PiRATE STUPH

Painful Packaging

2012-01-21T14:06:00.000-08:00

Debian packaging looks to be atrocious. Here I was trying to build a simple package with this automated tool chain and 8 hours later I still didn't really have a grasp on the magic I was conjuring.

It's a simple concept, zip up a tree of the installed product. Include a script to install everything correctly. Slackware is dirt-simple.

Base Case

2012-01-09T18:12:00.000-08:00

Make it simple. Make it work one way.

Keeping your options open keeps others in the dark.

It's relative

2012-01-08T15:36:00.000-08:00

Ever so often you have to reevaluate your choices.

Linux 20.0 New Desktop Interface

2011-12-25T18:41:00.000-08:00

Actually, it's old Slackware 13.37 /64BIT with Fluxbox along with some breakaway menus. Still more usable than the latest community projects.

Enjoy.

A fire we captured

2011-12-19T20:31:00.000-08:00

We make the mistake of removing fire and then we try to rekindle it.

But ever year we do the same.

You see yourself building a huge tower. But you are never satisfied. You tear it down and rebuild it. But the tower is the same. Huge, pointing endlessly skyward, same tower. Another tweak to the basement and another tower.

There is no way to fix the plumbing so the tower needs to be rebuilt.

“Where are the work-arounds,” The foreman yells!

"Can we at least move in and live here?" announces a tenant.

Review Mint 12 / Ubuntu 11.10

2011-12-09T18:16:00.000-08:00

So

It's obvious mankind can't be happy finishing a product. It's left to us individuals not involved with the team.

I often wonder what the great Roman minds would have thought of our civilization. It's obvious right; they'd be proud as they never finished much themselves. Half finished societies set up to fend for themselves with minimal resources.

You build a house by pouring concrete slabs. These slabs form the base for the frame. The frame is shored up with wind resistant paper along with insulation. Then the bricks, vinyl siding and windows. It's a known procedure that has hardly changed in 75 years of building houses.

26,000 - Twenty-Six Thousand Linux distributions and all built similar to one another. Materials vary, none seem to use the best quality. Just about as close to building houses as possible. Luckily pines haven't changed in thousands of years. Although software has it is up to a maintainer to insure it's the best quality.

BAD: Scroll bars magically appearing when I position my mouse over the place they are suppose to be, seems aggravating. There is hardly anything there to click on.
BAD: There is no solid feel to working with the windows or programs. We can take a lesson from Steve Jobs about the User Experience.
BAD: Old computers are useless with these systems. There was never an effort to correct the problems in the old systems.

If you steal Fire from the gods, make it usable by mankind. Since these are derivative works following each other they shouldn't destroy the container built by the primary forge, Debian.

I don't doubt our futures are aligned with Linux. But developers have run this carriage into the ground. Problems have been ignored far too long. Those that have tried to address them have been ignored, bullied, shamed, and angered to point they no longer care to work on the product.

If given the choice of Ubuntu or Mint, then Mint.

Sure it was the Greeks that gave us much of our knowledge but it was the Romans that spread it out, destroyed it, ultimately seared it into our flesh, and then gave us some chocolate to let us know it will be ok.

26,000 Linux distributions, Twenty-Six Thousands.

Gnome3 / KDE 4

2011-11-27T18:05:00.000-08:00

Both could have been accomplished with less resources.

Watch someone take three lines of code and turn it into four files and seventy lines of code. There is object-oriented.

oh well,

2011-11-26T07:55:00.001-08:00

Individuals are losing touch with the rest of society.

Increase Linux Kernel v3.0 Performance

2011-11-14T17:09:00.000-08:00

The commands:
swapoff /dev/sda5
sysctl -e vm.swappiness=0

ToDo:
1. Swap file
a. dd of=/swap.file if=/dev/zero count=1024000 bs=1024
b. makeswap /swap.file
c. swapon /swap.file
2. Test a few applications
3. Compile the kernel
a. Disable debug options
b. Compile in SATA support
c. Compile in File System types
d. Set Processor to P4
e. Set Clock to 1000Hz
f. Turn off High Memory
e. Enable Deadline as the default scheduler

The lack of polish

2011-11-12T10:35:00.000-08:00

Behind closed meetings, you wonder what is happening. A company making decisions about a product.

Cars:
Fixing the obvious issues experienced by the consumer should be the only task for the assembly line.

Clothes:
Blue jeans haven't changed in 50 years.

Other than addressing part failures in the vehicles, people would rather their old favorite blue jeans stayed the same. Along those same lines why can't computers stick to one interface?

Marketing then profits. Standard problem.

2011-11-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

2.6.38 is available in Ubuntu 10.04's repository. There are a few wireless firmwares missing but I just tar'd up the /lib/firmware directory on 11.04.

Good Salesmen Bad Lies

2011-11-02T17:22:00.000-07:00

A good salesman will have you signing paperwork the same day.,

You always have to stop and consider negatives.

1. Can you afford it?
2. Should you afford it?
3.What's life without it?

Can, should, and what.

Odd

2011-10-02T18:51:00.000-07:00

The Linux driver tree should be stablized.

Continuous breaks in drivers because of changes to the interfaces are unfounded. The driver code needing the significant change to the interface has to work-around the problem in its' code-base. This is the one point that sets me off about Kernel Development. If developers were made to do workarounds instead of being allowed to modify interfaces drivers would be perfected. Here is where major operating system vendors succeed. Set-in-Stone

I was really happy to read Open Solaris carried the compatible driver feature. I ponder the reasons why Linux won't adopt this best practice.
1. Childishness amateurs
2. Oppressed denizens
3. Stuborn imperialists
I'm sure there is a reason other than, "Because we can."

Chuck Palahniuk inspired me with his, "Never be complete" writtings. But let's face it world, some things in life need resolution. It's what causes hernias, heartburn and hemroids. That nagging feeling in the back of your mind of all the things you have to get done. The last one should have to be a comprimise where you have Internet but no accelerated video graphics.

Man that's cold

2010-12-09T20:10:00.000-08:00

Slackware can easily build network storage.

Install a fraction of the OS, disk series: a,ap,d,k,l

Download http://sourceforge.net/projects/iscsitarget/files/

Create a partition to share out.

edit /etc/iet/ietd.conf

Edit the "Target" line.

Target com.domain.mystorage:storage
#the domain name is backwards

Add some Lun lines.
Lun 0 Path=/dev/sda3,Type=fileio
#/dev/sda3 is my partition to share

Start it all up
sh /etc/rc.d/iscsi start

This made possible because all the developer packages are installed by default in Slackware.

DeviceKit Woes

2010-12-01T17:33:00.000-08:00

Problem:
vlc /dev/sr0
VLC media player 1.0.6 Goldeneye
[0xbb9888] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
libdvdnav: Using dvdnav version 4.1.3
libdvdread: Using libdvdcss version 1.2.10 for DVD access
libdvdread: Could not open /dev/sr0 with libdvdcss.
libdvdread: Can't open /dev/sr0 for reading
libdvdnav: vm: failed to open/read the DVD
[0x1024308] vcd access error: could not read TOCHDR
[0x1024308] vcd access error: no movie tracks found
[0x1024308] access_file access error: failed to read (Input/output error)
[0x1026408] main stream error: cannot pre fill buffer

Playback failure:
DVDRead could not open the disc "/dev/sr0".
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd:///dev/sr0'. Check the log for details.

Solution:
Don't upgrade

KNetworkManager Slackware 12.x

2010-09-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

The build plan
KNetworkManager
-NetworkManager
--GConf-2
---Orbitz
--gnome-keyring-1
---LibtASN1 0.3.4
--libnl1
-unsermake

The source packages necessary

checkinstall-1.6.2
dhcdbd-3.0
GConf-2.22.0
gnome-keyring-2.22.1
knetworkmanager-0.1
libnl-1.1
libtasn1-1.1
network-manager-0.6.6
ORBit2-2.14.12
unsermake

Remember to include --with-gnome=no on networkmanager when running configure.

Doesn't work yet got an error about dbus premissions.

In the Knetworkmanager's source directory you'll find another directory called knetworkmanager which has a knetworkmanager.conf file that will need to be placed into the /etc/dbus-1/system.d/ directory.

You'll need to edit it according to the debian bug list.
Change
to

I did an addgroup netdev and edited /etc/group adding myself to the group. Permissions are still messed up. I haven't the time to fix it at the moment.

But it does build and the gui application loads.

A word

2010-09-27T16:24:00.001-07:00

Everything is possible ; Nothing is impossible

Beware the talking heads

2010-09-26T13:01:00.000-07:00

When freedom starts to oppress then it's no longer freedom but slavery.
Commercials manipulate us into trading one slavery for another.

Supporters chant slogans of euphoria to mask their misery.

The Church of Laziness

2010-09-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

Mr. Eric S. Raymond coined this term Cathedral and Bazaar back in 1997. It was focused on what Linus Torvalds was exhibiting with the development model of the Linux kernel. I’ve never heard of universities teaching this idea. The thought is that one develops a product and quickly releases it to the general public for consumption. The public analyzes it and reports back to the developer about problems they encountered. The developer then fixes the problems and promptly releases a new version. We assume the developer will test his product before release. They do not teach this in the university. It’s actually frowned upon as an exercise. Where you do see this behavior is in the modern business world. The notion is to turn a quick profit by releasing early and fix the product later. This is laziness!

DLink Wireless USB

2010-08-25T18:46:00.000-07:00

Kernel 2.6.33
Product DLink Wireless USB Adapter
OS: Slackware 13.1

-----------

from the command prompt
as user root

wpa_passphrase your_essid your_password
'substitute your wireless lan's name
'as well enter the password

Returned will be a bit of text denoting the wireless information.
open /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Locate the sample entry and delete it.
Paste in your wireless information.

Save the file.

wpa_supplicant -Dwext -ira0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

In a few moments you'll have a connection.

dhcpcd ra0

Couple more moments you'll have an internet connection.

The Subconcious Will Overrule You Every Time

2009-11-15T18:59:00.001-08:00

My innerself is in a constant war to override my free will.

I suspect there is puppet strings extending from my brain into another dimension where my real self controls me.

Scripting

2009-11-03T21:16:00.000-08:00

------------------------ snip ----------------------
#!/bin/sh
mkdir /tmp/kernel
mkdir /tmp/kernel/boot
cd /usr/src
wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.31.5.tar.bz2
tar vxf linux-2.6.31.5.tar.bz2
ln -s linux-2.6.31.5 linux
cd linux
cp config-huge-smp-2.6.29.6-smp ./.config
echo CONFIG_DRM_I915_KMS=y >> .config
make && make modules && make install INSTALL_PATH=/tmp/kernel/boot && make modules_install INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/tmp/kernel
cd /tmp/kernel
mkdir install
cd install
echo "lilo" > doinst.sh
cd ../
/sbin/makepkg ../kernel-2.6.31.5-i686-1.tgz
/sbin/installpkg /tmp/kernel-2.6.31.5-i686-1.tgz

-------------------- snip ---------------------
#!/bin/sh

#build all the stuff necessary to fix intel

#Globals
FTP=ncftpget

$FTP ftp://ftp.freedesktop.org/pub/mesa/7.5.1/MesaDemos-7.5.1.tar.bz2
$FTP ftp://ftp.freedesktop.org/pub/mesa/7.5.1/MesaGLUT-7.5.1.tar.bz2
$FTP ftp://ftp.freedesktop.org/pub/mesa/7.5.1/MesaLib-7.5.1.tar.bz2

wget http://xorg.freedesktop.org/archive/individual/driver/xf86-video-intel-2.9.1.tar.bz2

mkdir build
cd build
tar vxf ../MesaDemos-7.5.1.tar.bz2
tar vxf ../MesaGLUT-7.5.1.tar.bz2
tar vxf ../MesaLib-7.5.1.tar.bz2

tar vxf ../xf86-video-intel-2.9.1.tar.bz2

cd Mesa*
./configure --prefix=/usr && make && make install DESTDIR=/tmp/Mesa

WhereIam=$PWD
cd /tmp/Mesa && /sbin/makepkg ../Mesa751-i686.tgz
/sbin/installpkg /tmp/Mesa751-i686.tgz

cd $WhereIam
cd ../xf86-video-intel*
./configure --prefix=/usr && make && make install DESTDIR=/tmp/xf86-video-intel

cd /tmp/xf86-video-intel && makepkg ../xf86-video-intel-2.9.1-i686-1.tgz
installpkg /tmp/xf86-video-intel-2.9.1-i686-1.tgz

GPX Mp3 Player ML648B

2009-02-07T07:26:00.000-08:00

Interesting as it was I finally got this MP3 player to be recognized as a flash storage device.

MTP - Media Transfer Protocol

This may be a good idea but I'd rather just drag and drop my music.

On the MP3 player you choose:
1. Settings
2. Online Device
3. Select either MEDIA DEVICE or USB DiSK

Reason and Common Sense

2005-06-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

Believe nothing,
no matter where you read it,
or who said it,
no matter if I have said it,
unless it agrees with your
own reason and your own common sense.

Buddha