Suse 7.1 and Mosix

The Mosix HOWTO
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5.6.1. Versions Required

The following is based on using SuSE 7.1 (German Version), Linux Kernel 2.2.19, and Mosix 0.98.0.

The Linux Kernel 2.2.18 sources are part of the SuSE distribution. Do not use the default SuSE 2.2.18 kernel, as it is heavily patched with SuSE stuff. Get the patch for 2.2.19 from your favorite mirror such as . If there are further patches for the 2.2.* kernel RROR URL HERE by the time you read this text, get those, too.

If one of your machines is a laptop with a network connection via pcmcia, you will need the pcmcia sources, too. They are included in the SuSE distribution as MISSING: RPM HERE.

Mosix 0.98.0 for the 2.2.19 kernel can be found on http://www.mosix.org as MOSIX-0.98.0.tar.gz . While you are there, you might want to get some of the contributed software like qps or mtop. Again, if there is a version more current than 0.98.0 by the time you read this, get it instead.

SuSE 7.1 ships with a Mosix-package as a rpm MISSING: RPM HERE Ignore this package. It is based on Kernel 2.2.18 and seems to have been modified by SuSE (see /usr/share/doc/packages/mosix/README.SUSE). You are better off installing the Mosix sources and installing from scratch.

5.6.2. Installation

We're assuming your hardware and basic Linux system are all set up correctly and that you can at least telnet (or ssh) between the different machines. The procedure is described for one machine. Log in as root. Install the sources for the 2.2.18 Kernel in /usr/src. SuSE will place them there automatically as /usr/src/linux-2.2.18 if you install the RPM RPM NAME. Rename the directory to /usr/src/linux-2.2.19. Remove the existing link /usr/src/linux and create a new one to this directory with
ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.2.19 linux
(assuming you are in /usr/src). Patch the kernel to 2.2.19 (or whatever the current version is). If you do not know to do this, check the Linux Kernel HOWTO. Make a directory /usr/src/linux-2.2.19-mosix and copy the contents of the vanilla kernel /usr/src/linux-2.2.19 there with the command
cp -rp linux-2.2.19/* linux-2.2.19-mosix/
This gives you a clean backup kernel to fall back on if something goes wrong. Remove the /usr/src/linux link (again). Create a link /usr/src/linux to /usr/src/linux-2.2.19-mosix with
ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.2.19-mosix linux
to make life easier. Change to /tmp, copy the Mosix sources there and unpack them with the command
tar xfz MOSIX-0.98.0.tar.gz
Do not unpack the resulting tar archives such as /tmp/user.tar that appear.

5.6.3. Setup

Run the install script /tmp/mosix.install and follow instructions.
Mosix should be enabled for run level 3 (full multiuser with network, no xdm) and 5 (full multiuser with network and xdm). There is no run level 4 in SuSE 7.1.
The Mosix install script does not give you the option of creating a boot floppy instead of an image. If you want a boot floppy, you will have to run "make bzdisk" after the install script is through.
Do not repeat /not/ reboot.
The install script in Mosix 0.98.0 is made for RedHat distributions and therefore fails to set up some SuSE files correctly. It tries to put stuff in /sbin/init.d/, which in fact is /etc/init.d/ (or /etc/rc.d/) with SuSE. Also, there is no /etc/rc.d/init.d/ in SuSE. So:

Edit the file /etc/inittab to prevent some processes from migrating to other nodes by inserting the command "/bin/mosrun -h" in the following lines:

Run levels:
l0:0:wait:/bin/mosrun -h /etc/init.d/rc 0 l1:1:wait:/bin/mosrun -h /etc/init.d/rc 1 l2:2:wait:/bin/mosrun -h /etc/init.d/rc 2 l3:3:wait:/bin/mosrun -h /etc/init.d/rc 3 l5:5:wait:/bin/mosrun -h /etc/init.d/rc 5 l6:6:wait:/bin/mosrun -h /etc/init.d/rc 6
(Remember, there is no run level 4 in SuSE 7.1)

Shutdown and sulogin:

    ~~:S:respawn:/bin/mosrun -h /sbin/sulogin
        ca::ctrlaltdel:/bin/mosrun -h /sbin/shutdown -r -t 4 now
        sh:12345:powerfail:/bin/mosrun -h /sbin/shutdown -h now THE \
           POWER IS FAILING

It is not necessary to prevent the /sbin/mingetty processes from migrating - in fact, if you do, all of the child processes started from your login shell will be locked, too [Note to German readers: This is mistake in the article "Zwischen Multiprocessing und Cluster-Computing" on Mosix in "Linux-Magazin" 6/2000].

To enable the processes started by your window manager to migrate, edit the files ~/.xinitrc and ~/.xsession by going to the end of the file and changing the line "exec $WINDOWMANAGER" to
exec /bin/mosrun -l $WINDOWMANAGER
You should be able to enable migration for all users' window mangers by modifying the equivalent line in /etc/X11/xdm/Xsession MISSING: NOT TESTED YET. However, see section 8 "Notes" for reasons why you might not want to do this by default.
The command to start and stop Mosix (do not repeat /not/ do this now) is
/etc/init.d/mosix {start|stop|status|restart|reload}
To have Mosix start automatically at boot time, go to /etc/init.d/ . In the subdirectories ./rc3.d and ./rc5.d, create the following links:
ln -s ../mosix S30mosix ln -s ../mosix K01mosix
The first line causes Mosix to be called as the last part of the install procedure for the given run level, the second line closes it down as one of the first services.
Create a file /etc/mosix.map following the instructions in the Mosix documentation. In the most simple case, you will have n computers which have their IP-addresses in sequence so that the map file will simply look like
1 IP-address of first node n
This is where a lot of errors occur, let me clarify this with an example. Suppose you have 5 machines, 10.0.0.1, 10.0.0.2 , 10.0.0.100 , 10.0.0.101 and 10.0.0.150 your mosix.map would look like
1 10.0.0.1 2 3 10.0.0.100 2 5 10.0.0.150 1
PLEASE VERIFY THIS !!!!!!!
Run "/etc/versionate", which will most probably tell you that the Mosix module already has a version. Do it anyway.
Now, finally, reboot. The computer should come up running Mosix.

5.6. Suse 7.1 and Mosix

5.6.1. Versions Required

5.6.2. Installation

5.6.3. Setup