Posts Tagged ‘binary’

ASCII Art studio – A powerful ASCII art editor for Windows / Playscii a cool looking text editor for Linux

Monday, June 28th, 2021

This post is just informative for Text Geeks who are in love with ASCII Art, it is a bit of rant as I will say nothing new, but I thought it might be of interest to some console maniac out there 🙂

ascii art studio aas program windows xp professional drawing program screenshot

While checking stuff on Internet I've stumbled on interesting ASCII arts freak software – >ASCII Art Studio. ASCII Art Studio is unfortunately needs licensing is not Free Software. But anyways, for anyone willing to draw pro ASCII art pictures it is a must see. Check it out;

Isn't it like a Plain Text pro Photoshop ? 🙂 Its a pity we don't have a Linux / BSD Release of this wonderful piece of software. I've tried with WINE (Windows Emulator) on Linux to make the Ascii Art Studio work but that was a fail. It seems only way to make it work is have Windows as a worst case install a Virtual Machine with VirtualBox / Vmware and run it inside if you don't have a Windows PC at hand.

Of course there are stuff on Linux to ascii art edit you can use if you want to have a native software to edit ASCIIs such as Playscii. Unfortunately Playscii is not an easy one to install and the software doesn't have a prepared rpm or deb binary you can easily roll on the OS and you have to manually build all required python modules and have a working version of python3 to be able to make it work.

I did not have much time to test to install it and since I faced issues with plascii install I just abandoned it. If some geek has some more time anyways I guess it is worse to give it a try below is 2 screenshots from PLAYSCII official download page. 

playscii_shot1-official.

As you see authors of the open source playscii whose source is available via github choose to have an amazing looking ascii art text menus, though for daily ASCII art editing it is perhaps much more complicated to use than the simlistic ASCII Art Studio

playscii_shot2-official

There is other stuff for Linux to do ASCII Art files text edit like:
JaVE (this one I don't personally like because it is Java Based),  Ascii Art Maker or Pablow Draw Linux (unfortunately this 2 ones are proprietary).

How to do (all) install packages binary upgrade FreeBSD 7.2 to FreeBSD 9.0 RELEASE

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012

FreeBSD binary upgrade portupgrade pkgng pkg_add 7.2 to FreeBSD 9.0 RELEASE how to
In last article I’ve writen how FreeBSD version to version upgrade can be done using, as it is (mostly) mandatory to complete a packages binary upgrade right after the kernel and world update, in this article I will explain how to do BSD binary package upgrade.

Once the BSD boots with a new after succesful:


# freebsd-update upgrade -r 9.0-RELEASE && freebsd-update install

1. Upgrade FreeBSD port tree structure (skele) with latest BSD available,br />
It is necessery either to rebuild all installed packages on System or do a binary upgrade, this is because some of the installed packages might already be linked to older versions of FreeBSD 7.2 [in my case] – (or whatever older version) world you have.

1. Update BSD port tree skele to the latest published on FreeBSD download servers

It is generally wise idea to upgrade your BSD port structure immediately after BSD world and kernel upgrade.
For convenience you can use following ports-supfile (configured to fetch latest FreeBSD) ports directory structure:

Download it in /etc and run csup:


freebsd# cd /etc/
freebsd# wget -q https://www.pc-freak.net/files/ports-supfile
freebsd# csup -g -L 2 /etc/ports-supfile
Parsing supfile "/etc/ports-supfile"
Connecting to cvsup4.de.freebsd.org
Connected to 212.12.50.227
Server software version: SNAP_16_1h
MD5 authentication started
MD5 authentication successful
Negotiating file attribute support
Exchanging collection information
Establishing multiplexed-mode data connection
Running
Updating collection ports-all/cvs
Edit ports/UPDATING
....
....

The port structure upgrade takes me on my Pentium 1.8 Ghz with 1GB ramwith a 20 Mbit connectivity to the internet about 15 minutes; It could vary depending on PC hardware and Internet connectivity as well as to when for a last time the port tree was upgraded (how much new data csup has to fetch to hdd).

2. Re-build ports Index file /usr/ports/INDEX*

Onwards the ports index file needs to be rebuild;


freebsd# make index
Generating INDEX-9 - please wait..
....

Here my make index failed with an error:


*** Error code 1
1 error
********************************************************************
Before reporting this error, verify that you are running a supported
version of FreeBSD (see http://www.FreeBSD.org/ports/) and that you
have a complete and up-to-date ports collection. (INDEX builds are
not supported with partial or out-of-date ports collections -- in
particular, if you are using cvsup, you must cvsup the "ports-all"
collection, and have no "refuse" files.) If that is the case, then
report the failure to ports@FreeBSD.org together with relevant
details of your ports configuration (including FreeBSD version,
your architecture, your environment, and your /etc/make.conf
settings, especially compiler flags and WITH/WITHOUT settings).
Note: the latest pre-generated version of INDEX may be fetched
automatically with "make fetchindex".
********************************************************************
*** Error code 1

Cause this error, I had to update the index with portsnap (get already pre-generated one by another person).

portsnap has other advantages too – it doesn’t take so long time as well as load CPU less than manually building it; even better it takes shorter time to complete. This is why for (ports index updates) on productive servers it might be (probably) better to use portsnap:


freebsd# make fetchindex
/usr/ports/INDEX-9.bz2 100% of 1622 kB 203 kBps
freebsd# ls -al INDEX-*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 24216397 Mar 14 2011 INDEX-7
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 36006912 Feb 8 2010 INDEX-7.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 26526196 Oct 2 14:45 INDEX-9
freebsd# rm -f INDEX-7 INDEX-7.db

3. Do a binary package upgrade of every packages present on previous FreeBSD 7.2 install with portupgrade

It is generally also a good idea to create a dump of all system installed packages with pkg_info, before doing anything else:


freebsd# pkg_info -qoa | sort > /root/packagelist

Since my system is quite, slow I cannot afford to recompile all from BSD ports, thus I used the “old fashioned” portupgrade to complete the binary upgrade:

For “conservative” BSD users it might be better to use portupgrade, to do upgrade all installed packages with it run:


freebsd# rm /var/db/pkg/pkgdb.db && pkgdb -Ffuv && portupgrade -afpRr -m BATCH=yes
....

I got during above portupgrade errors like:


Stale dependency: brasero-2.26.0_1 --> hal-0.5.11_23 -- manually run 'pkgdb -F' to fix, or specify -O to force.

In order to solve this errors, I had to exec:


freebsd# pkgdb -Fa

Then after each time fixing the pkgdb database run:


freebsd# pkgdb -Ffuv && portupgrade -afpRr -m BATCH=yes

Besides portupgrade, the upgrade can be done using other metdhology;

a) Using a few lines shell of bash scripting loop and pkg_info and pkg_add

b) Using pkgng

4. Binary all package upgrade using pkg_info, pkg_delete, pkg_add with a while shell loop

An alternative FreeBSD installed packages upgrade to latest is with standard BSD tools combined with few lines of shell of bash while loop.

This whole update approach is thoroughfully explained in this BSD forum thread .

The update method pointed by the forum can be done by issuing (preferrably in bash shell root console):


root # pkg_info -qoa > /root/packagelist
root # pkg_delete -a -f
root # rm -r -f /boot/modules /usr/local /var/db/pkg
root # while read PKG; do pkg_add -r $( basename ${PKG} ); done < /root/packagelist

The problem with this update approach is if some packages names are changed, some packages might not be able to be found by and (respectively) will fail to fetch and install with pkg_add -r. Thus I personally don’t recommend using this .update method as it is unsafe.

5. Completing packages BSD binary upgrade with pkgng (PKG Next Generation) tool

Install pkgng from respective port, e.g.:


freebsd# cd cd /usr/ports/ports-mgmt/pkg
....
....
/usr/local/man/man8/pkg-remove.8.gz -> /usr/local/man/man8/pkg-delete.8.gz
/usr/local/man/man8/pkg-static.8.gz -> /usr/local/man/man8/pkg.8.gz
===> pkg-static (install)
install -o root -g wheel -m 555 pkg-static /usr/local/sbin
If you are upgrading from the old package format, first run:
# pkg2ng
===> Running ldconfig
/sbin/ldconfig -m /usr/local/lib
===> Registering installation for pkg-1.0.1
===> Cleaning for pkg-1.0.1
freebsd# make install clean
....

Right after installing you can use it and upgrade packs:


freebsd# cp -rpf /usr/local/etc/pkg.conf.sample /usr/local/etc/pkg.conf
freebsd# pkg update
Updating repository catalogue
repo.txz 100% 13MB 771.3KB/s 1.3MB/s 00:17
freebsd# pkg upgrade -fy
...
freebsd# pkg-static update
....
freebsd# pkg-static upgrade -fy

,,,
,,,,

P.S. I tried the pkgng for my first time, for some weird reason I was unable to upgrade my packages with it on 1 host, though literally followed update instructions on Full binary upgrade with pkgng 1.0-beta7 – Bapt tutorial . If someone knows of a better tutorial how update can be done using pkgng drop me a comment or point me to a tutorial.
The overall all packages update experience for me wasn’t so nice as it took me too much of time to upgrade. I like BSD stability but when it comes to updates its a time eater …

How to do world and kernel binary upgrade of FreeBSD 7.2 RELEASE to FreeBSD 9.0

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012

FreeBSD 7.2 to FreeBSD 9.0 kernel world and kernel binary upgrade fbsd logo

1. Use FreeBSD upgrade with 9.0-RELEASE as an argument


freebsd# freebsd-update upgrade -r 9.0-RELEASE
....

Note that you will get on screen an error message like so:

The update metadata is correctly signed, but failed an integrity check.
Cowardly refusing to proceed any further.

You can safely ignore the message but anyways it is good to do following substitution in freebsd-update sript:

2. Patch freebsd-update script with sed


freebsd# sed -i '' -e 's/=_/=%@_/' /usr/sbin/freebsd-update
....

After that, run freebsd-update, one more time:


freebsd# freebsd-update upgrade -r 9.0-RELEASE
....

3. Confirm merges and changes from 7.2 to 9.0

Here during the upgrade you will be prompted for about 20-30 questions, which in most cases will be okay if you answer with yes. Most questions, are just notifications that in FreeBSD 9.0, some extra users were added some version release numbers are changed and the old files need to get merged with the new ones. It is good idea to read all the prompts and be sure to know what you’re doing before answering. Anyhow in my case I was quite in hurry so I simply did yes and q (to quit each of the diff notification screens pop-ping up after each yes answer.

4. Install all the freebsd-update upgrade fetched binaries

Once this process is completed you can safely install FBSD 9.0 kernel and world binaries:


freebsd# freebsd-update install
....

5. Restart the system to test if FreeBSD 9.0 RELEASE just installed new kernel boots

To test if all is okay with the update restart system:


# shutdown -r now
....

After system boots, do uname and uptime to assure system boots with 9.0 kernel:


freebsd# uptime
7:37PM up 2 days, 22:37, 1 user, load averages: 1.05, 1.02, 1.00
freebsd# uname -a;
FreeBSD freebsd 9.0-RELEASE-p3 FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE-p3 #0: Tue Jun 12 01:47:53 UTC 2012 root@i386-builder.daemonology.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386
freebsd#

5. Finalize binary and world upgrade

Then to finalize the binary BSD world and kernel update once again issue:


freebsd# freebsd-update install
...
Please rebuild all installed 3rd party software (e.g., programs
installed from the ports tree) and then run
"/usr/sbin/freebsd-update install" again to
finish installing updates.


freebsd# freebsd-update install
....

That’s all FreeBSD 7.2 -> 9.0 (kernel and world) upgrade is succesful. After the upgrade some packages might not be working and you will have to check and manually update ports which are not working (due to linked to old FreeBSD 7.2 world libraries and so on). It is also good to upgrade all installed ports. I will explain how I did ports upgrade a separate article. Cheers 😉

How to install binary packages on older FreeBSD releases / Install binary packages on FreeBSD 7.2

Saturday, September 29th, 2012

If you’re in a situation like, me where you run some old verison of FreeBSD and you need to install a bunch of packages let’s say GNOME Desktop environment on a host which before was used as a network router / mail server and general firewall. You will probably be surprised the usual way to install a pre-compiled BSD binaries with pkg_add -vr packagename will no longer work, i.e.:


freebsd# pkg_add -vr gnome2
Error: FTP Unable to get ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-7.2-release/Latest/gnome2.tbz: File unavailable (e.g., file not found, no access)
pkg_add: unable to fetch 'ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-7.2-release/Latest/gnome2.tbz' by URL
pkg_add: 1 package addition(s) failed

The reason why binary package fetch and install no longer work is obvious the repository link ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-7.2-release/Latest/ which was previously working no longer works.

So to install be able to install this already obsolete compiled packages what is neccessery is to explicitly change the FTP location, where the packages will be looked for with a location to a working link corresponding to your FreeBSD version. To make sure the link is working in accordance with your FreeBSD release do a search in Google and get the proper FTP link. My BSD version is RELEASE 7_2, hence after a quick look in Google, I found a binary repository containing packages for my FreeBSd under link:


ftp://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/ports/i386/packages-7.2-release/Latest

To change the default set binary .tgz packages repository to the newer correct one for the currently logged in user via tty or over ssh use the csh / bash PACKAGESITE variable.
Whether in csh type:


freebsd# setenv PACKAGESITE ftp://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/ports/i386/packages-7.2-release/Latest/

Either if you use Bourne Again (bash) shell type;


[root@freebsd ~]# export PACKAGESITE="ftp://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/ports/i386/packages-7.2-release/Latest/"
[root@freebsd ~]#

Just as a matter of fact it is useful to say pkg_add command uses FreeBSD (Linux wget like) fetch to download the pre-compiled binaries. In other words the PACKAGESITE var is understood by fetch command, whether it is looking for some shell exported vars 🙂
To make the new PACKAGESITE setting permanent in csh include it in /root/.cshrc:


echo 'setenv PACKAGESITE ftp://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/ports/i386/packages-7.2-release/Latest/' >> /root/.cshrc

If your root user is set to use bash add it to /root/.bashrc


echo 'export PACKAGESITE="ftp://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/ports/i386/packages-7.2-release/Latest/"' >> /root/.bashrc

That’s all now you will now be able to install pre-compiled packages via pkg_add 🙂 Enjoy!