[AG-TECH] AccessGrid 2.0 in Slackware 9.0

[Stephen Bosch]

Hi, everybody:

I decided to go with Slackware for our AccessGrid node because of it's
simplicity and relatively "unenhanced" code. So far things have been
going well. Let me just summarize where I am at.

1. I have installed RPM and used the AccessGrid Toolkit rpms. This seems
to be working; when I go to the login page the vvd, vic and rat all
start up. Vic is having no trouble at all with my Osprey 200 cards.

2. Getting sound working took a bit of effort. It looks like Slack 9
didn't come with ALSA so I installed it. There was further confusion
caused by the btaudio (for the capture cards) grabbing the sound module;
I blacklisted it after installing and configuring ALSA to work with the
Soundblaster Live card I had installed and got sound working.

You mention something about RAT not working with ALSA; I can't get the
meter to deflect when I talk into the microphone (though I know the mic
is working because I can hear myself through the speakers). Do I need to
get rat sources and recompile?

3. Finally, I'm not sure I have multicast working properly (what else is
new?). I know I am on a multicast-enabled segment. I've added a 
multicast route (route add -net 224.0.0.0 netmask 240.0.0.0 dev eth1) 
and I can do mtrace to beaconserver.accessgrid.org without any apparent 
problems, but joining a room doesn't give me anything except my own 
beautiful self.

You know, I think AccessGrid is great, but the Getting Started
documentation is really poor. It leaves out critical things (strangely,
I have found that the beaconserver or the beacons are not mentioned
anywhere! Are they deprecated?) and the Linux user seems to really be at
sea.

-Stephen-

-- 
Stephen Bosch
Collaborative Systems Specialist
Netera Alliance Inc.
Biosciences 530B
2500 University Dr NW
Calgary AB T2N 1N4
tel (403) 220 2546
fax (403) 282 0838