Found this great article on how to hack your way to do a SVN dump from a remote repo. I had never use the svnsync command but this allows you to make the remote repo a local one and you can easily use it to create your dump file. Very useful when you have lost admin access to the original server and you need to migrate to a new SVN server.

Quick command list:

• svnadmin create temprepo
• echo ‘#!/bin/sh’ > temprepo/hooks/pre-revprop-change
• chmod +x temprepo/hooks/pre-revprop-change
• svnsync init file://temprepo https://server/svn/origrepo
• svnsync sync temprepo
• svnadmin dump temprepo > dumpfile

Copy the dump file over to the new SVN server and on it:

• svnadmin load reponame < dumpfile

A quick word of warning because the UUID will change with this process so doing “svn sw” on existing working copy might prove to be challenging.

It took me over an hour to figure out why it was failing like this:

An error has occurred:
exceptions.TypeError
See /var/log/up2date for more information

In the log you would get this explaination:

[Tue Mar 23 11:30:43 2010] rhn_register There was an error while reading the hardware info from the bios. Traceback:

[Tue Mar 23 11:30:43 2010] rhn_register
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/tui.py”, line 1510, in _activate_hardware
hardwareInfo = hardware.get_hal_system_and_smbios()
File “/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/hardware.py”, line 863, in get_hal_system_and_smbios
props = computer.GetAllProperties()
File “/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/dbus/proxies.py”, line 25, in __call__
ret = self._proxy_method (*args, **keywords)
File “/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/dbus/proxies.py”, line 102, in __call__
reply_message = self._connection.send_with_reply_and_block(message, timeout)
File “dbus_bindings.pyx”, line 455, in dbus_bindings.Connection.send_with_reply_and_block
dbus_bindings.DBusException: The name org.freedesktop.Hal was not provided by any .service files

[Tue Mar 23 11:30:43 2010] rhn_register
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/sbin/rhn_register”, line 82, in ?
app.run()
File “/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rhncli.py”, line 65, in run
sys.exit(self.main() or 0)
File “/usr/sbin/rhn_register”, line 64, in main
ui.main()
File “/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/tui.py”, line 1721, in main
tui.run()
File “/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/tui.py”, line 1608, in run
if self._show_subscription_window() == False:
File “/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/tui.py”, line 1562, in _show_subscription_window
self.password)
File “/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rhnreg.py”, line 588, in getRemainingSubscriptions
smbios)
File “/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rhnserver.py”, line 50, in __call__
return rpcServer.doCall(method, *args, **kwargs)
File “/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rpcServer.py”, line 199, in doCall
ret = method(*args, **kwargs)
File “/usr/lib64/python2.4/xmlrpclib.py”, line 1096, in __call__
return self.__send(self.__name, args)
File “/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rpcServer.py”, line 38, in _request1
ret = self._request(methodname, params)
File “/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rhn/rpclib.py”, line 314, in _request
request = self._req_body(params, methodname)
File “/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rhn/rpclib.py”, line 222, in _req_body
return xmlrpclib.dumps(params, methodname, encoding=self._encoding)
File “/usr/lib64/python2.4/xmlrpclib.py”, line 1029, in dumps
data = m.dumps(params)
File “/usr/lib64/python2.4/xmlrpclib.py”, line 603, in dumps
dump(v, write)
File “/usr/lib64/python2.4/xmlrpclib.py”, line 615, in __dump
f(self, value, write)
File “/usr/lib64/python2.4/xmlrpclib.py”, line 619, in dump_nil
raise TypeError, “cannot marshal None unless allow_none is enabled”
exceptions.TypeError: cannot marshal None unless allow_none is enabled

I also tried the rhnreg_ks utility with the –nohardware argument and that is when it gave me more information about the error:

[Tue Mar 23 15:18:39 2010] up2date Warning: haldaemon or messagebus service not running. Cannot probe hardware and DMI information.

I started the haldaemon process and I could then rhn_register my host.

Why did we disable the haldaemon process? It is part of the CIS recommendation to disable that startup service.

You learn the side effect of security as you go try things.

I had to setup a forwarding DNS servers today and since I had never done it before I was looking for a quick way.

I installed the bind rpm package that comes with RHEL5 and was puzzled since it did not create the /etc/named.conf. So I created one with this content:

options {
directory “/var/named”;
forwarders {10.1.1.1; 10.1.1.2;};
forward only;
};

That was not an obvious one. Under KUbuntu I typically use the KPackageKit application to install and update applications.  It did not work well. I tried to install the sun-java-jdk package many times and every time it would list the dependencies and do the install but the “java -version” would tell me that I was still using the OpenJDK.

After reading a few different posts in forums I tested the idea to use the synaptic package manager. The installation worked much better.

To finalize the install I ran a few commands at the cli:

sudo update-java-alternatives -l

This listed the fact that I now have the OpenJDK and Sun Java installed on my workstation.

sudo update-alternatives –config java

This allowed me to specify to use the Sun Java as my default JVM.

java -version

This now reports the Sun Java JRE as my JVM.

I can now use Maven to compile some test projects.

I guess there are still a few issues with the OpenJDK to be fully compatible (might just be some configuration that I am not aware of).

I spent days trying to get the NVidia drivers to work on different 64 bits Linux distributions without success. Initially I was blaming Kubuntu 9.04 for these issues but I tried with Slamd64 and downloading the drivers from NVidia and had the same issues. I also tried with openSUSE 11.1 64 bits and it did not work.

Some desperate time passed…

I tried Kubuntu 9.04 32 bits and it worked on the first try.

I am quite puzzled about this. The Slamd64 site specifically mention that they have done testing to make sure that binaries like the NVidia Drivers would work. They work to install and compile but the X server does not start properly.

Not only that issue is bothering me but I can’t have one monitor turned 90 degrees and the other in normal mode. These limitations are not pleasant.

I must be missing something since it should work.

I found a few documents on the Internet about what I needed to do to rebuild the DVD to integrate my kickstart file. Unfortunately none of the solution had all the needed command in one place for my setup to work so here is my cookbook from the different sources.

First I mounted the dvdrom with the CentOS DVD to /mnt/cdrom:

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

Then I copied a few files:

• cd /tmp
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/isolinux ./
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/CentOS ./isolinux/
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/* ./isolinux/ [say yes to overwrite the TRANS.TBL]
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/.discinfo ./isolinux/
• cp ks.cfg /tmp/isolinux/

For my RHEL5.1 rebuild I did similar commands but the paths are a bit different:

• cd /tmp
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/isolinux ./
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/Server ./isolinux/
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/VT ./isolinux/
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/images ./isolinux/
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/Cluster ./isolinux/
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/ClusterStorage ./isolinux/
• cp /mnt/cdrom/* ./isolinux/ [say yes to overwrite the TRANS.TBL]
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/.discinfo ./isolinux/
• cp ks.cfg /tmp/isolinux/

I had to change permissions on 2 files:

• chmod 664 ./isolinux/isolinux.bin
• chmod 664 ./isolinux/isolinux.cfg

I had to edit the isolinux.cfg (in the isolinux directory) to change a couple of lines:

• the “default linux” line became “default ks“
• The 2 line after “label ks” went from “append ks initrd=initrd.img” to “append ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg initrd=initrd.img“

The isolinux.cfg file now looks like:

default ks
prompt 1
timeout 600
display boot.msg
F1 boot.msg
F2 options.msg
F3 general.msg
F4 param.msg
F5 rescue.msg
label linux
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img
label text
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img text
label ks
kernel vmlinuz
append ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg initrd=initrd.img
label local
localboot 1
label memtest86
kernel memtest
append -

To build the ISO (all this on one line):

mkisofs -o centos5-dvd1.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -r -R -J -V “CentOS 5.1 (CentOS) Disk1″ -A “CentOS 5.1 (CentOS) Disk1″ -p “Cinq” -T isolinux/

For Red Hat Entreprise Linux 5.1 I had to change the label for the DVD from “CentOS 5.1 (CentOS) Disk1″ to “RHEL_5.1 x86_64 DVD” (obviously I am using the x64 version for RHEL5) so the command became:

mkisofs -o centos5-dvd1.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -r -R -J -V “RHEL_5.1 x86_64 DVD” -A “RHEL_5.1 x86_64 DVD” -p “Cinq” -T isolinux/

Reference sites:

• http://www.techonthenet.com/linux/centos4_update.php
• https://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&order=ASC&topic_id=3635&forum=27&move=next&topic_time=1149676608
• http://blog.nominet.org.uk/tech/2005/09/19/building-a-redhat-enterprise-linux-serial-console-boot-dvd/
• http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/en-US/System_Administration_Guide/Kickstart_Installations-Kickstart_Options.html
• http://nootech.wordpress.com/2007/12/11/build-a-custom-centos-5-install-cd/