Serendipity Virtual Server

The Serendipity virtual server is a pre-configured Novell openSUSE 10.2 project server that is set up to be similar to how Team Serendipity's project server was originally set up. Its purpose is to ease the setup of new software projects by providing MediaWiki, Subversion, Bugzilla, WebDAV shared folders, and other technologies with AppArmor security and LDAP authentication integration out of the box using the easy-to-administrate YaST system configuration tool.

Unfortunately, the DVDs that were sent out had a few bugs. These are addressed on this page.

Version 1 Bugs and Solutions

• SerendipityServer.vmx file will not run in VMware Player out of the box
  • This was due to an oversight on my part. This file contained information that was specific to my computer's configuration, including the UUID and virtual Ethernet MAC address
  • Download the fixed SerendipityServer.vmx file and overwrite the existing file with the downloaded version
• Network connectivity probably won't work out of the box
  • Unfortunately, I had forgotten to make the default network setup use DHCP instead of a static IP address
  • To fix this, run `yast2` in the terminal window
  • Click on the "Network Devices" category
  • Click on the "Network Card" item within the "Network Devices" category
  • Leave the "Network Setup Method" on "Traditional Method with ifup" and click the "Next" button
  • If you see a card that says "Not Configured," select that card and click on the "Edit" button. Otherwise, click on the card that lists "10.13.42.28" as its IP address and click on the "Edit" button
  • Select the "Automatic Address Setup (via DHCP)" option and click on the "Next" button
  • If any cards other than the one that you had just changed exist, then select one and click on the "Delete" button until only the one that you had configured remains
  • Click on the "Finish" button to commit this configuration. Network connectivity should now work properly. If it does not, try restarting the virtual machine by running `reboot` in the terminal window
• The ZENworks management daemon (ZMD) uses extreme amounts of CPU and memory while updating
  • I had only recently found out that it's possible to remove ZMD from openSUSE 10.2 to get faster and more reliable updates
  • To do this, run `yast2` in the terminal window
  • In YaST, select "Software Management" within the "Software" category
  • After the software management window finishes its start-up processing, type "zmd" into the "Search:" input box without the quotes and press the "Search" button
  • Right-click on zmd in the list, select "All in This List," and select "Delete"
  • Press the "Accept" button to commit these changes
  • In the conflict warning dialog box, select "delete zmd" and "delete zen-updater." Press the "OK -- Try Again" button
  • When asked, tell YaST that you don't want to install any more packages
  • In the YaST main window, select "Automatic Online Update" within the "Software" category
  • Press the "Finish" button. This will automatically update the /etc/cron.d/yast2-online-update file to run zypper instead of rug
  • Optionally, in the YaST main window, select "Online Update" within the "Software" category to ensure that your software is up-to-date interactively
• The MediaWiki installation is an old version, and no automatic update is in place for it
  • The MediaWiki installation on the DVD uses MediaWiki's CVS repository. They have switched to Subversion, so some extra work is required
  • Please let me know if you need this capability. I haven't had any free time to convert the old CVS version to the new Subversion MediaWiki repository, but I can elevate its priority if you need this. I already have the automatic upgrade scripts in place on this server, but they only work with the Subversion MediaWiki