Upgrading OpenSolaris2008.05 to snv91.

The pkg.opensolaris.org repository, has been updated to Build 91 today.

N.B. That pkg(1) IPS has had a update too;

$export PKG_CLIENT_TIMEOUT=220
$pfexec pkg refresh
$pfexec pkg install pkg:/SUNWipkg@0.5.11,5.11-0.90
$pfexec pkg image-update

Its about 700MB of download If your comming from the snv90 update.

If you are still on snv86 ( OpenSolaris2008.05 fresh install ).
Then follow this or your box wont boot the new BE.

After the update has finished, you should get a output similar to:

$beadm list
BE Active Active on Mountpoint Space
Name reboot Used
---- ------ --------- ---------- -----
opensolaris-1 no yes - 17.06M
opensolaris yes no - 33.92M

Simply run:

$pfexec mount -F zfs rpool/ROOT/opensolaris-1 /mnt
$pfexec /mnt/boot/solaris/bin/update_grub -R /mnt

Now your ready to reboot to your new updated BE.

~
Edward.

Another day another XP install..

While I had to do another Windows XP SP3 install today for a client of mine I was given the opportunity to kit it out with software that I would recommend.

So I thought I would take the time to blog about the line up for this system;

* FireFox3 with Flash plugin - http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
* Thunderbird - http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/
* ClamAV (win32) - http://www.clamwin.com/
* InfraRecord - http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/
* VLC - http://www.videolan.org/
* OpenOffice 2.4.1 - http://www.openoffice.org/

Quite good really, everything one would like from a basic setup and all the above software is free to share and use, seems to run alright too.

~
Edward.

Firefox 3 is being downloaded at a rate of 14,000 copies per minute.

"Update 12:05 p.m. PDT: Mozilla said on its developer blog that Firefox 3 is being downloaded at a rate of 14,000 copies per minute.

That's 13 gigabits per second. No wonder the servers were struggling. "

Become part of the official Guinness World Record

.:: Today you'll make history with Fire Fox 3 ::.

Are you ready to make history?
Are you ready to set a World Record?
Today is Download Day.

To become part of the official Guinness World Record you must download Firefox 3 by 17:00 UTC on June 18, 2008, or roughly 24 hours from now.

Download Fire Fox 3

Don't forget to pass the message on to your friends and family.

A update on Broadcom and why *not* to buy there wifi chipsets

A fascinating business indeed,
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/05/henry_nicholas_indicted/

Please do leave your comments.
Regards,

Boycott Laptops with Broadcom WiFi

"It seems to be a recurring theme, but we keep hearing about different WLAN parts that don't work with NDIS wrapper, or other problems building the NDIS wrapper etc.

I've never used the NDIS wrapper, and I refuse to do so. I also refuse to purchase or recommend any laptop with a Broadcom WLAN part on it, at least until Broadcom changes their position and makes it possible for 3rd parties (even under NDA) to develop device drivers for their WLAN products.

The reason is simple: until laptop manufacturers start losing sales due to people who take the same position, they won't stop including Broadcom WLAN on their products. The loss of a few individual WLAN cards won't impact Broadcom at all, but if Gateway or Dell stops purchasing WLAN parts, then its a whole new ballgame. And the more laptop vendors that we can get to understand that use of Broadcom leads to lost sales, the more impact it will have.

Either Broadcom will take notice, and correct their behavior (e.g. by offering 3rd parties access to device driver info under NDA, writing drivers themselves for platforms like OpenSolaris, or even better, offering up open technical specs), or their WLAN products will gradually fade from popularity so that they are no longer relevant.

To be honest, I don't care which result comes about. But please, don't use or purchase Broadcom WLAN. And to those of you writing neat things like NDIS wrapper and reverse engineering efforts like the bwi driver in *BSD, I'd recommend you rethink whether enabling further sales of laptops bundled with Broadcom WLAN is really something you want to encourage.

(For specific alternatives to Broadcom WLAN, look for either Intel or Atheros WIFI.)"

by Garrett D'Amore - gdamore.blogspot.com

This applies to Windows and Linux as well as OpenSolaris, FreeBSD & NetBSD users.

Upgrading OpenSolaris2008.05 to snv90.

Many of you have installed and are running the first spin of the OpenSolaris distro, that is OpenSolaris2008.05 and have been wondering why SXCE have still been leading the way while OS has been falling behind out of sync with SXCE.

Well now the first update is out that will bring us up to sync with every second ON release. Just with a simple;

pfexec pkg refresh ; pfexec pkg image-update

However,
As this is the first update, it has its own problems.
Two bug trackers here:

http://defect.opensolaris.org/bz/show_bug.cgi?id=2119 (Pidgin does not start)
http://defect.opensolaris.org/bz/show_bug.cgi?id=1989 (Connection times out while installing or upgrading packages)

Both can be solve and I hope to illustrate that here.

Let start with the upgrade (~1GB download):
Bring up a default BASH shell by right clicking on the desktop:

$export PKG_CLIENT_TIMEOUT=120
$pfexec pkg refresh ; pfexec pkg image-update
.. This make take some time, make a coffee and relax.

"PAY ATTENTION TO THE ATTACHED UPDATE PROCEDURE!!! Failure to do so will
prevent your system from rebooting."

"Instructions to update OpenSolaris 2008.05 to build 89 or later
================================================================
The command "pkg image-update" can be used to update an OpenSolaris
2008.05 system to build 89 or later. However due to changes in the
GRUB boot system, one must manually update the Master Boot Record (MBR)
to include these latest changes.

When "pkg image-update" completes successfully, it will print a message
of the form

A clone of opensolaris exists and has been updated and
activated. On next boot the Boot Environment opensolaris-1 will
be mounted on '/'. Reboot when ready to switch to this updated
BE.

The name of the newly created clone can also be seen by looking for the
"Active on reboot" entry in the output of the "beadm list" command

$ beadm list
BE Active Active on Mountpoint Space
Name reboot Used
---- ------ --------- ---------- -----
opensolaris-1 no yes - 17.06M
opensolaris yes no - 33.92M

First, mount the clone under the /mnt directory

$ pfexec mount -F zfs rpool/ROOT/opensolaris-1 /mnt

Next, update the GRUB configuration on your ZFS boot device(s) using

$ pfexec /mnt/boot/solaris/bin/update_grub -R /mnt

When you're ready to boot into the updated boot environment, you can
reboot(1M) or init(1M) as usual."
*Details taken from:
http://www.opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?threadID=62982&tstart=0

After the reboot you can fix Pidgin by doing the following:

$cd /usr/lib/purple-2/
$pfexec elfedit ssl-nss.so
> dyn:runpath
elfedit: [14: .dynamic]: no runpath (DT_RPATH or DT_RUNPATH) found
> dyn:runpath /usr/lib/%I:/usr/lib:/usr/lib/mps:/usr/lib/mps/%I
   index  tag                value
    [39]  RUNPATH           0x39c            
/usr/lib/%I:/usr/lib:/usr/lib/mps:/usr/lib/mps/%I
> quit
elfedit: Output ELF file has changes pending. Use 'write' to save them, or
'quit -f' to exit without saving
> write
> quit
$

If you find any problems leave a message and remember please do report bugs if you find them.
http://defect.opensolaris.org

Edward.
~