Planet Exherbo

I migrated my blog from Typo to Movable Type a while ago. I wrote a little script to do it, but I've only just now gotten around to cleaning it up enough so that it's suitable for general use.

It's available now from my git repo, and on CPAN

As always, "patches welcome".

My day job mostly involves Perl, so I've been using it more for my random tasks at home. I've now put a few of them up on CPAN:

• Unix::Uptime - Determine the current uptime, in seconds, and load averages, across different *NIX architectures.
• Remind::Client - class for working with remind's daemon mode

I also have a few other scripts I've been messing around with, for doing some reporting and such:

• git-author-stats.pl - Gives a URL to draw a pretty pie chart of the top 10 committers to the current git repository. Examples:
  • Exherbo:
    • ::x11
    • ::vim
    • ::arbor's multilib branch
  • Paludis
• git-daemon-report.pl - Given some log file, scrape it stats on who is pulling which of your git repos, and from where. Won't work unless you run git-daemon with --verbose.

Today, on May, 5th 2012, our patch queue on Zebrapig the Ugly did the impossible; it achieved re-floration! ;-)

 

[05.05.2012 21:57:36] <Philantrop> !pl

[05.05.2012 21:57:37] [Notice] -zebrapig to #exherbo- 0 patches in queue:

 

paste.pocoo.org is gone for good. Please re-submit your patches.

Here’s the list of affected patches:

[28.04.2012 17:24:28] [Notice] -zebrapig- 13 matching patches in queue:
[28.04.2012 17:24:28] [Notice] -zebrapig- http://paste.pocoo.org/raw/510003/ ::sydbox (submitted by worr 161 days and 17 hours ago): [PATCH] Fixed race condition in sydbox
[28.04.2012 17:24:28] [Notice] -zebrapig- http://paste.pocoo.org/raw/579419/ ::kde (submitted by heirecka_ 17 days and 5 hours ago): [PATCH 1/2] Move stuff from qt-creator-scm to its exlib
[28.04.2012 17:24:28] [Notice] -zebrapig- http://paste.pocoo.org/raw/582592/ ::arbor (submitted by SuperHeron 11 days and 20 hours ago): [PATCH] app-shells/bash-completion[=scm]: /etc/bash_completion.d is
[28.04.2012 17:24:28] [Notice] -zebrapig- http://paste.pocoo.org/raw/582875/ ::x11 (submitted by moben 11 days and 8 hours ago): [PATCH 1/2] mesa multilib: Use multiunpack exparam
[28.04.2012 17:24:30] [Notice] -zebrapig- http://paste.pocoo.org/raw/583000/ ::arbor (submitted by keruspe 11 days and 1 hour ago): [PATCH] llvm: allow gcc 4.7.0
[28.04.2012 17:24:32] [Notice] -zebrapig- http://paste.pocoo.org/raw/584582/ ::mawww (submitted by heirecka 8 days and 3 hours ago): [PATCH] Fix building of espeak
[28.04.2012 17:24:34] [Notice] -zebrapig- http://paste.pocoo.org/raw/585239/ ::arbor (submitted by SuperHeron 7 days and 4 minutes ago): [PATCH] dev-lang/python: Add .pc file into alternatives
[28.04.2012 17:24:36] [Notice] -zebrapig- http://paste.pocoo.org/raw/585373/ ::anderslm (submitted by Philantrop 6 days and 18 hours ago): [PATCH] dev-libs/dotconf: ::anderslm -> ::media
[28.04.2012 17:24:38] [Notice] -zebrapig- http://paste.pocoo.org/raw/586847/ ::kde (submitted by Apetrini 3 days and 13 hours ago): [PATCH] networkmanagement: bump to 0.9.0.1-r1, fix dep
[28.04.2012 17:24:40] [Notice] -zebrapig- http://paste.pocoo.org/raw/588002/ ::ingmar (submitted by nakamuray 1 day and 3 minutes ago): [PATCH 1/3] notmuch: version bump to 0.12
[28.04.2012 17:24:42] [Notice] -zebrapig- http://paste.pocoo.org/raw/588028/ ::arbor (submitted by keruspe 23 hours and 6 minutes ago): [PATCH 1/3] autoconf: bump to 2.69
[28.04.2012 17:24:44] [Notice] -zebrapig- http://paste.pocoo.org/raw/588037/ ::x11 (submitted by keruspe 22 hours and 47 minutes ago): [PATCH] xkeyboard-config-scm: fix build
[28.04.2012 17:24:46] [Notice] -zebrapig- http://paste.pocoo.org/raw/588130/ ::kde (submitted by heirecka_ 19 hours and 56 minutes ago): [PATCH] Version bump to akonadi-1.7.2

Paludis 0.74.1 has been released:

• Compilation fix for certain compilers.
• Fixed a segfault when encountering blockers inside || ( ) dependencies.

Filed under: paludis releases Tagged: paludis

Paludis 0.74.0 has been released:

• The way || dependencies are handled has changed to allow upgrades in certain situations that would previously be blocked.
• Previously file descriptors would be leaked when adding certain types of files to a tar being created for a pbin. This is now fixed.
• We now strip certain kinds of trailing garbage from tar files, to deal with upstreams who insist upon distributing corrupted tarballs.
• We now define ${T} to something usable in pkg_pretend.
• The order of arguments passed to econf has been tweaked, to make it easier to override defaults.
• cave print-ids etc now have a ‘%u’ format, for a uniquely identifying spec.
• Added cave print-checksum, for convenience.
• We now use metadata/md5-cache if it exists.
• We now ignore self-blockers for Gentoo EAPIs, to avoid problems with developers screwing up package moves.
• Compilation with GCC 4.7 should now work.

Filed under: paludis releases Tagged: paludis

This weekend saw yet another edition of the Open Source Days conference in Copenhagen. And despite a few small issues (most notably a large power outage taking out a big area of the city) most people really seemed to enjoy the conference.

I also saw quite a few people taking pictures of the event and we'd love to see those pictures. Please send an email to team2012@opensourcedays.org or directly to me at bryan@opensourcedays.org if you would like to share your pictures.

With the conference just a week away we're still looking for volunteers.

Volunteering for Open Source Days means you'll get to know a lot of other open source interested people, broadening your network and you get to be an active part of the biggest open source event in Denmark.

You'll typically have to work 2 x 3 hours at the conference but for the most part you can decide what areas you want to help with and we do our best to coordinate your shifts so they don't conflict with talks you find particularly interesting.

As a thank you for your work we throw in conference tickets including the saturday night social event.

Right now I'm particularly looking for people with some video experience. You don't need professional video experience but a little experience goes a long way towards making the setup go more smoothly. We will of course make sure that people on the video team gets the needed instructions so don't be afraid of signing up even if you have no prior experience. The most important thing is your interest and dedication as that's what's ultimately going to it a success.

Besides volunteers for the video team we're also looking for a number of other people. There's too many different roles to mention them all here but we still need chairmen for example.

Please contact me directly at bryan@opensourcedays.org if you want to volunteer for the video team. If you want to sign up for the many other roles you can do so using our sign up form.

Paludis 0.72.2 has been released:

• Added and changed options are now displayed in ‘resolve’ output, even if they are hidden.

Filed under: paludis releases Tagged: paludis

Paludis 0.72.1 has been released:

• Hardlinks are now handled cleanly by pbins.
• Ruby 1.9 is now supported.
• Minor bug fixes.

Filed under: paludis releases Tagged: paludis

(This is the same as the news item but I want this to get maximum exposure.)

Read ALL of this, it’s important to everyone using systemd.

Up to systemd[=42] we installed boot-critical components to / and others to /usr. This split was causing issues with respect to tmpfiles, intrinsic dependencies and dependencies on stuff on /usr.

systemd[=43] finally removes this split and installs everything but udev and pam stuff to /usr.

This won’t matter much to you if you don’t have /usr split from / (it should not be split; cf. http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/separate-usr-is-broken).

Even if you don’t have /usr != /, you need to update all packages that install to /${LIBDIR}/systemd/system because that got moved, too, of course. I’ve rev-bumped all packages, that install their own custom systemd units but even after you’ve updated those, you’ll still have some in /${LIBDIR}/systemd/system. Find out which package they belong to (use cave owner) and re-install them.

Should you forget to do so, you might end up in systemd’s emergency mode. If that happens, don’t panic. Get your network connection up and continue updating/re-installing. You’ll live, I promise.

There might be orphaned systemd units left behind. Check those on your own and decide if you need to move them to /etc/systemd/system. If you do, don’t forget to systemctl disable and then enable them.

You’ll also have some broken symlinks in /etc/systemd/system pointing to /${LIBDIR}/systemd/system. To fix those, all you have to do is disable and re-enable the respective unit. Here’s how to do it quickly and easily:

for link in $(find -L /etc/systemd/system -type l); do
systemctl disable $(basename ${link});
systemctl enable $(basename ${link});
done

Final sanity checks:

1. Is /${LIBDIR/systemd gone? If so, carry on; if not, you missed a step. Go back and find out which one.

2. No broken symlinks in /etc/systemd/system anymore? (“find -L /etc/systemd/system -type l” doesn’t output anything) If so, carry on. Otherwise, you missed a step. Go back and find out which one.

If you do NOT have /usr separated from /, you’re done now and it should be safe to reboot if you so desire.

If you do have /usr separated from /, you’ll have to use an initramfs (preferrably created by dracut) for booting from systemd[=43] onwards.

The first step to using an initramfs is enabling CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD in your kernel, recompiling and installing it. If you want to switch from a custom initramfs to dracut, don’t forget to empty CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE in your kernel configuration either if you have been using it before.

If you want to use dracut (sys-boot/dracut[>=14]), install it and add

add_dracutmodules+=”98usrmount”

to /etc/dracut.conf. If you have some weird configuration, you might need to add further dracut or kernel modules. In general, though, dracut is going to pick up everything you’ll need to boot.

Now run dracut to create your shiny new initramfs:

dracut -H <initramfs filename incl. path> <kernel version>

e. g.

dracut -H /boot/init-3.2.5.gz 3.2.5-00001-gf74dd96

-H (or –hostonly) tells dracut to build an initramfs for the machine it’s running on. Leaving it out should create a HUGE generic initramfs that should bascially be able to boot everything. In reality, leaving -H out usually builds something that doesn’t boot anything.

Next, update grub’s config so that it includes a root= parameter for the kernel command line and your new initramfs, e. g.:

(for grub-0.9x’s menu.lst)
title Exherbo Linux
root (hd0,1)
kernel /kernel-3.2.5-00001-gf74dd96 root=/dev/primary/uselv
initrd /init-3.2.5.gz

or

(for grub-1.9x’s grub.cfg)
menuentry “Exherbo Linux” {
set root=(hd0,1)
linux /kernel-3.2.5-00001-gf74dd96 root=/dev/primary/uselv
initrd /init-3.2.5.gz
}

Do NOT forget the root= parameter. It’s essential.

(Of course, you need to adjust paths and filenames to your setup but if I need to tell you that, you shouldn’t be using Exherbo in the first place.)

If you’re using a custom initramfs, you must make sure that you mount /usr as early as possible but definitely before systemd (/sbin/init) starts. If you’re rolling your own initramfs, you should know how to accomplish that.

After you’ve updated your grub configuration, systemd is updated and your kernel is ready, too, say a little prayer ;-) and reboot.

Best regards, Wulf

The Open Source Days conference opened the ticket sale a couple days ago. You can buy tickets for the conference itself as well the many training courses we're arranging in the days before the conference.

See opensourcedays.org for more information and pay attention to the early bird discount that ends about 5 days from now.

Also note that while there's not that many abstracts on the website yet we're going to keep adding batches of new abstracts. There's going to be a lot of interesting talks so keep checking the website for new abstracts and other news.

Paludis 0.72.0 has been released:

• Changed documentation and Git URLs from paludis.pioto.org to paludis.exherbo.org.
• Gentoo’s new boost.python library names are now recognised.

Filed under: paludis releases Tagged: paludis

The second and final call for speakers just went out for the Open Source Days conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Noteworthy news compared to the first call is:
- We moved the conference a week to make sure we have plenty of room for speakers, visitors and sponsors. The conference is going to take place at march 10 and 11 with training happening on march 9.
- We added information about conference size and being somewhat ambitious we're hoping to reach previous heights of 800-900 people.
- Extended the deadline for talk proposals. Deadline is now january 27th.
- User groups interested in a community booth also needs to start planning. Deadline is february 13th but you need to start thinking of activities, manning the booth and so on.

More information and details to be found on opensourcedays.org

Don't miss Denmarks biggest open source event!

Disclaimer: The entire migration procedure as described below is completely optional. If you don’t need or want multilib/multibuild/multiple C targets support, you can ignore this email.
We won’t force anyone to use it. I’m only going to use it on my desktop myself. :-)

 

We’ve now merged all multilib branches into master (this will go down into history books as “The Great Merge”!).

Thus, we don’t have any separate branches in our official and dev repositories anymore and if you still have a multilib branch  in your repository, please merge it, too.

Now is a good time to write an updated multilib migration guide so, without further ado, here we go:

• Switch to the multibuild profile in arbor.conf (${location}/profiles/amd64/multilib)
• Ensure that CHOST is not set in bashrc, and note that CFLAGS will apply to all C targets. You can use MULTIBUILD_C_{32,64}_USER_C{,XX}FLAGS for individual C targets.
• Re-install/update sys-apps/skeleton-filesystem-layout
• Install sys-libs/glibc[bootstrap], note that this should pull in sys-devel/bootstrap-gcc, too. (This is going to take a long time.)
• Install sys-devel/gcc[-openmp] (This is potentially going to take a long time, especially if you have the java option set.)
• Install sys-libs/glibc[-bootstrap], you can let Paludis purge sys-devel/bootstrap-gcc while doing so.
• Adjust your options to include the C targets you want and re-install any packages accordingly. You might have to re-install lots of package dependencies to fulfill a newly selected target’s requirements. (I simply did a cave resolve -e world)

Best regards, Wulf