1. Login as user root;
2. Download file tzdata<year>l.tar.gz from ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/ or some other tzdata provider:

#wget ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata2010k.tar.gz

3. Extract timezone info file “africa” from the tarball using following command:

#tar -zxf tzdata2010k.tar.gz

#cd tzdata2010k

4. Modify file “africa” or some other zone by using your favorite text editor (vi, nano or something else):

#vi africa

(I have changed it to reflect my needs / EEST will change to EET on Aug 11, 5.00 AM)

5. Depending on your operating system, place file in one of the following directories:

/usr/share/lib/zoneinfo/src – Solaris
/usr/share/zoneinfo/src     – Linux

#mv africa /usr/share/lib/zoneinfo/src

#mv africa /usr/share/zoneinfo/src

6. Navigate to “src” directory and compile a new timezone data file using command “zic”

#cd /usr/share/zoneinfo/src

#zic africa

7. Copy newly generated file

 #cd .. && cp Africa/Cairo Egypt

8. Last step would be to test DST settings with following command:

#zdump -v Egypt | grep 2010

You should be able output similar to this, depending on what you have configured:

#zdump -v Egypt | grep 2010
Egypt Wed Aug 11 09:34:23 2010 UTC = Wed Aug 11 11:34:23 2010 EET isdst=0
Egypt Thu Apr 29 21:59:59 2010 UTC = Thu Apr 29 23:59:59 2010 EET isdst=0
Egypt Thu Apr 29 22:00:00 2010 UTC = Fri Apr 30 01:00:00 2010 EEST isdst=1
Egypt Wed Aug 11 01:59:59 2010 UTC = Wed Aug 11 04:59:59 2010 EEST isdst=1
Egypt Wed Aug 11 02:00:00 2010 UTC = Wed Aug 11 04:00:00 2010 EET isdst=0
Egypt Wed Sep 8 21:59:59 2010 UTC = Wed Sep 8 23:59:59 2010 EET isdst=0
Egypt Wed Sep 8 22:00:00 2010 UTC = Thu Sep 9 01:00:00 2010 EEST isdst=1
Egypt Thu Sep 30 20:59:59 2010 UTC = Thu Sep 30 23:59:59 2010 EEST isdst=1
Egypt Thu Sep 30 21:00:00 2010 UTC = Thu Sep 30 23:00:00 2010 EET isdst=0

That it is it! As you can se from above output time will automatically change on 5.00AM EEST and it will go one hour back to 4.00AM EET. I hope that this blog post clarify this procedure.

1. zic
2. zdump

Few days ago I had interesting request to tweak Linux on Samsung LCD TV. At first, I was kind of surprised that Linux is supported on TV, but it is normal. Linux is very strong competitor on the appliance based market and it was just about time to face those kind of installations. The main goal was to enable telnet on firmware in order to be able to connect to TV, and after that to load Common Internet File System to be able to use network mounts. Since I didn’t know anything about Samsung TV series and belonging firmware versions I needed to read something about that. Basically, there are differences in versions based on producing years and processors that are supported. This text is about to cover Samsung LCD TV LE40A756 and A856 with firmware T-RBYDEU. I need to mention that it is kind of easier to work with other models of Samsung LCD TVs since they seam to open more possibilities (this is just my opinion) for firmware hacking but this version was very interesting to play with as well. Since this firmware (as much as all other appliance based firmware versions) is using squash file system, to be able to add something on filesystem we would need to unsquash file system (unsquash is viable thru squashfs-tools) and then perform necessary changes. Since I am using Ubuntu which is providing newer version of squashfs-tools package than it is required (Ubuntu is providing squashfs-tools version 3.1 and it is required to have version 2.0) I didn’t follow that procedure. However, for those that would like to give it a try you can follow this procedure. We will follow other procedure.

Downloads

Navigate to Samsung web site > Support > Downloads > TV Audio Video > Choose a product type>: Television > Choose a product subtype: LCD TV > Select your TV model and then click on Select. You will be provided with the link to download your firmware version. In our case firmware is called T-RBYDEU.exe.

Firmware work

Using some of the decompression tools like 7zip, WinRAR or some other program that you use on the daily basis, we need to extract .exe file that we have downloaded. I will describe procedure under Linux operating system using 7zip:

7z x T-RBYDEU.exe

Once done, you will be able to see extracted files in directory T-RBYDEU. Please note that you will be able to see those files:

gomez@gomez-laptop:/media/Data_/T-RBYDEU$ ls -la
total 40
drwx—— 1 gomez gomez     0 2009-05-11 23:38 .
drwx—— 1 gomez gomez  4096 2010-04-01 16:22 ..
-rwxrwxrwx 1 gomez gomez 18929 2009-04-17 16:16 crc
drwx—— 1 gomez gomez  4096 2009-05-11 23:38 image
-rwxrwxrwx 2 gomez gomez  8676 2009-04-17 16:16 MicomCtrl
gomez@gomez-laptop:/media/Data_/T-RBYDEU$ cd image/
gomez@gomez-laptop:/media/Data_/T-RBYDEU/image$ ls -la
total 58166
drwx—— 1 gomez gomez     4096 2009-05-11 23:38 .
drwx—— 1 gomez gomez        0 2009-05-11 23:38 ..
-rwxrwxrwx 1 gomez gomez  8155136 2009-04-17 16:16 appdata.img
-rwxrwxrwx 1 gomez gomez   602112 2009-04-17 16:16 boot.img
-rwxrwxrwx 1 gomez gomez 37646336 2009-04-17 16:16 exe.img
-rwxrwxrwx 1 gomez gomez   177920 2009-04-17 16:16 fnw.bin
-rwxrwxrwx 1 gomez gomez       17 2009-04-17 16:16 info.txt
-rwxrwxrwx 1 gomez gomez    99680 2009-04-17 16:16 oneboot.bin
-rwxrwxrwx 1 gomez gomez  3424256 2009-04-17 16:16 rootfs.img
-rwxrwxrwx 2 gomez gomez  3172612 2009-04-17 16:16 T-RBYDAUM
-rwxrwxrwx 2 gomez gomez  3172612 2009-04-17 16:16 T-RBYDEUM
-rwxrwxrwx 1 gomez gomez   228296 2009-04-17 16:16 u-boot.bin
-rwxrwxrwx 2 gomez gomez       47 2009-04-17 16:16 validinfo.txt
-rwxrwxrwx 2 gomez gomez       43 2009-04-17 16:16 version_info.txt
-rwxrwxrwx 1 gomez gomez  2864533 2009-04-17 16:16 vmlinux.ub
gomez@gomez-laptop:/media/Data_/T-RBYDEU/image$

As per above output, please note that we have directory called image, and from the interesting files we have exe.img and validinfo.txt which will be used in following text.

Firmware tweaks

Next thing that we need to do is to prepare exe.img for additional changes in order to be able to telnet to TV and use some networking services like CIFS. Now, navigate to image directory and create directory temp:

gomez@gomez-laptop:/media/Data_/T-RBYDEU$ cd image/
gomez@gomez-laptop:/media/Data_/T-RBYDEU/image$ mkdir temp
gomez@gomez-laptop:/media/Data_/T-RBYDEU/image$

Once done, we will mount exe.img with the type of vfat to newly created temp directory:

gomez@gomez-laptop:/media/Data_/T-RBYDEU/image$ sudo mount -t vfat -o loop exe.img temp/

With above command, we have mounted exe.img to temp directory. Please note that we have following files inside temp directory:

gomez@gomez-laptop:/media/Data_/T-RBYDEU/image$ cd temp/
gomez@gomez-laptop:/media/Data_/T-RBYDEU/image/temp$ ls -la
total 28980
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 16384 1970-01-01 01:00 .
drwx—— 1 gomez gomez 4096 2010-04-04 19:06 ..
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 29487160 2009-04-17 16:16 exeDSP
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 8192 2009-04-17 16:16 modules
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 131072 2009-04-17 16:16 $rfs_log.lo$
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 8192 2009-04-17 16:16 rfs_pool.sy$
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4374 2009-04-17 16:16 run
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4525 2009-04-17 16:16 start.sh
gomez@gomez-laptop:/media/Data_/T-RBYDEU/image/temp$

Please note that we have start.sh file which we will use in following text.

Scripts

Using your favourite text editor, replace current start.sh file with following:

#!/bin/sh

if [ -e /mtd_chmap/start.sh ]
then
echo “user start.sh found!”
/mtd_chmap/start.sh
else

export PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin
#export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:/usr/lib:/lib
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/mtd_cmmlib:/usr/local/lib:/usr/lib:/lib
export HOME=/tmp/root
export TERM=linux
export LOGNAME=”root”
cd /dtv/usb
PU=`cat log | grep Mount`
PU=`echo ${PU##MountDir : }`
echo $PU
$PU/usb.sh &

mount

## mount -n -t usbfs none /proc/bus/usb

ulimit -s 2048

export PS1=’\h:\w\$ ‘

## STAPI Root Device Name?## ———————-
ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME=stapi
export ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME

## STAVMEM Device Name
## ——————-
STAVMEM_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stavmem_ioctl
export STAVMEM_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STAUDLX Device Name
## ——————-
STAUDLX_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/staudlx_ioctl
export STAUDLX_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STBLAST Device Name
## ——————-
STBLAST_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stblast_ioctl
export STBLAST_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STBLIT Device Name
## ——————
STBLIT_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stblit_ioctl
export STBLIT_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STCC Device Name
## —————-
STCC_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stcc_ioctl
export STCC_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STCLKRV Device Name
## ——————-
STCLKRV_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stclkrv_ioctl
export STCLKRV_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STDENC Device Name
## ——————
STDENC_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stdenc_ioctl
export STDENC_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STEVT Device Name
## —————–
STEVT_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stevt_ioctl
export STEVT_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STFASTFILTER Device Name
## ————————
STFASTFILTER_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stfastfilter_ioctl
export STFASTFILTER_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STFDMA Device Name
## ——————
STFDMA_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stfdma_ioctl
export STFDMA_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STGFB Device Name
## —————–
STGFB_CORE_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stgfb_core
export STGFB_CORE_DEV_PATH
STGFB_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stgfb_ioctl
export STGFB_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STHDMI Device Name
## ——————
STHDMI_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/sthdmi_ioctl
export STHDMI_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STI2C Device Name
## —————–
STI2C_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=”/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/sti2c_ioctl”
export STI2C_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STLAYER Device Name
## ——————-
STLAYER_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stlayer_ioctl
export STLAYER_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STMERGE Device Name
## ——————-
STMERGE_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=”/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stmerge_ioctl”
export STMERGE_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STPIO Device Name
## —————–
STPIO_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stpio_ioctl
export STPIO_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STPTI4 Device Name
## ——————
STPTI4_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stpti4_ioctl
export STPTI4_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STSMART Device Name
## ——————-
STSMART_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stsmart_ioctl
export STSMART_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STSYS Device Name
## —————–
STSYS_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stsys_ioctl
export STSYS_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STTTX Device Name
## —————–
STTTX_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stttx_ioctl
export STTTX_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STTUNER Device Name
## ——————-
STTUNER_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/sttuner_ioctl
export STTUNER_DEV_PATH

## STVBI Device Name
## —————–
STVBI_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stvbi_ioctl
export STVBI_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STVID Device Name
## —————–
STVID_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stvid_ioctl
export STVID_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STVIN Device Name
## —————–
STVIN_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stvin_ioctl
export STVIN_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STVMIX Device Name
## ——————
STVMIX_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stvmix_ioctl
export STVMIX_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STVOUT Device Name
## ——————
STVOUT_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stvout_ioctl
export STVOUT_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

## STVTG Device Name
## —————–
STVTG_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/stvtg_ioctl
export STVTG_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

STTKDMA_IOCTL_DEV_PATH=/dev/${ST_DEV_ROOT_NAME}/sttkdma_ioctl
export STTKDMA_IOCTL_DEV_PATH

RUN=1
/exe/exeDSP

Please note bold lines. Basically, it is the same file except that we are instructing our Linux firmware to load usb.sh script which needs to be located on USB root directory. usb.sh script will instruct Linux firmware to start busybox instance of telnet deamon so that we are able to telnet to our TV, and additionally it will load cifs.ko kernel module which will enable Common Internet File System so that we are able to mount some network devices on our Linux firmware. usb.sh script looks like:

#! /bin/sh

echo “!!!!!!!!!!!!!! USB START !!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

/bin/stty -F /dev/ttyAS0 ospeed 57600 ispeed 57600
#line before enables console for speed 57600. Put ‘debug’ to console and you see menu, put ’12′ and ENTER
echo “!!!!!!!!!!!!!! start console on 57600 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

#sleep 25 sec is need for wait ethernet start
sleep 25

cd /dtv/usb
PU=`cat log | grep Mount`
PU=`echo ${PU##MountDir : }`

echo “!!!!!!!!!!!!!! start telnet !!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
$PU/busybox telnetd -l /bin/sh

echo “!!!!!!!!!!!!!! start cifs.ko !!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
cd $PU
insmod cifs.ko

sleep 4

echo “!!!!!!!!!!!!!! clear old contents USB on TV !!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
rm /mtd_contents/V* -R
rm /mtd_contents/database -R

echo “!!!!!!!!!!!!!! start mount !!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
mount -t cifs //192.168.0.1/photo $PU/photo -o user=user_xp -o pass=password_xp
mount -t cifs //192.168.0.1/mp3 $PU/mp3 -o user=user_xp -o pass=password_xp
mount -t cifs //192.168.0.1/video $PU/video -o user=user_xp -o pass=password_xp

mount

echo “!!!!!!!!!!!!!! USB END !!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Please note bold lines. Basically, we are starting telnet daemon and loading cifs.ko kernel module. After that, we are mounting some Windows XP shares from our personal computer which is working on 192.168.0.1 IP address. Once this file is loaded, and those mount locations are created you will be able to use files within above directories on your TV from the TV menus.

Please note that usb.sh, cifs.ko, busybox files and mp3, video, and photo directories needs to be located on USB root location.

Once done with that, we are ready to preform final changes to our firmware. First thing that we need to do is to umount temp directory:

gomez@gomez-laptop:/media/Data_/T-RBYDEU$ sudo umount /home/gomez/Desktop/T-RBYDEU/temp

Then, we need to delete temp directory:

gomez@gomez-laptop:/media/Data_/T-RBYDEU/image$ sudo rm -rf temp/

Once done with that, we need to change CRC information, because we have changed exe.img file. We can do that as follows:

gomez@gomez-laptop:/media/Data_/T-RBYDEU/image$ crc32 exe.img
cdc8080c

Once we have CRC information, we need to enter new value to validinfo.txt file:

gomez@gomez-laptop:/media/Data_/T-RBYDEU/image$ cat validinfo.txt
*007_exe.img_663430d9*011_appdata.img_a485b538

Please note value 663430d9. We need to change that value with cdc8080c that we have got as output from crc32 command. You can do that by using your favourite text editor. Once done with that, we are done with tweaking our Linux firmware. Your USB pen content should look like this:

gomez@gomez-laptop:~/Desktop/USB$ ls -la
total 3644
drwxr-xr-x 6 gomez gomez    4096 2010-04-05 08:59 .
drwx—— 8 gomez gomez    4096 2010-04-05 09:03 ..
-rwxrwxrwx 1 gomez gomez  992084 2009-11-18 23:13 busybox
-rwxrwxrwx 1 gomez gomez 2707316 2009-11-17 20:08 cifs.ko
drwx—— 2 gomez gomez    4096 2009-12-28 09:12 mp3
drwx—— 2 gomez gomez    4096 2009-12-28 09:12 photo
drwx—— 3 gomez gomez    4096 2010-04-05 08:59 T-RBYDEU
-rwxrwxrwx 1 gomez gomez    1026 2009-12-28 09:14 usb.sh
drwx—— 2 gomez gomez    4096 2009-12-28 09:12 video

If that is the case, you can put this USB to your TV, turn it on and you will be prompted to upgrade firmware with firmware version listed on your USB pen. Once you perform this upgrade, you will be able to telnet to your TV. Check your TV IP address from TV menus, and then using Linux shell, or if you are Windows user using Putty, telnet to your TV and enjoy power of your Linux shell. Also, using TV menus and Common Internet File System – CIFS, you can play some music, video or photos on your TV (as described above).

If you are lazy to give a check to this procedure, you can download fully operational USB image on this link. You are doing that on your own risk and author of this blog post is not responsible for any damage that you might cause by some operation.

Enjoy power of Linux shell on your Samsung TV!

For more information please visit following links:

1. SamyGo wiki pages
2. How to enable Telnet on Samsung TV’s
3. Hacking T-RBYDEUC Firmware – LE40A756 and A856

http://www.lpi.org/verify
LPI ID: LPI000116482
Code: uuw3rpvp8v

1. What is Linux Professional Institute?
2. Linux Professional Insitute Certifications

Anketa se ne može uzeti kao definitivan pokazatelj iz mnogo razloga (čak šta više, bilo bi interesantno saznati ko ima službeno pravo da proglasi ovakve ankete realnim pokazateljima) međutim definitivno može da pokaže smjer kretanja pojedinih elemenata koji se direktno tiču FOSS community/a. Interesantno je to da je ove godine anketa zabilježila gotovo dvostruko više posjeta nego prošle godine.

U sljedećem tekstu probat ću da se osvrnem na rezultate:

Prema navedenoj statistici najveću zastupljenost kao i prošle godine ima Ubuntu Linux, što je bilo i za očekivati. Ubuntu je i na Distro watchu već dugo vremena zakovan na prvom mjestu i razvoj ovakve situacije je bio sasvim očekivan. SuSE na drugom mjestu očekivano, mada sam mislio da bi pozicija mogla biti dosta ugrožena od kategorije koja se nalazi pod ‘Other Debian’ (jer ima zaista veliki broj distribucija baziranih na istom). Ono što me iznenadilo na navedenom chart/u jeste veoma dobra pozicioniranost Gentoo Linux/a za kojeg nisam pretpostavljao da ovako visoko kotira.

Na području internet preglednika ništa se nije mijenjalo. Firefox je zadržao apsolutnu dominaciju nad Konquerorom i Operom i vjerujem da će se isti trend nastaviti duže vremena.

Ovaj me chart uvijek iznenadi pozitivno, iako su rezultati koji su navedeni sasvim očekivani. Ubuntu forsira GNOME, od verzije 10 SuSE Linux radi isto, tako da je GNOME dominacija očekivana. Bez obzira na sve, smatram da se KDE prema ovoj statistici veoma dobro drži što potvrđuje kvalitet istog.

Da kvalitetan proizvod sa jakim marketingom iza sebe može da promjeni i navike korisnika prema gore navedenom chart/u pokazuje Thunderbird. Iskreno sam se iznenadio kada sam vidio da ima prednost nad Evolution/om koji dolazi kao default emal klijent uz GNOME i Kmail/om koji je tu uz svaku instalaciju KDE/a.

Posebno interesantna mi je ova statistkika. Pored prilično kvalitetnih virtualizacijskih modela kao što je vserver, qemu ili neki drugi korisnici se okreću dobrom starom Wine/u. VMWare solidno kotira na ovoj ljestvici ali mislim da je Crossover podbacio iako se radi o dosta kvalitetnom proizvodu.

Sve u svemu, veoma interesantna godišnja statistika koja pokazuje da ukoliko se radi o kvalitetnom proizvodu sa jakim marketingom, ni lobi proizvođaća ili navike korisnika nisu prepreka u korištenju istih.

1. 2007 Desktop Linux Survey results revealed
2. Ubuntu Linux
3. Distro watch
4. SuSE Linux
5. Firefox
6. Thunderbird
7. Gentoo Linux
   
8. VMWare
9. Crossover office

Radi se o veoma dobroj mašini: Fujitsu Siemens TX200 S3. Mašina je opremljena sa dva Xeon procesora, dva gigabajta RAM/a, tri gigabitna ethernet/a, RAID kontrolorom i ostalom opremom sa kojom mašine tog tipa dolaze.

Izbor operativnog sistema sveo se na dvije moguće opcije: Gentoo i Debian. Kako sam projekat trebao da uradim u svoje slobodno vrijeme (dakle, poslije posla, a slobodnog vremena je uvijek malo), te sa obzirom na činjenicu da je kompajliranje spor i kompleksan posao Debian se učinio boljom solucijom i na mašini sve uskoro veselo vrtio Debian Etch. Dakle, Gentoo koji se veselo vrtio dvije godine (čini mi se) zamjenjen je Debianom.

40/ak gigabajta samba share/a se prebacivalo nekoliko sati sa starog servera koristeći rsync. U međuvremenu, prebacivano je desetak aktivnih domena sa svim sadržajima. To je naravno podrazumijevalo podešavanje baze, a za tu svrhu redovno koristim dobri stari mysql u posljednjoj stabilnoj verziji (iako planiram da polako sve prebacujem na PGSQL). Dok je rsync lijepo obavljao svoj dio posla, vrijeme je korišteno i za podešavanje DNS servera. Kako tu uvijek ima promjena od verzije do verzije, ovaj put bilo je problema sa MX exchangerima ali i to je relativno brzo riješeno.

Očekivano, najveći problem je predstavljala migracija mail servera. Nekoliko stotina account/a i nekoliko hiljada mailova u njima, kao i sve autentifikacijske postavke trebale su da budu prebaćene bez ikakvih problema. Radi kompatibilnosti koristio sam isti mail server, tako da sam nakon nekih manjih peripetija imamo POP3, IMAP, Spamassasin, CLAM antivirus i ostalo ureduno funkcionirajući.

Dakle, urađeno je prilicno dosta posla u relativno kratkom vremenskom periodu (nekih desetak dana posla, ali samo u slobodno vrijeme). Sa obzirom na činjenicu da tamo imaju ljude koji će održavati ovu instalaciju, moj posao na ovom projektu je završen na duge staze.

1. Fujitsu Siemens
2. Fujitsu Siemens TX200 S3
3. Univerzitet

Review možete pročitati na ovom linku.

1. Gentoo Linux
2. Release notes for Gentoo 2007.0

Moves

The following developers recently left the Gentoo project:

• Luis Medinas (metalgod)
• Sandro Bonazzola (sanchan)
• Daniel Robbins (drobbins)

Adds

The following developers recently joined the Gentoo project:

• Daniel Robbins (drobbins) AMD64 team
• Matt Drew (aetius) Security team

Gentoo Weekly Newsletter: 5 March 2007

Interesantno je to da se Daniel Robbins, ?ovjek koji je po?eo cijelu pri?u oko Gentoo Linux-a (i koji je poslije toga svega radio devet mjeseci za Microsoft) vratio u Gentoo project, me?utim, napustio je isti u istoj sedmici. Navodno, razlog je �estok napad na istog od strane pojedinih Gentoo developera. Mislim da su ovakve stvari cijeloj Gentoo ali i Linux zajednici zaista nepotrebne.

It’s not. Despite the fact that you’ll see this repeated ad infinitum by users and some developers alike. Take another look through all of our documentation and the About Gentoo and Philosophy pages on the website. Nothing in there about “choice” at all, is there?Let’s take a look at what we do see. Words like adaptability. Tools. Not choice. So, what is the strength, the purpose of Gentoo?

Prije nekoliko dana na forumu Udru�enja Linux korisnika Bosne i Hercegovine pokrenuta je interesantna anketa o tome koliko ko godina ima i koju Linux distribuciju koristi. Diskusija se posebno razvila oko toga da li je Gentoo Linux spreman za produktivnu okolinu, a primjedbe su se odnosile i na striktno ne pridr�avanje LSB-a, “samodestruktivni update” i sl.

Prvo pitanje koje sebi treba da postavimo jeste u su�tini �ta je to produktivna okolina? To opet zavisi od mnogo faktora, kao �to je kolika je firma, ?ime se ta firma bavi, koja je struktura proizvodnje i sl. Kao i mnogo puta prije, mislim da korisnici/firme treba da biraju distribuciju ili mo�da je bolje re?i operativne sisteme prema svojim potrebama, tj. da koriste ono �to zadovoljava potrebe. Da li je to slu?aj sa Gentoo-om u okru�enju gdje ja radim/�ivim? Jeste. I veoma mi je drago zbog toga.

“Samodestruktivni” update? O ovome je bilo mnogo diskusije. Nikada mi nije jasno kako bi ljudi sami mogu dopustiti update cijele distribucije a pri tome ne obra?aju?i pa�nju �ta ?e se stvarno desiti sa instalacijom. Nije to samo slu?aj sam Gentoo-om, to je slu?aj i sa svim popularnijim Linux distribucijama (sjetimo se Ubuntu-a i Xorga prije nekoliko mjeseci). Mnogo vi�e o svemu tome mo�ete pro?itati na ovom linku.

Da li je opravdano to �to se Gentoo striktno ne pridr�ava LSB-a? Nije. Me?utim, ko se to zapravo pridr�ava LSB-a? Debian kao jedna od najpopularnijih Linux distribucija na tr�i�tu server operativnih sistema se ne pridr�ava, Fedora kao ozbiljan kompetittor na tr�i�tu desktop operativnih sistema se ne pridr�ava. Uostalom ko se prdr�ava a ko ne mo�ete ?itati na ovom linku.

Jo� jednom ponavljam, izbor operativnog sistema, pa slobodno mogu re?i i Linux distribucije treba da se ocjeni u zavisnosti od toga da li zadovoljava sve potrebe koje imate u svakodnevnom �ivotu/radu.

Svakako na kraju preporu?ujem tekst It’s not about choice.

In the same way, automated tools suck. They�re great once you understand the black box they hide from you, but ignoring that black box entirely is a route to disaster.

Sa obzirom da usko sara?ujem sa ljudima koji su prisustvovali na radionici, primjetio sam napredak i kod njih. Me?utim, ono �to treba spomenuti jeste da najve?i broj novih korisnika ne?e koristiti Gentoo za u?enje, ve? ?e se okrenuti ka nekim popularnijim Linux distribucijama kao �to je openSuSE, Mandriva, Fedra ili Ubuntu zbog njihovih visoko ispoliranih UI-ja.

Svakako preporu?ujem ?lanak koji mo�ete pro?itati na ovoj adresi.

Sa obzirom da se svaki paket kompajlira iz source-a, odlu?io sam se za minimalisti?ki fluxbox, tako da je cijela instalacija bez bilo kakvih dodatnih paketa trajala pribli�no osam sati. Danas sam instalirao firefox i thunderbird, ali kao binary, jer iz iskustva znam da bi se firefox kompajlirao cijeli dan. Tako?er, gaim je instaliran. Ostalo je da se instalira jo� dosta aplikacija kao �to su Open Office Writer, Ekiga.. Da, Gentoo je prili?no “time consuming” ali se isplati jer se dobija vi�estruko na brzini, ali i na ugo?aju u radu.

Vezano za fluxbox, savjetujem da se instalira sa gnome useflagom. Prilikom instalacije, odlu?io sam se za dobri stari GDM, pa sam i njega instalirao. eterm je moj primarni terminal:

emerge fluxbox xlockmore x11-terms/eterm

emerge gdm & rc-update add xdm default

i nakon toga u /etc/rc.conf postavite:

DISPLAYMANAGER=gdm

Tako?er, ukoliko volite �minku na svom desktopu savjetujem da instalirate prili?no lijep spektar stilova i tema sa:

emerge commonbox-styles commonbox-styles-extra fluxbox-styles-fluxmod gentoo-artwork

Danas sam kao poklon dobio Logitech RX 1000 laserski mi�, od kolega sa posla, i to ?e uveliko pomo?i u kori�tenju fluxboxa.

Da li se isplati pro?i kroz cijeli ovaj proces zbog nekoliko megabajta RAM-a vi�ka? Definitivno.