Installation of Wera on a linux machine
2.1 Necessary settings for the installation
2.2 Settings while installation
2.4 Chosing additional software
2.6 Network settings (IP adresses, hostnames etc.)
2.8 Downloading and unpacking the necessary archives for WERA
5.1 Mounting of data harddisk drives via NFS
6. Setting up the WERA desktops to control WERA
8. Installation of Intel Compiler
1. Backup (necessary when updating or upgrading and existing system)
To make a backup of the important files and directories make sure that you archive the following three directories:
/etc
/root
/home
For example the command with which you backup the first one is:
tar -cvf etc_ifmpc205.tar /etc
You need to be root to do this!!
The option -cvf means that you want to create a file and that you want to see what is done (v). Run this command for all the three directories and adapt the name of the tar-file to the folder and - if wanted – the machine name.
Afterwards store the files on another machine by creating a folder
mkdir /root/backup
and copying the data into it
scp archivename.tar wera@machinename.domainname:/root/backup.
Instead of securing only a few directories you can alternatively backup whole hard discs with the aid of firewire discs or other kinds of devices. You must only mount the target device and then
cp -avd / /Ort_des_gemounteten_Ziellaufwerks
The option -d „takes care“ that the copy command doesn't follow symbolic links. This would mean that the target device would backup itself!
The moduls ieee1394 and ohci1394 must be modprobed to be able to mount a firewire device.
2.1 Necessary settings for the installation
2.1.1 Installation with CD/DVD decive
The only condition to boot an installable medium is that the hard disc device stands behind the cdrom respectively dvd device in the boot sequence of the BIOS. This provides that not the existing system is booted first but the installation medium.
2.1.2 Installation via network
The following alternative is much more complicated and can cause several problems before the installation relating different settings from machine to machine, rights and so on:
If the machine does not dispose of an dvd device it is also possible to create a bootdisc which makes the user capable of telling the installation program where it can find the installation media in the network. This assumes that you know both the IP adresses of the NFS client (machine with the bootdisc) and server (machine with the installation media). The installation media must be mounted and made available as an nfs server which means that it is registered in /etc/exports as follows:
/cdrom *.ifm.zmaw.de(ro,async,insecure,all_squash,anonuid=1001,anongid=100)
The first entry in the relevant row in the /etc/exports - /cdrom - stands for the mountpoint of the dvd device, *.ifm.zmaw.de for the domain which the device can be available for and the options in brackets contain settings which may differ from machine to machine. You can also allow IP adresses but must not use wildcards but IP ranges like 192.168.0.0/64.
2.2 Settings while installation
After detecting the installation media it begins:
installation system is booting
choose language
accept licence conditions
select installation mode whether „new installation“ or „update“; in our case: „new installation“
select clock and time zone; if necessary change time and/or date
select desktop manager: KDE or GNOME; in our case: KDE.
overview of installation settings is shown
switch into expert mode
changes can be made by clicking the headline
The partitioning is very important and the suggested partitioning should be checked accurately and – if need be - edited, for example so that you choose the right hard disk drive and do not format i.e. delete a drive whose data is not yet backed up.
The names for the devices, for example /dev/hda1, represents the first partition on the hard disk drive on the Primary Master Bus.
Additional the partitions should be capacious enough thus reserve more than one GB for swap and as much as possible for / !
In our case the suggested partitioning selected the wrong drive for installation and we had to „create custom partitioning setup“ to edit the suggestion. On the next step go to „custom partitioning (for experts)“ and you will see a list of all existing partitions. Now you can choose certain partitions to edit the type (reiser, swap, ext2 or ext3...), size or mountpoint. After making the changes the partitions have to be formatted. We chose /dev/hda1 for swap and /dev/hda2 to be formatted with reiserfs and / as mountpoint.
After finishing the settings will be shown once again and you can now customize the software described in the next chapter.
2.4 Chosing additional software
After clicking „Software“ you can set the filter to „Search“ and choose additional software or check if it is already marked for installation. For configuration and controlling the WERA following packages should be installed:
apache2
gcc
gcc-c++
perl
nfs
jedit
nedit
pico
glib-devel
xorg-x11-devel
qt3-devel
vsftpd
firefox
xntp
gif2png
After accepting the automic changes to accomplish the dependencies „continue“. If the settings listed are ok „accept“ them. Possibly it is necessary to select the bootloader „Grub“.
2.5 Copying of data
Agree with the flashplayer license, confirm the installation with „Install“ and afterwards the formatting of the drive(s), the copying of the data begins and after approximately half an hour the computer will reboot. Eject the installation cd or, if forgotten, select „boot from hard disk“.
2.6 Network settings (IP adresses, hostnames etc.)
After the following hardware recognition the network can be setted up. The Punkte „ISDN Adapters“, „Modems“ und „DSL Connections“ can be ignored, if you do not use a dialup-connection but a gateway in the LAN. The network adapters connected with the WERA, in our case labeled mit W..., have to be associated with an IP-adress of a private network namely 192.168.0.xxx, the other one gets a public adress like, in our case 132.172.191.xxx. Depending on which client you install the number xxx in the end of the adresses should rather be the same because of reasons of clarity.
Both the firewall and SSH should be enabled.
By clicking network interfaces you will see the listed adapters and by marking and „editing“ them you will be able of setting the IP-adresses and other parameters namely:
Hostname: ifmpc2xx
Domainname: ifm.zmaw.de
Nameserver 1: 136.172.100.240
Nameserver 2: 134.100.22.240
Domain Search 1: ifm.zmaw.de
Standardgateway: 136.172.191.249
Furthermore the IP-Forwarding should be disabled, so it is in our case
Run the internet access test! If succeed click „Next“ and run the „Yast Online Update“ (YOU)! According to „never touch a running system“ do not enable the automatic update to avoid an inconsistent system after a successful configuration of the connection to WERA. Manual updates in the future should be okay as you can deselect updates of „endangered“ packages.
After the update is finished, select „Local“ as the Authentication Method, enter the full name, the desired user name and the password and confirm it. You can add more users either now or later (Yast Security and Users User Management). The user „wera“ with its home-Directory /home/wera will contain all data, settings, programs, scripts etc.
If the entrys in the configuration list are okay press next, otherwise click desired entrys to edit them.
You will find the necessary settings for the printer configuration under 9.
After saving the settings, click finish and the system restarts.
2.8 Downloading and unpacking the necessary archives for WERA
In the case that you do not upgrade an existing system (otherwise see 3.!) you have to download the current software packages from:
https://ifmaxp1.ifm.zmaw.de/weradocs/Linux_Unpack.shtml.
Unpack them all with tar -xvzpPf archivename.tar.gz. The options xvzf would unpack an archive into the current directory, the options pP consider the directory given by the archive.
3. In case of an upgrade you can „untar“ (unpack if they were compressed) the archives you created and stored them on another machine (see 1.9into the specific directories.
For the folders /root und /etc the backup has been done only for security reasons.
On the other hand /home contains user specific settings for the used programs for example the folder .kde etc. To avoid a completely new configuration for every user and program do the following in the right order:
archive the subdirectories of /home of the new system (give them characteristic names so that you cannot confound the old and the new ones)
unpack the archive you created before the installation to /home and
finally unpack the new archive into /home.
Why all this? The last three steps aimed at
securing the system relevant data i.e. distribution and version dependent files and directories of the new system
using of all user relevant settings and data of the old system
avoiding conflicts between old and new settings and system by overwritting of old settings which are eventually not working with the new system
You will find many instructions how to configure a linux system for WERA under: https://ifmaxp1.ifm.zmaw.de/weradocs/Communication_Docs.shtml.
The following topics and hyperlinks contain specific instructions and additional information.
Several configuration files must be edited described here:
https://ifmaxp1.ifm.zmaw.de/weradocs/WeraDesk_Apache2.shtml
https://ifmaxp1.ifm.zmaw.de/weradocs/Linux_NFS.shtml, discusses which directories must be accessible from network defined in /etc/exports. Besides changes must be made under Yast, System, /etc/sysconfig-Editor and necessary mount commands and entries in the /etc/fstab for the data disks are given.
Under network services, NFS-Server you must enable the service and might be accessible for the network controller associated with the private network adress. If necessary you can also do this for the public ip adress.
The instructions 4.1 to 4.4 contain manuals how to configure the services. What is described here is making the services accessible both from the internet and „local machines“. For example a working ssh doesn´t mean that you can reach from the internet if the concerning port is blocked by the firewall. If you are working with SuSE you can read a summary of the accessible services in Yast by clicking „Security an Users“, „Firewall“. The first topic lets you configure when and whether to start the firewall. For security reasons the firewall should be started when booting and necessary services should be made accessible if need be. Here you can also stop the firewall for example if you want to test whether the firewall is responsible of an error or not. By clicking „Next“ you see suumary mentioned some rows above:
Firewall Starting
Internal Zone
Demilitarized Zone
External Zone (here you will find open i.e. accessible services, ports and protocols)
One window before (i.e. click Back!) on the left you will find different topics. In our case we can ignore them except for „Interfaces“ and „Allowed services“.
„Interfaces“ lets you allocate the network device(s) with the zones. Under „Allowed Services“ you can allow the different services for each zone. Additional you can allow specific ports under „Advanced“.
By default all connections within the internal zone are allowed. You can „Protect Firewall from Internal Zone“.
https://ifmaxp1.ifm.zmaw.de/weradocs/Linux_Logs.shtml
5.1 Mounting of data harddisk drives via NFS
see 4.2 NFS: https://ifmaxp1.ifm.zmaw.de/weradocs/Linux_NFS.shtml
The hard disk drives are being mounted as follows according to the /etc/fstab (The names /dev/hdxx may vary!!):
/dev/hde1 on /data1 type xfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,logbufs=8,logbsize=32768)
/dev/hdg1 on /data2 type xfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,logbufs=8,logbsize=32768)
Writing many data on external drives should be done via firewire than USB for firewire has better performance and is not disturbing other system activities because of its own controller.
By the way: If your system doesn't possess any firewire controller you occasionally need to install one.
Afterwards the following modules are necessary:
ieee1394
ohci1394
lsmod shows you a list of the loaded modules, if need be via modprobe module name you can load them.
Firewire devices are recongnized as SCSI and will be found under /dev/sda1 or /dev/sdb2 etc. The mountpoints to which the devices should be mounted must be created if necessary by mkdir /home/wera/firewire and/or ...firewire1 and/or ... firewire2. In our case the filesystem type is reiserfs. In /etc/fstab the devices appear as follows:
/dev/sda1 /home/wera/firewire reiserfs auto,user,acl,user_xattr 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /home/wera/firewire2 reiserfs auto,user,acl,user_xattr 0 0
/dev/sdc1 /home/wera/firewire1 reiserfs auto,user,acl,user_xattr 0 0
6. Setting up the WERA desktops to control WERA
GPS mice are used both for determination of position and time. In our case the following two rows must appear under „miscellaneous stuff“ in the /etc/ntp.conf:
server 127.127.20.0 prefer
fudge 127.127.20.0 flag1 0 flag2 0 flag3 0 flag4 0 stratum 10
8. Installation of Intel Compiler
Download the two packed tar-archives, i.e. one for C and another for Fortran, and unpack it to /opt/intel. To adapt the environment variables add the following six rows at the end of /etc/bash.bashrc.local:
# set environment variables for intel fortran compiler
# --------------------------------------------------------
test -s /opt/intel/fc/9.0/bin/ifortvars.bsh && . /opt/intel/fc/9.0/bin/ifortvars.bsh
# set environment variables for intel cc/c++ compiler
# --------------------------------------------------------
test -s /opt/intel/cc/9.0/bin/iccvars.bsh && . /opt/intel/cc/9.0/bin/iccvars.bsh
test -s tests whether the file following after it is available.
Additionally both in /opt/intel/fc/9.0/bin/ifortvars.bsh and /opt/intel/cc/9.0/bin/iccvars.bsh /bin/bash can be renamed in /bin/sh.
The following steps are adapted to our printer setup. If need be adapt them to yours. After clicking „Add“ we defined the printer type as „Print Directly to a Network Printer“, then left the following unchanged (Direct TCP Port Printing), filled in the printers hostname, gave it a name (characteristically) and finally chose a driver. To be sure do a test print.
To add a second/third... printer also click „Add“ and answer the question with „No“.
In detail our settings were:
1. printer:
Name: psi12
Hostname: psi12.ifm.zmaw.de
Manufacturer: HP
Model: HP Laserjet 4050
2. printer:
Name: psci12
Hostname: psci12.ifm.zmaw.de
Manufacturer: HP
Model: HP Color Laserjet 4600
10.1. Desktop switches
Rightclick the desktop switches and „configure“ them. Occasionally increase the number of the desired desktops and rename them if wanted (in our case we have: wera, control, root and graphic). The advantage of several desktops is an improved overview of all the windows relating to different type of tasks.