Topics

1

Installation and Upgrades / **Western Digital Green EARS** HDD's

« on: July 19, 2010, 06:49:22 pm »

i had some spare time to play with one of my eBox machines, which could not complete the install of any eBox version, & finally it's done!

the problem:
the installer takes forever to complete, & when it reboots to continue, it hangs on the "Pre-configuring packages" stage..

the cause:
WD's decision to move to 4K sector size http://www.anandtech.com/show/2888/2 , as with their new EARS Green series. & since i've upgraded the HDD of this machine, i could not finish any eBox install, most probably because it involves some intensive IO operations.. (DB?!)
in my case, i have the 1TB WD10EARS, which explains this weird behavior.

solution:
1. boot any live linux CD, ubuntu is fine, & manually partition the HDD(s) using fdisk with the following: (see man page for more info)

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#sudo fdisk -H 224 -S 56 /dev/sdXwhere sdX is your EARS HDD(s), partition as usual save & quit.

2. reload new partition table:

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#sudo partprobe
3. use parted to verify that all partitions' start positions are @ "4 divisible" positions:

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#sudo parted /dev/sdX
(parted) unit kib
(parted) printthe output should be something like:

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Disk /dev/sda: 976762584kiB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start        End           Size          Type      File system  Flags
 1      28.0kiB      106624kiB     106596kiB     primary   ext2         boot
 2      106624kiB    10599680kiB   10493056kiB   primary   ext3              
 3      10599680kiB  976757376kiB  966157696kiB  extended                    
 5      10599708kiB  12700800kiB   2101092kiB    logical   linux-swap        
 6      12700828kiB  976757376kiB  964056548kiB  logical   ext3              
note the above Start position..

4. restart the system, start the eBox/Ubuntu installer, use expert install, & when asked about partitioning the system, use manual, & just format each partition with desired FS & select appropriate mount point, & continue the install.. in other words, don't modify the partition table of the drive.


i hope this would help others

nael

2

Installation and Upgrades / please post your eBox machine & number of users

« on: July 15, 2010, 08:04:42 pm »

hi all,
i think that this might be a good idea to post the the specifications of your setup(s) including the hardware you have & the number of users it's serving. why?
simply, to have an indication for both current & new users about the needed hardware for a given scenario(s) with users/load


i will start by posting mine:
currently i'm running eBox in a virtual environment (KVM) with 2 virtual clients (WinXP, Ubuntu) for testing it.
with the current hardware i have, i'm very limited performance-wise, hopefully my Xeon setup will be ready next week for more serious testings. i'm aiming for 12 VM's:
x1 eBox master
x1 eBox slave
x4 WinXP Pro
x4 Win 7 Pro
x2 Ubuntu

i'll will update again, stay tuned..


PS, eBox Team, you are invited to post you current setups too, including the testing/dev ones! 

nael

3

Installation and Upgrades / looks like the current up-to-date 1.4 installed is broken

« on: July 03, 2010, 06:14:36 pm »

hi,
after burning more than 17 hours, it looks like the installer is broken, the install freeze @ 71% (when using the eBox CD installer)
when installing from Ubuntu, both 8.04 & 10.04 Server, the installer is super slow, & i mean it, (the hardware is more than enough) & it seems to freeze forever when building the DB file(s)

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Setting up postgresql (8.3.11-0ubuntu8.04) ...
Setting up ebox (1.4.8-0ubuntu1~ppa1~hardy1) ...
Adding group `ebox' (GID 121) ...
Done.
Warning: The home dir /var/lib/ebox/ you specified already exists.
Adding system user `ebox' (UID 111) ...
Adding new user `ebox' (UID 111) with group `ebox' ...
The home directory `/var/lib/ebox/' already exists.  Not copying from `/etc/skel'.
adduser: Warning: The home directory `/var/lib/ebox/' does not belong to the user you are currently creating.
Adding user `ebox' to group `adm' ...
Adding user ebox to group adm
Done.
Creating the eboxlogs database
i get the feeling that it's PostgreSQL related, maybe caused by an update (?)

install procedure:
1. install BASIC with NO extra package from the software manager
2. an update, & dist-upgrade
3. adding eBox to sources.list & installing ebox-office

i've repeatedly tried with no avail, with different combos..

PS, i did search for a ticket related to this subject & i could not found, thus i'm posting..


thanks

4

Installation and Upgrades / contacting mods/admins

« on: July 03, 2010, 10:44:33 am »

hi,
i've noticed that there is not any option to privately communicate with mods/admins/users neither there is any "general/feedback discussion" section..

how can contact mods/admins?

thanks