DevStack on VirtualBox Ubuntu 20.04

The first step for DevStack inside of VirtualBox is creating the virtual machine. There are two obvious changes that you need to make and those are increasing processor count and assigned memory as high as you can afford it. The other two are a bit more “sneaky”.

We really have to enable Nested VT-x/AMD-V under System, Processor and if we want to access our system we should really set network forwarding rules for port 80 (HTTP for Dashboard) and port 22 (SSH, optional but really helpful). I usually set them to be 56080 and 56022 respectively under my localhost but the actual numbers can be of your choosing. And yes, there are other ways to setup networking but NAT with forwarding is mine.

With the virtual machine set, the next step toward DevStack is installing OS. While official guidelines prefer Ubuntu 18.04, I like to go with a slightly newer Ubuntu 20.04 Server. Whole installation is essentially one big click-next event with the only non-default part being installation of OpenSSH.

Once OS is installed, I also like to add my user to password-less sudoers and do any needed updates:

echo "$USER ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" | sudo tee /etc/sudoers.d/$USER

sudo apt update
sudo apt dist-upgrade --yes

And now finally we can follow the DevStack instructions with customized host IP (otherwise you’ll get “Could not determine host ip address” error) and admin password.

sudo useradd -s /bin/bash -d /opt/stack -m stack
echo "stack ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" | sudo tee /etc/sudoers.d/stack
sudo su - stack

git clone https://github.com/openstack-dev/devstack.git -b $STACK_BRANCH devstack/
STACK_BRANCH=stable/^^wallaby^^

cd devstack
cp samples/local.conf .
sed -i 's/#HOST_IP=w.x.y.z/HOST_IP=^^10.0.2.15^^/' local.conf
sed -i 's/ADMIN_PASSWORD=nomoresecret/ADMIN_PASSWORD=^^devstack^^/' local.conf
echo "#Enable heat services" >> local.conf
echo "enable_service h-eng h-api h-api-cfn h-api-cw" >> local.conf
echo "#Enable heat plugin" >> local.conf
echo "enable_plugin heat https://git.openstack.org/openstack/heat $STACK_BRANCH" >> local.conf

./stack.sh

Once done, GUI is available at http://localhost:56080/dashboard/.

Always Pushing Tags

Tagging is nice but I always forget to push the darn things. And yes, I am one of those guys that push all local tags - so what? We’re all kinky in our ways.

There are many ways you can ensure you push tags with your regular push but my favorite is just editing .gitconfig. In the [remote "origin"] section I just add the following two lines:

push = +refs/heads/*:refs/heads/*
push = +refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*

Now each push will come with a bit of extra.

Automatic Backlight Per Power Source

I love the feature when Windows sets different backlight level depending whether I am plugged in or on battery. I really fits how I use my laptop. But then one day that feature seemingly disappeared. Cause seemed to be a Windows Update and to fix it I would essentially need to restore my old driver.

Well, either that or this small utility. Once installed, it will run a service in the background tracking your power source and backlight level. Whatever level you last set on battery will be used whenever you unplug and whatever you set while plugged in will be used when your AC adapter is connected. Essentially, the same behavior as what once came by default.

While this will never be a full application as I doubt there will ever be enough interested people, download is available at GitHub.

PS: For Linux version check Backlight Tracer.

Editing Scanner Profile

Changing default scanner under Windows is possible but requires manually editing XML files.

Well, this utility at least removes that step. While knowledge of scanner profiles is necessary, one can now do it using application and without messing with XML files directly.

While this will never be a full application as I doubt there will ever be enough interested people, download is available at GitHub.

APIs Are a Fair Use

It took just 10 years but we finally know for sure: copying API is a fair use.

There’s a really detailed analysis of Supreme’s court decision at TechDirt for those wanting details.

Despite result matching what I believe is right and better for industry, it’s really heartbreaking it took 10 years and millions in lawyers to clean this up.