Happy Birthday ownCloud
I was there, sharing a room with Frank at the infamous Banana Bungalow. Epic times, I can tell you that - there was lots of rum, lots of rain and loads of good conversations and making new friends.





Since then, a lot has changed. But the people who started building a self-hosted, privacy protecting alternative in 2010 and 2011 are still on it! In 2011, a first meetup was held, and the 5 participants at that meetup recently got on stage at the Nextcloud conference to recall some good memories:
Of course, today we continue the work at Nextcloud, that just yesterday published its latest bugfix- and security update. It is great to see so many people have stuck with us for all these years - just this month, the KDE sysadmins migrated their ownCloud instance to Nextcloud!
We'll keep up the good work and you're welcome to join, either if you're looking for a job or just want to code. In both cases I can promise you: working with such a motivated, dedicated, professional team is just plain amazing.
I also published a blog on our Nextcloud blog about this milestone.
EDIT: By the way - there's a meetup tonight in C-Base, B'lin, 19:00 - would be fun to drink a beer on ownCloud's birthday and talk about the future! Join! It will be at least until 10 or so, so if you can't be there before then - still come! ;-)
openSUSE :: kernel of the day
Для тех, кто по той или иной причине хочет использовать последнюю версию ядра, но постоянно пересобирать ее вручную нет ни времени ни желания, openSUSE проект делает это за нас. Идея Kernel Of The Day – предоставить тестерам и прсто kernel инженерам последнюю git-версию ядра в виде RPM пакета. Это devel проект для ядра, в котором собираются версии для последующего тестирования и отправлки в tumbleweed. Делается это также с целью получить feedback от сообщества в виде bugreports или просто в ML/IRC.
Процесс полностью автоматизированный. Вы подключаете репозиторий и обновляетесь (каждый раз как пакет с новым ядром доступен для установки) как и обычно.
Версия unstable, поэтому имеет смысл не перезаписывать каждый раз старое ядро, а добавлять новое. Это не работает автоматически. Для этого надо отредактировать /etc/zypp/zypp.conf. Добавьте две строчки:
multiversion = provides:multiversion(kernel) multiversion.kernels = latest,running
Подробнее о multiple kernel.
Добавлю, что система ломатеся. Ломается достаточно часто. Только что, к примеру, у меня поломался dracut на ядре 4.9.0-2. Я не cмог загрузиться, т.к. он связан с LUKS, а я использую шифрование. Откатился назад на 4.8.13.
Интерсно, что именно сломано, почему и как починить. Это как раз ответ на вопрос “зачем мы этим занимаемся?”. Если бы этого не произошло, я вряд бы ли стал разбираться глубже в dracut. Проект таким способом предоставляет идеальную трейнинг площадку для энтузиастов, где обучение проходит в играющей форме 
Instalar Resilio Sync (antiguo BitTorrent Sync) en openSUSE
Primera observación lunar del 2017
VMware Workstation 12.5.2 patch for Linux Kernel 4.9
1) Directory should look like this:
# ls -al mkvm* *.patch2) Execute with sudo or login as root
-rwxr-xr-x 1 cseader users 2965 Jan 4 21:11 mkvmwmods+patch.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 cseader users 1457 Sep 26 15:47 mkvmwmods.sh
-rw-r--r-- 1 cseader users 650 Jan 4 19:16 vmmon-hostif.patch
-rw-r--r-- 1 cseader users 650 Jan 4 21:21 vmnet-userif.patch
# ./mkvmwmods+patch.shIt will immediately start the cleanup and then extracting the VMware source. If the patch files are in the same Directory as it looks like above then it will patch the source for compiling against Kernel 4.9
3) Now Start VMware Workstation.
Enjoy!
Cuando los planetas se juntan
El meteoro que no fue
USB Communication with Python and PyUSB
Say we have a robot with a USB connection and command documentation. The only thing missing is knowing how to send a command over USB. Let's learn the basic concepts needed for that.
Installing the Library
We'll use the pyusb Python library. On openSUSE we install it from the main RPM repository:
sudo zypper install python-usbOn other systems we can use the pip tool:
pip install --user pyusbNavigating USB Concepts
To send a command, we need an Endpoint. To get to the endpoint we need to descend down the hierarchy of
- Device
- Configuration
- Interface
- Alternate setting
- Endpoint
First we import the library.
#!/usr/bin/env python2
import usb.coreThe device is identified with a vendor:product pair included in lsusb output.
Bus 002 Device 043: ID 0694:0005 Lego Group
VENDOR_LEGO = 0x0694
PRODUCT_EV3 = 5
device = usb.core.find(idVendor=VENDOR_LEGO, idProduct=PRODUCT_EV3)A Device may have multiple Configurations, and only one can be active at a time. Most devices have only one. Supporting multiple Configurations is reportedly useful for offering more/less features when more/less power is available. EV3 has only one configuration.
configuration = device.get_active_configuration()A physical Device may have multiple Interfaces active at a time. A typical example is a scanner-printer combo. An Interface may have multiple Alternate Settings. They are kind of like Configurations, but easier to switch. I don't quite understand this, but they say that if you need Isochronous Endpoints (read: audio or video), you must go to a non-primary Alternate Setting. Anyway, EV3 has only one Interface with one Setting.
INTERFACE_EV3 = 0
SETTING_EV3 = 0
interface = configuration[(INTERFACE_EV3, SETTING_EV3)]An Interface will typically have multiple Endpoints. The Endpoint 0 is reserved for control functions by the USB standard so we need to use Endpoint 1 here.
The standard distinguishes between input and output endpoints, as well as four
transfer types, differing in latency and reliability. The nice thing is that
the Python library nicely allows to abstract all that away (unlike cough Ruby
cough) and we simply say to write to a non-control Endpoint.
ENDPOINT_EV3 = 1
endpoint = interface[ENDPOINT_EV3]
# make the robot beep
command = '\x0F\x00\x01\x00\x80\x00\x00\x94\x01\x81\x02\x82\xE8\x03\x82\xE8\x03'
endpoint.write(command)Other than Robots?
Robots are great fun but unfortunately they do not come bundled with every computer. Do you know of a device that we could use for demonstration purposes? Everyone has a USB keyboard and mouse but I guess the OS will claim them for input and not let you play.
What Next
- PyUSB
- PyUSB tutorial
- USB in a nutshell goes deeper, and is aimed more at firmware developers for the devices, but still is much shorter than the 650 page USB 2.0 specification
- EV3 documentation at Mindstorms Downloads
The Full Script
Another openSUSE Board candidate ;-)
I was nominated to run for the openSUSE Board, and finally decided to run ;-)
I use openSUSE since years (actually it was still „SuSE Linux“ with lowercase „u“ back then), started annoying people in bugzilla, err, started betatesting in the 9.2 beta phase. Since then, I reported more than 1200 bugs. Later, OBS ruined my bugzilla statistics by introducing the option to send a SR ;-)
More recently, I helped in fighting the wiki spam, which also means I‘m admin on the english wiki since then, and had some fun[tm] with the current server admin. I‘m one of the founding members of the Heroes team (thanks to Sarah for getting the right people together at oSC16!) Currently, I work on the base server setup (using salt) for our new infrastructure and updating the wiki to an up-to-date MediaWiki version.
You can find me on several mailinglists and on IRC, and of course I still scare people in bugzilla. I‘m also a regular visitor and speaker at the openSUSE Conference, and visit other conferences as time permits.
Besides openSUSE, I work on AppArmor and PostfixAdmin – both upstream and as packager. Also, I‘m admin on several webservers (all running with Leap).
My day job has nothing to do with computers. I produce something you can drink that is named after a software we ship in openSUSE ;-)
Oh, and I collect funny quotes from various mailinglists, IRC, bugzilla etc. that then end up as random signatures under my mails, so be careful what you write ;-)
Issues I can see
-
You probably know „DRY“, so – see the next paragraph
Aims/Goals
-
speed! We have too many issues hanging around for too long, and that‘s annoying for people who suffer from them. Especially small things should (and can!) be solved quickly.
-
clear responsibilities! Part of the speed problem is that it‘s sometimes hard to find out who can fix something, and hunting down people takes time.
-
don‘t talk (too much) – do it! Sometimes we need to discuss things, but often just doing them works best. Obviously I can‘t do everything alone, so I want to encourage people to help whereever they can. „I don‘t have knownledge how to do this“ doesn‘t count – for example, updating a wiki page or reporting a bug isn‘t hard ;-) and typically people really start to report bugs once they understand that this gives them the right to complain (quoting Pascal Bleser: „Always file a bug: if it‘s not in Bugzilla, then it‘s not there“)
-
longer days! Maybe I should move to Bajor – I heard they have 26 hour days there, which would solve some of my time problems ;-))
Why you should vote for me?
-
I tend to kick people to ensure they work faster and fix things. This is your chance to kick me!
-
Help me to find out if I can get the thing in the (non-random) signature of this blog post done!
Things I‘ll never do:
-
use a stable release on my main computer – Tumbleweed is just too good ;-)
-
open a bugreport if fxing it and sending a SR is faster
-
be too serious – hey, our motto is „Have a lot of fun...“ ;-)
-
drink beer ;-) (sorry, not even openSUSE beer)
Contact Details:
- Mail: anything @cboltz.de - or use my IRC nick @opensuse.org
- IRC: cboltz
- http://blog.cboltz.de (some more posts would be nice, but then you wouldn‘t believe the „don‘t talk – do it!“ ;-)
- https://connect.opensuse.org/pg/profile/cboltz
- https://en.opensuse.org/user:cboltz
I wish all candidates good luck, hope that we‘ll see lots of voters – and wish everybody all the best for 2017!
PS: Non-random signature (yes, I know it's unusual for a blog post to have a signature at all, so this will stay a rare exception) – and while I have serious doubts about the second paragraph, I‘m very sure about the first ;-)
--
If you run for the Board this year and get elected, I can see my sanity would be doomed
But in a good way ;)
[Richard Brown]
Running for the openSUSE Board
Hi! I‘m Sarah Julia Kriesch, 29 years old, educated as a Computer Science Expert for System Integration, and currently studying Computer Science at the TH Nürnberg.
- Email: sarah.kriesch@opensuse.org
- Blog: https://sarah-julia-kriesch.eu (my blog)
- facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahjulia.kriesch
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-julia-kriesch-16874b82
- Connect: https://connect.opensuse.org//pg/profile/AdaLovelace
Introduction and Biography
I am a Student at the TH Nürnberg, Student Officer for Computer Science (Fachschaft Informatik) and a Working Student (Admin/ DevOps) at ownCloud. I changed from working life to student life this year. I have received the scholarship „Aufstiegsstipendium“ (translated „upgrading scholarship“) for students with work experience by the BMBF.
I have got 4 years of work experience as a Linux System Administrator in the Core System Administration (Monitoring) at 1&1 Internet AG/ United Internet and as a (Managing) Linux Systems Engineer for MRM Systems (SaaS) at BrandMaker. MRM Systems are systems for project management in marketing (Marketing Ressource Management Systems).
I used SLES/ openSUSE during my German education of information technology for the first time in 2009. In the company I learned installations with YaST. I wanted to know more, which was the reason for going to conferences and expos. I tried to educate myself (with community support and vocational school) until the end of my 2nd year. oSC11 was the time stamp for meeting the openSUSE Community. Marco Michna wanted to become my Mentor in System Administration and gave me private lessons until his death. I got a scholarship for further education (a free Linux training) by Heinlein. Both were a good base for starting in the job after the vocational training act.
I wasn‘t allowed to contribute to openSUSE during my last year of education, because my education company didn‘t want to see that. They filtered Google after all contributions in forums and communities. That‘s the reason why I am using the anonymous nick name „AdaLovelace“ at openSUSE. I had to wait for joining openSUSE again until my first job where I worked together with Contributors/ Members of Debian, FreeBSD and Fedora.
I started with German translations at openSUSE with half a year of work experience. Most of you know me from oSCs (since 2011). I was Member of the Video Team, the Registration Desk and contributed as a Speaker. Since 2013 I am wiki maintainer in the German wiki and admin there. Since 2014 I am an active Advocate in Germany. I give yearly presentations, organize booths and take part in different Open Source Events. As a GUUG Member (German Unix User Group) I asked for a sponsorship for oSC16. I hold my first (English) presentation about performance monitoring there then.
This year I have joined the Heroes Team and the Release Management Team. I founded the Heroes Team with my friends during the oSC16 because of the spam in the wiki. I became the Coordinator for this project. I am Translation Coordinator now, too. I was responsible for the documentation of openSUSE Leap 42.2. So I wrote a lot in the English wiki this year. I was interviewed (as an Advocate) by the Hacker Public Radio at the FOSDEM 2016.
Some of you know me from different mailing lists. That‘s the best way to reach me.
I love openSUSE and pick up tasks, if I see something to do where I can help with my Sysadmin/ Coordination/ Documentation/ BPM skills. Free periods ( Monday & Tuesday) are reserved for openSUSE Contributions. If somebody asks me for technical help (unimportant whether programming, infrastructure or communication), I‘ll try to find a solution. I learned to work agile (Scrumban in System Administration) which I want to transfer to my teams in open source projects.
Issues I can see
I want to improve the cooperation between openSUSE and universities/ TH Nürnberg as the founder of the Open Source AG there.
openSUSE should be one of the main distributions on AWS (main AMI).
The openSUSE Infrastructure should be easier to achieve for openSUSE admins, so that we can react on escalations very fast.
Role of the Board
My goal is to have happy customers and developers. That‘s what I want to achieve as an Advocate and (perhaps) as a Board Member in the future.
We should live freedom in the community. Everybody should do what he likes. I don‘t like bossing. But I want to help in leadership with coordination and solutions where needed.
Why you should vote me
- I am a geek(o).
- I like new technologies and learning.
- I know most important people in the community.
- I learned coordination in my first job, which I can use as a Board Member, too.
- I am educated by communities.
- I have got an education in information technology.
- I contribute to different parts of the project (technical and non-technical).
- I have got a big open source network (openSUSE, ownCloud, GUUG, …).
- I have got international work experience.
- I love openSUSE.
Aims/ Goals
We should improve openSUSE and hold the position of being one of the best Linux distributions.
I want to be open for cooperation with other Linux/ open source projects.
