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Tag: FSMK

April 14, 2010

FOSS for budding developers workshop

by viggy — Categories: linux, tech — Tags: , , , , , — 1 Comment

Last weekend, CMRIT GLUG along with IBM and FSMK conducted a 2 day workshop, “FOSS for Budding Developers”. This workshop was completely technical in nature and among the many FOSS workshops that I have attended, one of the most useful one for me. The professionalism of IBMers could be seen during the workshop which was also the main reason for the huge success of this workshop.

The workshop covered the following topics,
Day 1

  • Linux Kernel Developement
  • Eclipse IDE and how to develop plugins in it

    • Day 2

  • Linux Test Project
  • Apache web server and developing applications in it.
  • OpenPegasus

    • I was interested in Linux Kernel Developement and the Linux Test Project sessions. I had taken my laptop to make the best use of the workshop.

    I have been using GNU/Linux since last 2 years, but never did I get the courage to compile and build the Linux kernel. Only around 6 months back, I had for the first time with help of Naresh, installed the new linux kernel on my system using apt-get. The main reason for not trying out building my own linux kernel was that I was afraid that I would loose all the data I had in my system. However for the workshop I had decided that I will try it out. So when the Linux Kernel session started, I was very excited.
    In the pre-lunch session, we were introduced to various tools that any Hacker would require while trying to read the source code or build from source code. We were introduced to gcc, gdb, make, makefiles, strace,ltrace and cscope tools. Though I knew little about gcc and gdb, I realized the importance of the other tools. I particularly was marveled by “cscope” and “strace”. Optimized use of cscope will surely decrease the time taken to go through the source code for any developer. I remember it had taken me around 2 months just to go through the Evolution source code. If I had used cscope then, it would hardly take me 2-3 days for the same. We were given a very brief introduction to cscope during the session, but I will learn more about it myself and write about it in the near future.
    The pre-lunch session thus prepared the ground for us to venture in to building the linux kernel.

    Post-lunch we started with Building the Linux Kernel 2.6.33.2 version. I was amazed by the simplicity involved in building the kernel. It is just a 7 step procedure, if you are building the kernel for your own desktop or laptop.

    It took around half an hour to execute. After this I just need to update my grub if it has not been done by the above steps already. Just confirm it by having a look at /boot/grub/grub.cfg. If the new kernel lines are added then you are ready to Reboot and use the new kernel which was just built.
    Thats all.

    After booting into the new kernel, we started writing simple codes for new kernel modules and drivers. Again the simplicity of writing a new module or driver and loading it amazed me. However a lot more has to be explored and I will definitely try them in future.

    On day 2, I attended the Linux Testing Project workshop. It was again wonderfully planned by the IBM team. We were first given a brief introduction to the history and importance of the Linux Testing Project with the team making it very clear that the testing cycle is as important as the development cycle. After this we had a hands on session.

    In the hands on session, we started with building the Linux Testing Project in our systems. Than the IBM team had come with some tasks for us. We were asked to run a test case which was written such that it fails intentionally. This was done so that we could study the test case and come up with a solution as to why that particular test case was failing. I had teamed up with Saket and together we were very close to finding the solution. It was quite fun and really a good Hacker workshop.

    There were many interesting points that we noted while trying the Linux Testing Project. One among them was, I was using Linux Kernel 2.6.31.x where as Saket was using Linux Kernel 2.6.33.2. So when we executed the Containers Testcases on our systems we found that some test passed successfully in my system but failed in Saket’s system. This clearly showed us that Linux Kernel 2.6.33.2 had some bugs. We did not dig into the matter due to lack of time. However I need to check it soon.
    I have skipped lot of technical details here as I will give the technical details later when I try it again myself.

    March 15, 2010

    FSMK weekend

    by viggy — Categories: experience, Fun — Tags: , , — Leave a comment

    It has been one of the most useful weekends I have spent. Not only did I enjoy the weekend to its fullest, I could also make sure that it was fruitful. The weekend started right from Friday evening. I left office at around 7 and met Naveen and went with him to FSMK office. There while watching the opening match of IPL season 3, KKR vs DC, we planned the events for the weekend. We discussed for around 2 hours and divided the tasks among all the FSMK volunteers. We had planned few run-up events before the National Conference on Open Source which is going to be held on 20-21 March. Two of the main events that we had planned were a freedom walk of 2 groups of students on Garuda Mall and Jayanagar on Saturday and the release of “namma debian” and a photo gallery of Mani’s art in AC3 on Sunday.

    So as decided during the meeting, early morning on Saturday, me and Naveen went to 3 different engineering colleges on Bannerghatta Road and met the concerned authorities over there and asked their permission to stick posters on the notice boards and also asked if during the weekend we could talk personally to students and get some on-the-spot registrations for the conference. Luckily we got positive response from all the 3 engineering colleges but unfortunately since all the colleges had holiday on Saturday we could not directly talk to students. However I am sure we will follow it up during this week. We finished visiting the colleges in the afternoon and then we geared up for the Freedom walk on Jayangar. We had decided to meet YDIT students at 4:00 at Jayangar 4th Block bus stand. So at around 4:30 we, around group of 10, started our Freedom Walk carrying the banner of National Conference and distributing pamphlet. We tried to explain to anyone who showed even little interest in discussing with us about the event. I am pretty sure we were able to distribute pamphlets to around 200 people and also explain to around 50-75 people personally and in detail about the conference. The group at Garuda Mall which was a much bigger group of around 35 students must have had a much more impact on people and must have really caught a lot of attention. The Freedom Walk stopped at around 7 after which I went back to my aunt’s house where in I again enjoyed a lot and celebrated the birthday of Meghna with other PG girls at midnight.

    On Sunday, I met other FSMK volenteers at AC3 in the evening and we started preparing for the event. There was lot of excitement among the slum people. They helped us in all the ways they could in organizing the stage and cleaning up the venue. By around 5:30 we had around a group 75 people other than FSMK volenteers with atleast 30-40 children. The event started with a inspiring speech by G Ramakrishna, Editor of Hosatu. He told people how they could change their lives by working hard and giving education to their children instead of leaving everything for the fate to decide for them and complaining about all the problems in their life. After that, a small boy gave a wonderful speech about Mr. B.R. Ambedkar’s life and also how all the holy-books of different religions regards the gift of knowledge and education much higher than any other worldly gifts. He explained these facts by reciting specific examples from Bhagvad Gita and Kuraan. This was followed by the main event of the program which was the release of “Namma Debain” cd. It is a flavor of debian in Kannada language which we plan to distribute in villages throughout Karnataka so that people who are only literate in Kannada language can also use computers for their day-to-day life without any hassle. This was followed by a brief demo of the Namma Debian where in we tried to explain to the slum people how easy it was now for them to use computers now. This was followed by a display of different pictures made by Mani using the GIMP software. Then we had few cultural activities by the slum children. It was a great event and I was proud to be a part of it. I could see the impact that AC3 was having in the slum and this made us more determined to start such centers through out the city.