[Ssic-linux-announce] OpenSSI 1.2.0+ for KNOPPIX 3.6

[Brian J. W. <Bri...@hp...>]

Hi all,

OpenSSI clustering is now available for a new "distribution": the 
KNOPPIX 3.6 Live CD. This is the easiest-to-install version of OpenSSI 
ever!! You simply download the ISO image, burn it to a CD, and boot your 
first node from the CD. All other nodes can be network booted into the 
cluster, as usual.

For the most part, this version of OpenSSI is identical to OpenSSI 1.2.0 
for Debian 3.1. Key differences include a newer version of the OpenSSI 
kernel with a few small changes for running in the KNOPPIX environment, 
and a merge of the OpenSSI SysVinit with some necessary KNOPPIX 
enhancements. Some special configuration has also been done, including 
putting atftpd (Advanced TFTP daemon) under the care of OpenSSI's HA 
process monitoring and restart daemon, keepalive, to handle atftpd's 
tendency to coredump (atftpd is only version 0.7, and a bit unstable). 
One last note is that the process load balancing demo has been included. 
Look in /demo-proclb after booting from the CD.

There are several known issues that need to be resolved. I may not have 
a lot of time to work on these issues, so if you have an interest in 
tinkering with OpenSSI or KNOPPIX, you're more than welcome to work on 
it and submit changes. Contact me on the developer's mailing list if 
you're interested.

OpenSSI 1.2.0+ for KNOPPIX 3.6 can be downloaded from OpenSSI.org.

Enjoy!

Brian


The known issues include:

- Administrative
	* resolve .dpkg-new files that resulted from installing OpenSSI
	* /var/run/utmp and /var/log/wtmp should be clusterwide files
	* the kernel version number needs an OpenSSI revision number

- Debugging
	* after starting X Windows, the mouse does not work
	* when at runlevel 5, init does not start processes on node 2
	* KNOPPIX fstab generation for local partitions is broken
	* /var/run doesn't have everything from /KNOPPIX/var/run

- Development
	* add "quickup" addnode feature, to avoid running ssi-addnode
	* merge microcode support into devfsd