Author: Jani

Hardware notes for my own reference

So the CPU inside my AMD Shuttle box (an SN45 with the latest, FN45S00W BIOS) is marked AXDA2600DKV4D, which means it’s a Barton-core XP 2600+ @ 1917 MHz with a 333 MHz bus (166 MHz external frequency) and a 11.5 multiplier. The manufacturing code, AFAICT, is AQZFA0348MPM, which in turn means the multiplier’s locked (the unlocked ones were made prior to week 39 of 2003, or 0339, according to OC forums).

The single memory module it’s accompanied by currently is a 512 MB Elixir PC3200U @ 400 MHz, marked CL3. And apparently I just destroyed it while gathering this data.

2008/09/26
Querying dd for statistics

To get the statistics of a running dd, you send it a USR1 with kill:

kill -USR1 $PID

2008/09/24
High CPU usage when doing anything with Nautilus

Nautilus began to manifest annoying sluggishness, which was the immediate result of it hogging up the CPU anywhere between 40 and 100 percent any time I did pretty much anything involving files or directories in the GUI. After covering some solution attempts which turned out to be dead ends, I created an extra user account for testing purposes and found that it was not susceptible to this issue.

Finally, I found a bug report on Launchpad with the “high cpu load” issue precisely described, and luckily with a fix included. I stripped my desktop directory (“Työpöytä” in my locale) from the variables defined in ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs (so that they referred to $HOME), replaced one symbolic link there with a genuine path, and then ran xdg-user-dirs-update && xdg-user-dirs-gtk-update before logging out and back in again. And now Nautilus is as nimble as ever.

Out of curiosity, I tried to reproduce the issue with my test user account: I inserted a symbolic link into one of the variables, as I suspected that was what triggered the sluggishness, but it turned out not to do so. So the exact cause still eludes me.

2008/09/23
How to change MAC address while installing Lenny
(I’m reposting this from my other, more generic blog.)

It’s easy enough to change your network adapter’s MAC address once you have a Debian/Ubuntu system installed, but I needed to do this from within the Debian installer (Lenny beta 2), and it took me a while to figure out how. So I’m making a note of it for my own future reference, and maybe someone googling for the phrases I initially did will find this helpful.

So here’s the problem: my NIC’s default MAC address is (say) 01:02:03:04:05:06, and for one reason or another, I need it to be 06:05:04:03:02:01 instead. Furthermore, I need this change to be in effect while I’m inside Lenny’s installer, so ifconfig is not available. Here’s how I did it:
1. From the installer’s boot menu, select Advanced options, and Expert install.
2. Work your way down the steps as needed, starting from the top, until you’ve gone through Detect network hardware. Instead of the next one (Configure the network), pick Execute a shell from further down the menu.
3. In the shell you can check your network interface status with
  # ip link show eth0
  You might use eth1 or some other port instead of eth0, but I haven’t done this with anything other than the one NIC I had in the setup, and so haven’t used anything besides eth0.
  
  In my case, entering the command gives the following output:
  2: eth0: mtu 1500 qdisc noop qlen 1000 link/ether 01:02:03:04:05:06 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
4. Next, the spell you’ve been waiting for. Let’s change that MAC address!
  # ip link set eth0 addr 06:05:04:03:02:01
  If all goes well, ip won’t say anything. Re-run the ‘show‘ command listed in the previous point to see that it actually worked.
5. Type exit to return to the installer.
6. Now you pick up from Configure the network, and proceed installing from there.
One last point: the changed MAC address won’t survive the reboot finalizing the installation, so if you want to make it permanent, you’ll want to set it after the first boot into your new system, by using the method I linked to in the beginning (editing /etc/network/interfaces). Or you could to do it from the installer, using nano (in busybox).
2008/09/23
Swirling towards the inevitable

It looks like I need to have a place for making notes while tackling Debian, so I’ve set up this blog. I don’t intend to make this as formal as my Ubuntu blog, but more of a “casual scribblings” type of thingy, so reader beware!

This initial post might be a good place to elaborate on my choice of operating system.

I’ve been a free software proponent for a long time, not only because of political reasons, but because I often find the open solutions superior to their closed counterparts. There was a time recently where this philosophy did not extend to the OS for some reason. I don’t recall what made me switch from Debian to XP; perhaps it was just laziness, not bothering to dual-boot when I had to have Windows for some tasks. So for some years I was a slave of Microsoft.

I mentioned Ubuntu, and what was my production machine up until recently still runs Hardy Heron, which I installed about six months ago. Initially I installed it parallel to Windows XP on a whim, after trying it out and taking a liking in how everything Just Worked. Then I discovered VirtualBox and found out I could now do MSN video conferences and other necessities through it, without having to dual-boot, so I ditched the XP partitions altogether.

Then I found myself more and more drawn back to Debian. It’s not that there’s anything technically wrong with Ubuntu. On the contrary, I think Canonical are doing a great job with it. It’s just that I’d rather see myself supporting (with my choices) a purely community-driven distribution than one involving a company, no matter how freedom-focused they may be. I wouldn’t consider myself a socialist either, however. I believe there is room for both community-driven and commercial operating systems — even closed-source ones.

In fact, because of my personal beliefs, I’m sometimes tempted by the BSD variants due to their licensing. In my ideal world, most code would be released under a permissive license, and despite the possibility of closed derivatives, there would be enough open, solid code for us to choose to use it exclusively, should we want to. But it may be that in real world, a GPL-type hack is required for us to have this choice. At the very least, I believe it’s required for the time being.

But I digress.

When I switched to a slightly lower-end machine for my desktop use, I had a chance to switch the OS as well, and the choice was more or less obvious, especially after having played around with lenny inside VirtualBox. So after some years, I’m back in Debian.

2008/09/23
Debian (Lenny): How to change MAC address while installing
It’s easy enough to change your network adapter’s MAC address once you have a Debian/Ubuntu system installed, but I needed to do this from within the Debian installer (Lenny beta 2), and it took me a while to figure out how. So I’m making a note of it for my own future reference, and maybe someone googling for the phrases I initially did will find this helpful.

So here’s the problem: my NIC’s default MAC address is (say) 01:02:03:04:05:06, and for one reason or another, I need it to be 06:05:04:03:02:01 instead. Furthermore, I need this change to be in effect while I’m inside Lenny’s installer, so ifconfig is not available. Here’s how I did it:
1. From the installer’s boot menu, select Advanced options, and Expert install.
2. Work your way down the steps as needed, starting from the top, until you’ve gone through Detect network hardware. Instead of the next one (Configure the network), pick Execute a shell from further down the menu.
3. In the shell you can check your network interface status with
  # ip link show eth0
  You might use eth1 or some other port instead of eth0, but I haven’t done this with anything other than the one NIC I had in the setup, and so haven’t used anything besides eth0.
  In my case, entering the command gives the following output:
  2: eth0: mtu 1500 qdisc noop qlen 1000 link/ether 01:02:03:04:05:06 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
4. Next, the spell you’ve been waiting for. Let’s change that MAC address!
  # ip link set eth0 addr 06:05:04:03:02:01
  If all goes well, ip won’t say anything. Re-run the ‘show‘ command listed in the previous point to see that it actually worked.
5. Type exit to return to the installer.
6. Now you pick up from Configure the network, and proceed installing from there.
One last point: the changed MAC address won’t survive the reboot finalizing the installation, so if you want to make it permanent, you’ll want to set it after the first boot into your new system, by using the method I linked to in the beginning (editing /etc/network/interfaces). Or you could to do it from the installer, using nano (in busybox).

2008/09/16

Lähtökohta

Olen lisännyt Kenneth Wimerin yksityisen pakettivaraston Ohjelmalähteisiin Synaptic-pakettienhallinnassa, ja asentanut sieltä työpöydälleni uuden ulkoasun.
VirtualBoxista käytössäni on PUEL-versio 1.6.6.

Ongelma

Näennäisen satunnaisesti, mutta kuitenkin suhteellisen usein ja useimmiten samojen ohjelmien (VirtualBox, Epiphany-selain ja Synaptic) ollessa käynnissä, työpöytäympäristö sulkeutuu itsestään ja käynnistyy sitten uudestaan.
/var/log/Xorg.0.log.old -tiedoston lopussa lukee uudelleenkäynnistymisen jäljiltä seuraavaa:

Backtrace:
0: /usr/bin/X(xf86SigHandler+0x7e) [0x80c780e]
1: [0xb7f9b420]
2: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libextmod.so [0xb7c0a6bf]
3: /usr/bin/X(FindClientResourcesByType+0xb1) [0x8075821]
4: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libextmod.so [0xb7c0aeb3]
5: /usr/bin/X [0x81506ee]
6: /usr/bin/X(Dispatch+0x2cf) [0x808d8df]
7: /usr/bin/X(main+0x48b) [0x807471b]
8: /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe0) [0xb7d2e450]
9: /usr/bin/X(FontFileCompleteXLFD+0x201) [0x8073a91]

Fatal server error:
Caught signal 8.  Server aborting

Ongelman syy

Ei vielä tiedossa.

Ratkaisu

Ei vielä tiedossa.

Huomautuksia

Jostain syystä erityisesti Debianin (Lenny) asentaminen virtuaalikoneeseen tuntuu liittyvän usein tähän. Se voi olla vain harhaa, joka johtuu siitä että olen viime aikoina asentanut (tai yrittänyt asentaa, ennen työpöydän sulkeutumista) Debianin useita kertoja, mutta toisaalta se voi liittyä myös sen tapaan käyttää virtuaalikoneen resursseja, varsinkin salattujen levyniteiden käytön yhteydessä.
Mainitsin yksityisen pakettivaraston lähtökohdissa alustavasti siltä varalta, että ongelma liittyy siihen, mikä ei ole täysin poissuljettua, koska kyse ei ole pelkistä grafiikkatiedostoista, vaan uusi teema vaati toimiakseen myös uuden taustamoottorin. Otin nyt kokeeksi tuon pakettivaraston pois käytöstä, ja palautin sieltä päivittämäni paketit virallisiin versioihin (Hardy).
VirtualBox itsessään on tietysti sekin yksi epäillyistä.

Author: Jani

Hardware notes for my own reference

Querying dd for statistics

High CPU usage when doing anything with Nautilus

How to change MAC address while installing Lenny

Swirling towards the inevitable

Debian (Lenny): How to change MAC address while installing

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Työpöytäympäristö käynnistyy itsekseen uudestaan

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