HOWTO Install a JRE on Sun Solaris

This article was first written in September 2004 for the BeezNest technical
website (http://glasnost.beeznest.org/articles/174).

It may seem natural that Java should be available on Solaris. Actually, it is, but Solaris 8 for example features an obsolete JRE (Java Runtime Environment), JRE 1.2.

Let us see how to install a r(d)ecent JRE on Solaris.

Download the JRE for Solaris, and for your architecture. You’ll get a file like this: j2re-1_4_2_05-solaris-sparc.sh.

Go to /usr as root.

Execute the following command, given the name hereup:

# sh j2re-1_4_2_05-solaris-sparc.sh

Replace the link /usr/java (which currently points to ./java1.2) with a link to the newly-created directory.

# ln -s ./j2re1.4.2_05 java

You’re done!

To test you are using the new version, just issue a:

# java -version

You should now see something like this:

java version "1.4.2_05"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.2_05-b04)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.2_05-b04, mixed mode)

HOWTO Rotate logs on Sun Solaris

This article was first written in September 2004 for the BeezNest technical
website (http://glasnost.beeznest.org/articles/171).

There is no generalized system to rotate and compress logs in Solaris, like GNU logrotate on Linux or newsyslog on FreeBSD.

Hopefully, Shaun Rowland wrote one: rotatelog. It is written as a Perl script meant to be run from cron, with a configuration file and documentation available.

Note: Starting from Solaris 9, there is a standard tool, called logadm, to rotate logs.

Go download the tar.gz file and untar it. Then go in the new directory, and execute make install. It will install everything by default under /usr/local/ (mainly /usr/local/sbin/rotatelog and /usr/local/etc/rotatelog.conf).

Adapt the rotatelog.conf file to your needs/wishes. Here is a sample, working configuration file for Solaris 8:

# $Id: rotatelog.conf,v 1.2 2001/04/22 23:01:36 rowland Exp $

#####
#
# This a sample rotatelog configuration file.
#
#####

FILES:

# File (full path)    Trigger   Owner:Group     Mode  Compress  Archive Limit
# ================    =======   ===========     ====  ========  =============

/var/adm/wtmpx          4M      root:wheel      644     none            4
/var/adm/messages       8M      root:wheel      664     gz              5
/var/log/syslog         8M      root:wheel      664     gz              5

ACTIONS:

# Shell Command :file1,file2,file3 ... fileN
# ==========================================

rotate1                                 : /var/adm/wtmpx
kill -HUP `cat /var/run/syslog.pid`     : /var/adm/messages, /var/log/syslog

NOTIFY:

# Person to receive email rotation notification
# =============================================

root@localhost

Modify the section of the rotatelog script where appears the following lines to your actual setup:

# Solaris path settings.
my $compress = "/bin/compress";
my $gzip = "/usr/local/bin/gzip";
my $sendmail = "/usr/lib/sendmail";
my $hostname = "/bin/hostname";

On Solaris 8, it should be like this:

# Solaris path settings.
my $compress = "/usr/bin/compress";
my $gzip = "/usr/bin/gzip";
my $sendmail = "/usr/lib/sendmail";
my $hostname = "/usr/bin/hostname";

Please note that on Solaris 8 newsyslog exist, is already started from cron, and is a basic shell script meant only to rotate /var/adm/messages without even compressing it. Let’s deactivate it, and put our rotatelog instead. Existing crontab:

# crontab -e

#ident  "@(#)root       1.19    98/07/06 SMI"   /* SVr4.0 1.1.3.1       */
#
# The root crontab should be used to perform accounting data collection.
#
# The rtc command is run to adjust the real time clock if and when
# daylight savings time changes.
#
10 3 * * 0,4 /etc/cron.d/logchecker
10 3 * * 0   /usr/lib/newsyslog
15 3 * * 0 /usr/lib/fs/nfs/nfsfind
1 2 * * * [ -x /usr/sbin/rtc ] && /usr/sbin/rtc -c > /dev/null 2>&1
30 3 * * * [ -x /usr/lib/gss/gsscred_clean ] && /usr/lib/gss/gsscred_clean

We’ll comment line

10 3 * * 0   /usr/lib/newsyslog

by adding a ‘#’ to it at the beginning and adding our line calling rotatelogs.Our crontab becomes:

#ident  "@(#)root       1.19    98/07/06 SMI"   /* SVr4.0 1.1.3.1       */
#
# The root crontab should be used to perform accounting data collection.
#
# The rtc command is run to adjust the real time clock if and when
# daylight savings time changes.
#
10 3 * * 0,4 /etc/cron.d/logchecker
#10 3 * * 0   /usr/lib/newsyslog
10 3 * * 0   /usr/local/sbin/rotatelogs
15 3 * * 0 /usr/lib/fs/nfs/nfsfind
1 2 * * * [ -x /usr/sbin/rtc ] && /usr/sbin/rtc -c > /dev/null 2>&1
30 3 * * * [ -x /usr/lib/gss/gsscred_clean ] && /usr/lib/gss/gsscred_clean

HOWTO Install a CUPS server on Debian Woody

This article was first written in September 2004 for the BeezNest technical
website (http://glasnost.beeznest.org/articles/170).

To install a CUPS server on Debian Woody, just:

$ sudo apt-get install cupsys

If you want to connect HP printers, also install package hp-ppd, it contains a lot of printer definitions (PPD – Postscript Printer Definition) for HP printers.

Then connect to the machine on port 631 (Ex: http://localhost:631) using your favorite web browser and add your printer(s).

GNOME 2.2 backports for Woody Policy Proposal

This article was first written in September 2004 for the BeezNest technical
website (http://glasnost.beeznest.org/articles/169).

We made a proposal for a policy about backporting packages of GNOME 2.2 for Debian Woody. We discussed a lot about it, and in the end, we were so near from the release of Sarge, that we decided to no longer spend time on the backport, but rather on getting Sarge the best generalist distribution available.

Anyway, here is the text:

GNOME 2.2 Woody Backport Policy

• release any work done on it under GPL

• use the standard GCC from Woody (2.95.4) if possible, or GCC 3.0 from Woody to build packages. Mozilla and browsers based on it must be compiled with 2.95.4 for plugin compatibility

• explain on an open web page any important choice taken in the backport and clear installation instructions

• notify the upstream maintainer about any problems in his/her package that is not specific to the backport (like overly numbered dependencies versions or missing (build)dependencies) by the way of BTS

• only apply patches if a bug report has been opened with the patch attached (and add the bugreport # to the changelog in this case). Patches should be for crash bugs only, unless discussed on the web page (see below)

• do not exceed package version on http://www.gnome.org/start/2.2 unless the newer version in sid has significant bugfixes

• do not exceed package version in sid/unstable (for those not listed on http://www.gnome.org/start/2.2) unless there is a security fix or major bugfix. In this case, issue bug report in BTS informing package maintainer of new package. When package is available in sid/unstable, update backport to use this package (in other words, try to avoid packages and versions that don’t exist in Sarge/Sid)

• do not backport any unnecessary library which results in orphaned packages

• do not break woody packages. If backporting a package breaks a Woody package, then either rebuild the Woody package, backport the package from Sarge/Sid, or provide a compat package. If package cannot be fixed with one of the above methods, document that the package is broken on the web site. This should be a last resort

• supply backports of XFree86 4.2 with backport, since fontconfig and others cannot use XFree86 as shipped with Woody. Also supply libxft2 2.1, fontconfig 2.1 and pango compiled against freetype 2.0.9. Newer freetype breaks packages. As a result of the above, XFree86 4.3 cannot be supplied (it requires freetype >= 2.1)

• make every effort to maintain compatibility with semi-official [?] at http://openoffice.debian.net/ (this should be maintained by keeping freetype dependency at 2.0.9)

• make sure packages upgrade to Sarge without problems

• use following numbering scheme: downloaded Sid version -1.jdsX. For example, if Sid version is 1.2.3-4, the backport version is 1.2.3-3jds1. Backport fixes results in incrementing jdsX

• document changes to packaging where significantly different from Sid on web page

• make sure backport is self-contained. In other words, no other backports are required– only official Woody and security updates for Woody are required.