Recently in FreeBSD Category

Thing are moving along quite nicely on the Handel front. Version 0.18 is out and considered feature complete in terms of tests, checkout, order, and carts in Perl, on AxKit and within Template Toolkit. I need to start on a Catalyst demo site as well.

There is a nice crisp new mailing list. I need to setup a wiki and the subversion repo on the new domain name. This means I need Apache2 installed, which means I want to install mod_perl2 which means I need a newer version of perl. Oh yea, I need to upgrade MySql to version 4.

Considering all of that work, I've decided that it's best to give this web server The Big Wipe and start from a scratch FreeBSD 5.4-RELEASE install. Then I can let Apache1/MP1 and Apache2/MP2 fight it out. After that, maybe PHP4/PHP5, or at least PHP4 under both apache installs. You get the idea.

I've long wanted to convert everything from 3 1U servers back into one to make life [and my electric bill] much happier. If I start from scratch on this machine, eventually it will become the one and only.

If it weren't for AxKit, and me wanting to run the Handel AxKit demo online, I'd ditch Apache/MP1 all together. Hell, I might as well upgrade MovableType, or maybe even ditch it for WordPress?

So, after some quick and dirty backups of SQL data, DNS files, config files, and websites, we will be off the air for a while.

Hopefully I can can this all done by the end of the weekend. Famous last word right?

Keep your stick on the ice and out of your friends face. We're all in this together.

The last 3 weeks have been like that show "Connections" where the British dude relates the length of toothpicks to the building of the first atomic bomb; seemingly unrelated.

I was happily writing TDD test for Handel when I needed to upgrade AxKit. Only 1.61 was available for win32, so I begged Randy Kobes to build 1.62.

Once he had done that, libxslt/libxml started crashing apache since they were upgraded to newer versions as well. So now it was time to figure out how to build my own.

A week later, after begging Randy for even more hints and help, I finally managed to squeak out new versions of libxml, libxslt, their XML:: counterparts, and AxKit 1.62.

Now, back to writing tests. Hey, why not another distraction or two? Let's put FreeBSD on the laptop so I can run my tests there too. After another couple days of tinkering, I've finally got the sound working, the wireless working, and KDE 3.3.2 actually runs. Using it to post right now.

Boy has KDE gotten a lot better since 3.0!

As if that wasn't enough, I converted a couple other modules to SVN and uploaded new versions to CPAN, along with getting CPANPLUS/Test::Reporter running so I can post test reports to cpan-testers.

I'm in the middle of converting an old ASP site to Perl/ModPerl, Apache and MySQL. Nothing to amazing there. But now that I'm writing a lot of tests for the modules, I have this overwhelming urge to try them on a different platform.

While I'd really like to do this testing on a new dual G5, I don't think the woman will go for it before she gets her new couch for the new house. :-) However, I do have this old beige "OldWorld" G3 sitting around that hasn't been fired up in at least a year. I know it will run NetBSD. And I'm pretty sure it would run Darwin.

So, the real question is, which one should I pick? Both are going to be quite similiar to what I'm used to [FreeBSD].

I'm thinking about upgrading Perl on the web server. It's currently the base FreeBSD install of 5.005_3 and I want to move to 5.6.1. Part of me says if it ain't broke, don't fix it. However, two important modules [to me] now require Perl 5.6.0 or above: Class::DBI 0.95+ and DBI 1.38+.

I think the crappy part is going to be reinstalling all the Perl modules from ports into the new Perl distrib. What fun.

I know I have too much crap to do and a house to get rid of, but I really want to start tinkering with something like Mister House or these CPAN modules. Home automation with a little bit of perl and a few modules. Now that I've got a new house with known good wiring, this could get to be fun.

FreeBSD 4.9 has been set out into the wild. A fun night of buildworld ahead.

Don't fix it right? So sue me. :-) An attempted libxml / libxslt / XML::LibXML / XML::LibXSLT upgrade went somewhat wrong. All is well though after a few recompiles and a lot of finger crossing.