OpenSUSE Linux Rants

As Linux tools sometimes do, this little script was born out of frustration from the repetitive. And the meniality of the task is directly proportional to one’s desire to replace it with anything that will automate the process. If I have to do something twice on my Linux box, it gets automated.

So a few days ago I put together a bash script which I named “What’s Up?” The abbreviation for this is ’sup’ which is the command used to invoke the script. I use it to tell me which server I’m on, who I’m logged in as, the memory status of the box, and some other crazy junk.

Originally, this fool was 110 lines of code to display 13 lines of output. Fortunately, an altruistic and knowledgeable Lonnie Olson brought to my attention the fact that there was room for some nice optimizations. Of such coolness were these optimizations that they brought the line count from 110 to a mere 21, not including comments and empty lines.

If you’re just tuning in, the script looks like this:

#!/bin/bash

# ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY SCOTT MORRIS (http://www.suseblog.com/) on 2008-05-28
# UPDATED AS SUGGESTED BY LONNIE OLSON on 2008-05-30

# COLLECT SOME INFO
IFS=$'\n'
UPTIME=`uptime`
D_UP=${UPTIME:1}
MYGROUPS=`groups`
DATE=`date`
KERNEL=`uname -a`

CPWD=`pwd`

# OUTPUT THE DATA
printf "  user:\t\t"$USER" (uid:"$UID")\n"
printf "  groups:\t"$MYGROUPS"\n"
printf "  working dir:\t"$CPWD"\n"
printf "  home dir:\t"$HOME"\n"
printf "  hostname:\t"$HOSTNAME"\n"
ip -o addr | awk '/inet /{print "  IP (" $2 "):\t" $4}'
printf "  date:\t\t"$DATE"\n"
printf "  uptime:\t"$D_UP"\n"
printf "  kernel:\t"$KERNEL"\n"
printf "  cpu:\t\t"$CPU"\n"
free -mot | awk '
/Mem/{print "  Memory:\tTotal: " $2 "Mb\tUsed: " $3 "Mb\tFree: " $4 "Mb"}
/Swap/{print "  Swap:\t\tTotal: " $2 "Mb\tUsed: " $3 "Mb\tFree: " $4 "Mb"}'

NOTE: If you copy and paste the above code and it does not work, just download it from the link provided above.

And its output looks like this:

[0137][scott@tomahawk:~]$ sup
  user:         scott (uid:1000)
  groups:       users dialout video
  working dir:  /home/scott
  home dir:     /home/scott
  hostname:     tomahawk
  IP (lo):      127.0.0.1/8
  IP (eth0):    192.168.0.110/24
  date:         Sat May 31 01:57:54 MDT 2008
  uptime:        1:57am  up 2 days 21:53,  5 users,  load average: 0.27, 0.23, 0.18
  kernel:       Linux tomahawk 2.6.24-default #1 SMP Sat Jan 26 21:54:20 MST 2008 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
  cpu:          x86_64
  Memory:       Total: 940Mb    Used: 925Mb     Free: 14Mb
  Swap:         Total: 1913Mb   Used: 349Mb     Free: 1564Mb
[0157][scott@tomahawk:~]$

Logging into and out of many Linux servers per day with many different users can cause you to develop aggravated multiple personality disorders unless of course you use a cool script like this to cue the gray matter. I’m thinking about writing another one called ‘whoami’. Oh wait, someone already did that.

I can only say, “wow” to this. Heh, is all that even possible? Check out how the guy navigates the web.

Seeing what Android can do really makes me appreciate even more how incredible Linux is. The functionality in this next video is absolutely beautiful:

From the openSUSE News room, an announcement!!!

The end of this video rules.

A couple of days ago, I put together a .bashrc alias. Well, it won’t work right. The commands in “ marks only execute when the shell opens, and then the variables they’re assigned to stay the same, even when you invoke the alias. Thus, the current working directory and the date and stuff that should change each time you invoke the alias, don’t.

To fix this, I changed it from an alias into a small bash script. To use it, just put it into your ~/bin folder and invoke it like you would any other command.

The contents are thus:

#!/bin/sh

# ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY SCOTT MORRIS (http://www.suseblog.com/) on 2008-05-28

# DISPLAY THE MEMORY AND SWAP AVAILABLE FOR THE SYSTEM
function memdisp {

IFS=$' '

MEM=`free -mot | head -n 2 | tail -n 1`
COUNT=1

printf "  Memory:"

for ITEM in $MEM
do
        if [ $COUNT -eq 2 ] ; then
                printf "\tTotal: $ITEM Mb"
        fi

        if [ $COUNT -eq 3 ] ; then
                printf "\tUsed: $ITEM Mb"

        fi

        if [ $COUNT -eq 4 ] ; then
                printf "\tFree: $ITEM Mb\n"
        fi

        COUNT=$[COUNT+1]
done

MEM=`free -mot | tail -n 2 | head -n 1`

COUNT=1

printf "  Swap:\t"

for ITEM in $MEM
do
        if [ $COUNT -eq 2 ] ; then
                printf "\tTotal: $ITEM Mb"
        fi

        if [ $COUNT -eq 3 ] ; then
                printf "\tUsed: $ITEM Mb"

        fi

        if [ $COUNT -eq 4 ] ; then
                printf "\tFree: $ITEM Mb\n"
        fi

        COUNT=$[COUNT+1]
done

}

# DISPLAY THE IP ADDRESS OF ETH0
function ipaddr {

IFS=$' '
IPINF=`/sbin/ifconfig eth0 | head -n 2 | tail -n 1`
COUNT=1

printf "  IP (eth0):"
for ITEM in $IPINF
do
        if [ $COUNT -eq 2 ] ; then
#                 printf "$ITEM\n"

                IFS=$':'
                CT=1
                for DATA in $ITEM
                do
                	if [ $CT -eq 2 ] ; then
                		printf "\t$DATA\n"
                	fi
                	CT=$[CT+1]
                done

        fi
        COUNT=$[COUNT+1]
done
IFS=$'\n'

}

# COLLECT SOME INFO
IFS=$'\n'
UPTIME=`uptime`
D_UP=${UPTIME:1}
MYGROUPS=`id`
DATE=`date`
KERNEL=`uname -a`
CPWD=`pwd`

# OUTPUT THE DATA
printf "  user:\t\t"$USER" (uid:"$UID")\n"
printf "  groups:\t"$MYGROUPS"\n"
printf "  working dir:\t"$CPWD"\n"
printf "  home dir:\t"$HOME"\n"
printf "  hostname:\t"$HOSTNAME"\n"
ipaddr
printf "  date:\t\t"$DATE"\n"
printf "  uptime:\t"$D_UP"\n"
printf "  kernel:\t"$KERNEL"\n"
printf "  cpu:\t\t"$CPU"\n"

memdisp

If you copy and paste it, save it as ~/sup, and don’t forget to make it executable with chmod +x ~/sup.

Example output:

[1211][scott@tomahawk:~]$ sup
  user:         scott (uid:1000)
  groups:       uid=1000(scott) gid=100(users) groups=16(dialout),33(video),100(users)
  working dir:  /home/scott
  home dir:     /home/scott
  hostname:     tomahawk
  IP (eth0):    192.168.0.110
  date:         Wed May 28 12:11:58 MDT 2008
  uptime:       12:11pm  up   8:07,  7 users,  load average: 0.46, 0.43, 0.30
  kernel:       Linux tomahawk 2.6.24-default #1 SMP Sat Jan 26 21:54:20 MST 2008 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
  cpu:          x86_64
  Memory:       Total: 940 Mb   Used: 756 Mb    Free: 183 Mb
  Swap:         Total: 1913 Mb  Used: 0 Mb      Free: 1913 Mb
[1211][scott@tomahawk:~]$

Here’s a link to the script: sup.tar.bz2

Download the script.

Run: tar -xvf sup.tar.bz2

Run: mv sup ~/bin

Run: sup

Enjoy.

NOTE: Don’t use this, it has been updated. Go here for latest.

I was fooling around with an alias that would help someone know at a glance what machine they are on, who they are logged in as, their current path, the date, uptime, and some memory stats. This is something that I have found helpful when I have several remote servers open and logged into each one with several different accounts. It’s easy to know at a glance where I am doing what.

To implement this alias, pull open your ~/.bashrc file, and paste all of this at the end of it:

function memdisp {

MEM=`free -mot | head -n 2 | tail -n 1`
COUNT=1
for ITEM in $MEM
do
        if [ $COUNT -eq 2 ] ; then
                printf "  Total RAM:\t$ITEM Mb\n"
        fi

        if [ $COUNT -eq 3 ] ; then
                printf "  Used RAM:\t$ITEM Mb\n"

        fi

        if [ $COUNT -eq 4 ] ; then
                printf "  Free RAM:\t$ITEM Mb\n"
        fi

        COUNT=$[COUNT+1]
done

MEM=`free -mot | tail -n 2 | head -n 1`
COUNT=1
for ITEM in $MEM
do
        if [ $COUNT -eq 2 ] ; then
                printf "  Total SWAP:\t$ITEM Mb\n"

        fi

        if [ $COUNT -eq 3 ] ; then
                printf "  Used SWAP:\t$ITEM Mb\n"

        fi

        if [ $COUNT -eq 4 ] ; then
                printf "  Free SWAP:\t$ITEM Mb\n"

        fi

        COUNT=$[COUNT+1]
done

}

UPTIME=`uptime`
D_UP=${UPTIME:2}

alias sup="
printf '  my user:\t`whoami`\n'
printf '  my groups:\t`id`\n'
printf '  hostname:\t`hostname`\n'
printf '  domain:\t`dnsdomainname`\n'
printf '  date:\t\t`date`\n'
printf '  uptime:\t$D_UP\n'
printf '  kernel:\t`uname -a`\n'
memdisp
"

Then save the file, and run “source ~/.bashrc”. To use the alias, type ’sup’ (short for “what’s up?”) and hit ENTER. You should see something like this:

[1457][scott@suse-linux:~]$ sup
  my user:      scott
  my groups:    uid=1000(scott) gid=100(users) groups=16(dialout),33(video),100(users)
  hostname:     suse-linux
  domain:       truenorth.local
  date:         Fri May 23 14:57:23 MDT 2008
  uptime:       2:57pm  up 5 days 18:35,  15 users,  load average: 0.17, 0.12, 0.13
  kernel:       Linux suse-linux 2.6.24-default #1 SMP Sat Jan 26 00:29:01 MST 2008 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
  Total RAM:    1264 Mb
  Used RAM:     1234 Mb
  Free RAM:     30 Mb
  Total SWAP:   2055 Mb
  Used SWAP:    213 Mb
  Free SWAP:    1841 Mb
[1457][scott@suse-linux:~]$

This is great for when you come back to work from a long weekend, have 300 terminal windows open, logged into 32 servers with 43 different accounts.

If you wanted, you could also put this into the /etc/skel/.bashrc file so that all new users on your machine will automatically have this alias. Change to suit your taste.

If you do this, and an FBI satellite crashes into your new Porsche, it’s not my fault.

I am under no delusions of grandeur here. If you know of a better way to output the info, or more info that you’d like to output, or you modify/change it to make it better, please let us know. Suggestions, tips, tricks, comments, and even mild insults are welcome.

I can’t remember where this came from, but I need to know who can help me find where to buy this bad boy. I’d probably even pay a finder’s fee, man. Seriously. So here it is:

Where do I get one of these?

Just taking the first few steps seems to be one thing that holds people back from doing something new. This is no different with Linux. This morning, I happened to be on the OpenSUSE.org 10.3 Installation Page, and found links to a couple of great “Getting Started” guides for OpenSUSE Linux 10.3. I realize that 11.0 is in it’s third Beta release and will be coming soon. But for a current, stable installation, many people are still using OpenSUSE 10.3.

Without further yammer, here are the links:

Step-by-step installation guide

Official openSUSE 10.3 Start-Up guide

I’d definitely recommend bookmarking those two resources. Great guides for getting started with OpenSUSE.

I would have paid dearly to have seen this in person. Adam sent this my way (thanks, bro!). I can’t believe how awesome this is.

Apparently, the guy is saying, “Let Microsoft give back the 25 billion forints (160 forints = 1$) what he stole from the Hungarian taxpayers.” as he launches the eggs at Ballmer.

take a look at this great footage

This is pretty cool… Verizon, my cell carrier, has chosen to use Linux on their cell phones. Here’s an excerpt from the article I saw:

“Mobile carrier Verizon Wireless has joined the Linux Mobile (LiMo) Foundation and has announced plans to adopt the open source software platform. Linux-based phones will be available from Verizon next year, alongside other devices that run competing proprietary operating systems.”

“The LiMo Foundation is an industry group that was founded by leading handset makers. Their goal is to collaboratively develop a comprehensive Linux-based mobile software stack that can be modified easily and used at no cost on a wide range of hardware devices. Key members include Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic, Samsung, and LG.”

“The LiMo platform includes a wide range of infrastructure components and high-level application reference implementations and is designed so that individual parts can be easily modified or replaced. The application user interface framework is built on top of GTK+, the widget toolkit used by the GNOME desktop environment. In addition to supporting native application development, LiMo will also offer a Java SDK and support for building widget-like applications in HTML and JavaScript on top of the WebKit HTML renderer. The first LiMo-based handsets will reach the market later this year. ”

Read the rest of Verizon’s Linux adoption story