After trying a variety of things, I still couldn’t get the volume to mount, so I decided to try to recover the virtual machines off the drive before wiping it.

The first step is to configure the un-mountable disk as a raw passthrough. This will allow a guest OS to access the disk. Instructions for these steps can be found here:
http://rand0mbits.blogspot.com/2010/12/esxi-raw-disk-pass-through.html

After converting the disk to a raw passthrough, assign it to a virtual machine on your ESXi host. I chose Gentoo Linux.

By default, most linux distributions don’t ship with VMFS support, however Christophe Fillot and Mike Hommey have developed a tool called vmfs-tools that allows mounting of VMFS partitions. If you have Debian or Ubuntu you can simply install the package. Since I was using Gentoo I had to build from source:

You may have to emerge some of the prerequisites if you do not have them. See the vmfs-tools site for details.

wget http://glandium.org/projects/vmfs-tools/vmfs-tools-0.2.1.tar.gz
tar -xf vmfs-tools-0.2.1.tar.gz
cd vmfs-tools-0.2.1
./configure
make && make install

Now that we have vmfs-fuse installed, we can mount our volume:

#Ensure the fuse kernel module is loaded
modprobe fuse
 
#Mount the device to the desired mountpoint
vmfs-fuse /dev/sdd1 /mnt/vmfs
 
#copy files off of mounted vmfs
cp -Rv /mnt/vmfs /tmp

To access Wikipedia from your computer today:

1. Install the most recent version of firefox
2. Install the NoScript addon

By default, NoScript blocks all javascript, the code used to blackout Wikipedia is prevented from running.

Read more about NoScript at Lifehacker.

Josh’s tutorial provided a very good foundation; however, I was finding that I was having problems doing attribute-based filtering in the case where the attribute name is the same as an ActionScript keyword. This was especially problematic as I needed to filter based on the contents of the HTML element’s class attribute.

After much investigation I found that while the HTML tag names were in the default namespace, the attribute names were not. As a result, If i set a default namespace for the XML parsing, I could not access the attribute values if I listed their names as strings. However, I found if I created a new QName object with a blank namespace, the attributes would be returned as expected.

default xml namespace = new Namespace("http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml");
var xml:XML = XML(htmlString);
var results:XMLList = xml..span.(attribute(new QName(new Namespace(""), "class")) == "foo")

The above will return a list of all span objects with a class attribute of “foo”

The problem is that I am running XMBC-live on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid and the Eden xbmc-live package requires the uxlaunch package which is only available in newer versions of Ubuntu. However, it is still possible to get a working xbmc-live setup by manually configuring the system startup.

NOTICE: This guide describes how I was able to upgrade my existing Ubuntu 10.04 XMBC-live system to work with Eden nightlies. I have no idea if this process works on fresh installs or different versions of Ubuntu. If you are running Ubuntu 10.04, I would recommend installing the stable version of XBMC-live prior to attempting this guide.

First, add the XBMC nightly PPA. The official PPA is provided by Team-XBMC and can be found here: ppa:team-xbmc/unstable.
However, at time of writing, the official PPA was having some problems with the build servers, so I ended up using a ppa recommended on XBMCFreak located here: ppa:nathan-renniewaldock/xbmc-nightly.

The first step is to install the new PPA and update your sources.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nathan-renniewaldock/xbmc-nightly
sudo apt-get update

Next, upgrade the xbmc packages:

apt-get upgrade xbmc xbmc-bin

During this process, some of the old xbmc packages will be removed, including xbmc-data and xbmc-standalone.

Now we should have the new version of xbmc installed, however, when we boot the system, X will not start automatically and we will be left with a login prompt.

The final step is to edit the startup script. This script is located at /etc/init/xbmc-live.conf and probably already exists if you already had a previous version of XMBC-live installed. There is a simple change to make to the script to point it at the new executable.

Open the script:

sudo nano /etc/init/xbmc-live.conf

Scroll down to the script section and change the exec from /usr/bin/runXBMC to /usr/bin/xbmc-standalone:

script
        if ! grep -i -q autostart /tmp/xbmcliveParams ; then
                exit
        fi
 
        exec /bin/su xbmc -c "/usr/bin/startx /etc/X11/Xsession /usr/bin/xbmc-standalone"
end script

Restart your system and XMBC should come up. Switch to the confluence skin to see the new features.

Here is the full script for completeness:

# xbmc-live
#
# init XBMC environment and starts XBMC in fullscreen (if asked to do so)
 
#      Copyright (C) 2005-2008 Team XBMC
#      http://www.xbmc.org
#
#  This Program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
#  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
#  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
#  any later version.
#
#  This Program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
#  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
#  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
#  GNU General Public License for more details.
#
#  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
#  along with XBMC; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to
#  the Free Software Foundation, 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
#  http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
 
description     "XBMCLive"
author          "Luigi Capriotti"
 
start on (filesystem and stopped udevtrigger)
 
stop on runlevel [06]
 
emits starting-x
 
pre-start script
	get_opt() {
		echo "$@" | cut -d "=" -f 2
	}
 
	clear >/dev/tty7 || true
 
	CMDLINE=$(cat /proc/cmdline)
 
	#Process command line options
	XBMC_PARAMS=""
	for i in ${CMDLINE}; do
		case "${i}" in
		xbmc\=*)
		      XBMC_PARAMS=$(get_opt $i)
		      ;;
		esac
	done
	echo $XBMC_PARAMS > /tmp/xbmcliveParams
 
	if grep "boot=live" /proc/cmdline ; then
		# Relies on init scripts to mount boot device on a specified directory
		BOOTMEDIAMOUNTPOINT="/live/image"
	fi
 
	BOOTHOOKSDIRECTORY="/etc/xbmc"
 
	xbmcUser=xbmc
	# Read configuration variable file if it is present
	[ -r /etc/default/xbmc-live ] && . /etc/default/xbmc-live
	if ! getent passwd $xbmcUser >/dev/null; then
		xbmcUser=$(getent passwd 1000 | sed -e 's/\:.*//')
	fi
 
	# Executes pre-hooks (if any) in the System "Hooks" directory
	if [ -d $BOOTHOOKSDIRECTORY/live.d ]; then
	  for hook in $(find $BOOTHOOKSDIRECTORY/live.d -type f -perm /u=x,g=x,o=x | sort)
	  do
	        $hook $BOOTMEDIAMOUNTPOINT $XBMC_PARAMS  || true
	  done
	fi
 
	# Executes pre-hooks (if any) in the user "Hooks" directory
	if [ -d /home/$xbmcUser/.xbmc/live.d ]; then
	  for hook in $(find /home/$xbmcUser/.xbmc/live.d -type f -perm /u=x,g=x,o=x | sort)
	  do
	        $hook $BOOTMEDIAMOUNTPOINT $XBMC_PARAMS  || true
	  done
	fi
 
	if [ -f /home/$xbmcUser/.xsession ] ; then
		rm /home/$xbmcUser/.xsession
	fi
	if [ -f /tmp/noRestartXBMC ] ; then
		rm /tmp/noRestartXBMC
	fi
end script
 
script
	if ! grep -i -q autostart /tmp/xbmcliveParams ; then
		exit
	fi
 
	exec /bin/su xbmc -c "/usr/bin/startx /etc/X11/Xsession /usr/bin/xbmc-standalone"
end script
 
pre-stop script
	touch /tmp/noRestartXBMC
	rm /tmp/xbmcliveParams
 
	# Clean up the console before we switch to it, to avoid text flicker
	if [ -x /usr/bin/tput ] ; then
		tput -Tlinux reset > /dev/tty1 || true
		tput -Tlinux reset > /dev/tty8 || true
	fi
 
	# Clear VT 1 & 8 of any console messages
	clear >/dev/tty1 || true
	clear >/dev/tty8 || true
end script

First, install lirc. I selected the option to use the “ATI/NVidia/X10 I II RF Remote” with the kernel (Not userspace) driver, with no transmitter.

sudo apt-get install lirc

My /etc/lirc/lirc.conf file looks like:

include "/usr/share/lirc/extras/more_remotes/atiusb/lircd.conf.atiusb"

My /etc/lirc/hardware.conf was generated automatically by debconf during the lirc install. However, for reference it is:

# /etc/lirc/hardware.conf
#
#Chosen Remote Control
REMOTE="ATI/NVidia/X10 I REMOTE="None" II RF Remote"
REMOTE_MODULES="lirc_dev lirc_atiusb"
REMOTE_DRIVER=""
REMOTE_DEVICE="/dev/lirc0"
REMOTE_SOCKET=""
REMOTE_LIRCD_CONF="atiusb/lircd.conf.atiusb"
REMOTE_LIRCD_ARGS=""
 
#Chosen IR Transmitter
TRANSMITTER="None"
TRANSMITTER_MODULES=""
TRANSMITTER_DRIVER=""
TRANSMITTER_DEVICE=""
TRANSMITTER_SOCKET=""
TRANSMITTER_LIRCD_CONF=""
TRANSMITTER_LIRCD_ARGS=""
 
#Enable lircd
START_LIRCD="true"
 
#Don't start lircmd even if there seems to be a good config file
START_LIRCMD="false"
 
#Try to load appropriate kernel modules
LOAD_MODULES="true"
 
# Default configuration files for your hardware if any
LIRCMD_CONF=""
 
#Forcing noninteractive reconfiguration
#If lirc is to be reconfigured by an external application
#that doesn't have a debconf frontend available, the noninteractive
#frontend can be invoked and set to parse REMOTE and TRANSMITTER
#It will then populate all other variables without any user input
#If you would like to configure lirc via standard methods, be sure
#to leave this set to "false"
FORCE_NONINTERACTIVE_RECONFIGURATION="false"

Restart the lirc daemon and run irw and ensure there is output produced:

sudo /etc/init.d/lirc restart
# * Starting remote control daemon(s) : LIRC
irw
# 000000144b760000 00 mouse-right_down SAPPHIRE_ATIUSB_5000023600
# 0000001446710000 00 mouse-right SAPPHIRE_ATIUSB_5000023600

Copy lirc & keymap configuration files into the user XBMC folder (If they do not exist).

#copy Lirc configuration file
cd ~/.xbmc/userdata
cp cp /usr/share/xbmc/system/Lircmap.xml .
 
#copy remote.xml keymap
cd ~/.xbmc/userdata/keymaps/
cp /usr/share/xbmc/system/keymaps/remote.xml .

Edit the XBMC LIRC Configuration File (Lircmap.xml) to contain the following key mappings, ensuring that the device matches the device output by irw.

<lircmap>
        <remote device="SAPPHIRE_ATIUSB_5000023600">
                <play>play</play>
                <pause>pause</pause>
                <stop>stop</stop>
                <forward>forward</forward>
                <reverse>rewind</reverse>
                <left>left</left>
                <left>mouse-left</left>
                <right>right</right>
                <right>mouse-right</right>
                <up>up</up>
                <up>mouse-up</up>
                <down>down</down>
                <down>mouse-down</down>
                <select>ok</select>
                <select>mouse_button_left</select>
                <pageplus>chan-up</pageplus>
                <pageminus>chan-down</pageminus>
                <back>mouse_button_right</back>
                <menu>dvd-root_menu</menu>
                <title>a</title>
                <info>launch_setup</info>
                <skipplus>Skip</skipplus>
                <skipminus>Replay</skipminus>
                <display>max-window</display>
                <start>Start</start>
                <record>record</record>
                <volumeplus>vol-up</volumeplus>
                <volumeminus>vol-down</volumeminus>
                <mute>mute</mute>
                <power>power</power>
                <myvideo>dvd</myvideo>
                <mymusic>media_library</mymusic>
                <mypictures>Pictures</mypictures>
                <mytv>tv</mytv>
                <one>1</one>
                <two>2</two>
                <three>3</three>
                <four>4</four>
                <five>5</five>
                <six>6</six>
                <seven>7</seven>
                <eight>8</eight>
                <nine>9</nine>
                <zero>0</zero>
                <star>Star</star>
                <hash>Hash</hash>
                <clear>Clear</clear>
                <enter>Enter</enter>
                <red>Red</red>
                <green>Green</green>
                <yellow>Yellow</yellow>
                <blue>Blue</blue>
                <teletext>c</teletext>
 
        </remote>
</lircmap>

Restart XBMC and you should now have ATI Remote support.

I spent considerable effort attempting to get The Lirc Mouse support working. However, I had no success. I found that X would recognize the LIRC mouse, but wouldn’t find an appropriate driver for it. In the end, I assigned the mouse buttons to the navigation keys via Lircmap.xml.

For the curious I will post the process that I used to get X to the point where it would detect the remote (according to the Xorg log).

The default settings for the lircm daemon wern’t creating the appropriate /dev/lircm which, I believe, prevents X from locating the mouse, so I had to take an alternative approach using the uinput module. It seems that this method has had limited success with others so perhaps it is a system configuration issue with me.

First I configured my /etc/lirc/lircm.conf file with the following contents (the button presses determined from examining the output of irw):

# To find out how to get a proper configuration file please read:
#
#       /usr/share/doc/lirc/README.Debian
PROTOCOL IntelliMouse
ACCELERATOR 2 30 5
ACTIVATE * ATI
 
MOVE_N * mouse-up
MOVE_S * mouse-down
MOVE_W * mouse-left
MOVE_E * mouse-right
MOVE_NW * mouse-up-left
MOVE_NE * mouse-up-right
MOVE_SW * mouse-down-left
MOVE_SE * mouse-down-right

Next I ensured that the START_LIRCMD value is FALSE in /etc/lirc/hardware.conf:

START_LIRCMD="false"
 
#Make sure there isn't a trailing START_LIRCMD in your hardware.conf as there was in mine.

While experimenting I would load the uinput module manually, then start lircmd by hand – however, a working implementation would have uinput in /etc/modprobe.d so it loads automatically, and lircmd in something like rc.conf so it runs automatically.

#Make sure lircd is already running (see above)
#load the module and start lircmd for testing:
sudo modprobe uinput
sudo lircmd --uinput

At this point you’re able to restart X and have it detect the lircm mouse. However, I never got it to properly load the drivers. If anyone knows what I’m missing it would be great if you could post in the comments.

management localhost 7505

The port is arbitrary: any unused port will do. Localhost restricts connections to the local machine, which is smart if you do not have a password to secure the connection.

To access the management interface using telenet, issue the following from the clearOS box:

telnet localhost 7505
 
#When the prompt comes up, issue a command such as "status"

I’ve been using Doctrine in conjunction with the Zend Framework for years. Although it is an excellent ORM, writing yaml by hand is a tedious and error-prone process. Furthermore, it can be difficult to visualize a large database from a series of text files, so I find myself maintaining a MySQL Workbench diagram in addition to the textual database representation.

ORM Designer promises to change all that. It brings a visual database editor for Doctrine 1 and 2 that reduces effort, mistakes and increases productivity. Migration from my existing workflow was a snap due to the import functionality: I had the option to import both my yaml database definitions as well as my MySQL workbench files. The ability to break up the data-model into individual modules keeps the code clean and organized, and the export functionality, in conjunction to the external tools integrate yaml generation and Doctrine CLI operations directly into ORM Designer’s interface.

ORM Designer Features for Doctrine Users:

• Behaviour Support
• Versionable
• Timestampable
• Sluggable
• I18n
• NestedSet
• Searchable
• Geographical
• SoftDelete
• EventLoggable
• GoogleI18n
• Sortable
• Blameable
• Taggable
• Inheritance Support
• Many-to-one, Many-to-many relations
• Index support
• yaml Generation

Extendability:

• Creation of new ORM Properties & data-types
• Creation of new behaviours

Support and Releases

The folks at Inventic crank out a new version of ORM Designer every few months. There were around 16 releases in 2010, but development seems to have slowed slightly with only three releases to date in 2011. On the whole, with both bug fixes and feature updates, you can still expect good value for the 1 year upgrade maintenance that is included in the purchase price.
ORM Designer is currently very stable and as such doesn’t require many bug fixes. The team is currently putting most of their energy into ORM Designer 2 which is slated for a public beta around the end of 2011. However, there are 1.x beta releases available at http://www.orm-designer.com/beta which contain new features and bug fixes as they become available.

The forums are a little thin, which may be simply because the software is relatively new and is still being discovered. However, it appears that user posts commonly receive a same-day reply from the developers. Users can really take advantage of the small community and direct access to developers to suggest features and shape future directions of the software.

My Wish List

Although ORM Designer supports modules I would like to see this area further developed. For example:

Say you have a common user module stored in a common SVN location (Eg: SVN External) that you would like to use with every project, the ability to link the common module, add relations / properties (without affecting the original module) and export the module relative to the current project’s path would be excellent additions to ORM Designer’s feature set.
Inventic suggests pulling in modules directly into the application (at the appropriate path) using SVN Externals rather than having a more libary-like directory structure

Conclusion

ORM Designer provides excellent value for anyone who uses either Doctrine or Propel. The ability to visually edit data models for these ORMs brings them on par with the nHibernate framework in terms of usability.

ORM Designer also supports the Doctrine2 and Propel ORM’s as well as the CakePHP and Symfony frameworks.

ORM Designer is designed for windows, however it can run under WINE for Linux/OSX support. However, ORM Designer 2 is currently under development and makes use of QT rather than MFC which will bring native support to the other operating systems.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sun-java-community-team/sun-java6
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk

Ensure a SSH server is installed

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

Create a new Jenkins user and create the /var/jenkins directory – this will be our working directory.

sudo useradd -m jenkins
sudo mkdir /var/jenkins
sudo chown jenkins:jenkins /var/jenkins

Generate a public / private keypair and set the public key as an allowed host

ssh-keygen
#Enter file in which to save the key (/root/.ssh/id_rsa):
/var/jenkins/private.key
#Do not enter a Passphrase
 
#You should now have two files in /var/jenkins: a private.key and a private.key.pub, we want to cat the public key into our authorized keys file
su jenkins
cat private.key.pub > ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

The private key must be transfered to an accessible directory on the primary build server. Eg: C:\private.key or a more suitably protected location.

Login to your Jenkins install, select the plugin manager and install the SSH Slaves plugin. After restarting Jenkins to complete the install, click on Manage Jenkins followed by Manage Nodes and create a new dumb node with a name of your liking.

Configuration parameters:

Remote FS Root: /var/jenkins
Launch Method: Launch slave agents on Unix machines via SSH

Host: <Ubuntu Hostname>
Username: jenkins
Private key file: File of the private key (eg: C:\private.key)

When you press save, the slave should attempt to start automatically. If the start fails, check the log provided by jenkins and the server log.

The Webworks Eclipsed-based IDE does provide limited debugging support; however, I found the OS5 device support for javascript to be extremely lacking (Especially while using the Dojo library) and Webworks is currently unable to debug OS6 devices.

At a bare minimum I wanted my familiar firebug console.* calls to show up somewhere I would be able to see them. Although this is far short of a full remote debugging solution (such as the Firebug Crossfire Project), it would at least allow me to see what is going on under the hood.

Implementation Overview:

1. A Small javascript file is included on the mobile page. This file adds additional console methods and, optionally replaces the default console.* debugging methods
2. A CometD provides communication between the mobile page and the page that firebug is listening on
3. A special listening page is setup where the debugging events coming over the cometd server are passed onto firebug

Prerequisites

For my development environment I am using Eclipse 3.6 with the Maven tooling installed. Maven is used so the CometD API can be easily utilized. For more information about building CometD applications with Maven please see the CometD Primer. Maven is also nice as it will download the required dependencies (such as the Jetty Server).

Getting & Compiling the Source

1. Please clone my GitHub Repository to obtain the source code. This can be found at https://github.com/51systems/Remote-Console
2. Import the project into eclipse
   1. When you are cloning the repo it is most convenient to clone it into your eclipse workspace directory, this makes importing into eclipse easiest
   2. In Eclipse Choose File -> Import
   3. Scroll down and roll open the Maven import source
   4. Choose Existing Maven Projects
   5. Locate the cloned repository & Select the pom.xml file for import
3. Maven will now download dependencies and attempt to build your project. This may take time so be patient

At this point, you should have a built remote-console project in your Eclipse workspace. You will find that there are two separate source directories: One contains the java source and the other contains HTML & Javascript.

The java source folder is uneciting: it contains the bare-minimum vanilla implementation necessary for the CometD server to pass messages between the mobile device and the firebug page.

The HTML / Javascript source folder contains some example pages + the remote-console.js file which, together, provide the remote-debugging functionality.

Running the Server

To run the Jetty server for the first time:

1. Create a new Maven Build Run-Configuration
   1. Can be done by right clicking on the remote-console project and choosing Run As -> Run Configurations or by rolling out the run icon
      
   2. Ensure the base directory is set to the correct workspace directory. Mine is ${workspace_loc:/remote-console}
   3. For the Goals text box enter “jetty:run” this will start the jetty server
2. Start the Jetty server by clicking Run in the configuration dialog
3. You should see console output in the Eclipse window. Inspect this output to catch potential problems
4. Visit http://localhost:8080/remote-console/ to view the remote-console application.

Remote Debugging

When you visit the remote-console application link you will be presented with the remote console connection page. This page allows you to connect to a remote console on a specific channel and have the debug messages appear in a firebug window.

There are two types of demo pages. The default one uses dojox.json.ref to serialize objects. This allows for the serialization of javascript objects that have circular references. The second demo page serializes objects using the default json serialization – be careful with those circular references with this one.

To Use remote debugging for the first time:

1. Start the firebug listener:
   1. Visit the Remote console connection page with firefox
   2. Open The firebug console
   3. Click the connect button to connect to the default local cometd server
   4. You should start seeing the long-polling entries appearing in the firebug console
2. Visit one of the demo pages, either in a new firefox window, or using another browser
   1. Use the console.log textbox and button to send a console.log message to your listening firebug console.
   2. You should see the logged textbox contents appear almost immediately in the firebug console log
3. Next steps:
   1. On one of the demo pages, try a more complex debug expression, such as

      console.log("test", {foo: "bar"});

   2. You should see the message and object quickly appear in your listening firebug console.
      If you are using the dojox.json serialization you may see additional fields on the object when it is displayed in the firebug console.

Adding remote debugging to your own pages is as easy as adding the dojo library and the remote-console script tag to the page you wish to debug.

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/dojo/1.6/dojo/dojo.xd.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="remote-console.js" data-server="http://127.0.0.1:8080/remote-console/cometd" data-channel="demo" data-json-ref="true"></script>

Ensure that the src path is set correctly to point to the remote-console.js on the jetty server. Likewise the data-server attribute should point to the server and path running the jetty cometd implementation. Pay attention to the loopback device IP and be sure to change it if you are planning on debugging on another device.

There are several parameters that you are able to pass to the remote-console.js script via HTML attributes. Please view the ReadMe in the Git Repo or the source code for a complete list.

The problem is that the packager will not permit paths with special characters in them – special characters including the somewhat limiting “_” and “-”. Instead of packaging the files it would return the error Invalid widget archive – resource name is not valid This is especially a problem with dojo and it commonly uses these conventions for stylesheets and js files.

After Googling, I found that this behaviour was by design. It seems that if you pass a file with a dash in it, the RAPC compiler thinks that it is a command line switch.
See:
https://www.blackberry.com/jira/browse/WEBAPI-50
http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/Web-Development/bbwp-quot-resource-name-not-valid-quot/m-p/607222
http://mobijournal.com/common-blackberry-webworks-development-pitfalls-that-can-be-avoided/

Fortunately, RIM has recently open sourced the Webworks API. I knew from my experience with bb-ant-tools that you were able to pass a file containing paths to the files to include in the package, thus circumventing the problem with the command line switches.

The packager now successfully packages _bad-path.txt.

To patch your webworks packager, download WebWorksPatched extract it and move the bbwp.jar to your webworks bin folder (Usually C:\Program Files\BlackBerry WebWorks Plug-in Eclipse\plugins\net.rim.browser.tools.wcpc_1.5.1.201010291444-22\wcpc\bin).

For the brave of heart, source code is available on GitHub at https://github.com/51systems/WebWorks