Realocated sector count is 1 , should i fear ?

yesterday my hdd started to fail  (bad blocks from reading files) and from the raw read error rates i was worried that is already dead but it seems that seagate  ST9500325AS drives they do high error rates also one sector can be corrected it seems using filesystem vodoo
The self tests are only done for 10% and then they stop
Seems that only in Linux you can force it to write to a corrupted sector and fix the issue

A nice tool to read the smart values in human format is gsmartcontrol.

sudo apt-get install gsmartcontrol

Django Firebird and pyinstaller notes

After installing pyinstaller in python 2.7.x

pip  install pyinstaller
c:\\python27\\scripts\\pyinstaller --version

You need Firebird client installed : run firebird installer

pip install django
pip install fdb
pip install django-firebird

my application is using django-postman and is named that way

c:\\python27\\scripts\\pyinstaller -d --name=django_postman manage.py

I had a issue with Cookie and django 1.5.x (ImportError: No module named Cookie )

ls -lah
dist/django_postman/django_postman.exe
-rwxrwxr-x 1 mariuz mariuz 2.9M Oct  1 13:28 dist/django_postman/django_postman.exe

There are some issues with ctypes dependency support in fdb

So i had to modify in drive_c/Python27/Lib/site-packages/fdb/ibase.py

these lines

    #fb_library_name = find_library('fbclient.dll')
    fb_library_name = 'C:\\windows\\system32\\fbclient.dll'
else:
    fb_library_name = find_library('fbclient')
if sys.platform in ['win32', 'cygwin', 'os2', 'os2emx']:
#    fb_library = WinDLL(fb_library_name)
    fb_library = WinDLL('fbclient.dll')


here is my manage.py config

Flask and pyinstaller notice

I have started to test flask and pyinstaller setup in wine/linux

first i needed to install flask with pip

wine cmd.exe
c:\\python27\\scripts\\pip install flask

then after i have created the hello world flask needs to be added in the --hidden-import at command line like this

c:\\python27\\scripts\\pyinstaller --hidden-import=flask --onefile -d -y hello.py

and you can start it with

dist\hello.exe
* Running on http://127.0.0.1:5000/

Then load in your browser :) The size of the single file binary

 
ls -lah hello.exe 
-rwxrwxr-x 1 mariuz mariuz 5.6M Oct  1 18:03 hello.exe

Building Firebird Client for Android

Download and install ndk  unzip in your home
install firebird build dependencies

sudo apt-get build-dep firebird2.5

unzip ~/Downloads/android-ndk-r13-linux-x86_64.zip

export NDK=$HOME/android-ndk-r13d
echo $NDK

get the Firebird 3.0 source

http://web.firebirdsql.org/download/prerelease/source/Firebird-3.0.1.32609-0.tar.bz2
tar -jxvf Firebird-3.0.1.32609-0.tar.bz2

cd Firebird-3.0.1.32609-0


cp /usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu/unicode/platform.h extern/icu/source/common/unicode
cp /usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu/unicode/uvernum.h extern/icu/source/common/unicode

./autogen.sh --with-system-editline --enable-binreloc --with-cross-build=android.arme

after that the libfbclient.so is created for arm

cd gen/Release/firebird/lib
file libfbclient.so.3.0.0
libfbclient.so.3.0.0: ELF 32-bit LSB  shared object, ARM, EABI5 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, not stripped

You can download from here
http://mariuz.android-dev.ro/android_fbclient/libfbclient.so.3.0.0

Install Android x86 4.3 on my eeepc with qemu

In fact is an re-install , i had 4.2 in dual boot with debian sid on my eeepc and i wanted to do an upgrade , the issue is that i don't have a usb stick to boot from it so i took another route

I have installed qemu and then downloaded the 4.3 iso from android x86 site and started this way to detect partitions on the main drive

qemu -boot d -cdrom android-x86-4.3-20130725.iso -hda /dev/sda

 format the partition already prepared in my case 15G /dev/sda4 also do not install grub if you want to modify it manually from debian partition


 After the install is finished you need to test it first that it works i mount /dev/sda4 to see the dir structure

mount /dev/sda4 /mnt
ls /mnt/
android-4.3-test  lost+found

so i have modified /etc/grub.d/40_custom this way
 menuentry "Android-x86 4.3" {
set root=(hd0,4) linux /android-4.3-test/kernel quiet root=/dev/ram0 androidboot_hardware=eeepc acpi_sleep=s3_bios,s3_mode SRC=/android-4.3-test DATA= initrd /android-4.3-test/initrd.img
}

sudo update-grub2

 and restart choose the new android version

Install android x86 Jelly Bean on my eeepc with qemu

In fact is an reinstall , i had 2.3 ginger in dual boot with debian sid on my eeepc and i wanted to do an upgrade , the issue is that i don't have a usb stick to boot from it so i took another route

I have installed qemu and then downloaded the 4.2 iso from android x86 site and started this way to detect partitions on the main drive

qemu -boot d -cdrom android-x86-4.2-20130228.iso -hda /dev/sda

format the partition already prepared in my case 15G /dev/sda4 also do not install grub if you want to modify it manually from debian partition

After the install is finished you need to test it first that it works
i mount /dev/sda4 to see the dir structure

so i have modified
/etc/grub.d/40_custom
this way

menuentry "Android-x86 4.2" {
set root=(hd0,4)
linux /android-4.2-test/kernel quiet root=/dev/ram0 androidboot_hardware=eeepc acpi_sleep=s3_bios,s3_mode SRC=/android-4.2-test DATA=
initrd /android-4.2-test/initrd.img
}

sudo update-grub2

and restart 

What to choose from fourth Firebird Architectures :SuperServer , Classic , SuperClassic or Embedded?

There are some papers around that explain what are the differences : SuperClassic Presentation from one of the main core developers http://www.slideshare.net/ibsurgeon/firebird-25-architecture-by-dmitry-yemanov-in-english
and the Classic vs SuperServer question in the Getting Started guide for Firebird 2.5.x

or another one that i like is this blog post with nice pictures of the three architectures: Super , Classic and SuperClassic http://www.sinatica.com/blog/en/index.php/articles/firebird-superserver-classicserver-or-superclassic

The fourth Architecture is Embedded and that is entire server contained into one dll on windows or so file on linux that can be used without a tcp/local connection and it will access your database file directly

http://www.firebirdsql.org/manual/ufb-cs-embedded.html

Thomas created a compact architecture comparison sheet, which is available here
http://www.iblogmanager.com/download/misc/articles/fb25_architecture_comparison.pdf

Adobe Photoshop 1.0 Source Code About 75% is in Pascal

You can read the full article on http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/adobe-photoshop-source-code/

What i loved was the part about the Efficency and Productivity for Pascal Language , compare that with our days when you need large teams for large and ineficcient java EE projects







That first version of Photoshop was written primarily in Pascal for the Apple Macintosh, with some machine language for the underlying Motorola 68000 microprocessor where execution efficiency was important. It wasn’t the effort of a huge team. Thomas said, “For version 1, I was the only engineer, and for version 2, we had two engineers.”

With the permission of Adobe Systems Inc., the Computer History Museum is pleased to make available, for non-commercial use, the source code to the 1990 version 1.0.1 of Photoshop. All the code is here with the exception of the MacApp applications library that was licensed from Apple. There are 179 files in the zipped folder, comprising about 128,000 lines of mostly uncommented but well-structured code. By line count, about 75% of the code is in Pascal, about 15% is in 68000 assembler language, and the rest is data of various sorts. To download the code you must agree to the terms of the license.

Download Photoshop version 1.0.1 Source Code

Lazarus Free Pascal IDE 1.0.14 Final release is available for download, Here is howto install it on #Ubuntu or #Debian

The Lazarus Free Pascal IDE team is glad to announce that Lazarus 1.0.14 is available for download on sourceforge net download area

Check your cpu if is x86-64/32

open console and type

uname -m
x86_64

That means you need 64 bit version that means AMD64 (x86-64 instruction set was invented by AMD and this is why is called this way but all you need to know is AMD64=INTEL64=x64=x86_64 and even if is named that way it will work on all x64 cpus : INTEL, AMD, VIA)

Go to the sourceforge download page
Choose Lazarus Linux amd64 DEB then Lazarus 1.0.14

From that dir you need to install in order :fpc , fpc-src and lazarus

if

uname -m
i686

that means 32 bit version i386 again for all CPUS  INTEL, AMD, VIA


Choose Lazarus Linux i386 DEB then Lazarus 1.0.14
From that dir you need to install in order :fpc , fpc-src and lazarus

ps:why is called i386?

because i386 was the first x86-32 cpu  also this is how debian calls the 32bit port

If you are using fpc deb from lazarus download area on debian or ubuntu and want to pin it from upgrades here is how : 

echo fpc hold  | sudo dpkg --set-selections

One way to Scale UP Firebird :put you Database on memory virtual disk or ramfs

There is a new ec2 type of instance with huge memory option : 244G
http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2013/01/ec2-for-in-memory-computing-the-high-memory-cluster-eight-extra-large.html

How this can help you with scaling Firebird ?

There are the cache and memory settings For Firebird but is better to put the main full database on the fastest storage and that is RAM for the moment

On linux i can mount a partition in memory (Install ubuntu/debian)

sudo mkdir /mnt/ram
sudo mount -t ramfs -o size=200G ramfs /mnt/ram
mount to show you the partitions mounted

and then move your database into the ram partition

cp -rp /var/lib/firebird/2.5/data/slowdb.fdb /mnt/ram/fast.db


What about D from the ACID ?

In Firebird we have a nifty feature called Shadow that creates a life snapshots of the active database (Think of it as Replication in real time) so you can activate it and keep a safe database on the SSD/HDD

http://ibexpert.net/ibe/index.php?n=Doc.DatabaseShadow




That large instance could help you with the Firebird cache settings also the extra SSD could do wonders
Inspired by the stack overflow big fat server architecture for the SQL

http://highscalability.com/blog/2009/8/5/stack-overflow-architecture.html

Debian is used by 32.8% of all the websites who use Linux on January and growing

Debian is used by 32.8% of all the websites who use Linux on January w3techs stats report and growing . RedHat Linux is going bellow 10% ,I f you still deploy Redhat and CentOS on servers think twice they are on he death spiral on the server side usage