Virtual Machine

Summary

This virtual machine has been built to allow Developers to get operational quickly (1 Gb compressed):

It is in the Open Virtual Machine format for use in either ​VirtualBox or ​VMWare.

It is currently running the Ubuntu 10.04 OS with Web2Py-r2717, Eden-r1560 & Eclipse 3.6.

Download

• http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/Eden-VM.zip (UK)
• ​http://sahanafoundation.org/Eden-VM.zip (US)

Alternative versions for VirtualBox and VMware are available ​here, along with documentation and usage notes.

Usage Notes

Introduction

The dev env virtual machines for Virtualbox and VMware are based on a blueprint and are configured to use about 512MB of RAM. The virtual disk is configured to expand to 20GB. The virtual machine is built on ​TurnKey Linux's Core, which in turn is based on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid -- the most recent long-term support release). The machine runs ​Shellinabox, ​Webmin, and SSH/sftp as services from startup.

The development environment is configured to launch ​LXDE, a lightweight desktop environment after the first boot. From LXDE, Eclipse with Pydev, Firefox with Firebug, and irssi are accessible.

Getting Started

1. Download the Image
2. Uncompress the image: ​7zip is a very effective FOSS tool for systems running Microsoft OSs. In Linux distros, the following command should work:

   unzip Eden-VM.zip #unzip to current working directory
   unzip -d ~/ Eden-VM.zip #unzip to home directory
   

To run the image, you need to install either VirtualBox or VMWare:

VirtualBox Installation

3. Download ​VirtualBox
4. Install VirtualBox
5. Import the Virtual Appliance:

• File menu | Import Appliance
• Click on the Choose button and navigate to and select the uncompressed image (the .ovf file)
• Next
• Accept the default appliance options unless you have a reason to make a specific change

6. The VM will appear in the left window pane, and the settings will appear in the right. Scroll down on the right side until you see "Network." Click network to specify the NIC (e.g. switch to wireless) and choose between bridged and NAT mode.
7. Start the Virtual Appliance by double-clicking the icon on the left.

Troubleshooting VirtualBox

Network Configuration

Solutions will be here.

Import Fails

Scenario

After first step of import, VirtualBox OSE 3.1.6 reports the following: "Failed to import appliance /path/to/appliance/NewDev.ofg. Too many IDE controllers in OVF; import facility only supports one."

First Solution:

1. File | Virtual Machine Manager: Select the hard disks tab and press add disk icon. Browse to and select NewDev.vmdk. Click OK.
2. Click the New icon. Click next. Name: NewDev; Operating System: Linux; Version: Ubuntu. Click next.
3. Base Memory Size: 384MB. Click Next.
4. Select "Use Existing Hard Disk"; choose NewDev.vmdk. Click Next. Click finish.
5. Selct NewDev on the left; scroll down to network on the right. Ensure the appropriate network adapter and settings for your circumstances are selected.

Boot Process Halts

Scenario

When started in VirtualBox OSE 3.1.6, NewDev boot process halts at "Starting Initialization Hooks".

Solution

Coming soon.

VMWare Installation

Import

To import the download VM into VMware (e.g. Fusion), use the following steps.

3. File > New
4. Click Continue without disc
5. Select Use an existing virtual disk
6. Select NewDev.vmdk
7. Select Make a separate copy of the virtual disk
8. Click Choose
9. Click Continue
10. OS=Linux and Version=Ubuntu should be selected, click Continue, Click Finish
11. Enter name for new VMware image e.g. Eden in the Virtual Machines directory
12. Click Save
13. Press the green play icon to start the virtual machine.

Remember to install the Linux VMware Tools after starting up the Eden machine using Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools

sudo su -
./vmware-install.pl

And accept all the default options

VMWware Converter Version 4.0.1: "Cannot be deployed on the target hardware"

VMware Player 3.1.1 (Ubuntu)

No File|Import option. Nor can one build a VM with a preexisting VMDK.

VMware Workstation 7.1.1

1. File | New | Virtual Machine
2. Custom, click Next
3. Workstation 7.x, click Next
4. I will install the operating system later, click Next
5. Name: !NewVM; Location: /path/to/virtualmachines/; click Next; click Next.
6. 360 MP; click Next
7. Select appropriate network connection for your scenario (bridged or NAT), click Next.
8. LSI Logic, click Next.
9. Use an existing virtual disk; click Next.
10. Browse to NewDev.vmdk; click Next.
11. Finish; Close.
12. Press the play icon or "Power on this virtual machine".

Troubleshooting VMware Tools Install

• Open LXTerminal and browse to the folder containing vmware-install.pl.

  pwd #displays the current location in the filesystem
  cd /absolut/path/to/folder # change directory to the one containing vmware-install.pl
  sudo ./vmware-install.pl #start installation script
  

• Download Build Tools *Option 1: Open Synaptic in the LXDE menu, update, then search for build-essential *Option 2: Open LXTerminal and install build-essential from the command line:

  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install -y build-essential
  

Credentials

After first boot, the machine arrives at the graphical user interface login page. Login with the credentials provided below.

Web2py administration password is set during the debugging process with either of the following commands and arguments, both of which would set the admin password to "admin":

/home/dev/web2py.py -a admin -i 127.0.0.1 -p 80

/home/dev/web2py.py --password admin -i 127.0.0.1 -p 80

User Accounts

Username: dev	Password: eden
Username: root	Password: root

Scenario

Neither user can log in to LXDE with the credentials provided. However, both users can login with the password eden in single-user mode / at the command line interface.

Solution

Pending

Root User

There is no practical reason to login in as root.

If one needs root privileges, dev can have them. The following lines offer strategies for escalating devs privileges from the command line. Start LXTerminal and use one of the following strategies.

sudo command-to-execute-as-root #executes on command or pipeline of commands as root.
su - root #Switch user to root
command to execute #1 command executed as root
command to execute #2nd command to execute as root
command to excecute #3rd command to execute as root
exit # Exit using root's account and shell

Secure the System

Change the default passwords to secure the system. Log in as dev, start LXTerminal, and enter the following commands to change passwords:

sudo passwd root #interactive change root password
passwd #Interactive change dev password

It's also important to keep get security updates from online; login as dev and execute the following:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Filesystem

Web2py is located in /home/web2py. Eden is located in /home/web2py/applications/eden. Eclipse and PyDev are preconfigured with this information.

Scripts

/usr/local/bin contains three helpful scripts. To run them, start LXTerminal (in the accessories menu) and simply enter the commands as demonstrated below. They are in all users' paths, so may be executed from any working directory.

Update web2py

Enter the command with or without a revision number, as demonstrated below:

update_web2py 2717 #updates web2py to rev 2717
update_web2py #updates web2py to recent revision

Import Eden

update_eden 1560 #updates Eden to rev 1560
update_eden #updates Eden to recent revision

Update Eden

Imports Eden to Web2py

import #imports models to web2py

Troubleshooting older Releases

Note: If you get a ticket when running the application for the 1st time with a message like "OperationalError: Cannot add a UNIQUE column" then you need to stop the debugger, delete the contents of the databases folder & then start debugging again (there was an old database accidentally left on the system which cannot be auto-migrated - a new image without this issue has been uploaded):

rm -rf ~/Desktop/web2py/applications/eden/databases/*

If you get an error like "AttributeError: SQLCustomType instance has no attribute 'startswith'" then:

cd ~/Desktop/web2py/gluon
rm sql.py
wget http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/sql.py

Then can proceed as above: Stop Eclipse, empty databases folder & restart Eclipse

A new image without this issue has now been uploaded.

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