Xen for both 32 and 64 bit systems.

[Steven Haigh]

Hi all,

For a while now I've been packaging kernels and Xen packages for EL6 - 
however they've all been 64 bit only.


Recently, I've compiled them for i686 (32 bit) machines and would love 
to get some feedback of anyone who runs Xen on a 32 bit setup (can be 64 
bit machine with 32 bit software) to test them out and let me know if it 
works.


Sadly, I don't have any spare hardware I can run this up as a test on!

My howto guide on setting it up is here:
http://www.crc.id.au/xen-on-rhel6-scientific-linux-6-centos-6-howto/

--
Steven Haigh

Email: net...@crc.id.au
Web: http://www.crc.id.au
Phone: (03) 9001 6090 - 0412 935 897
Fax: (03) 8338 0299



smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature

Re: Xen for both 32 and 64 bit systems.

[Nico Kadel-Garcia]

On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 6:26 AM, Steven Haigh  wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> For a while now I've been packaging kernels and Xen packages for EL6 -
> however they've all been 64 bit only.
>

You've my empathy. I did this years ago for our favorite upstream vendor's
version 4 releases while working for the BBC on a virtualization project.
Given our favorite upstream vendor's insistence on support for KVM, though,
are you seeing any particular benefit from the Xen kernels and software?
And don't the modern Linux kernels already have the paravirtualization
already built in, or do you find yourself needing the modified kernels for
the best support in the guests?

Also, reviewing your notes: /etc/grub.conf is a symlink to
/boot/grub/grub.conf. If you're not careful editing it, and especially if
you put it under RCS while editing it, you can accidentally break the
symlink and make world of confusion: Edit /boot/grub/grub.conf instead.

If you'd like to add notes for SELinux support to your guideline, set it to
"permissive" instead of "disabled" and collect some logs. There are also
some notes at http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/RHEL6_Xen4_Tutorial that look
interesting.

Re: Xen for both 32 and 64 bit systems.

[Steven Haigh]

On 19/02/2012 11:50 PM, Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:

You've my empathy. I did this years ago for our favorite upstream
vendor's version 4 releases while working for the BBC on a
virtualization project. Given our favorite upstream vendor's insistence
on support for KVM, though, are you seeing any particular benefit from
the Xen kernels and software? And don't the modern Linux kernels already
have the paravirtualization already built in, or do you find yourself
needing the modified kernels for the best support in the guests?


I didn't agree with TUV in dropping Xen - however I'm pretty sure it 
will return in EL7.


In modern distros - EL6 included - do not require any modifications to 
the guest kernel to utilise PV. This means you can just around run any 
current distro as a guest.



Also, reviewing your notes: /etc/grub.conf is a symlink to
/boot/grub/grub.conf. If you're not careful editing it, and especially
if you put it under RCS while editing it, you can accidentally break the
symlink and make world of confusion: Edit /boot/grub/grub.conf instead.


Yeah. You're probably right here - I do think that most people would 
never use an RCS system for grub.conf. Especially since each kernel 
install / upgrade edits this file automatically. The only real additions 
that we make is to add the lines I haven't figured out how to add 
automatically as yet.



If you'd like to add notes for SELinux support to your guideline, set it
to "permissive" instead of "disabled" and collect some logs. There are
also some notes at http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/RHEL6_Xen4_Tutorial that
look interesting.


I did look at this - however it seems that from all my experiments this 
is too much work to be feasible for just me to do at this point in time.


--
Steven Haigh

Email: net...@crc.id.au
Web: http://www.crc.id.au
Phone: (03) 9001 6090 - 0412 935 897
Fax: (03) 8338 0299




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Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature

Video editing help needed

[Anne Wilson]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

I have some camcorder recording that I need to get into a
cross-platform-readable format - included eventually into a Powerpoint
presentation (the owner of the file uses only Windows).

Kino has captured the clip and I can see the timeline, but of course
it is in .kino format.  I thought that .mov might be the best bet, but
kino crashes if you ask it to save to .mov.

What format should I be aiming for, and what tool will help me get
there?  Thanks

Anne
-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

iEYEARECAAYFAk9A+uUACgkQj93fyh4cnBecJACeJPg/0njjRzFIAo1GgboH1FRX
tdwAniHa+HhSj3gR1cMLM5NCPl4xbD/m
=3o0g
-END PGP SIGNATURE-

Re: Xen for both 32 and 64 bit systems.

[Nico Kadel-Garcia]

On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 8:22 AM, Steven Haigh  wrote:
>
> I didn't agree with TUV in dropping Xen - however I'm pretty sure it will
> return in EL7.
>
I'm not sure about this. There are things I dislike intensely about KVM,
specifically the lack of network configuration tools for setting up the
requisite bridged networking and the resulting configuration chaos,
especially if you want pair-bonded network ports. If I see one more such
configuration written by a scripting monkey boy who *never tried
disconnecting each of the cables to be sure it worked*, I'm going to be an
unhappy camper.

I'm also looking at the speed comparisons of KVM and Xen published at
http://blog.xen.org/index.php/2011/11/29/baremetal-vs-xen-vs-kvm-redux/ and
followup at http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTAyMTk. And
overall, the performances between the latest manually patched kernels with
Xen and the latest KVM are. hardly significant for typical use. So is
it worth the extra sweat and tears to maintain the distinct architecture.
Do you really see enough benefit to justify the work? And what makes you
think that our favorite upstream vendor will revisit Xen support for
release 7?

Re: Video editing help needed

[Chris Pemberton]

On 02/19/12 07:36, Anne Wilson wrote:

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

I have some camcorder recording that I need to get into a
cross-platform-readable format - included eventually into a Powerpoint
presentation (the owner of the file uses only Windows).

Kino has captured the clip and I can see the timeline, but of course
it is in .kino format.  I thought that .mov might be the best bet, but
kino crashes if you ask it to save to .mov.

What format should I be aiming for, and what tool will help me get
there?  Thanks

Anne
-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

iEYEARECAAYFAk9A+uUACgkQj93fyh4cnBecJACeJPg/0njjRzFIAo1GgboH1FRX
tdwAniHa+HhSj3gR1cMLM5NCPl4xbD/m
=3o0g
-END PGP SIGNATURE-
If you just want to convert video, I'd try handbrake or perhaps vlc.  If 
you want to edit, I'd try Ubuntu or Windows (in a VirtualBox perhaps).  
No kidding: having Ubuntu or Windows handy in a VirtualBox is a life 
saver somtimes.


What is the raw footage format?  What are you converting to?

Chris

Re: SL 6.2 rpmfusion

[Orion Poplawski]

On 02/19/2012 12:09 AM, Daniel Pun wrote:

Thanks Mark.

I installed elrepo.repo and the nvidia driver in SL 6.2 without any
problems.

However, I followed the instructions mentioned in
<>
and still cannot get rpmfusion fully installed on SL 6.2, that is, I can
only get

rpmfusion-free-updates.repo
rpmfusion-free-updates-testing.repo
rpmfusion-nonfree-updates.repo
rpmfusion-nonfree-updates-testing.repo

and cannot have  rpmfusion-free.repo  and  rpmfusion-nonfree.repo



- This discussion probably belongs on the rpmfusion list
- For EL, the main rpmfusion "release" repos are empty: 
http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/el/releases/6/Everything/x86_64/os/


and so aren't needed.

--
Orion Poplawski
Technical Manager 303-415-9701 x222
NWRA/CoRA DivisionFAX: 303-415-9702
3380 Mitchell Lane  or...@cora.nwra.com
Boulder, CO 80301  http://www.cora.nwra.com

Re: Video editing help needed

[Kevin Wood]

>>> Kino has captured the clip and I can see the timeline, but of course
it is in .kino format.  I thought that .mov might be the best bet, but
kino crashes if you ask it to save to .mov. <<<

You should probably target .avi or maybe .mp4 as a good cross-platform choice. 
Kino should give you an option to pick your output format for final render, so 
it shouldn't matter if it uses .kino format internally. However, you should 
create a short test clip and try it out in PowerPoint etc. before getting too 
involved.

If you get really stuck and need off-list help, send me an email directly and 
I'll see what I can do.




 From: Anne Wilson 
To: scientific-linux-us...@fnal.gov 
Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2012 8:36 AM
Subject: Video editing help needed
 
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

I have some camcorder recording that I need to get into a
cross-platform-readable format - included eventually into a Powerpoint
presentation (the owner of the file uses only Windows).

Kino has captured the clip and I can see the timeline, but of course
it is in .kino format.  I thought that .mov might be the best bet, but
kino crashes if you ask it to save to .mov.

What format should I be aiming for, and what tool will help me get
there?  Thanks

Anne
-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

iEYEARECAAYFAk9A+uUACgkQj93fyh4cnBecJACeJPg/0njjRzFIAo1GgboH1FRX
tdwAniHa+HhSj3gR1cMLM5NCPl4xbD/m
=3o0g
-END PGP SIGNATURE-

Re: Xen for both 32 and 64 bit systems.

[Steven Haigh]

On 20/02/2012 1:14 AM, Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:

On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 8:22 AM, Steven Haigh mailto:net...@crc.id.au>> wrote:

I didn't agree with TUV in dropping Xen - however I'm pretty sure it
will return in EL7.

I'm not sure about this. There are things I dislike intensely about KVM,
specifically the lack of network configuration tools for setting up the
requisite bridged networking and the resulting configuration chaos,
especially if you want pair-bonded network ports. If I see one more such
configuration written by a scripting monkey boy who *never tried
disconnecting each of the cables to be sure it worked*, I'm going to be
an unhappy camper.


Yeah - networking is a bit of an issue - but I've always set this up in 
the OS. Every setup is usually different and I don't believe a one size 
fits all approach ever works for something like this. I have 2 x VLANs 
on my Xen Dom0 server at home, and that goes into two bridges - one for 
each VLAN. Try getting a script that understands that!



I'm also looking at the speed comparisons of KVM and Xen published at
http://blog.xen.org/index.php/2011/11/29/baremetal-vs-xen-vs-kvm-redux/
and followup at
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTAyMTk
. And
overall, the performances between the latest manually patched kernels
with Xen and the latest KVM are. hardly significant for typical use.
So is it worth the extra sweat and tears to maintain the distinct
architecture.
Do you really see enough benefit to justify the work? And what makes you
think that our favorite upstream vendor will revisit Xen support for
release 7?


I don't think it'll be that much work. Xen is still maintained for 
Fedora - so its just a matter of rebuilding the package for EL7. As EL7 
will probably be based on a 3.x kernel, all the inner workings to run as 
a Xen Dom0 will be available in the kernel - they just need to be 
enabled. Kernel 2.6.32 that EL6 is built with still needs patches.


As for is it worth the effort? I believe so. I have multiple Xen systems 
and migrating them will be a pain in the backside. I've fine tuned the 
config over the years and its not worth starting again to maintain things.


As for me personally, I'd already be building these packages for myself 
- even if I didn't release them - so the extra work for me is just the 
32 bit packages - which I am not easily able to test. Thankfully, after 
setting up a dev environment with mock, its relatively easy to manage it 
all.


I figure for the thousands of downloads the 64bit packages have had, 
there are many people in the same boat.


--
Steven Haigh

Email: net...@crc.id.au
Web: http://www.crc.id.au
Phone: (03) 9001 6090 - 0412 935 897
Fax: (03) 8338 0299



smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature

anyone get nvidia-x11-drv to work under 6.2_x64?

[Todd And Margo Chester]

Hi All,

After the upgrade from hell (6.1 --> 6.2) and not being
able to start X11, I found the following:

The nvidia drivers (kmod-nvidia, nvidia-x11-drv) failed to
open my display.  So, I had to revert to the  Nouveau
(xorg-x11-drv-nouveau) drivers.  Which, of course, I
had to install the hard way.

Has anyone got

   kmod-nvidia-295.20-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
   nvidia-x11-drv-295.20-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
   nvidia-x11-drv-32bit-295.20-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm

to work on SL6.2 x64 successfully?  And, if so, what/how did
you do it?

Many thanks,
-T

Degraded array issues with SL 6.1 and SL 6.2

[Bill Maidment]

Hi, just a heads up.
I have had some issues with the last two kernel releases. When a degraded array 
event occurs, I am unable to add a new disk back in to the array. This has been 
reported on Centos 6.1/6.2 and also RHEL 6.2 (see Bug 772926 - dracut unable to 
boot from a degraded raid1 array). I have found that I need to revert to kernel 
2.6.32-131.21.1.el6.x86_64 in order to be able to add the new drive.

Cheers
Bill Maidment
IT Consultant to Elgas Ltd
Phone: 02 4294 3649

Re: anyone get nvidia-x11-drv to work under 6.2_x64?

[Akemi Yagi]

On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 8:14 PM, Todd And Margo Chester
 wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> After the upgrade from hell (6.1 --> 6.2) and not being
> able to start X11, I found the following:
>
> The nvidia drivers (kmod-nvidia, nvidia-x11-drv) failed to
> open my display.  So, I had to revert to the  Nouveau
> (xorg-x11-drv-nouveau) drivers.  Which, of course, I
> had to install the hard way.
>
> Has anyone got
>
>   kmod-nvidia-295.20-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
>   nvidia-x11-drv-295.20-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
>   nvidia-x11-drv-32bit-295.20-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
>
> to work on SL6.2 x64 successfully?  And, if so, what/how did
> you do it?

I have updated my machine from SL 6.1 to 6.2. Absolutely no problem with:

$ rpm -qa | grep nvidia
kmod-nvidia-295.20-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
nvidia-x11-drv-32bit-295.20-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
nvidia-x11-drv-295.20-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64

I did not do anything special. Just rebooted the system after the
update and that's all.

Do you have any error message you can show? Like /var/log/Xorg.0.log
when X failed to start?

Akemi