Personal Website of Yakov Shafranovich

Upgrading Fedore Core 6 to Fedora Core 8 on Amazon EC2

One of the long overdue tasks that I managed to get done today is to upgrade the Amazon EC2 image used for PublicDomainReprints.org to Fedora Core 8. There were three small issues that I ran into and I am posting my solutions to them in hopes that they will help someone else.

1. When running yum update the following error comes up:

Missing Dependency: /usr/bin/rebuild-security-providers is needed by package java-1.5.0-gcj

To resolve the issue, you need to download the following three packages manually from the FC8 repository and install them in the order that I specified. Install as follows

First java_cup by itself, then sinjdoc and java-1.5.0-gcj together

2. The second problem comes up when trying to bundle the image using ec2-bundle-vol. The following error comes up:

rsync: failed to set times on …

This error is described in detail in this post. The solution tha I picked was similar to one of the ones described in the post - I downloaded the RPM package for rsync from FC6 and manually replaced the executable in /usr/bin.

3. The third problem happens when creating an image manifest in ec2-bundle-vol. The error is as follows:

/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/rexml/text.rb:292: in normalize: private method gsub called for 43:Fixnum (NoMethodError)

The solution is to get the latest document.rb and text.rb files from the SVN repository here and replace the old ones in /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/rexml/. Or you can do a diff as described in this post.

UPDATE: A fourth issue came up as well - Ghostscript no longer has JPEG2000 support and as the result losts of “JPXDecode” errors occur when processing. The reason for that is due to the Fedora Core 8 Ghostscript package no longer being compiled with JPEG2000 support as of version 8.61-6.fc.8. The solution is to downgrade to 8.61-5 which can be found here. I contacted the packager and will post a reply.

UPDATE #2: The ghostscript problem has been filed as bug # 433897 with Redhat. I also emailed the packager but received no reply.

Posted in Projects, Linux | No Comments »

Opera and Flash under Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy)

This is a short guide for people who want to use Flash with Opera under Ubuntu Linux 7.10 (Gutsy):

1. Enabled the proposed repository in System->Administration->Software Sources.

2. Go to Synaptic and install the latest flash plugin from the proposed repository.

3. Go to Opera’s website and install the 9.50 beta version.

4. Start Opera, go to Tools-> Preferences->Advanced->Downloads. Search for extension “swf”.

5. To the extensions box, type in “swf, flv”.

6. Find the entry for “flv” in the downloads list. If the Totem browser plugin is listed it, remove it.

Posted in Linux | No Comments »

DLink DWL-122 USB on Fedora Core 2

After struggling for a few days to get this adapter to work, I was finally sucessful and am going to do a small writeup here to help others. I am running Fedora Core 2 with kernel v2.6.10-1.9_FC2 on Athlon 1Ghz with Wlan-NG v0.2.1-pre26.

The DLink DWL-122 USB 802.11b Adapter is based on the Intersil Prism 2.5 chipset. There are two options that I found to work: NdisWrapper which lets the native DLink Windows driver run in Linux, and Wlan-NG’s prism2_usb native driver for Prism 2.5 (there is also the Orinoco’s prism_usb driver but their USB support is not finished yet).

I originally ran the NdisWrapper driver but somewhere along the way, an upgrade Fedora Core 2 kernel broke NdisWrapper. So instead, I decided to try out the Wlan-NG driver. Funny enough I managed to get it to work exactly ONE time before it stopped working. This driver maintains a list of configuration files in the /etc/wlan directory with a separate wlan-networkname file for each SSID. The file I created for my network was not being read by the driver, thus not setting the correct WEP settings. However, the actual module and the driver worked. I managed to figure out how to get around the problem by plugging in my regular PCMCIA card which started using the prism2_cs driver and left some tell-tell signs in the log - it seems that a script called “wlan-ng” is needed to execute when the USB dongle in pluged in. However, it fails because the driver needs to be started first via a special command. Once I started the driver, I ran the script and everything worked. Here are step by step instructions:

1. Download the Wlan-NG distribution from Linux-Wlan.org and unpack into a directory of your choice. You DO NOT need the Kernel source.
2. Go into the directory and run “make config”.
3. Choose “yes” for the _cs AND_usb driver and “no” for others (unless you need others). Leave the rest of the questions blank.
4. After this command is finished, run “make all” to compile the source.
5. After compilation is finished, run “make install” to install the modules (you need to be root to do that, use “su” or “sudo” if you are not).
6. Go to the “/etc/wlan” directory and copy the “wlan-DEFAULT” file to whatever SSID your network is using (wlan-SSID). Open the file in a text editor and add your network settings.
7. Insert the card into the USB slot. You should see something like this in the /var/log/messages file:

kernel: Writing 4096 bytes to ram @0×7e2ffe
kernel: Writing 4096 bytes to ram @0×7e3ffe
…
kernel: hfa384x_docmd: ctlx failure=REQ_FAILED
wlan.agent[7786]: Failed to enable the device, resultcode= implementation_failure .
wlan.agent[7786]: WLAN Could not bring up wlan0
kernel: hfa384x_drvr_start: cmd_initialize() failed, result=-5
kernel: prism2sta_ifstate: hfa384x_drvr_start() failed,result=-5

The error messages are normal, they are shown because the device needs to be turned on first. If you don’t see these messages at all, try removing and reinserting the adaptor. If that doesn’t help, run “/sbin/rmmod prism2_usb” and “/sbin/modprobe prism2_usb” to remove and reinsert the module.
8. Run “/sbin/wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=enable” as root. This command will turn on the radio in the adaptor. For some reason, it fails to do it automatically. You should received the following message:

message=lnxreq_ifstate
ifstate=enable
resultcode=success

9. Run command “cd /etc/pcmcia/” to switch to the PCMCIA directory.
10. Run command “./wlan-ng start wlan0 2>&1″ to start the adaptor. You should see the following message in your logs :

kernel: linkstatus=CONNECTED

11. Set the IP address of your adaptor via “/sbin/ifconfig wlan0 192.168.0.55″ command.
12. If you are using this network for sharing an Internet connection, than you need to add a default route via “/sbin/route add default gw x.x.x.x” where “x.x.x.x” is the IP address of your gateway.

UPDATE #1: After upgrading to Fedora Core 3 with the latest kernel, this adapter suddenly stopped working even with my procedure described above. Stayed tuned for more information.

Posted in Linux | 22 Comments »

A Linux Firewall for Average Users

For the past two months I have been using Linux (Fedora Core 2) as my primary desktop environment. It has been a trick finding applications to replace the ones I used on Windows. Among them was a free firewall applications from ZoneLabs called ZoneAlarm. Trying to find a similar one on Linux has been a pain and doing command line configuration via ip tables isn’t fun. One of the better applications I ran across is called FireStarter. I have been using the stable v0.9.3 version for some time and have not been very happy with it due to many bugs.

Today, I ran across the v1.0.0-rc1 beta version and I came away saying “wow”. This application is finally something that is really equivalent to the ZoneAlarm app I used in Windows AND is less cluttered as well. The application is really just a GUI interface to the underlying ip tables firewall but nevertheless the simplicity and elegance of the interface simply took my breath away.

The main application consists of three tabs: “Status”, “Events” and “Policy”. The “Status” tab has a list of all active connections for the system with port numbers, IP addresses and process names, which I REALLY liked since in ZoneAlarm only program icons were shown. In a way it was similar to the “netstat” command. There is also a list of network interface with STATISTICS!!! The “Events” and “Policy” tabs contain a list of blocked connections and firewall rules respectively and are very simply to use. There is also an easy wizard used to configure the firewall AND NAT capability similar to Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) in Windows. All of this in a package less then 1 MB in size and a window 1/4 of a normal screen! I love it already.

I really like this program, especially with the extra bells and whistles that appeal to the inner geek in me. And, even though this is a beta release, it feels much more stable and cleaner than the 0.9.3 “stable” I have been using until now. I am impatiently waiting for the final 1.0 release.

P.S. Did I mention that it’s open source (GPL) and free!!!

Posted in Linux | Comments Off

FireFox 1.0 Out

Today Mozilla finally released FireFox v1.0.

Update: For Fedora Linux users like myself looking for a semi-official RPM, there is one available from Christopher Aillon (of Redhat).

Posted in Technology | Comments Off

How Much Would You Pay for the Linux Kernel?

A recent GrokLaw story mentions an interesting occurance. Apparently Jeff V. Merkey, affiliated with the Canopy Group, which itself is a major shareholder in SCO, offered to buy a snapshot of the Linux kernel for $50,000 under a BSD license:

We offer to kernel.org the sum of $50,000.00 US for a one time
license to the Linux Kernel Source for a single snapshot of a single Linux version by release number. This offer must be accepted by **ALL** copyright holders and this snapshot will subsequently convert the GPL license into a BSD style license for the code.

To which Iglo Molnar replies with an evaluation putting the value of the Linux kernel at somewhere around $175,974,824. And of course, there is the small issue of dead people not able to relicense their code. The interesting question you have to ask yourself is what is the motivation behind this offer. Even though this individual seems to be affiliated with the Canopy Group, and it is affiliated with SCO, what would SCO gain from a BSD license?

UPDATE: GrokLaw posts a more detailed evaluation putting the value of the kernel at $612 million.

UPDATE #2: GrokLaw posts an update including Merkey calling himself “a loyal servant of Microsoft”. They also pulled up some interesting court filings including some which prove that he is highly deceptive. And to top it off, he is still trying to buy the kernel, albeit piecemail:

On a side note, the GPL buyout previously offered has been modified. We will be contacting individual contributors and negotiating with each copyright holder for the code we wish to convert on a case by case basis

Posted in Linux, Technology | Comments Off

Viewing Treo’s SD card under Linux

Today I ran into an interesting problem with my Treo 600 and Redhat’s Fedora Core 2 Linux. I was trying to transfer something over to the external SD card in the Treo. A few days ago I got the external SD card reader to work after some fidgeting, but today I happen to be trying out a trial version of a program called Card Export II. What this program does is that is presents the inserted SD card as a USB drive to the OS, just like a flash drive allowing regular OS tools to read and write to it. At the same time, it also avoids the speed problems that regular Palm Desktop process has for SD cards on Windows. The question is how to get to work this under Linux. It is also convient that I do not have to take out the SD card from the Treo.
Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Projects, Programming, Linux | 2 Comments »

SCO attacks GPL

I saw this in the Wall Street Journal this morning (here is a link, subscription required), before this got posted on SlashDot.

From the WSJ article:
“Now, SCO is preparing to wheel out the software-industry equivalent of a nuclear bomb: It will argue that the GPL itself is invalid, says SCO’s lead attorney, Mark Heise of Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP. Mr. Heise says the GPL, by allowing unlimited copying and modification, conflicts with federal copyright law, which allows software buyers to make only a single backup copy. The GPL “is pre-empted by copyright law,” he says.”

Posted in Linux, Technology | Comments Off