Fedora on Life

Fixing GlusterFS Geo-Replication Failure on Fedora

Fri, 21 Sep 2018 08:16:00 +0530

GlusterFS geo-replication can fail on Fedora due to a missing dynamic library symlink.

Checking /var/log/glusterfs/geo-replication/gv0_node1/gsyncd.log reveals:

class Changes(object):
 File "/usr/libexec/glusterfs/python/syncdaemon/libgfchangelog.py", line 19, in Changes
 use_errno=True)
 File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/ctypes/__init__.py", line 361, in __init__
 self._handle = _dlopen(self._name, mode)
OSError: /usr/lib64/libgfchangelog.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Looking at /usr/libexec/glusterfs/python/syncdaemon/libgfchangelog.py:

class Changes(object):
 libgfc = CDLL("/usr/lib64/libgfchangelog.so", mode=RTLD_GLOBAL,
 use_errno=True)

On Fedora and RHEL, bare .so library symlinks (as opposed to versioned sonames like .so.0) are provided by the -devel development packages. To resolve this error, install the development package:

Building the Canon MF3010 Printer Driver on Fedora 25

Wed, 16 Nov 2016 14:49:00 +0530

To build the Canon imageCLASS MF3010 Linux driver from source, download the “UFR II/UFR II LT Printer Driver for Linux V3.20” archive from Canon’s support website.

On Fedora 25, you need two adjustments to build the RPM cleanly:

1. Spec File Patch (`cndrvcups-common.spec`)

Exclude internal dependency requirements and apply the gmodule patch:

--- cndrvcups-common.spec.orig 2016-11-16 14:37:13.341877857 +0530
+++ cndrvcups-common.spec 2016-11-16 14:34:40.674461102 +0530
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 %define VERSION 3.60
 %define RELEASE 1
+%global __requires_exclude ^libcaiousb.so$

 %ifarch x86_64
 %define libs32 /usr/lib
@@ -19,6 +20,7 @@ Vendor: CANON INC.
 Group: Applications/Publishing

 Source: cndrvcups-common-%{version}-%{release}.tar.gz
+Patch0: cndrvcups-common-gmodule.patch

 BuildRoot: %{_tmppath}/%{name}-root

@@ -27,6 +29,8 @@ BuildRoot: %{_tmppath}/%{name}-root
 %prep
 %setup -q

+%patch0 -p1
+
 cd buftool
 ./autogen.sh --prefix=%{_prefix} --enable-progpath=%{_bindir} --libdir=%{_libdir} --disable-shared --enable-static

2. Add `gmodule` Dependency Patch

In modern Fedora releases, gmodule must be explicitly included in PKG_CHECK_MODULES:

Running Sky (tel.red) on Fedora 25

Thu, 01 Sep 2016 13:41:00 +0530

On Fedora 25, the Sky Skype for Business client crashes on launch inside its bundled Qt 5 runtime:

Program received signal SIGABRT, Aborted.
0x00007ffff112692f in raise () from /lib64/libc.so.6
(gdb) bt
#0 0x00007ffff112692f in raise () at /lib64/libc.so.6
#1 0x00007ffff112852a in abort () at /lib64/libc.so.6
#2 0x00007ffff200dcb1 in () at /usr/lib/sky/lib/libQt5Core.so.5
#3 0x00007ffff24ee835 in QGuiApplicationPrivate::createPlatformIntegration() () at /usr/lib/sky/lib/libQt5Gui.so.5
#4 0x00007ffff24ee955 in QGuiApplicationPrivate::createEventDispatcher() () at /usr/lib/sky/lib/libQt5Gui.so.5
#5 0x00007ffff21cea64 in QCoreApplicationPrivate::init() () at /usr/lib/sky/lib/libQt5Core.so.5
#6 0x00007ffff24f2340 in QGuiApplicationPrivate::init() () at /usr/lib/sky/lib/libQt5Gui.so.5
#7 0x00007ffff2be62b9 in QApplicationPrivate::init() () at /usr/lib/sky/lib/libQt5Widgets.so.5
#8 0x0000000000434e41 in main ()

The issue stems from incompatible bundled Qt libraries. A reliable workaround is to force Sky to use Fedora’s system-provided qt5 packages:

Using C++ REST SDK (Casablanca) on Fedora Linux

Sun, 13 Mar 2016 17:23:00 +0530

Microsoft has open-sourced Casablanca (the C++ REST SDK) on GitHub.

To make it easy to use on Fedora, I packaged and published RPMs on Fedora COPR: COPR: ritz/cpprestsdk

To enable the repository and install:

sudo dnf copr enable ritz/cpprestsdk
sudo dnf install cpprest-devel

Happy compiling with -lcpprest!

How to Increase the Offline Storage Quota for Kindle in Epiphany

Sun, 17 Jan 2016 17:14:00 +0530

You can easily install Amazon’s Kindle Cloud Reader as a standalone web application on Fedora Linux using the Epiphany (GNOME Web) browser via GNOME Software.

However, this comes with one major hurdle: the default offline storage quota for web databases is a measly 6 MB, which you will exhaust almost immediately.

webkitgtk3 used to offer an API called webkit_get_default_web_database_quota, but this was removed from the newer webkitgtk4 engine that Epiphany relies on.

Lync on Linux

Mon, 13 Jul 2015 20:58:00 +0530

If you are looking to run Microsoft Lync (aka Skype for Business) on Linux, you’re in luck: Fisil maintains a Linux client hosted at tel.red.

However, I ran into an issue running the client on Fedora 23 (Rawhide), as the Sky package bundles its own older X11 libraries:

$ sky
/opt/sky_linux/sky: symbol lookup error: /lib64/libXxf86vm.so.1: undefined symbol: _XEatDataWords

_XEatDataWords was added to fix an upstream X.Org vulnerability (commit details). The workaround is to preload your distribution’s native libX11 library:

Unity vs. GNOME Shell: The Small Things – Status Tray

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 10:56:00 +0530

The GNOME Shell status tray is an interesting implementation written in JavaScript. Consequently, it is approachable to learn, write extensions for, and modify. However, one issue that bothered me was focus stealing.

When clicking on a status tray icon and moving the mouse cursor diagonally down toward the open menu, focus would inadvertently switch to the next adjacent tray icon. This was rather jarring, exacerbated by the gap between the panel icon and the popover menu.

Tablets: Unity and GNOME Shell

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 08:17:00 +0530

I have been thinking about writing this down for quite a while: my hands-on experiences testing Ubuntu Unity and GNOME Shell on the WeTab tablet.

Unity

Unity makes a fine netbook interface, but tablet support feels underdeveloped. After configuring auto-login, I was greeted by the standard desktop and launcher. However, launching an application and maximizing it hides the dock launcher entirely, making it awkward to bring back with a finger. Furthermore, scrollbars are difficult to grab, and multi-touch gestures like drag-to-scroll aren’t yet implemented. Aside from those tablet friction points, the interface shows potential.

FUDCon 2011: Here I Come!

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:04:00 +0530

I am heading to FUDCon Pune this year! I hope to present a talk to help newcomers get started with contributing to open source, specifically within the GNOME project.

Please check out and vote for my session here: Contributing to Open Source (FUDCon Session)

Dell ST2220T Touchscreen Monitor on Linux

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:20:00 +0530

Good news: the Dell ST2220T multi-touch monitor works on Fedora Linux using evdev under Xorg!

Special thanks to Gopal for tracing and testing this. Additional hardware diagnostic info is posted in Red Hat Bugzilla 703118.

GNOME Legacy and GNOME 3

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 22:02:00 +0530

For anyone who prefers to stick with “GNOME Legacy” (Fallback mode) rather than GNOME 3 with GNOME Shell, you can configure your default session by running:

cd /usr/share/gnome-session/sessions
sudo mv gnome.session gnome-new.session
sudo mv gnome-fallback.session gnome.session

Fedora 13 with Xorg 1.8.x, GNOME 2.30, and "Fixed" Nautilus

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:38:00 +0530

With the release of GNOME 2.30, Nautilus has reverted to browser mode as the default. So long, spatial mode!

In Fedora 13, Xorg now relies on udev rather than hal for automatic hardware detection.

Bonus note: I noticed Totem now remembers the last-played playback position.

Fedora and GNOME keep getting better with time.

Receiving Files from Phone to Computer

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:18:00 +0530

Duh! To receive files from a phone or other Bluetooth-enabled device to a laptop running Linux, make sure to enable the “Receive files in Downloads folder over Bluetooth” option in GNOME File Sharing Preferences.

Notes: Bluetooth on Fedora

rt2860 on Fedora 11

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 23:41:00 +0530

For anyone missing the wireless driver on the Asus Eee PC 1000H: rt2860 has made it into kernel staging and is not yet part of Fedora 11. To build it yourself, download the latest snapshot from the Linux kernel git staging tree using the “snapshot” link.

Once downloaded, extract the archive and append the following line to the Makefile:

obj-m := rt2860sta.o

Then run the command below to compile and install the module: