Recently in Linux Category

I was updating an old Fedora Core 5 image (old = 5 months without updates) and the rpm database went ka-boom when it tried to update 500+ modules! So, after Google-ing around, I found a couple of possible fixes. This is the one that worked. As root, use the following commands:

% rm /var/lib/rpm/__db*
% rpm --rebuilddb
% yum clean all

Note - the filename in the rm command is [underscore][underscore]db*. The rpm rebuild took about 20 minutes and, after running the yum clean-up, the yum update worked like a champ.

I couldn't resist the title - sorry. I have now been running Fedora Core 5 for almost two months using VMware Workstation and it works like a champ. I had originally set the maximum disk size at 8GB which I thought would be more than adequate to grow into. Wrong! Now, that I have been finding more and more meteorology tools, I needed to double the size to do some testing on another data gathering process that I will eventually put up on the research server at school. So, after getting rid of the precautionary snapshot files, I used a nifty little wrapper for vmware-vdiskmanager to take it up to 16GB. So now I am off to configure the process to start using that new free space. It can churn while I continue purifying the pool.

While I am finishing up grabbing hourly METAR data for my professor, I also wrote some code to grab temperature data every minute from a selection of local stations. We are gathering a wealth of meteorological data. One area that I have always been interested in are the text products produced by the National Weather Service. Those are the severe weather bulletins, short-term and local forecasts that you will be likely to hear on radio and TV, as well as on weather web sites. They are not the usual endless strings of numbers and symbols that need to be decoded, but words and sentences understandable by humans. One way to get the data would be to screen scrape the wide range of NWS web sites, a boring task when you can get the same products pushed from several sources. I am working on getting such a server up and running - more details on that soon!

A network fault caused VMware to chock the proverbial chicken since I am running FC5 from a network drive. In fact, even after getting the connection reestablished, it still would not go down in an orderly fashion. I had only been using the session to ssh over to another server to do some work so I was hoping that I only lost the VMware log in the process. So after rebooting my laptop (for an unrelated reason), I fired up VMware again. Everything appeared normal so I then turned the power on for FC5 and, other than taking a few extra minutes to check disk integrity, it came up like a champ! I had installed xmms this morning and it is still in place and works just fine. I am assuming (got to RTFM) that they do disk buffering and they must write out frequently and a lot, something I am thankful for in a situation like this one. Score a big one for VMware!

Thanks to VMware, I am having a blast and a half doing a full Linux installation on my laptop while still having a functional Windows system, something I still do need for daily work. Over the past week, I made the leap from just using a pre-configured base Fedora Core 5 appliance to actually installing FC5 using VMware Workstation. It was a bit lengthy since I laying down my virtual systems on a network-attached hard drive versus the overflowing one in my laptop. Expecially long was the initialization of the disk system. I wanted to make my FC5 virtual disk a large one (10 GB) and the initialization took several hours. Luckily, the running of the system does not lag courtesy of our local 100 MBit network. I am quite pleased, using FC5 with a KDE desktop, but I want to explore a bit more into the other flavors of Linux, something which is quite easy to do with VMware workstation. I do not even have to burn CDs since you can do the installation directly from the ISO images. So, today I am off to DistroWatch to pick which one(s) to install next!

That's the only word I could come up with, but coping may sound a bit harsh. Getting started would probably have been a better choice. As with any new software environment, in particular the operating system, especially in the open source world, the documentation gives all the bloody parameters, but, unless it is well written from the end-user point of view, it is probably useless for most. With regards to Fedora Core 5, I have found that there are several folks who have put their care and feeding tips on the web in a well-organized and easy to read way.

• Fedora Core 5 Installation Notes: Stanton has put together a very easy to read and follow description of how he installed and customized FC5. He included the common tools, in particular how he configured yum. Well worth reading before and during installation.
• The Unofficial Fedora FAQ: Max has put together a super site with tips and hints about FC5 (as well as FC1, 2, 3, and 4). He also has a by subscription newsletter ($) that gives further help.

There are numerous Fedora-related web sites. I will be bookmarking them as I find them so best place to see what I have found so far is via my Furl Fedora topic area.

I enjoyed so much when I was a kid playing in the sandbox that my father built for me. It was a place of fun and exploration, using the sand as a modelling tool, making roads, paths, or just simply enjoying the feel of the warm sand on my toes. It was a place to smile and laugh. When they day's activities were done, the sand could be raked and placed back into its original state, shovels, buckets, and toys removed. The next day, the cycle of fun and discovery could start all over again. I think this is why the technology term sandbox is so descriptive of its purpose. It is a place where you can play and discover and not be afraid of mistakes, because you can always set the stage back to its original state. Enter VMware and my current adventures with Fedora Core 5. By backing up the Virtual Appliance, if I screw something up, I can simply restore the latest (or not so latest) image and try it again. Makes it so easy!

After three plus decades in technology, I am still amazed every day by the advances being made. One of those bleeding-edge advances is virtualization. I have been toying with the idea of moving 100% to Linux but am still tied to the Gate$ Dynasty by toys that I use daily (like Slingbox). With the VMware Player and a Fedora Core 5 Virtual Appliance, I am currently watching Law & Order: Criminal Intent on one screen and updating with yum my FC5 on the other. Yes, I am running an external 17" LCD monitor and draping my desktop to 2048 x 764 across it and the laptop screen. Add to that the multiple desktops under FC5 and I have one hell of a lot of computing real estate! I have the Virtual Appliance staged on a network attached, 200 GB hard drive so I can bring it up on any machine in the house. My eventual plan is to add the VMware Server component and buy the real VMware Workstation and build a Windows XP Pro Appliance so that I can get back to use the Windows toys I need while running Fedora as the real machine. Bottom line is that for the time being (read: until the dead presidents becomes available), I will have the best of both worlds to pump up my development work, plus have my old WIndows toys and all the new Linux ones that am becoming enamoured with, like Stellarium and all the UCAR meteorology tools!

I feel like I will be on a random walk through the rest of the month. There are only nine days left, but still I feel like I have such a diverse group of things I want (and need) to get accomplished. Some are interrelated, but some are not. I feel like I have taken a long vacation since Election Day, basically recharging the body and mind from the numbing experience of 20-hour days, the one thing that I gladly left behind when I retired from the phone company. The major difference with these was the high level of satisfaction received from the hard work, something that was sorely lacking in the latter part of my IT career. So here is my to do list for the next little over a week:

• Pearl Jam - yes, I am going to see Pearl Jam live in Philly!
• Begging forgiveness on course #3 - yes, I need to take care of this issue tout de suite! I have been avoiding and now I will have to pay the consequences.
• Business stuff - making money is important if you want to eat and the good thing is that we have yet another new customer with three more potential right behind. Also, have to get working on the next level of one of our best customers. Sharpen the pencils and get to coding!
• Weather data - I have to get the cron processes running on our meteorology server at school so I can get all of our observational and model data pulls from NOAA up-to-date. I have been running them manually, but it is a pain when Linux can take care of it all for me.
• Weather tools - now that I have Fedora Core 5 running on my laptop under VMware, I want to get some of the nifty weather tools from UCAR running. Just in time for hurricane season...
• The pool - yes, this is always hanging over my head... I am going to get this started this week, dammit!
• The RV - ditto

And I am sure that there are a dozen other things that I need to get done, but I just don't want to think about them yet. They'll creep up like they always do. So, the hell with changing the blog template for now - actually like this one - and put it off until I can rip May's page off the calendar.