From Open Suse to Ubuntu

Submitted by eherber on Mon, 2009-03-30 20:34

After running Suse Linux on my notebook for several years now, I decided to give Ubuntu a try.

I downloaded a CD installation image containing the current 8.10 Ubuntu release from http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download. The installation was really smooth. Ubuntu detected my graphic card and configured an optimal screen resolution. The wireless LAN as well as the ethernet connection to the DSL box worked without any manual change (despite entering the WLAN WPA secret key). Even my Xerox laser printer was configured automatically. The only thing that I had to configure manually was my UMTS mobile card.

Great experience !

I'm beginning to appraise the GNOME Desktop. It looks like better structured and more cheerful in comparision to the KDE Dekstop to me. But this is my subjective opinion. As an RPM user for many years, I'm still struggling with the Ubuntu Debian based package manager. But that is probably only a matter of time.

After everything was up and running I decided to install IDS on Ubuntu. I remembered that IBM last year announced to offer debian packages for IDS thru the official Ubuntu repositories. I even found a presentation talking about the IDS Ubuntu packages. But I wasn't able to locate a single informix package at the Ubuntu or Canoncial repositories (:-

So I decided to install the normal IDS Developer Edition 11.50.FC3DE for the Linux X86_64 architecture. Starting the graphical installer lead to several error messages. I restarted the ids_install script with the -console option. But again it failed. Restarting it with the -debug and -log option finally showed that it was not able create create a user and a group 'informix':

(Mar 30, 2009 12:00:22 PM), Install, CreateUserInformix, err, CUSTOM_BEAN_ERROR_BEGIN
securityService:Error invoking createUser for user informix Got exception:
com.installshield.util.ProcessExecException: useradd: Unbekannte Gruppe /home/informix
error creating user

The funny thing here is that is says "unknown group /home/informix". Anyway I decided to create the user and group 'informix' manually and afterwards I was able to perform the console mode installation successfully.

However I think that this is not a very good experience for users new to Informix.

If anyone knows what happened to IBM plans to deliver an IDS Ubuntu package, please comment.

Thank you.

informix for Linux built on unbuntu

Submitted by jasonholowchak on Wed, 2009-04-01 03:12.

I share my notes with you guys... I setup unbuntu 8.1 desktop with informix 11.5 ... It took me a bit of back and forht before i realized all the steps. I been running it for 2 weeks now a intel box and its blazing fast. I really am so suprised TBH. I didnt use the GUI to install just the command line. I come form a Sun Solaris background, having "aptitude search packagename" and "apt-get install packagename" makes things so easy . I anyone needs help or questions install on unbuntu msg me and if i can help i willl

#Add this to /etc/sysctl.conf
kernel.shmmax = 4398046511104
kernel.shmmin = 1
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.shmseg = 128
kernel.shmall = 4194304
kernel.semmni = 4096
kernel.semmsl = 250
kernel.semmns = 32000
kernel.semopm = 32

Informix profile

mkdir /u2/informix
groupadd -g 1400 informix
useradd -g 1400 -u 1400 -m -d /home/informix informix
chown informix:informix /u2/informix

Libncurses package

extract file from... libncurses5_5.6+20070716-1ubuntu3_i386.deb (download from unbuntu repositories)
mv libncurses.so.5.6 libncurses.so.5
chown root:root libncurses.so.5
mv libncurses.so.5 /lib32

##Setup Informix user & group

groupadd -g 1400 informix
useradd -g 1400 -u 1400 -m -d /home/informix informix

## Install Samba for easier transfer
edit smb.conf allow unixc users.

##install informix preqeqs as in machine notes see below

apt-get install libc6-i386

32bit ncurses

##Install Informix as usual

mkdir /u2
mkdir /u2/informix
chown informix:informix /u2/informix
chmod 660 /u2/informix

SEtup Raw Disk space

#find out what the raw disk or cooked file space is
#change permissions.. see below.

chown informix:informix /dev/sda3
chmod 660 /dev/sda3
ln -s /dev/sda3 dbspace1_chunk1

REMBEMBER /etc/udev/rules.d TO MAKE DISKS PERSISTION REBOOT PERMISIONS
add script 99-informix-permissions.rules
KERNEL=="sda3", OWNER="informix", GROUP="informix", MODE="0660"

#bring up the engine oninit -i

add raw dbspace

onspaces -c -d dbspace1 -p /u2/informix/STORAGE/dbspace1_chunk1 -o 0 -s 100000000

Informix@Ubuntu

Submitted by eherber on Thu, 2009-04-02 09:46.

Thank you for your excellent description !

I think other Ubuntu newcomers will benefit from this too.

Hi Eric, Sorry, I am a bit

Submitted by Spokey on Mon, 2009-03-30 18:45.

Hi Eric,

Sorry, I am a bit hazy on the details, but as far as I know there isn't an official release of IDS for Debian yet. They are working on it. I will try and find out more and get back to you.

Informix@Ubuntu

Submitted by eherber on Thu, 2009-04-02 09:48.

Hi Spokey,

thank you for your effort. It will be interesting to hear what the status of the official IDS Debian packages is.

Looking forward to your answer.

Ubuntu packages

Submitted by eherber on Thu, 2009-10-29 11:44.

The Informix packages for Ubuntu could now be downloaded through the following URL:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+search?text=informix