BroknDodge

Pray for my family...

2010-05-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

My family is currently going thru a very difficult time. I'm not completely sure of the details as of yet. Just asking any readers that I may have to pray for the best outcome for my family. With strength and determination, we will come thru this ordeal ok.

sun e250: just getting garbage from ttya, get proper login text from rsc

2010-01-25T06:36:00.000-08:00

I found an old e250 on the side of the road. someone had placed it out as trash. i want to play with this new toy, perhaps set up a lan file server for media. i intend to install debian on it. that's what i'm most familiar with.

anyway, the machine is headless, no keyboard, and i don't have enough money to purchase a sun type 4/5 keyboard. so i am trying to gain serial access thru ttya. i built a null modem cable. the cable works fine with the built in rsc (i get the rsc post and a login request). but when hooked up to ttya all i get thru hyperterminal, minicom or gtkterm is garbage. lots and lots of weird ascii characters. i'm sure my home grown cable works because rsc displays correctly. all terminals are set 9600,8n1,no flow control. when using the rsc connection i do get full echo of what i type. i'm pretty sure my cable is put together right.

i tried removing the rsc "card" (which is really less of a card and more like expansion ports with a ribbon cable going to the main board) and hooking the null modem cable to ttya, still just garbage on hyperterminal. i read more than one place that once the rsc card is removed the e250 should default to ttya. that didn't help me tho. i even tried working thru the garbage and hitting ctrl-break, ctrl-b in gtkterm. once or twice i was fast enough to get what might have been an ok prompt written in garbage. so i tried typing a few commands i found posted on this forums and others, but i never made any progress on that front.

I built my cable off the following chart:

Connect Pin to Pin on each end.
 
    25-pin           25-pin
     2 --------------- 3
     3 --------------- 2
     4 --------------- 5
     5 --------------- 4
     7 --------------- 7
     6 ---+
          +----------- 20
     8 ---+
               +--- 6
     20 ----------+
               +--- 8

obtained from this website: http://www.softpanorama.org/Solaris/Startup_and_shutdown/serial_console_on_solaris.shtml

i'm using a db25 to db9 converter to connect to my windows laptop or linux desktop.

this machine being foreign to me, i have no interest in trying to get rsc working, i am perfectly happy using ttya. Does anyone have any ideas on where i went wrong?

trying to check out the new Chromium OS from Google

2010-01-02T18:47:00.000-08:00

Well, I saw the webcast of Google's announcement of ChromeOS today. I have to say, I was impressed. Since the release of Chrome, I have been relying on web apps more and more. Simply put, they are faster in Chrome than native apps under VectorLinux. Vector is fast, that's why I use it. But, I am easily impressed by speed. I was instantly interested in something that claimed to be fast. I just had to try out ChromeOS.

EDIT: As of right now, ChromiumOS does not successfully run in Qemu. You can download and install binaries of Sun's VirtualBox here.

The initial alpha release is by the Chromium Project and named ChromiumOS. Vector has Qemu in the repository, I like using apps already in the repo. I have installed other virtual machines but not on the currant machine. Rather than going through my notes here and here, I chose to simply install Qemu. Qemu of course needs KQemu in order to run with any kinda real speed, so, I had to install kqemu. That required a SlackBuild from Connie's Slackware site. You will need the following files:

http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/qemu/build/50-kqemu.rules.new
http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/qemu/build/kqemu.SlackBuild
http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/qemu/build/kqemu-1.4.0pre1.tar.gz
http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/qemu/build/kqemu.slack-desc

Qemu has to be installed first. Then chmod 755 kqemu.SlackBuild. Once The new package was built, I installed it with:
installpkg kqemu-1.4.0pre1_2.6.27.7_smp-i486-2alien.tgz

modprobe kqemu

Now, trying to run qemu finds that /dev/kqemu is not accessible due to permissions. I used a dirty hack to get instant access to the device:

chown user1:user1 /dev/kqemu

Better to add $USER to the kqemu group, I think. Just didn't want to spend the research to figure it out. Once done, I was able to boot the vmdk image i got from here. Running:

bunzip2 chromiumos.vmdk.bz2

will expand the archive. I found this page useful for setting up and running a virtual machine in VirtualBox.

I looked at the QuickStart guide for Qemu to find out the best way to boot the image. After reading that page I came up with the following command. I saved it as a shell script:

qemu -hda chromiumos.vmdk -m 1024 -soundhw sb16 -net nic,model=ne2k_pci -net user

The root login for this particular image is: chrome. The regular user login is your Google login. My Google login is actually my Yahoo email addy, I found that if you don't include the entire email addy, ChromeOS will fill in with "@gmail.com" So it is important to use your entire email addy. Here are screenshots I captured during my experience:

EDIT: I installed Sun's VirtualBox and writing this edit from ChromiumOS. I'll post some new screenshots in a lil bit.

ChromiumOS running in Qemu...

Please remember this is while running in Qemu... first try! I will continue working with ChromiumOS in Qemu until I get the video issue worked out. My VM is using -m 1024, the host machine is an intel P4 @ 2.0 GHz running VectorLinux Standard Gold 6.0.

You can find the webcast I reviewed here:

Another web video of ChromiumOS's fast boot capabilities here:

google chrome slackware and vectorlinux scripts updated!!

2010-01-01T20:53:00.000-08:00

recently google made a beta release of chrome. their method of release has broken my install and update scripts for google chrome. i spent a few hours today making some bug fixes that take into account the recent changes. please remember the scripts will still crash xfce. you will have to reboot after running either of the scripts, then things will return to normal. for the life of me I can't figure out why the scripts crash xfce.

install-chrome.sh
Code:
#! /bin/bash
# Title: install-chrome
# Author: BroknDodge
# License: BSD
# Version: 0.0.5
#
# Special thanks to the following Vectorians for their help and suggestions:
# Daniel stretchedthin uelsk8ts
# hata_ph rbistolfi MOE-lnx
#
# Very Special thanks to the folks at Chromium.org and Google
# without whom there wouldn't be anything to install
#

#------------------------------------------#
# Setting up the Environment

enablePlugins="$1"
tmp="/tmp"
release="0"
chromeURL="http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/"

nssURL="http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/mozilla-nss/pkg/12.2"
nssPackage="mozilla-nss-3.12.3-i486-1alien.tgz"

#------------------------------------------#
# Making sure the system is sane

if [ $UID != 0 ]; then
echo "You must run this script as root."
exit 1
fi

if [ -d "$tmp/install-chrome" ]; then # check for and create temp dir
# Will enter here if dir doesn't exist
rm -R $tmp/install-chrome # hope you didn't have anything
mkdir $tmp/install-chrome # stored there
else
mkdir $tmp/install-chrome
fi

#------------------------------------------#

function trim() # function for trimming white space from my arrays
{
trimmed=$1
trimmed=${trimmed%% }
trimmed=${trimmed## }

echo $trimmed
}

function dotests {

echo Running tests...
#------------------------------------------#
# check for lzma

haveLZMA=`which lzma` # check for and getting lzma
if [ "$haveLZMA" == "" ]; then
slapt-get --install lzma
fi

#------------------------------------------#

#------------------------------------------#
# check for nss = 3.12.3

nssInstalled=`slapt-get --search nss-3.12.3` # I really need to check the version
nssInstalled=${nssInstalled#*=} # as well, but this build seems to
nssInstalled=${nssInstalled%]*} # work best with 3.12.3

if [ "$nssInstalled" != "yes" ]; then
installnss
fi
#------------------------------------------#

#------------------------------------------#
# check for GConf

gconfInstalled=`slapt-get --search GConf-2.22.0` # VL-Light doesn't ship with GConf
gconfInstalled=${gconfInstalled#*=}
gconfInstalled=${gconfInstalled%]*}

if [ "$gconfInstalled" != "no" ]; then
slapt-get --install GConf
fi

}
#------------------------------------------#

function simlinks {
cd /usr/lib
if [ ! -f "libnspr4.so.0d" ]; then
ln -s libnspr4.so libnspr4.so.0d
fi

if [ ! -f "libnss3.so.1d" ]; then
ln -s libnss3.so libnss3.so.1d
fi

if [ ! -f "libnssutil3.so.1d" ]; then
ln -s libnssutil3.so libnssutil3.so.1d
fi

if [ ! -f "libplc4.so.0d" ]; then
ln -s libplc4.so libplc4.so.0d
fi

if [ ! -f "libplds4.so.0d" ]; then
ln -s libplds4.so libplds4.so.0d
fi

if [ ! -f "libsmime3.so.1d" ]; then
ln -s libsmime3.so libsmime3.so.1d
fi

if [ ! -f "libssl3.so.1d" ]; then
ln -s libssl3.so libssl3.so.1d
fi

}

function installnss {

cd $tmp/install-chrome
wget $nssURL/$nssPackage
if [ ! -f "$nssPackage" ]; then
echo "For some reason wget didnt pull nss from Connies"
echo "slackware site"
return 1
fi
installpkg $nssPackage

rm $nssPackage

}

function installchrome {

cd $tmp/install-chrome
wget http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/dists/stable/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz
gunzip Packages.gz
rm -f Packages.gz
IFS='
'

declare -a fn=( `grep 'Filename:' Packages` ) # assign grep output to a variable
for i in 0 $((${#fn[@]} - 1))
do
fn[$i]=$(trim "${fn[$i]#*:}")
done

chromeFilename="${fn[$release]}"
chromePackage="${chromeFilename##*/}"

wget $chromeURL$chromeFilename

if [ ! -f "$chromePackage" ]; then # quit running if wget failed
echo "Something went wrong while retrieving" # and kick out a sane error msg
echo "Google Chrome"
return 1
fi

echo "Unpacking the deb file"
ar -x $tmp/install-chrome/$chromePackage

if [ ! -f "data.tar.lzma" ]; then # quit running if ar failed
echo "Something went wrong while unpacking" # and kick out a sane error msg
echo "the .deb file"
return 1
fi

echo "Extracting Google Chrome"
lzma -d data.tar.lzma
if [ ! -f "data.tar" ]; then # quit running if lzma failed
echo "Something went wrong while extracting" # and kick out a sane error msg
echo "Google Chrome"
return 1
fi

cd /
echo "Installing Google Chrome"

tar xf $tmp/install-chrome/data.tar
if [ ! -f "/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome" ]; then # let me know if chrome wasn't
echo "Installation failed while moving files" # installed correctly
echo ""
return 1
fi
echo "Installation Complete!"

}

function main {
echo
echo "WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING"
echo "This script may severely damage your system"
echo "Dont say I didnt WARN you"
echo
echo "Are you sure you want me to Monkey with your System? [yes/no]"
echo "[for your safety you must type yes to proceed]"
echo

read YN
if [ "$YN" = "yes" ]; then
if [ -d "/opt/google/chrome" ]; then
echo "Looks like Google Chrome is already installed"
echo "Do you want to remove it and reinstall? [yes/no]"
read yn
if [ "$yn" = "yes" ]; then
rm -R /opt/google/chrome
rm /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop
dotests
simlinks
installchrome
else
return
fi
else
dotests
simlinks
installchrome

fi
elif [ "$YN" = "no" ]; then
return
else
main
fi

}

main

update-chrome.sh
code:
#!/bin/bash
# Title: update-chrome
# Author: BroknDodge
# License: BSD
# Version: 0.0.1

# http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/dists/stable/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz
# http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/dists/pool/main/g/google-chrome-unstable/google-chrome-unstable_3.0.196.0-r22005_i386.deb

#----------------------------------------#
# Settings

url="http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/"
tmp="/tmp"
declare -a ChromePackages

#----------------------------------------#

#----------------------------------------#
# Testing the Environment

if [ $UID != 0 ];then # test for root
echo "You must run this script as root."
exit 0
fi

if [ ! -d "$tmp/update-chrome" ]; then
# Will enter here if dir doesn't exist
mkdir $tmp/update-chrome
fi

cd $tmp/update-chrome

if [ -f "Packages" ]; then
#checking to see if Packages exists
mv Packages Packages.installed
fi

#----------------------------------------#

function check-update {
wget http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/dists/stable/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz
gunzip Packages.gz

if [ ! -f "Packages.installed" ]; then
update
fi

IFS='
'
declare -a version=( `grep 'Version:' Packages` )
for i in 0 $((${#version[@]} - 1))
do
version[$i]=$(trim "${version[$i]#*:}")
done

declare -a VersionInstalled=( `grep 'Version:' Packages.installed` )
for i in 0 $((${#VersionInstalled[@]} - 1))
do
VersionInstalled[$i]=${VersionInstalled[$i]#*:}
done

if [ "$version[0]" == "$VersionInstalled[0]" ]; then
echo Google Chrome is Up to Date
rm Packages
return
else
echo $VersionInstalled[0] is installed, but $version[0] is available
echo Updating
update
fi

}

function update {
IFS='
'

declare -a fn=( `grep 'Filename:' Packages` ) # assign grep output to a variable
for i in 0 $((${#fn[@]} - 1))
do
fn[$i]=$(trim "${fn[$i]#*:}")
done

filename="${fn[0]}"

mkdir tmp
cd tmp
wget $url$filename

rm -R /opt/google/chrome # get rid of the previous install
# don't worry settings are stored in $HOME dir
cd $tmp/update-chrome/tmp

echo Unpacking the deb file...
ar -x ${filename##*/}
echo Extracting Google Chrome...
lzma -d data.tar.lzma
cd /
echo Updating Google Chrome...

tar xf $tmp/update-chrome/tmp/data.tar
cd $tmp/update-chrome
mv Packages Packages.installed
declare -a VersionInstalled=( `grep 'Version:' Packages.installed` )
for i in 0 $((${#VersionInstalled[@]} - 1))
do
echo ${VersionInstalled[$i]}
VersionInstalled[$i]=$(trim "${VersionInstalled[$i]#*:}")
echo "${VersionInstalled[$i]}"
done

echo "Google Chrome updated to version" ${VersionInstalled[0]}
rm -R tmp

return
}

function trim() # function for trimming white space from my arrays
{
trimmed=$1
trimmed=${trimmed%% }
trimmed=${trimmed## }

echo $trimmed
}

function main {
check-update
return
}

main

Updated Google Chrome installer for VectorLinux Slackware

2009-10-31T08:08:00.000-07:00

I double checked the script I posted on here for installing Google Chrome on Vector Linux. Version I had posted wasn't the latest. So I updated it. I also corrected a couple of spelling errors and some comments that had been copy-pasted.

I've noticed that the installer will crash xfce for some reason. So I highly recommend that once chrome is installed - restart xfce.

Links:
Chrome-Installer

Update-Chrome

Xhpterm

2009-10-06T15:40:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've been trying to find a suitable terminal to access the HP3000 servers we use at work. After quite a bit of searching I finally found references to something called freevt3k. This program was supposed to be packaged with a block mode 700/92 terminal emulator called xhpterm. All this links I found were dead.

After another week of searching I found freevt3k on RapidShare. I usually avoid that particular file server due to the illegal nature of much of the files they serve. This time I took a chance.

I made a couple of small corrections and setup a sourceforge project to store the code on. I'll be happy to accept any patch's sent to me. Also, any dev's that want svn commit access - need just ask. The code is kinda basic and could use some updating, but it works.

Here is the new project page

2009-08-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

Edit: She finally did return my call. We spent a couple of weeks talking things through. I'm not saying things are perfect yet. But she did come home. I believe that with good communication we can work things out. To quote one of my favorite movies - "Stuffs gettin better, stuffs gettin better all the time"

Yesterday my world came crashing down on me. I came home from work and found an empty house. My beautiful wife had packed what she could in the Accord and left with all three boys. I'm not saying that I was suprised. This is the second time she left in two months. Just... well unexpected. We had dinner plans. I am not the perfect husband, by any means. But, I try very hard. We fight, sometimes more than others. But doesn't every couple? We have been trying to communicate better lately. But, i guess, not enough.

So far she has been gone about 30 hours. I don't know if she made it to where she was headed. She won't answer text or voice messages. Neither will her sisters or mother. I don't even know how my sons are. My oldest just started first grade. He was trying very hard to make some knew friends. The other two have been through so much in the last two months that they are showing signs of seperation anxiety.

I just wish i knew if they were ok.

Script for updating chrome on Vector Linux and Slackware

2009-08-07T22:09:00.000-07:00

I wrote an update script to go along with my install script. This one hits the Google Chrome Linux repo to get the latest released version. Doesn't handle dependencies. Doesn't create any simlinks. This one assumes Chrome has already been installed and just replaces the parts that need updated. You can find my install-chrome script here.

Originally published here

Code:

#!/bin/bash
# Title: update-chrome
# Author: BroknDodge
# License: BSD
# Version: 0.0.1

# http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/dists/stable/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz
# http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/dists/pool/main/g/google-chrome-unstable/google-chrome-unstable_3.0.196.0-r22005_i386.deb

#----------------------------------------#
# Settings

url="http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/"
tmp="/tmp"

#----------------------------------------#

#----------------------------------------#
# Testing the Environment

if [ $UID != 0 ];then # test for root
echo "You must run this script as root."
exit 0
fi

if [ ! -d "$tmp/update-chrome" ]; then
# Will enter here if dir doesn't exist
mkdir $tmp/update-chrome
fi

cd $tmp/update-chrome

if [ -f "Packages" ]; then
#checking to see if Packages exists
mv Packages Packages.installed
fi

#----------------------------------------#

function check-update {
wget http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/dists/stable/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz
gunzip Packages.gz

if [ ! -f "Packages.installed" ]; then
update
fi

version=`grep 'Version:' Packages`
version=${version#*:}
read -rd '' version <<< "$version"

VersionInstalled=`grep 'Version:' Packages.installed`
VersionInstalled=${VersionInstalled#*:}
read -rd '' VersionInstalled <<< "$VersionInstalled"

if [ "$version" == "$VersionInstalled" ]; then
echo Google Chrome is Up to Date
rm Packages
quit
else
echo $VersionInstalled is installed, but $version is available
echo Updating
update
fi

}

function update {

filename=`grep 'Filename:' Packages` # assign grep output to a variable
filename=${filename#*:}
read -rd '' filename <<< "$filename" # remove white space from a variable

mkdir tmp
cd tmp
wget $url$filename

rm -R /opt/google/chrome # get rid of the previous install
# don't worry settings are stored in $HOME dir
cd $tmp/update-chrome/tmp

echo Unpacking the deb file...
ar -x ${filename##*/}
echo Extracting Google Chrome...
lzma -d data.tar.lzma
cd /
echo Updating Google Chrome...

tar xf $tmp/update-chrome/tmp/data.tar
cd $tmp/update-chrome
mv Packages Packages.installed
VersionInstalled=`grep 'Version:' Packages.installed`
filename=${VersionInstalled#*:}
read -rd '' VersionInstalled <<< "$VersionInstalled"
echo Google Chrome updated to version "$VersionInstalled"
rm -R tmp

quit
}

function quit {
exit 0
}

function main {
check-update
}

main
exit

Google Chrome on Vector Linux and Slackware 12.x

2009-08-07T21:49:00.000-07:00

I been running Chrome on Ubuntu at work for a couple of months, and I have to say, I'm impressed. I run VectorLinux 6.0 at home. I wanted to give chrome a spin. Unfortunately, my system isn't big enough to build from source. So I had to go with the .deb installation file provided by Google. Not exactly an easy task to install a foreign package on a Slackware based Distro. During the testing I developed a script to automate the process. With the help of some friends on the VectorLinux Forums, I think I've got it working pretty well.

Originally published here

So here it is:

Code:

#! /bin/bash
# Title: install-chrome
# Author: BroknDodge
# License: BSD
# Version: 0.0.5
#
# Special thanks to the following Vectorians for their help and suggestions:
# Daniel stretchedthin uelsk8ts
# hata_ph rbistolfi MOE-lnx
#
# Very Special thanks to the folks at Chromium.org and Google
# without whom there wouldn't be anything to install
#

#------------------------------------------#
# Setting up the Environment

enablePlugins="$1"
tmp="/tmp"

chromeURL="http://dl.google.com/linux/direct"
chromePackage="google-chrome-unstable_current_i386.deb"

nssURL="http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/mozilla-nss/pkg/12.2"
nssPackage="mozilla-nss-3.12.3-i486-1alien.tgz"

#------------------------------------------#
# Making sure the system is sane

if [ $UID != 0 ]; then
echo "You must run this script as root."
exit 1
fi

if [ -d "$tmp/install-chrome" ]; then # check for and create temp dir
# Will enter here if dir doesn't exist
rm -R $tmp/install-chrome # hope you didn't have anything
mkdir $tmp/install-chrome # stored there
else
mkdir $tmp/install-chrome
fi

#------------------------------------------#

function dotests {

echo Running tests...
#------------------------------------------#
# check for lzma

haveLZMA=`which lzma` # check for and getting lzma
if [ "$haveLZMA" == "" ]; then
slapt-get --install lzma
fi

#------------------------------------------#

#------------------------------------------#
# check for nss = 3.12.3

nssInstalled=`slapt-get --search nss-3.12.3` # I really need to check the version
nssInstalled=${nssInstalled#*=} # as well, but this build seems to
nssInstalled=${nssInstalled%]*} # work best with 3.12.3

if [ "$nssInstalled" != "yes" ]; then
installnss
fi
#------------------------------------------#

#------------------------------------------#
# check for GConf

gconfInstalled=`slapt-get --search GConf-2.22.0` # VL-Light doesn't ship with GConf
gconfInstalled=${gconfInstalled#*=}
gconfInstalled=${gconfInstalled%]*}

if [ "$gconfInstalled" != "no" ]; then
slapt-get --install GConf
fi
return
}
#------------------------------------------#

function simlinks {
cd /usr/lib
if [ ! -f "libnspr4.so.0d" ]; then
ln -s libnspr4.so libnspr4.so.0d
fi

if [ ! -f "libnss3.so.1d" ]; then
ln -s libnss3.so libnss3.so.1d
fi

if [ ! -f "libnssutil3.so.1d" ]; then
ln -s libnssutil3.so libnssutil3.so.1d
fi

if [ ! -f "libplc4.so.0d" ]; then
ln -s libplc4.so libplc4.so.0d
fi

if [ ! -f "libplds4.so.0d" ]; then
ln -s libplds4.so libplds4.so.0d
fi

if [ ! -f "libsmime3.so.1d" ]; then
ln -s libsmime3.so libsmime3.so.1d
fi

if [ ! -f "libssl3.so.1d" ]; then
ln -s libssl3.so libssl3.so.1d
fi

return
}

function installnss {

cd $tmp/install-chrome
wget $nssURL/$nssPackage
if [ ! -f "$nssPackage" ]; then
echo "For some reason wget didnt pull nss from Connies"
echo "slackware site"
exit 1
fi
installpkg $nssPackage

rm $nssPackage
return
}

function installchrome {

cd $tmp/install-chrome
wget $chromeURL/$chromePackage

if [ ! -f "$chromePackage" ]; then # quit running if wget failed
echo "Something went wrong while retrieving" # and kick out a sane error msg
echo "Google Chrome"
exit 1
fi

echo "Unpacking the deb file"
ar -x $tmp/install-chrome/$chromePackage

if [ ! -f "data.tar.lzma" ]; then # quit running if ar failed
echo "Something went wrong while unpacking" # and kick out a sane error msg
echo "the .deb file"
exit 1
fi

echo "Extracting Google Chrome"
lzma -d data.tar.lzma
if [ ! -f "data.tar" ]; then # quit running if lzma failed
echo "Something went wrong while extracting" # and kick out a sane error msg
echo "Google Chrome"
exit 1
fi

cd /
echo "Installing Google Chrome"

tar xf $tmp/install-chrome/data.tar
if [ ! -f "/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome" ]; then # let me know if chrome wasn't
echo "Installation failed while" # installed correctly
echo "moving files"
exit 1
fi

if [ "$enablePlugins" = "--enable-plugins" ]; then
IFS='
'
file=( $( < /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome.desktop ) )
file[5]="Exec=/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome --enable-plugins %U"
echo "${file[*]}" > /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop
echo "Desktop Menu created with Plugin support"
echo "Installation complete"
quit
else
cp /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome.desktop /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop
echo "Desktop Menu created without Plugin support"
echo "Installation complete"
echo
echo "to enable flash type google-chrome --enable-plugins"
quit
fi

}

function quit {
exit 0
}

function main {
echo
echo "WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING"
echo "This script may severely damage your system"
echo "Dont say I didnt WARN you"
echo
echo "Are you sure you want me to Monkey with your System? [yes/no]"
echo "[for your safety you must type yes to proceed]"
echo

read YN
if [ "$YN" = "yes" ]; then
if [ -d "/opt/google/chrome" ]; then
echo "Looks like Google Chrome is already installed"
echo "Do you want to remove it and reinstall? [yes/no]"
read yn
if [ "$yn" = "yes" ]; then
rm -R /opt/google/chrome
rm /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop
dotests
simlinks
installchrome
else
quit
fi
else
dotests
simlinks
installchrome
fi
elif [ "$YN" = "no" ]; then
quit
else
main
fi
quit
}

main
exit

Whats up with the MegaCorps buying up smaller companies?

2009-05-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

Recently a few articles on ZDNet have upset me. I began really thinking hard about this when Oracle announced it's buyout of Sun Microsystems. Predominantly they are buying a company that is in direct competition with them. Ok, I guess this is what large companies have done for years. The problem is the technologies are not compatible. So will Oracle lose their own DB business or kill MySQL. By the way, MySql is open source. There are already a couple of proje cts underway that reduce some of the issues with MySql and are completely compatible with that product. Did Oracle by Sun for Java. It has also been open sourced. Aside from that their are also a number of other projects that are reimplementing the runtime and development environments. So there is no benefit there. Maybe it was Solaris. That being the case MySql and Java may just be on the chopping block. So you've got two poorly managed companies merging into one monster company with no clue as to direction. I just don't see this as a truly compatible purchase.

Now Larry Dignon over at ZDNet is talking about big blue buying Red Hat? First off, I am not sure IBM is that stupid. Second... why? I will give you that IBM spends billions on Unix and Linux development, but we are talking about a company worth over $130 billio n? Red Hat maybe sits at a lil over $3.5 billion. With heavily overlapping product lines. So would IBM drop AIX or RHEL? I don't see them keeping both. Also Red Hats JBOSS directly competing with an IBM's WebSphere product. The only benefit here is picking up Red Hat's support contracts paying an estimated $167 million a quarter. Wouldn't big blue consider that pocket change. Then they have to spend a few billion while "realizing synergies." I just don't see it. IBM already does everything Red Hat does and a whole lot more. Where would IBM benefit from this acquisition?

This whole fiasco is reminiscent of recent posts regarding Apple, Inc (formerly Apple Computer Corporation). A simple search a ZDNet for the one word 'apple' will turn up a host of negative blog posts regarding Apple and their corporate philosophy. The thing is they are making money hand over fist. Gross revenues up 25% over last year and net profits up 18%. That tells me they are doing just fine. Okay, so they are not Microsoft. They ain't trying to be! Personally, I would certainly be happy with second place. Even if second place meant only a 7% market share. That second place earned Apple over $4 billion last year. Likely even more this year. Nothing wrong with that

NO it's NOT an iPhone!

2009-05-12T07:40:00.000-07:00

Recently, while on a search for my home grown netbook article, I stumbled across a company producing ultra cheap smart phone. One even looks identical to the iPhone. Apparently there are a broad range of cheap knock-off iPhones out there. But this one company is actively innovating. The SciPhone i68 (pictured at left) was not impressive. It merely looks like an iPhone. But the i68+ v4a released late last year is considerably more impressive. First off, it's unlocked. You can use it with any service in the world that uses GSM technology. Next, according to the uTube videos I've seen, this thing has some of the same touch capabilities of the real iPhone. Without Apple's appstore that is. Here's a short feature list from the SciPhone site:

Features

Installed java games with jar package;
Slide to unlock;
FM radio;
Supports MMS/GPRS;
.E-book,64 phonix ring tone;
Special input interface, enlarge the letter when click virtual keypad;
3.2 inch ultra-definition flat touch screen;
Quad-band 850/900/1800/1900 GSM Worldwide coverage
High-Res TFT display, 260K colors, 240x320 pixel resolution
Touch Screen
Exclusive user interface, themes and styles
3.2 inch LCD plus 3.2 inch touch screen

These phones do not run Apple's iPhone OS. Rather a heavily modified Nucleus RTOS. One company has actually built an entire business model around providing updates to the OS. Javquisoft provides firmware updates for the SciPhone and it's clones. Thats right, the SciPhone has become so popular that other companies are actually cloning it. So the iPhone clone has a clone. Actually, a bunch of them.

While looking around for more info regarding the SciPhone i68+, I discovered several other phones the company has ripped off. They produced the Dream G2 which claims to run Android. In fact it also runs a slick version of Nucleus RTOS made to look like android.

SciPhone may actually begin innovating tho. They are working on something called the SciPhone N12. This phone, based on Marvell's Monahan processor, will run a genuine copy of Android. The spec sheet looks pretty good. From the SciPhone N12 page:

SciPhone N12 Smart Phone with Google

Processor: Marvell's Monahan (624MHz) + Qualcomm MSM6246
Operating system: Android/ Windows Mobile
Dimensions: 117*58*12.7
Mode: UMTS-2100MHz, GSM-900/1800/1900 MHz
Bearer: GSM, 3G(WCDMA)
Display: WQVGA 240*400 pixels, 3.2 inch TFT 262K
Main camera: 3.2M pixel
Secondary Camera: 0.1M pixel
Storage: ROM-256MB+64MB, RAM-256MB+64MB
Extended Storage: Micro SD, up to 16GB
USB: USB 2.0 high speed
Bluetooth: Ver 2.0
GPS: Yes
WiFi: IEEE 802.11b/11g
TV: CMMB
Battery capacity: 1000mAh
Standby time(GSM): Up to 220 hours
Voice talk time(2G): Up to 170 minutes

The Prototypes are expected May 25, 2009 with the production model expected to ship June 25, 2009. Looking over this translation of the original Chinese news page. The N12 will support WCDMA and all international GSM frequencies. Those of us using a CDMA network, such as Verizon, will still be left out of the mix.

The big question is cost. The other knock-offs from this company retail for under $150 and wholesale for under $90. Can the N12 be price competitive with these other phones or will it wind up in the iPhone and Blackberry price range. The above referenced site claims the N12 will retail for around RMB1600or about $235. I used this site to convert into US Dollars.

I would certainly like to see this phone in action. With a full retail price under $250 I believe it could seriously compete in the US market. With this new business model, SciPhone may just become the next household name. The already powerful 624 MHz processor is also available all the way up to 1.2 GHz. Although the faster the chip, the more power it uses. Emerging battery technologies could just propel SciPhone to the top of the OEM phone market. Now thats a coming of age story. SciPhone started out in the Chinese black market cloning popular phones. Now they may just make it into the big time.

Embedded Linux... is it really cost efficient?

2009-05-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

I've been doing some research over the last few days. I began with the simple idea of putting together a resource for home brewed netbooks. Should be a simple enough matter, right? Not really. While embedded technology has come a long way in the last few years. I believe a majority of companies offering embedded solutions are still living in the dark ages.

I can pick up a powerful Arm cpu based home network router at my local office supply company for $20 to $40 dollars. But, a far less powerful board for development purposes may cost anywhere from $130 to $1000. Tell me, why would I pay $300 for an old 586 based board running at only 133 MHz? I wouldn't. This thread posted back in 2005 pretty much sums up the market today. While a couple of the links listed in it are dead, most of them are alive and have actual embedded main boards for sell. The problem I'm having is that entry level netbooks imported from China start at around $130 and go up to around $500. How can the complete machines be this cheap if the development boards cost more then the completed device.

This is just the tip of the iceburg. Next I began looking into displays. Touch screen makes more sense to me that just a regular display. So I started there. First I had to learn the difference between the various available technologies. TFT seems to be the standard right now. I found a couple of companies offering TFT LCD displays in various sizes. This company only charges $517 for a 10.4 inch display. I found another company that offeres an 8inch display module for only $205. The 7 inch version is only $139. This is really starting to get rediculous. If we add everything up so far, we are well over $500 and dont have a keyboard or case yet.

Since the project is already getting so expensive I thought I would check out touchscreen. After looking around for a little while I stumbled across this company. They claim to provide OEM touch screen technology. Now if you look at the price list a 10.2 inch touch screen kit is $150 dollars!!! $135 dollars at this company. No wonder none of those cool little gadgets come with touch screen.

Should the embedded market continue this pricing scheme, I really don't see the micro devices really catching on. I really expected to be able to put this whole thing together for under $200. Not counting the case of course. I am completely astonished that a company would expect me to pay over $300 for any 200Mhz board.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. One company I found is actively trying to bring down the prices in the embedded market. Marvel has put together what they call a System on an Chip. The latest version is called the Kirkwood Series. Marvel has unveiled this new chip in their Plug Computer product with a development version from GlobalScale Technologies at only $99. They expect the consumer version to drop down to $49 very quickly. The Kirkwood SoC is a 1.2GHz Arm processor based on Intel XScale technology. The best thing is that Marvel actually has multiple core SoC's available. With a complete embedded computer at only $49, I well expect the entire embedded market to begin to see some highly competitive pricing very quickly. VIA C7 - step aside. There's a new sheriff in town.

Now if only someone will put together a reasonably priced LCD display.

Fix that Corrupted Hard Drive

2009-05-06T18:20:00.000-07:00

We've all seen it at one point or another. Either a corrupted partition table or Master Boot Record (MBR) making a hard drive unreadable. Data recovery cost a fortune. I've opened more than one computer and found a hard drive thats not hooked up. Some one was playing with fdisk and killed the partition. Recovery cost to much but they had data or pictures they didn't want to loose.

The solution I've found is TestDisk. Version 6.11.3 was released today. Test disk is licensed under the GPL and is Open Source. Whether the corruption occurred because of faulty software, virus or good old human intervention. TestDisk is designed to repair a bad partition table or even make a non booting disk bootable again.

From the TestDisk site:
TestDisk can

Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
Fix FAT tables
Rebuild NTFS boot sector
Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
Fix MFT using MFT mirror
Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock
Undelete files from FAT, NTFS and ext2 filesystem
Copy files from deleted FAT, NTFS and ext2/ext3 partitions.

TestDisk has features for both novices and experts. For those who know little or nothing about data recovery techniques, TestDisk can be used to collect detailed information about a non-booting drive which can then be sent to a tech for further analysis. Those more familiar with such procedures should find TestDisk a handy tool in performing onsite recovery.

The good folks at cgsecurity.org have put together a huge list of common problems and how to fix them with TestDisk. Everything from recovering a corrupted FAT32 partition to repairing the Dell Utility partition on Dell computers. Even recovering a reformated partition. This little Open Source tool is a dream.

Yeah but what does it run on?
Best of all TestDisk runs on just about everything under the sun. From Dos (including FreeDos and Win95 DosBox) Windows NT series (from NT4 all the way up to Vista) just about every Linux or Unix know to man and even MacOS. The list of file systems it can fix is longer than the list of systems it will run on. Everything from FAT12 to XFS. Yes, NTFS too.

Getting the software
Linux folks should check their distros repository first. But if it's not available there are more than enough live cds to go around. You can find the most up-to-date list here. For the Windows users out there, TestDisk can be downloaded for your version of Windows from here.

"We're Linux" Video Contest has been DECIDED!!!

2009-05-05T17:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm a little late in reporting this. But, a few months ago Linux.com and The Free Software Foundation ran a video contest for what was basically Linux commercials. There were almost a hundred entries. Some were definitely better than others. On April 8th, 2009 The Linux Foundation announced the winners. From the announcement "These videos reflect the best of what was truly a global community effort with videos being submitted from Asia, Europe, North America and South America." There were some impressive entries. All of them filmed, edited and designed on Open Source Software. I am certain that the decision was a tough one. But, I believe they made excellent choices.

The second runner up - Linux Pub (with subtitles)
I remember thinking this one was funny. Watch it closely.

From The Linux Foundation Site: "Sébastien Massé lives in Paris, France and is a graduate of the EICAR, The International Film School of Paris. He is an Audio-Visual Technician with a passion for film and television cinematography. Sébastien also devotes a lot of his time to the development of Table Ronde Films, a group that he created along with five other graduates of EICAR. The goal of Table Ronde Films is to encourage and help young artists implement their cinematic and artistic projects."

First Runner up - The Origin
I was blown away by the graphic design of this wonderful little video.

From The Linux Foundation Site: "Agustin Eguia is a 28-year-old Uruguayan native living in Brussels. He discovered Linux at the age of 14, thanks to people like his father Hugo Eguia, family friend Hugo Godoy, and the UYLug (Uruguayan Linux group). Agustin works in two fields quite different from each other. In the IT field, he handles server implementation (domain controllers, storage, render farms, dispatching computations, optimization), and networking, mostly for the stable income. The second field is the one that defines what he really loves to do and himself: art. Concept, design, animation, 3D, and VFX. He specializes in design, motion graphics, and 3d animation with a strong influence of dynamics, particles, and fluids."

And the Winner Is - What Does It Mean to Be Free?

From The Linux Foundation Site: "Amitay Tweeto lives in Bet Shemesh, Israel. The 25-year old freelance graphic designer and UI consultant entered this contest because he thinks Linux is suffering from bad PR. When people think of Linux they think "technical," gray stuff for programmers only. Amitay wants to let people get to know the other side of Linux, the flexibility they can get with no technical background. "That's the reason why I love Linux, it can be everything I want it to be."

You can check out all the entries here.

My answer to 'Top 7 reasons people quit Linux'

2009-05-05T16:55:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite technology blog sites is zdnet.com. Today Andrew Nuska posted an article entitled Top 7 reasons people quit Linux? How about 7 reasons to try it. While I agree with Andrews statements, he did not answer the original reasons for quiting Linux. I also have to agree with Andrew, Keir Thomas of PC World did get a bit arrogant in his article. I would like to attempt to respond in a more respectful fashion to Keir's reasons.

1. Linux doesn't run a program I use

That may be true. The most notable is Yahoo! Messenger. Wine is working on it, but Yahoo keeps breaking it. If yahoo would just cooperate we could make it work. (Edit: Just tested Yahoo against latest wine, it now logs in but is still really unstable.) No Pidgin does not have exactly the same functionality. There are others, but again, we are working on it. I do tend to not worry about whether or not the software is for Windows or Linux, I just install it and see if it works. Often times, when the Linux version requires too much work, I will just grab the Windows version and see. So far, only Messenger has failed.

2. I installed Linux, but some element of my hardware didn?t work

This one is not really different from Windows. A lot of hardware doesn't work right out of the box under Windows. You have to find the drivers for it. The best part about Linux is, it's very likely you won't have to look much farther than your distro's repository (appstore). Some printers still don't work, but support is getting better. Many devices actually work better under Linux that Windows. Others are still in development. Pick a modern Distro and keep it updated. What doesn't work today, might work next week. You can also do the Linux thing and go complain to the people working in that area. They will coach you through getting information about your hardware and sending it to them. This may not be an instant fix, but it will help everyone using Linux. Once I began using Linux full time, it just became habit to look up hardware I want to purchase and check for Linux compatibility. I tend to find the Linux capable hardware to be cheaper and better made.

3. I tried Linux, but I had to type commands

The command line is the most powerful tool in Linux. But I don't like it either. Fortunately, we are not alone. More and more tools are being developed that stand between us the command line. Now I will only use the command line when I want to. Not because I have to. That said, refer to #3. Should you have hardware that doesn't work and some developer is trying to help you make it work. You will find it far easier to cut and past commands into the command line, than to follow a bunch of screen shots on which buttons to push.

4. I did *this*, and *this* happened. That doesn't happen with Windows

Your right. Linux is not Windows. It's not better, it's not worse. It is different and under constant development. For the average user, Linux will meet their needs. Flash works, so does Java. Acrobat reader does install and run. Wine is available from most repositories, tho it might require some manual package installation to get a fully functioning Windows replacement. Much of that is point and click tho. All Windows multimedia codecs work, but some of the encryption stuff doesn't yet. You can use it right out of the box or you can make a few changes to make it more Windows like. But never think that Linux is like Windows. It's just not.

5. I posted a message on a forum, but Linux people were mean to me

True dat. Linux forums are no different than any other forums. There are mean people every where. But there are enough nice people that you should be able to get along. Historically, people don't like answering the same question a dozen times each day. So they do expect you to at least try to find the answer on your own. I will typically start with a Google search with either Linux or my distro (VectorLinux) as the first word of my search. Then, if you can't find your answer within ten minutes, post. I like Linuxforums.org. Thats a very nice group of people. They have the forums broken up into distro. That way your not looking through posts about Slackware trying to find the answer to your Ubuntu problem.

6. I just don't like it

Linux is not for everyone. Thats okay. We offer freedom of choice. The competition we provide to Windows and OSX helps everyone. It's okay if you don't like Linux, just the fact that we are here means your next Windows experience will be just a little bit better. Do you remember Windows 95-ME. That was the days before Linux became noticed by Microsoft. WinXP was a lot better. Then Vista offered much better security. Now Win7 will combine stability, speed and security. Linux means free choice. That means MS has to continue to earn your business. That's good for everyone.

7. I installed Linux and things went honey-nut-loops crazy

That is possible. Not sure how. But possible. I installed Ubuntu 9.04 yesterday on an older HP Vectra. After installation the Graphical Interface (xserver) wouldn't start. That happens sometimes. But there are a lot of different distro's. Ubuntu went haywire on that machine so I switched to a lighter distro. A variant of Slackware called VectorLinux worked great on that old PentiumII. I'm not going to tie you down and make you try Linux. I just ask that you not stop with the first distro you try. They are all different and each has it's strengths and weaknesses. Set up an old machine out of the closet. One that just barely runs WinXP or maybe it doesn't run it anymore. Use that one as your Linux testbed. Don't be afraid to say 'This distro just doesn't work for me.' Not everyone has a great broadband connection. But everyone can buy preburned copies of various Linux cds or dvds. Just Google cheap Linux cds. Most folks offer them for around $5+shipping.

I hope this offered at least some information.

Who am I... honestly, I don't know!

2009-05-04T13:35:00.000-07:00

iron man songs

Right now I'm jammin to GnR. A few seconds ago it was T.A.T.U. Go figure. I love Linux, I don't like where it's heading. I drink too much, or maybe it's not enough. I read the tech blogs just so I can call the authors id10ts. Most of them anyway. I own an 04 Honda Accord... damn it's fast. I have owned a 68 Chevelle Malibu... it wasn't fast, but it turned heads. I like to blog... some people hate me... some love me.... few fall in the middle. Best of all I sell used cars for a living.

I am passionate about a lot of things. I am NOT religious! Sometimes you will see me at my best, sometimes my worst. Either way, you know where you stand. I will always tell you the truth... as I see it at that particular moment in time. But, as we all know, time changes everything. Sometimes (and with some people) faster than others. I am one of those people. I do not know how to hate. I am a city boy living in a lonely world. I have loved and lost, only to love again. I have a beautiful wife (that thinks me strange sometimes) and three rowdy boys. What can I say, there mine. The oldest is five, he stays confused most of the time. But he has to have music to unwind. The middle one just turned two, he has to have music to breath. The youngest just turned one, the jury is still out (but he has that 'look' in his eyes).

I have been a lot of places, seen a lot of things. My elementary years are a blur of school and people. Probably has a lot to do with who I am. Middle school was an adventure, all three of them. I remember a girl in seventh grade named Rachel. First day of class I made her laugh (that was fun) at the expense of a kid I was in boy scouts with. I still don't feel bad, I remember her smile. Long sandy blond hair. I remember computer class, they were antique Tandy's. Shouldn't have surprised the teacher when I cracked her little pos program and passed the crack around the class. I remember a different school. Was trying to make friends but got busted for smoking instead. Shop class was ok, I remember a lil Thai girl I liked. A blond science teacher that gave blonds a bad name. She called in a bomb threat because I told her colored chalk mixed in the right proportions would make an explosive device. FOOL. Thats whats teaching your children! I ran into a nice girl the other day that recognized me as soon as she saw me. Twenty years after middle school. I guess I left my mark.

High school was torture. That is the time when I became who I am, whoever that is. Everyone knew me. Many still do. Go figure. I didn't believe I was popular. I just got along well with people. Still do mostly, tho I tend to embarrass my wife. Many hate me, many love me. Nothing particularly important happened to me during high school, except that I finished all four years at one school. You can miss em as well as you hear. Life is hell. That became reality. Discovered Linux.

I floated after school. Never held a job longer than six months. Lost. Not sure I'm found yet. But I am. I met people that I liked. Carol... got me. Lu.. you know. Dottie.. confusion in a blond. Carthage, police, streets. Not necessarily in that order. Total breakdown. Had a roommate that was a good friend. Discovered Natural Ice beer. Wallpapered my walls with twelve pack boxes. Discovered Tarot. Moved, got my first sales job. Played with Linux. Web servers, web design. Failed at everything, except friends. Had too many of those. Drove a big truck for a while, met the woman that would become my wife. During this time, life sucked. I still don't know how I survived. Take these broken wings. It's all I have.

Life with my wife has been different. She tolerates me, even when she doesn't like me. She is my life's blood. My soul. My conscience. I still have not been completely sober. But I have experience sobriety. Linux has progressed almost to the point of boredom. Now it just works. I am still passionate. Not in the same ways. Seven years with my wife. Had to write this blog to remember life before her. Probably would not survive life without her. Making new friends. We shall see how long they last. I don't keep in touch with people well. When I do, I tend to mess things up. I have seen a great life, I still don't know where it has left me.

Canada, living on the streets in Florida, good jobs, bad jobs, owned a few startups. My biography would make a good read, I'll leave that to my sons to write. Like I said, I am not a religious person, but I try to be a moral person. When alcohol is not involved, unfortunately alcohol is usually involved. I still don't know who I am. I just hope I am mostly a good person.

VirtualBox on VectorLinux

2009-05-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

The following is my post to the VectorLinux forums regarding my experience with getting Sun's VirtualBox to run. Bear in mind, that a lot of this was being written while I was actually working on it. The whole problem stems from the kernel headers included with VL. They run a couple of revisions behind the running kernel. I don't understand why and no one was willing to explain it to me. You can check out the original topic here.

------------------------

trying to install virtualbox using the file VirtualBox-2.2.2-46594-Linux_x86.run downloaded form sun's website

got the following message:

Code:

root:# ./VirtualBox-2.2.2-46594-Linux_x86.run
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox for Linux installation.........
VirtualBox Version 2.2.2 (2009-04-27T18:21:54Z) installer
Please install the build and header files for your current Linux kernel.
The current kernel version is 2.6.27.12
Problems were found which would prevent VirtualBox from installing.
Please correct these problems and try again.

opened gslapt and looked for headers all i could find was version 2.6.24.5_smp-x86-2 but the installed kernel is
2.6.27.12-i686-3vl60

how do i go about getting the headers for the kernel version i am running?

------------------------

This morning while I had the testing repo turned on, i rechecked for the 2.6.27.12-i686-3vl60 headers and still no luck, i'm not real familiar with kernel stuff. would the newer headers show up if i uninstalled the 2.6.24.5_smp-x86-2 headers?

edit: just tried that, the old header packages didn't seem to have anything depending on them so i figured what the heck. but after updating, still no luck. i'm sure the newer headers are in there somewhere - i just don't know what package to look for.

------------------------

okay, here's how far i've gotten.

per instructions from http://dlc-cdn-rd.sun.com/c1/virtualbox/2.2.2/UserManual.pdf?e=1241370083&h=fe9df3f953f6027d43aa71e865775b87 in the manual install section.

Code:

./VirtualBox-2.2.2-46594-Linux_x86.run --keep --noexec
mkdir /opt/VirtualBox
tar jxf ./install/VirtualBox.tar.bz2 -C /opt/VirtualBox

okay, thats gets me the virtualbox module source to work with. but i still need headers for my running kernel. so i found a page on slackbook.org that describes enough information. =kernel&s[]=compile]http://alien.slackbook.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=linux:kernelbuilding&s[]=kernel&s[]=compile. from that i did the following.

Code:

wget http://www.us.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.27.12.tar.bz2
tar -C /usr/src -jxvf linux-2.6.27.12.tar.bz2
zcat /proc/config.gz > /usr/src/linux-2.6.27.12/.config
cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.27.12
make oldconfig

from the slackbook page i learned that 'make help' would give me more options. i found an option to install headers.

Code:

 make headers_install

now everything should work right? not exactly

Code:

Vector://home/brokndodge/Desktop
root:# cd /opt/VirtualBox/src
Vector://opt/VirtualBox/src
root:# make
*** Building 'vboxdrv' module ***
make[1]: Entering directory `/opt/VirtualBox/src/vboxdrv'
make KBUILD_VERBOSE= -C /lib/modules/2.6.27.12/build SUBDIRS=/opt/VirtualBox/src/vboxdrv SRCROOT=/opt/VirtualBox/src/vboxdrv modules
make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.12'
CC [M]  /opt/VirtualBox/src/vboxdrv/linux/SUPDrv-linux.o
In file included from include/linux/gfp.h:4,
           from include/linux/slab.h:12,
           from /opt/VirtualBox/src/vboxdrv/linux/../SUPDrvInternal.h:101,
           from /opt/VirtualBox/src/vboxdrv/linux/SUPDrv-linux.c:37:
include/linux/mmzone.h:18:26: error: linux/bounds.h: No such file or directory
include/linux/mmzone.h:197:5: warning: "MAX_NR_ZONES" is not defined
In file included from include/linux/gfp.h:4,
           from include/linux/slab.h:12,
           from /opt/VirtualBox/src/vboxdrv/linux/../SUPDrvInternal.h:101,
           from /opt/VirtualBox/src/vboxdrv/linux/SUPDrv-linux.c:37:
include/linux/mmzone.h:218: error: 'MAX_NR_ZONES' undeclared here (not in a function)
In file included from /opt/VirtualBox/src/vboxdrv/r0drv/linux/the-linux-kernel.h:80,
           from /opt/VirtualBox/src/vboxdrv/linux/SUPDrv-linux.c:38:
include/linux/mm.h:437:63: warning: "NR_PAGEFLAGS" is not defined
include/linux/mm.h:485:62: warning: "NR_PAGEFLAGS" is not defined
make[3]: *** [/opt/VirtualBox/src/vboxdrv/linux/SUPDrv-linux.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** [_module_/opt/VirtualBox/src/vboxdrv] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.12'
make[1]: *** [vboxdrv] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/opt/VirtualBox/src/vboxdrv'
make: *** [all] Error 2
Vector://opt/VirtualBox/src
root:#

so now i am a complete loss. i don't know what to do from here. so i deleted the /opt/VirtualBox directory and decided since i think i have the correct kernel headers installed now to just try the regular install.

Code:

Vector://home/brokndodge/Desktop
root:# ./VirtualBox-2.2.2-46594-Linux_x86.run install
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox for Linux installation.........
VirtualBox Version 2.2.2 (2009-04-27T18:21:54Z) installer
Installing VirtualBox to /opt/VirtualBox
Building the VirtualBox kernel module
Failed to build the vboxdrv kernel module.
Please check the log file /var/log/vbox-install.log for more information.

VirtualBox has been installed successfully, but the kernel module could not
be built.  When you have fixed the problems preventing this, execute
/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
as administrator to build it.

You will find useful information about using VirtualBox in the user manual
/opt/VirtualBox/UserManual.pdf
and in the user FAQ
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/User_FAQ

We hope that you enjoy using VirtualBox.

Vector://home/brokndodge/Desktop
root:#

still no joy! what have i missed??? /var/log/vbox-install.log contains the following:

Code:

VirtualBox 2.2.2 installer, built 2009-04-27T18:21:54Z.

Testing system setup...
System setup appears correct.

Installing VirtualBox to /opt/VirtualBox

Output from the module build process (the Linux kernel build system) follows:

make KBUILD_VERBOSE=1 -C /lib/modules/2.6.27.12/build SUBDIRS=/tmp/vbox.0 SRCROOT=/tmp/vbox.0 modules
test -e include/linux/autoconf.h -a -e include/config/auto.conf || (  \
echo;        \
echo "  ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid.";  \
echo "         include/linux/autoconf.h or include/config/auto.conf are missing."; \
echo "         Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel src to fix it."; \
echo;        \
/bin/false)
mkdir -p /tmp/vbox.0/.tmp_versions ; rm -f /tmp/vbox.0/.tmp_versions/*
make -f scripts/Makefile.build obj=/tmp/vbox.0
gcc -Wp,-MD,/tmp/vbox.0/linux/.SUPDrv-linux.o.d  -nostdinc -isystem /usr/lib/gcc/i486-slackware-linux/4.2.3/include -D__KERNEL__ -Iinclude  -I/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.12/arch/x86/include -include include/linux/autoconf.h -Wall -Wundef -Wstrict-prototypes -Wno-trigraphs -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -Werror-implicit-function-declaration -O2 -m32 -msoft-float -mregparm=3 -freg-struct-return -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -march=i586 -mtune=generic -ffreestanding -DCONFIG_AS_CFI=1 -DCONFIG_AS_CFI_SIGNAL_FRAME=1 -pipe -Wno-sign-compare -fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables -mno-sse -mno-mmx -mno-sse2 -mno-3dnow -Iinclude/asm-x86/mach-default -fno-stack-protector -fomit-frame-pointer -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wno-pointer-sign -I/lib/modules/2.6.27.12/build/include -I/tmp/vbox.0/ -I/tmp/vbox.0/include -I/tmp/vbox.0/r0drv/linux -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -DRT_OS_LINUX -DIN_RING0 -DIN_RT_R0 -DIN_SUP_R0 -DVBOX -DRT_WITH_VBOX -DVBOX_WITH_HARDENING -DCONFIG_VBOXDRV_AS_MISC -DRT_ARCH_X86 -DVBOX_WITH_64_BITS_GUESTS -DMODULE -D"KBUILD_STR(s)=#s" -D"KBUILD_BASENAME=KBUILD_STR(SUPDrv_linux)"  -D"KBUILD_MODNAME=KBUILD_STR(vboxdrv)" -c -o /tmp/vbox.0/linux/SUPDrv-linux.o /tmp/vbox.0/linux/SUPDrv-linux.c
In file included from include/linux/gfp.h:4,
           from include/linux/slab.h:12,
           from /tmp/vbox.0/linux/../SUPDrvInternal.h:101,
           from /tmp/vbox.0/linux/SUPDrv-linux.c:37:
include/linux/mmzone.h:18:26: error: linux/bounds.h: No such file or directory
include/linux/mmzone.h:197:5: warning: "MAX_NR_ZONES" is not defined
In file included from include/linux/gfp.h:4,
           from include/linux/slab.h:12,
           from /tmp/vbox.0/linux/../SUPDrvInternal.h:101,
           from /tmp/vbox.0/linux/SUPDrv-linux.c:37:
include/linux/mmzone.h:218: error: 'MAX_NR_ZONES' undeclared here (not in a function)
In file included from /tmp/vbox.0/r0drv/linux/the-linux-kernel.h:80,
           from /tmp/vbox.0/linux/SUPDrv-linux.c:38:
include/linux/mm.h:437:63: warning: "NR_PAGEFLAGS" is not defined
include/linux/mm.h:485:62: warning: "NR_PAGEFLAGS" is not defined
make[2]: *** [/tmp/vbox.0/linux/SUPDrv-linux.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vbox.0] Error 2
make: *** [vboxdrv] Error 2

End of the output from the Linux kernel build system.
Installation successful

so per the log i did the following

Code:

cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.27.12
make oldconfig && make prepare

then per the output from the install script i ran

Code:

root:# /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
bash: /etc/init.d/vboxdrv: No such file or directory

i feel like i'm running in circles

------------------------

success, i think
i figured well, i'd just uninstall and try to reinstall so i did

Code:

root:# ./VirtualBox-2.2.2-46594-Linux_x86.run uninstall
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox for Linux installation........
VirtualBox Version 2.2.2 (2009-04-27T18:21:54Z) installer
VirtualBox has been removed successfully.

then

Code:

root:# ./VirtualBox-2.2.2-46594-Linux_x86.run install
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox for Linux installation.........
VirtualBox Version 2.2.2 (2009-04-27T18:21:54Z) installer
Installing VirtualBox to /opt/VirtualBox
tar: Record size = 8 blocks
Building the VirtualBox kernel module
Building the VirtualBox netflt kernel module

VirtualBox has been installed successfully.

You will find useful information about using VirtualBox in the user manual
/opt/VirtualBox/UserManual.pdf
and in the user FAQ
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/User_FAQ

We hope that you enjoy using VirtualBox.

i think it worked. gonna try to run virtualbox now.

----------------------------

virtualbox does run now

if someone wants it i could probably clean this up into a proper howto.

----------------------------

Review of Ubuntu 9.04 on a low resource system

2009-04-30T13:34:00.000-07:00

The test system is an antique HP Vectra running a PII-450 with only 256MB of physical system memory. The hard drive is a little more modern 7200rpm 40GB drive.

To be honest, Ubuntu blew it. What sounded like a great new release has left me scratching my head. To start with, I new that Ubuntu would have a lot of problems getting into the Live CD mode. Thats a given considering the severly low memory. I began the installation by choosing the Install Ubuntu option. I turned off all of the f6 options. Selected f4 and chose OEM Install. While the installer was booting, I noticed that yet again Ubuntu has chosen to go with a heavily memory intensive Xorg + installer configuration. I haven't understood this for a while, as Ubuntu is based on Debian Linux. Debian developed a very elegant graphical installer based on gtk-directfb. No xserver! Debian graphical installer runs very well on low resource systems. Why oh why won't the Ubuntu devs wake up to a better way of life. The work has been done for them!

Installation was a bit unresponsive on this system. But I got through it slowly. Remove the cd and reboot. Everything is going great, got through the core boot process very quickly, I'm impressed. But Xorg didn't want to start. After Xorg restarted it's self three times Ubuntu handed me a screen saying that it was running in a low video mode. Ok, no biggie, just go on and start. So I clicked OK. Then I am handed a screen asking me what I want to do about it. So with a very poorly implemented series of troubleshooting screens and about 20 minutes I am dumped out on the command line. Come on, every major distro I have installed on this system has been able to detect this nearly 10 year old video crad. The card is a Matrox MGA G200.

So, now I'm at the command line. Try to run a few major text editors, the only thing I could find was Vi. Thats not good. Many noob's can't even figure out how to exit Vi, much less get a file open with it. Why not something clean like MCEdit or ee? So I open the xorg.conf thinking surely it's just a lil tweak and we will be rolling - then I can file a bug report and be on my way. Xorg.conf was an empty shell. All of the sections were there, but they were empty. What??? Do I have to write this thing from scratch?

I finally found a way to get into a desktop and ran dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg. Only changes it made were to the keyboard setup. Checked out the xorg.conf again. Now the keyboard setup is fleshed out but still no real setting in the device section. I added a line specifying the vesa driver instead of mga. Reboot and viola, boot's up now. This whole mga thing is gonna haunt me tho.

Nice log in screen. I run an old RealTek rtl8185 wireless network card in this test machine. Linux has always had issues with this card, it's a 50/50 shot of the native rtl8180 driver locking up the system. Thats the only thing I have ever seen that could repeatedly lock up a Linux box. During initial installation the rtl8185 did lock up Ubuntu. So on first boot I blacklisted the rtl8180 module and shutdown the system. Reinstall the card and turn it back on. Ndiswrapper has always been able to run the WinXP driver for this card. So the system is rebooted. I copied the relative windows driver files into my home directory. I looked around for maybe ten minutes trying to find some gui that could easily handle installing the ndis drivers for my rtl8185. No luck, so I drop to the command line to run 'sudo ndiswrapper -i net8185.inf'. program not installed - run apt-get install ndiswrapper-common to install it.

Okay, I give up. Ubuntu - I haven't worked this hard to get one Linux box up and running since RedHat 4.01. You guys need to download VectorLinux 6.0 Gold Standard and find out what a real Linux looks like.

Stallman is an Extremist

2009-04-29T18:53:00.000-07:00

I have a few word to say in response to the zdnet article 'Apache or GPL?' mikefarinha had posted a comment regarding Richard Stallman in which he said "I'm sorry but the GPL crowd bastardizes the word freedom how they use it." mikefarinha had quoted several paragraphs written and spoken by Stallman.

------------------------

agreed, stallman is an extremist...
but if you own a dell laptop, all of your drivers and diagnostic utilities were shipped in a fat16 partition that boots FreeDos. freedos is the answer to those situations where you have to have an os, just not one that take 2.5 gig of space. freedos is a gpl project. many many companies use it for boot utilities such as memory checkers, hard drive diagnostics, flashing your bios. there's a hundred more that i fail to remember.

now, had the freedos project not been started, those tools may not be so easy to use, after all, MS discontinued MS Dos. now, whether or not development continues past FreeDos 1.0, it will be available forever. it's open source. no one in particular owns it. use it, modify it, donate to the project if you want development to continue. whether it does or not tho, freedos will still be available for those small projects that need an os, just not the biggest most powerful thing available.

likewise, even if microsoft and apple go belly up (and i hope they never do). these wonderful machines that we have laying around will still have an operating system to run them. if world war 3 were to happen tomorrow and every company on this planet were to be destroyed, somewhere there will survive a copy of linux and it's source code. we will survive. we will rebuild, we will not have to hack something together from scratch.

it's okay if you prefer closed source software. it's okay if you use code from my own little fserve project and don't donate money to me. i had fun putting it together. i learned quite a bit doing it. it looks good on a resume. it's okay. we can all be friends. i like open source for the development cycle. it's kinda like the weather in arkansas, if you don't like it... wait five minutes, it'll change.

i like open source because if it doesn't work, i might just learn something trying to make it work. i like it because when i needed an fserve, the one i found didn't quite do what i needed... so i made it do what i needed. now i may be the team lead on a project of one, but at least i didn't have to write it from scratch.

stallman is crazy, but crazy makes headlines. that, i think, is what he wants to do. it gets us attention. thats okay. i personally don't care for gpl. i think it is too restrictive. i write code and post it to the public under a bsdish license because i want it to be there the next time i need it. my fserve still uses a lot of the original code that was released gpl, so i have to release my changes under the gpl. thats okay.

i released a gdm theme under gpl, because the theme i based it on was gpl. last time i lost a hard drive, i was able to find my theme on the internet and download it. so that okay.

so i guess gpl is okay, some are more diehard than i am. but thats okay, i use it because i don't want to have to write the same code all over again. it's like reinventing the wheel. by the way, can you imagine where linux could go if both microsoft and apple would lay down their battle-axes and cooperate?

There were a couple of very inteligent responses to my posting, you can follow them here. Once your done with that comment, just scroll down to find a few other intelligent responses.

A lil upset with zdnet.com

2009-04-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

I do a lot of commenting on zdnet.com. Recently, I've been having trouble finding some of my comments, I like to check back to see if anyone has responded to them. Today I posted three comments to this zdnet article. I checked back after work, all three of my comments had been removed! Often my comments are well thought out and multiple paragraphs (okay, many times they are longer than the article they are in response to). Today, not so much.

The article in question, in case you didn't click thru and read it, is about how Adrian Kingsley-Hughes squeezed the new Windows 7 release candidate onto a netbook. I mentioned in my first comment, responding to another comment about wiping the netbook and installing Ubuntu, simply stated I would wipe Ubuntu and install a very optimized copy of VectorLinux. Another comment I posted said something about purchasing a $300 Win7 site license for a $300 netbook, might as well just buy a $600 laptop with Win7 preinstalled. My third comment was a link to a $400 laptop from Everex running gOS.

I spent about 20 minutes looking through my extensive list of bookmarks to find that link. I still don't understand the point in removing it. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes had written a very poor article, really more of a long comment, about installing a very expensive Operating System onto a very cheap netbook. Total cost being about the same as similar laptop hardware. I was simply pointing out how rediculus the idea was. Why would you want to even consider a full blown Windows OS on an 8 inch screen. We're talking about trying to do real computing on a device about the side and shape of a portable dvd system.

Come on, it's ridiculous. Only Adrian would even consider it. I would consider VectorLinux, simply because it's optimized for just such low end hardware. VectorLinux is built from the ground up to run in less than 256MB of ram on processors clocking in under 1GHz. Total install is less than 2GB. I am running VectorLinux on two different HP Vectra's both clocking in at 450MHz with only 256MB physical RAM. Vector runs as well on these machines as Windows Vista runs on a 2GHz system with 2GB physical RAM. Granted Microsoft has put Win7 on a serious diet. System requirements are not that much higher than good old WinXP. Well, the real unpublished requirements anyway.

All that is to say, I believe I made reasonable comments to the story and other responders. Apparently, zdnet disagreed. There was no sense removing my comments. That served no purpose, except to hush up the fact that there is a Linux Distro (VectorLinux) that makes Windows look like the over fed pig that it is. Or the fact that Adrian is more of a propagandist than a journalist.

That's my two cents.

reprint of "Howto: Install Firefox 2 and various plugins on Debian Etch"

2006-12-26T18:30:00.000-08:00

Okay, this one is old. But I thought I would reprint it here just for my own reference. The original thread is posted on LinuxForums.org
-----------------------
I don't know if anyone is interested, but I found that Debian Etch comes with Firefox 1.5 rather that Firefox 2.0. There has been some talk about Firefox 2.0 rendering pages faster and generally working better than Firefox 1.5. It took me some time to figure out everything needed to get Firefox 2.0 and various plugins installed and running. Here's how I did it.

Bookmark this page

We are going to need some additional repositories other than the basic ones used by a fresh Debian Etch Install. Start your Root Terminal and give roots password. Gnome users click Applications - Accessories - "Root Terminal". You should now have a nice pretty white window that says Terminal at the top.

I found a very easy to use editor for novices, it has a complete menu of all available options. To install this editor type:

Code:

debian:/# apt-get install ee

now we are going to edit our sources.list

Code:

debian:/# ee /etc/apt/sources.list

The important parts are in bold:

Quote:

#
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib non-free

#
# Debian Multimedia Repositories
#

deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org etch main

Now update apt

Code:

debian:/# apt-get update

Now that our sources.list has the required repos lets start with Firefox 2.0.

Firefox 2.0 depends on libstdc++5

Code:

debian:/# apt-get install libstdc++5

Firefox 2.0 may be available from the debian unstable repo as Iceweasel. However, I elected to go with the official Firefox 2.0. I am in the US and speak English so I use the en-US version of Firefox. Other versions can be found at ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.or....0/linux-i686/ pick your locale and substitute into the following code:

Code:

debian:/# cd /tmp
debian:/# wget ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0/linux-i686/en-US/firefox-2.0.tar.gz

Now we need to unpack the archive:

Code:

debian:/# cd /opt
debian:/# tar -zxvf /tmp/firefox-2.0.tar.gz

I have seen some warnings that some Firefox 1.5 plugins (namely totem) are supposed to mess with Firefox 2.0. I have not found this to be the case. I have found that some plugins in the Firefox 1.5 directory are simlinks that break if you just copy the files over to the 2.0 directory. Aside from that, dpkg will still install your plugins to the old 1.5 directory. So let's recycle all those plugins from the previous Firefox 1.5 install. We are going to create a symbolic link from the installed Firefox 1.5 plugins directory to our new Firefox 2.0 plugins directory.

Code:

debian:/# cd /opt/firefox
debian:/# rm -R plugins
debian:/# ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/plugins /opt/firefox

Now we need to tell debian where to find the new Firefox 2.0

Code:

debian:/# ln -sf /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox
debian:/# ln -sf /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox
debian:/# ln -sf /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/mozilla

That is all there is to installing Firefox 2.0. You should now be able to click on your Firefox panel icon and find that firefox 2.0 is up and running.

Now let's install some standard plugins.

Sun's Java

Type the following command to install Java from debians contrib repo. You will be asked to accept Sun's license agreement.

Code:

debian:/# apt-get install sun-java5-jre sun-java5-fonts sun-java5-plugin

According to Sun's website (https://jdk-distros.dev.java.net/debian.html) "...you may need to choose the Sun JRE as the default with:"

Code:

debian:/# update-java-alternatives --set java-1.5.0-sun

After the install is done, you will need to restart Firefox and test the plugin here -> http://java.com/en/download/installed.jsp

When I tested mine the plugin didn't work so I created a link from Sun's Java plugin to Firefox's plugin dir.

Code:

debian:/# ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so

Now restart Firefox and retest here -> http://java.com/en/download/installed.jsp

Adobe's Flash Player 9

Now lets install Flash player 9. This install has been made painless by a package thats available in either the contrib or non-free repos.

Code:

debian:/# apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

Restart Firefox and test Flash here -> http://www.adobe.com/go/tn_15507 You should see a version number in the 9,0,21,78 range.

Adobe Acrobat Reader

There is an official Adobe Acrobat plugin for firefox in either the Debian contrib or non-free repos. You can install it using:

Code:

debian:/# apt-get install acroread acroread-escript acroread-plugins mozilla-acroread

Restart your browser and test the plugin here -> http://www.opa.ca.gov/help/pdf/testpage.pdf

Mplayer and mp3 stuff

If your like me, you get tired of going to sites and finding out that you can't view or listen to some video or music file because they used a format thats not open source. Debian-multimedia.org has fixed this for us. If you followed this howto exactly the repository is already setup. Simply do the following:

Code:

debian:/# apt-get install mplayer mplayer-skin-blue mozilla-mplayer w32codecs mplayer-doc

Restart Firefox and test the plugin with your favorite multimedia site. If you want to see every plugin you now have available to you then type

Code:

about:plugin

in the Firefox url bar.

Optional Firefox Configuration

I don't like having to manually select urls in the url bar to navigate to a different site. I also like having the tab bar up all the time. I don't like the bookmarks bar up all the time. And all those security warnings talking about entering and leaving encrypted pages really don't make any sense to me. Also, by default Firefox doesn't use http.pipelining. pipelining allows the browser to use more available bandwidth to download pages quicker. If you agree with all of the above then you can fix it by following all of the following instructions:

Bookmarks toolbar

Click View - Toolbars - "Bookmarks Toolbar"

Tab bar

Click Edit - Preferences - Tabs - "Always show the tab bar"

DOM Inspector

I don't know what it does, except slow down Firefox. But there is an addon running by default called DOM Inspector. The Description says that it "Inspects the structure and properties of a window and its contents." You can turn it off by clicking Tools - "Add-ons" under the heading "DOM Inspector" click Disable. Voila, Firefox is now a lot faster (at least on my old eMachine).

Urlbar, pipelining, security warnings

Now we are going to get into the actual Firefox Configuration. In the Firefox url bar type about:config

urlbar

In the Filter bar type urlbar. The second item listed should be browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll. Under the Value column right click on false then click toggle. The value field should now say true.

pipelining

In the Filter bar type pipelining. The first line will say network.http.pipelining right click on false and click toggle. Now the third line will say network.http.proxy.pipelining right click on false and click toggle.

security warnings
In the Filter bar type security.ui. The only option is security.ui.enable. Right click on true and click toggle. (edit: i've been told firefox never actually used this setting)

Restart Firefox for all the new settings to take effect. Now you are rid of all the annoying things that cause people to not use firefox. Hopefully you will get as much enjoyment from all the new features and plugins as I do. Enjoy using Firefox 2.0.

__________________
brokndodge
- OSS is not a religion, it's the solution to buggy irresponsible coding -
--------------------------

2006-05-24T19:49:00.000-07:00

I've created a theme for GDM that pleases me. For anyone interested in it I have posted it here. This theme is not for everyone. But I liked the pic. I based on a stock theme included in GDM. I'm sorry I don't remember which theme I based it on. Should someone recognize it, please post a comment with the details. I will be happy to include credit.

Fell free to tell me how you feel about this theme.

Is IBM's Cell Broadband Engine worth the wait?

2006-05-08T07:28:00.000-07:00

The short answer: Yes

The long answer: Cell is a revolutionary idea put together by the folks over at Sony and engineered by IBM, Sony and Toshiba. The idea is simple, the chip is not. One “modified” Power Processor Element (PPE) sits on top of eight (thats not a typo) proprietary Synergistic Processor Elements (SPE). Each PE will run at or around 3.2 ghz with 4.0 ghz possible. Cell doesn't use a cache, instead each SPE has it's own 256k local store. Each SPE can only access it's own local store, preventing cache overwrites.

Ok, so multi core chips aren't revolutionary. That comes in the way they talk to each other. The PPE, mostly, assigns work to each of the eight SPEs. This also allows the PPE to locate other Cells on the network and assign work to them. Thats right, beowolf in a chip. Lets say you have 16 web servers. All 16 servers usually carry a medium traffic load. One of your customers becomes an overnight success and the virtual server they are on suddenly gets more traffic than it can possible handle. The other 15 servers are just sitting there, not really working hard, but doing whats asked of them. Well, if those servers are running your typical dual core x86 chips then the one server is SOL. However, if those servers are running dual Cell chips, the Cell thats in trouble will start sending work over to the other Cells on the network. Automatic, integrated load balancing designed into the chip from the beginning.

The real benefit will be for graphics farms. Setting up a large scale graphics farm will be easier than ever. Each Cell is capable of 256 GFLOPS at 4ghz. For comparison the Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra has reached 40 GFLOPS and the typical 3ghz Pentium 4 can do around 6 GFLOPS. Each Cell in the farm will be linked with every other Cell on a level never before seen. To demonstrate it's graphics capabilities, Toshiba showed a single Cell decoding 48 standard definition MPEG 2 streams to a single HDTV screen. One of the SPEs was left idle while this was happening. I'll leave further explanation of the Cell's graphics rendering capabilities to those that know more about that industry, but it sounds to me like this chip might just be a rendering farm on 1 chip.

All this power is not completely wasted on the desktop. Aside from the gaming possibilities, most desktop apps could be easily modified to take advantage of the Cells 8 SPEs. Currently I'm running 3 instances of firefox with about 4 tabs each, OOo Writer and listening to my favorite G'n'R cd. Just the audio stream alone could be broken across several SPEs to deliver extremely high quality audio replay. Firefox could hand large jpegs off to an SPE to decode leaving the PPE to fetch the next element of the page's I'm viewing. Flash web content is becoming more popular everyday. Flash could be passed from one SPE to the next for decoding and processing to provide the smoothest animations ever seen. The possibilities for tweaking desktop apps are endless.

There has been some concern about the Cell not having “out-of-order” hardware on the PPE. OOO is supposed to allow speed bursts of up to 3 Instructions Per Cycle being processed. From what I have been able to determine, OOO realistically results in about 1.6 Instructions Per Cycle being processed. The Cell's PPE has been built with a Dual Channel design allowing it to process 2 Instructions Per Cycle, every cycle. Without the OOO hardware, Cell uses less power allowing it to “run faster”, reaching potential 4 ghz or more. More instructions per cycle and more cycles per second means faster processor.

IBM has already ported the Linux kernel to run on Cell. Sony ported the GNU Tools. The Cell port has been incorporated into the main Linux tree as of v. 2.6.16. The rest of your OS will have to be recompiled to run on and take advantage of Cell. IBM already has AIX and OS/400 up and running. I expect the big Linux Distros to follow shortly after Cell is available to the public.

According to various articles and IBM's website, Cell will be available from more than just IBM, Sony and Toshiba. The 3 developers apparently have some agreement that 3^rd party distribution will be allowed. Right now there are no plans for a desktop version, with the exception of Sony's Playstation 3 (which is powered by an 8 core Cell instead of the 9 core used by IBM).

Now, the really good news. Sony is expected to offer some form of Linux kit (similar to the one offered for Playstation 2). The PS3 will accept a laptop hard drive and should accept usb keyboard and mouse, making it the perfect $500 server. “Though sold as a game console, what will in fact enter the home is a Cell-based computer“ - Ken Kutaragi

IBM has Cell Blade Centers available by bid now and expects to ship the the general public around 3^rd quarter 2006. Sony plans to ship the Cell powered PS3 in November 2006.

I'll be watching the development of Linux on Cell and will keep you posted as to new developments as I learn of them.