Suse Enterprise Administration Bulletin, 2007

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[Dec 21, 2007] LXER interview with John Hull - the manager of the Dell Linux engineering team

The original sales estimates for Ubuntu computers was around 1% of the total sales, or about 20,000 systems annually. Have the expectations been met so far? Will Dell ever release sales figures for Ubuntu systems?

The program so far is meeting expectations. Customers are certainly showing their interest and buying systems preloaded with Ubuntu, but it certainly won't overtake Microsoft Windows anytime soon. Dell has a policy not to release sales numbers, so I don't expect us to make Ubuntu sales figures available publicly.

[Dec 21, 2007] Red Hat to get new CEO from Delta Air Lines Underexposed - CNET News.com

"When you take them out of the big buildings, without the imprimatur of Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Oracle, or HP around them, they just didn't hold up."

Szulik, who took over as CEO from Bob Young in 1999 just a few months after its initial public offering, said he's stepping down because of family health issues.

"For the last nine months, I've struggled with health issues in my family," and that priority couldn't be balanced with work, Szulik said in an interview. "This job requires a 7x24, 110 percent commitment."

Szulik, who remains chairman of the board, praised Whitehurst in a statement, saying he's a "hands-on guy who will be a strong cultural fit at Red Hat" and "a talented executive who has successfully led a global technology-focused organization at Delta."

On a conference call, Szulik said Whitehurst stood "head and shoulders" above other candidates interviewed in a recruiting process. He was a programmer earlier in his career and runs four versions of Linux at home, he said.

Moreover, Szulik said he wasn't satisfied with more traditional tech executives who were interviewed.

"What we encountered was in many cases was a lack of understanding of open-source software development and of our model," he said. During the interview, he added about the tech industry candidates, "When you take them out of the big buildings, without the imprimatur of Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Oracle, or HP around them, they just didn't hold up."

The surprise move was announced as the leading Linux seller announced results for its third quarter of fiscal 2008. Its revenue increased 28 percent to $135.4 million and net income went up 12 percent to $20.3 million, or 10 cents per share. The company also raised estimates for full-year results to revenue of $521 million to $523 million and earnings of about 70 cents per share.

[Dec 12, 2007] Office Depot Taps SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell to Reduce Information Technology Complexity and Control Costs Financial News

December 12, 2007 | Yahoo! Finance

...Office Depot ... has chosen SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server as a core operating platform for the company's global servers. The goal of the standardization is to reduce complexity and control costs while maintaining superior stability and performance for Office Depot's end-user applications.

[Dec 03, 2007] All about Linux swap space by Gary Sims

There are some errors. Not having swap doesn't mean that your kernel will crash.  Recommendation of allocating 1 GB swap for 128 MB of RAM is questionable. The swap management needs physical RAM, and the more swap you have, the more RAM you need. Linus have said that you should generally aviod hving more than twice your amount of RAM for swap partition. And for most application servers (for example Oracle application server) half-memory swap is adequate.
December 03, 2007 |  Linux.com

Linux has two forms of swap space: the swap partition and the swap file. The swap partition is an independent section of the hard disk used solely for swapping; no other files can reside there. The swap file is a special file in the filesystem that resides amongst your system and data files.

To see what swap space you have, use the command swapon -s. The output will look something like this:

Filename        Type            Size    Used    Priority
/dev/sda5       partition       859436  0       -1

Each line lists a separate swap space being used by the system. Here, the 'Type' field indicates that this swap space is a partition rather than a file, and from 'Filename' we see that it is on the disk sda5. The 'Size' is listed in kilobytes, and the 'Used' field tells us how many kilobytes of swap space has been used (in this case none). 'Priority' tells Linux which swap space to use first. One great thing about the Linux swapping subsystem is that if you mount two (or more) swap spaces (preferably on two different devices) with the same priority, Linux will interleave its swapping activity between them, which can greatly increase swapping performance.

To add an extra swap partition to your system, you first need to prepare it. Step one is to ensure that the partition is marked as a swap partition and step two is to make the swap filesystem. To check that the partition is marked for swap, run as root:

fdisk -l /dev/hdb

Replace /dev/hdb with the device of the hard disk on your system with the swap partition on it. You should see output that looks like this:

 Device Boot    Start   End     Blocks  Id      System
/dev/hdb1       2328    2434    859446  82      Linux swap / Solaris

If the partition isn't marked as swap you will need to alter it by running fdisk and using the 't' menu option. Be careful when working with partitions -- you don't want to delete important partitions by mistake or change the id of your system partition to swap by mistake. All data on a swap partition will be lost, so double-check every change you make. Also note that Solaris uses the same ID as Linux swap space for its partitions, so be careful not to kill your Solaris partitions by mistake.

Once a partition is marked as swap, you need to prepare it using the mkswap (make swap) command as root:

mkswap /dev/hdb1

If you see no errors, your swap space is ready to use. To activate it immediately, type:

swapon /dev/hdb1

You can verify that it is being used by running swapon -s. To mount the swap space automatically at boot time, you must add an entry to the /etc/fstab file, which contains a list of filesystems and swap spaces that need to be mounted at boot up. The format of each line is:

<file system>     <mount point>     <type>     <options>        <dump>    <pass>

Since swap space is a special type of filesystem, many of these parameters aren't applicable. For swap space, add:

/dev/hdb1       none    swap    sw      0       0

where /dev/hdb1 is the swap partition. It doesn't have a specific mount point, hence none. It is of type swap with options of sw, and the last two parameters aren't used so they are entered as 0.

To check that your swap space is being automatically mounted without having to reboot, you can run the swapoff -a command (which turns off all swap spaces) and then swapon -a (which mounts all swap spaces listed in the /etc/fstab file) and then check it with swapon -s.

... ... ...
 

How big should my swap space be?

It is possible to run a Linux system without a swap space, and the system will run well if you have a large amount of memory -- but if you run out of physical memory then the system will crash, as it has nothing else it can do, so it is advisable to have a swap space, especially since disk space is relatively cheap.

A rule of thumb is as follows:

  1. For a desktop system, use a swap space of double system memory, as it will allow you to run a large number of applications (many of which may will be idle and easily swapped), making more RAM available for the active applications;
  2. For a server, have a smaller amount of swap available (say half of physical memory) so that you have some flexibility for swapping when needed, but monitor the amount of swap space used and upgrade your RAM if necessary;

... ... ...

The Linux 2.6 kernel added a new kernel parameter called swappiness to let administrators tweak the way Linux swaps. It is a number from 0 to 100. In essence, higher values lead to more pages being swapped, and lower values lead to more applications being kept in memory, even if they are idle. Kernel maintainer Andrew Morton has said that he runs his desktop machines with a swappiness of 100, stating that "My point is that decreasing the tendency of the kernel to swap stuff out is wrong. You really don't want hundreds of megabytes of BloatyApp's untouched memory floating about in the machine. Get it out on the disk, use the memory for something useful."

One downside to Morton's idea is that if memory is swapped out too quickly then application response time drops, because when the application's window is clicked the system has to swap the application back into memory, which will make it feel slow.

The default value for swappiness is 60. You can alter it temporarily (until you next reboot) by typing as root:

echo 50 > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

If you want to alter it permanently then you need to change the vm.swappiness parameter in the /etc/sysctl.conf file.

Conclusion

Managing swap space is an essential aspect of system administration. With good planning and proper use swapping can provide many benefits. Don't be afraid to experiment, and always monitor your system to ensure you are getting the results you need.

Linux Setup - Fking Beagle on Suse 10

  F**king Beagle on Suse 10
Ron Albright

2006-03-25, 10:19 am
How do I stop it, forever. I figured out how to kill the Beagle process
that were taking up 500MB of my memory but there are still process
starting every night by root and suing to another uid and they never exit.
What is starting these things and how do I stop them? I can't find
anything in the rc scripts or crontabs. Short of uninstalling it where can
I find information on what's starting anything related to Beagle? I can
find all kinds of information on installing and using it but nothing on
stopping it. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
 
Nico Kadel-Garcia

2006-03-25, 10:19 am
Ron Albright wrote:
> How do I stop it, forever. I figured out how to kill the Beagle
> process that were taking up 500MB of my memory but there are still
> process starting every night by root and suing to another uid and
> they never exit. What is starting these things and how do I stop
> them? I can't find anything in the rc scripts or crontabs. Short of
> uninstalling it where can I find information on what's starting
> anything related to Beagle? I can find all kinds of information on
> installing and using it but nothing on stopping it. Any pointers
> would be greatly appreciated.

rpm -e beagle? It seems to be an RPM package.


 
J. Clarke

2006-03-25, 10:19 am
Ron Albright wrote:

> How do I stop it, forever. I figured out how to kill the Beagle process
> that were taking up 500MB of my memory but there are still process
> starting every night by root and suing to another uid and they never exit.
> What is starting these things and how do I stop them? I can't find
> anything in the rc scripts or crontabs. Short of uninstalling it where can
> I find information on what's starting anything related to Beagle? I can
> find all kinds of information on installing and using it but nothing on
> stopping it. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

You need to find what is starting beagled and either induce it to quit
starting beagled or have it start beagled with "beagled
--disable-scheduler". Once beagled is running it does its own scheduling.

Best thing to do about it IMO is remove the whole package.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)
 

[Dec 1, 2007]  SUSE Linux Enterprise troubleshooting Fixing boot problems by repairing a broken initrd by Sander van Vugt

Troubleshooting is a near-science by itself on which I could spend many articles, but I'll try to keep it brief. During the system boot procedure, several phases occur, starting in GRUB, the Linux boot loader. Roughly, these are the following:

  1. GRUB loads the kernel
  2. GRUB loads the initrd
  3. The root file system is accessed by the kernel
  4. The /sbin/init process takes over.
  5. The initial boot stage happens
  6. The default runlevel is activated
  7. A login prompt occurs.

When a problem occurs, try to pin-point it to any of these seven phases. In some cases it is possible to tell exactly what happens, more often you will see that you can only give a rough indication of what is happening. In the case of a kernel panic, you can be sure about one thing: GRUB has loaded successfully and you are not yet at phase 4 of the boot procedure where the init process takes over. If a kernel panic occurs immediately after a driver installation, this is often caused by an error in the initrd.

How can we be sure? Sometimes it is quite obvious that the error is in initrd, as GRUB tells you that it failed to load the file /boot/initrd, in other cases some forensic work is needed as only a vague driver error message is generated. In the latter case, you have to check if the driver that fails is included in the initrd, as this helper file is used by the kernel to include drivers that are needed immediately. On SUSE Linux Enterprise, the file /etc/sysconfig/kernel contains a list of all drivers that should be included in the initrd. When you run the mkinitrd command, these drivers are written to your new initrd. When this happens automatically, something could go wrong.

Step 2: Fixing it
If an error occurs in the initrd, you will not be able to boot your server anymore. So, to fix it, you need the rescue system that is available from the installation dvd. This rescue system loads a complete Linux system off of the installation media. The next step is to mount all your Linux file systems off of that disk. Next, you need to run mkinitrd. You can only do this once the local file systems are all mounted, because the initrd has to be written to the local file systems. However, there is a caveat.

The problem with this approach is in the disk devices access in combination with the necessary use of a chroot environment. To start, you need to mount your server's file systems on a temporary mount point like /mnt. Let's say that you have the /boot directory on /dev/sda1 and your / directory on /dev/sda2. To mount them, you need the following two commands:

  1. mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
  2. mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

Since the mkinitrd command wants to write the new initrd in /boot and the /boot on your hard drive is now in /mnt/boot, you need to change the root directory to be set to /mnt. You can use chroot to do that:

chroot /mnt

The contents of /mnt now becomes /, so all path references are OK. But we still have a problem. If you look in the /proc and /dev directory on your new root environment, you'll see that /proc is empty and /dev is as good as empty. Both are dynamically created file systems and they are created at the moment that your server boots. This means that they were created in / when the server booted from the rescue cd. Now, since the new root is in /mnt, you cannot access them anymore. We need to fix this.

  1. Type exit to exit from the chroot environment. You'll now get back to the original /mnt under which your servers local file systems where mounted.
  2. Use mount -t proc none /mnt/proc to make the proc file system available from the /mnt environment.
  3. Use mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev which will make the original /dev which was filled by the udev process when booting available from /mnt/dev.

Now that you have the repair environment all in place, you need to check that the line in /etc/sysconfig/kernel that is used to generate a new initrd is as it should be. You are looking for the following line:

INITRD_MODULES="ata_piix processor thermal fan jbd ext3 dm_mod edd pciback"

This line will be different on every server, so check to make sure that all modules are included that are necessary to start your server (your server's documentation will help you with that.)

Now under /mnt you have the complete environment that is needed to repair your server, so take the following two steps to fix your server.

  1. Activate /mnt using cd /mnt and make it your new root environment using chroot .
  2. Issue the command mkinitrd to write the new initrd to /boot.

You have now fixed the initrd. Reboot your server and check that everything is working all right. 

[Nov 2, 2007] Que Publishing - 067232749X - Novell® Open Enterprise Server Administrator's Handbook SUSE LINUX Edition

Introduction to Linux Kernel Management

At the heart of the SLES operating system is the Linux kernel. As mentioned in the "SLES Startup Procedures" section of this chapter, the Linux kernel is found in the /boot directory and is typically named vmlinuz-<kernel version>. The default kernel with an OES Linux installation is version 2.6.5-7.112-default. The kernel version number can actually be divided into the following three important numbers:

NOTE

The uname -r command can be used to display the version of the currently running kernel.


The most common administrative task relating to the kernel is most likely applying kernel updates to resolve security issues. Applying kernel updates through the YaST Online Update or Red-Carpet tools is a very straightforward process, but if problems are encountered, you may need to know more details regarding the layout of the kernel-related files.

Table 6.5 outlines the important kernel-related files found within the /boot directory.

Table 6.5. Important Kernel-Related Files in /boot
FILE DESCRIPTION
vmlinuz-2.6.5-7.112-default The 2.6.5-7.112-default version of the Linux kernel.
vmlinuz A symbolic link that points to the current version of the Linux kernel. The /boot/grub/menu.lst file typically configures GRUB to reference this vmlinuz file rather than the actual vmlinuz-<version number> file.
initrd-2.6.5-7.112-default Initialization RAM Disk used by the startup routine to provide required hardware drivers to the initialized kernel. This is used prior to the root filesystem being mounted.
initrd Symbolic link that points to the current version of the initrd file. The /boot/grub/menu.lst file typically configures GRUB to reference this initrd file rather than the actual initrd-<version number> file.
config-2.6.5-7.112-default Configuration file used for the compiling of the current kernel.
kerntypes-2.6.5-7.112-default File containing information about data structures within the Linux kernel—used by the Linux Kernel Crash Dump facility for debugging purposes.
system.map-2.6.5-7.112-default Map file containing address of symbols for the current kernel.
 


 

NOTE

As mentioned in Table 6.5, the GRUB bootloader is typically configured to load both the kernel and the initrd image using the symbolic links rather than the actual filenames. This is normally a good thing, but if a kernel patch fails to properly configure these links, the bootloader process will be unable to locate these important files and the boot process will fail.


Kernel Sources

Compiling your own Linux kernel is not necessarily a difficult process, but because of the potential for misuse and catastrophic side effects, Novell does not support compiling your own kernel. As a matter of fact, if you do require support by Novell and you're running a custom kernel, the first question you will likely hear is "Does this problem occur when using the default kernel?"

Even though compiling a custom kernel is not a good idea for a production server, there are a number of reasons why you might want to install the kernel source code. One example might be that a custom program you need to compile requires the kernel source to be installed. An even better example is the potential ability to look through the kernel source code to help track down error messages and their causes.

Using the grep command to search for a specific error message within the kernel source code tree can often lead to the exact error message. When you find the code surrounding the error message, you can analyze it and the root cause of your problem may be apparent.

In order to use kernel sources in this manner, the kernel-source package must be installed. This package is not typically selected for installation using the default configurations, but can be easily installed after the initial installation. When installed, the Linux kernel source code is located in the /usr/src/linux directory structure.

Working with Kernel Modules

When the Linux kernel is built, it must be built in such a way as to support as much third-party hardware as possible. There are essentially two ways to accomplish this. The first is to compile the kernel with specific drivers for all third-party hardware as part of the kernel itself. Although this type of kernel does work, it is generally not considered an efficient method of building the kernel as any one server really only needs a somewhat limited number of third-party drivers loaded.

The second and more common method of building the kernel is compiling a kernel with internal support for common hardware components (such as PCI support) and providing third-party hardware support through the use of external modules. This type of modular kernel is what is available with SLES.

When using external modules, the system must be configured to load the appropriate hardware modules upon system startup. During the installation of SLES, the installation routine will scan and detect hardware devices and build the initrd image with the required modules. However, when adding hardware after the installation or when installing proprietary drivers for unsupported hardware, it may be necessary to configure the server manually.

Table 6.6 lists commands used to manage kernel modules.

Table 6.6. Commands and Files Used with Kernel Modules

COMMAND OR FILE

DESCRIPTION
lsmod Lists all currently loaded kernel modules.
rmmod Removes the specified kernel module from memory.
insmod Inserts a specific kernel module into the running kernel.
modprobe Inserts a specific kernel module into the running kernel. If the specified module is dependent on other kernel modules, additional required modules will be dynamically loaded.
/etc/modprobe.conf Configuration file used to load and alias kernel modules at system initialization. Additions to this file should be placed in /etc/modprobe.conf.local.
/etc/sysconfig/kernel Configuration file used by the kernel during system initialization. The MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT directive can be edited to load specific modules at system startup.
 


After you have used the utilities listed in Table 6.6 to load and test a required hardware module, you must configure your server to automatically load the module upon server restart. This can be accomplished by adding the module to the MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT directive of the /etc/sysconfig/kernel file, or the module can be added to the /etc/modprobe.conf.local file.

NOTE

If you have a complex loading requirement, such as the specific ordering of more than one module, the /etc/modprobe.conf.local file is much more flexible than /etc/sysconfig. For more information on the syntax of this file, please see the man page for modprobe.conf(5).

Op is a tool for allowing users to run root privileged commands without the root password. It is described in detail in "Op: A Flexible Tool for Restricted Superuser Access" by Tom Christiansen. From this description Dave Koblas produced an impementation of op in C. Tom's original paper is included in this distribution in the file "op.paper". Differences between that design and the current implementation are noted in the file "op.changes".

[Oct 23, 2007] Yast (Yet Another Setup Tool) part of its distribution.

Oracle Enterprise Linux became more compatible with Suse. Suse users can use Oracle version as an upgrade.

Yet Another Setup Tool. Yast helps make system administration easier by providing a single utility for configuring and maintaining Linux systems. The version of Yast available here is modified to work with all Enterprise Linux distributions including Enterprise Linux and SuSE.

Special note to Oracle Management Pack for Linux users:

[Oct 22, 2007] XenSource, Novell N_Port ID Virtualization coming ‘ASAP’ in 2008 — Enterprise Linux Log

Xen: Ready for OES2’s launch?

With the launch of OES2, Novell is trying really hard to entice those last few NetWare shops to make the leap to Linux. They’re doing this by enticing them with virtual NetWare servers running in Xen. That said, was Xen mature enough for First American’s mission critical NetWare applications? Would it perform as well?

At first glance, things were not looking too good.

Kurt Johnston, a lead engineer on the First American migration, wasn’t optimistic. “I did not have high expectations for Xen," Johnston told me in a call last week. “With Xen being as young as it is, I was expecting it to be very difficult to install and configure a new domU onto dom0." Johnston and his boss, IT director Dan McDougall, were also wary of performance issues they had read about in trade magazines and had heard from other users throughout the year.

But they were soon pleasantly surprised, and so was I. Xen wasn’t VMware ESX Server, but it was close enough–at least for First American. That, at least to me, was the surprise. It’s been a 24 hour VMware lovefest for the past two years or so, and I hadn’t been up on the subject enough to see any changes in that dynamic. When I talked with analysts in 2006 and ‘07 I had always heard Xen had plenty of potential, but like any new technology it needed work. Illuminata senior analyst Gordon Haff, speaking to me for the same article, told me that much of the work needed to prove that potential had been completed throughout 2007. It was a collection of hard work and bug fies; not any single thing, he said.

“The fact is, [Xen] was rather simple to install. It was the ease of installation and configuration that surprised me. I was expecting to use quite a bit of [a command line interface]," Johnston said. Fortunately for First American, there was very little CLI, if any. No headaches, no problems–save one.

There was one issue worth noting about Xen, according to Johnson. He said one thing he would like to see in Xen is in “the paravirtualization side of things":

“I’d like to be able to somehow mask certain virtual machines and only allow certain LUNs [logical unit numbers] on the SAN [storage area network] to serve and see certain virtual machines, via Xen.  I’d like to be able to build in a limit to the different servers to see only specific LUNs on the SAN."

He went on to say that having the ability to visualize the host bus adapter (HBA) and use Xen to manage virtual Fibre Channel ports would allow LUN masking of these ports and give the ability to grant access to only specified LUNs.

This capability is also still an issue in VMware environments as well, but a support update for N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) in VMware ESX 3.5 was announced earlier this month.

Fixes from XenSource, Novell

But what about XenSource, the corporate entity behind the Xen hypervisor? Or Novell, which was the first commercial Linux OS vendor to bake Xen into its OS? Was a fix forthcoming for those Novell OES2 customers, like Johnston and McDougall, that wanted the same functionality in their environments? Simon Crosby, CTO of XenSource, responded to that question regarding support for N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) via email this morning. He said:

“It’s planned ASAP for XenSource products (Q1 08). The Xen project doesn’t have a storage roadmap - just the hypervisor. Whether any vendor puts a particular storage technology into its product is up to that vendor."

Novell is working on a multi-vendor fix: “We are working on N_Port Virtualization together with Qlogic and Emulex," said Holger Dryoff, vice president of management and marketing at Novell. “This will be available in one of the future service packs of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and therefore to OES 2 customers as well."

I find all of this interesting because it will mean more choices. More choices means competition, and competition means happier customers. Happier customers are more apt to speak to the press and tell their stories. Whether the technology ultimately makes the customers happy, well, that’s what we’re here to find out.

[Oct 20, 2007] Battle of the Titans Mandriva 2008 vs openSUSE 10.3 tuxmachines.org

Desktop oriented and very superficial comparison. Deeper issues like packages availability are not covered.
 
 
openSUSE 10.3
 
Mandriva 2008.0
   
Boot up
38
52
KDE
10
12
GNOME
25
7
OpenOffice.org
7
7
Firefox
3
5
The GIMP
3
4
Shut down
17
19

[Oct 18, 2007] The Perfect Server - OpenSUSE 10.3 (32-bit)

A lot of pictures: might be useful for those who does it the first time. From the 10.3 announcement:
The package management team have been working hard on improving the new openSUSE package management, and there is a lot to show for it now. It is reliable, more mature, and an awful lot faster. There is no more parsing during startup, greater compatibility with tools like yum and smart, and increased speed for the most common use-case: installing a package.

HowtoForge
This tutorial is also available in German: Der perfekte Server - OpenSUSE 10.3 (32-bit)

This is a detailed description about how to set up an OpenSUSE 10.3 server that offers all services needed by ISPs and hosters: Apache web server (SSL-capable), Postfix mail server with SMTP-AUTH and TLS, BIND DNS server, Proftpd FTP server, MySQL server, Dovecot POP3/IMAP, Quota, Firewall, etc.

This tutorial is written for the 32-bit version of OpenSUSE 10.3, but should apply to the 64-bit version with very little modifications as well.

I will use the following software:

In the end you should have a system that works reliably, and if you like you can install the free webhosting control panel ISPConfig (i.e., ISPConfig runs on it out of the box).

[Oct 12, 2007] Windows to Run Unmodified on SLES 10 under Xen

Device drivers from Novell and Intel allow unmodified Windows Server 2000/2003/XP to run in Xen virtual environments on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and Intel® Virtualization Technology

SAN FRANCISCO (InfoWorld Virtualization Executive Forum)— 12 Feb 2007— Novell and Intel Corporation today announced the availability of paravirtualized network and block device drivers that will allow Microsoft* Windows* Server 2000/2003/XP to run unmodified in Xen* virtual environments on SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server 10 from Novell®, operating on Intel-based server platforms featuring Intel® Virtualization Technology. Combined with the existing ability to host unmodified Linux* on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, these new drivers will let customers confidently migrate to newer and fewer energy-efficient servers, consolidating legacy Windows or Linux solutions onto virtual servers.

“With our SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 platform launch in July 2006, Novell became the first major Linux distributor to integrate Xen virtualization into a Linux distribution," said Jeff Jaffe, Novell executive vice president and chief technology officer. “In September, we became the first distribution to support virtualized Linux workloads on Xen, and today we are the first distributor to support virtualized Windows workloads on Linux. Our commitment to innovation to solve customer problems has never been greater."

“Intel has been working with the open source community to enable Linux virtualization solutions to take advantage of Intel Virtualization Technology, so that guest OS and applications can run unmodified," said Doug Fisher, Intel vice president of Software and Solutions Group. “In addition, our Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor-based platform with its outstanding performance, energy efficiency and reliability provides unparalleled headroom for multiple Virtual Machines running varied data center workloads. Getting Windows to run with Linux unmodified and vice versa will bring an immense confidence boost to IT managers in making decisions on corporate platform standardization and refresh."

In addition to providing cost savings when virtualizing Windows on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, these drivers can improve the availability of Windows- and Linux-based workloads via clustered virtual systems and help IT staff respond faster to business needs by easily creating and provisioning services on virtual systems.

Novell is sponsoring a virtualization pilot program for customers, providing enterprise-level support for running fully virtualized Windows 2000/2003/XP workloads on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The paravirtualized device drivers are now available to members of the pilot program. General availability is scheduled for later this year. For more information on the pilot program and Novell virtualization solutions, visit www.novell.com/virtualization. For more about SUSE Linux Enterprise offerings from Novell, visit www.novell.com/linux. For more information about Intel Virtualization Technology, visit www.intel.com/business/technologies/virtualization.htm.

[Oct 11, 2007] OpenVZ - SLES10 based OpenVZ kernel update

Here is good news for SLES users. I'm happy to report that the OpenVZ team resumed working on the SLES10-based OpenVZ kernel a few months ago, and we now have pretty stable SLES10 OpenVZ kernel. I encourage all SLES users to try it out.

The SLES10 kernel itself is based on the Linux kernel 2.6.16, and until SLES11 comes out, it remains the most "enterprise" (read stable and supported) kernel coming from Novell/SUSE. So, what we did is we took that kernel and ported our OpenVZ patchset to it. The only feature missing is I/O priority support, which is because the disk CFQ scheduler used in 2.6.16 is way too old. Other than that, it's a pretty decent kernel, and while we haven't declared it as stable yet we will do so really soon.

Here is a summary for all the other branches we develop/support as of now, with download links:
Stable: 2.6.9 (rhel4 based), 2.6.18 (rhel5 based), 2.6.18 (vanilla based). SLES10 will be added to this list soon.
Development: 2.6.22 (vanilla).

[Oct 09, 2007] The Perfect Desktop - OpenSUSE 10.3 (GNOME)

Some recommendations are plain wrong. For example Nvu  is too primitive and buggy to use for serious work. So sound and video recommendations should be taken with a grain of salt:

HowtoForge
 

Sound & Video:

Programming:

[Oct 09, 2007] Some openSUSE 10.3 Misconceptions kdedevelopers.org

"With the one CD media the install downloads over 600MB. Didn't they manage to put it all on CD?"

The one CD install media contain a complete functional desktop, either KDE or GNOME, which can be installed offline. If you compare you will actually notice that we managed to fit more applications on it than most other CD distros which often miss bigger stuff like OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Gimp or games. openSUSE 10.3 introduces the new concept of registering online repositories before the installation starts. On the screen where you choose whether to install or upgrade, there is a checkbox "Add online repositories before installation" which is enabled by default. If you want a quick offline installation, or an 'unbloated' installation, disable this option. Keeping it enabled will give you the default installation like you would get from the release DVD for one desktop, including eg translations and more games. And yes, we didn't manage to fit the DVD content on a single CD.

"openSUSE is bloated"

This couldn't be further away from truth. openSUSE 10.3 has actually the most lean footprint of all recent releases. All patterns have been reworked and packages more splitted, eg you can install a very small base system or basic X window. The desktop CD installations are coercively optimized for size. You can call a full DVD or CD+online repos installation bloated but then you opted for the wide range of applications option.

[Oct 09, 2007] iTWire - openSUSE 10.3 one step forward, two steps back

A nice example how a somewhat incompetent/incoherent review can hurt important effort.  There is a whole gender of such reviews by people who generally has no use for the system after install :-). The guy definitely does not understand that Suse is not for suckers; this is a distribution oriented on professional sys admins who either work or plan to work with an enterprise edition ;-). Note that he has nothing to say about quality of distribution per se, only about extremely superficial things like time of download, time of installation and problem with online install he encounter (as if installation from DVD is such a problem).  We also need to distinguish between flows in the interface (and YAST is far from being perfect here) from flaws in functionally -- and YAST does extremely good job with detecting hardware and other non-trivial installation issues.

There was a choice of downloads and I chose the CD which had KDE as its desktop environment; KDE is one of the two main desktop environments for Linux users, the other being GNOME.

The download appeared to be a full CD, coming in at around 690MB. Normally, when one downloads a full CD one expects that it can be used on its own to effect a full installation. I noticed an Add-ons CD, but since this was said to contain software which was licensed under terms other than those of the General Public Licence, I reasoned that this wasn't really necessary.

After booting up, one of the first things one has to do is to agree to a long licence. This is reminiscent of that other system called Windows - maybe Novell's deal with Microsoft has been influential in this design.

After a few more screens, online repositories start getting downloaded. This took me by surprise; with a full CD, I did not think that I needed anything more from the worldwide web. I did not expect that the choice of downloading repositories would be selected by default.

I expected there would be fair warning - something like "do you want to add other software from online repositories?" or "do you want to download security updates?" But these minor courtesies appear to be unimportant for the openSUSE people so a few minutes went by with lists being downloaded.

Then up came a list of software which had been selected for installation - a total of 2.2 GB! Does one really need all that software? Anyway, I went on and after some software had been installed from the CD which I had created, the downloading began.

It took around half an hour in all for the software installation to end - and then up flashed a screen which informed me "some packages failed to install." Clicking OK on this took me back to a screen which is part of the old SUSE text install.

I started all over again from this point and, this time, deselected all the online repositories. Wonder of wonders, despite this a few packages were still downloaded. A total of 1.5 GB was installed and when it came to the end, up sprang that annoying message again: "Some packages failed to install."

I tried using the "rescue system" option but this again brought me back to the installation procedure. It's annoying to say the least.

openSUSE News » Blog Archive » Sneak Peeks at openSUSE 10.3 New Package Management

In addition to this, two new tools were also created in order to work with the new libzypp:

Displaying your repository list:

opensuse:~ # zypper repos
# | Enabled | Refresh | Type | Name | URI
–+———+———+——–+—————+——————————————————————————–
1 | Yes | Yes | yast2 | 10.3 - Main Repository (NON-OSS) | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/SL-Factory-non-oss/inst-source-extra/
2 | Yes | Yes | rpm-md | KDE:Community | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Community/openSUSE_Factory
3 | Yes | Yes | yast2 | 10.3 - Main Repository (OSS) | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/SL-OSS-factory/inst-source/

Installing a package:

opensuse:/home/francis # zypper install filelight
* Reading repository ‘10.3 - Main Repository (NON-OSS)’ cache
* Reading repository ‘KDE:Community’ cache
* Reading repository ‘10.3 - Main Repository (OSS)’ cache
* Reading installed packages [100%]
The following NEW package is going to be installed:
filelight
Overall download size: 619.3 K. After the operation, additional 1.0 M will be used.
Continue? [y/n]: y
Downloading package filelight-1.0-6.1.i586, 619.3 K (1.0 M unpacked)
* Installing: filelight-1.0-6.1 [100%]

What kind of advantages does this package management have over the old, pre SUSE Linux 10.1, package management?

The pre-10.1 stack, while mature, was showing its limitations. With the ZYpp based stacks we got:

And now in 10.3 you will get:

Upgrade candidates are considered from the same vendor, so you don’t jump automatically between feature-sets and vendors as new versions are available.

openSUSE 10.3 Public Release#20856203

... zmd.exe (the default updater) is a mono app, and is prone to hanging.

Just after installation of 10.3

(Score:2, Informative)

by eimikion (973712) on Thursday October 04, @04:20PM (#20857427)

I've just installed a new OpenSUSE. All these little bugs from previous releases are gone. Yast software installer finally works with a good speed. Desktop responsiveness is amazing - KDE 3.7 works faster than GUI of Windows 2000. The default green artwork is very nice and gives a distinct feeling to this distro. Hardware detection is very good. My graphic card - nvidia 7600 and audio card - Creative Audigy 2 were working out of the box. Even installation of ADSL modem was a breeze - it is a cheap Sagem modem, used by the all telcos controlled by France Telecom, and most linux distros has problems with it.

What is especially important to people in countries with stupid law (read USA) - OpenSUSE gives you mp3 playback out of box, due to legal fluendo gstreamer plugins. In addition, there are provided Flash 9, newest Java runtimes, RealPlayer and seamless Wi-Fi support.

In the last year I've tried quite a few linux distros - Fedora, Ubuntu, Sabayon, Mint, Mandriva... nothing even come close to the OpenSUSE. Quality of Deutsch engineering.

  • ... zmd.exe (the default updater) is a mono app, and is prone to hanging. I've had to kill zmd and restart novell-zmd several times to get updates to work whenever I notice that a cron-run update is still in the process list 8-10 hours later.

  • Yes They Have

    (Score:3, Informative)

    by TheNinjaroach (878876) on Thursday October 04, @03:28PM (#20856493)

    Yes they have fixed those very annoying bugs from 10.1 -- I have been using SUSE since 9.1 and you speak of my most hated release. It seemed Novell crammed a bunch of their Zen Management tools into the 10.1 release and they mostly came out broken. By 10.2, SUSE was back to its standard, highly-polished state.

    Sometimes you gotta go backwards before you can go forward. I am usually on top of new SUSE releases, but I'm so pleased with 10.2 I will stay put until a KDE4 version of SUSE is released.

    Re:Yes They Have

    (Score:2)

    by WhiteWolf666 (145211) <moornblade at gmail.com> on Thursday October 04, @05:07PM (#20858251)
    (http://nutsncents.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Friday August 08, @08:47PM)

    The standard 10.2 install included zmd and mono, for sure.

    Libzypp has since replaced zmd, and I think they made it the default in one of the 10.2 updates, and then updated the disk images.

    But I'm 100% sure that the standard backend at 10.2 release was ZMD.

    Re:Great!

    (Score:2)

    by jeevesbond (1066726) on Thursday October 04, @04:08PM (#20857197)
    (http://www.apaddedcell.com/)

    I know, don't feed the trolls, I'm sorry but someone might actually believe this idiot and it's not going to take much effort to prove them wrong.

    Look at this image: http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/yast-list_thumb.png [opensuse.org] that is YaST giving the user the option to install whatever desktop environment they like, under the cursor is XFCE [xfce.org] whos tagline is '...and everything goes faster'. It's very lightweight, ideal for older computers and does not include any of the things you're complaining about.

    Welcome to the GNU/Linux world, where you get the choice of what software to run. That's rather the point with Vista, Microsoft will force people to upgrade to it even if they have to buy a new computer to do so. My apologies if that offends your sensibilities as an MS fanboy, but I'm afraid we don't support bullying in the form of forced upgrades 'round these parts.

    • Re:Great!

    ... ... ...

    PS: If you want people to actually take you seriously, quit the name-calling and immature attitude, stop SHOUTING, use a spelling checker and don't use multiple exclamation marks. Each of these things is like a sign telling everybody else you are a child.

    Thoughts

    (Score:3, Informative)

    by TopSpin (753) * on Thursday October 04, @03:06PM (#20856127)

    SUSE is being pretty aggressive in terms of key packages like gcc, glibc and the kernel. 10.3 provides GCC 4.2.1, glibc 2.6.1 and the 2.6.22.5 release of the kernel.

    My one serious complaint with YaST is the time wasted waiting for the package manager to download metadata every time you enter it. I've taken to just leaving it running on a separate desktop. Please, YaST folks, apply some caching; it should take at most only a few seconds to bring up package manager if it has been run in the last few hours. If I should need to ensure absolutely current metadata provide a simple means to force a full update, otherwise get the thing open as quickly as possible. Yes, it's probably possible to work-around, tweak or otherwise get this behavior now... I want it out of the box.

    Re:Thoughts

    (Score:3)

    by FranTaylor (164577) on Thursday October 04, @03:17PM (#20856309)

    My Fedora machine is running 2.6.22.9, what's so modern about 2.6.22.5?

    YaST is a piece of junk. If you use rpm to install a package, you have hopelessly screwed up YaST and it will never behave correctly again. It's why I gave up on SuSE. Maybe there's a way to fix it, but there are plenty of distributions that behave correctly and don't require putzing around.

    Re:Thoughts

    (Score:2)

    by WhiteWolf666 (145211) <moornblade at gmail.com> on Thursday October 04, @05:05PM (#20858213)
    (http://nutsncents.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Friday August 08, @08:47PM)

    That hasn't been my experience, and I install quite a few packages via rpm command line.

    YaST was borked for 10.1 and 10.2. It made sense to try and use an alternative package manager.

    As 10.2 matured, YaST started to work properly, but was slow.

    In 10.3, YaST is quite speedy, very capable, and runs very solidly. Plus, the one-click-install thing works really well.

    Re:Thoughts

    (Score:2)

    by grommit (97148) on Thursday October 04, @04:06PM (#20857167)

    I wouldn't say that it's fast now but it is definitely faster than any previous version of YaST's package manager. Ubuntu's package manager is extremely fast and it would be difficult to match that speed but thankfully I don't install/uninstall/reinstall packages very often so 10.3's package manager speed is fine for me. I would like it if the OpenSUSE team would work on having the package manager do multiple package processes at the same time such as downloading the next package while the previously downloaded package is being installed. Currently it is a very linear Download > Apply Delta > Install/Update > Download Next Package process.

    Re:Thoughts

    (Score:2)

    by WhiteWolf666 (145211) <moornblade at gmail.com> on Thursday October 04, @04:57PM (#20858081)
    (http://nutsncents.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Friday August 08, @08:47PM)

    I'm using it, and yes, its fixed. It's cached, and at each package manager startup it checks the cache versus the online version, and even if it needs update the cache update is an order of magnitude faster than a normal startup of the package manager used to be.

    It's quite useable now; time from clicking "software manager" to a usable interface is similar to using SMART.

    Speed seems to be one of the primary focuses of this release; from the package manager to the boot sequence.

    Re:Thoughts

    (Score:1)

    by griego (1108909) on Thursday October 04, @05:22PM (#20858517)

    Go into "Installation Source" in YaST and turn off Refresh for the slower repositories. Then refresh them manually once a month or something.

    openSUSE News » Blog Archive » Announcing openSUSE 10.3 GM

    Virtualization improvements might be valuable. openSUSE 10.3 will be supported with security and other serious updates for a period of 2 years.

    openSUSE 10.3 will be supported with security and other serious updates for a period of 2 years.

    This version contains new beautiful green artwork, KDE 3.5.7 and parts of KDE 4, SUSE-polished GNOME 2.20, a GTK version of YaST, a new 1-click-install technology, MP3 support out-of-the-box, new and redesigned YaST modules, compiz and compiz fusion advances, virtualization improvements, OpenOffice.org 2.3, Xfce 4.4.1, and much more! Read on for details of what is new and available in openSUSE 10.3, and for all the necessary download links.

    Read on for details of what is new and available in openSUSE 10.3, and for all the necessary download links.

    Under the hood:

    Linux Installing Suse Linux 10.3 RC1 64bit Edition

    You can put DVD image of existing FAR partition and install from the ISO image of DVD.

    ... Selected install using HDD option. Selected the drive and entered the directory as suse103. ...added the directory path as /suse103. Enter. Wow!! Success!!!

    Hping for suse.

    Index of /repositories/home:/peternixon/openSUSE_Factory/src
    hping-2.0.0-5.16.src.rpm 06-Sep-2007 15:19 105K [ ] hping-2.0.0-5.24.src.rpm 06-Sep-2007 ... Apache/2.2.6 (Linux/SUSE) Server at download.opensuse.org Port 80.
    download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/peternixon/openSUSE_Factory/src/ - 5k -

    zfs_linux

    data=writeback While the writeback option provides lower data consistency guarantees than the journal or ordered modes, some applications show very significant speed improvement when it is used. For example, speed improvements can be seen when heavy synchronous writes are performed, or when applications create and delete large volumes of small files, such as delivering a large flow of short email messages. The results of the testing effort described in Chapter 3 illustrate this topic.

    When the writeback option is used, data consistency is similar to that provided by the ext2 file system. However, file system integrity is maintained continuously during normal operation in the ext3 file system.

    In the event of a power failure or system crash, the file system may not be recoverable if a significant portion of data was held only in system memory and not on permanent storage. In this case, the filesystem must be recreated from backups. Often, changes made since the file system was last backed up are inevitably lost.

    [Aug 7, 2007] Linux Replacing atime

    August 7, 2007 | KernelTrap

    Submitted by Jeremy on August 7, 2007 - 9:26am.

    In a recent lkml thread, Linus Torvalds was involved in a discussion about mounting filesystems with the noatime option for better performance, "'noatime,data=writeback' will quite likely be *quite* noticeable (with different effects for different loads), but almost nobody actually runs that way."

    He noted that he set O_NOATIME when writing git, "and it was an absolutely huge time-saver for the case of not having 'noatime' in the mount options. Certainly more than your estimated 10% under some loads."

    The discussion then looked at using the relatime mount option to improve the situation, "relative atime only updates the atime if the previous atime is older than the mtime or ctime. Like noatime, but useful for applications like mutt that need to know when a file has been read since it was last modified."

    Ingo Molnar stressed the significance of fixing this performance issue, "I cannot over-emphasize how much of a deal it is in practice. Atime updates are by far the biggest IO performance deficiency that Linux has today. Getting rid of atime updates would give us more everyday Linux performance than all the pagecache speedups of the past 10 years, _combined_." He submitted some patches to improve relatime, and noted about atime:

    "It's also perhaps the most stupid Unix design idea of all times. Unix is really nice and well done, but think about this a bit: 'For every file that is read from the disk, lets do a ... write to the disk! And, for every file that is already cached and which we read from the cache ... do a write to the disk!'"

    [Aug 7, 2007] Expect plays a crucial role in network management  by Cameron Laird

    31 Jul 2007 | www.ibm.com/developerworks

    If you manage systems and networks, you need Expect.

    More precisely, why would you want to be without Expect? It saves hours common tasks otherwise demand. Even if you already depend on Expect, though, you might not be aware of the capabilities described below.

    Expect automates command-line interactions

    You don't have to understand all of Expect to begin profiting from the tool; let's start with a concrete example of how Expect can simplify your work on AIX® or other operating systems:

    Suppose you have logins on several UNIX® or UNIX-like hosts and you need to change the passwords of these accounts, but the accounts are not synchronized by Network Information Service (NIS), Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), or some other mechanism that recognizes you're the same person logging in on each machine. Logging in to a specific host and running the appropriate passwd command doesn't take long—probably only a minute, in most cases. And you must log in "by hand," right, because there's no way to script your password?

    Wrong. In fact, the standard Expect distribution (full distribution) includes a command-line tool (and a manual page describing its use!) that precisely takes over this chore. passmass (see Resources) is a short script written in Expect that makes it as easy to change passwords on twenty machines as on one. Rather than retyping the same password over and over, you can launch passmass once and let your desktop computer take care of updating each individual host. You save yourself enough time to get a bit of fresh air, and multiple opportunities for the frustration of mistyping something you've already entered.

    The limits of Expect

    This passmass application is an excellent model—it illustrates many of Expect's general properties:

    You probably know enough already to begin to write or modify your own Expect tools. As it turns out, the passmass distribution actually includes code to log in by means of ssh, but omits the command-line parsing to reach that code. Here's one way you might modify the distribution source to put ssh on the same footing as telnet and the other protocols:
    Listing 1. Modified passmass fragment that accepts the -ssh argument                   

                ...
             } "-rlogin" {
                set login "rlogin"
                continue
            } "-slogin" {
                set login "slogin"
                continue
            } "-ssh" {
                set login "ssh"
                continue
            } "-telnet" {
                set login "telnet"
                continue
               ...
         

    In my own code, I actually factor out more of this "boilerplate." For now, though, this cascade of tests, in the vicinity of line #100 of passmass, gives a good idea of Expect's readability. There's no deep programming here—no need for object-orientation, monadic application, co-routines, or other subtleties. You just ask the computer to take over typing you usually do for yourself. As it happens, this small step represents many minutes or hours of human effort saved. 

    [Jul 30, 2007] Due to problems on high loads in Linux 2.6.23 kernel the Linux kernel process scheduler has been completely ripped out and replaced with a completely new one called Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS) modeled after Solaris 10 scheduler. 

    This is will not affect the current Linux distributions (Suse 9, 10 and RHEL 4.x) as they forked the kernel and essentially develop it as a separate tree.

    But it will affect any future Red Hat or Suse distribution (Suse 11 and RHEL 6 respectively).

    How it will fair in comparison with Solaris 10 remains to be seen:

    The main idea of CFS's design can be summed up in a single sentence: CFS basically models an "ideal, precise multi-tasking CPU" on real hardware.

    Ideal multi-tasking CPU" is a (non-existent) CPU that has 100% physical power and which can run each task at precise equal speed, in parallel, each at 1/n running speed. For example: if there are 2 tasks running then it runs each at exactly 50% speed.

    [Jun 27, 2007] Tectonic Linux helps raise funds for a million soccer balls

    The Linux desktop multiplier for SUSE Linux enterprise desktop (SLED 10) and openSUSE 10.1 allows up to 10 users to share a single Linux PC.

    Although Linux geeks are not often found on the sports field, this week Linux computers will help in a fund raiser to donate a million soccer balls to improve children's lives through sport.

    Canada-based Omni Technology Solutions, Novell South Africa, Userful, and Pinnacle Micro have teamed up to provide Linux desktop computers for the "Let's Play a Million" South African telethon on June 27.

    The national telethon is a joint initiative of UNICEF, Supersport, the department of education and five radio stations. The objective is to donate a million soccer balls to South African youth and promote child survival through sports and healthy living.

    Each of the telethon locations will be equipped with a five-user SUSE Linux enterprise desktop. Using the Desktop multiplier software, the single computer will allow five operators to work at the same time to enter pledges.

    The Linux desktop multiplier for SUSE Linux enterprise desktop (SLED 10) and openSUSE 10.1 allows up to 10 users to share a single Linux PC. Running off a single computer, additional workstations can be added through adding dual-head graphics cards, monitors, keyboards, mice and a powered USB hub to an existing SUSE Linux enterprise desktop or openSUSE computer.

    "After the telethon, the computers will be donated to schools and further empower South African students", said Garry Hodgson, OEM business development manager for Novell South Africa.

    [Jun 21, 2007] RPM Search ksh-93s-41.x86_64.rpm

    Newer version "s"

    ksh-93s-23.x86_64.html Korn Shell OpenSuSE Factory for x86_64 ksh-93s-23.x86_64.rpm Package Notes and Changes 2007-03-28 Yes -- a new release in only 3 months. This release contains fixes and features that address the issues raised on the { ast-users uwin-users ksh-solaris-integration } lists. Thanks to all who helped. A summary of recent ksh93 changes:
    1. Double precision floating point arithmetic with full C99 arithmetic support on systems that provide the C99 arithmetic functions. The numbers Inf and NaN can be used in arithmetic expressions.
    2. TAB-TAB completion generates a numbered list of completions which the user can select.
    3. Support for processing/handling multibyte locales (e.g., en_US.UTF-8, hi_IN.UTF-8, ja_JP.eucJP, zh_CN.GB18030, zh_TW.BIG5 etc.) has been extensively revised, tested, and is now supported even on the language level (e.g. variable and function identifiers may contain locale specific codeset characters).
    4. /dev/(tcp|udp|sctp)/host/sevrice now handles IPv6 addresses on systems that provide getaddrinfo(3).
    5. The ability to seek on a file by offset or content with new redirection operators.
    6. A new --showme option which allows portions of a script to behave as if -x were specified while other parts execute as usual. This simplifies the coding of make -n style semantics at the script level by eliminating code replication. In particular, io redirections are handled by --showme.
    7. The [[...]] operator =~ has been added which compares the string to an extended regular expression rather than == which compares against a shell pattern.
    8. The printf(1) builtin has been extended to support the = flag for centering a field. The # flag when used with %d and %i provides values in units of thousands or 1024 respectively with an appropriate suffix added.
    9. Example screenshots from joint work with the Solaris ksh93 integration project are available here.
    See the release change log for details.
    2007-01-11
    This release, almost a year from the last big release, contains changes based on feedback from the { ast-users ast-developers uwin-users uwin-developers } lists and the ongoing ksh93-solaris integration project. Thanks to all who helped. Our resolution this year is to increase release frequency to keep internal and external source/binaries more in sync. See the release change log for details.
    2006-05-01
    See the release change log for details.
    2006-02-14
    This release fixes a few packaging missteps from 2006-01-24 and syncs the ast and uwin source release. See the release change log for details. The download site is being serviced by a new host. The intention is to preserve www.research.att.com urls, but intervening caches may foil that intent. Details of the server change follow in case you run into trouble. The old host www was sgi, the new one public is linux. Both run apache. Urls prefixed by http://www.research.att.com/sw/download/ will go to the old server which will map the prefix to the new one http://public.research.att.com/sw/download/. Eventually the mapping will dissappear when www is retired and public takes on the name www.
    2006-01-24
    Its been almost a year since the last release, but we haven't been idle:
    • ksh(1) release 93r new features:
      1. The brace expansion option (-B, --braceexpand) expands {first..last[..incr][%fmt]} sequences.
      2. Redirection operators can be immediately preceded by {vname}, {n}>file, which allow the shell to chose the file descriptor number and store it in varname.
      3. Redirection syntax <# ((expr)) added to position file descriptor at offset specified by evaluating arithmetic expression expr.
      4. Shell pattern matching extension for matching nested groups while skipping quoted strings.
      5. The multiline option (--multiline) allows lines longer than the column width to be edited using multiple lines.
      6. The integer and float aliases now default to the longest integral and floating types on the system.
    • ast-open sort(1) now supports plugins, including -lsum for record summation, -lsync for IBM dfsort (aka mainframe syncsort), and -lvcodex for intermediate and output file compression.
    • The ast-open vczip(1) command and vcodex(3) base library have been added. vcodex is a grand unification of compression, encryption and data transformation methods. Software the way it should be -- small, composable, influencing paradigms in unexpected ways.
    • The ast-open dss(1) command, base library, and plugins have been added. dss suports efficient data stream scanning, schema specification, and dynamic data types. dss dynamic data types will be integrated into ksh(1) extensible types in the next release.
    • And, not to be left out of the latest fad, not one but two command line sudoku solver/generator programs in ast-sudoku to burn cycles and brain cells. There is some good math in there, including respectable order N QWH (quasigroup with holes / latin square completion) results.
    • Finally, see the release change log for details.
    2005-02-02
    • ast and UWIN source and binaries are now (finally) covered by the OSI-approved Common Public License Version 1.0.
    • The licence agreement prompt is back -- its either that or we don't post source. The prompt mechanism works with text-only and command-line browsers -- see the second paragraph of the main download page for details.
    • If the file $INSTALLROOT/bin/.paths contains the line BUILTIN_LIB=cmd then the ast libcmd enters the ksh(1) command $PATH search when $INSTALLROOT/bin is hit. i.e., if you place $INSTALLROOT/bin before /bin or /usr/bin in $PATH then builtin ast libcmd versions of cp, rm etc. will be run instead of standalone executables. This may provide significant speedups for some shell script applications.
    • After 20 years AT&T nmake(1) finally has regression tests -- up to now packaging, bootstrapping and building ast packages was the only test.
    • cp(1), date(1), ls(1), nmake(1), pax(1), and touch(1) now support nanosecond time resolution, due mostly to the fact that most of the new nmake regression tests would have failed to detect sub-second changes from one test to the next. As it is we have some machines that get > 10 compiles per second.
    • This release has quite a few malloc and ksh/malloc bug fixes. Thanks to the users who provided detailed bug reports through many rounds of testing.

      Older version "r" of ksh93.

    Name : ksh  
    Version : 93r Vendor : SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Nuernberg, Germany
    Release : 41 Date : 2006-11-26 04:24:01
    Group : System/Shells Source RPM : ksh-93r-41.src.rpm
    Size : 2017509  
    Packager : http://bugs_opensuse_org  
    Summary : Korn Shell
    Description :
    The original Korn Shell. The ksh is an sh-compatible command
    interpreter that executes commands read from standard input or from a
    file.

    Authors:
    --------
    David Korn < dgkAATTresearch.att.com>
    Glenn Fowler < gsfAATTresearch.att.com>
    Phong Vo < kpvAATTresearch.att.com>

    Download
     
    mirror.switch.ch   ksh-93r-41.x86_64.rpm
    ftp.uni-bayreuth.de   ksh-93r-41.x86_64.rpm
    chuck.ucs.indiana.edu   ksh-93r-41.x86_64.rpm
    ftp.nluug.nl   ksh-93r-41.x86_64.rpm
    ftp.pbone.net   ksh-93r-41.x86_64.rpm
    ftp.icm.edu.pl   ksh-93r-41.x86_64.rpm
    ftp.chg.ru   ksh-93r-41.x86_64.rpm
    ftp.sunet.se   ksh-93r-41.x86_64.rpm
    ftp.is.co.za   ksh-93r-41.x86_64.rpm
    		      

    Provides :
    libast.so.5()(64bit)
    libcmd.so.1()(64bit)
    libdll.so.1()(64bit)
    libshell.so.1()(64bit)
    ksh

    OP - Controlling Root Access

    This page is for a version of op that is no longer maintained! Active development of op is being carried on by Alec Thomas at http://svn.swapoff.org/op.

    I first came into contact with op at Octel in 1992. Over the years I added a couple of things, and ported it to architectures Octel cared about. Those included SunOS 4.1.x, Solaris 2.2 and greater, AIX, HP-UX 9.x, BSDI 1.1 and Linux 1.x. I added support for SecurID access control from Security Dynamics. This particular code has only been tested under SunOS and Solaris. I also enhanced the syslog stuff so it would log the command parameters that op executes as well as the command name. Support for Solaris shadow passwords was also added.

    I left Octel in 1996, and payed little attention to op for over a year. Recently, I had a need for op on Linux 2.0. I had to tweak the shadow password implementation to get it to work. While I was at it I cleaned up some of the logging code. It seems to work quite well on Linux. I've tried hard not to break other platforms with my mods, so they probably still work too. 8).I will test this code on any platform I need to use it on. If you have ported or built this code on other platforms, I'd like to hear from you. You can reach me via email at [email protected]. I'll try to help out with bugs time permitting.

    **** Disclaimer **** This code has been extensively tested only on the Sun architectures. We have noticed no egregious bugs on those platforms, but that's no guarantee such bugs don't exist. That goes double for the non-Sun architectures where testing has involved building, installing and running "op sh" once or twice.

    I'm grateful to Tom Christiansen and Dave Koblas for the original design and implementation of op. I'm also grateful to all those folks who, like Tom and Dave, have made my life easier by giving away marvelous, useful source code. I'm happy to give a little bit back, at long last. 

    /* +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ */
/* | Copyright 1991, David Koblas.                                     | */
/* |   Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software   | */
/* |   and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby | */
/* |   granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all | */
/* |   copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission  | */
/* |   notice appear in supporting documentation.  This software is    | */
/* |   provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.           | */
/* +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ */

	Ditto for my contributions which are Copyright (C) 1995, 1997 by
	Howard Owen. ([email protected])

    Download the gzipped tar archive: op-1.11.tar.gz
    You'll need a gzip compiled for your architecture to decompress the above file.

    [Jun 18, 2007] Novell Ships SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 Service Pack 1 and New Virtual Machine Driver Pack

    June 18, 2007 (PRNewswire)
     

    Service Pack 1 Enhancements

    Benefits of Virtual Machine Drivers

    With the release of the SUSE Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack, Novell becomes the first vendor to offer a supported solution for Xen virtual machine guests. The driver pack brings the performance benefits of paravirtualization and enterprise-level support to a wider range of fully virtualized workloads, giving customers more choice and flexibility and enabling them to run legacy applications on newer, more powerful, energy-efficient hardware.

    The Virtual Machine Driver Pack includes drivers for Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003, and will ship in July. Drivers for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5 will be released later this summer and will be added to the driver pack at no additional charge via maintenance update. A one-year subscription to the Virtual Machine Driver Pack will cost $299 per physical server for up to four virtual machines or $699 per physical server for unlimited virtual machines. Xen drivers for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server are already available and ship as part of the SUSE Linux Enterprise distribution.

    [Mar 23 2005] Developing Perl CGI scripts on SUSE Linux (feature)
    Because there are so many tutorials on the web about Perl the focus of this article will be how to configure SUSE Linux for Perl CGI scripts and teaching you the basics of developing and debugging a Perl script.

    [May 14, 2007] Troubleshooting Suse  problems

    1. supportconfig -- collects important system information for trobleshooting

    2. Siga can be ran with /usr/bin/siga. See Cool Solutions siga System Information GAthering

    3. For Dell servers useful set of information can be obtained using Dset which is available from the Drivers & Downloads link
    lt" width="100"> Description:
    Release Title: Systems Management: Dell Dell System E-support Tool, Utility, Multi OS, English, Multi System, v.1.4.0.8, A00
    Release Date: 5/10/2007
    Criticality: Creates "System Configuration Report" that can be used for troubleshooting or inventory collection of a system. Dell System E-Support Tool (DSET) provides the ability to collect hardware, storage, and operating system information from a Dell PowerEdge or PowerVault server. DSET is intended to be a small, non-intrusive tool that does not require a reboot of the system to provide most functionality. DSET is intended primarily to be used when instructed by Dell Technical Support. Dell Technical Support reviews the report generated by DSET when a support case is opened.

     

    [Apr 6. 2006]  Cool Solutions siga System Information GAthering By John O'Riordan

    PROBLEM: As part of my job as a support Engineer I often need to get a detailed output of the configuration of a system. Trying to travel around a customers system copying configuration files was a very tedious time-consuming process.

    SOLUTION: That was until I discovered "siga"!

    This useful command grabs all the configuration files on a system and saves them in one, easy to navigate webpage. When running it you have the option to open it with a variety of browsers, save it to a directory or storage media, or (coolest of all) even open it in a remote display!

    Also if you don't want to see every configuration file on a system you can specify which subsystem you want the configuration files of, e.g. sound, modem, mail, usb etc.

    To have the output directed to a Konqueror type "siga kon". Want more info or examples? Simply type "man siga".

    SLES Performance Tuning Wiki

    whitepaper  enhancements that SLES 10

    Linux Kernel in a Nutshell Book Free Online

    Get it either by chapter or all in one big tarball, the official book website has a nice description by the author of why he wrote the book and why it’s being given away...

    [May 11, 2007] SUSE Enterprise Linux 10 service pack 1 might be released the next week

    Novell will probably release “service pack 1″ for SUSE Enterprise Linux 10 the next week.

    Open Source Toolbox Review automated network install of suse, debian and fedora with LinuxCOE

    The new InstallLinux site is using HP's LinuxCOE server as the web interface to a collection of scripts that are used to prepare CD images with all the information needed for unattended install.

    [May 3, 2007] IBM Redbooks Linux Performance and Tuning Guidelines

    A very useful redbook.  A lot of difficult to find into about kernel tuning.

    Over the past few years, Linux has made its way into the data centers of many corporations all over the globe. The Linux operating system has become accepted by both the scientific and enterprise user population. Today, Linux is by far the most versatile operating system. You can find Linux on embedded devices such as firewalls and cell phones and mainframes. Naturally, performance of the Linux operating system has become a hot topic for both scientific and enterprise users. However, calculating a global weather forecast and hosting a database impose different requirements on the operating system. Linux has to accommodate all possible usage scenarios with the most optimal performance. The consequence of this challenge is that most Linux distributions contain general tuning parameters to accommodate all users.

    IBM® has embraced Linux, and it is recognized as an operating system suitable for enterprise-level applications running on IBM systems. Most enterprise applications are now available on Linux, including file and print servers, database servers, Web servers, and collaboration and mail servers.

    With use of Linux in an enterprise-class server comes the need to monitor performance and, when necessary, tune the server to remove bottlenecks that affect users. This IBM Redpaper describes the methods you can use to tune Linux, tools that you can use to monitor and analyze server performance, and key tuning parameters for specific server applications. The purpose of this redpaper is to understand, analyze, and tune the Linux operating system to yield superior performance for any type of application you plan to run on these systems.

    The tuning parameters, benchmark results, and monitoring tools used in our test environment were executed on Red Hat and Novell SUSE Linux kernel 2.6 systems running on IBM System x servers and IBM System z servers. However, the information in this redpaper should be helpful for all Linux hardware platforms.

    [Apr 22, 2007] SMB IT InfoWorld SUSE 10 Tastes Sweet to SMBs  0933 AM By Oliver Rist

    October 10, 2006 (infoworld.com)

    After install, finding the Windows network was as easy as doing so with a PowerBook. Plug it into the network, assign the right domain name and you're a minute or so away from connected bliss. The server can even be setup to authenticate and respond to AD requests. All point and click. Very slick--should have been that way years ago.

    [Apr 20, 2007] [PDF] Tuning SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server on IBM M E server xSeries Servers

    File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML

    [Apr 19, 2007] IBM Redbooks Tuning IBM System x Servers for Performance

    Chapter 12. Linux

    By its nature and heritage, the Linux distributions and the Linux kernel offer a variety of parameters and settings to let the Linux administrator tweak the system to maximize performance.

    This chapter describes the steps that you can take to tune Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)1 or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)2. It describes the parameters that give the most improvement in performance and provides a basic understanding of the tuning techniques that are used in Linux.

    In this chapter, we discuss the following topics:

    [Apr 12, 2007] Techzone OpenSUSE vs Ubuntu

    BTW, many openSUSE users use the Smart Package Manager (get it from guru's repo) in place of the Advanced Packaging Tool (apt). In many ways smart is an improvement over apt.
    Anonymous said...

    I dont understand your comments regarding package management - you can add package repositories (which are similar to apt sources, see http://en.opensuse.org/Package_Repositories  for details), and as soon you have added these, they will be integrated to package management like the original installation media. You can install packages as you like, have automatic dependency resolution, all the package information is there, and if you want to install a specific version (instead of the newest, which is default for update), just go to the "Versions" tab. I may be a bit sluggish, yes, but otherwise ...

    Abhay said...

    I have tried Smart. Smart is much better than Yast, but sometimes misses some files. For eg. right now I cannot download and install K3b. Smart says that it is available in pacman repository but cannot download it.

    Similarly, Samrt does not give that much information about the packages as Synaptic does...

    People,dont worry.YAST-Package management and boot time will be faster in openSUSE 10.3:-). Developers communicate and know about it. I look forward to new openSUSE. Btw, as date for the final release of openSUSE 10.3 the end of September is considered.

    April 12, 2007 1:47 PM

    Guilherme Muller Jr said...
    Package Management on openSUSE is very good if you add Packman on your "Yast Installation Source". Just take a look on this guide and all codecs, DVD, flash 9, etc. will be automatically installed on your openSUSE box :

    http://www.softwareinreview.com/cms/content/view/60/

    With regard to your Package Management woes, see http://opensuse-community.org/Package_Sources

     

    [Mar 19, 2007] SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 Service Pack 1

    General availability scheduled for May.

    [Feb 22, 2007] openSUSE 10.2 review by Jem Matzan

    So Novell fixed the damage done by 10.1., but still has not addressed many of the lingering problems with installation and configuration that have plagued SUSE variants for the operating system's entire history. It's still a decent desktop operating system, and has one of the industry's best configuration frameworks (YaST), but it just doesn't compete with commercial GNU/Linux distros like Xandros or Mandriva. It has a hard time competing even with the free-of-charge Ubuntu Linux. Indeed, openSUSE is in danger of losing relevance in a rapidly evolving market. You can't have poor quality releases anymore -- those days of leniency are over. Desktop GNU/Linux is now a mature market, and companies like Novell need to start treating it like such.

    A deeper look into (Open)Suse 10.1

    Ok, so much for the names. Now to the technical differences. If you think you can live happily with the Internet edition you might be disappointed later on: There are several programs missing compared to the boxed version. Here is a somewhat longer sample:

    I was kind of surprised about the fact that there are such tremendous differences. As it turned out – more see below – the Internet version is basically useless for myself (I don't normally use it for customers since 2 years update is not enough, but that's a different story). You have to make a decision for your own between the two Suse versions available, depended on your needs and time, ability and laziness to compile the missing pieces. For your help I've compiled a complete list of the differences.

    ... ... ...

    One of the changes in 10.1 compared to its predecessor 10.0 is that the architecture for the higher level package management and online update changed completely.
    Being used is a suite called ZENworks Linux Management which is basically the client part of a client-server architecture. It is supposed to ease management of systems, specifically if you're having large installations. If you have had contact with Ximian Linux and rug and their Red Carpet Daemon rcd you might know the already client side a bit.
      Providing this is in general a good idea, since Novell had nothing really to offer to centrally manage Linux systems before ZMD and was as far as this is concerned a little bit behind their competitors like Red Hat (provisioning module) and e.g. Sun (N1 System Manager and Service Provisioning System).
      According to some news the ZLM client – i.e. the tools around the ZENworks Agent zmd, aka ZENworks Management Daemon – was one of the reasons why the GA of Suse 10.1 and as a consequence the enterprise products were delayed for some months. That wouldn't be a problem if the result would be good. But Novell's new framework of Software updates writing Suse 10.1 is very politely speaking not a piece of usability. And not a resource effective piece of software either.

    [Mar 23, 2007] Novell Outlines Enhancements in SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 Service Pack 1

    General availability scheduled for May.

    SALT LAKE CITY (BrainShare® 2007)— 19 Mar 2007— “The market has received SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 with open arms, and we are committed to increasing the return on their investment," said Holger Dyroff, vice president of SUSE Linux Enterprise product management for Novell. “In addition to integrating maintenance updates into SP1, we have listened to customers and added new functionality that will make it easier for them to take advantage of the benefits of enterprise Linux, as well as for hardware and software partners to ensure their products add maximum value to users."

    SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 includes SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, providing a secure and reliable foundation for enterprise computing from the desktop to the data center – a lineup of enterprise-class solutions matched by no other Linux* vendor. SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP1 enhancements include the following:

    Expanded OpenOffice.org support. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop now includes the latest version of the Novell edition of OpenOffice.org (version 2.1), including the new OpenXML/ODF translator to convert Microsoft Word 2007 documents to OpenOffice.org, additional Visual Basic macro support, and improved Impress presentation functionality, including the ability to play embedded video as part of presentations.

    Desktop virtualization. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop now includes Xen virtualization technology along with improved management and auditing tools.

    Desktop enterprise integration technologies. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop now fits more seamlessly into existing environments due to enhancements in Microsoft Active Directory* authentication and network management, and it also now includes Firefox 2.0.

    Updated desktop user experience. Improvements include redesigns to the Novell main menu, control center, and logout and screen-saver dialogs, and updates to the desktop effects engine. The desktop also includes new utilities like an international clock applet and a disk space usage utility.

    Audit subsystem enrichment. Major improvements and extensions to the audit subsystem enable SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 to meet strict government standards and vertical industry requirements. The updates include modules for security certification provided by the Common Criteria for Information Security Evaluation (CAPP EAL 4+).

    Support for Novell Open Enterprise Server 2. SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP1 has many new features designed to support the workgroup services in Open Enterprise Server 2, including updates to the DNS, DHCP and LDAP modules, as well as support for paravirtualized NetWare® 6.5.

    Terri Hall, vice president of Software Solutions and Alliances for AMD, said, “The public beta of SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP1 from Novell continues their tradition of leading the market with support for new hardware technology. The enhanced virtualization capabilities in SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP1 take full advantage of AMD Virtualization technology, providing customers with the ability to consolidate operating environments such as NetWare 6.5 and Windows Server 2003. We look forward to the general availability of SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP1, including significant support for AMD's next-generation Quad-Core processor, code named 'Barcelona,' which will provide customers with a seamless upgrade path to new levels of performance and increased computing capabilities."

    Availability

    SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP1 beta software is now available, with general availability scheduled for May. For more information about SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 or to obtain the SP1 beta software, visit http://www.novell.com/linux.

    [Mar 23, 2007] Windows Security and Directory Services for UNIX Guide v1.0

    Just released, this prescriptive guide shows IT Pros how to use Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory for both authentication and identity storage within heterogeneous Microsoft Windows and UNIX environments.

    [Feb 12, 2007] BetaNews Microsoft, Novell to Bridge Active Directory, eDirectory By Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews

    In the next phase of the two companies' much-discussed collaboration, Novell and Microsoft announced they are working together to develop a method for using existing protocols for bridging network access between eDirectory and Active Directory, with complete details to come sometime during the first half of this year.

    Though the two companies did not mention this explicitly, the common bond between the two identity management services for their networks is Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). Both are implementations of an LDAP store, although Microsoft utilizes a kind of abstraction layer that enables Windows Server-based networks to bind an LDAP application to a replica partition rather than specifically to an IP address. Differences in implementation such as this are why bridging the two identity services is not an academic process.

    [Feb 12, 2007] Authenticating Linux against Active Directory

    There are 2 alternatives to authenticate against Active Directory:

    1. Using the kerberos client (requires Active Directory)
    2. Using Winbind & samba client

    In my opinion, option 1 is the cleanest. I definitely found it more simple to setup. Option 2 offers some additional features, notably the use of the net command through which you can enumerate domain users and more. However on most workstations this will not be required. Therefore, if you have active directory i recommend option 1.

    [Feb 12, 2007] Authenticating Windows Active Directory 2003 - SUSE Wiki

    Zenworks Patents Defend Active Directory -- jimcal80@...'s comment on Microsoft patent peace--or patent war TalkBack on ZDNet

    Zenworks Patents? Defend Active Directory

    Novell can't sell the GPL -- it is legally impossible. So what is Microsoft buying?

    Zenworks and identity management. Back when I studied for an MCSE the old line Novell engineers would say that Zenworks & Novell's identity management software had better than the latest Microsoft features, "years ago."

    Microsoft's press releases and FAQ refer to systems management of real virtualized systems and to identity management. So Microsoft wants Zenworks and wants to be able to defend Active Directory against any patent claims by Novell or a future owner of Novell. That is why Microsoft is paying the upfront money, while retaining an annuity licensing income.

    As for Linux, I believe Microsoft wants to use Novell SUSE Linux for "account control." The key accounts are the large PC manufacturers (Dell, HP/Compaq, Lenovo/IBM, Gateway) and large customers (corporations, governments and universities). The kind of users that buy bulk or per PC licenses.

    If a PC manufacturer that pays Microsoft a per PC royalty (regardless of whether the PC has Windows or not) wants to ship Linux; Microsoft will probably wind up saying, if you ship SUSE Linux we will credit you the cost of Windows, but if you ship any other Linux, you will have to pay us as if there was a copy of Windows on the machine. Microsoft will use the argument that a non-SUSE version of Linux will just lead to a pirated copy of MS Windows being installed on the PC.

    ... ... ...

    Jim Callahan
    Orlando, FL

    Etc

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