FredPod Program 091111 Show Notes
November 12, 2009
Admin note: Archived episodes are in open source Ogg Vorbis format via the podcatcher RSS feed at marwalk.net.
This program was produced on November 11, 2009. This is the first
anniversary of FredPod, and today’s topics will include:
- Selections
from “yum info recent” on the Fedora linux project. - The
release date for Fedora 12 is set as of today for November 17th.
In
Today’s feature we go over the new features you can expect to find
in Fedora 12. - And
we’ll close with a Creative Commons licensed work by Jacob
Heringman
performing Antony Holborne’s A
Horn pype
spelled p-y-p-e.
Here are some Selections of updates from “yum info recent,” as
in Recently Added Packages in the Fedora Project:
Name
: ezstream
Summary
: Command line source client for Icecast media streaming servers
Description:
Ezstream is a command line source client for Icecast media
:
streaming servers. It began as the successor of the old “shout”
:
utility, and has since gained a lot of useful features.
:
:
In its basic mode of operation, it streams media files or data from
:
standard input without re-encoding and thus requires only very
:
little CPU resources. It can also use various external decoders and
:
encoders to reencode from one format to another, and stream the
:
result to an Icecast server. Additional features include scriptable
:
playlist and metadata handling. All of its features make ezstream a
:
very flexible source client.
:
:
Supported media formats for streaming are MP3, Ogg Vorbis and Ogg
:
Theora. Native metadata support includes MP3 (ID3v1 only) and Ogg
:
Vorbis, and many more formats when the optional TagLib support has
:
been compiled in (which they are for this package).
Name
: irclog2html
Summary
: Script to convert IRC logs to HTML and other formats
Description:
irclog2html is a nice IRC log parser and colorizer that will do the
:
most common things necessary to make an IRC log readable in a web
:
browser. It can export to many different HTML formats, and can
:
export MediaWiki pipe-table syntax.
Name
: mod_security
Summary
: Security module for the Apache HTTP Server
Description:
ModSecurity is an open source intrusion detection and prevention
:
engine for web applications. It operates embedded into the web
:
server, acting as a powerful umbrella – shielding web applications
:
from attacks.
Name
: monodevelop
Summary
: A full-featured IDE for Mono and Gtk#
Description:
This package provides MonoDevelop, a full-featured IDE for Mono
:
with syntax colouring, code completion, debugging, project
:
management and support for C sharp, Visual Basic.NET, Java, Boo,
:
Nemerle and MSIL.
Name
: ser2net
Summary
: Proxy that allows tcp connections to serial ports
Description:
ser2net provides a way for a user to connect from a network
:
connection to a serial port. It provides all the serial port setup,
:
a configuration file to configure the ports, a control login for
:
modifying port parameters, monitoring ports, and controlling ports.
Name
: vm-dump-metrics
Summary
: Virtualization host metrics dump
Description:
Executable to dump all available virtualization host metrics to
:
stdout or a file.
Name
: vm-dump-metrics
Summary
: Virtualization host metrics dump
Description:
Executable to dump all available virtualization host metrics to
:
stdout or a file.
You
can find additional information on these, and many other
recently updated packages, by typing yum info recent at
the command line.
The
Fredericksburg Linux Users Group, meets on the first Thursday and
last Saturday of each month. The meetings take place at the main
Library in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on Caroline Street in Meeting
Room 2:
- You
can find the FredLUG calendar by going to Google Groups and
searching on F-r-e-d-L-U-G. Near the top of the page is a
link to the Google calendar containing the meeting schedule. - Besides
the FredLUG Google Group, you’re also welcome on the IRC channel
pound FredLUG on irc dot freenode dot net.
| FredLUG has users of several different Linux distributions; among them are Ubuntu, Open SUSE, Debian, and GenToo.There also are those of us who use Fedora, and the release date for Fedora 12 is set for November 17th as of today, November 11th. I’ve been using Fedora since Fedora Core 2, and have seen, in each new release, solutions to problems I was having at different times, such as with sound and networking. The full descriptions of the upgrades and improvements in Fedora 12 are discussed in detail at fedoraproject.org; and in today’s FredPod feature, here are some of the highlights of the Fedora project’s list of improvements.
|
|
| Abrt 1.0 | This is a tool to help non-power users with bug reporting, making it as easy as a few mouse clicks abrt is a daemon that watches for application crashes. When a crash occurs, it collects the crash data (core file, application’s command line etc.) and takes action according to the type of application that crashed and according to the configuration in the abrt.conf configuration file. There are plugins for various actions: for example to report the crash to Bugzilla, to mail the report, to transfer the report via FTP or SCP, or to run a specified application. |
| Better Webcam Support |
Fedora 12 now supports even more webcams and has the support for several existing cams improved leading to (sometimes much) improved video quality. |
| DisplayPort | Enhanced support for DisplayPort in X and kernel drivers for Intel hardware.DisplayPort is a new digital display connector and protocol. While much more capable than DVI, it’s also much more complicated, and some work is needed to take advantage of it. Benefit to Fedora DisplayPort has a higher link bandwidth than dual-link DVI. Monitors can take advantage of this by providing higher resolutions, higher color depths, and higher refresh rates. DisplayPort also runs at a lower voltage than DVI and LVDS, using less power. Future laptops will likely switch to embedded DisplayPort for the local panel for this reason. With this feature, Fedora users can take advantage of the the technical superiority of DisplayPort. |
| Eclipse Call Graph | Graphically displays the call hierarchy from executing a C/C++ binary, along with various other runtime statistics. Allow developers to profile their C/C++ projects directly from Eclipse, and view various runtime information about their program such as: * Relationship between function calls * Number of times each function was called * Time taken by each function instance relative to the program’s execution time * Time taken by all instances of a function relative to program’s execution time * Ability to jump to the point in the source where a function was defined, or to the approximate location where a function was called * Ability to ‘step’ through function calls within the graph in chronological order |
| Empathy | Set Empathy as the default IM client. The geolocation feature has been enabled. |
| FCoE | Add Fibre Channel over Ethernet support to anaconda’s storage code. FCoE devices can be added from the advanced storage menu and then used to install onto. |
| Fedora Studio | Classify multimedia applications into subgroups for easy access.
|
| GFS2 Clustered Samba |
GFS (Global File System) is a cluster file system. A GFS2 file system can be created on an LVM logical volume. With the availability of a clustered database (CTDB) for Samba, multiple instances of smbd across different nodes of a cluster are able to share state. It is now possible to export a gfs2 filesystem through one or more nodes in the cluster in a active/passive or active/active configuration to provide a highly-available Samba service. Samba was not cluster-aware until the introduction of CTDB and hence it was not possible to have a highly available samba service. Particularly, active/active configuration was not possible. With this feature, it will be possible to run highly available samba service(s) with different configurations (active/active, active/passive) over a shared gfs2 filesystem on the Red Hat cluster infrastructure. |
| Gnome2.28 | Fedora 12 includes a Re-base to GNOME 2.28; which includes the first release of the GNOME Bluetooth module to help users manage their Bluetooth devices. GNOME Bluetooth supports hundreds of Bluetooth devices, including mice, keyboards and headsets. GNOME Bluetooth includes PulseAudio integration for Bluetooth headsets and headphones. And GNOME Bluetooth also includes support for Internet access through your mobile phone. After pairing your mobile phone with GNOME Bluetooth, NetworkManager will include an entry to use your mobile phone for Internet access. |
| KDE 4.3 | Fedora 12 also includes a Rebase to KDE 4.3 — KDE is a popular, feature rich and stable desktop environment used by a lot of Fedora users; including me. Some of the new KDE features are: + new default theme, Air + improved job and notification management + fully configurable keyboard shortcuts + new and improved Plasma widgets — faster Systemsettings with an optional treeview o new effects like “Sheet” and “Slide Back” and better performance in KWin — Applications improvements include: + Solid integration in KGpg + Ark supports LZMA/XZ + improved contact list in Kopete + new Bug Report Tool + KDELirc, which is a frontend for the Linux Infrared Remote Control system (LIRC) |
| KSM, as in Kernel Samepage Merging | KSM allows KVM guest virtual machines to share identical memory pages. This is especially useful when running multiple guests from the same or similar base operating system image. Because memory is shared, the combined memory usage of the guests is reduced. |
| KVM Huge Page Backed Memory |
Enable KVM guests to use huge page backed memory in order to reduce memory consumption and improve performance by reducing CPU cache pressure. Using huge pages for guest memory does have a downside, however – you can no longer swap nor balloon guest memory; and there are a few additional steps needed to apply this feature. |
| KVM NIC Hotplug | Allow the addition of a guest network interface (NIC) in a guest virtual machine without needing to re-start the guest. NIC hotplug is a commonly requested virtualization feature. The idea is that one should be able to add and remove NICs from a guest while it is running. For example, you might want to connect the guest to an additional network, without having to restart the guest. |
| KVM qcow2 Performance |
Improve the I/O performance of virtual machines using disk images in the qcow2, as in QEMU Copy-On-Write, image format. qcow2 is the native disk image file format of qemu; think Quick Emulator. The Kernel Virtual Machine and QEMU projects are now merged. The QCOW2 format provides a couple of additional features over raw images, including base images, snapshots, compression and encryption. Also, qcow2 files grow as needed whereas raw files need to be created in the full size of the virtual disk. |
| libguestfs | libguestfs is a library for accessing and modifying guest disk images. Among the things this is good for: making batch configuration changes to guests, viewing and editing files inside guests, getting disk used-and-free statistics, migrating between virtualization systems, performing partial backups, performing partial guest clones, cloning guests and changing registry, /UUID/hostname info |
| Lower Process Capabilities |
When someone attacks a system, they normally can’t do much unless they can escalate privileges. What this feature will do is reduce the number of attack targets that can be used to escalate privileges. If root processes do not have all capabilities, they will be harder to use to subvert the system. The end result will be to make Fedora 12 more secure. |
| Mobile Broadband Enhancements |
Extended support of mobile broadband cards in NetworkManager, including display of signal strength when connected, network scanning, network selection, etc. NetworkManager has basic mobile broadband card support (including mobile phones when connected via wired serial), but lacks some more useful functionality: * scanning for available cellular networks (GSM only) * selection of a cellular network (GSM only) * show signal strength of currently connected cellular network. These features are sometimes necessary for easier roaming support when outside of your home country. |
| NetworkManagerIPv6 | Adds full IPv6 support to NetworkManager. |
| NetworkManager System Connections |
Add full support for system-wide connections to NetworkManager. |
| Fedora Moblin | Add support to Fedora for the Moblin Core NetBooks and similar devices. This will allow for a desktop environment that is optimised for these newer small, cheap devices that are becoming popular. |
| Virtual Network Interface Management |
Provide tools to easily set up commonly used network configurations, like bridges, bonds, vlan’s and sensible combinations thereof, in particular for virtualized hosts. Configuring network interfaces, especially for virtualization, is considerably simplified. |
| PackageKitBrowserPlugin | The PackageKit browser plugin allows people browsing online to install missing applications. This feature will add the facility to install packages from websites, in a secure way, rather than telling users to run various yum commands as the root user or describing how to use the PackageKit tools. But yum will still be around for people like me who *like* using command-line yum. |
| PackageKitCommandNotFound | The PackageKit command not found functionality allows command line users to automatically install missing commands, or to suggest spelling replacements. The PackageKit-command-not-found package installs a handler to bash so that missing commands can be installed, or invalid commands can be corrected. This feature will add the same functionality to Fedora as Ubuntu users have had for years. |
| Thusnelda | Update libtheora to the 1.1 release. A lot of positive momentum has been building around open video on the web. With this feature, Fedora becomes more attractive as a platform for producing video content in open formats. |
| Virt Privileges | Improve security by adjusting the privileges of QEMU processes managed by libvirt. Also, allow KVM to be used by unprivileged users. Reducing the privileges of the libvirt system instance will improve the security of a critical piece of infrastructure. Increasing the functionality of the session instance, will allow more widespread usage. By reducing the scenarios in which the system instance is needed, it will also improve security, since the session instance has far less privileges. Running everything as the same user account will also allow for better desktop session integration, particularly for the sound daemon, and facilitate usage of user home directories for disk image storage. |
| Volume Control Continued |
Fedora gains a volume control that ‘just works’ in most cases, which should greatly reduce the need to fall back to raw Alsa controls. |
| XZ Rpm Payloads, as in Red Hat Package Manager |
This switches RPM to use XZ (the new LZMA format) as default payload compression. RPM currently uses gzip payloads by default, with an option for bzip2. bzip2 adds greater compression, but with a large memory and cpu time penalty. XZ allows better compression without these penalties. |
| x86 Support | Fedora 12 is changing the base architecture from i586 used for Fedora 11 to i686 and optimizing for current 32-bit processors. If you’re using a newer 32-bit computer, Fedora 12 should work much better. The downside is there may be problems on much older equipment, and you might want to install Fedora 12 on newer computers. |
I’ve tested the Fedora 12 Beta ─
and recommend you give the Fedora-12 Production spin a whirl.
Descriptions, Details, and Downloads are at fedoraproject.org.
Today’s podcast will close with a Creative
Commons licensed work by Jacob
Heringman performing Antony Holborne’s A
Horn pype.
Enjoy.
Courthouse Village 091108 Second Cinder Block Structure
November 9, 2009
The late afternoon sun casts a warm glow on the once-open-field where deer used to roam (and still do nearby).
There are some notable changes this time; use the RACSB view as a point of reference to orient the scenes in the other views. Since two weeks ago, another cinder block structure has gone up. The first structure, which was in the previous pictures, is at the very far right of the RACSB view. The cinder block structure close by it to the left with the three door-sized openings is new as of last week. During the past two weeks this second cinder block structure was encased in scaffolding as it went up.
Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:
See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.
- SYE (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
The cinder block structure visible through the tree foliage is the first of the two. The second one, not visible from here is behind it. - SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
The visible cinder block structure is the first of the two. In this view, three door-sized openings are visible on the side facing the school (and the camera). - RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
The first cinder block structure, which was in the previous pictures, is at the very far right of this view. The cinder block structure close by it to the left with the three door-sized openings is new as of last week. During the past two weeks this second cinder block structure was encased in scaffolding as it went up. - BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
The second cinder block structure is the one visible in-between and behind the pavilion and the building. - PTCHE (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
The second cinder block structure is the one visible; observe the two sets of three door-sized openings on this side, which is opposite the side visible in the RACSB view. The tree that is visible behind the far left corner of the structure is the one through which the first structure is visible in the SYE and SYW views; the first structure is behind the second and is not visible in this view. - PTCHW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
The second cinder block structure is the one visible. There is only one MegaMix machine there now, as there had been two in recent weeks.
mcw
Marwalk's Blog 