I just started to think about implementing…
# apt-get snapshot
Cloning the root file system
to syspool/backup-2007-06-26:17:50
Please use /sbin/update-grub to refresh
the list of available boot environments
…when I found the post about playing with the ZFS boot on NexentaCP envisioning the very same idea.
Guys, we are actually very close to implementing this on Nexenta Operating System. Allmost all the bits and pieces are in place.
The only thing that is missing for me is the ability to override the bootfs property from the GRUB bootloader, so that you don’t need to specify where to boot from as the pool’s property:
zpool set bootfs=syspool/myrootfs syspool
Anyways, this is going to be very exciting, because it will solve the non-existence of the backout option that I have been hearing about many times as being the major drawback of the Debian’s package management system.
June 26, 2007
EN, Nexenta, OpenSolaris
The seventh annual Debian Conference has been organized in the beautiful city of Edinburgh. And not only that, the conference venue is located just next to the city center, in a old comfortable and friendly place that has got its own atmosphere.
I have met here a lot of really interesting (and famous - in the world of Debian/GNU Linux) people. My impression is that the atmosphere was just amazing, very friendly, open, productive, …. Well, we had some discussions about various license related issues, but as long as we behave as rational people and as long as there exists a common sense I’m not worried.
The picture above shows Tom Marble of Sun and Mathias Klose of Canonical talking about how to best package various Java upstreams available on the market for Debian/GNU Linux, Ubuntu, and later I hope even for Nexenta.
I have taken a chance to present some nice OpenSolaris features like zoneadm clone smoothly integrated within Nexenta.
It’s a pitty I had no more time to spend at DebConf2007, but I’m already looking forward the DebConf2008. The videos of the presentations are becoming available one after one.
The new flash demos about pbuilder running on top ZFS powered OpenSolaris Zones (that are able to host the Debian/4.0 Etch and other Linux distros thanx to BrandZ extension) are all available at my Nexenta Pages.
June 19, 2007
Conferences, EN, Nexenta, OpenSolaris, Opensource
I’m back from Berlin where I once again spoke about Nexenta Operating System. I have used slightly modified version of my OpenSolaris for Human Beings talk and I think it worked well. People were again smiling during the part where I present that it is normal not to support –version commandline switch in the Sun code.
There is also new flash demo available for Nexenta/Debian/Ubuntu newbies that will teach you how to modify existing Debian Package and install it from your custom private APT Repository. Check it out on my Nexenta pages.
June 4, 2007
Conferences, EN, Nexenta, OpenSolaris
Almost three months have passed since I gave the OpenSolaris for Human Beings talk at the OpenSolaris Developers Conference in Berlin. It took me quite some time to take the presentation and flash videos and publish them officialy.
The reason was that immediately after the conference, I flew to Havana, Cuba and have been traveling around the beautiful island with very friendly people and talented musicians. I love Cuba and I hate to see the current political situation there with the people suffering no matter who caused it.
I hope you will enjoy the presentation as did the people at the conference…
Show me the presentation…
April 24, 2007
EN, Nexenta, OpenSolaris, Opensource
It was my great pleasure to speak at the very first OpenSolaris Developer Conference 2007 organized in Berlin, Germany by the German Unix User Group.
I would say that it was even more of a pleasure to talk about Nexenta OS here in Germany where Debian/GNU Linux has a lot of users and strong tradition.
Many thanx are going to all the people who took the courage and organized the event.
Read More…
March 2, 2007
Conferences, EN, Life at SUN, OpenSolaris, Opensource
The best moment of the day was to meet Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu and get a chance to hear his vision (more below).
We (me and Garry) had also a nice and long talk with Matthias Hopf of X.org (and SuSE Germany) about X development, opensource, etc., during which I managed (with his help) to get Xgl/compiz running on my laptop and I can finally enjoy wobbling windows, 3d desktop switching, and transparent windows.
Happy to say that it took me just several apt-get install … commands on my Ubuntu. I’m impressed.
Just before flying back home, I got caught by Douglas Magoulas of campware.org who (among other things) got me thinking about this:
Do you think Ubuntu is successfull because it’s pretty and easy to use?
Yes of course it is, but the bigger part of the story is Launchpad and Ubuntu Forums that make it extremely easy for anyone to observe the project, report bugs, post questions, and generally get attention of developers. This is what builds the community, the collaboration tools.
Did I mention having a mailinglist and bug-tracker is not enough?
Read More…
September 22, 2006
Conferences, EN, OpenSolaris, Opensource
Today was the .org day at EuroOSCON 2006. We were running a decent, and friendly OpenSolaris booth. We handed out tenths of OpenSolaris StarterKit DVDs and black anniversary t-shirts.
People coming to the booth were generally interested in knowing more about OpenSolaris, it seems that everyone know what Solaris is (quoting their words: “what Solaris was”), but they don’t know how does Solaris relate to OpenSolaris, what is our business model. In general, they were eager to get the DVDs to try them out on their laptops.
The <i boot> DVD is especially interesting because it allows you to boot all existing OpenSolaris distributions from one media, you just have to choose the right one from the GRUB boot menu. Awesome stuff.
My thanx go to all guys who helped to run the booth, from left to right: Darren Keny (JDS), Chris Beal (Kernel), Garry Pennington (Website), Patrick Finch (Communication), and Pete Dennis (Kernel). I don’t deserve to be at the picture, since I was just running around all those sessions while they took the time to answer the questions.
We had the BoF in the evening, not attended by many people, but I believe this was due to the fact that none of the BoFs at EuroOSCON has actually been attended by many people. We had a quiet and friendly talk about DTrace, SMF, Zones, and ZFS, and we all I believe have learned something new.
Read More…
September 20, 2006
Conferences, EN, OpenSolaris, Opensource
The first day of European O’Reilly OpenSource Convention conference taking place this year in Brussels didn’t quite meet my expectations. I was listening to some podcasts from EuroOSCON 2005 and I was really impressed by the quality of the talks. I actually expected lot of thought provoking ideas and discussions, but this year the speakers seem to be repeating what has already been said many times.
The bright moment of the day was my evening conversation with Bram Moolenar, the creator of VIM about opensource, licensing, Europe, my work at SUN and his work at Google.
Read More…
September 19, 2006
Conferences, EN, OpenSolaris, Opensource
While browsing through my email, I have found a nice report from Dzongkha Linux launch event held in Bhutan (a small country between India and China) written by Christian Perrier (Debian Developer).
Dzongkha Linux is a Debian/GNU Linux based distribution and Live CD localized and fine tuned for Bhutaneese users.
Interesting part was that Debian, and GNU Geneal Public License gave the Bhutaneese chance to build their own operating system and advance the level of computer education in a country that is ignored by mainstream operating systems such as Windows XP from Microsoft or MacOS/X from Apple.
As Peter stated in his report:
My own keynote lecture focused on the main key aspects of Free Software, especially in developing countries (Openess, independence, ability to preserve the local culture and knowledge, ability to develop a local software and services industry). I, of course, also introduced the Debian Project, targeting the point on the commitment
of the project to Free Software and enlightning its ability to be “derived” for specifics needs.
I am personally very happy to hear that these things happen, especially with regards to the fact that I have spent some time in Nepal that is in many aspects very similar to Bhutan.
June 9, 2006
EN, Opensource
Last week it came to my mind like a storm. What if I apply the Bayesian Filtering rules to automatically sort all of my email to proper folders. It should consider email body and headers to learn how I do sort email and offer me the proper folder next time. I have talked about it with some of my coleagues, …, well, they were not so enthusiastic about the idea as I was.
This morning I was browsing through Ubuntu Bounties only to find that:
- There is a bounty filled for Thunderbird to do exactly what I wanted (see correspoinding Mozilla bug).
- The algorithm was already implemented by ifile,
- and more recently by POPFile.
Anyone saying anything about reinventing-the-wheel? I wish this functionality became the default part of Thunderbird soon.
June 5, 2006
EN
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