[BlueOnyx:21623] Re: BlueOnyx on Raspberry Pi

[Michael Stauber]

Hi Oliver,

> 5209R/ui/ was nearly empty, for this I went on with 5210R/ui.
> Forward ever backward never ;-)

Yeah, that's where you should have used 5207R/ui instead. Like said: The
5210R/ui/ contains stuff that's not yet fully working, has parts missing
and totally depends on 5210R/platform/ and 5210R/utils/ for CCE Schema
changes and changes to base-alpine. That's stuff that - as is - won't
play nice with 5209R/ui/ or 5207R/ui.

For example: The whole network stack from base-networks and base-vsite
of 5210R only works with the base-alpine and cce from 5210R.

> The label in the ui is 5207R sometimes, within the setup wizard for
> example.

The lables there are from base-alpine (which has the locales that define
the "model").

> I am used to rebuild packages as non-root user, so first I started
> dealing with all those install -u root -g root commands, but then i
> switched to %_topdir /root/build and found out about about some hard
> coded /root/rpmbuild ...

Yeah, the whole sausalito-devel architecture is about 19-20 years old
and just got adapted a little to each new OS that came along. So some of
these paths are hard coded and and work best if you build as "root". I
know it's decried as bad practice to build RPMs as "root", but tbh: I've
been doing it for 25 years and not once had any issues with it. If the
SPEC-file and Makefile have no capital blunders there is no issue. And
even if: Our build-boxes are so robust that a complete rollback (should
that ever be necessary) is no big deal.

> Main problem is the quality and state of centos base image.
> I had to recompile ImageMagick for example as I did not find it in the
> centos repos for arm.
> And I do not yet fully understand the 32/64 bit things on centos arm
> and the different raspberry hardware models.

Yeah, I have been wondering about that as well. Considering the image is
CentOS 7 and that is only available in 64-bit, how come there is a
32-bit version of it for the Pi, which is even a different architecture
(arm32?). So someone must have recompiled and adjusted CentOS 7 for
that. Which also raises the question: How good will the longterm support
for that be in regards to OS and security updates?

> Recompiling on the same distribution is not a big deal.
> Versions match, dependencies match, configfiles match. Sometime the
> bootloader tools differ, but that's all.
> Even parsing the cpuinfo looks good within the gui.

Yeah, that's good. But like said: The PKGs we have in the shop are model
dependent. They contain RPMs which were compiled with the specific OS
version and architecture of the BlueOnyx that the model number
indicates. Say someone tries to install a shop PHP package for PHP on
your Raspberry Pi. If the BlueOnyx on the Pi claims it's 5209R, the shop
will offer the PHP packages for 5209R. Which were compiled on (and for)
the 64-bit CentOS on x86. So that'll be an instant bust that lets Apache
fail hard, as the libphp*.so from the Package cannot be loaded. Hence a
separate model number for the Pi version would be advisable.

> I stumbled accross some outdated dependecies im comps.xml (mysql,
> replaced by mysqlnd in other packages, the mysql/maria/galera thing,
> etc.)

Actually: 5207R, 5208R and 5209R should have no issue there as we
switched them to mysqlnd sometime last year. But I'll check what the
comps.xml says. Maybe we resolved that dependency mess elsewhere.

> The admserv did not start properly because the php.ini used lib64 as
> extension path, which is lib only on that centos arm.

Yeah, that's what the admserv for 5208R and 5209R has hardcoded for that.

> Since the error message was about missing php_mbstring which was
> installed this was not a trivial thing to figure out.

I can imagine. I usually encounter a really bad dependency mess as well
whenever I try to adjust BlueOnyx for a new OS.

> Most annoying was the mod_jk.so binary hidden somewhere without
> sourcecode and automatic rebuild. ;-) 

Hehehe ... yeah. I know it's ridiculous and bad practice to have a
binary (that's not an image) in SVN. But it's the only skeleton we have
in the closet.

> I used most of the http://devel.blueonyx.it/pub/BlueOnyx/SRPMS/5209R/
> rpms. I had to fix some of the spec files to add arm architecture.

Very well.

> Until now it was a 2-day-quick hack at all ;-)

Still: It's a pretty good job and shows you do have some mad skills. I
appreciate that!

> Now I have to get sorted about the changes, svn diff is my friend.
> I am not sure if i am able to add every change without regressions on
> the main architectures.
> But I like the idea to have a raspberry as home infrastructure server,
> like the old qube.

Yeah, it sure could occupy that niche and some others.

> You can even start selling sd-cards with preinstalled 5109R and logo on
> it ;-)

Ah, I don't know. selling physical installation media is so yesteryear. ;-)

No, I couldn't do that even if I wanted to. That's one thing I miss
since I emigrated from Germany to Colombia: A good and working postal
service. Just a simple letter from here to Europe or the US would cost
75 Euros in postage. And even if it doesn't get lost on the way, it'll
take weeks to arrive. The other way around is even worse: Airmail from
Germany to Colombia takes between six and twelve weeks and from the US
to here it's never faster than two months.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber