Dataface Virtual Machine nearing release

by **Aoirthoir** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 8:38 am

[edited to add]----------------
Please read the instructions and comments at the bottom...but
for quick access here is the link:
http://www.dataface-apps.com/downloads/dfpup.zip
Be aware it is a large file...250mb.....
You will have to install vmware player or server.
I can be contacted at boscagarda-programming@yahoo.com for questions or comments
--------------------------------

I am about to release a VMware server/player virtual machine with Puppy Linux/ Xampp/ and Dataface. I will include one of my DF apps. (The itty bitty project manager). I will put more on as I am convinced they are somewhat useable by others.

If anyone has any apps that they wish to include, please email me at boscagarda-programming@yahoo.com.

Thank you kindly.

by **Aoirthoir** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 8:44 am

Also currently I plan to have firefox with it instead of the standard mozilla...if anyone would prefer to keep mozilla let me know. I personally dont use an email program since I have yahoo so I dont wish to bloat this thing beyond my needs...But am willing to modify it to suit others if needed...

by **shannah** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 10:33 am

This sounds like a neat idea. Is this like a linux distro that just has certain things installed - one of which is Dataface?

Once you have it released, can you add it to the "Downloads" section of this site?

by **Aoirthoir** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 12:33 pm

Mr. Steve,

Yes I can add it to the downloads link..I might put in on sourceforge to save space.

Some of these things you probably know already, but I'm going to explain fully for those who dont know yet.

VMware is a virtualization engine. Basically it is a software based 'computer'. It is freely available in both the player edition (which lets you run virtual machines) and server edition (which lets you create virtual machines). Once a virtual machine is created you can install any Operating System into it. This lets me run linux under windows for instance, or windows under linux.

Puppy Linux is a small CD/DVD/USB based Linux Distribution. It has some neat features like the ability to save your changes back to the DVD if you record in multisession mode. It aims to be small and fast. So in 70 megabytes I have a full OS. It recognizes most hardware, and networks easily. It allows saving to a "pup" file on the hard drive.

So I have created a virtual computer with VMware with a CDROM and a 20gig hard drive. The hard drive is split into 2gig files. However, the space was not allotted at the time of creation. Thus, it only takes up whatever space is actually being used. It will grow as more files are added.

I pointed the VMware CDROM to a puppy ISO file and booted. Then I prepared all my settings, networking, video etc. (1024x768...I can make that smaller if someone needs). I installed Firefox and changed a couple of its settings, no password saving for instance. Then I saved all my settings to a 1.25gig pup file on hda1.

Once I knew that took fine, I installed xampp to hda5. First I created /hda5 then mounted /dev/hda5. Then did the puppy install. Then I downloaded and untarred/unzipped Dataface v0.6.9 and placed. I added my itty bitty project manager as a sample. Then I put two scripts on the desktop that basically just mount /hda5 and start Xampp..then stop Xampp and umount /hda5.

Tested, it all works fine and I can run my apps on our intranet. Be warned puppy isnt superbly secure. Since it is written for a CD...it has no root password (there are ways to change that and I am trying to learn them for myself...) Also Xampp is completely wide open. So currently this is for TESTING only.

A list of folks I owe thanks to are:

Steve Hannah (Creator of Dataface)
Barry Kauler (Creator of Puppy Linux)
GuestToo over on the Puppy Linux forums (Creator of the Xampp Puppy Package)
ApacheFriends (Creators of Xampp)
VMware (Creators of the VMware Server/Player)

A caveat though, when I created the Pupsave file I made it 1.25gig. This does not seem to really have anything to do with the size of my virtual machine, since only things that are saved actually take up space. But currently the VM unzipped is 478mb. I will see if I can trim it down...But as I said..I am not very experienced in the technical side of Linux yet.

I have it stored in a common ZIP file so that windows users are able to run it without any additional unzip programs. It should unzip fine in linux as well though. You definitely need VMware server or player to run it...and thats it...Please enjoy...

(Link to download coming in a minute..got to figure out where I am going to put it...)

by **shannah** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 2:35 pm

This sounds like a great idea for distributing Dataface applications ready to run in the enterprise. One question, though, is : "What is the performance like?" With a VM you must give up a little something.. just wondering if it is too much.

As far as posting it on the Dataface site, you can add a project to the downloads section without having to store the project on the site. When you make a release, you can add either downloadable files or links to off-site files - which you would do in this case.

I've never tried to put anything this big on Sourceforge before, but it would be worth a shot. It usually takes them a few days to approve a project before you can put files up.

-Steve

by **Aoirthoir** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:00 pm

The performance hit will depend on a lot of things. I am trying to strip puppy down, because I don't want the upload to be that big. When zipped it is about 250mb.

Right now though I am getting some errors. Not sure if it is related to DF or my puppy install.

Here is what happened. I set up my user for my app as ittybitty and the password as password. But I made a mistake and forgot to set it as admin. So when I tried to go in I realized my oops. I just reset as admin in phpMyAdmin. That didnt work. So I emptied the tables and restarted..I keep getting the same error:

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already setn by (output started at
/hda5/lampp/htdocs/apps/ibpm/conf/.... etc etc...

However I am also trying to move my app to another folder. I realized my folder structure was going to be needlessly cumbersome. So now I am restoring from my backed up zip file to see if that fixes it...will let you know..then I will test more of the speed.

One of the things is..so far I dont know how to install the vmware device drivers into a puppy linux guest OS...I can do it with windows and with things like Ubuntu as guest..pretty much a no brainer..but since puppy is so stripped..things like .deb and .rpm files wont install with him. So that makes the mouse movement slow sometimes..Although on this version I am running (v2.10r1 of puppy) I am not having that problem.

Also I am paying someone on my own time to give me a vmware server script that will modify vmware server so it can run inside puppy. Which means I can load a small OS, then run windows if I want...that's another issue..gonna get back to trouble shooting this first...

by **shannah** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:09 pm

As far as the error goes, I would look at where it says the output started.. probably some extra white space that shouldn't be there.

The "Cannot modify header information" may not be an issue with some servers that are set for output buffering by default, but most servers will complain.

-Steve

by **Aoirthoir** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:12 pm

Ok I thought one of the errors I was getting was because I had tried to move my directory structure around. Just in case I just restored my backup. All that is changed is I went into phpMyAdmin and I changed the ROLE field from read only (what it was accidently set at) to ADMIN...

This is the error I get when I try to save something:

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at
/hda5/lampp/htdocs/apps/ittybitty/ibpm/conf/ApplicationDelegate.php:56) in
/hda5/lampp/htdocs/libraries/dataface/dataface-0.6.9/actions/[new...edit..etc].php on line (147 in this case).

And unfortunately I have to head home early today. No one will be staying in the office and I dont have keys. Soooo..

I am going to try to duplicate it on my puppy laptop..not in a VM...I am also going to see about storing it directly onto the DVD and see if, when I boot up from it, if I can run the xampp....If so that will be a better solution than a VM for some
folks..not for all...

also on the agenda is to find out how to move the HTDOCS to another directory...

ie...right now I am dependant on XAMPPS use of lampp/htdocs....which is why xampp has to be on the hard drive...in case I want to host a large number of files...but if I can learn how to redirect (I know apache can do this..just got to start studying that also) then I can boot puppy from the DVD with Xampp..and then host files on the hard drive..of course I want to be able to do the same thing with the Mysql files...have mysql run from xampp on the dvd..but have it access databases stored on the hard drive...

I will keep yall posted..but it wont be uploaded tonight with these issues..sorry

by **Aoirthoir** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:24 pm

Ok it was the application delegate...I must have hit enter a couple extra times on mistake.

Now another issue I am having is, once I click on my app..the web browser will continuously indicate that it is still loading, even after everything has loaded...any ideas on that?

Thanks again Steve..

by **shannah** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:35 pm

That sometimes happens to me too... i'm not sure what is but i think it has something to do with javascript of css files being loaded in the background... haven't looked into it all that closely though.

-Steve

by **Aoirthoir** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:58 pm

Ok...all done...LCMS and IBPM are both running. It was an application delegate class error...spaces at the bottom.

I am ready to upload...if you are around Mr. Steve, holler at me as to where you want me to post the notice on here? or do you want me to upload it here?

Just about ready...

by **Aoirthoir** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:11 pm

Also I am getitng this error on LCMS when I click the tabs:

Fatal error: Call to a member function val() on a non-object in /hda5/lampp/htdocs/lcms/templates_c/default/%%D7^D73^D73BB5E8%%MainTemplate.html.php on line 50

by **shannah** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:28 pm

Is this happening on ALL of the tabs?

by **Aoirthoir** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:39 pm

No. It is happening on the About, Products and Services tabs....in the front end. Not the DF editing portions.

by **shannah** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 6:26 pm

Oops.. looks like i included an old conf.ini file with the release... I have updated it on sourceforge.

On your copy, just change the conf.ini file so that the top part contains:

Code: Select all: ;; The Web Site Title title = "Dataface LCMS Web Site" logo = "weblite-logo.jpg" ;; The tabs that appear along the top of the web template [tabs] index.php=Welcome features.php=Features pages.php=Pages sidebars.php=Side Bars templates.php=Templates fspages.php = File System Pages contact.php = Contact

I.e.: replace the [tabs] section with the one provided, and update the title and logo values... this should result in the desired look.

-Steve

Dataface Virtual Machine nearing release

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