publisher.prefix is required

pkg.depotd: repository configuration error: publisher.prefix is required

Standing a new IPS server , don't forget to set the publisher.prefix. A lot of blog posts and doco pre-dates this addition

pfexec svccfg -s pkg/server "setprop pkg/port=10000"

pfexec svccfg -s pkg/server "setprop pkg/inst_root=/export/ipsrepo"

pkgsend -s file:///export/ipsrepo create-repository --set-property publisher.prefix=myrepo

pfexec svcadm enable pkg/server

pfexec svcadm restart pkg/server

Transmission resumed

Ok a transmission revisit. Everything has been going along mostly ok with my previous transmission setup. It does however have the annoying habit of just no longer accepting request at random intervals, which franky is a pain especial since flexget has worked out so well. It's still running on OpenSolaris as I have not moved to Nexenta. So I rebuilt the packages and updated to version 2.10. I have put together some IPS packages for transmission 2.10 and libevent 1.4.13. If there is any interest I can open up my IPS server or drop them somewhere more accessible. They Should run on Open Indiana also.

Daemon gear

Moving right along in the continued migration to transmission, its in and running in deamon mode on the command line, flexget is in and tested. Just need to add flexget to cron and make sure transmission-deamon starts at system bootup. Ok SMF script needed, being an inherently lazy unix guy , I'll just google that and and yes number one with the bullet I find this over on 4amlunch.net thanks to wonko. A quick mod on the TRANSMISSION_HOME to suit my local setup and and transmission-daemon is running from SMF. flexget cronjob added all should be good to go. I'll wait an hour let the cron job run it's course and see what we get.

Egg head

Ok I'm a total Python newbie. I need to install flexget to use with my new transmission setup, it's a python based app and comes as an .egg file. Seems the best way to install these is with something call easy_install.

pkg search -l easy_install

Shows easy_install is part of the python setup tools package. So just go ahead and install that.

pfexec pkg install pkg:/library/python-2/setuptools-26

Then use easy_install to install the flexget along with all it's dependencies.

pfexec easy_install http://download.flexget.com/unstable/FlexGet-1.0r1226-py2.6.egg

I'm going to be using the transmissionrpc module so I need to install that to.

pfexec easy_install transmissionrpc

Thats it done, flexget installed. Check out the flexget site to configure it for your needs.

Changing Torrent

I'm going to be offloading my torrents to my soon to be new headless file server so changes are needed. I've been using vuze since long before it was vuze, and have a nice comfortable setup. I guess my requirements have changed a little, I don't need fancy features now offered, I won't have the same luxurious memory setup as I currently have, I'm not found of it's remote interface and, as they say a change it as good as a holiday. Time to broaden my horizons . So what I need from a BT client

• runs on OpenSolaris
• operates headless
• able to read and process rss feeds
• and operate without constant fiddling

So I didn't look to hard, or broaden too much transmission is available for install as an IPS for OpenSolaris, I have also been able to compile a more recent version if required, it will operate headless, has what appears to be usable web interface if required. It does however weriously lacks and ability to read and parse rss feeds to bring the automation I need. Enter flexget, multipurpose automation tool, I'm not apposed to running to different pieces of software to do the job after all it was a plug in doing the work in vuze, and I am a unix guy.

So the plan, replace vuze with transmission and flexget.

Installing OpenSolaris on X2200 from USB drive

I recently aquired an X2200 with no optical drive, and having had a few questions from people about USB media for OpenSolaris , where my standard answer was to download the USB image, I decided it was time I should eat my own dog food as they say and take this USB stuff out for a test drive.

What you will need:

• A USB key. I used an el cheap 1GB stick I had lying about.
• An OpenSolaris USB image I used build 127 from genunix. Of course you can role your own from the iso.
  
• Some way of getting the USB image on to the USB stick. For me this would be my existing OpenSolaris desktop machine.
• A x86 machine capable of booting from a USB device. I my case this was a SUN a dual CPU quad core X2200

Assuming you have the USB stick and downloaded the image I won't bore you with the details on why you can't just copy the image to the stick. Just know you can't.

usbcopy, if you don't already have it installed you will need to install it:

pfexec pkg install SUNWdistro-const

Next you should disable hal for the time being, see bug id 11654

pfexec svcadm disable hal

Insert you usb key start the copy , make yourself a coffee.

pfexec usbcopy /Images/ISO/osol-dev-127-x86.usb
Found the following USB devices:
0:    /dev/rdsk/c19t0d0p0    3.9 GB    Generic  STORAGE DEVICE   9722
1:    /dev/rdsk/c19t0d1p0     Generic    STORAGE DEVICE   9722
2:    /dev/rdsk/c19t0d2p0     Generic    STORAGE DEVICE   9722
3:    /dev/rdsk/c19t0d3p0     Generic    STORAGE DEVICE   9722
4:    /dev/rdsk/c21t0d0p0    984.0 MB    410      RamBo USB 2.0    PMAP
Enter the number of your choice: 4

WARNING: All data on your USB storage will be lost.
Are you sure you want to install to
410 RamBo USB 2.0 PMAP, 984 MB at /dev/rdsk/c21t0d0p0 ?  (y/n) y
Copying and verifying image to USB device
Finished 936 MB in 1734 seconds (0.5MB/s)
0 block(s) re-written due to verification failure
Installing grub to USB device /dev/rdsk/c21t0d0s0
Completed copy to USB

For those of you having the misfortune to still be using Windows try out OpenSolaris Live USB Creator (Windows/.NET) . Linux folk no doubt have a tool for this too and I'll leave it you you to find out.

Ok on to the actual install. I wasted considerable time poking about the net on information about booting the X2200 from USB device. What a I found was information like, it's too hard , doesn't work, you need to use ELOM KVM-over-IP and mount a remote image. Ergh , quiche eating Linux weenies, waste of time I should have gone with my instinct and previous, although some what limited, x86 SUN experience and just turned the thing on. Basically it just works, no fuss no hassle.

If you do need to go poking around the ELOM and have some familiarity with SUN's other Lom devices then I'd suggest http://brandonhutchinson.com/wiki/ELOM_Notes as a handy reference. If you do have prior experience with SUN's other LOM device's you know full well they like to make things just that little bit different on each machine just to keep you on your toes! If thats not enough information read the ELOM manual.

Getting your console. There are a couple of different ways to get your console on X2200 I choose, in part because I hadn't used it before, to use the ELOM WEB interface method. The consoles redirection in the ELOM was going to give me a virtual graphic view of the console I thought this easiest . So plug the net management port into my network and let it DHCP to find an IP, point the web browser at it, and very familiar looking SUN Microsystems management GUI, login and go to the redirection tab and locate the console redirection button. Very shortly after this I have window showing me the console and my OpenSolaris live USB image is already at a the prompt waiting for me select keyboard and language, that easy. 12 minutes later OpenSolaris installed and running.

Now what to do with dual CPU quad core noise machine?