Cluster Sinchronization Tool (CSync2)

As you may know, there are many tools for file synchronization between servers that can suit your needs, but Csync2 (Website and Paper) was specially designed for Cluster File Synchronization, which makes it a great tool to synchronize config files and folders.

Now, I’ll show you a simple way of configuring it, by having a master server (where we can make changes to the config files) and one or multiple slave servers, where the files will be synchronized. First of all, we have to install it along with other packages:

:~# sudo apt-get install csync2 sqlite3 openssl xinetd

After having everything installed, we have to create the certificates that will allow Csync2 authenticate between servers so that the files can be synchronized. To do that we do this:

Visual Fox Pro 6 and psqlODBC on Ubuntu with Wine

Few days ago, the Systems Adminitrator from a Financial Institution in my city asked me to make their Financial Systems work in Ubuntu. Believe it or not, they have them in VFP6, using PostgreSQL as their DBMS.

You could think it’s easy and that we just have to install VFP6 using WINE and that’s it. But that’s not the procedure I took. First of all, I changed wine to have Windows 95 as the default one. Then, I installed a VFP6 runtime (with wine) found here (_vfp6r_setup.exe). And finally, I copied the VFP98 folder, found in the Visual Studio 6.0 CD, to $HOME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/.

After verifying that VFP6 was running OK, I installed the PostgreSQL ODBC Windows Driver. For that, I downloaded the driver from the PostgreSQL Web Site and installed it with msiexec, since it’s a *.msi file and not and *.exe (ex. msiexec /i installer.msi).

Now, after installing the PostgreSQL driver I had to decide how to create and work with DSN’s (Like in Windows). To do that, I thought i had to mess with the wine registry, but i didn’t. What i did, was to install Microsoft Data Access Components (The one used in Windows XP). I downloaded it from MS’s website (It is only available for those who have an Original Windows Copy), and installed it with wine.

After having everything was installed, it was time to create the DSN so that the VFP6 app could connect to PostgreSQL Database found in a server. To do that, I tried to open odbcad32.exe found in $HOME/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/, but it failed. It is because wine doesn’t support the MDAC (Windows XP one) I was using, so i had to override a couple of libraries. To do that, I changed odbc32 and odbccp32 libraries, in the wine configuration, to be Native (Windows) instead of being the wine defaults.

After having all that, I just created a new DSN and copied the VFP6 app to the Ubuntu Machine and it worked flawlessly.

Peruvian LoCo Team

I’m just happy to anounce that a few minutes ago the Ubuntu Peruvian LoCo Team has been approved as an Official LoCo Team :).

In the name of the Peruvian LoCo Council (nxvl, viperhoot, P3L|C4N0, xander21c and me), I have to thank all of those who contribute and have contributed in getting the Peruvian LoCo up & running. Thanks to you all. It is because of you that we have such a great Ubuntu Peruvian Community… so Keep Contributing!!

Spreading the Word!

This past few days I’ve been asked by several members of the Peruvian LoCo Team to teach them how to merge packages.

This is great!! This reflects nxvl’s talks about Ubuntu Development, that had get into the members heads. It is also great to see how many people wants to get involved with this. So, with my limited knownledge about merging i’ll try to help them as much as i can, and teach them what i’ve learned.

Btw, this *class* is going to be in #ubuntu-pe and 23.00 UTC… in Spanish :).