Tag: fedora

ScriptBot 2.1 is in the works.

Just a quick post, telling everyone that a new version of ScriptBot is in the works, version 2.1.

So far, we’ve done the first xplugin -> bundled plugin conversion in ScriptBot’s short history, as well as added some little features that make a big impact, such as NickServ identifying, configurable connection port, configuration for whether to join on invite, and more features are of course on the way, in order to make this one of the biggest releases for ScriptBot (aside from 2.0, the massive rewrite).

I hope to also make ScriptBot available in the Fedora repositories, starting with version 2.1, but I’ll need assistance with packaging (see my earlier post on packaging ScriptBot). If anyone is willing to help, that’d be great. Just come on over to #bots on OKSnet. The current roadblock, as mentioned in the post, is packaging a library we use, written in Java, called PircBot.

Fedora 12 Constantine

Yes, Fedora 12, Constantine has been released.  This release is focused on reinforcing stability, as well as making the desktop easier for new users. I’m hosting a release party on IRC, #Main on theoks.net.

You can read the new features in Fedora 12 on this wiki page: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/12/FeatureList

Fedora Activity Day – Fedora Talk (Day 1)

Day One of the Fedora Talk Activity day is over.

Here’s some very quick wrapping up:

  • Icecast streaming is now working pretty decently, however the current test server is in… Germany. (http://publictest16.fedoraproject.org:8000/test.ogg)
  • Improvements on documentation, generally on the web site.
  • Troubleshooting tests are underway.
  • More “ghetto HTML” and such funnies.
  • People thinking my bag o’ chips is popcorn.

Things will continue tomorrow at I don’t know what time. I didn’t hear that part.

The conference has taken place on talk.fedoraproject.org, extension 2001.

Packaging ScriptBot for Fedora, a continuing adventure

You mostly likely know that I’m  a proud contributor to the Fedora Project. I helped out a bit on blogs.fedoraproject.org and I generally also keep the wiki clean. However, I haven’t ever made a package.

So my first packaging adventure is packaging the IRC bot library that ScriptBot uses.

One word: pain.

There’s a few nuances with PircBot. It comes as a jar with source inside it as well as the compiled classes. I extracted the source, made it usable for RPM to build. I scrapped the binaries, and put it into a traditional tarball. So apparently that doesn’t work.

Next, I found RPM wasn’t making a buildroot correctly. So I had to make a hack around that.

Then, it came to the install path. There’s a page on the Fedora Project Wiki apparently. But I didn’t know that! It’s not linked from the frequently visited Packaging pages.

After getting it to build, it went through a scratch build on Koji, then I filed for review on Bugzilla.

That’s when I found the page for Fedora’s Java packaging guidelines. I apparently did need documentation (although all I can put is a link, the documentation isn’t really pullable from the website). So I ended marking the bug for my request as CLOSED DEFERRED.

Expect a part two post when I actually get Pircbot into the repos.  Also likely is a part three when ScriptBot itself gets in.

See the ScriptBot project page at scriptbot.theoks.net.

Things around here might get a lot faster

I was able to compile the memcache PECL extension for my copy of PHP on my Mac. Now I just need a separate machine for memcached. When I get such a thing, OKS Blog would be much better, as queries from the DB would be cached through memcached, and memory is *much* faster than hard drive.

Click on a few ads (seen near the top of the page) to support my crazy venture of a separate memcached machine, and we’ll see how speed improves when we get a memcached machine up.

The memcached machine will be running a stripped Fedora 11 install (as in no GUI), with a 64-bit kernel (because it’s a whole new machine I’m gonna put together). I know that memcached is used in the Fedora Infrastructure with MediaWiki. Possibly, I might have the wordpress-mu install use memcached as well.

For those of you who don’t know what memcached is, memcached is “a high-performance, distributed memory object caching system, generic in nature, but intended for use in speeding up dynamic web applications by alleviating database load.” (from the memcached home page) memcached came from LiveJournal, a project of Danga Interactive. We’ll see if when we get a memcached instance (if we get a memcached instance) things speed up.

Should okswbot retire?

You probably don’t know OKSWbot, my bot, based on Mozbot, that hangs out in #bots, #classicrock, #astronomy, #flame and #oksw (most activity is in #bots, the other channels are empty) on irc.mozilla.org.

OKSWbot has some problems, like it has a non-functioning Infobot Module (defective AnyDBM_File Perl module?).

Mozbot is not even used in #bmo on irc.mozilla.org, the bot “bugbot” is a supybot.

I have added a new bot, OKSbot, which is based on supybot. I chose supybot because both fedbot and zodbot (both bots for Fedora IRC channels) are based on supybot.

I just set him up today, and I haven’t even gotten used to supybot.

If you might have any supybot knowledge, feel free to share it through the comments.

Open Source Solutions for WordPress spam comments

You probably don’t know, but I’m working with some other Fedora contributors on a Fedora install of WordPress MU. The thing is, for a spam solution, all of it has to be open source, so Akismet or reCAPTCHA won’t work. So I ask you, Fedora users and contributors. Firstly, is spam an issue on  your blogs? If so, what do you use for anti-spam on your self-hosted WordPress blog? Leave a nice little comment.

A brand new shiny yum repository!

Yes, that’s right, I have decided to start hosting a yum repository. I decided this because some packages just need to be packaged and won’t make it into big repos in some cases.

Here’s how to get YOUR rpm package into MY yum repo:

  1. If your package is compiled, compile it for as many architectures and distributions as possible.
  2. Send a link to all your compiled RPMs, and source code to spamtrap AT oks DOT verymad DOT net
  3. I’ll email you back if your package was accepted.

Here’s a link to the .repo file you will need to use the repository:

http://fpaste.org/paste/15984/plain

simply put that file in /etc/yum.repos.d/ as oks-yum.repo and you’re good to go!