[kwlug-disc] KWLUG - The Kitchener Waterloo Linux User Group new content notification: 2009-12-30 22:08

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Wed Dec 30 22:08:51 EST 2009 

Greetings mail-forum-merge,

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Recent content - 3 new posts
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1. Installing OpenMeetings on Debian Lenny
Published Blog entry by Raul Suarez
[ http://kwlug.org/node/715 ]

On the previous post I showed you what you could do with OpenMeetings.
Now it's time to describe how to install it on your own server.
Although you can install it in any version of Linux provided you have
access to the proper dependencies, I decided to do the set up on a
minimal installation of Debian 5.03 "Lenny", that way I could ensure I
identified all the components needed. This will also ensure that if you
want to install it in a different Distribution, you have all the
elements to do it.
The total installation time was a bit less than two hours. It may be
more or less for you depending on the speed of your computer and
Internet connection.
You can find the short version of these instructions on the
OpenMeeteings website. Those instructions were my starting point. Here
I
will add all the detail required.
To start you will need the following

A computer to work as the server: Minimum recommended: 1 GHz CPU, 1 GB
RAM, 2 GB HDD.
If you don't have an additional computer you can do the installation on
a virtual computer. Just ensure you assign enough CPU, RAM and a large
enough HDD.
>From now on I will refer to this computer as the "server"
An Internet connection
An additional computer connected to the same network. The purpose of
the second computer is the following
- follow the instructions doing cut and paste instead of typing them
manually
- Test the installation at the end
>From now on I will refer to this additional computer as the "local
computer"

Install Debian
Although Installing Debian is not in the scope of this post, here is
the installation in a nutshell:

Download the minimal network installation
Burn the image to a CD or USB
Boot your computer using the CD or USB
Follow the installation steps
When asked to select the kind of system, just leave "standard system"
selected. Nothing more.
When the installation completes, allow it to reboot
Login to the server as root and continue with this instructions.
By default Debian will use DHCP to acquire an IP address. That is OK
when you are testing but It is advisable to set a static IP address so
your server always has the same IP address. You can follow the
instructions here:
http://www.techiecorner.com/486/how-to-setup-static-ip-in-debian/

Edit the sources list
This will ensure that you have access to the packages required later in
this installation procedure

Edit the sources.list file with your favorite editor. e.g. nano
nano /etc/apt/sources.list
Add the following two entries at the end of the file:
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian lenny main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian lenny main contrib non-free 
Note: you can replace the URL with the one for your preferred mirror
Refresh the apt repositories
aptitude update

Install SSH on the server and connect to it from the local computer
This step is not required but you will save a lot of time using cut and
paste instead of typing all the instructions.

Install the openssh-server. I also install "less" as I use it quite
frequently:
aptitude install openssh-server less
Get the address assigned to the server and write it down.
Note: On the following instructions I will use 192.168.1.97 as the
server address. Please adapt the address accordingly.
ifconfig
On the local computer open a terminal and SSH to the server as root
ssh root at 192.168.1.97
Now you will have a terminal where to paste the commands that follow in
these instructions. You'll be glad that you followed this advice.

Install the required packages and dependencies
This is the step that will take the longest as there are several
packages to download and install:

Install swftools version 0.9 or newer. As it is not included in the
Debian repositories we will use the Ubuntu install
wget -c
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/s/swftools/swftools_0.9.0-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
dpkg -i swftools_0.9.0-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
apt-get -f install
dpkg -i swftools_0.9.0-0ubuntu1_i386.deb 
Install the rest of the components from the repositories.
Note 1: This is a very long line. Type it all in a single command line.
Note 2: Don't leave unattended. The installation process will ask to
provide a password for MySQL and to accept the java distribution
license.
aptitude install unzip mysql-server sun-java6-bin imagemagick
ghostscript openoffice.org-headless openoffice.org-base
openoffice.org-writer openoffice.org-calc openoffice.org-impress
openoffice.org-draw openoffice.org-math openoffice.org-filter-mobiledev
openoffice.org-filter-binfilter msttcorefonts pstoedit libpaper-utils
ttf-dejavu 
Optional: Cleanup the apt-get cache. This will free quite some HDD
space.
aptitude clean
aptitude autoclean

Install OpenMeetings
We are almost done. It hasn't been too bad, has it?

Get the latest version of OpenMeetings. You can figure out which
version you need from the OpenMeetings web site:
http://code.google.com/p/openmeetings/downloads/list.
In this case I used version 1.0
wget -c
http://openmeetings.googlecode.com/files/openmeetings_1_0_r2688.zip
Unzip the downloaded file and move it to the final destination.
Although it is OK to put it under whatever folder you prefer, I like
puting it under "opt" to be consistent with other software. Also, I
name
the folder "red5" as the application is actually the red5 server
executing the openmeetings application
unzip openmeetings_1_0_r2688.zip
mv openmeetings_1_0_r2688 /opt/red5

Configure MySQL
OpenMeetings requires MySQL to use UTF8 by default.

Open the MySQL global configuration file with a text editor
nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf 
Comment out the "bind-address" entry on the file
Search for the [client] section and add the following line
default-character-set=utf8 
Search for the [mysql] section and add the following line
default-character-set=utf8 
Search for the [mysqld] section and add the following lines
default-character-set = utf8
skip-character-set-client-handshake
collation-server = utf8_unicode_ci
init-connect='SET NAMES utf8'
character-set-server = utf8 
Exit saving the file: [ctrl-x] and accept saving the file
Restart mysql
/etc/init.d/mysql restart 
Login to MySQL and confirm the character set
mysql -p
(enter the mysql root password)
show variables like '%char%';
exit
All the entries should reflect the use of utf8

Configure OpenMeetings
OpenMeetings can use a variety of database engines. In this
installation we are using MySQL so we'll use the predefined MySQL
configuration:

Copy the OpenMeetings mysql configuration to the default configuration
file
cd  /opt/red5/webapps/openmeetings/conf
cp mysql_hibernate.cfg.xml  hibernate.cfg.xml 
Open the default configuration file with a text editor
nano hibernate.cfg.xml
Enter the mysql root password on the connection.password property
Note: It is advisable to use an ID different than root to connect but
configuring it is outside the scope of these instructions. If you use
an
ID different than root, please adapt this instruction accordingly
<property name=”connection.password”>openmeetings</property>
Exit saving the file: [ctrl-x] and accept saving the file

Test the installation

Start openoffice headless
Start red5
cd /opt/red5
sh ./red5.sh
Open a browser on the local computer and point it to the following
address:
http://localhost:5080/openmeetings/install
Follow the instructions on that page.
Once you accept the configuration it may take a long time (about 10
minutes) to complete, so be patient. It is normal.
At the end of the process you will be able to open your first web
conference!!!

You are done!... Well, almost.
Set up the startup scripts
Although you can manually start red5 every time, I am sure you'd prefer
for it to start as a daemon every time you start the server.
I've created the startup scripts followig the standard Debian init.d
conventions. You can find the scripts attached to this post.

Download the file openmeetings-startup.tgz [1] to the local computer
Untar the startup scripts and upload them from the local computer to
the openmeetings computer.
Note: For this you will need to open an additional terminal on the
local computer
tar -xvzf openmeetings-startup.tgz
scp -P 22 red5 root at 192.168.1.102:/etc/init.d/red5
scp -P 22 soffice-headless
root at 192.168.1.97:/etc/init.d/soffice-headless
scp -P 22 soffice-headless.sh
root at 192.168.1.97:/usr/lib/openoffice/program/soffice-headless.sh
On the server terminal make the scripts executable
chmod 755 /opt/red5/red5.sh \
          /etc/init.d/red5 \
          /etc/init.d/soffice-headless \
          /usr/lib/openoffice/program/soffice-headless.sh
Add the scripts to the startup sequence
update-rc.d red5 defaults
update-rc.d soffice-headless defaults
Restart the computer.

Opening the ports
If you want to allow people external to your network to connect to
OpenMeetings, you will need to open the following ports:
5080, 8100, 1935 and 4445.
If you prefer to use different ports, you will need to modify the red5
and OpenMeetings configuration files, but that's outside the scope of
this post.
Now you are really done!!
As you can see, setting up the server is not too difficult. Nothing to
compile and very little to configure. Have fun using this tool.

[1] http://kwlug.org/files/openmeetings-startup.tgz

---

2. kwlug is on BigTent!
Published Blog entry by Anonymous
[ http://kwlug.org/node/716 ]

The kwlug group on BigTent has now been created.
Think yahoo / google groups on steroids. The only such I've come across
that allows subgroups.
It includes forums, news, events, photos, files, calendar, reviews,
polls, e-mail (I think) and I don't know what all else.
I've, so far, only created forums for General Discussion, kwlug
Discussion, and New Member Help. The only event is the Jan. 4 meeting.
If it's useful, go ahead and start using it. I can create sub-things as
demand is identified, create group, file, forum, admins/moderators,
whatever, and so on.


---

3. Local Activities
Published Page by pnijjar
[ http://kwlug.org/node/717 ]

In addition to our user group meetings, you will find Linux and FLOSS
being used and advocated extensively in Waterloo Region. Residents
participate in software projects, run companies and do other cool
things. 
This is not a comprehensive list, and inclusion on this list does not
imply KWLUG endorsement in any way. But if you are looking for a
project
or for some help, this page might point you in some good directions. 
If you have something to add on this list please contact use our
contact form [2]. We reserve the right to be completely and flagrantly
arbitrary in what we include on this list. 
Unfortunately, links to KWLUG users are currently visible only to those
who have accounts on this website. However, links to project pages
work.

Projects
Here are some projects local people are working on. To get involved,
contact the workers directly or visit the project website.

Barry

The Barry [3] project provides synchronization support for Blackberry
smartphones on Linux. It is sponsored by Net Direct [4].

Drupal Security

Khalid Baheyeldin [5] is a member of the Drupal security team [6].

Ontario Linux Fest

John van Ostrand [7], Richard Weait [8] and many other KWLUG members
help to make Ontario Linux Fest [9] a reality.

Puppy Linux

Raul Suarez [10] is an active contributor to the lightweight Linux
distro Puppy Linux [11].


Commercial Support

2Bits

Khalid Baheyeldin [12] offers Drupal consulting. See http://2bits.com
[13] for more information.

Net Direct

Net Direct [14] provides consulting solutions for businesses of all
sizes, with an emphasis on open source solutions. John van Ostrand [15]
is CTO and co-CEO.


Training

Crashcourse

Rob Day [16] offers corporate training services in many aspects of
Linux and open source development. See http://www.crashcourse.ca [17]
for more information.


Other Activities of Note

Insurance Squared

Although Glenn Cooke [18] is not a Linux administrator, he uses Linux
extensively in his business Insurance Squared [19]. He gave KWLUG a
fascinating talk [20] on White Hat Search Engine Optimization [21] .


User Groups
The Friends and Neighbours [22] page lists other user groups in
Waterloo Region and surrounding areas.

[2] http://kwlug.org/contact
[3] http://www.netdirect.ca/barry
[4] http://www.netdirect.ca
[5] http://kwlug.org/user/709
[6] http://drupal.org/security-team
[7] http://kwlug.org/user/5
[8] http://kwlug.org/user/2
[9] http://onlinux.ca
[10] http://kwlug.org/user/48
[11] http://puppylinux.com
[12] http://kwlug.org/user/709
[13] http://2bits.com
[14] http://www.netdirect.ca
[15] http://kwlug.org/user/5
[16] http://kwlug.org/user/13
[17] http://www.crashcourse.ca
[18] http://kwlug.org/user/850
[19] http://www.insurancesquared.com
[20] http://kwlug.org/node/591
[21] http://www.insurancesquared.com/white-hat
[22] http://kwlug.org/node/403


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