We have started to use Fedora at work and I was thinking that I might change the OS on my netbook to Fedora.  I would like to get better with Linux and that will only happen if I can keep the commands staright in my head.  I keep mixing up Fedora (RedHat based) and Ubuntu (Debian based) commands and it gets frustrating.  I am also thinking about building a new desktop machine.  I hesitate to buy one since I want to load Linux on it and use something more powerful then the netbook.  I suppose I could use Virtual Box or VMware Workstation and just run Linux in VM.  Not really the solution that I am looking for but it could work.  Yeah, I think I am going to load Fedora on this baby after I finish this post!

I’m new to using Fedora, and linux for that matter. I couldn’t access my buildings windows network share. After hours of searching to no avail, trying overcomplicated solutions didn’t work. I finally came across a solution that worked and was simple to apply.

I have a vague idea of what iptables does: firewalling and packet filtering. This should disable this firewall and allow you to access the windows network share.

Enter this code into terminal:

$ su - (change to root)
# iptables -F
# service iptables stop

Try accessing the windows share. If it works iptables was the problem. If you’re not into going firewall free I suggest looking up how to add and remove firewall rules to iptables to allow samba through. Good luck.

Source

Ich möchte jetzt schon mal testen, wie sich Red Hat Enterprise 6 bzw. CentOS 6 auf meiner Hardware verhalten wird. Deshalb hab mir Fedora 12 heruntergeladen, F12 wird wahrscheinlich als “Unterbau” für Red Hat Enterprise Version 6 verwendet.

Features:

Gnome 2.28
KDE 4.3.x
Kernel 2.6.31
Networkmanager mit Unterstützung für UMTS-Verbindungen
KMS
und vieles mehr

Installation

Die Installation von F12 wird mittels des Installers Anaconda realisiert. Die Installation geht wie bei den meisten Distributionen intuitiv von der Hand, es wird sogar eine Option geboten, ein verschlüsseltes LVM anzulegen. Firewall und SELinux werden standardmäßig installiert und aktiviert.

Software Installation und Repositories

Nach der erfolgreichen Installation ging es an die Nachinstallation von Software und Repositories.
Folgende beiden Repositories habe ich eingebunden, diese sollten für den Standarddesktopuser reichen:

RPMFusion
Adobe-Flash-Repository

Anschließend ging es an die Nachinstallation von Software, da die Fedora Live CD abgespeckt wurde :

Exaile
VLC-Videoplayer
MPlayer (Gnome)
OpenOffice
Gimp
Gnomad2
JDownloader
Flashplugin
AWN
und die restlichen Codecs

Das Problem mit den w32codecs

Für die w32codecs gibt es für Fedora leider kein RPM, aber man kann sich ganz einfach behelfen.
Das aktuelle Archiv der w32codecs herunterladen und entpacken. Mittels dem Befehl mkdir /usr/local/lib/codecs/ den Ordner codecs erstellen.
Die entpackten Dateien in den erstellten Ordner kopieren, wechseln in den Ordner wo die entpackten Dateien liegen und
cp * /usr/local/lib/codecs ausführen. Für die Benutzung des MPlayers muss noch ein Softlink gesetzt werden
ln -s /usr/local/lib/codecs /usr/lib/win32/

Troubleshooting: Sollten trotz alledem die Codecs nicht erkannt werden, alle Codecs noch nach usr/lib/codecs kopieren.

IPV6 deaktivieren:

In die Datei /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf folgende Zeilen eintragen:

# ipv6 deaktiviert
blacklist ipv6
install ipv6 /bin/true

Erfahrungsbericht und Fazit

Bis jetzt hatte ich mit F12 durchwegs positive Erfahrungen, meine ATI-Mobility X300 bietet von Anfang an 3D Unterstützung. Es funktioniert sogar die Hardwarebeschleunigung, deshalb lässt sich z. B. xmoto spielen und Compiz aktivieren. Im Gegensatz zu den vorherigen Fedora-Releases habe ich noch nicht das Gefühl mit beeding edge Sofware zu arbeiten, d. h. ich hatte bis jetzt keine Bugs oder Abstürze, das System läuft bis jetzt subjektiv stabil! Deshalb freue ich mich schon auf CentOS 6, da es meine Hardware ohne Nachinstallation von Treibern unterstützt und hoffentlich _noch_ stabiler laufen wird!

Hi folks ….

Today m gonna talk about Empathy IM client included in the latest Fedora 12

• Empathy is the multi protocol IM client supporting various protocols like XMPP ( Jabber ), Yahoo, Gtalk, Live (MSN), MySpace, and many other platforms.
• For detailed list of supported protocol features visit  http://telepathy.freedesktop.org/wiki/Protocols_Support
• File transfer for XMPP, and local networks.
• Voice and video call using SIP, XMPP, Google Talk and MSN.
• Sharing and viewing location information.
• Private and group chat (with smileys and spell checking).
• Conversation logging.
• Automatic away and extended away presence.
• Automatic reconnection using Network Manager.

The most attractive feature of Empathy IM is Conversation theming

For example,  the theme used by me in the below screenshot is  ”Adium Matte”

It simulates Apple iChat’s bubbles while chatting ….

Similarly you can find a lot many themes to download at :-

http://www.adiumxtras.com/index.php?a=search&cat_id=5&sort=ranking&user_id=0&s=&start=0

The question is to find an easy way to download as well as  install these themes.

Well, I used the following route :-

• There is a convenient shell script for downloading and installing themes from adiumxtras.
• Visit http://gist.github.com/191499 andclick download button.
• Save it at a convenient location. ( the name of the shell script will be ” adiumxtra-install ”  )
• Now visit http://www.adiumxtras.com/index.php?a=search&cat_id=5&sort=ranking&user_id=0&s=&start=0
• Choose your favorite theme.
• Move the mouse pointer on the file size under “Install” ( Don’t click the file size )
• Copy the link address
• Now open up a shell ( command prompt ).
• Navigate to the directory where you have saved the shell script ” adiumxtra-install “ downloaded earlier.
• Type ‘  adiumxtra-install <The link address you have copied> ‘
• For example ‘ adiumxtra-install adiumxtra://www.adiumxtras.com/download/2160 ‘ will download and install “Adium Matte” ( seen in the above screenshot ).
• Now when you open up Empathy, under Edit, go to Preferences, and click the Themes tab
• Under the drop down list, you will see your newly installed theme !!!!!

There are a number of themes at http://www.adiumxtras.com/index.php?a=search&cat_id=5&sort=ranking&user_id=0&s=&start=0

The ” adium matte ”  theme seen in the above screenshot is available at  http://www.adiumxtras.com/index.php?a=search&s=adium+matte

You name it and Empathy has got it !!!

Do rate my post and give your wonderful comments !!!

Regards,

Shadab I. Wadiwala

twitter.com/shadab5

Hi,

Fedora 12 was officially released on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 !!!!

So far the reviews have been excellent !!!

Here are the various reviews coming from  all across the world.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2659895/

http://www.internetnews.com/mobility/article.php/3848846/Fedora+12+Takes+Aim+at+Linux+Networking.htm

http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2009/10/red-hat-fedora-12-constantine.html#more

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3848566/Fedora-12-Touts-Virtualization-Tools.htm

http://www.techworld.com.au/article/326717/fedora_linux_12_arrives_ups_multimedia_support

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3848891

http://linuxcritic.com/stories/35-Fedora-12-Review-and-Commentary.html

http://linuxers.org/article/fedora-12-upgrade-or-fresh-install

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/11/tip-of-the-hat-fedora-12-a-strong-update.ars

http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3848441/Fedora+12+Linux+Tackles+Virtualization.htm

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Fedora-12-Officially-Released-127223.shtml

Regards,

Shadab I. Wadiwala

Hi,

Citrix Receiver is a new lightweight software client that makes accessing virtual applications and desktops on any device as easy as turning on your TV.

Much like a satellite or cable TV receiver in a broadcast media service, Citrix Receiver allows IT organizations to deliver applications as an on-demand service to any device in any location with a rich  high definition experience.

As long as employees have Citrix Receiver installed, IT no longer has to worry about whether they are delivering to a PC in the office, a Mac at home, or an iPhone on the road. This approach radically simplifies desktop management for IT and gives end users far more flexibility and independence in how and where they work.

I used the following steps to install Citrix Receiver ( Client ) on my Fedora 12 box

Download the rpm file of Citrix Client ( Citrix Receiver ) at http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=3323&productId=186&c1=sot2755#top

On the shell issue the following command :-

su

< root password  >

yum install openmotif

Note :- openmotif libs are required for Citrix client and they are not present in newer Fedora installations

cd < directory where the citrix RPM file was download >

rpm -ivh ICAClient-11.0-1.i386.rpm

SELinux needs to be in permissive mode or disabled.

I referred http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=221173 and executed the following commands

mv /usr/share/fonts/cjkuni/fonts.dir /usr/share/fonts/cjkuni/fonts.dir.old

mv /usr/share/fonts/cjkuni/fonts.scale /usr/share/fonts/cjkuni/fonts.scale.old

Finally from the Fedora menu I can start the Citrix receiver ..   Eureka !!!!!!

Regards,

Shadab I. Wadiwala

twitter.com/shadab5

Do post your feedback !!!

Hi all,

I am not using fedora now,but infact sometimes few persons asked with me that how to install the packages in offline mode<using fedora iso or dvd without internet conncetion>

I stated to search,then i found the mere solution

“”The Fedora DVD has a ‘repository’ configured in it. So, all you need to
do is tell yum to use it.
Here’s how.

1. Mount the DVD to a known path (modify the following as per your
requirements):
mkdir /mnt/dvd
mount /dev/dvd /mnt/dvd

If you want to mount the ISO image (instead of the actual DVD):
mount -o loop /path/to/iso/image /mnt/dvd

2. Add a yum repository (do as root):
vim /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-dvd.repo

Add the following in that file:
[fedora-dvd]
name=Fedora DVD
baseurl=file:///mnt/dvd
enabled=0
gpgcheck=0

Save and close the file.

3. As given in the file, the repo is disabled by default. Otherwise,
every time you use yum, it will try to access the DVD mount point.

4. To install something from the DVD:
yum –disablerepo=* –enablerepo=fedora-dvd install some_package“”.

I got these contents from my one of discussion group

I hope this is worth for you unless give it here

Now use the following procedure to mount your windows partitions in Fedora / Linux at boot time itself

Also avoid entering root user password every time while Mounting your Windows Partitions   in Fedora
( In Fedora/Linux the process is called Mounting )

Open a Shell ( command prompt )
Type the following
su
<password>

rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm

rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

yum install fwfstab

Next execute the following command on the command prompt (Shell )

tail /var/log/messages

****  For this tutorial, lets assume that the label of your C drive ( Windows Drive ) is Drive_C

Now Open File Manager from Start Menu/ Fedora Menu ( F- Menu )

Now click on the Drive_C  icon on the Left side Menu .
It will ask for root password.
Type in the password

Then immediately again Execute the following command

tail /var/log/messages  ( You can simply use the UP arrow keys to avoid the typing work again )

Just notice the last line .
In the last line you will see something like ( /dev/sda<no>  )

Remember it by heart or note it down..  Its the device name used by Linux for your ” Drive_C “  Partition  

Now again in the File Manager right click the ” Drive_C  ” icon then click UNMOUNT …

It will ask for root password .. so please type it .. 

Now type the following command :-

mkdir /media/Drive_C    (   /media/Drive_C  will be a mount point where you will be mounting your  Windows “Drive_C” Drive )

All your contents of “Drive_C” drive will be visible under /media/Drive_C as it going to be defined as mount point in /etc/fstab  file

**For safety lets take a backup of the original “fstab” file .

**  A little bit about “fstab” file  **

This “fstab” file in /etc  directory contains the information and settings for the partitions you want to mount at boot time

So its better that you keep a backup of the original fstab file ( as we are gonna modify it now )

On the Shell, type

cd /etc   (Enter )
cp fstab fstab.old   ( Enter )

Above command will make a copy of your present fstab file

For backup we used the name fstab.old, which will also reside in /etc directory as our PWD ( present working Directory ) is still  /etc

Next type the following word on the Shell ( Remember Shell ?? the CMD ) 

fwfstab

This will open a window

Click on new entry

Under Device select Manual

Then type  /dev/sda<no>   ( Did you note that string { for eg.  /dev/sda3 }  on your Notes Plasma Widget from /var/log/messages output ?? )

Under File System, select Manual and type  ntfs-3g

Under Mount Point select the Mount point ( Remember we created /media/Drive_C  ????  )

Then click OK

Now click the File Menu and APPLY Changes …

There after click the Mount button .

The Windows partition Drive_C will be mounted in the Mount point directory /media/Drive_C

Now, even if you reboot your Fedora machine,  Drive_C will be always mounted at the boot time and there will be no requirement of root password being asked everytime  !!!

Hurrah !!!!!

Please Note :- It is not at all necessary that the name of the mount point directory ( created under /media ) should be same as the Windows Partition label.

Please revert back to us for any queries, and we will be happy to assist you.

Regards,
Shadab I. Wadiwala

Ext4 file system is the latest file system in linux.This is developing in ubuntu 9.04 ….. fedora 11(Leonardo)

But if you have set-up this file system for / means you have to assign ext3 file system seperately for /boot partition because still the GRUB is not developed in ext4

Ext4 file system has some problen in jaunty:: Lock-up problems,Data loss available in it.But these problems such was decreased in leonardo..

1 Tech info—-    cfdisk is the partition tool used in pacman(Arch linux)

If you need the info  deeply Google it

Hai friends,

If you have installed fedara OS you can use user login perhaps we may be some vital situation for root

Anyway this is the solution to enable root account

1.       Start your fedora 10

2.     After you got login prompt you have to press Ctrl+Alt+F1

3.Then it appears like these

fedora10 login:  ”Enter username here fedora10″

password : “you have to enter”

after that

it seems like this

fedora10 login: fedora10

Password:

Last login: Fri Dec 5 06:23:09 on tty4

[fedora10@fedora10 ~]$

4.   then you have to go su mode

[fedora10@fedora10 ~]$  su-

password:”Root password”

After that we have to edit gdm file for enable root

5. type

[root@fedora10 ~]# cat /etc/pam.d/gdm

then it displays

#%PAM-1.0auth [success=done ignore=ignore default=bad] pam_selinux_permit.soauth required pam_succeed_if.so user != root quietauth required pam_env.soauth substack system-auth

6. If you want backup that peculiar file you can take by issuing this command

cp -pr /etc/pam.d/gdm /etc/pam.d/gdm.bak **      because we are going to   edit that file,

7. aftert that  you have to give

[root@fedora10 ~]# vi /etc/pam.d/gdm for opening that file

then it displays like some few lines in that second line , you can view the string “user != root quiet“<without quotes>

8.You have to delete that particular string by pressing “X” key

h key—-> move cursor left

j key—–>  move cursor down

k key—–>move cursor up

l key ——-> move cursor right

9.Then you can save that by providing :wq

10.you can go to root account in fedora

File System Check on your system

fsck command using to check ur file system

unmount the file system which you want to check

Take system down to runlevel one

# init 1 //superuser mode

Unmount file system, for example if it is /home (/dev/sda2) file system then type command:

# umount /home or # umount /dev/sda2 then

# fsck /dev/sda2 then

# fsck.ext3 /dev/sda2 //if your sda2 is ext3

if any files recovered then they found in /home/lost+found directory

# mount /home //mount which you did unmount

# init 3 // goto multiuser mode

If you have any doubt regarding this please clarify and you have to do the above instruction carefully else you will be losing all your important data

Thanks to debian blogs

For already, surprisingly highly covered, reasons I have decided to look for a Fedora replacement. As such I wanted to outline a list of things I like to see in distros and also why I like Fedora so much.

• Performing your duty to mankind

I love making the world better, I am a strong believer in leaving the world in a better state than I got it. One of the most awesome moments of my life was definitely the day I looked at the usage statistics for Fedora and realised that millions of people potentially depend on my work. It inspired me to do better, to make things better, to invest more of myself in what I did for my own pleasure. For distributions to me this translates into fixing the underlying problems in computing, e.g. instead of plastering in proprietary driver over the problem which in return causes more problems of an undebugable nature we should invest time and effort in figuring out a real solution. It is my opinion that no distribution currently does this better than Fedora, it does mean that Fedora isn’t always suitable for all users currently but in the long run this is the only way to ensure a stable, vibrant platform.

• Openness over all

Everything should be as transparent as possible, solutions should be designed in the open with upstream. This ensures adoption and correctness. It is potentially slower and one cannot use it as a special sales argument for ones distro since everyone will have this work. This doesn’t matter a bit, if you build it they will come, and don’t be afraid to remind people that you make things happen – you deserve the positive press. Fedora deserves much more credit for the current state Free Software is in than they get, the investment in values of openness has payed off in all areas except public relations.

• Must have vibrant community

In a community there must be space for everyone, e.g, while I personally find python code vomit inducing to look at I don’t oppose people working on it. There are billions of people out there, we should be happy that people will work to make this the best possible platform for all manners of use cases. If the people you disagree with do good work, everyone wins, you included. A vibrant community also helps make things fun, it makes things easier, there is always someone to turn to for input. There is always someone to care for bugs. Fedora has a generally very good community, sadly not free of blemishes, it is fun to be part of at least 300 days out of the year – sadly on the rest it is a sad reality of ad hominems, character assassination and generally without focus on technology and friendship.

• Plan for tomorrow, live every day

We should be innovating, thinking new exciting thoughts. We should aspire to greatness and work hard at making it happen. There are people out there who think big thoughts but are unable to get them beyond mock ups and design documents, there are engineers who know how to implement things but think the same way about computers we have since the 60’s. There are fundamental problems not being able to see beyond classic computing, be the Einstein to the Newton of the present, be the next big thing, figure out what the next big thing is. Software engineers and real people rarely think alike, getting them together and learning to leverage these multiple sets of expertise to devise the best possible solution is important.

• Climbing Mount Probable

Progress should be as smooth as possible. There are literally millions of people willing to help testing specific areas if you make it easy, just go look at the feedback from the Nouveau test day, with specific test cases and an easy non destructive way to perform these tests we can rally pretty much anybody to spend an hour making sure everything is in good shape. The same is true for the innovations we put in the platform, as much as possible we should avoid flag day breakage. Let things be parallel installable, leverage testers to assess the current status. Know where you are, know where you are going, know how to get there. It is my opinion that currently, nobody does this better than Fedora, starting in the F11 cycle and hopefully extending to infinity.

• Superheroes need apply

Every community needs superheroes, we are not all equal beings. Some are just great and we should let them know. Fedora would not be the distro it is without Brian Pepple and Dave Jones e.g.. In the same way that Jo Shields is a superhero in the Ubuntu realm of things, Miguel and Fredrico are for Novell and Owen Taylor is for the desktop. Superheroes help us think about things the right way, instead of blindly solving problems they help us think about why and how to make things better. Superheroes invest their time to make our lives fundamentally better, often without pay or much love.

• There is a life after death.. of the server and desktop

Today computing is changing, it is in your phone, on your desktop, it powers the tasks you do every day online, it’s with you always. It wakes you up in the morning and helps you through your day. We need to think beyond the desktop and server, continuing to focus only on those two use cases and variation thereof is limiting. We need to run on interesting devices, we need to rethink interfaces to let people do their work on their netbooks, smart phones and other devices. We probably also should take appliances seriously as a deployment tactic, it helps people get their work done and helps us provide a smooth experience that is supportable. One size does not fit all. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t provide the very best desktop and server experience we can now, it means that is not the future.

The first thing is POST-Power On Self Test which is nothing but Testing your hardware with CMOS-Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor If some Error happens like Floppy does make bothering still your system boot.It ignore similar problems with some beeping. Once your POST is completed Then the RAM is awaked.The instructions tells the hardware to check the boot device which depends on your BIOS configuration.in my system first the hardware checks CD-Rom then it goes to the harddisk. When a boot device is found (assume itis your Harddisk)then your harddisk is told to go to 0th sector(0th head,0th cylinder,0th sector) it is nothing but Master Boot Record(MBR) then load and execute instructions here(MBR).some times MBR also called Master boot block.This block is also used to read the partition table mainly used to find the active partition.Once it finds the active partition, it begins to read and execute the instructions contained within the first block. After Executing the master boot block then it tells which block can execute or not, it may be last sector in last head. you would never know anything was wrong. As for as In linux “boot viruses” are possible which attacks the boot sector it can damage your system..the new viruses can allow CMOS to write into Master boot block it isvery dangerous.Therefore, you need to be especially careful when booting from floppies.mostly it affects when you boot your system using floppy something..so careful ok k if you considered in your windows OS you can see IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS files.these are real active partition files.you can remove it because it is system files..in Linux point of view LILO(linux Loader) is main file (Partition file) if you ve installed this it is the program you can be executed at first.so you can’t remove this..once again careful..so LILO is a boot loader..

Boot Figure

If you want to know deeply inform to me…..cheers…,

Lots of energy expended on Mono the past few days, attempts to violate bodhi in ways unspeakable and abominable to humanity turned up a bug. Not quite the progress imagined but now our users should have a nearly warning free Mono experience starting up Banshee, I say nearly since Boo has yet to be fixed up. I am unwilling to start deeply tinkering with this to bring Boo 0.9 into Fedora as this is not my package and it is rather complex, also the existing Boo package no longer compiles on F10 for some reason.

Most importantly we now have our own mailing list, to which I shall soon send out a proposed action plan. There is a lot of ground to cover to make Mono all it can be for Fedora users. E.g. our packaging guidelines have not been touched in years and definitely need some reviews and updates. Additionally there is work to do to bring a complete stack to our users and developers. Much excitement ahead.

Jeremy Katz kindly informed me that he has a patch to allow splitting out the debuginfo packages correctly for Mono which will bring much needed size reduction to our packages.

Also I am writing up documentation on how to correctly invoke Monodoc and having generating documentation where available be a required step for the packages covered by the SIG. This will require a full review of all our packages, and would make for great work for a beginning packager to get involved with. I am hoping to be able to setup tasks all the way from willing testers to experienced packagers, in the hope that everyone can contribute to the best of their ability and time. I find it important to be welcoming to any new talent however small, just something like having a group of people to turn to to do test installs of packages and confirm that bugs are closed or still valid is extremely helpful.

Finally Debian and Ubuntu are doing some interesting work patching Mono to reduce size and increase performance by forcing a full transition to Mono 2.0 which we definitely need to examine more closely.

1) Figure out who to talk to to get a mailing list set up for the SIG so we can do our work more effectively.

2) Get monodoc fixed and start converting Mono application specs to build documentation and regenerate the index at post and unpost time to let our users have access to all the nice API documentation.

3) Examine the Debian/Ubuntu work on Mono to obsolete mcs and .NET 1.0 support to save space.

4) Find someone capable and willing to do a Mono plugin for CrashCatcher, this will be especially important if the Banshee as default mediaplayer feature is accepted since we will need to catch Mono crashes. As Tomboy is part of the default GNOME desktop and likely found on many Fedora desktops at it stands this is an important piece of work regardless. I sadly am not qualified currently to do this.

5) Find someone capable of adapting the RPM debug stripper to speak Mono. All Mono packages currently ship the debug symbols in the main package because we aren’t capable of automatically stripping them out correct. I suspect one could alternatively manually do this in every package but that would be ugly beyond words.

6) Get approved Mono SIG members in ACL for all packages so we can survive things like Nigel Jones being to busy, or Paul Johnson disappearing for real life reasons.

7) Figure out the optimal way to do deployments of new Mono stacks to the stable platform so we at the most have to support 2 Mono stacks at any time. The stable and the one in rawhide (this latter one will likely only apply when Mono upstream have prereleases and release candidates for major updates).

Review and update Mono packaging guidelines, bring in upstream and maintainers from other distros to bring our guidelines in line with the formally requested standards upstream.

9) The eternal quest to get as many libraries into Fedora as possible to application developers can depend on Fedora as a prime development platform for .NET

10) Write polite bugreport templates to request information from users and streamline process for pushing bugs upstream. I idea of optimal bughandling would be to see the Mono SIG working closely with upstream to benefit everyone by pushing non-Fedora bugs back to upstream.

It’s been a while since I blogged last, I think I go through cycles, occasionally I am very energized and want to share every cool thing or thought that pops into my head. At other times, weeks can go by without the urge to blog hits me.

However here goes what has been happening lately, big changes. I have decided on 2 things, one is to live by the promise I made my fiancée and take better care of myself so I have started going to a gym. I try to make it 3 times a week for a 25 mins intensive cardio session plus some weight lifting, the effect is starting to be measurable as I have lost 2 kilos the past few weeks.

The other promise was to get more actively involved with Fedora again, so I submitted Mirage for review and it is currently available in Rawhide (and F9+10 once Banshee 1.4.2 gets pushed, which hopefully will be soon). Mirage is a plugin for the Banshee mediaplayer that offers spectrum analysis to generate automatic playlists based on song similarity.

I am also working on Moonlight packages for rpmfusion, so Fedora users might avail themselves of this technology despite the official Fedora stance. However there are issues getting the 1.0 release to compile against our system copy of cairo.

There is though a bit of sadness attached to coming back, as soon as I decided to come back. The assine and occasionally childish mono hate postings returned to the mailing lists. Jos,  Nicolas, Kevin and Jesse, I hope you are proud of yourselves for making it unfunny to contribute to Fedora working on perfectly valid Free Software. Additionally, Jesses comment specifically makes me worry that Red Hat might pull Mono from Fedora. Taking such action would make Fedora entirely useless to me and I would have to go look for a new home, something which I do not much feel like doing.

Tulisan ini adalah bagian ke-3 dari serial integrasi Samba + FDS. Setelah sebelumnya berhasil men-join workstation ke domain, saya menemukan masalah lain, yaitu user tidak dapat mengubah password.

Pesan yang muncul saat terjadi kegagalan mengubah password adalah : “The user name or old password is incorrect. Letters in password must be typed using the correct case”. Karena saya yakin bahwa password lama yang saya masukkan sudah benar – termasuk huruf besar dan huruf kecilnya – maka saya berkesimpulan bahwa ini masalah di samba dan FDS.

Langkah-langkah pemecahan masalah :

1. Seperti biasa, googling.
2. Solusi pertama saya dapat dari http://readlist.com/lists/lists.samba.org/samba/2/12779.html. Disana saya memperoleh petunjuk adanya switch -A pada perintah smbldap-useradd / usermod yang memberikan hak pada user untuk mengubah password (jika di set=1).
3. Setelah saya coba, ternyata saat mengubah password di windows tetap muncul pesan yang sama. Anehnya, saat saya login ulang menggunakan password lama, tidak berhasil. Sebaliknya, jika menggunakan password baru berhasil.
4. Kemudian saya mencoba memeriksa password user di server dengan perintah : “su <namauser>, tidak sebagai root, ternyata yang berhasil adalah password lama.
5. Saya sampai pada kesimpulan bahwa ketika gagal mengubah password di windows, yang terjadi adalah password user di ldap terganti tapi password unix tidak.
6. Tadinya di smb.conf terdapat baris : ldap passwd sync = yes. Menurut keterangan, jika baris ini sudah ada, saya tidak perlu lagi menyertakan baris passwd program = …….
7. Setelah mencoba kotak-katik, ternyata jika saya menambahkan “unix password sync = yes”, yang terjadi adalah muncul pesan error tidak dapat mengganti password, dan password memang tidak terganti. Tetapi jika saya menghilangkan semua line yang berhubungan dengan mengubah unix password, termasuk “passwd program” , maka password berhasil diubah, walaupun hanya password ldap.
8. Ok, sejauh ini kesimpulannya adalah sebaiknya line berikut dihilangkan dari smb.conf :

unix password sync
ldap password sync
password program

9. Mungkin saya memiliki pemahaman yang salah, mungkin saja memang karena samba memanfaatkan LDAP untuk autentikasinya, jadi pada saat mengubah password yang berubah hanya password LDAP.

Tulisan ini sebetulnya sambungan dari tulisan lain yang berjudul Samba dan Fedora Directory Server. Setelah Samba dan FDS berhasil diintegrasikan, selanjutnya saya mencoba untuk menggabungkan sebuah client Windows XP ke domain.

1. Menambahkan Domain User terlebih dahulu. Saya melakukannya dengan perintah smbldap-useradd -a -d /home/<namauser> -m -s /bin/bash <namauser>
2. Menambahkan workstation ke dalam domain ini : smbldap-useradd -w <nama-workstation>
3. Konfigurasi workstation sebagai bagian dari domain. Pada saat awal melakukan usaha penggabungan, saya memperoleh kegagalan. Kemudian saya menambahkan baris : interfaces = 10.10.10.200 127.0.0.1 , bind interfaces only = yes, hosts allow = 10.10.10. 127.0 . Selanjutnya, service samba di restart, tidak lupa juga menghidupkan service nmb.
4. Proses konfigurasi client untuk join ke Samba berhasil, sayangnya pada saat restart dan hendak login, muncul pesan di windows bahwa domain tidak ditemukan. Aneh ya ???? padahal saat konfigurasi bisa masuk.
5. Saya memeriksa isi file log, dalam kasus saya file tersebut adalah /var/log/<nama-ws>.log. Ternyata terdapat log yang bertuliskan : [2009/01/16 13:12:01,  0] lib/smbldap.c:smbldap_open(1005)
   smbldap_open: cannot access LDAP when not root..
6. Saya mengambil kesimpulan bahwa pada saat konfigurasi, mesin dapat join ke domain karena saya memasukkan password root sebagai autorisasi agar mesin dapat masuk ke domain.
7. Saatnya memulai googling.
8. Ternyata banyak juga yang mengalami masalah serupa. Tapi kebanyakan menyatakan karena adanya bug di Samba 3.0.x, tapi yang saya gunakan sekarang adalah Samba 3.2.x. Jadi, logikanya bukan itu masalahnya.
9. Ada solusi lain yang saya dapatkan di http://www.opensubscriber.com/message/samba@lists.samba.org/2245361.
10. Menurut petunjuk ini, saya harus menambahkan baris enable pivileges = yes pada file smb.conf. Setelah saya lakukan, saya restart ulang samba, tetap nggak bisa.
11. Ada petunjuk lain di http://www.nabble.com/smbldap_open:-cannot-access-LDAP-when-not-root..-td17491980.html. Yang bersangkutan memecahkan masalahnya dengan mengganti versi samba, tadinya ia menggunakan samba bawaan Fedora 9 (begitu juga saya), kemudian menggantinya dengan Samba 3.0.29 ( apakah ini ide bagus ? ) – mungkin sebaiknya saya mencari solusi lain terlebih dahulu
12. Setelah googling sekian lama, masih belum ketemu juga. Akhirnya, “desperate move”, upgrade Samba ke 3.2.7.
13. Oke, setelah itu saya merestart service smb dan nmb.
14. Coba login dari workstation dan berhasil !!!!!!!!!!!!

Eksperimen ini bertujuan untuk mengintegrasikan Fedora Directory Server dengan Samba. Langkah pertama yang saya lakukan adalah gooling, cari petunjuk bagaimana mengintegrasikan Fedora Directory Server dengan Samba. Petunjuk pertama didapat dari http://directory.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Howto:Samba ada juga salinannya dalam bahasa Indonesia di salah satu blogsite yang saya temukan.

Setelah mengikuti langkah-langkahnya dari site tersebut, selalu berakhir dengan kegagalan, terutama saat mencoba perintah

pdbedit

, jika nanti ada yang berhasil, syukur deh.

Lelah mencari petunjuk dengan googling (nggak ketemu-ketemu solusinya), saya coba lihat bagian “discussion” (harusnya sih dari awal liat ini aja), ternyata ada yang posting bahwa “How-to” dari http://directory.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Howto:Samba ini agak ngawur dan emang nggak bekerja. Bah !!! Tapi orang yang mem-posting juga menyarankan untuk menggunakan smbldap-tools. Ok, eksperimen dimulai :

1. Petunjuk pertama diperoleh dari http://wiki.babel.com.au/index.php?area=Linux_Projects&page=LdapSambaHowtoFedoraCore
2. Pastikan file /etc/samba/smb.conf sudah teredit dengan benar. Dalam hal ini, paling tidak untuk mengintegrasikan samba dengan FDS, yang perlu diubah adalah nama workgroup (sesuaikan) dan ldap suffix. Berikut adalah contohnya:

[global]
workgroup = NEO-TEKIN
security = user
passdb backend = ldapsam:ldap://forest.neo-tekin.priv
ldap admin dn = cn=Directory Manager
ldap suffix = dc=neo-tekin,dc=priv
ldap user suffix = ou=People
ldap machine suffix = ou=Computers
ldap group suffix = ou=Groups

3. Buat password untuk directory manager dengan perintah “smbpasswd -w <password>”
4. Test konfigurasi samba dengan perintah “testparm”, pastikan tidak ada error. (Maaf pembahasan mengenai konfigurasi samba tidak termasuk disini).
5. Install smbldap-tools dengan perintah
   

   yum install smbldap-tools

6. Berikutnya saya harus mencari file samba.schema. Jika kita menginstall samba, file ini sebetulnya include dalam salah satu direktori penginstallan samba, tapi saya lupa dimana (mungkin di /usr/share/doc/samba-*/LDAP/samba.schema)
   Kebetulan, di PC saya file ini juga terdapat di /etc/openldap/schema.
7. Ubah file samba.schema ke bentuk ldif, dengan memanfaatkan tool ol-schema-migrate.pl. Tools ini dapat di download di sini. Gunakan perintah berikut ini :
   

   perl ol-schema-migrate.pl -b /etc/openldap/schema/samba.schema -*/LDAP/samba.schema > /etc/dirsrv/slapd-<server>/schema/61samba.ldif.

8. Perintah di langkah 7 akan mengubah samba.schema ke bentuk ldif dan disimpan di “/etc/dirsrv/slapd-<nama server ldap>/schema/“, dengan nama 61samba.ldif. Angka 61 adalah tambahan yang diberikan karena ldap server mengelola schema berdasarkan urutan dari file-file schema, dimana urutan ini ditempatkan didepan nama file.
9. Saatnya mengkonfigurasi smbldap-tools. Jalankan file configure.pl, secara default ada di :
   

   /usr/share/doc/smbldap-tools-<versi>/configure.pl

10. Jawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan seperti sesuai spesifikasi yang kita miliki, banyak pertanyaan dapat dijawab secara default. Ada sedikit keraguan disini, karena setelah mengisi “default domain name to append to email address [] : neo-tekin.priv”, program selesai tapi muncul pesan :
    

    “Use of uninitialized value $# in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/share/doc/smbldap-tools-0.9.5/configure.pl line 314, <STDIN> line 34.”

    Semoga tidak menjadi masalah.

11. Sesuai petunjuk, seharusnya dengan menggunakan configure.pl akan ada item tak berguna di ldap server, yaitu sebuah sambaDomainName bernama TestDomain. Cek dengan perintah :
    ldapsearch -x ’sambaDomainName=*’ , Beruntung, ternyata di ldap server entry TestDomain tidak muncul. Mungkin karena perbedaan versi dari smbldap-tools.
12. Jalankan perintah berikutnya :
    

    /usr/sbin/smbldap-populate -e /root/smb-populate.ldif

13. edit file /root/smb-populate.ldif, Tambahkan item-item berikut ke entry terakhir (hanya bila item tersebut belum ada) :

objectClass: top
sambaAlgorithmicRidBase: 1000
sambaNextUserRid: 1000

14. Ada beberapa error yang menyatakan adanya entry-entry yang sudah ada. Bukan masalah.
15. Langkah berikutnya adalah me-restart samba service

Ok, sejauh ini sepertinya integrasi Samba dan FDS berjalan cukup lancar. Saatnya mencoba menambakan mesin/workstation ke samba :

smbldap-useradd -w “tekin-1″

Hasilnya ….. gagal ! , muncul pesan berikut :

Could not find base dn, to get next uidNumber at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.10.0/smbldap_tools.pm line 1179.

Waktunya googling…web http://www.iallanis.info/smbldap-tools/docs/smbldap-tools/#htoc38 menawarkan solusi dengan mengeksekusi script “smbldap-populate”. Ternyata setelah dijalankan ada pesan error lain lagi yang menyatakan tidak adanya privilege (wewenang), kemudian ditawarkan untuk mengubah password root.

Saat password root diganti, muncul pesan error yang lagi-lagi menyatakan tidak adanya wewenang mengubah password root.

Akhirnya saya putuskan untuk mengulang langkah 9-12 dan 14 (langkah 13 dilewat). Mengapa saya melewati langkah 13 ? Semata-mata karena langkah 13 ini dilakukan jika menggunakan smbldap-tools versi sebelumnya. Intuisi saya mengatakan, mungkin ada perbedaan versi dan bug pasti dihapus.

Setelah dicoba kembali , ternyata berhasil !!!!!!! Paling tidak sambadan ldap telah terintegrasi.

Masih penasaran nih pengen install MIT Kerberos 5 di Fedora 9. Kemaren ini dah sempet coba install di Slackware, lumayan lancar.Ok, dibawah ini hasil eksperimen pertama menginstall Kerberos 5 di Fedora, moga-moga berhasil :

Petunjuk pertama dapet dari http://cryptnet.net/fdp/admin/kerby-infra/en/kerby-infra.html.

1. install paket krb5-server dan krb5-libs dengan menggunakan yum. (Ada peringatan dari sumber yang menyatakan bahwa sebaiknya KDC / Kerberos authentication server tidak memiliki paket-paket untuk development dan libraries, untuk alasan keamanan kali ya)
2. Pastikan tidak ada port terbuka yang tidak digunakan, artinya pastikan tidak ada atau minimum celah keamanan.
3. Tentukan nama Realm yang akan digunakan. Kalo g nangkep sih, nama Realm itu adalah nama kelompok / domain /group yang akan dilayani oleh KDC ini. Dalam satu organisasi bisa ada beberapa KDC, topologinya disesuaikan dengan topologi manajemen di perusahaan.
4. File konfigurasi kerberos ada di /etc/krb5.conf :

[logging]
default = FILE:/var/log/krb5libs.log
kdc = FILE:/var/log/krb5kdc.log
admin_server = FILE:/var/log/kadmind.log

[libdefaults]
default_realm = NEO-TEKIN.PRIV
dns_lookup_realm = false
dns_lookup_kdc = false
ticket_lifetime = 24h
forwardable = yes

[realms]
NEo-TEKIN.PRIV = {
kdc = forest.neo-tekin.priv:88
admin_server = forest.neo-tekin.priv:749
default_domain = neo-tekin.priv
}

[domain_realm]
.neo-tekin.priv = NEO-TEKIN.PRIV
neo-tekin.priv = NEO-TEKIN.PRIV

[appdefaults]
pam = {
debug = false
ticket_lifetime = 36000
renew_lifetime = 36000
forwardable = true
krb4_convert = false
}

5. g punya kurang lebih kayak diatas. Nama Realm-nya adalah NEO-TEKIN.PRIV, tadinya tulisannya adalah EXAMPLE.COM, tapi g ganti. Terus KDC nya diarahin ke nama komputer tempat g install kerberos server (forest.neo-tekin.priv), dalam hal ini kudu Fully Qualified Domain Name-nya, yaitu yang terdaftar di DNS Server.
6. Inisiasi dan pembuatan Kerberos database :

/usr/kerberos/sbin/kdb5_util create -s

7. Set master password untuk Kerberos Database. Masukkin password, jangan sampe lupa ! Soalnya kepake buat administrasi server.
8. Edit access list file untuk memberikan akses administrasi. File acl ini biasanya adalah “/var/kerberos/krb5kdc/kadm5.acl”. Isinya setelah di-edit kurang lebih sebagai berikut :

*/admin@NEO-TEKIN.PRIV  *

9. Isi file tersebut menunjukkan bahwa setiap user yang berada dalam kelompok /admin memiliki hak administratif.
10. Edit isi file /var/kerberos/krb5kdc/kdc.conf. Pastikan Realm-nya sudah benar.
11. Saatnya membuat user administrative. Dalam hal ini usernya adalah gunawan dalam kelompok admin.

/usr/Kerberos/sbin/kadmin.local -q “addprinc gunawan/admin”

12. Setservice krb5kdc dan kadmin  agar berjalan secara otomatis saat boot :

chkconfig krb5kdc on
chkconfig kadmin on

13. Jalankan kedua service secara manual melalui /etc/rc.d/init.d/
14. Test : kinit gunawan/admin, ternyata keluar prompt buat password. Kayaknya dah berhasil nih.

This article addreses several problems that may be encountered when installing VMware Server 1.0 in Fedora Linux (F9) as host and running Red Hat like Linux as guest.

Technorati : CPU speed, F9, Fedora Linux, Network Manager, VMware Server, host-only networking, setxkbmap