click Next when you�re ready to continue.

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Select Shared Networking and then click Next.

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Give your virtual machine a name - pretty much anything is fine, so go with something descriptive. You may also want to click the More Options link if you want to change the default location for the virtual machine files (generally not necessary). You can also remove the check from the box labeled Create icon on Desktop if you like to keep an un-cluttered desktop. Once again, click Next.

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Click More Options and select ISO image. Then click the Choose… button and navigate to your Ubuntu .iso file (ubuntu-7.04-desktop-i386.iso). Make sure Start Other Solaris installation is checked, and then click Finish.

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Running Ubuntu for the first time

Ubuntu will now boot for the first time. When you’re presented with the boot: prompt, enter in the following: live vga=790 and then hit ENTER (on your keyboard).

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Watch the pretty line…

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And here you are. Because the .iso file you downloaded is a “Live” image, you can actually play around with Ubuntu right now. You won’t have sound (we’ll fix this later) and you probably won’t be connected to the Internet (again, we’ll fix it later) so lets just get on with the installation. Double-click the Install icon on your Ubuntu desktop.

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Select your language of choice and then click the Forward button.

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Choose your location from the drop-down list, and then click Forward.

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Select your keyboard layout, and you guessed it, click Forward.

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Leave the default options selected (Guided and SCSI1 and then click Forward.

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Nothing to import, so click Forward

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Enter your Name, the name you wish to use to login, a password and whatever you want to call your “Ubuntu computer” in the spaces provided. Once again, click Forward.

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And now finally, click the Install button.

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Go get a cup of coffee or your beverage of choice. This can take a while.

Update: a number of folks have noted that they get ’stuck’ at this stage, particularly during hardware detection. Yesterday, while installing Ubuntu on a friends MacBook Pro, I encountered the same error - it hangs at “piix Intel 82801BA IDE”. The solution, in my case, was to power off the virtual machine (the red square icon in the right column of Parallels Desktop), and power it back on (the green arrow). The 2nd time I tried to install Ubuntu, it went right through with no problems. I made no changes to any of the configurations (above steps), I simply “tried again” - and it worked.

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When the installation is complete, choose Restart now.
Don’t be at all surprised if Ubuntu doesn’t actually shut down properly. I’ve actually yet to have it restart on it’s own, it always ‘hangs’ at a blank black screen. If this happens to you, use the Stop Virtual Machine button in the upper-right corner of Parallels. The red square one.

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Tidying up and adding sound

Back at the Parallels configuration window for your Ubuntu machine, click the Configuration “link”.

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Now it’s time to set things straight. Make sure that Options is selected from the Resource list in the left side of the window. On the right side, change your OS Type: from Solaris to Linux and the OS Version: from Other Solaris to Other Linux kernel 2.6.

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Select CD/DVD-ROM 1 from the Resource list, and then change the Emulation from Use image file to Use CD/DVD-ROM.
Then click the Add… button in the lower left corner.

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Select Sound and then click Next

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Leave the defaults selected, and then click Finish.

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Back at your Ubuntu configuration window, click OK.

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Alright, it’s go time. Start up Ubuntu by click the Start Virtual Machine button (the green arrow in the right column).

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Don’t be at all surprised or alarmed if you see an error message (ACPI: Unable to locate RSDP) flash on your screen. It’s a known issue.

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Again, do not be the least bit surprised if you find yourself staring at a blank, black window. Just wait a few more seconds..

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… and you’ll get to the login window! Enter your user name in the space provided and hit enter (on your keyboard).

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Enter your password and again click enter.

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That’s it - you’re done! Well almost. Select the Internet status icon in the upper-right corner of your Ubuntu desktop, and choose Wired Network. Assuming your Mac is online, Ubuntu will now be connected to the Internet as well. Have fun! If you want to increase Ubuntu’s screen resolution, please see this post.

Burning the Ubuntu ISO in Mac OS X

2007-07-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

Some quick steps for you once you have downloaded you distribution (Linux ISO file) to burn it to a CD or DVD.

Insert a blank CD-R or DVD (Note: if you have downloaded a DVD ISO image file you must have a DVD Burner to burn it to . A regular CD-R/RW drive will not burn a DVD image or auto-magically split it up for you.)
Go to "Hard drive --> Applications --> Utilities --> Disc Utility"
On the menu bar select "Images" and then "Open"
In the browse window, select the ISO image you downloaded.
Click the mounted image in the left frame and then click the "Burn" icon in the left corner.
Once the CD is burner, close "Disc Utility"

So many flavors so little time

2007-07-09T11:37:00.000-07:00

Ok so I am pretty set on using Ubuntu because everyone talks about it and the owner is a Dot-com millionaire that wanted to give back. More to come very soon but you can download Ubuntu or have it sent to you from the site www.ubuntu.com !!