Month: October 2021

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Picking Out a Red Hat Style

Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today, I am reconfiguring ButtonMash to run some Red Hat family distribution. Let’s get started!

My Early Impressions of Linux

When I was taking my first deep dive into the Linux operating system, I was amazed and overwhelmed with the sheer diversity and customization to be found. Between the soup of permissive licenses and modularity of GNU/Linux (pure Linux does not a complete operating system make), Linux isn’t one operating system: it’s thousands. And if that’s not good enough, you can always make a new one.

I quickly found representations of the Linux family tree listing several popular distributions spawned over time as people forked projects, swapped code, and in some cases ceased development. And while there are several names that have stood the test of time so far, I was introduced to three branches each revolving around a particular distribution: Debian, Arch, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Ubuntu is large enough to receive an honorary mention within the Debian family. Most of my computers run Debian or a derivative thereof. My flagship computer runs on Manjaro of the Arch family. I would like some experience on a RHEL family branch.

The Red Hat Family

The modern Red Hat branch feel different compared to Debian and Arch. The titicular distribution, RHEL, is sold on a subscription basis. Red Hat, the company, sponsors a distinct, community supported, upstream distro called Fedora where programs can be tested before being deployed to customers’ production environments where downtime can cost a lot of money. Per the permissive licenses of software going into RHEL, anyone can view, modify, and redistribute their source code – just respect the Red Hat trademark. Do know that actually subscribing comes with technical support.

Historical and editorial note: from what I can tell, Red Hat Linux used to be the branch root, if you will. Red Hat reorganized things in 2003, adopting Fedora while discontinuing Red Hat Linux in favor of Red Hat ENTERPRISE Linux. The way these three terms are used almost interchangeably made this section very frustrating to research, but I will try and use the proper terms: Red Hat is the company, Red Hat Linux was Red Hat’s flagship product sold on store shelves sold from the mid-90’s until 2003, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL for short) is Red Hat’s modern OS users subscribe to.

Looking deeper into different distros based off RHEL source code, you will find that 100% binary compatibility is huge. You can develop something on a RHEL downstream and it should work for a paying RHEL subscriber. If you find a clever use for a bug –it has happened before in the tech world– that bug will be there in RHEL.

CentOS

CentOS has been an important name in Linux for a while. Had I done this week’s research for a Red Hat branch distro a year ago, I have no doubt it would have been my pick for use on a home server.

Despite CentOS’s long history as the go-to RHEL downstream, the CentOS I was looking forward to getting to know has a short future. Just as Red Hat Linux was discontinued in favor of RHEL, CentOS is to be discontinued in a couple months on this coming New Year’s Eve (December 31, 2021) and repurposed. The future CentOS Stream will sit between Fedora and RHEL, making it an unsuitable distro for a server I expect to run for at least the next few years.

The niche CentOS is vacating already has new distros vying to be the de facto replacement. The leading contenders are Alma Linux and Rocky Linux. Alma Linux has the backing of a large company, while Rocky Linux is being done by the guy who originally started CentOS. So far as I can tell, they’re a coin flip away from each other. If they both work out, more power to the end-users.

Even as I write, I’m unsure what I’ll be running a year from now. For no reason in particular, I’m leaning towards Rocky Linux. I’ve already flashed a thumb drive with the install media, but setup will have to wait until next week.

Takeaway

I picked a horrible time to get into free Red Hat distros. One chapter in its history is drawing to a close and the opening of the next is still going through revisions. However, I’m not looking to wait a year for that retrospect. I’ll be re-evaluating as needed.

Final Question

Have you ever started a project during a sub-optimal time?

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Source Code Bending for Minecraft

Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today, I am diving deep into working on a Minecraft server – deeper than I have ever gone before. Let’s get started!

Minecraft: A Game of Memories

My family has maintained a small Minecraft community for a few years now. With DS9 Fireblade’s larger server, Phoenixcraft, going on the lull –the family’s been helping moderate– we’re all waiting for the Minecraft 1.18 update. Our closer group of friends is feeling ready for a new season, but we don’t want to start a whole new one just yet. That leaves us with revamping the current season of Creepers N Cream, our family-run server.

A friend at university got me into Avatar the Last Airbender, a show set in a world where some people have super abilities to manipulate [or bend] one of the classical elements: water, earth, fire, air. I brought it home. I was into its unofficial tie-in plugin for Minecraft even before my whole family had accounts. I credit the bending plugin with getting me into running servers as far back as Minecraft 1.6. On one of my previous servers, there existed an official RPG side-plugin that added world events that strengthen or nerf your bending.

Years have passed and I’ve played the plugin a few times. It’s still around, but it’s called Project Korra now (PK). Time has not been as friendly to the Bending RPG side-plugin, though. The latest full release is a couple months shy of seven years ago.

The Test Server and Compiling From Source

I started a server for testing all the plugins we expect to be using. It was taken over for a family survival world, and I made a second testing world for just bending and bending RPG. The old plugin loaded, to a little surprise from chat on the ProjectKorra Discord when I reached out and told them it made its announcements, but didn’t affect actual gameplay. Someone directed me to the ProjectKorraRPG GitHub, where I could find a more recent, less out of date version of the plugin – specifically the event-concurency branch.

Java is not a favorite language. I’ve tried getting into it no fewer than three times, but the barrier to entry kept getting in my way. Long story short, their development-support channel was quite helpful and I even got in contact with the most recent developer on the PK Discord, Simplicitee. It was a long, involved process –possibly worth a blog post in its own right had I better understood what I was doing– but with help, I managed to provide get the needed .jar files, update a few version numbers, and set up a symbolic link (from memory even) where the compiler expected. Eventually, I got myself a compiled version of Bending RPG and running on the server. Simplicitee even noticed my efforts and started working on it again, starting with updating the GitHub for the first time in two years. I have yet to compile this version yet though, but not for lack of trying.

My sister, Taz, and I test played it, and while the actual RPG mechanics took a little getting used to, they were playable, even if they lack balance – an armor stand defaulted to the same XP as a mob, passive, hostile, or even boss (configurable).

While that all was going on, our whole inspiration for playing the bending plugin again was a video showcasing an earthbending move that looked like a revamped seismic sense for earthbending. It made the move look awesome when no one in the family has really gotten earth as an element yet. We quickly learned it was actually an ability pack called TerraSense by Hiro or Hiro3 (Discord and PK forums, respectfully), and the latest publication was only relevant to plugin versions pertaining to Minecraft 1.17 and not 1.17.1, the version we’re playing on. Hiro was kind enough to provide me with a work in progress 1.17.1 build for my server and I’ve been reporting bugs as they show up.

Bending on our Apex server

Our target world was a 1.17 vanilla world running on Apex. I stipulated that I wold not be doing anything with the server until I had a copy of it running locally. Apex support directed me to one of their videos, and I followed it… and waited for the uncompressed download to progress – Apex has built-in compression in their provided online FTP access client. I wasn’t able to get it on a server, but I did load it up in single player. A viable copy is safely stored on GoldenOakLibry, our network storage.

In theory, switching server jars is as simple as operating a drop-down menu and uploading any plugins. In practice though, our server file space is cluttered. There were some plugins from the last time we were on a Bukkit server or something because they jumped to life when Paper Spigot for 1.17.1 crashed trying to load them and one was incompatible. When we switch to 1.18, I fully intend to compress the whole thing, download it, and wipe everything. I expect there are world files for at least a couple servers in there.

Takeaway

Programming is about more than coding. For this project, I was able to give back to the community by identifying bugs and sharing my findings. As I was writing, I received the news that several of my reported bugs were now patched. One edge case bug involving switching to spectator mode while flying even sparked a conversation where that led to solving a number of seemingly disjoint bugs and it was addressed before I had the chance to follow up with a better description.

Final Question

Have you ever contributed back to a project you enjoy?

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Squashing All My Computers into One: Part 1

Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today I am centralizing storage across my several computers. Let’s get started!

Computer Drift

One of my favorite things about Linux is exploring the possibility space of designs for what a computer operating system can look like. But maintaining multiple workstations can and will leave you wondering where that one picture is saved or what ever happened to that document you know you saved under blog drafts. I have no fewer than three computers –four or more if you count my laptop and ButtonMash as separate given their common install and/or my dual booted machines– it’s high time I consolidate my computers’ respective identities to reflect me as a single user given my access to GoldenOakLibry, the family network storage.

Project Overview

One would think the process would be as simple as dumping everything in a central location and spreading everything around be it garbage or not. Alas, subtle differences in installed programs or versions of programs make this approach unsuitable.

My best bet will be to think backwards. Not everything will be shuffled around; directories supporting install-specific programs should stay on their specific computer. Backups for such files are fine, but I can accidentally damage other instances if I’m not careful. I’ll need to tailor a number of Rsync commands and schedule them to run automatically with Cron. As this topic is basically day-of filler while I work on a larger project, the full job is a little out of my scope for today.

My goal for today is to make a backup I can operate manually and later automate. If things go well, I can see what I can do about Rsync, but Cron will need to wait for another day.

GUI File Transfer

The terminal is an important skill to have when managing a Linux ecosystem of multiple computers. However, there are some things, such as managing picture files, that inherently work better over a graphical file manager. While preparing for writing today, I noticed places like my respective Downloads directories are quite messy after a few years of Linux.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of jumping workstations all day, so I searched for a way to have the Dolphin file manager operate over SSH. The first result to catch my attention was called FISH (Files Transferred over SHell protocol). Similarly, SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) appears to fill a similar computing niche. Each would be an interesting research topic, but for my purposes today, they both work equally well as long as SSH is configured to use authentication keys.

Derpy’s Backup

The easiest place to start would be my DerpyChips workstation as that’s the one I’m working from starting off. Documents was fairly easy to clean out. I had some Blog drafts and some other stuff I sorted into proper places on the drive.

The dreaded Downloads directory was relatively tame on Derpy. Nevertheless, I still spotted elements from at least four distinct projects ranging from incomplete to long done or abandoned. I even found an instance of GraalVM I may have been running straight from Downloads. My goal is an empty directory. If it will update before I need it again or I won’t need it ever again, it’s gone. If I’m unsure, I’ll find another home for it. I similarly emptied out any directory intended for file storage. Pictures was simple this time, but I expect I’ll need a more elaborate structure once I start trying to organize additional computers’ worth of memories.

ButtonMash’s Backups (Debian and MineOS)

Things were a little more interesting when I started moving things over from ButtonMash. At first, I set a Dolphin instance up with ButtonMash’s home on the left and its view GoldenOak on the right, but when I got a warning about not being able to undo a delete, I thought twice. I did have a deletion accident last phase and used an undo action, so it’s Derpy’s view of it on the right.

I was right about needing to take pictures slowly on this one. Some pictures fit better in with my blog while mems I felt worth saving went in their own directory within the more general Pictures one. But I don’t need copies of everything everywhere if I can just access the drive. Possibly just my favorite desktop and my avatar, if that. I made a directory for those two and any others I may want to spread around.

File manager over SFTP understandably has limitations. Not all files can be directly accessed –particularly audio files– and some graphical files don’t render shortcuts. When I try to preview an archive, it must first be copied over as a temp file.

I had another accident while moving some old Python projects over. For whatever reason –be it permissions or simple corruption– some files didn’t copy over cleanly. I fished around with it a little more and gave up and deleted both source and destination, as I expect another copy was made when I cloned my laptop to its internal drive.

Thanks to this blunder, though, I was more careful when it came to the family’s Minecraft servers from when we were running MineOS. I encountered an error while copying, so I reverted to rsync directly from ButtonMash. Even then, I had to elevate permissions with sudo to finish the job.

Takeaway

I’d like to say I’m somewhere around half way with my goal for today, but if I am to take this task seriously, I’ll need to go back farther and reintegrate any old backups I may have laying around, and by that count, I at least eight computers to consider – more if I count Raspberry Pi’s and any recursive backups I may find.

In some ways, this project is not unlike my experience with synchronizing Steam games manually, but on a larger scale. I’m having to re-think my structure for what I want backed up where as well as how I’m planning to access it. This is not a simple grab and dump.

Final Question

Have you ever made an comprehensive and accessible backup of all your computers, present and surviving?

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Linux 101 with Leo_8472: Part 3: Minecraft

Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today, I am helping my father get his Debian install to a livable level. Let’s get started!

Reality Checks and Cancellations

My goal with talking my father through a Linux install is to grow my own abilities as well, but our time together is often limited, leaving little room for research during our work sessions.

Debian Testing sounded like a good idea until we started reading about it. I knew there would be warnings, but the booklet worth of information about special care it required was more than a little intimidating. It’s still something I’d like to try some day, just not when back seat computing.

Likewise, setting up a Windows look-alike desktop environment was beyond the scope of our allotted time. The selection I had located were simply themes build upon actual desktop environments. Again: something I’d like to try when I have a machine to do more advance research on.

A lot of our work this week was spent reading on these canceled side projects. We unfortunately had to reduce our scope, but we now understand our limitations better for it.

MultiMC with GraalVM

Overall, my family’s favorite game is Minecraft. I’m trying to move the family away from the default launcher, so we installed MultiMC, a third party launcher that doesn’t confuse your versions.

One download option for MultiMC is a .deb file labeled as if for Ubuntu. I improved a little on the installation when trying to install it locally with aptitude, apt, and finally dpkg. We had to look up how to address dependencies. While it wasn’t painless, it wasn’t memorable either, but it was one example of why straight Debian may not be the best for someone looking to get into Linux without a guide.

Minecraft uses Java. The current version uses the relatively new Java 16, which isn’t a common find on Debian based systems unless purposefully installed. Graal is my preferred open source version of Java, and they have experimental builds for Java 16. With my recent return to the game, I’ve done the following procedure a few times already.

Graal can be downloaded from their GitHub. They provide builds for both amd64 or aarch64 architectures. We didn’t happen to know which one we needed, so we just choose one with a mental note to be prepared in case it wasn’t recognized, which it wasn’t. While Graal will work from anywhere as long as it’s called, the proper place to install it is in /usr/lib/jvm/. On my other installations, the jvm/ directory already existed and was host to other Java installations, but this time we had to make it ourselves. MultiMC recognized Graal shortly after properly installing it properly.

Takeaway

There’s a special feeling when you can reference your own work for solutions to problems you’ve already solved. The standard Java path is something that took me a while to learn, and I still had to look it up on my own system while writing. A week or two ago, I was happy to dump Graal wherever I could find it –one instance was even running it from my Downloads directory– but it’s best to put utilities on a computer where others can expect to find them.

In the meantime, we are practicing terminal with that… hard to read terminal emulator that came with LXDE. My father tried to change the colors, but his settings didn’t stick on restarting the program.

Final Question

Have you ever self-referenced for answers?

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