CDOT

The Seneca CDOT OSTEP project has been operating a Koji buildsystem for the Fedora ARM Secondary Architecture project, for the armv5tel and armv7hl architectures. These architectures are going to shift to the Fedora Phoenix datacentre Real Soon Now(tm) now that true enterprise-grade ARM server hardware is available.The armv5tel architecture has hit EOL with Fedora 18, but will be supported with updates until a month after the release of Fedora 20; we (the Fedora ARM group) is working towards Primary Architecture status for armv7hl by the Fedora 20 release.

We (Seneca OSTEP) are now also operating a second Koji buildsystem, for the armv6hl architecture. This architecture is really of interest only for the Raspberry Pi at this point in time. This buildsystem is accessible on the web at http://japan.proximity.on.ca/koji/

However, to access the armv6hl buildsystem using the Koji command-line tools, using a Fedora client certificate, a bit of a dance is required. This post outlines the steps...

1. Set up your Fedora packager environment, if you haven't already done so.

2. Add this text to the end of your ~/.fedora-server-ca.cert file:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----

3. Place this text in /etc/koji/armv6-config:

[koji]

;configuration for koji cli tool

;url of XMLRPC server
server = http://japan.proximity.on.ca/kojihub

;url of web interface
weburl = http://japan.proximity.on.ca/koji

;url of package download site
topurl = http://japan.proximity.on.ca/


;configuration for SSL athentication

;client certificate
cert = ~/.fedora.cert

;certificate of the CA that issued the client certificate
ca = ~/.fedora-upload-ca.cert

;certificate of the CA that issued the HTTP server certificate
serverca = ~/.fedora-server-ca.cert

4. Execute this command: sudo ln -s /usr/bin/arm-koji /usr/local/bin/armv6-koji

5. Ping someone on the OSTEP team via irc://irc.freenode.net/seneca to add your FAS2 username to the Koji instance.

6. Profit! -- You should now be able to issue commands to the armv6hl koji system by typing: armv6-koji command

In due course, we'll get this configured as a standard secondary-arch Koji instance, and you can skip the steps above -- but in the meantime, if you want to help with the armv6hl effort, those are the steps required.

The SBR600 Software Build & Release course provides a unique opportunity for Seneca CTY students to get involved with an open source community. However, for the Winter 2013 semester, we opened the course late, so not very many students are aware that it's available.

If you're interested in taking SBR600, or know anyone who is: SBR600 is available for the Winter 2013 semester through SIRIS.

The Open Source Technology for Emerging Platforms (OSTEP) team at Seneca consists of four research assistants who work with me on projects related to enabling Linux and related open source technologies on emerging ARM systems - specifically working with the Fedora ARM Secondary Architecture initiative.

Since I haven't had an opportunity to introduce the team recently, I thought I would (very briefly) do so here.

Andrew Green (agreene) is our repo guru and is currently composing and testing the Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix 18. He is working part time with the OSTEP team while completing the CTY program at Seneca.

Dmitry Kozunov (DarthJava) works full-time with OSTEP. His main area of responsibility is the Fedora ARM buildsystem infrastructure, which means he wrestles heroically on a daily basis with unstable dev boards and multi-terabyte backups. He will be continuing his studies in the Seneca IFS program in January.

Jordan Cwang (frojoe) is a graduate of the Seneca CTY program and works part-time with the OSTEP team on infrastructure issues. He's is our bcfg2 whiz and is currently working on several infrastructure projects including improving security with measures such as two-factor authentication.

I'm trying to gauge interest in being able to buy the Raspberry Pi at the Seneca Bookstores (no promises!). Please take a second and let me know what you think using this poll...

The Raspberry Pi has a micro-USB jack for power input. This can be used with any recent mobile phone adapter. If you use a two-part adapter, with a plug-in AC-DC converter and a USB A to micro-USB A cable, it's easy to measure the current drawn by the Pi.

To do this, you'll need a USB A male to USB A female extension cord and an ammeter or multimeter with a 1A or 10A range.

1. Remove the outer insulation in the middle of the USB extension cable. Peel back the shielding (silver braid and/or foil)  to one side.

2. Cut the 5V supply wire (usually coloured red).

3. Connect your ammeter or multimeter to the cut 5V line.

4. Insert this cable between your AC-DC converter and the USB cable going to your Raspberry Pi.

So, how much current does the Raspberry Pi draw?

It looks like the Pi can draw anywhere from 250 to 500 mA in normal operation, though I did see smaller values in the early stages of startup. When idle, my Pi draws 320-380 mA; with a basic Logitech keyboard and mouse attached and in use, and with the CPU and GPU fairly active, it comes close to 500 mA.

Update: Powering the Pi from a Laptop

The fact that the Pi's current consumption is reliably under 500 mA means that it is actually safe to power from the USB port of another system. This is convenient for developers on the go: for example, I'm in an air-conditioned library escaping the current Toronto heatwave, and have my Pi connected to the back of my laptop with a micro-USB cable for power and a crossover ethernet cable for data.

On Tuesday, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) announced a number of grant awards at the Polytechnics 2012 conference, including the new Industrial Research Chairs for Colleges (IRCC) grants. I am honoured to be selected as the chairholder for the NSERC Industrial Research Chair for Colleges in Open Source Technology for Emerging Platforms in the Centre for Development of Open Technology at Seneca College.

This five-year renewable applied research grant enables me to continue and expand upon the work that I have been doing, along with a talented team of research assistants, with Fedora ARM and related projects. My goal is to bring the wealth of open source software currently available for x86 PCs and servers to emerging ARM based general-purpose computers. Although ARM architecture chips are the most popular CPUs made (more ARM chips shipped last year than there are people on this planet), most of these went into dedicated devices, and ARM chips are just starting to appear in general purpose computers. In order to make the transition to general-purpose ARM systems viable, industry-standard software stacks are needed. Fedora is a perfect fit for this purpose, because it encompasses both a large collection of cutting-edge open source software and a vibrant community, and it feeds many downstream distributions and projects.

My work in this new role will start with an expansion of existing work, including operating the Fedora ARM Koji buildsystem and improving the Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix, but I will additionally be focusing on Fedora on ARM server-class systems. In future phases, this will encompass working with the Fedora ARM project to promote ARM to primary architecture status, extending existing open source system management (and possibly virtualization/cloud management) frameworks to manage high-density ARM clusters, doing field trials of ARM-based data centre solutions, and bringing Fedora to the next generation of ARM technology.

Although the majority of my activity will shift from teaching to applied research, I will continue to teach the SBR600 Software Build and Release course in order to bring the research experience back into the classroom. I'll also continue to participate in the TeachingOpenSource.org initiative. As an Industrial Research Chair, I will also have a bit more of a public-facing role, representing CDOT and advocating the use of energy-efficient systems to local SMEs.

Many thanks to Red Hat for partnering with Seneca on this initiative, and I look forward to (continuing to!) work closely with Red Hat's incredible technical staff. I also thank the many companies and organization who wrote letters of support for the grant application, and look forward to collaboration and possible future partnerships with those organizations. And I particularly want to thank Seneca for its support of applied research, my colleagues at CDOT for their encouragement and for creating such an awesome environment to do applied research, and for the team that wrote the grant application under intense pressure and tight deadlines last November.

Watch this space for updates!