Updates dujour

Amazing! More and more updates for my beloved Tango. As usual, not one on a week or so, and then boom! Straight to the Moon.

2009-06-03 15:25:53 status installed doc-base 0.8.20
2009-06-03 15:25:55 status installed man-db 2.5.5-1build1
2009-06-03 15:25:57 status installed ufw 0.27-0ubuntu2
2009-06-03 15:25:59 status installed menu 2.1.41ubuntu1
2009-06-03 15:26:00 status installed libcups2 1.3.9-17ubuntu3.1
2009-06-03 15:26:00 status installed libcupsimage2 1.3.9-17ubuntu3.1
2009-06-03 15:26:00 status installed cups-common 1.3.9-17ubuntu3.1
2009-06-03 15:26:26 status installed cups 1.3.9-17ubuntu3.1
2009-06-03 15:26:26 status installed cups-client 1.3.9-17ubuntu3.1
2009-06-03 15:26:28 status installed cups-bsd 1.3.9-17ubuntu3.1
2009-06-03 15:26:28 status installed libedataserver1.2-11 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-03 15:26:28 status installed libcamel1.2-14 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-03 15:26:28 status installed libebackend1.2-0 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-03 15:26:29 status installed libebook1.2-9 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-03 15:26:29 status installed libecal1.2-7 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-03 15:26:29 status installed libedata-book1.2-2 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-03 15:26:29 status installed libedata-cal1.2-6 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-03 15:26:29 status installed libegroupwise1.2-13 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-03 15:26:30 status installed libgdata1.2-1 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-03 15:26:30 status installed libgdata-google1.2-1 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-03 15:26:30 status installed evolution-data-server-common 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-03 15:26:30 status installed evolution-data-server 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-03 15:26:30 status installed libedataserverui1.2-8 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-03 15:26:30 status installed libexchange-storage1.2-3 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-03 15:26:31 status installed libpurple-bin 1:2.5.5-1ubuntu8.1
2009-06-03 15:26:31 status installed pidgin-data 1:2.5.5-1ubuntu8.1
2009-06-03 15:26:31 status installed libpurple0 1:2.5.5-1ubuntu8.1
2009-06-03 15:26:32 status installed pidgin 1:2.5.5-1ubuntu8.1
2009-06-03 15:26:33 status installed libc6 2.9-4ubuntu6
2009-06-03 15:26:33 status installed menu 2.1.41ubuntu1

Updates dujour

Being a little too busy lately... Not much time for nothing I'm afraid...But, what a hell, here it goes...
Lotsa and lotsa of updates for Tango...

2009-06-02 15:24:00 status installed man-db 2.5.5-1build1
2009-06-02 15:24:02 status installed menu 2.1.41ubuntu1
2009-06-02 15:24:26 status installed foomatic-db-engine 4.0.0-0ubuntu6.1
2009-06-02 15:24:27 status installed cron 3.0pl1-105ubuntu1.1
2009-06-02 15:24:27 status installed libsqlite3-0 3.6.10-1ubuntu0.2
2009-06-02 15:24:28 status installed evolution-common 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-02 15:24:29 status installed evolution 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-02 15:24:29 status installed evolution-plugins 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-02 15:24:31 status installed metacity-common 1:2.25.144-0ubuntu2.1
2009-06-02 15:24:31 status installed libmetacity0 1:2.25.144-0ubuntu2.1
2009-06-02 15:24:31 status installed mysql-common 5.1.30really5.0.75-0ubuntu10.2
2009-06-02 15:24:31 status installed libmysqlclient15off 5.1.30really5.0.75-0ubuntu10.2
2009-06-02 15:24:32 status installed metacity 1:2.25.144-0ubuntu2.1
2009-06-02 15:24:32 status installed evolution-documentation-en 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-02 15:24:34 status installed gnome-settings-daemon 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
2009-06-02 15:24:34 status installed libc6 2.9-4ubuntu6
2009-06-02 15:24:35 status installed menu 2.1.41ubuntu1

A Server install (2)

The continuing saga!
Did another install on Odin, just to see how much HDD space a full blown Ubuntu Server install might suck up.
It doesn't use much, really, about 1.2 GB totally.

A Server install

Installed Ubuntu Server (8.10) on my beloved, and forgotten, Odin.
Making a "minimal install" took some 30 mins, and it uses less than 600 MB of the HDD; of course, it does not include Emacs! :p

The first thing after the install, get the high resolution console working!.
The default fugly resolution/font setup kills babies if you use it.

CentOS 5 console customization

(Actually, these should work on any other CentOS version as well :) )

Installed another minimal CentOS 5, this time, on Odin, my trusty Compaq 1200 povera beauty.
The install was amazinlgy fast, it took less than 10 minutes, mighty fast considering that the laptop has a Celeron @ 700 MHz with 300 MB of RAM.

These are a couple of thing I did after finishing the install, to make the box more confortable.

- Enable high resolution console :

As root, edit the file '/etc/grub.conf', and add 'vga=XXX' to the line that begins with kernel. On Odin, I have to use '788'.
Get other values here: VGA Boot modes to set screen resolution
I have read some reports that this does not work on CentOS 5, but I had no problems with the stock kernel from the CentOS 5 install CD (2.6.18-92.el5).


- Console font :

I don't like the default font -I don't like it at all, but that has nothing to do with CentOS per se, the default console font on all the distros I have used sucks-.
So I have set it up to use the console font I love, the same one I use on the Ubuntu's console.
As root, edit the file '/etc/sysconfig/i18n', and change:

SYSFONT="latarcyrheb-sun16"

to look like this

SYSFONT="Lat2-Terminus16"

To load the new font, as root again, issue:

/etc/init.d/functions start

This will load it only on the TTY you are executing it. After a reboot, it will load the new font on all the TTYs.
There are more fonts on the '/lib/kbd/consolefotns/' directory.


- Set cursor to a blinking block :

I love the prompt cursor to blink, and also, to be a blocky, massive thing, not the feable semi-hypen that it is by default.
Take a look at the Cursor Appearance in the Linux Console doc, to see what you can do.
On my case, to transform the default underscore blinking cursor onto a blinking block cursor, and to make it happen on all TTYs -even after a reboot- had to do this, once again, as the root user:

/bin/echo -e '\033[?6c' >> /etc/issue

Of services & servers on Ubuntu

That is, unneeded for my current Ubuntu setup/ laptop that it is really, really crappy in terms of hardware.
Disabled some of the services that start automatically on Odin, my Ubuntu power horse :)

sudo update-rc.d cupsys remove
sudo update-rc.d atd remove
sudo update-rc.d bluetooth remove
sudo update-rc.d hotkey-setup remove
sudo update-rc.d pppd-dns remove
sudo update-rc.d rsync remove

Also, at the moment I have disabled the run level 3 boot too on this Ubuntu 8.04 install.

It looks more and more like I'll be installing Ubuntu Server on Judith, I really like the fact that I can get a VESA high resolution console without the need to recompile the kernel on FreeBSD, no problem with that, but on Judith it will take for ever to do so.

A splash of no VESA

Today updated my Ubuntu beauty, Odin, with everything Canonical had to offer.
It seems like I have a problem with one of the updates, I believe it is this one:

2008-07-27 22:18:54 status installed linux-headers-2.6.24-19-generic 2.6.24-19.36

It is no biggie, the problem seems to be that right now, if I keep booting with kernel options I used to had, I'm not able to use high resolution on the console.
For the tests I've done, it looks like the culprit is the 'splash' option, if I remove it, everything is kosher again with the console resolution and my beloved fonts.

This was the kernel entry from menu.lst:

kernel               /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=a3e104c2-f719-4c82-99e1-2706e05b9f3a ro splash quiet vga=771

And right now it looks kinda palsy like this:

kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=a3e104c2-f719-4c82-99e1-2706e05b9f3a ro vga=771

Related links:
No console mode in high resolution with Ubuntu 7.10 (applies to 8.04)
VGA Boot modes to set screen resolution

Fight font uglyfication (console)

The default font does not look too good, specially, on the ultra crappy and small LCD that the Presario 1200 has.
So, edit the file "/etc/default/console-setup", and look for the line that says:

FONTFACE="Fixed"
FONTSIZE="16"

Comment that out, and take a run testing other fonts, the fonts are located on the directory "/usr/share/consolefonts/".
After editing the file, you'll have to do a:

sudo /etc/init.d/console-screen.sh reload

To activate the changes.

Right now, my font of choice is:

FONTFACE="Terminus"
FONTSIZE="14"

This font uses the codeset "Uni3", so in order to get it working, you'll have to edit the CODESET variable too.

Correction: (September 28 2008)
Actually, the command to change the console font it is:

sudo /etc/init.d/console-setup stop
sudo /etc/init.d/console-setup start

Ubuntu infatuation

I effing love this Ubuntu release.
Today I have been using it most of the afternoon, running Evolution, Pidgin and a few Terminals, it works amazingly responsive for such a turd as the Compaq Presario.
I wish this laptop would have a better video card, but what a hell, at least I have a laptop that I can carry everywhere.

Ubuntu screensh*t screenshot

Well, Ubuntu has nothing to do actually, it is the Presario's LCD + video RAM that can't cope with anything above the 800x600 resolution...
Boy, how small & cramped that resolution was/ feels...

Install Fest

Had a mini install fest this Saturday night.
Tested CentOS 5, just to test the minimal install on another box.
For the moment, I have settled on Ubuntu 8.04.
Installed my favorite programs & set the settings the way I want them, everything worked exactly the same that the way before, no surprises here, hey... It's Linux what you expect?

Emacs: love it & bloat it

This is amazing, to get Emacs, on Ubuntu Server, you have to step down the mule for 110 MB of HDD, that is so much space, especially since the HDD only has 19 GB to begin with!

So, I did a bit of a searching for more Emacs (the best editor! ;) ) but povera editions, this is the second part, the first was Emacs on a shoestring

esteban@odin:~$ sudo apt-get install emacs
[sudo] password for esteban:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  defoma emacs22-bin-common emacs22-common emacs22-gtk emacsen-common fontconfig fontconfig-config libasound2 libatk1.0-0 libcairo2
  libdatrie0 libfontconfig1 libfreetype6 libgif4 libglib2.0-0 libgtk2.0-0 libgtk2.0-common libice6 libjpeg62 libpango1.0-0
  libpango1.0-common libpixman-1-0 libpng12-0 libsm6 libthai-data libthai0 libtiff4 libx11-6 libx11-data libxau6 libxcb-xlib0 libxcb1
  libxcomposite1 libxcursor1 libxdamage1 libxdmcp6 libxext6 libxfixes3 libxft2 libxi6 libxinerama1 libxpm4 libxrandr2 libxrender1
  ttf-dejavu ttf-dejavu-core ttf-dejavu-extra x11-common
Suggested packages:
  defoma-doc dfontmgr psfontmgr x-ttcidfont-conf emacs22-el libasound2-plugins libfreetype6-dev librsvg2-common ttf-arphic-bkai00mp
  ttf-arphic-bsmi00lp ttf-arphic-gbsn00lp ttf-arphic-gkai00mp ttf-baekmuk ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-kochi-mincho ttf-thryomanes
Recommended packages:
  libft-perl libatk1.0-data libglib2.0-data hicolor-icon-theme libgtk2.0-bin
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  defoma emacs emacs22-bin-common emacs22-common emacs22-gtk emacsen-common fontconfig fontconfig-config libasound2 libatk1.0-0 libcairo2
  libdatrie0 libfontconfig1 libfreetype6 libgif4 libglib2.0-0 libgtk2.0-0 libgtk2.0-common libice6 libjpeg62 libpango1.0-0
  libpango1.0-common libpixman-1-0 libpng12-0 libsm6 libthai-data libthai0 libtiff4 libx11-6 libx11-data libxau6 libxcb-xlib0 libxcb1
  libxcomposite1 libxcursor1 libxdamage1 libxdmcp6 libxext6 libxfixes3 libxft2 libxi6 libxinerama1 libxpm4 libxrandr2 libxrender1
  ttf-dejavu ttf-dejavu-core ttf-dejavu-extra x11-common
0 upgraded, 49 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
Need to get 32.3MB of archives.
After this operation, 110MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
Abort.

So, a bit of cache searching is in order:

esteban@odin:~$ apt-cache search emacs-nox
mg - microscopic GNU Emacs-style editor
qemacs-nox - Small emacs clone editor (without X support)

This Emacs clone, QEmacs (for Quick Emacs) certainly looks very, very nice.

esteban@odin:~$ sudo apt-get install qemacs-nox
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  qemacs-nox
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
Need to get 746kB of archives.
After this operation, 1135kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/universe qemacs-nox 0.3.1.cvs.20050713-5 [746kB]
Fetched 746kB in 5s (132kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package qemacs-nox.
(Reading database ... 19747 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking qemacs-nox (from .../qemacs-nox_0.3.1.cvs.20050713-5_i386.deb) ...
Setting up qemacs-nox (0.3.1.cvs.20050713-5) ...

And, also, doing the cache search you'll find (among others):

esteban@odin:~$ apt-cache search emacs | less
emacs22-nox - The GNU Emacs editor (without X support)
emacs21-nox - The GNU Emacs editor (without X support)

But, even this non X version is still too big, HDD wise.

esteban@odin:~$ sudo apt-get install emacs22-nox
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  emacs22-bin-common emacs22-common emacsen-common libasound2
Suggested packages:
  emacs22-el libasound2-plugins
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  emacs22-bin-common emacs22-common emacs22-nox emacsen-common libasound2
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
Need to get 20.8MB of archives.
After this operation, 65.6MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

Of course, thanks God there is Zile:

esteban@odin:~$ sudo apt-get install zile
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  zile
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/102kB of archives.
After this operation, 332kB of additional disk space will be used.
Selecting previously deselected package zile.
(Reading database ... 19723 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking zile (from .../zile_2.2.52-1_i386.deb) ...
Setting up zile (2.2.52-1) ...

esteban@odin:~$

Odin gets back its Ubuntu (sort of)

Installed Ubuntu Server on Odin, my Compaq Presario 1200 laptop, just to see how the thing goes on the newest release (8.04), the poor Odin has become the distro test box -at least, until it dies on me-, the main problem I have with it is that it only has an 800x600 LCD display, a totally crap video card, and one of the USB ports does not work; but aside form that, it is a nice piece of machinery, and has outlived its shelf life extensively.

Getting back to Ubuntu Server, I like it a lot, easy install, it recognizes everything on the shitty laptop, and you can setup a LAMP server with just one click; but, personally, I never liked Debian, I think that if you are trying to have a "Unix as Linux" going on, then your best bet is using a *BSD distro; but, hey, that's me.

Here is the dmesg:

[    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
[    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
[    0.000000] Linux version 2.6.24-16-server (buildd@palmer) (gcc version 4.2.3 (Ubuntu 4.2.3-2ubuntu7)) #1 SMP Thu Apr 10 13:58:00 UTC 2008 (Ubuntu 2.6.24-16.30-server)
[    0.000000] BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
[    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)
[    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
[    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 00000000000ea000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
[    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 00000000137f0000 (usable)
[    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 00000000137f0000 - 00000000137ffc00 (ACPI data)
[    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 00000000137ffc00 - 0000000013800000 (ACPI NVS)
[    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 00000000fffe0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
[    0.000000] 0MB HIGHMEM available.
[    0.000000] 311MB LOWMEM available.
[    0.000000] Entering add_active_range(0, 0, 79856) 0 entries of 256 used
[    0.000000] Zone PFN ranges:
[    0.000000]   DMA             0 ->     4096
[    0.000000]   Normal       4096 ->    79856
[    0.000000]   HighMem     79856 ->    79856
[    0.000000] Movable zone start PFN for each node
[    0.000000] early_node_map[1] active PFN ranges
[    0.000000]     0:        0 ->    79856
[    0.000000] On node 0 totalpages: 79856
[    0.000000]   DMA zone: 32 pages used for memmap
[    0.000000]   DMA zone: 0 pages reserved
[    0.000000]   DMA zone: 4064 pages, LIFO batch:0
[    0.000000]   Normal zone: 591 pages used for memmap
[    0.000000]   Normal zone: 75169 pages, LIFO batch:15
[    0.000000]   HighMem zone: 0 pages used for memmap
[    0.000000]   Movable zone: 0 pages used for memmap
[    0.000000] DMI 2.3 present.
[    0.000000] ACPI: RSDP signature @ 0xC00F72B0 checksum 0
[    0.000000] ACPI: RSDP 000F72B0, 0014 (r0 PTLTD )
[    0.000000] ACPI: RSDT 137FC7C0, 0028 (r1 PTLTD    RSDT    6040000  LTP        0)
[    0.000000] ACPI: FACP 137FFB8C, 0074 (r1 COMPAQ Wrangler  6040000 PTL_    F4240)
[    0.000000] ACPI: DSDT 137FC7E8, 33A4 (r1 Compaq Wrangler  6040000 MSFT  100000B)
[    0.000000] ACPI: FACS 137FFFC0, 0040
[    0.000000] ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x8008
[    0.000000] Allocating PCI resources starting at 20000000 (gap: 13800000:ec7e0000)
[    0.000000] swsusp: Registered nosave memory region: 000000000009f000 - 00000000000a0000
[    0.000000] swsusp: Registered nosave memory region: 00000000000a0000 - 00000000000ea000
[    0.000000] swsusp: Registered nosave memory region: 00000000000ea000 - 0000000000100000
[    0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 79233
[    0.000000] Kernel command line: root=UUID=20efc486-2375-4116-88eb-a38befa8c485 ro quiet splash
[    0.000000] Local APIC disabled by BIOS -- you can enable it with "lapic"
[    0.000000] mapped APIC to ffffb000 (0127e000)
[    0.000000] Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
[    0.000000] Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
[    0.000000] Initializing CPU#0
[    0.000000] PID hash table entries: 2048 (order: 11, 8192 bytes)
[    0.000000] Detected 697.432 MHz processor.
[ 3326.775891] Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
[ 3326.775911] console [tty0] enabled
[ 3326.777371] Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
[ 3326.780429] Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
[ 3326.841892] Memory: 304496k/319424k available (2255k kernel code, 14344k reserved, 1032k data, 384k init, 0k highmem)
[ 3326.841925] virtual kernel memory layout:
[ 3326.841929]     fixmap  : 0xfff4c000 - 0xfffff000   ( 716 kB)
[ 3326.841933]     pkmap   : 0xffc00000 - 0xffe00000   (2048 kB)
[ 3326.841937]     vmalloc : 0xd4000000 - 0xffbfe000   ( 699 MB)
[ 3326.841941]     lowmem  : 0xc0000000 - 0xd37f0000   ( 311 MB)
[ 3326.841946]       .init : 0xc043c000 - 0xc049c000   ( 384 kB)
[ 3326.841950]       .data : 0xc0333e95 - 0xc0435fe4   (1032 kB)
[ 3326.841954]       .text : 0xc0100000 - 0xc0333e95   (2255 kB)
[ 3326.841965] Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
[ 3326.842127] SLUB: Genslabs=11, HWalign=32, Order=0-1, MinObjects=4, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
[ 3326.992159] Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 1396.59 BogoMIPS (lpj=6982957)
[ 3326.992278] Security Framework initialized
[ 3326.992318] SELinux:  Disabled at boot.
[ 3326.992381] AppArmor: AppArmor initialized
[ 3326.992398] Failure registering capabilities with primary security module.
[ 3326.992432] Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
[ 3326.993019] Initializing cgroup subsys ns
[ 3326.993052] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuacct
[ 3326.993102] CPU: After generic identify, caps: 0383f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
[ 3326.993141] CPU: L1 I cache: 16K, L1 D cache: 16K
[ 3326.993149] CPU: L2 cache: 128K
[ 3326.993166] CPU: After all inits, caps: 0383f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000040 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
[ 3326.993203] Compat vDSO mapped to ffffe000.
[ 3326.993277] Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
[ 3327.033245] SMP alternatives: switching to UP code
[ 3327.037732] Freeing SMP alternatives: 12k freed
[ 3327.038221] Early unpacking initramfs... done
[ 3328.192545] ACPI: Core revision 20070126
[ 3328.192994] ACPI: Looking for DSDT in initramfs... error, file /DSDT.aml not found.
[ 3328.196389] ACPI: setting ELCR to 0400 (from 0a00)
[ 3328.196650] CPU0: Intel Celeron (Coppermine) stepping 06
[ 3328.196678] SMP motherboard not detected.
[ 3328.196686] Local APIC not detected. Using dummy APIC emulation.
[ 3328.196920] Brought up 1 CPUs
[ 3328.197006] CPU0 attaching sched-domain:
[ 3328.197019]  domain 0: span 01
[ 3328.197025]   groups: 01
[ 3328.198218] net_namespace: 64 bytes
[ 3328.198256] Booting paravirtualized kernel on bare hardware
[ 3328.200451] Time: 19:51:24  Date: 05/15/08
[ 3328.200648] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[ 3328.202441] EISA bus registered
[ 3328.202514] ACPI: bus type pci registered
[ 3328.206194] PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfd83e, last bus=1
[ 3328.206213] PCI: Using configuration type 1
[ 3328.206223] Setting up standard PCI resources
[ 3328.214150] ACPI: EC: Look up EC in DSDT
[ 3328.221577] ACPI: Interpreter enabled
[ 3328.221606] ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S4 S5)
[ 3328.221653] ACPI: Using PIC for interrupt routing
[ 3328.225855] ACPI: EC: non-query interrupt received, switching to interrupt mode
[ 3328.245431] ACPI: EC: GPE = 0x6, I/O: command/status = 0x66, data = 0x62
[ 3328.245453] ACPI: EC: driver started in interrupt mode
[ 3328.245828] ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (0000:00)
[ 3328.246600] PCI quirk: region 8000-80ff claimed by vt82c586 ACPI
[ 3328.246620] PCI quirk: region 8080-808f claimed by vt82c686 SMB
[ 3328.247556] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
[ 3328.256927] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 7 9 *11 12)
[ 3328.257225] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 9) *0, disabled.
[ 3328.257538] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 7 *9 11 12)
[ 3328.257863] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 7 9 *11 12)
[ 3328.258681] Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
[ 3328.258939] pnp: PnP ACPI init
[ 3328.258996] ACPI: bus type pnp registered
[ 3328.271750] pnp: PnP ACPI: found 11 devices
[ 3328.271773] ACPI: ACPI bus type pnp unregistered
[ 3328.271792] PnPBIOS: Disabled by ACPI PNP
[ 3328.273793] PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
[ 3328.273814] PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq".  If it helps, post a report
[ 3328.282368] NET: Registered protocol family 8
[ 3328.282383] NET: Registered protocol family 20
[ 3328.282756] NetLabel: Initializing
[ 3328.282765] NetLabel:  domain hash size = 128
[ 3328.282771] NetLabel:  protocols = UNLABELED CIPSOv4
[ 3328.282840] NetLabel:  unlabeled traffic allowed by default
[ 3328.283050] AppArmor: AppArmor Filesystem Enabled
[ 3328.291943] Time: tsc clocksource has been installed.
[ 3328.312374] system 00:05: iomem range 0x0-0x9ffff could not be reserved
[ 3328.312391] system 00:05: iomem range 0xdc000-0xdffff has been reserved
[ 3328.312401] system 00:05: iomem range 0xe0000-0xfffff could not be reserved
[ 3328.312412] system 00:05: iomem range 0xfffe0000-0xffffffff could not be reserved
[ 3328.312422] system 00:05: iomem range 0xfee00000-0xfee00fff has been reserved
[ 3328.312455] system 00:06: ioport range 0x4d0-0x4d1 has been reserved
[ 3328.312465] system 00:06: ioport range 0x220-0x22f has been reserved
[ 3328.312474] system 00:06: ioport range 0x388-0x38b has been reserved
[ 3328.312487] system 00:06: ioport range 0x8000-0x808f could not be reserved
[ 3328.312496] system 00:06: ioport range 0x9050-0x9051 has been reserved
[ 3328.345626] PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:01.0
[ 3328.345646]   IO window: disabled.
[ 3328.345657]   MEM window: f4100000-f57fffff
[ 3328.345667]   PREFETCH window: 28000000-280fffff
[ 3328.345679] PCI: Bus 2, cardbus bridge: 0000:00:0a.0
[ 3328.345686]   IO window: 00001800-000018ff
[ 3328.345694]   IO window: 00001c00-00001cff
[ 3328.345703]   PREFETCH window: 20000000-23ffffff
[ 3328.345711]   MEM window: 24000000-27ffffff
[ 3328.345743] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:01.0 to 64
[ 3328.346664] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 9
[ 3328.346678] PCI: setting IRQ 9 as level-triggered
[ 3328.346688] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0a.0[A] -> Link [LNKB] -> GSI 9 (level, low) -> IRQ 9
[ 3328.346769] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[ 3328.442287] IP route cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[ 3328.443255] TCP established hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
[ 3328.444284] TCP bind hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
[ 3328.445708] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 16384 bind 16384)
[ 3328.445725] TCP reno registered
[ 3328.472719] checking if image is initramfs...<7>Switched to high resolution mode on CPU 0
[ 3329.318475]  it is
[ 3330.520443] Freeing initrd memory: 7151k freed
[ 3330.524146] audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
[ 3330.524229] audit(1210881085.690:1): initialized
[ 3330.525012] Total HugeTLB memory allocated, 0
[ 3330.538826] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
[ 3330.539459] Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 3330.540998] io scheduler noop registered
[ 3330.541018] io scheduler anticipatory registered
[ 3330.541028] io scheduler deadline registered (default)
[ 3330.541183] io scheduler cfq registered
[ 3330.541239] PCI: VIA PCI bridge detected. Disabling DAC.
[ 3330.541249] PCI: Disabling Via external APIC routing
[ 3330.541310] Boot video device is 0000:01:00.0
[ 3330.543455] isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
[ 3330.901321] isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
[ 3331.309451] Real Time Clock Driver v1.12ac
[ 3331.310149] Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 4 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
[ 3331.319463] RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 65536K size 1024 blocksize
[ 3331.319918] input: Macintosh mouse button emulation as /devices/virtual/input/input0
[ 3331.320622] PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:PS2K,PNP0f13:PS2M] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1,12
[ 3331.324592] serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
[ 3331.324627] serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
[ 3331.342374] mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
[ 3331.343314] EISA: Probing bus 0 at eisa.0
[ 3331.343353] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 1
[ 3331.343411] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 8
[ 3331.343418] EISA: Detected 0 cards.
[ 3331.343431] cpuidle: using governor ladder
[ 3331.343438] cpuidle: using governor menu
[ 3331.344416] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[ 3331.344605] Using IPI No-Shortcut mode
[ 3331.344778] registered taskstats version 1
[ 3331.345163]   Magic number: 8:475:900
[ 3331.345473]   hash matches device ptyvd
[ 3331.345657] BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 6 devices found
[ 3331.349433] Freeing unused kernel memory: 384k freed
[ 3331.375611] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input1
[ 3331.412252] atkbd.c: Spurious ACK on isa0060/serio0. Some program might be trying access hardware directly.
[ 3332.312124] fuse init (API version 7.9)
[ 3332.434846] ACPI: CPU0 (power states: C1[C1] C2[C2])
[ 3332.441808] Marking TSC unstable due to: TSC halts in idle.
[ 3332.443686] ACPI: Thermal Zone [THRM] (59 C)
[ 3332.451259] Time: acpi_pm clocksource has been installed.
[ 3334.163759] SCSI subsystem initialized
[ 3334.311438] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[ 3334.311542] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[ 3334.388489] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[ 3334.763762] USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v3.0
[ 3334.765083] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] enabled at IRQ 11
[ 3334.765100] PCI: setting IRQ 11 as level-triggered
[ 3334.765111] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:07.2[D] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
[ 3334.765163] uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: UHCI Host Controller
[ 3334.766533] uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[ 3334.766596] uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: irq 11, io base 0x00001400
[ 3334.767158] usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 3334.767272] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 3334.767300] hub 1-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
[ 3334.811505] libata version 3.00 loaded.
[ 3334.961198] pata_via 0000:00:07.1: version 0.3.3
[ 3334.992965] scsi0 : pata_via
[ 3335.030991] scsi1 : pata_via
[ 3335.031282] ata1: PATA max UDMA/66 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0x1420 irq 14
[ 3335.031293] ata2: PATA max UDMA/66 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0x1428 irq 15
[ 3335.211615] ata1.00: ATA-5: IBM-IC25N020ATCS04-0, CA2AA71A, max UDMA/100
[ 3335.211637] ata1.00: 39070080 sectors, multi 16: LBA
[ 3335.251505] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/66
[ 3335.310925] usb 1-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
[ 3335.503913] usb 1-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 3335.591278] ata2.00: ATAPI: TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-7002Bc, 1010, max UDMA/33
[ 3335.783969] Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
[ 3335.791123] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/33
[ 3335.791779] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      IBM-IC25N020ATCS CA2A PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 3335.805704] scsi 1:0:0:0: CD-ROM            TOSHIBA  CD-ROM XM-7002Bc 1010 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 3335.824012] FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
[ 3339.188304] Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
[ 3339.200170] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 39070080 512-byte hardware sectors (20004 MB)
[ 3339.200850] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 3339.200877] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[ 3339.201054] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 3339.203768] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 39070080 512-byte hardware sectors (20004 MB)
[ 3339.203844] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 3339.203854] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[ 3339.203929] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 3339.203952]  sda: sda1 sda2
[ 3339.234052] Driver 'sr' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
[ 3339.261493] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
[ 3339.288207] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[ 3339.288302] sr 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5
[ 3339.297458] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
[ 3339.297488] Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
[ 3339.297787] sr 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
[ 3340.074314] Attempting manual resume
[ 3340.074337] swsusp: Resume From Partition 8:2
[ 3340.074343] PM: Checking swsusp image.
[ 3340.074927] PM: Resume from disk failed.
[ 3340.209382] kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
[ 3340.209459] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
[ 3347.969031] Linux agpgart interface v0.102
[ 3348.066914] agpgart: Detected VIA Apollo ProMedia/PLE133Ta chipset
[ 3348.076024] agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xf8000000
[ 3348.270356] parport_pc: VIA 686A/8231 detected
[ 3348.270379] parport_pc: probing current configuration
[ 3348.270413] parport_pc: Current parallel port base: 0x378
[ 3348.270506] parport0: PC-style at 0x378, irq 7 [PCSPP,EPP]
[ 3348.368265] parport_pc: VIA parallel port: io=0x378, irq=7
[ 3348.438461] pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
[ 3348.508871] shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
[ 3348.848463] input: PC Speaker as /devices/platform/pcspkr/input/input2
[ 3349.098449] Yenta: CardBus bridge found at 0000:00:0a.0 [0e11:b103]
[ 3349.098500] Yenta: Using CSCINT to route CSC interrupts to PCI
[ 3349.098508] Yenta: Routing CardBus interrupts to PCI
[ 3349.098518] Yenta TI: socket 0000:00:0a.0, mfunc 0x01001002, devctl 0x64
[ 3349.348357] Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x0018, PCI irq 9
[ 3349.348377] Socket status: 30000006
[ 3349.388742] via686a 0000:00:07.4: base address not set - upgrade BIOS or use force_addr=0xaddr
[ 3350.798508] input: Power Button (FF) as /devices/virtual/input/input3
[ 3350.827680] ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF]
[ 3350.828109] input: Power Button (CM) as /devices/virtual/input/input4
[ 3350.867719] ACPI: Power Button (CM) [PWRB]
[ 3350.868111] input: Sleep Button (CM) as /devices/virtual/input/input5
[ 3350.907560] ACPI: Sleep Button (CM) [SLPB]
[ 3350.918299] ACPI: AC Adapter [AC] (off-line)
[ 3351.341216] ACPI: Battery Slot [BAT0] (battery present)
[ 3351.558656] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 9
[ 3351.558680] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:07.5[C] -> Link [LNKC] -> GSI 9 (level, low) -> IRQ 9
[ 3351.558874] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:07.5 to 64
[ 3353.351961] /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/drivers/net/usb/rtl8150.c: rtl8150 based usb-ethernet driver v0.6.2 (2004/08/27)
[ 3353.384089] /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/drivers/net/usb/rtl8150.c: eth0: rtl8150 is detected
[ 3353.384192] usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl8150
[ 3353.658329] input: Video Bus as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0A03:00/device:01/LNXVIDEO:00/input/input6
[ 3353.687467] ACPI: Video Device [VGA] (multi-head: yes  rom: no  post: no)
[ 3355.383974] Synaptics Touchpad, model: 1, fw: 4.6, id: 0xf42a1, caps: 0x80471b/0x0
[ 3355.419582] input: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input7
[ 3361.575026] cs: IO port probe 0x100-0x3af: clean.
[ 3361.578391] cs: IO port probe 0x3e0-0x4ff: clean.
[ 3361.579837] cs: IO port probe 0x820-0x8ff: clean.
[ 3361.581024] cs: IO port probe 0xc00-0xcf7: clean.
[ 3361.582784] cs: IO port probe 0xa00-0xaff: clean.
[ 3361.941511] /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/drivers/net/usb/rtl8150.c: eth0: allmulti set
[ 3361.942318] /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/drivers/net/usb/rtl8150.c: eth0: allmulti set
[ 3362.121429] /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/drivers/net/usb/rtl8150.c: eth0: allmulti set
[ 3362.122584] /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/drivers/net/usb/rtl8150.c: eth0: allmulti set
[ 3362.122632] /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/drivers/net/usb/rtl8150.c: eth0: allmulti set
[ 3364.005207] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[ 3364.006174] lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
[ 3364.007551] /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/drivers/net/usb/rtl8150.c: eth0: allmulti set
[ 3364.007706] /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/drivers/net/usb/rtl8150.c: eth0: allmulti set
[ 3364.050759] loop: module loaded
[ 3364.184478] lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).
[ 3365.662640] Adding 979956k swap on /dev/sda2.  Priority:-1 extents:1 across:979956k
[ 3366.337054] EXT3 FS on sda1, internal journal
[ 3369.136792] ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team

The return of Odin

Installed OpenBSD 4.3, -fresh from the presses, it only has 9 days since release...- on Odin, my Compaq Presario 1200 piece of crap laptop; who already has a FreeBSD, and a Ubuntu incarnation.

Briefly played with Ubuntu 8.04, but I wanted to test something new on my dear laptop.
Everything seems to be working OK, from the USB ethernet adaptop, to the soundcard, and even the mouse, I mean a Ps/2 piece of crap one, that didn't work on Ubuntu, without performing a little bit of tweaking.

Here is the dmesg:

OpenBSD 4.3 (GENERIC) #698: Wed Mar 12 11:07:05 MDT 2008
    deraadt@i386.openbsd.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/GENERIC
cpu0: Intel Pentium III ("GenuineIntel" 686-class, 128KB L2 cache) 698 MHz
cpu0: FPU,V86,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,MMX,FXSR,SSE
real mem  = 326660096 (311MB)
avail mem = 307400704 (293MB)
mainbus0 at root
bios0 at mainbus0: AT/286+ BIOS, date 11/03/00, BIOS32 rev. 0 @ 0xfd720, SMBIOS rev. 2.3 @ 0xebdb0 (14 entries)
bios0: vendor Phoenix Technologies LTD version "4.06" date 11/03/2000
bios0: Compaq Presario
apm0 at bios0: Power Management spec V1.2
apm0: battery life expectancy 93%
apm0: AC on, battery charge high, charging
acpi at bios0 function 0x0 not configured
pcibios0 at bios0: rev 2.1 @ 0xfd720/0x8e0
pcibios0: PCI IRQ Routing Table rev 1.0 @ 0xfdf70/112 (5 entries)
pcibios0: PCI Interrupt Router at 000:07:0 ("VIA VT82C596A ISA" rev 0x00)
pcibios0: PCI bus #2 is the last bus
bios0: ROM list: 0xc0000/0xc000
cpu0 at mainbus0
pci0 at mainbus0 bus 0: configuration mode 1 (no bios)
pchb0 at pci0 dev 0 function 0 "VIA VT8601 PCI" rev 0x05
agp0 at pchb0: v2, aperture at 0xf8000000, size 0x10000000
ppb0 at pci0 dev 1 function 0 "VIA VT82C601 AGP" rev 0x00
pci1 at ppb0 bus 1
vga1 at pci1 dev 0 function 0 "Trident CyberBlade i1 AGP" rev 0x6a
wsdisplay0 at vga1 mux 1: console (80x25, vt100 emulation)
wsdisplay0: screen 1-5 added (80x25, vt100 emulation)
pcib0 at pci0 dev 7 function 0 "VIA VT82C686 ISA" rev 0x22
pciide0 at pci0 dev 7 function 1 "VIA VT82C571 IDE" rev 0x10: ATA66, channel 0 configured to compatibility, channel 1 configured to compatib
ility
wd0 at pciide0 channel 0 drive 0: 
wd0: 16-sector PIO, LBA, 19077MB, 39070080 sectors
wd0(pciide0:0:0): using PIO mode 4, Ultra-DMA mode 4
atapiscsi0 at pciide0 channel 1 drive 0
scsibus0 at atapiscsi0: 2 targets
cd0 at scsibus0 targ 0 lun 0:  SCSI0 5/cdrom removable
cd0(pciide0:1:0): using PIO mode 4, Ultra-DMA mode 2
uhci0 at pci0 dev 7 function 2 "VIA VT83C572 USB" rev 0x10: irq 11
viaenv0 at pci0 dev 7 function 4 "VIA VT82C686 SMBus" rev 0x30: HWM disabled: 24-bit timer at 3579545Hz
auvia0 at pci0 dev 7 function 5 "VIA VT82C686 AC97" rev 0x20: irq 9
ac97: codec id 0x41445348 (Analog Devices AD1881A)
ac97: codec features headphone, Analog Devices Phat Stereo
audio0 at auvia0
vendor "Conexant", unknown product 0x2013 (class communications subclass miscellaneous, rev 0x01) at pci0 dev 9 function 0 not configured
cbb0 at pci0 dev 10 function 0 "TI PCI1410 CardBus" rev 0x01: irq 9
isa0 at pcib0
isadma0 at isa0
pckbc0 at isa0 port 0x60/5
pckbd0 at pckbc0 (kbd slot)
pckbc0: using irq 1 for kbd slot
wskbd0 at pckbd0: console keyboard, using wsdisplay0
pmsi0 at pckbc0 (aux slot)
pckbc0: using irq 12 for aux slot
wsmouse0 at pmsi0 mux 0
pcppi0 at isa0 port 0x61
midi0 at pcppi0: 
spkr0 at pcppi0
lpt0 at isa0 port 0x378/4 irq 7
npx0 at isa0 port 0xf0/16: reported by CPUID; using exception 16
fdc0 at isa0 port 0x3f0/6 irq 6 drq 2
fd0 at fdc0 drive 0: 1.44MB 80 cyl, 2 head, 18 sec
usb0 at uhci0: USB revision 1.0
uhub0 at usb0 "VIA UHCI root hub" rev 1.00/1.00 addr 1
cardslot0 at cbb0 slot 0 flags 0
cardbus0 at cardslot0: bus 2 device 0 cacheline 0x0, lattimer 0x20
pcmcia0 at cardslot0
biomask ef7d netmask ef7d ttymask ffff
mtrr: Pentium Pro MTRR support
url0 at uhub0 port 2 "Linksys Linksys USB LAN Adapter" rev 1.10/1.00 addr 2
url0: address 00:10:60:e7:25:5a
urlphy0 at url0 phy 0: RTL internal phy
softraid0 at root
root on wd0a swap on wd0b dump on wd0b

Pictures, once again

Haven't post any picture of my boxes in while now, so here it goes.
This time are, once again, take with the super crappy Sony Ericsson that my work provides, it can only handle resoutions to 640x480, so the pic will look somehow poor.
This one shows Thor, on the new home, a little "hole" so I can stretch my legs more comfortably; the box gets a little hot, tho...







This one is older, forgot to post it here before, a shot of Odin when it still had FreeBSD on its guts, and Osiris, my PowerBook goddess.
The quality of this shot is specially bad.

Adventures in Ubuntu Land: Turn off the laptop monitor

One thing that really bothered me from day one with Odin was that the monitor refused to turn off all the way, the screensaver and/ or the X server did blanked the screen after a period on inactivity, but never did actually turned off the backlight.
For what I have Googled, it is a known and very, very frustrating thing to happen, because, obviously, it lessens the useful life of the laptop's LCD.

Some of the links I found on Google, while researching this problem:

- Force Monitor Turn On When You Open the Lid
- A Primer on Screen Blanking Under Xorg
- DPMS using vbetool

Unfortunately, none of the solutions I found (not only on the links above) worked fine, they did turned off the monitor, but I wasn't able to turn it on again. The only way to get the laptop useful once again was doing a hard reboot.
Besides, most of the references I found, where related to having problems with the monitor not turning off when the lid was closed, and I wasn't looking for a solution to that problem, what I wanted was to be able to leave all the programs running, and simply turn off the monitor, closing the lid scares me because of the heat, if I closed the lid on any laptop, it is because it will be hibernated in a few seconds.

On many of the links, they mention the script 'sleep.sh'. which is located on '/etc/acpi/sleep.sh', decided to take a look at it, that script, invokes (among many other things) another set of interesting scripts, located on the '/etc/acpi/suspend.d/' directory; in there, there was one that caught my attention: '80-video-vesa-state.sh'.
On it, I saw that there is a way of saving the video status to a file, and then re-read that status file, when the vbetool is executed again to "wake up" the monitor.

Here is the script I wrote, in case someone finds this useful:


#!/bin/sh

VBE="/usr/sbin/vbetool"
STATUS_FILE="/tmp/vbetool.tmp"

## Bring the monitor down
${VBE} vbestate save > ${STATUS_FILE}
${VBE} dpms off

## ------ BEGIN Loop ------ ##
while true;
do
sleep 1;
done
## ------- END Loop ------- ##

## Bring the monitor up
${VBE} post
${VBE} vbestate restore < ${STATUS_FILE}
${VBE} dpms on

# EoF #


This script will keep running, with the monitor turned off, until you type Ctrl + C to interrupt it; it is convenient to execute this script not from a Terminal running X Window, but to switch to a virtual console, login, and issue it there.

Adventures in Ubuntu Land

For a stinking project at work, I need the Cisco VPN client, no matter what I tried, it was impossible to get it up & running on FreeBSD, and using vpnc I was unable to connect to the VPN concentrator at all. Of course, the VPN client for Os X didn't work either.
So, I decided to give Ubuntu a try, and installed on my Compaq Presario 1200. I haven't used it since the first release, called 'Hoary' IIRC, some years ago.
The only problem I'm having is with the external mouse, thru a PS/2 port, I can't get it to work, no matter what; while I was using FreeBSD -on the exact same laptop-, I was able to use it with no problem at all.

First off all, I wanted to boot onto RunLevel 3, I found out that Ubuntu does not use an /etc/inittab file to control that, so if you want to boot onto the console, issue this command:


update-rc.d -f gdm remove ENTER


After a reboot, you'll be at the console.

Then, I wanted to get high resolution console; something that I was already using on FreeBSD; this probed to be quite a PITA to setup.
After a lot of Googling, I found this thread on the Ubuntu Forums:
No console mode in high resolution with Ubuntu 7.10

On top of what the thread says, I had to edit the file "/boot/grub/menu.lst", and remove the option "splash" from the line 'defoptions', so the line ended up like this:


# defoptions=quiet vga=789


A couple of packages I installed (as a side note, I cant't believe that the default Ubuntu install doesn't turn on an iptables firewall!)


apt-get install openssh-server
apt-get install emacs-nox


Also, setup the Gnome desktop to reduce the memory/ CPU foot print:

Don't show the content of a window while dragging or resizing it:

gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/metacity/general/reduced_resources true

It transforms it onto a wire frame.

Turn off the tips (only works for the Applications, Places & System)

gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/panel/global/tooltips_enabled false



It doesn't speed the system up, but it sets things like they should be:

Set the Emacs keybindings globally on Gnome:

gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_key_theme Emacs --type string

(To revert, use --unset)

Denial, anger, acceptance

My iBook died the Logic Board Death, on September 30th, 2005. I have tried everything I could to make it breath again (the Reed switch, the "shim" fix, etc) but nothing worked. It is time to move on :)

So, I decided to let it part, disassembly it, and split the pieces for future boxes; the AirPort card went to Thor, my QuickSilver, and the HDD, a 20 GB one, got reassigned to the Compaq Presario. 20 GB is nothing, but the Compaq had a 5 GB one, this one looks amazingly huge.


By following the guide from Ifixit the whole process was easy enough, the only important thing is keeping the order of the removed screws. The toughest screw to remove was one of the two that hold the CD drive in place.
Compared to the iBook, the Compaq Presario took only 5 screws, and less than 20 minutes to disassembly. ITOH, the HDD on the iBook was really, really protected, given the situation; the drive was connected to the iBook but protected with rubber shock absorbers. Not such thing for the Compaq.

The Compaq, once asembled once again, with a whooping 20 GB HDD already up & spinning, and giving it a test drive with Ubuntu (booted from the CD). On the Compaq's screen it is the old iBook partitions, etc.

And the Queen, assembled again as well, as usual, putting it back together again was far more easier than splitting it open. It amazed me how "weak" is, in the end, the whole iBook.

The Presario, getting to love it

Connected it to a p*ece of crap CRT monitor I have at home.
With it, the resolution can be boosted to an amazing 1024x768 (!!!), the thing does really become usable, and far more beautiful than on the Presario's LCD.
Once the thing got a little bit more nice, I went Window Shopping... What I wanted was to get rid of the border of the windows, just like in Os X.
I haven't been able to do so, but below are some things related (or not)

Some FreeBSD and *nix links I found this weekend:

Devil's pie
A window-matching utility, inspired by Sawfish's "Matched Windows" option and the lack of the functionality in Metacity.

It is really useful, but I was looking for a way to get rid of the borders of the rxvt or gnome-terminal windows.
This one does that, but, also removes *all* the borders.
Sort of reminds me of this program wmctrl

Devil's pie configs
Samples of configurations for many programs and situations.

BSD Guides
Doing stuff with BSD, really useful site.

Laptops - Install Tricks & Release Status
Using FreeBSD on ancient hardware.

More on the Presario

Well, trying to get beyond the 800x600 resolution no the beast, I have tested it with Ubuntu and Knoppix.

I haven't been
able to get it nowhere above 800, but, in the process, I learned a couple of things:

1- Ubuntu is amazing :)
2- KDE is definitively not my cup of tea.
3- This Presario is really, really, really a piece of sh*t.

As a side note, neither Knoppix nor Ubuntu recognized my MSFT Wheel Mouse Optical, connected via USB -> PS/2 adapter, the same thing worked flawlessly on FreeBSD from day one... Go figure, and then people say that FreeBSD it is a hard, unfriendly OS...