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Last Week Next Week Insights Index Daynotes.com Email: tom@syroidmanor.com
Yesterday I attempted to install the latest OpenLDAP (2.1.9) release on my test box. First I removed all traces of the current shipping release (2.0.25), then I injected the 2.1.9 RPMs. They installed without error or protest. When I tried to start the server, however, I got a "failure" message. Nothing anywhere in the logs to indicate why. So I attempted to remove the 2.1.9 packages. RPM hung -- hard. I killed the process from another console and ran rpm -qa | grep ldap to see what was up. RPM hung again. Any invocation of RPM hung the system. The only way I could fix the problem was to reboot the system (AHRGGH!). I eventually got the 2.1.9 RPMs removed, and decided to fetch the source tarball and build from scratch. I did, it passed all "make" tests, but when I tried to run the server it failed to start. I decided to revert to the shipping release, 2.0.25. I installed the requisite packages from the original CDs, configured /etc/openldap/slapd.conf, and fired up the server. "Failure". BAH and Bother. After three or four hours of muttering and massaging the lines in my forehead, it dawned on me where the problem lay. My "test-bed" was running the latest stable release of CommuniGate Pro (which, BTW, has been running like a fine Swiss watch since I activated it yesterday morning). CommuniGate Pro includes an internal directory service, which was grabbing the same port OpenLDAP needed. Given the primary purpose of the system was to test CommuniGate, I decided to cease all further efforts on the box, remove all traces of OpenLDAP, and use another system for my tinkerings. So I turned to Janus...
Janus had a default OpenLDAP installing, meaning the base and -devel packages. I inserted the appropriate RH CD, installed -servers, and edited the "dc" entries in /etc/openldap/slapd.conf ("dn=admin,dc=syroidmanor,dc=com"). I fired up the server and ran ldapsearch with the "'(objectclass=*)' namingContexts" parameter to test the installation. The correct response was displayed, but when I went to check the LDAP process, it had died. I triple checked this behavior -- sure enough, if I started the server, then issued a search query, it would return the correct result but the process died as a result. WTF?!?!? This whole excercise was quickly becoming a piffle of epic proportions.
I decided to try one more option and if it didn't work, I'd throw in the towel for the day. I updated the existing 2.0.25 installation on Janus using the 2.1.9 RPMs I had tried on the test machine. They took. I restarted the server. Success. I performed a query and it returned the correct results. I check the process list and the LDAP daemon was still there. HOORAY! I have a very hard time walking away from failure of any kind, so I quit while the sun was still shining. Populating the database could wait for another day. I've added it to my "futz with this coming week" list. I desperately need a centralized solution for all the kazillion bits-n-bobs stored on multiple machines around here. LDAP is the perfect vehicle for this, so I intend to continue forth with my efforts on this front. If necesary, I'll resort to violence ;-)
You'd think after all the vexations I experienced with OpenLDAP, I'd be perfectly content to sit and watch a movie with the kids. Kinda-sorta. Last night I dragged my "tethered-wireless" laptop into the family room, hacked on the MySQL databases running on Janus, and watched Titanic out of the corner of my eye. Not exactly "quality time with the kids", but they were glued and I've seen the movie at least 20 times.
I'm rather pleased with myself as far as MySQL goes. I worked through most of the tutorial chapter from MySQL Reference Manual, played with privileges in the mysql table, experimented with remote management using mysqladmin, and even loaded a GUI MySQL interface on my notebook (mysqlcc). I can create and drop tables, populate a table with data using both an external text file and manually with the insert into table values command, and construct basic queries on the data. I even constructed a query across two tables. All fundamental stuff for someone who knows SQL and RDMS's, but this is pioneering stuff for me. There's something about working with a relational database that I've always found intriguing. I remember trying to learn the ins-and-outs of FoxPro 2 ten years ago, and finding it both interesting and challenging. Gee, I date myself again...
We're having a chorus of friends over this afternoon for snacks and a visit, so I'd better get with the program.
Trajedy is trajedy no matter when it strikes, but there's something particularly sobbering when it strikes this time of year. A friend and co-worker of Leah's phoned last night. Her uncle -- a truck driver -- was involved in a accident just out of Regina on Highway 1. Apparently, the truck in front of him slammed on his brakes for whatever reason and the rig jacknifed. He plowed into the mess in front of him. It took emergency crews three hours to extracate him, so I imagine the wreckage was pretty severe. They air-lifted him to the hospital in Regina, but he died on the operating table. The impact severed his aeorta (sp?) and he bled to death.
Neither Leah or I knew the man, but the news hit us both hard. He was a truck driver. After twenty years on the road, I have an innate afinity for anyone who spends their life on the road battling the elements. He was a relative of a friend. And, of course, there's the season. I'm not a religious man in the common sense of the word, but I do have deep-seated spiritual beliefs. Our prayers go out to the family.
I left the "test" box running Setiathome overnight -- all appeared well and good this morning, so I installed CommuniGate Pro 4.0.3 on the system. I'm currently rsync'ing all mail data from Hydras over to the box and will point my firewall to it shortly. If you notice any WTF's or irregularities regarding email over the course of the next few days, please advise. I'll be monitoring the logs closely. The way I've set things up, it will be a simple process to revert to my previous installation if necessary. Just rsync the data directories back to Hydras, restart the CommuniGate daemon there, and adjust the port forwarding on my firewall.
I also installed the latest version of OpenLDAP on the same box hoping to do some tinkering with a centralized address book over the weekend. No Joy. The daemon won't even start. Later today I'll revert to the version shipping with RH 8 (2.0.26, I believe) and try again.
Time to catch up on some cartoon with the kids -- I could use a giggle or two this morning. Cheers.
A hectic day, but I managed to get most of my work-related odd-n-sods taken care of. I still have work to do over the holidays, but I'll definitely be in "power down" mode through Christmas.
Tonight I'm dabbling in my office, taking a little time for myself. I'm installing RH 8 on a test system. Tomorrow I plan to install the latest version of CommuniGate Pro on it and give it a workout through next week. Between disk swaps, I'm working through the security chapter of MySQL Reference Manual. Excellent stuff. MySQL allows an admin to set some tremendously fine-grain DB privileges. I'm impressed with the book; I'm even more impressed with some of the things I'm learning I can do with MySQL.
Tomorrow I plan to spend most of the day chasing the kids around the house and attending to a few household chores. I'll check in, but anything I post will probably be brief.
Have a super weekend.
Like the weathervane in the opening scenes of Mary Poppins, the winds have changed here in Saskatoon. Literally. It's blustery, cooler (still unseasonably warm, but there's a bite to the air today), and the sky tells me there's snow on the way. We had a skiff last night, but only enough to make the roads slick. No worries. I plan to be a home-body today, catch up on a few work-related items, and spend some time in front of a nice warm fire catching up with my family.
I started a new book last night: MySQL Reference Manual -- Documentation from the Source (O'Reilly Community Press). At first glance I thought the book would be just what the title suggests, a reference manual. Full of cryptic commands in a quick reference format. Not so. The first two or three chapters are chock full of installation tips and operating system dependent workarounds. And there's a tutorial chapter -- which I'm into now -- walking the reader through the basics of setting up a fictious database, populating it with tables and data, and then manipulating the entries. The book's written by the three lead developers of MySQL, and as such, contains all kinds of valuable insights. The tone is fast-paced and lively. Which makes MySQL Reference Manual one of those rare technical reads one can get lost in without getting bored. Imagine that... a software reference title that's fun to read... ;-)
Later. Have a wonderful Thursday. And remember, only six more shopping days until Christmas (he-he-he).
Well, that was about enough excitement for one day... Today I rebuilt a server from bare metal, remotely, 3,000 miles distant. Why did I have to rebuild the system? Don't ask. Trust me, it wasn't my preferred approach. I'm not going to get into it -- suffice to say, politics was involved. All's well that end's well, though. I garnered a warm body, sat them down at the console, instructed them to insert the first disk and reboot the system, and walked them through the setup dialogs from memory. When the base install was complete, I SSH'd into the box and had the system up to "snuff" (tweaked, configured, and all current updates installed) in just over an hour. Hat's off to Red Hat (pardon the pun); they really do have a class installation with 8.0.
My Gentoo install is back to its stable, well-behaved self. The fixes I applied yesterday brought a dead horse back to life. While I'm saluting folks, a tip of the hat to the Gentoo devs. I doubt that even with my experience I could have brought back a RH installation from the borked state my Gentoo install was in early yesterday. The Gentoo mailing list is tops. Lots of intelligent, seasoned people. And with Portage, the distro has remarkable flexibility. I'm impressed. Again. Gentoo gets a "Cold Dead Fingers" award from me...
Our Christmas cards arrived today -- time to dig out a pen and see if I still remember how to sign my name...
Be well.
New update at 18:00 hrs...
Apologies in advance for the brevity this morning, but I've got some major FUBAR flying in all directions across my desk this morning, and quite frankly, I'm a little overwelmed at the moment.
I updated to the latest portage code late last night. This morning I immediately noticed some serious issues with the system. vi gave me an "unresolved symbols" error and locked. When I tried to re-emerge a couple packages, the process aborted with a variety of "can't find..." gcc errors. After following the Gentoo mailing for an hour, it would appear that the latest portage code has a SERIOUS bug in it. gcc is gone from my system. I think (but haven't confirmed yet) that some key libraries have also gone the way of the Do-Do bird. Which brings up a rather sticky problem. I can't re-emerge gcc, as you need gcc to compile gcc. Portage isn't broken per se, but nothing compiles due to the missing gcc. I fear the resolution will be a re-install; at the very least I'll have to use the boot cd and rebuild gcc from the boot image. Nasty major breakage.
I not terribly upset. The Gentoo devs are usually pretty careful with their code. And I do run a bleeding-edge system here, cuz I like to contribute to the development of Gentoo. Sometimes things go bump in the night. Period. Full stop. Thankfully, I'm adept enough with Linux now I'll probably be able to recover my system with two days of recompiling. And if I can't, that's life in the fast lane.
If you're running Gentoo, DO NOT emerge portage-2.0.45-r6. As a matter of fact, don't emerge anything until this morning's problems are fully resolved.
The good news is that my Gentoo install still works. I'm typing this from KDE using JEdit. The bad news is that I'm stuck with a static system until I can find time to restore gcc and whatever else got borked.
[UPDATE 10:00 HRS]: If you emerged portage-r6 as I did and ended up with a broken system, George Seemant from the Gentoo dev team has fix instructions online here. I'm sucking down the files now. If I encounter any further troubles, I'll advise; otherwise you can assume the packages fix the problem as advertised.
[UPDATE 18:00 HRS]: My system is up, functional, and as far as I can tell, firing on all cylinders again. In case you're interested, here's what I had to do:
I then had to re-emerge perl as that's what was breaking vi. When I compiled perl last night, I did so with thread support. vi apparently doesn't support threading, which is what was causing it to barf -- nothing to do with the portage/gcc problem as I originally thought.
It's 4 o'clock in the morning and a balmy 30 degrees F. If you've ever been to Saskatchewan in December, you'll know what an oxymoron that last sentence is. I've lived here 5 years now, and while I've seen some unusual weather in December, I've never seen anything like what we're currently experiencing. It's almost like a perpetual chinook. The snow we had on the ground is almost gone; Saturday and Sunday we had water running in the streets. Not good for the farmers, I guess, but I'm not a farmer so I'm enjoying the phenomena fully.
'Tis the season to eat, drink, and be merry. And that's just what we did Saturday night. For the first time in almost six weeks, Leah and I went out. Alone. Sans children. We just went next door to an "open house" party, but when the evening was over both Leah and I felt like we had been on a week-long junket to the Caribeaan. Yes, long overdue. I've been a slave to my job of late, to the exclusion of my friends and family. I was actually beginning to think that 10 or 14 hours a day at my desk was "normal". For a moment I felt guilty about going out Saturday night. The good news is I broke the cycle. There is no bad news.
Yesterday I spent the day with my family. I checked email a couple times, but that was my closest contact with a computer. I didn't take time to pontificate on my life, or how I was going to shuffle my workload to make up for taking a day off. I didn't even turn on CNN. I just focused on my wife and kids and puttered with a little housework. Leah and I actually cooked a meal together last night. Boneless chicken thighs marinated in buttermilk, breaded and seasoned to perfection. The meal was excellent -- just like the day. It reminded me of the movie with Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt: "As Good As it Gets". Hey, and guess what? This morning my back feels better than it has for two weeks.
Sometime when I wasn't looking, I became a morning person. I used to do most of my "heavy thinking" late at night. Leah's new job (she has to be at work at 5am, so gets up about 4), however, forced me to revamp my daily routine. I now get up with her at 4, "putter" for an hour or so, go through my various Inboxes, get Danielle off to school, and get Landon fed and watered. I've also come to appreciate the mornings as a time of reflection -- both for the day ahead and the previous day gone by. This morning I had a very pregnant realization: While I enjoy my job with Studio B and the people I work with every day, it's just a job. I could be laid off next month, or decide to take up welding six months from now. My family, however, will still be by my side. Looking to me for leadership, guidance, and love. My life has fallen out of balance. I intend to correct that, starting today. The material I have due this morning is not done. It will be done when it's done.
I have temporarily addressed my wireless-under-Linux dilemma. I call my solution "tethered wireless". I found an old 50 foot CAT cable in the cupborad with a damaged section and a broken end. I dug out my cable crimpers, cut out the damaged section, and put a new end on. I can now sit in my office and work, and if I feel like a change of scenery, move into the family room. Ta and Da. I'm cash-poor this month (got a little carried away with Christmas gifts for the wife and kids ;-) but next month I'm going to pick up a new wireless card. One that's better supported under Linux (read, NOT wlan-ng); ideally, one that is directly supported by the current kernels. The card I have now (a Linksys WPC11) works well when it works, but the drivers are fragile creatures. They're buggy at times, they demand just the right PCMCIA-CS version, and when the Gentoo init scripts change, nine times out of ten it costs me a week of troubleshooting and debugging. Enough. Time to invest in a new card. One that ships with Linux-supported drivers -- maintained Linux-supported drivers.
I'm off to make a difference to the world. Have a happy day.
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