Dominique Merle's Weblog LYON

48 Tshirts of souvenirs! Pele-mele or mixed, all of these T-shirts  tells a piece of my story @ Sun.

The acquisitions, the partners, the tools, the fun. As Winston Churchill said, the further backward you look, the further forward you can see. It goes all the way up to 1994!

Eventually, the suspend resume capability is working on my Toshiba Tecra M3. And that's pretty cool!

To suspend, just run the command #uadmin 3 20 (You have to be root)

The system goes in "sleep" state in about three seconds. 

You can then go away and take your coffee. And furthermore, you feel less guilty as you save power and your act is eco-responsible :=)

To resume the laptop, just push your power button again and your system is up again in the same state as you let it.

I am running Nevada build 86. 

My very good friend Jérome help me at configuring the uadmin command as a profiled command with RBAC. This way, you do not need to start a terminal to run the command. You just add a Gnome Launcher. You can do it yourself in five steps. See the step by step instructions below:

1) First, edit a simple script for that command and save it as file sysresume:

#!/bin/ksh -p
#
#
# Allow the use of RBAC to control who can access this script. Useful for
# administrators without root permissions
#
if [ "$_" != "/usr/bin/pfexec" -a -x /usr/bin/pfexec ]; then
       /usr/bin/pfexec $0 $*
       exit $?
fi

/usr/sbin/uadmin 3 20

2) Add the following line in your /etc/security/exec_attr
sysresume:suser:cmd:::/home/dmerle/Tools/sysresume:uid=0

3) Add the following line in your /etc/security/prof_attr file
sysresume:::sysresume profile:

4)  Add the profile sysresume in your /etc/user_attr
dmerle::::type=normal;profiles=Ginetmenu,punchin,sysresume;auths=solaris.network.wifi.config,solaris.network.wifi.wep;defaultpriv=basic,dtrace_proc,dtrace_kernel

5) Add a Gnome Launcher:

Right click on the background and select "Create Launcher". Choose the icon you like, mine is coffee, and insert your sysresume path:

Here are some snaphots of Compiz running on Nevada build 86.

Four screens of Compiz, you get it when you point your mouse on the top left corner of your screen. You can then choose your windows. Notice the reflection: 

Here is a snapshot of the rotating cube. To move the cube, just do Ctrl + Alt + middle mouse key
 

I did the snapshot from my SunRay which seats aside left of my laptop. To do the snapshot, on the laptop i enable vnc and i login with Firefox from the SunRay. See my previous post.

 Thanks Erwann for Compiz on Nevada! That renders Solaris on the desktop more friendly.

Solaris 10 update 5 est disponible ici.

Les nouveautés de cette version sont décrites ici. 

54-60-63-67-76-82-86 : These are the nevada builds i put on my laptop since december 2006.

I only performed upgrades. Gnome desktop has made a lot of progress since 54. 

The last feature i am using is Remote Desktop.

I can share my desktop with colleagues and show them applications or sites executing on my desktop.

For this, go in Preferences, Remote Desktop and you allow the sharing of your desktop:

Your are then presented with the screen below : you can share and / or allow remote users to take control of your desktop. 

Then, from a remote location, you start your browser and connect to http://Desktop_IP_adress:5800. You are connected to the desktop.
 

You may have had a look at my previous post for creating your own wikis. Three more tricks in this post...
 

Preamble :

Morale : once you are in the swimming pool, the only way to survive is to swim...

SandBox

But now, you want to go further. May be the best for you is to use a sandbox. In wikis.sun.com, you have the opportunity to use the sandbox space:  I suggest that you create your own sharespace in sandbox, this way you are sure you can play without causing any collateral damages. 

Link to images or already existing files 

A very simple howto explaining how to prevent you from loading several times the same attachement in different shared space.

You have two possibilities to add a link to a previously loaded attachment or document (Thanks to Igor, original description here):

a) either put a link to an already existing space :

• Go in edit mode of your share space and click the hyperlink icon
• In the hyperlink window, select or search the wikis space, or put the link to your attachment
  

b) or put a link to your media files that you previously stored in mediacast.sun.com

So let's say that in a summary, either you put all your attachments in a wikis share space or in mediacast.sun.com, like a big depot, and then you make an hyperlink to it.
(To be honest, i was not aware of mediacast.sun.com.)

Diagrams 

Diagrams: with Confluence, you can also add diagrams. In Edit mode, just point your mouse to the upper right corner:

You can then create nice diagram. And we all know that a picture is worth a thousand words!

La rumeur courait depuis quelques temps déjà: Apple est sur le point de racheter Sun. 

Effectivement tout le monde se posait la question: mais que va faire Apple de ses 18 milliards de cash?

Et bien voilà, les dés sont jetés et Apple a choisit Sun.

Selon les analystes, le nouveau groupe sera composé d' environ 50 000 employés avec un chiffre d'affaires de 25 milliards de dollars.

Une ligne complète de nouveaux produits va apparaitre depuis le laptop jusqu'au serveur haut de gamme, toutes les machines étant bien sur équipées du nouveau processeur Rock.

Bien sur, le grand public s'interroge: quel sera le nouveau logo? Est-ce que ce sera la fameuse pomme ou le duke Java?

Quel logo?   ou

Les analystes s'interrogent aussi sur le système d'exploitation qui sera retenu: est-ce que ce sera Leopard ou Solaris? Ou peut-etre un troisième larron issu de l'open source comme Indiana, Schillix ou Nexenta?

Quel système d'exploitation pour la nouvelle société? or

aquarium

Here is a simple step by step instructions on how to create your own wikis space on sun.com.

If you are a Sun employee, or a partner, you can can exchange information with this collaborative space.

A) First connection 

Just go to wikis.sun.com

• If you are a Sun employee, login with your email adress and your Ldap password. (Login is on the top right corner)
  
• If you are a partner, login with your partner login.

The first time you login, you should provide a screenname. You can use your first name. This screename will follow you on the top right.

B) Create your space

Go to the bottom of the page and click on the icon: 

Choose a meanningful name for the space name. You also have to enter a space key which must be unique.

You then finish by choosing a presentation theme.

So, it's finished, but by default your page is public!

C) Give access rights.

Go to the tab "Edit" of your new space. 

You then go to the bottom of the page. There is a button marked 'Restrictions' click this then you can add groups or individuals with read/write access:

.... and add the group sun-partners:

You then click save and you are all set!

Now, you can start to add information in Edit mode, and add attachments. 

D- An example 

Below is the french wikis we have created for our partners (click to enlarge) 

I just made a try at Milax: the smallest Solaris, the size is about 91MB.

So download time is fairly reduced, compared to the previous Solaris distribution (6 CDs) 

Then, i simply burn it on a CD. Time to burn is also very quick: less than 2 minutes.

By the way, burning a CD on Solaris Express is no longer a nightmare. You just start Nautilus, locate your .iso file you downloaded, and right click on it and choose burn a CD.

And there you are, you get the Milax grub:

Twenty second later, you can connect with login alex and password alex:

Then if you want to have X, just type in startx

Did you notice that Google search is present in the latest StarOffice 8 product update 9.

You can search of course on the web but also within your document.

One of my colleague, Terry  Jones (thanks Terry), points me to the StarOffice minimizer:

It's very handy when you have large presentations that you want to upload. Or when you have hidden slides you do not want to show. You can download the extension here.

I just made a try on a presentation that was 1.5MB. The minimizer transformed it to a 0.9MB!

The release of StarOffice is :

I am using it on Solaris 11:

I have just finished the installation and configuration of VirtualBox on my Nevada build 82. Now Windows can run aside of Solaris on my laptop. The download of VirtualBox for Solaris in 32 bit mode, installation with a pkgadd and lastly installation of Windows took me about 1 hour. Everything run smoothly without any problem. I am very impressed as less than one week ago i did not know that product and the (now) colleagues from (ex) Innotek port the VM so quickly on OpenSolaris.

Please gang, keep your energy and invigorate us! That the pace we need!

Below is a snapshot of Windows running aside of Solaris:

Previously, i was using QEMU for the scarce time i had to show Windows, but i have to say that the installation was more complex. QEMU is also used in Sun xVM for the I/O virtualization part.

About QEMU and virtualization in general, i recommend the excellent blueprint from Chien-Hua Yen "Solaris Operating System hardware Virtualization Product Architecture". I learn many things about virtualization reading that blueprint.

It's one of my default: i cannot prevent myself to see what's in the box we sell or promote to our customers. Of course, that's not always possible due to time constraint. But, this time i tried VirtualBox from Innotek, which is now SUN.

My laptop is dual boot partitionned with Windows XP and Solaris Express build 82 (aka Nevada). I only use Solaris Express and scarcely Windows.

The reason why i tried VirtualBox on the Windows partition is that the OpenSolaris version is in Beta. The VirtualBox OpenSolaris compiled version needs a 64bit processor, which is not the case of my laptop. More information is here (Thanks Joe) for the VirtualBox for OpenSolaris.

My intention was to run Solaris Express build 82 as guest in a Virtual Box running on a Windows XP host.

So first you download the VirtualBox from VirtualBox site. It's only 17MB.

They are some tricks you have to know the first time. :

• Choose 512Mo of RAM for the VM
• Choose a dynamic disk with 6GB
• For the Solaris installation, choose a console installation (option #4)
• Remap the Ctrl key in Preferences to Ctrl + Alt if you are on a laptop without a Ctrl+Droite key. This way you'll be able to switch from VirtualBox to host operating system.
  

And here is the result, Solaris Express running as a guest in a Windows host:

So, i can now compare with QEMU, which i installed last year and described here.

To summarize, i can boot my laptop:

• with Solaris Express and then run QEMU when i want to run Windows on top of Solaris.
  

• with Windows XP and then run VirtualBox when i want to run OpenSolaris on top of Windows.
  

• with Solaris xVM.

My friend Jérome mastering the beast below (M9000). The scene is taking place in a large datacenter in France. I desperatly try to convince Jérome to forget the "beast technology" and move on to software, but that's a dead end! 

There are two system controller boards. You access them through a "classical" console with a pre-defined set of commands. Or you can access the beast with a web browser interface à la Lockart. Suffice to generate a certificate and you get through https. Up to the console commands, you can dynamically move one cpu from one board to an other board without halting the domain.  Each CMU board is a equipped with 4 cpus, each cpu @2,1Ghz being 4 cores. The system controllers are on the image below:

 Same for the I/O, you can change an I/O board without interrupting the domain:

wikis.sun.com is a collaborative site from Sun very handy when you want to share information in a public or private way with communities.

A wiki is different from a blog. With a blog you publish in a one to many way. With a wiki site, everyone, if allowed,  can add information on a selected topic or space.

I was not using it, shame on me, before yesterday.

You create topics and you share your topic to everybody or a community of users. You can control the access rights.

A topic is a "space":

You can subscribe to a space with a RSS feed:

You can browse people's directory:

I started to share information with partners, just look at wikis.sun.com and search for French-Partner-Technical-Wiki. If you are a Sun partner, you can get it.

Our Sun wiki is software Confluence from Atlassian.

Running Nevada build 76, i just backup my old photos and other professional data on my new usb disk with four commands:

a) rmformat and you get the disk

b) fdisk /dev/rdsk/c7t0d0p0

c) newfs /dev/rdsk/c7t0d0s2

d) mount /dev:dsk/c7t0d0s2 /BACKUP

Ouf! That's finished. Really, the feeling that the effort is now at end. Stress is going away and week-end is here. We are really happy when it's finished.

Of course, everything was not perfect but  the essence was there : high quality speakers, and a big, diverse, attentive attendance.

So a very big thanks to all of you who contributed to this event. If i start to name the persons who helped me, i am afraid i can loose some names. But just know that i won't forget those who helped me in this difficult task.

But reward is here, if i believe the feedback forms, they are pretty good!

Some photos of our last day below.

Dan was the first speaker and we all heartly thanks him for coming directly from San Francisco. Dan had an hectic travel as Heathrow Airport was closed due to a BA crash. He finally made it but he had to take a train from London to Paris, then airplane from Paris to Lyon and the car from Lyon to Grenoble. Dan had a short night and the presentation was extremely well received by the audience:

 I thank Dan :

 Ludo:

Jason: 

 Roman :

 Stéphanie with the campus ambassadors:

 Nicolas from the French Solaris Users Group:

(click to enlarge the photos)

Morning during the first plenary session:

Alban : 

 Ken:

Dominique Use also set up a webcam to give a glimpse of the event for GEC, Velizy and Lyon offices.

The feedback forms are coming. Indeed as an attendee, you get a goodie if you give the feedback form :=). And yes, all of you are saying it was worth coming to the event. So thanks to all the speakers today who made this event a success.

Tomorow morning please be on time at 8h30 a.m. as Dan will be there. Dan goes through an hectic travel due to Heathrow airport incident.

(click to enlarge the photos)

The room was not large enough for the second day. (Yesterday the temperature inside Agora room rose from 22 degrees Celsius to 25 degrees Celsius. Today a correction was made and the projector was OK the all day). I apologize for the inconvenience.

Motivation is still there and we can feel high interest in VDI solution presented by Dirk:

At the end of the day, Hervé was satisfied : 

The presentations are available on a GEC web site set up by Dominique Use.  Two areas are located on site where partners can download the presentations. Dominique Use set up all the infrastructure :

One of the most motivated guy in the attendance: see the person who is on the left, his name is Hervé Ferdinand. Hervé missed his plane on monday :=( ... and he decided to travel with his own  car for a four hour trip from Toulouse to be there in Grenoble. He really wants to take advantage of the experts present at the event to push Airbus POC :

When it comes to Alan and John, they seem pretty happy to be there:

A wrap up session ended these first two days. I liked Andy's phrase "Multiple windows to multiple platforms" to summarize SunRay, SSGD, VDI.

Tomorow is an other day, which starts at 8h30 a.m... with great speakers and great topics.

(click to enlarge the photos) 

Lastly after nearly 4 months we get there: the GEC event started this morning!

The boat is full : 190 attendees coming from 20 countries for a 4 days event.

This morning the room Agora was crowded: we had to add more seats: instead of 110 registrations for the first day, 122 people came in!

Four months ago, when we started we worried so much about noshow of persons. Instead, more people came in this morning.

Stress gears up when projector gave up in the afternoon. It's was time then for the break. After the break, projector was fine for two more hours. 

The audience is very attentive and there is lot of motivation from the partners. Even after the end of the day, people are still chatting and exchanging their ideas.

So great start, and this this thanks to our speakers.

Caroline, Ghislaine

and Dominique (no photo because he is the photographer), thanks for your support today...and take vitamins for the three remaining days.

But what are saying the boss?

Next week will be our Software technical event at Grenoble Engineering Center (France)

We are waiting for 174 people from 19 countries :

Four (4) communities will be present : SUN, partners, customers and campus ambassadors :

I had the idea of this event beginning of october 2007. So four months later and with the help of many colleagues, it's G - 5. Stress is here and i hope everything will go smoothly.

In fact in 2004, we had a similar event @ Grenoble which was named Product Master Event summit. At this time, it was SUN only: no partners, no customers. I remember quite well that on the last day, during the wrap up, the question was asked if we should invite partners. Less than 5 people out of 100 answered yes. I was one of them. I have always thought that SUN should be more open to partners. Four years later, same kind of event, more than half of the attendees are external to SUN.