Kick-off! for Linux version 1.0.1-5 February 26, 2004 Kick-off! is a reliability tool for unattended systems. It ensures that servers and kiosks remain up and running when they're needed. To do this, Kick-off! continuously monitors your system to make sure it is running normally. If the system crashes, Kick-off! restarts it automatically. The current version of the Kick-off! software can be found on our web site, at In addition to system crash detection, Kick-off! can monitor applications for failures. The Kick-off! software includes a "Launcher" utility to monitor existing applications. Kick-off! also supports our "Rebound! Timer" technology, offering an additional level of failure detection to custom applications. See the "using-rebound-timers.txt" document for more information. A complete help system for using Kick-off! can be found in the html folder, adjacent to this file. ___________________ System requirements Kick-off! for Linux requires an x86 computer with USB ports. It works with 100-240 volt, 50-60Hz electrical systems. It requires Linux kernel version 2.4 or later, and libusb. The Kick-off! configuration program requires gtk++, and runs under Gnome. Kick-off! has been tested with Red hat Linux 7.2 and 8.0. Other Linux configurations may work, but have not been tested, and are not officially supported at this time. However, we'd love to know if you are using another configuration! NOTE: In order to ensure that Kick-off! can successfully restart your computer after a crash, you may have to modify your BIOS settings. Specifically, you should make sure that your computer starts up automatically after a power failure. See the "Installation" section below for more information. ____________ Installation Hardware Installation: 1. Shut down your computer normally. 2. Disconnect the power cord from the back of your computer. 3. Connect Kick-off!'s power cord to the back of your computer. 4. Connect your computer's power cord to the inlet on Kick-off! 5. Connect Kick-off!'s USB cable to one of the USB ports on your computer. BIOS Setup: 6. Start up your computer and enter your BIOS configuration screen. (On most computers, this is done by holding down the DEL key during startup.) 7. Ensure that your computer is configured to start up automatically after a power failure. The location and name of this setting vary, but on many motherboards it can be found in the "Boot" menu, with the label "Restore on AC/Power Loss". Consult your motherboard manual for full instructions. 8. Continue starting up your computer normally. Software Installation: Kick-off! for Linux is distributed as a single RPM file, with a name of the form Kickoff-1.0.1-XX.i386.rpm where XX is replaced by the current build number. You will need to be logged in as root to install Kick-off! for Linux. As root, issue the following command: rpm -Uvh Kickoff-1.0.1-XX.i386.rpm (where XX is the build number) For information on what files are installed, see below. NOTE for users of Red Hat 7.x: Read the additional instructions in the "Known Issues" section of this document below before upgrading your Kick-off! software. ______________ Uninstallation Once again, as root, issue the command: rpm --erase Kickoff-1.0.1-XX (where XX is the build number) NOTE for users of Red Hat 7.x: Read the additional instructions in the "Known Issues" section of this document below before uninstalling your Kick-off! software. _____________ Configuration After you successfully install the RPM, you will need to use kickoff-gui to turn monitoring on. kickoff-gui is installed in the /usr/local/bin directory. Before running kickoff-gui, you should open Gnome. To open the Kick-off! online help system, click the "?" button at the upper right corner of the control panel. In order to monitor applications which do not have built-in support, you may need to use the Launcher program. See "Using Launcher" in the online help system for more information. _______________________________ What Gets Installed by the RPM? When you install Kick-off! for Linux, the following items are placed on your hard disk: /sbin/kickoffd the daemon which provides most of the software suite functionality /usr/local/bin/kickoff-gui the Kick-off! configuration program /usr/local/bin/launcher a wrapper which allows unmodified programs to be monitored by the daemon /usr/local/bin/client_test a simple test application to test the daemon /etc/rc.d/init.d/kickoffd the base rc script. Various symbolic links to this script in other rc levels /usr/local/include/kickoff/ko_sdk.h /usr/local/lib/libkickoff.a header and a library for developers to build Kick-off!-aware applications /usr/share/pixmaps/kickoff/about.xpm /usr/share/pixmaps/kickoff/help-button.xpm /usr/share/pixmaps/kickoff/ko-banner.xpm graphics used by kickoff-gui ___________ Other files /var/kickoff/prefs kickoffd stores its preferences in this file /var/kickoff/state kickoff-gui stores its preferences in this file /var/log/messages kickoffd writes messages to the standard system log. kickoff-gui is used to control the types of messages logged. ____________ Known Issues Upgrading Kick-off! under Red Hat 7.x: Due to a problem with signal handling in Red Hat 7, the rpm installer is unable to kill the previously installed Kick-off! daemon before installing the new one. To upgrade to Kick-off! 1.0.1 on this system, you must issue the following command (as root) BEFORE installing: killall -KILL kickoffd If, after attempting to install the rpm, a message appears saying "Already installed", you will need to manually launch the Kick-off! daemon using the startup script (as root): /etc/init.d/kickoffd start Uninstalling Kick-off! under Red Hat 7.x: Due to the same problem as described above, Red Hat 7 users must issue the "killall -KILL kickoffd" command before uninstalling the rpm. IMPORTANT: you must also disconnect Kick-off!'s USB connector to prevent Kick-off! from thinking the computer has crashed. ________________ Revision History 1.0.1-5 -- 2/26/04 Daemon rewritten to use libusb, eliminating the need for a kernel driver. 1.0.0 -- 4/1/03 First release. _______________ How to reach us Sophisticated Circuits, Inc. PO Box 727 Bothell, WA 98041-0727 e-mail: info@sophisticated.com, support@sophisticated.com phone: 425-485-7979 web: ________________________________ Copyright (C)2001-2004 Sophisticated Circuits, Inc. All rights reserved. The files in this package may not be redistributed in any way without express permission from Sophisticated Circuits, Inc. Kick-off! is a trademark of Sophisticated Circuits, Inc. All other products mentioned are trademarks of their respective owners.