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    Traffic Management Program

    December 14th, 2004

    I am working on a traffic management program currently. More details to follow…..


    Migrating from Whitebox Linux to Tao Linux

    December 9th, 2004

    Looks like the author has given us a link to an updated guide. Check out this link: http://www.owlriver.com./tips/centos-31-ex-rhl-9

    Here is what i found:

    * RH9 to TAO 1.0 Upgrade Instructions: http://mailman.taolinux.org/pipermail/tao-discuss/2004-April/000185.html:

    Step by step upgrade from RH9 to TAO 1.0

    (From a post by Russ Herrold)
    0. Take a backup, especially of /etc/, /root/ /home/ and
    volatile parts in /var/

    (I simply backed up all of /var/)

    1. Make a note of the installed packages:
    rpm -qa | sort > /root/pre-upgrade-manifest.txt

    2. Remove any unused packages using the rpm -e method -
    note that all content on my hosts is packaged in rpm, and I
    almost NEVER use: rpm –nodeps or –force variants

    3. Being sure that no other rpm affecting process is
    running (yum counts here), rebuild the rpm database ‘just in

    case’
    rpm -vv –rebuilddb

    4. Clean out 3-400 Meg of space below /var/cache/yum/
    (if not possible, edit /etc/yum.conf to point at a
    properly sized partition to hold the updates).

    If, like me you used RH update to keep your machine up then you may have several kernels and selections for them in the boot up. I had LILO on this machine. When I did this upgrade it broke it. Yum added another kernel to the /etc/lilo.conf file and caused it to exceed the allowed limit. To prevent this, edit you /etc/lilo.conf and remove some of the old listings. I had to boot with an install disc, run linux rescue, edit the file and then do a /sbin/lilo -c . Afterwards I was able to boot.

    Install yum from Duke

    # rpm -Uvh –quiet http://linux.duke.edu/projects/yum/download/2.0/yum-2.0.6-1.noarch.rpm
    (I actually used an installer from http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~erik/HOWTO/yum-installation-HOWTO.html)

    # rpm –import http://dist.taolinux.org/tao-1.0-i386/dist/RPM-GPG-KEY-tao

    Remove existing update and dependencies.

    # rpm -e rhn-applet-2.0.9-0.9.0.1
    # rpm -e up2date-gnome-3.1.23.2-1
    # rpm -e up2date-3.1.23.2-1
    # rpm -e firstboot-1.0.5-11
    # rpm -e up2date-3.1.23.2-1

    Create yum.conf in /etc with the following contents.
    (The installer created one for it’s mirror pointing to RH files so I used the below version, which is modified from a virgin TAO install)

    #BEGIN FILE
    [main]
    cachedir=/var/cache/yum
    debuglevel=2
    logfile=/var/log/yum.log
    pkgpolicy=newest
    distroverpkg=tao-release
    tolerant=1
    exactarch=1

    # Original, base distribution
    [base]
    name=Tao Linux 1.0-i386 - Base
    baseurl=http://dist.taolinux.org/tao-1.0-i386/dist
    gpgcheck=1

    # Updates made from official SRPMs released for RHEL3 by RH, or Tao-specific
    # updates and fixes
    [updates]
    name=Tao Linux 1.0 - i386 - Updates
    baseurl=http://dist.taolinux.org/tao-1.0-i386/updates
    gpgcheck=1
    #END FILE

    NOTE: This is an install on a i386 machine. You will need to point to the appropriate directories for your processor IE replace i386. These can be found at http://dist.taolinux.org/

    # yum upgrade

    It will take a while and you may have some issues to resolve if you missed any packages in the beginning. If you do it will not have to download the headers again so it will go a little faster.

    When it is finished retrieving all the packages it will display
    “Running test transaction:”

    This will take a little while.

    Then it will display
    “Test transaction complete, Success!”

    Then it will set there for a while longer several minutes in my case.

    Then you will see the processing of each package (814 for mine).

    Don’t know how long this part took because I went to sleep at this point.

    Reboot and enjoy. (I am now after fixing LILO.)

    If you removed any apps in the beginning, you can now reinstall them if needed. Of course You do not need to reinstall up2date as this is for RedHat only.

    This is as close to a step by step I can provide at this point. As noted above, I did not follow these steps exactly, but wrote them in the order that I would follow if I had to repeat this process. The was performed on a Dell 4300 Poweredge with dual PII350 and with software raid (Some scum swiped the controller card before I got the machine).

    Use these instructions at your own risk.

    * Upgrade from older Red Hat versions?: http://mailman.taolinux.org/pipermail/tao-discuss/2004-March/000144.html:

    I am sorry at the delay in responding; I was travelling, and
    have been wadeing through a lot of built up email.

    As another has reported, a simple install is easier to upgrade
    than a complex one. Something like this has worked for me:

    0. Take a backup, espectially of /etc/, /root/ /home/ and
    volatle parts in /var/

    1. Make a note of the installed packages:
    rpm -qa | sort > /root/pre-upgrade-manifest.txt

    2. Remove any unused packages using the rpm -e method -
    note that all content on my hosts is packaged in rpm, and I
    almost NEVER use: rpm –nodeps or –force variants

    3. Being sure that no other rpm affecting process is
    running (yum counts here), rebuild the rpm database ‘just in
    case’
    rpm -vv –rebuilddb
    Repeat this process after each pass.

    4. Clean out 3-400 Meg of space below /var/cache/yum/
    (if not possible, edit /etc/yum.conf to point at a
    properly sized partition to hold the updates). Clean after
    each pass as appropiate

    5. Point the /etc/yum.conf at an appropiate archive, and its
    updates tree; note that is moving from a much older RHL
    release, it is wise to go in ‘point’ steps — RHL 7.3 to RHL
    8.0 to RHL 9.0, one at a time
    yum upgrade

    6. Crossing from RHL 7.3 to RHL 8 will require getting
    and configuring a new yum; ditto the step from RHL 8.0 to RHL
    9.0. Use the recommended packages at the Duke yum prime site.

    7. Reboot between each update series, to get old glibc
    versions out of play, and to get a later kernel in place.
    Return to step 2 or 3, and repeat until you are at RHL 9.0

    8. Point the /etc/yum.conf at an appropiate Tao archive
    mirror, and its updates tree. Stems 3, and 7 at the end of
    the process, of course.

    9. Adjustment of configuration files, and re-installation
    of packages removed at step 2 as appropiate.

    10. Report experiences to the mailing list.

    ymmv — remember step 0 is quite important.

    – Russ Herrold

    ****** Some additional info you may need from doing the above:

    One thing the above doesn’t mention is installing the tao specific RPMs like:

    rpmdb-tao-1.3E.1-0.20031219
    tao-logos-1.1.14.4-TL3
    tao-artwork-1.0-TL1
    tao-release-1.0-TL15

    When you attempt to install them, it will tell you that they conflict with another package. Just remove the conflicting packages and proceed. It worked for me :)


    Custom RPMS for Fedora 2 & 3

    December 9th, 2004

    Below you will find all the downloads. Please add a comment if there is a problem.


    Email Gateway

    December 8th, 2004

    Mail gateway allowing emails to be inserted directly into a mysql database. It is written in php. It should work with any unix mail server(qmail, sendmail, postfix, etc..).

    Download


    Half-Life 2 in game video recording

    December 8th, 2004

    Here is how I made the physics bug video posted on Steam Forums:

    To start recored a in game, you run the following command in the console (the ~ key brings up console):


    startmovie nameofmovie

    Hit ESC to exit out of the console. When you are ready to stop recording, bring the console up again and type:


    endmovie

    You will have a bunch of files in:

    C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\USERNAME\half-life 2\hl2

    They will be called nameofmovie###.tga as well as a .wav file. Where ### is a number. Take all those files and copy them into a new folder. You will then need to compile them into a movie. You can use this utility tga2avi.zip. You run it in a dos shell. To do this, goto Start->Run-> Type in cmd and hit [ENTER]. Cd to the directory you downloaded and extracted tga2avi to.


    usage: tga2avi outfile framerate pattern start end step

    c:\ tga2avi nameofmovie.avi 20 nameofmovie000.tga nameofmovie100.tga 1

    This will compile 0 - 100 of the movie. You will need to start with 0 through whatever is the greatest number generated (depends on the length of the movie).

    Next, get a copy of nandub.

    One installed, run it and go to File->Open Video file and select the avi you made. Then goto Audio->Wav Audio and open the wav file. Then go to File->Save as avi(F7). Thats it! Let me know how it works out for you!


    Ticket System

    December 8th, 2004

    PHP Tickets is a Web-based ticket system with a MySQL backend. It features a powerful admin section, and is fully templated. It also has a style manager for changing colors, fonts, and other aspects of appearance.

    Download ticketsystem-1.10.tar.gz