Problem loading/starting a KVM virtual machine on a CentOS 6.5 host that has SELINUX disabled

If you have recently built a KVM host for all your virtual machines and left SELINUX enabled, then all will be well, but what happens when you turn that setting off. Well you will end up with VM's that won't load with the error message

error: Failed to start domain Ubuntu1404
error: unsupported configuration: Unable to find security driver for label selinux

It is easy to fix , use the following command and just remove the seclabel section on the virtual machine domain XML - virsh edit Ubuntu1404

# virsh edit Ubuntu1404
...
  <;seclabel type='dynamic' model='selinux' relabel='yes'>;
    <label>system_u:system_r:svirt_t:s0:c95,c664</label>
    <imagelabel>system_u:object_r:svirt_image_t:s0:c95,c664</imagelabel>
  </seclabel>  

Once you have done that, the domains will load as normal.

Make sure if you have backup's of the domain XML, they are also changed, as I have found that they will over write the domain if your not careful

Check in /etc/libvirt/qemu to make sure the changes have happen, and the XML has been updated.

Using puppet with Virtualbox to speed up client additions install

One of the first things you need to do when you create a new VM is install the client additions code, which offers enhanced networking,screen sizing, cut & paste and general host/client integration. With Centos 6.3 Live CD installs , several of the needed rpm packages that allow the install are missing.

I have a puppet master installed and configured - which is beyond the scope of this post - but if you need help doing that, then just buy or download the Pro Puppet book, which covers this topic very clearly for any operating system.

Pro Puppet book

Make sure every machine can resolve all DNS entries properly , either with a DNS server or by hosts files - if you must. Every machine needs to resolve puppet.mynetwork.com and puppet.

You also need to install ruby , ruby-libs ,ruby-shadow , puppet and facter or you won't be able to connect to the puppet master in the first place. You can do this as part of your post-install kickstart or manually. You will also need to add the Fedora mainatained EPEL repo to get the latest versions of these.

The important elements that you need to install are make, gcc and kernel-devel and I also always add vim.

You need to define each of these in the modules sections under /etc/puppet/modules  on the puppet master with their own directory structure of:

/etc/puppet/modules/make/files
/etc/puppet/modules/make/manifests
/etc/puppet/modules/make/templates

Within the manifests directory you need to add an init.pp, and for vim it will look like this:


class vim {
package { vim-enhanced:
ensure => present,
}
}

You can obviously do a lot more in these files, but this is just to show what is needed for this task.

You also need to make sure you include these modules in the node.pp file in the /etc/puppet/manifests directory. Like this:


node /^testmac\d+\.mynetwork\.com/ {
        include vim
        include make
        include kernel-devel
        include gcc
}

The guest server in my environment follows this naming scheme and the regular expressions allow you to have as many as you like.

To connect your new VM  to the puppetmaster you can run the following command and make sure that  the certificate is allowed on the server:

puppet agent --server=puppet.mynetwork.com --no-daemonize --verbose

Once the client server has the cert's installed correctly, then run this command again to auto install all the rpms needed for you to install the client additions. The client additions can be installed from the GUI or the command line, which ever you prefer.

You can now also manage all your VM's with puppet , and make your virtual dev/test environment a lot easier to manage.

Putting VNC traffic through an SSH tunnel

While setting up ssh tunnels has become a useful way to get work done securely on the command line, there are occasions when a GUI is required. Enter the really useful VNC protocol for being able to remotely access a Linux machines X windows system. So how is this done, well I think a little diagram will help to explain the idea, and then some steps to get it done.
 



Well, how do we get this done. Read my previous article on how to set up tunnels using SSH, and once you have that up and running we can set up the VNC servers. Using Centos 6.2 as the server to connect to internally, running Gnome, install Tigervnc server and edit the /etc/sysconfig/vncservers and set your X session size, display port numbers and we wish to tell it to listen only to localhost. This is for security, we don't want it to respond to VNC on the actual IP address of the server.

Example:
VNCSERVERS="1:nhaddock"
VNCSERVERARGS[1]="-geometry 1024x768 -localhost"

Start the vncserver , which will now be listening on port 5901 on localhost. Next off to the remote machine, where we need to set up the SSH config file so that it tunnels all VNC traffic through the SSH tunnel Go into .ssh/config and add the following for the remote user/machine

Host ext.server*
#HostName ext.server
User joeblogs
UserKnownHostsFile ~/.ssh/known_hosts.d/companyx
LocalForward 5901 localhost:5901
ProxyCommand ssh -A server.in-the-cloud exec nc localhost 10022


The key things to take away from this config, is that you need to add an entry in your /etc/hosts file for the ext.server IP address. We are going to forward all traffic for VNC - port 5901 into the tunnel once it is established using Localforward, and the proxy command uses netcat (nc) to push all the traffic down the reverse tunnel port it will find from your previous set-up with the reverse tunnel. So now just ssh to ext.server, and once you have made your connections, use a VNC viewer to connect to localhost on port 5901, and voila you now have an X session on the internal server.

Here are some pictures of the outcome.

Issue with git client and Ubuntu 11.10 through corporate proxy

If like me you use git for storing code and configuration files, then it can become a problem when using it through a corporate proxy if you have the wrong versions.

I found today while trying to do a git clone the following error:

emote HEAD refers to nonexistent ref, unable to checkout

After searching around the web I came across this post.

http://goo.gl/hWhXp

This does indeed work.

Basically the problem is that the version of libcurl3 included with Ubuntu 11.10 has problem authenticating through a proxy. You either have to use 11.04 or upgrade your libcurl3 to the version in the next release of Ubuntu(precise), which fixes the issue.

I hope this saves you some effort.

This link also offers URL's to grab the latest deb packages to install, and more back ground on the issue.

http://goo.gl/XIttB

The FUD used against Linux , really annoys me

If you are not familiar with the term FUD, it stands for Fear, Uncertainty and doubt, which are more commonly described as lies in technical circles. They are used by marketing people to stop people using others products, just in case.

Over the years I have seen this tactic used many times by large corporations to scare companies into buying their product's, but none have used it more often and more perniciously than Microsoft.

Well, they have tried everything against Linux, and have told lies by the bucket load, yet still the system gains market share, where today you can almost guarantee that if you go somewhere on the web, the server powering that site will be Linux.

I have also used it on my laptops for years, and this summer on holiday put it through it's paces , but taking it with me to do some work while on the road in Spain. It never missed a beat. Every little dusty side street eating house that offered WIFI, I could connect to, I could do whatever I needed, whenever I needed, without fail. The one device that did let me down on occasion was my iPad, rarely, but it did.

So the facts are Ubuntu Linux on my Dell laptop 100% success, Apple iPad 98% success.

I love my iPad, so I'm not making some cheap point about it , but a fact is a fact.

So the next time someone tells you something about Linux, do some research and find out the facts. Linux is not perfect, but then neither are any of the systems offered, but Linux is free and you can laways help make it better.

Less FUD, and more facts please.

Here is a link to try it for yourself.

Ubuntu Linux

Setting up an Adhoc wifi hotspot for your iPad using Ubuntu Linux

Well, since moving into my flat in Berlin, I have been stuck without wifi, which has rendered my iPad a little less useful than it was before. The flats just supply you with an RJ45 socket in the wall and an Ethernet cable.

So knowing how flexible Ubuntu Linux is, I thought I would have a look around and see if there was a way to set it up. There were lots of very good articles, a blog posts on the topic, and the truth is with Linux it couldn't be easier.

You basically just have to click on you network connection icon in the Gnome panel, and select "Create new wireless network" , give it a name and select the security type.



The only thing I have read, and found with my wifi network adapter is that they don't always support all forms of security, so you will need to test.

I started with no security, then WEP 40bit, then WEP 128bit and finally WPA. Your mileage may vary, so test them all.

It works perfectly, and I was able to download my newspapers , books, films etc etc.

Is upgrading to the Intel i5 laptop processor worth the effort

In a word, yes . As you may have read on this blog a few weeks ago , I tried an experiment with using an SSD harddisk for the operating system in conjunction with an external 500GB hybrid disk for all the more volatile parts of the OS, like /var and /tmp.

This was a resounding successful with a marked ramp in performance across the whole operating system and applications, to the point now , that all other machines seem like sloth's in comparison.

I had a need to upgrade my work laptop recently, specifically for more CPU cores and access to that lastest hardware virtualization extensions. I use the laptop extensively for virtualization, so I picked the Dell Latitude E6410. This is a really good work horse, but more importantly it comes with the Intel i5 processor.

This has had a very positive affect on the whole systems performance when running virtual guests with VirtualBox - my current virtualization platform of choice - to the extent that I can now over commit on memory and cpu's , plus the density I can achieve on this box has literally doubled.

I always keep a system monitor going to see how hard the system us working, and while on the old E6400, with two virtual machines running , the system would be noticeable slower, now with four virtual guests running, there is still plenty of head room for the other applications I need to run.

If are about to upgrade, and you need the ability to run multiple virtual guests, then I would definitely recommend the extra spend on this processor. The more memory the better, but I'm happily working with 4GB currently, but I can take this up to 8GB if the need should arise.

Well done Dell this is a grand machine for running Linux.

Ubuntu 10.10 is released and raises the bar for the Linux desktop again

Well, we have been testing it for five months, and playing with all the new features and functions that the latest software from the open source community can give us. So, if you want to be pleased with just how easy this release is to install or upgrade, then give it a try.

You can read the full release notes at the Ubuntu web site for more detailed information on exactly what each version of this Linux distribution is going to deliver, but it has impressed me on every server, desktop and virtual image I have installed it onto or into, and this post is coming from my just up dated work laptop.

Ubuntu is not every Linux users friend, and I understand some of the resistance, but most open minded open source people can see a definite role for this in the whole open source universe. I use a great deal of Linux, in many different forms, but if you want a desktop that just works, then certainly look no further.

If you are currently using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, you will need to modify your software sources to allow updates from newer releases, and not just LTS releases. Once you have done that, you will be offered the choice of this new version. This will ask a few simple questions, download about 1,000 files, and prompt you during the process for a few answers. That's it , you are now on the latest version.

An amusing thing about the date of release, is that it was 101010, which in decimal is 42. Douglas Adams has already informed us that this is the meaning of life, the universe and everything, so you can't get much higher praise than that. We can now use this release of Ubuntu to figure out what the question was ;-)

Anyway, go and grab a copy and give it whirl , you won't be disappointed.

Make using the Command line more fun in Ubuntu

Ubuntu has spawned several really great Linux distributions, and one of the best is Linux Mint. It has always had a feature where-by when you open a command prompt, it displays a simple - often silly - message to brighten up your day before you get stuck in. To be fair this has been around for a long time in the Unix world, but is still funny.Ubuntu doesn't have this turned on by default, so I decided to enable it , and it really isn't that hard, if we borrow a great command from Mint guys.

First you need to install the fortune cookie applications and message files:

sudo apt-get install fortune-mod cowsay

You can test this has installed ok by typing the following:

fortune

and you should get a message displayed.

Next you need to create shell scipt that will do all the hard work for you - borrowed from the Mint guys

sudo vim /usr/bin/ubuntu-fortune

Here is what to put into the file

#!/bin/bash

RANGE=4

number=$RANDOM

let "number %= $RANGE"

case $number in

0)

cow="small"

;;

1)

cow="tux"

;;

2)

cow="koala"

;;

3)

cow="moose"

;;

esac

RANGE=2

number=$RANDOM

let "number %= $RANGE"

case $number in

0)

command="/usr/games/cowsay"

;;

1)

command="/usr/games/cowthink"

;;

esac

/usr/games/fortune | $command -f $cow

Now we need to make this file executable by doing this

sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/ubuntu-fortune

Then last but not least we need to place it into one of the shell script master files so that it gets called every time when you start up a shell script. So edit the following file, and place the command - /usr/bin/ubuntu-fortune - as the last entry in the file.

sudo vim /etc/bash.bashrc

Voila, when you now start a shell terminal , you will have something to laugh at, and you can of course just type the command we created above to get a laugh on got.

Here is an example:

Now there are lots of other fortunes you can install, some of them can be very rude, so be careful, and you can grab these either using apt-get or using the Synaptic package manager.

Have fun.

New Tab Candy with Firefox 4 Alpha build on Ubuntu

I stumbled across this new feature build of Firefox 4 in my daily Google alerts, and I'm really glad that I did.

This new build of Firefox 4 offers a very new feature for tab management , that to be honest is quite frankly very impressive.

It allows you to drag and drop tabs into little organised groups, but you can happily move tabs between these groups if you like.

The best way to have a look at how this works is to view this video by the developers.

Tab Candy Video

I have been using it since I found it, and it really does make your browsing experience so much better, to the point I have started using Firefox a little more often again.

One thing to watch out for though, is don't let this alpha auto-update, as it pulls in the latest FF 4 beta main trunk code, which doesn't have this feature turned on yet. So turn off auto update, and just manually grab the latest builds from the site below.

I would recommend downloading and having a play , and see what you think.

Tab Candy web page and download

Problem adding the new Spotify Linux client repository security key

The great news is that there is now a native version of spotify, which works really well on Ubuntu, and I'm listening to it now as I type.

While I was installing it though, I found the link - below - to install the security key for the repository was broken - timed out.
gpg --keyserver wwwkeys.de.pgp.net --recv-keys 4E9CFF4E

So I found the key manually, and I'm posting it here so you can manually install it. How?

1) Copy all the text in the key below and paste it into a text file, using your favourite editor
2) Open the software sources application and click on the Authentication Tab - see below
Import your key
3) click on the Import Key file
4) Select the file you created earlier
5) Done ;-)

Here is the key and the spotify web page that gives the other instructions

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: SKS 1.0.10
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=D9pj
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Spotify client for Linux

Ubuntu takes another step towards the MAC UI and away from original UI

This change has been designed for the next release of the netbook remix - 10.10 maverick, but works perfectly on my Lucid 10.04 desktop setup. What is it , you may ask, well it's the moving of the application menu from the application window itself, and onto the Panel menu, at the top of your screen, just like the MAC does when you open an application. I have to say I like it , and I will be using it for a while to see how it goes.

This is what it looks like while using gedit.



It is definitely something worth having a look at and having a play with.

Here is the post on how to set it up, and make sure that you edit the file /etc/X11/Xsession.d/80appmenu , and change this setting APPMENU_DISPLAY_BOTH=0. Then restart your windows session by logging off and then back on again.

The Indicator Panel - from Jono Bacons blog

Firefox Beta 1 release candidate out in the wild

There have been quite a few changes between 3.7 alpha and the 4.0 beta 1 release. There is a definite change in performance again, which is always good to see. They have added a new bookmark icon on the top Chrome area which works well, and along side that is added a Feedback button to help you get more involved in the beta testing process. Whether that will continue into the final release is not clear at this stage.

They are going to change the arrangement of the tabs at the top of the window, but this has not been implemented on the Linux or Mac versions yet, but we are told it's coming shortly. Update with the release of the beta this morning , having the tabs on top is now working on Linux.

The add-ons menu has been changed and makes it very easy to navigate all your plugins, themes and extensions. See the picture below.



The Mozilla sync - which was weave - is now fully integrate and works seamlessly with the new browser.

There are also many under the hood changes which I feel will make a lot of difference to the developer community and offer extra facilities for the end user like HTML5 video codec support using WebM

See here

Get it here

July is the month for new Browsers for Linux

I have been using all the latest browsers from the main standards compliant camp lately, as the heat is turned up with performance and functionality.

Well July 2010 is a real watershed in the available browsers for Linux with the arrival of the long awaited Opera 10.60 - which is a very polished, fast and extremely enjoyable browser to use. It has delivered on the long awaited promises that it has alluded to over the years. Google Chromium now has another real competitor on their hands, no doubt about that.



Also , while checking the Mozilla Firefox nightlies this morning - an oxymoron ;-) - I found that the availability of the next major release is getting prepared for it's beta testing phase on or around the 5th July. I have been using the 3.7Alpha5 for most of June, and this is what I believe will become the version 4.0 beta1, and it is a lot faster on Ubuntu 10.04 than 3.6 is, and it is now as close to Chromium and Opera as to not really be a deciding factor.

There is no doubt that Chromium stirred things up for ever when they appeared for good. We are now reaping the rewards of that entry into the browser arena, and as consumers of browsers we should all be grateful for that.

It does however now present the average Linux user with a fantastic dilemma, which browser should I use today? There is not an easy answer for that I have to admit.

I use Google Chromium now on a daily basis, as I like it's speed, auto-sync and extensions, but there are still a few rough edges , which occasionally mean I have to switch back to using Firefox to get work done. I'm working with the developers to make this situation better by reporting bugs as I find them, but it's not always easy, when you just want to get things done.

I also now have another contender in the form of Opera to switch to , as it also has far less problems with IE specific web sites, and now offers so much it really can't be ignored.

Looking at the next release of Ubuntu 10.10 with Virtualbox

As the first Alpha iso was placed up on the mirrors for us all to start having a play , I decided to run it up in a virtual machine and see what - if anything - has changed. The install went fine, with my first run I just followed the usual install options , clicking next, and then install. All went fine until right at the end it had to removed some information with "dpkg" and then it started to error. I clicked through these and it finished, in what on the surface seemed to be a successful and stable install. Once rebooted however, I noticed there was something wrong with the way packages were not being installed , so I decided that this initial release had issues. I did have a good look at the errors that were being generated, and it was obvious that those errors on install, were more of a problem than I had originally thought.

Not a big problem, as I left it over the weekend , knowing come Monday on the daily builds the problem would almost certainly be fixed, and it was.

So, rather than download the latest daily iso image, I used the really useful zsync utility to just upgrade my iso - look here on how to use this utility.

Once all was installed and up and running, I had a look around. At this early stage there is not a great deal to see, except the latest kernel 2.6.35 (see the picture above). Gnome is the same and most of the apps are the same, as far as I can tell, except the software centre which has had an upgrade and looks a much improved. I'm sure most of the underlying apps have had their versions bumped, but to the eye it looks very similar to Lucid, not surprisingly.

I installed Google Chrome to see how that worked with the new OS, and all went well. It is worth doing this, as under the virtual image this gives you just that little extra performance.

At least the Meerkat is out of the cage now so I can keep an eye on where this great distribution is heading next in it's evolutionary track.

Upgrading Ubuntu 9.10 to Ubuntu 10.04 in a virtual machine

As you will know the next major long term release of Ubuntu is about to ship in 3 days time so I thought I would do a test upgrade to make sure all was working well and there were no real show stoppers. This is a controlled environment, so won't be exactly the same as a machine that has been in use for a while, but is none the less a good initial test. If it doesn't work here, then it is definitely not going to work on a machine that has been in use for a while.

So, I installed a 9.10 i386 desktop virtual machine , using Virtualbox 3.1.6 on an Ubuntu 9.10 host. See the pictures below. This has had the Virtualbox tools installed.



I then ran a complete update on the virtual machine to make sure the machine had the latest packages before starting the upgrade.

I then ran

update-manager -d

to start the upgrade process.





Once the process had completed, which took just over an hour with a very fast internet connection, I was able to selct to remove the now obsolete packages and complete the install.





I then re-installed the Virtualbox tools, as we now have a new kernel and the system was up and running without any issues and the Virtualbox tools were working as expected, see below.



So this does leave a really good feeling for all of my machine upgrades that will be taking place after the release of the final version on Thursday.

If you are new to operating system upgrades, then I can't recommend this process enough for making sure you are confident before doing it on your work machine.

Ubuntu 10.04 Release candidate is available

Well the long awaited next release of Ubuntu Linux has now reached release candidate stage, which means baring any major issues found in the code now, this is what the final released version will be.

You can get it HERE

You can have a look at the release notes HERE

There are many new features, many of which are in the "Enterprise Cloud" area for building your own internal clouds , and enhanced virtualization support.

The desktop has seen many improvements, and is a definite step forward for desktop Linux, these include the first ever built in Music Store and cloud storage.

It is definitely worth a look.

Creating the Ubuntu countdown banner for my site

I couldn't wait for the official release of the countdown banner so I decided to use my own:

I looked at this site for the banner images https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Website/LucidCountdownBanners I would use.

Thanks to Immanuel Peratoner's Design, as I liked that one the best.

I then borrowed the javascript code from the countdown banner that was used for Ubuntu 9.10 and then modified it.

Here is the javascript that I'm using for the Ubuntu banner on my blog


IMPORTANT NOTE: - To get a good picture of the code I had to shorten the "document.write" line. Everything from the "alt" parameter on the line below should be moved back up onto the line above to make it complete again, I hope that makes sense.

For those of you with programming experience will notice that I have had to set the month variable manually which is odd, but it kept reporting it is still March (3).

Anyway, on Chromium installed on Ubuntu 9.10 32 bit , this now works perfectly, please let me know it doesn't for you.

An Ubuntu 10.04 virtual machine with Virtualbox on Ubuntu 9.10

As I'm sure most of you do, I don't just jump to the latest versions of operating systems until I have had a good look at it before hand in a virtual machine. It doesn't completely guarantee that you wont have any problems with a bare metal installation, but it will give you a good understanding before you start.

The latest version of Virtualbox for Linux - 3.1.6 r59338 - arrived two days ago and the new virtual machine guest tools make it significantly more usable. The picture below shows that version.



This enables more fine grained testing of the Ubuntu 10.04 release with much better graphics and enhanced performance, all of which are gratefully received.

I would recommend downloaded this combination and having a look at the latest offering that is about to be delivered by the Ubuntu community as it's going to be a good one.

Ubuntu 10.04 beta
Virtualbox

Some issues while Checking Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 Alpha 3 in Virtualbox

I have been keeping up with the latest development builds of what will become Ubuntu 10.04 and all has been going reasonably well until the latest kernel install today. It appears that some of the code has been pack-ported from the latest upstream kernel - 2.6.33 - to the latest kernel in lucid - 2.6.32-16 - and it is causing an issue with Virtualbox.

After checking the forums, there is a kernel patch to fix this - see here

Basically, you need to edit this file -

/usr/src/vboxvideo-3.1.4/vboxvideo_drm.c

This code is installed with the Virtualbox tools that you must install before this file will be appear on the hard disk.

See the picture below:



Once you have edited this file and saved it , run the following command

sudo /etc/init.d/vboxadd setup

This will stop the problems with kernel crashes and the graphics not working correctly.

If you are also having problems with the mouse disappearing, then you need to turn off the visual affects in

Menu -> System -> Preferences -> Appearance

Set it to none, and the mouse will come back to life.

This is shaping up to be a great release, and once a few rough edges have been removed it will be an extremely useful addition to the ubuntu family.