FUDCON '09

Since being in Software Build and Release , my interest for the Fedora community has been growing. This weekend I decided to attend FUDcon 2009. Unfortunately I was only able to attend a few sessions due to exams, final tests and final assignments being due the following week.

When I arrived at Seneca, I found my way to the registration desk to get my badge and shirt (great shirts by the way). I had met Tom "spot" Callaway who happens to package hundreds of packages.




The first session I attended was about Fedora Insight.

Fedora Insight is a website part of Fedora (ofcourse) that is used to share news, publish articles and provides different marketing materials for Fedora. It is a way for people who are not in the Fedora Community to keep up to date with what's going on.

The second session I attended was Getting Started in the Fedora Community - Yaakov Nemoy & Bert Desmet

Yaakov and Bert discussed on what the Fedora Community was about, how to join, and why people should join. It was interesting to see other people who are interested about joining the community or who have recently just joined (like me). We discussed topics on the advantages to using Fedora in terms of security, why people in IT management position should be apart of the community, and several other related topics. I was able to find out how to communicate with the Fedora community and I also let everyone know about our Seneca Open Planet page and how it was the same concept like the Fedora Planet.

Package info for SBR600

Just to ensure we don't have packages all over the place and to help me out with keeping the repo up to date please follow these 3 instructions:

1. If you've updated your packages, please increase the release number so I know which ones are the newest ones.

2. Please make sure you put your new packages in http://scotland.proximity.on.ca/DXR/dropoff/*i386*OR*x86_64*

3. Email me or ping me on IRC to let me know there is a new package in the dropoff directory


Thank you!

Regards,
Your favourite Repo Master

Repo Master....ing...Stage 2 | DXR-PROJECT

So after making the repository directories (i386, source, and x86_64) and collecting the rpm packages, I had a few more tasks to do as the REPO MASTER.


1. Create a script (my favorite thing in the world...not really lol) that will automate the creation of the repository data.

2. Create a repo rpm (that includes the gpg key).


So first thing is first, the oh so dreaded script (that ended up not being so bad). After using a template I found on the net and with a few adjustments (with the help of Chris Tyler)....VOILA!


#!/bin/sh

destdir="/var/www/html/DXR/"

rpm --addsign /var/www/html/DXR/*/*.rpm

for arch in i386 x86_64 source
do
cd ${destdir}/${arch}
createrepo .

done


After running script, everything seemed to be fine however I found a kink later on in the process (which I will mention further down).

To make the repo rpm, I created a spec file and edited the repo file to ensure the baseurl was set to $basearch.

Once I had my rpm file, I installed it on Australia to make sure the install worked. This is where the kink in the createrepo was noticed. Yum could not find the mirror because the url repeated itself like this http://scotland.proximity.on.ca/DXR/var/www/html/DXR/....

I ran a manual createrepo . in thr repo directories, ran a yum clean all on the client, and tried the install again on Australia.... success!

I have tried to run this on Germany, however when it comes to installing viewsource it doesnt seem to find the package, I will discuss this in my SBR600 class tomorrow.

For now, here is the link the repo rpm

Repo Master....ing... Stage 1

After being assigned the role of REPO MASTER for the DXR Project in SBR600, I began to make the repository.


The steps (repo notes from Chris Tyler)

A) Setup (1 time only)
1) gpg --gen-key

2) add to ~/.rpmmacros
%_signature gpg
%_gpg_name 

3) gpg --export --armour keyid >  i.e. RPM-GPG-KEY-[name]
        --keyid = 

B) Create Repository

1) create accessible directory
/var/www/html/ i.e. DXR

2) Put packages in that direcectory

3) rpm --addsign *.rpm
rpm -qip  checks for signature

4) createrepo .

C) Create .repo file

1) put gpg public key* in /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/
*From Part A step 3

2) create .repo file in /etc/yum.repos.d


As of right now, only 2 out of the 3 packages have been added
to the repository.

G++ VS. Modified G++

The goal: Test build times between packaging using regular g++ and modified g++.

Getting the modified version of g++ required using a script called build-tools.sh. I executed this tool and it had created a tools directory in my home directory on the Australia machine.

The package I used to test g++ was abiword. I ran, time rpmbuild -ba abiword.spec a few times and recorded the times.

After renaming g++ I created a symbolic link using the following command:

su - c "ln -s /home/apvlahopoulos/tools/gcc-dehydra/installed/bin /[gc]++ /usr/bin"

Once the symbolic link was created, I ran the builds again...

I was having some install errors and then used

time QA_RPATHS=$[ 0x003f ] rpmbuild -ba abiword.spec

The results:

Test 1
Regular g++

real 9m33.509s

user 13m27.408s

sys 4m22.554s

Modified g++

real 7m23.409s

user 6m12.774s

sys 4m34.408s

Test 2
Regular g++

real 5m44.997s

user 5m37.223s

sys 3m44.992s

Modified g++

real 6m42.508s

user 10m36.408s

sys 3m15.561s

Test 3
Regular g++
real 5m56.887s

user 5m32.211s

sys 3m17.743s

Modified g++

real 7m7.550s
user 4m6.848s
sys 1m53.461s

Fedora Live CD...cool!

Never thought I would see the day, making a Fedora Live CD! I used different references, but the main one I stuck to was the HOW TO create a live cd page on Fedora's website (it was very helpful).

To personalize this live cd, I wanted to edit my own kickstart. Instead of starting from scratch, I found a bunch of kick start files in the /usr/share/spin-kickstarts / directory. I decided to use the fedora-livecd-desktop.ks. I copied this kickstart file to my home directory and began surgery!

I wanted to include my rpm that I had packaged a while ago into this, so I linked the rpm using...

repo --name="apvlahopoulos" --baseurl=http://scotland.proximity.on.ca/apvlahopoulos/repo

To avoid getting sued, I made sure I removed any fedora related branding and instead added the generic branding...

# add generic branding
generic-release
generic-logos
generic-release-notes

#Remove Fedora Branding
-fedora-release
-fedora-logos
-fedora-release-notes

I ran the livecd-creator command, and voilaaaaaaa!

FSOSS '09

This year was the first time I attended FSOSS. Since being in Chris Tyler's Software Build and Release course, I decided it would be a good experience to get involved with the open source community. I immediately signed up to volunteer for the event!

I hope everyone who attended the event appreciated the informational pamphlets (because they took forever to fold! lol)




















Unfortunately I wasn't able to come to the event until lunch time. However, the good news was I made it just in time for lunch (the food was amazing). After talking to Catherine the day before about her presentation, I checked out part of her presentation about Canvas 3D JS Library. The reception was also enjoyable. I was able to talk about the event and about school overall with other students.