Slashback: Plexion, Kernelism, Salaryness 87
Plex those muscles, yeah, and one and two and three ... dhunley expressed himself thusly: "A handful of days after getting Dos, Win95, and Linux to boot, Plex86 does it again! Initial support for booting QNX now works! Screenshot is here!" And shortly thereafter, the very same dhunley wrote: "Plex86 boots NT 4.0! Well, at least to the login dialog box. This is an old bochs disk image file. The mods will be uploaded to CVS soon."
Thanks, d. Watch out soon for an interview with bochs and plex86 lead Kevin Lawton, who promises to take time out from his busy schedule to tell you what's up in the worlds of emulation and virtualization.
While you're here, why not take a tour of the whinery? Apropros the wacky things that people have decided to put in the kernel lately (like GNOME ORBit), Booker writes: "Every time there's a major new kernel release, there's whining on Slashdot about killing uptime, and how much it sucks to have to reboot to get a new kernel. Well, whine no more.
Erik Hendriks at scyld.com brings us Two Kernel Monte, a 'kernel module which allows Linux to load another kernel image into RAM and restart the machine from that kernel.' The only major limitation appears to be that it will not work with SMP machines. Apparently Erik got the idea from the Linux Bios Project."
Now if some smart distribution maker (anyone, anyone) were to integrate that into their updates system, would that be so wrong?
We join this survey already in progress: Marketing Manager writes: "Anyone who's been in the job market knows how tough it is to find information about salaries and compensation. For system administrators, the search is compounded by the varieties of tasks, talents and responsibilities required to get the job done. Now there's something you can do to fix this.
SAGE invites you to participate in the 2000 System Administrator Salary Survey starting December 1, 2000. This annual survey is part of SAGE's ongoing effort to advance Systems Administration as a profession through information and advocacy. By participating in this survey, you join thousands of system administrators in examining the market and defining compensation according to your talents, your location, and your technical prowess."
So now you can find out where you stand in comparison to others with similar positions, perhaps a valuable bargaining chip come contract renewal (or incentive to check out a new city). The results will be available early next year -- automatically sent to SAGE members, available by request to everyone else.
Number One, can't you do anything about that rabble? bluets writes: "Some leading scientists and open-source advocates are attempting to raise awareness that the Celera/Science Magazine deal is a 'Big Mistake.' More details [here]."
And if you didn't know about this, it's only because you're not opening the barrel-of-monkeys Slashdot Science Section often enough. We're considering an experiment where everyone who opens it gets a food pellet, and everyone who doesn't ... well, do we have to bring out the Punishment Stick?
Stupid kernel tricks (Score:2)
Re:exhibit a (Score:1)
ie. Use computer for 8 hrs, hibernate for 12 hrs, use for 6 hrs - uptime reads: 1 day 2 hrs.
Bug, or 3v1l m1cr0$0f7 k0n5p1r4cy?
Re:exhibit a (Score:1)
I thought that sounded reasonably cool.
If it is just a way to avoid bois restart, that is less cool, but definately beats running lilo to remotely restart with a new kernel.
Re:monte and 2.4? (Score:2)
You are right, it copied itself as "misc" under
I just renamed it monte.o, created the directory misc, mv it there, did a depmod and loaded it with a modprobe without any problem.
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Re:Kewlio (Score:1)
Using Windows you will find a wide variety of both types of error. Using Linux you will find hardly any problems of type #1, but occasionally some of type #2. Not very often, however. Using *BSD you will find even less of #2.
So overall, I feel that rebooting is a serious issue indeed. It can be a good indicator of the general "correctness" of system design. I am no systems programmer, but this is my experience in running the different operating systems.
Live Kernel Upgrade Now Available for QNX!!!! (Score:1)
# kill 23 74
#
#
:-)
Some Salary Sites... (Score:3)
I am not sure how accurate they are:
JobSmart's Salary Surveys [jobsmart.org]
Pencom Systems Incorporated: Interactive Salary Guide [pencomsi.com]
SalaryZone [zdnet.com]
http://www.realrates.com [realrates.com]
Are there any others and how accurate are they? Thanks.
Re:Plex86 vs. VMware (Score:2)
Exactly. Why pay $300 for software that emulates another machine when for $400 I could buy a Windows machine, put it under my desk and VNC to the thing? Two machines are almost always better than one.
Of course, with the added competition of Win4Lin and now Plex86 there are going to be a whole lot of geeks that re-think their future VMWare purchases. So VMWare will do poorly, and they will probably go bankrupt, and then they will blame the Free Software community for making it impossible to make a living selling Linux software. There will be a whole new round of articles entitled "Linux Software Companies Deemed Severely Unprofitable."
Grumble, Grumble.
This is how /. responds to informed opinion?? (Score:2)
"Slashdot *has* to accept this story from someone. It represents the *informed* opinions of a *prominent* bioinformatics researcher, as well as that of a large portion of the bioinformatics research community."
Of course, it was rejected.
I emailed Ewan, and told him to submit the letter as a story. He did. I figured:
"Maybe
Again, no story.
Instead, what do we get? A blurb at the bottom of a slashback article, hidden amongst various pieces of random Linux cruft.
This is getting ridiculous.
Rob Malda et al., you guys have been hiding behind the "this is our website, and we'll put up things that we find interesting" line for too long now. Especially when slashdot *routinely* posts factually incorrect and uninformative stories based on heresay and speculation.
Yet the opinions of a Howard Hughes Invesitgator in bioinformatics get ignored. Dare I ask why?? Perhaps it's too informative?? Maybe just a little too factual??
Slashdot, when you sold the site, and became a commercial enterprise, you ceased to be Rob's homepage. Your public perception as journalism leaped. Unfortunately, your journalistic standards have not.
The saddest thing about all this is that posting the letter on the front page of slashdot could have made a real social impact on the editors of Science. A lot of biological researchers read slashdot. Posting this letter as a story could have provided a nice focal point for community organization. As a second-line posting to slashback, I doubt that will happen.
Re:What's the Point of Plex86? (Score:2)
Can you imagine how great it would be for testing device drivers if you could just do it inside a plex86 instance of your OS, cause then you could change your hardware config to whatever you wanted and see how it performs.
Cool stuff.
Also, as for the performance issue and how useless it makes the product. That is a very nearsighted point of view. What do you think that 10ghz machine is gonna use all it's power for? Abiword and Gnumeric?
Justin Dubs
Re:exhibit a (Score:1)
What exactly does it do thats bad in the eye of business? The worst thing I know very much about (unfortuantly!) is that there are plenty of hacker targets out there purely down to the fact that there servers are felt so mission critical tehy will not take them down for a Kernel upgrade.
But the point about uptime being tweaked may show why Solaris seemingly has great uptime :-).
I take downtime to really mean server crashes, rather than upgrades or improvements.
You raised some good points, but I wanted to add more. One final note lets not forget where Linux is already succeeding...In the Server Space.
Re:This is how /. responds to informed opinion?? (Score:2)
Who the fuck are you to throw a tantrum, just because it fits your definition of "Stuff that Matters" but not everyone (anyone?) elses? If you don't like it, take your money elsewhere. Oh yes, you don't spend any money here.
I don't know a Howard Hughes investigator from fucken nobody, and after reading the article, my interest has not been piqued. I can assume that if the letter itself was posted on the front page in 48 pt. Impact with a <BLINK> tag, it would not make me any more interested. It's not like somebody is inventing carnivorous vegetables or a chicken that cooks itself, it's a mainly semantic dispute between one or more bodies in a field that doesn't excite me, or about 99% of the /. populace.
So before you start slinging more daggers about Malda and Homos not having journalistic integrity, just shut the fuck up and stop crying; your mascara is running. You got your mention, which is a lot more than most stories get. Be happy with that, or I'll give you something to cry about.
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Re:exhibit a (Score:1)
To begin, when the new kernel is loaded, the uptime goes back down to zero. Secondly, this software was written by Erik Hendriks, who works for Scyld Corporation, not Redhat.
Go play on your Windows box. Yes, I know you're running Windows, because if you were running Linux, you would have downloaded monte, installed it, run it, and seen that your uptime got reset.
Re:Kewlio (Score:1)
The better solution is to ignore the uptime-dick contests and get on with your life, rather than lowering the kernel's quality as a piece of software.
Hell, a moderately useful feature would be to make the uptime start at what it was last time the system was up, keeping a cumulative uptime as well as a standard one. If you also store when the cumulative uptime started, then you could store uptime as a percentage of real time. This would put some meat behind the 99.9% uptime claims. You could also have dick-size contests about how much your machine is up, rather than the longest particular consecutive stretch. Kernel upgrading reboots are then less of a problem, because you can still say things like "My machine was only down for 60 seconds last month!".
You can't do that (Score:1)
Re:You can't do that (Score:1)
You are right (Score:1)
I think you are quite correct with this. I work at a Fortune 500 company, in the IT procurement division. About Six Months ago, we were considering upgrading out 500 Server machines from NT. We considered Red Hat Linux as a possiblity.
Anyway, we contacted Red Hat and they sent round some of their executives to convince us. What we wanted from them was an assurance that the information we had about Linux was trustworthy, and furthermore that there would not be a code fork in the future, and that we would be able to 'morph' Linux to our needs.
Amazingly, the executives they sent were unable to satisfy our demands. Although they told us that Alan Cox works for Red Hat, and thus that Red Hat is largely responsible for Kernel development, they were unable to provide the special type of install we required.
When we gave our bosses a summary of their position, they saw it as a no-brainer. We ended up installing Windows 2000.
I am an avid Linux supporter, and I would like to see all statistics regarding Linux (corps are mad on stats) verified by an outside body. The problem just now is that the stats are done by those in the Linux Industry, and are therfore skewed and biased.
Just my halfpenny.
Re:You're lucky they're publishing it at all! (Score:1)
Re:SAGE Salary Survey (Score:1)
Given this, I wish to be paid for my info....
RB
Speaking of Celera and the Ilk (Score:5)
Outside of specific groups like Slashdot and a few scientific journals, I have heard ZERO conversation on this in meat-space or meat-media.
Come on people -- real life makes The 6th Day look like a fucking walk through Disneyland.
---
seumas.com
Thank god! (Score:3)
Re:not sysadmin but tech support guy for sun (Score:1)
Plex86 vs. VMware (Score:2)
Plex86 will start to be a more attractive option after that day. If it also means more development activity behind it, that's all for the better.
Re:What's the Point of Plex86? (Score:1)
sure they're usefull for emulating a completely different system (as long as it doesnt need as many system resources as the machine you're running it on) but whats the point of emulating x86 on x86...
the emulated system runs a lot slower than it would natively, as does the system doing the emulation, plus, you're not saving a whole lot of time... i mean, when you start the new system, the virtual bios has to start, then whatever os you're running has to boot before you can use it. so the only time you're saving is shutting down the currently running system...
plus, there's the performance issue. you cant just leave the thing running, and expect decent performance, so the only thing its really good for is compiling and testing on another os, but since it runs so much slower, the compile takes that much longer, probably longer than the time you would save not having to reboot. you also dont have the ability to test the program properly, because you dont know how fast the program will really run, nor can you properly determine the bare system your program requires...
so basically, the only thing its good for is being a neat toy for lazy bums with ultra-fast hardware...
Re:Yet somehow... (Score:1)
Re:monte and 2.4? (Score:1)
This version supports Linux 2.2.x and Linux 2.3.x.
{|}---Tony Hagale -- tony@hagale.net -- http://tony.hagale.net
Re:Stupid kernel tricks (Score:1)
Moderators -- crack ain't enough eh? Ya gotta speedball crystal meth and heroin too? You never should have touched that post. If anything you should have given him +1 Funny.
Re:SAGE Salary Survey (Score:1)
Re:exhibit a (Score:2)
Even if it doesn't doe Everything You Could Possibly Hope For (tm), it might be a starting point for evolution in that direction.
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Re:Two Kernel Monte != Maintaining Uptime (Score:2)
The cynic in me says the 'whiners' care more about the stat than any actual interruption in the machine's service.
Personally, a reboot isn't that big of a deal for something like a kernel upgrade. Beats the hell out of having to reboot for an IP change or the like in versions of NT prior to 5/2000.
Re:Thank god! (Score:1)
I always thought it was a kiddie's way of spelling Juarez.
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Re:Kewlio (Score:2)
Add RAS : Reboot
change route in RAS through NAT : Reboot
CHANGE AN IP ADDRESS (like the gateway) WHEN YOU HAVE 2 NICS : Reboot
I enjoy win2k, don't get me wrong, for a lot of situations it is an acceptable and worthy solution. BUT PLEASE Stop spreading FUD. It still requires a LOT of reboots. IT IS however very much improved over NT/98.
Re:SAGE Salary Survey (Score:2)
It *does* cost money. Their surveys can be taken seriously; they aren't half-cocked surveys by some website. They want real results.
And if you don't like the arrangement, by all means, don't submit any data.
Re:Speaking of Celera and the Ilk (Score:2)
Isn't public broadcasting wonderful?
Re:Science section? (Score:1)
Yep, BTW, it is from Paranoia.
Re:You are right (Score:1)
Amazingly, the executives they sent were unable to satisfy our demands. Although they told us that Alan Cox works for Red Hat, and thus that Red Hat is largely responsible for Kernel development, they were unable to provide the special type of install we required.
When we gave our bosses a summary of their position, they saw it as a no-brainer. We ended up installing Windows 2000.
So, because the RedHat execs can't predict the future, your bosses went with Windows?
Was Microsoft able to provide the "special type of install we required" or did this requirement vanish suddenly?
Why was the posibility of a code fork such a worry?
Will Microsoft allow you to morph windows to your needs?
Why the double standards?
I realise I am asking the wrong person, but your company management aren't available.
The Human Genome (Score:1)
So all I can say is ....
"Stop 'copyright' theft".
Nice (Score:1)
SAGE Salary Survey (Score:2)
Frankly, I think the idea of a UNIX sysadmin salary survey is great (being one myself), but I don't feel paying for the data that I submitted is fair.
Perhaps if you submit data, you can get access to the results free. You listening USENIX?
Re:exhibit a (Score:1)
Yep. They should be busy integrating the GDI in the kernel, like any mature OS does.
Come on, tI am sure that there are better ways to troll this story.
Cheers,
--fred
Re:Kewlio (Score:2)
What is your definition of obsolete ?
Got a HP PIII 600 delivered here 1 month ago (to configure for a bank). The beast came with 2 preinstalled OS (that you could choose between at first boot).
The choices were:
1/ Windows 95 (First edition)
2/ Windows 3.11 for worksgroup
Talk about obsolescence. I am still rotfl. About no-one is using your latest w2k OS in the real world.
Cheers,
--fred
Re:Why my company sucks (Score:1)
Then, in your user bio you claim that you use w98 at work.
Mmmm.
Cheers,
--fred
exhibit a (Score:3)
How is shutting your machine down to a minimal state and bringing it back up NOT downtime? What exactly is the point of uptime if it's not that?
That's kind of like cheating, if you ask me. Why not just create a kernel module that will log your uptime when you shutdown and start it at that point when you boot up?
Additionally, this project is a perfect example of why businesses don't trust Linux. Not only does this tweak the statistics to make Linux look more reliable than it is, but it does something much worse in the eyes of business.
This modification shows the business community that Redhat is only developing more toys for their toy operating system, instead of making important advancements that are necessary to let the operating system finally break through on the desktop. These kernel developers need to get in line if they want users.
-lb
Why my company sucks (Score:4)
62.Does your organization provide any special benefits or working conditions that you particularly like? (please specify)
Sure; for our company Christmas gift we got a bag of microwave popcorn and a hockey puck with our company logo on it, since apparently our big marketing coup this year was to sponsor a "play of the game" segment for Washington Capitals games. Bonus? What's that?
Looking for a buzzword-heavy sinking ship? come work with me! [sytel.com]
Assholes. I can't wait until my Oracle DBA class is finished and I can get the fuck out of technical support.
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Celera (Score:1)
Do I get to keep my uptime? (Score:2)
Damn!
2 kernel monte is i386 only (Score:1)
Good idea though, which it was arch independent.
The boot another kernal solves another problem. (Score:1)
Re:SAGE Salary Survey (Incorrect) (Score:1)
---- Sigs are bad for your health ----
Re:Kewlio (Score:1)
Re:Two Kernel Monte != Maintaining Uptime (Score:1)
full text of Celera/Science 'call to arms'letter (Score:3)
The open letter from Ewan Birney and Sean Eddy that the genomeweb article talks about can be read in full at:b er/001826.html [bioperl.org]
http://bioperl.org/pipermail/bioperl-l/2000-Decem
If you plan to write to Donald Kennedy check the listserv email thread to read about a correction to his email address.
-chris
Re:exhibit a (Score:3)
Hopefully that is skipping the BIOSes hardware detection, not Linuxes. If it skips Linuxes then:
Re:Kewlio (Score:3)
Re:Kewlio (Score:2)
If anybody can make their damn uptime say whatever they want, it'll stop.
-
Re:SAGE Salary Survey (Score:1)
Re:What's the Point of Plex86? (Score:2)
It's nice in a lot of situations where you want to easily be able to pop into an OS and test something without constantly rebooting and shutting down your email, etc.
Re:Get us all a raise (Score:1)
Re:You are right (Score:1)
in fact, you can not buy win2k datacenter on its own- must be installed by a retailer (and not your local store, we're talking behemoths here). why that is, i'm not completely clear. from what i understand tho, it is written very specifically to follow some sort of guidelines with high end hardware, and every implementation is different.
as for why there's a double standard, well... corporate culture sometimes (whether justified or not) seems to prefer staying with the tried-and-true. yes, linux might have
"open source" they think, "that means ANYONE can look at the code, and how secure is that?" talk until you're blue in the face, you won't convince them.
fact is, nt worked. and worked reasonably well for a long time. 2000 works. and works better, and probably will be around longer than nt and in a wider variety of uses.
whether or not linux is a better os doesn't matter because of the previous paragraph. it's like my dad and ford. he buys the damned things because he had one as a kid that lasted for 10 years without a problem. so now he swears by it. (freak:)
(((look out, a not-anti-m$-stance on slashdot! duck and cover! flame away!)))
stability (Score:1)
Re:SAGE Salary Survey (Incorrect) (Score:1)
Solaris now does this... (Score:4)
Speaking of which, it would also be nice to have an x86 hardware bootloader instead of the outdated BIOS. Being able to load an OS or boot from a differnt device via a commandline would be a great feature for the home PC.
Re:Why my company sucks (Score:2)
Then, in your user bio you claim that you use w98 at work.
Mmmm.
Technically, they're both true. My job is to do tech support for the Macs at our location. However, the company uses a total POS call-tracking system that only runs under Windows (no, it doesn't have any web interface) and uses Outlook to schedule the calls. So, I had to have them buy a copy of Virtual PC for me to use solely with this one program and Outlook. Hence the "forced to use" part.
You're right, though, I should probably make that a little less contradictory.
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Re:SAGE Salary Survey (Score:1)
"Use this form if you are NOT a member of SAGE but have submitted data to the SAGE System Admnistrator Salary Survey 2000 and wish to have the results posted to you. We have made this form using 'USENIX look and feel' to..."
Re:Kewlio (Score:2)
anyways, in rgards to w2k - yes, it is being used. it is rare, but ramping up. i just installed a 2k server as part of our nt network emulating a pdc we took down, and it works beautifully. it is one of the 2 dns servers we have, and in the 4 months since i installed it, we have had 100% uptime on that system.
my school just upgraded all (read: ALL) of their servers to 2000. this could maybe be because they teach 2000 cert, but hey.
2000 is gaining acceptance as ppl realize it isn't 95, 98, or nt. it's better than all of them. it's gonna be around a while, linux fans... i know, it must suck to admit, but ms actually put together a good os for a change.
now if only we could get a beowulf clu- oh, sorry.
Two Kernel Monte != Maintaining Uptime (Score:5)
Re:Science section? (Score:1)
I would wish that there was a way to configure
Get us all a raise (Score:3)
Post inflated numbers to SAGE and then direct the boss to the site during your next salary negotiation.
C'mon, everyone. Chip in!
Kewlio (Score:5)
Linux : built to your spec, optimize to your hearts content. Preserve uptime(ugh)
Windows : Change IP address reboot. Add protocol : reboot. Install program : reboot. Upgrade : reboot
MS has has won an important aspect in the ever lucrative server market. That is the "reboot" aspect. Reboots are becoming more and more popular. Reboots are now considered fun, they give sysadmins a good excuse for a traditional "coffee break". Reboots are familliar. What will sysadmins do without them? How will a sysadmin be able to wield his usual power. The phrase "We will be down for an upgrade!" no longer holds water! ACK what is Linux doing?? What are they thinking?? Are they putting us SYSADMINS out of business? Reducing our free time? I no longer strike fear into the hearts of lusers by saying "we have to upgrade the software on the server"
Do you realize just how difficult it is to write with my tongue so firmly stuck in my cheek?
Bring out the punishment stick? (Score:1)
The computer is the ultimate 'bottom'. It will do whatever you tell it to, but only if you tell it every single last detail. And if you tell it the slightest thing wrong, at best, it will stop and do nothing. At worst, it will look like it's doing everything perfect, until it can cause the most possible damage...
Re:Kewlio (Score:1)
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=19990302 [userfriendly.org]
---
Guillaume
Re:Kewlio (Score:1)
In my opinion just the fact that you're changing the kernel means you just rebooted. Whats the difference between "loading" a new kernel and "booting" a new kernel? All the initialization (bios, pci, scsi, etc.) maybe?
Running monte in its default mode is preferable since the setup code performs some important functions like video detection/initialization and APM bios initialization.
Changing the OS (kernel), re-initializing some things here and there, 0.k. at best this is half of a reboot. You may choose to call this a "reb", a "oot" or any C(6, 3) conbinations
Great work anyways Erik! I'll try it ASAP!
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Re:not sysadmin but tech support guy for sun (Score:1)
I'm a college student. YAY
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Re:What's the Point of Plex86? (Score:4)
I'm currently using VMWare and I actually think it's very worth having. I'm developing cross-platform (Linux/Windows/Mac) software, and while I do 90% of the coding in Linux, I need to recompile the Windows version all the time. It's much faster to resume my VMWare session and do the Windows compile there than it is to reboot into Windows. Plus, I can continue using Linux while it compiles, and the system is totally responsive. When I'm done using Windows for a while, I can just suspend my VMWare session and free up all of its memory.
The other reason I use it is that there are still a fair number of fun web sites out there that only really work in IE. I do 90% of my browsing using Konqueror or Netscape in Linux, but if my AOL-using friend sends me a link to a cool game that requires a Windows plug-in, I like being able to check it out without having to reboot.
So I'm all in favor of Plex86. As soon as it can run VC++ and IE, I'll be switching.
Plex86 *in* windows? (Score:1)
Where's my Plex86 for windows?
-since when did 'MTV' stand for Real World Television instead of MUSIC television?
Re:exhibit a (Score:1)
Seriously, I'd be willing to bet that some smart induhvidual out there will take this and maybe combine something like the kernel module concept, and the concept of being able to dynamically load parts of executeables (what is that, dload()? i only remember dealing with it while working with MudOS on Linux), merge it all together, and come up with a kernel that you can reload 99% of the whole thing without disturbing other pieces of it. Sounds like an interesting beginning.
Remember, all the useful projects have humble beginnings. Just like when Linux started, it was a boot block program that could print "A" and "B" simultaneously to the screen. LOL
Re:exhibit a (Score:2)
This gives me the idea that with some kernel modifications behind this module, it could well be possible to just kickstart a new kernel while one is running, and just transfer control to the new one... hmm... if I understood how the modern internals of Linux worked, this would be something I would look into.. but i'm about 8 years out of it, so I'll leave it up to the younger hackers with more stamina than me.
Silly salaries, money is for management. (Score:1)
Re:exhibit a (Score:1)
Sun gets it right.
http://www.sun.com/fullmoon/
Killing uptime and rebooting? (Score:2)
Erik Hendriks at scyld.com brings us Two Kernel Monte [scyld.com], a 'kernel module which allows Linux to load another kernel image into RAM and restart the machine from that kernel.' The only major limitation appears to be that it will not work with SMP machines. Apparently Erik got the idea from the Linux Bios Project.
This is not an in-place kernel upgrade tool. (That's very difficult, especially without stable data structures and APIs. It's possible, but don't hold your breath.) You are avoiding the BIOS initialization sequence (thus saving some time), but you're still rebooting. The new kernel doesn't know that it was loaded by a Linux system rather than LILO. The old kernel is clobbered (including all its data structures, device drivers, running processes, etc.) and is no longer running. This still kills your uptime and requires a reboot to get a new kernel. (Feel free to keep whining.)
This project is the Linux equivalent to the DOS program LOADLIN, which loads a Linux kernel (like LILO does) and executes it. The kernel then takes over the machine and starts booting. "Two Kernel Monte" does exactly the same thing, complicated by the need to disable paging, relocate the newly-loaded kernel into a contiguous memory block (in protected mode), return to real mode, and ask the video BIOS to reset the video mode to 80x25 text, all before executing the new kernel. As with LOADLIN, the new kernel will take over the machine and begin booting. Whether started by LILO, LOADLIN or Two Kernel Monte, the end result is much the same -- the new kernel ends up with complete control over the machine (without knowing or caring how it got there), and the old OS (if any) is moot.
This may seem useless at first glance, but it's a perfect tool to test a new kernel before installing it. Also, the full power of a running Linux system would be available to obtain (or create!) the kernel image to be booted, which could enable some interesting tricks that would be difficult (or impossible) to implement in LILO. It should also be fairly easy to boot a kernel from a complex filesystem. (e.g. NFS, Coda, AFS, etc.) It might also allow for more complex boot-time decisions, such as dynamically selecting the best kernel based on complex criteria. In principle, it should be as easy to execute alternative operating systems in place of Linux, but I don't know if this works. Any form of compression or encryption (no matter how complex) could potentially be used, even if virtual memory is required to decrypt or uncompress the kernel because of limited RAM! (Try that in LILO!)
In short, this is a cool project, and potentially more useful than it may first appear.
You're lucky they're publishing it at all! (Score:1)
monte and 2.4? (Score:2)
install -m 644 kmonte.o
since 2.4 has no
Re:Kewlio (Score:1)
Of course, there is historical precedent for such a solution. As I recall, the users of the old Incompatible Timesharing System had problems with some of the newer hackers trying to crash the system, as sort of a coming-of-age ritual. The authors of ITS added an explicit kill command, so that any user could crash the system at any time, simply by typing "KILL" at a command prompt. Suddenly, there were no more attempts to crash the system.
Salary Survey Accuracy (Score:1)
Disclosure: I run the Real Rate Survey/Real Salary Survey found at http://www.realrates.com cited in the previous message.
Salary.com looks pretty lame to me. Their explanation of how they get their figures is high on mystery and "secret sauce." An HR professional told me that the word in the industry is that they merely multiply some generic job title numbers by a factor that is the Census bureau's cost of living figure for the area. Not very accurate.
Indeed, after years of looking at surveys, I don't have much respect for any summary numbers purporting to tell you what salaries are in some niche.
There is no such thing as "the salary" for a Unix Sysadmin. There's all different levels of responsibility and all kinds of complexity in the work environment, all kinds of employers in all kinds of locations and industries, but this detail gets smooshed out in surveys that only show you averages or medians.
Any salary survey that combines the salaries of Java programmers in Silicon Valley with that of Cobol programmers in Des Moines to come up with a salary for a "Sr. Programmer" is garbage--and alas, that is what most of them do. That's about as useful as an average "American" salary figure computed with my salary, yours, and Bill Gates'.
At Realrates.com All our data is viewable on the site, using the SEARCH. You don't have to rely on medians, averages and other boiled down useless figures because we show you all the data points that describe the job--where, how long, what industry, what software, what credentials etc. etc.
I wish more surveys did the same as it is the only way that people can really figure out what they can expect to earn.
Re:SAGE Salary Survey (Incorrect) (Score:4)
You aren't able to view the results, but if you fill out the survey, you can submit information and the results will be sent to you.
I was under the impression that one could not view the results due to the surveys being password protected on the web site.
My most sincere apologies.
Re:You are right (Score:1)
It has to come with a 4 9's uptime gurantee that must be supplied by the retailer. That's the whole point of datacenter. Does it work like that? No idea. And 4 9's isn't even that impressive IMNSHO.
Re:exhibit a (Score:1)
had to rebbot and wait for the BIOS, hardware detection etc. If you can afford a cluster or another HA solution this is pur magic. Think a
single server that has to have a new kernel for whatever reason, this could allow it to be back up in 10 seconds instead of 1 to 3 minutes (Ive seen
machines slow on boot beacuse of slow scsi detection etc)