• viewvc + Pygments (browser interface for cvs and svn)
• xspacewarp (Time-Trek like game for X-Windows)
• inadyn (Dynamic DNS updater)
• nagios + nagios-plugins (IT monitoring system)
• ntop + GeoIP + graphviz (Network usage monitor)
• zabbix-server / -agentd / -proxy (Distributed monitoring solution)
• hercules (Mainframe emulator)
• lbench (Multi-thread benchmarking tool)
• nbench (Console benchmarking tool)

This finishes the series of packages I planned to test / run on my ARMedslack system.
I might build other packages in the future, but there are no specific plans at the moment.

The build environment

I build all my packages for Slackware in Virtual Machines, using QEMU. I use the snapshot feature to guarantee that I always use the same, stable version without leftovers from previous builds. So for my ARMedslack packages I set up a new VM in Qemu, using the emulation of the ARM Versatile board. ARMedslack runs fine on this, but it is quite slow compared to a “real” system with an ARM processor, like the SheevaPlug I have.
I set up a distributed compiler “farm”, using spare processor time of some other desktops / servers I have in my network, so that compile-time gets a lot friendlier.
Whenever I find some time I’ll write a post about distcc and how to set it up to compile for the ARM architecture on x86 boxes.

What to build for ARMedslack

Not all packages I maintain are useful on ARMedslack.
Most ARMedslack systems (SheevaPlug, GuruPlug, etc.) don’t use any graphical interface, or are slow if using them, so it does not make sense to prepare any heavy graphics-dependent packages like FreeCAD or BRLCAD. I also don’t think anyone will use ARMedslack to construct Lego models, so these were out as well.
On the other hand, the plug computers are ideal for monitoring your network, so the Nagios, rrdtool, ntop and Zabbix are all on the list.
Hercules has been one of my favorites on the SheevaPlug, to show off my “portable mainframe”. I also put a few benchmark programs in the mix and fbreader and QComicBook to test simple graphics applications.
After all, I still hope to have a ARM-based net/note-book one day.

What is ready *now*

Building and testing these packages takes some time if done with care, but I started with the following packages that can already be downloaded from my site:

• QComicBook – A Comic Book reader
• liblinebreak – a library needed by fbreader
• fbreader – An e-book reader
• rrdtool – a library to store and display time-series data, used by many monitoring programs

Next…

Other packages will follow and I’ll announce them here as soon as they become available (after some basic testing).

So now that 6.40.1 was available for Slackware, I decided to get back at the problem and investigate some more.
I found several problems with the newest version, all in the code of the ECTestTools subdirectory. My impression is that the authors were in a bit of a hurry to get 6.40.2 out (that solves some bugs in the previous versions), but forgot the check / alter the test tools.

In total I found three problems, which I managed to solve by patching the code (2x) and Makefile (1x).

These were my findings:

Problem1: rectest.cpp:82: error: no matching function for call to 'RecurrenceState::ParseBlob(char*, size_t)'

The ParseBlob function was changed in 6.40.2 but the rectest.cpp file was not altered accordingly. It needs and extra parameter, so I checked the code to see how it was called in other places and patched it like this:

--- zarafa-6.40.2/ECtools/ECTestTools/RecurrenceTest/rectest.cpp        2010-08-30 08:01:44.000000000 -0300
+++ zarafa-6.40.2_patched/ECtools/ECTestTools/RecurrenceTest/rectest.cpp        2010-09-04 13:27:42.000000000 -0300
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@

     RecurrenceState r;

-    hr = r.ParseBlob((char *)strBin.c_str(), strBin.size());
+    hr = r.ParseBlob((char *)strBin.c_str(), strBin.size(), 0);

     if(hr == hrSuccess) {
         cerr << "Recurrence OK" << std::endl;

Problem 2: mapi2ical.cpp:173: error: no matching function for call to 'MapiToICal::AddMessage(IMessage*&, int)'

This was also caused by a change in the number of parameters, this time in the AddMessage function. Again, I checked the code to understand how this function was called and noticed that in several places it was altered by using std::string() for the extra parameter, so I added this patch:

--- zarafa-6.40.2/ECtools/ECTestTools/ICalTests/mapi2ical.cpp   2010-08-30 08:01:44.000000000 -0300
+++ zarafa-6.40.2_patched/ECtools/ECTestTools/ICalTests/mapi2ical.cpp   2010-09-04 13:55:38.000000000 -0300
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@
                        goto next;

-               hr = lpMapiToICal->AddMessage(lpMessage, 0);
+               hr = lpMapiToICal->AddMessage(lpMessage, std::string(), 0);
                if (hr != hrSuccess) {
                        cerr << "-- broken message!" << stringify(hr, 1) << endl;
                        goto next;

Problem 3: ../../../libicalmapi/.libs/libicalmapi.so: undefined reference to `RecurrenceState::ParseBlob(char*, unsigned int, unsigned int)' (plus several other similar messages)

This one was a bit more complicated to trace, but I found out that some files had changed position in the source tree and I managed to solve this in the Makefile.in that is used by ./configure to create the Makefile:

--- zarafa-6.40.2/ECtools/ECTestTools/ICalTests/Makefile.in     2010-08-30 04:31:48.000000000 -0300
+++ zarafa-6.40.2_patched/ECtools/ECTestTools/ICalTests/Makefile.in     2010-09-04 15:09:39.000000000 -0300
@@ -272,6 +272,7 @@
        ${top_builddir}/common/libcommon_mapi.la \
        ${top_builddir}/common/libcommon_util.la \
        ${top_builddir}/libicalmapi/libicalmapi.la \
+       ${top_builddir}/libfreebusy/libfreebusy.la \
        $(PROG_LIBS) $(ICAL_LIBS)

 mapi2ical_SOURCES = mapi2ical.cpp

After applying this patch the SlackBuild completed without problems!
I posted these patches on the Zarafa forum as well so I hope that the author will fix it for the next official release.

I'm testing the resulting binaries on my server, and if they continue running without problems for a few days, I'll submit the new script and upload the new packages to my site.

As a happy and satisfied user of Nagios, I updated my SlackBuild script immediately and after a few days of testing, I submitted the new version to SlackBuilds.org today.

Pre-built packages are already available for Slackware (32- & 64-bits) on my site.

This was not a question of perfect timing, just of being lucky

Slack Linux Fans is an interesting site to follow the latest happenings of our favorite Linux distribution. You can also follow Slack Linux Fans on Twitter.

First of all there is FreeCiv, a Civilization-like game for Linux.
The new version was adapted to run on smaller screens, like on netbooks.

The second update is for brlcad, with a new release 7.16.10 that solves some bugs in the previous version.

The third and last one is for Zarafa 6.40.1, the mail and collaboration suite.

All new / updated scripts have been submitted to SlackBuilds.org and newly built packages are available from my site.

First of all, there is new version of cacti, with several patches from upstream. It corrects a few bugs that appeared after the release of version 0.8.7g. Since there have been five patches, I called this version 0.8.7g_p5.

The second update is for Zabbix. I created new versions for zabbix_server and zabbix_agentd and added a new module, zabbix_proxy. All use the new 1.8.3 version that was released a few days ago.
I also implemented some suggestions I received by e-mail, mainly corrections in the documentation.

The third update is for ntop, which released a completely revamped version 4. I actually waited for version 4.0.1, as I had some stability problems with the 3.x series. This new version seems to be quite stable and adds some nice features.

The new SlackBuilds have been uploaded to SlackBuilds.org and packages for Slackware (32 & 64 bits) are available on my site.

It has, apart from some small bug fixes, a few enhancements to the GUI. The one I like most is the ability to click on the tray icon to minimize / maximize the program. I normally use Hercules to run servers I connect to from terminal programs, so this cleans up the desktop with a single click.

Another nice addition is the “gauge” to show the current MIPS instead of the LED display. If you prefer the display, you can use the Preferences to set it as the default.

The new SlackBuild has been submitted and packages are available on my site.

This new version has support for translations (including Portuguese!) and some minor enhancements.
There are some very interesting changes in the development branch, but these will probably only be released in the next stable version.

A new SlackBuild has been submitted and the new packages can be downloaded from my site.

LDraw.org released its second update for 2010 of the pieces library this month. As always, a short time afterwards the updated pieces library for LeoCAD was also released.

New LeoCAD version

A new version of LeoCAD (0.75.1) was also released, fixing the Minifig wizard that was broken in the previous Linux versions. With it, you can easily create minifigs using all possible combinations of arms, tools, etc. and insert the result in your model.

Here are some examples of what you can do with it:

Darth Vader

Creating the Darth Vader minifig in the wizard

And after using l3p and povray to create a nice image:

An impressive figure...

Han Solo

With a screwdriver, always fixing the Millenium Falcon...

And with some basic ray-tracing:

Judging from his smile, he fixed it again

Downloading

The SlackBuilds have been submitted and are in the pending queue at SlackBuilds.org.
Pre-built packages can be found on my site…