Recently, Eye of Gnome (eog) was extremly slow during startup and when switching between images. Starting eog took around 4-8 seconds which is to much for an acceptable working performance.
Gnome Bug 500772 brought me to the following workaround: Simply remove ~/.recently-used.xbel
It seems that this XML file becomes very large and parsing will take much time. After removing this file eog starts in less than a second and also switching between images is really fast now.
2009-12-31
2009-12-28
X-Man Brought Microsoft Flight Simulator X
Hurray, I survived X-MAS (christmas for the noobs)!!!
The X-Man (Santa Clause for the noobs) brought Microsoft Flight Simulator X. He knew that I like to play flight simulators but he forgot that I avoid to use the Windows OS. Regardless, I tryed to play it.
Installing MFSX on a Xeon 2,4 GHz system with 1 GB RAM took more than 1 hour and wasted 15 GB of my harddisk.
No Protection of Data Privacy with Microsoft Products
After the installation it is necessary to activate the game. Therefore the serial number must be entered and the game will connect to a Microsoft server and send all kind of data about your system.
Naturally, I denied sending information about MY SYSTEM! But, without activation I cannot use the game without limitations.
Finally, I decided to remove MFSX from my hard disk and to send the game back to Microsoft. Now, I will spend the money on X-Plane which works on my Linux OS and does not require activation.
The X-Man (Santa Clause for the noobs) brought Microsoft Flight Simulator X. He knew that I like to play flight simulators but he forgot that I avoid to use the Windows OS. Regardless, I tryed to play it.
Installing MFSX on a Xeon 2,4 GHz system with 1 GB RAM took more than 1 hour and wasted 15 GB of my harddisk.
No Protection of Data Privacy with Microsoft Products
After the installation it is necessary to activate the game. Therefore the serial number must be entered and the game will connect to a Microsoft server and send all kind of data about your system.
Naturally, I denied sending information about MY SYSTEM! But, without activation I cannot use the game without limitations.
Finally, I decided to remove MFSX from my hard disk and to send the game back to Microsoft. Now, I will spend the money on X-Plane which works on my Linux OS and does not require activation.
ATI Radeon DRI and AGP Problem
The last weeks I have been fighting with my ATI Radeon 9700 Pro graphic card. 3D support won't work and glxgears -info listed at least 320 FPS. Too less for playing 3D games.
I was using the open source radeon driver because the closed source fglrx driver worked not at all.
I was trying all kind of options in my /etc/X11/xorg.conf but they did not change anything.
Yesterday I found the following line in my /var/log/Xorg.0.log:
(EE) RADEON(0): [agp] AGP failed to initialize. Disabling the DRI.
This information lead me to a bug listing of the Ubuntu distribution. They figured out that EDAC causes a problem with AGP.
EDAC (Error Detection and Correction) is a set of Linux kernel modules for handling hardware-related errors. Its major focus has been ECC memory error handling.
A workaround is to blacklist the EDAC module in the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file.
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist:
blacklist e7xxx_edac
The exact name of the EDAC module depends on the chipset of your mainboard. So it is necessary to figure out which module relates to your board before blacklisting.
Now, 3D support works fine. And I get up to 4550 FPS with the open source radeon driver of my Lenny distribution.
I hope this bug will be fixed in future kernel releases because error detection is also a important feature and it would be fine to use it together with a working AGP bus.
I was using the open source radeon driver because the closed source fglrx driver worked not at all.
I was trying all kind of options in my /etc/X11/xorg.conf but they did not change anything.
Yesterday I found the following line in my /var/log/Xorg.0.log:
(EE) RADEON(0): [agp] AGP failed to initialize. Disabling the DRI.
This information lead me to a bug listing of the Ubuntu distribution. They figured out that EDAC causes a problem with AGP.
EDAC (Error Detection and Correction) is a set of Linux kernel modules for handling hardware-related errors. Its major focus has been ECC memory error handling.
A workaround is to blacklist the EDAC module in the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file.
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist:
blacklist e7xxx_edac
The exact name of the EDAC module depends on the chipset of your mainboard. So it is necessary to figure out which module relates to your board before blacklisting.
Now, 3D support works fine. And I get up to 4550 FPS with the open source radeon driver of my Lenny distribution.
I hope this bug will be fixed in future kernel releases because error detection is also a important feature and it would be fine to use it together with a working AGP bus.
2009-07-27
Debian Mirror Howto
Today I will show you how to setup your own Debian repository.
Step 1: Install the apt-mirror package
Step 2: Edit the configuration file /etc/apt/mirror.list
Step 3: Install a cron job for regular mirror updates
For this create the file /etc/cron.d/apt-mirror:
Step 4: Add some lines to your Apache configuration
Step 5: Start initial download
Step 6: Configure your clients to use the new repository
Thats all!
Step 1: Install the apt-mirror package
# aptitude install apt-mirror
Step 2: Edit the configuration file /etc/apt/mirror.list
set base_path /var/spool/apt-mirror
set mirror_path $base_path/mirror
set skel_path $base_path/skel
set var_path $base_path/var
set defaultarch i386
set _tilde 0
# lenny's section
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian lenny main contrib non-free
deb-amd64 http://ftp.debian.org/debian lenny main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian lenny main contrib non-free
# Cleaning section
clean http://ftp.de.debian.org/
skip-clean http://ftp.debian.org/doc/
skip-clean http://ftp.debian.org/tools/
skip-clean http://ftp.debian.org/debian-cd/
skip-clean http://ftp.debian.org/debian-minicd/
skip-clean http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/lenny/main/installer-i386/
skip-clean http://ftp.debian.org/debian/doc/
skip-clean http://ftp.debian.org/debian/tools/
skip-clean http://ftp.debian.org/debian/project/
Step 3: Install a cron job for regular mirror updates
For this create the file /etc/cron.d/apt-mirror:
#
# Regular cron jobs for the apt-mirror package
#
0 5 * * * apt-mirror /usr/bin/apt-mirror \
> /var/spool/apt-mirror/var/cron.log
Step 4: Add some lines to your Apache configuration
Alias /mirror-debian/ /var/www/mirror-debian/
<directory>
AllowOverride None
Options -MultiViews FollowSymLinks Indexes
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</directory>
Step 5: Start initial download
# su - apt-mirror -c apt-mirror
Step 6: Configure your clients to use the new repository
deb http://your.hostname/mirror-debian/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free
deb-src http://your.hostname/mirror-debian/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib non-free
Thats all!
Automatic VLC Start at System Boot Time
Last week we installed a machine with VLC for centralized music playback in our room. Now, everybody can start or stop music streams via the build-in HTTP interface of VLC.
To start VLC automatically at boot time we wrote the following start script:
For security reasons we run VLC as a non-root user. To change the user id we are using sudo inside the start script.
To start VLC automatically at boot time we wrote the following start script:
#!/bin/sh
# Start/stop the vlc daemon.
#
PLAYLIST="/usr/share/vlc/playlist.pls"
case "$1" in
start)
PROC=$(ps -ef|grep "vlc -I http"|grep -v grep|wc -l)
if [ $PROC -eq 0 ]
then
sudo -u vlc /usr/bin/vlc -I http --http-host 0.0.0.0:8000 $PLAYLIST 1>/dev/null 2>&1 &
echo "VLC started"
else
echo "There is still a vlc process running..."
exit 1
fi
;;
stop)
PROC=$(ps -ef|grep "vlc -I http"|grep -v grep|awk '{print $2}')
for TMP in $PROC
do
logger "Killed VLC - PID $TMP"
kill -9 $TMP 1>/dev/null 2>&1
done
echo VLC killed
;;
restart)
$0 stop
$0 start
;;
reload|force-reload)
$0 stop
$0 start
;;
*) log_action_msg "Usage: /etc/init.d/vlc {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload}"
exit 2
;;
esac
exit 0
For security reasons we run VLC as a non-root user. To change the user id we are using sudo inside the start script.
2009-06-06
Sun Fire X4450 - A really good beer warmer!
This week I have got borrowed a Sun Fire X4450 system as Sun Ray machine for a Debian GNU/Linux training. The course participants can start Debian Lenny inside a VirtualBox VM but for this a powerful x86 machine is required.
The Sun Fire X4450 supports up to 24 cores on 4 sockets and up to 256 GB RAM (But our machine has only 32 GB). The 2RU case can home 8 SAS disk drives in maximum.
After we had put the machine in our 19" rack we saw that the X4450 can also be used as a really good beer warmer, because the serverroom is also our beer invetory. As a demonstration I upload this screen shot of our temperature monitoring.
The Sun Fire X4450 supports up to 24 cores on 4 sockets and up to 256 GB RAM (But our machine has only 32 GB). The 2RU case can home 8 SAS disk drives in maximum.
After we had put the machine in our 19" rack we saw that the X4450 can also be used as a really good beer warmer, because the serverroom is also our beer invetory. As a demonstration I upload this screen shot of our temperature monitoring.
2009-03-08
Debian Lenny on Cobalt Raq XTR Howto
Today I will show you how to install Debian Lenny on old Cobalt RAQ XTR hardware.
The Cobalt RAQ is a pentium 3 based 1 HE server. There are some specifies with this hardware, which make the install process a litte bit complicated.
There is no real BIOS on the RAQ rater it is using a small Linux on a rom for bootup. The Linux on the rom can boot different locations like the disks or via NFS.
Also the installation must be made over a network connection because the RAQ does not have a vga connector. For this we require a PC with a preinstalled Debian Lenny OS.
You also need a serial nullmodem cable between your desktop pc and the cobalt box. The right settings for this connection are 115200 8N1. For example you can use minicom or cu as your terminal software. If you can see many cryptic output in minicom during the cobalt startup, the connection will be ok.
1 Setup DHCP and NFS boot
To be able to work on the RAQ we will boot a Linux environment over NFS (We do not really boot a kernel via NFS, but we import a new root path for the rom kernel this way). We use this later to upgrade the rom and to install our OS on the disk.
First we require some additional packages
We start with installing a old debian sarge environment into the directory /nfsroot-x86. The name of this directory is important, because the rom kernel uses it. It is also important is that we install the old sarge distribution, because later we use the 2.4 rom-kernel with this environment. I also tried Lenny at this point, but it caused a kernel panic during the cobalt boot. I think that has something to do with the way the binaries were compiled.
Because the RAQ does not own a vga interface, we need to enable a getty on the serial line. For this edit /nfsroot-x86/etc/inittab:
Next we edit the network configuration. For this edit /nfsroot-x86/etc/network/interfaces:
Edit /nfsroot-x86/etc/fstab (but do not forget to change the ip to your desktop pc ip):
Our Sarge environment shoud be finish, now. Next we edit the dhcpd configuration file /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:
We also need to export the /nfsroot-x86 directory. For this edit /etc/exports:
Finally we have to restart the services:
Now, boot your Cobalt RAQ. During startup press the S button until you get into the menu. In this menu choose boot from net. Your cobalt shoud get an IP from your DHCP ans mount the NFS export. You should now be able to get a shell via SSH, now.
2 Flash The Boot Rom
First you have to download the new rom and the flashutils package. You can find both at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=83123. For the XTR download the cobalt-2.10.3-ext3-1M.rom (You can also download the cobalt-2.10.3-xfs-1M.rom if you prefer XFS).
Extract the flashutils-file into the /nfsboot-x86 directory and copy the rom image into the new folder:
Now we can use this tools on the Cobalt to upgrade the rom. At this stage you can damage your Cobalt. DO NOT POWER OF YOUR COBALT UNTIL THE FLASH PROCESS HAS FINISHED. If there are any errors until the flash process, do not power off your machine. Insted repeat the flash process until it worked without errors.
After the flashing process has finished, reboot the cobalt (net boot again).
3 Install Lenny To The Disk
Now we need a second chroot environment for the Lenny system. We install it into the /nfsroot-x96 directory, so that we can access it from the cobalt.
The Cobalt rom kernel looks for a file named vmlinux.bz2 in the / or the /boot directory. So make sure that there is such a file, or a symlink with that name. For creating a customized kernel take a look at http://wiki.parvi.org/index.php/Cobalt_Kernel_Patch.
Now think about your futuere partitioning of your harddisks. Because we need to setup the /nfsroot-x86/etc/fstab file:
As you can see, the naming of the devices does not start at A, it is starting at E!
Let us switch to the cobalt console again. We can start to do the partitioning stuff, now. Simply start fdisk /dev/hde and edit your partiton like this:
Choose the sizes of your partitions like your preferences. After finishing the partitioning stuff, we can create the ext3 filesystem and prepare the swap partition.
Now mount the local disk and copy the Lenny environment to the disk:
Switch to your serial console now. During the startup you could see a message like "syncing disks". From now, press the space button multiple times until you are in the boot menu.
Type the following commands:
At this point you should have a working Debian Lenny system on your cobalt.
4 Disclaimer And Ressources
Please notice that I wrote this howto at 2pm after figuring out the hole installation procedure. So it may be possible that the discription above includes some mistakes. All damages caused by this installation procedure are at your own risk.
You can find further information on this topic at the following locations. There are also some information how to create a specially patched kernel for your RAQ:
The Cobalt RAQ is a pentium 3 based 1 HE server. There are some specifies with this hardware, which make the install process a litte bit complicated.
There is no real BIOS on the RAQ rater it is using a small Linux on a rom for bootup. The Linux on the rom can boot different locations like the disks or via NFS.
Also the installation must be made over a network connection because the RAQ does not have a vga connector. For this we require a PC with a preinstalled Debian Lenny OS.
You also need a serial nullmodem cable between your desktop pc and the cobalt box. The right settings for this connection are 115200 8N1. For example you can use minicom or cu as your terminal software. If you can see many cryptic output in minicom during the cobalt startup, the connection will be ok.
1 Setup DHCP and NFS boot
To be able to work on the RAQ we will boot a Linux environment over NFS (We do not really boot a kernel via NFS, but we import a new root path for the rom kernel this way). We use this later to upgrade the rom and to install our OS on the disk.
First we require some additional packages
desktop:/# apt-get install debootstrap nfs-user-server dhcp3-server minicom cu
We start with installing a old debian sarge environment into the directory /nfsroot-x86. The name of this directory is important, because the rom kernel uses it. It is also important is that we install the old sarge distribution, because later we use the 2.4 rom-kernel with this environment. I also tried Lenny at this point, but it caused a kernel panic during the cobalt boot. I think that has something to do with the way the binaries were compiled.
desktop:/# mkdir /nfsroot-x86
desktop:/# debootstrap --arch i386 sarge /nfsroot-x86 http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive/
desktop:/# echo 'deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive sarge main' > /nfsroot-x86/etc/apt/sources.list
desktop:/# chroot /nfsroot-x86
desktop:/# passwd root
desktop:/# apt-get install ssh joe
desktop:/# exit
Because the RAQ does not own a vga interface, we need to enable a getty on the serial line. For this edit /nfsroot-x86/etc/inittab:
#1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
#2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2
#3:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty3
#4:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty4
#5:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty5
#6:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty6
T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 115200 vt100
T1:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 115200 vt100
Next we edit the network configuration. For this edit /nfsroot-x86/etc/network/interfaces:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp
Edit /nfsroot-x86/etc/fstab (but do not forget to change the ip to your desktop pc ip):
192.168.1.10:/nfsroot-x86 / nfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
Our Sarge environment shoud be finish, now. Next we edit the dhcpd configuration file /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:
authoritative;
subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
host cobalt {
hardware ethernet XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX;
fixed-address 192.168.1.20;
option routers 192.168.1.1;
next-server 192.168.1.10;
option root-path "/nfsroot-x86";
option host-name "cobalt1";
}
}
We also need to export the /nfsroot-x86 directory. For this edit /etc/exports:
/nfsroot-x86 *(rw,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)
Finally we have to restart the services:
desktop:/# /etc/init.d/nfs-user-server restart
desktop:/# /etc/init.d/dhcpd restart
Now, boot your Cobalt RAQ. During startup press the S button until you get into the menu. In this menu choose boot from net. Your cobalt shoud get an IP from your DHCP ans mount the NFS export. You should now be able to get a shell via SSH, now.
2 Flash The Boot Rom
First you have to download the new rom and the flashutils package. You can find both at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=83123. For the XTR download the cobalt-2.10.3-ext3-1M.rom (You can also download the cobalt-2.10.3-xfs-1M.rom if you prefer XFS).
Extract the flashutils-file into the /nfsboot-x86 directory and copy the rom image into the new folder:
desktop:/# cd /nfsroot-x86
desktop:/nfsroot-x86/# tar xvzf romutils-1.0.tar.bz2
desktop:/nfsroot-x86/# mv cobalt-2.10.3-ext3-1M.rom romutils
Now we can use this tools on the Cobalt to upgrade the rom. At this stage you can damage your Cobalt. DO NOT POWER OF YOUR COBALT UNTIL THE FLASH PROCESS HAS FINISHED. If there are any errors until the flash process, do not power off your machine. Insted repeat the flash process until it worked without errors.
cobalt:/# cd romutils
cobalt:/romutils/# ./flashtool -v -r > backup.rom
cobalt:/romutils/# ./flashtool -v -w cobalt-2.10.3-ext3-1M.rom
After the flashing process has finished, reboot the cobalt (net boot again).
3 Install Lenny To The Disk
Now we need a second chroot environment for the Lenny system. We install it into the /nfsroot-x96 directory, so that we can access it from the cobalt.
desktop:/# mkdir /nfsroot-x86/lenny-root
desktop:/# debootstap --arch i386 lenny /nfsroot-x86/lenny-root/ http://ftp.debian.org/debian
desktop:/# cp /etc/apt/sources.list /nfsroot-x86/lenny-root/etc/apt/
desktop:/# cp /nfsroot-x86/etc/inittab /nfsroot-x86/lenny-root/etc/inittab
desktop:/# cp /nfsroot-x86/etc/network/interfaces /nfsroot-x86/lenny-root/etc/network/interfaces
desktop:/# chroot /nfsroot-x86/lenny-root/
desktop:/# apt-get update
desktop:/# apt-get install openssh-server joe linux-image
desktop:/# cd /boot
desktop:/boot/# ln -s vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-686 vmlinux.bz2
desktop:/boot/# ln -s initrd.img-2.6.26-1-686 initrd.img
desktop:/boot/# exit
The Cobalt rom kernel looks for a file named vmlinux.bz2 in the / or the /boot directory. So make sure that there is such a file, or a symlink with that name. For creating a customized kernel take a look at http://wiki.parvi.org/index.php/Cobalt_Kernel_Patch.
Now think about your futuere partitioning of your harddisks. Because we need to setup the /nfsroot-x86/etc/fstab file:
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hde1 / ext3 errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hde2 none swap sw 0 0
As you can see, the naming of the devices does not start at A, it is starting at E!
Let us switch to the cobalt console again. We can start to do the partitioning stuff, now. Simply start fdisk /dev/hde and edit your partiton like this:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hde1 1 25189 12695224+ 83 Linux
/dev/hde2 25190 26500 660744 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Choose the sizes of your partitions like your preferences. After finishing the partitioning stuff, we can create the ext3 filesystem and prepare the swap partition.
cobalt:/# mkfs -t ext3 /dev/hde1
cobalt:/# mkswap /dev/hde2
Now mount the local disk and copy the Lenny environment to the disk:
cobalt:/# mount -t ext3 /dev/hde1 /mnt
cobalt:/# cd /lenny-root
cobalt:/lenny-root/# cp -a * /mnt/
cobalt:/# unmount /mnt
cobalt:/# rebootSwitch to your serial console now. During the startup you could see a message like "syncing disks". From now, press the space button multiple times until you are in the boot menu.
Type the following commands:
# boot
# set-boot-dev hde1
# set-root-dev hde1
# main
# bfd
At this point you should have a working Debian Lenny system on your cobalt.
4 Disclaimer And Ressources
Please notice that I wrote this howto at 2pm after figuring out the hole installation procedure. So it may be possible that the discription above includes some mistakes. All damages caused by this installation procedure are at your own risk.
You can find further information on this topic at the following locations. There are also some information how to create a specially patched kernel for your RAQ:
http://www.timntina.com/debian-cobalt-kernel-compile
http://www.timntina.com/debian-sarge-cobalt-install
http://wiki.parvi.org/index.php/Cobalt_Kernel_Patch
http://wiki.parvi.org/index.php/RaQ_Installation_Guide
http://braggtown.com/qubuntu.html
http://www.cobaltfaqs.com
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