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LINUX RESOURCES |
There are a huge number of Linux resources available
on the web that come from a large community of people who have worked
with the Linux kernel.
- General Info:
- Kernel News:
- Kernel Hacking:
- Linux Kernel Debuggers:
- KDB: built-in kernel debugger with multiprocessor support
- Kgdb: kernel debugger used through serial line
- Source Navigators:
The source navigators provide browse-able kernel code, making it easier
to read than your ssh window or emacs. However, the kernel is not the
same version as the kernel you will be working with, so watch out for
subtle differences.
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VMWARE RESOURCES
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VMware is a virtual computer that emulates the
hardware of a machine so that you can run an entirely different operating
on top of one that is already running. This is ideal for operating system
development because if something goes wrong with the system that is
running on the virtual machine, the entire computer does not
crash. A pair of VMware ESX servers is installed, and VM guests will
be allocated on these servers.
To use VMware on the ESX servers, you first need an
MRL account . If this is
the first time you setup this account, or if you reset your password, you
must then change your password in the MRL lab at least once.
Each student will have his/her own VM guest. To be allocated a VM, send a
request by email to the w4118 mailing list. A VM will be instantiated
or you from the course template. The VMs will have a user
student for you to login. When your VM is ready for use you
will get a confirmation email, together with your (personal) password
for that user.
Note: the data stored within your VM is not backed up. Make sure
you keep copies of your work elsewhere, e.g. on your home directory.
VMware provides a useful feature that enables you to take snapshots of
your VM and later use these snapshots. Thus you can take a snapshot
before testing your modified kernel, to facilitate easy recovery should
the VM crash its file system. We recommend that you make at least one
snapshot (after you have downloaded the kernel sources, patched them,
and compiled them).
By default, the VMs runs a special utility called VMware Tools, that
provides useful functionality between the host and the guest VM. This
utility depends on the specific kernel that runs in the VM. Therefore,
when you install a new kernel for the first time (or when you make
substantial changes to an existing kernel, such as changes to include
files), it is necessary to adjust the VMware Tools accordingly. To do
this, boot the new kernel, and then run vmware-config-tools.pl
(hit Enter at all prompts).
- Using VMware On Linux:
- Connecting to the VM via Virtual Infrastructure Client:
If you use a windows machine, you can download the
VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client (VIC). The VIC provides a
convenient interface to access and control your VM (see the
VIC
documentation).
- Connecting to the VM via Virtual Infrastructure web interface:
You can access and control your VM via VMware's web interface through
here. If you are
using Firefox on certain Linux systems, you may experience some
difficulties using the console plugin. This can be fixed by copying
the plugin files (viewer and remotemks from
~/.mozilla/plugins to /usr/lib/firefox/plugins (see
this thread).
- Connecting to the VM via ssh:
Our VMware servers are set up to allow users to ssh into their virtual
machine through a dedicate gateway machine (vm-gw01 and vm-gw02). The
best way to find out the IP address of the VM is on your machine is to
boot up the virtual machine (using X or VNC) and type 'ifconfig' to
get the IP information. If the VMware tools are setup correctly in the
VM (by default they are), then you can look up the IP in the "summary"
tab via the control interface.
Then you can use the IP address to ssh or ftp into the machine from the
host machine. This is only a local IP address, so you cannot ssh
directly into the VM from the outside world.
- General VMware Documentation:
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C PROGRAMMING RESOURCES |
The Linux kernel is written almost entirely in C, so
for those unfamiliar with C, here are some links that provide some
explanations.
- General C Reference
- Pointer Resources
- C Systems Programming
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REMOTE ACCESS INFORMATION |
The virtual machines
on which you will need to do the kernel modifications required for the
assignments are located in the
CLIC Lab. VMware requires X to run, so if you cannot work in the
Clic Lab, you will need to connect to the VM remotely using one of the
following methods.
- X Server
If you are running a Unix-based operating system or
have an X Server running on your local computer, you can use X to access
your virtual machine. X-Win32
is available for running X on Windows PCs.
This is probably the easiest way to use VMware,
but you may run into firewall problems if you are off campus.
To do this:
- From a Unix-based computer, just run:
$ ssh -X mymachine.clic.cs.columbia.edu
If you're running Windows, you can find instructions on how to forward remote X connections using different ssh programs here
Now you can run VMware, Emacs, or any other application that requires
X with no problem.
VNC
According to the VNC website: "VNC stands for
Virtual Network Computing. It is, in essence, a remote display system
which allows you to view a computing 'desktop' environment not only on the
machine where it is running, but from anywhere on the Internet and from a
wide variety of machine architectures."
There is a free client available for VNC, so it is
very easy to access. It is also extremely lightweight and can save your
session on the server in between logins. However, it can be slower over
the network.
SSH
Once a virtual machine is up and running, you can ssh
into it from the machine on which the VM is running. This requires that
the VM be started either locally on the machine itself, or from a VNC or X
session. Once this is done, the IP address can be used to connect to the
VM after ssh-ing into the local machine. (See
VMware Info for info on how this works)
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COLLABORATION TOOLS |
All major programming projects will be done in groups
of three. To facilitate collaboration among group members
(some of whom may not be on campus), there are some resources
available to help out. CVS and RCS are popular methods of
retaining source code integrity. Also, Instant Messaging
allows for quick communication, whether it be a commercial
product or using the 'talk' command on the cunix or cs
machines.
- Source Code Management
- CVS us a version control system that enables you to
log all changes made to a body of source code. It also makes patches and
does lots of cool stuff to keep track of your source code:
CVS Manual
- RCS is another version control system, but a little
more lightweight. It allows files to be stored in a directory without
downloading them to another directory:
RCS Mini-HowTo
- Instant Messenging
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